Vox Machina dragons go harder than Critical Role’s Matt Mercer imagined

The first episode featured death and destruction. Legend of Vox Machinaseason 2. The second season picks up where the previous seasons left off. A horde dragons descends on Emon’s capital, unleashing acid and fire, decimating everything they come across. The Chroma Conclave is a group of dragons that are determined to take over Exandria. They also face the Big Bad Guys Vox Machina has to confront this season.

Fans of Critical Role, the actual play series that the show is based upon, will remember the Chroma Conclave’s rise to power and the threat that they pose to the entire world. This YouTube video shows Emon’s scene. Matt Mercer, the Dungeon Master behind Critical Role, tells Polygon that he wasn’t sure if the scene would live up to what he envisioned in his head.

The sequence “was something that was so clear in my head, and [something I] already knew was going to be such a challenge to convey the threat and destruction and a sense of dread,” Mercer says. “The scale of that not only was gonna be expensive, but it was going to be just the challenge to do for the length that we want to do it for that opening episode. This was how a significant part of my brain felt. Matt, adjust your expectations. Set the bar very low. I can’t expect them all to be perfect and it’ll just be as good as we can get it. The entire team not only just rose to the occasion, they blew my expectations out of the water and I’m just so, so happy.”

Image: Prime Video

It takes almost half of the season 2 premiere. The scene is full of despair, destruction, and intense violence. The dragons dominate the remainder of the season, even beyond the cataclysmic opening. It proved difficult to get them to behave in a certain way that was both evil and dangerous.

“It’s one thing to make a dragon that’s a force of nature and has incredible destructive capability,” explains Travis Willingham, who voices goliath barbarian Grog. “But [the Chroma Conclave] delivers clever dialogue. They’re intelligent, they have personalities and different postures and all of these things that need to come across. ”

Production Reve and Titmouse are the animator studios that lie behind Legend of Vox MachinaThis was already possible with Brimscythe (the terrifying dragon featured in the opening episodes of Season One). For the second round they had to make two. FourDragons are more expressive, fearsome, and emotive.

“Our animation studio kind of looked at us like we were crazy people when we told them there were going to be four more at the same time,” laughs Willingham. “I think it really, really paid off. Each of those dragons feels like they present a unique challenge and place in the show.”

Vox Machina must continue to seek out powerful weapons and allies to overthrow the Chroma Conclave throughout the remainder of the season. Though the general plot will echo the web series it’s based on, Legend of Vox MachinaThere are some unexpected twists and turns in store. It is an animated series and can be redirected from its main cast to do some scenes. We will be able see what the Chroma Conclave are doing in this instance.

“You get little glimpses and peeks into some of the collusion with the Chroma Conclave that we never really got to see in-campaign,” says Marisha Ray, who voices half-elf druid Keyleth. “And that’s really awesome.”

The new episodes of Legend of Vox MachinaDrop on Fridays Prime Video streams the first three episodes.