Critical Role’s Cast Talk Episode 4 and All That Bloody Violence

When the creators of Critical Role got down to make an animated adaptation in Legend of Vox Machina, they wished to maintain the present true to its supply materials. The problem wasn’t simply to maintain the characters the identical (they principally are) but in addition to maintain true to their fight: to place it one other approach, Critical Role can get fairly dang grotesque. This week’s trio of episodes makes it clear they’ve pulled that off.

Episode 4 sees the Vox Machina celebration on home arrest, licking their wounds after their battle with the Briarwoods, Delilah (Grey Griffin) and Sylas (Matt Mercer). The villainous couple quickly set a military of ghouls upon them, and issues get actual bloody actual quick. Scrambling to outlive, the celebration finally resorts to only ripping the ghouls aside or curb stomping to their coronary heart’s content material to place an finish to the monsters.

When io9 lately spoke to the solid, we requested concerning the present’s animated violence, and Grog’s voice actor Travis Willingham talked about how they didn’t really feel the necessity to maintain again. When the present’s animators would ask how “gnarly” the present ought to look, his reply was typically: “Trust us, we’ll let you know when it’s too much.”

Though violence in animation is completely nothing new, the violence in Vox Machina hits tougher in case you’ve stored up with the supply materials. For creator and Critical Role DM Matt Mercer, watching his varied creations tackle new life has been thrilling to observe. “To show more of what’s been happening in my head all these years, I now get to put that into action,” he stated, “and other people get to make it look amazing!”

Mercer’s in-game descriptions may be heavy on black ichor, however they’re a part of what makes the dwell stream so watchable, and he’s discovered some enjoyable in how the difference has dealt with Vox Machina’s adversaries. In most TTRPGs, a DM doing perspective shifts to NPCs dangers sidelining the precise gamers, however this methodology of storytelling is frequent parlance in tv animation. “It’s been a lot easier to explore the Briarwoods and what they’re doing, [by] dropping in on them,” Mercer stated. “Getting to spend more time with them has been a delicious exercise in fleshing them out.”

After Vox Machina dispatches the ghouls, they journey to take the battle to the Briarwoods in Whitestone, however they’re down one member: The celebration’s cleric, Pike Trickfoot, has opted to go on her personal quest to reconnect together with her god Sarenrae, after her close to dying expertise by the hands of the Briarwoods.

Trickfoot’s departure is each a callback to the times when actor Ashley Johnson couldn’t make it on Critical Role—on the time, she was a major character on the NBC drama Blindspot, which filmed in New York—and a call that the solid got here to organically. “Now we get to see what Pike was doing during all of that,” Johnson stated, “to see her find her faith again.”

When the celebration lastly arrives in Whitestone on the finish of episode 5, they’re handled to the sight of a number of hanged our bodies sporting clothes just like their very own the night time they first tangled with the Briarwoods. Pike will return in time, however till then, Vox Machina should pull it collectively in the event that they’ve acquired any hope of surviving a formidable vampire and his deadlier wizard spouse.

Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina releases new episodes on Thursdays on Prime Video.

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