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And now you've met the true enemy of Vox Machina: *doors*

Delilah Briarwood's voice actress is Grey DeLisle who, among other characters, voiced Azula

The collective "NOOOOOOOO" when Grog's sandwich fell apart xD

FYI, Brimscythe killed the original Gen. Krieg and then shapeshifted into his form. That was established by Matt Mercer outside the show.

Fun fact: it's not Vax's blades that magically return to him, it's the belt he sheaths them in. It's called a Blinkback Belt, and it's a custom magic item that returns *anything* sheathed in it back to you after hitting a target. Also, "Scanlan's Hand" in the game was Bigby's Hand, and Sam would say it just like that; they changed the name because Bigby is apparently a trademarked name by Wizards of the Coast. Matt did Gilmore's voice in the campaign (obviously, since Matt is the DM and Gilmore is an NPC), but in the show he's voiced by Sunil Malhotra. Regarding the ending of this episode, as Matt himself said during their watchalong/Q&A livestream, "Sometimes you just gotta hit some people with a tree." 😂

Travis Willingham, guy who played Grog, would say "I would like to rage" every time. Can't tell you how great it was to hear that in this. There are a lot of elements that they have had to change- these first 2 episodes have compacted a lot of stuff that these guys did pre-stream that led to them becoming respected in Emon. They chose to focus on Brimscythe for reasons. What you've seen so far is the introduction. The story is about to get a lot more juicy. There's a lot of door jokes in this because doors seem to be the biggest enemy with how difficult it was for them to get through at times. Also, they called their new place Greyskull Keep but they couldn't use that here for obvious reasons.

Sam (Scanlan's voice actor) would regularly make up songs on the fly (or would have some thought up in his back pocket) when playing for his Bardic Inspiration ability or spells - I don't remember if they bring over any of them directly in the show, but bits like "Open Your Back Door Baby" are definitely a reference to that, with the same fun energy.

Originally Matt did all the NPC voices, he's the group's DM. But there's a lot of great voice talent including Doctor 10, David Tennant, Who played the the General in these two episodes.

Gilmore in this show is not voiced by Matt Mercer, he is voiced by Sunil Malhotra. The merchant Aaron saw under Matt's name is just some random merchant

Matt Mercer: "How do you want to do this?" is his way of asking the player in how they want to do the finishing blow, and shows when Grog's finishing blow is cleaving the dragon's skull in two

"I didn'T see this battle" NO ONE DID, that Battle was before they started streaming ^^ "I would like to Rage" is definetly NOT a Travis Original, but he said it every... single... time.. so that it has become one of the more recognizable Critrole quotes.

There are a ridiculous number of Easter eggs and in jokes during the Gilmore's shop scene (some potential spoilers so I won't post them all) amongst them is that Tusk Love is a book that features in the 2nd Campaign (Mighty Nein) and the sandal in the glass box is the last sandal in the process of being made by Gary Gygax (the creator of D&D) before he quit to make D&D full time.

I loved the first two episodes, but the story really picks up from here

Gilmore is a bit more than a shop keeper... he is an Enchanter, many of the magical items he sells are one he created. Also, if you watch the background closely when the group first finds the Dragons hoard, Vax is stuffing treasure into the bag Grog is holding... putting far more into it then the outside bag looks like it could hold.

Arsequeef (emote maker for the critical role twitch), is doing some of the comparison vids. Also many others have done comparison vids.

The first two episodes happened in their home game before the stream started, but they referred to it during the stream. We don't know how close it was to what happened in the home game. We're about to enter what's called the "Briarwood arc" which happened on stream. Buckle up! It gets GOOD!

now that the pilots over - time for the PLOT. Excited you are doing this one.

"What's the worst time to be outside as a vampire?" "It's high noon!"

That was Travis' go to phrase as Grog when raging, so to hear it in the episode was just *chefs kiss*

This series escalates so good. Each batch of 3 episodes are better than the last and by the time the finali hits, it is nothing short of amazing. People are sleeping on this series, it is one of the best animated shows this few years, second only to Arcane, on par with Castlevania and Invincible.

Gilmore was voiced by Sunil Malhotra, who's been in shows like NCIS and Grey's Anatomy but also voiced Prince Wu in Legend of Korra. Despite being perhaps Matt's favorite NPC he's made, he was adamant about the character being appropriately represented by a POC actor to bring a level of authenticity to the character.

For those wondering like Calvin was, there actually is a dedicated fan that puts together moments from the table game with the moments from the episodes...his name is ArseQueef

When you see the noble slaughter the bandits, you kind of get why the driver looks so ragged.

As far as I know these first two episodes are from the pre stream games, so was nice to see events that we didn’t experience on stream

It was not until this episode of the Legend of Vox Machina that I learnt that my DM recycled basically this entire thing for our first ever D&D 5e campaign. I even had a Goliath Paladin, I didn't have a name for him so my DM named him Grog. He slew a dragon, it was great. How did I not know this for like 5 years?

The Tusk Love cameo has to be one of my favourites. Its a reoccurring thing in the second campaign. The art in the show actually shows the two player characters, Fjord and Jester (played by Travis/Grog and Laura/Vex).

İ like that they kept the contingency with the money from the first episode.they had no money and they stole 3 silver from that guy in the bar .vax gave 1 of them to the kid and 2 to the gilmore.

Can't wait for you to see the rest. After episode 3, the story slows down and it becomes much more epic (though the first 2 episodes were epic already)

"Such a great magical power he has for a shop keeper." Ohoho. Believe me, he'll be slaying Gods with Vox Machina soon

I like how you guys caught "I would like to rage" as something a player would say, even without watching the live stream. That line translates so well to gamers.

From what I understand the first two episodes are pre stream campaign story arc, the rest of the season's story was streamed.

An interesting detail that most don’t really know is Pike is a War domain cleric, and when she blessed Vex’s arrow to damage Brimscythe, that was her channel divinity of War God’s Blessing which grants a big bonus to hit.

I chuckled when "Tusk love" showed up in this episode, considering it's a running joke from Campaign 2 :D

Episodes 1 and 2 were a new to the public story from CR's home sessions before the first episode of the first campaign, so there's no reference for us to compare it to, but from episode 3 onwards they are dealing with on stream content and there are episode comparisons out there of what scene links to which moment. In broader terms though, what we're about to move into is the Briarwood Arc, which begins with episode 24 of campaign one "The Feast" and ends with episode 38 "Echoes of the Past", although slight spoiler, season 1 of Legend of Vox Machina only covers events up to episode 35 "Denoument" (Episode 36 is basically a fun Xmas style episode that likely won't factor into the animated series but is still entertaining viewing). The cast has said in their watchalongs for the series that they are playing around with the timeline slightly in the show so some of the stuff that occurs at the end of the Briarwood arc and the beginning of what comes after may be a bit different, hence why if you were so inclined as to check out the origins of the story, I would stop with episode 35/36. "I would like to rage" was pretty much Travis's catchphrase in campaign 1 and has sort of become the go to for anyone who plays a barbarian in the show now. When Ashley played Yasha, a Path of the Zealot barbarian in campaign 2, she used the same phrase and Travis would always get hyped for it and cheer her on. He continues that now with Taliesin playing Ashton in campaign 3. Dragonborn are a race/species of humanoid who are descended from dragons mating with mortals. They come with and without tails, in all the different metallic or chromatic colors, and in all different alignments. The picture portal was of a dragonborn woman. The dragonborn are a playable character option in D&D proper and appear on occasion in the CR world but aren't as super prevalent as humans. Half dragons also exist but are significantly more dragon like in their appearance and power levels. Dragonborn would be further down the bloodline from their dragon ancestor.

it makes me so happy that you guy's are doing this series. The Stream is great, and so is the show!

Having seen everything in the original streams of their campaign i can say that most is faithfully translated. A LOT is exactly like it is in their campaign. The animations are extremely faithful.

They like to have Matt Mercer cameos in this, the guy who got peed on in the first episode looks exactly like Matt as a running joke

I like how the whole thing was about trying to find a dragon's weakness, what turned out to be the throat. But Grogg was like "nah Imma just split open its skull instead."

Every time you use rage you have to "declare it" saying "I would like to rage."

I wonder how many times Matt Mercer will die. I think hes playing a ton of characters both named and just background. And i wouldnt mind having the Vox one shots being done as a longer episode. Especially Groggs.

(No spoilers) These first episodes with Brimscythe are before they started streaming. In the stream you can see some of the aftermath of this. For the rest of the season, it's changed a bit to make it fit into a 5-hour thing rather than 80 hours of stream. However, the most iconic moments and scenes are kept almost moment-to-moment really: the story itself is changed a bit because in the stream there is an arc in between Brimscythe and the next part. However, the charcter arcs and most of the stuff is pretty much spot on.

Grog "I would like to Rage" Strongjaw was the king of this episode for me, Barbarian's my favourite class and seeing the Rage + Unarmoured movement portrayed like this was gangster as fuck

While watching this review I had a "The Goonies" moment when you were all "go away cops!" And yours did but there are actually cops driving past my street too! 😲🤣🤣

I expect this season of the show to cover to around episode 40 of the campaign. I expect there will be two more seasons each covering a major arc of the show with a minor arc or two thrown in like they did with Krieg here. Also Tusk Love is an early reference to a piece of literature that the second campaign's party passes around that walks the line between romance and erotica. In this the bawdy cover even seems to depict two of the player characters.

Every new D&D party wishes they could fight a Dragon, till they fight dragon lol

It's a bit late now(1month later) but when a Dragon has a child with a humanoif it is a Half-Dragon, who have some of the magical ability of their parent. Dragonborn are a separate race that are DISTANTLY related to dragons, but are NOT their offspring.

I just finished season 1 of Vox Machina, now I'm binging your reactions. That's how you know how good this series is lol

this battle actually took place before they started streaming the game

Getting to see a visual of what a rage attack would look like blew my mind!

Oh I can't wait for you to see ep3 i think that's when the series really start to shine!

Sunil Malhotra is an actor and voice actor who voices Shaun Gilmore in The Legend of Vox Machina.

"The Age of Man is coming to an end!" Classic fantasy genre villain line

Vox Machina are notoriously bad with doors. There's an legendary encounter with one later in the series.

I love how in almost every episode there's an npc that looks exactly like Matt Marcer (ex. the dude scanlan pissed on in ep 1)

Aw yeah I love this show as a non critter it’s been fun experiencing and learning about how it came together

In the fight scenes, they keep the most memorable moments, but mostly they translate the ✨vibe✨ of the fight rather than making a 1:1 translation onto the screen.

The first two episodes were adapted from their home game, pre live stream. The rest of the season follows a very popular arc where they actually recreate scenes pretty closely and it's fun to rewatch and compare the two.

Matt doesn’t voice Gilmore in this. He specifically asked someone else to do it.

6:20-6:40 The debut of the true antagonist: THE DOORS.

These first 2 episodes are from before they started streaming, but from the third episode we enter into a story arc that is essentially the most popular one of their campaign. There are lots of stream v animation comparisons out there, yes. In terms of direct accuracy of game fights to animation, when making the animation they took the game and reworked it into a script. So although if follows pretty closely, some events are reordered or adjusted to make for a better animated series. However, since the critical role group have retained full creative control with Sam and Travis leading the writers and animators and having final say in all decisions, even reworked scenes are very character accurate. But yeah, telling the story well took precedence over accuracy of DnD mechanics or copying game sessions exactly.

The absolute outrage at Grog losing his sandwich innards. 😆

I'll admit with many reaction videos from other creators my watch ends before the analysis but I love hearing yall nerd out. I enjoy every second of each of your vids

I love the guards petting Trinket when they got out of the castle! Big boy deserve it 😊

Known as Brimscythe the Iron Storm, that's what he meant by there's a storm coming.

TUSK LOVE!! OmG! That cover art made me so happy :’)

I’m so glad you guys are reacting to this, this is quite literally my only source of serotonin today

Next week: the appearance of two special characters, both voiced by legendary voice actors!

These reactions will definitely be one of the highlights of my week for quite some time.

Hearing I would like to rage had me giggling like a kid. I’m so happy this show turned out as good as it did.

That rug is very definitely a cult of the dragon or Tiamat worship article. Polymorph does not allow duplication of an individual's appearance, however Shape Change does. ( In addition to doppelgangers and illusions)

Grog’s Rage is so freaking badass! He went Super Saiyan!

2:20 Oh, He's around.

Knew nothing about the background of this show and never played D&D or anything like that. This show was recommended to me by a good friend. I just finished the season and I enjoyed the crap out of it! I am glad to see BW watching and reacting!

I can’t wait for you guys to get to episode 3. I think the show really takes off from there now that the gang has been introduced. Starting with episode 3 is where the cartoon mimics the stream.

There are some videos available where they show the scenes from the tabletop that inspired some scenes in the show. It's rarely 1-1, but they're totally recognizable.

As far as the dragons on the floor, they're a religious symbol. In their game, the metallic/good dragons (of which there are 5 types) are basically deities, while the chromatic/evil dragons (also 5) are the same way. All dragons of each type descend from those. The dragon they killed was a chromatic but not on a level of "there's only 4 left."

There is a setting in Prime where you can stop it autoplaying the next episode, lets you appreciate the credits music (which is great for some of these episodes)

I hope you guys check out the watch along QnA of Vox Machina on the Critical Role channel after you finish this series. They are super fun and informative.

There are several videos where they compare the scenes from the show to how it played out in the campaign. unfortunately, Episodes 1 and 2 were from before they started streaming.

20:31 This is an interesting thing that is often done with Vax. He is generally indifferent to the ideals of heroism. But the quickest way to appeal to his morals is to play the suffering kid card or the neglectful father card. He literally bonded with someone over daddy issues. Pike and Keyleth occasionally tries to steer the group in a heroic direction but they barely qualify and moral compasses imo. Pike is really happy go lucky. So she is usually down to do some degenerate stunt. Keyleth's uncharismatic preachiness often fall on deaf ears. But if something hits one of Vax's few triggers he spear heads the entire mission with a lack of self-preservation.

I subbed to you guys b/c of your DBZA reactions and loved them. I continue to watch when you guys watch stuff I like Keep it up

I'm so happy you guys are enjoying this (and Grog, Haha)! Things pick up from here and I can't wait to see and hear your guys' thoughts. Also, these first two episodes are pre-stream, so we don't really know what happened exactly, however, the rest of the series is a mix between stuff that actually happened and some minor adaptations (some scenes got rearranged and little tweaks to others). AHHHH! I'm so excited! IS IT THURSDAY YET!?

IIRC Dragons in DnD are highly intelligent creatures capable of magic. So I guess the human form is a polymorph of sorts.

19:08 That dedicated fan is named ArseQueef. And yes, that's actually the name of his channel. He does comparisons between what happens in the campaign and what happens in the show. I would suggest waiting until you finish watching the series before you check definitely it out.

This is the cartoon D&D fans have been waiting for!

I don’t remember if exandria Dragonborn are descended directly or are offspring of dragons. But in the forgotten realms (canon D&D world) Dragonborn(the tailless playable race) aren’t born by dragons, they’re from another world that got folded in I think. Creatures that are born from a dragon and a humanoid are called half-dragons and do have a tail.

Maaan, why does everyone cut the Hulk running? It's the most epic part! :D

Crazy seeing the comment section being invaded by all the critters in a channel I've been watching for a couple years. Two parts of my world colliding

5:40 That burp was a combination of Laura Bailey and Marisha Ray burping tracks!

I definitely like the Tiamat rug that he has

I've been watching all 3 campaigns. The second one twice, and its my favorite.❤️ from 🇧🇻

3:29 can't believe he just figured the plot twist lmao

Another amazing reaction

Yo, DM here. I don't remember if the blue dragon had replaced someone or if it was him the entire time, as that stuff all happened before they actually started streaming the game. But Ancient dragons, (which I believe he was), have a "change shape" ability where they can just look like anything they want to as long as it's medium size or smaller. On the topic of how true to the campaign stuff is in the show. That fight was, again, prestream, (In fact everything up to this point was), so I have no idea there. But I do know that they've made changes for the structure of the show from what the campaign was. With hindsight, knowing how well things worked, etc... As well as just structurally things that worked for a long form rpg campaign don't work in a shorter format show. (LIke, that fight with the dragon would've been like four hours of a session, so obviously things change. In addition they've made some creative changes to avoid directly using anything Wizards actually owns copyright over in order to avoid having to pay them to use the stuff. So like, none of the spells are directly used exactly the same as in the game. "Scanlands Hand", was the "Bigbey's Hand" spell for instance, but that's an intelectual property owned by wizards. And the visual design of the dragon was different than blue dragons are in D&D.

There are a couple of youtube videos where people play the clip of the actual game and how they interpreted in the show. They’re really good videos

I do wonder if CR is going to animate the one shots like search for bob and search for grog, and the wedding at Dalens Closet?

Silas is voice by Matt Mercer :) Delilah is Grey Griffin (Azula).

I hope you enjoyed this fun 2 part pilot. Now the real meat of the storytelling starts in episode 3.

The first two episodes are adapted from Vox Machina's adventures before their streamed content, and a lot of things are abridged, added in, or omitted to make a better introduction to the world. The rest of the season covers the first major arc of their streamed campaign, with some creative liberties taken in the interest of condensing hundreds of hours of gameplay into 10 episodes, and in the interest of storytelling.