Scanlan name-dropping "Burt" was an in-joke reference to the game; anytime Scanlan had to go undercover or disguise himself he tended to throw on a fake mustache and call himself Burt Reynolds.

In D&D where gods are real and can literally walk amongst you, they can often times become a Deus Ex Machina. To combat this Matt made the gods of this world literally sealed away behind a divine gate to limit their influence on the material plane. This is one in-universe reason why they usually only communicate through cryptic visions and messages unless you're able to form a strong enough connection to communicate through the gate or draw power from them.

"There's another way. _THE_ other way...." Win. Also LOVE the Matron of Ravens in this episode.

Speaking of Scanlan, we just found out today that for the past few months Sam Riegal has been battling tonsil cancer. He had to have throat surgery and radiation, had to relearn how to speak. But, thankfully, it sounds like they caught it before it got too bad and he'll make a full recovery.

"I found out that I'm the champion of the mother of Ravens" "I found out that I'm a father." "My first girlfriend turned into the Moon."

Can’t WAIT for season 3 of this show 😍

To give you an idea of the changes between this show and the actual DnD game, Scanlan actually used Dimension Door to teleport into the dragon's stomach and placed an immovable rod there (instead of the immovable sword in the show and the forceful rear end entrance). The show likes to change how a lot of things were done from the actual campaign, but stays true to what things were done and why they happen. Also, Percy's trap in the show was a "glyph" spell from Pike in the campaign, but a lot of the planning was still from Percy in the campaign, so it made sense to simplify the story. I think they did such a good job adapting literal days of campaign footage (maybe even weeks) into a concise and coherent animated series.

I am realizing if you think of it as a nareative story it would super feel like theres a lot of fakeout deaths and near misses but youre 100% right, the campaign as just a long one and matt mercer is a very good encounter maker so the players came VERY close to death and even had people go down and need resurrection or a deal like keyleth in the ziggurat and vex in the tomb, the danger of losing a character is very much real. But when you condense a 115 episode campaign into a handful of hours it can easily seem like contestant fakeouts

The Matron of Ravens is a god like any other (well, not quite like any other, but that would be a topic for another time), there are Temples dedicated to her all over the planet and in most major cities.

Can't wait for season 3

In the original game, they used Dimension Door to get inside the dragon's guts

fun fact! and spoiler for the campaign: . . . in the original campaign vax and scanlan also ended up inside the dragon. only difference, scanlan used dimension door (which they sadly didn't add to animated scanlan's abilities, hence the different way inside) to teleport himself and a shrunken down vax into the stomach to place an immovable rod, which was essentially very messy, but worked and got them the same result as in the show.

"You look so much like your mother" he says to the woman who looks EXACTLY like him.

I get they don't show it as well in the cartoon as the table top, but how he hasn't realized scanlan is literally the heart of the entire team gets at me. I wish I could think of something that may change his mind.

15:10 - Someone described this as "razorblade in your arse" and I don't think anyone can put it any better...I feel bad for Umbrasyl tbh

4:42 yeah if you don't have the commune spell a god will just have to communicate with vague stuff like a chance in the breeze or a dream because of the divine gate

I love this show, Im glad you came around to it :)

You... dig... Vox Machina

Even with Vex, Vax, & Keylith away from the planning session, you still have Grog, Percy, & Scanlon on hand.

Ripley brought Umbrassyl the knowledge about the vestiges, that's why he regards her as an ally. She bought his trust with that.

Gotta agree it's rare Lance Reddick got to play a proper villain, and he was amazing at it. He was the perfect voice for Thordak

Sam just announced why he was MIA for the last couple of months. He had HPV induced throat cancer and was undergoing treatment. He seems to be doing well, though I worry for him voicing Nott for the Mighty Nein series.

What a great way for a DM to get a player to stop the "horny Bard" cliche, give them a kid.

Oh Kyle. We got at least two, probably three more seasons and Scanlan’s story is just starting to pop. Sam Riegel destroyed hearts and souls with his roleplay, and was consistently the best tactical player in combat. Spellcasting is significantly depowered in the show, but he still makes an impact. Getting into a dragon is a good first step but…as we saw, only the first step. Getting Grog and his melee-locked offense probably would have been more efficient, but this…was funny

I agree the Ripley alliance dosent really make sense, the basic reason given is that she informed him about the vestiges...but that was just once for the sword and shes not seen being useful again. And Umbrasyl could just kill her after that, take her scrying orb, or use Mythcarvers powers himself. As you've now seen in the last episode, he knows how to do that (somehow, since he dosent sing and thats how Mythcarver is activated.) The real reason is she had nothing to do with them in the camapign, so between her last appearance in season 1 and her actual return it would have been over 2 and a half years real world time since she was last relevant, so shes put into the dragon plot just so viewers dont forget about her.

These seasons are way too short! Going to be hard to wait for season 3!

Ah see Ripley has no moral compass other than "what is best for me?" She is like a human dragon and she is clever as fuck, soooo she has found a way to manipulate them.

Ripley has been able to provide Umbrasyl with information on Vox Machina and the Vestiges because she's able to scry on them.

I think that The Mighty Nein is supposed to release first, I could be wrong.

Vax could walk away from the Matron, but he fears that it would mean that Vex would just drop dead. He is, as she said, Fate Touched. He can bend fate to him, something the Goddess of Fate wants under her own control. In the campaign, she even says that all the gods covet the Fate Touched, and that she snapped him up from under the nose of another - specifically, Vax had been asking Pike about the Everlight.

7:46 My guy... Of COURSE there are multiple temples to any given god. Why on earth would that NOT be the case? There are like FIFTEEN different churches of the SAME GOD in the town of 3k people I live in.

The show does change some stuff from the game. Vax going off to do Matron of Ravens stuff was a consistent character choice, but Grog being quiet about Kraven Edge was a game mechanics thing. It was a cursed sword that compelled him to act a certain way, he didn't really have a choice.

All gnomes look alike to you?!? Wow. Racist much? Reminder, Grog already punched a dragon in the face in S1E2.