Spoilers ahead for the first nine episodes of The Legend of Vox Machina Season 3.
The third season of The Legend of Vox Machina is approaching its end in the 2024 TV schedule for Critical Role fans with an Amazon Prime Video subscription, and the stakes could hardly be higher ahead of the finale. Not only was Vox Machina betrayed by Raishan to really sour the victory of defeating Thordak, but that victory had already been bittersweet in the wake of Percy’s death. Throw in more deaths courtesy of the battle against the Cinder King, and the most recent episodes were tearjerkers.
It was one minor moment from Episode 8 that actually hit me the hardest, to my own surprise. As I thought back on just how sad it was while the days count down toward the finale, I decided to revisit something much funnier: what Matt Mercer told me during the Legend of Vox Machina junket about my favorite of the show’s running gags.
Alas, let’s start with the minor moment that was very well done but hit me hardest.
Vex Mourning Percy… With A Certain Arrowhead
Between the foreshadowing, the tone, and the one-sided declaration of love, Percy’s death at the end of Episode 7 didn’t come as a huge surprise, and I was anticipating that there would be a death toll in the battle against Thordak, so not even Kash’s death really surprised me. The twists were well done, but not altogether unexpected. While it was bound to be sad to watch Vex mourn Percy, the minor moment that really got me wasn’t solely a result of Laura Bailey’s performance.
No, it was when I saw that Vex was clutching onto the special arrowhead that Percy had made for her in Season 2 while sobbing at his tomb that the emotions starting rising a lot more than I expected. Whether or not this was Chekhov’s arrowhead remains to be seen; what I do know for sure is that I didn’t see the callback to Season 2 coming.
And the appearance of the arrowhead was minor enough that nobody even remarked on it in-universe, so I have to give kudos to the show for packing an emotional punch into what may be more or less an Easter egg. Surely I’m not the only one who had a reaction to it! We’ve certainly come a long way from spicy scenes.
Matt Mercer On Vox Machina’s Best Running Gag
Considering that the three most recent episodes packed in plenty of sad moments, it may be wise to reflect on something happier ahead of the finale when there’s still so much left to resolve and possibly lament. When I spoke with the Critical Role cast about Season 3, I seized the opportunity to ask Matt Mercer about a joke that has been running on The Legend of Vox Machina from the start, and I don’t even mean doors. I’m talking about the hidden Matts.
As the DM of the Dungeons & Dragons game that inspired LOVM, Matt Mercer hasn’t had one main hero to voice from start to finish, but has instead voiced characters ranging from Sylas Briarwood to Orthax to Umbrasyl to… well, the spice guy who tried to sell drugs to Scanlan. The animators have added little cameos of Mercer into the series, going back to the very first episode and continuing into Season 3.
I asked Mercer if he knows ahead of time when he’s going to make an animated cameo in the show, and he shared:
It's a surprise when I see it. It's for the art design meetings when they're kind of checking in all the various resources and upcoming designs for approval or notes, and they'll just throw up the next slide for this one little character, or this one little moment, and it's my face again. I genuinely don't know how many of them are just the artists having fun with me, and how many are Sam [Riegel] and Travis [Willingham] on the side being like, 'Make this one Matt just to mess with them.' Either way, it's always a fun and embarrassing moment that I relinquish, because I think it's also a fun little nod to where this all came from.
Well, Sam Riegel and Travis Willingham did co-write the Season 3 premiere with the spice guy, and one of the earliest clips released ahead of the new season was of that particular scene. If you want to refresh your memory (or just enjoy Matt Mercer the spice dealer all over again), take a look:
Spice?? #VoxMachina #CriticalRole pic.twitter.com/I2jhIastxvSeptember 13, 2024
Matt Mercer also isn’t the only member of the cast who was happy to comment on the fun of hiding cameos in the animation. When I spoke to Liam O'Brien, Ashley Johnson, and Travis Willingham about the group going to hell, we also discussed the quick moment in the Season 3 trailer of a Matt Mercer lookalike being devoured by parasites. The voice actors said:
- Liam O'Brien: "It's so sad to see that Matthew Mercer is there for some reason [in hell]."
- Travis Willingham: "You can find him almost anywhere. He's had an unfortunate experience there."
- Ashley Johnson: "Oh yeah, you can find him anywhere."
Will The Legend of Vox Machina squeeze any more cameos of Matt Mercer in before the final credits roll on Season 3? Only time will tell on that front, because the heroes still have a lot to accomplish in just three episodes. After Raishan got the better of them (other than Keyleth) for most of the first nine, surely they won’t be able to defeat her quite as quickly as Vorugal!
There’s also the question of whether Percy’s story truly is done. Vex’s resurrection in Season 2 (which was part of what made me into a fan of The Legend of Vox Machina) proved that death doesn’t have to stick in this universe, but Vex was also still warm when Vax made his deal to bring her back. Percy has already been dead for a while, so is that the end of his story and was Vex’s arrowhead just an Easter egg?
Find out with the final three episodes of The Legend of Vox Machina Season 3, which debut on Amazon Prime Video on Thursday, October 24. The first two seasons both ended on significant cliffhangers, so it should be interesting for fans to see how Critical Role wraps up the latest story this time around. At the time of writing, Amazon has not yet confirmed whether or not Vox Machina will return for Season 4.
