Critical Role‘sCast Talk Episode 4 and All That Bloody Violence

When the creators of Critical Role set out to make an animated version inLegend of Vox Machina , they wanted to keep the show true to its source textile . The challenge was n’t just to keep the characters the same ( theymostly are ) but also to keep true to their fight : to put it another agency , Critical Role can get middling dang gruesome . This week ’s trio of episodes gain it absolved they ’ve pulled that off .

Episode four sees the Vox Machina party on house arrest , solve their wounds after their fight with the Briarwoods , Delilah ( Grey Griffin ) and Sylas ( Matt Mercer ) . The nefarious duet soon set an USA of ghouls upon them , and things get real bloody real tight . Scrambling to live , the political party eventually resorts to just ripping the ghouls apart or control stomping to their heart ’s content to put an end to the freak .

When io9 of late spoke to the cast , we asked about the show ’s animated wildness , and Grog ’s voice doer Travis Willingham tattle about how they did n’t feel the demand to hold back . When the show ’s energiser would ask how “ gnarly ” the show should await , his response was often : “ Trust us , we ’ll permit you love when it ’s too much . ”

The Briarwoods get ready to sink their teeth into an evening’s entertainment.

The Briarwoods get ready to sink their teeth into an evening’s entertainment.Image: Amazon Studios

Though fury in animation isabsolutely nothing raw , the violence in Vox Machina hits hard if you ’ve keep up with the generator material . For Lord and Critical Role DM Matt Mercer , watching his various origination take on unexampled living has been exciting to see . “ To show more of what ’s been happening in my mind all these eld , I now get to put that into natural action , ” he said , “ and other people get to make it look amazing ! ”

Mercer ’s in - game description can beheavy on black ichor , but they ’re part of what makes the live stream so watchable , and he ’s found some playfulness in how the adjustment has cover Vox Machina ’s adversaries . In most TTRPGs , a DM doing perspective fault to NPCs peril sidelining the actual players , but this method of storytelling is common parlance in television animation . “ It ’s been a lot easier to explore the Briarwoods and what they ’re doing , [ by ] dropping in on them , ” Mercer said . “ have to expend more time with them has been a yummy exercise in flesh them out . ”

After Vox Machina dispatches the ghouls , they journey to take the engagement to the Briarwoods in Whitestone , but they ’re down one extremity : The party ’s churchman , Pike Trickfoot , has choose to go on her own pursuance to reconnect with her god Sarenrae , after her near dying experience at the hands of the Briarwoods .

Graphic: Jim Cooke

Image: Amazon Prime Video

Trickfoot ’s departure is both a callback to the Day when doer Ashley Johnson could n’t make it on Critical Role — at the time , she was a main fictional character on the NBC drama Blindspot , which filmed in New York — and a decision that the cast descend to organically . “ Now we get to see what Pike was doing during all of that , ” Johnson articulate , “ to see her witness her faith again . ”

When the party finally arrives in Whitestone at the end of instalment five , they ’re treat to the spate of several hanged body wearing clothing similar to their own the dark they first tangled with the Briarwoods . Pike will fall in time , but until then , Vox Machina will have to pull it together if they ’ve got any hope of surviving a redoubtable vampire and his mortal wizard wife .

Critical Role : The Legend of Vox Machina release new instalment on Thursdays on Prime Video .

Image: Amazon Prime Video