At this point I'm barely annoyed at the animated show, it just makes me deeply exhausted. It's not that changes were made, that was always going to happen, it's the nature of what those changes were that really made me lose all interestâoutside of a morbid one. This ended up going pretty long, but right now I just need to get my thoughts out.
On more than one occasion, aspects of the story that centred one of the women in Vox Machina has been taken and given to Vax, a character who already has a LOT going on. As bad as that is, each incident also shows wider planning/structural issues in the how this story is being told.
First he was inserted into the story of how Vex got Trinket. Vex shamefully keeping a secret from her brother for years becomes a generic memory he pulls on to accept the Matron's Call, only for him to have to accept it again at the end of S2. Moreover, removing the conflict further whittles down all her character issues to just being about her parents: Syngorn's racism and classism wasn't established, Saundor's words don't haunt her, she doesn't still hold guilt over killing people in self-defence as a teenager. Multiple complex, compiling sources of trauma are stripped down to the one that's seen as the easiest to relate to.
Jumping to S3, Vax was made into the one reluctant to get into a relationship with Keyleth, while she was placidly saying life should be lived. This is despite the campaign canon version of events being set up in S2! During Osysa's test, she brought up Keyleth's fear of outliving her friends, so it seems like they planned on exploring that part of her character only to change their minds. I understand that it's difficult for shows to plan in advance when renewal in uncertain; but, I'm not particularly sympathetic to a retcon that makes the story less interesting, and comes at the expense of a woman over a man.
Then, he took precedence over Pike and Keyleth in Percy's resurrection, having the big emotional moment while they cast a spell. This is perhaps less egregious, since the scene is primarily about Percy and Vex anyway. But it highlights the lack of development given to the character relationships outside the romantic ones. Pike and Keyleth don't have meaningful relationships with Percy to call on and, honestly, neither does Vaxâbasically every time they spoke in S3 was about Percy dating Vex!
Plenty of people have spoken about how under-developed the platonic relationships are and I agree, the largest factor in me not enjoying S3 was the realisation that Vox Machina don't feel like a group of friends in the show. However, I don't think the romances have benefitted either. I'm going to focus on Vex and Percy, since they're my favourites, though I do extend my sympathies to the Vaxleth shippers who had their 'angsty weirdos who sit in the ambiguous "sleeping together but not official" relationship zone until she's worked through some character development' storyline grafted onto Perc'ahlia.
In S2 Vex and Percy flirt a little, have some ship teasing, and don't have a meaningful conversation until 10 minutes before she confesses to being in love with him. That's straight up not how set up and pay off works. Even after that episode they barely interact, till S3E1 comes around and suddenly they're constantly acting like a couple, despite there not being any time jump to account for the abrupt change.
Spoilers for S4. Apparently they have included the elopement. In the campaign, I absolutely love that Vex and Percy eloped! They're both private people who didn't get any privacy while getting together, and crave being able to keep something for themselves; they didn't believe the other returned the feelings, so once they know their love is requited they're determined to make the most out of this relationship; (post Briarwoods) they both spend a lot of time slowly evolving as characters, primarily shown through understated moments and deep conversations. It feels so right that their marriage would reflect all of those things.
In the animated series, none of that is true. In fact, they spent S3 giving Vex a whole character arc about emotional honesty, directly tying her desire to keep their situationship a secret to her other issues, with her love confession in front of everyone as the culmination. A desire for honesty became a key part of Percy's character, his first meeting with VM was him telling a disadvantageous truth because not lying mattered to him, he brought up their relationship status to Vex FOUR times in the first half of S3E7. I'll admit that I haven't watched S4 so I don't know, maybe they found a way to perfectly tie it together so the elopement doesn't completely undermine the character work they did in S3. But, I'm hardly unreasonable for doubting that.
When I started watching the show, I knew there would be changes and I don't dislike them on principle, I thought some were good or practical solutions to the demands of a different medium. Fundamentally, this isn't about changes existing, it's about the quality of the writing. Female characters being flattened in favour of their male counterparts is so disappointing to see in the 2020s. It's not unreasonable to want a show with the name 'Vox Machina' in the title to spend time meaningfully developing the relationships within Vox Machina. And, if they're going to make major changes to the narrative, I wish they would commit to the consequences of those changes, rather than trying to force the story back to the campaign plot when it no longer makes sense for the characters.
