#cr3e114

Sam : "This is a different smoke monster ?"

Taliesin : "This is no smoke monster. This is just a scar. What happens when I'm really pissed."

So I’ve seen people comment on the idea that Vox Machina won’t move on from the truth that Vax is now the Champion and so what they’re clinging to is the memory of him but it’s not actually him. When they see him he’s not himself, merely a collection of memories and that’s why he doesn’t interact with them the same but they ignore it. Some have cited Percy’s comment about he and Vex’s children “finally finding out how much (Percy) is embellishing the memory of you” meaning that Vax may not be all Percy and Vex have described him to be to their children. Some say this is evidence that they’re holding on to who Vax was not who he is.

My problem with this idea though is what Vax himself says. When Liam has him say to Keyleth “I long for our life” that can’t be the Champion. If Vax is merely a shell, only filled with memories he wouldn’t care about having a life with Keyleth or his family any longer, he would just be looking at his life of faithful service to the Matron without longing or desire for anything else. But we do see from Liam’s perspective as Vax that he does want that love still, that future and that says Vax is still very much there. To me it says he’s just altered from being with the Matron so long, from having this perspective of being her Champion, of standing in the doorway of death and staring down this long of a lifetime. I think it has changed his view of fate forever but that doesn’t mean he isn’t still himself just a more mature version maybe, if that makes sense.