#vexlan

and I feel like that makes them even more compelling, to Me, at least. Because, on the other hand, it's so clear she cares for Percy which makes sense because they're very obviously setting up the ship

for one, it helps me sort out my internal struggle of who the potential leader is between percy, vex, and scanlan, who i think all contain leadership qualities and then i don’t have to make a decision.

and there’s a lot i could say about vex as a leader and why i like that they went this direction. one thing is that i really enjoy how disconnected vex is from it. vex is actually the biggest flight risk vox machina has all season (not counting pike’s journey, as pike always intended to reunite with VM). we see her bring it up to vax multiple times, even after the big battle in the finale (to which vax says he thinks they’re done with that, and i think even though vex made the potential comment, she also agreed they were done running at that point). 

but i think because of this internal struggle, the terrifying concept of getting *gags*  close to people who aren’t vax, vex has 0% idea that the others think of her as a leader. and it’s very apparent in episode 11, when VM is all trapped in the acid trap and turn to vex, who’s startled that she’s the one being turned to for direction and haphazardly shouts an order that probably went with out saying to, well, stop the acid. she doesn’t know how to be a leader yet, and she’s barely even accepted the group, but that doesn’t mean the others see her the way she sees herself.

now i could go on more about leader!vex but that wasn’t actually my point here- my point is actually about vex and scanlan. something surprising to me this season was just how much they emphasized the vex & scanlan relationship, more than i’d say they even pushed grog & scanlan, who are very obviously good friends from the campaign and have a lot more significant scenes together in c1 than vex and scanlan do.

but the choice to emphasize vex/scanlan is interesting to me. because if you’ll remember from above, scanlan was one of my potential leader options. and you know who the biggest proponent of “scanlan is the leader of vox machina” was? you guessed it. vex’ahlia. in one of the earliest interactions with tary, he asks if grog is the leader because he’s the biggest, to which vex replies:

our leader isn’t with us right now. vex has seen scanlan as the leader for a lot of the campaign, has put him in this role of authority and in many ways looks up to him. this is made even more clear in dalen’s closet when scanlan asks“why me? i’m like the weirdest choice” when vex asks scanlan to walk her down the aisle, the position a father would usually take:

and vex says, “but it’s really not. you’re really not.” vex has always looked up to scanlan, so much so that she asked him to walk her down the aisle in the position of a father- or as is probably much more relevant to who vex would’ve preferred walk her down an aisle, an older brother. he is someone whose opinion she respects and whose judgment she trusts.

so how does this relate to the legend of vox machina? well, with the early establishment of scanlan & vex... scanlan might be one of the only people who can make vex believe she’s a leader. considering that vex considers scanlan the leader, i think she might have to hear it from him that vox machina considers vex their leader (or at least, turns to her in times of crisis). someone whose authority vex trusts telling her that she is a decision maker, she is someone other people look to, and that she needs to embrace that role.