"Legend of Vox Machina": Late to the Dungeons and Dragons Party

 

I have always found Marvel and DC comics immensely frustrating.  Each issue you buy is an installment in an ongoing story that lasted for 1,000 issues, across multiple titles, with references to events and people from even more titles.  You basically have to read every issue of every Marvel or DC title in print to figure out what is going on.

In September 1972, I bought Werewolf by Night, Issue #1.  I figured a new character would be safe from those endless, complicated interconnections.  Imagine my shock when the issue referred to previous events.  How can there be events BEFORE issue #1?  Turns out that Marvel often cast characters in multiple books before giving them their own title. According to the Marvel Comics Database, the Werewolf (Jack Russell) has been featured in 175 books, has made a minor appearance in 23, and been mentioned in 6.  

I got the same "late for the party" feel from the new Amazon animated series The Legend of Vox Machina, which sends a ragtag band of various species and time periods into Medieval sword-and-sorcery adventures.  And in the third episode, the 18th century, where they tangle with Gothic vampires.  They are:

1-2. Vax and Vox (Medieval), twin brother-sister "half Elf rangers" with a back story about getting revenge for their mother's death.  They are both apparently bisexual.

3. Percy (18th century), a swishy rich snob with a back story about getting revenge for his parents' murder.

4. Pike Trickfoot (Medieval), a lady gnome and "cleric of the Everlight" who had black hair before she died and was resurrected; now it's white.  She is the keeper of the Plate of the Dawnmartyr.

5. Keyleth (Early Middle Ages), a half Elf druid, a member of Ashari tribe, who guard the portal of the Elemental Plane of Air.

6. Scanlan (Renaissance), a horny Elf bard who shoots rays from his crotch and sings bawdy songs like "Pull my Love Beads."

7. Grog Strongjaw (Ancient), a semi-articulate "Goliath barbarian."

Overwhelmed?  You should be.  It turns out that the series is the latest in a completx universe of multi-platform crowdsourced web-based productions, all ultimately derived from a Dungeons and Dragons game played by a group of friends at Liam O'Brien's birthday party in 2015.  They liked the game so much that they began playing live online (I don't understand why it's fun to watch someone else play a game, but lots of people like it.)

Next came Critical Role (apparently a D&D term), a production company which streamed episodes on its own website and youtube: over 300 hours of content so far.  There was also a discussion show, Talk Machina,  a comic book series, and a set of action figures.

A crowd-sourced animated production, Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina, appeared in 2019. Amazon acquired the rights to produce a series, but it was delayed due to Covid,.  The first three episodes appeared in January 2022.

There's one minor gay character (the owner of the magic shop that the group patronizes), and two bi characters of the "I'll say I'm bi but never date anyone of the same sex" sort. Not worth coming in "late to the party" with an enormous amount of back story to conquer.