Amazon Prime Video’s original series The Legend of Vox Machina season two episode one entitled “Rise of the Chroma Conclave” starts with the team witnessing the fall of Emon as the newly formed Chroma Conclave take over the city laying waste to everything and everyone. The shocking part about this is how the team are not suited to take any of them on. The viewer can see that to the conclave they are nothing but puny ants they could crush. In the conclave’s mind, they know that normal weapons are nothing compared to the power that they possess. This is demonstrated by how they shoot well precise shots of fire at their towers and defenses causing the towns folk to be rendered helpless. Not to mention that the team’s magic and physical attack deal no damage to them. The viewer could argue that the conclave’s sense of superiority is what will lead to their downfall. This is due to them relying too much on their scale armor and magic, leading to a possible way for the team to get around their strengths.
Additionally, the viewer sees Marisha Ray’s Keyleth as she contemplates about how they lost the city to the conclave. In her mind, she believes that it is all their fault for everything that has happened. This is a result of them killing a blue dragon earlier in their travels as a team that might have caused the conclave to seek revenge as a result. The viewer could argue that either way with or without the blue dragon’s death the result would be the same. However, the series gives a possible hint that the blue dragon’s death merely sped up the attack that was already coming. This is due to the fact that the conclave’s attack appears to have had months of planning as they knew where to strike.
Later into the episode, the viewer sees Sam Riegel’s Scanlan as he does not want to continue the fight against the conclave as he does not see the point. In his mind, he sees that they are underpowered to fight them all and believes that if they tried, they would just get more people killed in the process. This is a result of witnessing the countless lives lost or ruined by the conclave as they all fled the city. However, the interesting part about this is how he decides to fight anyway as he sees two kids look at him and the team in awe at their bravery. This demonstrates just how much the team is needed no matter if they are defeated by someone or something. Which is why the viewer can assume that Scanlan, despite his objections, chooses to continue the fight.
Rating: 8.5/10