The Ringer-Verse - ‘Vox Machina’ Season 2 Premiere | Mint Edition

Episode Date: January 23, 2023

Steve and Jomi are back to dive into the world of Dungeons and Dragons with the three-episode Season 2 premiere of ‘The Legend of Vox Machina’ on Amazon Prime (03:00). Later, the boys are joined by producer Kerm as they start their own Dungeons and Dragons journey (38:00). Host: Jomi Adeniran and Steve Ahlman Associate Producer: Jonathan Kermah Additional Productional Support: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everybody? It's Austin Rivers from the Minnesota Timberwolves. It's a new year and I have a new podcast here at the Ringer, Offguard, hosted by me and my guide Pasha Higigi. Austin and I go way back and talk so much hoop already that we figure it was time to fire up the mics and let you in on all of these conversations. Every week, Pasha and I will hit on the biggest stories happening in the league. And get Austin's perspective of someone currently hooping in the NBA. Tap into Offguard every Friday on the Ringer NBA show feed on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tramphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks,

followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject trumphia, proper training is required. Tramphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to stay. severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Trimfairadio.com.

For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tramphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject trumphia, proper training is required. Tramphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, and liver

problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Trimfairadio.com. Hello! Or should I say today and welcome into the Ringerverse

The Ringers Nexus podcast feed for all things fandom welcome back Happy New Year Happy 2023 and welcome

the first Mint edition of the New Year It's the Once in a Wild podcast All of the latest fandom that you just can't live without

I'm Steve Allman Junior producer at the Ringer and joining me as always my co-host Ringer social coordinator Lord of the Memes explainer of the Midnight Boys. He's fixing his belt to grow a better beard. It's Joey a dinner on. Steve, it's our first minute edition of the year. So happy to be back on the airways

with you. Steve, what do you get into this year? What's your New Year's resolution? Okay. Listen it down. New apartment. Okay. New apartment. Getting a cat. Maybe getting a tattoo. Maybe getting a tattoo. Talk to him. We got to think about that. one. That's expensive. Expensive. It's on your body forever. It's on a, but we'll get, we'll get that. Get a tat of the cat, says Arjuna. That's a pretty good, you know what, two birds, one stone. Lock it in. A lot less expensive. Well, if we think about it, the cat probably long term, a lot more expensive.

Oh, definitely, 100%. But, you know, nice, it's a companion. Yeah, that's true. Jumby, what about you? What are you getting into this year? Oh, me this year? New Year do me, baby. I'm going to get worse. Great. I'm just going to be a worse version of myself. What's going to get, is it going to be your health? Is it going to be your toxicity? Yeah, you want to say healthy.

You know, I just want to be way more toxic online, especially. You know, when you see people online, you know, sometimes you'll get like a message or something and you'll be like, I shouldn't respond to this because I don't want to give this attention. I want to, you know, put out positivity in the world. I'm cutting that out. It's complete negativity. just complete hostility. I want to see untapped levels of petty coming out of you.

Especially come the end of February. Just ruthlessness. Yes. And that's what it should be. And I think that we should stay ruthless when it comes to our New Year's goals. And especially when it comes to potting with you, buddy. Hey, I love to hear it. Don't we all?

All right. Before we get started, let's get into a little program reminders before we start our show. Brand new year, same old us, as we're sipping our Baja blasts. Pugh. Why are you going to put me on blast like that, man? You know what this means, right? What? This means I snitched on somebody. They clearly, yeah. It means I snitched on somebody. Why would you put my business out there like that? Somebody just got put up 25 to life. That's true. That's very true. Wow.

All right. Programming reminders before we begin, Wednesday, the Midnight Boys are going to come back once again. We're on a tear. All right? We're not going to last of us. Guess what? We don't need it. We're having fun anyways. All right? This Friday, of our will be back with the long-awaited mailbag episode. Polish off those emails. Get your letters in at hobbits and dragons at gmail.com. Mushroom recipes as well for Joanna. And just send pictures. Just send pictures of mushrooms to Joe.

Mushrooms are disgusting. They're her favorite things ever. They're so nasty. And I think that she needs to be reminded of that every day. On today's show, we take a nice role for some initiative and look at the three-episode premiere at the legend of,

Vox Machina. Also, maybe we'll play a little D&D prep before we end the show. We'll see how that goes. But for now, some quick spoilers before we begin. So what was for all of Legend of Vox Machina? I don't really know any of the lore of critical role, but if we happen to come upon some, here we go.

So listener beware. But hey, we're here for a good time. Jomi, let's get into it. Let's step it. All right, let's go for the nuts and bolts, First, Legend of Box Machina, created by Critical Role Productions, based on the massively popular internet D&D campaign of the same name. It stars Matthew Mercer, Liam O'Brien, Marisha Ray, Ashley Johnson of The Last of Us video game fame, and many, many more. Box Machina takes place with our band of unlikely heroes.

They find themselves on a quest to save the realm from dark and magical force. is Jomi, what did you think of this first season of Legend of Vox Machina and were you excited for season two? I was, I had no idea what Vox Mocken was. I'm scrolling on Amazon Prime and I see it. I'm like, hey, you know, waiting for Invincible to come back. What's tapping to some fun animation?

You're just, you check it, Amazon Prime every day. Every day just to see when Invincible's coming back. And I saw it about this time last year. And I was like, yeah, you know, This seems like something I'd be interested in. I mean, let me type in. I had no idea about the lore behind it when I first started. I had no idea about the show, the D&D aspect.

I just thought like, oh, this is a cool little, you know, a group of gang of people working together to solve problems into the magical land. I was like, this is cool already. Only like to do the Wikipedia search when I'm done with the show. And it's like, oh, this is a whole thing. something like my brain couldn't even imagine before. I came across Critical Role. It's so hard to tell because like critical role seems like they've been around for so many years,

like borderline a decade. And I haven't dug into them deep, really, but they've been around massively, massively, massively popular. And Boxmock and it was probably the most proper introduction to the Lord because it's a daunting amount of stuff and content that those guys have put out over the years. And this was a very friendly introduction to the idea of at least the world that their campaign made. And this is a pretty interesting season of TV because I was very into the characters for

the small amounts of nuggets of backstory that we ever got. Because I've played D&D for like since my early 20s. And I've always seen like the seams of like, okay, well, I can imagine like how this can translate into a game. They've like fleshed out a little bit of backstory with this and that. They're big improvisers. That's what D&D is. You can find the story in the seams of your imagination a lot of this time. And a lot of this is just the fun, exploratory quests that, you know, a gang could go on.

And I can tell you what, Jomey, pretty much every single scene from every single episode. episode of every single season of Vox Machina, you can pretty much recreate in D&D. That adventure can just happen. That's awesome. It's the thing. That's what happens. That's fantastic. Something that we could always look forward to.

Always. Kicking off season two, we begin, well, if it isn't the consequences of Voxmachna's own actions. It's tough. Coming off the heels of challenging a dragon, guess what? Dragons don't like that. No. No, they don't.

I'm big fans of when you, when you kill what are their homies. Yeah. It's just not a thing that they like. The capital city of Tal Dory is absolutely demolished by the Dragon Legion called the Chroma Conclave. I'm going to say that one more time. The Chroma Conclave, that's the best name I've ever heard. It's an all-time name. Like when we talk about group names, you know, you got five slamma-jama.

You got the Houston Cougars. Delphonics. Chroma conclave is top three. Any name. Any name you can give me. Comma Concave is top three. That's a 70s 12-person funk jam band that like absolutely indoors. It's just inspired.

Yes. Like I just, when I hear Chroma Conclave, I just see bright lights and rainbows and lasers and peo, peep, bo, peep, peep, peon, just going around. When is the new chroma conclave? conclave drop. I heard they got Metro booming on it. Oh, man, you know, it's, I heard 12 tracks of absolute flames, my brother. Seven hours.

Just, I'm locked in on it. This is an incredible name. It's an incredible name. And so, within an effort to defend the city from the chroma conclave, the Vox count their losses, and they retreat back and find

allies and precious resources to help take back the capital. Now, what did you think of this first, episode, Jomey, and was it a bit too action-packed? I'm curious. Not for me. So this episode set the stage where we can expect this season, the level of despair, the level of stakes, the level of danger that our heroes can have to go through if they want to overcome this danger.

Look, I'll tell you what this doesn't have a problem, which Invincible did. Budget. Oh, no, man. I mean, listen. Let me say something about these dragons, dog. First of all, look great. Look great. Clearly, CGI, but it doesn't matter.

Yeah, it's definitely different from the art that we're used to in the show. But once you get over that, it takes like a second. You're like, oh, man, I'm looking at it, right? You've got Thorac, the fire dragon, Raysan, the gas dragon, umbersil, the acid dragon, and Vorgoo, the Ice Dragon. So I'm like, okay, these guys are cool. I'm watching it. And I'm like, I'm trying to like get their names because I hadn't like picked up on the first watch.

So when I hit the Googles, let me tell you something about these dragons. Not only do they have, you know, great names, great powers, they have like these like, you know, nicknames or whatever. So Thorac is the cinder king. Love that. Ray Sean is the deceased. deceiver. That's my favorite one. I want a jacket with that on it. In Brazil,

the hope devourer. And Vorgal? The frigid doom. Dude, I'm tapped in, bro. I don't know what to tell you. This is just the easiest sell in the world for you to get to play D&D.

This is all I'm hearing right now. I'm looking at other Jagas, like they look cool. They got they got cool powers, right? They're like, you know, smoking people. dude is flying over, just putting acid rain. People's skin is melting off their bones. Ice dragon comes up, freezes people, and then, I mean, Thorac, doing the fire thing, man. It's tough to see, it's tough to see that village get absolutely blown to bits.

But you kind of got to establish the stakes. I guess, well, here's a thing, right? And I got to ask you this, because I was wondering about it. If you could be a dragon. Oh, boy. What kind of dragon would you be? All right. so I do I do like being like a gaseous or acid dragon those are cool

I don't want to get like a I don't want to get I don't want to get too big I want to be like a medium size I'm going to be medium sized medium sized dragon medium size dragon mediums I want to be fast that's what I want to do I'll maneuver okay okay okay um I think it would have to be acid based and then probably like golden scales Like I'm like I'm lavish, but you know, toxic. I understand. I understand. For me, if I had to pick one of these dragons, I'd definitely be a Thorak fire. You know what I'm saying?

Like that's that's box standard. But I'm a pull off. Is it because your voice by Lance Reddick? Is that why? That's, yeah, man. Probably. But if I had to pull a, a mall here and cheat the system, I would be one of the dragons

from the dragon prince right. Oh God, here we go. This is agenda coming off now. Avizandia, first, listen, first and foremost, when season five

of the dragon prince comes out. Yes. We're doing that episode, Steve. Okay. I don't know what to tell you. I'll see you in 2027. I'll know what to tell you, my brother,

that's coming. We locking in. Right. Don't forget. But as of Andium, he's a dragon, big. I don't know how fast he is,

but the trick is he shoots lightning. That's cool. Fire. Lightning is, come on. Lightning is down. A dragon that shoots lightning? Come on. Pretty good. That's what I want to do if I was dragon.

I spent lightning out. That's different than fire. Well, I'll tell you what. As cool as these dragons are, I was a bit curious to see what this initial plot device and this initial, like, sort of setting of the stakes in episode one

season two was going to mean because this is a kind of a bit of a like it's a bit of a gamer trope it's a bit of a tabletop role playing trope where you establish this insurmountable threat this insurmountable big boss in the beginning that is going to be like this is the thing you're working towards this is the thing that you got to level up that you got to work and figure out if you're familiar with mass effect three it's basically the the invasion of earth and then you have to retreat and then find everybody else to help you and then you come back to Earth and then beat the big threat. I'm curious because like you'd think that with like a destroyed capital and a people like under complete, you know, either oppression or siege or all these things,

you'd think that like the heroes would want to stay and fight regardless of the odds, regardless of the actual stakes that come their way rather than regroup and come back. It's a small nitpick that I have. But did that bother you at all? Did that ever like being like, Well, why would they want to leave? Well, did you see the city that they were leaving? I mean, yeah, there's not much to leave. No, I mean, not much to leave. It was completely destroyed, gone, obliterated, demolished, decimated.

That entire spot was literally not like on fire. There was no safe haven. There was no running from these guys. Everywhere they went, there was a problem. I mean, remember, they get teleported to that old spot that they were back in season one, which is like a ways away. from the Capitol. And oh boy, Vorgat was like, hey, where y'all going? Come back

here. I need my ones. Yeah. There was nowhere near that capital that they were going to be able to mount a mount a comeback because the Chroma Conclave was in a bag, my brother. Show some respect to the chroma conclave now. So our heroes, Fox Market, they're like, guys, this is not going to stand. Like, we need some time to grab some allies, grab some loot, do whatever we can to defeat these jackets, because you stand in a fight right now, we die.

We're the only people who can save this place. If we go down, the entire continent, the entire world falls. Remember, Keyless, looking at it like, this is, this is the end of the world. It pretty much is. It signifies that because if they don't if they don't deal with this threat, then it absolutely is. so we move on to episode two Jomi why don't you give us a little

a little taste about what happens in episode two Oh well you know The Vot They had to leave Tau-Dore And they get a tip About a city named Vasselheim

They have to go there to find The Slayer's Take Which will lead them to A whole Bunch of Mcuffins That they'll use to take down The track That's again

again another another staple of d and d it's a whole bunch of mcuffins i love me a good macguffin what's your favorite macguffin in all of oh i mean listen fantasy with all of fantasy sci-fi i mean like the maltese falcon was the was the was the clear and present winner from the one that i can think of what's yours um y'all going to hate me for this one the matrix of leadership from transformers revenge of the fallon why why that one you got to have some some respect for the Matrix of Leadership. No, I will not. I will not until you sell me. The Matrix of Leadership name?

The Matrix of Leadership is not a fire name? That's not a cool name. It's a damn sight worse than the Coroma Conclave, so you've got to do better than that. That's not, well, okay, first of all of all, time. Top, top, top, top three all time. It's not some respect. Major leadership, that's cool. And it's like, shaped like, you know, it's got the triangles at the end. And then in Dark of the Moon, when you win, Optimus holds it.

it like floats in his hands he's like doing it he's jumping like a basketball like right have some respect for the matrix of leadership Steve Alman interesting okay all right that's fine that's fine all right so we have some

we have a couple of Mcuffins in episode two the Vox are more or less get trapped in a spatial void beneath a pub hate it when that happens it's tough while while Grog strays off

and learns hard lessons from a warrior monk Joe Earthbreaker Gruden is not one of to be played with Earthbreaker Gruden you know

one of one of you kept an eye on especially I love a vague warrior what did you like about this little B plot from Grog here I loved it

first of all I'm I'm 100% sure I'm not even gonna doubt this anymore 100% sure that Earthbreaker Grun is voiced by

Spartan Lock the guy who did Spartan Lock in Halo 5 and so I was locked in I was like this is my dude. Let's go.

And to see him just completely whoop on Grog for that B-plot was awesome. Like he was giving him the business. To almost little and no avail of like a moral thing, which I kind of like where they're like, where does your strength come from? And they're like, you want to say it was my muscles, but then I got to say it's my heart. And he's like, no, it's not your heart. And then he just punches him right through a wall. And then even when he's like, yeah, it is my heart.

you know, it's from my love of my people. Eric Gruden's like, wrong. Punching something, again. Yep. Like, nah, man, you have no idea where your strength comes from. That's, and you're like, you think that all, like, you know, Dragon Ball Z sentiment would have given us the right answer there. But no.

Not this. We're not even going to teach him. Not even some tutelage. It's more for Grog to chew on for a little bit while he nurses his blood blade. By the way, great weapon in D&D. Love that. Well, here's the thing, though. Right?

We see the blood blade. give him a little like little whisper. Mm-hmm. Blood thing is hungry. It is. Needs blood. That's it. That's a bad McGuffin there.

Mm-hmm. So we get into our little spatial void and we have a bit of like a mental breakdown for all of our main characters here. Kalith, Pixie, Scanlon, everybody. What did it say the most to you about what these characters like, all have going against each other. Like this being almost like kind of like points out all of their emotional and mental flaws with each other. What did you think about this sequence? So we know a little bit about Percy because that was basically all of season one.

Yeah. Right. But the two that were the most interesting to me were Scatlin, you know, apparently, he was just like nobody cares for me. It was like, no, we both know that's not true. I was like, oh. And then Calith, apparently, is going to live forever? More or less, it seems. Yeah, because Ossiso was like, yeah, you know, you're enjoying it now,

but you're going to have to watch Are Your Friends Die. Keyless Aramante, which is apparently something that she's been working to for a long time, her friends won't be able to see her complete that, which means she'll be, she'll live well past their lifetime. well past their lifetimes. And that's something I was like, oh, I did not know that she was nearly immortal. That's tough. A lot of anxiety for a nearly immortal beating.

But, you know, I get that. If you were living forever, you'd be a little high strong. I'd be stressed too. And those are two things. Like, off the top of my head, I did not know. So I was like, oh, interesting. How do they deal with that now? Like, they might not come back this season, but in the future, how will this affect?

the team going forward. I was really interested to see how those two things will come back to us. I love it a lot. All right. And then we get to episode three, The Sunkin Tomb. This was my favorite episode. You mentioned before that there's probably going to be a bit more of a primary focus for a couple of characters here. I think that that's clearly going to be coming from Vax and Vex, the Twins, from this season, because we get a lot of backstory in this opening. sequence with they're stealing a little trinket from their dad, their adopted father more or less

and he's chastising them. They have to like abandon. They're not born into elven nobility. That's a very, that's a tricky subject for them, then why they went off to be it adventurers. That sucks, man. It does suck. That dad sucks. No, no, no. I mean,

the whole life thing is terrible with their father. It's a terrible person. Bad dad. just an awful human being well not a human being it's an elf but like where's all to hate like where's all this

first of foremost so she breaks the crown right the crown falls she has a thousand pieces here's the thing right crown's been in the generation of elves for a long long time yes felt the the and elves I'm pretty sure live

pretty long lives right no point nobody else ever dropped that thing it was the first time that's that fragile and then you're just like okay just leave it in the thing for a little kid, like, that's on you.

I'm sure, I mean, it was locked, you know, Vex unlocked it and Vax, you know, put on on the air, like, sure, that was, you know, those on a little bit. But that's an ancient, you know, totem from long lineage of elves. I don't know how it lasted long if it's that fragile. Was everybody honing it? Like, it was, you know what I'm saying? I kind of feel like, you were just keeping it in the, you know, your jewelry cabinet. No.

Right. It was capping a little bit. I didn't see it. I didn't see it. Not for me. These elven nobles. Right. Don't like them.

Anyway, don't like them. Our team makes an uneasy alliance and goes in, and parts a pond just to go into a sunken tomb to look for ancient weapons that are rumored to kill gods themselves. The vestiges of divergence, you know, our mcuffins. They got to get it. And so they tap in with Tsar and Cash, who vex and Vaxi media are like, yeah, no, these guys who can't trust. these dudes? You know, what are they doing?

That's always just like flirty with people that are like way too threatening. And which I like, that's a great like little, because every once in a while there's going to be like one person in the D group that's just going to be like, I'm going to talk my way out of this. I'm going to be the one that like flirts my way out of this. Well, that's definitely me. And they always roll poorly for those. And it's so funny to see and fail. That's definitely me. I don't, I don't want to have to fight nobody. That's not my get down as a person. Just talk these

through. Let's see if we can make a deal. See, for our little B segment, you're making a very good, compelling case for what your proficiency is going to be. Okay. I like that. All right.

So we get a bit of a cliffhanger episode here. After an assault from Oh, just a bit, just a little bit. Just a little bit. Just a little bit. Vex now presumed dead. Jesus.

And Vax, it's crestfallen. And it wonderfully little animated moment where there's a flashback of them in the woods as kids and one of them is lost. Vax comes to her and he's like, no, you don't need me, I need you

kind of a thing and this is a bit of a cliffhanger where Vax might not make it, might not get out of it. She can't be healed and we don't know what else is going to help fix this and with that we have the end credits for the first three episodes

of Vox Machina season two. We've got a lot more episodes to go, but what did you think of this first batch of three here? That's how you kick off a season, my man. That's what you're supposed to do. I had a lot of fun digesting these first two episodes. Like I said, first episode sets the tone, and the next two episodes, you know, really let you know, like, hey, we're not really, we're not pulling punches here.

We're going to tell this story in a way that clearly lets you know that not all these people are safe. And you have to be careful. you have to watch out because they're either things happening now as we saw with Vex or things of the future

to Kaileth that might not hold up to par in terms of keeping our characters in a great headspace. So, I'm very worried

about my people. I ain't gonna lie. I know. It's literally, it's dead. Dyer times. Dyer times. I'm very curious.

I'm very curious. We got a lot of episodes this season. We've got 12 episodes in total. I believe that they're going to be releasing these in a couple of batched episodes going forward like this premiere. A good batch, you would say.

A good batch. Not a bad batch. A very good batch. I like the idea of having these episodes come out in chunks because it's easy to kind of forget the overall arcing theme of the Chroma Conclave, bigger threat to be happening here because there's a million little tiny things

to keep track of here. And it's easy to kind of get in the weeds because it ultimately is just a bit of a breezy adventure. And you kind of get lost in the sauce with like, okay, well, we can't forget that the end of the world is coming and we need to immediately do that, but also, you know, deal with these little smaller quests and smaller stories and timelines and all of these other things. The shows is doing a very good job of juggling the high stakes with the low, in my opinion. I think the, reason that I ultimately ended up liking that first action-packed destructive episode is because we get these other two where it's going to be a bit of a reset for everybody. Everybody's going to be like, all right, gear up, we reset, we regroup, we bring everybody back, we try to find as many allies as we can so we can fight this together. But in the meantime, all we can do is

prepare. All we can do is adventure. So in the meantime, there's like this little like, like aura of like almost safety with the group that you can like kind of like uncoil and be like well shouldn't we be worrying about the incoming dragons all the time every time? Not really. Like yes, the chromoconclay, very real. Let me tell you something. If I had to worry about Thorac all the time, I wouldn't sleep that well.

I mean, to be fair, would you, would you have like joined? If you were running Vasselheim, we'd be like, mm, we don't want that beef until that beef comes up. Yeah, I'd be like, hey, man. Yeah. I appreciate you. you ain't got to go home but you got to get the heck of out of here, pal. So you know, you agree with the Vasselheim Council

where you're like, yeah, I can't just be out here beefing with strangers. Oh, they got some dragons all the way over there. But they got to do with me. Exactly. If they come in this way, let me give me, let me give you my number. Call me if they come in this way.

We'll strap up. Until then, I'ma keep mine over here. You keep yours over there. Let's mind our business. All right, my brother. You know, I'm not trying to get into these, you know, little beaves. You got the beef with the dragon. I ain't got no beef with no dragon.

I ain't seen no dragon. An immaculate diplomat once again. Listen, listen, I just don't want, I'm out here creating problems for myself. With you? You're going to hire beefing with beef? Hey, Steve, man, they said down the street there was this one dude, he's trying to fight. You don't go all the way out there and fight him? No, bro.

I'm going to stay at my crib. Mind my business. Put on the PS5. Beep, beep. Nick and what? All right, well, while Vasselheim might have been lacking, was there anything about these first three episodes that you thought that you could have gone for more of?

Is there anything that you'd like to see in the season going forward? Oh, man. So one thing I need to see one, a lot more of that gunpowder sells me. Noah, it looked like he almost blew up in the end of episode two. But I just need to see more of him because he's definitely the brother of Doc and Shue. Yeah, clearly.

Clip very much. He's got to put a hat on. I'm, you're like, oh, that's, that's dude. No, but in all seriousness, that's what happens with Vex, man. I need Vex back. I'm not going to lie. You know, do I think that she's like dead dead?

Like, she's never come back? No. But, and she dead for like two, three episodes. I'm like, guys, stop playing with me. Where's my girl at? Who's going to call me darling, you know, while watching the show, right? Who's going to call me love?

Like, I kind of, I need that. You understand what I'm saying? Like, no, it's legitimately one of my favorite characters, so it was really tough to see her go out like that. And, oh, man, to see Vax, just crown over his sister. Ah, it's tough. I, um, I'm interested to see how they ring her back, but that's where my head is at right now in terms of, I mean, her and the Chroma Conclave, man. Got to see my dogs. Thor deck.

For a girl. Um, Brousil. It's quite a gang. We all love it. quite a gang yeah you know again bringing Vex back and the chroma conclave so many good

things that he did in these first year episodes and I can't wait to see the other night I think it's gonna be great I'm very intrigued by Vox Machinip only because it seems to be the like this along with Invincible and to well

hopefully some of the other ones that don't get cancelled like the the adult genre animation push that Amazon and the like are doing, there's really good stuff out there. And I think that this is very much worth your time only because it really is like nice and breezy.

Like it's a fun adventure. And if you're not into, say, the hours long canon and storytelling that Critical Role does, while I'm sure very fun, this is a nice, great, bright and well-animated, I must say, adventure that pretty much sums up a lot of the big great beats that this story has to offer.

Like, I didn't know I liked D&D until I started watching the show. I was like, you know, I had no idea about D&D. I wasn't part of that. That was a cool like you, Steve. People were inviting me to their D&D nights in college. I was too busy going to basketball games and doing college improv. That's very funny. You did college improv?

I did college improv. Yeah, man. What? Okay. All right. Sorry. This has got to wait. Quit five minutes.

What? Did you play Zipzaps op? Zipzaps op. Uh, 100, hundred, hundred, 185 world's worst. Okay. What was the name of your college improv troupe? Oh,

we didn't have, it was just a CISO. You didn't have a, that's the number one thing. No. But again, here's the thing, right? And you'll be shocked to hear this.

But, uh, wasn't all that serious, man. We was having fun, man. I mean, of course. Shout out to Erica. You know, that's my best friend. I met her in the improv club.

But yeah, it was cool. We didn't have like a fun name. I'd shut up on Mondays. Played Zibzab, Zop, and we played improv games. And then twice a semester, we would do a performance. Do some scene work, yeah.

That was it. And then we'd have a party at the end of semester. And that was it. That was wonderful. we'd also go to Denny's every Monday after the Oh right well that's that's the real That's the real activity

Had to go to Dennis had to go to Dennis Yeah man it was cool It was cool but yeah I wasn't out here playing D&D like you Steve All right all right That's wonderful And now I'm like yeah man I will You know

It's cool This whole thing is nice It's fine I'm trying to You know I see the vision I see the vision So yeah And to your point about

Animation Where is at right now We're in the we're in the dirt my brother Not with this show I will say. Not with this show. This show is keeping the feeling alive. That's why I'm

this show, Invincible, Star Trek Lower Decks. They hold a special place in my heart because they remind me that, hey, the stuff, you know,

really has a home and people really do enjoy this, these things. I mean, you guys heard me on the Man I, boys a couple weeks ago, just lament, you know,

inside job and pantheon, skin the axe. and then I got to turn on HBO Max and they're like watch Velma and I'm down bad I'm not what did I say?

I didn't say nothing no let's not how about we not even do our terms of that how about we briskly move on I'm not saying all I'm saying is I'm very glad for a show like Vox Machina

that restores a feeling in what adult animation could is and should be it's fun it's engaging and it's oodles of a good time. And it doesn't get better than that. Couldn't agree more.

I'm just so happy this show exists. Goddammit, Jomey. I am too. This episode is brought to you by Boris Head. What if we told you the taste of deep fried turkey is now available at your local deli? Well, Boris Head just did that. Bursting with flavor, perfectly seasoned with that indulgent taste that usually means planning your whole day around it.

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2023. We are going to do a little bit of D&D prep because I've invited Jomey and producer Kerm to make their own D&D characters. Now, this is a going to be a whole process of rolling for characters. We're not going to pick proficiencies or anything of that. But I just want to get to learn a little bit about what their creative juices had to say about what characters that they like and who they want to be in this magical

world. I'd like to say that before we get started, we're going to be introducing them into the characters by picking their race and their class and then maybe giving a little bit of background story as to what their character might be about. So, Jomey, have you picked your race and class, or would you like any guidance about these things? Okay, so here's the thing, right?

Yeah. My class is clear. Not even... Class is clear, okay. My class. Okay. Right. I, I am a ranger. You're ranger. I'm a ranger. Okay. Ranger danger. Okay. Got my arrow.

Bruh, I'm like, I got hot guy, Steph Curry accuracy. Okay. feel me. I'll lock in. Boom. I don't even look at what I shoot, Brett. Bang. I'm nice with it. The race it's a little, this little thing.

Because I, like, I do want to be human. I like being human. You know, being human is cool. But, sure. But if we're in this, if you could pick between, you know, a human, dwarf, elf, elf, half-flink, human, dragon-born, gnome, half-el. That's what I'm saying. Can I be? Can I be half-human,

half-dragon-born? you know what I'm saying like that's a that's a mix that's a mix of it I doubt that that's possible at least we're the thing that we're going for I'm saying like I would love to be you know me and Jackings like a dragon though there's definitely you know you can be like

more human than than Dragon board you know but you can be like I know dragon board be half orc I don't want to be half orc I mean being an elf is cool but I just be like to be Vax I don't like straight up be Vax but I do I got to figure out where my other

my other half lies, but I definitely want to be a ranger. Like the arrows, like being like the, I could be like crosshair, but cool. Come on. Well, crosshair is cool, but like crosshair is cool. What are you talking about? Crosshair is a nice dude.

I don't want to be like a dick like crosshair is. I want to be a nice guy, a nice ranger who gives flowers to kids. And, you know, it was really nice. Yeah, you do get dark vision if you're a half, half elf. That's cool. See in the dark.

I just want to shoot people with arrows, honestly. It's really what it's about. Just be like the guy. top. All right. So you'll be a human. You'll be a human. Oh, stick with humans. All right, Kerm. Do I get any benefits from being a gnome? Like, I want to wrap the short kings, but like

if I don't get me special abilities from being a gnome, I'm not going to be able to do it. Of course you get special abilities from being a numb. Your speed, well, your speed is a little bit shorter. Okay. You're not nearly as fast. Makes sense. Makes sense. You can live up to 500

years. Oh, okay, okay. You have advantage of in intelligence, wisdom, and charisma. That's all I needed to hear, man. Gnome, gang. That's where we're at. You automatically speak common and gnomish. You know two languages off the bat.

Oh, heard you, heard you. You could be a rock gnome. Other options? You have a stealth proficiency as well. Okay, okay. You could see well in dim light. All right, we'll go team gnome then. Team gnome, okay.

Short King team, no. What's your... Hold on. What if I was a high elf? Half high elf. Half human. Okay. So you want to be a high elf?

So you're going to be like a noble. Yeah. But you also like to be a ranger here. Because it goes into my backstory. I got a whole backstory planned out. Okay. All right. That's cool.

That's cool. You know. All right. Dude, I'm tapped in. You said like, hey, I did some thing and I got a whole thing planned out, my brother. All right. So Kerm, you are a, you are a,

gnome? What is it, what is going to be your class? Can I be a wizard gnome? You can be a wizard gnome. Let's do it. Locking it. All right. Wizard gnome. All right. Jomey, why don't you give us a little bit about your character? What's their name? What's their story? Don't have a name yet. I didn't think that. The name is the most important part. Can't get the name wrong, right? But the story is to come from a high noble elf class.

Right. Okay. They were taught all the, you know, elf things to be the next ruler of the elf kingdom. Okay. But that's not what they wanted. They wanted to see the world. They wanted to fight injustice. You know, the elves, they're very, you know, hey, guys, we're only here for the elf people, not really here for other humans and stuff. I'm like, guys, I'm half human.

They're like, yeah, you're not supposed to tell people that. That's a secret. Okay. You got the ears. People find out you're half human. You're going to bring disappointment to all of us. Don't do that. That was upsetting to them.

So they took, you know, you have elf training. You know what I'm saying? They train you in the long bow, the long sword, the short bow, the long sword, the short sword, all that stuff. Yeah. And one day he took all this stuff and ran away. It's like, I don't need all this wealth. I don't need all of these to be the king of this land. What I want to do is save or protect the people of the kingdom.

Okay. Because I see the injustice. And so he left his family. He left his family. His whole entire life took a bow and arrow, some weapons, and a nice little coat, a long coat, you know. Long coat. Long coat. Got to have a long coat.

Got to be arranged with a long coat. Great. Okay. We'll make stats for that. And he vanished off just to protect the kingdom. Okay. From injustice. I like him.

I like him. So now elves can live for hundreds of years, but where in their age range relative to humans would you place him? Uh, yeah, you know, um, mid-20s, you know, mid-20s. He's been, but he's been gone since he was like 18. Like he's been, he's lived among the people for a long time. He's had a couple gap years. Exactly, right? Great.

So he's not just fresh. He's, he's been around a block, you know, and he, you know, could he go back to his place and be revered as a, like, like a king and be rich and all of all that? He could, but being among the people. That's where he feels most at home. I like this a lot. All right. Now you say you're missing a name.

I'm on a couple of name generators. I want to throw some things at you, see if you like them, okay? Okay. All right. Elamare? No. Wessendoral? Wesendor.

Zuma Khan. Can I be Zuma Khan? I'll say Zuma Khan. That's kind of hard. That's an Lemaire. Leomere? Leo Mayor? It's not bad. Leomer? Noren?

I like... No. No. Leodon is too... That's two on the nose. Leo Don? No. That's great. That's great. Leodon? Leodin? Nah. I like Leo Dian. I like Leo. My name's Leo, but you can call me Leo. All right. Great.

I can hear the chain saying that in that. Exactly. All right. Great. Leo, I like him. All right, born of the high society. That's right. Good with the arrow. Any places that he likes to dwell? Any other places that he's currently living?

You know, he got a nice little spot outside of town, you know, away, you know, like he goes into town. Of course he goes into town all the time, but he likes his space. He likes to, you know, have it. Good. He's an elf or a ranger. He likes to have a great view of everything. So if anything's coming and anything's happening, he can see it before it all goes down. Yeah.

Interesting. What's, okay, last question for you. What's his relationship with his family now that he's, you know, away? Does he talk to anybody? Does he correspond with anybody else? So he, so check this out, right? He had to have help getting out of there. Right.

And it was his stepmother. Interesting. Yeah, because normally he's not my son. I hate him, but she was really good to him. And she understood his wanting to leave. She completely understood what it was. And it says, be with his father. That's the real thing.

You know what I'm saying? Okay. And so the stepmother, wow, you know, I want to, you know, you're the rightful king. We want you to be here. But I understand you have a place to think you have somewhere to go. Here, take my quiver. You'll need it. Great.

So you got her like prestige bow out of that. And she was like, take it. just for you go live your life no matter what happens I will love you and I will be here for you so when you whenever you have to come back if you ever feel like you need to come back

don't worry about your father okay I'll take care of him so sorry last thing we need a clan name for you we need a surname I've got a couple I got a couple in the in the generator here that I might that you might like okay winter heart

keep it going Ocean Flight Next Agar-A-Garfall Oaken Grove Leo Oakengrove One more Give me one more

Zeyer Come on Come on That's it right there Zaire X-I-R-E Leo Zyert Ooh

Okay I think I like this I like the story I like the story All right Kirm You're up Yeah I'm not as prepared

is joey today. But that was at the top of the dome, I'm pretty sure. That was crazy. I definitely want my gnome to be from the trenches with the single goal in life of FBGM. He's just out here trying to get some money, get some ladies. Okay. All right. And just show off.

Yes, City Boy lifestyle. Just to show off with my wand, really. That's all I really want in this life. What else do you need for me? Well, as far as a backstory is concerned, usually wizards work in not in the form of academia but in places that help people

they usually make things they conjure spells to figure out something as inane as weather patterns or possibly even ways to help bestow blessings on weapons or certain things knowing that you want to be like you know kind of you know from a bit of a uh, rougher background and stuff like that.

Maybe you're a wizard that helps out, uh, fellow criminals with, uh, probably, like, small adventuring and like, uh, blessing certain weapons and like, imbuing certain, like, magic, magical properties, uh, to other things. You, you're, you're a, you're a tinkerer a little bit. Yes, I like that. I like that. Okay. Use magical implements like that. Okay. So, um, do you think of anything that you might, anybody that you're,

might have like beef with or anything that like might be troublesome in the city that you can think of can i just hate elves in general is that allowed to you want to be racist against elves what what did half of me do to do the whole of you can i have problems with the elves from my hometown from my if you give if you give me a reason give me a give me a story or give me a reason why you don't like elves at a young age My gnome was just, you know, trying to get some money and was robbed by a award of elves. And since then, he can't trust an elf. It just, it is what it is.

Sorry, Jomi. I just, I can't, I can't trust. It's tough. Interesting. Okay. And so you, you're between one and 500 years old. Are you in your human equivalent of mid-20s around there? How old are you?

Let's go like, let's go 28, you know? I've lived a little bit of... Got some salt on you? Okay, great. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Which is, like, minuscule difference for gnomes. Wonderful. All right, so I'm going to pick a last name for you.

There are some very fun ones, because gnomes are very, like, there aren't that many gnomes that are, like... A lot of them are, like, named after their last names out of, like, the, like, villages or places that they come from. but it's also like having to do a lot with nature. So a couple of them are like puddle twist. Long spark. Long spark, okay.

Fiddle stone. I'll go long spark. I'll go long spark. Wait, no, I got to give you one more because this is very, this is very good. Zaddle diddle. You went. You went. Zaddle diddle.

That'll do it. That'll do it right there. Zaddle. Zaddle diddle for the win. Yes, sir. Oh, my God. All right, Zaddle Dittle, it shall be. That's great.

That's great last year. Zaddle Dittle. Okay, where do you live in this city? The west side. West side. The west side. No, mine. Up in the mountains.

Does that work? Up in the mountain? Well, you say you live in the city, though. So, like, describe the part of the city, or do you not want to live in the city? you were making this more difficult I've never done Dungeons and Dragons as you can tell That's right He's also

He's also never done improv Also Also very true Think about it as like a madlib Like think about like your You live where Your best friend is who So scratch the city

We're up we're up in the mountains All right you're up in the mountains My best friend is a dragon born I'm not with the dragon borns Not elves of course I'm gonna like as a potential DM, I would make sure that people give you guff for not trusting elves.

You're like, you're unreasonably distrustworthy of elves. Yes. It's probably going to be to my detriment. This is a Clint Eastwood Grand Torino situation where like you're just grumbly about the elves. I'd like you to think of one reason why you would go into, go into a city for

supplies or running errands or something. Like, what would you need? Because you're like, you're coming down from the mountains. I'm guessing this is like a remote village. a nice little small outclave, maybe like of like, not even 100 people, like 50 people. And you come back, you're a wizard.

You need a lot of like magical trinkets. You need scrolls. You need tomes. You need books and spilt. I need like some pendants, some magical necklaces. Can I get those? So you would have to have a job to make money in order to buy those.

So you would have, you would have those. let's just say that you have the money. So you want to come down for, you want to upgrade one of your, um, one of your seeing stones that you want to say. Okay.

You want to come into town. Yes. But you run into a half elf noble in a cabin right along the right along the dirt road. And he's carrying a deer from a hunt.

Can I rob them? You can. You can. You can try. You want to try to rob him? Yes, I would love to try and rob them. How is this going to go? Well, you can look forward to that and more. Jesus Christ. But no, that's a, that's a bit of a little introduction into what it makes to make a character. Obviously, there's a lot more things. There's stats. There's items.

There's a lot of things that you can kit yourself out with. But D&D is a really fun world that I really like. I don't know, Arjuna, you could have yelled at notes at me as to how badly I was DMing or guiding his way. But that was a lot of fun. It was just making a fun character. I think that we can do this. Would you want to set up a D&D group on the weekends, Jomey, Kerm? I need Leo. You need Leo?

To teach John Kermmer's character the way to go. Okay. And you'll learn the ways of Zaddle Dittle. I got to learn the ways of Zaddle Dittle. Sign me up, man. I need to get rid of all these biases out of my character. Yeah, that's true. I saw me up.

Yes, the real zaddle dittles of the friends we made along the way. All right, well, that's a wrap for us. Don't forget, Wednesday, the Midnight Boys will be back. Once again, you can find the coverage of The Last of Us, both the House of Our and Midnight Boys crew, on the Prestige TV podcast feed every Sunday and Wednesday, subsequently. Production credits, we are produced by the great Jonathan Kerma, an additional production from Arjuna Ramqqal.

Thank you so much, Junior Mintz, once again, for staying tuned with us in the brand new year where we look forward to so much more. Join us again after the Super Bowl. We're going to have a bit of a trailer reactathon for all of the millions of ads and TV and movie trailers that we're going to be seeing after the Super Bowl. so join us for that

and we'll see you next time Jomi any parting words oh man you know what it be no I just want to again give a shout out to our awesome producer Jonathan Kerma aka Kerm Kerm Kardashian

and I just want to thank everybody out there for listening we're happy to be back in this new year we can't wait to come back and share some more fun times you guys Zaddle Dittle Stay to you all.

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