• Embracing and including failure/limitation. Holding aside the plot and worldbuilding failures (Pike not saving Vax's kiddofriend from the pilot, Keyleth's repeated overwhelmed freezing), the show incorporates so many mundane failures throughout that apart from Brimscythe, it rarely felt like watching a railroaded journey to a plot necessitated victory or failure. In the tavern brawl alone we have a misfire and narrative explanations for low attack rolls (Vex tripping over Pike, an overeager Grog crushing Percy while trying to save him), and that continues through the climax with failing to snap Vax out of his charmed state ("my love for my sister overcomes the magic" would have been predictable Disney bullshit and also a wholly defensible point, particularly given how the show built their relationship. "I love my brother more than anything and after a brutal fight will resign myself to killing him because my friends and stopping this evil are more important" delivered so much more for plot, tension, and character. As if the writers focused on "what do we need to do to earn Vex committing to the group?" and built from there rather than "how do we create a balanced final combat before restoring the status quo"). The doors are an obvious example and played for laughs but again, no writer, director, or editor in their right minds would have had that as an extended obstacle in the mission to free Archie, nor would they have sacrificed that much empty time that could have gone to building up present-day Anders or the showdown with Percy. But it all served the show, characters, and tone so much better than a traditional story would have. Which feeds to the next point-the writers, editors, and directors weren't in their right minds.
  
  
• Creative control for creators: Sam(Scanlan) was on The Friendship Onion (Dominic Monaghan(Archie)'s podcast) and 10ish minutes after where I cued the link (honestly the whole interview merits a listen), talks about the process of getting Legends of Vox Machina made-going to the netflixes of the world, getting laughed out of the room, trying to fund a proof of concept pilot, breaking all the records, and going back to all the platforms who were now begging to distribute it. Thank gently caress that everyone passed initially (and that critters have entirely too much disposable income). So many of the choices made throughout the show were risky (if not outright bad). If Hulu had funded the show, so much would have be different because Pike's power level feels inconsistent, the animators say the bear is hard so he's cut entirely and let's take another look at Keyleth's art because there's two Ds in druid, guys, you know what I'm saying? Instead, the kickstarter gave the cast both gently caress you money and gently caress you confidence*. It showed in the crew choices (Burch writing, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as vocal director) and in a lot of the story choices. Often good (the little bit of Trinket we did get, timing and pacing of romances, so many little moments that didn't merit screentime on their own but came together for something bigger) and rarely bad (From Matt's comments early, they knew nobody would like Scanlan's rap but insisted on it anyway. Honestly a lot of Scanlan fits here, I think). Overall, it feels different and unique as a D&D/fantasy story because it is unique and the biggest part of that was that people who knew how and why it worked and were intimately familiar with all forms of animation were the ones making the final call. It helps that the cast is seems unusually aware of their failings or shortcomings (Travis(Grog) and Sam talked in a watch party about how overwrought and unproducable their first scripts were. They then... didn't force the writers room into trying to do it or making a limp compromise script? That's a thing execs can avoid doing?), and has gone through adaptions with various levels of control before.
  
• Treating the audience as intelligent adults: Looking at my own posts after the first three episodes, this worried the hell out of me. I still think it was a bold choice but it appears to have paid off in spades, and I'd love a poll of viewers to see how much of the underlying mechanics and particulars of magic they caught. The first two episodes alone is an extremely confident "show, don't tell" about Scanlan's illusion magic that requires you to ignore the musical setpiece and focus on the purple smoke transition to see that Scanlan can create a lifelike and impressive illusion of the party even when the real members are hungover slobs... which pays off in the Brimscythe showdown where he does the same for the bedraggled and overmatched party. The "correct" answer is Scanlan telling the party not to worry about their appearance in the throneroom because his song will cast an illusion and they'll look perfect (or to have Vex lay out literally any part of her plan to down the Dragon). To answer "how will the audience know what happened?" with "Don't worry about it. Next scene" repeatedly and be right is stunning. A brief scroll through any popular tviv thread will show how often the mark is missed. How does Pike's magic work? She's holy, it just does. Unless she's tired, or not right with her god. Scanlan? We'll explain that the lute is itself helpful almost halfway through (obvious lie). His voice and the need for it to make noise will be a plot point at the end, but we'll show it throughout. Even the end of season reveal/Season 2 villains are foreshadowed throughout (the rug outside Krieg's fuckroom, seemingly the intruder alarm Keyleth interacts with in the hoard) with minimal handholding and even some misdirection ("Did he say 'we'?" just before Krieg's reveal plays brilliantly on both levels, the initial focus on Krieg's membership in a group drawing all focus away from the existence of a group).
  

Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 16:12 on Feb 20, 2022