Warning: the below article contains spoilers for The Legend of Vox Machina Seasons 1 and 2, as well as small overarching spoilers for the Vox Machina campaign. If you are not familiar with the campaign storyline and/or do not wish to be spoiled about anything that might occur over the course of the season, feel free to skip to the end of the story.
Last month, fans of Prime Video‘s The Legend of Vox Machina rejoiced when a premiere date for the hit animated series’ long-awaited third season was finally announced. But there was another reason for their excitement: the surprise reveal of a brand new opening title sequence.
Changing an opening of a show, whether it’s to incorporate different narrative elements, new cast additions or simply (in the case of a long-running series) to update its artistic style isn’t an unusual move. But in the case of The Legend of Vox Machina, making this kind of change after only two seasons means something more than shiny new graphics. The opening has changed because our characters have changed, and it makes the direction of Season 3 clear: the stakes have been raised in every way.
If Season 1 was about the group of disparate adventurers learning to trust each other and believe in themselves and Season 2 was about finding cohesion as a family while working through their own personal struggles, Season 3 is, as Marisha Ray (Keyleth) teased last month, “but also, families have conflict.” While there is no specific timeline in terms of how many seasons we can expect to see for The Legend of Vox Machina, the Critical Role cast (who are at the helm of the show) have been clear to their audience about the major storytelling beats of each season. For example, fans knew the first season would focus what was known as the “Briarwood arc” and that the Chroma Conclave, an intense and complex arc of the campaign dealing with five deadly dragons, would stretch over at least two seasons. In this way, the new opening doesn’t just provide us with easter eggs and snippets of what’s to come: it foreshadows the season’s intent, emotional resonance and story.
The Season 3 title sequence opens with a shot of a raven flying overhead, similar to the previous opening. But instead of different shots of Vox Machina fighting their own mental and physical battles, flashbacks essential to each of their backstories and showcases of each character’s powers and abilities, the group is now journeying together. There’s a sense of camaraderie among the friends, so much so that we can tell they’re no longer strangers thrown together for the sake of earning a little money and saving a city. After two seasons of dragon fighting, trust issues and close calls with death (just to name a few things), they’re a family.
And while there’s one thing that hasn’t changed in either opening, its presence becomes more telling this new one: the golden threads of fate (tied, of course, to the flying raven representing the Raven Queen) which are the narrative threads weaving together Vox Machina’s story. In the original opening, these threads were cast out individually to each party member, ultimately drawing them together. In the new opening, the threads scatter around the party, weaving through them—their fate are now intertwined, for better or for worse. The threads go unnoticed by the group save for Vax’ildan (Liam O’Brien) since he has, in a decision still secret to everyone else, sold his soul to the Raven Queen in exchange for his sister Vex’ahlia’s (Laura Bailey) life. As he is now bound to the Raven Queen as her “Champion,” the threads give him a vision of the future—a vision that is, essentially, the opening sequence and our foreshadowing of what is to come in Season 3 and beyond.
Some of that foreshadowing comes in the form of storytelling nuggets planted to show what will arguably be significant story beats throughout the season, if not longer: the return of villainous inventor Anna Ripley (a loose thread from Percy’s past), Scanlan’s (Sam Riegel) daughter Kaylie leaving him (a fear he continues to struggle with) and Pike (Ashley Johnson) using powers from an armor called Plate of the Dawnmartyer (a “Vestige of Divergence,” a.k.a. an artifact that can aid in defeating their enemy dragons). Some of it is designed to tug at our emotions more poignantly by highlighting parts of a character’s personal journey, such as the group fading out to leave Keyleth walking alone: a sobering reminder that as a druid and an elf, she will outlive most of the world. Keyleth’s struggle with intimacy due to her long life span is an important step in her path towards becoming a leader, and with this image playing out through Vax’s perspective, it indicates we’ll start to see her start to grapple with more visibly.
Of course, we’d be remiss not to point out a quick shot of a blindfolded individual whose two hands hold a mysterious orb. Combined with the heavier and more intense musical cues that take place during this shot, it’s safe to bet that we’ve just gotten a quick glimpse of Vecna, a.k.a. The Whispered One: Vox Machina’s ultimate Big Bad. (For fans who know the endgame of the campaign, the orb transitioning back to Vax’s eye adds to the credence to this being a sensible assumption.) The first season of The Legend of Vox Machina gently teased a larger threat at play, but this is the first time we’ve gotten visible hints that something more sinister is lurking in the shadows. Even the musical cues reflect this, as the familiar theme of the series comes with a new melancholy undertone that suggests maybe not everyone will have a happy ending despite the happiness at the sequence’s beginning.
When Vax’s vision concludes, he hurries to catch up with the rest of the party, who have wandered away ahead of him. In his wake, he leaves seven raven feathers—one to symbolize each party member. It’s yet another reminder of how important these adventurers are in each other lives and how their relationships and friendships have made an impact on each other, even if they are unaware of it.
Similar to rolling a dice, we can’t fully predict where Season 3 of The Legend of Vox Machina will take us—that’s the beauty of adaptations, after all. And even if we know the story that’s being told, it’s always an adventure to be surprised by how everything plays out. But just as the opening showed us that we can expect to see a different, if not heavier side of our favorite unassuming heroes, it also reminded us that the beauty of Vox Machina’s story is their friendship—and that friendship is the root of how they will, hopefully, save the world.
The Legend of Vox Machina, Season 3 Premiere, October 3, Prime Video