TV Show review
Review basis: 4 seasons, 48 episodes · through June 10, 2026
January 27, 2022 · TV-MA · Returning Series
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
The Legend of Vox Machina is an adult animated fantasy series on Prime Video. It adapts Critical Role's first Dungeons & Dragons campaign about a rowdy group of misfit mercenaries who fight dragons, evil vampire rulers, and other dark threats while growing as a team through personal struggles and found family bonds. The show features several openly queer characters, including bisexual twins Vax and Vex, pansexual bard Scanlan, and the lesbian couple Lady Kima and Lady Allura, whose relationship receives on-screen attention such as a kiss.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for The Legend of Vox Machina.
Woke representation / casting
Multiple prominent queer characters (bisexual Vax and Vex, pansexual Scanlan, lesbian Kima paired with bisexual Allura) appear with visible flirtations, relationships, and scenes such as a kiss; these receive media and fan attention as representation. Supporting voices include diversity. Main party follows original player-created fantasy archetypes without clear quota-style mismatches or identity signaling over story logic.
Woke political dialogue
Dialogue centers on adventure, crude humor (especially Scanlan's sexual antics), banter, trauma, and romances. No activist speeches, modern identity lectures, or ideological monologues.
Identity-driven story themes
Core narrative follows classic high-fantasy heroism, revenge against tyrants, dragon-slaying, and personal growth/redemption. Queer relationships and found-family elements are visible. Druid nature themes fit the setting without activist framing.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Story involves fighting evil vampire aristocrats and rampaging dragons as standard fantasy tyranny and monster threats. No reframing into modern critiques of patriarchy, whiteness, capitalism, colonialism, or Western institutions.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. Characters and story originated in the cast's own 2015 D&D game; TV adaptation includes pacing and condensation changes but does not introduce ideological identity swaps or DEI-driven reinterpretations of established material.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Some user reviews and social posts criticize "woke crap," forced diversity, or queer elements in a fantasy context; complaints appear on Metacritic, Reddit, and similar. Scale stays limited with no major news-driven or organized anti-woke campaign.
Creator track record context
Critical Role core team (Mercer, Ray, Bailey, and others) drives the project with a documented pattern of queer character creation, ally statements on inclusivity, and normalization of LGBTQ+ elements in their D&D brand and community. Titmouse leadership (including Kalina) supports studio diversity initiatives and scholarships for underrepresented artists. Charity work is present but milder per calibration.
Production
