The Legend of Vox Machina season 4 could spell danger for one key character

Ironically, it was Vax's voice actor himself, Liam O'Brien, who warned in our interview with the cast ahead of season 3's launch that they were "going to break [our hearts]", which turned out to be the shocking death of a certain character.

While events in the final episode wrapped up on a seemingly high note with the crew, despite most of Vox Machina's members going their separate ways, it was episode 13's last shots on the half-elf that point to the fact that his actions will have dire consequences in season 4.

We've had a dive into the Critical Role lore and its community to find out what might have happened to Vax at the end of Vox Machina season 3, and how this might affect him in season 5.

We must warn again that we're about to give major spoilers from the later story of Critical Role's first campaign that The Legend of Vox Machina's next season will be based on. If you want to keep everything in the next season a complete surprise, bookmark this article to come back at a later time and click away.

What happens to Vax at the end of The Legend Vox Machina season 3?

Before Vax enters Orthax's domain to successfully free Percy's soul and bring him back to life during The Legend of Vox Machina's season 3 finale, the Matron of Ravens warns him that doing so would violate the transition from life to death, resulting in a sorrow far worse as a cost.

That price for defying the Matron and meddling with fate wasn't clear right away until Vax secretly revealed to us that his arm had been infected by a rotting necrosis, potentially like what Scanlan suffered from after his arm was bitten by a zombie in season 1.

One could believe that because of Vax defying the Matron in meddling with death, followed by Vax once again seeing visions of his own zombie self in a reflection as we first see his new corruption, his punishment from his deity, one being a fate worse than death as she warned, is to have his life greatly shortened in exchange for Percy's which he saved.

Keep in mind, however, that this necrosis appears to be much slower than Scanlan's in season 1, to the point where he's still able to hide it from the rest of the group under his sleeve for now. After the Dwarven bard got bitten in Whitestone, he was warned by Cassandra that he would've lost the arm within an hour, before Pike luckily arrived to heal him.

Vax's necrosis, on the other hand, appears to be a different type that spreads at a snail's pace to start from his arm through the rest of his body, and Pike being able to heal him the same way would almost be too easy.

This again would support the theory that this is punishment from the Matron for disobeying her since the corruption is starting from his left arm - the arm he used to join hands with Percy in Orthax's realm and free him. A much more gradually painful necrosis, one where your body slowly but surely rots away in front of those you love, aka Keyleth, is far worse than a quick death since Vax seemingly can't do anything about it.

The direction for Vax in the finale seems to be an original angle from the campaign, which we'll go into next. Still, this new route in season 4, if correct, paints a horrifying picture of what might happen when we see him again or as his story develops in future episodes. Liam O'Brien also told us in advance that by the end of season 3, "he'll be in a new place".

The idea of that new place being where rot is continuously spreading through his body, to the point where we could no longer hide it from Keyleth - who he just finally got together with as they journey for her Aramente - sets the stage for a very tragic sequence of conversations and events.

That's unless the group of Vox Machina comes together once again to deal with the next big threat revealed at the end of season 3, which ties into the original campaign route as to where Vax's story could go next.

What happens to Vax in Critical Role?

The final scene of The Legend of Vox Machina season 3 revealed the emergence of the Whispered One, also known as Vecna in the original Critical Role D&D campaign, which also spells potential trouble for Vax given what happened to him in the next part of the saga.

During one of Vox Machina's first encounters with the story's big villain in the Critical Role campaign, Vecna kills Vax by completely disintegrating him. The rest of the group managed to escape but were left stuck wondering how to revive Vax without his body.

It turns out that Vax was able to come back to life by making one last deal with the Matron of Ravens: rise again as her champion to defeat Vecna (the Whispered One), then go back to stay with her in the afterlife forever once the task is done, so he comes back to the group as a revenant.

After the group finally defeats Vecna, the Raven Queen later comes to claim their deal. Some tearful goodbyes follow and Vax goes with the Matron and fully transitions from life to death, officially dying for good.

Where this leaves Vax in season 4

So, when it comes to Vax in The Legend of Vox Machina season 4, his ending in season 3 and what we know about the campaign's end leave us worried and a little bit sad in multiple ways. In one, his necrosis, which is unique to the series as far as we know, might be taking his arc in a different direction.

He could still wind up in a gruesome fate that sees him die an early death as a zombie elf-man, but it gives us a bit of hope that it could somehow be resolved and have the whole show end on an alternative note where he somehow lives.

In the other, despite the show going in different directions for some elements of the campaign, the show could end with his permanent death after making a deal with the Matron to kill Vecna. After all, most deviations in the show haven't been that major and any big story beats usually end up being hit in different ways.

In all likelihood, this new take on Vax's story arc for this part of the Vox Machina narrative is another way of condensing the many hours of story developments in the campaign, to meet the same goal.

When navigating the Vox Machina Reddits, an older post-season 2 thread pointed out that Vax's visions of his zombie self could also be a foreshadowing of the Whispered One's return, followed by his death as it was in the campaign by Vecna's doing.

The necrosis given to him after defying the Matron of Ravens could just be the Amazon Prime show's way of shortening events. Whichever way, it seems we'll ultimately still get to the same destination of Vax's permanent death but through a different route.

Nevertheless, the cast of Critical Role has full creative control over how the original ending of Vox Machina's story gets adapted, and if there was going to be any event they would change, altering Vax's fate is one they definitely know would make fans happy and might provide a unique alternative reality for existing fans of the campaign too.

In the meantime, we'll just have to wait and see until the first look at The Legend of Vox Machina season 4 is revealed, likely sometime after the Mighty Nein animated series comes out.

The Legend of Vox Machina is now streaming on Prime Video – try Amazon Prime Video for free for 30 days.

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