The Legend of Vox Machina owes as much to The Lord of the Rings franchise as any fantasy series. However, seeing the story first crafted in Critical Role adapted to the world of television on Amazon, much the same as the J.R.R. Tolkien classic soon will, brings to mind important differences that show just how far the genre has come in decades past. Vox Machina makes its heroes feel more realistic and human than those in the foundational fantasy text, and it accomplishes that with a simple addition: sex.
Sexuality is a natural part of human life largely glossed over in stories like The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. Meanwhile, Vox Machina integrates it in such a way that it makes the world richer and more textured than it otherwise would be, and best of all, it does so without bawdy sensationalism.
Obviously, there is a lot to gush about where The Lord of the Rings is concerned. The series set the tent poles around where much of the modern fantasy genre still rests, establishing tropes like an adventuring party of characters with a diverse skillset, ancient cultures engaged in mind-bogglingly complex conflicts and heroes who embody ideals they come to represent. Yet those idealized heroes were always lacking a certain dimension of realism that's invaluable in fleshing out a story, and this is perhaps best indicated by the total lack of sex in the series.
Conversely, The Legend of Vox Machina features such details early into the series. Perhaps most brought to the fore by the gnomish bard Scanlan, the series features the charismatic musician's romantic dalliances and euphemistic references in lurid detail. It features sex scenes, nudity, crass humor and an array of sexuality far more reflective of its audience's real lives than the chaste The Lord of the Rings ever was. Such details help characters pop out from the fiction they inhabit and feel so three-dimensional that it brings the worlds of magic and wonder they represent alive.
This is not necessarily the first time that such a twist on the fantasy genre occurred for wider television audiences. Game of Thrones had a reputation for its intense sexuality throughout the full course of the series, and its author George R.R. Martin was vocal about the inspiration he drew from The Lord of the Rings in diverging from its sexless standard. However, whereas Game of Thrones could go overboard with its portrayals of sexuality, becoming a lightning rod for the term "sexposition" that reflected gratuitous nudity for its own sake, The Legend of Vox Machina integrates that sexuality into the rest of the series in an organic fashion that feels both humorous and worthwhile.
It also means that there are significant strides made in visibility and representation over the course of the show's first season. Vax's flirtatious relationship with a local merchant along with his budding romantic feelings for the druid Keyleth shows how multifaceted the character's interests are. Scanlan's boundless taste for most any worldly pleasure underlines his hedonistic characteristics in a way that starkly distinguishes him from Vax's more particular interests. The end result is a portrayal of sexuality that is diverse, realistic and representative of the audience at home.
Sex is not the only aspect of The Legend of Vox Machina that helps distinguish its realism from The Lord of the Rings. There is a constant subversion and awareness of tropes, an underlying sense of humor and horrifyingly graphic violence, all of which likewise shine as examples of just how far the fantasy genre has evolved into the modern age.
The series stands out as an apt example of what future fantasy projects can do. The Lord of the Rings may be the gold standard from which much of the genre springs, but bold reinventions and twists on the genre such as The Legend of Vox Machina prove just how much room there has been to grow all along.
