Percy and the Cost of Vengeance || The Legend of Vox Machina 

I loved the scene when his friends’ names were cycling through on the gun as they were being added. It was such a terrifying moment that shook me as a strong moment that vengeance just consumes.

Percy's journey and growth is so interesting. He was invisioned as a character who would be consumed by his vengeance. Yet he lets go of that quest. When he confronts the last person from his list on the stream, he isn't killing them out of revenge. He is killing them because by this point they have to be put down. This person will keep coming back to attack Percy and his loved ones unless Percy puts an end to it. In the end, it's this last member of the list who is trapped in the quest for vengeance. A quest that kills them. "I used to fear you." Was one of his most savage takedowns and the capstone of Percy's character arc.

I truly understand the cost of Revenge This guy stole me sandwich and I had to buy it back . In the end Revenge cost about $10

Talisan and Matt said themselves that the list was never-ending. If Percy will had keep the list, names will always be add. Spoiler for the rest of the campaign. When the Briarwoods and Ripley comeback, Percy seems them differently. At his wedding when Silas arrived to kill him, Percy just found him pathetic.

This was an amazing character break down as well as an amazing break down of what revenge is and does to you.

I was actually shocked by the number of reactions I watched where the RU-vidr thought Percy's vengeance would end in suicide: cycles of vengeance like this don't end - the demon would drive him to seek vengeance for the slightest thing, until he wronged someone who would seek vengeance against him. At that point Orthax would abandon Percy and make a pact with the new person, who would take up The List and begin scratching off their own names.

I started watching this show completely unaware of the Critical Role or Campaign 1. I watched the first episode and wrote Percy off as the "boring human" in the group. However, Percy soon became not only my favorite character in the show but one of the most well written and tragic characters I've seen in years. I'm looking forward to season 2!

The thing about vengeance, even when it is deserved, is that the cost is never worth it. Percy literally sold his soul to get that vengeance, but he was lucky he was overcome it before it was too late.

Vengeance is the most entertaining and amusing of all of humanities attributes - forgiveness less so.

I like that people's names just keep getting added onto Percy's list . It shows me that no matter how many people that the demon make him most likely there will always be at least one person on the list. No matter who it is

I actually have a character whose whole motivation in our campaign washer desire for vengeance against the cult that killed her father and tortured her since birth. To my surprise, our DM loved my character's backstory so much that he used it as inspiration for our entire campaign as, at the time he was gathering players for our game, he hadn't thought of a solid plot for us to follow yet. He worked it in so that all of our characters were somehow connected to the cult my character wanted to destroy. My character, Estanna, started out as a lawful evil warlock who made a pact with a fury for power. She originally dreamed of becoming a cleric of Hestia thanks to her father's teachings, but she was overcome with anger and grief after she helplessly watched him be dragged away from her to be sacrificed to Kronos (our DM used the Greek pantheon for our campaign). After she escaped after making her pact, she lived her life with the sole purpose of getting revenge and destroying the cult. She had the mindset of "I am a monster, and will use my power to destroy evil so that innocents will not suffer", meaning that she would do horrible things so that others wouldn't have to. Hence her lawful evil alignment. If you disagree with this alignment for my character, that's fine. It was just the one that made the most sense to me. However, soon after she met the party, she found that none of them considered her a monster and were even kind to her. This was very odd to her as no one but her father had ever seen her as anything but a monster before. Through her party, she began to doubt the path of vengeance she took and began to open up to them. This switch in her character really happened when she threatened our bard after learning that he knows one of the cultist and saw him be friendly towards them. Luckily, the player playing the bard is really good at roleplay and not only went along with the scene but actually got my character to doubt the dark path she's been following and plant the seeds that would eventually lead to her redemption. Now, towards the end of our campaign, Estanna has become a lawful good cleric of Hestia with a sibling-like relationship with the bard and possibly developing a romance with our paladin who was the first to accept Estanna and not view her as a monster, even healing her when she got in the way of a big fight. I'm really excited to see how Estanna's story will end. We've only got the leader of the cultist left to fight before we take on Kronos himself! Hopefully none of us die... I've actually had quite a few close calls myself... But, whether we all make it out or not, I'm eager to see if Estanna will die in a blaze of glory saving her newfound family, or if she'll survive and finally have a chance to live in peace. If she survives, I'm defiantly planning to have her return to the temple of Hestia where her father was the head priest and adopt a goblin child we saved at the beginning of our campaign. I think that'd be a really nice ending to her story.

"I will henceforth be referring to him as Percy..." Mad respect for doing the full name and pretty much nailing it

How poetic was Percy when he shot Vedmire's knee by the Archy's death and said this words "Congratulations, Vedmire. Your name is not in my list. Instead, you'll answer to the people of Whitestone, and they might show you all the mercy you showed them.''

I’d been playing an old campaign in dnd based on the Tyranny of Dragons module before being rebooted and starting over again with brand new players this time currently playing, and let me say, this is on point with everything. I’ve been playing a Character (A teenaged bronze Dragonborn tempest cleric called Deric Kain) who’s biggest motivating factor was finding out about what happened to his family and parents, until he’d discovered they were killed by the campaign’s main villain after a failed attempt to rebel against him within his own cult. traumatic in character development, because unlike what happened with Percy’s character as you’ve pointed out, the price vengeance and hatred uncontested is absolutely devastating. What happened for me instead was rather than taking things seriously and trying to actually help Deric (Barring a few people who actually tried but couldn’t stay around long sadly), they just let his hatred and quest fester unto it got to the point where he Essentially became a loose cannon, enough to the point that he was even going to completely backstab and betray the party having getting offered far better opportunities and treatment if he did so by some of the worst and most despicable people imaginable. (It’s worth noting too, that not only did the group neglect on him and treated him as a meme more than anything, but people were even taking advantage and abusing his trauma to further themselves, which speaks for itself) It was one of the most intense experiences going just as a player, both for me and my dungeon master being one of the few people who truly grasped the scope of things and just how dangerous unchecked resentment and hatred can possibly grow to be. Even in my own personal life, hatred is one of the hardest things to handle sometimes, not out of revenge but even just generally it really ruins and destroys your life if left unaddressed. Now, luckily the campaign got its reboot, with newer players who actually give a bigger shit now in how people are, and my real life is far better now thanks to my fiancé (also one of the players too, no pressure on me!!!) and everything with things being handled is much more different. This is one of the best videos I’ve seen that helps to explore and explain things even just by focusing on the character that is Percy, and such a brilliant thing to make aware of, both in regards of fiction of stories to even real life if you choose going deep into it. Long message I know but I like to say well done. Very well done.

I actually think the Briarwoods are completely sympathetic! I really empathize with how far Delilah went for the person she loved, and genuinely cried with her when it was all for nothing. I feel like we can have unique relationships with villains, and recognize that these are definitely not excuses and they don't change what she did, but I know what it's like to have someone that you would do anything for, even if anything included making a deal with a strange entity and having to do the work of paying them back later. Delilah did everything for Sylas because she loved him.

The way I feel about Percy is kinda the same way I feel about Batman and his rogues. The world would be better off without the enemies they face, without a doubt they deserve execution. But our heroes in question don’t deserve to kill them. The worst that could happen is that it would feel normal.

Percy’s quest for vengeance didn’t leave a bad taste in my mouth. I was rooting for him to kill them all himself quite frankly. I understand that he needed to let it go, not necessarily forgive, so that his soul isn’t destroyed because he had a new family to love him. However for the act of fulfilling his vengeance itself, I fully support it. Btw definitely sub’ing because this was a great analysis!

Welll, Briarwoods were more sympathetic. The actual campaign wrapup gave light and context as to why they did what they did and you could argue that they deserved some form of peace.

I feel like Percy (Taliesin Jaffe, but really all of the Critical Role cast) had a significant impact on me in terms of being a source of inspiration for roleplay and for playing a vengeful character. I had a character that was driven by pure vengeance. He was a Dwarf Eldritch Knight that left his family when they would rather study magic in secret than fight against the Red Dragon Army (Dragonlance setting). He was part of a squad that was helping support the Whitestone Army. They were given inaccurate information and ran directly into a Red Dragon Army force that slaughtered all of them. Only my character survived (never specified, but I assume he got knocked out early and away from the majority of it, so he was assumed dead and missed in an after-battle search). After that he took the surname of one of his fallen brothers and did mercenary work until the party formed. At a point, he became an Oath of Vengeance Paladin for an evil god (he was Lawful Evil from the beginning, I chose this alignment because it still fit with the party's goals, but it was as a result of his backstory and how that developed him as an individual), but with the help of the party eventually changing that so that I became the Paladin of a good god (With some time magic, never got to see the end result of that since we never ended the campaign). He was insanely traumatized, he was amazingly insecure, he often lacked confidence in anything except combat, and he absolutely despised being the center of attention. I had so much fun playing him because the internal conflict within him was probably the most interesting part that impacted how he responded to the story of the campaign. I was also dealing with things in my life at the time, so it was a good way for me to put myself, amplified, into my character. He was quiet most of the time, but when driven insanely violent. But, being Lawful Evil, with the exception of hitting his flaws perfectly, for the most part he contained himself because he understood his place and how to act to get the desired action/reaction from people. Calculating in that regard. Because he was statted for an Eldritch Knight originally (and it was my first D&D character), the change to a Paladin made him fairly weak at using spells (I left him at baseline Charisma, 10), so he was basically a full combat Paladin. I think a big point that really started to feed into the negative side of his vengeance is when we had captured the remaining lizardperson of the Red Dragon Army that was burning down a village and killing villagers. We interrogated it and got very little information from it. One of the other characters promised it could leave unharmed if it answered our questions. After getting basically nothing, my character was fuming and killed them, putting my sword through them. That caused me and another party member to fist fight each other, over honor, until I was defeated (I had some tricks up my sleeve, but they were a Minotaur fighter with a bonus horn attack, it was only a matter of time for me to go down first). I liked to think that every night he went over the oath of the vengeance Paladin. That he might have a journal where all he would do is write the oath, over and over. All he wanted to do was face the leader of the Red Dragon Army, at the time being Karalas, and kill him. Having already faced him and his dragon once, he knew he needed time to hone his skills. He didn't care if he died right there upon the next meeting, as long as he took the life of Karalas. Vengeance. The party had just found out that a doppelganger they had let go earlier in the campaign did exactly what we said not to do. Back then (as an Eldritch Knight) I had promised that I would hunt them down if they reneged on our agreement. So, our next action was going to be to go and make sure that doppelganger stopped providing information to the enemy army. I hadn't told the party yet, but my plan was to kill them as soon as possible. Interrogating them first to find any new information they might have. All of that to say that, although I was playing a character I feel like many would consider taboo in a campaign, I had a ton of fun working within the parameters I had available to me. It made me have to work at my character in unique ways from a normal character. And it fed perfectly into myself, as the player character, too.

One thing I like about Percy's character design is the plague doctor mask. Not only it fits his edgy persona, but it helps him hide his true face. Hide the pain that's the root of his anger. It also invokes Orthax, the demon he subconsciously made a pact on to learn how to construct firearms, in order to give Orthax souls to feed upon. And it also represents what he sees the Briarwoods and their co-conspirators as: A plague, something inhuman that must be contained and destroyed.

Percy: *I am vengence..* *Something in the Way by Nirvana plays*

Great video mate - really enjoyed and it explained a few things that were bugging me about his story & character development. I don't think I've seen an animated character in a western series have such a dark path and yet such a redemptive ending to the trauma they've previously suffered. But hey, maybe I just need to watch more! Anyway, great video and look forward to seeing what you do going forward.

Spoilers. Before Casandra was added to the list, there was a barrel with no name on it. It is heavily implied in the scene where Orthax say "...souls to feast upon..." where we see a reflection of Percy shooting the real Percy, and in other times in the show, that Percy would have killed himself after completing the list.

Percival Fredrickstien Von Mussel Kowalski De Rolo the Third. The father of Firearms in the world of Taldorei and probably one of the Richest men on that continent due to Guns and Residuum a powerful Magic enhancing Focus and reagent replacer. While people loved No Mercy Percy they also loved the love story between him and Vex'aliah ^.^

Percy is my favorite character, despite what everyone says. He has such a well-written story arc and this analysis really does a good job showing his character growth and themes

thank you so verry much, literally brought me to tears hun

One scene that I think hints to percy forgoing vengence if it means loosing his family is when after he has killed his toutor and sees that his sister is alive and his first reaction is to drop both his gun and his mask(the symbols of his quest for revenge) and rush over to her without a second thought. I thought it was a really touching scene.

i love the elementalyst lux music theme in the backround in the introduction session

It reminds me of Mustangs revenge arc in fmab

I think the biggest thing missing from this review critique, which ever is the Campaign 1 the actual episodes…specifically two moments.First is the Briarwood fight after the banquet which on stream was far more detailed and had some more implications which is later seen in that stream or after in which Talesin screams your soul is forfeit…which in the stream has a lot more meaning given it was to some gangster and not anyone connected to the Briarwoods showing thier is something not quite right in general going on in Percy’s mind…Keyleth(Maraisha) actually questions Percy (Talesin) after the incident…really important in retrospect.

Many people empathizing with the Briarwoods here. These people need to seek help, and do it fast before they stab the neighboor's cat to perform a summoning ritual for Cthulhu or something. I'm sorry, it may sounds harsh, but whoever feels anything but disgust, at the very least, for the Briarwoods isn't completly sane.

The only thing people feel sorry about in regards to the Briarwoods and their underlings is that their ends weren't slower.

This was a noice analyzes

That was quite interesting, I enjoyed it so much. Percy is my obsession--character wised.

Batman Forever has a scene of Bruce telling Dick that getting his vengeance will lead to seeking new face after new face.

Just a thing, love the video, but Percy's name is Percival (Fredrickstein von Mussel Klossowski de Rolo III) not Perseus.

One thing me and my sister discussed regarding Percy, as he tortures and is cruel to people not on his list, is: How much of this is the Demon Orthax and how much is this Percy. As Percy is allowing this, he doesn't resist when shooting the carriage driver, Stonefell, Anders, and most others in his way, only resisting once it's putting his friends at SIGNIFICANT risk. Percy is brutally murdering and is not even fazed by it, even delaying him going to a temple to be cured of "smoke problems" when people start to notice it, disregarding it as something seemingly minor

Love the vid! Something I wanted to add was that in a Talks Machina, Taliesin says that the reason the 6th barrel didn’t have a name on it was because Percy acknowledged that in his path of vengeance he was going to kill a lot of random and assumingly innocent people. Taliesin says multiple times that Percy cannot claim innocence, in that he knows exactly what he was doing and what the repercussions would be. He just thought it was ultimately worth it. Furthermore, as someone else in the comments has said, Matt mentioned that if Percy kept the List and completed it, more names would have appeared on the barrel. Taliesin then says something along the lines of “Oh, he wouldn’t have even blinked at it. He’d just continue.”

A+ material

Percy is in the right to get revenge for his family, the murderers were to powerful for any authority to arrest. But I’m happy his friends & sister help him see he while he would never be the same again, Percy can still have a chance at a life full of happiness with his sister and friends.

2:09 this is a important message for children and life.

I really don’t know anything about Critical Roll until I see the serie Vox Machina. But I have so many characters and 2 of them remain me of Percy bc the revenge thing. Mi first one is a human called Ethan Maileb, he’s is an antagonist that has no choice but to be a bad guy, he was adopted by the family Maileb (Kidnapped) bc they need soldiers/assassins to do all the dirty stuff, there he meet his first love Jack, the older brother of the Maileb and his sister Elizabeth. Tired of the bullshits Jack told them he’s going to scape and Ethan accepts to going to him but Elizabeth betray them and only Jack manages to scape. They punish Ethan and left his left eye blind, for the trauma of the years he never disobey again but he hates them and he swore revenge for all the Maileb members. The character is a hole process bc starts being an slave and a bad person to became a guy that seek his own freedom and wants redemption. He in the story do a lot of wrong but things change when a guy from his enemies saves him, he fell in love and swore to protect him, he has so many crisis and problems with his abusive past, but in the end he gets his revenge in some way, forgives his old love and get to live happy with his lover. The other character is a woman named Archy (I want to change her name to Ashley, maybe) well she is from royalty and his brother, they had a sister but she was killed, in their past his father try to kill them bc they were a bad thing for being product to an infidelity, in that they’re sister died and she almost, his brother Tristán saves her with a pact to a demon and he basically became his servant, they in the past years hide in the kingdom and she grow up hating all even if she didn’t have really memories but bc she saw the pain that he’s brother have to hide. One day they go to a party in the palace bc they try to save someone (Her future fiancé 😏) and Tristán saw his father. In that the conflict starts again bc the king try to kill them again in multiple times. Archy meet and eventually starts to date her 2 fiancé’s but his brother died mostly bc of the demon but bc the king and her memories go back to her just making it worse. She can’t really handle that pain so she goes crazy of revenge and pain and the demon use her hatred to control her and manipulate her. She try to kill the royalty family (Her father and her half sister) but mostly all of the people that try to stop her (Her fiancés include). After her revenge she was going to die, she wanted to die. In the end, she end saved by those people who love her and she doesn’t want her revenge again, the demon is defeated and her father too, she sees her half sister assume the throne, get back to her fiancés (Maybe) and also she gets to see and talk to her brother and sister one last time. Too much text I’m sorry, I just love those too characters bc they represent a part of me that went to an abusive and really bad time in my life, they are special to me and I’m proud of them too, I started to realize that I love create characters and I want maybe do the roll thing someday or write the history that’s on my mind. One represents more the revenge thing than the other but it gets the idea.

Percy's theme song should be Life After Anger by Emphatic.

Vengeance is a one way road

I’m writing a comic for my cousin, and I’m grappling with the morals of revenge. The MC Pipi is on a revenge quest against her parents for abandoning her, and just when she’s about to kill them, her friends stop her, knowing that she will become a threat to the world. Afterwards, she realizes that she just wanted revenge so she can have power so she can never be hurt again, but what’s the point when you’ve burned all your bridges? It also debunks her greatest insecurity, that her friends only love her conditionally, as they were only able to pull her from the brink because they believed in her. And with her fear of rejection no longer an issue, due to confronting the source, she’s able to build deeper bonds with her friends, and commit to romance. And when she confesses her love for Akam, Pipi reveals how much she’s grown by letting him know if they don’t work out, she won’t take it too personally and they can still be friends afterwards. Also, Pipi begins to contemplate if her trying to kill her parents was her way of running from her problems, the single thing she criticizes her parents (especially her mother) the most over. And Pipi realizes that while she shouldn’t seek revenge, she isn’t obliged to forgive her parents, as she already has a proper parental figure in Walestus, and even if they turn a new leaf and make a genuine effort to atone, she is not obliged to accept apologies. All that growth came from confronting her problems at the root, and realizing that the short-lived catharsis of killing the parents who ditched her isn’t worth it. And the character’s magic also shows their personalities. Pipi has fire magic, as she’s the child that wasn’t welcomed by the village, so she’ll burn it down to feel it’s warmth. And Pipi’s mother can magically coat her weapons with poison, representing how her cowardice poisons those all around her, in body and mind. Another character who seeks revenge is another member of the main party, Gladly, a warrior from the ancient past. One of the big mysteries is her past, as she lost her memories after being sealed in crystal for 3000 years, and historical records were lost from that time period. Thankfully, Gladly has psychometry, and reading the memories of people, objects, and places helps her remember, as while her head forgot, the heart never forgets. One thing that is for sure is that she has some sort of PTSD, which I want to portray in a respectful manner. After an scuffle with baddies, the truth comes out. Part of the reason why Gladly doesn’t regain her memories immediately is that her psychometry doesn’t work on herself, and another part is that maps had to be redrawn because of something very bad that happened 3000 years ago. Gladly reveals that she was a member of the royal guard of the kingdom whose ruling family was based in the now-crumbling castle that she was found in, and she was tasked with protecting the princess, Vana. They quickly fell in love, and Gladly’s adoration of Vana, as well as Vana being a very kind and selfless person who sees herself as a servant to her subjects makes her someone you can’t help but love. On the night of Vana’s coronation, all was looking well, but then the Immortal Army came and brought it all to hell. Gladly evacuated Vana to the catacombs, hoping that the invaders would pass, but Vana came to the realization that they were after her, and would only stop slaughtering her subjects once she’s dead. Gladly was willing to follow Vana to the afterlife, but Vana sealed Gladly in crystal with the last of her magic, instructing her to tell the people of the far future, including the kids who find and being her to civilization to tell them the history of their world. And when Gladly sees the Immortal Army again? She goes postal. Gladly is dead set on finding a way to make sure they die and stay dead, even if she has to kill gods, as at this point, she doesn’t care what it takes. She lost everything because of them. The love of her life, her purpose, she couldn’t even fulfill her beloved’s last request without help, her memories, her comrades in the Royal Guard, her world. Even locations she knows are completely different. What used to be splendid cities are dusty derelicts with the advanced tech either picked out or nonfunctional and past the point of repair, due to technological regression. What used to be a great palace is now a crumbling shell of its former self. What used to be a lush region, the heart of a mighty civilization, it’s now barren desert. And while Gladly does stop Pipi’s revenge quest, she does acknowledge her hypocrisy in letting Pipi help her get her revenge (partially to save the world), but not letting Pipi seek revenge herself. Even though it’s not from a moral warning, but out of observation. Gladly had to learn how to think like a demon, if she was to fight demons, but no matter how much she seeks revenge, she remembers her training, her time with Vana, and lets them keep her noble, instead of losing herself. While Gladly’s dangerous to her enemies, she’s also loyal to her friends. While the Immortal Army have no qualms about killing the innocent, Gladly will never stoop that low. While Gladly admits that revenge won’t change the past, it’s going to make sure that nobody else suffers at the hands of the Immortal Army in the way she and Vana had. And for power analysis. Gladly’s psychometry represents her quest to reconnect with her past, to preserve the memory of the Odroia of 3000 years ago. Her geokinesis represents her rigid military training, which lets her swiftly and cleanly execute her enemies, but stop her from going down a dark path that’ll earn the disproval of her friends, fellow Royal Guards, and her lover. And Vana’s preserving crystals represent her caring personality, wanting to use all her resources as queen to guarantee her people’s prosperity, and in the face of Armageddon, be a part of something far greater than herself, scatter the seeds of hope and make sure they bloom millennia after she draws her last breath.

Kinda sounds like an addiction dialouge

Does anyone know any other movie/show that has this kind of vengeance story?

So the gun demon is not real, but a manifestation of blame to scapegoat his trauma for direct murder?

So the demon and its curse would've just come right back had Scanlan not destroyed The List?

Any also, hopefully in the next seasons and in the Twitch show his drive for revenge created guns. And said gun designs were let loose into the world. For his revenge he created weapons that will kill millions later in his work eventually

I thought the gun was called the pepper box

I play d&d and loved this show especially because I play it if you do play d&d it's a lot better the show was so funny and so good I really hope there's more episodes also the gun is called the pepper box

Wait. I thought Percy's gun was named "The Matchbox."

You couldn't be more wrong about Attack on Titan

Um...I don't want to be.that guy but the gun was named the Pepper box not The List

Attack on titan is a really bad example. For the classic revenge story. The revenge story ends up ultimatey pointless.

I don't like what they did to Percy in Legends of Vox Machina. On the stream: - Percy was the one who had the idea to take Anna Ripley with them - Percy didn't kneel to Orthax and was even controling the situation by threatening Orthax with shooting himself - Percy didn't attack the party and was fighting alongside them against Orthax until Cassandra killed Delilah In Legends: - Percy wanted to mindlessly kill Anna Ripley and it was the groups idea to take her with them - Percy lost control of the situation and completely fell for Orthax influence - Percy fought against the party and had to shoot his hand(???) to get rid of Orthax influence - A lot of his iconic quotes were fucked up On the stream, Percy always was a tactical mastermind with briliant one-liners and it was satysfying to watch. In Legends, he was made into a mindless killing machine and fight against Orthax was turned into generic "Fight against the demon inside your head with the power of friendship" that you've seen a hundred times. I don't know why Taliesin desided to alienate himself from his character and allowed to change the script like that. Original Percy was much more cooler.