The Legend Of Vox Machina Season 3 Missed The Perfect Ending For A Great Villain

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Season 3 of The Legend of Vox Machina.

Season 3 of The Legend of Vox Machina has seen several villains defeated in recent episodes, but the most fitting ending for the series’ longest-running villain was a missed opportunity. Put The legend of the Vax Machina At the end of Season 3, three different villains were defeated and another was killed or banished. The dragons Thordak (Lance Reddick) and Raishan (Cree Summer) were killed, the demon Orthax (Matthew Mercer) was apparently killed (but likely simply permanently banished from his dimension), and human antagonist Dr. Anna Ripley (Kelly Hu) was dead.

In Ripley’s case, it was Vax (Liam O’Brien) and Vex (Laura Bailey) who tracked her down on her ship and ended her life after a visually stunning battle. Vex was the one who fired the fatal shot straight into Ripley’s heart, using the arrowhead that Percy (Taliesin Jaffe) had given her in season 2 in another symbolic moment. It was fitting that Vex was the one who killed Ripley after Ripley took Percy from Vex, and It was certainly a moment worthy of joy. Still, there was another ending for Anna Ripley that would have been even more fitting. The Legend of Vox Machinawhich has been officially renewed for season 4.

Ripley should have been killed with her damn Pepperbox gun

It would have been poetic justice

The Legend of Vox Machina Season 3 touchingly included Percy’s weapon in the final battle against Raishan, but it could have happened even earlier in the fight with Ripley. It would have been even greater poetic justice if Ripley hadn’t been killed with Vex’s special arrow, but by his own cursed pepper box. Her end of being killed and simply dying was a much more merciful fate than she deserved. Percy forgave her, but that doesn’t mean the public forgave him. In the words borrowed from Cassandra de Rolo (Esme Creed-Miles) in Season 1, “I’m glad you forgave her, brother. But I couldn’t.”

If she had been killed by her own cursed weapon, Ripley’s soul would also have been lost, and she would then be subject to the same torment and torture that she condemned others to when she murdered them, including Percy. Percy being sentenced to eternal damnation after trying to make amends and change his ways, while Ripley escapes with a simple death after doubling down on her evil hardly seems right. Making Ripley suffer the same way for eternity seems fair.

It wouldn’t have worked in The Legend Of Vox Machina (but it could have worked)

The plot could have been adjusted

This plot wouldn’t make sense in the critically acclaimed film Legend of Vox Machina Season 3, though. Even though Ripley’s soul was consumed by Orthax, it apparently only passed a few days to a week between the time she was killed and when they resurrected Percy and destroyed the pepper box, presumably banishing Orthax. Ultimately, It would have been pointless to damn Ripley’s soul only for her to escape Orthax and her punishment a few days later. Ripley’s more merciful death also fits into the themes of learning forgiveness and mercy that have been present in Percy’s story since season one.

However, The Legend of Vox Machina could have made a reasonably simple adjustment to the story to give Ripley this ending. In the show, the act of Vax pulling Percy’s soul out of Orthax’s clutches and Percy choosing to leave broke Orthax’s hold on his pocket dimension. It would have been quite easy to write it so that Percy’s soul could have been recovered without the weapon or dimension being destroyed. We also don’t know exactly what happened to Orthax. Alternatively, it’s entirely possible that Orthax was banished from this realm but still took with him the souls that remained under his control, and one of those souls could easily have been Ripley’s.

Ripley’s Death in Vox Machina Legend Still Won’t Stop Her Evil

Her plans have now surpassed her

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how Ripley died in The Legend of Vox Machina season 3, or even that she died, for the evil it unleashed has already taken root and will continue to spread. Although she is directly responsible for the attack on Whitestone by Thordak’s offspring and the hundreds of deaths it caused, this still may not be the most evil act she has allowed: two more are waiting in the wings.

The first is that the world now knows about pepper boxes and that genie cannot be put back in the bottle. Although most of the weapons were destroyed along with the ship when he blew it up in his battle against Vax and Vex, it was confirmed that some shipments had already been delivered. The weapons are already there. Ripley is dead and Percy won’t mass-produce pepper boxes, but it’s hard to think that someone whose intelligence approaches Percy’s won’t figure out a way to recreate the pepper box. Eventually, guns and the violence they bring will proliferate, even with Ripley dead.

The second is what the final scenes of The Legend of Vox Machina Season 3 setup: The return of the Whispered One (aka Vecna) and the cult that has sprung up around him and his orb since the end of Season 1. This has been a dangling plot left over from Season 1, and he’s now positioned to become the main villain of season 4 and possibly beyond. It was Delilah Briarwood (Grey Griffin) who summoned the Whispered One beneath the ziggurat and called it into the world, and, technically, Anna Ripley temporarily helped Vox Machina in their plan to stop Delilah.

Yet, the Briarwoods would never have been in a position to release the Whispered One into the world if it weren’t for Ripley. The Briarwoods were largely a means to an end for the scientist, as they gave her license to continue experimenting and working on her projects. But Ripley helped the Briarwoods execute Rolo’s family and take control of Whitestone, helping to consolidate their rule and also providing several scientific advances that furthered their goal of summoning the Whispered One. Ripley may be dead, but her evil legacy will still spread The Legend of Vox Machina for at least one more season.