Hindsight really is everything, and that’s never been truer than with the animated adaptations of Critical Role's mega-popular Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, The Legend of Vox Machina and The Mighty Nein. The former found its footing after the breakneck pace of its first two seasons, while the latter hit the ground running and gave us a truly incredible first season of fantasy.

The Legend of Vox Machina threw first-time viewers in ankle deep and hoped they'd care about the characters amid all the fart and poop jokes. By comparison, The Mighty Nein felt more mature and willing to take itself seriously. Showrunner Tasha Huo cut deeply but carefully from the 141-episode D&D campaign to ground viewers in the world of Marquet and its characters. By the time I’d finished watching both series, I felt confident saying you could skip straight to the far more enjoyable The Mighty Nein.

I was wrong. Worse, only after finishing The Legend of Vox Machina season 4 did I realize how wrong I was.

One of my biggest criticisms was how The........

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