The Legend of Vox Machina’s Scanlan Shorthalt is very good at a lot of things: annoying people, coming up with awesome songs on the fly, causing chaos because he has to sleep with whomever will drop their clothes for him.
That last item on the list has given us some funny moments in the show, but it’s actually a defense mechanism. He uses jokes or seduction to mask deep-seated insecurities and the trauma of his mother’s death. For the first two seasons of TLoVM, Scanlan’s hypersexuality was a minor source of comedy and as long as Vox Machina tolerated it, everything was okay.
Until we’re introduced to Kaylie, the daughter Scanlan didn’t know he even had and suddenly his antics aren’t as funny as before.
Kaylie confronts Scanlan
In the season 2 episode “A Test of Pride,” Scanlan meets Kaylie for the first time as he, Pike and Grog try to liberate Westruun from the Herd of Storms. She is part of Dr. Dranzel’s Spectacular Traveling Troupe, and she acts wary around Scanlan for some strange reason. He helps get the refugees out of the city, using her flute to create illusions to disable the guards they encounter.
After the battle against Kevdak in “The Killbox,” Scanlan celebrates by performing with Kaylie and the Spectacular Traveling Troupe. Kaylie invites him upstairs and he’s eager for another night of passion until she ties him to a bed and holds him at swordpoint.
Kaylie mentions she grew up in Kymal, raised by a single mother who gave up everything for her daughter. She heard stories about Scanlan from her mother, a woman named Sybil who was left pregnant after a one-night stand with a silver-tongued bard who whispered empty promises in her ear only to disappear.
Scanlan is horrified as he puts the pieces together. Kaylie is his daughter. One he had no idea even existed.
What makes this scene so powerful is the intensity of Kaylie’s anger. Her mother struggled, she grew up without a father, and the man responsible for their misery has been living a cozy life without a care in the world. The fact that Scanlan can’t even remember Sybil’s name only confirms Kaylie’s worst assumptions of her father.
Scanlan is forced to realize that his sexual escapades have actually ruined the lives of the women he slept with over the years. He tries to apologize to Kaylie but she’s not having it. Kaylie can’t forgive him for being absent, and leaves. He escapes the ropes with cuts on his hands and tries to find her, but she’s already gone.
Kaylie’s rejection shows a different side of Scanlan
When it comes to Kaylie, she can’t be won over easily. Scanlan’s whole thing is making people like him. A well-placed joke, a touching ballad. It usually works. Kaylie is immune to all of Scanlan’s tricks. She sees right through the charming persona and is repulsed by the flawed, immature man hidden underneath.
Their reunion in Ank’Harel during the third season, in the middle of the Chroma Crisis, is a prime example. Scanlan tracks her down to a bar between her performances and there’s a brief moment where she almost lets her guard down, thinking he made the journey just for her. Then she learns he had other business in the city and closes herself off again. She gives him a chance to talk after her next set.
He gets drunk instead. It’s a bad decision fueled by both his nerves and the stress of not being able to help Vox Machina when they’re in trouble. By the time he has the courage to actually talk to Kaylie, he’s too drunk to form a coherent sentence. To say Kaylie is done with Scanlan’s behavior is an understatement.
“How could I be so stupid? Y’know, for a second I thought you came back ’cause you actually cared. But I should have known a mess like you can’t change. Go back to your pathetic little adventures, and leave me alone!”
– Kaylie
Scanlan tries to stop Kaylie from leaving but falls on his face in a pool of his vomit. It would be funny if it weren’t so sad.
When it comes to Scanlan’s inability to connect with Kaylie, the show treats his pain with the seriousness it deserves. In episode six of season 3, he shows off his pocket manor, the Chateau Shorthalt, to the rest of Vox Machina. When Pike finds him, he is crying over Kaylie’s sword. The one she left suspended above his chest the night she confronted him. Scanlan has killed three dragons. He has this beautiful home. And he’s still incapable of holding a conversation with his own daughter. It’s weird to see Scanlan so vulnerable, even more so when doesn’t make a single crude joke during this scene.
Their reconciliation
Scanlan ends up in a coma after a brutal fall during the fight against the Chroma Conclave dragon Thordak. Pike is the one who decides to track Kaylie down and bring her to his bedside, hoping she might be able to reach him.
Kaylie is hesitant at first. She sits down on the bed beside him, and finally reveals why she keeps pushing him away. Part of the reason is because she’s afraid he would be disappointed and leave her alone again. She admits to feeling touched when he tracked her down in Ank’Harel, even if she refused to show it. At this moment, Kaylie and Scanlan are two sides of the same coin. They’re both people who want to be loved but they cope with that desire by keeping others at arm’s length.
“Knowing that someone was thinking about me… Well, it’s all I needed,” Kaylie tells Scanlan. “And I hope maybe that’s all you need right now. ‘Cause I do, you know. I think about you. I miss you… Dad.”
As soon as Kaylie calls him Dad, Scanlan wakes up. The two hug each other, father and daughter finally reunited. At the end of Season 3, Scanlan and Kaylie agree to go on a world tour together to catch up on lost time.
Kaylie forces Scanlan to recognize that his recklessness has a cost that other people have to pay. He knows he can’t make up for not being around when Kaylie was younger. The only thing he can do is work to be better. Someone who’s more caring, someone who’s willing to do the right thing.
Scanlan’s journey isn’t perfect and he does screw up along the way. But he is trying to be a good father his daughter can be proud of. And for Kaylie, that’s more than enough for her.
All three seasons of The Legend of Vox Machina are available to stream on Prime Video. Season 4 will premiere on June 3, 2026.
