@TwitchyKyuu group
Ok, so I just found out that this series was based on a book, and I am not judging the book because I haven't read it and I don't know how similar they are. My complaints with the series could have been Netflix exclusive or written in a much better way so, lets just stick with the show. The following review will include heavy show spoilers, and I am not a professional author, this is just my opinion and if you want to challenge or discuss it go ahead. If you have your own thoughts on the show you'd like to talk about, please reply with those too.
"A young squire holds the fate of the kingdom in his hands as he embarks on a quest to deliver a secret message to the king."
Okay so I really want to start with saying, this show had great potential which is just sad because it to me could have carried on to be as good as shows like Merlin or the two-part movie Neverland. It has some young and new actors with great talents, and some much more popular actors like Omid Djalili, David Wenham and Fricken Andy Serkis! I started watching this with no other information than the show description and damn I had some high expectations. And at first, they were met! The story was set pretty quickly with mystery and I was rooting for nearly everybody in the show. Most importantly, I didn't hate the main protagonist AND the villain was believable. After the first couple of episodes, the main protagonist was a little dull as the typical optimistic, lawful good guy, but he was morally grey when it came to his use of magic. He'd killed somebody and suddenly he wasn't the good guy, a little of his innocence had gone, all of these things are great at keeping a watchers attention I mean daaaaamn he must be so confused an- he doesn't care? Wait wait wait- our good guy knight isn't scared about what he's done or feels like he needs to justify his actions at any point?
At first, this nagged at me a bit. Was our hero really able to kill and not think about it? Then the villain discusses how he isn't the 'darkness' but the light, and that this child of magic is coming to destroy him and bring the shadow that he will conquer. NOW WE'RE BACK DAAAAMN! Our good lil guy could be the monster? One murder doesn't mean much, and it was in self defence. We've already seen the villain killing too, but what if he knows something we don't? OOOOOH! I'm hooked! Now we just need to get our lil possible demon to learn his magi- wait what? The cynical side kick is the one with the powers? Our main guy has no redeemable qualities other than that he actually hasn't killed anybody and is still useless at everything?
I just- I figured it out before the big reveal and I was just sat there yelling at the screen "Oh come on don't do it. He's so boring and useless give him this." And then the reveal happens and I just wanted out. I kept with it though cause this show HAD SO MUCH POTENTIAL. Not just that, but everything in the story was building up to him having these crazy huge powers and fighting the big bad which was just disappointing.
Two events in this show threw it into the dirt. The reveal of the girl's powers, and the big bad fight. By this point, I'm partly rooting for the villain. Sure, he's killing people to get powers but at least he's doing it for a good cause, while our powerful prophesied child LITERALLY does anything for money. I mean, sure as a cynical side kick, it's funny, it's endearing, it's something to make the protagonist express emotions and make drama. After the reveal, he wanders off and sits with some drunks, complaining about life while one of the band of brothers goes out to redeem himself (which is really well done). But daaaamn why would our protagonist, who started this with no powers, suddenly stop cause more than half way through his journey he discovers he hasn't got them and can't do it without them. After this he is so uncertain and cynical it's just - boring. I genuinely have no interest as to if he wins cause he doesn't. If he stood up and was just confident and ready to face the villain and do what needs to be done - THEN AWESOME! He'd have an actual character arc! We know he'd have no chance but damn we'd root for him cause who doesn't love an underdog.
But instead he's half-dragged to the villain, walks up to him and they have a staring contest for a bit while the CGI department gets overworked until the magic girl pops out for no reason other than she might love him which isn't super clear, and plays overpowered teen on the villain in a flashlight vs fog fight, where the only thing that's powerful and dramatic is the music. It's so bad I was just sat there feeling so disappointed. Maybe it would have worked if he tried to fight the villain, with all that he could, and then she came in to save him cause BAM love above all, they win, yada yada - but it still would have been a little meeh cause our protagonist hasn't changed much, if at all.
To be honest, this show would have been ten times better if the boy died, the girl didn't come back, and our band of baby knights charged in and fought the darkness with fire arrows and torches. Can you imagine Armen just yeeting Piak, whose holding a shield on fire, at Prince Viridian while Jussipo and Foldo fight back to back. This whole show could have been just about them four and the farther/daughter/Chaotic-bean relationship between Iona and Jaro, and it would still have held up the same amount of positive feelings I have for the show now.