Rayla's attempt to assassinate the king leads to an unfriendly meeting, and Viren makes a suggestion to Harrow that causes a falling out. The elves kick things off, still angry at Rayla for not killing the scout. As everyone readies their weapons, Runaan tells her to walk with him. After a short cut to Callum, choosing to pack when Ezran won't come out, we come back to the elves, where Runaan expresses his disappointment in Rayla. He had hoped she could be the best, as she's faster and stronger than the others, but forgot she's never killed and now believes she can't. She protests, but Runaan says she isn't hard enough for killing yet, and tells her to stay out of the way until the mission is over and she's unbound. She stays where he told her to at first, then becomes angry and rushes off toward the castle. Inside, Callum is shocked while looking through a book when the pages start to flip by themselves, only for Claudia to walk out giggling. He is amazed, but she shrugs it off as a simple spell and shows him her "primal stone." The stones use magical energy from one of the primal sources, in this case lightning from a storm on Mount Kalik. Callum says she's lucky she gets to study magic and his insistence that he'd trade places when she points out his sword training causes her to excitedly run off. Viren tells Harrow they couldn't find the elves so Soren and the others have returned, saying to not give up hope when the king says he's ready to be punished. He says he and Claudia are still looking for "creative solutions," which Harrow knows means dark magic. Harrow replies he's done with dark magic, as going along with it for so long has only caused more trouble, so he sends Viren away. Viren heads outside, where he bumps into the still-excited Claudia, saying she has a solution for their problem. Callum meanwhile gives a typical joke after finding that Ezran is gone, poorly lying to a guard who says Harrow wants to see him. Back in the woods, Rayla hops through the woods avoiding guards, then leaps across a river to scale a rock face leading to the castle. Callum meets with Harrow, who struggles to tell his step-son how he is feeling and some kind of important information, so he hands the boy a scroll. He again has difficulty when hinting that Callum should open it once he's dead, so his son fills in the blanks. Upset, Callum asks why they can't just make peace with the elves, and Harrow explains there have been injustices and crimes from both sides, including from him. Harrow tells his son to take care of Ezran, and Callum insists he'll give the letter back after the weekend, and the two share a hug. Callum's exit coincides with Rayla, however, as she manages to get inside the castle, and begins stalking him. He thinks it's Ezran and spins around, scared to see the Moonshadow elf, then tricks her with a tapestry and runs off. He rushes out onto a parapet, where two guards try to help but are knocked out by Rayla, who continues the chase with some joking from Callum, who is amazed that she "swept the legs" of the guards. She finally corners him in a room and explain she's there for Harrow and Ezran. Callum protests that Ezran has done nothing, and she says it's justice for what the humans did to the dragons, so he decides to bite the bullet and claims to be Ezran. Viren comes to see Harrow as the king is suiting up for battle, pointing out that the elves, who are already immensely powerful, will become untouchable under the full moon, when they'll also basically be invisible. As a fight would inevitably lead to Harrow's death, Viren suggests an alternative: the "Soulfang Serpent" eats the spirit of its victims, and while in Xadia he found a two-headed one. If it bit two people, thereby removing both souls, he could use dark magic to put Harrow's soul in another person's body. Back with Callum, Rayla claims she's sorry, but assassins don't get to decide what's right or wrong, and they're not striking unprovoked since it's retaliation for the humans destroying the dragon egg. The two are interrupted when Ezran's voice calls Callum from behind a painting, which Rayla opens to reveal the oblivious boy in a secret tunnel. Callum's ruse is up, but Ezran pulls a Scarface, asking Rayla to "say hello to my little friend," and Bait lights up. With Rayla blinded, the boys escape into the tunnel. While the escape leads them and Rayla to a discovery, Viren's continues trying to convince Harrow, who doesn't want to do something so immoral. Starting with the elves in this episode gave me a few things to notice and really enjoy: Rayla's weapon and Runaan's frustration.
While it was noticeable in the previous episode, I forgot to mention that I like Rayla's weapons. In a way they're like a classic elf weapon design, with the handle missing a pommel and a curved blade. In a twist, however, they look more like large butterfly knives, as Rayla carries them by flipping them around to fold into the hilt. Later on, we also find they're more than one kind of weapon, as she folds them out into basically climbing tools to reach the castle. You can even see there are two blades in each when she uses them as weapons. I liked Runaan's part at the beginning, as he does more than simply yell at Rayla for her mistake. Believing her to have potential, it's clear he's more disappointed. Obviously he's angry because she put their whole plan in jeopardy, but more than that he seems frustrated she couldn't get herself to kill the scout, even taking some of the blame onto himself for not realizing sooner she was still more of a kid. This keeps us from just hating Runaan outright, at least I would hope, as clearly he cares about her and is sending her away to not endanger them or herself further. He's not jsut some angry guy getting mad because she didn't listen; he actually has emotions and cares about her. I'm not quite sure how to feel about the scene between Callum and Harrow, despite the obvious attempt from the actors to make it emotional. Obviously it's a big deal that Harrow could die soon, and he is Callum's son, but we don't know them very well yet so we're not extremely invested in them, and the animation's jerky and somewhat flat style detracts from the situation. Some detail is lost with this art style, so although Harrow even sheds a tear, Callum's face looks blank as he shares a tender moment with his dad. The scroll kind of made me roll my eyes as well, because I assume it will be important later, but it seemed weird to me that Harrow would say he's having a difficult time really talking to Callum, and decide the way to do so was by writing out the feelings and delivering the letter by hand. Something about it just seemed odd, and it felt like a cliche way to get an emotional reaction for Callum or giving him some kind of important information, being a thing the character will somewhat disregard until his loved one dies, then it turns out to be immensely important. It also gets a bit more cliche, even if emotional, when he promises to hand Harrow the scoll later, as a "I'll be able to give this back because you won't die" moment. I was somewhat confused with the use of Callum's sarcasm and lightheartedness when Rayla chased him, but did realize and understand it was supposed to show a bit about their character and that the situation wasn't fully serious. A really positive aspect of the episode came from Harrow repeatedly refusing Viren's plan, as I expected it to go another way. This show does have moments that have been done before, as mentioned above, but normally what I've seen in such a situation is that the morally upright character will turn down the darkoffer at first, but be ultimately persuaded to go through with it. Here, however, the king is positive he's making the right choice, and realizes that continued use of dark magic and attacking the others will only make things worse. Like Callum pointed out to Rayla, it's a cycle. People generally prefer characters who have some kind of flaw, and while Harrow has self-admittedly done some horrible things, here he's a kind of moral character I like to see, willing to take responsibility for his actions and face the punishment. Viren became more interesting to me this episode, though simultaneously caused me to further believe a theory I had after the first one. Before, I thought Viren was just completely plotting against Harrow to take control, but now ti seems that he honestly does want to keep him and/or the people safe. I still assume he'll end up the villain, partially because it's a typical "king's right-hand man is a traitor" idea, further suggested because of him being magical, which I've seen before in things like Aladdin, Deltora Quest, and Lord of the Rings. My belief now is that Viren might use the serpent he showed Harrow in some way to take power, maybe by putting himself specifically in Harrow's body. This idea also led me to further wonder another thought I had: perhaps Viren is actually the human who originally discovered dark magic. Though introduced from the beginning, we never even heard that guy's name or learned what became of him, so maybe he's been switching bodies with dark magic to stay alive ever since his time. Of course, Claudia was obviously the one who suggested the serpent, since she got her idea after Callum mentioned switching places, so Viren might not be this since he didn't immediately consider a body swap. That said, I suppose I'll find out soon enough if any of my ideas are correct, as Harrow's fight is coming and I'm pumped to watch the whole series as fast as possible.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI love the entertainment side of things. Video games, tv shows, superheroes and movies are my passion and I'd love to get the news out for things I enjoy. My contact page has links to my social media, so if you enjoy what I have to say, likes, shares, comments, and follows are always greatly appreciated! Archives
April 2020
Categories
All
|