Seasons 1-3 are absolutely wonderful, it's what every animated kids show should strive to be. It had characters and jokes that would appeal to kids, and a compelling story to appeal to parents. It didn't have to rely on what plagues a lot of kids shows, which is dumbing down the story, plot, and characters so kids would 'understand it'. This show is lighthearted and is obviously made for kids, but that doesn't take away from the seriousness of some of the matters in the show. However, the fourth season fails at a lot of this.
For those who don't want to read all of this, I shortened it at the bottom.
The fourth season starts off 2 years after the previous season, and 2 years after the graphic novel, Through the Moon. Rayla left Callum because she was uneasy from not finding Viren's body after the final battle. She left Callum without saying anything, so of course he was pretty hurt by it. And I think this is a pretty good idea, and it was executed somewhat well. Though I wish they doubled down on it a little more, because at some times the problem seemed to just disappear, and Callum never got a scene to really express how hurt he was.
On to the next problem which is, the jokes. The first two episodes of this season display the jokes perfectly, which is unfunny, childish, and outdated. I'll bring up 2 jokes for examples. The first is where Soren is secretly discussing about Callum's birthday, and Callum overhears and asks what is going on. Soren comes up with an excuse, saying that he was talking about a new dance move going around, and proceeds to floss. Not only was this terribly unfunny and outdated, but it took me out of the fantasy world experience. I will at least say that the production for this season started a few years ago, so they have that excuse for bringing in an outdated joke. But it wasn't funny then, and it isn't funny now.
The next joke I want to give an example of, is the 'petrichor' joke. Claudia has a new boyfriend, and earth elf, who has farts that smell like petrichor. If this was just a one-line joke, I think it would be fine, but it isn't. It's a reoccurring joke that wasn't funny the first time, nor was it funny the rest. If any show, whether it be for kids or not, has any sort of fart joke, I find it as a lack of creativity when it comes to humor.
Another problem is Claudia's new boyfriend, the earth elf. He has some moments which make him seem like he'll become a likeable character, but then it just takes it back by making him a childlike idiot, who is only there to say unfunny jokes 24/7. There is one scene, where he killed a sky mage in order to save Claudia, and he breaks down crying after taking his first life. And I think this is great, if they didn't completely move on from it after Viren tells him to "get a grip". The problem isn't what Viren said, it's the fact that after he said it, the elf proceeds to completely move on from that traumatizing experience.
Then there's the problem of Claudia's motivation. Her motivation is that she wants to get revenge on elves for letting humans starve and suffer for hundreds of years. I think this is fine motivation, if she didn't have an elf for a boyfriend. Let me get this straight, her goal is to kill all elves to get revenge on them, yet she's dating an elf? She never brings this up once, and never mentions where, when, or how they met. Then there are the scenes where Claudia meets up with Soren and Callum, which I was expecting to be very emotional, but it wasn't. With Soren, it just seemed like 2 childhood friends meeting up after a week of not seeing each other. They haven't seen each other for 2 YEARS, and the last time they saw each other was when they went their separate ways because Soren thought their father was evil. And now they meet up again and there's barely any emotion between either of them. Now for Callum, this one has a little better of an excuse to not have emotion behind it, but it's still disappointing. So Callum and the gang are talking to a dragon, trying to get the map to Aaravos. Then Claudia comes in to steal that map, and uses a spell to put them all asleep. Again, after 2 years of not meeting each other, all she does is just stare at him for a prolonged second and respond to her elf boyfriend with "we used to be friends". Now I can somewhat see why there wasn't more here, because she was in somewhat of a rush to find the map before the dragon wakes up. But it still just left me feeling empty, because I was expecting a lot more emotion. There's another problem in this scene too. After Claudia puts them all to sleep, Soren tries yelling to wake them up, but nothing happens. Makes sense right? Claudia would think to use a spell that couldn't be undone by just touch or hearing, right? Wrong. Claudia's bright idea to fix this is to just put a plant in Soren's mouth so he can't scream. She doesn't tie him to a wall or anything, so of course, Soren manages to wake one of them up. You'd think that if this spell could be so easily broken, then Claudia would tie the sleeping people up in case they did wake up, right? Wrong. So after using a spell to put all her enemies asleep, which can be broken by a slight touch or yelling, she proceeds to NOT tie up Soren, who is trying to wake up those asleep. After she realizes that Soren is trying to do this, she puts a plant in his mouth to shut him up. So after NOT tying up Soren again, Soren manages to wake up Rayla, not by hitting her or yelling in her ear (which he can still do because the plant isn't stopping him from being able to talk), but he wakes her up by taking off his shoe and having her smell his foot. Yes, this is a real thing, that happens in this real show. Another problem I have is that Zym didn't fall asleep from the spell? It's not explained why or how, it just happens.
After Claudia gets the map from the dragon, she proceeds to run away. Rayla starts chasing her, and once she catches up, she holds a knife to the earth elf's throat. In response, Claudia takes out the souls of Rayla's parents, and offers to make a trade. I like how Rayla responds to this, she says no. Then, Claudia throws the souls toward lava, so Rayla jumps to save them, letting the earth elf go, I like this choice as well. Later, while Claudia and the earth elf are escaping, the earth elf says to Claudia that he thought what she did was cruel, I like this too, because it shows the same attitude that I mentioned before when he killed the sky mage. Okay, so I've liked everything in this scene so far, so what's wrong with it? Well, after walking a few minutes down the escape hall, Claudia decides to run all the way back to the collapsing cave, just to get Rayla her parents' souls back. There are so many problems with this. 1. The cave is probably already destroyed, so going back is a 50/50 on whether or not there will even be anything there besides rocks. 2. Rayla probably will have left the cave by then, because as I said before, it was collapsing fast. 3. RAYLA IS HER ENEMY WHO HUNTED HER DOWN FOR 3 YEARS, AND HAS NO REASON TO GIVE HER BACK HER PARENTS, WHICH ARE VITAL ASSETS TO VIREN.
I have so many more problems with this show, but this is getting a little too long, so I'll end it off with a short one. So the gang have convinced the dragon to give them the map to Aaravos, but then Claudia comes in and puts them all to sleep. Then Rayla wakes up, and to wake the dragon up, she takes her knife and stabs the dragon. The dragon then wakes up, and blames...the gang??? He says that they're in cahoots with Claudia, even though he saw them get put to sleep too? There is absolutely no reason why the dragon should believe the gang did anything wrong.
After all this, I suppose I should point out some things I like about this season. The art still looks beautiful, with some really nice camera shots in a lot of scenes. And I still really like Viren's character. I sort of liked what they were going for in the civil war between humans and elves in Luxaria, but it kind of fell flat for me. Well that's about everything I liked.
So, in short, season 4 does fine at showing how Callum was hurt by Rayla leaving, but never really gave Callum a scene to express it to Rayla. The jokes are terrible, having to rely on fart jokes and flossing (the dance). Claudia's new boyfriend has a few moments to shine, but fails. Claudia's motivation does not add up whatsoever. The meetup between Claudia, Soren, and Callum is very underwhelming. Claudia acts like a complete buffoon, allowing everyone to escape. Then Claudia proceeds to make a complete fool of herself, by giving Rayla her parents back for no reason. But at least season 4 has nice art and Viren is still a good character.
Season 4 is a complete and utter disappointment. I hope that they can manage to revive it with season 5, but I don't have high hopes.
For those who don't want to read all of this, I shortened it at the bottom.
The fourth season starts off 2 years after the previous season, and 2 years after the graphic novel, Through the Moon. Rayla left Callum because she was uneasy from not finding Viren's body after the final battle. She left Callum without saying anything, so of course he was pretty hurt by it. And I think this is a pretty good idea, and it was executed somewhat well. Though I wish they doubled down on it a little more, because at some times the problem seemed to just disappear, and Callum never got a scene to really express how hurt he was.
On to the next problem which is, the jokes. The first two episodes of this season display the jokes perfectly, which is unfunny, childish, and outdated. I'll bring up 2 jokes for examples. The first is where Soren is secretly discussing about Callum's birthday, and Callum overhears and asks what is going on. Soren comes up with an excuse, saying that he was talking about a new dance move going around, and proceeds to floss. Not only was this terribly unfunny and outdated, but it took me out of the fantasy world experience. I will at least say that the production for this season started a few years ago, so they have that excuse for bringing in an outdated joke. But it wasn't funny then, and it isn't funny now.
The next joke I want to give an example of, is the 'petrichor' joke. Claudia has a new boyfriend, and earth elf, who has farts that smell like petrichor. If this was just a one-line joke, I think it would be fine, but it isn't. It's a reoccurring joke that wasn't funny the first time, nor was it funny the rest. If any show, whether it be for kids or not, has any sort of fart joke, I find it as a lack of creativity when it comes to humor.
Another problem is Claudia's new boyfriend, the earth elf. He has some moments which make him seem like he'll become a likeable character, but then it just takes it back by making him a childlike idiot, who is only there to say unfunny jokes 24/7. There is one scene, where he killed a sky mage in order to save Claudia, and he breaks down crying after taking his first life. And I think this is great, if they didn't completely move on from it after Viren tells him to "get a grip". The problem isn't what Viren said, it's the fact that after he said it, the elf proceeds to completely move on from that traumatizing experience.
Then there's the problem of Claudia's motivation. Her motivation is that she wants to get revenge on elves for letting humans starve and suffer for hundreds of years. I think this is fine motivation, if she didn't have an elf for a boyfriend. Let me get this straight, her goal is to kill all elves to get revenge on them, yet she's dating an elf? She never brings this up once, and never mentions where, when, or how they met. Then there are the scenes where Claudia meets up with Soren and Callum, which I was expecting to be very emotional, but it wasn't. With Soren, it just seemed like 2 childhood friends meeting up after a week of not seeing each other. They haven't seen each other for 2 YEARS, and the last time they saw each other was when they went their separate ways because Soren thought their father was evil. And now they meet up again and there's barely any emotion between either of them. Now for Callum, this one has a little better of an excuse to not have emotion behind it, but it's still disappointing. So Callum and the gang are talking to a dragon, trying to get the map to Aaravos. Then Claudia comes in to steal that map, and uses a spell to put them all asleep. Again, after 2 years of not meeting each other, all she does is just stare at him for a prolonged second and respond to her elf boyfriend with "we used to be friends". Now I can somewhat see why there wasn't more here, because she was in somewhat of a rush to find the map before the dragon wakes up. But it still just left me feeling empty, because I was expecting a lot more emotion. There's another problem in this scene too. After Claudia puts them all to sleep, Soren tries yelling to wake them up, but nothing happens. Makes sense right? Claudia would think to use a spell that couldn't be undone by just touch or hearing, right? Wrong. Claudia's bright idea to fix this is to just put a plant in Soren's mouth so he can't scream. She doesn't tie him to a wall or anything, so of course, Soren manages to wake one of them up. You'd think that if this spell could be so easily broken, then Claudia would tie the sleeping people up in case they did wake up, right? Wrong. So after using a spell to put all her enemies asleep, which can be broken by a slight touch or yelling, she proceeds to NOT tie up Soren, who is trying to wake up those asleep. After she realizes that Soren is trying to do this, she puts a plant in his mouth to shut him up. So after NOT tying up Soren again, Soren manages to wake up Rayla, not by hitting her or yelling in her ear (which he can still do because the plant isn't stopping him from being able to talk), but he wakes her up by taking off his shoe and having her smell his foot. Yes, this is a real thing, that happens in this real show. Another problem I have is that Zym didn't fall asleep from the spell? It's not explained why or how, it just happens.
After Claudia gets the map from the dragon, she proceeds to run away. Rayla starts chasing her, and once she catches up, she holds a knife to the earth elf's throat. In response, Claudia takes out the souls of Rayla's parents, and offers to make a trade. I like how Rayla responds to this, she says no. Then, Claudia throws the souls toward lava, so Rayla jumps to save them, letting the earth elf go, I like this choice as well. Later, while Claudia and the earth elf are escaping, the earth elf says to Claudia that he thought what she did was cruel, I like this too, because it shows the same attitude that I mentioned before when he killed the sky mage. Okay, so I've liked everything in this scene so far, so what's wrong with it? Well, after walking a few minutes down the escape hall, Claudia decides to run all the way back to the collapsing cave, just to get Rayla her parents' souls back. There are so many problems with this. 1. The cave is probably already destroyed, so going back is a 50/50 on whether or not there will even be anything there besides rocks. 2. Rayla probably will have left the cave by then, because as I said before, it was collapsing fast. 3. RAYLA IS HER ENEMY WHO HUNTED HER DOWN FOR 3 YEARS, AND HAS NO REASON TO GIVE HER BACK HER PARENTS, WHICH ARE VITAL ASSETS TO VIREN.
I have so many more problems with this show, but this is getting a little too long, so I'll end it off with a short one. So the gang have convinced the dragon to give them the map to Aaravos, but then Claudia comes in and puts them all to sleep. Then Rayla wakes up, and to wake the dragon up, she takes her knife and stabs the dragon. The dragon then wakes up, and blames...the gang??? He says that they're in cahoots with Claudia, even though he saw them get put to sleep too? There is absolutely no reason why the dragon should believe the gang did anything wrong.
After all this, I suppose I should point out some things I like about this season. The art still looks beautiful, with some really nice camera shots in a lot of scenes. And I still really like Viren's character. I sort of liked what they were going for in the civil war between humans and elves in Luxaria, but it kind of fell flat for me. Well that's about everything I liked.
So, in short, season 4 does fine at showing how Callum was hurt by Rayla leaving, but never really gave Callum a scene to express it to Rayla. The jokes are terrible, having to rely on fart jokes and flossing (the dance). Claudia's new boyfriend has a few moments to shine, but fails. Claudia's motivation does not add up whatsoever. The meetup between Claudia, Soren, and Callum is very underwhelming. Claudia acts like a complete buffoon, allowing everyone to escape. Then Claudia proceeds to make a complete fool of herself, by giving Rayla her parents back for no reason. But at least season 4 has nice art and Viren is still a good character.
Season 4 is a complete and utter disappointment. I hope that they can manage to revive it with season 5, but I don't have high hopes.
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