{"id":6910,"date":"2018-07-23T13:00:16","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T20:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6910"},"modified":"2018-07-05T09:04:23","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T16:04:23","slug":"mark-watches-galavant-s02e10-the-one-true-king-to-unite-them-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/07\/mark-watches-galavant-s02e10-the-one-true-king-to-unite-them-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Galavant’: S02E10 – The One True King (To Unite Them All)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the final episode of Galavant<\/i>, this strange journey comes to an end. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to finish Galavant<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Seriously, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even have a frame of reference to compare Galavant<\/i> to any show I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen for Mark Watches. At times, this was an uneven experience, but it felt intentional<\/i> in that regard. The show knew it had a limited time frame, and the writers also knew that they could kind of do what they wanted to??? Because lord, did this show ever commit to certain jokes mostly for the sake of it. (That damn unicorn, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.) The end of season one was a rush, and there are elements of this finale that felt the same, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all still in the spirit<\/i> of Galavant<\/i>, a show that made fun of fantasy, of musical theater, and often times, itself.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chat.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The One True King<\/b><\/p>\n

Of every plot hinted at in the series finale, I would have been most interested in what the future looked like for Richard. It was clever of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The One True King (To Unite Them All) to give us a flashback to his childhood at the opening of the episode. He made the most significant change out of this cast, and the flashback reminded us of that. Timothy Omundson has been a delight to watch as he portrayed Richard first as an oblivious but vicious and unforgiving king, and then it was all stripped away. He lost his wife, his crown, his kingdom, his sense of self-respect… and then what? What does a person become after that?<\/p>\n

Well, for a short while, he was a hot fucking mess. Hesitant, reluctant, unsure of himself, desperate for validation, unable to think of others… most of season two has focused on how Richard had to rebuild himself alongside Galavant. (Who had to do some introspective thinking of his own, mind you.) It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important to note that finding<\/i> the Hero Sword didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t solve anything; in fact, for a good long while, Richard didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know that he had an object that basically predicted his destiny. He still had to work on himself the entire time. Of course, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore that the thing that finally inspires him is an iguana named Tad Cooper. (EXCEPT IT WASN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T AN IGUANA, WHAT THE FUCK.) Yes, he confronts Wormwood, but once he thinks<\/i> Wormwood has killed Tad Cooper, Richard CHANGES. He strikes Wormwood down in an awesome display that everyone witnesses, and he fulfills his destiny, uniting the Seven Realms against Madalena and Wormwood.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sort of? And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the potential left hanging by this finale, one that I think would have been a whole lot of fun to experience. Exactly how<\/i> does Richard become a king again<\/i>? What does he do differently this time? What habits must he break a second time around? Will the people of his original kingdom (or any of the Seven Realms actually accept<\/i> him after what he had done before? What does his relationship with Roberta look like, given that it is his first one? WHAT THE HELL DOES HE DO WITH HIS ACTUAL DRAGON<\/i> TAD COOPER??? OH MY GOD IT WAS A DRAGON.<\/p>\n

Galavant and Isabella<\/b><\/p>\n

It is a subversion of expectations that Galavant is not the One True King; that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s usually what the hero eventually becomes in a story like this. Rather, Galavant<\/i> decided to go a different route, and instead, this is about true love. Indeed, Galavant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story from the beginning of the show was always<\/i> about love. His infatuation with Madalena inspired him to storm Richard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s castle in the first place, setting in motion a tale of betrayal and deception, which is how Isabella got involved. Galavant learned that love is not what he thought it was. It has<\/i> to be reciprocated for there to be true happiness. His time with Isabella brought him to a place where he discovered what it felt like to be loved back<\/i>, only for him and Isabella to be separated.<\/p>\n

So it makes sense that Galavant, while heroic<\/i>, is not necessarily THE hero. His story needed a different kind of resolution, one where he was reunited with the woman he loved and where the two of them could build a life together. I do enjoy that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve now watched TWO shows this year in which the series finale shows the main love interest enjoying a home\/vacation on the beach, far away from the life they once had. (MISS YOU DEARLY, SYDNEY BRISTOW.) They now have all the time in the world to work on that kiss! I felt like they also got an ending that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily hint at something to come, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m okay with that. They deserved to be happy after everything they went through.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Madalena<\/b><\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not often that I get to watch or read something with an antagonist as unapologetic as Madalena, which makes me wonder if there had<\/i> been a season three, would she have come around to the good side? Or was her statement to Gareth the truth? Is this just who she is? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually a fascinating question, and I respect that this silly-ass show is making me think about whether or not Madalena is good or bad at her core. Could<\/i> she change? If not, does that mean that Gareth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quest to bring her back from the dark side is a moot thing? Her goal this entire show was to collect more power, and she did exactly that, allying with Wormwood until even he couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get her what she wanted. What could possibly be better<\/i> than that?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I may be more fascinated by Richard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s redemption arc, but lord, do I love really villainous villains, and I bet her story would have been fun, too.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sid<\/b><\/p>\n

I am sure this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t surprising, but one of the more unfortunate tropes Galavant <\/i>fell into is that of casting a black sidekick and then never letting them grow out of being a sidekick. I am not really here for stories that use this, and it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help that the writers lampshade this multiple times\u00e2\u20ac\u201dby having Sid call attention to the fact that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a sidekick or that he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really get that many major songs\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut then don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really solve the problem themselves. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just perpetuating the same trope all over again, but in an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ironic\u00e2\u20ac\u009d way. Even in the end, after Sid brought in an army of all the minor characters from season 2, his future is… being Gareth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sidekick on a quest. MEH? Wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t he have deserved something bigger after what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d done?<\/p>\n

The End<\/b><\/p>\n

I enjoyed this show, and I had a lot of fun watching it. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not my favorite thing I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen, and if the writers had had more time to flesh out some of these storylines, I imagine this could have been AMAZING. That being said: it was nice to do a comedy AND a musical at the same time, something I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get to do too much of in the Mark Does Stuff world. Thank you for that, friends.<\/p>\n

And with that, onwards we go to the next Mark Watches project: Steins;Gate<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The One True King (To Unite Them All)\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now out in the world!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"