I’ve sung the praises of this series many times already, but I figured my ToA propaganda deserved a proper thread.
Tales of Alethrion is a 2D animated series on youtube. It’s fantasy, but the Pratchett school of fantasy where you have fantasy rave parties and fantasy capitalism (the best kind) (of fantasy, not of capitalism).
It’s honestly stellar. The animation is extremely impressive on top of being gorgeous. The characters are very well designed: simple, but iconic. They all have a lot of personality and character despite the fact that there is no dialog, and the action and plot manages to be super clear even without text. Honestly the plot/writing is probably what I like the most about it. It tells the stories of multiple, mostly unrelated characters, but they all come together beautifully organically to weave the actual narrative. I honestly can’t overstate how good this shit is. The whole thing is under 2 hours long total (still ongoing, but episodes are understandably slow to come out), and, again, you can watch it for FREE on youtube. Here’s the first episode to give you an idea, it’s a masterclass as far as I’m concerned.
Now, while I’m REALLY REALLY FOND of the first 7 even episodes, I do have some qualms about the last two, which I’ll write about under the cut, but THIS IS FULL OF SPOILERS, WATCH THE SERIES FIRST IF YOU HAVEN’T. SERIOUSLY.
EP 8-9 SPOILERS
I know I just sung the praises of this series, and now I’m about to say how much I dislike the last 2 episodes. But hey, I think when you hold something in such high regard, it’s kind of inevitable to eventually be disappointed. And given the series is still ongoing, it still has potential to surprise me (in a good way). Even if it doesn’t, and these sour points remain, I still think it’s really good, ESPECIALLY for an independant youtube project, and deserves support.
But ok, let’s get into the meat of it.
I already was a little on the fence about Episode 8 (Power of resurrection, part 1). I think having Alethrion (the X guy from the first episode) come back was kind of a weak narrative choice. Not only does it feel unearned and deus-ex-machina-y, he’s basically used to diffuse all dramatic tension by temporarily incapacitating the antagonist, but not resolving anything, which feels… Disappointing. The story drags on. The build up until ep 8 was excellent, episode 7 left you hanging by the seat of your pants, wondering how the heroes were going to triumph against what felt like a real, world-ending threat… And then Alethrion comes back out of nowhere, stealing the limelight, and he doesn’t even kill Greed… So now the monster is kind of just there I guess, going about its day (as shown in the new opening). It really cheapens the villain, and removes the sense of threat and urgency, on top of removing agency from the heroes.
Not only that, but I think it cheapens episode 1 itself. Episode 1 was tragic (in the best way) because Alethrion redeemed himself at the last possible second, having to sacrifice his life to save the world against what he had become. Having him come back really dampens the drama of it all. I mean, the whole point of ep 1 was that it was a selfless sacrifice? Sacrifice? Anyone? As in he gives literally everything he has, HIS LIFE? But he’s still around to Deus Ex Machina ig? What was the point of even killing him, then?
If you’re gonna kill your faves, don’t half-ass it.
I’m especially not optimistic given it’s only a part 1 and there will be a Power of resurrection 2, so presumably more Alethrion…
But well, not optimistic doesn’t mean I’m not willing to see how this goes.
Episode 9, however, I dislike.
It really is just a lore dump, so ultimately it’s not that important for the story, and could probably be skipped without anything of value being lost. Therefore, I’m not THIS mad, but imo it’s the worse kind of retcon. A THEMES retcon.
We knew from the start that Greed existed independently of Alethrion (shown in the beggining of episode 2, greed escapes from its jar). I can kind of appreciate them making the female fire deity more prevalent in ep 9, given that the series is otherwise very male-dominated, and even if it kind of feels like a retcon (in prior episodes, the old ginger god was like the one in charge of/concerned by Greed, not her, in episode 9, roles are switched and gingergod doesn’t care anymore?). The fact that the gods created Greed as revenge on mortals is… Fine, I guess, that could be a nice plot point, even, maybe in an other context, but in this one it really makes the antagonist an outsider to the story, in a bad way.
Before then, we could assume that Greed was literally Greed, ie, a manifestation of humanity’s worse instincts, our dark side that we all have a potential for manifesting and have to fight to be a good person (like Alethrion did in ep 1). But turns out it’s a literal monster that the gods created, and not born out of humanity’s flaws… Another deus-ex, in a sense, it removes all personal accountability from Alethrion in ep 1, and a lot of depth to the story. Instead of Alethrion fighting his inner demons, and the heroes fighting a representation of humanity’s dark side, we’re told they were just fighting a regular monster demon the whole time. Underwhelming. :/
Stuff like this is why I love Pratchett’s fantasy so much, in his world the gods are literally created by humans, so ultimately even when he tells stories about gods, he tells stories about humanity. I have a soft spot for stories where humanity has to carve its own path, and it can choose to be better, or give in to its base instincts (like Alethrion did in ep 1). Here, it’s the opposite. It becomes a story about gods, and literal monsters, and blergh.
I don’t like this. :/ My themes. :///
I will say tho, ep 9 also reveals that there are 2 Greeds? One that was in Alethrion the whole time, and one that was in the bottle? Not sure if/how they’ll deal with that. Maybe the two just fused at some point and it’s whatever.