As The Shannara Chronicles nears the finale for its second season, a good amount of time in "Wilderun" is spent as the characters look inward and forward, optimistically in a future they hope to forge, if they survive. Although the fight with the Warlock Lord is far from over for the heroes, they hope that in the wake of a victory, they can put the pieces together to continue on in a better world. Well, everyone except for Bandon. Once again, there's some fantastic character work that's laced with the right amount of the themes Shannara relies on time and time again.
For Bandon, it is a bit of a tragedy that he basically meets his end impaled on the Warlock Lord's blade. He was always very much that young man that the show introduced us to in the barn, tied up by his parents for being cursed with magic. Not content to be humiliated or to feel powerless again, the training from Allanon eventually led him to seek out the Warlock Lord and to learn from him and eventually become more powerful. It's a relatively simple answer to his question on his search for power the show provides - if you serve a master, you're still a slave because true power can never be shared. So in his haste and reasoning, if he could bring back to the Warlock Lord, he could put that genie back in the bottle. Bandon died as free as he could be, by his standards.
Lyria - or at least the show - finally exhibits some self-awareness as she tells Cogline she should be doing more than sitting and hiding and acting as nothing more than a plot device. It's relatively short lived and Lyria goes back to not doing much afterward. She shares a scene or two with Eretria and gets to do something by basically proposing to Eretria and pining for a more hopeful future together. By the end she's divorced from the one thing that she needs to keep Leigh, Heaven's Well, and the Four Lands safe, so it'll be curious what lengths she'll go to in order to help save the day, if Cogline is willing to label her as much a hero as Wil, Allanon, Mareth, or Eretria.
Eretria takes on most of the burden of the episode as she finds it harder to accept her fate or destiny. Whereas Wil is almost entirely single-minded in purpose after his visit to the Ellcrys, or Mareth who will be assuming two mantles (and with Allanon making his peace), Eretria's connection to the darkness finally bears fruits in "Wilderun". Although I still find it somewhat poorly executed on the way there, by this episode, Eretria does finally experience the effects of her heritage as the Warlock Lord and his wraiths battle to take control of her. It's almost entirely expected given Cogline's warnings, though for Eretria, she refuses to simply accept her fate to exclude herself from the fight and wishes to battle for some semblance of self-determination. She's probably the most burdened of all the heroes on Shannara as she herself muses on what might happen if her connection to the darkness and evil could ever consume her like Bandon. It's an interesting thought experiment and hopefully there will be further exploration into the other path, as it seems the final showdown is mostly contingent on Eretria acting both as a beacon for the Warlock Lord as well as the proverbial fifth column in our heroes' plans.
Wil is mostly at peace though the visions from the sword are brought up again and makes me wonder if that will be something he'll refuse to accept in spite of the need for some finality. Allanon on the other hand seems to be completely at peace and has realized that Mareth might be more important legacy to leave behind than his duties as a druid, while Mareth herself struggles to reconcile her duties to continue the druidic order and being the last true heir to Arborlon.
With the finale to follow, it will interesting to see what hopes and dreams our heroes have will bear fruit, and which will be dashed and discarded away.
Miscellaneous thoughts:
- There are some definite influences from other hero's journey stories to be found in Shannara. It's interesting to see Allanon come to terms with his duty and his own personal development, something very (prequel) un-Jedi about it. The master/apprentice relationship for Bandon and the Warlock Lord are Sith-like as well but with a somewhat Harkonnen-esque twist to it too.
- Not much to say about Jax, Slanter, and the Crimson remnants, though I can imagine the plan was to put the Crimson to task to fight the Warlock Lord being the intended end result. Just surprised they didn't parade Riga's head on a pike is all.
- Finally with the return to Wilderun and mostly with Cogline's appearances does the show feel more in the post-apocalyptic fantasy than simple fantasy. The combination of information-age science and fantasy magic seems to be only present when Cogline is around this season, and I find the show stronger for it by remembering that even if it isn't very often.
No comments:
Post a Comment