The Stolen Hope Episode 1 review

The Stolen Hope is a series created by—oh gosh, I’m going to butcher this—gaLEMtido…? It was first published on February 21, 2015. The first episode clocks in at 10:29, and boy, do I have a lot to say. I’m Knightmare, and let’s get started.

So the first thing I notice is the narration. Right off the bat, we get a ‘once upon a time’ vibe and, I’ll say this again, I don’t like narration. Remember in all the writing classes we were taught to show, not tell? Well, you’re literally telling me right now. Ugh. What is with people’s love of narration? So narrator begins telling us the story – ugh – and, wait, what did you just say?

1;35
They always fought over little things like prey and trespassing – woah hold up, narrator lady! Prey is a big deal! That’s their food. That’s not something little to fight over!

1:40 to bigger things like are and stealing kits – narrator lady, you just told us the tribes were constantly fighting each other. Obviously they’re already in war!

1:54 one was called the lights, while the other lights were called the darks – let me guess, the black cats are evil and the white cats are – 2:10 – yep. Original.

2:25 Hey! It’s the youtube VA god! Man, that guy shows up in everything.

2:46 “anyways” hold it right there, show. ‘Anyways?’ really? That’s the word you’re going to choose? That sentence would’ve been so much stronger without that word! Ugh. I don’t know why, but this bothers me so much.

So we learn that this baddie ordered the death of two kits who were born into a poor family—a very poor family. Okay, look, you can use ‘very’ in daily talk, but keep it out of your writing, okay? It only makes your sentence weaker. As I was saying – this baddies wants these kits killed. Why? Who knows! Some elders learn of this attack and go to visit the kits and have a vision of some serious business, but how it’s presented it doesn’t make any sense for the baddie to know what the vision was about. Did the baddie have a vision, too? How do cats have visions of the future?

3:02 ‘of course no one believed the elder’ seriously, then why is the baddie after them – what does he know that I don’t? What is going on?!

3:05 *sigh* oh look, one has blue eyes and the other has red. Must mean that blue eyes are good and red are bad! Jeez, who uses eye color like that anymore? *Viridis pops up* N-no, get out of here, no, shush, don’t go where you’re not wanted. *ahem*

We get narration of the kids’ childhood. Like how the evil kit has meetings with the evil king—wait what!? Who is watching this kid? Where are his parents?? How did this relationship even start?? And didn’t this evil king want them dead? What the hell is going on?

You know, it was at this point in the episode that I began to have hopes for the series. Maybe I was being toyed with, that the evil cat was actually the blue-eyed one. Maybe there would be a sort of bait and switch, and really catch me and viewers off guard. It could be really cool – and as someone who hasn’t watched all the episodes yet, I’m still hopefully something like this will happen.

More exposition happens, evil kit eventually becomes ruler and then is dethroned by his sister. More kids are born, they are stolen by a cat-napper (hehe), and are never to be heard from again. But, wait, how many kits can this cat hold in her mouth? Jeez, I was under the impression that cats could only hold one at a time. Apparently, this story revolves around magic cats.

The narration is cut short—thank the lord—and it’s revealed that this information is being told to a kit. Only so we can get more exposition through dialogue! And here I thought we were finally going to be watching the show, not listening to backstory central.

Speaking of watching the show, is this…animation? I understand animating these things is ridiculously hard work, but man! It’s just looping the same movements over and over while dialogue plays. There’s some…clever banter between the siblings, we learn the kids are being shipped off the train for the war, and, in the words of their mother (blah blah blah clip)

WHY DOES THE SCREEN KEEP FLICKERING MY EYES ARE BLEEDING FUUUUUUU

Also does this cat have earrings? How

How

The episode ends with our MC running off all sad faced to face whatever war has for her.

Maybe war has a cure for this twitchy tail hell SERIOUSLY WHAT IS THIS

Suffice to say, I’m not a fan. I don’t enjoy the writing and I don’t enjoy the visuals. However, I do understand this stuff takes time and practice, so I’ll review the rest of the series with hopes it gets better.

Do you agree with me? Maybe you hate everything I’ve said! Let me know your opinion down below and suggest the next series I should watch. Thanks for watching, I’m Knightmare, and I’ll see you guys Sunday.