Hey guys! If you haven\u2019t seen part 1, go check that out first~<\/p>\n
Before we get started, I wanted to address something that may have been a little confusing. If you watched my first part of this review, I bitched about world building quite a lot, while congratulating it at the same time. Now, I want to talk about this for a bit, and explain why I like and dislike Ice\u2019s world building in Dark Revolution. If you\u2019d rather not hear me rant about this, skip ahead to this time in the video. All right, I\u2019m going to assume you\u2019re staying for this then, and go ahead and get started.<\/p>\n
World building is tricky business, and can easily be too little, or too much if the writer isn\u2019t careful. Now, I\u2019m not an expert, and I don\u2019t think anyone truly is, so take what I say with a grain of salt. They key to world building is introducing just enough to get the reader intrigued and make them feel as if they\u2019re part of this world without overloading them. You also need to stay away from expositional dumps, where characters speak for the benefit of the viewer or reader. As an example, you wouldn\u2019t want a character who turned to someone else and proceeded like so:<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, you know the planet Sobek, the one with floating islands and where we\u2019re going right now?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course I know that, that\u2019s where I was born, friend of mine that I\u2019ve known for six years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Honestly that was painful to write. Hopefully you understand what I\u2019m saying though, you want the characters to speak and interact with each other as they would without an audience. If a character knows about certain aspects of the world, then they shouldn\u2019t be explaining the details of such aspects to another character who knows about them already. This is super telling, and rather aggravating to watch and read.<\/p>\n
Now, Ice doesn\u2019t do this really with their series. It\u2019s avoided that for the most part, give or take a few scenes that don\u2019t seem to flow, but the issue I have is that, at a certain point, Ice began to overload me. Ice started off really well, noting the viewer\u2019s intelligence and not talking down to them in their writing\u2014and when I say \u2018talking down to\u2019 I\u2019m referring to expositional dialogue which assumes the reader or watcher is an idiot. I really appreciated this at first, where I was thrown into this world but didn\u2019t feel lost. Terms were repeated, such as Fee-yas, or however it was pronounced, in reference to our main characters. This helped me understand they aren\u2019t human, and are instead a different species entirely. That is, if I am understanding properly. Regardless, they are different compared to me, so it works out all right.<\/p>\n
But, as I mentioned before, at a certain point I became lost and confused as more and more terms and names were thrown at me that I had no context for. While lack of context can be okay if they are referred to more, or referenced to a few more times, I had already taken in so much with the series that I was just being overwhelmed. This could definitely be just me, but I feel like I needed a little bit more time to wrap my head around everything Ice was trying to introduce. Regardless, I applaud this massive world they\u2019ve created, and I look forward to seeing more of it. Now, onto part 2 of the review!<\/p>\n
When we left off at 13 minutes in, our MCs decided to head into town. We get a glimpse of more animals hanging about, suggesting our mains aren\u2019t the only ones who can turn into different creatures, and Naboo and Mayon walk through the city streets. Naboo rudely mentions this place is a mess, and mentions an Emperor. Woah, wait, you\u2019re saying there\u2019s an Emperor? And this emperor allowed a city to be massacred? Or was the emperor the one who okayed the genocide? Was that the emperor back with that dude who wanted to be a man? Eventually, Naboo turns back into his animal form and sneaks behind some pots, listening in to some people talking about the Nameless god, one of which is the guy who stabbed their friend in the beginning. But\u2026Isn\u2019t it more telling if you turn into an animal to listen in? Doesn\u2019t that reveal you\u2019re from the city that was wiped out, or\u2026? The conversation continues about how there\u2019s still time to stop the Second Great Calamity, before one of the dudes notices them\u2026from\u2026over his shoulder\u2026? Let\u2019s be real, there\u2019s no way he noticed them. If anyone noticed them, it would\u2019ve been one of the people he was talking to.<\/p>\n
Naboo and Mayon dash away, wondering the same thing, but are stopped by the closing gates. As they run to find their brother, Naboo is transported to some alternate time zone, where stabby dude greets him. Naboo attacks but is\u2026pinned? By some black magic. Literally. It\u2019s literally\u2026anyway.<\/p>\n
He introduces himself as the Demon of Destruction, claiming he\u2019s the only one without a counterpart. I glanced back at the opening to find that there was only ten created by that god spirit, which means something, I\u2019m sure. Naboo says all of this is just a myth, then we get a glimpse at his\u2026hand? What. Okay. What. Destruction says he\u2019s Naboo\u2019s ally, says that he\u2019s willing to help Naboo\u2019s half-siblings escape if Naboo helps him with something. This proves that Naboo isn\u2019t directly related to his family, which is something I questioned from the beginning. Destruction says he wants Naboo to create a tangible illusion, and this is where different elemental magic is referenced and sort of commented on, and I just can\u2019t help but wonder\u2026why didn\u2019t they use any of these abilities when fighting in the city? Why have none of these come in handy, why didn\u2019t anyway fight with them? I guess the reason why the appearance of magic throws me off is because it doesn\u2019t seem to be used or noted at all in the first half of the episode. I mean, it makes sense that they can use it, I guess, because they can change forms, but since none of them used any other kinds of magic to fight with, I believed that there was no such thing and that form changing was the only kind of magic someone could do.<\/p>\n
Naboo says he\u2019s not adept at this kind of magic, and Destruction says he can pull strings to allow him to practice all the elemental magic and<\/em> that he can teach Naboo how to create tangible illusions. So\u2026why do you need Naboo to do this, then? This seems ridiculous. Why not do this yourself? Is there some sort of fingerprint left on magic spells that casts blame on the caster, meaning the caster can somehow be identified and Destruction doesn\u2019t want to be directly linked to this?<\/p>\n We jump back to Mayon, who gets cornered by other creatures and humans alike. So\u2026how do they know he\u2019s from the city, exactly? Is his exact species somehow recognizable? Is no one else able to turn into a fox like him? Regardless, he\u2026teleports? Away? Why didn\u2019t he do this sooner? I mean, couldn\u2019t he have teleported to a roof and scanned the city from up high while trying to find his siblings? I\u2019m going to go out on a limb and say he can\u2019t teleport more athan himself anywhere, which is why he and Naboo didn\u2019t just teleport outside the gate, but now that he\u2019s alone, you\u2019d think maybe he\u2019d\u2026use this ability of his more liberally.<\/p>\n He meets up with his brother, who wonders how vanishing is possible\u2014okay, but Mayon can teleport? So? I don\u2019t see how this is surprising in the least? In the sky, a creature appears, and Naboo shows up and leads the group through a spoopy door. This teleports them outside the city. Big bro gets pretty upset at Naboo for creating what we now know was a Cheetu Dragon, the thing that everyone keeps mentioning, and that this was going to signify the beginning of the second Great Calamity, which\u2019ll probably ruffle a few feathers in the city. You know. Everyone will just be a little perturbed. Little bothered. Just slightly.<\/p>\n Naboo then shows that he\u2019s gone through a lot inside that time warp, and that he should be dead after everything he\u2019s gone through. Which\u2026makes me feel cheated. I really wish I could\u2019ve seen this. The interactions between Destruction and Naboo, more world building between their arguments, see more of Naboo\u2019s character and his growing fear of Destruction. I would\u2019ve really loved to see this, and I\u2019m bummed I didn\u2019t get to.<\/p>\n The group laments that perhaps nowhere is safe anymore, and the episode ends rather suddenly. By that, I mean there was no big hurrah, or intense ending, or cliffhanger. Perhaps one more dramatic line would\u2019ve sold me on the ending, but at this point I\u2019m just being knickpicky.<\/p>\n And that was Dark Revolution! For all my bitching and whining, I did really enjoy this first episode. I think the animation is definitely something to be amazed at, the amount of effort and time that went into this is definitely apparent, and I did enjoy the music choices, though nothing really stood out to me as something striking or different. I mention this because I\u2019ve been asked before to note music more often, and while my musical ear is not as well tuned as some of my comrades, I will make a bigger effort to note it. The story is definitely promising, and I do really look forward to seeing more of this series in the future. It has issues, obviously, but so does everything. I\u2019d suggest everyone to go watch this, because I absolutely loved it, and I don\u2019t pull punches when I find something I love.<\/p>\n Do you agree with me? Maybe you hate everything I just said. Let\u2019s have a discussion about it in the comment section below. Want to draw some expressions for me to use in my videos? There\u2019s a link to my character in the description. Also down there, you can find me on my many social media sites. Thank you all for watching, I\u2019m Knightmare, make sure to hit like, subscribe, and I\u2019ll see you guys next time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hey guys! If you haven\u2019t seen part 1, go check that out first~ Before we get started, I wanted to address something that may have been a little confusing. If you watched my first part of this review, I bitched about world building quite a lot, while congratulating it at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[205],"tags":[246,245,232,250,249,158,206,223,207,219,157,12,217,218,42,236,68,114,60,97,215,248,247],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p27tjX-gM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1041,"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions\/1041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}