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no child should have to beg their parents to buy them a book just to be more familiar with a newly introduced side character who would have been more plot relevant had the series not been cancelled. fletcher bowman should not have had the majority of his story exist in the forbidden power. frankly, the only kids who would have been interested in the book would be kids who are already watching the tv series because it's not the most friendly story for newcomers, and most would rather books about one of the main characters rather than newly introduced characters who appear maybe twice at best in what would be the final season because it was cancelled.

no child should have to download and play the merlok 2.0 app just to be able to access and watch an exclusive two-part episode about the knights' backstories. especially considering the fact that it almost became lost media - i'm grateful that it didn't and is preserved on web archive, but it dangerously came close. and its something that almost happened because they never had plans to air it on tv with the rest of the series at some point. but even then - the fact that the rest of the series is on tubi and knights of the realm isn't?

AND NO CHILD SHOULD HAVE TO BUY SUPPLEMENTARY BOOKS TO KNOW ANYTHING MEANINGFUL ABOUT ONE OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS. OH MY GOD. i love axl so much, he's usually framed primarily as the food-obsessed comedic relief but he's observant and quick witted. he is NOT the dumb muscle character! he's just underutilized in comparison to tommy andreasen's favorites clay or aaron. and though hes extremely emotional and hotheaded he can also be the most down to earth and mature of the knights. and... he's the most artistic, creatively driven of the knights. you could potentially deduce that from his lute playing, but it's really understated in comparison to making him obsessed with food. but what if i told you he loves pottery? that he is skilled at still life sketches? what if i told you he reads the in-universe equivalent of shakespeare? and his favorite play is a parody of titus andronicus? what if i told you he's in a band???

you wouldn't believe me, would you? its all true - but you'd only know that if you are able to get your hands on a copy of one of the books - the knights code, potentially also the character encyclopedia - and read them. but you shouldn't have to. information about one of the main characters should just be in the text of the series. in fact, i think more people would probably appreciate if a lot of the jokes about his gluttony were replaced with more thought-out jokes about his other interests. in fact, a lot more people would be appreciative and amenable to axl's presence as a character if his other attributes were given as much focus.

Holy shit, I couldn't've worded it better myself. Even as an adult, being interested in this series is so frustrating. And that's coming from someone who also loves Clay like the writers clearly do! I love Clay, but man it's so annoying getting next to NOTHING for the other characters.

Supplementary material can be fine and even fun in some instances but it cannot be the ONLY way to learn about a character. I know Fletcher was supposed to have a greater role in season five (and probably season six, given the way season plots are split up), but it's just so frustrating. It sucks when budgets get cut, but surely the writers had some kind of inkling that they wouldn't be able to make a season five when they were making three and four. Surely they would've thought to add more with their limited time. I'm not asking for a brother reveal, but god damn - at least give us something more than ONE SCENE of Fletcher saying he's glad he doesn't have siblings, and that one scene where Ruina says, "There is another."

This show has so much potential behind it, and I don't wanna accuse the writers of not putting thought or care into it, but honestly I don't think they did. Favoritism absolutely wrecked how they treated the literal MAIN CAST and it upsets me so much.

If I could yap about the others real quick (because I have nothing to add to your points about Axl, you truly knocked it out of the park):

Lance is such a tragic character, and they make a joke out of him at every turn. All he wants to do with his life is act, and the writers can't even let him have that. He doesn't want to be a knight, he's never wanted to be a knight, it makes so much sense for him to be bad at it! But it would've been such a good narrative thread for him to realize the weight of the position he was forced into and become a better knight because of it. To suck it up, in a way, y'know? Devastating, to be forced into a role he doesn't want BUT THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT OF HIS CHARACTER!! How the other characters treat him sucks too. I swear, these people barely feel like friends. You can tell the ninja care about each other, literally at all times - but the knights? I don't buy it. When Lance's parents treat him like shit right in front of them, they still bash LANCE'S CHARACTER for not caring when they get kidnapped. Y'all literally heard Goldie call him a disappointment, are we serious.

And honestly Aaron didn't even get the REAL attention he deserved. He didn't wanna be a knight either! He got sent to the knight's academy because he kept acting out and putting himself in danger. There has to be SOMETHING the show should've done with that, but instead we got next to nothing. I'm not saying he should've protested the whole way through like Lance; Aaron obviously came to accept it, but like- add literally anything to the show itself, don't lock it behind an APP! Though it was super refreshing to see the silly side character take charge after Clay got petrified, but oh my Gods, what do you MEAN they passed up Macy?? She's the only heiress to the throne, what DO YOU MEAN?? I'm p sure Merlok says something like- they couldn't pick her because she might be needed for her princess role but?? Huh?? No, it should've been Macy!

Lords above, how they treat her character is so frustrating. Not to mention- pretty sexist for her to hate being a princess and then ONLY bring up wearing a dress. Like- hello-? What about the political pressure, the dread of having an entire kingdom looking to you for guidance? Macy feels like she'd be a pretty laid-back kinda character to me, a gamer girl if you will (please hear my sarcasm), I think it'd make sense if she didn't like being a princess because of what it meant for her future, and essentially being locked to a throne she wants nothing to do with (a similar thread to Lance and Aaron being forced into knighthood), BUT THEY MADE IT ALL ABOUT THE DRESSES?? Have the writers not checked what year it is? Macy doesn't HAVE to wear a dress, and it's actually really weird of Eggred to insist his adult daughter wear what HE wants her to - ESPECIALLY when she's established the boundary time and time again that wearing dresses makes her feel bad about herself.

Putting actual character development behind a paywall is honestly really gross, especially when your audience is full of children and ESPECIALLY when the paywall's contents aren't even that good. I have The Book of Monstrox, The Book of Monstrox, The Knight's Code, and No Rest for the Heroes and while I wasn't expecting them to be like- Book 3 and The Book of Bill from Gravity Falls, it was rather insane to me how much they just threw into books with little thought. There's whole other types of monsters thrown into The Book of Monsters (one of them was in NRftH), and they're no where to be found in the show. All in all, the supplementary material isn't what I would call GOOD supplementary material. The Book of Bill is about what happened to Bill after the events of Gravity Falls, all the material for Nexo Knights feels like it's trying to poorly fill-in the blanks. Not even blanks, tbh - there was no reason for them to make Forest Monsters, or Sea Monsters other than for OTHER supplementary material.

No context

Go my woke knights and jester!