#nexoblogging

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.

like: its a setting where women DO have equal opportunities and aren't discriminated against based on gender. there is no structural misogyny barring women from specific careers, as any woman can get any career any man can without being alienated or othered by male peers. we see in knights of the realm that macy was NOT the only female student in the knights academy even if she was the only one to graduate that year (the implication being that most students prior to the series either flunk out or transfer as a result of the peaceful era following monstrox's defeat, so only the most dedicated to becoming knights graduate. and also the richmonds, who are nepo babies.) but it's clear there's no glass ceiling she, specifically, needed to break as both her mother and brickney spears graduated previously. so it's not exclusive to men or abrasive, aggressive tomboys. the only instance of a man acting inappropriately towards a woman is jorah tightwad being a sex pest at macy, and he's framed as an outsider who is somehow a competitor and rival to king halbert so... like... not indicative of knighton society if theres implications hes a lord of some other society, the only thing that would make his dynamic with king halbert make sense.

BUT. THEN. THERE'S MACY'S SUBPLOT IN SEASON 1. to summarize it, she is a princess who longs to become a knight against her fathers wishes and is denied the same acknowledgement and respect as her peers in a public ceremony, who must work twice as hard to prove herself and earn the right to be acknowledged and pursue her dream career that is historically primarily or exclusively males work. a trope and premise based on and relying on gender roles, and the ways they are impacted and defined by misogyny. and yet, circumstantially the reasons she is denied the title and peerage of knighthood are not about misogyny - her father is just a worrywart pacifist and thus fears for his only child and the heir to the kingdom's safety pursuing a potentially dangerous career despite a literal century of peacetime. makes sense in theory but also often feels so completely disjointed and at odds with the rest of the story. because the political aspects of being a leader are often glossed over or irrelevant to macy's struggles with being a princess.

and yet, brickland is visibly scarred and has a strangely personal and deep seated hatred of magic despite the fact he should be too young to have faced off against monstrox or the monsters prior to the series. i know in the knights code he talks about going to school with ned knightly, who has a living middle aged brother, despite explicitly dying 100 years ago - which implies that brickland would be old enough to be involved in that same battle himself. yet though he talks about facing villains who used the forbidden powers, he never says he faced monstrox's forces specifically. but either way, either brickland and jokes are Way, Way older than they're meant to be... or everyone is much older than they're supposed to be. and potentially, by a hundred years. and double potentially, aging slowly. and this is not unique to wizards.

mmmm... pass!

the easiest way to fix the ned knightly thing is to just make jokes' brother ned knightly iv named after the original ned knightly who has a huge ego about being the great-grandson of the original ned knightly. which would works well with the fact brickland has beef with the ned he went to school with, but also why he feels so fine talking shit about him. its weirdly irreverent towards a guy who literally sacrificed himself in a way more extreme than anyone else who had evidently faced monstrox in a way that doesn't seem in line with brickland glorifying knighthood... but it would make sense if it wasnt the guy who sacrificed himself to help defeat monstrox, but his coattails riding descendant.