(Episode one bad, episode two good. Bad guys are epic. Feels like a YA romance fanfic. What the heck are the songs during the credits?)
I love the “Willow” movie. When Disney Plus first launched, one of the first movies my parents spotted was “Willow.” One night, we decided to watch it during dinner, and I fell in love with it. It was fun and exciting, and the characters were fantastic. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was enjoyable and made many visual effects breakthroughs.
Since watching the movie, I always felt that the story wasn’t finished. I knew there was more to the story that wasn’t being told, so I got very excited when the “Willow” series was announced. I thought Disney would make Lucasfilm the “Star Wars” studio, much like Marvel Studios. I was thrilled to be proved wrong.
Then I watched these two episodes, and that thrill instantly disappeared.
After “Kenobi” and “The Book of Boba Fett,” I should have expected them to put less effort into this show. It will likely be a faster-paced version of “The Rings of Power.” It’s the same nightmare all over again. The characters are frustratingly shallow, the plot is uninspired and unoriginal, and the original characters are getting trod upon by their younger counterparts.
I’m sure there are problems with this show behind the scenes, but I’m a writer, so I’m going to take a look at the first two episodes of “Willow” from a writer’s perspective and explain what went wrong.
Unoriginal
After the prologue, I knew this would be a basic, boring, unoriginal story. It’s another fantasy story about a princess betrothed to someone she doesn’t know even though she loves someone else and wants to marry them. We’ve seen this plot a million and one times before. If you’re going to do it again, you better have a fresh, new take on the idea, and you better be a darn good writer.
After that plot is set up, the prince is captured by the bad guys, and the princess leads a quest to save her brother. Reversing the roles of this classic fairy tale is an interesting idea, but only when it brings something new to the plot. We don’t even know why the bad guys captured the prince. I’m sure we’ll find out by the end of the series, but there isn’t any mystery surrounding the prince. Nothing has been set up, making his capture feel completely random.
This story is so basic that it almost makes “Rings of Power” look like an original vision by comparison. At least that show had potential and could have been something great. This show is as basic as you can get.
Also, this looks like it’s going to be another story where the parents are wrong about everything and have to apologize to their self-righteous kids. They turned Sorsha, one of the best characters in the movie, into an old, weak, pathetic coward. She was a warrior who served her mother faithfully until she saw her mother’s true intentions. This might sound like another story about the parents being wrong, but it’s not the same. Her mom was an evil witch, and Sorsha was her evil soldier. Only when Willow and Madmartigan captured Sorsha did she begin to reevaluate her mother’s intentions. She wasn’t a whiney, spoiled jerk. She was a strong, confident, well-intended person who turned her life around.
Now, Sorsha is reduced to getting yelled at by her daughter for arranging a marriage that would unite the kingdoms of Tir Asleen and Galladoorn. On a moral level, it is messed up, sure. But that’s how the political system is set up. It was customary during history until we developed different political systems. Marriage was essential to arranging alliances and gaining allies.
This story has always frustrated me because it’s trying to throw modern ideologies into a world inspired by real history. Modern ideologies don’t belong in historical settings, whether fantasy or not. They certainly didn’t have to ruin Sorsha over it.
But, if that were the only thing they did to Sorsha, I would only be slightly annoyed. Unfortunately, they kept going.
It turns out that, after the movie’s events, Willow had a vision of the collapse of the world and said that he needed to train Elora Danan before it was too late. But Sorsha decided that Elora had to stay safe and kicked Willow Ufgood out of Tir Asleen to keep Elora from knowing who she was. She even changed Elora’s name, so she didn’t know she was called Elora. It was the worst way they could have handled her character.
The Good Stuff
Alas! The show has not been ruined yet.
The bad guys are pretty cool. They look like they came straight from “Dark Souls” and are pretty creepy. I like their design and their presentation. They feel like a real threat, which is excellent.
Willow himself is ok. He isn’t handled perfectly, but I did enjoy most of his scenes.
The dynamics within the leading group are pretty good. The two characters I’ve enjoyed the most so far are the prince of Galladoorn and Thraxus Boorman, who definitely was part of that group of raiders. Greyden, the prince of Galladoorn, is quiet but understands people. He doesn’t have very many lines, but he is a brilliant character. He just has his head in the clouds. Thraxus Boorman is a mysterious character who has a strange past. He was the squire of Madmartigan, which is interesting because Madmartigan isn’t in the movie (likely due to Val Kilmer’s health problems), and we don’t know much about his fate.
Verdict
So far, “Willow” is pretty bad. The second episode was ok, and it finally felt like “Willow” at that point, but the first episode was horrendous. It may already be too far gone to save, but maybe Disney will surprise me. But, after “The Rings of Power,” I now know not to get my hopes up when a few episodes get it right.
As it stands, I can’t recommend this show. It’s bland, unoriginal, and has terrible characters.
What are your thoughts on the first two episodes? Let me know in the comments!
Thanks for reading! Have a fantastic day.