1. The Pools of Destiny
After all their adventures and all the creatures and things they’ve met, after all they’ve endured and all this time, our heroes have finally made it to the Pools of Destiny. This is a place of great golden shards, of crystals rising everywhere out of the grounds. There’s a mysterious reverence lingering around all of it.
Just before they reach the Pools, however, they meet Aura, the Champion preceeding Niko. The Champion Lyra keeps seeing in her dreams and visions, the one she avoids talking about as much as possible. Turns out, Aura had managed to survive her onslaught on Nar Est in his volcano. She claims to have fallen into a stream and whisked to the Pools of Destiny, which keep her alive. She can still manage the Sword of Light, though in her grip it becomes a great bow.
For a brief instance, Lyra and Niko think she might be their best chance at defeating Nar Est. She’s had eons to train and get better, she knows what to expect out of that volcano. However, after all that time being trapped in the forest, feeling abandoned, and lost to her own thoughts, Aura’s bound to have developed some issues.
2. Get Down Those Foundations
In many ways, “From the Cliffs of Catastrophe to the Pools of Destiny” is everything that works in Niko and the Sword of Light. Not only that, it elevates the material and shows us the potential of this series, of what it could be. (I mean, this show wants to be the next Avatar: The Last Airbender but it’s constantly struggled to find the balance between the juvenile and serious, the dark and light, the humor and the horror.) The action is motivated instead of dictated. Character moments and emotions are explored but never at the detriment of the story’s momentum. Beats aren’t reluctantly shoved in like a necessary evil but organically incorporated into the narrative.
On top of all that, I was struck by how well composed and structured this episode came out. I’ve mentioned some of director Sung Jin Ahn’s pandering, unsophisticated action tendencies in the past, but here, he’s developing a better eye for what we need to see and when to reveal something. He’s more confident with the material and, for the first time in this entire series, there’s some true emotional stakes in the action. It’s not choppy or jarring. It’s effective action staging.
3. Betrayal
It should come as no surprise that Niko and Lyra are betrayed by Aura. One of the most consistent beats in Niko and the Sword of Light is that pretty much every humanoid character they meet is prepared to stab them in the back without notice. “I have my hooks everywhere,” Nar Est says to his pet raven whose name I can’t remember. We learn that it was Nar Est, thinking ahead, who saved Aura, to use against Lyra the next time she came waltzing through the world with a Champion. Yet, after years of being held together by the Pools, of feeling used and abandoned, Aura is ready to work for herself. She’s done with duty and responsibility.
4. What It Means to Be a Champion
Part of what we learn about Aura is how she’s never been much beholden to the wider world. She acts strictly out of self-interest. Where Niko tries to cure the cursed things, she only seeks to destroy them. She brushes over the other suffering creatures and berates Lyra for showing any sort of concern. Even during the scenes where she’s pretending to be on their side, she has a holier-than-thou sensibility, a flippant attitude toward her responsibilities.
It’s through her Niko and the Sword of Light truly gets Niko as a Champion. It’s why the creators chose to explore this particular story. When Niko goes into the Pools, he doesn’t change. Lyra realizes then he already has everything he needs to be the Champion, not to just defeat Nar Est, but to save them all from the overbearing darkness and evil. I go back to that point where Niko cures instead of destroys (is this something only a kid would think of? have all the other Champions just been hacking their way through this place?). Where he doesn’t exclude, where he shows empathy for everything he encounters. It’s a great lesson to impart on its young audience.
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5. Where Do We Go From Here?
In “From the Cliffs of Catastrophe to the Pools of Destiny,” the main objective of the first part of the season has been reached. With that out of the way and several questions answered, it’s now time for Niko and Lyra to head to the volcano. The episode ends with a giant Pool shard raising them high up over the terrain to stare directly into the billowing flames of that angry mountain.
Niko’s confidence has grown. Lyra has opened herself up to what’s going on around her. Mandok is still inadvertently spying on the team. Flicker is back in his cocoon.
I wish that every episode of Niko and the Sword of Light could be this confident, this gripping, and this interesting. All its elements came into balance and we’ve been given a peek at this show’s true potential.
