1. “You Distract the Runt when He Comes In and I’ll Hit Him from Behind with this Sinister Sword of Darkness!”
Before we begin talking more about “From the Depth of Despair,” the season finale of Niko and the Sword of Light, I want to point out how much fun Steve Blum is having with this episode. Now fully formed and wrecking havoc across the world, Nar Est is in full on villain mode, which Blum delivers with aplomb. Listen to how he spits out his lines. Check out the fluctuations in his voice, from the barely concealed boredom to the delight in actually having to face down Niko. I’m not sure if I ever found Nar Est to be a threatening villain or more of an annoying adversary but Blum constantly delivered throughout this season, savoring every word, every line. Really, bringing his all to the character.
2. “Who Defies Me with Such Insolence”
For all the action in this episode, there’s not a lot to really talk about. “From the Depths of Despair” is the culmination of everything this series has been working toward. Which means it’s mostly a 20-minute battle. You get the epic charge; the back and forth, the ebb and flow of the battlefield; the fake outs and twists. Niko realizes the only way to defeat Nar Est is to go beyond him, straight to the source of his power, and he plunges in, going all Avatar state on the giant evil eye. For a series that had such a rough start, especially in regards to its action beats, there’s a lot of strong, highly kinetic, and exciting storytelling here. Michael Moloney does the whole spinning plate trick with the material, keeping the episode cutting between several locations. It’s clear, it’s well timed, and, most importantly, it knows when the action needs to be dire or when it needs to be silly. I mean, I’ve seen far worse final confrontations.
3. “I Command You to Fear Me!”
Niko and the Sword of Light has always harbored bigger and more epic ambitions, even if it didn’t always have the confidence or wherewithal to pull it off. Sometimes it was a matter of lacking resources. Sometimes it came from weird gags and even weirder characters. It was also a show that couldn’t decide if it wanted to appeal to a broader audience or more specifically kids. Everything in the show was clearly heading toward this moment, this confrontation, and it delivers a satisfying topper to the series altogether. And yeah, we get a lot of that emotional closure and whatnot, but I think it was more fun to see the creators come into their own. They took more chances with these last couple episodes. I wish it was spread out earlier but I think the ending ultimately worked. “From the Depths of Despair” delivered what the show had promised since the beginning and if the story ended here, if this was simply a miniseries, I think it works.
4. “Dispatch the Night Troopers and Get Them Off My Lawn!”
So, where does this leave Niko and the Sword of Light to go? What could we potentially see if there’s a second season? Obviously, this world has a lot of rebuilding to do. More than that, however, the show puts the humans back in the fold. They spent 1000 years trapped in an orb and, during that time, all these creatures were able to set up a life for themselves. Part of Lyra’s arc involved her realizing there’s more to the world than only the humans and I wonder if the show’s interested in continuing those themes. Humans, after all, are notoriously territorial and destructive. Nothing in this show suggests the conquering of this world is on its mind but, hey, humans amirite? That anthropomorphic wolf mercenary is out there still and as we all know, darkness can never be fully wiped away.
5. “I’ll Say This: The Runt Puts on a Show”
Although it had a rough start and took a while to match some of the magic of the comic, Niko and the Sword of Light turned out to be a delightful show. It genuinely earns many of its emotional moments, has a wide-ranging imagination, and some charmingly lovable characters. While the character models look like cloned Flash animation designs, those backgrounds were consistently interesting and it was always fun to see how the creators put their little twist on the creatures. Even if it did want to appeal to an all ages audience, Niko spoke most directly took younger viewers (younger than Avatar, for sure) and I think it managed to turn something in that addressed them on their level without insulting their intelligence. It’s a fun show and even if the creators never did another episode of Niko, I’d still be interested in seeing what they have next.
