The princess Rhea (Anya Taylor-Joy) taps into fantasy’s rich history of royal rebels, and the ancient Aughra is part-comic relief, part-mystic guide that harkens back to Tolkien’s more mysterious First Age writings. For the briefest time, the internet fell in love with Deet, the Nathalie Emmanuel-voiced nature lover with more than a touch of hobbit (and harfoot) DNA.
Then there are the characters, either effortlessly easy to root for or born of the camp, scenery-chewing evil of which all great villains are made of. Fantasy is always at its best operating in that unsettling grey area. Is it suitable for kids? Not quite – and that’s a good thing. Couple that with some genuinely unsettling imagery (yes, the corrupted Skeksis remain nightmare fuel) and it all feels, in the best possible way, like a terrifying, rich relic that belongs to the same canon as Pan’s Labyrinth or Studio Ghibli’s more fantastical works. The Dark Crystal series’ Saturday morning aesthetics may obscure its darker undertones, but it’s a neat sleight of hand that allows the show to poke and prod at more mature themes without feeling too overwhelming.Įnvironmentalism, dictatorships, and classism are all an organic by-product of Thra’s living, breathing world. House of the Dragon swings too far the other way, often revelling in its mature themes to the point of stopping just short of misery porn. For all the questions it posed about Sauron’s identity, The Rings of Power is fairly toothless with its peril, and a few too many death fakeouts by its finale.
One of Age of Resistance’s most overlooked qualities is how it hits a fantasy sweet spot that the genre rarely gets right.
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