Wolf King Is One Of The Worst Fantasy Cartoons
Wolf King Is Really Predictable And A Little Boring
Wolf King is the worst show I’ve seen in a long time. It clearly wants to be like Avatar: The Last Airbender (even having a knock-off “my cabbages” joke), but it starts off terrible, predictable, and shoddy, and doesn’t rise all that far from that.
Like, even on a premise level, the show racks up issues. It’s an alternative world where some people can turn into half-animal “were” creatures. Stuff like bears, lions, and boars. And these people are the rulers of their various lands. But this isn’t just a random power—it’s a bloodline lineage that’s treated at least like a distinct culture, if not a full-on race.
And maybe it’s already come up in your mind how this could become an issue. Maybe it’s damn obvious where it could become problematic. The lions, you see, are the current evil rulers—with their generic armored guards and everything—but the werewolves are the “true” leaders. They, for whatever reason, are destined to be the “correct” kings of the world.
This Worldbuilding Has So Many Bad Implications
So, yes, it’s a bio-essentialist magic system where your ability to hold a government position is determined by your birth, and a lot of the “were” characters we meet embody stereotypes associated with connected animal species. It feels like Wolf King wanted to just do an anthropomorphized animal story, but wouldn’t commit to the esthetic. It wouldn’t have made this any less insulting, though. The main boar character is the most heavyset, and called “piggy.” The main rat character is scheming and has the exact kind of teeth you’d expect. It’s a recipe for disaster.
And, as you may have guessed from that title, the main character of Wolf King is the only wolf left in the world, because, of course, this couldn’t help but take even more from Avatar: The Last Airbender. And where it’s not taking from that, it’s as cookie-cutter as it comes. Our werewolf is a farm boy—literally called a “farm boy” at one point—with a big destiny and unique powers, and is thrust into adventure when his mom gets fridged in the opening moments.
Truly, the first episode of Wolf King is the most generic opening to a fantasy series I’ve perhaps ever seen. The only nice thing I can say about those beginning minutes is at least it’s efficient with the clichés. The fight scenes may be clunky. The mom may have been so vague about details, even when she had time. But at least I didn’t have to sit through multiple episodes before it got to something semi-unique. I was spared that suffering.
Wolf King Manages A Few Engaging Plot Moments
It also does, indeed, improve. That wasn’t just me being sarcastic. The main nice thing I can say about the other two episodes of Wolf King (since I only stayed for three) is that the court politics get a tad interesting. There are a lot of alliances and power moves and manipulation, and the series doesn’t aggressively use exposition to make you aware of it all. The scene of a prince making demands and almost everyone else at the table trying to manipulate him without upsetting him is actually fun television.
But Wolf King can’t seem to make too many good decisions in a row. It has to throw things back into clichés. By the end of the third episode, it seems like Wolf King is going to send its characters off to a new setting for generic questing. Friendly tip, ending every episode with a cliffhanger only works if I both believe in an actual threat, and want to see what will happen with the new plot progression. Wolf King manages neither.
I don’t know how anyone couldn’t tell by now, but if I somehow wasn’t clear, there’s very little reason to watch Wolf King. Sometimes the settings look cool or there’s a brief good moment of action, but it’s mostly terrible. Almost every conflict is solved by the hero drawing on his wolf powers, and so many scenes transition with someone being knocked unconscious. Unless later episodes turn the entire thing on its head, this is the TV show version of bland oatmeal.
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