The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me? (Episode 10) – Toxic? Are You Kidding Me?!

Well has arrived at his old home to purify the remains of the two armies that were lost in the enchanted forest, but his brother doesn’t seem to want him there and isn’t shy about showing it!
What happened?
A while back the previous Duke was lost in the enchanted forest along with his army. It was the same party that Alfred, Well’s former master had been a part of. Now, most of them have returned as zombies and if left unchecked will cause serious problems for the people. Well and his party have been sent in by the current Duke to purify the zombies and recover their belongings. Unfortunately, Well’s eldest brother, Kurt is not too happy about any of it and is obviously feeling threatened by Well. Regardless, Well gets to the task in hand and starts to purify the zombies.
With that seemingly simple task accomplished, the armour and other belongings are returned to the people, however, Kurt wants the armour to be handed to the blacksmith so that it can be reused. Well steps in and gives Kurt a huge block of iron so that the villagers can use the armour for funerals. With that done, Well was looking forward to getting out of his old home, but the Duke has asked him to hang around. It’s not long before the villager elder approaches Well and asks him to succeed Kurt and become the heir of the lands.

What did you think?
I came into this series know nothing about it. It was an Isekai and that seemed like enough. Then, I quite enjoyed the first episode and when the OP started, I got a little excited. There were monsters and zombies, adventurers and dark looking mages. It was all very promising. I was expecting some action. Sadly, that has not happened. We finally got the zombies, but that wasn’t much of a fight at all. The funny thing with all this is that I actually enjoyed this episode and have felt the same about most of the series so far. The political wrangling and family betrayals have been fairly interesting. Sure, I would have liked to see more action, but I’m still enjoying it.

What have you learnt?
There shouldn’t be any surprise that the political side of this is that appealing. After all, A Game of Thrones was a pretty big deal. Now, if this series had managed to get more action into it, then it could have been something really special. I talk about balance in writing a fair amount and this is a prime example of where they’ve focused on one idea and let everything else do whatever. There are some great ideas and some interesting concepts that had they been paired with some serious action it would have taken this series to the next level. I know that in my writing, I’ve been guilty at times of focusing too much on the action. It’s something that I am aware of and am actively watching for. I want all aspects of my storytelling to shine, not just the fights.

Other reviews in the series
- Season One
- Episode 1 – The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me?
- Episode 2 – A Succession Dispute? Are You Kidding Me?
- Episode 3 – A Loner? Are You Kidding Me?!
- Episode 4 – Obligations? Are You Kidding Me?!
- Episode 5 – Political Marriage? Are You Kidding Me?!
- Episode 6 – A Bullet Tour? Are You Kidding Me?!
- Episode 7 – No Magic? Are You Kidding Me?!
- Episode 8 – Presumed Dead? Are You Kidding Me?!
- Episode 9 – People Hate Me? Are You Kidding Me?!
- Episode 10 – Toxic? Are You Kidding Me?!
- Episode 11 – Between a Rock and a Hard Place? Are You Kidding Me?!
- Episode 12 – The 8th Son? I Guess That’s Not So Bad!
- Bonus Posts
