Legend of the Seeker: Prophecy

 I have two weeks leave, and I plan to spend it (at least partly) on watching something that makes me happy. That means I’m watching Legend of the Seeker, a fantasy show produced by Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert, filmed in New Zealand, based on Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth novels, and which aired between 2008 and 2010.

That about covers it. I watched the first season back when it was first released on DVD but always put off getting to the second and final season, knowing that once it was over, it was done for good. I’d been saving it for a rainy day essentially, and now that rainy day (or year) has finally come.

And despite having a male lead, I’d argue that it still complies with my New Years’ Resolution by dint of two fantastic female deuteragonists that have agency, complexity, development and structured arcs of their own. Yes, the original author sounds like a real weirdo and some of his very specific fetishes are on full display, but Tapert and Raimi are the guys who brought us Xena Warrior Princess, so for the most part they know what they’re doing.

And honestly, I’m ready for a show with a straightforward good-versus-evil storyline, where the heroes are uncomplicatedly good, the central romance is based on respect and communication, and the girls have a multifaceted relationship that’s neither bitchy competition or instantaneous BFFery.

I’m ready to relax into this…

 

The show starts as it means to continue: with what can only be described as stylish silliness. Two beautiful women with low-cut corsets and glossy hair are galloping through a forest, chased by men on horseback shooting arrows at them. There’s Lord of the Rings scenery, wailing vocalizations on the soundtrack, and plenty of slow-motion shots that showcase the way their hair dramatically flies around them. I love it.

Which is lucky, as this chase makes absolutely no sense. The soldiers are initially right behind the women; close enough to fatally wound the blonde one, but as soon as they’re out of the forest and rushing across an open plain, the men have fallen back far enough for the brunette to get off her horse, follow her fallen comrade down a sandy bank, and have a lengthy conversation with her.

We learn the women are sisters, and the one called Kahlan is urged to go on with a book and a glowing pendant that allows her to cross a magical barrier… after she successfully outruns those soldiers on horseback. And just to keep things fair, they leave their horses behind and continue to pursue her on foot.

Then we get the introduction to our hero: he’s manfully cutting wood to make a bridge (without a shirt, naturally)… and then protects a nervous child’s pride by testing out the bridge’s safety himself. Nailed it. I’m being completely serious. As a Character Establishing Moment it tells us the three most important things about him: that he’s observant, emotionally intuitive and kind.

Oh, and his name is Richard Cypher. Take a moment to laugh. I mean… how do you come up with that? A first name that’s so boring and a last name that’s taken straight out of the fantasy cliché playbook? You may as well call him Tom Destiny or Matt Shadow or John UnicornHornPhoenixFeather. What’s stranger is that we’re soon to meet characters called Zed and Chase, both of which have far cooler hero-sounding names.

In all seriousness though, Craig Horner and Bridget Regan are what make all this nonsense work. They somehow manage to find the sweet spot between not taking the material too seriously, while taking it just seriously enough, with the right amount of earnestness that you’re inclined to smile instead of scoff.

Richard spots Kahlan running away (in dramatic slow-motion) from the soldiers, and naturally jumps in to assist her. And here’s the first scene that sets this show – and specifically these characters – apart from how this sort of thing usually plays out. You’d expect from the dialogue that the writers are going for Belligerent Sexual Tension, in which the romantic leads snark and snipe at each other for having saved the other’s life, but that’s not how Horner and Regan play it.

They go for a touch of animosity in Kahlan’s “I can look after myself” assertion and Richard’s “well excuse me, princess” response, but the actors speak to each other with a degree of softness that completely defuses the situation. Already they’re talking to each other with an unexpected amount of honesty (Richard asks: “Did I do something wrong?” when he reaches for her, and apologizes when she explains: “I’m not used to people touching me”, before verbally accepting his apology).

Actor chemistry goes a long way when it comes to how on-screen relationships are depicted, and I love how these two consistently moderate the combative dialogue in their performances.

This sequence also gives us our first glimpse of Kahlan’s Confessor abilities: by touching another human being she can essentially take over their minds and force them into complying to her will: in this case, making one of her attackers turn on his comrades in her defence. I’ve no doubt that there’s some sort of dom/sub fetish behind this concept (we haven’t even gotten to the leather-clad dominatrixes with the cattle prods yet) but it still raises interesting ethical questions about free will and the imposition of someone else’s upon it – but there’s plenty of time to discuss that as the season progresses.

For now, I’m just amused at how quickly the writers realized they had to jettison the physical toll utilizing this ability has on Kahlan. Here she faints immediately after confessing the enemy soldier; later in the season she’ll barely break a sweat.

The rest of the episode’s plot is almost non-consequential, and can easily be intuited by any casual viewer due to just how tropey it is. Like King Arthur and Luke Skywalker and Harry Potter before him, Richard is a Chosen One. He’s got mystical powers and a special destiny. There’s a crazy old hermit that’s actually a wizard, and a Dark Lord who wants a) absolute power and b) to kill Richard because of a prophecy. A bunch of firstborns were slaughtered when he was a baby in order to avert said prophecy, but of course he was smuggled to safety and raised in secret. The requisite death of a beloved foster father motivates our hero to action. There’s a magic sword. Actual dialogue: “He has a destiny! The prophecy!”

It’s all here, guys. For now, just go with it, as once the writers lay the groundwork and establish the rules, they can start playing around with expectations in ways that grow increasingly interesting as the series goes on…

We end with Richard accepting his destiny as the Seeker and Darken Rahl – aforementioned Dark Lord – waking up in his bedchamber, having had a nightmare that this very thing has just occurred. And it is just adorable that his guards come in to check on him, even though he didn’t make any noise that might have alerted them something was wrong, though it gives him an excuse to emit a dire warning as to the conflict that it to come…

I have mixed feelings on Craig Parker as Darken Rahl – they lean more toward the positive than the negative, but we’ll get to that once he’s given more than one scene.

Miscellaneous Observations:

Kahlan’s sister… I was never sure whether Dennee was her biological sister or if that was just how they addressed each other. Kahlan never seemed that grief-stricken at her loss, much like Richard just kinda shrugs off his brother’s betrayal.

I noticed that Bridget Regan’s voice seemed quite high and light in this episode; she’s definitely channelling a soft and vulnerable naïve here, which changes as the series goes on. For now I wonder if she was going for a deliberate pitched contrast to all the ass-kicking she was doing.

All this stuff about the boundary had completely left my memory; possibly because it’s never really explained. Why is it there and what purpose does it serve? Who constructed it? Where exactly is it situated and what geographical significance does it have? Characters mention that it’s been hundreds of years since the barrier was crossed, so presumably its existence has nothing to do with Darken Rahl, and from what I can tell the only difference between the two territories on either side is that one half has magic and the other doesn’t. I would chalk it up to world-building that’ll be explained later, but I don’t think it ever is.

On that note, Richard is the Seeker – but what is he actually meant to be seeking? That would have been my first question.

As Starter Villains go, Ranssyn Fane isn’t hugely interesting, but then what Starter Villains ever are? At least he’s mildly intelligent, poses a reasonable physical threat, and is played by an actor who doesn’t feel like one of those budget warlords from Xena Warrior Princess.

If Legend of the Seeker had aired today, in this time of social media wall-breakage between creators and fans, there’s a good chance that fandom could have saved it from early cancellation. That said, there’s so much other stuff out there these days that something so trope-heavy might never have gotten past season one. So perhaps two solid seasons is the best we could have hoped for, allowing things to end on a high-note before seasonal rot or obnoxious fans were allowed to settle in.

Incredibly, I started this rewatch today, and in the writing of this review I literally just discovered that Terry Goodkind has passed away. That’s certainly going to make it more difficult for me to snark on some of his more questionable creative decisions, but in any case: you have no idea how much I’m looking forward to this rewatch of season one, and my first experience of season two. Rest in peace, Mr Goodkind.

Someone had to have had a wind machine
going full-blast for this effect.