English Dub Review: The Faraway Paladin “Payday”

Overview:

Turning 15, Will challenges Blood to a fight with real swords as his coming-of-age ceremony, but Gus asks Will to lose on purpose. Will doesn’t get a chance to ask Gus about what happened that day in the ruins before he must head into his battle against Blood.

Our Take:

The Faraway Paladin is starting to remind me a lot of a story I read growing up. The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, it’s about five books. You’d be forgiven for not knowing it cause it didn’t get much Hollywood hype ever except Disney made one movie in 1985 called The Black Cauldron which is one of my favorites. The reason I bring it up is that The Faraway Paladin is giving me the same vibes and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was inspired by it.

I don’t know about you all but I think Will won that fight with Blood. I mean if Blood wasn’t undead he would have been dead, but I guess to counteract that argument they argued he used the same tactic when he was alive but I don’t buy it. Will is an interesting character just because of who he’s raised by. I mean you wouldn’t think a mummy, a skeleton, and a ghost would make the best parents but he has turned out really well. It was also really heartwarming when Will called Mary and Blood, Mom and Dad.

You know things might be going a little wonky when the God of the Undead is the one coming to the world’s rescue. Finding out why everyone made their deal with the God Stagnate was a cool reveal. Nothing too profound or Earth-shattering but interesting they would be “punished” for it. I was all on Stagnate’s side until the end of this episode, which ends on a mega cliffhanger. As you may know, I am not a huge fan of those but I am definitely intrigued to see where this story goes because its worldbuilding has been top-tier so far.