The Dark Lord Goes to School: Inside the Unreliable History of Clevatess II
Clevatess spent its first season doing what most dark fantasy shows only threaten to do. A Beast King wiped out a kingdom, resurrected one of the heroes sent to kill him, and then put a baby in her arms. What followed was part road trip and part long argument about whether humanity has earned any of the loyalty its heroes keep offering it.
Season two, which premiered July 8 on Crunchyroll, swaps the open road for a private magic academy. Klen takes a position teaching magic so he can keep Luna close, Alicia moves through the school in disguise, and a good number of the students are quietly reporting home while several nations chase whatever Drel left behind. Wizard school is well-worn territory. A demon lord standing at the front of the classroom is a stranger proposition.
We sat down with Katie Wetch (Alicia Glenfall) and Morgan Berry (Klen) to talk about the academy arc, what happens to a hero after her definition of heroism falls apart, and why neither of them is making predictions anymore.
The Beast King Goes to Class
Klen spent most of the first season at a distance from the people whose fate he was deciding. The academy takes that distance away and puts him in rooms with teenagers.
“I’m looking forward to seeing more of Klen reacting, interacting with humanoids, with these beings that he lords over in a way,” Berry says. “He’s got so much power. He doesn’t necessarily need to bother with anyone, but here he is going on this journey with Alicia, and I love magic, so this part of the story excites me.”
Berry is keeping one sequence to herself.
“There is a moment in season two that I won’t spoil, but seeing Klen interacting with magic and testing his abilities in that way is so entertaining and fun to witness,” Berry says. “To see everyone else’s reactions to it is also very fun.”
What she wants out of the arc is growth, and one thing the first season never gave him.
“I’m looking forward to seeing growth in Klen, more growth than has already happened in the first season, seeing how much more he can learn from these students at this academy,” she says, “and maybe make some friends along the way. Who knows?”
Alicia in Disguise
The academy requires Alicia to be somebody else for a while, and the disguise has changed how Wetch gets to play her.
“It’s a really exciting concept to take these characters and put them into this new space,” Wetch says. “We’ve seen with this disguise, cheekier and more excitable moments for her, and we saw glimpses of that in the first season. I’m really excited to see more of that coming up.”
Underneath the disguise is the question season two keeps returning to, which is what Alicia is supposed to do now that the version of heroism she died for turned out to be wrong. Wetch describes the first season as a demolition and this one as the rebuild.
“Even in season one, there was these remnants of self-identity, but then it was what happens when the idea of who you are breaks apart and you’re trying to figure out how to put that back together,” Wetch says. “I would just love to see more of those individual pieces and how she uses them, these new techniques and these tactics and the belief in herself that she already has the tools that she needs. How is she going to come to that realization, and how is she going to use those things within her ability set versus wishing for something else?”
The New Kids, Ray Included
A magic school arrives with a class list, and the show now has to keep Alicia, Klen, and Luna in focus while a crowd of new characters competes for screen time. Berry doesn’t treat that as a problem she has to solve.
“I don’t feel that I have to find that balance. I feel I’m navigating it alongside Klen, interacting with these new faces and also learning more about these new people in their lives,” Berry says.
One newcomer has her full attention.
“There is one character in particular that I’m excited to explore more alongside the audience, and that’s Ray,” she says. “Not going to spoil anything, but he’s quite an interesting character, and I am so intrigued. I am locked in. I am on the edge of my seat with every session we record and every episode that I watch.”
Wetch likes that the cast is assembling the picture in roughly the same order the audience is.
“Each character has this piece of the story and we get to tell our piece of the story, but then it’s this excitement of getting to come and see the full thing together as it comes out,” Wetch says. “It keeps the anticipation, and it’s so exciting to see the story build throughout the process.”
The Story of the Victorious
Season two spends real energy on whether the recorded history of heroes bears any resemblance to what happened. Berry liked the phrase unreliable history and turned the question over to her costar before answering it herself.
“I don’t know if I’m supposed to know as Klen, but that’s a very realistic question in this story and in reality,” Berry says. “The stories that we hear might not be entirely true, because it’s the story of the victorious. We don’t get both sides when we read that history.”
Wetch took the same idea back to Alicia, whose fixed belief about what a hero owes the world got dismantled in front of her.
“She had this idea of a hero and she was like, this is what I’ve got to do. Her motives were strong, her values were strong. She knew what she was going to do, and it was totally flipped on its head. It was broken apart,” Wetch says. “I love that there is never just one answer. It does feel like we’re walking beside these characters and we’re getting to understand the story from their perspective even more, because we have pieces of the story.”
A Bigger World, Pointed Inward
Alicia’s relationship with her own death remains the strangest thing about her, and the power Clevatess gave her has not made it any simpler. Wetch reads this season as her character’s world expanding in a direction nobody planned for.
“This crazy, amazing, scary power that Clevatess has bestowed upon her does change her perspective of things. It empowers some pieces of her while forcing her to adjust to other pieces,” Wetch says. “At first she was like, well, I’m going to make the world bigger on an external level. As she’s gone through all of these things, especially dealing with her mortality, her worldview has shifted and it’s gotten bigger, but in an internal sense. Things before that she was like, I can’t do this or I won’t do this, have suddenly maybe become a possibility, and that’s such a fun story point, because that can take you anywhere.”
Nobody’s Guessing Anymore
Anyone holding a theory about where the academy arc ends up should know that the two people recording it have given up on theories entirely.
“I honestly have no clue where it’s going to go, because I could make an assumption, but then something else happens and it’s even more intricate than I expected, which I love,” Berry says. “So I’ve stopped guessing.”
Wetch’s advice for the rest of the season was shorter.
“Go along for the ride, enjoy it, let’s see where it goes.”
Clevatess II is streaming on Crunchyroll, with new English dub episodes weekly.
