Season Review: Nomad of Nowhere Season One

No-Mad, just disappointed.

During this odd breather period between now and end of October, it’s easy to forget that there was a time when Rooster Teeth wasn’t putting out a new episode of one of their animated shows each week. It was barely half a decade ago when the entirety of their cartoon line up was RVB and the then-fledgling RWBY. And yet since then, they’ve produced half a dozen more (with varying degrees of success) with more on the way as the animation department continues to expand, and their newest addition, Nomad of Nowhere, has now completed its first season. After twelve episodes released over the course of five months, let’s look back on its initial wandering, with all the bumps and stops along the way.

Story:

The first half began with an appropriate enough introduction to our leads, with the Nomad propelled on his journey by the pursuit of Toth, Skout, and the Dandy Lions while the audience was shown a dry wasteland that was as barren as it was full of narrative potential. Based on the first episode, I expected something episodic for at least this first season. Toth and Skout’s group would try to catch the Nomad somewhere, a bounty hunter would maybe get involved, rinse and repeat. I was glad that this isn’t what we got (aside from the fourth episode, which was apparently written as a proof-of-concept for the show, and my least favorite episode of this season), but what we ended up with wasn’t much of a comfort. Toth and Skout barely interact with their quarry after their first encounter, while the Nomad himself comes across his own obstacles that mostly ranged from vaguely interesting (such as his fight with the Ranch Hand in Ep 3) to blatantly just being set up for maybe cool things down the road (like his wandering through El Rey’s abandoned castle in Ep 6).

This might have to do with the fact that we’d barely spent any time in it at that point, but even if the characters showed some promise, the world they were in was, incidentally, dry and empty like the desert they were in. What also wasn’t helping things was the art design. They ended up using the same animation program as they use for the rest of their 2D shows, Toon Boom, and while it has worked well for purely comedic properties like Camp Camp and X-Ray and Vav, Nomad of Nowhere is considerably more dramatic and story based, which has led the art designs and the writing meeting a pretty glaring tonal clash more often than not, at least for me. It’s not impossible to have light-hearted character designs be put in believably tense and dramatic situations, as mainstream hits like Adventure Time or Gravity Falls are prime examples of, but there way too many moments where I am unclear exactly how I am meant to be feeling about a given scene when the visuals look so easy going but the writing indicates more tension.

The major highlight of this batch by a wide margin would have to be Episode 5, “The Kindness of Strangers”, which acts as both as a way to explore the Nomad’s abilities and limitations, as well as a dissection of how his powers and personal morals impact those around him. It has the aforementioned muddied tonal issues (mainly with the scenes involving Big Jib the mood killer), but it’s also a clear example this show can manage what it has under the right circumstances. It’s no surprise that interest in the show heightened after this episode, but while it gave me hope the quality would pick up, the momentum was about to come to a screeching halt.

For whatever reason, the series took a four-month hiatus between April and August, noticeably impacting the already lukewarm reception it had already been receiving. When it finally returned, it still had the same issues as before, but with a giant unexplained gap that only added undue expectations to the rest of the season, since the latter half was certainly not worth this much of a wait. Skout and Toth’s dynamic and the relationship got some much-needed growth and development, as well as the Nomad’s own origins, but the setting remained stagnant, much of the cast stayed one-note, and glimpses of threats on the horizon felt more exhausting than exciting. I fully admit I could be reaching here, but it felt like the writers were had more interest in getting the parts they liked in future seasons than they were in the story in front of them. The finale, in particular, didn’t give me a whole lot to be excited for in the future, but what I did get mainly came from the core cast.

Characters:

The Nomad:

Fittingly for his title, the Nomad’s personal journey this season was kind of all over the map, both developmentally and chronologically. At the start, he’s ironically been staying put in a bramble patch for well over a century and gets roused by meeting Skout, his first new friend since his last human interaction. Though even when the group she’s with destroys his home, his only thought is of saving them from death before running away. He finds soon after that he can’t always approach things so simply when he reaches Bliss Hill and faces his first bounty hunter in Eps 2 and 3, needing to actively defend both himself and the people around him. He then meets the Undertaker in Ep 5, who forces him to face the odd nature of his unique ability to give life, as well as his strong cherishing of life and protecting it. After that, a brief talk with Toth reveals to him that he might actually protect more people if he left, which makes him decide that running might his best bet. But then trouble continues to find him, leading his capture, remembrance of his true past and purpose, and the opportunity to protect a large number of people under an oppressive rule.

Though with all of this in mind, the main point of curiosity for me has to do with the light in his chest. We learn in Ep 10, “The Witch and The Knight”, that the Nomad is actually a scarecrow given life by a magic stone. Throughout the season, we’ve seen what turns out to be the stone glow whenever he protects someone or something, but why? Is it storing up magic for each protective act? If so, for what? And what does it count as protection? Does lying to protect someone’s feelings count or is it just protecting things from physical problems? Or is it just the stone’s weird way of saying “hey, good jorb there, buddy”? Lots of questions here, which hopefully get answered in future seasons.

Toth:

It’s not easy to write a descent to the dark side (the Star Wars prequel trilogy being a good example of how it can go wrong), but that’s definitely what’s been Toth’s journey this season. Being part of a group of people starved for magic in a world with nearly none, Toth begins the story with the single minded goal of helping her people by capturing the Nomad, and in order to do that, she must follow the rules and damn any who cross them or her. Though one wrinkle appears that starts getting in her way: her fiercely loyal spittoon girl, Skout. As the only one who respects or even likes her, Toth takes to Skout rather quickly, even favoring her help over her own troops. But because Skout is very inexperienced, she ends up doing more harm than good. Eventually, Toth has to push her away in order to accomplish her goal, but even that gets stripped away when a subordinate captures the Nomad before her. With no other options, she even plans to betray her superior now that the rules have failed her and manipulates Skout’s obvious feelings for her to do so. By the end, she’s lost her only friend, but her willingness to act may have put her in favor of a higher position of power.

Which is a terrible idea if you’ve been watching her in action this season, because she was a terrible leader to the Dandy Lions, regardless of her favoritism to Skout. The first episode showed her willingness to leave her men to die in a burning bramble forest, which then almost killed her too. In the fourth, she tried to mooch off the work of circus performers who successfully captured the Nomad themselves, then helped him to get away by fighting with them. The sixth had her endangering Skout’s life by bringing her into a sandstorm and fighting a monster. At least once Skout was gone, she wasn’t putting her subordinates in mortal danger, but then it really wasn’t that much of a surprise when her designated Starscream, Red Manuel, finally managed to do her job for her and take her place as Captain. To sum it up, as long as she’s single minded and consumed with her emotions, Toth is going to be constantly hitting a wall no matter how interesting her character arc can potentially be.

Skout:

It’s no surprise that Skout’s own arc is the most interesting, seeing how it covers both sides of the conflict. She starts as Skout’s lowest underling and yet her closest confidant, but her enthusiasm doesn’t help, and sometimes hinders their progress. She’s the voice of reason at times, but not in a way that gets most people to be reasonable. She has clear romantic feelings for Toth (whether they’re reciprocated is unclear), but then finds herself being pushed away despite her constant support. But it’s only after that when she gets an objective look at the Nomad as a force for positive change after meeting him in the first episode. She then completely changes sides, even needing to turn on Toth to keep people safe. When we leave her, she’s heading off with the Nomad into the sunset to spread goodness, but where this will end up is unclear, but Skout has finally found her true purpose independently.

Skout’s relationship with Toth easily became the emotional heart of the show, with both being separated by social class, fighting ability, and eventually physical space. But somehow, until the end, they were still closer than most. It’s both refreshing to see RT have a same sex romantic relationship have such prominence in one of their shows…and frustrating, since it seems to be so difficult to make it happen in their other stories. The turbulence I can forgive since romances in their shows tend to not have happy endings anyway, but their bond definitely the thing I am most interested in seeing more of in future seasons, especially now that they are at odds.

But the other main question surrounding her would be her connection to the Nomad’s former friend Melinda and how it will impact her going forward. Descendant or reincarnation, it’s unclear how they are related, but I doubt it’s coincidental. But she’s already pro-Nomad and against El Rey, so even if she learns she was descended from a magic rebel, she’s already made the choice to do so on her own. Thus, the most interesting thing that could come out of this would be her possibly being able to learn magic. I just hope her character development isn’t just ability upgrades from here on.

Villains:

We also had a handful of other minor and major antagonists, all of which are less interesting than the last. In the upper level of focus are Don Paragon and Red Manuel, the former being solely the posh rich villain and nothing more, while Red Manuel is scheming and conniving while contributing very little (until he suddenly does). Despite the Nomad’s bounty being a prominently featured thing, bounty hunters are pretty rare in the season and are phased out before the halfway point. We get a sneak peek at Toro, one of the Governors AKA the mini-boss squad for the series, but he doesn’t do much but quip. His champion, meanwhile, is a block of wood and is swiftly killed by Skout of all people. Basically what I’m saying is that villains are one of many things this show should and could be doing better at.

Hopes and Fears:

While the bar is pretty dang low, that also means there’s plenty of room to for the story to grow. I’ve said I like Ep 5 a lot, but that’s because it’s an interesting and detailed character study of the Nomad that works entirely on its own. Instead of focusing so much on displaying a grand plan of the series, I think it would be better to have some stand-alone stories to really show there are multiple lessons this world can teach us. The Nomad having a partner in crime in Skout, that opportunity doubles, especially once they end up in the other cities.

But this season has also shown that there are some things the writers are still learning to do, and part of that is giving things proper justification. The El Rey backstory, while visually stunning, does nothing for the Nomad and only serves to inform the audience of maybe cool things we might see later. Though possibly the most glaring example of this would be the ending of Episode 9 as it relates to Skout. Considering the situation, without any sort of sudden help, she should have died by Red Manuel’s hand. Why she was captured is left completely unexplained, and it just makes it seems like the staff simply didn’t want her to die and therefore made it not happen. That’s inexcusable if you want believable tension going forward. If characters can just avoid danger with no actual in-story reason, it makes things a lot harder to take seriously if they ever face those circumstances again.

Conclusion:

When this series was first revealed, it was advertised as “two-parts Samurai Jack and True Grit with just a dash of The Lord of the Rings”. Turns out, it’s none of those things. Surprisingly, saying the names of well-liked things next to your own thing does not make your thing like those. If anything it’s an odd mash-up of “Trigun” and “Avatar: The Last Airbender”, but not in any of the ways that helped set those stories apart in a positive way. In a word, Nomad of Nowhere is dry. Not only is its setting and the majority of its characters lacking in any noticeable flavor to speak of. I don’t know how creator Geordan Whitman’s conception of the show originally would be different from this, but whatever it might have been, what it is now is in need of a serious retooling. Rooster Teeth has prided itself on its creator-driven stories for better or worse, and first seasons are often pretty rough, but there’s no need for them to be THIS rough.

Understandably, there are a lot of worries that there might not be a Season 2. The show started during RT’s big transition away from Youtube and wasn’t grabbing as many favorites as their other cartoons. I personally don’t think this show is dead yet (partly because they need two to fill a Blu-Ray release), but if the next season is the last, I hope this can act as a learning experience for both those who worked on it and those who watched it.