Ep. 01: Clevatess

A powerful beast, an undead warrior, and a baby walk into a bar, and then… Okay, let’s get serious. I went back and forth over whether I was going to cover Clevatess. But I can tell you now, after watching episode one, that sleeping on this would have been a huge mistake. The characters are interesting, the plot has multiple layers of depth… And while it started a little slow, by the end of the episode–which has a cliffhanger as steep as the grand canyon–all I could think is, “I have to wait a week to see what happens next? No!”

Our story begins with a young girl being taught by her father about the fact that the realm they live in is surrounded by lands ruled over by four powerful Beasts. It’s interesting the way that this is set up. The edges of the map being a realm of the unknown makes me think of the concept of Leviathan, and other sea monsters, which would generally be associated with unknown territory by sailors in the middle ages.

But back to our story! This girl grows up to be a hero of her people. Mind you, in my opinion what they are doing isn’t really heroic. I can understand if the issue is that they believe they cannot get safe passage to new lands, blocking them from potentially finding other places to trade or communicate with people. That said, the moment we find out that Clevatess is capable of communication, any sympathy I have for an anime styled rendition of Gaston’s “Kill the Beast” was totally out of the window. These people were right within the context of their needs. But they attacked things which were not attacking them, with the intent of wiping them off the face of the earth. When they got their asses handed to them, it was totally a fool around and find out moment. They had it coming.

This hubris only continued as Clevatess, now aware that the humans have successfully made weapons that can damage his horn, decides that he needs to go into their lands and do something about that. Before it becomes a real problem. Just like the humans, he wants what is best for those under his rule. Unlike the humans, he claims to have not interacted with humanity in roughly a thousand years. Which tells me these people–and the legend we learned about at the start of the episode–started this.

There is a possibility that lesser beasts have been an issue for human settlements. But we don’t know how sentient those are, or what their role is in the ecosystem of this world. We do know that the humans came to kill Clevatess specially, and that he can talk. That’s a dick move, in my opinion. We also know that Clevatess is hella powerful. If he had wanted to wipe humanity out, he could have done so at any time of his choosing. And yet he slept.

When Clevatess makes it to the castle, shit hits the fan. The humans try to fend him off, but everything they chuck at him seems to bounce off of him like it doesn’t exist. Despite this, Clevatess actually tries to communicate with the king. He asks the king to explain the nature of man, and the idiot is so arrogant that all he can say is, “a beast would not understand”.

That made me wanna punch a pillow. Its one thing if the fool wans to throw his own life away, but to potentially condemn his people to assuage his own ego was infuriating to watch. What an absolutely stupid response.

Is it a bit cold that Clevatess lopped off his head like the chef from the Little Mermaied’s “Le Poisson” song? Sure. But after saying something so dumb, I’m not fully convinced the jerk was using his brain enough for anyone to think that he’d miss it.

As he is leaving the area, Clevatess is implored to care for a baby boy by a woman who has been trapped under the rubble. He initially tries to ignore this, but ultimately gives into her plea when she perishes, leaving the baby alone and at the mercy of the elements and anything else that might come around.

The sequences between Clevatess and baby Luna are some of the funniest moments in the episode If something with so much depth and such interesting commentary on the nature of people is going to be balanced out by something so endearing and hilarious, I think we’re really in for a treat. I think, in his heart of hearts, that there is a quiet kindness and dignity to Clevatess. I also think he is used to putting up with zero bullshit. Something he is learning, very quickly, that he cannot apply to a human infant.

The realization that Luna is going to need milk causes Clevatess to revive the girl we met at the start of the story. Now undead, and able to be controlled by him remotely if he desires, he tells her that he wants her to feed the baby. I almost choked on my drink from laughing so hard. There’ll be those who cry perv or misogyny, but that all misses the point. Clevatess obviously worries for Luna’s wellfare, whether he’s willing to admit it or not, but he has no clue how to actually take care of an infant. The girl, Alicia, explains to Clevatess that what Luna needs is a wet nurse. Which becomes their new objective as Clevatess orders her to come with them and get this sorted out.

The dynamic between the three looks like it should be a lot of fun. Clevatess shifts from being a terrifying force of nature, concerned parent, to a domineering master dealing with a servant who does not want to be there, and finally to a frail-bodied mortal who gets K.O.’d by bandits. Because yeah, that was a thing.

As our strange trio end the episode riding in a cart, hands bound and likely on their way to a slave market, there are other forces at bay which I’m sure will brush up against our three leads as the series moves forward. First, there is the knowledge that Luna is likely a descendant of the royal family, and the king Clevatess killed earlier in the episode was likely Luna’s grandfather.

There are also dignitaries of a foreign nation who are already keenly aware of the fact that the castle has fallen and the royal family are slain. Guess who eager they are to try and swoop in and get ahold of the tech this place was using to make those weapons we saw the heroes using earlier? Probably more eager than I am to see the next episode of this, and that’s saying something.

This development doesn’t surprise me. Whenever there is a gap in power, you can always bet your boots that there will be someone or something eager to step up and take its place. Much like how this mess started with the people of this kingdom thinking they could take out Clevatess and his beasts to improve their own standing, neighboring nations are bound to step in and figure that if these people fell down someone oughta bust in and take what they’ve left behind.

But the thing I really wanna note here is the guy I’ve got up on the screen. I’m not sure how he is, exactly, but my gut tells me that by the end of this show there’s a good chance he’ll make me even more mad than the king did. The standard politicizing I’ve been discussing, which was mainly focused on a brown haired guy who was leading this group, is basically standard political procedure for any place that puts its focus on pragmatism. But this guy? Something tells me that he’s just plum nuts and that he’s just as interested in the suffering of these people as he is in advancing the position of his home nation. We’ll have to wait and see if my hunch is right here.

But with creepy foreign dude talked about, that pretty much sums up everything that really stood out to me here. This show seems like it’s off to a fantastic start. It did a great job of grabbing my interest and leaving me with a ton of questions that I’m eager to get the answer to. And that cliffhanger? It went far harder than it needed to. But that’s great, because it just makes me want to see what happens next that extra bit more.

So, did you watch Clevatess episode one? What did you think? I’d love to know, so feel free to leave a comment.