Seven Deadly Sins: Dragon’s Judgement Part 2 REVIEW
Following on from the strange decision by Netflix to break the final season of Seven Deadly Sins into two parts, we finally got the conclusion to the 5 season show.
Adequately dubbed a “Netflix anime original”, Seven Deadly Sins (or Nanatsu no Taizai for the Japanese enthusiasts) Dragon’s Judgement provides a bittersweet ending but one that felt necessary given the context of the final 3 seasons.
Meliodas & Elizabeth
In this past season, we were given a fuller picture about the tale of Meliodas and Elizabeth. Cursed lovers, one fated to live forever to watch the other die and be re-incarnated over and over.
Although originally, I must admit, I did struggle to see how there was a romantic connection prior to Elizabeth regaining all her memories (a sign that death and re-incarnation is about to occur).
As Meliodas (albeit 3000 or so years old), appears to be a small child and Elizabeth (a late teens / early 20’s) princess. But they tied that together fairly nicely and it serves as a nice sub plot to push the story forward.
The ending theme song to this half of the season, followed a young silver haired boy around the kingdom of Liones, a mystery until the final episode of season 5, where we learn about Prince Tristan – the son of Meliodas and Elizabeth.
More adventures await the previously wannabe Holy Knight and now the wannabe member of the Seven Deadly Sins?
Ban & Elaine
Ban got some much needed resonance with his team members by the end of this season. Although often labelled (as in-human), being the only “human” member of the Seven Deadly Sins, second only to Meliodas in raw combat power had his major trump card taken away from him – leaving the stakes that much more open.
And sacrificing eternal life in order to resurrect Elaine was a pretty smart move. Although Elaine plays no part other than for something for Ban to protect, it does justice to his character – providing some much needed “human-ness” to him.
We learn at the end of Dragon’s Judgement, that Ban and Elaine become the first human and fairy parents, having a little child of their own, aptly named “Lancelot”.
King & Diane
At first, this was the relationship I struggled to understand the most. In previous seasons, we learned that Diane (a giantess) fell in love with King when she was a small child (due to some heroic efforts on his behalf to save her life), but had no memory of this fact until a more recent portion of the show.
King – finally realising his potential as the Fairy King was something I was hoping to see in season 4 – when he was being trained by a previous Fairy King along with Diane and her giant counterpart.
Choosing to give them a happy ending wasn’t what I was expecting to see – as it felt like the most obvious relationship to suffer grave consequences. However, by the end of Dragon’s Judgement – we learn they live happily ever after, becoming married.
Gowther
The doll with a heart. Something we’ve seen in other mediums such as Pinocchio got a fairly underwhelming end to his story. Gowther mainly provided the ability for other members of the Sins to conveniently get the job done, with his ability to show memories or enter ones mind.
He becomes the scapegoat of his creator (the real Gowther who was a demon in the Ten Commandments of times past) when all the secrets that Esterossa is in fact, Mael – an angel transformed by the original Gowther, into a demon.
He is essentially protected by the Sins, when Mael finally controls his anger and learns of the truth. Gowther goes through the most transformation in this season.
Towards the end of season 5, we learn of his wisdom when it comes to the human heart and being understood – when he reassures the Seven Deadly Sins that everyone’s wish had been realised, even the fated Merlin’s.
Merlin / Escanor / Arthur
Although the love between Merlin and Escanor was purely one way for most of the entirety of the Seven Deadly Sins, it was only in his final moments that he could make his love known for Merlin.
Escanor, with the most to loose and with a major handicap of no longer owning the grace of sunshine (his ability to basically become invincible during the day), made the ultimate sacrifice. Re-obtaining the grace of sunshine from Mael, knowing full well that he would die using it.
In his final hail-mary, helping the Seven Deadly Sins thwart the plans of the Demon King – fighting one on one with the god – he spoke to Merlin of his fondness and willingness to simply love without getting anything back in return – only to be taken back when Merlin reveals that she felt the same way, wishing he had “told her sooner”.
In a touching goodbye, he burns away – leaving a scar on her chin where they FINALLY kiss. In my opinion, the best shows are the one’s that aren’t afraid to kill off their favourite characters, and in this case – that’s exactly what they did.
Snap back into the end of the show, where we finally reveal what Merlin has been trying to achieve as part of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Being inadvertently shunted by Meliodas (during the time he first meets Elizabeth), Merlin decides to dedicate her time to learning all the magics of the world – discovering “Chaos”. A time before the gods of light and dark.
It is this plot point which skews the show right at the end, making it most untidy and saddening to see.
During a revelation by the “lady of the lake” – it is revealed to the Seven Deadly Sins that it was Merlin’s intention to revive Arthur. A king of importance that was surprisingly killed in a previous season.
Using the “power of chaos” Merlin uses her magic to revive him as “the king of chaos” – essentially giving him the ability to build whatever kingdom he see’s fit (as Camelot has been levelled at this point during the conflicts).
Merlin believes Arthur to be unclouded and pure of heart (something we see in his introduction in prior seasons), and the rightful heir to the power of “Chaos”.
It all goes a bit wrong from this point onwards. With essentially the final showdown being between Arthur (with the aide of the Sins) and Cath (his loveable cat companion).
Cath & Chaos
Yep… that’s right. The weird floaty cat thing following Arthur around for most of the show – his loyal companion conveniently pans out to be a creature born of Chaos that simply wants the power for itself.
In a ploy to obtain this power, Cath befriends Arthur in anticipation of events to come. And his method for obtaining this power…. by eating him.
It seems so fitting then, that the eventuality of Arthur “absorbing Cath” instead felt mediocre and predictable. In my opinion, we didn’t spend anywhere near enough time getting to know Arthur or Cath – so it felt strange that they would be the characters to close out the show really.
Going back to “chaos” a moment. “Chaos” sways the plot so far north at this point, that it completely destroys any plot device before it – leaning every convenient explanation of the events as the will of “chaos”. Too convenient and a weak excuse by the writers to give some kind of happy ending for Arthur.
It’s a shame that they couldn’t figure a clean way to end the show – I would have happily seen the Seven Deadly Sins take down the Demon King and let bygones be bygones… but.
Zeldris & Gelda
Meliodas’ brother and leader of the ten commandments in Meliodas’ place when he leaves the Demon Realm. He was positioned as the antagonist of previous seasons. It turned out to be a shallow illusion with Zeldris being spiteful of his misunderstanding of his brother.
Zeldris comes to blows with the Sins only to realise he was wrong the entire time.
Not only that, but we’re introduced to Gelda (a vampire and love interest of Zeldris) during the last season. Zeldris was ordered to destroy the vampire clan by his father the Demon King – choosing to save only one.
As it ended up, Meliodas is the one to save her life – with Zeldris finally learning of this fact and coming to terms with his position alongside Meliodas against their father.
By the end of season 5, I felt as though it would have been nice to see an ending for these two – but they kind of just fly away and that’s the last we see of them.
Conclusion
All in all, I think it was far past the time that The Seven Deadly Sins should have ended. In my opinion, it should have ended with a final confrontation at the end of the Holy War – between the Sins and the Demon King. Although we got it, the ending felt tainted when the writer decided to continue the story beyond that point.
I was happy to see everyone in the show get an ending of some kind with it mostly going their way.
If you really like Shonen shows then I would recommend The Seven Deadly Sins. Almost all of it is predictable. In typical Shonen format, the important characters always win and the villains always lose. “The power of friendship” is what they lean on here – an often overused sentiment in Shonen shows.
If you can look past some of the in-between’s and woeful animation stills of the show, there are enough moments to get you off your seat – especially during the hand to hand combat sequences.
At the very end, it felt too convenient. The show ends with a plot point introduced far too late to give it any merit and uses it to explain everything away.
You can watch the entirety of The Seven Deadly Sins on Netflix right now.
If you like what you’ve read here, don’t forget to check out other posts such as which games are coming out this November!
