Personally, I was extremely torn.
The story is absolutely phenomenal, but I have wondered if the proposed narrative of presenting the past in season one, and then the present in season two would have been better.
However! I also understand the current narrative allowed for a gradual world building and it was an opportunity for the readers to acquire information along with IAN.
Most of the time readers have an over powered understanding of the universe in a story because readers are able to see multiple perspectives, and are given detailed explanations. This narrative allowed readers to follow the journey of exploration, according to how IAN would rather than being given the privilege of understanding, everything before hand.
I think.
I haven’t read this for over a year or so if I misinterpreted anything… my apologies. I’ll reread it when season three start coming out.
P.S. yes, I read your entire comment and enjoyed your take on it.
personal opinion about the story incoming (why yes i am starved for content of our boys thanks for noticing)
personally i disagree with the idea that season 2 a.) should have been shown 1st or b.) that it’s too long.
a.) new world = exposition required. ian’s perspective is more compelling because the author can establish lore without revealing too much. we start with ian navigating life as both church knight and a cursed one, brixton being overfamiliar but not necessarily out of line, and sol as the enigmatic yet charming mentor. we root for ian while realizing there’s MUCH more to (and between) sol and brixton without knowing the full extent, which is tantalizing!
then ian has to navigate his world being forcibly expanded while falling in love with sol and still feeling allegiance to brixton. sol has to hide the extent of his love for ian while not making ian feel trapped. brixton meanwhile goes mask off with his obsession laid bare. interesting moments from the top of my head are the way brixton grips ian’s shoulders when he’s on his knees begging for ian to wait for him outside of derwin, and ian feeling jealous/discomfort listening to the ballad of the dragon knight when sol is ecstatic to see him at the banquet. the intrigue has picked up so much steam.
then things boil over! ian says he’s not brian, sol can’t tell the truth without destroying ian’s understanding of brixton and the world at large, and brixton is ready to start a war just to get ian back!! oh my! how interesting!!! why is that!!
that’s the WHOLE point of the change in time period to the past! it tells you why! the past, with love and care and a pace that matches the rate at which ian and sol fell in love, shows you why sol fell so unfathomably deep in love with brian and how lorkan became irreversibly obsessed with brian. it recontextualizes their present behavior in season 1.
if season 2 came first a LOT more lore would need to be explained in depth. all of it would clog the story’s pace (dragons and monsters? human sacrifices? rhea and rudrach? lower and upperstead? brian’s strength? the creation of the world? etc etc etc?), because brian’s understanding of the world is informed and fairly complete while ian’s is very much not. brian simply knows too much for the author to quickly but interestingly set up the world. ian being in the dark is the perfect reason for the author to tell us stuff without breaking the flow of the story.
basically: the present would lose its intrigue and impact if it wasn’t told first. the past is the payoff for the present, and will enhance the stakes of season 3: the situation has changed from ian being caught between unfamiliar freedom and familiar yet painful secrecy to ian being caught between the infinite love and thousand year old grudge of two very old powerful dragons.
you can not me that starting at the past instead of the present would make a more interesting story without the author needing to scrap the entire current narrative. i’m not saying it can’t work, it’d probably be just as good, but it would require different construction on such a fundamental level that you’r basically telling a different story. a story with the same timeline, characters, and premise, yes, but a different story nonethless.
b.) because i liked it that’s why LOL if you read all of this thanks so much! my grip on sanity is slipping so please be dont be too hateful if you disagree :3