Tygren Voltaris, is he really an evil being wanting to finish what his predecessor (the Deathsinger) started? Or is he a Well-Intentioned Extremist wanting to save his clan from extinction? His dialogue with Thalleous in the first episode also hints that his rage against the other clans is also a bid for Revenge, since he knows how much Thalleous hunting his kind has affected them, showing hints of Then Let Me Be Evil.
Jalkar Bowmani, is he really an evil criminal who deserved to die? Or is he merely a mercenary who was after money and wealth? He did spare Mr. Finch and Abbigail after they fought, making a decision to knock them out instead of killing them. Some fans argue that after this, Abbigail relentlessly pursued him and Grim for the egg they stole that wasn't hers, shooting them with her bow repeatedly while they just ran and avoided her. Eventually, he gets tired of it and goes after Abbigail. After Jalkar defeats her, her dog Sam proceeds to drag Jalkar off the cliff, essentially sacrificing himself to save Abbigail. Abbigail then proceeds to kill Jalkar mercilessly, because her dog died because of Jalkar. However, fans argue that Jalkar didn't kill Sam and that Sam died from the fall.
Abbigail. Is she a kind, yet naive, girl who believed that she was doing the right thing but ended up going on a darker path? Or did she have an ulterior motive and was using Jalkar and Grim as an excuse to get what she wanted out of life, and snapped when things didn't go to plan?
Angst? What Angst?: Thalleous doesn't mention anything about Hawken's death onscreen after it happens in the first episode. Episode 9 however, reveals that he did mention Hawken to Zulius Kaltaris, during the Time Skip between Episode 1 and 2.
Abbigail doesn't seem to be very affected by the death of Sam in Episode 10. David, the director of the series, directly acknowledged this in the behind-the-scenes for Episode 10, saying that no one was too enthusiastic with it, but it was just the way the story had to progress.
Awesome Ego: Jalkar is a cocky mercenary who loves playing with his knife, but that's because he's a skilled one with very quick thinking.
A special mention goes to the majestic main theme, which first appears at the end of "Prologue", and then most notably in "Heart of Ardonia" and "Riding South" which accompany the travel montages in episodes 1 and 3, respectively.
Better on DVD: It's much better seeing the series in one marathon, rather than waiting several days (and previously weeks) for the next episodes. Watching them all via the Compilation Movie is also much better.
Broken Base: How much did Jalkar deserve to die? Was it completely uncalled for, or did he 100% deserve it for everything he's done so far? Or did he deserve to die, but not in the way that he ended up dying?
Catharsis Factor: For those who didn't like him, seeing Jalkar being killed in an absolutely merciless way by Abbigail is incredibly satisfying.
Draco in Leather Pants: Jalkar. Some fans ignore his villainous actions and paint him as a victim who didn't deserve what happened to him and kept being relentlessly hunted down by Abbigail for no reason. Even when he arguably crossed the Moral Event Horizon (abandoning Grim), he was excused by them.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Grim, who almost immediately became a fan favourite for his cute-looking appearance and personality, providing some humor to any scene that he's in, and being surprisingly competent despite his clumsiness.
Lucidius for being quite friendly despite being a villain, as well as being the nicest Voltaris we've seen so far. Many fans hope that he will join the heroes' side in later seasons. Unfortunately for them, that never happened.
Evil Is Cool: All of the villains are done in an incredibly cool way, with the Voltaris clan and Jalkar being incredibly popular with those on Discord.
Growing the Beard: The writers for the series have promised several times that seasons 2 and 3 are much better written than the first season, which they justify through Taught by Experience. This also goes for the graphics and animations being updated whenever a new technique was created for the series.
Harsher in Hindsight: In one of the bloopers, Ria throws the spear she got from Senn towards him and it impales him. Fast forward to Episode 6, which ends with Tygren Voltaris killing Thalleous Sendaris in the exact same way, just from behind.
The Voltaris clan, and the leaders in particular could be considered this, since the Voltaris are currently on the verge of extinction and the leaders (Ingressus and later Tygren) were trying to keep them alive as best they could.
Jalkar could be considered this, since he stole the Etherean Dragon Egg for money yet it proved to be much more than he could handle. At first, he was a likable character and a possible Anti-Hero who was after money. After stealing the egg, he had to deal with being relentlessly pursued by Abbigail, the Voltaris that he made a deal with for the egg, and an enderman. He slowly got worse and worse instead of doing a Heel–Face Turn. He regretted the job, claiming that it was far more trouble than it was worth. The job proved to be his undoing when he was killed off by Abbigail.
Memetic Badass: Mr. Finch can and will kill anyone who forgot to harvest the sugar cane. He even successfully fought against the Deathsinger in a one-on-one duel.Explanation Two scenes for the Episode 6-10 Bloopers reel shows him in Grim's place attacking Abbigail in Episode 7, and in Tidesinger's place against Deathsinger in Episode 10, both of which showed him doing some impressive fights.
Thalleous' Peas Explanation When the bloopers were released, Carl G. Brooks, Thalleous' voice actor, accidentally mispronounced "peace" as "peas". This caused Thalleous to go hilariously out-of-character and the scene to become a commercial for Thalleous' Own Brand Peas. Fans have rolled with it and it's become one of the biggest memes in the community, and it's even gotten official merch made out of it.
Several lines from the above meme, like "come to the countryside!", "we've got fields of peas, all around!", and "fuck this place!", have also become popular.
Rest in peas Explanation After Thalleous' death, multitudes of pea-related lines and scenarios popped up, including the aforementioned "rest in peas", wondering who will now own Thalleous' pea brand, and Tygren taking over after killing Thalleous.
X's Own Brand Y Explanation Following the Thalleous' Own Brand Peas format, with X standing in for a character and Y standing in for a product, usually food.
"And some even say...He was there." Explanation In the opening narration sequence in Episode 1, a mysterious, human-like creature is seen, referred to as "He", who supposedly participated in the Great War. Fans immediately speculated that it was the popular Creepypasta, Herobrine, and spammed the comments of that episode with jokes and theories about it.
"Don't touch my cake." Explanation In Episode 2, Marcus, the warden of the Riverstead Prison, who's negotiating Lucan's accelerated release, warns him not to take his cake when Lucan reaches for it. Moments later, Lucan takes most of the cake regardless.
How could she forget the sugar canes? Explanation After Abbigail finds the dragon stone in Episode 3, Mr. Finch scolds her for not doing her work, including harvesting the sugar canes. Later, when Abbigail and Sam's farming montage is shown, she once again forgets to harvest the sugar canes.
"No." Explanation In the bloopers, Thalleous is seen responding to Senn and Ria's questions with a blunt, deadpan "no" and then walking away, which became a bit of a Running Gag in the bloopers.
Swagger, swagger, swagger. Explanation In the episode 6-10 bloopers, Quinn O'Quinn, Jalkar's voice actor, asks everyone to describe their character in three words. Quinn begins to say something, but then is interrupted by Thalleous' voice actor saying "swagger, swagger, swagger". Bonus points for Thalleous wearing sunglasses during that scene.
Grim is best boi Explanation A declaration said by fans, most of whom consider Grim to be the best character of the series.
"It was always my plan from the beginning that Sam wouldn't make it to Season 2. I'm talking about the wolf, not my co-director."
Comparing Abbigail to John Wick, since both killed the man who was responsible for the death of their beloved dog.
Relating to the above, comparing Thalleous to Ned Stark, as both were the main protagonist in an Ensemble Cast who were killed off early in their respective series, making them the Decoy Protagonist all along.
His successor Tygren crosses this when he burns down Sendaria and gleefully revels in causing so much destruction. And then he kills Thalleous, the main protagonist and a fan favorite.
Jalkar crosses this when he abandons Grim in Episode 7.
Moment of Awesome: Any of the fight scenes, but especially the one between Thalleous and the Voltaris in Episode 6 or the legendary duel between the Deathsinger and the Tidesinger, which the audience gets to see in the Season 1 finale.
A meta example: On April 20, 2020, fans decided to recite the entire script of Season 1 on Songs of War's discussion channel on the official Discord, which lasted nearly seven hours.
One-Scene Wonder: Hawken and Eddy. Two characters, from two different episodes (1 and 3, respectively) who act as Sacrificial Lambs to some of the main antagonists of the series (the Voltaris and Necromancers, respectively), but their personalities as Plucky Comic Reliefs have endeared them to the hundreds of thousands who have watched the series.
The goat-man briefly seen in Oakendale during Episode 4, who's gained Memetic Mutation thanks to the fans.
Similarly to the goat-man, there's the "Green Thing", who has his own character panel in the Behind-the-Scenes for Episode 8. It is supposedly from a species called the "Scail" situated in Hydraphel.
Portmanteau Couple Name: Lucaniika for Lucan/Niika, Senndaria for Senn/Ria, Thallgren for Thalleous/Tygren, Didesinger for the Deathsinger/the Tidesinger, Dennigail for Denny/Abbigail, and Vulcannigail for Vulcannus/Abbigail. Out of all of them, only Lucan/Niika is canon.
The Voltaris have this effect on the fans. This may be due to the fact that the Voltaris are few in numbers, and have had one hell of an entrance thanks to Tygren.
Jalkar also has this effect on the fans. This may be due to the fact that he had an interesting dynamic with his partner Grim (a fan favourite) and the way he fights, being very skilled and showy with his knife and having awesome fights because of his competence with it.
Everything that happened in Episode 10 could count: Thalleous has a surviving brother, Galleous, who agrees to train Senn to fight against the Voltaris, The Dragon Egg hatches, the first Ender Dragon to have done so in over a century, The Necromancers have begun their invasion of Felden, and The Deathsinger never died, having travelled forward in time, TO THE PRESENT. And everything the Voltaris has done has been the plan of the Deathsinger this whole time.
Every single time a Season 2 episode ended on a Cliffhanger (which is nearly every single episode, by the way).
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Jalkar. Despite being a villain, he was a genuinely likable character at the beginning of Season 1, and was also a very competent fighter. While most were expecting him to do a Heel–Face Turn or receive some Character Development, his arc went in the exact opposite direction. He sunk lower and lower and became irredeemable to the point where he was killed off. While he is a Base-Breaking Character, it can be agreed that he was ultimately a waste of potential.
This trope, crossed with They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot, is the reason why Igneous' plotline in Season 2 was going to be heavily rewritten: it was so focused on the rivalry between K'arthen and Cydonia that it didn't spend time focusing on Igneous' character, and as such he wasn't able to do that much before his Heroic Sacrifice in Episode 17.
Tear Jerker: The deaths of both Hawken and Eddy, who were genuinely good people who did nothing wrong and were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hawken especially, as he died trying to defend his friend Thalleous.
Episode 5's ending of Sendaria being up in flames. Especially since the scene before had been light and happy, so this was a huge Mood Whiplash.
Thalleous' death. Dear god, Thalleous' death. He goes up against multiple Voltaris, all by himself, and just as he looks like he's about to succeed, he gets impaled through the torso. Seeing him fall to the ground as the lights leave his body and his Songs return to solid form near him was heartbreaking.
The death of Sam, a innocent dog who was just trying to protect his owner from being killed. The death of Jalkar in the same episode could count as well, given that he was killed in such a merciless way.
In what is the crowning example of Tear Jerker in this series, the death of the Deathsinger. If his Tragic Villain status hadn't been established enough beforehand, this scene truly cements it. As he's dying, he shows that he does truly regret his actions, especially killing his foster-brother-turned-enemy Achillean, and at his core all he wanted to save his people. He spends his last moments watching the sun set one last time, reflecting on how much he's done that. It's beautiful, in a tragic, heartbreaking way.
In the voice recording of the aforementioned scene, the Deathsinger's voice visibly cracks multiple times, and he's on the verge of tears. Senn is equally as desperate as he tries to reassure that he will restore the Voltaris clan and that the Deathsinger's efforts won't be in vain.
The Voltaris clan are made out to be evil exiles of the Ardoni clans (and they sort of are), but the fact that they are nearing extinction and attempting to prevent it causes them to be sympathetic.
Jalkar is made out to be a ruthless criminal with few morals (and he sort of is). However, the fact that he wasn't downright evil and just wanted money from stealing the Etherean Dragon Egg but was relentlessly pursued or threatened by others who wanted the egg (causing him to regret the job) places him in a sympathetic light.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Mr Finch was supposed to come off as a protective, grandfatherly figure to Abbigail, not the lying douchebag he's shown as in his debut episode. He does show his intended purpose in Episode 4 however.
Visual Effects of Awesome: The entire series is one of the best Minecraft animations on YouTube as of today, with the fight scenes at the forefront of these incredible visuals, especially in Episode 10.
Woobie: Senn. He was orphaned at a very young age, and no one was willing to adopt a clanless child besides Osivian. At the end of Episode 5, his home, Sendaria, is burned down, with no sign of his family or his adopted sister Ria, who he was close to. In Episode 6, his friend and mentor, Thalleous, dies, and Senn is forced to escape Sendaria to avoid getting killed by the Voltaris, and he is now alone in the world, distraught and grieving. Though he thankfully makes a friend in Igneous in the next episode, this is after the prejudice and apathy from the people of Hogtown, who refuse to help look for survivors from Sendaria. Someone give this guy a hug.
Abbigail and Ria, who both suffer a massive Trauma Conga Line and go through a lot of Break the Cutie over the course of the series.
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