And so our tale draws to a close, as the finale of WOE arrives.

Spoiler: My Condolences To People Who Dislike Elks
Show
Episode 5: Broken Oaths

We open on our heroes, Kellan and Ruby, heading to castle Ardenvale. Hylda made Ruby a massive great-sword of ice after she asked for a blade "as big as she was" and it is fantastic. But Kellan himself is... sad. Somber. Resigned. He is doing the Good Thing because it Must Be Done, but that doesn't mean he has to like it. The infiltrate the castle via the last of their frog potion, and meet... Rowan, surrounded by strands of Wicked Slumber. Rowan has the smallest bit of hope that hey maybe Rowan can help us too she's a hero and one of the twins, it'll be fine!

She blasts them with sleep-lightning. Being Kellan is suffering.

When they wake up, Will and his army- led by Imodane- are charging the castle. Rowan goes forth with the dreamers alongside her, puppeteered by Eriette... but despite Rowan's rage and lightning and fury and talks of power above all else and despair at being abandoned for being a little weird, they along are just not strong enough to beat Will and his forces. Dreamers die, Rowan is outsmarted and frozen to the floor by her brother, and Eriette for all her magical might can't control an army and fend off two kids- especially when one has a zweihander made of never-melt-ice. She can't even fry those who she feels dispised her such, Will's ice shielding them.

Then Ashiok returns, and the dreamers surge. They are the strongest one here, and Rowan is filled with confidence. This means she can win, this means she can delay until Ashiok tucks them all in to bed and they can actually work on saving the realm! Will blasts some ice at her, which she easily dodges.

But it was never aimed at her anyway. Ashiok gets hit real hard in the chest with a snow ball who ouch ooh and poof into shadowy mist, running away (I kid of course this probably did some serious damage, the ice coasting their chest, it's just really funny that Ashiok is so fragile that a single solid blow took them out for a bit. Wizards, my friends- remember to prepare Shield.) Ruby puts her blade to Eriette's throat (and not through it) and Eriette sends a message to Rowan; surrender and regroup.

Rowan cannot do this. Surrendering means her brother has quelled his rebel sister and graciously forgave her her transgressions. This will empower his status as High King so much. So she lightning-bolt jumps her way out of there- Will reaching out to her to stop her, but fear at what his sister has become making him unable to cross the distance. She goes to rest, recover, and one day bring the blessed slumber to Eldraine... but for now, she needs a nap.

With the witch apprehended, Will celebrates our heroes, and Ruby revels in. Kellan, however, slips off into the fae world, to make his way home.

And so he does. His home has not changed, in any way... save for himself. His parents greet him, it's all smiles and warmth, and a new coat- so beautiful that it'd look resplendent even in the highest courts. His step-father steps out to deal with some stuff, and so... conversation begins. Kellan would like to hear about his dad, and his mom is ready- though she imagines Talion told him well enough, she wants him to know her father through her eyes.

Except Talion didn't tell him. Kellan said he didn't want a boon. I, guess this is the oath breaking in the title, since literally quite nothing in this chapter that makes that title make sense. Regardless, he only wants to hear about his dad from his mom.

And??? IT'S????????? ****ING OKO!?!?!??!!?!?????

The sweetest and most purest child has a dad who is perhaps one of the worst characters in Magic, one of the modern story's nastiest bastards, one of my least favorite characters in the entire series. THAT Oko? REALLY????

Anyway, the story as it goes is this. Kellan's mother was a witch's apprentice, who one day ran into the twiggy little fae, whose handsome looks and propensity to not wear shirts attracted her eye. He told her stories of his home, a Realm beyond this, a different plane entirely- where fae ruled man. There's some confusion here, because he goes on to complain about how it's weird we can't yell at the Fae Lords or try to contest them, but also the "where fae ruled man" thing is DIRECTLY a ****ing bald-faced lie about his actual history, since Oko's ignition is directly known as being "his plane persecuted fae creatures and his spark ignites when they went to decapitate him for wanton murder, violence, and assault of a less than board safe variety".

But she didn't know that part of him yet, and did not have any way of knowing he lied, so they became quick loves. He eventually helped her out of the witch's servitude (congrats Oko you did one good thing in your entire life) and then taught her more magic and stuff.

And, when people learned she was a witch- even just an apprentice of five years, and thus shunned her, Oko tortured them. If he had his way he'd have razed entire towns in response to the slightest rudeness and seclusion she faced.

Kellan's mother realized "oh, oh he's awful" and dumped his ass, and he left. Later Kellan was born, and virtually everyone in town who shunned her warmed up to the lovely old weaver woman and her sheep and she even got a real father to take care of her boy, proving Oko's truly just the worst and wrong in every instance.

Kellan doesn't quite pick up "oh my birth dad's a piece of ****" though, and goes to bed that night agonizing over the worrying question of "why did Dad never come to see me? Am I not important or good enough?"

And look, buddy. Friend. I know where you're coming from. He shows up three years ago to ask your Mom if she wants to become the new queen of Eldraine and she says no and he doesn't visit you. Bu you've gotta understand bud, he was busy torturing Garruk and trying to destabilize the entire plane, bringing endless ruin and death upon it, because he thinks King Arthur is dumb. He had no time between being the ****tiest anarchist in existence to go see a child he doesn't care about in the slightest.

But, the worry keeps him up at night, and so he leaves on a midnight walk... and finds an omenpath. Telling himself he'll be back quickly, he just wants to see if this portal was made by his dad, he steps on in...

Meanwhile, Ashiok visits Eriette in her jail cell, eats her up in their shadow, and walks away with her, taking her somewhere her powers might be appreciated... so they can come back once Rowan is good and rested, and do this all again.


and that's the story! My thoughts:
Spoiler
Show
I'm sorry I hate Oko so much, he's such a terrible person and character and I do not enjoy him and I hope when Kellan meets him in Thunder Bluff he shoots him with one of those native american lightning guns we've seen in the teaser art for it. I want him to die so badly. Please please kill him.

Anyway this episode is fantastic, and is a really satisfying conclusion to a story that was all-in-all very solid. It's weird they don't kill Eriette but I suppose after the incident with Hylda there's a realization that hey maybe we can fix her- and for as powerful as Eriette's magic is she can't outfight two teenagers so it's not like she's actually all that dangerous. Ashiok being able to just, suck her out of prison and take her off somewhere far away wasn't expected of course, but eh. It's fine.

I feel tortuously bad for Rowan, who did not deserve any of this. Her face-heel turn is executed pretty well, but it makes me sad that she falls this far out of so many good intentions. I hope she gets redeemed and not killed- and given how Will fought against her the entire time with a passive, protective bent to everything he did, even if he feared her... I can hold out hope that she will.

I also feel terrible for Kellan. He ends this story with a pretty broken heart- not reveling in the excitement of being an honest to god true hero because the manipulation Talion set upon him just... soured it all. Being a hero isn't all its cracked up to be and it brought him down. And worse yet, there's this undercurrent in him when he finds the omenpath- the possible excitement of meeting his dad that makes him move forward. And knowing who his dad is, and how he actually is as a person, it's just... he's gonna fall into the same hole Rowan did, trusting a family member who really shouldn't be trusted. With luck, the character literally described by his creator as a sex criminal will make it very clear he deserves the fate his spark saved him from, and he'll get shot to death a thousand times.