UserTheVisitor

The series revolving around a major historical character, a Hungarian warlord and governor who lived in the 1400's and played a pivotal role in defending medieval Hungary against the Ottoman attacks at the time. Despite the series is Hungarian, it is obviously aiming international viewers, this is well recognizable by the number of fights, war scenes, conspiracies, and even nude scenes. Even the main title was created with fancy CGI, little bit after the likes of Shogun or GOTY.

At this point , only the two pilot episodes have aired, but we might have a feeling of the tone. It is starting with a relatively larger war scene, also giving a background to the titular character's motivation in the form of a childhood tragedy, plus giving an allegory to the Hunyadi family's Raven sigil. We are going tobve introduced to the hero, the old king, the 2 main love intererests (one of them is a femme fatale with a tragic fate), and some antagonist, amongst one is going to be the main conspirator, just like "little finger" was in GOTY. During the first episode we are also getting a second war scene (which is faily generous that we are getting two in one episode and they are not robbing our time with going-to-nowhere boring conversations) Probably it is fair to say the series has a very strong historical background but the way of the visual presentation and plot setting is heavily influenced by Game of Thrones - possibly with the aim of promoting Hungarian history amongst other nations as well.

In most aspects the creators done a great job. The plot seems mostly OK, the visuals are on the level of the usual international shows (however, at this point we are still waiting for a really spectacular war scene; it isblike tge first season of Vikings compared to later seasons); but we might say they used the budget well. The conspiracies are fairly interesting during the first two episodes. There are some cons as well: the plot mainly OK, but there are some minor holes, like the titular character falls too soon in love with the second main love interest, and could have grief longer because he is denied to have the love of the first one; the visuals usually good, but sometimes could be better (I am looking at the throne rooms), there are many good actors, but some of them just not provide an enough convincing play. Fanni Töröcsik should be mentioned as a positive example, she is a very suggestive female character, "chains" the viewer's eyes with her acting. Sometime the voice of the actors is a bit "lifeless" not containing enough emotion in Hungarian language; this is a fairly common problem nowadays with Hungarian film acting, but this might be solved with dubbing, so foreign viewers probably will not have this issue.

Probably the number of the sex scenes or nude scenes is a bit too much, but of course the show is aiming to have international audience and they must have felt it is a necessity. It is a bit interesting, that the second episode even contains a lesbian scene, which is surprising, considering where the funding comes from; - however it is almost a copy of a specific Game of Thrones scene with the young Daenerys,- so again, obviously aiming for a larger audience. We are also having our main conspirator, whonis a historical figure, but the preeebtation of the character is heavily based on "Little Finger"; - and this Historical character is interesting, but not as compelling yet as his GOTY counterpart.

All-in-all, after first 2 episodes, it is a promising series, and I am definitely going to follow the new episodes. At least it will be an interesting and mainstream presentation of Hungarian history.

The first episode contains every usual elememts which are needed for an entertaining medieval show with lot of conspiracy and war , - and this is one of the stories based on real historical events. The first episode briefly glimps into Hunyadi's childhood (providing a proper motivation for the character's later life) then it jumps to his first adventures and years as apprentice of the Serbian ruler. We are starting with a major warfare scene as ut should be, in order to set the tone. Most of the plot settings are placed cleverly, the characters are introduced in a good way. I especially liked the hommage they made to the Hunyadi family's flazon, which is a raven holding a ring in it's beak. The origin of the flazon is explained as a reference of Hunyadi's childhood catharzis. We are getting to know 2 women who are the most important lovw interests of the titular character, and also some antagonists, one of them is going to play a role simiar to "little finger" in GOTY. We are also getting some nude scenes which looks inevitable these days... All-in-all it is a good start - however sometimes we have the usual problem with hungarian actors, that their voice feel artifocal, "plastic", without real emotion. Luckily, this does not goes to every actory but in case of some actors, it is still quite embarassing. However, possibly dubbing makes it irrelevant in foreign versions.

The series is basically a spin-off of to both the Clone Wars series and the Mandalorian/Ahsoka series. The animation style follows what we get used to in Clone Wars, only it is even more detailed, even more beautiful.

The title is a bit misleading since we will have little insight to the Empire's inner mechanisms, and the 2 main characters are not considered to be central players within the Empire. There will be some short cameos of important Empire characters, but that could happen in any series.

Despite the average episode length is short, around only 15 minutes, it is usually enough to tell a whole story, sometimes even with a well-composed message.

The season is divided equally between the 2 "protagonists". The first half is dedicated to Morgan Elsbeth, we can see her Dathomir witch origins, and I am especially glad that the first episode brings into live screen the conflict between Nightsisters and Grievous. In the latter two episodes we can see how she became the ruler whom we saw in season 2 of the Masndalorian. Honestly, maybe these 2 episodes are the least exciting in the series, with the exception of the cameo of a fan-favourite character, explaining the bond between Morgan and him.

The second half of the series concentrate on Barriss Offee. With her plotline happened circa a decade ago in Clone Wars, she might be unfamiliar for some of the viewers. She was a padawan, who became a close friend to Ahsoka, but later betrayed her. Barriss, disillusioned with the Jedi Order, orchestrated the attack on the Jedi Temple, than blamed it on Ahsoka, - which ultimately led to Ahsoka's own disillusionment with the jedi, and caused her to leave the jedi order.

Actually this half of the season was more interesting for me, and because Barriss had no established fate in the saga until now, the creators had completely free choice what to do with her. I would say they used this opportunity well and created a story worth to tell. Her character was made interesting enough, especially considering her past. I do hope this was not the last of Barriss.

All-in-all, not being flawless, and obviously having constraints of a limited series, the Tales of the Empire does great job, and I definitely recommend it.