A young aspiring knight finds himself on a perilous mission to deliver a secret letter to the King who lives across the Great Mountains. The series (a
Netflix Original) was based on the book
De brief voor de Koning by Tonke Dragt.
Examples:
- Adaptational Mundanity: Inverted; outside of two instances magic barely features in the plot of the original book. In the show, magic is given a lot more prominence, such as the prophecy and major characters having magical abilities.
- Adopted into Royalty: Tiuri was adopted into nobility when his mother remarried to a knight.
- Aerith and Bob: The cast list has names like Lavinia, Maurice, and Tristan. By contrast there’s also Tuiri, Foldo, and Iona.
- Ambiguous Situation: There is a short scene where Alianor's eyes turn black when she looks into Viridian's. However, she appears to be perfectly normal after. Some theorize the ominous face in the sky at the end is hers, hinting at a potential storyline for a second season.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Piak is this for Jussipo. The fact he stowed away on his brother’s quest makes it somewhat justified.
- Arranged Marriage: Lavinia is introduced trying to get out of one arranged by her father to save their Dying Town. It’s called off when Lavinia proposes they collect on Tiuri’s bounty.
- Ascended Extra: Lavinia appears in one chapter in the book. In the series she has a bigger role to play.
- Bad Moon Rising: The blood moon happens once every one hundred years.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Lavinia kisses Tiuri when they’re trying to figure out how to activate his powers.
- Braids of Action: Iona, the most capable and disciplined of the trainee knights, wears her hair in a braid.
- Broken Pedestal: Arman always knew Sir Fantumar was slimy, and even respected him for it. However, he’s disgusted after learning just how low his father is willing to go.
- Bury Your Gays: Jussipo is killed literally in the same episode that it's confirmed he is gay.
- The Chosen Wannabe: Prince Viridian clings to the delusion that he is the prophesied hero who will beat the Darkness, and that all his warmongering will help bring peace to the land.
- Cool Horse: Ardanwen, former steed to the black knight is this for Tiuri. He’s enormous, powerful, can take a lot more punishment than an average horse, and often serves as a Big Damn Hero when Tiuri is in trouble.
- Costume Porn: There’s no shortage of beautiful costumes.
- Demoted to Extra: Piak is the one to aid Tiuri in his journey to deliver the king's letter in the book. In the series he’s a supporting character who is mostly there for fun.
- Fantastic Racism: The other kingdoms are prejudiced against Eviellans for their use of magic.
- Foil: Lavinia and Iona. Both are street smart girls seeking to make something of themselves. However, Lavinia comes from wealth and has a Hidden Heart of Gold, Iona is a poor orphan and really as ruthless as Lavinia pretends to be.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Jussipo sacrifices himself to protect Piak.
- One-Steve Limit: Tiuri and his stepfather share the same first name.
- Orphan's Plot Trinket: Tiuri’s amulet, connecting him to his Eviellan origins.
- Parents as People: Tiuri’s stepfather treats him as he would his biological son. This includes forcing him into the knighthood trials and bribing his way ahead when the boy underperforms, because washing out would mean dishonor. Tiuri doesn’t even realize how much his stepfather loves him until Sir Tiuri lets himself be killed to keep Tiuri safe.
- Race Lift: All of the characters are white in the book. Here the protagonist Tiuri is from a fictional dark-skinned race (the actor has mixed ancestry) while several others are played by Black or East Asian actors.
