Four warriors so courageous!
Gormiti, Lords of Nature!
Gormiti, Lords of Nature!
Starting in 2012, the Gormiti franchise had a reimagining under the title of Gormiti: Nature Unleashed, animated in CGI and written by Man of Action Studios, who worked on shows such as Ben 10 and Generator Rex. Taking place in an Alternate Continuity, the story follows the adventures of four Gormiti Princes from the tribes of Earth, Sea, Forest and Air, as they try to save the island from the devious Magor, with the help of their guide and mentor, the Old Sage.
Abandoning the previous show's premise of a group of human kids going between worlds and instead picking Gormiti native to the island as protagonists, this series replaces most of the long-running Gormiti cast (with the exception of Magor and Old Sage) while reusing many of the preexisting locations on Gorm (such as the Plain of Astreg, Fire Mountain and Eagle's Peak) as well as introducing new concepts in the form of the Gorm Stones and their summoning/creating abilities.
This show is so far the shortest runner of the franchise, having only one season comprising of 26 episodes and airing between 2012 and 2014 on Cartoon Network and Boing.
Gormiti: Nature Unleashed provides examples of:
- Aborted Arc: The series was originally scheduled for 52 episodes instead of 26, with the ones that were shown featuring different plots (such as Agrom losing his stone instead of Piron, more Lava Gormiti being introduced, episode ideas that were never shown or picked up on).
- Actually, I Am Him: Old Sage keeps from the Princes the existence of Magor having a brother, likely because them learning his true identity so soon would compromise his plans to stop his brother.
- Adaptational Badass: Not Old Sage was ever shown to be weak before, but he wasn't exactly seen fighting aside from one attack towards Magor at the end of Neorganic. Here? He wipes the floor with the Lords just to teach them a lesson in self-control.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Downplayed and ultimately subverted. The Lava Gormiti are still evil, but they do so out of genuine belief their way of living and thinking is their own "good", rather than being evil for the sake of causing chaos. Additionally, Old Sage is remarkably the first Lava Gormiti in the franchise not to purposefully cause mayhem and instead works with the heroes throughout the entire show.
- Subverted with the Vomica as well. Piron dreaded them as sea monsters, but as it turns out, they were little more than wild but otherwise neutral creatures so long you don't threaten them. The show makes a point to say that no creature is inherently evil and that bad actions are mostly the result of circumstances rather than an innate part of any Gormita's behavior.
- Anachronism Stew: Somewhat justified since Gorm doesn't obey Earth history, but while the characters seemingly live in a middle-age based society, they often use terms and allusions to more modern things, such as slang or devices that wouldn't exist back then (example being: Noctis sarcastically asks if it looks like he's changing a lightbulb during a battle).
- Artistic License – Biology: In-universe, Noctis notes how the Gerz's multiplying directly goes against the laws of nature, as a result of Magor throwing everything out of balance.
- Butt-Monkey: Noctis is often on the receiving end of either Agrom or Tasaru's clumsiness. If not, he can be the first one to get hit for his attitude or a lack of carefulness.
- By the Power of Grayskull!: Much like their predecessors, the Princes activate their transformations through shouting, by saying "Unleash the power(s) of the [element]".
- Cain and Abel: Piron and his brother Deron were originally set up for this as hinted by early summaries and character descriptions, but the plot was abandoned and Deron only opposes Piron in a hostile manner while under the Lava Mind's influence. Played very much straight with Old Sage and Magor's conflict.
- Convection, Schmonvection: Zig-Zagged. The Lords do start feeling the heat when entering the Fire Kingdom but otherwise seem to withstand being inside the volcano without much complaining or difficulty.
- Deconstruction: Of the franchise's previous iterations' formulas. Unlike the Lords of Nature from Venture Falls or the ones they're based on, the Princes argue very often and their clashing personalities tends to cause tensions, without being seen as too much of a bad thing unless the situation calls for it. The tribes also show reluctance letting four kids with great power take the reins in stopping a war with the lava tribe, while the Lava Gormiti themselves are depicted more sympathetically (without excusing their actions. Namely, the main goal of the Princes becomes not to defeat the Lava tribe, but bring peace to all elements of Gorm, fire included.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Played straight with Burning. Though it helps that he's a Forest Gormiti instead of an actual Fire Gormiti, he looks just like the kind of creature that'd cause mayhem and attack our heroes... but doesn't, instead aiding them in battle once summoned by Lord Tasaru.
- A Day in the Limelight: While Agrom is usually the main character by default, often the narrative will have him busy captured or separating while one (usually Noctis) or more of his teammates takes over.
- Eccentric Mentor: Old Sage at times. He's responsible and aims for peace between tribes, but isn't above finding the Princes' bickering amusing and giving them a beatdown afterwards.
- Evil Costume Switch: Once Glass Empress falls under the Lava Mind's influence, her hair becomes red and she wears a dress made of stones and red leaves.
- Fire-Forged Friendship: The Princes' bond. They bicker and fight very often, but that ultimately ends up bringing them closer together and more understanding of one another. That dynamic remains even later in the show, though somewhat justified as they're all reckless teenage boys with very little other outlet while on their quest.
- Fluffy the Terrible: You'd be forgiven to assume the tiny small Gerz are harmless until they multiply and start eating everything on their way faster than termites.
- Foreshadowing: Old Sage doesn't burn himself touching a burning scroll and hid himself from Firespitter in his debut. Surely enough, him being the brother of the Lord of the Lava Gormiti explains such endurance and behavior.
- Fusion Dance: Megassus, the union of the four Lords of Nature in one. Magor gets his own version, nicknamed Magorsus, by merging himself with all nearby Lava Gormiti.
- Good Is Not Nice: Old Sage may be kind, but he will not hesitate to pay the Princes' recklessness back in physical attacks should they try his patience or attack him without thinking. He also has little qualms about keeping them out of the loop regarding what he's planning to do to save Gorm, in spite of the trust they already have in him.
- Graying Morality: One interesting characteristic this show has in comparison to most iterations is that there is no defined innate trait for evil. While all the villains are Lava Gormiti, Old Sage proves to be heroic and encourages the Princes to accept fire as an element of nature anyways, which is a first for the franchise. Additionally, many of the conflicts the Princes have to deal with often reside within their tribes' inhibitions and stubbornness (including their own at times). Anyone could be doing good or bad depending on the circumstances (be it a conscious decision, under a false belief or merely out of ignorance), and that doesn't exclude the protagonist themselves.
- Honor Before Reason: What causes most of the tensions with the tribes. Petrifus would rather have Tasaru remain in the pit as a fighter than go protect Gorm as a prince (the kind of thinking that makes Tasaru so gung-ho about battling most of the time) and it becomes quite difficult to discuss peacefully with King Nadar and the rest of the tribes in the latter episodes, even without Magor influencing their behavior.
- A House Divided: The Princes' interactions boil down to this quite often. While in some cases they're not in control of themselves, they do have a tendency to argue and end up fighting even in critical situations.
- Mythology Gag: Noctis claims that his tribe would never follow Magor's orders out of its own volition. People who know about the original continuity Air Lords Helios and Devilfenix would know that the Air tribe was, in fact, the only tribe to have ever gone evil just as their Lords did, with no mind control involved.
- Obviously Evil: Andrall's appearance hardly is reassuring, making King Nadar look somewhat gullible for trusting his word over Agrom's just because Andrall came to their nation first.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Lava Gormiti in general, and anyone under the influence of the Lava Mind, are not to be crossed, with burning red eyes to match.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Fittingly, Piron is the blue to all of his team's red. Most of the time, everyone switches between red and blue depending on the situation at hand.
- Related in the Adaptation: Would you believe that the Big Good and the Big Bad of the previous continuities are actually brothers in spite of their appearances and alignments?
- Reused Character Design: You'll find many, many duplicates of the same character models in huge crowds, likely due to a lack of resources.
- Token Human: Much like the original continuity, Old Sage is, aside from Glass Empress (who herself looks ghostly/heavenly) the most human-looking character of the show, which nobody seems to acknowledge for some reason. Subverted when it's revealed that as Magor's brother, he's in fact a Lava Gormiti.
- Totally Radical: Heavily downplayed, but some of the characters often use expressions and acronyms such as "gee whiz!" and "TTYL". See Anachronism Stew above.
- True Companions: Say what you will about them, but the Princes of Gorm have a unique and honest friendship. They may battle from times to times, but it's eventually an inherent part of their bond together. In the darkest of times, they'll always shine through their differences and stay united as a team.
- We ARE Struggling Together: When united against Magor in Hearthkeep, it still takes the Princes' involvement to get the troops working more efficiently.
- We Can Rule Together: Suggested by Andrall at first, and later Magor. He recognizes the Princes' might and does want the Heart of Gorm back as one, but under his rule instead of free, and is open to the idea of making the Princes obey his orders instead of eliminating them for his stones.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Blart sadly doesn't last beyond his debut. Tribesmen of his variant do appear quite a few times however.
- You Remind Me of X: Magor notes that Agrom reminds him of himself when he was younger during their first real confrontation. Their similar names likely help.
