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Wielders: Guardians of the Realm

Author: ChloeShepherd810 

Genre: Fantasy

Review is based on the first 5 chapters.
We were asked to focus on the scenes, mechanics and writing style.

Review might contain spoilers (Sorry!)

One of the things I found interesting about the beginning of the story was that in the first chapter the MC monologued like he was a legendary hero. It made for a strange and hilarious opening to the story and introduction to Sora.

Sora is an interesting guy in the first part of the chapter. As I mentioned before his monologue makes him sound full of himself sort of makes sense with his ego being inflated as a Wielder of the Sword of Light. I have an approach I take when analyzing male characters which is understanding how their ego works or what their ideal man is and how they stack up against it. For example, Sora's frustration in not being able to properly protect Kai tells me that his ideal man is someone who is powerful and capable, a knight in shining armor per say. For a majority of the first few chapters, Sora is extremely playful even in times of danger which feels a little unrealistic to me seeing as how his fiancee was taken and he was in the castle of the antagonist. Yes, being light-hearted is part of his established personality, but in that scene, it felt sort of inappropriate.

Ellery, on the other hand, was far more fascinating than Sora, but there was a moment that her character didn't feel believable. In chapter two, she's mesmerized by Sora's eyes because of his purity. I wanted to understand why, but the only indication given was that she was full of darkness and he was full of light. That isn't reason enough for me. Ellery goes on to say that she would use him for revenge, but I feel like that reason didn't have precedence over the "love-at-first-sight" mentality. One of the best things about her early characterization was how her character was very clearly on the brink of darkness, her sister being the only thing keeping her from fully turning. I love the edge that gives her character and the purpose it created for her when her sister has been turned. I feel like because of her anger and frustration, it was easier to connect with her than Sora.

The biggest issue with the characterization in this book was the fact that the characters felt like rip-offs of the characters from the Kingdom Hearts series. Starting with the main character who is named Sora just like the main character of the KH series. Both wield a very special weapon that dictates their destinies and both are romantically close to girls with roughly the same name, Kai in this book, but Kairi in Kingdom Hearts. Even the anti-hero, Ellery, had echoes of Riku, a character in the KH series who often walked the thin line between darkness and light.