Welcome everyone, to the grand finale for Kaina and the Great Snow Sea! Or at least the most finale we are going to get until the movie in October. I won’t lie, this week was a bit of a disappointment for me. Kaina really screwed the pooch at the end. There’s a lot of reasons for that though, so lets dive into them!
Starting off, more then anything Kaina’s ending felt rushed. It resolved more plot points in the last 3-4 minutes, from Valghia’s surrender to visiting the Canopy to convincing Ririha’s father of the Great Canopy Tree, than the other 20 minutes of the show combined. Considering Ririha lost the map in a fire, which apparently didn’t matter at all, it feels like an entire episode is missing from this finale. Some kind of “This is done, where do we look next” sort of epilogue. Knowing there is a movie coming softens this blow a bit, sure. But as a standalone season of TV, Kaina’s ending doesn’t feel that good. Considering the potential it had at the start of the season, that’s what I mean by disappointing.
Getting into spoiler territory, lets talk about the big elephant in the room: Kaina’s laser. I was not a fan of this. Or at least, not how Kaina did it. I was really hoping for some kind of root walk scene, where Kaina would turn up the laser and cut his feet out from under him. Something only Kaina could have done with his skills and toolset. Instead, Kaina decides to take this small handheld tool, something that has no business being as strong as it is, and turns it into a giant fuck-off laser. Was it cool to look at? Was it climactic and setup from the start? Yes! But it doesn’t really fit with the kind of show Kaina was up until this point in my eyes. Kaina isn’t about giant fuck-off lasers and action. It’s about ingenuity and survival in the face of insurmountable odds.
Actually, on the topic of stupid decisions by Kaina, I want to revisit Ririha losing the map in a fire. Seriously, how does this happen! Why did it happen?! She was wearing a coat, just use that! Or barring that, just grab the map on your way out! There is absolutely no reason for Ririha to lose the map like this other then to ramp up tension pointlessly. And worst of all? It didn’t even matter. There was no questioning Ririha, no doubting her story nor forcing them to convince her father. He just… believes them, immediately, with out a single line in a montage sequence of resolving plotlines. There was no reason to take the map out of the basement at all. Not when they have the faded one, nor when the basement would have been safer for it to begin with. Just a disappointment in every way.
All in all, this was just a very disappointing finale. It feels like Kaina took the most basic-bitch approach it could for basically every choice. Giant lasers, convenient surrender, ignoring consequences. This could easily, perhaps even should have been, a whole other episode. Instead we get a movie that, while it will surely finish the series, feels unnecessary. Hopefully that ends up not being the case, hopefully this movie is great! For now though, as a standalone series, I can’t let Kaina get away with this. As good as the ride was, this finale leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
