User blog:General Khor/What The Elementalists Could Have Been

Hello, this is General Khor, and today I want to talk about another series that ended up shorter than expected. That series, of course, is The Elementalists. I mentioned I would have this blog done by yesterday, but my parents took me out for dinner with their friends, and by the time we went home, it was already very late, so I'm sorry about the delay. I mentioned this blog in my previous one about Nightbound, so if you haven't read that one, please check it out.

So, before I get into the details, I will first give my rating for this series. And that is...

ELECTRIFYING!!!

That's right, the crowd is electrified! I said, the crowd is electrified! Bzzzzzt! "YAAAAAAAY!"

Yes, this is one of those series that deserves the highest rating (at least from me), and given that this series takes place in a college, everyone expected one book for each year, up until graduation, just like Harry Potter, so there would be four books. But then, PB dropped a bombshell bigger than the one about Nightbound being a standalone, and that is, they decided to stop Elementalists at second year. When I received the news, I was dumbfounded. Sure, I can see why Nightbound failed, but this? This doesn't look like a failure to me, in fact, it's crazy popular. But then, after I finished the series, I found this one problem that seemed to leave no room for further development beyond Book 2. What problem is that? I'll explain later. Now, let's begin.

The Story as We Know It
At first glance, this series seems to be inspired by Harry Potter, with the MC being raised as a Muggle - er, non-magic person, then s/he falls through a magic mirror and discovers the wizarding world, and that s/he is a witch/wizard, gets admitted into Penderghast College of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the whole shebang. But then, we discover that PB decided to add some elements of Naruto into the mix, such as when we learn to cast our first spell, we discover that magic in this series is somewhat like chakra: everyone's born with it, we have to mould it in some way to cast spells, and we later learn that should we run out of magic - that is, if our magic drops to absolute zero - we die (we get exhausted if we use too much magic). Also, the first spell we learn to cast is somewhat like the Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu, except the fireballs are blasted from the hands, instead of blown out like dragons do.

Next we learn that there is someone out to kill us, someone who happens to be inspired by Tom "Lord Voldemort" Riddle. Then, we also discover we have a twin, who's described as "an angrier, more emo version of us", which kind of reminds me of Sasuke. When I learned that Atlas is attuned to metal and water in addition to moon, I figured the best combination for the MC would be wood and fire in addition to sun. After all, Atlas is supposed to be our polar opposite, right? If PB is making him/her their Sasuke, then we must be their Naruto. Besides, I found that wood and fire mages level up faster, and have greater advantages, but I know that each element has its own advantages and drawbacks.

Also, our gang doesn't just consist of a trio like in HP, but more of a Naruto ensemble, starting with five members, while Atlas and Aster join the gang in Book 2. After a surprise birthday party, one of our friends gets kidnapped by Dean McGona - er, Goeffe, who turns out to be working for the Dread. We then discover he has a machine to extract our magic and kill us, so that he can become Master of All Elements. After an intense battle in which he almost succeeded in killing us, we turn the tables and finally destroy him once and for all. Before she dies, Dean Goeffe asks us to find a girl, whom we assume is her daughter.

Come Book 2, and we find out a powerful wind rider has just wreaked havoc in Diagon Alley - er, I mean Penn Square, then some goddess who calls herself a Source of magic blames us for the wind rider's escape, who also turns out to be another god. She then tells us that our mom is the sun goddess, which kind of makes the MC the Sun Prince/Princess, and then she reveals we are the Masters of All Elements because of something called refractionary power, and that it's our duty to stop the wind god. While the Sources aren't exactly inspired by the nine tailed beasts, I would say they have tailed beast levels of power. So you see, mixing some Naruto into something inspired by HP is what makes this series really, really cool.

The Real Problem and How I Pictured the Story
Now, let's talk about the problem that caused us to end up halfway into our journey by the end of the series, and that would be, they killed off Raife too early. They should have just let him escape, and then we finish him off in the final year. Picture this, if Book 1 is going to be their Sorcerer's Stone, then Book 2 is probably going to combine Chamber of Secrets with Prisoner of Azkaban, Book 3 will be Goblet of Fire plus Order of the Phoenix, and Book 4 will have Half Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows in it. And if they want to add some Naruto into the mix, why not have Atlas betray us in Book 2 (Seriously, I think his/her personality screams Uchiha. I should have given the MC's surname as Uzumaki), and by Book 4 we redeem him/her, and together we end Raife once and for all. Now that's how I thought the story would go. And if they want to include the Sources, maybe introduce them in Book 3, have them talk to the MC and Atlas about their origins, so as to help redeem Atlas and prepare them for the final showdown in Book 4.

Oh, and why should the subjects for the magic extraction ritual be twins? The requirement could have just been a sun mage and a moon mage born on the same day, at the same hour, that way Atlas can be the child of the Moon Source, which will truly make him/her the Sasuke to our Naruto. Think about it, there could have been a prophecy about how the Sun Prince/Princess (MC) and the Moon Prince/Princess (Atlas) being the ones to defeat the Dread.

Conclusion
In a nutshell, The Elementalists is a really amazing story that, if things went the way I envisioned it, would have its popularity rival that of The Crown and the Flame. It's a shame they moved the crucial final battle up too early, or else they would have plans for a Book 3 right now.

So, what do you think of Elementalists? Let me know in the comments. Also, be sure to check out my end of year review blog next Tuesday. That's all for now, the end, and thank you for reading.