Twilight of the Gods Is Another Typical, Flawed Zack Snyder Affair

Zack Snyder is a name that brings up a lot of feelings for a lot of people. Between the cult fandom of The Syder Cut and the critical panning of his Rebel Moon saga, there is a lot to be said about him and his work. 

Snyder hasn’t been near an animated project since 2010s Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, so Netflix’s Twilight of the Gods is effectively new territory. The tale follows Sigrid (Sylvia Hoeks) as she seeks revenge against the god Thor after she unjustly faces his wrath on her wedding day. She is joined by her almost-husband, Leif (Stuart Martin), as she seeks out a band of warriors to take the god down. Their journey takes them across the span of the Nine Realms, where they are faced with trials of blood and gore alongside revelations about who they truly are and what they stand for. 

In true Snyder fashion, the visuals and the action scenes in Twilight of the Gods are the creative strength of the show. While the series is a bit middling in its commitment to being as dark as it tries to assert itself as, the battles that are spread across its eight episodes (all of which were available for review) are nothing to scoff at. The series is Game of Thrones-ian in many senses of the phrase, and the brutality of the gods is no exception here. No one, not even children, are safe from the destruction brought on by the whims of those who look down on them from Asgard, and though that suffering is the driving force of Sigrid and her crew’s mission, there are points where it starts to get repetitive, despite how well directed and animated everything may be. Once the first half of the season is in the rearview, there is not much to be done that can make those fights impactful in a way that will further motivate Sigrid (or anyone else), and the only true threat is the death of any of our main characters.

Twilight of the Gods is yet another victim of the Tiny Season Industrial Complex, and, had the series been picked up with 12 more episodes, there would be a lot more emotional weight and depth to the characters individually and as a group. There are a decent amount of flashbacks and expository fables that attempt to dive into the pasts of multiple individuals, but more often than not, the story moves on from these moments as if they never happened, or they feel rushed and unearned. It is always nice to learn a new part of someone’s backstory, but there can only be so many times someone can say “Let me tell you a story” before you will want to unleash the deepest, longest groan of all time.

This is not to say that every story told within the show is worthless. Episode 6 brings some particularly important context to the forefront of the story and the episode itself is certainly one of the better ones, but it is also the episode that makes you realize that none of the women of the main cast are given the same treatment. We explicitly see what motivates Sigrid on her quest for vengeance, but any part of her life preceding our introduction to her is a cookie-cutter origin story that is primed to be torn apart by the violent catalyst of the series. Hervor (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen) is given an equally lackluster backstory in which she is barely the focus and—in contrast to Sigrid—we are only told about her past, never shown.

Though her backstory is only slightly thicker than the other women in the series, the entrail-magic wielding Seid-Kona (Jamie Clayton) is undoubtedly the coolest character Twilight of the Gods puts on our screens. Clayton gives a wonderful vocal performance—the best of the bunch next to Patterson Joseph’s Loki and Jamie Chung’s Hel—and despite the ways the short season fails her like every other character in this rushed series, she is the most uniquely powered of Sigrid’s fellow warriors. Her magic is a welcome break from the ocean of blood that covers the battlefields (even though she is always adding more), and by the time the season concludes, it is clear that Twilight of the Gods could make some major improvements if a potential future season shifted a significant portion of the focus to her.

To reach back to the mention of Game of Thrones in reference to this show, the most important thing to say is that the painfully obvious similarities between the two are to Twilight of the Gods’s detriment. The level of violence in a fantastical setting is fine and well executed by the artists at Xilam Animation, but the same cannot be said of the sex and nudity. This is a critique purely reserved for the writing and narrative production teams. You can create a world where nudity is not a huge deal, but if the ratio of naked women to naked men is somewhere around 50:1, it is time to reexamine the purpose of all of those women not having any clothes on while the men do. At the very least, there is no excessive sexual violence that comes with the gratuitous amount of female nudity (what a concept), but it still remains a needless discrepancy.

One could argue that at least some of the nudity holds a purpose in the hands of the multiple romantic subplots in the show, but they add nothing of value that was not already implied. Most of the sex scenes feel like they simply exist for the sake of existing, and that time could have been used for literally anything else. Sex aside, the romances constantly fall flat next to everything else each of the characters has going on. Sigrid and Leif’s romance is treated—rightfully so—as a deeply important relationship, but that treatment is not backed up with any significant substance. Leif falls in love with Sigrid at first sight and it barely feels like she is an active participant in their love story. She might love him, but we learn nothing notable about why she does, and it makes any moment centered on them feel worthless instead of like the emotional center their relationship is supposed to be.

The truth is this: diehard Zack Snyder fans will love Twilight of the Gods, animation lovers will be able to appreciate the craft that went into making it, and as long as you make sure to not think while watching it, there is a chance you will end up liking most of its eight episodes. The final outings bring forth two moments that are nonsensical but completely in line with what we have seen from Zack Snyder in the past, so if that sounds like your cup of tea, forge ahead by all means. If not, you are better off satisfying your fantasy cravings with The Legend of Vox Machina or Delicious in Dungeon.

Kathryn Porter is a freelance writer who will talk endlessly about anything entertainment given the chance. You can find her @kaechops on Twitter.

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