There were parts in the middle I didn't care for, and the season 2 artist clearly didn't get the message that the "Damaskus Sword" should have the damask banding of historical Damascus steel, which the initial artist did a nice job on. Overall, season 1 has much stronger art, but I really liked getting to see the main pair in their middle-age at the end.
There's a lot of details of the world building I would have liked to see explored more, like only members of the founding families are able to leave the magic barrier around the empire without dying (or maybe only they can return after passing through the barrier, it's unclear) but also there IS mention of another country outside the barrier.
There were parts in the middle I didn't care for, and the season 2 artist clearly didn't get the message that the "Damaskus Sword" should have the damask banding of historical Damascus steel, which the initial artist did a nice job on. Overall, season 1 has much stronger art, but I really liked getting to see the main pair in their middle-age at the end.
There's a lot of details of the world building I would have liked to see explored more, like only members of the founding families are able to leave the magic barrier around the empire without dying (or maybe only they can return after passing through the barrier, it's unclear) but also there IS mention of another country outside the barrier.