Review of One True King (The School for Good and Evil: Camelot Years)

Review of The One True King (SFG&E: Camelot Years)

By: Soman Chainani

            Sophie is once again trapped in Camelot with Japeth, who is disguised as Rhian, under mind control.  Agatha wants to save Sophie, but Tedros and Japeth learn they have to compete in a tournament presented by Arthur to prove who is the one true king.

            I finally finished the trilogy, and I must say I have mixed feelings.  I continued to enjoy the adventure with the fairytale characters, and the tournament was cool.  It makes perfect sense that they had to prove themselves by competing in a quest to show they are worthy.  The first task involves the Green Knight from the Arthur mythology, though it was Sir Gawain who faced the Green Knight not Arthur, and they had to find out what the Green Knight wanted.  I like how they included this epic poem even if they changed it a little by making it Arthur who faced the Green Knight.  The second task turns out to go in an unexpected direction when Agatha accidentally interferes resulting in putting her life in danger.  This shakes up Agatha and Tedros basically making everyone feel, except Sophie, that Agatha did this on purpose to take charge again.  The third task naturally involves finding Excalibur the famous sword that was Arthur’s most powerful weapon.  They have to show they are worthy to find and pulled the sword out of the stone, which is what Arthur had to do as well when he pulled the sword out of the stone, so he can claim the throne.  I love how this second trilogy has the adults taking part and not just being overprotective or sitting on the sidelines being oblivious to what their teens are doing.  They actually fight back and help the teens defeat Japeth.  Hort and Sophie have cute moments, but they have such a toxic relationship, and Hort needs to move on.  He was obsessed with her and continued to prioritize her over his new girlfriend, who thinks he is the best thing in Sophie and Agatha’s Tale.   While Sophie throughout the whole series belittles Hort, ignores him, and ridicules him.  At least she finally sees the light and how she could love Hort.  My biggest complaint is Teddy bear himself and his endless accusing Agatha of getting in his way and taking control all the time.  Guess what?!  Agatha gets shit done!  Every time I think Tedros has grown he takes two steps back and is a whiny bitch.  I liked how they show that parents are human and have flaws.  They weren’t always parents, and it is a lesson that especially Teddy bear needs to learn with Guinevere.  Like Hort and Sophie, the royal couple has cute moments and they do have trust issues, but Tedros takes forever to learn he needs to change too.  Japeth was scary at times and mind control is villainous to me, but he did come off as a little mustache twirling with over-the-top anger. It does show his complexity when it turns out he wants to be the one true king to bring his love Aric back. Sophie continues to have the best development in the series as she started out as vain and shallow, but as the story progresses, she shows how she learns to put others, especially Agatha, above her own selfish desires and what she should truly be searching for to have a fulfilling life.  As I said earlier, she does see that Hort is her true love.  Hester and Anadil are adorable, and other characters like Dot and Reena are fleshed out nicely as we get more background on the history of these characters.  Also, young Merlin was fun, but it did mean we got a lot of childish humor like fart jokes, baby talk, and complaining teenager.  I appreciated that we had a lot of meaningful deaths, but the deaths often happened off page.  It was a great ending despite those things that I’m complaining about.