I love the series overall. The writing is tight. There's a lot less filler here than on "Captain N: The Game Master". Perhaps the shorter running time forced the writers to not dawdle?
There are also a lot less plotholes here than on Captain N. Most of the stuff has good explanations. Of course, magic being the primary weapon in this series obviously helped.
There are also a lot of great lines in this series, mostly Zelda making fun of Link. I enjoy listening to it immensely. =)
I didn't include all of the great lines in my episode reviews, though. Some lines don't work out of context and/or require too much quoting to provide context.
There weren't any really dumb lines in this series either - nothing worth typing, anyway.
All 4 of these things (less filler, less plotholes, more great lines, no dumb lines) make this series rise miles above Captain N.
What really sets this series apart from Captain N, though, is its emphasis on Zelda as a capable fighter. Zelda (with less running time) racked up a usefulness rating that's 7 times as big as Lana's usefulness rating at the end of Season 1 of Captain N. Now you're playing with power. Girl power.
Not everything in this series is so great, though. I greatly hate Link's whining of "Excuuuse me, Princess!" and his demands of a kiss from Zelda. That gets old really fast.
I also hate how the series ended - with Link being a dick yet again and causing his worst screw-up ever. Honestly, freeing Gannon just as Zelda was about to grab the Triforce of Power? Seriously, Zelda should have fired him and tossed him out of the castle on his ass. Hey, the final scene between them took place in the dungeon. That's it! Zelda should have locked Link up!
Zelda getting the Triforce of Power and bringing peace to Hyrule would have been the perfect way to end the series, but Link couldn't have that!
Here are some statistics for the series:
# of episodes with Spryte: 8
# of episodes with King Harkinian: 4
# of episodes with Gannon: 12
# of episodes where Link does not exclaim "Excuuuse me, Princess!": 3 (2 by Phil Harnage and 1, surprisingly, by Bob Forward)
There you have it. The series is good. In fact, it's great, marred only by some occasional stupidity (mostly Link) and the ending (entirely Link). The entire series is available in as boxed set on DVD. If you haven't already done so, get it.
I reviewed this series now to provide context for Zelda and Link's 4 appearances in Season 2 of Captain N. While it's debatable whether the Zelda and Link on Captain N are the same as the Zelda and Link in this series or not, that's an issue that I'll address when I review "Quest For the Potion of Power".
Now, it's back to Captain N episode reviews. I'll also be reviewing the Zelda comic book series. As of this writing, I don't have all of the stories, but I'll be reviewing as many as I can before I approach "Quest For the Potion of Power".
See you all in my next review, whatever it is!