(Average+) Ranking of Kings

Series in one sentence:
Steven Universe the anime.

Series in more sentences:
The child of two royal giants is born curiously small, weak, naive, and without the ability to hear, making his surroundings believe he's unfit to take the dying king's throne.

When he's stripped of his promised crown and a grand scheme is put into motion, Bojji goes on a quest with his new best friend, a persecuted shadow creature, to find a way to make himself stronger and earn his title as king.

I'm heartbroken over my grade, especially since I'd watch this anime again over some of the better scored ones. But the problem I have with Ranking of Kings is that it has a great beginning with captivating moments, until it became the opposite of that. A decline is painfully palpable when you get such an early good taste of things.

Ranking of Kings has the bad habit of giving nearly every prominent character a tragic backstory. Some of these were really, really overdramatic, like the creators wanted the audience to feel sorry for them whilst not putting in the work. Multiple subjects were bullied or tortured by a bunch of unreasonable, faceless antagonists, and no decent explanation was given to why these people are/were that evil. That's horrid writing, truly foul.
This made me not care for the biggest offender; the mirror lady, which matters, because it's her suffering that put the series' main conflict into motion. The moment I learned the details of her "grand scheme", this promising show turned into a bore. I don't care to see two dangerous idiots (her and Bojji's father) unsuccessfully try to convince the viewer that the pain and death they caused to those who loved them stems from trauma you should sympathize with. Shit me, get lost with that.

Bojji's father's part in this mess was the most confusing element. The revealed relationship he shared with the mirror lady was lame and I wasn't feeling the unconditional love he felt for her, because the series hardly showed any scenes of them together. But also, it's hard to relate to a character who used two random women to bear him offspring, so he could use that offspring for his selfish gains.

Mirror lady isn't his blood and I don't recall seeing him share any deep and emotional scenes with her mother either, so again, why did he start caring so much for her? Why does his care for her exceed that of his own children and wives? Why is her pain more important to him than that of his first son, who is also an outcast and without his biological mother? What does it mean when he says it's his fault she suffered? What a throwaway line, only inserted for more drama.

The show doesn't just like showing off how miserable everyone's life was at one point, it also rushes their story. The moment a new character shows up, you can expect to get bombarded with emotional flashback scenes of literal seconds long, functioning as character development.
I tolerated it for the first few episodes, but it became annoying fast, because it also diminishes the pain of the one character this show should be about: Bojji. It was overwhelming, and eventually, you stop seeing the child on screen, because there are so many other characters hogging it.

I'm also a bit disturbed by the message of forgiveness this series pushes. There are multiple morally corrupt characters who would've killed Bojji long ago if sheer luck wasn't on his side. And because Bojji survived, the writers feel comfortable trying to "redeem" these losers, because, again, they have such a tragic backstory and all.
It's a flaw Steven Universe suffered from as well. Some people are horrible, selfish, murderers, whatever, and no matter how often you show them bawling their eyes out or claim how sweet they were once upon a time, it doesn't magically absolve them of the crimes they've committed.

Realistically speaking, Bojji would've been killed long ago at the hands of the people closest to him. The people who once smiled at him. His brother, his father, his personal trainer; all wet blankets who don't deserve an ounce of anyone's trust after they so easily let themselves get steered into thinking taking the life of a harmless child was alright.
The fact his own brother ordered his death is not even brought up at the end of the climax, which would've been warranted, since there was a pretty good subplot going on where Bojji feared and resented his trainer friend for attempting to kill him. At his brother's request. Which nobody cared to reveal to him for some reason.

So, why is the trainer guilted, but do the murderous mirror lady, Bojji's murderous brother, and his murderous shithead of a father go scot-free?

I think we would've had a better story if we didn't focus on these star-crossed lovers, and it was just about Bojji visiting different kings, proving his worth by fighting/debating them. If his own community is this idiotic, I don't consider reuniting with them a happy ending.
Speaking of the ending, I never liked stories that end with an underage person venturing out on their own. I'm not even sure why Bojji decided to start his own kingdom. Why not find your friend and bring him back to the kingdom you already own, what's the value in starting from scratch?

I'm sad this show took such a nose dive. It wanted to be a complex mystery, but that doesn't work when the reveal is some standard shit. 
The mirror lady was a lame villain, her redemption should've been death, Bojji's father was a dumb douche, goodbye and stay dead, and my face fucking scrunched up at the marriage proposal at the end, like ew, where did that even come from.
I'd entertain a season 2, don't get me wrong, but alot of these characters have been ruined for no good reason, it'll be hard to take the story seriously.