Cancellation Gods, you can’t take Galavant from me just yet. In honor of its second season, here’s a post celebrating two of the main characters. I’m also using this as an excuse to rewatch the show to get some more inspiration.
Madalena is probably my favorite character. Sure, she’s a tad evil, but what does that really mean? I just love evil characters because they’re really never all that evil. There’s always something about them you can identify with. Okay, she assinated one king, but In a lot of ways Madalena is a woman who had few choices in life and did what she needed to do to make herself happy. She knows no one was going to hand her life on a silver platter and sings “who has the brains to break the chains and seize the reigns” like herself. When Galavant comes to “rescue” her from King Richard, she had a choice. She could continue to live in poverty with Galavant or live comfortably as Queen. King Richard is essentially terrified of her, so she probably figured out she could be the real ruler very quickly. So she’s bad for not picking Galavant just because his gesture was outlandish and quite frankly, corny? She didn’t love him and never claims to from what I can find. She sings him a song saying “I love you as much as someone like me can love anyone”. That’s being pretty upfront. If I had to pick living in a hut with a man I didn’t love or a castle with a king who did anything I wanted, what should I choose?
I also love one of the things she’s most passionate about is food. I don’t know about you, but I love food. It’s delicious. I think about food about 99% of my day. I can seriously identify with her about getting hangry. My favorite line of hers is when she yells at a guest at a feast “If you eat that last Danish, I will reach down your throat, pull it out, and beat you to death with it!”... right when Galavant is about to tell her he sees good in her.
Isabella is also one of my favorite characters. As someone who can easily be described as racially ambiguous, I enjoyed her being described as “ethnically hard to pin down”. I also loved she looked nothing like her parents. First, this made the show feel more like a real musical. In stage work, you’re not supposed to notice an actor’s race unless it’s brought up. It just isn’t relevant. But if I was supposed to notice and we weren’t going to by stage rules, I liked it all the same. I look nothing like my parents, and it’s nice to see a tv character live the same life.
The show broke down some gender stereotypes, and that’s always fun to see. Madalena is stunning but she’s also the bad guy. When she show first starts off, she’s seems like the pretty damsel in distress but we soon find out she’s got a lot figured out. She doesn’t want or need to be rescued by Galavant. And it’s Isabella who actually saves Galavant a few times, helping him win a jousting contest and having to constantly remind Galavant he doesn’t always know the right answer. I like the fact the women are allowed to be just normal people. Women are shown to be just annoying as men and aren’t always “cute”. Madalena has gross feet and Isabella snores. Madalena is also allowed to have a realistic sex drive. And while her indiscretions make her a poor wife, she’s never called a whore or slut. As much as King Richard wants to be with her, he never forces her.
I’m excited to see more of this show with its season two. I’m sure we’ll see more hangry Madalena and racially ambiguous Isabella.
