Mysticons


Mysticons is a Canadian-American animated television series that aired from August 28, 2017 to September 15, 2018. The show is a collaboration between companies Nelvana Limited, Playmates Toys, and The Topps Company. The show was created by Sean Jara, who is also the executive story editor and producer. It was originally aimed at boys but switched its focus to girls aged 6 to 11 during the development process. Nelvana's Andrew Kerr explained in 2016 that the show's developers agreed that "at this moment in time the project would be better served if we had female protagonists."
In August 2018, Jara confirmed on Twitter that Mysticons was not renewed for any episodes beyond its initial 40-episode production order. The final episode of the series, "Age of Dragons", aired on September 15, 2018 in the United States and September 23, 2018 in Canada.
An ongoing series of comic books and chapter books was first released on August 28, 2018. Volume 2 was released on May 21, 2019, and Volume 3 followed in late 2019.
The chapter books depict dozens of original adventures that never occurred in the animated series; each featuring each Mysticon as the central character; each set within a particular season of the television show.

Synopsis

Season One

In the mystical world of Gemina, in a place called Drake City, four teenage girls are chosen by the all-powerful Dragon Disk to become legendary heroes known as the Mysticons. Arkayna, Emerald, Zarya and Piper undertake an arduous quest to find four spellbooks and animal-themed bracers of mystical power to form the Codex. This will grant them their full strength and abilities necessary to save their world from Dreadbane, who seeks to release Necrafa, the leader of the Spectral Hand and Queen of the Undead. When Necrafa is freed she betrays Dreadbane and throws him into where she was once banished by Imani Firewing.
While fulfilling various quests to bring harmony and order to the realm, the Mysticons encounter several trusty allies and devious adversaries. A startling revelation is that Princess Arkayna has had a fraternal twin sister. Unfortunately, a prophecy foretelling inevitable annihilation, prevented them from growing up together.
Nova Terron had been ordered to send the younger princess twin to an alternate dimension on the astral plane. Unable to bring himself to do so, he sent her to a fairy orphanage hidden from mortal eyes.
The Mysticons succeed in finding a blue-green birth gem in the vault of the Dragon, which is revealed to belong to the mysterious and immensely powerful Astromancer Proxima Starfall, who had stayed at the orphanage until taken in by the Astromancers at a young age.
It is later revealed that Princess Arkayna's real fraternal twin sister is none other than the sarcastic Zarya Moonwolf. Proxima's blue-green birth gem had been purposefully switched with Zarya's as a cover-up to protect her true identity, making Proxima's family history nothing more than a complete fabrication.
Having had a vision, the long-lost Princess Twins of Gemina head to Mount Tryanus to obtain two yellow rings, which transform them into "the Twin Dragon", enabling them to obliterate both the Spectral Dragon and the Queen of the Undead in one single strike; an act that leaves half of her mysterious mask behind.

Season Two

Princess Arkayna, Zarya, Emerald and Piper are enjoying their lives. However, they are needed once again to destroy a surviving fragment of Necrafa's mask by tossing it into the fiery core of the Rift of Ruin, a volcanic trench in the depths of the sea. Proxima accompanies them as an Astromancer, but is secretly lonely and bitter; she deceives them into believing that she had destroyed the mask fragment while keeping it to seek vengeance against those who had deceived her about her family history, mistrusted her judgement and underestimated her powerful magical abilities. Meanwhile, Nova Terron and the other Astromancers enlist Malvaron, Doug, and Choko on a special mission to get Tazma out of Necrafa's old lair before they destroy it. To save Tazma they use a shrinking potion and imprison her in a snow-globe which she escapes twice. Though Necrafa's lair and Necrafa herself are destroyed, Tazma still uses the dark magic and knowledge from both in later episodes while reminiscing from time to time. After the lair's destruction it is never seen again so, the, turned evil, Proxima uses Astromancer Academy for her headquarters on her path of vengeance. Proxima turns her former master, Nova Terron, and fellow top-level Astromancers into her mindless, masked minions: Spectromancers. She snatches the Dragon Disk and fully corrupts the ancient and all-powerful artifact with evil magic. After succeeding in creating her very own Dark Codex, she calls upon four female warriors called the Vexicons, from its dark and sinister pages to combat the Mysticons. This leaves her free to achieve the necessary steps for her ultimate revenge on Arkayna, for making her believe that she had a family and was loved in the realm, and for Zarya getting everything she would have had.
Things have escalated further, as Proxima has now been fully possessed by the evil within the half Necrafa's mask; having worn it for so long it had caused its intense dark power to become deeply attached to Proxima and chose her as its rightful host. To help remove the mask off of Proxima who is out cold before the Vexicons arrive at the Stronghold to take the half of the mask, Tazma tells Arkayna a spell that traps the Mysticons inside Proxima's subconscious mind, in which they see Proxima's memories and learn of her troubled and lonely childhood since leaving Mrs. Sparklebottom's sanctuary, to the point of choosing the dark powers of the mask fragment because of an oblivious Princess Arkayna never being truly there for her as a sister and for breaking her heart so badly. After freeing Proxima of the stronger hold the mask's fragment has had on her, Arkayna apologizes for her oblivious actions toward Proxima and welcomes her back as her triplet "twin sister". Proxima explains all she had learned while under the evil influence of the mask; how the Spectral Hand itself has tempted and manipulated many over the millennia; such as Necrafa, Captain Kaos, and finally Mallory. With the piece of the mask having taken over her as it did Proxima, Mallory takes charge and has her three Vexicon sisters help her in releasing the ravenous wrath of the Spectral Hand's beast upon Drake City. Proxima reverses the dark spell on the mindless Spectromancers, turning them all back into top Astromancers- Nova Terron, Gandobi and Quasarla- who fend off the tentacles of the ancient ruins, from which the Spectral Hand is imprisoned.
Out of options, the Mysticons turn to Dreadbane as he is the only one who can return Queen Goodfey and King Darius to life. He initially refuses but comes to his senses when he saved a human boy who reminds him of what he was. He rises to the occasion as an unexpected ally and prevents the bone statues of the queen and king from being destroyed. However, he is gravely wounded when taking a fatal blow for Arkayna, from Mallory's greater snowy blast. He uses the last of his strength, before turning into stardust, to undo the spell he himself had cast to fully restore Princess Arkayna and Zarya's mother and stepfather to living flesh and blood, after being frozen in time for so many months. Arkayna reunites with her mother, and introduces her to Zarya Moonwolf who addresses her as "Mom", to the Queen's confusion. Her brief memories of the newborn Zarya are returned to her by Nova Terron and she provides the blueprints for the four mystical Lances of Justice which were hidden in her necklace for safekeeping. She accompanies her twin daughters, Emerald and Piper on their ultimate quest to stop to Vexicons and finally eradicate the Spectral Hand. Zarya finally comes to the realization that the Spectral Hand does have a great weakness: the Dragons of Light. They all go to the sacred realm of Dragonhenge and see King Valmuk and his baby daughter Stormy again. They see the hidden, remaining yellow dragon eggs. King Valmuk explains that by only being given a boost from the ancient time magic of the Ever Realm can dragons be strong enough by reaching full adulthood more quickly. This plan works but, the Vexicons trap the Mysticons before they can strike the demon of the Spectral Hand. Em & the others beg for the help of Eartha, who they saved from crumbling in the episode, "Heart Of Stone." Eartha frees the Mysticons before the other Vexicons banish the girls and she destroys Mallory's ice-white hair, subjecting the ice witch to ultimate humiliation.
The Mysticons ride their newly adult dragon mounts to the Spectral Hand demon and use their enhanced bracers, powered by the mystical Lances of Justice, to strike the Spectral Hand demon thus, sending it into oblivion and returning peace to the land forever. Some loose ends are also tied up such as, the Vexicons are imprisoned. Eartha remains unpunished for helping the Mysticons restore peace to all of Gemina. Nova Terron steps down as leader of the Astromancers and announces Proxima, his second-in-command, as the new leader/Star Mistress of the Academy, as he leaves on adventures across the astral plane with his lifelong girlfriend/starmate Geraldine Yaga. The Mask's remains are thrown into the Rift of Ruin and are forever destroyed by Zarya. Even though peace and order have been restored to the realm of Gemina, the second generation of Mysticons continue their never-ending adventures in defending all from threats; namely Tazma and Kymraw.

Characters

Mysticons

The Mysticons are four teenage girls whose destiny it is to use unique mystical powers and weaponry to defend the world of Gemina and its inhabitants from evil forces, namely the Spectral Hand. A generation of Mysticons is chosen once every thousand years by the ancient and powerful Dragon Disk. Their unique Mysticon abilities and weaponry become a hundred times greater and more effective when the Codex is combined into one larger spellbook, which happened to have been drained dry of its magic by Queen Necrafa herself. The second generation of legendary Mysticons are:
Four, dark female warriors called from the pages of Proxima's Dark Codex. They debut as shadowed cameos at the end of "Happily Never After", but make their full debut in "The Lost Scepter" where they race the Mysticons to find an ancient and immensely powerful mind-controlling scepter that belonged to one of Gemina's centuries-old king. They are considered the dark counterparts of the Mysticons. They each have their own dark animal bracer, to combat those of light wielded by the Mysticons:
The Astromancers are an ancient league of mages who have protected Gemina. They reside at the Astromancer Academy. Those of the top level have a deep purple magical aura while mid-level Astromancers have a light orange magical aura.

Top-level

A group of sky pirates who plunder and pillage whatever they find. They were founded several years ago when Zarya was a young orphan girl in Drake City.
Fierce and brave mermaid/mermen warriors who possess the ancient and very powerful silver tridents of myth. According to Emerald, children's tales of them have been famous for many, many years:
Millennium ago, the ancient and mighty Dragons of Light had fought a fiercely violent final battle in their sacred homeland of Dragonhenge. Unfortunately, thousands had fallen and were thought to be extinct at the hand of one of the Spectral Dragons. Until a dragon egg was discovered by the second generation of Mysticons, which hatched an infant storm dragon whom Arkayna decided to christen "Stormy."
They seem to have replaced the everlasting faithful griffin mounts- Izzie, Archer, Miss Paisley and Topaz- as the Mysticons are seen on the dragons backs in the last scene of the show.

Supporting Characters

Magical artifacts

In addition to its four spellbooks, each Mysticon dons a jeweled bracer that represents their own animal which can also be used underwater:
These are the four immensely powerful magic-infused weaponry belonging to the Mysticons, four legendary heroes who defend the realm of Gemina and its people from any evil. They were created by the ancient, all-powerful Dragon Disk which had chosen the original Mysticons a millennia ago. They are used constantly rather than the special power each Mysticon possesses:
These are the magic-infused weapons of the Vexicons, the four evil counterparts of the Mysticons. Each is somewhat similar to the weapons of light wielded by the Mysticons. Only Willa does not display any actual weapon, but prefers her Vexicon abilities; her "Doom Boom" attack and teleporting via purple smoke.
These are the unique superpowers and abilities each of the four Mysticons possess, but for some reason are never used or relied upon as constantly as their weapons are. Some are psionic/psychic/extrasensory, while others are what fairies and pixies possess. Only the special abilities of Zarya Moonwolf and Emerald Goldenbraid were never revealed in the show:
In the United States, Mysticons premiered on Nickelodeon through a 5-day event over the week starting August 28, 2017, before moving to its regular Sunday morning timeslot. Mysticons began airing on Nicktoons on August 30. Premieres moved to that network with the show's second broadcast season on January 13, 2018. Reruns also aired on Nick Jr. and TeenNick.
In Canada, the series debuted on YTV through a similar 5-day event on August 28, 2017 before moving to its Sunday timeslot on September 3, 2017. Reruns began airing on Nickelodeon and Teletoon on September 9. In French Canada, a 5-day preview aired on Télétoon between September 4 and 8, before moving to its regular slot on September 9.

Printed media

Original adventures

A miniseries of five chapter books, featuring one of the second generation of the four Mysticons as the central character. For some reason, no news of Piper Willowbrook's original tale has been known yet. Emerald's tale is set sometime in the first season; whereas Princess Arkayna and Zarya's are set in the second, as both mention of them being long-lost fraternal twin sisters.
One year that the animated show aired on Nickelodeon, August 28, 2017, an ever-expanding series of graphic novels/comic books have been released once or twice a year. Unlike other popular shows and graphic novels none have any titles but is merely seen as the volume number.

Merchandise

Prior to the show's debut, Nelvana launched a YouTube channel for Mysticons on July 19, 2017. The web content was produced by Blue Ant Media. In October 2017, Nelvana launched the "Piper Parkour" browser game and the free-to-play iOS and Android Mysticons: Secrets of Gemina mobile game. In December 2017, a second browser game, "Arkayna Attack" was launched, followed by "Em's Mayhem" in February 2018 and "Cover of Night" in March 2018. All five were developed by Relish Interactive.
Playmates Toys released a Mysticons toyline in late 2017. The Topps Company published a trading card game concurrently. A Burger King kids meal promotion ran in the United States and Canada in February and March 2018.
Macmillan Publishers launched a Mysticons novel series on June 19, 2018, with the first two titles being the show adaptation Quest for the Codex and the original story The Secret of the Fifth Mysticon. The second set, the novelization Prophecy of Evil and the original story The Stolen Magic were released on August 28, 2018. A third original novel, titled The Diamond Curse was released on January 8, 2019. Alongside the text versions, Macmillan also released audiobooks of their original stories narrated by members of the show's voice cast. Dark Horse Comics launched a series of graphic novels by Kate Leth and Megan Levens on August 15, 2018.
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and Elevation Pictures released the first DVD volume in Canada containing episodes 1–6 on June 19, 2018, under the name "New Heroes Rise."