Greetings my lovely Dark Horde, I trust you are all unleashing hell upon this fine day/night/whatever it is when this missive reaches your infernal eyeballs. Speaking of hell and all it contains, today I’d like to talk about a wonderful series called “Warrior Nun”. And I’ll tell you why I’m pissed off.
Yes, yes, I know what you’re thinking, why is a Sith Lord concerned with the affairs of nuns, of all people? And I shall tell you; they’re friggin’ badass, quite frankly. At least these nuns are.
Warrior Nun is an action-adventure fantasy based on the American manga-styled comic “Warrior Nun Areala”, a character created by Ben Dunn in 1993. He took inspiration from a group of nuns from the Fraternité Notre-Dame, or the Fraternity of Our Lady chapter based in New York’s East Harlem, who practised martial arts for sport.
While Warrior Nun doesn’t follow Dunn’s character, he is still one of the writers on the show so the story is faithful to the source material. And let me tell you, this show is very good. Ava (played by Alba Baptista), an orphaned 19-year-old quadriplegic girl lies dead in a morgue that becomes the site of a battle between the Sister Warriors and possessed mercenaries. In the kerfuffle, the Halo that the Order is tasked to protect, the one that serves as their ultimate weapon, becomes implanted in her back. And so, chosen by the Halo, she rises from the dead as the Warrior Nun. Plus she gets kickass abilities and superpowers. (Seriously, the religious imagery is utilised very well).
What unfolds includes, but is not limited to a good ‘ol coming of age story, heaps of character development all round, exploration of bonds and friendships between the nuns, a fight between good and evil, conspiracies and the beating heart of it: a beautiful queer love story between Ava and Sister Beatrice (played by Kristina Tonteri-Young).
Each episode is written as a tight, well-paced narrative with breathing room only as plot allows (the events the characters have to deal with are A LOT so the pacing reflects that), yet those moments are used to allow character development to expand and grow. This show does not sacrifice well-written characters for non-stop action, in fact it allows for a good balance.
The writing lets Ava make decisions that feel more realistic and refreshing than your average action-adventure protagonist, the talented cast of supporting characters are compelling and each fulfils their own important roles in the narrative, heck, there’s literally, there’s a character called “Shotgun Mary” and yes, she absolutely is the coolest person in the show. (Unfortunately due to scheduling conflicts Toya Turner, who plays Shotgun Mary, couldn’t join for Season 2 but if we get a Season 3, maybe that won’t be the last we see of her.) Now that I’ve hopefully given you all an overall idea of the vibe, here’s why I’m pissed.
Netflix is not renewing for a third season. Despite the second season having spent three weeks in the Top 10 Weekly English-speaking shows, despite having a critics’ score of 84% and a whopping audience score of 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, despite having received overwhelmingly positive reviews, despite Netflix not having spent a single cent on marketing for this show. All of this proof that Warrior Nun is a show that deserved to be made, and yet is being chucked off the line-up.
Netflix is making a huge mistake with this if you ask me. I won’t go into Netflix’s nasty little habit of cancelling LGBTQ+ shows right now, but if you want to do a fun depressing little google search into that, I won’t stop you.
Since Warrior Nun’s cancellation was announced in December 2022, the #SaveWarriorNun has been circulating the internet with fans pleading to save the show, even going so far as to buy up billboard space in multiple countries with appeals to renew the show (one of the billboards even having been in front of Netflix’s LA HQ), starting online petitions, making fanworks, and the show’s creator Simon Barry and members of cast have been cheering on fans’ efforts all the while, urging the “Halobearers” as they’ve been dubbed, not to give up on the show. It’s been almost four months, and fans are still clamouring to not let this show die.
Such a loyal fanbase proves that the show deserves at the very least one more season. We deserve to see a continuation of Ava and Beatrice’s story. In this life, or the next. (but hopefully this one because geez).
Sources:
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/warrior_nun
https://screenrant.com/warrior-nun-canceled-netflix-failure-setup/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9059350/
https://screenrant.com/warrior-nun-netflix-show-season-3-creator-message-fans/
https://wegotthiscovered.com/tv/warrior-nun-showrunner-urges-the-halo-bearers-to-n
ever-give-up-on-trying-to-save-the-show/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrior_Nun_Areala