The Asgard Saga is so famous and so loved that many don’t know that it’s filler. But, despite being so adored by fans, it has several areas where she could improve.
Although the Asgard Saga is much loved by fans of Saint Seiya, it repeats the formula of the Sanctuary saga and the Poseidon saga, so that the anime becomes very repetitive. Points such as a greater appearance of the Gold Saints, a training arc and others could make it better.
Several points are the same as the Sanctuary saga, which came before it, such as the 12 hours to defeat all enemies.
Although the saga gets a lot right in terms of the length of the fights and the history of the villains, it could be even better with some changes to the formula.
Below are some suggestions to make the saga even more interesting. And click here to see what were the main inspirations from the Asgard Saga.
1. More focus on the Gold Saints
Everyone loves the Golden Saints– many find them even more interesting than the Bronze Saints, the main heroes. So this saga would be the perfect opportunity to make them appear a little more.
It would be possible, for example, to place them as part of the expedition to Asgard to assist the 5 Bronze Saints.
We could see the main gold saints fighting seriously this time, putting up a fight and emerging victorious. Click here to know who is the strongest gold saint.
Of course, there is the same problem here as in the Poseidon Saga: they could not leave the defense of the sanctuary due to the imminent war against Hades. Even if it were possible to take some artistic freedom here, I understand that this is an argument that makes sense.
However, it would be possible to find another way to make them appear more…
2. Invasion of the Sanctuary
Instead of the warrior gods of Asgard remaining in their own territory, why didn’t they try to invade the Sanctuary?
After all, if they wanted to destabilize the forces of the goddess Athena, it would make more sense to start by defeating the gold saints – who at the time were down by half.
Thus, we would have a similar plot to the Hades saga (Sanctuary), with the asgard warriors climbing the 12 houses. At the same time, the bronze saints could go to Asgard in order to take the Nibelung ring from Hilda. Click here to check the norse mythology references in Saint Seiya.
Here it would be necessary to balance the number of enemies so that the saga does not become too long.
It would be possible, for example, to place 5 enemies in Asgard (one for each knight) and 6 for the golden knights (or 5, if we didn’t count Dohko).
The problem with the existence of 10 warriors is that the number would not be equal to the number of stars in the Ursa Major constellation, but it would be possible to seek different symbolism for the enemies.
3. More Details about Asgard
At the beginning of the Asgard saga, we learn that the Norse and Greek gods have some type of coexistence in the Saint Seiya universe. And, later on, we discover that they are subordinate to Poseidon.
However, we don’t know much about the Norse gods beyond what is said directly about the warriors’ past. It would be interesting, therefore, to clarify some points about the existence of Asgard.
Why are Norse gods subordinate to a Greek god? Was there a conflict between Asgard and Greece in ancient times? If yes, when and how?
We know that the choice for Norse mythology occurred to avoid problems with the continuity of the original story, but it would be interesting to have details that would help us develop the lore of Saint Seiya.
4. Focus on Adventure
This point here may be controversial, as the fights have always been the best part of Saint Seiya. These are exciting fights, with twists and turns that show the main characters overcoming their difficulties.
But this saga could change the formula a little and put more focus on the adventure, overcoming obstacles and completing missions.
An example of an anime that does this very well is Hunter x Hunter: in the two most famous sagas (York Shin and Chimera Ants), there is a secondary focus on fighting and a primary focus on solving problems. Check 10 animes that Saint Seiya fans will love.
Another problem would also arise here, such as the fact that this would deviate somewhat from what is natural to Saint Seiya. However, the anime directors have always made great fillers (like the Asgard saga itself and Dohko’s story, in addition to the films) and could take a risk here.
4. Training Arc
A training arc would be very welcome in the Asgard saga. In Saint Seiya, we have some flashbacks showing what the bronze saints’ training was like, but not much time is spent talking about it.
It would be possible for our heroes to gather around a master (Dohko, Mu or Shaka, for example) to learn to master the seventh sense.
It would even be possible for each bronze saint to learn from a different gold saint – here it would even be possible for a reconciliation between Shun and Milo, due to what the scorpion knight did to the island of Andromeda.
The cool thing about this possibility would be that it would make perfect sense with the following saga (Poseidon), in which the bronze saints are able to awaken their 7th sense much more easily.
5. More appearances of secondary characters
An icing on the cake would be a greater focus on secondary characters, such as, for example, the 5 minor bronze knights (Jabu, Geki, Ban, Nachi and Ichi).
Although they appear briefly in the Asgard saga at the beginning, they don’t even participate in any fights. Here would be the golden chance to give them at least a little spotlight.
They could take care of secondary objectives, or even serve as support for the main bronze knights. Or, the 5 of them could get together to face an enemy together to show that together they can be useful to Athena.
Another group of characters that could return are the Steel Saints. They only appear in a few episodes before the Sanctuary saga, and are not remembered as fondly by Western fans.
However, from my brief research, their action figures sold well in Japan, which could encourage investment in the presence of these characters.
Just as in the case of the weaker bronze saints, the 3 Steel Saints could come together to eliminate a common enemy or even, briefly, awaken their cosmos.