WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 2 of The Idhun Chronicles, available on Netflix.
Season 2 of The Idhun Chronicles changes things drastically for the evil mage Kirtash. In the first season, as much as we knew the sorcerer was a villain trying to kill off mystical refugees on Earth and keep Idhun under the thumb of the Necromancer, Ashran, there was always something more to him. It just couldn't be a coincidence that he loved Victoria and was somewhat struggling to finish off her fellow rebels.
Well, now we know why he was conflicted all this time, and it all unfolds when he tells her the story of his life and how he's connected to Ashran.
Kirtash is found trying to lure Vic away from the Resistance once more, even though she's a couple years older. One would assume she's wiser and more mature about his requests, especially after Shail's apparent death, but Vic is still putty in Kirtash's hands whenever he comes around. But, in one shocking encounter where Jack defends her with his flaming sword, Kirtash turns into a Shek, a giant winged-serpent similar to the kind that attacked Idhun, crippling it and allowing Ashran to take over.
As he explains to Vic when she presses him later on, he wasn't always this way. Kirtash was actually born human and, while hiding out on Idhun, a unicorn blessed him with power. But this turned dark because, right after Ashran arrived, he murdered Kirtash's mom and took the kid to train, as this was his birthright. That's right, Ashran is in fact Kirtash's real father. Fans were thrown off throughout the show with Kirtash calling him "lord," but Ashran has always had much bigger plans for his son, thus he needed to disconnect from any affection.
Ashran has actually worked out a deal with the snakes to attack Idhun and now, as their lifelong partner, he's able to fuse a snake into Kirtash's body, similar to what Elrion tried with Alsan. But seeing as Ashran's such an expert at necromancy, it's a perfected experiment and Kirtash can unleash the serpent when under duress a la the Hulk, making him a very powerful warrior.
However, while he'd go on to become Ashran's war dog over the years, Kirtash never warmed to his dad, secretly hating him for killing his mother the day he took the boy. Kirtash has just never forgotten this and he's merely biding his time to betray his dad at the right moment. He wants the empire to crumble and it's why Vic falls more in love with him, as his story is tragic and quite sympathetic, plus he has ample reason to want the dictator to fall.
Both seasons of The Idhun Chronicles are currently available to stream on Netflix.
