Raven (2002 TV series)

This format of the show features three groups of six warriors who compete in various challenges over the course of three (broadcast) weeks. Each group features for five days, and after the second day, the warrior with the fewest lives and rings must face the Way of the Warrior, an elimination challenge deciding whether they would continue to the next day or not. Only two warriors in each week go through to compete in the final week of the quest, where one becomes the Ultimate Warrior.

Each warrior starts out with a number of lives, represented by feathers on a standard. The number of lives started was 7 from Series 1–3, and this changed to 9 lives from Series 4–10. From series 5, contestants with a full number of lives intact could gain further lives with 9 rings, whereas they couldn’t beforehand. Warriors also received symbolic emblems that follow them throughout their quest. Losing any challenge meant the loss of life, but these could be won back, by winning at least 7 (Series 2–3), later 9, gold rings, although in Series 1, the final day's challenges were played to win back lives. To lose all lives from a standard meant the warrior would be automatically eliminated from the process, though this never occurred.

At the end of days 1–4 (Series 1, Series 7 final week), days 2–4 (Series 2–10 heats, Series 4–6 final week), and 5 in the final weeks in Series 2, 3, 8, 9 and 10, the warrior with the fewest lives and rings must face the Way of the Warrior, a complex and difficult series of obstacles that only four warriors, (Ishal, Varna, Worjo and Kinsa), have ever completed. Only in Series 1 that warriors volunteer to do the challenge but in the first day, no-one was sent home. Should a warrior reach the portal at the end of the Way of the Warrior, they will be admitted through to the next day of the quest, and the task must then fall upon the next warrior with the fewest lives and rings. This process continues until somebody is eliminated. If there was a tie on lives and rings, a drawing of feathers decides which one would face the challenge, that warrior being the one who picked the black feather.

Raven conducts four groups of four warriors (the Bears, the Wolves, the Wild Cats, and the Stags), similar to the spin-off shows, in a three-day chunk in which they start off with six rings. They would lose one if they were claimed by a demon and Raven rescued them from Nevar's realm with her staff of power, instead of the feathered lives seen previously. The warrior with the fewest rings leaves at the end of the second day, leaving the three remaining warriors to face off against each other in The Last Stand on the third day. Whoever wins The Last Stand proceeds to represent their group in the Grand Tournament. In the Grand Tournament, the format is similar to the heats with the warrior with the fewest rings leaving on the second day and the remaining three facing off in the Tournaments version of The Last Stand. The winner earns the title of a True Warrior and becomes part of Raven's army to eventually take down Nevar permanently.

In Raven: The Island, Princess Erina was introduced as a childhood friend of Raven, along with her companion, a blue spirit named Haryad, that kept watch over the warriors safety and progress. Raven appeared in this series only in a guest capacity, mainly in scenes with another new character, the astronomer Cyrus. The spin-off reveals Nevar's backstory, who has ruled the island with his dark magic for four years, making Staffs of Power from the Enchanted Oak to arm his demons, in order to stop the warriors from reaching the fortress. Nevar was once a normal human, no more than an upstart baron with a band of brigands as his followers, and considered no more than an irritation on Alaunus. However, he became twisted and corrupt when he stole the Enchanted Oak and used it to create a Staff of Power for himself; as a result, each time he uses his staff for evil, half of his remaining life-force is taken away, taking its toll on his mind and his body. His iron mask and his cloak hides his scarred, burnt face, marks given to him from a battle with Raven. Until the third series, his mask resembled many small pieces of metal covering his face, before becoming a full metal mask in the fourth series.

In Raven: The Secret Temple, Nevar followed Raven to a mysterious land far to the east after putting a dark spell on Raven's homeland and leaving it in his icy grip. Raven and the warriors traveled to the east to find the magical waters that could break this spell. In this series, a new character Satyarani was introduced, and she acted as a guide to the warriors and as assistance to Raven throughout the course of this quest, in the journey to find The Secret Temple. At the conclusion of this series, Nevar is thought to have been slain, until the last ten seconds of the show, where he is shown to have survived.

In Raven: The Dragon's Eye, Nevar's pursuit continues. He plans to retrieve the mystical Dragon's Eye, which Raven and his warriors attempt to find first. The Eye was said to be a stone of great evil that could grant it's wielder ultimate power, and Raven and the warriors sought to destroy it before it could fall into Nevar's hands. A new character, Ervan was introduced in this series, and he took on the role and persona of Raven's assistant and an occasional guide to the warriors, but his motivations and intentions were frequently in question and he changed sides regularly between Raven and Nevar. It appeared in the conclusion, that he was neither side and was working solely to claim the Eye for himself. Ervan was also exposed as the warrior who had traveled through the Forgotten Kingdom and wrote the journal detailing how to get through the land. Nevar was again thought to have been destroyed, but was shown to once again to have survived following the end credits.

The winners from each series are known as an Ultimate Warrior. Their prize is a warrior's "heart's desire" – in certain cases this proved to be a holiday of some sort – and from the second series, the Ultimate Warrior was also presented with a Staff of Power and the three finalists all won a trophy. From Series 11 onwards, the title was renamed from Ultimate Warrior to True Warrior.

Ultimate Warriors and Finalists

Series	Winner	Emblem	Second	Emblem	Third	Emblem	Fourth	Emblem	Fifth	Emblem	Sixth	Emblem
1	Lamar		Intho		Brhea		Bryal		Halei		Hadan
2	Grema		Varna		Kinia		Napat		Ishal		Ersca
3	Grimick		Grimick		Grimick		Grimick		Grimick		Grimick
4	Linma		Dejan		Kinsa		Wilga		Sarla		Wenra
5	Arnor		Kyson		Molyn		Obra		Suhan		Sonlu
6	Kenat		Nejad		Rohak		Tezan		Tonesh		Kerud
7	Versad		Hanso		Danil		Sonos		Beron		Lenat
8	Pargan		Phidel		Druan		Milex		Rimah		Sarpes
9	Dyrel		Bertar		Tridic *		Javmay		Reggos		Japul
10	Sarjed		Limonn		Coprov		Grolath		Norpal		Cleral

*Replaced Yenja during Series 9, Week 3, Day 2, Episode 12.

The Way of the Warrior features in the first ten series and was faced at the end of most days, used to test a warrior to the limits and fell upon the warrior with the fewest lives and rings on their standard at the end of the day, thereby being an elimination challenge. The warrior chosen to complete the challenge must remain on the golden path at all times – should they fall from the path or be struck by any obstacles, they will lose their (often final) life. It consists of many obstacles designed to knock the warrior off the path, and the configuration consisted of swinging dummies, falling rocks being pushed by demons, a swinging gate, a swinging boulder carousel, a narrow beam with sharp objects and spikes falling down. The warriors then released a drawbridge to the next part of the challenge that consisted of a 3 shield section, sometimes with 4 shields, later changed to 3, followed by a spiky swinging barrel with golden ropes to crawl across. The last part of the challenge consisted of swinging blades/axes. From the third series onwards, gnashing jaws were adding to the end of the challenge. The victor would pass through the golden portal and would compete in the next day of the quest. The burden then fell upon the next warrior with the fewest lives and rings. This process continues until one warrior is eliminated.

When the show's filming location changed to Aviemore in the eighth series, the challenge underwent major transformation. While the format remained essentially the same, it was livened up a bit, consisting of new obstacles such as a falling balance walkway releasing falling rocks, skull shields, and spinning sharp blades.

The challenge did not return in the revived series.

The pass rate for this challenge was not high, and only four warriors in history have ever completed the challenge. They were:

• Ishal (Series 2, Week 3, Day 4 (episode 14)), leaving Dyasa to attempt the challenge. (Ishal repeated the challenge in Week 4 Day 3 (episode 18) but failed to complete it.)
• Varna (Series 2, Week 4, Day 5 (episode 20)), leaving Kinia to attempt the challenge.
• Worjo (Series 3, Week 4, Day 5 (episode 20)), leaving Brena to attempt the challenge.
• Kinsa (Series 4, Week 4, Day 2 (episode 17)), leaving Wenra to attempt the challenge.

None of the contestants were able to complete the challenge following Series 4.

Introduced in the second series, this challenge originally consisted of the two warriors in first and second place faced each other to collect and assemble four components of a key from a battlefield and avoid being blasted by Nevar's lightning. Each warrior entered this challenge with however many lives they had on their standard at the end of the day, and being blasted would make them lose a life; they are eliminated if they lose all their lives. The winner is the first to use their constructed key to open the portal and go through to the next stage of the quest. A second round is then played with the loser of the first round racing against the warrior in third place. Only two warriors would pass through the portal to the next stage of the quest. This format of The Last Stand featured in the third series as well.

From the fourth series, the Last Stand was changed into an assault course for the three remaining warriors, their remaining lives and rings determining the relative time they are released from their starting cages. Once released from the starting cages the warriors retrieve a lever, they must then use this lever to knock down the inflatable objects that are in their way, after this the warriors must engage the lever into the slot which will vanquish the first demon that is stood before them. Once vanquishing the first demon the warriors must collect a circular disk, they must scale a wall and crawl under a framework maze before matching the symbols on the podium, this will allow them to pick up a cylinder containing symbols, which they must attach to rope; after climbing up a waterfall and sliding down with the cylinder, it must be placed correctly in the slot to activate the portal to escape. After one warrior has taken out all their demons, Nevar attempts to attack the two remaining warriors; when two warriors have gone through the portal, his next shot causes instant elimination to the remaining warrior. In the final, the first warrior to go through the portal wins and the remaining two are blasted by Nevar.

The challenge has undergone multiple changes and developments. From Series 5–7, warriors had to drag a key across an overhead maze to unlock a cage containing puzzle pieces, which are assembled to vanquish the demon in their path. Much of the rest of the challenge remained the same, except a cylinder of symbols replaced the circular disc.

From series 8–10, with the show's move to being filmed in Aviemore, meant that many of the original features of Castle Toward had gone from the show, and this included the Last Stand which appeared significantly more brighter and colourful than the bleakness of the challenge depicted from prior series. This time the challenge featured two large ramps to carry letters for a word puzzle (in Series 9 and 10, the word puzzle was changed to a shape puzzle forming a bridge that led to a shield). The shield was depicted as protection from Nevar's fire, and only the emblems would destroy the demons in their path. After the ramp part, they faced a framework with ropes attached to form a maze to crawl through, followed by another two emblem shape pieces to collect each. There was then two diamond walls with a hand battering ram to smash through them, with the last two emblem shaped pieces beyond. A different ram hung from chains to burst open a final gate, after which the portal may be accessed. The warriors held the shield up towards Nevar to protect themselves as Nevar fired down at them, as they ran through the portal.

In both series 11 and 12, two versions of the course were built. The first one, that was used during the heats, remains nearly identical to Series 9 – 10's variation with a few noticeable differences. The pieces to build the ramp to the shields are already on the other side of the initial two ramps, the shields serve to only shield the warriors from the Demons instead of Nevar's line of fire (with four symbols instead of six only being present by the second row of Demons), the two diamond walls are replaced by a three spiked gate opened by a Skull tether and a talisman is collected after the final door is burst open in order to drop a boulder that blocks the way to the Portal.

The second version was used as the final challenge during the grand tournament, and is completely different to all the past incarnations. The course is suspended above a large pool of water and the aim was the warriors had to collect 8 out of 12 of their respective pieces, that are scattered all over the course, and put them into a wheel that would expel Nevar from the arena. The warriors could collect any of the pieces in any order but they can only carry a maximum of two at a time.