yeah the whole FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC theme of the anime is kind of heavy handed especially in the first two seasons where like every problem is solved with "and then yuuri befriended them and the countries never fought again". and all that just makes those early villains that much dumber because like. wow you keep failing to catch/kill this guy who's famous for wanting to be friends with everyone, why did it take three seasons to get an antagonist who thought to just pretend to be his friend??? sara is literally the smartest person in the whole damn anime just for that.

and the whole thing with him did get a good dose of that idealistic anime filter but compared to the first two seasons, sara's arc is noticeably darker and more dramatic. idk maybe they just realized they could show blood on tv or something, because conrad took like five arrows to the torso earlier in the series and there was like no blood and yuuri was just like "oh nooo", then third season happens and sara takes a single arrow to the chest and it looked like a bucket of blood had been dumped on him and yuuri rages and destroys everything and it's all metal as shit

but yeah they got a happy ending but at least they didn't just go straight out with "and now there's world peace because they're friends yaaay". instead they pretty much just left it with small shimaron and shin makoku being allies and sara teasing yuuri that he should be careful because there are ambitious men out there like him that might make him regret being so trusting, and sara implies vague plans to take over large shimaron and things are kinda settled with alazon but sara's still not outright forgiving her because PRIDE

wait is sara a full-blooded shinzoku in the novels or is he still half human i just realized i have no idea