Countdown to coronation: W.I.T.C.H. 21-23
Jan. 29th, 2012 03:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akinoameEscape From Cavigor (Nancy and Trey Callaway): This episode is kind of on the average side for a while until the end, when it builds up momentum and suspense.
The story is that Elyon’s worry is preventing her powers from growing as they should. When Phobos discovers sketches of the Browns in human and orc form, she confesses that she wants to see them. So Phobos decides to grant this request, since the Browns are living in a lovely cottage in the mountains. For being accomplices in kidnapping the Princess, of course. Seriously, this is the dumbest lie he’s ever told. How does Elyon think the criminal justice system in Meridian work, anyway? Thirteen people beat the shit out of each other, and the last one left standing is right?
Of course, Phobos has limits to his stupidity but not his evil, so the Browns are actually being kept at the impenetrable and inescapable prison ofAzkaban Cavigor. Caleb somehow finds out about this and tells the Guardians while they’re bowling (much to Irma’s impatience, because she doesn’t know why they’re playing around when they know what Phobos’s plan is and when they have to stop it) that they have to arrange a jailbreak. So much of Will Vandom and the Prisoners of Cavigor is preparation for the jailbreak while Cedric heads over to retrieve Thomas and Elanor.
But once the jailbreak actually starts, it begins to get interesting. The plan falls apart from the start, when Will, Caleb, Cornelia, and Blunk discover scuttlers, giant evil cockroaches, on the bottom floor. When they finally manage to track down the Browns, it turns out their food was drugged with some kind of potion so they’d believe they were in that mountain village. Worse, Taranee, Irma, and Hay Lin’s diversion is sabotaged when Cedric and his army comes along, so Irma stays back to hold off the guards while the other two go to warn the others. As the plan continues to fall apart and Will decides that, fuck it, they’re saving everybody in the prison, you start wondering if they’ll get everyone to safety in time.
But ultimately they do manage the massive jailbreak, and the Browns thank them for their help and ask them to make sure nothing happens to their daughter. Meanwhile, Phobos turns this failure into success, telling Elyon that the Rebels have captured her parents and that he’ll make them pay. How that manages to relieve her worries is beyond me.
Caleb’s Challenge (Steve Billnitzer): When I first saw this episode, I remember liking it. Caleb having to prove his worth as leader—it sounds great, right?
What I looked back on has a lot of flaws in execution.
The story is that after Aldarn and two other Rebels are captured trying to steal back grain from Phobos, Elyon accidentally puts them under a mind control spell that pushes them against the Guardians and urges them to sign a peace treaty. They return to the Infinite City with grain, but Caleb doesn’t buy that Phobos has turned over a new leaf. Believing that the Guardians are poisoning Meridian with lies, Aldarn challenges Caleb for leadership. Meanwhile, the Guardians go to scope out the peace treaty site at the hu gong nesting grounds.
The Guardians’ side is pretty good, given that they’re suspicious of what’s going on, but when they can’t find a trap, they realize it’s in plain sight: the hu gong eggs have been replaced with larvek eggs, and they’re hatching early. At the same time, Phobos told Elyon the signing was in a different location altogether, and when she’s on the verge of forgiving the girls, she realizes they’re not coming and maintains her grudge against them.
There’s also a terrible subplot about the girls leaving Blunk in charge of the cooking for their bake sale, but the A plot is Caleb’s. And I have no idea what this challenge has to do with leadership: both competitors must race across the desert, scale a cliff, get through a Venus flytrap-infested jungle, cross a monster-infested canyon on stilts, and then race back to the Infinite City before an hourglass runs out for the prerequisite “beat the crap out of each other with sticks on a narrow bridge” fight that’s been done to death so many times it’s even in Ben 10. Caleb’s upset that he’s got to fight his best friend, but to be perfectly honest? We don’t see enough of Aldarn to really bond with him. It’s hard to feel bad for Caleb fighting his best friend when we don’t see that friendship as much anymore. If he had to fight Will, yes, that would be devastating. They’ve clearly become friends. If he were fighting Cornelia, yes. Aldarn? No, not really. He’s got too little exposure. I think they were trying to go for an analogous battle to the Guardians’—particularly Cornelia’s—battle against Elyon, but it doesn’t work. I’ve seen it done much better in Kamen Rider (namely Ryuki), Ben 10, Kingdom Hearts (take your pick which one), and even this own show (see what I said about Elyon. Also, W.I.T.C.H. vs. C.H.Y.K.N. and the whole Shagon subplot in season 2). Plus, even Caleb knows that Aldarn is under a spell, which really defeats the pathos there. It’s not so much a battle of friendship as it is trying to smack some sense into his brainwashed buddy. It wasn’t nearly as strong as it could have been.
The Battle of Meridian Plains (Andrew Nicholls and Darrell Vickers): This is the gem of the pack, here. Great action and an amazing would-be final showdown with a terrific end for the bad guys. Cedric destroys the village’s wells to force the civilians to reveal the Rebels’ location. Believing in the legend of the Infinite City, he follows a Rebel to its entrance. Vathek is able to seal it off, but he’s captured, and the Rebels inside have a choice: wait or fight. As Caleb instructs the other four Guardians to fight the Kathem energy monster inside the lake to give the villagers some much-needed relief, he and Will scope out the castle for the attack in three days, only to find the Rebels waging war.
This could have been another monster-of-the-week episode with the Kathem, but thankfully, it’s only the diversion keeping Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin from helping Will, Caleb, and the Rebels at the castle. This battle does not disappoint. Sure, the animation is shaky at times, but they do a damn good job channeling Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and showing the all-out fight against Phobos’s forces. The Rebels use everything in their disposal: swords, arrows, gliders, and do everything they can to defeat Phobos’s much larger and better-armed army. You get some great moments of Caleb showing off his swordfighting skills while Will provides support to the Rebels in the sky. Elyon is ordered inside the castle walls for her protection, but by the time the other Guardians arrive to help, she can’t take it anymore. She flies outside and unleashes a massive wave of power on the castle, awakening her powers to full. A hundred Rebels are captured, among them Aldarn and Julian (finally named in this episode, though he doesn’t speak). Elyon even captures some lurdeks, but it’s clear that she doesn’t know they’re working for her brother. With three days left until the coronation, the team has to come up with some way to win before Phobos takes it all.
The story is that Elyon’s worry is preventing her powers from growing as they should. When Phobos discovers sketches of the Browns in human and orc form, she confesses that she wants to see them. So Phobos decides to grant this request, since the Browns are living in a lovely cottage in the mountains. For being accomplices in kidnapping the Princess, of course. Seriously, this is the dumbest lie he’s ever told. How does Elyon think the criminal justice system in Meridian work, anyway? Thirteen people beat the shit out of each other, and the last one left standing is right?
Of course, Phobos has limits to his stupidity but not his evil, so the Browns are actually being kept at the impenetrable and inescapable prison of
But once the jailbreak actually starts, it begins to get interesting. The plan falls apart from the start, when Will, Caleb, Cornelia, and Blunk discover scuttlers, giant evil cockroaches, on the bottom floor. When they finally manage to track down the Browns, it turns out their food was drugged with some kind of potion so they’d believe they were in that mountain village. Worse, Taranee, Irma, and Hay Lin’s diversion is sabotaged when Cedric and his army comes along, so Irma stays back to hold off the guards while the other two go to warn the others. As the plan continues to fall apart and Will decides that, fuck it, they’re saving everybody in the prison, you start wondering if they’ll get everyone to safety in time.
But ultimately they do manage the massive jailbreak, and the Browns thank them for their help and ask them to make sure nothing happens to their daughter. Meanwhile, Phobos turns this failure into success, telling Elyon that the Rebels have captured her parents and that he’ll make them pay. How that manages to relieve her worries is beyond me.
Caleb’s Challenge (Steve Billnitzer): When I first saw this episode, I remember liking it. Caleb having to prove his worth as leader—it sounds great, right?
What I looked back on has a lot of flaws in execution.
The story is that after Aldarn and two other Rebels are captured trying to steal back grain from Phobos, Elyon accidentally puts them under a mind control spell that pushes them against the Guardians and urges them to sign a peace treaty. They return to the Infinite City with grain, but Caleb doesn’t buy that Phobos has turned over a new leaf. Believing that the Guardians are poisoning Meridian with lies, Aldarn challenges Caleb for leadership. Meanwhile, the Guardians go to scope out the peace treaty site at the hu gong nesting grounds.
The Guardians’ side is pretty good, given that they’re suspicious of what’s going on, but when they can’t find a trap, they realize it’s in plain sight: the hu gong eggs have been replaced with larvek eggs, and they’re hatching early. At the same time, Phobos told Elyon the signing was in a different location altogether, and when she’s on the verge of forgiving the girls, she realizes they’re not coming and maintains her grudge against them.
There’s also a terrible subplot about the girls leaving Blunk in charge of the cooking for their bake sale, but the A plot is Caleb’s. And I have no idea what this challenge has to do with leadership: both competitors must race across the desert, scale a cliff, get through a Venus flytrap-infested jungle, cross a monster-infested canyon on stilts, and then race back to the Infinite City before an hourglass runs out for the prerequisite “beat the crap out of each other with sticks on a narrow bridge” fight that’s been done to death so many times it’s even in Ben 10. Caleb’s upset that he’s got to fight his best friend, but to be perfectly honest? We don’t see enough of Aldarn to really bond with him. It’s hard to feel bad for Caleb fighting his best friend when we don’t see that friendship as much anymore. If he had to fight Will, yes, that would be devastating. They’ve clearly become friends. If he were fighting Cornelia, yes. Aldarn? No, not really. He’s got too little exposure. I think they were trying to go for an analogous battle to the Guardians’—particularly Cornelia’s—battle against Elyon, but it doesn’t work. I’ve seen it done much better in Kamen Rider (namely Ryuki), Ben 10, Kingdom Hearts (take your pick which one), and even this own show (see what I said about Elyon. Also, W.I.T.C.H. vs. C.H.Y.K.N. and the whole Shagon subplot in season 2). Plus, even Caleb knows that Aldarn is under a spell, which really defeats the pathos there. It’s not so much a battle of friendship as it is trying to smack some sense into his brainwashed buddy. It wasn’t nearly as strong as it could have been.
The Battle of Meridian Plains (Andrew Nicholls and Darrell Vickers): This is the gem of the pack, here. Great action and an amazing would-be final showdown with a terrific end for the bad guys. Cedric destroys the village’s wells to force the civilians to reveal the Rebels’ location. Believing in the legend of the Infinite City, he follows a Rebel to its entrance. Vathek is able to seal it off, but he’s captured, and the Rebels inside have a choice: wait or fight. As Caleb instructs the other four Guardians to fight the Kathem energy monster inside the lake to give the villagers some much-needed relief, he and Will scope out the castle for the attack in three days, only to find the Rebels waging war.
This could have been another monster-of-the-week episode with the Kathem, but thankfully, it’s only the diversion keeping Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin from helping Will, Caleb, and the Rebels at the castle. This battle does not disappoint. Sure, the animation is shaky at times, but they do a damn good job channeling Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and showing the all-out fight against Phobos’s forces. The Rebels use everything in their disposal: swords, arrows, gliders, and do everything they can to defeat Phobos’s much larger and better-armed army. You get some great moments of Caleb showing off his swordfighting skills while Will provides support to the Rebels in the sky. Elyon is ordered inside the castle walls for her protection, but by the time the other Guardians arrive to help, she can’t take it anymore. She flies outside and unleashes a massive wave of power on the castle, awakening her powers to full. A hundred Rebels are captured, among them Aldarn and Julian (finally named in this episode, though he doesn’t speak). Elyon even captures some lurdeks, but it’s clear that she doesn’t know they’re working for her brother. With three days left until the coronation, the team has to come up with some way to win before Phobos takes it all.