So, episode three was amazing, pretty much what I would call flawless, which I think set my expectations a little too high for what would come next. I enjoyed all three episodes that just dropped, and I want to say up front that I am still very much enjoying the show! But I do have a couple of larger structural issues to discuss, and some smaller things as well. Let's jump in.
Cons:
The big thing about episode four for me is that it kind of grinds the pacing to a halt. This may be a case of them following the stream too closely, even though the details are quite different. The end of the last episode was full-on HOLY SHIT, what the fuck is up with Percy? And now they're arrested?! And to immediately downgrade that to house arrest and everyone asking Percy what's up but Percy not really giving any answers... like I said, that's more or less stream-accurate, with the gang being in big trouble with the Council and dithering around for a minute before going to Whitestone, but in some strange way it just killed the momentum coming off of episode three for me.
And that's odd, because if someone had asked me what I wanted for episode four I would have said for them to slow down, take a beat, have some character moments and a chance to breathe after all the exposition and buildup of the first three episodes. And that's what we got here! In many ways it feels odd to be complaining, but that brings me to my second major complaint of this episode (and it's one that will recur in the next two as well, sorry to say). And that's... well, the script. Not the larger structure so much, and certainly not the delivery of the lines, but the actual dialogue itself. To me, thus far, that's been the weakest thing of the show. I noticed it in the first three episodes, that there were a fair number of jokes that just didn't land, and here in episode four I saw it in more serious scenes as well. A prime example for you:
Keyleth and Percy's scene together. I love that this was in here, I think it makes so much sense, starts to build up that friendship aspect between them, we get a bit of Keyleth backstory and Percy showing that he still has the capacity to care for the others even in the midst of his own darkness. So what's the issue? Well, the actual lines of dialogue. It's a very unsubtle tell-don't-show moment, and it carries through to the end of the episode too. Keyleth tells us exactly what her backstory is and exactly how she feels about it. Her Aramente, she'll never see her family again if she fails, she's not sure she's worthy... and then Percy says she is worthy and then a scant ten minutes later or whatever, she's busting out the big guns during their fight and Percy has to prompt her by saying "prove yourself". That just seemed insultingly proscribed to me. For one thing, Keyleth having this big sunlight moment here, fighting a couple of mooks at the keep, seems like a waste when that could have been a build to a more epic moment later in Whitestone, fighting a literal vampire. I'm thinking Sun Tree, I'm thinking all sorts of epic shit, and instead we introduce "these are the stakes for my being unworthy" and "yay I'm worthy" in such a short span of time, it really didn't work for me. Couple that with Pike saying "you're their light now" at the end of the episode, and I was just kind of rolling my eyes at what should have been a touching moment.
If I can backseat write this episode for them, here's what I'd change: earlier on, instead of Keyleth trying and failing to do a light spell when Pike is unable in a dark hallway, I'd have her just say "no, that's not really my area" and kind of dodge the request entirely. Maybe show Percy, Vax, or Pike give her an odd look like "hmmm I've clocked that something weird is going on here." Then, during the Percy and Kiki talk, soften the language a little. Start with Keyleth bluntly trying to relate to Percy by talking about her family, but then maybe have Percy reciprocate just a bit more. Have him talk about Whitestone. And then, just as you think he's forgotten her implied insecurity, turn it around with him saying "I think you're damn worthy." In the fight in the end, instead of Percy literally prompting Keyleth and saying the super obvious point out loud, just have him pinned to the ground and turn to look at her, give her a significant glance or even just say her name. And then Keyleth can be a badass. Also, cut Pike's line to Keyleth at the end, have them give a significant nod or a hug instead, leave that implied.
And speaking of Pike, there's my largest structural and largest script issue combined into one: everything with the setup for Pike's subplot. I want to be clear here: I love Pike. I love the version of her we're seeing on the animated series. I love Ashley, I love that she's around for the beginning of this Briarwood arc when she wasn't there on the stream. But what the heck is going on with this whole Pike subplot? I'm frustrated, because on the face of it, I should have loved the great friendship stuff with her and Grog, that tearful goodbye, and Grog struggling without her in the next episodes. But the whole time I was very distracted by one thing: Pike feels she needs to... apologize? To the Everlight? For what, exactly? Not to be all "in the stream", but in the stream, Pike's behavior directly led to her necklace cracking and her connection to her goddess being on the fritz. Here, we see hints that she has a confidence problem in the first few episodes, but we don't explore why, and her magic seems to work really well, excepting when she can't save the boy in the first episode. Her connection to the Everlight is damaged because Delilah hits her with a spell, and now she's saying "I need to apologize"? It just doesn't track for me.
Here's the thing: Ashley was gone a lot during Campaign One, and Matt came up with contrived reasons for her to be away, while still giving her the option to come back when she was able. In animated form, they didn't have to keep that contrivance. Pike just could have come with them. So I was super surprised to see Pike leave at all, especially when the reason for it still seemed so contrived. I think they must have realized when blocking out the story that they had no real subplots to speak of, that the majority of every episode would be the whole gang together in the same place working towards the same goal. It makes sense that they'd find a way to peel someone off and give them their own quest, but Pike's stuff in this episode doesn't really set it up in a satisfying way, in my opinion.
Again, to backseat drive: what if in the first episode, instead of Pike being tired from the dragon fight, we'd seen her using her magic frivolously, goofing off with Grog. Or maybe she goes around right after that first fight and heals everyone's cuts and bruises just to show off or to prove to herself that she's good with magic. Then, when she doesn't have enough magic left to heal the boy, she feels a real sense of guilt and responsibility. Something like that, to tie into why Pike feels a certain sense of failure/need to reconnect with her goddess. I get the sense that they are perhaps saving some sort of reveal for later down the road, an answer to the question of why Pike is having this trouble, but for me structurally it doesn't work as a reveal at all, because it needs to be a super strong justification for why Pike would leave all her friends in this moment of solidarity when they're all going off to do something really dangerous.
And some smaller notes before I stop being such a party pooper: Jarret was a bit of a disappointment in adaptation; I loved him on the stream and here he seemed a lot more one-note, but this is a nitpick, and falls into the category of "things from the stream that I personally wished for but I totally get that not everything can make it in!" It's fun that he's there in any form, to be honest!
Same can be said for Trinket... why the heck are they leaving him behind in Emon when they go to Whitestone? They just don't want to bother animating him? On the stream, Trinket was always difficult to manage/remember during stealth or what have you, but they had the opportunity to come up with something creative and instead they just wrote out my favorite member of Vox Machina (kidding. Kinda).
And I'll end with the one thing in this episode that I truly have a very big problem with, which is Scanlan's prison joke right at the end. It's a rape joke. Scanlan says he wouldn't survive one day in prison because "he's a snack". Um. No? I thought we'd all agreed that those kinds of jokes needed to die a quiet death a long time ago? I was truly shocked to hear that come out of Sam's mouth, to be honest, and incredibly disappointed. All of Scanlan's other jokes in the show have been crass and some of them have been pretty unfunny to me, but this was the first and only one thus far that's actually offended me.
Aaaand sorry to be a downer, now onto the good stuff!
Pros:
As I think the above section might make clear, this episode has been the weakest of the six we've been given so far, but it's only weak comparatively, it's not by any means bad television. Far from it. I am still completely on the edge of my seat for so much of what we're being given, and I'm thrilled with many of the moments and key choices being made.
The book is such a clever addition to the story, keeping our villains and heroes connected even for the episodes where they don't directly cross paths. Checking in with Sylas and Delilah, seeing Delilah summon some evil to get the book back... and it makes Scanlan target #1 throughout episode four and the next episode too, which I think is a great way to make Scanlan feel like a beloved member of the group, one who has real use and value beyond just being the jokester. I was moved by the group rushing to Scanlan's rescue here, and just the simple cleverness of giving the characters some smaller enemies to fight on their way back to the Big Bosses for round two.
As I said, some of the quiet moments that I would have wanted didn't quite work because the dialogue wasn't great, but others I did quite enjoy. How can you not love Pike hugging Grog, and Grog's imperfect attempts to help? Or that opening scene, with Scanlan and Vax's immature flipping off contest, Keyleth yelping "I want to know about the smoke!" Percy and Vex full-naming each other as "Percival" and "Vex'ahlia"... kinda hot, not gonna lie. Vax's best comedic delivery came in this opening scene too: "I'm not turning into a vampire, am I?" and then after seeing their unimpressed looks, "I withdraw the question." Percy sharing his backstory more fully was another highlight, I love the atmospheric way they show these brief moments of flashback.
Vex and Vax's conversation was a true highlight for me. This was how to do the subtle dialogue thing well. Vex pointing out that they could probably sneak away, even if the group is too big to go together. Vax doesn't try to argue with her necessarily, just says "why aren't we?" but you get the sense from both of them that they're saying this out of habit. Vex looks over at Scanlan messily making a sandwich, and she knows she can't really abandon her friends. Super sweet moment. Not what I'd call subtle, but also not so blunt that it took me out of the moment, like some of the other moments have been.
While I have serious problems with Pike's stuff as I mentioned, I do love the visual of Pike trying to access the Everlight. Giving me some Campaign Two Yasha vibes, to be honest, what with a character trying to talk directly to the gods and seeing that represented in an interesting visual way... and of course Grog offering his simple advice as best he can. Another one of the more subtle beats is Grog saying he doesn't want to wreak Pike's shrine. He's a big dumb-dumb but he's not inconsiderate, and he really does care about his friends and protecting what's important to them.
And then let's get to the wraiths. So as I'm watching this episode, I'm scratching my head, feeling a little unhappy with some moments here. The episode slowed down, lots of character building and talking, and various small moments just weren't clicking for me the way I wanted them to. Nothing ruinous, but I wasn't sure quite how to feel. And then the combat started, and... god, it's like everything came alive for me.
They went hard on these bad guys, super creepy, I loved the goo literally leaking out of everyone's eyes, Keyleth getting lifted up in the air with that thing possessing her... and then after the sunlight spell, everyone just beating the things to a complete pulp in a really brutal way. The atmosphere of having the fight in the keep made for some cool tight angles, making you feel trapped and uncertain. And the buildup to the actual combat was great too, with the guards being snatched outside and brutally murdered with nobody the wiser at first.
What's so impressive to me about the fight sequences so far is not just the sense of motion and the heaviness of the violence, but the way all these character building beats are built into the chaos of the action. This is what I mean with a show don't tell approach. Scanlan gets snatched and they all charge after him, Grog grabs him and tries to get him to safety, later we see Vex catch him as they go flying against the wall. We see them be innovative with their fighting style, where Percy is using his bare hands, Vex is using a sword to stab one of them... Scanlan doesn't have his lute so we see how they cover him in those stressful moments. It all just worked super well for me. I never would have suspected this would be the case, but so far in everything I've seen it's the more action-oriented moments that are my favorites, where I really get a sense of life and creativity from the characters.
And that's all I'll say about this one. Gosh, these reviews are all going to be way too long, aren't they? What can I say, I have a ton to say! I hope people don't take this review in too negative a light, I'm not at all saying that the show is bad or even mediocre, I think the high points have been incredibly high. But I can't help myself from analyzing what I'm watching in this way, seeing the things that don't quite line up for me. So far the big one is the Pike stuff, as you'll see me continue to talk about in the next episodes, but even there I have hope that it'll grow on me/we'll get more unique character work to explain the situation a bit more.
Onto episode five!
7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment
I'd really appreciate hearing what you think!