So far it’s interesting to see how the votes go. It’s like Survivor, except they’re starting at the individual stage, but only two people are ever available, and the votes are public. Still, more people should be trying to vote out the stronger people so they can win… a lot of people still seem to be actually believing the “we should vote for the best hero” (as opposed to just saying that for the cameras).
I’m 99% sure the Vizier turns out to be the bad guy. The LARPing so far has been pretty vanilla, so I doubt there’s a big twist. Kinda funny how the contestants are basically saying that they can see it coming a mile away, too, but they still need to stay somewhat ‘in character’.
Also, I know this is a week late, but one of the women (I think it was the one who was eliminated) actually threw her spear backwards (i.e., point last) at the target. I can’t believe the show didn’t comment on it! Arya Stark she ain’t.
I have to skip the voting part, including all the rationalization over why an obvious screwup should stay. The show is a fun, nerdy play with cool tests of skill that suddenly turns into the absolute worst part of gym class sports - picking teams. Maybe there’s some strategy going on. Maybe everyone wants to keep the weak contestants so the competition is weaker. But I feel like it boils down to the same old ‘who’s more popular’ crap we did in grade school. A nerd show should do better.
(1) Did you see the look on Crio’s face when he was more or less called cowardly? He really looked hurt (Bravo to the actor). Will this plant the seeds of betrayal?
(2) A slightly darker look to the Fates. Does this mean anything? The ground looked wet, so maybe the regular outfits were just soaked.
(3) I wish that the combat had included more importance on the sword because as it was it greatly favoured size.
(4) We finally found out one point of the marks. I like it.
(5) The contestants were interacting more with the cast which was very cool.
(6) Another totally lopsided vote. The voting mechanism is definitely not well thought out.
(7) An ogre!?! Awesome! Time to get some XP and loot!
Seeing two guys gang up on a woman (especially knowing one of them is a weakling and doesn’t belong there) instinctually made me feel bad and scared for her. Other than that, still liking the show over all. The voting also seems like it needs a better system.
This week’s episode was pretty good. I liked that the first part was a drill. “Um, we’ve never even seen this armor stuff before, and you want us to find it in panic mode, and figure out how it works? Yeah, this is our fault.”
The sword work drills were interesting. Jasmine actually looked pretty good.
I loved the twist, pick your teams and it turns out those are your competitors for the challenge. Oops, that puts Jasmine at a severe disadvantage. I liked the strategy of stepping back and let the first two challenge each other. Instead of going around the backside, I’d have tried just hanging back. The alternate would be they have to come at you one at a time. By moving around the wall, she alerted the guys to that possibility, and that worked against her.
It was less interesting to watch it turn into a wrestling match rather than a sword fight. But I guess that’s fighting - anything goes.
In the last match, the guy rushed Shondo from the side and got the jump on him, so that was good strategy, but then he didn’t think and tried to rush Lina. She had the wall and the support, he tried a big rush and jump to the wall, and so that didn’t work. If he’d been smart, he probably would have beat her, but he didn’t think, so good win for her.
I thought Aria was going to be the weak one, but she did pretty good with the skulls. When she stepped off, I almost thought it was deliberate, but it was a stupid misstep for no reason.
The poisoning indicates that there is a traitor already. If it’s not the stupidly obvious Vizier, then Crio is a good candidate for a misdirection. Being a coward actually fits - if he thinks the bad guy is slated to win, then trying to get in good with him is a strategy. Given that the show is striving for good television with the plot, going with the Vizier is a poor choice. There aren’t enough other player characters for much else. Can anybody make a case for the Captain?
Point 2, I think it was raining. Thus the cloaks.
Thought out? What is there to think out? Put the people together for five minutes, then let them vote their choice. It’s public vote, but otherwise there’s no constraints.
Christian is eliminated because of his scheming. Love it! One of the first rules of reality TV is that you don’t throw a challenge.
The contestant’s got a magic item (the falcon’s mask). Great merging of lore with the mechanics of a game show. I’m not sure how many of you play D&D, but when Adria couldn’t find the fire gem I said “Wow, did she fail a spot check there!”
They sang a song to Sir Ansgar. A great song, loved it. I really love that the contestants are interacting more with the cast and those are great moments. Sir Ansgar is great. I sadly think he’s going to die. His death will be the moment for the hero to rise. Ansgar calling out for scorpion support during his fight was funny. I suspect that they simply weren’t given the necessary parts to put it together since shooting an arrow at a cast member in an ogre outfit would be bad.
I’m reminded of Season 1 of Survivor, which is you go back and watch it now, the mechanics are weak and they were just finding their way. I feel this show is in the same boat. It is a lot of fun, I really like it, I hope they get another season or two to get to refine the mechanics.
This is spot on. There’s a fatal flaw with the show, which is that the ruleset of the underlying gameshow conflicts with the flavor and story. Because there are no set teams (Survivor style, for example), there is really no reason for alliances larger than two people. Your teammates for challenges change for every event. Whereas in Survivor, you’re with one team for a long period of time, which gives you an incentive to keep strong players around. In Quest, today’s teammate is tomorrow’s competitor, so you have zero reason to want skilled players around.
But the flavor of the story is that you are choosing the worthiest players to continue. This makes their voting sessions kind of awkward, as no one can say what they are really thinking, instead stretching for weak reasons to call lesser players worthy. They need to tweak the ruleset to match up with the story, so that the player’s motivations coincide with the character’s motivations. Right now, they are at odds with themselves.
I’m getting a mystic intuition as to what the One True Hero might win – a slot on Season Two, helping train (and select a successor from) the next cohort of paladins.
I agree that Sir Ansgar will not survive. The mentor character almost always dies.
Really liking this show. It is rough around the edges but I enjoy how into it the cast is. I was afraid the double helpings of episodes were ABC burning it off but really that would be the only way for the show to end in time for the Fall season to start.
First, I love that Christian was voted off because of his scheming. I was happy with the rest of the players looking to the stated purpose of their mission, and choosing accordingly. He was such a dick, and proud of it.
I was a little suspect for Letitia’s voting, though. If she was voting simply to make sure he had someone supporting him, then why did she vote first? Seems to me you would wait and vote last, to ensure the others voted the way you expected. Alternately, if she expected Anthony to vote for Christian and picked him, then the one sent home would either be Bonnie or Adria, who are weaker players. It seemed to me a good cover story for her vote.
With eight players, 2 teams of four works better than trying to split to three teams. And then there are four for the final challenge. You could make two safe, but then you have an even number of people voting. Better to only make one safe and have three to pick from, so no matter how people vote, you can’t get a tie. Good planning.
That elimination challenge looked tough. Those cages were heavy.
I like Shondo’s attitude about voting - it’s all about how they perform, not alliances. I understand voting for friends and personal loyalty, but I appreciate the straightforward, non-gaming approach.
The story is also staying interesting.
For the ogre challenge, once again they are pressed into action doing something without any training on what to do. Last time it was put on armor, this time it was assemble a scorpion. It did give Sir Ansgar a chance to shine and show off why he’s the captain of the guard.
I loved the moment of camaraderie with singing the song.
For the second round, the lights were an intriguing challenge. Using the hoods and the hawk was a nice way to bring in the magical element.
Hunting for glowy things - in all three cases, someone rushed past the spot, didn’t think to look there. It showed the ones who were being meticulous rather than being fast.
The challenge lining up the sword, it’s amusing that Adria said the easiest way would be to pull them all out and look at them, but then she didn’t do that. That became a challenging puzzle when you realize the holes aren’t all the same depth.
Andrew redeemed himself, and the choice of Adria or Letitia, I would keep Letitia. I think she’s the stronger player, not just physically but overall. She has a pin, Adria doesn’t. Adria had been on bottom several times.
Nice twist for the story, chasing them out of the castle.
Yes, in retrospect that is pretty sensible. They were missing at least one pin, and they didn’t have any instructions on how the thing worked. Making sure they fail allows for the drama of the fight. Plus, I noticed Sir Ansgar didn’t chew them out, so that makes it all the more likely that was the intended result.
I’ll have to think on this. I’m of an opinion that I don’t like alliances, but you make a point that with set teams, there is incentive to keep your strongest players.
Of course, there’s also incentive for weaker players to betray alliances.
I wonder if the producers of the show (or somebody involved in the production of the show) are reading this thread at all. I hope so, and I hope if they get a second season and take some of our feedback into consideration.
You know I think Leticia was really sincere when she said she thought everybody deserved one person behind them. She seemed legitimately hurt that nobody bothered to stand behind her.
Two great episodes. Man I hope there’s a second season, although the ratings have been pretty poor so it seems unlikely. I like that they have the paladins doing things as part of the story, like camouflaging the tents. They even accused the vizier. I really hope that was spontaneous and not prompted. It is things like that which make the show.
I really like Shondo. He realizes the that to do your best is to do your best and has nothing to do with the others. He goes to his peak every time. Either your best is good enough or it isn’t.
Crio was great! I liked his speech about the true nature of courage. I also like his comment in the den “I do not feel safe here.” LOL
For a second I thought as a twist Crio would be revealed as the betrayer but this is High Fantasy and an old school kind of story, it has to be the Vizier.
Ha! Sir Ansgar survived! So much for predictability.
Still, the Vizier was the baddie…
No, seriously, I liked the way they ended the show, bringing back all the Paladins and giving them a role to play, and not just as a crowd applauding at the finish line, either.
Must have taken a lot of time and money choreographing all those fight bits at the end.
Anyone know how the ratings were? I for one would watch another season.
This show was pretty dreadful… though I did watch all of it. Just so much narm and corniness. And predictability (I was calling the Vizier “Obviously Evil Guy” a minute after he showed up).
I kept watching because I liked that it kept the basic aspects of Survivor’s competition… a challenge, then a vote. I kept hoping for someone to pull a Richard Hatch and realize that an alliance would be the best option (or at least, voting to keep weaker players in the game) but for the most part, it seemed people were voting for ‘who could be the one true hero’ except for maybe the last vote that kept Lina over Patrick. Christian was the only one who tried something different, and even then, it was stupid (purposely choose a weak team to lose?)
Anyways, I hope this show doesn’t get renewed. Even with the “twist” scene in the credits.