MESSAGE FROM
ME
Welcome
to issue twenty-five of The Eye Shield, and Happy New Year from
Fans of
the current Adventure Time format should take note that it will be
taking a break for a while from next issue to make room for some more of my
interactive quests. Enjoy Ben’s quest this issue while you can, and if anyone
wants more then, well… as I so often say, contributions are always gratefully
received. In the meantime, if you think you can achieve the hereto unachieved
by winning series 1 or 3 then be sure to keep reading Adventure Time.
Elsewhere
this issue you can take a walk on the wild side – or the smelly side, anyway –
as we enter the Sewers of Goth, you can watch in glee as Greystagg and Maldame
battle it out in the ring, and you can take a look into a magical world with
the Spell Grid. I really do spoil you, don’t I?
Challenge question: Which is the odd
monk out? Cedric, Brother Mace, Brother Silence, Brother Strange.
CORRESPONDENCE
Here is
something from Richard Temple.
Dear Eye Shield.
I was and still am a big fan of Knightmare (since I
saw series 4 as a kid) and I just discovered this section of www.knightmare.com so I thought I would write an article
listing my top fifteen Knightmare villains of all time.
Thank
you, Richard. Your article is interesting and original, and I’m looking forward
to finding out the identity of your favourite villain. Is it Lord Fear,
Mogdred, or someone completely different? Thanks for getting in touch.
Joe Grocott-James discusses two unfair deaths from series 8.
Dear Eye Shield.
With reference to teams 2 and 3 from series 8: A lot
of conversations with Knightmare characters work out automatically – if you
have the right item, spell or piece of information, it is usually pretty much
impossible to go wrong. However, these teams both let their conversations work
out automatically (team 2 with Honesty Bartram and team 3 with Maldame), and
died as a result. Team 2 had to give away their sight potion, which they needed
in the Corridor of Blades. I think they were supposed to give Honesty Bartram
the red key, their other choices in the clue room being a glove and a giant
needle. With team 3, Maldame offered no help in return for asking the team to
deliver an amber globe for her, and after they died in the fireball room,
Treguard said that they could have got some extra magic from Maldame.
Admittedly, team 3 had to make sure that they got the RISKY potion rather than
the TRAPDOOR potion from Honesty Bartram in level 1, but they got that
information from a spyglass, and they were additionally warned by Stiletta.
Honesty Bartram initially wanted the globe for the talking book in level 3 of
the same quest, but they had to persuade him to accept the gold instead. But in
these two cases of Daniel with Honesty Bartram and Nathan with Maldame, they
had no previous warning or information.
Fair points there. Most purchases and barters did run
automatically, and, particularly in the case of Nathan, you could argue that it
was unfair to expect them to alter the course set by the character with no
clues to help them. I must say that I think Daniel’s death in the Corridor of
Blades was thanks to Gideon’s erratic guidance more than anything else, but
undoubtedly the potion would have been much more useful to them than key. As
for Nathan, I think his death was very unfair. He should have won, thus
preventing the introduction of the dreaded Short Cut later in the series, and
there was certainly no way they could have known to push Maldame for a reward.
Having said that, I think they could have completed that final chamber without
any magic if the advisors hadn’t lost their heads.
The Eye Shield
returns in March with issue 26, so if you have anything to contribute to it, or
any views about Knightmare to share with me, then please don’t hesitate to
contact me at eyeshield2002@hotmail.com