Has anyone noticed?(life force related)
-
S1 2 &3 I was a legit hazzard and even teams died from it running out
Never per se - this only ever happened when the team were trapped in a room or something. If it ever happened, there was always an earlier error.
-
Yep, if they died from apparent life force decay, it was always because they'd made a mistake earlier on, rather than down to them running out of life force while still in winning status. It's questionable if they'd have ever killed someone off for solely life force reasons- perhaps if you'd just walked into lots of hauntings. However, often when severe life force damage occurred- even when it was the team's own fault- there was still food reachable in time.
Still, even if it didn't kill people, I do think life force was far more important to the programme earlier on. Watching it as a brat, you didn't really realise that it wasn't really quite that important and a pie would always just happen to be there, and it really helped to create an atmosphere. The original life force animation was one of the very best visual sequences in the whole show, and still scares a great deal of people. I think the later series missed that sense of urgency sometimes by not having life force on screen more often, and of course, by replacing the original sequence with the inferior walking man and laughable pie. If they really wanted to forget the life force idea, I'd have preferred to see it go altogether than be replaced by that silly quiche.
As I've said many times before- and I'm sure Tim Child must have seen at least one of our discussions on this topic- I'd love to see life force play a big role in any new Knightmare. I thought towards the end it became too reliant on soap opera and often lacked the sense of ongoing claustrophobia and urgency that the life force theme helped to provide.
-
I agree totally.
Series 5 is the last series to feature the original Clock and this time the heartbeat is gone (save for during the final causeway in today's excellent episode) and its importance has diminished. Apart from a bit of Life Force damage sustained during team 3's quest (opening Merlin's Magic Box) it has only cropped up when a Dungeoneer collects food.
Mind you, we still had some stunning Life Force moments in series 6 and 7 (both with winning teams) that are even better than today's one. No bad thing.
-
I mean the original life force instills fear, tension and panic. How many teams didnt blunder in their hurry to get life force in S3 when Treguard reminded them. However by S8 it was a complete joke of a pie. In the new KM can we have a skull style one or no at all because unless it adds something to the quest like the original one then it doesnt matter
-
it is a massive pity they seemed to disregard life force during the latter series. During series 5 its hardly ever shown, the same with the skull when the team die and the dual bell gong. KM changed a lot over the years, but the gong and the lifeforce should have stayed the same..
-
Was the knight walking with bits falling off bad? I can barely remember it, but what I do know is that it was better than the cake thing.
-
Was the knight walking with bits falling off bad? I can barely remember it, but what I do know is that it was better than the cake thing.
Oh, it was better than the quiche! That's not difficult, however.
-
Dont you think life force was a fix?. Life force certainly brought fun and tension to some episodes but I definatly think the whole thing was a fix. Was there actualy an amount of time that green yellow and red lasted?. I personaly think they just made up the life force indicators as they went along to build tension or speed things up. The life force clock just never seems to be consistant with the amount of time it takes. What do you think?.
-
well actually it is pretty consistant, normally it goes quite slowly and when hit by and enemy their is a drain etc. However in s5 whenever it appears then its usually red and the team are about to pick up food. However at least 1 team in S3 i think it was slowed down a bit to ensure they actually got the food in time
-
Someone here has said the show loses its feeling of urgency and claustrophobia with the loss of the lifeforce...
Series 6 in my opinion is by far the most scary and urgent and atmospheric.
Series 7 draws on that and is effective in some places, like the troll in level 2 'It comes, It comes!' but I was scared to death of those dwarf tunnels in the dark and the bit where a storm giest appeared, oh and the hand reaching in.
Series 6 was scary
-
A slight change of subject, but was the lifeforce face actually based on somebody's face or was it one which was just created, i.e. through a drawing or painting or by computer? Also was there a reason that the s6 lifeforce was used for only one series other than the fact that they changed it for a cake/pie/quiche. (Or have I not done my homework?). I suppose the whole idea of the s7/8 lifeforce was to getaway from the whole death thing and since food was what was required to go into the knapsack that lifeforce was a certain reminder that they needed more food (I waffle as usual).
-
I think the original Clock may well have been based on somebody's face. I've always wanted to know exactly how it was done. Maybe one day we'll be lucky enough to find out.
Btw, the skeleton Life Force was a feature of series 6 and 7 - the Pie/Cake/Quiche was in series 8 only.
-
In my opinion, the life force was only ever added to heighten tension in post-production. I don't believe that the team ever saw their life force clock during their quest.
Given that, it would seem a little harsh to ever actually kill a team for failing to top up something which they can't even see. In think it served only two purposes - it gave Treguard a means of hurrying teams along when dithering set in, and it added tension at key points in certain quests.
My theory as to why it became less significant is that the production team wanted to explore other means of building tension - i.e. more music/atmospherics in the background, chasing footsteps, goblin horns etc.
-
Indeed, I'm pretty certain that it was added in afterwards as well. All the close shaves that have occurred in the past have been extremely well-timed.
I still think that it was one of the best (if not the best) tension-building devices in the show. I'd really love it to be a feature in the revived show.
-
Oh, it was better than the quiche! That's not difficult, however.
Well anything beats the Quiche.
Personally, I liked the Knight LF. True, it was nowhere near as great as the Face LF, but it had it's charm. And when you see it "end" for the first time, it's a quality moment.
And I agree on the main part - it did drop in significance over time. S1-3, it would appear in nigh on every room, with replenishment needed every couple of rooms. Immediately after that it went more into not appearing so often (mainly just with food and death), but food was still needed regularly (maybe just a little less than before). Then it started going to the stage of something like "once in the clue room, once later in the level" (or at least that's how it felt), so that sense of "you're in need of food... better get some soon or the next room'll have us finished before we're halfway through it" was gone.
-
I would also favour the 6 and 7 life force clock. I love the fact that chunks would fall off, especially the armour which made a clanging sound as it hit the floor.
Its really funny how much you miss the heartbeat of the LF clock, series 5 doesnt feel right without it.
And as for the quiche, well we all have bad ideas every now and again...........
-
That's another thing with s5...there's hardly any sound at all in the episodes...no funky s1-3 music-on-one-instrument (I assume), and I think there was some music in later series...
But series 5 is so quiet...the lack of a heartbeat can make it feel..well...dead at times. Yet still absorbing the rest of the time.
-
Btw, the skeleton Life Force was a feature of series 6 and 7 - the Pie/Cake/Quiche was in series 8 only.
So maybe Majida weren't the only 'pointless' thing that came out of the bottle then!
That's another thing with s5...there's hardly any sound at all in the episodes...no funky s1-3 music-on-one-instrument (I assume), and I think there was some music in later series...
I liked some of the s4 death sound effects such as when simon went into the pit and when Nicky was munched by Ariadne.
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login