Series 5 - Episode 9
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Maybe they thought the Block and Tackle (since it was vitually that room where they confronted Aesandre)
Definitely agree with you on that point. Jonathan (I think..) almost tells him it's the block & tackle when they first enter the room but seems to forget what it's called! Until the point where they left I think they were convinced the room was going to "come to life", hence the totally unnecessary panic over the relatively simple process of leaving the room!
I think Ben was guided to the left hand door by a member of the production team since they were that close to victory
I think this is conspiracy theorising gone too far! I'd be very very doubtful of there ever being a need for the production team to actually help a team through an exit. Particularly when the "challenge" of a particular chamber has already been won. The way it's edited does make the scene quite confusing but I'm certain that's all it was - a bit of clumsy editing. Probably because they wasted so much time actually getting out of the room that it wasn't deemed interesting enough to show us every step of their progress!
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Yes, I doubt they needed help getting to the exit. Perhaps it was just bad editing, or perhaps they said something they shouldn't have, giving away something that the viewer wasn't meant to know or similar. Whatever is really the case, it really looks weird.
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Things got off to a cracking start when the pre-recorded announcer said "One of the Cult Selection now, it's Knightmare". That recording is almost 2 years old now, and it shows, as Knightmare hasn't been part of the cult selection for ages!
The episode resumed midway through Winteria. Elita proved helpful for once and gave them a bone for Hordriss. Then they recount the scroll clue in front of Hordriss..."A DOG? You call me a DOG?". Still, things sort themselves out and our favourite wizard gives them two spells, FIRE and FREEZE. The Amiga powered status bar looked a bit cluttered with both those spells, one can only imagine what it would have looked like with three.
Then came the Block and Tackle...without the blocks, or the tackle for that matter. Aesandre (I wonder if she has a goodie goodie sister called Naesandre?) appeared, and the team correctly spellcast FREEZE to, well, freeze her. They make a quick exit through the left door, after a bit of hesitation.
And THEN came the rather easy final puzzle, in front of Knightmare Castle. But hang on, where did that moat come from? There's no moat in the titles, and it's meant to be on top of a hill! The team knew their Roman Numerals, though, and had no problem doing the first bit. The shield was frozen, so they had to spellcast their other spell (FIRE) to thaw it. Another easy "circle plus square" puzzle followed, and after a cheap sounding fanfare, they became the first people to reclaim the shield! Seems they did it just in time, too, judging by the life force.
The next time are (or were) from Exeter too, which seems like a good omen. Unusually, the first room was a clue room, followed by a boat ride...with Brother Mace as the boatman! Timed out during a rendezvous with Julius Scaramonger...and since it's a double bill, the next episode followed immediately after an ad-break. See you in the episode 10 thread!
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I would rather have scene a Lord Fear final encounter, but if he wants to delegate so be it.
Aesandra gave a clue by saying "You might as well fight fire with fire" which, rather cryptically, lead to using the FREEZE spell.
Presumably, if the team had used FIRE, Aesandra's would have been stronger and they would have been killed. Does anyone know what level Hordriss is at this Series?
I only as because technically they could have FIREd Aesandra and dispelled FREEZE to free the sword.
Treguard and Pickle present the prize themselves, I believe the first time exactly 2 characters have been presnt at the presentation (we've either had 1 or 3 until now)
Enjoyed the little summary of the winning quest under the titles.
Note that from now on teams are only given the choice of three clue objects.
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Just a thought though as this may sound stupid, or not make sense, but I would've thought that with Aesandre living in an icy cold place then she would have threatened them with cold such as to freeze them. Also loving the cold, she would've been against any sort of fire spell as it would've made the place warm. Unless she was going attack Ben with blue fire. (Hope that made sense.)
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I personally think she was going to attack Ben with some sort of cold, maybe a blue version of whatever fireball graphic the production team had on hand. Still, it was a final encounter and Ben had the spells, the team weren't dumb enough to use FIRE against an ice sorceress, it was very unlikely that he was going to die.
I've just rewatched this quest for the first time in years - in fact, I think it's the longest it's been between me watching two winning quests. I love this team. They're perhaps the youngest team to ever win (maybe tied with Dunstan's team, I dunno really), and they deserved it. There aren't really any signs of being "helped" by the production team (a complaint levied at a few winning teams by some people, although I think that's also unfair). They had a slightly unremarkable start and were quite slow when it came to doing the causeways, but they got better as they went on. The advisors were smart and steady in their thinking, and Ben got a lot more confident as he went along, especially in his talking - he thought for himself.
The dialogue with Elita is a good example. Unlike the team beforehand, who died as a result of taking far too long to decide and provoked her wrath, Ben kept the discussion going, asking her for some magic, information or a bone - giving her a choice; clearly, she had the last of the latter and he kept her interested without trying her patience too much. The scene with Hordriss is the same sort of thing. Not too short, not too long.
Very good guiding on the final causeway. I like this idea of a challenge following the final encounter, and a way back into Knightmare Castle through the front door! Very smart.
Lovely to see the team cheer. They look very chuffed. And who can blame them? An excellent victory.
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Lovely to see the team cheer. They look very chuffed. And who can blame them? An excellent victory.
Theirs is easily my favourite victory. Some of the others were so anticlimactic or awkward, but they seemed genuinely delighted and the final challenge had me on the edge of my seat. I love the overly excitable advisor too, who takes such obvious pride in his spellcasting.
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The room where they meet Elita (which used to be the Eyeshield room) is so bizarre. Why have they added that lattice thing overhead? Why does there appear to be a giant snake on top of it? And why does nobody even mention that detail?!
Also, why does Pickle feel the need to ask "What's Elita doing in Level 3, master??", when they saw her there in the previous quest and he didn't wonder about it then!
I don't really understand what prompted all the confusion and conspiracy theories re: Ben's exit after defeating Aesandre? They tell him to go left and he does, they tell him to go through the door and he does. It's true that the audio/visual is a bit unsynchronised, with Ben responding to their directions a moment before we actually hear them, and for some reason the clip of his advisor saying "To your left!" has been looped, cutting off the part where they tell him to walk forward. But there's definitely nothing suspicious going on, it's just a sloppy edit that I didn't even notice until it was pointed out in this thread!
Brother Mace informs Jenna that "the only path to Level 2 from Level 1 in this cycle is to fly on the great wyrm, Smirkenorff". If by "cycle" he means dungeon phase (i.e. the current season), this seems an odd remark for him to make, after he was the one who introduced the Descender!!
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Just watched this episode again and yes, there is a giant snake on top of the overhead lattice in the room where Ben meets Elita!
I can't help but wonder why it's there. I don't recall seeing that particular snake before, and I don't think it has any part to play in this particular quest. Knowing Elita, if they didn't have the gem, she probably would have just left without giving them the bone (and thus them not getting the magic from Hordriss)... but, then again, the bone was in the room all along, so what else would have happened? It's a mystery. I very much doubt the snake would have attacked.
Maybe the snake was just there as an Easter egg by the production team? Very bizarre.
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It was just there for the scare factor, no other purpose.
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Team 4 resumed in the level 3 clue-"room". They almost scored a spectacular own-goal when one advisor wanted to take the dagger but thankfully the others over-ruled him. Phew!
Another appearance by Elita (and more insults ) and they traded the new green gem for the bone they required.
A second encounter with Hordriss. Ben spoke to his advisors a little too loudly, so that Hordriss thought he was being called a dog. Cue outrage from him. They sorted it out and exchanged the bone for two spells "FIRE" and "FREEZE". Hordriss explained that one spell would defeat Aesandre, the other would release their quest object.
In the next room Aesandre appeared and challenged them but they got their retaliation in first and cast "FREEZE", which trapped her.
*Excellent logic from them. You might have expected that an ice sorceress would be defeated by something hot, but the team correctly reasoned that the spell which would release their quest object could hardly be "FREEZE", so they cast it on her instead. Well done! *
The final causeway was straightforward. They were an intelligent team and worked out the patterns easily. They had not moved Ben very efficiently across the smaller hexagonal blocks of the earlier causeways, but this one was a bit more spacious. Halfway down they encountered the SHIELD, frozen in ice, and cast "FIRE" to release it. Made it thru the exit before life-force ran out. Yay! Team 4 were a likeable team who fully deserved their win.
Team 5 (also from Exeter) quickly arrived at the level 1 clue-area. Chose some gold and a mysterious box.
Brother Mace was on ferryman duty for a change and offered them some info during the crossing.
They encountered the glib trader Scaramonger. He gave them some free grub and he was in full flow when the bell sounded.
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