(Gah! Double post! Bad Cull! X_x )
Well, it's not what I said I was going to do, but I thought I'd shove in my list of
"Top 15 Dungeoneer Deaths". I tried cutting it down to 10, but felt I had a few extra I wanted in the list so chucked them in too.
I thought about doing this as an overall "means of death", but some individual instances stick out more than others for me.
15 - Skarkill (S5.2)
As I said in the S5 episode thread about this death, I did feel it was a bit of bad luck and misfortune on the team for "hurriedly grabbing" the wrong item. Plus they try so hard to plea their way out of Skarkill's hands, yet are pretty much doomed from the moment Skarkill reaches them. You just feel so sorry for those guys!
14 - Sylvester Hands (S6.4)
Okay, so the "death" itself isn't such a great one. But to see the skull from the original Life Force just when you thought it had gone forever really knocks this death up a notch!
13 - B&T (S4.4)
For giving us the whole "Sidestep to your left!" joke.
Plus it's so sudden and hilarious that you can't help but join Treguard in laughing... even the advisors seem to be holding themselves back from laughing!
12 - Cedric (S2.7)
Hooray! Cedric gets a kill! It's one of those deaths that you wonder about... "what would happen if Cedric got his way with a dungeoneer?", and here it is - Quarterstaff practice where only Cedric gets a staff.
11 - Dividing Rod Room (S2.
Maybe not a great one to a lot of people, but it's one that's stuck with me in memory since the first time I saw it. It's one that gave me a real sense of "Well, let's see them get out of this mess then!"
10 - Life Force Expire (S2.12)
Another of those deaths you want to see... the Life Force expiring. And that's precisely how this team died. True, it was because they didn't get Merlin's magic (probably a spell like ENERGY to restore the Life Force), but the fact that they died this way makes this death a special one to me.
9 - Thin Causeway (S3.6)
Another one that's stayed with me since I first saw it. The long, tense trip Ross takes along that causeway is real edge-of-your-seat stuff, and having watched them work their way through Level 2 throughout the episode makes you want them to make it. and then at the last moment they fall, and the way the LF skull pops out fo the bottom of the screen - what a finish!
8 - COB (S8.2)
It was hard to think of which COB death stood out the most, but I think we can all agree the "red paint" of the S8 team makes it stand out (in more ways than one!). I do feel it's a bit unfair, as the impression was made that "if you don't have the Insight spell/potion, you're scuppered", which is a load of rubbish considering how others have done okay without such spells, so it feels that however well they did here they would have died... sorry, I'm rabbiting on here.
Either way, classic example of how the COB can finish of both good and bad quests.
7 - Morghana (S3.11)
It's not so much the means of death here, but more the urgency of the situation. I've watch this team time and time again (they're one of my favourites), and every time they're at this point I want one of the advisors to yell "Martin! Run forwards!!!! NOW!!!!". A sad end to a fine quest that IMHO deserved to win!
6 - Dreadnought (S6.2)
Say what you like about the S6-7 Life Force, but it's used to it's best here. The music really adds tension to the "that's it, we're boned" situation, and the way Dreadnought utters "WITH NO WORD... YOU HAVE REACHED JOURNEY'S END..." sends a chill down your spine, and another as the Skeleton LF sequence appears and crumbles before your eyes...
5 - Merlin's Room (S3.9)
You want them to make it. You really do. And he does make it. It's just that follow up step when he stands which makes you grab your head in your hands and shout "nooooooooooooooooo!" as he tumbles into the abyss...
4 - Dark Wellway (S1.1)
Yep, the first ever death had to have a place in here. The way the "dark" version of the Knightmare theme gets used here is brilliant stuff... another spine-tingler.
3 - Ariadne (S4.3)
Yep, another spine tingler. It's the crunching noise that does it.
2 - Ghost Sword (S3.2)
Sword hits, Chris, Life Force gets put on Fast Forward. You pretty much see his entire life get drained out of him! Top stuff!
1 - Medusa (S2.3)
And my top one is this one... the Medusa. The eerie sound effects in the background add to the sense that the team have lost, and you've gotta love the advisors getting turned to stone too! This is one of those deaths where I can't help but rewind and rewatch every time I watch it!