Knightmare urban myths
Posted: 17 Sep 2012, 23:09
I've noticed that when people haven't seen Knightmare for many years, their memories of the show are often very mixed up or just completely wrong. It was the same for me when I rediscovered it a couple of years ago - my brain had apparently filed lots of similar incidents together so I mistakenly thought they were all part of the same quest, and things I believed to be regular occurrences turned out to be one-offs. Last night I heard a podcast about Knightmare that was full of half-truths and outright falsehoods, as usual. People seem to think "This must have happened" or "This should have happened" or "Someone told me this happened", and they eventually come to believe it DID happen.
Can we compile a list of popular misconceptions about Knightmare? It might be a good subject for an article, if there are enough of them, and if it hasn't been done already.
Here are some I remember hearing:
MYTH: Spellcasting was frequently hilarious because half the contestants couldn't spell.
TRUTH: I think there was only ever one occasion where a team had trouble with this (the team in Series 2 that struggled to dispel SHROUD because they kept missing out the 'O'). Nobody else had any problems with spelling stuff. The only similar incident was the same team forgetting what a spell was called (SHOVEL as opposed to SPADE).
MYTH: Nobody ever survived the Corridor of Blades.
TRUTH: It was scary as hell and did claim four victims (plus a few close shaves), but several dungeoneers made it through alive. Also, both of the Series 5 deaths appeared to be rigged as the teams were already in losing status, so they don't really count.
MYTH: On one occasion there were vertical blades in the CoB floor.
TRUTH: Never happened (except, I think, in a fanfic I read once). This sounds like a fiendish twist someone dreamt up as a child, and then remembered it as actually happening.
MYTH: A dungeoneer misread POISON as POTION, drank it and died.
TRUTH: Someone did die as a result of mixing up the two words, but that's not how it happened. They misread POTION as POISON, decided to leave it behind, and later found they needed it. (There was also a separate incident where a dungeoneer drank poison after magically transforming it into an energy drink, which might be the source of the confusion.)
MYTH: Only one team ever won Knightmare.
TRUTH: Victories were certainly rare, but there were no less than eight champions in total!
MYTH: One team died in the very first room, or the second room.
TRUTH: The production team wouldn't have let anyone die that quickly. (One dungeoneer apparently did fall off the Spindizzy in the Place of Choice, but they were allowed to refilm it.) The shortest quest lasted about five rooms, I think?
MYTH: Someone died falling off Smirkenorff's back.
TRUTH: Never happened, although dungeoneers occasionally looked like they might step off the edge.
MYTH: One team failed to react while a bad guy slowly cast a spell that was obviously going to kill them. The advisors sat there writing notes instead of telling their dungeoneer to run away.
TRUTH: I'm not sure what incident they were thinking of here? Possibly the first team of Series 4, who were killed by Mogdred's floating sword, but they weren't sat there doing nothing at the time; they were trying to cast a spell against him, but had chosen one that took too long to spell out. There was also Martin in Series 3 who got zapped by Morghanna, but he was killed off because of an earlier mistake, so I hardly think he would have been allowed to survive by simply running away.
MYTH: Someone died because they didn't put a spyglass down in time.
TRUTH: Never happened, though I lived in fear of it when I was 8, so perhaps it was a bad dream somebody once had! (Lord Fear did succeed in freezing Sidriss when she used a spyglass on him, though.)
MYTH: The graphics and/or acting were completely terrible.
TRUTH: I guess that's a matter of opinion, but on the whole I think it still looks pretty good today (especially the original hand-drawn rooms) - I wasn't at all disappointed when I saw it again as an adult. And most of the cast were very talented in my opinion!
What else do people say that isn't entirely true?
Can we compile a list of popular misconceptions about Knightmare? It might be a good subject for an article, if there are enough of them, and if it hasn't been done already.
Here are some I remember hearing:
MYTH: Spellcasting was frequently hilarious because half the contestants couldn't spell.
TRUTH: I think there was only ever one occasion where a team had trouble with this (the team in Series 2 that struggled to dispel SHROUD because they kept missing out the 'O'). Nobody else had any problems with spelling stuff. The only similar incident was the same team forgetting what a spell was called (SHOVEL as opposed to SPADE).
MYTH: Nobody ever survived the Corridor of Blades.
TRUTH: It was scary as hell and did claim four victims (plus a few close shaves), but several dungeoneers made it through alive. Also, both of the Series 5 deaths appeared to be rigged as the teams were already in losing status, so they don't really count.
MYTH: On one occasion there were vertical blades in the CoB floor.
TRUTH: Never happened (except, I think, in a fanfic I read once). This sounds like a fiendish twist someone dreamt up as a child, and then remembered it as actually happening.
MYTH: A dungeoneer misread POISON as POTION, drank it and died.
TRUTH: Someone did die as a result of mixing up the two words, but that's not how it happened. They misread POTION as POISON, decided to leave it behind, and later found they needed it. (There was also a separate incident where a dungeoneer drank poison after magically transforming it into an energy drink, which might be the source of the confusion.)
MYTH: Only one team ever won Knightmare.
TRUTH: Victories were certainly rare, but there were no less than eight champions in total!
MYTH: One team died in the very first room, or the second room.
TRUTH: The production team wouldn't have let anyone die that quickly. (One dungeoneer apparently did fall off the Spindizzy in the Place of Choice, but they were allowed to refilm it.) The shortest quest lasted about five rooms, I think?
MYTH: Someone died falling off Smirkenorff's back.
TRUTH: Never happened, although dungeoneers occasionally looked like they might step off the edge.
MYTH: One team failed to react while a bad guy slowly cast a spell that was obviously going to kill them. The advisors sat there writing notes instead of telling their dungeoneer to run away.
TRUTH: I'm not sure what incident they were thinking of here? Possibly the first team of Series 4, who were killed by Mogdred's floating sword, but they weren't sat there doing nothing at the time; they were trying to cast a spell against him, but had chosen one that took too long to spell out. There was also Martin in Series 3 who got zapped by Morghanna, but he was killed off because of an earlier mistake, so I hardly think he would have been allowed to survive by simply running away.
MYTH: Someone died because they didn't put a spyglass down in time.
TRUTH: Never happened, though I lived in fear of it when I was 8, so perhaps it was a bad dream somebody once had! (Lord Fear did succeed in freezing Sidriss when she used a spyglass on him, though.)
MYTH: The graphics and/or acting were completely terrible.
TRUTH: I guess that's a matter of opinion, but on the whole I think it still looks pretty good today (especially the original hand-drawn rooms) - I wasn't at all disappointed when I saw it again as an adult. And most of the cast were very talented in my opinion!
What else do people say that isn't entirely true?