Some Thoughts about Temple Runs

[AimYourBrent]

All those things considered, the only potential blemish on Missy's record was her solo temple game. But that game was a chance game. ANYBODY could have done good or bad at that. Other than that game, just try to find a flaw on that Blue Barracudas team. You can't. There's no reason anybody should be critical of that team or that episode. It's an absolute classic, and Missy's contagious enthusiasm should easily make it a favorite for anybody who loves LotHT.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Yeah, I agree. Missy's temple game was pure luck, where randomly guessing which hole will spring a leak next is all you can do. It's not like the squirting game variation used in Golden Stallion or Sacred Ring, where you actually HAD to memorize the correct order of which hole squirted first. The latter variation of the game I liked better to be honest. But yeah, Missy's temple run and episode in general was completely flawless. I literally cannot think of one bad thing to say about it. Maybe the moat was a little lengthy? But there were a lot moats that were like that. Missy was a great player, and she deserved to win. And her emotional personality added on to the overall excitement.

[The Red Jaguars]

Annie Taylor is an amazing episode, and it will always be my #1 favorite episode. The episode did have its moments like the long moat and John's temple game was pretty pathetic, but everything else about it was amazing.   It is definitely more entertaining than Butch Cassidy and Roland. I love the comeback in the team game by the Blue Barracudas, and then they turned around and won the tiebreaker. And Missy is the only contestant that ever stood out for being overly-emotional before and after the temple run. I never remember any temple player that even shed a tear. Missy was in tears even before the temple run. I am glad that she won too. 

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Couldn't agree more. Missy goes to show you that you don't have to move entirely fast to be considered a good player. Even some of the best players like Andrea, Tiffani, and Tarrah had their moments. If the temple run is exciting, and the players know what they're doing, then it's a great run in my book. But Lucky Pillow is an exceptionally great episode and it's my favorite episode as well.

And what a coincidence that we're covering this episode and its SOK pair in the "Rate the Color Combinations" thread.

[The Red Jaguars]

And I usually compare every round of an episode to determine which episode is better. It is time consuming to do, but it makes it easier to analyze and find the better of the two episodes. Here is how I compared "Annie Taylor" and "Butch Cassidy"

MOAT:
Butch Cassidy had the criss-crossing ropes, which really wasn't that great and felt like a Season 1 moat. Annie Taylor had the shimmy upside down on a pole moat. This moat was more original than Butch Cassidy's and was actually challenging. I don't think too highly of either moat, but Annie Taylor takes this one for uniqueness.

LEGEND:
Annie Taylor takes this one, easily. The legend was very interesting about how Annie Taylor went over Niagara Falls inside of a barrel, and show she was brave for doing so. Butch Cassidy was just another Wild West story, which Legends has a lot of already. And there were better ones than this like Bandit Queen and Lost Lariat. And the Lucky Pillow is a much more interesting artifact than some silver painted horseshoe. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the Trojan Horseshoe painted silver.

STEPS OF KNOWLEDGE:
I am not a fan of Steps where the team sweeps it. So my votes goes to Annie Taylor.

TEMPLE GAMES:
In both episodes, the temple team made a comeback in the team game. However, I like Annie Taylor's temple games much better. In the team game, Missy and John were trailing, but they made a close comeback to force a tiebreaker. Meanwhile, I thought that Kirk was going to call a tie in the team game because it looked like Paula fell off the horse before time was off. I know she didn't fall off now, but it made me angry back in the day. And of course, Annie Taylor's tiebreaker round was much more memorable than Butch Cassidy's.

TEMPLE RUN:
Annie Taylor has everything you want to see in a win: Lively Kirk commentary, solid temple peformance, great enthusiasm from the players, and Missy's high emotions make this temple run really special like I mentioned earlier. Plus, the round two boob touch is an added bonus. Butch Cassidy had Paula enter and leave the temple. Annie Taylor takes that.  

In my opinion, every round of Annie Taylor is better than Butch Cassidy's episode.  Butch Cassidy was just average at best.  

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Interesting analysis there, and I agree with all your points too. Lucky Pillow was MUCH more memorable than Silver Horseshoe in every aspect. Everyone seems to fawn over how smart Matt was by sweeping the steps. Yet John and Missy were also pretty smart on the Steps as well. And like I said on the previous page, plenty of players have done that very same thing. Even the temple game losers.

I'm curious to see how you'd compare Very Tall Turban and Leopard Skin Cloak using your same analysis. Since those two episodes also get compared.

[AimYourBrent]

All great points and I agree 100%.

You could tell Missy was probably a huge fan of the show and was so thrilled to be there.

Obviously other players and teams have shown excitement, especially after a win. But not nearly as much raw, pure emotion as Missy and John. You could tell even Kirk wanted them to win.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Yeah, and even the audience was going nuts. Just listen to how loudly they cheer when Missy wins. John and Missy were easily the most enthusiastic, most excited players to ever win. Very few other winning teams can top that.

[AimYourBrent]

And that, along with all the other things we listed, are the reasons why Lucky Pillow is the best episode ever!

[The Red Jaguars]

Here is my comparison of Ahmed Baba and Annie Oakley. I don't remember much details of Ahmed Baba, so this is at the top of my head.

MOAT:
Ahmed Baba had the "Rope Swinging" moat and despite having an easy objective, it was kind of long. Annie Oakley had the Babylonian wheels moat where the players had crawl through the tubes to make it across. This was both a more unique and more challenging moat.

My vote goes to ANNIE OAKLEY.

LEGEND:
Annie Oakley's legend was easily better than Ahmed Baba's legend. I love Wild West stories, and Annie Oakley's legend was much more interesting. It talks about how Oakley was sharp with a gun, and how she shot a cigarette out of a Prince's mouth. I mean how is that not badass? All Ahmed Baba legend is about is how Ahmed Baba is captured and how he tells the caliph that he must be lonely standing behind a curtain. Something like that.

My vote goes to ANNIE OAKLEY.

ARTIFACT:
I want to do a separate section for this since I think it is a little bit important. I like the Very Tall Turban's name and artifact design. It was pretty cool, even if the Turban wasn't tall. The Leopard-Skin Cloak was kind of lame and had nothing to do with the legend. And it looked way too similar to the Imperial Purple Robe.

My vote goes to AHMED BABA.

STEPS OF KNOWLEDGE:
Both Steps were close, but I recall Annie Oakley's SoK was even closer. There was a three-way tie on the second to last step. And the questions asked in Annie Oakley were more interesting.

My vote goes to ANNIE OAKLEY.

TEMPLE GAMES:
Even though Chandra and Nick swept the temple games, I loved the temple game sequence in this episode. Each of the temple games were very relevant to the episode's legend. I liked the "horse spinning" game where Chandra didn't even fall off once and I especially liked the "Ace in the Hole" game where Nick and his opponent had to put balls into the ace with the use of a trapeze. And the temple game interviews were more memorable too in Annie Oakley. In the Ahmed Baba temple games, I was not too crazy about the competition either. I mean just watch how Jamie struggles in her temple game. I did like the rare minaret team game only used in this episode and Ivory Elephant, and the Green Monkeys had an amazing come back, but other than that these temple games didn't have much going for them.

My vote goes to ANNIE OAKLEY.

TEMPLE RUN:
I am going with the episode that ended with a loss here. Chandra and Nick were a great team in the temple despite the mistakes they made. As a frontrunner, Chandra made good time all the way to the King's Storeroom. She really should've avoided the Mine Shaft elevator, but her fate with the one room away guard wouldn't have changed. Nick did a good job of avoiding her mistake, but he had no time to do anything. Shane was just average in Ahmed Baba. He made the same mistake as Chandra did, but he got lucky that there wasn't a temple guard on the top floor of the temple. And Kirk was extremely annoying in this episode too. Shane, Shane, Shane, Shane... Overall, I love the Annie Oakley run more because the performance was better and there was more interesting things about it like Chandra completed the Secret Password and Nick putting the key to the King's Storeroom in front.

My vote goes to ANNIE OAKLEY.

Overall, I have to say that Annie Oakley is easily the better episode. Even our episode reviews show that Annie Oakley was the best of the two. This is just my opinion, but I think Annie Oakley had more going for it.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

I don't want to discourage discussion, but this thread was meant to specifically look at temple runs. Perhaps it would be useful to create a separate thread that discusses full-episode comparisons?

[AimYourBrent]

Better to have one pendant with a smart but moderately paced team, OR two pendants with an athletic/fast yet dumb team?

[Purple Parrots Fan]

I agree with all of your points, especially tour one about the artifacts. Leopard Skin Cloak was just some ugly, oversized cloth where the producers probably said "Hey, we got this ugly thing here. Let's just make this into a random artifact." And like you said, it had nothing to do with Annie Oakley whatsoever. I did like Tall Turban's artifact though, and I would love to have that as a sovinier. I'm not gonna lie. And I definitely agree with your points about the temple run too. Shane didn't have to pass through 9 rooms, but he did anyways. Compare that Leopard Skin Cloak, where Chandra has a harder layout and makes MUCH better time than Shane did. But Shane still gets to keep going and win, but Chandra is taken out one room away. Such is the Purple Parrots luck. I definitely prefer Leopard Skin Cloak. Not good when you can't remember many details about Tall Turban, which was a win.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

So much same time posting.... O_O

I don't want to discourage discussion, but this thread was meant to specifically look at temple runs. Perhaps it would be useful to create a separate thread that discusses full-episode comparisons?

You're probably right. Though we do have the "Analysis and Comparisons" thread where we can make these comparisons.

[The Red Jaguars]

Better to have one pendant with a smart but moderately paced team, OR two pendants with an athletic/fast yet dumb team?

I think it depends on the circumstance. The first "athletic/fast yet dumb team" that comes to mind is Matt and Ashlie from Dolley Madison. Both players were fast runners in the temple. However, Matt missed a solo chance by taking the direct path and Ashlie blew it big time in the Dark Forest. But the team still reached the artifact despite these mistakes. Even though Ashlie's mistake was the deadlier of the two. I don't recall many of these types of teams on the show though. Most of them were slow and dumb.