Legends Episode Ranking System - COMPLETE

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Well, Kristen managed to rank very low when I did my Player Rankings of her. So this whole episode in general couldn't possibly rank any better. Though the temple game sequence was interesting. If you're gonna rank Catherine the Great next, do you still need screencaps for it? I have the episode screencapped with the Nickelodeon logo, and I thought you might want to spice up your review with that. Either that, or borrow the pictures from Ed's site. Since he also the Nickelodeon logo.

[The Red Jaguars]

If you have pictures for Catherine the Great, that would be awesome. It would definitely save me some time going on Youtube and capturing the images myself. Since I can do the whole episode without having to watch it at all, there will be no need for me to go onto Youtube again. And the Nickelodeon screen shots look better anyways for the Catherine the Great review and it would only be fitting.  I should be doing Catherine the Great over the next couple of days and hopefully have it up by Wednesday.

Do you have Nickelodeon logo screencaps for Boadicea too? I could do that one by heart too and I am pretty sure that episode aired on Nick too.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Unfortunately, I don't have Boadicea screencapped at all. But, I'll PM you the Catherine the Great screencaps now.

[The Red Jaguars]

Thanks, that will be awesome. I just pretty much need one screenshot for every round of the show and one screenshot for the actual artifact itself. You know how it works though. I should have Catherine the Great up by Wednesday. 

And like I mentioned, I hope to put all these reviews on one site. Of course, I will give credit where it is due also. 

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Okay, the screencaps has been PM'd to you.

Also, why just make the site, and update it as we go along? It's up to you of course, but I feel like it would be easier to do it that way than do a huge 120 episode update when we're done. While we are making great progress so far, let's face it, we still have a long ways to go.

[The Red Jaguars]

Well, I finally finished my episode review for "Catherine the Great". I did have to go back and re-watch the episode for a few details, but otherwise I was impressed about how much I knew about this episode. I had fun reviewing this one since it was one my personal favorites. It got a high score, but it didn't unseat "Annie Taylor" or "Mussel-Shell Armor".

And I also have to give credits to PPF for the images that was used for most of the review. And to Ed from the King's Storeroom for the image used in the "Legend" section. Thank you both for these images. The Nickelodeon logo makes it look much better.   

THE JEWEL-ENCRUSTED EGG OF CATHERINE THE GREAT

MOAT: 7.5/10

Just like "The Good-Luck Watch of Empress Eugenie" episode I reviewed, the moat from this production day borrows a moat crossing from a prior production day. To reiterate the instructions of this moat for the sake of continuity, the players had to run out into the moat and grab a vine and swing back to the net in the middle of the moat. Once they have reached the net, they had to climb over and reach the other side. Their partners had to cross the same way too without falling in while swinging across. Compared to the "Empress Eugenie" moat, the teams in this one did much better. The Purple Parrots, Orange Iguanas, and Red Jaguars all made it across without falling in. The Green Monkeys were pretty shameful though. They made it to their net, but the Green Monkey girl could not climb over it and fell into the moat. This gave the Blue Barracudas a window of opportunity to cross and chime into the next round.

LEGEND: 9/10

One of the great rulers of all time was Catherine the Great, Czarina of Russia. During her reign, she unified all of Russia and conquered Eastern Europe. In 1745, Catherine was brought it Russia in order to marry the heir of the throne, Peter. However, her new husband Peter was cruel and did not love her. When he became the Czar of Russia, he decided to do away with Catherine. But Catherine had many friends and Peter had many enemies that were tired of his tyrannical ways. Catherine's closest friend, Gregory Orloff, began to plot for her. One morning, a handsome cavalier awaited Catherine in a chariot and took her to the palace. Peter was abdicated from his throne and Catherine became the Empress of Russia. As a sign of her token of gratitude, she gave Orloff a Jewel-Encrusted Egg.

This was a great legend, and usually ones about powerful female rulers were interesting. The legend gets an extra point for incorporating such a beautiful looking artifact. It was definitely one of the most interesting and beautifully designed artifacts on the show. The legend is definitely worth listening to!

STEPS OF KNOWLEDGE: 8/10

The Steps of Knowledge were pretty quick, with the Orange Iguanas sweeping the Steps first and the Red Jaguars sweeping it after them. The one part I liked about the Steps was when Kris of the Red Jaguars was giving his last answer, he wasn't able to say "Czarina". But his partner Kristin helped him finish the answer and both of them got it correct. Now that was good teamwork right there. 

TEMPLE GAMES: 9/10

The temple games featured Kristin, who was into softball and wanted to be a fashion designer, and her partner Kris, who wants to be a marine biologists, of the Red Jaguars. And no, that is no Fogg-up either on the spelling of this team's name. Their names were really spelled Kris and Kristin. Their opponents included Rachel, who was into tennis and wanted to be a Journalist when she was older, and her partner Brian, who was into baseball and wanted to be a computer technologist of the Orange Iguanas. The temple games round was very exciting and both teams were neck-and-neck the whole way through. I liked the interesting temple game sequence used in this episode. Definitely made it more exciting. Plus, the close competition made it a nailbiter to the very end.

The first temple game had Rachel and Kristin crawling underneath a mini-maze trying to find pieces of art that match each other. If they found a match, they had to bring it back to their bucket. If not, they had to replace them and keep looking for a match. The first temple game ended in a 1-1 tie for both teams. The second temple game had Kris and Brian in a giant wheel resembling a chariot, where they had to smash statues of Catherine's husband, Peter. They had to smash Peter's statues though in a specific order. Kris was able to smash all of his Peter statues first, putting the Red Jaguars ahead 1-0.5. In the final temple game, the teams had to work together to knock down four Czars by shooting a ball at them. Each partner will rotate taking turns firing at the Czars. In the end, both teams knocked down two Czars, giving the Red Jaguars 2 pendants heading into the temple.

TEMPLE RUN: 8.5/10

The last temple run ever on the show sure went out with a bang. Kris and Kristin didn't face a tough layout by any means, but their temple run performance was stunning and they earned it. Kris start out at the top of the temple and met a temple guard in the Crypt. In the Pit of the Pendulum, he managed to make it back to the platform, but jumped down because none of the upper doors were open. When he entered the Tomb of the Headless Kings though, he was taken out. Kristin was a solid player and second runner herself. When she entered the Pit, she had an amazing dive that allowed her to move swiftly across the Pit. She moved along the bottom floor of the temple and eventually tried the Dark Forest-Shrine door. Once she got the Silver Monkey assembled, she grabbed the Jewel-Encrusted Egg and brought it back to the temple gates for the amazing and final win ever! Kirk was very excited as were both Kris and Kristin. You couldn't have asked for a better way to end an amazing show. At the end of the temple run, we get a shot of Kirk being chased into the Pit of the Pendulum by a cameraman. Why couldn't the earlier episodes of the show use editing like that? It would've made it more fun! This is what makes this run so special.

FINAL VERDICT: 8.4/10

"Jewel-Encrusted Egg" ranks as one of the best episodes in the entire series. The whole episode is fun and every round is interesting and filled with memorable moments. The producers really went above and beyond with the editing and episode plot for this whole episode. While it is sad that this was the last Legends episode ever, it was a great way to end our favorite show involving a giant talking stone head. The legend was very memorable and the design of the artifact is among some of the best on the show. The temple games were also very close too with a rare 2-1.5 score. And the temple win was amazing, and Kris and Kristen really did end the show in memorable fashion. It would be a crime to NOT recommend this episode to anyone. Even though the Red Jaguars don't have many good episodes, this one is easily their best one on the show. It was definitely a memorable and fun experience!

[The Silver Monkey]

Kirk's dive into the Pit actually occurred after the temple games.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Catherine the Great is an amazing episode. The moat was kind of long, and the Green Monkeys and the Silver Snakes seemed to struggle with it a lot. The legend was interesting, and the artifact was very neat looking. I mean, a golden football-like artifact with jewels on it is pretty hard to beat. The Orange Iguanas dominated the steps, and the Red Jaguars were equally as smart. The temple games featured a very unique sequence, and a close competition with Red beating out Orange 2-1.5. Plus, you gotta love Kirk's dive into the Pit at the end. XD But then again, the camerawork all episode was very fun and well done. And the temple run was great. The layout may have been a bit simple, but they still got the job with with 24 seconds left on the clock. Great way to end the show. The Jeweled Encrusted Egg is one of the very few Red Jaguar runs I even like. And Kris and Kristin are one of the very few Red Jaguar teams I wanted to see succeed in the temple. The only other Red Jaguar runs I like Royal Torque, Montezuma, and Napoleon. The rest are either forgettable or terrible.

Great review like always. I'll probably do Mysterious Manuscript next. It would be interesting to see how that one ranks.

[The Red Jaguars]

Yes, there are only a very few Red Jaguar episodes I like - Catherine the Great, Queen Boadicea, Roland, Genghis Khan, and Two-Cornered Hat. It was definitely fun reviewing this episode and I was very surprised that I was able to remember some of the details like Kris and Kristin answering their last question together in the Steps.   Their layout was pretty easy though. In fact, it was pretty much identical to "Roland" except that there was the additional Shrine objective. It was still great and fun to watch. And Kirk Fogging up in his final temple win is only fitting.

I can't believe I messed up the Kirk jumping into the Pit detail.   I will fix that. Mysterious Manuscript will be an interesting episode review to read. I have seen it a few times, and I don't find it to be bad. They really played up on the horror theme in that episode though, and they did it pretty well too. Kate's camera poses and the temple run fail make this episode pretty laughable. I am going to do "Amelia Earhart" next. I want to see how bad that one ranks.  

And now that you mentioned the Jewel-Encrusted Egg looks like a football, I actually think that they did use a football to design it. I mean the shape is almost identical to one and the brown lines on the artifact resemble the lines on a football. Oh well, at least the producers made it look neat. If it was S1, they would've used a real egg like the ones at the grocery store and probably paint it yellow.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

My turn to write an episode review. And this time, it's "The Mysterious Manuscript of Mary Shelley."

THE MYSTERIOUS MANUSCRIPT OF MARY SHELLEY

MOAT: 6/10

For this moat, the players had to use a plank to get across the giant lilypads. If you fell into the water, you had to start all over again. It was a decent match, it was pretty close until the Orange Iguanas and the Purple Parrots fell in. After that, it became quite obvious who the four teams would be. It's funny how the moat crossing order was literally Red - Blue - Green - Silver too.

LEGEND: 8/10

This legend centered around Mary Shelley, who was the author of the novel "Frankenstein." When Mary Shelley was in a tavern one day during a storm, a creature told her to "beware." The creature then told a story about a monster who terrorized a village, and also drew a manuscript. The most frightening part for Mary was the cover that read "The Secrets of Life and Death by Victor Frankenstein." Mary eventually wrote a new novel, but the mysterious manuscript was kept hidden away, and then made its way to the temple. This to me, was a great legend. I just love the story behind it, and I liked the horror theme to it as well. I also liked how they executed the spooky legend, without making it too overly cheesy. Like most Season 3 legends tended to be like.

STEPS OF KNOWLEDGE: 7/10

The Blue Barracudas swept the Steps of Knowledge and were down to the final step in a heartbeat. The Silver Snakes eventually joined them on the final step. Pretty average round really, and there weren't many incorrect answers along the way.

TEMPLE GAMES: 6/10

Decent match in the temple games here. In the first game, Kate and Ashlie had to collect all six chapters to the Frankenstein novel. It was a close match, and both players managed to tie. In the second game, Larry and Clyde had to use the giant Olmec wheel to generate Frankenstein's electricity. Clyde fell off quite a bit, which gave Larry the upper hand and helped him win the game. At that point, it was 1-0.5 with the Blue Barracudas in the lead. In the third game, the players had to throw rings to their partners suspended above, and toss those rings right into the polls. Or as Kirk called it, "Ring around the monster!" The Silver Snakes sucked at this game, but the Blue Barracudas got a good rhythm down, giving them the full pendant, and a trip to the temple with 2 pendants! With the final pendant score being 2-0.5, you'd think the team would be strong enough to win at the temple. But, more on that below....

TEMPLE RUN: 3/10

This temple run is infamous, but not for a good reason. After dominating just about every single round, Kate and Larry of the Blue Barracudas completely blew their load in the temple run. For someone who was so enthusiastic and doing all sorts of silly poses all episode, Kate was way too slow and hesitant in the temple. She ran into her first temple guard in the Chamber with 2:00 left on the clock, and she was removed from the temple entirely in the Shrine with 1:12 remaining. Larry goes in and my god was he a slowpoke. O_O He ran through the temple run both hilariously and awkwardly. Seriously, just look at how he "shuffles" through the Room of the Ancient Warriors. He eventually makes it to the Shrine with 40 seconds left on the clock. And we all know what happens next.... he just couldn't assemble the monkey to save his life. You thought Kelly from Montezuma failed epically with the monkey? Larry's "attempt" looked like he was trying to create another Frankenstein with the monkey! Needless to say, he wasted the whole rest of the run there. After time was called, Kate seemed to be a good sport about it. By mouthing "It's okay, It's okay," and even giving Larry a thumbs up. Oh yeah, and Kate recites part of the closing line with Kirk. Very disappointing temple run if you ask me, as I expected MUCH more from a team who won 2 full pendants in the temple games.

FINAL VERDICT: 6.0/10

Wow, a 6 average? I expected this episode to rank MUCH lower. But I'm kind of glad it didn't, since this was a pretty fun episode until the temple run. The higher scores the pre temple run rounds got really helped. The only round that was truly subpar was the temple run, for obvious reasons. Oh well, there were much worse episodes in Season 3 than this one. Despite the epic monkey fail, I still recommend this episode.

[The Red Jaguars]

Mary Shelley was just an average episode overall. That was the exact score I thought that it would end with. The producers really played up on the horror theme in this episode. But like you mentioned, it wasn't very cheesy or over-the-top like the "Mummified Hand" or "Efoua" legend was. I liked the legend a lot too for this episode, and it was interesting and sounded accurate. The temple games were kind of unique too. Once again, the producers were playing up on the horror theme. Especially in the last temple game where the two teams had to drop rings around the Frankenstein heads.  

The temple run definitely drags the score down for this episode a lot. Neither Kate or Larry were that great in the temple. Kate really didn't do that good where she was taken out in the Shrine with a little over a minute on the clock. She should've had 30 extra seconds at least. And oh God was Larry such a loser. His awkward running and his Monster Monkey puts him up there on the biggest Legends fails ever. Seriously, he didn't even come close with his Silver Monkey. In the end, the final piece was just a disaster. Oh well, they wouldn't have won anyways.

Overall, a great review. I forgot how good the earlier rounds of this episode were. I liked the horror theme of this episode and Kate also made it memorable with her silly poses. While they were most likely staged, they were also pretty funny too. She was also the one that said "Legends of the Hidden Temple" with Kirk. I kind of wish more contestants did that. Too bad they screwed up in the temple, which surely hurt this episode's score. For my next review, I am going to do "Amelia Earhart".    

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Yeah, Kate was pretty funny. Especially with her smiling, shouting, and the poses she did. But still, I expected so much more from someone who was THAT fired up all episode. Though she probably would've done a better job assembling the monkey than Larry.

And good luck with Amelia Earhart. At least its got the temple game sequence going for it. Which is the exact set of games they used in "Henry VIII's Great Seal." Though the temple run is gonna be hard to sit through, all thanks to Kristen. I was rooting for the Parrots.

[The Red Jaguars]

I don't think Kate would've have screwed up as bad as Larry. She already had the Silver Monkey base placed correctly before the temple guard pulled her out. They probably wouldn't have won anyways. Judging from the other layouts that day, I would assume only the Secret Password would've opened. For some reason, this episode always reminds me of "Golden Pepperoni" where it does kind of get a bad rep for the mistake both temple players make at the end. I honestly don't find either Golden Pepperoni or Mysterious Manuscript to be that bad of an episode. Although Aqila was a decent player, Larry was definitely a moron.

And yeah, the Purple Parrots should've gone into the temple in Amelia Earhart. I hate that episode a lot, but I do strangely remember it for the most part. Kristen was very bad. She even finished in your bottom 10 player list! The only interesting part about this episode was the rare temple game.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

I actually like Mary Shelley, and Golden Pepperoni. At least Manuscript finished with a 6.0 rating, which is something episodes like Shiva and Alhambra can't say. Kate would've done waaaaaay better at assembling the monkey than Larry did. Imagine if it were a reverse order of players. I still want to make a Top 10 list of bad players, but for temple runners only. I said I would do that, but I haven't put together a list yet. Kate and Aqila definitely won't make the list at all. Come to think of it, Larry won't either. Since he has at least a 6.2 average (I think) in the rankings you did of him.

[The Red Jaguars]

Mary Shelley is much more watchable for me than Shiva, Alhambra, and Snow Cone.  That episode is like "Apanuugpak" compared to those ones. I don't recall Larry being a bad player as a whole. I definitely wouldn't think he would finish in the bottom 10 temple runners. Unless we are only talking about their temple performance. Then Larry would most likely finish in the bottom 10. But throughout his episode, he was pretty good. He was no where near as bad as John, Tia, Kristen, Claude, and Evan thankfully.