Legends Episode Ranking System - COMPLETE

[The Red Jaguars]

THK's Player Rating Thread also inspired me to make the scoring system for this topic. But you and me are in the same boat where about losing interest in this show. We have definitely talked about almost every aspect of this show at this point in time. The good part is though was at least most of the episode on the show were decent for the most part. Even utterly forgettable episodes like Useless Map and Joan of Arc had some decent rounds to them.

But then again, at least 25% of the episodes are painful to watch. William Tell and Lily-Crested Crown definitely belong in this category for sure. I despise William Tell so much and it probably ranks with Snow Cone and Marble Armrest when we are talking about S3 episodes. Some uncovered episodes that still need to be reviewed and also suck are Magellan, Queen Nzinga, and Robert the Bruce. Silk Sash might be another one of those episodes, but it has been a while since I have seen that episode. I don't recall it being too bad though.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Not even with the Green Monkey boy with the mustache, and his attention whoring poses? And Jessie taking her sweet ass time getting across the moat. I suppose if you don't call it bad, you can review it. But Mulan is in the same tier as Magellan and Nzinga, completely forgettable and unremarkable. If it were to be ranked, I don't see it getting any higher than the 5 range.

[The Red Jaguars]

I totally forgot about the Green Monkeys boy in Silk Sash. He makes the temple game rounds unbearable with his stupid poses. And the Blue Barracudas were pretty bad in almost every round too. They were lucky that the Green Monkeys sucked because Jessie and Steven wouldn't have made it to the temple if it wasn't for them. Definitely a lackluster episode.

I also made some changes to the first post on the main page. I added the artifact images next to the episode titles. I did this because the table was nothing but text and it was hard to browse and find an episode. I am not complete done with the table yet, but I am going to finish it overnight and have it complete by tomorrow. I hope everyone likes it. 

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Awesome episode list. Everything looks so much more detailed than the cluttery "text only" stuff we had going on there for a while. I'll try to add on to that too, which isn't very hard to do. Just click on the episode, right click, copy image URL, then put it on the table itself. Assuming that's the same method you used. And you used Atocha picture's twice, both for Atocha and Sir Gawain. Come to think of it, I never even added an artifact picture for my very early episode reviews of Sir Gawain and Geronimo. Silly me. So that was partly my fault there. For the Sir Gawain portion of the list, I just put down "Insert Pic Here" as a placeholder. So I'll have to go back and add artifact pictures where I forgot them. Other than that, you should be set to go for updating the rest of the list.

[The Red Jaguars]

I completed all of the artifacts now. I know the first post is kind of long now, so there will be a lot of scrolling. But we are almost done anyways, so it will look good in the end. I thought adding the artifacts was a nice touch too. The Season 2 and Season 3 artifacts make the list look much better. Too bad most of the Season 1 artifacts were lame (with some exceptions). Adding them for future reviews shouldn't be hard at all. I did the exact same method you did by copying and pasting the artifact to the table. It's kind of confusing at first, but there is nothing to it once you get use to it.

I still need to add a couple of more stuff to the list too, which I will do over the next couple of days. 

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Looking good. By the looks of it, my first two reviews of Geronimo and Sir Gawain are the only ones with no artifact pictures. So adding those two pictures will be easy. We just need to update the production day rankings. I'll probably do that one, since we have a lot of full production days done. It will be interesting to see how those rankings will stack up.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Alright, production day rankings have been updated, as well as Sir Gawain and Geronimo's pictures in the OP and episode review itself. But definitely check out the former. Just look at how far the Xerxes/Henry Hudson day has dropped on the rankings list. What a difference an update makes. Let me know if I missed anything, or miscalculated something.

[The Red Jaguars]

Nothing is going to top the Henry Hudson day for the worst production day on the show. The best episode that day barely made a 6.0 ranking.  And the overall average was below a 5.0 -- that is just pathetic. Then again Snow Cone, Xerxes, and Bent Shaving Pan didn't even break the 5.0 range.

I am surprised how high the Galileo/Dead Man's Hand day ranked. Galileo was easily the best episode that day, but Dead Man's Hand and Belshazzar was good too. You can't really rank those two episodes low because it was the first production day and those two temple teams were not at fault for losing. Blackbeard though drags down the score a lot.

And the Freydis production day ranked higher than expected too. I am starting to think that my score for Charles Lindbergh was a little too generous. I don't feel like it should have a higher score than Golden Pepperoni. I might go back and adjust the score for that episode. 

I am doing War Fan next and going to try and post it tonight or tomorrow. That will be another production day complete.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Yeah, I have a feeling Xerxes/Henry Hudson's filming day might just be THE worst production day. Not good when 3/4 episodes can't even make it past the 5 range. And Galileo's filming day only ranked high because of Galileo, which got a 7.0 average. That's the only thing that boosted the overall average up. And I tried to tell you that Missing Weather Maps was ranked way too high. I know these is your rankings and everything, but I still don't know how that almost made a 7 average. If you adjust that score, the overall average should drop.

By the way, Battle Flag was never ranked yet. So the first production day of Season 3 STILL won't be complete. Unless you choose to rank that too.

[The Red Jaguars]

Yeah, I am definitely going to change the Charles Lindbergh score a little bit. You don't realize this stuff until you go back and read it again. I definitely feel that I was way too generous for that episode. Maybe I was kind of generous with Iron Mask too. Somewhere down the line I am going to readjust the scores for some of these episodes.

I forgot about the episode with a really long title too. I haven't watched that episode in a long time, so maybe that is one I can take in the near future. Although Nick GaS played that episode a lot, so I do remember it quite well. This episodes reminds me of Dolley Madison where both teams had their problems in certain rounds. Both teams struggled in the Steps of Knowledge, both teams swept the temple games, and both teams made too many errors in the temple. Despite those mistakes, I still find both temple runs pretty exciting. I like both of those episodes and I can see William the Conqueror finishing with the same score as Dolley Madison.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Yeah, Battle Flag will probably rank near Dolley Madison, in the mid 6 range. I never realized they had so many similarities until you pointed them out. But yeah, Battle Flag was a good episode. Truth be told, I always thought both players were equally responsible for this they lost. Olivia wasted too much time in the Pit, and Jonathan wasted too much time in the Room of the Ancient Warriors. Then again, Matt and Ashlie from Dolley Madison had the same problem. With Matt taking the direct path, and Ashlie struggling in the Dark Forest. Oh well, still good episodes nonetheless.

But getting back on topic, I'll probably take on one more episode review for 2013. I claimed another episode when I was doing all the updating earlier. And I decided I'll do Gwalior. I have that episode screencapped with the Nickelodeon logo, and it shouldn't rank that bad. I should have that up by tomorrow. Better than ranking utterly dreadful episodes like Dried Apple Half and Lily Crested Crown, right?

[The Red Jaguars]

I think picking Pearl Necklace is perfect because at least you are ending 2013 with a bang. I forgot that episode was not covered either. This was a pretty good episode IIRC. It had the very quick moat, close temple games, and the temple run was decent even if the team should've reached the artifact. Definitely a step up from William Tell, Gordian Knot and Lily-Crested Crown.

I am half-way done with War Fan too. What a coincidence, both episodes are Quicksand Bog runs. I wouldn't be surprised if Pearl Necklace and War Fan finish with very close scores. 

[Purple Parrots Fan]

At long last, another episode review from me. And this time, it's "The Pearl Necklace of Gwalior."

THE PEARL NECKLACE OF GWALIOR

MOAT: 8/10

In this moat, the players had to individually run across a wobbly bridge. If a player fell into the water, they had to go back and start again. This was an extremely quick moat, quite possibly the quickest moat ever on the show. The only other episode to have this quick of a moat was "The Mussel Shell Armor of Apanuugpak." The round in particular was very close, it was like any of the four teams could've rang in and moved on to the next round. Every team besides the Purple Parrots made it across. Poor Purple Parrot player tripped and fell into the water, and as a result, they were the only team to not get a player across. Such is the Purple Parrots' luck. This moat was so easy that the moat objective had to be changed for the rest of the production day. Starting in the next episode "The Bullet Riddled Handbag of Belle Boyd," the players had to crawl across the bridge instead of run across it. In the end, the Blue Barracudas, Orange Iguanas, Red Jaguars, and Green Monkeys advanced to the Steps of Knowledge.

LEGEND: 4/10

This legend centered around the kingdom of Gasni and how the English took them over. The Rani (or Queen as was referred to), hired 14,000 men just to take the British out. They fought for a year, but the British eventually pushed the Rani back to her Fortress. When that happened, the Rani decided to take over the General's place. She called for the following things, her sword, two pistols, and the pearl necklace, the latter of which symbolized her right to reign. When the saw the Rani, they fought the British harder than ever. The British even wanted to kill the Rani, but the commander thought of the Rani as brave, and decided against it. The Rani eventually slipped from the city, and the Pearl Necklace of Gwalior disappeared and eventually made its way to the temple. This legend was yet another example of a legend that had nothing to do with the artifact itself. Seriously, what's a Gwalior? What significance did the pearl necklace have? Absolutely nothing was mentioned about the pearl necklace, other than the Rani was holding on to it for some parts of the story. Furthermore, there was absolutely no back story to Gwalior and the pearl necklace whatsoever. I just found this legend to be extremely confusing. One of my biggest pet peeves about Legends are those legends that have zero mention of the artifact and its namesake. Unless I missed something here, who/what on earth is Gwalior? The story itself was okay I guess, but it had no detail on the artifact itself, which drags the score waaaaaay down.

STEPS OF KNOWLEDGE: 7/10

The Steps of Knowledge was a pretty close round, and featured a GREAT comeback by the Blue Barracudas. They were struggling to even get off the first step at the beginning of the round, when an answer Ryan of the Blue Barracudas gave was required more detail by Olmec. At the end of the round, the Blue Barracudas joined the Green Monkeys (who finished first) on the final step. The Red Jaguars got two questions right, and the Orange Iguanas didn't get any questions. All in all, it was a close round where just like the moat, any team could've advanced.

TEMPLE GAMES: 7/10

The temple games were an average round, and was another close round as well. I also liked the sequence of games that were used too. In the first game, Ryan and Joseph had to launch themselves on a large net and punch out the bricks on top. This game ended in a tie, both players got the half pendant of life. In the second game, Dawn and Ashleigh had to stay on the bucking horse, all while trying not to fall off. Whoever fell off the least amount of times won the game. Ashleigh struggled quite a bit in this game. She fell off A LOT in the whole 60 seconds of the game. As a result, Dawn won the game 4-1, giving the Blue Barracudas an upper hand, leading the Green Monkeys 1-0.5 into the final game. In the third game, the teams had to shoot balls at their partner, who would climb the walls and place the balls on the four British Army units. This game also ended in a tie, as both teams managed to get as far up as three army units, and both earned the full pendant. Though the Blue Barracudas just barely edged out the Green Monkeys 2-1.5, giving them access to the temple with 2 pendants!

TEMPLE RUN: 6/10

Pretty average temple run if you ask me. Ryan and Dawn's path through the temple consisted of them traversing the entire the top floor. And in order of how Olmec introduced the rooms in the temple rundown to boot. This path was very similar to that of "The Lily Crested Crown of Clovis the First," only Ryan and Dawn did ten times better than Katie and Judge did. Ryan didn't get stuck in the Chamber of the Sacred Markers, and they didn't move like slow moving rocks. This run would've been much more successful if Ryan didn't take a direct path by clearing rubble in the Pit where the locked Tomb door was it had been reverse order of players. If Dawn, (the slower of the two), had gone in first, then Ryan would've sped through the temple and at least grabbed the pearl necklace. I doubt they would've won either way though. Still, the team didn't do too bad. Dawn was merely inches away from the pearl necklace when time ran out. And neither player made any glaring mistakes. They just weren't fast enough to get the job done.

FINAL VERDICT: 6.4/10

Gwalior was just an average episode at best. Besides the quick moat, and close competitions throughout, the episode was on the uneventful side. the worst part of this episode was not the temple run, but it was the legend. It made little to no sense, and had no mention of Gwalior or the overall backstory of the pearl necklace. The temple run was also just average, though Ryan and Dawn were VERY close to reaching the pearl necklace. Also, Ryan looks PISSED after time was called. He looked like he was in tears at the end too, as he was holding a tissue in his hand. I guess being cooked up in producing an episode of a show all day, and just coming up short, took his toll on him at the end of the day. And they really should've reached the artifact too. Maybe if it had been reverse order of players, Ryan and Dawn would've reached the necklace at least. Overall, there's nothing bad to remark about in this episode. It just wasn't that exciting. Despite that, I still recommend this episode to anyone.

[The Red Jaguars]

Pearl Necklace is actually a really good episode, although it was kind of forgettable where nothing really sticks out. The moat for this episode was ridiculously easy though. All the players had to literally do was run across a bridge. I am sorry, but that is pretty uninspiring for a Season 3 moat. And the moat was so fast that they had to change the way it was crossed for Belle Boyd, where the players had to crawl on their hands and feet.   And then again, the Belle Boyd moat was still pretty fast too.

The legend almost exactly sounds like the "Queen Boadicea" legend. Both legends were about  Queens that were strong and were fighting for keeping their land. Also, both Queens had a a special type of necklace that signified their right to rule. And I totally agree with your views about the artifact not having to do with the historical figure in the title either. Legends has done this many times on the show. For example, "The Lucky Medallion of Atocha" was about Pancho Villa and there was no mention of Atocha at all in the legend. In the Pearl Necklace legend, there is no mention of Gwalior at all either. So what is Gwalior suppose to be? It looks like Gwalior is suppose to be a city, but no one will know that without doing extra research. The episode title should be "The Pearl Necklace of Rani" or something like that.

The temple games were fun too in this episode. And we get a really close 2-1.5 score, which also happened in Belle Boyd and Pytheas from that day. This was indeed a good temple sequence too, and I like these temple games more than some of the others in S3. Especially the bucking horse and climbing the wall game. I am really surprised that we never had a 2-2 pendant tie though. Wasn't there something special about the Ashleigh in this episode though? I remember we had a discussion about a temple game loser named Ashleigh in a S3 episode.

The temple run is pretty exciting in my mind too. Ryan and Dawn were just an average team, but it was good enough for them to make it very far in the temple though. They would've reached the Pearl Necklace though if Dawn didn't hesitate so much. But they were still a good team, and an immense improvement over Lily-Crested Crown for sure. I never really had a problem with either of these two players either. Although Ryan should be very ashamed for taking a direct path.

Overall, I think that you got the perfect score for this episode. I'd imagine that this episode would finish in the 6.0 range. I remember TPP wanting to see this episode on Nick GaS because he missed it when they aired it. Plus, they never really aired this episode much either. I also like the Nickelodeon images used for this review. They make them look much better for some reason. I really wish Nick aired more Legends episode for this reason.

I am going to post War Fan sometime tonight. And what a coincidence, both runs were in the Quicksand Bog and both teams made similar progress.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Yeah, Gwalior isn't a bad episode by any means, but nothing sticks out about it. So thus, it's more on the forgettable side. I also agree that the moat itself was very uninspiring, regardless of what cross method was used. I mean, a bridge? Seriously? That's the kind of same tired moat you'd see in Season 1. As for Ashleigh, the girl on the Green Monkeys, I think I pointed out months ago that her and her partner looked like moat crossing rejects. I believe I "spotted" them as the moat crossing losers in the Enormous Feather episode. Either way, they didn't make it to the temple. So I guess it doesn't really matter. And the temple run is MUCH better than Lily Crested Crown. If only Ryan didn't "take a direct path." Because clearing out rubble in the Pit so you can climb the walls better, totally means he was trying to pull a fast one.

And I totally remember TPP wanted to see this episode for months on end. He apparently fell asleep during the temple run, and he had never seen the episode before. So when the "20 episode cycle" was going on, he didn't get to see it until outerspace (surprise!) uploaded the temple run. And yeah, the Nickelodeon images look much better than the utterly boring Nick Gas logos. I got the screencaps from this episode (and Melted Head) from Veoh. I saved the videos to my computer and took screencaps of them a while back. Nickelodeon really should've aired more episodes, instead of pulling it from its channel after 3 weeks. The screencaps of a lot more episodes would've looked much better that way.

And I'm looking forward to your War Fan review. I'm guessing it will rank in the lower 6 range. Besides the production error in the Tomb, this episode wasn't very exciting either. But the production error alone certainly gives you a lot to talk about.