Time for our 116th episode review. This time, it features the episode with a really long title for no reason.
It was a good episode overall and the Green Monkeys were a good team despite not winning. Also, it's a nice change of pace after reviewing Nzinga.
THE COMET-EMBROIDERED BATTLE FLAG OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR
MOAT: 6/10
(Credits to "Purple Parrots Fan" for her contribution to this section)
For this moat, the players had to work together to climb through a series of swinging poles. When both players were off the final step, they were then allowed to run over, and hit the gong. This was a pretty average round, and with the exception of the Silver Snakes, all the teams were close. At the end of the round, the Blue Barracudas, Green Monkeys, Orange Iguanas, and Red Jaguars all advanced to the Steps of Knowledge.
LEGEND: 9/10
One of the boldest Kings of England was William the Conqueror. When King Edward died, William was heir to the throne, but his rival, Harold of Orange, made himself King. William was in France at the time, so he gathered an army and swam across the English Channel so he could reclaim his throne from his rival. The night before the big battle, William and his men saw the campfires of his rivals flickering in the distance. Suddenly, an enormous comet came streaking across the sky. Then men were surprised at what they just saw and thought it was many different things. It seemed that William's men wanted to turn around, but William decided to stand his ground instead. He thought of the comet as a good sign to move forward and vanquish Harold of Orange. It worked, and William's fearlessness and stirring words gave them courage. The next day, his men defeated Harold in battle. In honor of his victory, William had the comet embroidered onto his Battle Flag. Overall, I have no problems with this legend at all. It told a story with little holes in it and there was not lame plot points or childish jokes. In addition, the episode extremely long episode title makes this episode pretty memorable too. Even though it was unnecessarily long.
STEPS OF KNOWLEDGE: 7.5/10
This round was completely competitive and tight. All four teams made it to the second to last step at some point in time. It was one of those rounds that made you wonder what team would move onto the next round. Despite the competitiveness, a couple of wrong answers lowers the score for this round. But still, rounds that are down to the wire like this one are enjoyable to watch.
TEMPLE GAMES: 5.5/10
The temple games featured a commonly used match-up between the Red Jaguars and Green Monkeys. The Red Jaguars featured Natalie, who liked to play basketball and talk on the phone with her friends, and her partner Kyle, who was into jet skiing and also liked to collect basketball cards. The Green Monkeys featured Olivia, who enjoyed horseback riding and had a 220 pound pig at home, and Jonathan, who enjoys water skiing and playing tennis. Kirk also makes a joke about how Jonathan and Olivia both wore braces too.
The temple games for this episode were pretty one-sided. The Green Monkeys completed their temple games at a much better rate than the Red Jaguars. It was kind of obvious what team was going to the temple. Despite that, the temple game sequence kept this round interesting. The second temple game was rarely used as a solo game while the team game was not featured much in Season 3. This was a slightly above average round overall.
The first temple game had Jonathan and Kyle trying to clear rubble from Harold's Fortress. Each player had to take two giant rocks and carry them into the holes above them. Once they were done, they had to use the trampoline to pull themselves onto the upper level. Once they reach the top, they had to throw both rocks out of the fortress to win. In this temple game, Jonathan proved to be more dominant than his opponent as he won it easily. On a side note, there was this random "horn sound" while the guys were playing this game.
In the second temple game, Olivia and Natalie had to act as spies and interrogate Harold's camp. To do this, they had to traverse a maze and try to reach the whole at the bottom. The player that reaches the bottom first will be the winner. Both girls took long to complete this temple game, but Olivia managed to win with 4 seconds left while Natalie didn't even come close. The Green Monkeys enter the final game with one pendant. In the last temple game, the two teams had to knock down six hostile soldiers. One player had to grab a boulder and throw it to their partner that was hanging low on the roof. The second player then had to use to boulder to knock down each of the soldiers. The first team to knock down all six soldiers or the furthest along after 60 seconds will win. In the end, the Green Monkeys knocked all of their soldiers down with 25 seconds remaining. With two pendants and a temple game sweep, Olivia and Jonathan enter the temple in search of the Battle Flag.
TEMPLE RUN: 7/10
(Credits to "Purple Parrots Fan" for her contribution to this section)
This temple run should've been a win, but two major mistakes prevented that from happening. First of all, after Olivia knocked over the column, she unnecessarily treks up to the top of the Pit, where both doors were clearly closed. She eventually makes her way down to the Tomb, where she's removed with 2:35 left on the clock. Jonathan goes in next and he makes great time. He makes his way across the bottom floor swiftly, and assembles the monkey in decent time. However, he makes a very crucial mistake, that ultimately cost the team the victory. In the Room of the Ancient Warriors, a third temple guard takes his full pendant, and the door to the chamber opens. Instead of taking that window of opportunity, he wastes even more time trying the other two doors. By the time he corrects this error, time is really winding down. He does manage the grab the battle flag, but time runs out soon after. After time was called, both Olivia and Jonathan were still pretty excited to even reach the flag. All in all, this temple run was very exciting and a nailbiter. But both Olivia and Jonathan made far too many mistakes in the temple for them to win.
FINAL VERDICT: 7/10
(Credits to "Purple Parrots Fan" for her contribution to this section)
Overall, Battle Flag was a moderately exciting episode. The legend was great, the steps were close, and the temple run was a nailbiter too. The only thing that drags this episode down is the one sided temple games. Olivia and Jonathan were decent players in the temple. But this temple run really should've been a win, had it not been for their mistakes. I honestly think they were both equally responsible for this loss. Most people just blame Olivia for wasting time in the Pit, but Jonathan honestly should've seen the door to the Chamber opened. Even if he was in the rather large Room of the Ancient Warrior armors. Olivia's mistake was costly yes, but Jonathan's mistake wasted a good 25 seconds, thus preventing him from reaching the flag. They were both at fault for losing the way that they did, it's not just Olivia's fault. Most center of the room temple runs are losses due to the players either wasting time, or making a costly mistake. Besides that, just reaching an artifact in the center of the room is an accomplishment in its own right. To conclude, this episode was still pretty exciting, (albeit a tad average), and I recommend this episode to anyone.
Topic: Legends Episode Ranking System - COMPLETE (Read 87662 times)
