Analysis and Comparison of Temple Run Contestants

[PurpleParrot4Life]

Well, a win that is exciting is one that is memorable where something stands out. I suppose part of the charm of some wins have to deal with the contestants "energy" or "emotional state" while in the temple. One obvious example is Missy being really nervous and crying at the end of her temple run which was coupled with her hugging her partner and Kirk. Nobody wants to watch a contestant like Mitchell or Tracy from "Cleopatra" who looks like they don't even want to be on the show. This is why a lot of season one wins are not very memorable or exiting because none of the contestants really stand out.

The "emotionally exciting" wins are ones that come down to the wire too. That is why people like "Lawrence of Arabia's Headdress", "Emiliano Zapata", and "Freydis" because they keep you at the edge of your seat until the very end of the run. It doesn't have to be down to a last second either, runs like "Pirate Captain" and "Map to the Lost Gold Mine" have a "down to the wire" finish to them also. This is why wins like "Enormous Iron Nose Ring", "Butch Cassidy", "Benzibab", "Geronimo", and "Roland" are not at the top of my list because there is nothing really exciting about finishing with over a minute left (or close to a minute). Its a nice feat and everything to finish with that much time in Olmec's temple, but they are pretty anticlimactic finishes.

And I also want to add in player performance too. An exciting run should have a player that is at least fast and acts competent. As cool as it was for Mitchell to reach the opposite side of the temple and bring the artifact out, I still find it to be boring because he just walks through the whole temple.

When it comes down to it though, I guess its personal preference. I mean there are a lot of people out there that like wins like Enormous Iron Nose Ring and Moccasins even though I personally can't stand them.

So the excitement of the run came down to the contestants' enthusiasm and the run being a close ending, but not about how enthusiastic Kirk was with his commentary? I find that a bit surprising, because I felt that there were some episodes where Kirk sounded more enticed and engaged in the run, and that added some excitement to the runs for me.

[The Red Jaguars]

Well, a win that is exciting is one that is memorable where something stands out. I suppose part of the charm of some wins have to deal with the contestants "energy" or "emotional state" while in the temple. One obvious example is Missy being really nervous and crying at the end of her temple run which was coupled with her hugging her partner and Kirk. Nobody wants to watch a contestant like Mitchell or Tracy from "Cleopatra" who looks like they don't even want to be on the show. This is why a lot of season one wins are not very memorable or exiting because none of the contestants really stand out.

The "emotionally exciting" wins are ones that come down to the wire too. That is why people like "Lawrence of Arabia's Headdress", "Emiliano Zapata", and "Freydis" because they keep you at the edge of your seat until the very end of the run. It doesn't have to be down to a last second either, runs like "Pirate Captain" and "Map to the Lost Gold Mine" have a "down to the wire" finish to them also. This is why wins like "Enormous Iron Nose Ring", "Butch Cassidy", "Benzibab", "Geronimo", and "Roland" are not at the top of my list because there is nothing really exciting about finishing with over a minute left (or close to a minute). Its a nice feat and everything to finish with that much time in Olmec's temple, but they are pretty anticlimactic finishes.

And I also want to add in player performance too. An exciting run should have a player that is at least fast and acts competent. As cool as it was for Mitchell to reach the opposite side of the temple and bring the artifact out, I still find it to be boring because he just walks through the whole temple.

When it comes down to it though, I guess its personal preference. I mean there are a lot of people out there that like wins like Enormous Iron Nose Ring and Moccasins even though I personally can't stand them.

So the excitement of the run came down to the contestants' enthusiasm and the run being a close ending, but not about how enthusiastic Kirk was with his commentary? I find that a bit surprising, because I felt that there were some episodes where Kirk sounded more enticed and engaged in the run, and that added some excitement to the runs for me.

Well, I don't really take into consideration Kirk's commentary that much because probably I have watched all the wins so many times that I just tune his talking out. And not to mention, a lot of the wins in season 2 like Annie Taylor, Enormous Iron Nose Ring, Billy the Kid, Ahmed Baba, and Nostradamus had Kirk's temple commentary dubbed over. So it was more annoying than it being memorable. Although there are a couple of episodes that I like Kirk's commentary - "Pirate Captain" and "Map to the Lost Gold Mine" come to mind. But really, I never really care for his commentary unless it was laughable.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

Spending an excessive amount of time in a room and/or getting stuck in a room lowers a contestants' ability to stand out as a "great" contestant. Below I have listed ten players that I feel spent an exorbitant amount of time completing a room's objective. Do you agree with this list? Are there any people you would add or take off of this list?

Lisa ("Keys to the Alhambra")- Tomb of Ancient Kings
Tia ("Golden Cricket Cage of Khan")- Pit/Heart Room
Tony ("Stone Head of the Evil King")- Medusa's Lair
Brian ("Sacred Ring of Sultan Suleiman")- Ledges
Ashlie ("Bonnet of Dolley Madison")- Dark Forest
Veronica ("Bifocal Monocle of One-Eyed Jack")- Pit of the Pendulum
Larry ("Mysterious Manuscript of Mary Shelley")- Shrine of the Silver Monkey
Karisa ("Enormous Feather of the Me Linh")- Quicksand Bog
Katie ("Lily-Crested Crown of Clovis I")- Chamber of the Sacred Markers
Tess ("Dried Ear of Corn of Sojourner Truth")- Dark Forest

In your eyes, who do you think redeemed themselves the best, or at least had the most salvageable experience in the temple? Who didn't?

[The Red Jaguars]

I would add Kelly from "Montezuma" to that list because she wasted her last 45+ seconds in that room. And she still didn't have the monkey assembled.

Out of that list, I think Ashlie from "Dolley Madison" had any sort of redeemable value. She moved fast in all the rooms before the Dark Forest and she completed most of her rooms pretty quickly. Plus, she went straight to the Crypt instead of going to the Ledges like some contestants do. Unfortunately, she screwed up in the Dark Forest though when this run really should've been a win. I actually don't find her to be anywhere near bad as the others on that list. Although she was a little clumsy in general in the temple like tripping in every room.

And I kind of have sympathy for Tony from "Evil King". Only because the objective for Medusa's Lair was pretty absurd. Expecting four snakes while racing against the clock was kind of unfair. No wonder he was getting frustrated. I am not excusing his pitiful temple performance though, but I think Medusa's Lair kind of messed him up.

But the rest on the list were just trash though. Except for maybe Tess - she was just too slow.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

Would Miriam's performance in the Jesters' Court ("Secret Map of the Bandit Queen") qualify her to be added to the list?

[The Red Jaguars]

Yeah, Miriam did waste a lot of time in the Jester's Court. But I don't know if that was more of her backtracking between the Dark Forest and Jester's Court or that she simply took a long time there. I haven't seen that run in a good while.

I also think that Casey from "Mt. Kilimanjaro" should be added to the list. He took a lot of time in the Jester's Court and he must've tried each painting three times!

Nicholas from "Madame Tussaud" took a lot of time in some rooms it seemed too, especially the Tomb of the Headless Kings.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

Nicholas from "Madame Tussaud" took a lot of time in some rooms it seemed too, especially the Tomb of the Headless Kings.

Nicholas spent a lot of time in most of his rooms. He couldn't get all of the vines down in the Tomb of the Headless Kings, kept trying one of the pedestals in the King's Storeroom (instead of moving on to the next keyhole), and dilly-dallied in the Room of the Ancient Warriors. It's really no surprise why Jennifer was screaming her head off during that temple run. So in my mind, he had a hard time all around, not just in one particular room or with one particular objective. That's how I differentiated who I put on my original list.

[The Red Jaguars]

Its been a while since we had a post in this topic, so I am going to bring it back.

Who do you guys think performed worse in the temple - Jackie or Mandy? Both girls had partners who were taken out at the bottom of the central shaft and both girls had their temple runs ending on the top floor. Except in Mandy's case, her run ended in the Shrine.

I have to say Mandy was worse than Jackie. The biggest mistake both players made was that they never took any of the shortcuts to the Shrine. Both girls were completely slow though, but it looked like Jackie was slightly slower. But Mandy did find the Tomb of the Ancient Kings key to the Shrine, but she never used it. Instead, she used the Well bucket that was not only slow but also made her complete the Torch Room objective. Jackie made the same mistake, but the Dungeon ladder was not as slow as the Well bucket.

While Mandy's time did end in the Shrine compared to Jackie in the Pirate's Cove, Jackie got screwed by the Pirate's Cove objective. It took even Kirk a good 15 seconds to figure it out himself. If it wasn't for that, then Jackie's time probably would've ended in the same spot as Mandy.

I have to say that Mandy was slightly worse than Jackie was in the temple.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

I disagree, I say Jackie was more clueless. She just walked through the temple and had no idea what she was doing. Especially in the Pirate's Cove. Mandy wasn't bad at all, she was just too slow and didn't take shortcuts. I really don't see how she was worse than Jackie honestly.

[The Red Jaguars]

Maybe I haven't watch the "Joan of Arc" run in a while, but Mandy was pretty sluggish herself through the bottom floor of the temple. She took forever to get out of the Bamboo Forest if I recall. She also struggled with the monkey with the little time she did have. Jackie was very slow too. Now that I recall, she did get lost in the Ledges. But in her defense though, the whole Pirate's Cove thing threw me off when I watched it. So I don't blame her that much for getting confused there. Its really hard to choose, but I still give the nod slightly to Mandy.

Although it would've been better if they went first and their partners went second. 

[PurpleParrot4Life]

Mandy and Jackie had very similar performances. Both entered the temple with 2:00 minutes left and both began in the Gargoyle Room, which only led into the Cave of Sighs. Jackie had a harder time navigating the Cave of Sighs, but both girls covered their partners' tracks slowly. Jackie's partner cleared one room farther than Mandy's partner, but that is negligible since the guard was in the Swamp. Mandy at least tried to head up from the Bamboo Forest, so that was one "saving grace" for the run. Both girls found the key in the Tomb of Ancient Kings, but neither attempted to use it. Jackie didn't originally push on the stone wall hard enough for it to break down, but she finally got it down. Jackie was able to clear the Dungeon more quickly than Mandy could ride the Well, but they couldn't do anything about how fast the elevator operated. In the Pirates' Cove, Mandy immediately knew what to do, while Jackie did not. Jackie spent 45 seconds in the Pirates' Cove, while Mandy spent a few seconds less in the room.

Overall, I'd say that the two were on par with each other. They were equally slow in following their partners' paths, and they were equally slow in completing objectives. Neither showed any extremely remarkable qualities in their runs, so I wouldn't necessarily say that one of the girls was better than the other. The one thing that may have been even moderately more impressive about Mandy's run was that she tried to go up from the Bamboo Forest.

[The Red Jaguars]

I was thinking about this earlier today. Which season two girl was worse in the temple - Kim from "Charles Lindbergh" or Kerry?

I use to think that Kerry was the worst girl in season two, but my opinion has changed to Kim. Between the two, Kerry was definitely slower than Kim. She took forever to get out of the Ledges! Then she painfully walks across the bottom floor as if three minutes is enough time to move at your sweet own pace. And when she assembles the Silver Monkey (don't ask me how she found time to do so), she backtracked to the Viper's Nest.

But now let's get to Kim. She had about two minutes to complete two rooms and the Dark Forest and what does she do? Well, she moves slow to where Nick was left off. She is not slow as Kerry, but she still wastes time in rooms that are already completed. And when she completes the King's Storeroom, she backtracks the other way! And then she assembles the Silver Monkey in horrible fashion (see sig ) and when the Dark Forest does open, she runs the wrong way! How pitiful, there is no reason why she couldn't have reached the Missing Weather Maps.

Overall, I now think Kim was the worst season 2 girl. She was a lost cause and there could've been a Dark Forest victory that day. There are plenty of tragic losses on the show, but this one just pisses me off. I can't believe I use to find this loss to be exciting. I hate this temple run now and Kim brings shame to the Red Jaguars.

Who do you think was worse?

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Kim by far. She just had no idea what she was doing. At least Kerry had somewhat of an idea. She was just too slow. Plus, she got mostly hit the actuator rooms. Where as Kim entered rooms that actually had objectives, but she blew it.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

I have a new question to contemplate: Which contestant(s) had the most difficulty getting out of the Pit?

The list I came up with consists of Kristen (Lucky Pig of Amelia Earhart), Kim (John Henry's Lost Hammer), Tia (Golden Cricket Cage of Khan), and Veronica (Bifocal Monocle of One-Eyed Jack). I'll also have to make a note of both Lauren (Dried Apple Half of William Tell) and Dana (Smashed Printing Plate of Frederick Douglass). I wouldn't say that they necessarily struggled at getting out of the Pit; they were just very slow at progressing passed it.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

I'd say either Veronica or Kristen. Probably Veronica, because she took literally over a minute getting out of the Pit. Kristen took about 40 seconds getting out, but I don't think she was nearly as bad as Veronica. As far as Kim goes, it wasn't so much difficulty getting out of the Pit, she just didn't know what an actuator was. And Tia was just a lost cause, period. So she doesn't count for me.