Is an Episode as good as it's Temple Run?

[GreenMonkeys#1]

Sometimes, I look in past Temple Games and alot of the Best episode/contestants were ones that won and I'm starting to think, Is an episode as good as it's run? What do you think?    

[PurpleParrot4Life]

Generally speaking, the most memorable challenge of the show was the temple run. If teams performed impressively or unusually poorly, it generally made for a memorable episode. Episodes in which the temple run was rather lackluster usually also failed to have exciting pre-temple rounds to make up for it. So although it is by no means the only criterium, having a good or interesting temple run normally helped an episode stand out, thereby making it a memorable episode (either good, such as "Discarded Seal of Ivan the Terrible" and "Lucky Pillow Annie Taylor," or not as much, such as "Dried Apple Half of William Tell" and "Golden Cricket Cage of Khan").

[The Red Jaguars]

I pretty much agree with what PP4L said. We usually judge an episode by its temple run because of how unique that round is compared to the prior rounds. It seems like the better temple runs have better episodes associated with it. That may be because the better temple runs usually feature good teams, and said teams are pretty strong in the prior rounds too. I mean bad episodes like Snow Cone, Bifocal Monocle, Golden Cricket Cage, and Lost Lion Tail featured bad players in both their temple runs and prior rounds of the episode too. This is not the case for every single episode though. There are a few episodes that have crappy temple runs but the earlier rounds of the show are pretty good. For example, I like the early rounds for "The Broken Trident of Poseidon" and "The Thornwood Gavel of Judge Roy Bean". But the temple runs kind of bring those episodes down.

I have seen all 120 episodes fully, and a majority of the wins do feature strong prior rounds too. I don't know if it has to do with people talking about these episodes due to their noteworthy outcomes during their temple run, but generally speaking the episodes that end in wins usually are ranked higher than the losses. That is just like how the failed escape episodes usually rank higher than the failed to reach episodes. 

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Yeah, I agree with TRJ. It seems like the better the temple run, the better the episode.

[The Bandit King]

While I voted 'yes', I do feel that other factors besides the Temple Run contribute to an episode's 'greatness'.

For instance, "The Diary of Dr. Livingstone" had a pretty darn good Temple Run, but the rest of the rounds were very boring, so it's considered lackluster as a result.  On the flipside, "The Mystical Spellbook of the Imperial Wizard" had good rounds throughout (with the exception of the totally silly Legend), but with the exception of Katie's lightning-fast last-ditch effort, the Temple Run wasn't anything spectacular, so it's considered average at best.

[The Red Jaguars]

I think some people tend to put more "emphasis" on an episode when the episode results in a winning temple run or even a very good run. So episodes that do end in wins tend to be more popular even if the prior rounds were mediocre. With that being said, I agree that the rest of the "Livingstone" episode was pretty average and lackluster. The temple games were too quick and the Blue Barracudas just dominated them. And even then, the temple run is not that exciting.

And I enjoy the Imperial Wizard episode too. The temple games were very fun and one of the few I remember from my childhood. The legend was pretty interesting too, but it was also very dumb and racist. The Green Monkeys were also a very strong team. And I actually don't mind the temple run at all. It was a tough layout and they still came close to reaching the Mystical Spellbook.

There are a few episodes I like where I can't stand the temple run but the rest of the episode was good. Judge Roy Bean, Sir Edmund Hillary, Lost Lariat, Icarus, Captain John Smith, Golden Pepperoni, and Lost Taj Mahal Turban had crappy temple runs but the rest of the episodes were great.