What really makes a bad episode?

[Purple Parrots Fan]

A long time ago, there was a thread started on what everyone thought the worst ever episode was. Since we talk about bad episodes a lot, I'm curious to see what you guys think qualifies as a bad episode. To me, a bad episode consists of all of the following:

-- A moat that goes on for either way too long or way too short of a time. Short moats are usually boring to me, though long moats are okay. However, if the moat is too long due to poor players, and/or it's obvious what the 4 teams will be, then it's a lot more painful to watch.

-- A Steps of Knowledge round that has A LOT of bad answers. Once in a while, bad answers are funny. But when every other question has to be thrown out because of it, it's sort of annoying. And what makes it worse is if these contestants somehow advance despite giving the poor answer choices.

-- Temple games that are one sided, where it's obvious which player is gonna win. Or better yet, it's too obvious that the winning team is gonna sweep the temple games. And, temple games where a team only wins on a questionable call.

-- And a temple run where it's obvious from the beginning the team is gonna lose. Or if the team does win, the victory feels undeserved for whatever reason. Whether it be slow players or an easy layout.

Now don't get me wrong, I understand that it's just a show and these are just kids. And I realize we already have a thread on this, even though it's an older one. But I'm just curious what you guys think would make a bad episode.

[Silver Snake Lord]

I think a combination of everything you said would make for a poor and unimpressive episode, and also when the team that goes to the temple takes too long to go through and doesn't race through the time limit. I understand there were obstacles for them to overcome before they could get to the room with the artifact they had to get, but some contestants moved so agonizingly slowly trying to get to the artifacts it made me wonder how they qualified for the game to begin with.

[The Red Jaguars]

Good idea for a topic, I mean we always talk about bad temple runs but never episodes. IMO, a bad episode consists of

MOAT:
- A moat that is extremely long due to it being challenging or having strict rules.
- Where 2-3 teams are across already and you are waiting for the last team to come across, but none of the teams look like they want to come across.

STEPS OF KNOWLEDGE:
- Double sweep of the steps where the other two teams don't have a chance.
- An extremely dumb player that ruins it for the other teammate because they don't have a clue what they are talking about.
- A dumb legend can kind of ruin this round also.

TEMPLE GAMES:
- Neither team is good in the temple games and as a result, you end up getting an undeserving team winning this round and going to the temple.
- One team is obviously much better than the other.
- One team sucks at the first two temple games, but then comes back and wins the last temple game and turns around going to the temple even though they might not deserve it.

TEMPLE RUN:
- Any slow player in general just makes the temple run hard to watch because they waste too much time.
- Clueless players that waste so much time, especially when they are the second runner and their partner laid out a nice path.
- Temple runs with unenthusiastic players that look like they don't want to be there or are not even trying.

I could come up with individual episodes later that I think are bad.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

STEPS OF KNOWLEDGE:
- A dumb legend can kind of ruin this round also.

Yeah, stupid legends like in "Cosa Rara" and "Snow Cone" can definitely ruin an episode. It just makes you not want to take the legend seriously at all.

TEMPLE GAMES:
- One team sucks at the first two temple games, but then comes back and wins the last temple game and turns around going to the temple even though they might not deserve it.

I sort of disagree on this one. Some come from behind one pendanters (like in "Metal Beard" and in "Lucky Pillow") can really make it work. On the other hand, there were a lot more victories (like in "Bandit Queen" and "Atocha") where the teams win one pendant by winning just the first two temple games. So I do know what you mean there.

I could come up with individual episodes later that I think are bad.

Sure, examples would be nice. I should come up with my own list of episodes that were bad based on the criteria I said in the OP.

[PurpleParrot319]

To add onto this, an episode can be turned into a bad one if there's an annoying player on a team. One of the best examples is Dana.

[The Red Jaguars]

TEMPLE GAMES:
- One team sucks at the first two temple games, but then comes back and wins the last temple game and turns around going to the temple even though they might not deserve it.

I sort of disagree on this one. Some come from behind one pendanters (like in "Metal Beard" and in "Lucky Pillow") can really make it work. On the other hand, there were a lot more victories (like in "Bandit Queen" and "Atocha") where the teams win one pendant by winning just the first two temple games. So I do know what you mean there.

I meant more on the lines from teams like "The Keys to the Alhambra" and "Butch Cassidy". Those are teams that basically went to the temple by scrapping by the last temple game and sucking in their first two. The "Annie Taylor" temple games were much more competitive and I think that John's temple game should've ended in a tie rather than a Purple Parrot win. And "Egyptian Queen" had close individual games too despite the outcome.

Here are some episodes I consider bad (in no order)

The Treasure Map of Jean Lafitte
- Neither team was great in the temple games to begin with.
- The Blue Barracudas only got to the temple because the Red Jaguars answered wrong in the tiebreaker.
- Both temple runners were slow and made abysmal progress.

The Silver Saddle Horn of Hannibal
- One of the longest moats on the entire show.
- A temple game round that was less than interesting.
- A temple run where the frontrunner messed up and it ruined the entire run, plus it was forgettable.

The Codebook of Mata Hari
- The moat was long and boring.
- The temple games sucked because the Silver Snake girl did not win her temple game and both teams sucked anyways.
- The temple run is extremely boring with slow players.

The Cracked Crown of the Spanish King
- This episode has one of the longer moats on the show where it took forever for the last team to cross.
- The Steps of Knowledge featured a few dumb contestants.
- The temple games were boring and forgettable and neither team really stood out.
- The temple run is one of the worst on the show and the secondrunner was SO. DAMN. SLOW!

The Plumed Headdress of Cosa Rara
- This episode had yet another long moat.
- The legend was about a conversation with a horse!
- The temple games were not interesting at all and sucked pretty bad.
- The temple run is boring and the second runner does not help either by being extremely slow.
- NICK GAS AIRED THIS STUPID EPISODE LIKE EVERY OTHER DAY.

The Silk Sash of Mulan
- The moat sucked because the last three teams trying get across sucked. Seriously, the only reason the Blue Barracudas won the moat because Stephan had to haul ass for Jessie,
- Even though the Blue Barracudas won two pendants in the temple games, they were not that great to begin with. Jessie barely won hers and they sucked at the team game.
- The Green Monkey boy was very annoying.
- Aside from the over the top temple guards, this team sucked in the temple and made abysmal progress.

The Snow Cone of Mount Kilimanjaro
- This episode had one of the stupidest legends on the show.
- Every round of the show was boring.
- The Silver Snakes sucked in the temple games and did not deserve to go to the temple.
- They only covered five rooms in three minutes. Who does that in season 3? Unless your run ended in triple capture, there is no reason why they sucked this bad.

The Marble Armrest of Xerxes
- The Green Monkeys scrap by each round of the episode.
- The Green Monkeys only went to the temple due to having an easy tiebreaker question.
- The Green Monkeys suck ass in the temple and neither of them had any idea on what they were doing.

Overall, I have to say I hate "The Cracked Crown of the Spanish King" or "The Snow Cone of Mount Kilimanjaro" the most. 

These are the only episodes that come to mind now. I will come up with more later.

[The Red Jaguars]

To add onto this, an episode can be turned into a bad one if there's an annoying player on a team. One of the best examples is Dana.

Kate from "The Mysterious Manuscript of Mary Shelley" was annoying also with all the poses she made between every round.

John from "The Golden Cricket Cage of Khan" also made stupid gestures between each round like fist pumps and acting all pumped up. Yet, he fails miserably when it came temple time. 

And Jeremy from " " annoyed me too with his gestures. 

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Good list of bad episodes there. One episode I consider REALLY bad is "The Keys to the Alhambra." I can't believe that episode was left out. I consider that episode bad for the following reasons:

- Short, boring moat crossing.
- Don't really remember the steps, but I think there were a lot of bad answers.
- Temple games were terribly one sided. The Red Jaguars only got to the temple because the Silver Snakes rang in incorrectly at the tiebreaker.
- And the temple run was a complete disaster. Steve was a beast, but Lisa screwed everything up.

Worst. Episode. Ever.

[Triple10X]

Just a random question since I am new - is their a site somewhere that has a good episode guide on the show?

Thanks!

[The Red Jaguars]

Just a random question since I am new - is their a site somewhere that has a good episode guide on the show?

Thanks!

Hey, welcome to the forum!

There are quite a few Legends site that have a description of all of the Legends episodes, but the best one that most people use is our own Nicklegends (Ed) King's Storeroom:

nicklegends.co.cc

It has a detailed description of every round of each episode on that site. It also has various stats, details on other portions of the show, and pictures and other web links. Hope this is what you are looking for.