[7.4/10] I don’t know exactly how to feel about this episode. On the one hand, it answers some questions the show had left up in the air until this point. It wasn’t exactly clear what the Weird Sisters were up to in the “City of Stone” arc or why they’d enlisted MaBeth and Demona to do their bidding in subsequent episodes. Now we know that they were working with/for the Archmage, after he freed them from the Magus’s magic, to help collect the various magical implements and get revenge.
THis episode also works structurally. We learned in the last episode about how the good guys came to reach this point in the present ahead of the battle of Avalon. I like that this part does the same for the villains, showing how the Archmage, the Weird Sisters, and Demona and MacBeth all played a role for the bad guys’ side to lead to this stage of the conflict as well. Providing backstory and motivation for both sides of a conflict is good storytelling.
But this is another big time travel episode, which is always at least a bit of a clsuterfuck. The show seems to be sticking to the “stable time loop” idea which helps a little, but the ARchmage going back and advising his past self to make all of this happens is a little too proto-Kingdom Hearts for my tastes.
More to the point, I’m leery of the quantity of retcons here. I liked the “City of Stone” arc better before we knew that the Archmage was the one pulling all of the strings across decades and even centuries. The ARchmage going back in time to save his past self after we seemingly saw him perish in a previous episode is maybe forgivable, but him otherwise hopping across time and playing a role in plenty of major events we’ve seen up to this point is a bridge too far. The show’s already played the “Here’s what you think you saw, but here’s what really happened” multiple times in the series, and I wish it didn’t go to that well so often.
To the same end, we already found out that the Weird Sisters were pulling MacBeth and Demona’s strings. Now we find out that the Archmage was pulling the Weird Sisters’ strings. Who’s to say we won’t find out that someone else was pulling his strings? Again, you can only play the “I’m the real mastermind here” game so many times.
That said, I admire the ambition and complexity of the storytelling here, and it at least sets up a grand conflict between the forces of good and evil, even if the Archmage’s motivations are either unclear or a little too generic.
Plus, I also like what little we get to see of the good guys’ camp reuniting. Goliath meeting Angela, who is clearly his daughter with Demona, opens intriguing possibilities. And I’ll cop to appreciating the wordplay with her name, in addition to her seeming betrothed being named “Gabriel.” I also like the reconciliation between Goliath and Princess Katherine, as the once frosty relationship has thawed given how Goliath now witnesses how diligent the Princess has been in taking care of his clan’s children.
Overall, the ambition and complexity of this one is a big point in its favor, as is delving into the villains’ rationales for starting the brouhaha in the first place. It’s just the time travel nonsense and “I was the author of all your pain” silliness with the Archmage that gives me pause.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-07-21T20:32:23Z
[7.4/10] I don’t know exactly how to feel about this episode. On the one hand, it answers some questions the show had left up in the air until this point. It wasn’t exactly clear what the Weird Sisters were up to in the “City of Stone” arc or why they’d enlisted MaBeth and Demona to do their bidding in subsequent episodes. Now we know that they were working with/for the Archmage, after he freed them from the Magus’s magic, to help collect the various magical implements and get revenge.
THis episode also works structurally. We learned in the last episode about how the good guys came to reach this point in the present ahead of the battle of Avalon. I like that this part does the same for the villains, showing how the Archmage, the Weird Sisters, and Demona and MacBeth all played a role for the bad guys’ side to lead to this stage of the conflict as well. Providing backstory and motivation for both sides of a conflict is good storytelling.
But this is another big time travel episode, which is always at least a bit of a clsuterfuck. The show seems to be sticking to the “stable time loop” idea which helps a little, but the ARchmage going back and advising his past self to make all of this happens is a little too proto-Kingdom Hearts for my tastes.
More to the point, I’m leery of the quantity of retcons here. I liked the “City of Stone” arc better before we knew that the Archmage was the one pulling all of the strings across decades and even centuries. The ARchmage going back in time to save his past self after we seemingly saw him perish in a previous episode is maybe forgivable, but him otherwise hopping across time and playing a role in plenty of major events we’ve seen up to this point is a bridge too far. The show’s already played the “Here’s what you think you saw, but here’s what really happened” multiple times in the series, and I wish it didn’t go to that well so often.
To the same end, we already found out that the Weird Sisters were pulling MacBeth and Demona’s strings. Now we find out that the Archmage was pulling the Weird Sisters’ strings. Who’s to say we won’t find out that someone else was pulling his strings? Again, you can only play the “I’m the real mastermind here” game so many times.
That said, I admire the ambition and complexity of the storytelling here, and it at least sets up a grand conflict between the forces of good and evil, even if the Archmage’s motivations are either unclear or a little too generic.
Plus, I also like what little we get to see of the good guys’ camp reuniting. Goliath meeting Angela, who is clearly his daughter with Demona, opens intriguing possibilities. And I’ll cop to appreciating the wordplay with her name, in addition to her seeming betrothed being named “Gabriel.” I also like the reconciliation between Goliath and Princess Katherine, as the once frosty relationship has thawed given how Goliath now witnesses how diligent the Princess has been in taking care of his clan’s children.
Overall, the ambition and complexity of this one is a big point in its favor, as is delving into the villains’ rationales for starting the brouhaha in the first place. It’s just the time travel nonsense and “I was the author of all your pain” silliness with the Archmage that gives me pause.