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Post by manche on May 20, 2014 12:54:41 GMT -5
I consider this episode to be the weakest episode of the season one, but still has some good points.
It seems to be a little strange that Firouz does not believe in the existence of ghosts but with demons, magic and similar things he does not have any problem. But his attitude brought a little fun to this episode. The ending scene where he decided to explain to his friends his opinion was funny, how they ran away and he did not notice it at first. The next funny scene was how he tried to explain tears in the eyes of statues in the graveyard.
The sad story of prince Xander was quite touching and i like the emotional involvement of Maeve in his story. We talked about the similar attitude from the side of Bryn in the Monster and there it was similar. These two women are different in many ways but they have common this aspect of the character. I like it.
And the first scene where the crew was tired the long voyage and the lack of supplies was also good. A funny remark of Doubar towards Dermott and the good reaction of Maeve.
The rest is not very intriguing for me, but it is not a bad episode. Simply prefer other episodes.
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Post by Doubar on Jun 2, 2014 10:49:49 GMT -5
Oh, this is interesting because that ep actually belongs to those I do enjoy watching. I mean, it's not one of the best but not amongst the worst either.  Agreed though, it does seem strange that Firouz would not believe in ghosts. On the other hand, I always felt like he was searching for a scientific approach even when dealing with magic so I wasn't too bewildered about him being this sceptical. Maeve's involvement really was a lovely element, as was Dermott's part in this. To me it seemed, when Dermott was playing chess (was it chess? I think so) with Prince Xander, both the hawk and the dead boy knew about the other and what made them special. It's something I found rather fascinating and that, at the same time, made sense. Animals often are so much more sensitive to what's going on around, plus if we assume Dermott might not exactly be without magic either it seems ony logical that he knows what Xander really is. Well, either that or he just felt that Xander was lonely and kept the boy company for that reason, but personally I always think he knew. Indeed there's a good number of eps that were more exciting. Still, somehow I like this one. But hey, different people - different opinions, and it's great that we can discuss them here onboard.  |
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Post by manche on Jun 2, 2014 11:30:45 GMT -5
Oh, the interesting thought with Dermott. I always concentrated on the Maeve's part in this story more, but you are right that Dermott could feel the Xander's small secret earlier and that he had a certain connection with him as well. The nice scene with this game, really. I also like how Sinbad tried to encourage Xander when he was telling the story about his first fight to him. And i like also the Doubar's comment at the end that ghosts are so good or bad how they were during their lives.
Yes, Firouz always tried to find a scientific explanation for everything and maybe his attitude there is not so surprising. But that he was doubtful despite everything what he saw (as Sinbad correctly noticed) it seemed to me a little strange.
I would not use the term the bad episode for this episode, the term the least favourite is more correct. It is not a bad episode at all and there are some interesting points, but from all episodes of the first season i enjoy this episode the least.
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Post by Doubar on Jun 8, 2014 2:19:09 GMT -5
Yeah, well, at least that was the impression I always got when watching that scene. At any rate, Xander definitely knew about Dermott and seeing how the bird played that game with him I kind of assumed our beloved hawk knew as well. Sinbad's and Doubar's parts were lovely indeed. And I do agree with you on Firouz. It was a little strange even though not out of character for him to doubt the events. But indeed, given the adventures they had and everything, you would think he'd be less inclined to ascribe it all to food poisoning of all things. And that's okay. For me, personally, the S1 eps I enjoy the least are Conundrum, Monument and Masked Marauders although especially Conundrum is by no means a bad episode. In fact, it's rather interesting with its twist and everything but I don't know... I just don't enjoy watching it that much. |
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Post by manche on Jun 9, 2014 10:12:28 GMT -5
And that's okay. For me, personally, the S1 eps I enjoy the least are Conundrum, Monument and Masked Marauders although especially Conundrum is by no means a bad episode. In fact, it's rather interesting with its twist and everything but I don't know... I just don't enjoy watching it that much. It looks that our taste for episodes is not so much different. With the exception of Conundrum which i really like (with the exception of Maeve's absence, but there are a lot of nice moments among the rest of the crew and a great villian) these two mentioned episodes are also among the least interesting from this season for me. Masked Marauders have the nice opening and the great final scene (the talk betweeen Maeve/Sinbad reminds me of the ending scene of Hell house quite), but the rest is not very interesting for me. Monument has some good points as well but is not a very intriguing episode in the global scale. |
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Post by Doubar on Jun 10, 2014 15:13:04 GMT -5
No, indeed it appears to be almost identical. Apart from a few eps here and there, we usually have the same opinion on things. I agree, Masked Marauders had a nice openining and it was also somewhat crucial to the overall plot what with the riddle about the daffodils and the bees, but the ep itself somehow wasn't all too special. Same with Monument, as we already discussed. Oh well, we do still love the show, and this is what counts. No series can have brilliant eps only. There's always some weaker and some stronger stories within a season. |
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Post by manche on Jun 10, 2014 16:34:03 GMT -5
The part with the riddle was good but i would wish to see some continuation with this topic in next episodes which unfortunately did not happen. As i mentioned somewhere i do not like the fact that searching for Dim Dym was not a topic in the second season at all (especially when Maeve was with him).
You are right; no tv series can have only good episodes. Some stories are better than the others. Despite this we still like these tv series.
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Post by manche on Feb 21, 2015 15:11:23 GMT -5
Anyone noticed a certain similarity of this episode with the episode Guardians from the second season? Crew cares about a child and this child is someone else than they consider him to be.
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Post by tzigone on Apr 28, 2015 19:41:16 GMT -5
One interesting thing this ep has is Sinbad trying to make the prince feel better about having run from battle. It's a kindness.
Also interesting is that Dermott seems to have a stronger sense for what Xander really is than Maeve does. It's one of those things that makes me wonder if Dermott has more magical potential than Maeve - or at least that it expresses itself in a different way. He's usually quite aware of what's going on magically. Or do you think he just saw something the others didn't? I liked how Maeve said that if Dermott trusts him, she trusts him. Of course, we already knew she had faith in her brother's judgement, but it's nice to see.
Doubar's not wrong about him withholding information, though.
There are some crosses in the background - so I guess there's a Christian population in Arborea.
Interestingly, Xander has an understanding of Dermott, too. Both in understanding what he's trying communicate and in his nature, and his relationship to Maeve. Maeve certainly has tender feelings for the boy. I love when she offers him her hand. And, of course, he just can't take it.
Then the rescue - is it just me, or did the queen really under-react to seeing her (dead) son again?
I really don't get why Firouz is so adamant about not believing in ghosts. He believes in gods and demons easily enough.
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Post by Doubar on Apr 29, 2015 15:29:32 GMT -5
Oh, I, too, really liked it when Sinbad tried to make Prince Xander feel better about running from battle. That's one of those instances where we are reminded that Sinbad wasn't always a hero either, that he had to learn and grown and that sometimes it's okay to be frightened. As for Dermott and his abilities: While I wouldn't necessarily say that he has more magical potential than Maeve I definitely agree that his skills are of a different kind. Personally, I always pictured him as a bit of an empath, or at least someone who sees more than others do and in that regard he is indeed more powerful than his sister. Having been turned into a hawk might just have increased this sensitivity, too, which might just be the reason why he was able to recognise Xander for who the boy was when Maeve didn't perceive the ghostly nature. Seriously? I didn't even notice these. O.o Xander's understanding of Dermott I always ascribed to him being a ghost and thus of a different sphere. And his mother, I always thought, had seen him before. That's why she wasn't exactly surprised to see him there. Of course I have to admit that it's been quite a while since I last watched the ep so I can only tell you what I remember, but yeah - that's the conclusion I drew. Beats me. I don't really understand it either but then again, even the most scientific of scientists aren't always logical in their personal thoughts and beliefs. For whatever reason there is, obviously Firouz simply has a harder time accepting ghosts as existing entities while Gods and Demons are a concept he acknowledges to be true. |
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Post by manche on Apr 30, 2015 4:06:55 GMT -5
Oh, I also like how Sinbad tried to encourage Xander and how it was shown that he had to learn and become a man who he is now. The next good example of this was in Bully where we could see him at the beginning of his path of becoming a sailor. I think that he was not described as such a big hero in the first season and we could see him more as a normal human being with his weaknesses. I like it a lot. He was described as a lot of bigger fearless hero in the second season in my opinion and I prefer his description from the first season in this issue much more.
I agree that Dermott was more sensitive and able to see beneath surface of things, but we do not know the extent of this and if there was a certain magic involved as well. For example, he was able to recognize Scratch in disguise in Conundrum (who had limited his magic power) and Xander here, but he did not recognize different magic creatures in disguise for example Alanna or Vorgon. It could be because of their magic was strong enough to prevent him in seeing beneath surface.
And how it was mentioned Xander died three months ago before the events of this episode. According the scene where he was feeling that the mother is in danger, I would say that he could be able to communicate with her in a way, even from the world of ghosts. So, she could know the whole truth for a longer time and although it must have been a horrible experience for her, she was forced to cope with it during her imprisonment. She had to stay strong for the sake of her unborn son.
Maybe a reason was that he saw some magical creatures before and as a scientist he acknowledges only things which he sees himself. Notice that after this adventure (although he refused it at the end of this episode) when they encountered with mysterious strength in Monument and Doubar offered ghosts as a possibility of this, Firouz acknowledged it as a possible cause without any denying. Gods are different cases, but he evidently acknowledged their existence.
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Firouz
Second Mate
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Post by Firouz on May 9, 2015 9:25:08 GMT -5
Manche, I think Firouz takes the mindset that once he's personally seen it, there is evidence enough to make it true; and future revelations possible. He witnessed Xander, interacted with him, and saw him vanish; Firouz also tricked the usurper-king's guards with a simple parlor trick too. Also for Dermott, I have always thought he had some magical abilities. He's just either never got to manifest before Rumina arrived like Maeve's or he was just starting training with Maeve and whatever tutor they had. By being transformed, it opened the 'passages-within'-as it were-to were he could now sense magic through sight, touch, mind, ect....Plus, animals seems to have more senses when it comes to paranormal activities; maybe his magic PLUS the animal instincts and senses allowed Dermott to see/read Xander faster than Maeve....which he did as the episode clearly proves.  As for Sinbad, he has definitely been there I think. Been in battle at a young age, and knows the fears/terrors that paralyzed Xander. He might also even be able to understand the guilt of not being able to do anything while he watched his friends and fellow sailors die at pirate's hands. (Just a theory about where he could have witnessed such things). |
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Post by manche on Jun 24, 2016 11:32:53 GMT -5
This episode begins to grow for me during every watching, I like it more and more despite the fact that I still consider it to be one of weaker episodes from this season but I would not call her as my least favourite from this season anymore.
Two new insights which I noticed during recent watching:
The trick of Firouz when he pretended being a ghost was good but where he precisely took these things for his guise, what do you think? I seriously doubt that he would have them in his bag. The only explanation which I have is the possibility that when the whole kingdom was in wreckage, they were scattered everywhere and Firouz found something from them in the forest during their break and he decided to use them when the crisis appeared. Firouz likes the examination of surrounding very much, it was shown more times.
And the second thing, at the beginning of the episode the ship seemed to be quite far from the shore. An amazing performance of this wounded soldier that he managed to get from the shore to the ship despite his injuries. (it was similar as Fontassel and his officers in The Siren's Song, but they were not hurt and they had a longboat at least)
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Post by Doubar on Jun 27, 2016 16:57:00 GMT -5
That's what I always assumed as well - that Firouz found all that stuff. Indeed for as much as he can zone out when explaining something, other times he's very peceptive and curious about his surroundings. So I kinda figuered he'd just have found a tent or something and made use of that. After all it looked like the forest held quite some remains of soldies and such. As for the wounded soldier: Aye, that was amazing indeed. And maybe nothing you would consider to be realistic. >.> |
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Post by manche on Jun 28, 2016 14:37:40 GMT -5
That's what I always assumed as well - that Firouz found all that stuff. Indeed for as much as he can zone out when explaining something, other times he's very peceptive and curious about his surroundings. So I kinda figuered he'd just have found a tent or something and made use of that. After all it looked like the forest held quite some remains of soldies and such. Thank you, it looks that my theory makes sense. Maeve was talking with Xander for some time (his finding could take some time as well), there was a fight as well, and all these things gave Firouz enough time for the examination of surrounding. When I was younger I was thinking that he died without any visible injury which would indicate a fact that an unknown strength caused his death. It would give sense in connection with his words about ghosts. Recently I noticed that he has a wound on his chest. But we can always speculate that it was only a minor injury which did not have any connection with his death. When the crew was wandering through the forest later, Doubar mentioned something in sense that he looked that he was frightened by something to death. This unknown force caused problems with the tiller and sails on the board moments before that, why the same force could not kill this soldier as well? Only question remains why would not this force kill the soldier earlier than he got to the board? |
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