I can't believe I'm posting a Legend of the Seeker episode reaction...
...but "Unbroken" was made of the finest, vintage crack OMG, the kind that this show is so very, very good at distributing to us junkies.
I loved, loved, loved that Cara was the fulcrum of the lever, the person whose life path rippled outwards so far into all of the events of the past year. Not the Seeker, with his destiny; not the Mother Confessor, with her power; not the Wizard of the First Order, with his magic. Cara, whose personal tragedy, her brokenness, made her into something larger. Her alternate life in Stonecroft wasn't without its own pain; and as lovely as it was to see her with Leo (HI LEO!), it felt wrong to watch her struggling with household chores. It was a life too small for what we know she is inside.
And I loved, loved, loved that as fantastic as it was to see Richard and Kahlan get married, be safe and not hunted, be able to look forward to the future, it also felt horribly, horribly wrong from the start. They just don't get to be that happy. And Darken Rahl was the wonderfully creepy shadow cast over the whole scene, the snake in the garden.
Because that happiness was all built on the flimsy pedestal of Richard's control of the magic of Orden. In "Elixir," Kahlan warned Richard against relying on magic that wasn't his. I can see why this might have felt different, but the boxes do what they do no matter who controls them. It was a house of cards from the start; Richard and Kahlan were fooling themselves if they thought anything else. And of course, it collapses, and their happy alternate reality is even worse than what we've lived through with them, because Cara's dead and the spell of undoing is not undone (uh, when I type it out like that it sounds particularly silly, which is why it's perhaps a good thing I don't post about this show too much), and Richard's in thrall to Darken Rahl, and Darken Rahl seems unstoppable. There's actually less hope in the "happy" scenario. Oh show, way to crank up the delicious angst.
I've been borrowing the Sword of Truth books from the library because...I don't know, I'm a glutton for punishment? I was curious about the differences between the books and the show; and I like Book Kahlan a lot, while I'm able to superimpose my favorable feelings towards Show Richard over Book Richard so that I don't want to punch him very often. Sister Verna is awesome, and some of the plot elements are interesting, and I haven't gotten to the evil chicken yet. Anyway. There are certain episodes of the show that provide further evidence for my theory that the showrunners knew exactly where the books went awry, exactly where the book developments would make for completely horrible TV, and this is one of them. Book Richard takes on the title Master of D'Hara, and unites the Midlands by having them surrender unconditionally to him, and this is supposed to be a good and noble thing, rather than creepy and disturbing, because it's Richard. There's no acknowledgment that people are fallible and mortal, that a system of government that depends on the goodness of one man is by its very nature ephemeral in its benevolence. And this episode showed exactly what happens when such a ruler gets replaced. It's like the showrunners realized how problematic that setup was, and did the exact opposite. I swear, they're doing it on purpose. And that's just one of the many reasons I'm going to miss this show. SOB.
Also, Bridget Regan tweeted a photo of Kahlan's dirt manicure, which is adorable.
This entry was originally posted at http://danceswithwords.dreamwidth.org/146876.html (
comments). Comment at either site.
I loved, loved, loved that Cara was the fulcrum of the lever, the person whose life path rippled outwards so far into all of the events of the past year. Not the Seeker, with his destiny; not the Mother Confessor, with her power; not the Wizard of the First Order, with his magic. Cara, whose personal tragedy, her brokenness, made her into something larger. Her alternate life in Stonecroft wasn't without its own pain; and as lovely as it was to see her with Leo (HI LEO!), it felt wrong to watch her struggling with household chores. It was a life too small for what we know she is inside.
And I loved, loved, loved that as fantastic as it was to see Richard and Kahlan get married, be safe and not hunted, be able to look forward to the future, it also felt horribly, horribly wrong from the start. They just don't get to be that happy. And Darken Rahl was the wonderfully creepy shadow cast over the whole scene, the snake in the garden.
Because that happiness was all built on the flimsy pedestal of Richard's control of the magic of Orden. In "Elixir," Kahlan warned Richard against relying on magic that wasn't his. I can see why this might have felt different, but the boxes do what they do no matter who controls them. It was a house of cards from the start; Richard and Kahlan were fooling themselves if they thought anything else. And of course, it collapses, and their happy alternate reality is even worse than what we've lived through with them, because Cara's dead and the spell of undoing is not undone (uh, when I type it out like that it sounds particularly silly, which is why it's perhaps a good thing I don't post about this show too much), and Richard's in thrall to Darken Rahl, and Darken Rahl seems unstoppable. There's actually less hope in the "happy" scenario. Oh show, way to crank up the delicious angst.
I've been borrowing the Sword of Truth books from the library because...I don't know, I'm a glutton for punishment? I was curious about the differences between the books and the show; and I like Book Kahlan a lot, while I'm able to superimpose my favorable feelings towards Show Richard over Book Richard so that I don't want to punch him very often. Sister Verna is awesome, and some of the plot elements are interesting, and I haven't gotten to the evil chicken yet. Anyway. There are certain episodes of the show that provide further evidence for my theory that the showrunners knew exactly where the books went awry, exactly where the book developments would make for completely horrible TV, and this is one of them. Book Richard takes on the title Master of D'Hara, and unites the Midlands by having them surrender unconditionally to him, and this is supposed to be a good and noble thing, rather than creepy and disturbing, because it's Richard. There's no acknowledgment that people are fallible and mortal, that a system of government that depends on the goodness of one man is by its very nature ephemeral in its benevolence. And this episode showed exactly what happens when such a ruler gets replaced. It's like the showrunners realized how problematic that setup was, and did the exact opposite. I swear, they're doing it on purpose. And that's just one of the many reasons I'm going to miss this show. SOB.
Also, Bridget Regan tweeted a photo of Kahlan's dirt manicure, which is adorable.
This entry was originally posted at http://danceswithwords.dreamwidth.org/146876.html (
comments). Comment at either site.