The Seeker's Journal: Brennidon
I'm still really sick, so I'm not up to doing a live blog/recap like I usually do, but the challenge ends in a few hours, so here's just a few things I thought about while watching.
My rating of Brennidon: 3 out of 5
I always laugh about Zedd being distracted by the woman who says he's her bbdaddy. It's actually my headcanon that he probably has a lot of love children hanging around that he doesn't know about, because after all Confessors can only tell if you're telling the truth as you know it. So Zedd saying he used protection every single time except the time he made Taralyn to Kahlan only means that's what he thinks, or what he's convinced himself of. For example, who's to say that he hasn't been tricked, or had some kind of spell on him that made him forget? I mean, if Shota can make him forget everything, I'm sure she (or other mages, or even if he was drunk) can make him forget other times.
But this could be a biased interpretation of canon, since I probably have a strong desire for there to be 2934234230423 Zedd bbs out there.
I do laugh at how it goes down though. Hurr come the lady, and Zedd is all HELLOOOOOO. *WAGGLES BROWS* I AM SUCH A BEAST.
And then she's all YOU MY BBDADDY.
And Zedd's like FFFFFFF TOO BEASTLY, TOO BEASTLY.
Next point of interest, Richard's not-really-brother in Brennidon. It's interesting to me that every single brother character Richard has in the series has severe Richard issues. This kid's are probably more understandable than Michael's and Darken's, since his whole village was attacked and now his mom's in trouble, but I wonder if it was intentional on the part of the writers. Richard, through no real fault of his own, nothing he actually does but simply by being who he is can never have a good healthy relationship with a brother. Jennsen seems cool with him, though she has plenty of reason to resent him. So is that a comment on gender, that women are more forgiving and reasonable? Or is it purely character driven, where Jennsen is forgiving and reasonable, but Darken, Michael, and the Not-Brother are irrational twats? Or is it maybe some leftover Richard Phenomenon from the books where all women love Richard, and all men are jealous and want to be him?
Really, they should start a support group for the Unlucky Brothers of Richard Cypher Rahl. I bet random dudes would start joining it too, like "Oh well one time Richard traded places with my brother-in-law Gryff, and I've had Richard issues ever since." "Ares, what are you doing here? This isn't even your show!" "He reminds me of Hercules."
Next thing I think about is why didn't Zedd stop the slaughter of Brennidon? He is more than powerful enough to do it, as we have seen. There's a few possible explanations there, (beyond the obvious out-of-universe one of he can't stop the slaughter because it goofs up the story).
It's become part of my head canon that there are probably magical rules about using the least force necessary to do the job. Otherwise Zedd's powers don't make sense because we see him do really big things sometimes, but other times he won't so much as conjure them dinner when game is scarce. So there have to be rules. Maybe they're actual magical principles, like you only have so much han at once, so when Zedd knows he might need it to fight he saves his magic, kind of how it would work in a video game with a mana bar. Like if I'm playing DAO, and I know a dragon is in the next area, I'm not going to waste all my magic on healing spells. I'll use potions so I have some mana for ice spells against the dragon, right?
Or it could be how it works in the Tortall universe - mages of a certain level of power aren't capable of doing really small things all of the time, because they're -too- powerful. They have to burn some power off on a big spell first, or anything small they try to do will literally blow up. For example, a lesser mage can light a candle, but a really powerful mage who tries to light a candle without blowing power off first will just make the candle explode.
Or maybe we're talking consequences: Maybe as a younger man Zedd was free with his magic, but his part in the birth of Darken Rahl taught him a lesson - magic changes things in big ways, no matter how small the spell seems. So maybe he tries to avoid using magic unless he has to, kind of like the fairies in Ella Enchanted.
But anyway, the point of all that rambling is that Zedd is capable of stopping an army. Easily. So why didn't he?
A few scenarios come to mind. First, maybe he believes in prophecy so much that he knows the slaughter has to happen and he chooses to allow it for the greater good. Zedd is a hard man, at times. I could see him letting it happen, and telling himself it's for the best though a part of him wonders if he'd make the same choice if the Seeker wasn't his grandson. But that doesn't quite jive, because then the very next thing he tries to do is avert the prophecy by crossing the Boundary.
Next, it's possible he didn't know it would be Taralyn, and didn't know what town it would be until it was almost too late, and he got there at the very last possible moment, and the only one left to save was Richard. I think this possibility is the most likely.
And then last, we have our magical explanation, where there's some kind of rule that kept him from using his full power to protect Brennidon, so he did what he could for Richard.
And those are my Brennidon thoughts. In conclusion, just let me say the end scene with Richard and Kahlan on the platform in the middle of town and the people shouting all around them is another defining, iconic Seeker moment for me. I just. GOOSEBUMPS.
God I love this show so much. I keep waiting to find another show that I love this much, and I really just don't think it's ever going to happen. The closest I've come is Avatar: The Last Air Bender, which is essentially cartoon Seeker, so there you go.
My rating of Brennidon: 3 out of 5
I always laugh about Zedd being distracted by the woman who says he's her bbdaddy. It's actually my headcanon that he probably has a lot of love children hanging around that he doesn't know about, because after all Confessors can only tell if you're telling the truth as you know it. So Zedd saying he used protection every single time except the time he made Taralyn to Kahlan only means that's what he thinks, or what he's convinced himself of. For example, who's to say that he hasn't been tricked, or had some kind of spell on him that made him forget? I mean, if Shota can make him forget everything, I'm sure she (or other mages, or even if he was drunk) can make him forget other times.
But this could be a biased interpretation of canon, since I probably have a strong desire for there to be 2934234230423 Zedd bbs out there.
I do laugh at how it goes down though. Hurr come the lady, and Zedd is all HELLOOOOOO. *WAGGLES BROWS* I AM SUCH A BEAST.
And then she's all YOU MY BBDADDY.
And Zedd's like FFFFFFF TOO BEASTLY, TOO BEASTLY.
Next point of interest, Richard's not-really-brother in Brennidon. It's interesting to me that every single brother character Richard has in the series has severe Richard issues. This kid's are probably more understandable than Michael's and Darken's, since his whole village was attacked and now his mom's in trouble, but I wonder if it was intentional on the part of the writers. Richard, through no real fault of his own, nothing he actually does but simply by being who he is can never have a good healthy relationship with a brother. Jennsen seems cool with him, though she has plenty of reason to resent him. So is that a comment on gender, that women are more forgiving and reasonable? Or is it purely character driven, where Jennsen is forgiving and reasonable, but Darken, Michael, and the Not-Brother are irrational twats? Or is it maybe some leftover Richard Phenomenon from the books where all women love Richard, and all men are jealous and want to be him?
Really, they should start a support group for the Unlucky Brothers of Richard Cypher Rahl. I bet random dudes would start joining it too, like "Oh well one time Richard traded places with my brother-in-law Gryff, and I've had Richard issues ever since." "Ares, what are you doing here? This isn't even your show!" "He reminds me of Hercules."
Next thing I think about is why didn't Zedd stop the slaughter of Brennidon? He is more than powerful enough to do it, as we have seen. There's a few possible explanations there, (beyond the obvious out-of-universe one of he can't stop the slaughter because it goofs up the story).
It's become part of my head canon that there are probably magical rules about using the least force necessary to do the job. Otherwise Zedd's powers don't make sense because we see him do really big things sometimes, but other times he won't so much as conjure them dinner when game is scarce. So there have to be rules. Maybe they're actual magical principles, like you only have so much han at once, so when Zedd knows he might need it to fight he saves his magic, kind of how it would work in a video game with a mana bar. Like if I'm playing DAO, and I know a dragon is in the next area, I'm not going to waste all my magic on healing spells. I'll use potions so I have some mana for ice spells against the dragon, right?
Or it could be how it works in the Tortall universe - mages of a certain level of power aren't capable of doing really small things all of the time, because they're -too- powerful. They have to burn some power off on a big spell first, or anything small they try to do will literally blow up. For example, a lesser mage can light a candle, but a really powerful mage who tries to light a candle without blowing power off first will just make the candle explode.
Or maybe we're talking consequences: Maybe as a younger man Zedd was free with his magic, but his part in the birth of Darken Rahl taught him a lesson - magic changes things in big ways, no matter how small the spell seems. So maybe he tries to avoid using magic unless he has to, kind of like the fairies in Ella Enchanted.
But anyway, the point of all that rambling is that Zedd is capable of stopping an army. Easily. So why didn't he?
A few scenarios come to mind. First, maybe he believes in prophecy so much that he knows the slaughter has to happen and he chooses to allow it for the greater good. Zedd is a hard man, at times. I could see him letting it happen, and telling himself it's for the best though a part of him wonders if he'd make the same choice if the Seeker wasn't his grandson. But that doesn't quite jive, because then the very next thing he tries to do is avert the prophecy by crossing the Boundary.
Next, it's possible he didn't know it would be Taralyn, and didn't know what town it would be until it was almost too late, and he got there at the very last possible moment, and the only one left to save was Richard. I think this possibility is the most likely.
And then last, we have our magical explanation, where there's some kind of rule that kept him from using his full power to protect Brennidon, so he did what he could for Richard.
And those are my Brennidon thoughts. In conclusion, just let me say the end scene with Richard and Kahlan on the platform in the middle of town and the people shouting all around them is another defining, iconic Seeker moment for me. I just. GOOSEBUMPS.
God I love this show so much. I keep waiting to find another show that I love this much, and I really just don't think it's ever going to happen. The closest I've come is Avatar: The Last Air Bender, which is essentially cartoon Seeker, so there you go.