4 out of 5
Once Upon A Time: The Bear King (Season 5, Episode 9)
The Bear King brings us back to Dunbroch to show that it takes more than desperate, very athletic actions that make up a leader.
I have been forced to write about Once Upon A Time again. Most of the time I’m slightly ashamed to be such a die hard fan of Once Upon A Time. Between the constant extreme reactions to events, poor plotting, and the consistent ability to beat a dead horse until it’s nothing more than pulp and bones, sometimes it’s hard to reason continuing on. Actually, I missed an episode and almost didn’t go out of my way to watch it, but the episode that came out on November 15th reminded me exactly what Once Upon A Time was, back when I was first drawn in by the pure magic and awesomeness of season one.
When they announced that Merida was going to be joining season 5, I couldn’t contain my doubt. Pretty sure I groaned out loud. Brave wasn’t my favorite Disney movie, but I didn’t want it ruined, by any means. I just feared it would all go wrong. The Brogue. The hair. I mean…It could get cheesy fast. You see how it could get cheesy fast, right?
Lo and behold, though, Merida, played by Amy Manson, has become a character that I can’t seem to get enough of. She, along with Mulan, played by Jamie Chung, and Ruby, played by Meghan Ory, have become this powerhouse of womanly awesome, Merida leading the pack. When I heard Ruby was coming back, I got excited, as well. Her storyline is probably my second favorite. Next to Merida’s.
I’m straight, I’m straight, I’m straight.
Anywho…
Sunday, November 15th episode, The Bear King, had so many redeeming qualities, I’m having a hard time deciding where to begin. The November 29th episode was back to the regularly scheduled programming of convoluted plots and secrets, which, if weren’t kept, would make everyone’s lives easier. Hasn’t anyone realized that if they all stop keeping secrets, everything would improve drastically? Like, I understood at first. But we’re five seasons into this and everyone is still keeping secrets from each other. Come on. We’re past plausible deniability here.
Whatever.
To happy things!
Like The Bear King.
It was written by Andrew Chambliss, who has a long history with Once Upon a Time as everything from a writer to executive producer. He’s worked on other shows, as well, such as Dollhouse and Vampire Diaries. Not the less widely known Vampire Academy, which is far superior.
The book was good, okay! Shut up.
To recap quickly, last time we saw Merida, she had just saved her brothers from being executed by using her super badass archery powers to take out three arrows with her one. All the clans bowed down to her prowess and then we left her behind to go on with other OUAT shenanigans.
The Bear King brings us back to show that it takes more than desperate, very athletic actions that make up a leader. During Merida’s coronation, the witch, played by Lily Knight, who’s had bit parts in every TV series since 1984, burst through the door demanding payment for a magical helm that her father had commissioned from her to ensure that the soldiers would follow him into battle. Either she is returned the helm or wants a large sum of money that would bankrupt the four clans three times over.
An internal battle ensues: if her father wasn’t able to lead the clans without magic, how could she possibly do it?
Flash back.
Merida’s father, King Fergus, makes his debut (and final) appearance in this episode. My only complaint about this episode is that it jumped between “Two Years Ago” and “Two Years Later”. Are you purposefully trying to confuse me? I blinked and missed one of these indicative time signals and was confused for a solid two minutes. Two whole minutes.
He takes Merida to war with him (assumedly against his wife’s wishes) and insists she be trained by someone presumably male in the art of war. It turns out to be Mulan and, of course, they become great friends.
There’s a great exchange between Merida and Fergus after this. She asked how he leads all these men into battle and he tells her that he puts himself on the front lines. If their king is willing to die for something, they know it must be important. He’s holding his helm, looking guilty.
We know what’s going on. Uh-huh. We all know that look.
Mulan drags Merida out training the next morning, distracting her from the battle. Merida hears the battle calls and rushed to the field just in time to watch her father be attacked. She shoots off an arrow, misses, and watched the man kill her father and take his helm (significance of the helm not yet known).
Flash forward.
Arthur and Zelena, of course, need the helm to fight the rest of the OUAT good guys squad, so they’re thrown into this mix.
#squadgoals #forreal
Merida finds Mulan to help her track down her father’s killer. Mulan has become a cold, heartless bitch after being dropped like a hot cake by Aurora for Prince Philip. It’s a very subtle gay indicator that’s made in the episode, and I appreciate it. The relationship between Mulan and Aurora was always flirting on the edges of their time together and it’s existence was cemented in The Bear King. Mulan was definitely crushing on her, and Aurora chose another of the many one-dimensional princes in her stead. For shame.
Merida coaxes Mulan to come with her, giving her all the gold she has. They travel to the site of where the battle took place and all of the arrows and signs of war are still present. Merida immediately picks out the one arrow she shot in the midst of the battle two years ago, pinioned with a perfectly square piece of fabric. I’m going to bypass that with a solid no comment.
It’s a fairytale? ….shhhhhhh.
Merida’s bow (the bow her father gave her) is stolen by Zelena and Arthur, and Merida loses all will to find the helm to pay the witch’s price.
Mulan refuses to give up and we see a little bit of that old warrior spark in her. I would’ve liked it a little more pronounced, but I can’t tell if it was an actress issue or if it’s a script issue. It jumps pretty quickly from her and Merida to Mulan kicking down the door of the witch’s place. To be fair, the only reason I know who Jamie Chung is, is because she was a Disney channel star.
Like, looking at her imdb, I’m impressed. She voiced Gogo from Big Hero 6…
She’s confronted by the witch’s werewolf and they get into scuffle. She sees something in the wolf’s eyes, though, and dumps an unidentified potion from a cauldron around them, and the wolf immediately transforms into none other than Ruby, aka Little Red Riding Hood.
Again. No comment.
Yes, let’s dump out the entire cauldron of an unidentified potion all over ourselves, not knowing what it could possibly do. Like, we could be engulfed in agony, useless boiling water, or be turned into bears or something, but yeah, let’s dump that shit and cross our fingers that it’s going to end well.
Yes, I reused this meme. It covers a lot of bases, okay?
Other than that, Ruby! Yay!
Getting directly to the point of re-introducing Ruby, Ruby can sniff the cloth that was on Merida’s bow and track down the guy who killed Merida’s father, thus finding the helm. Turns out that Arthur was the one who killed Merida’s father and took the helm, but her father had used a regular helm and had disposed of the magic helm in the sea near the battlefield.
Everything’s wrapped up quite nicely, Merida gets the helm back sending Zelena and Arthur running with their tails between their legs in a puff of green smoke, Ruby and Mulan go off to find more werewolves like Ruby, and Merida goes to her coronation.
The witch shows up at Merida’s coronation demanding the helm. Merida tells her no, that no one should have the power of coercing blind faith over men. Lo and behold, it was all different than perceived. When King Fergus asked to ensure good leadership for Dunbroch, the witch enchanted the helm for this moment. This moment, right here: Merida refusing to anything other than destroy the helm.
Awwwwwwww.
Before leaving, the witch gives Merida magic water that will allow her to speak with the dead. The following scene that ensues is so darn heartbreaking, man. It hits right in the feels.
Other than the better-than-other-episodes writing, The Bear King is filled with some excellent acting. Amy Manson has proved herself as nothing less that completely awesome at her craft. She rocks that orange hair with the appropriate amount of flair and declares that women are powerful and capable, just as much as any man.
Oh, the week before it was discovered that Killian Hook was almost killed so Emma Swan turned him into a dark one as well, tethering him to the longer half of excalibur to save him. That was the big secret. One sentence described the whole big secret of the entire season. The whole season.
Okay, okay, okay….I’ll watch the next episode, Killian. Geez…just…stahhhp it.
Either way, though, whether you’re a die hard OUAT fan, like myself, or just interested in dabbling, check out The Bear King. You don’t need to watch any episodes prior or after. It’s like a mini-movie in itself, and it was fantastic. Fantastically written, fantastically acted. Just…fantastic.
The North remembers.
In the universe of Game of Thrones, scenes’ before the opening theme are constant for the first episode of every season. For example, two great scenes that come to mind are the three Night’s Watchmen hunted down by White Walkers in season one or Tywin Lannister melting down house Stark’s sword Ice for Jamie and Geoffrey, season four. On the other hand, the opening scene of season is just plain horrific but awesome at the same time. Nothing is more satisfying then watching all the men of House Frey choke on their own blood after being reminded of the Red Wedding. It was an absolute grand-slam and took off perfectly from where we last saw Aryain season 6.
The North remembers.
Right after the credits we get a quick reminder of the army of the dead, and with more bad news; Giant white walkers. But thankfully we are intercepted by Bran warding into one of them which seems like a very useful ability (what’s next dragon’s or an ice dragon?). He is now with
the Watchers on the Wall and back in the mix, hopefully heading for Winterfell where he can inform Jon he is a Targaryan (This will be hype! I wonder if he can be burnt by fire!). Bran’s story has taken a back seat to other prevalent Starks but it’s nice to see him in the mix, demonstrating his power.
Next, we have psycho Cersei and her sane, lover brother Jaime. I still can’t forgive him for pushing Bran from the tower but I am starting to come around. The disapproving way he has been looking at Cersei dating back to last season says it all. From confronting her about
Tommen’s suicide, to questioning her about the enemies created (Targaryans, Tyrells, Starks, Dornish, and Half the Iron Borne) and the lifeless dynasty they will continue. He keeps his position with Cersei discussing what allies they have left but Jaime is clearly becoming distant and realizing the extent of his lover/sister’s delusion. I forecast a remake of the tale of “The King Slayer” retitled “The Queen Slayer”. In the mean time, the diabolical Yuron Greyjoy, the new king of the Iron Islands rekindles the bond between the Lannisters to move him into a prime position to become King of The Seven (three at this point) Kingdoms. He is presented as a lot more cunning and rounded character kissing up to the Queen and promising her a gift, whether that be Tyrion, and/or a thousand ship armada. What will be interested is how Jaime responds to a marriage between them, because Cersei and Yuron have a demonistic chemistry. She even abides by him making hand jokes and death threats (killing his brother, telling her to do the same). This was a fantastic scene all the while, and it really shows if Cersei get’s close to Yuron and isolates Jamie she will create yet another enemy.
We then get to a short snippet of Samwell Tally’s horrific, grotesque life as a server at the Citadel preparing to become the maester of Castle Black. There is a massive scene which shows him preparing food, cleaning and handling old people plumbing. What’s intriguing is the un-thrones like comedic cut between him doing his daily work; It’s funny and it’s not a bad idea to lighten the tone up because Tyrion used to be the comedy for us in the earlier seasons. Samwell helps the archmaester with the dissection of a corpse where he confirms his thoughts of the White Walkers. What was kind of cheap for me was his simple way of finding dragon glass through a book in the restricted section. It seemed too easy for Game of Thrones, like something you would see Hermione Granger find in the “restricted section”. Hopefully there is more too this but it was kind of stale and forced
Oh wait, Ed Sheeran? I didn’t see it coming, and I thought it was weird but acceptable. It was obviously him having an in with the producers and wanting a cameo role, but he has pure, angelic voice and creates a sympathetic feeling for the Lannister troops that brings out the non-assassin in Arya. She tells them she’s on her way to kings landing to “kill the queen” and it’s not taking seriously which shows how dangerous she has become. But what I see from this is season two when Mellisandre said there is a darkness in her. This darkness has come to fruition and it will be interesting to see how this is received by the remaining Starks. Besides the randomness of Ed Sheeran, I thought this really grounded Arya.
Sandor Clegane and the brotherhood without banners are now at a place he would rather not be; an old victim’s house where Clegane took their silver and resources. They find the father and daughter dead, holding each other. This almost creates an epiphany for the character, asking why the child dies, and fellow brother Beric Dondarion should be brought back. Then the flames get him, showing him the army of the dead and the reality of the larger issue at hand. I think we will see a more compliant hound the rest of this season. I’ve loved this character from the beginning and his arch is getting much broader for the better. I predict a positive change in attitude for the hound.
Finally, the Queen of Dragons, Breaker of Chains, Denarys Stormborn is finally home. From season one this is the only thing she has wanted. But now, she has an army of unsullied, the Dothraki and there gigantic Dragons. The final scene of her tearing down the Baratheon banner and taking her spot among her ancestors war table was breathtaking. It was a long, drawn out scene but the character deserves this and it has been a long time waiting. Fire and blood seem to be the strongest motto of any house right now, and it will for sure be enforced upon the Lannisters. My prediction although is that she won’t penetrate King’s Landing because of Cersei’s ruthlessness and George R.R Martin curveball tendency. Whit I think everyone is looking forward to is the meeting with Jon Snow that will eventually happen. It will be interesting if she commands him to bend the knee (he better not, he’s the rightful heir of the Taragaryan house and not a usurper like Daenarys)! This episode was a great starting block for the season while still providing notable and exciting action.
Rest in peace, watermelon.
The latest episodes in ‘Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid’ were very interesting to watch.
One was definitely a fanservice episode, and heck, even the producers know that! Episode 7’s title contains the phrase ‘The Fanservice Episode, Obviously’, so that cracked me up.
Episode 7 focuses on the elements of anime that will appeal to any nerd out there. By that, of course I mean bathing suits and comic conventions! Cue the beach episode!
Tohru and company decide to go swimming for the day. Kanna’s adorable as always, while Lucoa doesn’t realize just how sexual she is toward a small boy.
Like, really? You think wearing a very sexy swimsuit in front of a lot of kids on a beach is okay? And why do you insist on torturing Shouta with your breasts? It’s obvious that he’s tempted, but stop trying to seduce small children.
Of course, they’re dragons, so hilarious antics ensue. Tohru and Kanna get carried away in a swimming race, making water splash up everywhere. Also, a crab and watermelon are murdered. RIP.
However, one aspect that I thought was a nice touch was the backstory we got for Tohru. It wasn’t much, but Tohru and Kobayashi have a deep and meaningful conversation about their family’s lives, as well as how humans and dragons are different from one another. Fanservice episodes usually focus on that alone, but fortunately that’s not the case here.
The second half of Episode 7 focuses on Comiket. Tohru and Kobayashi help Takiya run a booth, and we learn that Fafnir is also participating by attempting to sell powerful curses. Wow, didn’t see thaaaaat coming at all.
Tohru notices otherworldly creatures in their true forms at Comiket, as they reveal that this is a great way to show their true forms. With Kobayashi’s permission, Tohru exposes her wings and tail, appearing to others as if she’s cosplaying as, well, a dragon maid.
Episode 7 was very nice because there were many heartfelt and adorable moments.
Meanwhile, Episode 8 FINALLY introduced the dragon that I keep on mentioning in my reviews. Her name’s Elma, a dragon who is a rival of Tohru’s. Elma accuses Tohru of disrupting the human’s ways and tries to force her to return to the dragon world. This doesn’t succeed, however, as Tohru sends her to an open field and leaves her there.
Unable to get back home, Elma stays in the human world and begins working at Kobayashi’s company. Kobayashi teaches Elma how to use computers and technology so that she can keep her job. Of course, this prompts Tohru to become jealous, smelling the scent of another dragon off Kobayashi like a dog does with a human. I won’t reveal how the episode ends, but it ends in a positive manner for Tohru.
Overall, I really loved these two episodes because they made me feel warm and fuzzy. They appealed to the emotional senses through a heartfelt conversation between Kobayashi and Tohru. Elma is also an innocent sweetheart who only wants to bring harmony to the human and dragon worlds. And I can’t wait to see more of her in the upcoming episodes.
I feel like in these two episodes alone, we learned so much about Tohru and her feelings for Kobayashi. She really wants to understand the human world and will do anything to stay with Kobayashi.
I’ll up my rating to a 4.7. These episodes were both fun, and we finally got the new dragon! Bless.
Notice: Undefined variable: user_ID in /hermes/bosnacweb04/bosnacweb04au/b1979/dom.bigorangedesign/wp_site_1589834241/wp-content/themes/zox-news/comments.php on line 49
You must be logged in to post a comment Login