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Legends of Tomorrow: Camelot/3000

"This place shouldn't exist."

Maybe they should have just gone to a Ren Faire. Then again, I went to a Ren Faire once and was totally bored. I suspect this episode was not for me.

Legends had been making progress with Ray Palmer as a character, and this "Sir Raymond of the Palms" felt like a pointless step backward. His childhood obsession with the Knights of the Round Table, fanboy admiration of Galahad and desire to immerse himself in the time period was annoying, not endearing. So was his faux British accent. I even disliked the light saber stuff, and like most sci-fi geeks, I usually enjoy homages to Star Wars.

While this sword and sorcery fantasy stuff leaves me cold, I did like that they addressed the fact that the Camelot legends aren't factual and that Stargirl made up the whole thing. And of course, they didn't address how her changes would affect history, other than Nate noticing a storybook showing illustrations that were supposed to be Ray. Like there would be an accurate illustration of Ray in a storybook from a bystander's account of something that happened in 507 A.D. And Ray kept on his ATOM suit under a suit of armor? How could he even have moved, much less fought?

Maybe I should stop complaining and discuss what this episode was really about, and it wasn't so much glamorizing the medieval. It was "team before tactics." Amaya believed that the mission was more important than the team, or possibly that her old team meant more to her than her new team. In the end, the Legends decided to go fight a pointless battle with Ray because they care about each other now, and they wanted to support his choices. I think. Or maybe it was all about the writers finding a sneaky way to do a Camelot episode when it wasn't actually a real place.


And maybe this episode was really about powerful women: Sara and Guinevere in charge, Amaya pulling the sword from the stone, Stargirl creating Camelot. I enjoyed Sara hitting on Guinevere; she has a thing for royalty, doesn't she? And Sara coaching Guinevere on how to be a captain when you're suddenly in command, or in this case, how to be Queen. I was wondering if Sara's surname was going to wind up as a Camelot pun somehow, and voila: Sara Lance as Sir Lancelot. Although when Merlin was revealed to be Stargirl, I was truly surprised that it wasn't Malcolm. It seemed like such an obvious a way for them to go.

Mick's unexpected brain power nearly saved the episode for me, as he teamed up with Martin Stein to explore how to use the mind control device Martin stole from Detroit against the now totally psycho Rip Hunter. (I particularly liked how Mick said he could smell that Martin had stolen something.)

But sadly, Damien Darhk was mostly wasted as the Black Knight. (Why didn't they call him the Darhk Knight?) Damien was there to ride around in cool armor and show that while our team will risk life and limb in medieval battles for each other, there is no similar honor among supervillains. Damien abandoned his new buddy Rip at the drop of a helmet to the tender graces of his former team, and now Rip is imprisoned on the Waverider.

Please tell me Sara thought about the possibility of Gideon responding to Rip's orders. Please.

Everybody remember where we parked:

-- This week, we went to Britannia in the year 507, and briefly, to 3000 Detroit. The Detroit bit felt very Doctor Who to me, maybe the David Tennant years.

-- Nate did the saga sell this week, even though his strongest moment was dressing in an historically accurate way, only to have Guinevere call him a leper.

-- The JSA's final mission was in 1956 Leipzig, at Rip's behest. Poor Dr. Mid-Nite. Rip, did you have to?

-- I am again limited as a reviewer of this particular show because the "Camelot/3000" reference went right over my head. (And by the way, we're looking for someone to take over for me and review Legends of Tomorrow. Interested?)

-- The next episode is in two weeks: March 7.

Quotes:

Ray: "So we came here for nothing?"
Mick: "Maybe not. Gideon, do they have booze in the year 3000?"

Ray: "I really must tell you, I am a really big fan."
Sir Galahad: "A fan? So you make wind?"
Ray: "No. No, no, no, no, no, no. Well, I mean, maybe after all this food."
A fart joke? Seriously?

Sara: (after Amaya pulled the sword from the stone) "Damn. That was badass."

Sara: "I don't like it, but we cannot risk them getting a Yahtzee."
For some reason, the word 'Yahtzee' is always funny. I don't know why.

Damien: "Give it up, Raymond. You're nothing but a glorified nerd."
Ray: "I'm still Raymond of the Palms, and on behalf of my twelve-year-old self, allow me to retort."

Sigh. Two out of four retorts,

Billie
---
Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

6 comments:

  1. Just out of curiosity, are you losing interest in the show, or just too busy to do the reviews? (I hope that didn't sound direct or rude)
    I'm excited for what theyou have done with RIP this season. I really hope they don't kill him off! He could be Sara's co-Captain! It would help with decision making as much as this team bickers. Though I love the bickering.

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  2. yodudeyo100, I'm too busy. :) I have The Walking Dead and Supernatural, plus I'm still trying to keep up with Sleepy Hollow. Four shows a week is too many. While I was not enchanted with "Camelot/3000," the last three episodes of Legends were pretty good.

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  3. Camelot 3000 was a mini-series that DC did in the eighties..
    Arthur is awoken in the year 3000 to defeat evil. Guinevere is reborn and so is the rest of the legendary heroes. They fight Morgan le Fay and the art was pretty stunning I seem to recall. Tristan was reborn as a woman and eventually got used to it, and met Isolde, also a woman here. It was a fairly groundbreaking romance for its time.

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  4. So I guess the last piece of the spear is with another Justice Socity Member in yet another time period? If only I remembered who's left. I guess Nate's ancestor for extra drama.

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  5. Or maybe it was all about the writers finding a sneaky way to do a Camelot episode when it wasn't actually a real place.

    I'm glad they admitted it wasn't a real place, but I sort of liked the way they've just admitted that history can be changed as long as it doesn't become history but becomes a legend instead. It's a really interesting concept: If a tree falls in a forest and no one's around, does it make a sound? This is like that: If a time traveler builds a legend that isn't historical, is that an aberration or a new fun story?

    It also reminded me of what Mark wrote about in "The Chicago Way": "Legends of Tomorrow never shows us history as it actually was. It shows us history how we like to imagine it was. We don't see the truth, we see the legends."

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  6. Like Billie, I didn't like this one as much as the previous ones. Maybe for different reasons.

    Mostly, it was suspension of disbelief problems. I don't mind them getting into a legend like Arthur. They explained it nicely with Stargirl. The JSA being scattered throughout history is an interesting idea! Though I wonder what happens when they die from old age. What happens to the fragments?
    It was probably good that they removed the spear from Camelot. The place obviously wasn't safe (what's keeping the Legion from returning to Camelot a few weeks later?). Yet it might not be good to keep the spear on the Waverider. Especially given their new guest... One thing about the spear story makes everything predictable: given how these shows work you just know that the Legion of Doom is going to be successful assembling the spear, before being thwarted in the very last moment.

    Anyways, re: the suspension of disbelief: it's play when a setting isn't realistic, as long as it kinds of fits with the rules of the given show's universe. Which is where it started. So far, the Legion and Legends have had no qualms of using their superior technology in older eras. Just last episode Rip gave his English buddies modern rifles. Firestorm has fought in the wild west among other places.

    But now, suddenly, everyone was limited to swords? It would have been very easy to use the Waverider to just hold back the enemy army by getting into the air and using the onboard weapons on them. But instead they're using swords. And Ray(mond) defeats Darkh, a trained assassin, with one, too?? Could've just used the atom suit he was apparently wearing.
    Similarly while the legion utilized mine control technology they were still using era appropriate weapons. It's a choice that doesn't make any sense.

    Similarly, you'd think the legends could nip out of this era for a bit, spend time perfecting their mind control fix, and return when they're done. Though that one is a choice more consistent with previous ones.

    So everyone's playing by entirely different rules than in previous episodes, probably just so the narrative can be one about knights and swords. Which is fine, but makes suspension of disbelief harder.

    I was confused at first who Charles was. Pity they didn't do more with him!

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