The Archmages finish their time-hopping journey and arrive to receive the Eye of Odin, Phoenix Gate, and Grimorum Arcanorum from the Weird Sisters. The Sisters have also collected Demona and Macbeth, who are fully under fey control. The assault on Clan Avalon begins. Elisa and Goliath are there to help, but what can they do against an archmage, two immortal warriors, and three fey? It looks like the villains have this one in the bag.
Miss part 1 of Avalon part 2? Read it.
Control Yourself
The Archmage has his hands full with Archy, his younger self, who wants to grab the Grimorum from Magus while the skiffs are heading to Avalon. But the timeline rescues us from having a plot hole! The Archmage knows how the flow of time works, and that history must play itself out. There’s really no point to grabbing it now anyway, since they can just zap into the future and pick it up from- Well, I’m getting ahead of myself.
Side note: the time stream wouldn’t have allowed them to take the Grimorum anyway. Think of all the things that would change! For one, Xanatos never would have learned about the gargoyles, so he never would have raised the castle.
According to Greg:
After Magus beats away the Weird Owl Sisters, they fly off – only to meet the Archmage. He changes them back. They’re highly irritated that they’re blocked from Avalon now. Oberon made them guardians, yet a human mage defeated them with “a parlor trick.” Interesting anachronism.
The Archmage proposes an alliance. They’re hesitant until he promises revenge on Magus. It’s worth a shot, in the Sisters’ opinion.
The Archmage and Archy zap to 1020, when Demona is raiding the countryside with her clan. “She is cannon fodder,” says the Archmage, when Archy points out that she betrayed him in the past. (I’m going to say he knows about cannons because the Eye gives him mega ultra uber insight, so he doesn’t have to have gone into the “real” world to see them). “We’re not doing her any favors.” Oh, there’s a dig on immortality, or so the writers probably think. It really just shows that you want to pick your terms if you’re going to become immortal.
Then they teleport over to Castle Moray, where Macbeth and his dad are sparring with swords. Archy isn’t impressed, but the Archmage knows Mac’s future.
The mages meet the Sisters. The Archmage shows them Demona and Macbeth and tells the Sisters to protect them and to influence their paths. The fey are hesitant, since Oberon’s law forbids them from interfering in the mortals’ lives. Ah, but rules are made to be bent!
The Archmage was behind Demona and Macbeth’s fate? That’s a twist! The writers are really outdoing themselves.
The Sisters are also to watch for the Eye of Odin, Phoenix Gate, and Grimorum Arcanorum. They are to meet again with the magical items in 975 years. Time is nothing to them, since they are immortal. Um, that kind of ruins the argument against immortality, but we don’t have to dawdle!
We time jump to 1995. Archy is set on taking over Scotland when he becomes powerful, but the Archmage has bigger plans. Why stop at Scotland? Take the world! Avalon will be his HQ, since humans can’t go there. Lucky for the mages it’s abandoned. Well, other than the humans and gargoyles who are living there, it’s totally deserted! Uh, is that kind of like how people “discover” a continent and get attacked by the natives? Breaking news: if there are people there already, you didn’t discover it. Otherwise you could sail away from England, turn around, and land there again, and say you discovered it.
Achievement Unlocked: Archmage Power
The Sisters arrive with the magical items. Then the Archmage helps Archy bond with the Eye. It gives him his snazzy new style.
The Eye and Gate were both forged on Avalon, so there’s no problem bringing to the island. The Grimorum, though, presents a problem.
“How do you expect me to get it there? Eat it?”
Yep. It must be the Eye and Gate that allow him to consume the book, otherwise somebody probably would have tried it before. Or not. It’s pretty strange. That’s one way to consume good literature, I guess.
I’m wondering why, now that the subject’s been presented, nobody tried to meld with all three before? The Archmage didn’t strike me as a visionary or genius. Surely someone else realized the Eye, Gate, and Grimorum would make a great trio. I’m also unsure why the Eye isn’t doing any freaky Eye effects, like turning him into a werebeast or whatever. Is it because he’s a mage that he can control it? I theorize that he can’t control it, and the Archmage is the form the Eye turns Archy into. It gives him power and insight, right? Also, the Archmage made sort of skullcap for Archy with magic first, which must function like a tinfoil hat.
Another goal of the Archmage is to keep the “sleeping king” from awakening, because the king’s “power is great.” Archy is shocked that the legend is true.
“All things are true,” say the Sisters.
Now, the legend he’s talking about is King Arthur. He was rumored to have never died, but to have gone to sleep under the hill in Avalon, waiting to wake and defend Britain when she truly needs him.
So far so good for the Archmage’s plan. It’s not a surprise to him, since it had already succeeded.
Fish in a Barrel
The Archmage then attacks Oberon’s castle, with Macbeth and Demona as shock troops. The attackers make short work of the defenders. Ah, but as usual, the villain isn’t going to kill the protags just yet. No! We need to wait until morning, when they’re stone. Hey, mate, you have the Grimorum. You can turn them to stone or do any number of other interesting things to them!
Wait, wait, there’s a better plug to the plot hole: the Archmage wants Tom to bring Goliath to Avalon so that the Archmage can have vengeance on G. Why not just secure power here, then venture into the wider world? Find Goliath out there and kill him after sunup.
The Archmage has his own standards for how revenge is supposed to go down, though.
Back at the castle, Goliath is plotting. If he can get the Eye and Gate away from the Archmage, that will weaken him. Oh, no problem! We’ll just ask him nicely and I’m sure he’ll hand them over.
G thinks they can use magic, but Magus has none. Magus says that without his magic, “I am useless.” Katherine rushes to his morale support. He doesn’t need magic to be useful.
Goliath is learning. He says they need stealth for this. “This must be a surgical strike.” He also assigns Elisa the task of coming up with a contingency plan to defeat the Archmage, Weird Sisters, Macbeth, and Demona. No pressure!
Elisa remembers Magus mentioning the “sleeping king.” Perhaps that’s a clue?
Elsewhere, the Archmage is ready to have some fun!
Final Thoughts
This is the middle ep of the triptych, so it’s going to be another major setup ep. We now know the backstory to our protags and antagonists. The next ep will wrap it all up.
The time travel here is well done. Making plots like this “believable,” or at least logical, is tough, especially when you have to use existing eps and can’t add too much. But they pull it off!
The character transformation in the Archmage is also well done. He has limited time to graduated from the small-minded archmage of Castle Wyvern, who I still don’t see as someone who would be likely to have the Grimorum when he seems little better than an hedge wizard who can sling lightning, to the Archmage. The Archmage has wonderful ambition. He wants the world! He’s excellent at thinking outside the box, too. I mean, Avalon and time travel? Not the first options that come to mind.
Tune in Tuesday to find out how the protags face what seems like insurmountable odds. We learn yet again that effective villains and antagonists have ditched revenge. Like a cat, it’s nothing but trouble.
Thoughts? Comment!
“I’m wondering why, now that the subject’s been presented, nobody tried to meld with all three before? The Archmage didn’t strike me as a visionary or genius. Surely someone else realized the Eye, Gate, and Grimorum would make a great trio.”
According to Greg Weisman, somebody did. The Roman Magus who wrote the Grimorum and cast the humility spell had all three talismans. Also Brother Valmont, in the comics, had the same goal of uniting all three.
But the Roman Magus didn’t eat the book. That’s a whole new level of ambition.
Ah yes! Or as I call it, the “That’s Convenient Spell.” The power to cast a permanent spell on an entire race, and he chooses to make the gargoyles’ clothes turn to stone. This is why Rome fell. hehe.
Thanks for reading!