Robespierre and Dashwood face off for mastery of the Psalm of the King, with Robespierre coming off the worse for wear. Meanwhile, the Musketeers head to confront Dashwood themselves.
I have totally lost my enthusiasm for Chevalier at the moment, unfortunately. I do want to finish it, because I’ve come too far to drop it, but I’ve just given up caring about what’s going on; I’m not even sure anything IS going on half the time any more…
With Durand in danger and Guercy beguiled, D’Eon pays a visit to Queen Mary whose revelations fill him with unease. Meanwhile, Dashwood and Robespierre maneuver themselves into position to compete for mastery of Medmenham and power within the Revolutionary Order.
Queen Mary = interesting, the rest = meh. I am plodding through Chevalier at the moment, and it’s mostly from a sense of duty - I want to finish the series, I particularly want to see episode 18 and some of the stuff beyond, but it just feels so padded! I suppose that’s the danger with such a heavily plot-driven series, but virtually every conversation the characters have is meaningless or simply sets up the next plot point without adding anything to anyone’s characterisation.
I shall stop moaning and just get on with it (maybe) but still. Grr!
Dashwood’s minions make their further move as D’Eon and co go into hiding to escape Guerchy’s treachery; however, Durand receives an order from the King that will test him to the limits, and Paul Whitehead’s poetic prowess proves a fearsome foe…
psgels - you were right, this episode was much better, had genuine tension and a few shocks, even if the animation continued to be slightly ropey (note the conversation between Robin and Teillagory where Teillagory’s head virtually never appears - it’s not arty, it’s cheap, PIG!). It’ll be interesting to see how some of this episode’s events are resolved.
Blind swordfighting, cursed official documents and a very fortuitous seance bring us to Dashwood’s first major move to secure the Psalm of the King, as Durand nearly cuts off Robin’s hand and NOTHING ELSE MUCH HAPPENS. Oh, and remember Anna? The scriptwriters did, suddenly, and Madame de Pompadour a brief moment of screen time.
Has Chevalier hoodwinked me? Is there really nothing actually going on at all to be explained at a later date? Whilst I can’t condone Robespierre/Dashwood’s insidious methods, I’m not sure they’re actually planning anything particularly evil when they try and bring revolution to the world (mmm, Utena) and as such their inevitable defeat doesn’t really interest me at the moment - the only thing we don’t really know is who killed Lia, and I’m not sure I care any more.
I guess Chevalier’s just hitting a bit of a bum patch again - it’s a good series, but it’s frustrating that it’s not a great one as it had bags of potential. It just takes so long to get anywhere, and even then it doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere very interesting yet.
The Fab Four meet up with the French ambassador to England upon arrival en Angleterre and have a lot of dull courtly meetings to set up what’s going on in the England arc, mostly involving documents held by a bloke named Robert Wood. In the meantime, Robespierre and co. meet up with his boss, the nefarious Dashwood, who has bound him with a Psalm around his neck, and D’Eon has sexy nightmares about Robespierre whispering sweet nothings at him.
You may have heard of a play called “Six Characters In Search of an Author”. I sometimes feel that Chevalier is “One Author In Search of Several Characters”; the narrative is quite well constructed, given that nothing really happens except endless historical references and some glacial plot progression, but it’s unfortunate that D’Eon, Teillagory, Durand and Robin have become really utterly uninteresting to watch. I’m not asking for facial tics and histrionics, but they don’t actually tend to do anything very much except go with the flow, and D’Eon himself is only interesting because of his frequent Lia possession moments - and she’s by far the most interesting character in the show.
Well, her and Robespierre, as he gets more development than poor Robin has had for the entire show in this episode. Bless him.
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