7cb1d79195 Piedmon turns all of the kids into dolls, until only TK, Kari, and Patamon are left. Realizing that he has to look after Kari, TK refuses to give up the battle. The Crest of Hope finally gives Patamon the power to digivolve into his Ultimate form, MagnaAngemon. It is a shame that the Dark Masters arc ends with such a flawed episode, with the disregarding of Matt&#39;s big moment in the previous episode being the least of our problems. For what was supposed to be an all-out, slam bang clash between good and evil, &quot;Piedmon&#39;s Last Jest&quot; suffers from an unforgivable lack of excitement that stems from just about every aspect of the production. I tolerated ita kid only because it coasts on the anticipation for two events: the end of the Dark Masters and the introduction of MagnaAngemon.<br/><br/>A common attribute of ultimate enemies is a forceful, imposing presence, but Piedmon, out of the entire villain roster, is arguably the weakest in this regard. Rather than exuding menace by effortlessly trudging through the heroes, he suffers some difficulty against much weaker opponents. Andromon would be capable of holding him off were it not for that magic trick, Angewomon disarms him and Angemon smacks him off his feet. The only times he is unstoppable in any sense is when facing the defenseless kids and rookies. When the much larger champion digimon were smacked around by Etemon, that was impressive; Piedmon&#39;s mundane sparring match with Andromon is not. Furthermore, compared to the city destroying antics of previous monsters, Piedmon&#39;s abilities are anemic and unspectacular, which makes his magic trick seem cheap and desperate. The same essential idea has been done on &quot;Pokemon&quot; and &quot;Courage, the Cowardly Dog&quot;, but in much creepier fashion, with the characters either dead or consciously trapped in inanimate bodies; the ones here mightwell simply be in comas. In the end, he&#39;s more a lunatic with dinky swords than a powerful monster.<br/><br/>The rest of the episode adds little by way of excitement or energy. The skirmish at the beginning is awkward, with some very silly moments (WarGreymon can&#39;t balance on a circus ball?) and feeble depictions of the combatants&#39; attacks. We never get the true rematch that was hoped for. Instead, we have the unwise decision to have the two strongest digimon removed early, and the rest is just a ploy to make room for MagnaAngemon. Having Piedmon pick the kids off one by one is somewhat reminiscent of the old slasher-flicks. It has its moments, suchthe rather tense scene where Sora and Kari hide beneath the floorboards, but this leads to an excessively far-fetched &quot;backed into a corner&quot; scenario and very anticlimactic introduction for Angemon&#39;s ultimate form. <br/><br/>In fact, MagnaAngemon&#39;s entire role in this episode is an anticlimax. If the two mega level digimon don&#39;t get a true chance to shine, I would at least expect the skirmish between the final Dark Master and the much anticipated ultimate angel to be one of the most ambitious and intense in the series. All we get is a couple of simple swipes from MagnaAngemon&#39;s wrist-lightsaber, Excalibur, a washout readily understood by anyone disappointed by the Splinter/Shredder fight in the original TMNT movie. Even later when he utilizes the Gate of Destiny ability, there&#39;s no feeling of grandness or majesty. The final battle, which this whole plot segment has been building up to, is in my eyes the most disappointing sequence of the series. Piedmon, the leader of the Dark Masters and supposedly the most devastatingly powerful foe the kids have faced thus far, has a personal army ofÂ…flying mutant monkeys? This makes the appearance of Joe and Mimi&#39;s allies unnecessaryit is abundantly clear that the heroes would have won without the extra help. When the digimon partners, regardless of power level, are able to effortlessly beat on Piedmon it is supposed to be satisfying, but only succeeds in completely defusing the situation.<br/><br/>Consider for a moment how mundane this villain&#39;s ultimate defeat is compared to those of his colleagues. Those of MetalSeadramon and Machinedramon had a sense of force and brutality, while that of Puppetmon carried dramatic weight. The writers seemingly did not incorporate either of those qualities due to the assumption that this event&#39;s place in the story would create all the necessary excitement, which would be quite erroneous thinking. Add in some cheesy animation, terribly rushed pacing and an atrociously superfluous final revelation and you get what is easily one of the lesser episodes of Digimon.
luolasrapor Admin replied
321 weeks ago