Inside Zedd's Robes: Still Here Edition

Upcoming Events: Been real slow while we wait for November 7 to come. Here is a promo image to whet your appetite courtesy of the Official Legend of the Seeker Site:

Cool Stuff on the Interwebs: The three leads of Legend of the Seeker did pretty standard interviews with Sci Fi UK. There isn't too much groundbreaking materials here but it's always interesting to hear what the stars have to say about the show. Here they are: Craig Horner's interview, Bridget Regan's interview, and Bruce Spence's interview. Also if you're bored you can take a "quiz" from Sci Fi UK. Only take it if you're very bored, it's not incredibly enlightening.

Recently Kal commented on a blog post with a link to his own blog. Snark level high but in these slow times it's a pretty interesting look at the show.

Legend of the Seeker is also coming out on DVD on October 13. You can preorder the DVD from Amazon. A Blu-ray version is in the works but it isn't likely to be out until the holiday season. If I hear any more I will report it.

Roles in Bruce Spence's Career An actual serious role is presented here. This was an award winning short film called Australian Summer. The range of roles that Bruce Spence can play is incredible.

Well that's about all I have. If anything interesting comes up, I will be sure to report, until then keep yourself sane by watching reruns. Like the blog? Sign up to receive our Feed through Feedburner.

Inside Zedd's Robes: Next Season Edition

Upcoming Events: News out of Comic-Con on the upcoming season. First of all here's a sneak peak:

Video courtesy of the Official Legend of the Seeker Site. There are a bunch of spoilers about the show's second season out there. Highlights include that Cara from the first season finale will be a prominent recurring character, the Stone of Tears will be a major theme, and of course the show is going to kick ass!

Oh wait a minute... one more thing. Season premiere date has been announced. Set your calendar for November 7. We can see our heroes fight evil once again.

Cast News: Bridget Regan has started a Twitter account. Sounds like she is having a blast filming the new season. You can read her Twitter page here. If you're on the Twitter checking out Bridget, make sure to check out our page where I try to update with news about the blog. Find us at our Twitter page.

Roles in Bruce Spence's Career: I know I posted a picture of this last time. But this is just too good to pass up. An encore performance of Stork, Bruce Spence's first major role.

The shirt he is wearing at 0:15 is pretty priceless.

Midlands Bulletin: It's Official

Legend of the Seeker has officially been picked up for a second season. The Official Legend of the Seeker Site has the latest news. It has been a kind of weird announcement due to the syndicated nature of the show. There were broadcasting channels that had picked it up but Disney/ABC which produces the show had not officially given it the green light. All that is moot now as our favorite heroes will be back this fall fighting against evil. When I hear anything about the premiere date I will let you know. Until then keep checking back for cool updates to the blog.

Inside Zedd's Robes: Still Having Fun Edition

Blog News: Okay so I have had to deal with moving so I haven't had a lot of time to work on the blog. Fortunately it is the off season so there is not much to report on. I want to do some design stuff for the blog so expect posting to be light.

Cool Stuff on the Interwebs: Watch with Kristin on E!Online has an article telling people to watch Legend of the Seeker. The article has interesting points of view about the show. Always nice to see publicity for the show. There is also the following interview with Bridget Regan and Craig Horner:

Speaking of Bridget Regan there has been a lot of talk about her in the role of Wonder Woman in an upcoming movie. Fans have created an online petition. All this talk was even picked up by Splash Page on MTV.com. Sounds pretty cool and FWIW I think she would be perfect for the role.

Additionally Digital Spy Reports Sci-Fi UK has picked up Legend of the Seeker which should start August 13. Fans in the UK should be delighted.

Roles in Bruce Spence's Career: This is one of his first films called Stork. His character's name is Graham "Stork" Wallace. Alright!

Legend of the Weeker: Denna

Synopsis: The episode opens with a woman putting on red leather armor. Demmin Nas comes in and addresses her as Denna. He tells her that Darken Rahl needs her to train the Seeker.

The gang are walking through the woods when they are attacked. Zedd is put down with arrows and Kahlan stabs Richard. Of course it is a dream. Richard wakes Kahlan up from her nightmare and they talk. They end up kissing admitting their feelings for one another. Before they have a chance to roll around, Kahlan stops herself. In the morning Kahlan decides to leave. Richard and Zedd try to talk her out of it but end up failing. Walking away arguing Zedd and Richard are attacked by Denna and another Mord Sith. Zedd disappears and Richard is captured by Denna.

Richard is then tortured in Denna's tower. She tortures him a bit and explains that she plans to train him to do her bidding. Kahlan goes to find another Confessor for the Seeker. She meets up with Lara, another confessor. Richard is trapped in the dungeon with some guy who explains how his daughter was kidnapped and will turn into a Mord Sith. Richard plans to help the old guy escape. Meanwhile, Kahlan figures out that Lara has confessed all the villagers around her.

As Richard tries to help the trapped dude escape, Denna stops him explaining that the trapped dude has been trained and will do anything she says. Zedd, Kahlan and Lara decide that they will attack with the confessed villagers. During torture, Denna kills Richard and then brings him back to life with the Breath of LIfe, a power that the Mord Sith somehow have. She continues to torture him, goading him into telling her about Kahlan. She then tells him that Kahlan can never be with Richard because her power would be unleashed when they were... you know... doing stuff.

Denna tells him that Constance, another Mord Sith will be training him. Afterwords she explains to Richard that the Agiel hurts her just as much as it hurts Richard. Kahlan decides to go in to try to rescue Richard alone to prevent people from being slaughtered. While this is happening Richard tries to get Constance to train him so that Denna won't be hurt using the Agiel. Denna is touched by this. Kahlan tries to convince Denna to surrender but when she won't, Kahlan attacks. She is stopped by Richard who uses the Agiel on her.

Richard is put in the dungeon next to Kahlan. He tries to get Kahlan to confess him but she refuses. As the others are planning the attack outside, Lara is killed and the confession spell on the villagers is broken. Denna brings Kahlan into a room with Richard and tells him to kill Kahlan. As he is about to, he looks into Kahlan's eyes and realizes he loves her. A fight breaks out. As Kahlan is fighting with Denna she is about to be killed with the Agiel. Richard picks up the Sword of Truth and stabs Denna with it despite the pain it causes him. He explains that she taught him how to withstand pain.

Standing in the moonlight, Kahlan and Richard talk about their feelings for one another. She admits to requiting his feelings for her but also warns that they can never act on them. Richard reluctantly agrees with her. In Denna's tower, Constance runs up to Denna's dead body and performs the Breath of Life to revive her.

Commentary: This review has been a long time coming. I absolutely love this episode. The episode gives Craig Horner a lot of room to work and really relies on his ability to put his best acting forward. This role demanded a lot of him, and a lesser actor would not have been able to pull it off. The earlier episodes don't give Craig a lot to work with so his performance in this episode was a pleasant surprise. All in all, this show has brought the two lead actors into another level of acting by demanding so much from them.

This is the first time that this show really shows of the dark side of the source material. The central story arc is Richard being tortured and literally losing his mind. Even Richard's feelings for Kahlan take a dark turn as they are used against him and betray him. The show really fires on all cylinders when it is dark and really puts the main characters through some tough times. This makes their quest that much more high stakes. My only complaint is that Zedd had pretty much nothing to do in this episode. I mean he might as well not have been there.

On a second viewing of this episode, I wasn't sure how I feel about Denna. First of all, I feel almost dirty watching her "train" Richard. Her flipping back and forth between yelling at him and seductively whispering into his ear was a little distracting. I loved the trapped dude that she ends up kicking back into his dungeon, as well as the back and forth with Richard about the Agiel. She looks at him, then looks at the Agiel, then him again, then the Agiel, etc. However, the whole extended torture scene was almost like a bad porn. Kinda weird and surprising that Disney would be on board with this. Though it is good to see that they will give a bit of slack to the show to really allow the directors and writers room.

I love how much Kahlan flips out about Shota's prophecy. Clearly ends up actually fulfilling the prophecy by abandoning Richard. I thought that it wasn't exactly clear how she would have helped the situation by being there. Her initial response is to abandon Richard and then she runs to find Lara, who has gone mad with power. She first wants her to help Richard on his quest, but then realizes that in the end it might be someone that cares a ton about him, that would be best for the Seeker.

Richard and Kahlan Romance Index: 8 out of 10. The episode begins with Richard and Kahlan making out after her bad dream. Though she claims not to have feelings for Richard, it is pretty clear that it is absolute bullcrap.

Kahlan is the reason that Richard makes it through the torture. He at first uses his mind to escape to a serene scene with Kahlan. Later when he is told to kill her, he manages to refuse after looking into Kahlan's eyes. At the end of the day they admit their feelings for one another but decide that it would be best to keep the feelings down inside.

I guess this actually works as a pretty effective motivational technique. "Kill this one dude, and then we will figure out a way to get it on."

Zedd's Creepiness Factor: 4 out of 10.

He just yells and whines a lot. Oh what are we going to do about Kahlan? Oh what to do about Denna? Oh what to do to rescue Richard? You're the First Wizard. Figure out a plan. Geez.

Notable Quotes:

Richard: "Kahlan, I know we haven't known each other long but in my whole life there is noone that I've trusted more.. cared about more... Kahlan... I..."
Kahlan: "You what?"

Denna: "You may call me Mistress Denna."

Denna: "She didn't tell you."
Richard: "Tell me what?"
Denna: "If you and Kahlan were to be together. Even once. Her power would be unleashed. It would overwhelm you and destroy your soul. You would be her slave forever."

Denna: "How did you?.."
Richard: "You taught me how to withstand pain."

Richard: "Well why would you care if my feelings changed? You told me you didn't share them."
Kahlan: "Well like you said, I'm not a very good liar."

Richard: "Well, if there's one thing I learned from Denna, it's how to suffer in silence."

Inside Zedd's Robes: End of Beginning Edition

Upcoming Events: Well the season is over. If you head over to the Official Legend of the Seeker site you can read what the order of repeats will be. The new season should start up again in the fall.

Blog News: First order of business is to get the Legend of the Weeker for Denna up. I should be getting that up on Wednesday or Thursday. I totally forgot about it.

I also want to do some housekeeping on the blog so look for posting to be light early on in the summer. Also if you have any ideas on what you would like to see on this blog, then please leave your ideas in the comments. One thing that I plan to change in the off-season is to report on news as soon as I get it. When the season starts up again, I will go back to the weekly Inside Zedd's Robes post. I think though it would be better to get immediate news as opposed to waiting a week for it.

Cool Stuff on the Interwebs: The gaming and entertainment website IGN has a review of season one. It has a pretty cool analysis so have a read through.

Bridget Regan is doing a movie that has Neil Patrick Harris as its lead. Philadelphia Inquirer reports about this movie and it sounds awesome. There have definitely been some episodes this season where Bridget got to show off her comedy acting chops and it will be interesting to see her in a purely comic role.

Off from their show Bridget Regan and Craig Horner are making the interview circuit. Here is Craig on KTLA morning news;

Interesting tidbits include Craig talking in an Australian accent. He apparently learned to speak with the American accent by mimicking Leonardo Decaprio. I kind of wonder why they made him get rid of the Australian accent. Lastly apparently his stunt double has an incredibly strong punch and collapsed someone's lung on the show. Uhh terrifying.

Not to be outdone by her costar, Bridget Regan stopped by the morning show with Regis and Kelly. Here is the clip:

Hopefully interviews like this will generate more buzz on the show. Good stuff.

Roles in Bruce Spence's Career: Thanks goes out to Johanna who runs a Bruce Spence fanclub who provided me with tons of links to pictures and clips of Bruce Spence's movies. This clip is simply awesome. Forward to 4:15 for Bruce Spence's role.

FANTASTIC!!!

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Legend of the Weeker: Reckoning

Synopsis: The episode opens with Darken Rahl talking to a bunch of Mord Sith. One of the Mord Sith, Cara tells him that he will be hard to find. The show cuts to Zedd talking to Kahlan about whether they should try the Confession/Power of Orden canceling out thing. Richard comes over and convinces her to try it. While he gets the power of Orden, Kahlan confesses him. Before it has a chance to work, Rahl and the Mord Sith interrupt him. Zedd tries to stop them but his Wizard's fire is turned against him. When Kahlan comes to, Rahl tells her that the Wizard is dead and the Seeker is no more.

Rahl takes Kahlan prisoner and tells her that he wants her to be her queen. She refuses and he tells her that Richard could not have survived. Meanwhile Shota watches as Richard fights with Cara in some desolate place. Shota is then apprehended by the other Mord Sith. Richard is fighting Cara while some men attack them. As Richard chases them down he is approached by someone who lets him know that it has been 60 years since he disappeared and Darken Rahl's son, a confessor, rules like a tyrant. He is also told that Kahlan, Darken Rahl's wife has died a long time ago.

Kahlan is trapped in a dungeon but she can communicate with Shota who tells her that Richard is in the future. Cara attacks Richard but he lets her know that they are in the future. They decide to work together for a little while. Kahlan, despondent over Zedd's death and Richard's disappearance tries to figure out a way to send a message to Shota. She talks to Darken Rahl and agrees to be his queen.

The show flashes a year into the future. Kahlan is pregnant with Rahl's child. She tells her chambermaid that she needs her help. She tells her to tell Richard in the future that he needs a Confession, Power of Orden, and Agiel to get back to their time. Kahlan gives birth to a son. Darken Rahl convinces her to not kill the baby. She raises the boy as the years go by. Meanwhile Richard and Cara decide to try and kill the Master Rahl together. They spend time eating worms and hanging out naked in bed together.

Kahlan begins seeing that her son is horrible and she must kill him. She tries but is stopped by a boy that he confessed. Her chambermaid is killed by Rahl and she is to be executed by her willing son. Richard and Cara enter the palace but find it in ruins. They run into Shota who tells him the story of the Master Rahl who is afraid the ghost of Kahlan. Turns out that as soon as Kahlan was executed, the kid killed Darken Rahl.

Shota goes to be confessed by the Master Rahl. She tells him that Richard needs the power of all three things. Richard uses the power of the Boxes of Orden while Master Rahl runs in to confess him. His soldier shoot Cara but she is still able to hit Richard with the Agiel. She comes to and hits the other Mord Sith with an Agiel preventing her from killing Zedd. Darken Rahl appears but is too late. He tries to break up the Boxes of Orden and is consumed by their power. Richard tells Kahlan and Zedd everything that happened in the future that he prevented. He also agrees to stick around to help take care of the Midlands so that evil doesn't take hold in the vacuum of power caused by Rahl's death.

Commentary: Wow. What a way to finish the season. Richard travels 60 years into the future and must figure out how to get back. We also get an introduction to Cara who seems incredibly badass even for a Mord Sith. Her time travel induced truce with Richard was played out in an incredibly authentic way. On the other hand I wasn't incredibly impressed with Kahlan's story. I understand that they wanted to how much she loved Richard, but it was a little hard to believe that she would live this whole life just to get him a message. I think she could have thought the whole thing through a little better. Though she did manage to make the lives of the people in the Midlands better.

As much as I didn't buy the whole Kahlan lives a crazy life with Darken Rahl story, I was floored with Bridget Regan's performance. Watching that episode again it astounded me that this was a woman who just got into acting. The episode required her to showcase her entire range of emotions and she nails pretty much everything from the start of the episode where Kahlan worries about confessing Richard to the end scene on the beach. I really hope that there are more episodes in the future that allow this kind of range in the characters.

Kahlan sure made a gamble that Richard would be able to return to her time. Rahl had already said that the explosion should have killed him. Then Shota warns her that he needs to perfectly recreate the types of magic or else he is going to die. Kahlan's reaction? Yeah let's go have a kid with Darken Rahl and be his queen until he kills me. Also why didn't Darken Rahl kill Shota? What possible use could she have to him. He already defeated the Seeker. Did he also forget that she cannot die of old age.

Not only did this episode have solid performances by the main characters, the secondary characters were awesome too. Darken Rahl goes from creepy to menacing as he cares about his kid. The kid is a perfect Children of the Corn type and that moment when he has his friend give him his thumb as a gift made my skin crawl. I also loved Cara's attempted seduction of Richard. The whole thing felt pretty realistic even with Richard having a moment of doubt. My only question was 'Why was she naked?' The answer is probably 'Why not?'

Richard and Kahlan's Romance Index: 9 out of 10.

I can't give it a 10 out of 10 because they didn't get to roll in the hay. Other than that it was about as romantic as it gets between the two. She lived a life with Darken Rahl solely on the hope that Richard would find her message and figure out a way to return to his original time. When he came back to the world and defeated Rahl his first reaction was to kiss her. Awesome.

Zedd's Creepiness Factor: 3 out of 10.

Short of getting roasted to a crisp he didn't really do anything creepy. He did backhandedly suggest that Richard stick around and help them keep evil out of the Midlands.

Notable Quotes:

Kahlan: "What if... what if we're wrong? What if this is some kind of trick?"
Zedd: "You've always put your faith in the Seeker. Even before you knew his smile or the sound of his voice. And that faith has been rewarded time and again. Now is not the time to waver."

Darken Rahl: "If I was simply to take what I wanted, you would already be in my bedchamber."

Richard: "I'm sorry. I'm in love with someone else."
Cara: "Who said anything about love? I'm talking about pleasure."

Darken Rahl: "It's just you and me now Nicholas."
Nicholas Rahl: "No father. It's just me."

Richard: "Kahlan, when we first met you told you'd give your life for the Seeker... and that's what you did... even when it looked like you had no hope... you loved me across time."

Kahlan: "Richard, you've done everything we've asked of you... and more. No one can blame you if you want to go home."
Richard: "I am home."

Editor's Note: Have your own favorite quote from the episode? Did we forget to mention your favorite moment and now you're angry? Leave it in the comments and we'll update with the best of. Like the blog? Sign up to receive our Feed through Feedburner.