"Hercules and the Prometheus Affair" (10-10-98)
Another great episode! :-)
First off, I found the Academy's tradition of "Every Thursday is 'Liver Day'" had me laughing... obviously taken from many a household tradition. And the fact that Icarus simply loved liver (and onions) day was so in character (what a geek!). :-)
Next Parenthesis got to sing another monologue recounting (in very abreviated form) the tale of Prometheus (whom the school is named for). Cute. This song certainly clued the audience in to the meaning of the great statue in the Academy's quad recounting how Zeus punished Prometheus for stealing the Olympic flame and gave it to mankind, then Zeus had him chained to a mountain to be tormented for eternity by a giant eagle that daily devoured his liver (which grew back regularly).
Personally I was anxiously awaiting this episode... Prometheus is another great character from G&R Mythology. And the fact that it is he who forms the foundation for the Academy (a very logical choice, btw), only made his eventual appearance all the more appealing.
I wasn't disappoint by this episode (like I was with the last one).
Having Prometheus' torture as part of Pain & Panic's regular inventory was unexpected, but interesting. I found the whole "Eagle-devouring-Prometheus'-liver routine both disgusting and very humorous. The banter between Prometheus and the eagle was funny, and the idea that he needed onions to offset his liver diet had me laughing.
After learning of Prometheus' plight, and still not aware that it was his own father (Zeus) who punished Prometheus, Hercules set off to free him. Not waiting to learn this one major factoid from Phil.
PANIC: "Hercules is freeing Prometheus?" PAIN: "Eternity isn't as long as it used to be."
The next exciting thing was to see more screen time alotted to Artemis and Demeter.
This, of course, turned quickly into another Hades-takeover-plot, but I didn't mind. I liked watching Hades make a fool out of the blowhard Zeus... especially since this episode show just how unjust and unreasonable Zues can be. I was very interested in seeing how Zeus was going to have to swallow his pride and recant his own royal laws... how convenient that it took Hercules to force him off of his cloud!
I found Zeus' commands for the search parties quite appropriate:
"Apollo, you search the sky! Artemis, the woods! Demeter, the fields!" (No duh, Dude!) :-)
You realize, that after the Evil Titans introduced in the film, this marks the second time we met some of the *other* Titans. The first being Atlas from "The Prince of Thrace" episode.
Did you catch the "Uncle Scrooge" routine that Phil was doing when he was forming his worry circle :-) Nice tip of the hat, guys.
I laughed when Phil totally misinterpreted Pegasus' pantomimes.
PHIL: "Pegasus! Alone? Uh oh. He got eaten?..."
Prometheus had some really lame jokes ("They didn't even have Smores, they had Slesses" and "Demeter is running"... though I did chuckle at the visual for the last one).
"Los Artemis Rams" vs. Ares' Trojans... Hmmm. I know there's a visual joke in that, but I can't decide if it was a football reference or something entirely unexpected.... I think I'll leave that one alone.
All the gods were in great form... each showing their powers!
I liked the turn of events at the end for the "Trial by Fire" where Hades transformed the now usesless eagle into a flaming Phoenix! Cool!
I was surprised by the sudden appearance of Aphrodite and Hephaestus, and especially by Hephaestus' voice!
All-in-all, a very enjoyable episode.
Rich (xephyr)
HADES: "I got a waiting list for minions... you're not on it!"