Posted by TJ
on 10/20/2011, 10:51 am, in reply to "Re: Remind me about Kareena?"
Message modified by user TJ 10/20/2011, 4:09 pm
Well, Citadel happens to be one of my favorite stories!
Sheila is my favorite character and they finally gave her an episode where she was the main focus.
It was perhaps a shadow of the time, but episodes where one of the girls took centerstage, and the boys were relegated to supporting cast are few. “Citadel of Shadow” and “Child of the Stargazer” come to mind. I often wonder if it was a stroke of brillance to make the character of Sheila as she was, or if they simply did not know what to do with her after they gave her the role of the Thief.
In any case, Citadel finds Sheila being blamed by Eric for a botched attempt to get home. Something frightened her and caused their plans to fail. (I find it ironic that Eric would be her accuser, since he is such a coward.) She runs off, and finds Kareena imprisoned in a cave, behind some kind of “forcefield”. (I assume that was the show's interpretation of the classic Dungeons and Dragons game's “Wall of Force” spell.) She manages to free Kareena, not realizing who she is; and is tricked into helping her recover the Ring of the Heart (which of course Dungeon Master had sent them after anyway). Eventually, Sheila realizes that Kareena is not her friend, steals the Ring back (only time we see her “steal” anything). Without the Ring, Venger will kill her. Sheila endangers herself and sacrifices their chance to get home, because she cannot allow Venger to kill his sister. In doing so, Sheila somehow frees Kareena from evil.
As much as I like that fact that Sheila got an episode of her own, there were just a lot of little things that were left unsaid.
1. It was made fairly clear that Venger imprisoned Kareena, and placed the Ring of the Heart in the Citadel. Of course, since Venger was more than happy to kill his sister, why bother imprisoning her at all? My guess was that Venger wasn't as nasty then. Opinions?
2. Kareena appears to be very young, while Dungeon Master is elderly. Of course, Venger is impossible to guess – but both Dungeon Master and Venger are at least 1,000 years old (cf. “Girl Who Dreamed of Tomorrow”). How old is she?
3. How long was she imprisoned? The Citadel had the impression of great age, and was falling apart – literally.
4. Why is the Ring of the Heart the key to Kareena's powers when Dungeon Master and Venger certainly do not appear to need any such thing?
5. When the rings "exploded" or whatever, Sheila was knocked unconscious. Did anyone else ever wonder if she was supposed to have been badly hurt?
6. Then of course, there is my most annoyed point. Kareena is clearly a bad girl - and while I like Venger – she had the potential to be an exceptional villian. The writers obviously felt that they had to make her “good” at the end. I've always hated the cookiecutter, “now I'm a good girl” ending.
Ignoring those – I loved the episode. I loved a number of scenes.
1. The Citadel. Sheila once again proved that she can handle things on her own if she has to.
2. I loved the animation that transitions back to Sheila running into Kareena's castle. Very action oriented, and of course it was Sheila rather than one of the boys or Diana.
3. Sheila stealing the Ring back aka “I'll just borrow this...one friend to another..” (not a quote) Sheila is deliciously sarcastic, and there is more than a little satisfaction by her voice actress.
4. Eric rushing in to help her – finally being a Cavalier. “Going my way, miss?” I loved her confident response. “This was getting boring anyway.” My favorite conversation between the two.
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