Season 2 Flashback

[Dale]

I plan to reread the entire season later this week, but I still realized it'd be a good idea to start this before I do.

With season three around the corner, I thought we could all look back on, and share, your thoughts of this season. Your overall feelings, your favorite legs or moments, and your least favorite legs or moments.

This season . . . really didn't start out so great. The cast picked were mainly secondary and tertiary characters from their original games. Very few main characters were selected, making the cast seem blander than the first season's cast. All this made it really hard for the season to get going. The first two episodes were good, but nothing special (sorry, Bob). But thanks to one character in particular, things FINALLY got interesting in episode three. We got our villain, who ended up being the season-long villain. We got actual conflicts emerging between and within teams. And we finally started getting some nail-biting endings.

The game locations and tasks, like last seasons, were very well-chosen and fleshed out very well, and this time, it was due to Bob being more serious about the race. And of course, there was always suspense. Can't have a good story without some good suspense.

The elimination order was great, though like last season, I'd switch some teams' places in said order around. And I thought the F3 was actually very good and unexpected. I'd have had an eliminated team make it to the end over one that actually did, but on the whole, I was satisfied.

Interactions between teams definitely helped shape the story a bit more. Which is why I'd have preferred some more fleshed-out friendships between the teams. We had one that seemed to be between Reina & Faris and Ma & Zell, but it came out of the blue because it cropped up right on the penultimate leg. I was told by Bob that there was actually a five-team friendship among Fran & Balthier, Ma & Zell, Reina & Faris, Brahne & Garnet, and Zone & Watts, but I think it actually should've been brought out on-screen rather than off. But we did get the cute Reina/Zone flirtation that finally turned into more during the final Early Final Fantasy Show.

However, there were some very nicely-done rivalries this season. Dona & Barthello vs. Cecil & Rosa was good, if short-lived. Dona & Barthello vs. Freya & Fratley was also great, if also short-lived. But the latter one sort of paved the way for Dona & Barthello's ultimate feud with Ma & Zell, which got hinted at on leg four with Zell trying to encourage Fratley to knock Dona & Barthello out of the race, and again on leg five, when Zell laughed at Dona getting knocked around by Setzer. It kicked into high gear, though, with Dona and Zell's argument at the hauler Roadblock and lasted till the end of the race. Honorable mention goes to Garnet's continued dispute with Biran & Yenke, though that one got tiresome toward the end.

Now for the teams themselves. While they were boring at first, I loved Reina & Faris by the end (and this is coming from someone who can't STAND FF5) and was thrilled to see them dominate the entire second half of the race so stealthily, no one paid any attention to them until it was too late to stop them from winning! Ma & Zell were cute, scrappy underdogs. Dona & Barthello made a terrific yin-and-yang sort of villain team, with Dona as bad cop and Barthello as good cop. Fran & Balthier, the race's first FF12 team, were nice foils for most of the other teams, and it was fun watching them race well in spite of everyone's need and attempts to bring them down. Too bad it all ended for them at the F5, because they really should've made it to the end. Zone & Watts were kind of under the radar, but they were funny, though they stuck to their "middle of the pack" strategy a bit too long for my tastes. Also, Zone's "stomachaches" were funny EXCEPT when he used them to get out of doing the weapons Roadblock on leg four. (More on that later.) Biran & Yenke were great from a personality perspective, and they were a great trainwreck team early on, but when their mistakes went from "meh, that could happen to anyone" to "no, it could only happen to them," it just got so old and plain sad that Bob's continued saving of them got annoying. I cannot believe people here stayed loyal to them even to the end when they just . . . weren't worth the effort.

Let's see. Brahne & Garnet were also very funny underdogs who really had to fight through a lot of weaknesses and disadvantages to get as far as they did. Halfway through the race wasn't bad at all. Reno & Rude had a great "early frontrunners to win, so must be stopped ASAP . . . and finally are!" story arc, even though they bored me to tears otherwise. Freya & Fratley were also pretty boring, other than Freya's accident on leg three, but I did like watching them recover from that, if only on that leg. Cecil & Rosa would've been GREAT to watch get farther, if only for Cecil's "crazy dark side emerging" moments. Sad to see them blow up their entire race early on. Cid & Celes were THE most boring team in the cast, so it was good they left early. Barret & Dyne made a great ironic first-out team since the first leg was in their home world. Though I sometimes wonder what could've been had they gotten through that leg instead of Biran & Yenke. . . .

Now for my favorite and least favorite moments.

Favorites:

• Zell and Cecil's brief spat on leg one, followed by Ma and Rosa quelling their tempers.
  
• Brahne falling for Biran & Yenke on the train to the Shinra building, prompting Garnet's "Oh, gag."
  
• Biran & Yenke's ending to the gun-twirling portion of the Junon task by pushing all of the soldiers down.
  
• Barret & Dyne's ironic elimination in their own home world.
  
• Ma & Zell's karmic strike after Zell reneged on their alliance agreement with Fran & Balthier on leg two.
  
• Cecil & Rosa awesomely denying Reno & Rude their second victory in a row when Rude doesn't take off his sunglasses at the safe Roadblock.
  
• The three-way footrace among Ma & Zell, Brahne & Garnet, and Cid & Celes that (thankfully) ended with the latter team's elimination.
  
• Zone faking Watts out at leg three's Pit Start.
  
• Dona stirring shit up with her line-cutting maneuver at Rocket Town's airport.
  
• Reno & Rude's plan to get Reina & Faris, Brahne & Garnet, and Biran & Yenke on the first flight with them to ensure themselves first place backfiring when those three teams get ahead of them right away in Goug Machine City.
  
• Freya & Fratley overcoming adversity and recovering from Freya's accident.
  
• Reina & Faris and Brahne & Garnet taking a one-two finish, making both women's teams the top two finishers of leg three! ;D
  
• Brahne making everyone within earshot sick upon the mention of her cheerleading outfit on leg four during the Forge Axe Detour.
  
• Reina & Faris spending most of the leg denying Reno & Rude first place.
  
• The whip portion of the weapons Roadblock. Lots of laughs due to Brahne.
  
• Dona & Barthello's footrace with Freya & Fratley that saw the latter team's elimination.
  
• Zone & Watts dominating leg five and winning it quite handily.
  
• Ma incorporating Zell's fighting moves into her third turn at the Struggle Roadblock.
  
• Fran & Balthier U-Turning Reno & Rude out of the race with an assist from the surprise secret alliance of Dona and Brahne.
  
• Reno & Rude's elimination. Reno's "Nuts" made that moment for me.
  
• Reina & Faris winning the Fast Forward on leg six.
  
• Fran & Balthier losing the Fast Forward, but still recovering and finishing second, anyway.
  
• Though it wasn't their crowning leg, Brahne & Garnet getting the Dancing Bag wonder instead of Biran & Yenke.
  
• The multitude of changes the teams went through at the Swim This Way Detour.
  
• Watts being cornered to reveal whom he found hotter between Fran and Garnet.
  
• Biran & Yenke's utterance of "horny fun" following the Swim This Way Detour.
  
• Barthello kissing Dona upon finished fifth at the sixth Pit Stop.
  
• Reina continuously betting on the pink bunny at the bunny races on leg seven.
  
• Barthello loving bunnies!
  
• Biran spilling popcorn into Dona's cleavage . . . and then trying to retrieve it. Has the guy ever heard of "personal space?"
  
• Ma dominates the hauler Roadblock, leading herself and Zell to their one win! ;D
  
• Zell's fight with Dona at that Roadblock.
  
• Fran & Balthier getting saved by the sole non-elimination leg.
  
• Dona & Barthello and Fran & Balthier overcoming the other teams' attempts to get them eliminated on leg eight.
  
• Ma & Zell rocking the Invent Detour.
  
• Dona's trick at the Patent Detour.
  
• Barthello rocking the block Roadblock.
  
• Zone & Watts's U-Turn.
  
• The incorporation of Fran's death quote at her and Balthier's Speed Bump.
  
• Dona & Barthello's first victory at the Mosel Ruins.
  
• Fran & Balthier and Zone & Watts's footrace that saw the latter team's elimination.
  
• Dona's foiled trick on Ma at the chocobo Roadblock on leg nine.
  
• Reina & Faris dominating the leg in their world.
  
• Ma & Zell's shock and disappointment upon finding out Dona & Barthello made it to the F4.
  
• Dona & Barthello winning the Fast Forward on leg ten.
  
• Gippal's snafu with Aya at the Dryfield Motel.
  
• Biran & Yenke's long-overdue elimination, just barely missing the F3.
  
• Dona's smackdown of Zell when he called her evil on leg eleven, the final leg.
  
• Dona & Barthello doing surprisingly well on the final leg.
  
• Barthello finishing the final Roadblock first.
  
• Ma throwing the race to help Reina & Faris win.
  
• Reina & Faris beating Dona & Barthello to the finish line and winning the whole race.
  
• Zone & Watts's final trick on Dona at the finish line.
  

And my least favorite moments:

• Any moment of Biran & Yenke lucking out and surviving from leg six and beyond.
  
• Ma & Zell losing the footrace for first place against Reno & Rude.
  
• Biran & Yenke using (read: WASTING) their Xing on Ma & Zell on leg two.
  
• Biran & Yenke blowing up their potential top three finish on leg three with their bad racing from Orbonne Monastery and on.
  
• Cecil & Rosa's self-destruction, which dropped them from first on leg two to last on leg three and got them eliminated.
  
• Zone lamely using his "stomachaches" to get out of doing the weapons Roadblock on leg four.
  
• Reno's sore-loser reaction at the fourth Pit Stop.
  
• Biran & Yenke abandoning the Fast Forward on leg six just because . . . Biran got brain freeze?! WTF?!
  
• Garnet screwing the pooch at the Underworld Roadblock by forcing Brahne to do it because of her lame excuse for not wanting to do it, which gave a very-much-undeserved save to Biran & Yenke after they'd gone for the Fast Forward while in LAST PLACE.
  
• Fran & Balthier putting themselves in last place on leg seven by missing the route marker, giving Biran & Yenke yet another save.
  
• Balthier including the Ronso in calling everyone "strong" while waiting at the chocobo Roadblock on leg nine. (No, Balthier. Being "learning zombies" does NOT make them strong. It makes them LUCKY. Lucky, lucky, lucky!)
  
• Reina & Faris wasting their Xing on Fran & Balthier (not that they knew how close behind them Biran & Yenke were, but still . . .)
  
• Fran & Balthier's sad elimination.
  
• Biran & Yenke's sore-loser reaction to being eliminated on leg ten.
  
• Zell basically being like Dona by doing to Reina & Faris what they would never have done to him on leg eleven, the final leg, during the riddles at the beginning of the leg.
  
• The ferry operator not letting Reina & Faris on the ferry when they were right there in front of him, and it would've taken a few seconds, at most, to put the ramp back down!

Those are my thoughts. What about all of yours?

[agent0042]

Lot of material to read through here. In the first episode, I thought Balthier's decision to try and buy top-flight tickets for teams he considered "weaker" was a memorable move. Interestingly, he was right about Brahne & Garnet and Cid & Celes, but not about Dona & Barthello, who also happened to be the only team to not take him up on the offer. Brahne's strange fascinations also made for some good laughs throughout the race. Let's see... this was the season that introduced the "Xing," by far the least effective of any delay mechanism. This seemed to be basically just a trap for fools, as it didn't lead to anyone's elimination. Agree that Freya and Fratley's restoration was nice to see, and they had a classy exit. Enjoyed visiting Kingdom Hearts II and the teams taking part in the Atlantis task-- I actually rather liked that portion of the game. Enjoyed Ma & Zell getting their first and only victory-- it's always surprising when a team makes it that far without actually winning a leg or only winning minimally. I agree that Zone and Watts's being U-Turned was a smart decision-- it definitely saved Fran & Balthier's bacon after the surprisingly tough Speed Bump (the Speed Bumps on the TV The Amazing Race have just been so lame lately!) Episode 9 -- while a lot of Biran and Yenke's mistakes were just, ugh, I actually found "chocobo coral" rather amusing. Visiting the merged world of Final Fantasy V was fun and I thought the tasks there were pretty cool. Enjoyed Dona & Barthello winning the Fast Forward in the penultimate leg, but Ma & Zell still coming back to make it to the Final Three. The final leg was definitely exciting. Finally, though Reina and Faris weren't always the most interesting characters, I love me some Final Fantasy V and it was neat to see a team from this game win.


Oh, and regarding Biran & Yenke's poor sportsmanship-- well, it's sort of like with Amarant & Lani, Dale, given how much you loved to hate them, would you really have been pleased with a happy-dappy outcome for them? It fit their characters-- I wouldn't really have expected them to be good sports about losing.

[Dale]

Biran & Yenke were generally amicable in their behavior at Pit Stops. So yeah, I was surprised when they acted like sore losers when they were eliminated. Given how they always went on about Ronso being noble, honorable creatures, you'd think they'd have left with honor, as well. Instead, they were only honorable and noble when it was convenient for them.

Plus, there was no love-to-hate thing I felt for them. After their undeserved save on leg six (again, thanks so much for being such a lame-o wimp, Garnet), I just flat-out hated them.