Blog Post Week #6: The Beginning of the End vs The End of The End (of The Two Princes)

         It was hard to decide which two episodes of The Two Princes I wanted to compare and contrast. I just love this podcast so much. Ultimately, I decided on the first episode and the finale episode of season three. They are both engaging and force a bittersweet emotion in me. I binged the entire podcast in just two days and yet, I was so sad that I finished it because it was so good. So I think it would be best to look back at the beginning and the end of the end of the series.  a recap of all of season two and the last episode has a recap of the episode that comes before it. I am not sure why they decided to go this route for the last season but I am not complaining. The narrator sounds like a fan telling their friend what had happened and it makes me chuckle. This is also the only season where every episode has at least one song. In season two, there was the Siren singing but this is the only season that was a musical. In the first episode, Rupert and Amir begin the episode breaking out in song about how excited they are about their wedding, and later one Prince Darling sings about himself. In the final episode, Rupert singing about hope to defeat the Despair and the cast sings an ending wedding song at the end of the episode. To me, this is indicative of how much happier everyone is in this season. In season one, Rupert is very lonely and Amir was focused on fulfilling the prophecy. In season two, Amir loses his memories and Rupert is heartbroken. In season three, even with the evil prince Darling trying to break up their engagement, Rupert and Amir are truly focused on one another. They can completely rely on one another. There is no "Will Rupert fall in love with Darling?" subplot. He is completely loyal to Amir. 

    In both season one and season two, the conflict centers around Rupert. In season one, Rupert is trying to solve the mystery of the forest and is forced to hide his identity from Amir. In season two, Rupert has to find the items for the magical potion to defeat Malkia and return Amir's memories. In season three, Amir is the one on who the conflict is focused. Prince Darling, a very handsome prince from the North, arrives and immediately begins flirting with Rupert. Amir gets instantly jealous and is suspicious of his intentions. Though that conflict falls in comparison to the second conflict of season three. The entire episode is upbeat. Cecily reveals she is dating Percy Jr, clearly to make Joan jealous and even Amir's jealousy is somewhat funny. However, in the last three minutes, Rupert goes "What can go wrong?" Immediately, the music drops with a long low violin sound and we hear Barrabas walking through the forest, looking for his friends. Then Wenceslaus appears and ends the episode with "The end of the world!" It is a very well-crafted tone shift that is not very jarring. 

    Even though the conflict focuses on Amir, Rupert is still the one to save the day in the last episode. He defeats the Despair with his song about love and hope. The song highlights that even when you lose someone, the love you have for them is still there. Joan finally confesses her feelings for Cecily and they say the iconic lines that end every season: 

"Cecily?" 

"Yes, Joan?" 

"Shut up and kiss me." 

"I thought you would never ask". 

    There is even more love to go around. Amir and Rupert take in Wenceslaus as their child, Darling's curse is broken and even Chamberlain gets to go on a date. It is the perfect cookie-cutter end. 

    These two episodes do still follow The Two Princes podcast formula of cold opening, having Rupert and Amir have two or more cute moments, one commercial in the middle of the episode, and ending with credits. The first episode is similar to the first episode of season two with Amir and Rupert planning their wedding but a big threat comes to interrupt that. The difference is that they make sure to say that the wedding is in three days as opposed to being the next day in season two. The finale episode of season three actually has the long-awaited wedding! However, the story does not feel purposely dragged out. The first episode introduces Darling, a very funny and charming character and the finale episode is a nice natural conclusion. 

    Season three was very ambitious and wanted to try a lot of things and they all worked very well. 

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