Torrinon Returns: Episode Review
46 Episodes in, and after a botched prank, Conan, Snagg, Jezmine Tarana and Torrinon must now deal with Wrath-Amon, Wrath-Amon, and Wrath-Amon. Wait, what?
Synopsis: While taking a break from their travels, Conan, Snagg, and Jezmine are approached by Tarana who alerts them to the fact that her father, Torrinon appears to have gone Mad. When they travel to Eruk to investigate, they are swiftly captured by the seemingly-mad Torrinon. Who after chaining them to the wall, has the real Torrinon join them, revealing himself to be Wrath-Amon.
As Wrath-Amon leaves to begin the preparations for having their Star-Metal Weapons melted down, Torrinon admits that having spent time learning more about the proper application of Magic, he grew rather cocky and sent a prank to Wrath-Amon, to tell him he wasn’t afraid of him. Inevitably this is what led to Torrinon’s imprisonment in the first place.
Fortunately for them all, Torrinon is also an accomplished Escape Artist, and is able to free them from their shackles, and comes up with a plan - thanks to a combination of his pick-pocketing skills and a magical artefact (a Glove of Doubling) to make a copy of himself to facilitate said plan.
The plan works in that Torrinon is able to steal the Ring moments after their ruse is found out, but are still forced to fight Wrath-Amon, who despite being bereft of the Black Ring’s Power (and thus revealed to Conan and his companions to being a Lizardman), and thanks to being hit repeatedly by the Glove of Doubling, there are three of him to contend with once they stop fighting each other.
During the fight, the workshop takes damage and with the fire for the forge burning, once debris enters it, it blows clear and sets the entire room ablaze. And despite their best efforts - they are able to recover their weapons and cool them before they could be melted down - Dregs accidentally swallows the Black Ring and is forced to flee from Wrath-Amon (plus copies) while Conan needs to put out the fire that cut them off from him.
Despite Wrath-Amon’s escape and their not having the Black Ring, they are able to celebrate the fact they kept the Star-Metal from him, as Torrinon holds a dinner for them by way of gratitude and apology.
Review: There’s to me, a definite Aesop here concerning picking fights with those you aren’t a match for, as Torrinon was made to learn the Hard Way. His idiotic prank against Wrath-Amon being the catalyst that set off the sequence of events leading to this Episode.
Another serious detail to be covered is that episode marks the very first time that there is absolutely no question that Conan is now aware of what Wrath-Amon really is, which means that now Conan has one new weapon to use against him, one that isn’t really used however, but given the requirements needed to force out this truth, it’s an understandable omission. That said, it wouldn’t be surprising that Wrath-Amon would grow more fearful of Conan than he had been, and given that later he attempts to just kill Conan, it’s a theory that has at least some weight to it.
There are notable animation issues here. As well as moments when Wrath-Amon’s limbs bend in ways they shouldn’t and the proportions are way off, there’s also the constant changes to the colour scheme used for his Lizardman form. Having first used two tones (green and sand-yellow) for the body and a darker green for his face, they switched to a single green throughout, and now the last one which used the first scheme save for a light green-white on the face with purple highlights around the eyes - and is the one they keep for the remainder of the show. While they did settle on one colour design, it does feel like there had been a lack of oversight during the animation process as evidenced by the changes such as the aforementioned.
Back to the plus side. The producers did show a willingness to return to past points and stories, the events/encounters of ‘The Terrible Torrinon’ being referenced briefly, and bringing back characters first introduced in that episode - namely Torrinon and Tamara. Details like that, showing that they could build on past episodes, not dropping them once done, this is what allows the show to hold up. Especially as this was neither the first nor last such occurrence.
Overall. Iffy animation aside, it’s a good episode that does well to revisit the past, and see how those outside the main cast have been faring since they