Has anyone noticed?(life force related)

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SrWilson3S
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Has anyone noticed?(life force related)

Post by SrWilson3S »

Has anyone noticed how life force has over the 8 years become less significant?.
If you watch say series 1 2 & 3 treguard always tends to bring it up like you really have to conserve it yet in S4 onwards it only ever appears when they are picking up food and its always in the same part IE yellow or armour just starting to fall off (in s6) by the time s8 is here Life force doesnt matter at all really well to be honest it seems to become most insignificant from S4 onwards really but in series 6 as alot of you will see if its shown whenever life force appeared it would always come on when they are at a clue table or by food only and would be going into the yellow zone always every time IE the bottom half of the armour starting to come off or in S4 and 5 the head going into yellow zone and just beggining to peel.
S1 2 &3 I was a legit hazzard and even teams died from it running out but from series 4 onwards it became insignificant really and posed no threat at all.
Do you guys here agree with my comments?
Last edited by SrWilson3S on 07 Nov 2003, 03:34, edited 1 time in total.
Lord_Bob

Re: Has anyone noticed?(life force related)

Post by Lord_Bob »

I think you have a good point their, in the most recent of watching s3 and then s5 other than when they die then the life force always appears round food. S3 and it would start to drop very quickly
Emii
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Re: Has anyone noticed?(life force related)

Post by Emii »

Pity it lost some of its significance. I have a feeling that as Tim Child reads this board when he gets the chance he most likely takes into account these discussions :) so maybe it will come back in all its glory in the new km :)
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JoeGrocottJames
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Re: Has anyone noticed?(life force related)

Post by JoeGrocottJames »

S1 2 &3 I was a legit hazzard and even teams died from it running out
Never per se - this only ever happened when the team were trapped in a room or something. If it ever happened, there was always an earlier error.
GrimaldineGrimwold
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Re: Has anyone noticed?(life force related)

Post by GrimaldineGrimwold »

Yep, if they died from apparent life force decay, it was always because they'd made a mistake earlier on, rather than down to them running out of life force while still in winning status. It's questionable if they'd have ever killed someone off for solely life force reasons- perhaps if you'd just walked into lots of hauntings. However, often when severe life force damage occurred- even when it was the team's own fault- there was still food reachable in time.

Still, even if it didn't kill people, I do think life force was far more important to the programme earlier on. Watching it as a brat, you didn't really realise that it wasn't really quite that important and a pie would always just happen to be there, and it really helped to create an atmosphere. The original life force animation was one of the very best visual sequences in the whole show, and still scares a great deal of people. I think the later series missed that sense of urgency sometimes by not having life force on screen more often, and of course, by replacing the original sequence with the inferior walking man and laughable pie. If they really wanted to forget the life force idea, I'd have preferred to see it go altogether than be replaced by that silly quiche.  

As I've said many times before- and I'm sure Tim Child must have seen at least one of our discussions on this topic- I'd love to see life force play a big role in any new Knightmare. I thought towards the end it became too reliant on soap opera and often lacked the sense of ongoing claustrophobia and urgency that the life force theme helped to provide.
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Malefact
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Re: Has anyone noticed?(life force related)

Post by Malefact »

I agree totally.

Series 5 is the last series to feature the original Clock and this time the heartbeat is gone (save for during the final causeway in today's excellent episode) and its importance has diminished. Apart from a bit of Life Force damage sustained during team 3's quest (opening Merlin's Magic Box) it has only cropped up when a Dungeoneer collects food.

Mind you, we still had some stunning Life Force moments in series 6 and 7 (both with winning teams) that are even better than today's one. No bad thing. :)
Subject to change.
Lord_Bob

Re: Has anyone noticed?(life force related)

Post by Lord_Bob »

I mean the original life force instills fear, tension and panic. How many teams didnt blunder in their hurry to get life force in S3 when Treguard reminded them. However by S8 it was a complete joke of a pie. In the new KM can we have a skull style one or no at all because unless it adds something to the quest like the original one then it doesnt matter
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Re: Has anyone noticed?(life force related)

Post by WhiteDevil »

it is a massive pity they seemed to disregard life force during the latter series. During series 5 its hardly ever shown, the same with the skull when the team die and the dual bell gong. KM changed a lot over the years, but the gong and the lifeforce should have stayed the same..
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Re: Has anyone noticed?(life force related)

Post by FrightKnight »

Was the knight walking with bits falling off bad? I can barely remember it, but what I do know is that it was better than the cake thing.
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GrimaldineGrimwold
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Re: Has anyone noticed?(life force related)

Post by GrimaldineGrimwold »

Was the knight walking with bits falling off bad? I can barely remember it, but what I do know is that it was better than the cake thing.
Oh, it was better than the quiche! That's not difficult, however. ;)
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Re: Has anyone noticed?(life force related)

Post by Moocowthingy »

Dont you think life force was a fix?.  Life force certainly brought fun and tension to some episodes but I definatly think the whole thing was a fix.  Was there actualy an amount of time that green yellow and red lasted?.  I personaly think they just made up the life force indicators as they went along to build tension or speed things up.  The life force clock just never seems to be consistant with the amount of time it takes.  What do you think?.
Lord_Bob

Re: Has anyone noticed?(life force related)

Post by Lord_Bob »

well actually it is pretty consistant, normally it goes quite slowly and when hit by and enemy their is a drain etc. However in s5 whenever it appears then its usually red and the team are about to pick up food. However at least 1 team in S3 i think it was slowed down a bit to ensure they actually got the food in time
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Re: Has anyone noticed?(life force related)

Post by Dunshelm »

Someone here has said the show loses its feeling of urgency and claustrophobia with the loss of the lifeforce...
Series 6 in my opinion is by far the most scary and urgent and atmospheric.
Series 7 draws on that and is effective in some places, like the troll in level 2 'It comes, It comes!' but I was scared to death of those dwarf tunnels in the dark and the bit where a storm giest appeared, oh and the hand reaching in.
Series 6 was scary
- A distinctly magical fashion and therefore somewhat unreliable
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Re: Has anyone noticed?(life force related)

Post by MoanaLiza »

A slight change of subject, but was the lifeforce face actually based on somebody's face or was it one which was just created, i.e. through a drawing or painting or by computer? Also was there a reason that the s6 lifeforce was used for only one series other than the fact that they changed it for a cake/pie/quiche. (Or have I not done my homework?). I suppose the whole idea of the s7/8 lifeforce was to getaway from the whole death thing and since food was what was required to go into the knapsack that lifeforce was a certain reminder that they needed more food (I waffle as usual).
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Malefact
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Re: Has anyone noticed?(life force related)

Post by Malefact »

I think the original Clock may well have been based on somebody's face. I've always wanted to know exactly how it was done. Maybe one day we'll be lucky enough to find out. :)

Btw, the skeleton Life Force was a feature of series 6 and 7 - the Pie/Cake/Quiche was in series 8 only.
Subject to change.
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