Henchwomen Fight

In tv show Hercules: The Legendary Journeys season 2 episode titled The Mother of All Monsters aired 1995. Actress Tyler Jane and Katrina Misa play as villainesses. I can't describe how global phenomena this show was, I remember as a child bought a poster of Hercules, kids were making songs about Hercules and Xena, Kevin Sorbo wasn't just a superstar, he was way more than that, he was an icon, with his photos everywhere, with everyone knowing him, like Marlon Brando and Al Pacino are superstars, Kevin Sorbo as Hercules was bigger than that, you can even say he was part of the culture back then, and I doubt any character will ever be as popular as Hercules was.. For me I started learning English by watching the show, Holllywood was like a magical place, like, you have great family entertainment like Home Alone, Baby's Day Out, you also have great action movies with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren, Sylvester Stallone, and Jean-Claude Van Damme, you also had great comedies, great horror, over the years and different stages of my life, I can find the movie or the genre I like, and it was always the best, and being able to speak and understand English seemed like accomplishment, today, I can't stand hearing English, in new movies I mean, I can't stand watching modern Hollywood movies and TV shows, I still enjoy watching movies I enjoyed once, but when it comes to new movies, I would prefer watching Chinese and Asian movies, even tho I don't understand what they say, which is different than how I used to watch movies in English, but what can you do? I hope China can fill the gap Hollywood left, maybe another generation can fell in love with Chinese movies and entertainment, that they also start learning Chinese like I started to learn English, and fell in love with Chinese movies and TV shows, like I once did with Hollywood..

Anyway, let's start the episode, let's escape to the world of fiction and the nostalgia to forget the bitterness of the current reality of Hollywood..

The movie starts with fight scene.. When it comes to shows like Hercules, the director plays a big part in making the fight makes good, and let's be honest Kevin Sorbo was casted to play Hercules because how attractive he looks, not because he was a great marital artist, so when it comes to fight scenes the patterns I noticed are these, having someone with experiences as a stuntperformer, like Jackie Chan who played as a stunt double for the main villain Fist of Fury, and as a henchman in Enter the Dragon, and of course Jackie's experience in Chinese opera helped him to come up with his own unique fighting style, anyway, in such case, you can the fight clearly, it's pure raw the fight feels as if you are watching a theater performance, you basically get the real deal, the stunt performer is performing in front of you, the other pattern which I absolutely loath and hate, like in The Bourne Ultimatum, I absolutely hate this movie, couldn't bring myself to watch it and never will, from the clips of this movie, the fight scenes are like cut cut cut, in order for the movie to hide a really bad fight scenes, it try to distract you that you basically can't see anything, but in order to give you the illusion of a fight scene is happening, another pattern is using a stunt double, so, the fight scenes you want to make good, you replace the actor with a professional stunt double, I see it a lot in Chinese movies with female characters, like, they often use male stunt double to do the jumping and the fighting when needed, and the last pattern is what you see in Hercules, instead of distracting you and due to the fact that the star isn't a professional marital artist, the burden lies on the director, the director have to direct your focus, not like modern Hollywood like Marvel and such, the director is leading your attention, for example with Iolaus in this fight scene, the director knows your focus is on Iolaus, so he fight a thug, and you only see the back of the thug, so Michael Hurst is basically hitting the air, and the stuntman is away from him, but the director knows that your focus is on Iolaus, so he basically predicts where your focus will be, in the same fight, Iolaus hit the villain in the crotch, so what the director did is leading your focus, you see Iolaus' full body, then the director lead you by focusing the camera on his arm, then showing the villain reaction, the shot on the middle with focusing on the arm could be filmed without the stuntman even being present, but that's how the director lead your focus instead of distracting it, same way with kick, you see for example Hercules in full body, then the kick in the middle shot, then the villain reaction, of course Jackie is the king yet sometimes these fight scenes are really hard to do, and some actors lack the experience to do it, especially Hollywood actors TBH, yet, unlike modern Hollywood this show doesn't want to distract your attention and ruin the scene for you, but instead leading and directing your attention..

I love Hercules intro, to be fair, it could be the nostalgia..

 Hercules is an amazing show, this isn't nostalgia, I basically love two things Kevin Sorbo made: Hercules The Legendary Journeys and Meet the Spartans, watched other movies of him, but they were like christian boring stuff so I basically stopped caring about his new movies, still shows like Hercules enough to make him a legend, the character of Hercules in its peak popularity was the most popular character than any other character played by any action movie star at the time, and it's inseparable from Kevin Sorbo, as the character was made before and after him, but nothing comes even close to him playing it.

Echidna summoned the archers around 11 minute mark..

The villains in this episode make me laugh whenever they talk, and I love it..   

We a villainess around 18 minute mark, and the archers apparently killed a man off-screen!! 

This episode would be perfect if Hera was in it, but still we got practical effect in this episode with Echidna, even tho, Hera played by Meg Foster was the most memorable character of both Hercules and Xena show, according to the IMDB she only appeared for two episode that's how great Meg Foster is, I also think the element of mystery and how you always hear about Hera and what she do and those who worship her, and the visual of the fallen Peacock Feather with the sound, then when you see Hera with Meg Foster charisma, you just can't forget such character, it even became part of Arabs pop culture, just to understand how iconic this character was, you can even see today people asking clergymen if it's OK to have Peacock Feather at home fearing it will bring misfortune to their home, you can even find such Fatwas today on the internet dating back to 2002 when the show was popular in the Arab world, it's unbelievable!!

Around 23 minutes the archers made a trap for Hercules..

Echidna making me laugh..

The archers last confrontation is around 36 minutes, but they will appear again in another episode, so I will watch it too..

Let's start watching episode 6 of season 3..

The costume designer of this show, deserve her own statue, as far as I know it's mainly the work of Ngila Dickson, who was also the costume designer of Lord Of The Rings, that's why I said, aesthetically Hercules: The Legendary Journeys is far better than Game Of Thrones..

Echidna got a new baby, it's so cute, I wonder what gift should I bring to her, it's hard to know, Hercules would be a perfect gift, yet it's hard get him, but anything for a friend, right? 

The fighting scenes in this episode shows an incredible director, incredible stuntmen above everything else..

Around 14 minutes we see Echidna's baby, what a beautiful family, like a perfect family indeed, like think about it, a beloved wife who loves her children, and also living in a cave, which means she's not into him for his wealth or money but really loves her husband, and a father who loves her, and love his son, and find him as the cutest baby ever, and even dance in happiness for him, which means he also truly loves Echidna, on the other hand you get Hercules, a mentally ill person who murdered his own family, like hollyshit, I don't need to say more, if he was my neighbor I would move to a different town as far as possible from him!

Ok, this is actually what I was talking about in this article, the idea of using the contrast between appeal and charisma with their immorality, and how it will also if reversed like a character that look really unappealing, but they act like an angel, like using a white lines on dark page or dark lines on white page, both create contrast for the targeted character and it works here with Echidna and her baby, like I get the show is a comedy, but you would actually get genuine emotion watching it, especially when Echidna cry 💔💔💔..

We see our villains again around 30 minutes, they take Echidna's son from Klepto, and the final confrontation starts around 36 minutes..

Wow, that was fun to watch..

Favorite Quotes 

"Boss Highwayman: I have proposal for you, gentlemen, your money or your lives? Looks like it's going to be their money and their lives!" 

"Klepto: What a beautiful baby!"