S01.E03: Kingdoms of the Moon

[Bort]

Quote

Once, as a Burguish soldier, Philo was tasked with protecting a faerish mimasery. While The Pact bears down on them, Philo meets Vignette and finds love in the most unlikely of places.

Airdate: Friday, August 30, 2019

[AnimeMania]

I thought the time Philo and Vignette spent together would be longer.  I thought they would be fighting side by side to show she had combat skills. I guess Vignette learned her Werewolf fighting skills after Philo left.

[thuganomics85]

Ah, the expected flashback episode, that shows how Philo and Vignette met and fell in love.  It's a classic one, of course.  Boy meets girl after he accidentally sneaks into her mysterious library and gets a knife placed to his throat.  Boy and girl then bond over your normal stuff like sci-fi romance novels and teaming up to fight werewolves.  Boy and girl then understand one another, start falling for one another, and then have magical sex (complete with glowing fae wings!)  But then girl's best friend; who is actually her ex; comes back, plants seeds in boy's head that he will get her killed if they keep going, so he fakes his death, causing her much heartbreak, and now they're not exactly on the best of terms now.  I hate when that happens!

Also, it looks like Philo is actually half fae and those mysterious scars were from when they removed his wings when he was a baby.  I'm sure all of that and his parents are going to end up factoring in soon.

And it seems like Philo's friend in prison from the last episode is actually a werwolf.  Fun!

The rest of the main cast (baring Karla Crome as Tourmaline/Vignette's ex/BFF) got to have an easy one for this episode!

[WatchrTina]

Ooooh, so many secrets revealed!  So now we know what Vignette was threatening to reveal about Philo when he tried to stop her stealing that banner last episode.  And now we know that Philo faked his death, not because he's an asshole who can't figure out how to break up with a girl (talk about "ghosting" someone!) -- no he did it to to protect her.  Predictably, she's not having that.

We also learned that Philo is such a considerate lover he actually notices when Vignette fails to have a glowgasm.  No wonder she didn't want to give him up!

[AnimeMania]

1 hour ago, WatchrTina said:

We also learned that Philo is such a considerate lover he actually notices when Vignette fails to have a glowgasm.  No wonder she didn't want to give him up!

Philo is not a considerate lover, he thought Vignette was having a glowgasm, but she was actually checking her cell phone. 

[Writing Wrongs]

I don't know if I'm gonna continue. I'm just not feeling it, beyond the look of the show. I guess I'm getting old, because the graphic stuff just doesn't interest me. That's why I have trouble watching Game of Thrones. I'm more a PG kinda person. 

[Athena5217]

This episode made me much more interested in Philo and Vignette. They are starting to seem like actual characters not plot devices. I loved that library. I guess it was destroyed, which may the most tragic part of the season for me.

Alice Krige does effortlessly scary very well.

[snowwhyte]

I really want to like this show more than I do. The visuals are great but the story feels like it's dragging a bit. Also I really wish someone else was playing Vignette. Cara Delevigne always seems to play her characters with a kind of smirky quality that makes them unsympathetic. I do have sympathy for Vignette but I don't particularly like her.

[gik910]

I have a genuine plot question - it's small but it is f'ing irritating.  I just watched the attack on the city and the Fae they sent up to fight with the airships just kind of stopped where the gun decks were, to be shot out of the sky.  Instead of flying up a bit higher to light the ships on fire? Shoot them with arrows? Something, literally anything other than just casually looking at the gun that will shoot them.  Why? What the hell?

Anyway- so far I am casually enjoying it.  I don't love it and I'm not particularly attached to anyone character at this point.  It is gorgeous (but so dark!) and I like the score and scenery. I'll stick it out. 

[Razzberry]

I liked this episode, it was nice to get some backstory without a ton of stuff going on.   I don't watch much Sci-fi fantasy - tried to get into GOT and just couldn't - but love Victorian England and so far it's holding my interest.

Yeah, the faes had no strategy at all against those gunships.  They'd be better off on the ground.

Edited August 31, 2019 by Razzberry

[WatchrTina]

15 minutes ago, gik910 said:

I have a genuine plot question - it's small but it is f'ing irritating.  I just watched the attack on the city and the Fae they sent up to fight with the airships just kind of stopped where the gun decks were, to be shot out of the sky.  Instead of flying up a bit higher to light the ships on fire? Shoot them with arrows? Something, literally anything other than just casually looking at the gun that will shoot them.  Why? What the hell?

Yeah, I had the same question, through mine was more along the lines of "Why don't they fly AWAY from the airships at ground level as fast as they can to get out of range of their guns, then fly straight up and then attack with their fire bombs from much higher altitude (still out of range), descending only when the ballon itself blocks them from view of the gunners on the decks?  The only explanation I can come up with is that the fire-bombs that the fae were carrying had really short fuses so they had to fly directly toward the target if they wanted to reach it before their pay-load blew up. But mostly I just think it was a plot necessity that they could not defend themselves agains the airships.

[AnimeMania]

All of you would be better Generals, light fires or bombs above the airships (ripping the fabric) or directly below the airships (destroying the gondola part). The airship guns would have a hard time targeting you.

[iMonrey]

I was exactly halfway through this episode when I had to stop it, turn on closed-captioning and start all over. Some of the dialogue is just imperceptible. The entire post-coital scene between Philo and Vignette when he is asking about the beads in her hair is barely audible. I literally missed 95% of the entire conversation without subtitles. Between the low talking and the jargon-heavy dialogue, this show can be really hard to follow. 

[tennisgurl]

That library was so lovely, losing it caused me pain just watching it! I admit that I am instantly more fond of Vignette knowing that she is actually an angry magical librarian. 

This does a pretty good job of answering some questions, like why Philos military buddy is in a cell currently, and filling in some more of the backstory, like how Vignette and Philo met and why he wanted to let her think he was dead. Of course she has no time for that, because as nimble as his aims were, letting hiss girlfriend think he was dead for her own good was really freaking stupid.

The fae really need to use their flight better in combat situations. I noticed it when they were running away from the troops in the first episode, and again now with the airships. They really need a better strategy than "fly fly away!"

So Philos is actually part fae, and had his wings cut off so he could pass as human. I mean, I am sure his parents had good intentions and thought it would make it better for him, but ouch! So whats the over and under that his long lost parents become an important part of the plot, or are character we`ve already meet?

[NJRadioGuy]

Having just returned from Ireland a few days ago, specifically after seeing the Book of Kells and the Long Room at Trinity College, I had a bit more invested in that library scene than I otherwise would have. When you've seen the real thing from a foot away--a book that's existed for at least a thousand years--it gives one a very different perspective.

This episode was just basically Ryan's Daughter but with Fae, dirigibles, and Werewolves. Which would have made the original significantly better, IMHO.

[Haleth]

On 8/31/2019 at 2:51 PM, AnimeMania said:

All of you would be better Generals, light fires or bombs above the airships (ripping the fabric) or directly below the airships (destroying the gondola part). The airship guns would have a hard time targeting you.

Legolas would have figured it out. 

On 8/31/2019 at 1:09 AM, Athena5217 said:

This episode made me much more interested in Philo and Vignette. They are starting to seem like actual characters not plot devices. I loved that library. I guess it was destroyed, which may the most tragic part of the season for me.

Was it blown up?  Vignette sealed it but I didn’t think it was destroyed. 

Until we saw the one legged Fae I was starting to think there were no males, even though I guessed that Philo’s secret was that he once had wings. 

[Foxglove]

On 8/30/2019 at 8:44 PM, Writing Wrongs said:

I don't know if I'm gonna continue. I'm just not feeling it, beyond the look of the show. I guess I'm getting old, because the graphic stuff just doesn't interest me. That's why I have trouble watching Game of Thrones. I'm more a PG kinda person. 

I hear you, Writing Wrongs. I find a lot of the graphic sex and violence to be gratuitous and unnecessary to the plot. I prefer to use my imagination sometimes! I guess I'm also getting old. 🤒

[Scarlett45]

I’ve been watching one episode a day for the last 3 days and now I finally have time to binge. This is right up my alley, and the world building is getting better with each episode. 

My Mom watched it over Labor Day weekend and commented that she never realized Orlando Bloom was “facially blessed”, although she kinda sorta knew he was in the Pirates movies but spent those looking at Johnny Depp. 🤣

i am looking forward to more now that I know there’s a season 2. 

[Brn2bwild]

The more I watch, the more Orlando Bloom's character reminds me of Jon Snow, especially this episode.  It's both the looks and Orlando Bloom's slightly wounded expression and wooden delivery.

[Tyro49]

Is it my imagination or do the fae all have a slight Irish accent?

I do hope the library survived.

Why do all the humans hate all the fae, anyway?

[blackwing]

I do like the world building but three episodes in and my biggest complaint is that everything is SO DAMN DARK.  Yes, I get that they are in ancient/medieval/whatever times with no electric overhead lighting, but would it be too much to ask for them to shoot scenes in a way where we can actually see and tell what the hell is happening?  So frustrating.

The indoor scenes, I guess I can sort of understand, although why can't more of these scenes be in a room with a window during daytime or be better lit with candles?  

[spaceghostess]

On 9/9/2019 at 12:25 PM, Tyro49 said:

Is it my imagination or do the fae all have a slight Irish accent?

I do hope the library survived.

Why do all the humans hate all the fae, anyway?

Vignette has more than a slight Irish accent; the Fae crime boss has one, too, IIRC. Tourmaline definitely doesn't--hers is straight-up cockney.

I'm pretty sure the library survived. The Fae priestess-lady ordered Vignette to lock it down and I think it was designed to sort of bury itself like it did so strangers wouldn't suspect there was anything of value there.

Humans hating Fae = just your typical hideous racism, IMHO. Also, the army commander sounded all sorts of colonialist in his little convo with Philo.