In which Thirty/Thirty feels sorry for himself.
Thunderstick and Skuzz take the lead this week, with a surprisingly elaborate plan to steal the Shaman’s power staff. The plan hinges on their being able to fool Thirty/Thirty, and it’s to their credit that they actually succeed. Thirty/Thirty apologises to BraveStarr and the Shaman, and by God he’d better not spend the whole episode moping about being useless.
Before we can find out whether Thirty/Thirty is feeling sorry for himself, Stampede the mechanical bull shows up to delay BraveStarr and co. in their pursuit of Thunderstick and Skuzz. He does this by animating a cactus, which adopts humanoid form and serves to waste a couple of minutes’ time. By the time the cactus is defeated, Thunderstick and Skuzz have reached the Hex-Agon and handed the Shaman’s staff over to Stampede, who announces his intention to use it to destroy Fort Kerium.
And now it’s time for Thirty/Thirty to start the moping. After yomping through the usual complaints about how he’s failed, he embarks on the rather unexpected line of discussion that BraveStarr never fails at anything. This prompts the Shaman to tell one of his trademark borderline irrelevant stories about when BraveStarr was young, to which Thirty/Thirty listens politely and then hurries off as fast as he can. He claims he’s going to go and recover the staff, but I reckon he just wants to be out of the Shaman’s presence so he doesn’t have to hear any more stupid stories.
BraveStarr, Thirty/Thirty and the Shaman all make their way to the Hex-Agon and – with a noticeable lack of urgency – hold a debate over who should be allowed to go in to get the staff back. Eventually, Thirty/Thirty persuades the others that he should be the one to enter. I don’t know why they can’t all go in. I’m sure there’s a very good reason. Just to clarify, I don’t think there is a reason.
Bizarrely, after having agreed that Thirty/Thirty will be the one who goes into the Hex-Agon, BraveStarr and the Shaman now enter through the main door, leaving Thirty/Thirty outside to spend the next five minutes climbing up to an inaccessible entrance on the top floor. What is wrong with these morons? Why can’t Thirty/Thirty just stroll in through the front as well? And why are BraveStarr and the Shaman in there at all, given they said they wouldn’t? I’m beginning to wonder if I’ve just made a massive misunderstanding, since surely the cartoon can’t be this stupid.
Once they’re all inside, Thirty/Thirty nicks the staff back from Stampede and hands it over to the Shaman. Equipped with his staff again, the Shaman is more than capable of defeating Stampede, and there’s just enough episode left for another bout of self-congratulatory rubbish from BraveStarr and Thirty/Thirty. Thirty/Thirty is even good enough to wink at the camera, which is the sort of thing that unaccountably gets me really wound up.
In today’s adventure…
We can learn from our mistakes. Who knew?
Character checklist
This week’s roll call features BraveStarr, Thirty/Thirty, the Shaman, Fuzz, Stampede, Thunderstick, Skuzz, a Prairie Person called Twiss, and Fort Kerium’s Mayor.
Insults
BraveStarr addresses the living cactus as an “oversized pincushion”, but otherwise it’s over to the baddies. Stampede calls BraveStarr and the Shaman “fools”, and tells Skuzz he’s a “little fool”. Thunderstick similarly has no time for Skuzz, referring to him as a “dimwit”. He’s also sufficiently unwise to call Thirty/Thirty a “mechanical donkey”, though he does retain enough sanity to do this when Thirty/Thirty is not in earshot.
Strength of the Bear
BraveStarr defeats the living cactus by throwing his tomahawk at it really hard. Later on, he also uses the bear strength to bust his way out from underneath a pile of boulders.
Speed of the Puma
The puma speed is instrumental in the defeat of the living cactus, though I just don’t think it’s worth my effort to explain exactly how. BraveStarr also uses his puma power to protect himself and the Shaman when Skuzz throws rocks at them.
Starr Rating
The absolute best that can be said for this offering is that it isn’t as teeth-grindingly rage-inducing as last week’s was. Otherwise, it’s pretty bad, featuring an uninspiring plot and an almost palpable sense of a lack of imagination. Coupled with another unwelcome outing for the someone-feels-worthless plotline, I’d call this a barely competent BraveStarr by numbers, and recommend that you give it a miss.
BraveStarr Episode Review Site 