Although “the prince kills the dragon and gets the princess” is some sort of trope, there aren’t actually many fairy tales which feature a dragon. Those are way more common in legends. If my memory serves me right “The two brothers” is the only one of two Grimm fairy tales featuring a dragon. It’s actually a fairly long and fairly interesting story, featuring a lot of symbols typical for all fairy tales, so I hope that they will visit it again later on.
Reference Rundown
- The episode plays heavily on the “Hero rescues princess from dragon” motive, but this time around, the princess is not a damsel in distress
- Not to the fairy tale, but with his “shield” and the sword-like pole he is swinging around, Nick reenacts countless of paintings with knights fighting against a dragon.
- This might be an accidental reference, but in the original story the brothers put a knife in a tree, and when one side becomes rusty, it is a sign that something happened to the brother who went this way. This motive is somewhat picked up in the half destroyed face of the Damonfeuer, and the fact that with losing his wife he became only half a person
German Gebrabbel
Damonfeuer: A”Dämon” is a demon, “Feuer” is the German word for “Fire” – and sounds very similar, btw., not at all the way Monroe speaks it. His little monologue about the “Laufmaschine” (Dandy horse) being the starting point of the draisine is correct, btw.
Highs and Lows
+ Wu’s “I’m not okay”. A refreshing change from the usual “Nothing can face us” attitude.
+And even more refreshing: Juliette allowing Nick to explain, and then Nick phoning her to tell her that he would go to Ariel again.
+The cave is pretty cool.
- How exactly does a Damonfeuer burn his own face? Shouldn’t he immune?
- And what’s the story with the mother? This part was pretty vague.
- Nick is really not impressive fighting against Ariel. He is a Grimm, for god’s sake.
The Grimmoire
I’m wondering if the killed Grimm will be of some significance later on or if he was just thrown in to underline the danger Nick is constantly in. I’m also wondering about the Damonfeuer. For having a whole episode about them, the information the audience got was pretty vague. What exactly is the copper for? Leading electricity?
The Final Judgement
The saving grace of this episode is the fact that one definitely has to watch it twice. A lot of Ariel’s actions become a very different meaning if you know the intention behind it. It is also a turning point in Nick’s and Juliette’s partnership. It’s not the first time Juliette is unwittingly encountering the Wesen world, but it’s the first time, she is in danger because of it. Yes, Stark was dangerous too, but he attacked their home because Nick was Hank’s partner, not because he was a Grimm. Ariel on the other hand strikes for the sole reason that Nick is a Grimm.
I haven’t written a lot about Juliette yet, because honestly, there isn’t much to write about her. Since she is doesn’t know about Nick’s ability and has no logical reason to be involved in his cases, she is most of the time just there. Rarely a distractions, but up to this point the only episodes she really added something to the main plot were Three Coins in a Fuchsbau, Game Ogre and Organ Grinder. And let’s be honest, Nick with his crazy profiler abilities should have been able to read Gracie just as well as her. That doesn’t mean that I think Juliette is entirely useless. Nick deserves some happiness in his private life, some sort of anchor, and as soon as Juliette knows his secret, I’m sure she can provide this. So while this episode isn’t exactly the most engaging I can imagine it raises at least one crucial question: Would Juliette be able to deal with the Wesen world? This is reason enough for me to give it 7 golden keys out of 10
S1E15: link
