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Recap / Film Reroll: Labyrinth

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Sarah in Jareth's Keep. Picture by Quirderph

Episode 4 of Film Reroll. Based on the 1986 fantasy musical.

Sarah Williams knew that babysitting was hard work, but for all the things she knew could happen, having her baby half-brother kidnapped by goblins was not one of them. Having been transported into the land of fiction, Sarah has to navigate through a treacherous labyrinth, solve seemingly impossible riddles, and confront the Goblin King himself if she wants a chance to get her brother back...

Starring Jocelyn "Joz" Vammer as Sarah and Paulo Quiros as the Dungeon Master.

Followed by Frozen.


Tropes:

  • Accidental Misnaming: Sarah is really bad at remembering Hoggle's name. (After she rescues him from the Bog, she gets it right for the rest of the adventure.)
  • Adaptational Villainy: In the original film, the Junk Lady was already an Anti-Role Model who tried to turn Sarah into somebody like her. Here, however, she is an outright devious character who tries to steal Sarah's book and take its power for herself.
  • Adapted Out: Every character who was originally introduced in between Sarah's entrance into the labyrinth and her arrival at the Bog of Eternal Stench, since she takes a different route to get there, but Ludo and the Fireys especially stand out.
  • And You Were There: As in the original movie, Ambrosius is said to look suspiciously like Sarah's dog Merlin.
  • Apocalypse How: It's implied that the Goblin World is destroyed after Sarah leaves it.
  • Bottle Episode: This campaign is less than an hour long, and only features two participants, Paulo as the DM and Jocelyn as Sarah. Presumably, they didn't want to wait too long to make their David Bowie tribute.
  • Death by Adaptation: Possibly Hoggle, Sir Didymus and Ambrosius. They were last seen in the Underworld, which was apparently destroyed, and they don't appear again at the end like they did in the film.
  • Drowning Pit: Jareth punishes Hoggle for his betrayal by having two of his goblins put him in a cage suspended by a chain and slowly lower him down into the Bog of Eternal Stench. However, the purpose isn't to kill him but rather to make him stink for all eternity. Luckily, Sarah saves him before that happens.
  • Happy Ending: Just like in the film, Sarah saves Toby, defeats Jareth and returns to her own world.
  • In Memoriam: The episode was made as a tribute to the recently deceased David Bowie, who played Jareth the Goblin King in the film.
  • Just in Time: Sarah manages to say the words which stops Jareth right at the last second. Paulo points out how eerily close to the movie this is.
  • King Incognito: Jareth still uses his beggar disguise. Now however, Sarah manages to see through it (granted, Jocelyn has just watched the film, which might count as "cheating" in this case...)
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • Lotus-Eater Machine: Jareth offers Sarah a Crystal Ball which can show her greatest desires, but not actually grant them. She considers it a pretty lousy gift.
  • Malicious Misnaming:
    • As in the movie, Jareth can't be bothered to get Hoggle's name right.
    • Sarah is even worse at it than Jareth, to the point that when he gets Hoggle's name wrong, she "corrects" him with another wrong name. (It starts out as Accidental Misnaming, but after a while she has to be doing it deliberately, possibly because she's annoyed at how unhelpful he's being.)
  • The Musical: Inverted. The original film was a musical, but this campaign isn't.
  • No-Sell: Happens a lot to Sarah, mostly due to her being Wrong Genre Savvy.
    • While her book does allow her to warp reality to some extent, it doesn't allow her to write herself home. When she tries to do this, it seems to work at first, but then it turns out that — much like in the film — she is still in the junkyard, just in a fake version of her own room (though this time she is responsible for creating it).
    • The book also doesn't work like a literal portal. She tries to enter it, but just ends up smacking it against her head.
    • At one point, she tries to walk through the walls of the labyrinth. This did work in the film (which her player, Jocelyn, had seen) but here, Sarah tries it in the wrong spot and walks straight into the wall.
    • Sarah also tries to cheat at the first riddle by examining the containers themselves. However, their inhabitants refuse to give away their identities in any way but the proper one, and just laugh at Sarah's attempts.
  • Off the Rails: Notably happens almost immediately with Sarah simply deciding to turn left instead of right, leading to her exploring new rooms which weren't seen in the film. Things do mostly get back on track once she gets to the Bog of Eternal Stench, however.
  • Portal Book: Paulo's interpretation of the story seems to be that Sarah was actually transported into the world of fiction. Once she finds her "Labyrinth" book, she is capable of making minor alterations to reality by writing down new things on its blank pages. After returning to the real world, she notices that the story has changed into a retelling of the events she just experienced. (One wonders if it was originally a retelling of the film.)
  • Rewriting Reality: After Sarah discovers her book contains an account of her adventure so far, she discovers that she can influence what happens next by writing in it. The effect is limited, however; when she attempts to write herself home with Toby, it appears to work but home and Toby are soon revealed to be goblin trickery.
  • Riddle Me This:
    • One of the "new" challenges added by Paulo is a puzzle featuring five small containers (a glass ball, a felt bag, a tin can, a box and a cup). Sarah can only get through the room by figuring out what they contain based on a riddle. (A slightly altered version of a riddle originally written by Jonathan Swift.)
      "We are little airy creatures,
      All of different voice and features.
      One of us in glass is held.
      One of us, you'll find in felt.
      The third is locked away in tin.
      The fourth is in a box within.
      The fifth you'll find inside a cup.
      If you'd pass, than hurry up.
      Tell us our collective name.
      Else return from whence you came."
      Answer: They are the vowels "a," "e," "i," "o" and "u."
    • Sarah also has to answer a riddle in the junkyard to get her hands on a powerful object.
      "It's a tree, but it has no roots. It speaks, but it makes no sounds. It has a spine, but it has no bones."
    • And no, it's not a coincidence that the answers to both riddles are connected to writing.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: At the end, Sarah decides to keep the book Jareth seemingly spawned from locked away, just in case.
  • Shown Their Work: Paulo claims to have watched Labyrinth "academically" and written down every turn Sarah makes, so that he will know if Jocelyn goes the wrong way. She does so immediately.
  • You Shall Not Pass!: Sir Didymus is still guarding his bridge. Here, it's mentioned that he has sworn an oath to his dog Ambrosius to stop people from passing it without his permission. No, getting permission from Ambrosius doesn't help you, you have to get it from Sir Didymus. That said, all you have to do to get said permission is still simply to ask for it.
  • The Walls Have Eyes: As in the film, there are weird, plant-like creatures stuck on the walls of the Labyrinth. Here however, they actually become important to the plot when Sarah decides to squeeze them, causing them to move themselves and the walls out of the way for her.
  • Waxing Lyrical: Fitting for a tribute episode, Paulo deliberately hid David Bowie lyrics in his narration and dialogue.
  • We Can Rule Together: The movie already implied it quite heavily, but here Jareth discards all subtlety and outright asks Sarah to become his queen. She still refuses, of course.

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