User blog:Samaru163/Deltora comparison: The Monster in the Lake of Tears

Hello Deltora fans, one and all and welcome to episode six of my Deltora Quest comparison.

Anime comparison
The Monster in the Lake of Tears covers the events of Lake of Tears chapters eleven to thirteed, with the very beginning of fourteen as well.

Characters
Our titular monster of the Lake of Tears is Soldeen, the giant eel/cat fish love-child and all his oozing glory. The anime does a very good job sticking true to Mark Mcbride's image, though Soldeen's mouth is more squat and rounded than the torpedo-like trap featured on the book. But for me, the biggest difference in design is that the anime Soldeen is tiny compared to the book. His anatomy seems to be all head with a tiny tail, leaning his design more fish-like, while the book Soldeen is a huge serpent with a long body.

Also, I'm not getting my own image of Soldeen, because he almost never slows, so getting a good quality screenshot is very hard.

Bridge
The show also mentioned the Del resistance group for the first time in the show, and how it was crushed long ago.
 * The companions travelling with Manus to Raladin and forgoing fires in order to stay hidden.
 * The companions disovering an abandoned home branded by the Shadow Lord.
 * Manus explaining the Ralad symbol for freedom/bird is also used by resistance members fighting against the Shadow Lord.
 * The companions entering Raladin through a waterfall, only to find it in ruins, the Ralads gone, and the Shadow Lord's brand on every door.
 * Manus finding a discarded flute and playing a sad song, which brings the Ralads out of hiding from their underground replica of Raladin.
 * The companions spending several days in Raladin before venturing on.
 * Manus agreeing to guide the companions to the Lake of Tears, despite the objections from the other Ralads.
 * One particular Ralad named Simone being taller than the others and asking the companions why they have to go to the Lake of Tears.
 * The Ralads revealing Thaegan can be killed by spilling a drop of blood, but that she protects herself with magic.
 * Lief telling Manus he can go home after guiding them to the Lake of Tears, but he refused due to his life debt.
 * The companions arriving at the Lake of Tears and telling Manus about the gem they seek.
 * The companions venturing into the mud and getting attacked by the creatures of the lake.
 * Their battle attracting Soldeen, who knocks Barda aside.
 * Lief managing to get his sword stuck in Soldeen before he is thrown off.

Alterations
So for somce reason, the anime decided to let the narrator explain events going on in the show, which so far has only been done when telling backstory in The Adventure Begins and the Golden Knight. I think this was done so they could save time on the journey to Raladin, and normally I could agree, since nothing really happened in the books, but the narration feels very out of place. But on the plus side, we do get a nice shot of a deer.

The anime played up Jasmine's injury a lot more than the book did. After Lief put the ointment on, Jasmine never mentioned it again, but here she suffering from exhaustion due to it. When the companions find the abandoned house, they stop to let Jasmine take a bath and wash the wound... I'm not going to comment on if that would be effective or not, but the more pressing matter is why are they stopping to let Jasmine bathe when Thaegan is hunting them? One scene earlier, Jasmine even said they can't stop because they, "might as well put up a big sigh telling Thaegan where we are."

Jasmine has another stupid bit of dialogue as well. When Lief tells her that sometimes she should listen to other people's opinions, she said, "don't you remember, that's how I got the wound in the first place." Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but how is escaping from a duo of illusion-casting monsters the same as listening to other people's opinions. Unless she was referring to how Lief told her to accept the hospitalities of the old couple that rescued them from quicksand. Either way, this line is stupid and makes Jasmine more of a insensitive jerk, since in context she is dismissing Manus' concern over her wound.

While talking about how the Del resistance group was destroyed, Lief angrily stands up and says they just went into hiding. This highlights a big change in anime Lief compared to book Lief: book Lief resisted the Shadow Lord where he could to, but he was also practical. He knew there was no more resistance left in Del, and because he had never left the city, he didn't even entertain the idea of other resistance groups existing in Deltora. But here, anime Lief's optimism doesn't have a logial root. And then anime Jasmine believes the ressitance is guarding Raladin, and I'm wondering why the continuity writer wasn't fired.

When Manus played his flute, it elicidated powerful emotions from the companions. Lief actually cried while listening to the music, which was a big deal for him because he normally tried to avoid crying among his friends in Del. In the anime, they just look on worried, except for Barda who turned away.

The reception at Raladin is much smaller in the anime, with only one group coming out to meet them. In the book, the entire city—hundreds of Ralads—came out to welcome Manus home, which showed how tightly knit their people were.

The book doesn't explain what the companions did during their three day stay at Raladin, so the anime shows Barda and Lief sparring. I like this addition, because we never did get a good sense of progression when it comes to Lief's swordsmanship in the book. Plus it gives us one memorable face from Barda.

Simone recieves a bigger role in the anime. In the book she was just the tall Ralad who asked the comanions why, but here, she asks them most of the questions about their destination and tells them about Thaegan's weakness. In the book this was given to all the people of Ralad, who were scribbling symbols like crazy to get them to stay.

The wildlife that attacks the companions is different between both medium, as is the mud they walk on. In the book, the mud goes up to their ankles, and Lief gets attacked by giant worms that drain his blood. Jasmine manages to pluck them off, but this attracts all sorts of slimy, oozing horrors that nearly drag the companions into the mud. It was only Soldeen's arrival that scared them off. The anime gives us solid ground for our heroes to walk on, and the animals are replaced by... random flying snakes... OK?

Omissions
The anime left out so many emotional moments in this episode. The first of these was when the companions were resting without a fire. Lief was so terrified at the idea of Thaegan and her minions sneaking up on them in the dark that he needed the power of the topaz to calm himself down. This was a wonderful scene that highlighted the seriousness of the companions situation. Yes, they killed Jin and Jod, but now something horrible was chasing after them and wouldn't rest until they were dead.

When the companions were investigating the abandoned house, they took a number of supplies, including rope, a pot, clothes, blankets, and digging tools. Lief felt really bad about looting someone's home, but when Manus and Barda explained the meaning of the resistance symbol, it eased his spirit. The companions also spotted the symbol a number of times on the road, which filled them all with hope.

Before going into Raladin, Manus paused before the waterfall, scared by what he'd find. This resulted in one of my favourite Lief moments, where he went up to Manus and told him it was better to know than not to.

Final thoughts
Honestly, I found myself mostly bored with this episode. Adaptation-wise, it's another case of skeleton with no meat. The basic plot points are there, and there were fewer alterations than last time due to going back to just three chapters for an episode, but they left out so many of the best scenes from this part of the book.

What changes were made to the episode don't make much sense either. We can't have Lief worrying over the possability of Thaegan coming in and killing our heroes in their sleep, but we can have the group deciding to stop so Jasmine can take a bath and risk getting them all caught? Speaking of Jasmine, she was pretty annoying and petty this episode, with a bunch of snide remarks aimed at Lief and Barda that I didn't even bother to jot down because I've complained about them before.

But the biggest problem with this episode, again, was its lack of heart. Lief crying in Raladin showed how much he cared for not just Manus, but all of Deltora suffering under the Shadow Lord, and was a lot more powerful than having him declair the resistance is just hiding, or just muttering Manus' name. This episode tries to replace emotinal moments with more dialogue and character explaining what they are feeling, rather than showing the audience their emotions. It's a horrible case of telling instead of showing.

In the end, this episode is a good adaptation if you want the bullet points, but won't leave you with much of anything. It's such a shame coming off of Nij and Doj's Trap, which I still stand by is a great adaptation and episode.

But what did you all think? Was Jasmine taking a bath the right thing for our heroes to do? Did you enjoy the narrator constantly interrupting the flow of the episode? Were the attack snakes the coolest thing ever? Let me know below, and remember to never stop asking... Why?

Next time we will see if Samaru can withstand the Sorceres Thaegan.