1001 Animations: Castle Bodhran or Bust

Show: Chaotic
Episode(s): 9, 10
Year: 2007

Writer(s): N/A

Chaotic was 4Kids biggest money drop since Yu-Gi-Oh!, with them spending millions of dollars on refurbishing this Danish trading card game for America and building the website where the codes could be uploaded and the game played. It didn't take but a few years for them to lose those millions due to not only the Yu-Gi-Oh! lawsuit, but also a lack of funding to keep the series afloat, and the show ended after only 3 of its proposed 7 seasons. And even back when the show was animated in flash, it could be very strong at times, and this was definitely a show that took risks as you'll soon see.

 

During one of the group’s scan quests, they discover the scanner of another Chaotic player in Dractyl's nest. After contacting ReggieOne about his missing scanner, Tom Majors (a.k.a. MajorTom) and Kazdan "Kaz" Kalinkas (a.k.a. KidChaor) get to meet up with him in the flesh; this is Regginald Teddington, from London, England, and yeah, he went a very far distance just to get back his Chaotic data from Perim. On yeah, I should mention this before I go any further: in the show, certain players receive codes for their scanners which are kind of like portable game systems to play Chaotic online with, and if they're entered within 24 hours of receiving them, they are allowed to send their "code" or maybe, I guess, subconscious to and from Chaotic. This is the hub where the game can be played for real; as in, you become the creatures and go to Perim to meet the creatures in real life and scan various objects around this magical land. When you teleport back to the real world, only your memories of your adventures are sent to your physical body back on Earth, although the implications of if your Chaotic self dies before that is never explored, but you know, 4Kids.

 

Roughly a month prior, Reggie was on a scan quest near Castle Bodhran to meet up with Frafdo, but he never came back, and it wasn't long before he became a paraplegic; they say he'll never walk again, but he doesn't really mind too much. He feels that losing his Chaotic self is literally losing a part of yourself, and yeah, it is. What's interesting here is that even though Reggie is disabled, they never bring it up: they show it, but don't mention it once, and Reggie is treated with as much dignity as anybody else, and that's definitely impressive even for 4Kids to allow something like this. Considering they created the best overall incarnation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I'm not surprised at all by this.

 

In return for the reunion of his Chaotic self, Reggie offers Kaz any 10 cards from his collection, even his ultra-rare ones. Because Castle Bodhran is such a rare card, Reggie won it in a challenge match from a user called Bruiser33, so that's who Tom and Kaz look for back in Chaotic. By the by, this is the first time we get to see the Beta Drone in Chaotic. Normally, when a player receives a challenge match for their rank, they go to one of the 7 official drones named after a respective Code Master like Crellan, Imthor or Amzen and the like, professional Chaotic players akin to Pro Duelists in Yu-Gi-Oh!. But the Beta Drone is sort of a free mode arena where you can use whatever rulings you want in a match. For example, you can have creatures use more than one battle gear at once, or even use creatures on teams that you can't do legitimately in real matches like Chaor and Maxxor etc. Tom challenges Bruiser33 for a scan of Castle Bodhran, putting Maxxor, his rarest and most favorite creature, on the line in this match. I gotta say it is fun seeing Tom think on his feet trying to beat a guy in a location he's been to tons of times, although Frafdo's voice does grate in you, since he is voiced by Jason Griffith (the same voice actor who ruined Usopp in One Piece).

 

In the end, Tom loses the match, Maxxor and his chance to get the Castle Bodhran scan, but when he mentions Reggie and how he was doing this for his friend, Bruiser33 gives him a spare scan he had of the location anyways for being so noble; after all, "I was a nice guy once too", at least that's what Bruiser33 said. And with that, Tom and Kaz head out to Castle Bodhran where they quickly get ambushed by Frafdo and Tom's main creature Maxxor in the flesh! And yeah, he's a bit of a hard headed ass, though he has an excuse being the ruler of the entire Overworld and all. Frafdo mentions Reggie had traded part of a map to the Cothica (essentially a source of unlimited power, or God or something which is why the tribes are at war to begin with) in exchange for scanning him. He told him he had hidden the second 1/2 of the map in the Mipedim Oasis; he went their alone, but never returned. Since then, they never trusted humans, but Kaz brings up that the Mipedians may have captured Reggie, and they properly call Frado and Maxxor out before they discover a Mipedian Stalker, Zhade, has been spying on the group.

 

And although it is apparent the Mipedian's have set a trap for Maxxor using the Cothica map to claim theirs, Maxxor is willing to take that chance if it means finding the Cothica, trap or no trap. He also uses Tom and Kaz for assistance without their scanners so they don't port away. And yeah, he threatens their lives if it's a trap, though Tom is right that he has a lot going on for him. Meanwhile, Peyton (a.k.a. PeytonicMaster) and Sarah (a.k.a. ChaotiKween) are looking for Reggie's scanner when Dractyl catches them in a trap, but through some clever tricks and playing off Dractyl's low courage stat (he may look like an eagle, but he's a total chicken), they're able to convince him to take them to the Mipedim Desert to save Reggie as well. The Mipedians at our first glance of them are your typical reptilian villains: sneaky and conniving, willing to use any dirty trick to get their way, and I'll be talking about Perim's morality when I review "Shifting Sands" later on to save us some time. We also see that Reggie was indeed captured by the Mipedians as Tom theorized. And then as the rescue gets underway, Maxxor says this to Tom:

 

"For you the troubles of Perim are part of a game, but not for us. My tribe faces mortal dangers every day. If you humans want to play here, you must accept the same risks we do. I will do what I can for your friend, but the good of my tribe is what I care about."

 

Yeah, it really does put Maxxor's gruff nature and the distrust the creatures of Perim have for humans into perspectives as you will see throughout the series. The players of Chaotic tend to only care about their little game, not about the creatures with which they meet and use; it's very rare to find someone who actually cares about Perim and not just Chaotic and their own lives. Tom is not one of those players; he loves Perim and would do anything to help Maxxor or any creature in need however he can, as is the same for his friends. It's going to be fun once I get to some later episodes down the line, isn’t it? During their attack on Prince Mudeenu's fortress, the group is captured by the Royal Mipedian army with Kaz getting hit by a Flash Kick in the crossfire. Before Kaz is killed, and Maxxor is willing to surrender the map to Prince Mudeenu, Peyton and Sarah finally arrive with Dractyl giving them an airlift, using his own home!

 

When they need to heal Kaz, Frafdo reveals their scanners were left at the rendezvous point so they could ensure they couldn't run away if they panicked. It's here that we see Maxxor use the Song of Resurgence (an Overworld healing Mugic) to fix Kaz up good as new, with Tom and the group finally earning the Overword leader's respect and trust. Even with an army of Mipedian's closing in on the group, Tom and his friends don't run away, not even Reggie once he gets his scanner back; now that's nobility. I won't say how they get out of this mess, but it's a pretty clever idea. In the end, Maxxor destroys his 1/2 of the Cothica map, saying that it's better for the Cothica to be in no hands than the wrong hands. Once they return to Earth, Reggie thanks Tom and Kaz for all that they've done and looks forward to future adventures in Perim. And while Tom has the chance to get Reggie's Maxxor card from his collection as promised, he and Kaz decline the offer, saying that next time he wants to get a scan of the real deal and that Reggie will need them for future matches.

I have no idea who owns Chaotic currently since 4Kids shut down, could somebody tell me this info?

1001 Animations is from

Regulss314