Disenchantment Part 3: A Bi-Con 3 Years in the Making
When December came around, I anxiously scoured the web for the release date of the next part of Matt Groening’s latest fantasy comedy that was due to be released by year’s end. Seeing the release date not pop up until the streamer’s January dates shot me with pain as well as relief — perhaps the delays were to devoting more time towards a well-rounded season. I was wrong.
Part 3 suffers from the same issue that plagued is predecessors: consistency. Part 1 ended in climatic reunion of mother and daughter following a series of fetch quests; Part 2 a surprising twist ending a trail of MacGuffins. Part 3 blew out of the gate strong, sending our heroes trekking across Groening’s fantasy world to a steampunk socialist society, culminating in a dream and tapering off with medieval musical chairs. That’s not to say the sequence seen midway through the season was not worth it’s build up: Bean was reunited with the Mother who tried to kill her, only to blow her off, steal her kingdom and set off to stop those who wronged her father.
The cliffhanger ending of Part 2 left us wondering what would happen to Odval’s coup and the future of the Og dynasty. Two episodes in, you don’t need to worry no more. The characters of Dreamland face no consequences for their actions. Despite falsely putting Bean on trial, burning her at the stakes and attempting to eliminate Zog, Odval and Sorcerio walk away without a bruise. The first episode features the duo keeping a close eye on Zog and eventually shipping him off in a casket to a graveyard (which he supposes is a good time to light a cigar). But upon Zog’s return with Bean after a journey through the subterranean trog complex, the two cherish their return, reluctant to remove Derrick from power. Sneaking a gun up her sleeve, the Archdruidess appears to have a plan to eliminate the royal family at Derrick’s wedding. But Bean catches her trap and calls her out, to which we see a standoff before she escapes via motorcycle. Through the remainder of the season Odval and Bean have a competitive eye on each other, but neither makes any significant moves for power.
Perhaps one of the more developed character relationships seen in this batch is the reunion of Bean with her step-mother Oona. With both of them safeguarding Zog’s reign over the kingdom from threats inside the kingdom, they decide it would be a good idea to do drugs. As Bean says, she delightedly breaks the evil stepmother trope, as the two dash off running in circles around the castle. Bean also seeks comfort with Oona about the dream she had with Mora the Mermaid, during which Bean was rescued by her and the two bond under the stars before fornicating in the sand. Bean avoids directly mentioning with who she is in love, but seeks advice from Oona nonetheless. Oona shakes off her seriousness, saying how she was once in love with Zog but the two ultimately wed to strengthen the alliance of their kingdom (she also reveals she was in love with Zog’s relative Yog, lamenting how she definitely has a type).
This season also sees Bean’s former fiance return in prominence. While hunting a monster that ravages a Dreamland village, the rain washes away the monster’s coat to reveal human Merkimer, alive but with the voice of a pig. Pig Merkimer walks up in shock, and decides to latch onto his body and maneuver his arms, taking the guise of a human Merkimer restored to his body (with a pig friend by his side). Merkimer and Bean venture to Merkimer’s homeland to request aid for an oncoming war with Steamland. During the return trip, Merkimer regains control of the throne and orders Bean, Luci and Elfo to the dungeon. Happy to be in charge, and brushing aside the noble reason they came to his homeland, Merkimer resumes his lazy and gluttonous lifestyle. While in the pub, his human form passes out from too much beer, and pig Merkimer overhears the villagers laugh at how he’s still a drunk slob after all these years. Ashamed to not be loved by anyone, pig Merkimer proceeds to rescue Bean and return them to Dreamland, albeit without any of the goods they originally came for.
Merkimer’s humility proves to be the last moment of development for the remainder of the season — we see the menacing green smoke built up throughout the last few episodes turn out to be sausages from a cart run by Luci’s demon hunter, Bean becomes queen after Zog’s mind becomes mush and trolls attack the castle, reminiscent of the very first episode. Disenchantment seems to be running in circles rather than pushing the advancement of any of it’s characters forward. Dagmar disappears for the majority of the season, killing off the suspense built from Part 2’s cliffhanger ending. The trog’s remain ignored for the bulk of the season, save for another cameo in the puppet store and poking some ogre eyes out at the end. Bean becomes queen, but her encounter with the mermaid seems without any real follow-up except to push the masculine tomboy trope further. The King Elf and Leavo discovered some throne under the castle towards the end of Part 3, but besides that the elves sat idly for the majority of the season. This batch had many opportunities to shift and develop it’s characters deeper, but at every turn where an interesting choice was made we dash off for a heavily board-driven gag that runs on for just too long and forget those characters for the remainder of the season. Disenchantment has all the pieces to create a compelling arch for it’s queer bi-con, but the gags and lack of follow-through with it’s captivating choices leave the paths of each character unresolved and lacking.
