Galavant Rewatch 1.2, "Joust Friends"

Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series here.

Galavant begins to return to himself, and others' plans proceed, as the series moves into its main stream of action.

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1.2, "Joust Friends"

Written by Dan Fogelan
Directed by Chris Koch

Synopsis

Snarky singing in process.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Galavant, Isabella, and Sid proceed through the forest until ambushed by bandits. Galavant fights them off with relative ease, to Madalena's acclaim. Richard soon appears to mock him for his pantlessness--and Galavant wakes from a dream to Isabella's rebuke. Galvant determines to proceed on a heroic journey--in song, while Sid and Isabella comment wryly about the affair.

It becomes clear that Galavant has work to do to return to fighting trim, and entry in an advertised joust is offers him an opportunity to carry out that work, as well as to fund their progress towards Valencia.

The professor is in...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Meanwhile, in Valencia, Richard's gustatory habits disgust Madalena and Gareth. Richard is confused by her reaction and consults with Gareth, who purposes to teach him greater "manliness" to earn Madalena's respect.

At the joust, Galavant is recognized by staff and by another knight who taunts him; Sid wagers Isabella's jewel as Galavant's entry fee. The two knights exchange juvenile barbs, and Isabella makes sure that he has time to prepare, arguing that he need not fight through preliminaries based upon his reputation. The staff at the event agree and give him a bye.

The Flynning's beginning.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

A training montage follows, in which Isabella roundly schools Galavant before he regains his confidence. As is customary, the training seems not to take terribly long. And, as is customary, the character undertaking the training improves substantially. Meanwhile, the knight who had taunted Galavant, Jean Hamm, proceeds through his series of tilts, doing so with relative ease until his match against Galavant is assured. To ensure Galavant's success, however, Isabella drugs Jean Hamm.

At length, the match between Galavant and Hamm proceeds. The effects of Isabella's efforts on Hamm are shown as he staggers, vomiting, to the lists. Galavant rides into the lists, but he suffers the muscular effects of overtraining. Their clash is underwhelming; neither can ride with much speed or skill, and both fall supine from their horses--somehow ending up on the same side of the lists. Galavant rises first, winning the match.*

All the while, in Valencia, following Gareth's tutelage, Richard presents himself to Madalena in a "manlier" aspect. It seems initially to have the desired effect. It does not last, however, and Madalena returns to her scorn for Richard in short order--after solid four-part harmony with Galavant and Isabella.

Discussion

The series continues to revel in its medievalism in the present episode, not least through invoking other dominant perceptions of the medieval. For example, one of the signs Galavant and company pass shows the direction to Game of Thrones's Winterfell. (Again, Shiloh's commentaries on Game of Thrones are well worth your time to read them.) And the historically inaccurate, small-scale jousting tournament is itself a common feature of medievalist works, compressing the Middle Ages temporally and sanitizing it substantially.

The present episode also makes both overt and subtle references to medieval literature and record. Aside from the (too-clean, too highly-produced) surface trappings of clothing, armor, and castles, early in the episode, Galavant makes to inspect bent and broken foliage. He displays a hunter's skills, which are commonly associated with chivalric and noble characters. The Malorian Sir Tristram, in particular, is noted for his outdoorsman's skills, being ascribed the author of a seminal text on the topic.

Too, and in something that medieval literature admits of far more than medievalist work tends to, the series shows Richard--shows several characters, in fact, but Richard most of all--as openly emoting. Medieval literature abounds with dramatic declarations and the overt signs of feeling, in contrast to the staid and stoic masculinity that Gareth, in the first episodes of the series, appears to emblematize and that much prevailing culture valorizes. And it is clear that the characters are not rebuked for being emotional in itself, which is a welcome thing to see--and one solidly in line with chivalric source materials.

How such things progress will be interesting to see...

*Among the spoils of victory is a chicken. There is an unfortunate short scene focusing on Sid's delight at getting to eat said chicken--which brings to mind particular racist tropes that the producers did not need to invoke and would have done well to avoid. Again, then, while the series does well to feature persons of color and to make them more than caricature--indeed, many of the attendees at the jousting event are persons of color, and they are no more or less present than any other audience member; they are normalized through unheralded inclusion--it seemingly cannot help but play into old discourse that, on review, sours enjoyment of what might otherwise be a simple good time.