
Of all the stories Regular Show could have possibly told, I donât think any of us were expecting the show to do a riff on the true story of the Tichborne claimant with a potato sack-wearing, time-shifted knight trying to pass himself off as a dead, ultra-destructive rock star. Regular Show doesnât really go in for normal episodes, but it at least tends to spin its distinctive craziness out of a relatively straightforward, even mundane premise. Mordecai and Rigby might routinely rip open the doors to hellish other realms, but these travails usually kick off with them going to get the donuts, or buying the worldâs most awesome sandwich, or making their friend attempt the gallon challenge, or some other such young adult silliness. âAce Balthazar Lives,â on the other hand, starts ridiculous and piles lunacy on top of lunacy until the final revelation, in which the ghostly Ace Balthazar shows up to out the imposter, actually seems downright plausible in comparison to all thatâs come before.
As a Behind The Bands episode helpfully explains, Adrenaline was the most epic band of all-time (of 1984), and frontman Ace Balthazar was their unquestioned leader and key to their greatness. Ace took the bandâs name deadly seriously, proclaiming during shows that he had an adrenaline rush and was about to crash. Of course, while an adrenaline crash is typically associated with a sudden loss of energy, Ace interpreted âcrashingâ as the signal for wanton destruction, and so his concerts became excuses for obliterating all of the bandâs equipment. This craving for carnage (an appetite for destruction, if you will) quickly bled over into his personal life, ultimately leading to his fiery death in a bus crash. Now, nearly 30 years later, his extremely well-preserved bandmatesâseriously, those are some muscular washed-up rockersâspend their days together in a hot tub reminiscing about their fallen friend and wondering about what might have been.
In a particularly shameless bit of lazy plotting (not that that is necessarily a bad thing), the Behind The Bands episode mentions a recent sighting of Ace that happened to occur right outside Mordecai and Rigbyâs house, with their old acquaintance the Knight posited as Balthazar. A traveler from another, more medieval time and place who previously appeared in the episode âMuscle Woman,â the Knight seems like an unlikely candidate, particularly since his previous episode really seemed to confirm that he did indeed come from the Middle Ages. Itâs hard to say whether weâre supposed to think of Ace and the Knight being the same person as a serious possibility. For all its insanity, Regular Show generally respects its own continuity, although those who missed the Knightâs previous appearance arenât given any particular reason during âAce Balthazar Livesâ to think the Knight couldnât potentially be Ace. Honestly, the whole conceit might just be a rather clever meta-joke about the showâs simple, rather repetitive designs for its human characters. I certainly wouldnât be shocked if there are other one-off characters that could be transformed into the spitting image of Ace Balthazar just as easily.
Mordecai and Rigby are the only park employees to show up in the episodeâindeed, other than their bit parts in âThe Longest Weekend,â Pops and Skips have barely appeared in the 2013 episodes thus farâand yet they still somehow manage to feel like supporting players, with the Knight taking on protagonist duties. Mordecai and Rigby want Adrenaline to get back together, and they want the Knight to be Ace Balthazar, so that their dream can come true⌠and thatâs really all they have to contribute. Itâs the Knight who decides to play along in the hopes of earning their friendship, itâs the Knight who agrees to the makeover even when it means surrendering the knightly honor that is his oat bag helmet, and itâs the Knight who proves himself worthy when the ghost of Ace shows up. Now, the Knight is a fun character, and the creative team puts a surprising amount of work into presenting a halfway authentic depiction of his medieval worldview and language. Sure, he pretty much just acts like a holdover from some corny kidâs movie about the Knights of the Round Table, but even that is a radical, refreshing departure from the slacker ethos that pervades most of the showâs characters.
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Even so, the show of late has been a little too quick to sideline Mordecai and Rigby, to make them observers rather than participants. Rigbyâs early proclamations about the right way to eat oats and Adrenalineâs general awesomeness are great character moments, and he gets some fun lines where heâs clearly freaked out by the Knightâs behavior. But Mordecai in particular feels far too thinly drawn in this episode, as thereâs never really a sense of why he cares so much about Adrenaline getting back together. To be sure, he says it would be cool, but thatâs only the shallow beginnings of an answer, not an explanation in its own right. âAce Balthazar Livesâ would have been a much stronger episode if we had some real sense of what Ace and Adrenaline actually mean to Mordecai. Character insights like that are admittedly harder to fit into a quick 11 minutes, but the episode is hardly so action-packed that there wouldnât have been time for the Knight, the ghost of Ace, the other Adrenaline members, Margaret, or even Rigby to simply ask Mordecai whatâs behind all this. As it is, the showâs central character spends the episode as a virtual cipher, and that distinctly limits the episodeâs potential.
That said, the Knight really is a great character, and heâs weird and different enough to make the episode largely successful, even as Mordecai and Rigby donât get to add much. In particular, heâs virtuous and good-natured in a way most Regular Show characters arenât, at least not on the surfaceâSkips is probably the closest, but his goodness is buried under a gruff veneer. The Knightâs wide-eyed curiosity about the modern world is a charming counterpoint to Mordecai and Rigbyâs whole deal, especially when the Knight assumes all technology is full of bands of tiny men, and any deviceâs secrets can be revealed with a swift stroke of the sword. The working-class English accents of the Adrenaline members are a good complement for the Knightâs more rarefied voice, particularly when the Knight takes on the Ace persona but doesnât quite drop his noble accent. His final speech to the ghost of Ace and the disapproving crowd about his love of the modern world and his quest to fit in is weirdly affecting. The final sequence, in which ghost Ace takes back up the guitar and the Knight brings his fellow knights through the portal to enjoy the modern music, is a testament to rockâs power as a unifier, a way to make people drop their usual bullshit and just have some visceral fun together. There are some intriguing themes lurking around the surface of âAce Balthazar Livesâ about rockâs primal power and how it can transcend time and death themselves, about how awesome conquers all. But the episode doesnât do that little bit of digging to really develop these ideas, and so, for all its charms, this remains a relatively minor effort from Regular Show.
Stray observations:
- âIâm the real deal here, and this band is nothing without meâno offense, guys.â âTrue, true/Donât worry about it.â The other Adrenaline members are quite possibly the most well-adjusted rockers ever.
- âIf it is as your culture dictates, then I will don the garb that is necessary to do so.â âWhatever, just try the clothes on.â
- Nice cameo from the showâs other knight, who first appeared in âEggscellent.â
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