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Late! You win some and you lose some! (遅い！　勝ちもある、負けもある！)

ElamenSTAR (GT) Episode 310

Aired 11th December, 1998

Summary

Disaster! The Four Underdogs have been lured into a trap. Deep below the streets of Middleclang, in the darkest reaches of the sewers, Dr Eggchair has revealed his true identity - the fiendish Devastation Moo Maa. The episode beings with Devastation Moo Maa taunting the Four Underdogs about their impending demise at his hands. The scene is set for a truly Epic confrontation, as the Four Underdogs prepare to "kick it into overgear".

The scene then cuts back up to Middleclang, where a strange tournament is taking place. It's the final round of the greatest dwarfball championship in all Battal, the Dwarferbowl. There follows a strange, rather pointless five minute digression on the history of the sport, narrated, for some unknown reason, in excruciatingly bad English. Eventually, the point of this digression becomes clear. As all of the citizens of Middleclang gather to watch the Dwarferbowl, they must pinch their bowels and bladders throughout the entire (4 hour) first half of the game. As soon as the half-time break arrives, there is an exodus towards every privvy in Middleclang. We see the referee blow the half-time whistle.

Back in the sewers, the Four Underdogs are on the ropes, unable to match the speed and fury of Devastation Moo Maa's assault. As Devastation Moo Maa closes in for the kill, he is overwhelmed by a vast, foul, stinking tidal wave. The Four Underdogs are also swept away on the current.

When the Four Underdogs come to, Devastation Moo Maa is nowhere to be seen and the cursed sword which unleashed Devastation Moo Maa's power is lying at their feet. The Underdogs realise that they must beat Devastation Moo Maa back to the strange contraption, if they are to re-seal his power. Sadly, after a lengthy sequence in which they charge heroically through the sewers to the accompanyment of a truly Epic instrumental score, they find their path to the contraption already blocked by Devastation Moo Maa. At this point, exhausted, soaked and covered from head to toe in filth, the Four Underdogs decide to simply call it a day and go home.

Notes

The five minute dwarfball interlude in this episode has always been deeply unpopular with fans. Not, as one might expect, because it is tedious, badly animated (consisting mostly of badly-drawn still frames) and breaks the flow of an otherwise exciting episode, but rather because, in implying that dwarfball has remained so popular so long after the Magic Sword Kings era, it is deeply uncanonical.

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