'Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet' Season 1 Episode 3 Review: The team defeats Nazis with a strange ploy
'Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet' has been deftly tackling numerous problems plaguing the video game industry. After taking on the problem of monetization, the show deals with the worrying threat of 'Nazis' taking over the game, after the online community points it out and calls them 'white supremacists'. It wasn't as good as the first two episodes, but it was fun in parts.
Remember the shovel tool shown in the first episode? Well, it's back and not for the best reasons. The Nazis in 'Mythic Quest' are using the shovel to build swastikas into the ground. Players are worried about this rise of Nazism in the game. The developers are baffled about the new dilemma, and the whole episode focuses on how they decide to sort it out. While the previous episode had a subplot, this one just showed how the team tried to solve the Nazi problem. Brad Bakshi (Danny Pudi) dupes David Brittlesby (David Hornby) into setting up an ethics committee, in the hope that David gets distracted and forgets about banning the Nazis. Meanwhile, Poppy Li (Charlotte Nicdao) decides that she will have a 'dinner party' on the game, where everyone will come together and bash Fascism. Her idea doesn't go as well as she plans, and Poppy takes to bed, glum. However, Ian Grimm (Rob McElhenney) gives her a sharp boost of confidence and a feel-good pep talk, and Poppy's back on her feet again. This was the slightly ingratiating part of the episode. Poppy is efficient and hardworking. Does she really need the validation of a male boss, who has proved himself to be quite the narcissistic mansplainer?
Ian has a different way of handling the Nazis. He crafts new cosmetics for them to purchase, including a Hitler salute. Yet, he has a plan in mind-- he wants to oust the Nazis on their own server.
It's a strange solution, and the show clearly wants to play it rather safe. The idea is that Nazis should not be banned or silenced on social media platforms, but instead, just be pushed into another server.
The second episode also had a rather mild reaction to the cons of monetization. Perhaps the show prefers to keep it funny and slick, but it needs to also think about the message it focuses on.
'Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet' is streaming on Apple TV+.
