Spellbinder 2
Spellbinder 2 ("Land of the Dragon Lord") is an Australian-Polish-Chinese fantasy adventure TV series, featuring its protagonists travelling between parallel worlds, from 1997. The series is based entirely on present-day English, but when thinking about how languages in different worlds could have diverged, I created a chart to better understand who's actually going where. There is no conlang-related content on this page, but Spellbinder fans might still find it interesting, so I'm making it available here.
Jumps Between Worlds
Overview of all jumps
| Jump No. |
Worlds and Characters | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dragon Lord | Australia | Spellbinder | Immortals | Molochs | Australia B | Monsters | |
| Episode #1: The Trans-Dimensional Bamboo Boat | |||||||
| - | Mek Sun |
Kathy Josh Vicky Carl |
Ashka | ||||
| 1 | Sun | Kathy Josh Vicky Carl Mek |
Ashka | ||||
| 2 | Sun | Josh Vicky Carl |
Ashka Mek Kathy |
||||
| Episode #2: Ashka | |||||||
| 3 | Sun Mek Kathy Ashka |
Josh Vicky Carl |
|||||
| Episode #3: The Dragon Lord | |||||||
| 4 | Kathy Ashka |
Josh Vicky Carl Mek Sun |
|||||
| 5 | Kathy Ashka Josh Vicky Carl Mek Sun |
||||||
| Episode #4: Oracle | |||||||
| - | |||||||
| Episode #5: Marooned in a World of Monsters | |||||||
| 6 | Kathy Josh Vicky Carl |
Ashka Mek Sun |
|||||
| 7 | Kathy Josh Vicky Carl Ashka Mek |
Sun | |||||
| Episode #6: Attack of the Thirty-Metre Warrior | |||||||
| - | |||||||
| Episode #7: Josh, the Water Spirit | |||||||
| 8 | Josh Vicky Carl Ashka Mek |
Sun Kathy |
|||||
| Episode #8: Sun Becomes a Star | |||||||
| - | |||||||
| Episode #9: Designation Day | |||||||
| 9 | Josh Vicky Carl Ashka Mek Sun Kathy |
||||||
| Episode #10: The Oracle is Dead | |||||||
| 10 | Josh Vicky Carl Ashka Sun |
Mek Kathy |
|||||
| Episode #11: The Only Child in the World | |||||||
| - | |||||||
| Episode #12: Girl for Sale | |||||||
| - | |||||||
| Episode #13: To Live Forever | |||||||
| - | |||||||
| Episode #14: Barbarians at the Gate | |||||||
| - | |||||||
| Episode #15: The Best-Laid Plans… | |||||||
| 11 | Josh Vicky Carl Ashka Sun |
Mek Kathy |
|||||
| Episode #16: Graveyard of Machines | |||||||
| - | |||||||
| Episode #17: The Hunter and the Haunting | |||||||
| - | |||||||
| Episode #18: Stop the Moloch! | |||||||
| 12 | Josh Vicky Carl Ashka Sun Mek Kathy |
||||||
| Episode #19: Escape from the Palace | |||||||
| 13 | Josh Vicky Carl Sun Mek Kathy |
Ashka | |||||
| 14 | Josh Vicky Carl Sun Mek Kathy (boat only) |
Ashka | |||||
| Episode #20: Kathy Meets… Herself | |||||||
| 15 | Vicky Carl Sun Mek |
Ashka Josh Kathy |
|||||
| Episode #21: The Doublecross | |||||||
| - | |||||||
| Episode #22: On The Trail | |||||||
| - | |||||||
| Episode #23: The Two Joshes | |||||||
| - | |||||||
| Episode #24: Who's Who? | |||||||
| 16 | Vicky Carl Sun Mek Josh Kathy |
Ashka | |||||
| 17 | Vicky Carl Mek |
Ashka Sun Josh Kathy |
|||||
| Episode #25: The Disappearing Act | |||||||
| 18 | Vicky Carl Mek Ashka Sun Josh Kathy |
||||||
| 19 | Vicky Carl Mek Ashka |
Sun Josh Kathy |
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| 20 | Vicky Carl Mek Ashka Sun Josh Kathy |
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| Episode #26: A Wedding Surprise | |||||||
| A | Vicky Carl Ashka Sun Josh Kathy |
Mek | |||||
| 21 | Vicky Carl Ashka Sun Josh Kathy |
Mek | |||||
| 22 | Vicky Carl Josh Kathy |
Mek | Ashka Sun |
||||
| 23 | Sun | Vicky Carl Josh Kathy |
Mek | Ashka | |||
The new arrivals are marked in bold.
The number "A" refers to the newly built big boat for moving Sharak's people from the Land of the Dragon Lord to the Land of the Molochs.
If no number is given, no travelling happened within the episode.
Statistics
Total number of travellers: 7 (and in one instance, the boat travels without passengers)
Total number of jumps: 23 (or 24 if we include the new big boat)
Average number of travels per episode: 0.88 (or 0.92 if we include the new big boat)
Longest stay: World of the Immortals (4 episodes without travelling)
Overall, the writers did a good job of balancing the number of travels to almost 1 per episode, without overusing the boat as a plot device, with a little more travel towards the beginning and the end of the series, to get the viewers excited and to resolve the story. Personally, I found the World of the Immortals interesting and didn't mind no travelling going on for a while.
Number of travels per character
| Character | Travels |
|---|---|
| Kathy | 14 |
| Mek | 11 |
| Sun | 11 |
| Josh | 8 |
| Ashka | 7 |
| Vicky | 2 |
| Carl | 2 |
| (boat only) | 1 |
Obviously, the main characters Kathy and Mek get the most amount of travels. Also, Sun has a surprisingly high number of travels, considering that he got quite scared on his first trip to Kathy's world (the "real" Australia). In contrast, Vicky and Carl travel very little, basically they just go from Australia to the Land of Dragon Lord and back once. Kathy's and Josh's parents from the alternate Australia (Australia B) never leave their world, despite alternate Carl helping them with a lot of travelling towards the end of the series.
Worlds visited by character
| Character | Count | Worlds |
|---|---|---|
| Kathy | 6 | Dragon Lord, Australia, Spellbinder, Immortals, Molochs, Australia B |
| Mek | 5 | Dragon Lord, Australia, Spellbinder, Immortals, Molochs |
| Ashka | 5 | Dragon Lord, Australia, Spellbinder, Australia B, Monsters |
| Sun | 4 | Dragon Lord, Australia, Australia B, Monsters |
| Josh | 3 | Dragon Lord, Australia, Australia B |
| Vicky | 2 | Dragon Lord, Australia |
| Carl | 2 | Dragon Lord, Australia |
Interestingly, there is no single character who actually visits all seven worlds in the series. If we exclude the World of the Monsters, which is just intended as punishment for Ashka at the end of the series and doesn't get a relevant amount of screentime, Kathy is the only character to visit all worlds. (Needless to say, the boat itself has been to all worlds.)
Copyright © 2021 by Thomas Heller [ˈtoːmas ˈhɛlɐ]