Le Masque de Fer

[igenlode]

La trahison d'Aramis/L'arrestation d'Athos (episodes 42 & 43 of Sous le Signe des Mousquetaires): even with the now somewhat predictable plotline of the King's double having emerged, this series is very effective viewing precisely because and not despite of the fact that it is not following canon. Milady has inevitably betrayed Richelieu (neither of whom of course exist in the original Louis XIV timeline!), so we now have the intriguing scenario of Rochefort vowing to prove the Cardinal's innocence, which will potentially put him on the same side as our protagonists in the future; meanwhile Aramis has 'betrayed' the others by agreeing (on what appears to be a private inspiration of her own) to replace Tréville, who has resigned his post in disgust. Which ingeniously re-enacts the plotline of "The Man in the Iron Mask" in which the characters end up on opposite sides of the political conflict, while using the very different Aramis of this version... (although since it is a children's show the voiceover at the start of the next episode is at pains to reassure the viewer that Aramis has excellent reasons for agreeing to serve under the conspirators' orders, and Athos, perceptive as ever, manages to get a few private words of admission out of her after surrendering himself so that Porthos can escape arrest, so that the trust between them is re-established).

The target audience may be juvenile, the animation primitive, and the combat of the variety where twenty enemies attack politely one at a time and suffer nothing worse than being knocked down or tossed into the water (the only characters who ever seem to get wounded are the protagonists themselves, for the purposes of occasional angst!), but the character designs are simple and expressive in a few lines, and the series manages to make me genuinely care about the outcome -- and enjoy being surprised by unexpected sophistications in the plot.