Huntik: Secrets and Seekers "Home Turf" Talkback (Spoilers)

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Meet the cast of Huntik: Secrets and Seekers

The Huntik Foundation:

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Lok Lambert was just a normal, fun-loving high school kid, struggling to stay awake in his classes and wishing for a life of adventure. After finding his father's Amulet and becoming a Seeker, Lok puts his enthusiasm, intuition and natural talent to the test as he is introduced to Sophie Casterwill, Dante Vale, and the world of Seekers in Huntik. A childhood playing games with his father has gifted Lok Lambert with an uncanny knack for puzzles, and now Lok takes on ancient riddles every day of the week. Learning under fire, Lok improves by leaps and bounds, on his way to becoming a top Huntik Seeker. When he needs a hand, he calls on Cherit, a capricious winged Titan who is filled with wise advice on the ancient world of Titans and Seekers.


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Sophie Casterwill is a book-smart, athletic, honorable and clever young lady of about Lok's age. She seems to be quite proper and mature, but she's not afraid to dish out some punishment when the action gets rolling. Sophie thinks that what she learns in books can prepare her for the real world, and that gets her into trouble. As the last surviving noble of the Casterwill family, Sophie has been raised from birth to be a Seeker. She is not actually part of the Huntik Foundation, but they have an alliance based on the need to fight evil. When talking gets to nowhere, Sophie Casterwill uses powerful attack and defense magic along with Sabriel, an elegant Titan that favors speed over brawn.

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As the top Operative of the Huntik Foundation, Dante Vale is the king of treasure hunters. With the mind of a hard-boiled detective, the body of an extreme sports athlete and the nerves of a cowboy gunslinger at High Noon, Dante leads the team and serves as a big-brother to Lok. Dante Vale is the Huntik Foundation's top Seeker and the leader of the adventuring group of Lok, Sophie, and Zhalia. Known worldwide for his wit, strength, and collection of powerful Titans, Dante is a friend to every hero and an enemy to every villain. Along with his signature Titan, the powerful Caliban, Dante Vale has played an enormous role in several major events in the modern Seeker world.

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Zhalia Moon is a tough, streetwise, elegant and a capable lone wolf, always ready to take on her team's good humor with her sharp tongue and sarcasm. Few understand the true Zhalia Moon. The variety of roles she has played in the lives of those around her is vast: orphan, daughter, protege, operative, villain, hero, and friend.


The Organization:

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The ultimate dominator, The Professor lives to control. He is capable of being sly and manipulative, but rarely has to resort to such actions. Normally, the absolute fear he inspires is enough. The Professor has no ethics, and will do anything to expand The Organization and his power base. He is also the type who likes to manage every facet of The Organization himself, and make every decision personally. If any of his underlings fail him, he will not hesitate to have them removed.


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Defoe is a scheming, self-proclaimed mastermind. He leads the small force ordered to track down Lok?s journal and demands total obedience, even though his tactics often put his own men in serious danger. Defoe is willing to do anything to complete his missions, no matter how depraved and evil. Alongside his loyal right-hand man, Grier, DeFoe's mission has been the same for months: track Dante Vale and his team of Huntik Foundation Seekers and stop them from interfering in the Organization's plans. With endless hatred, Huntik DeFoe pursues Dante and friends using his squad of Suit operatives, his signature Titan, the venomous Kreutalk, and an array of poisonous powers.

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[FONT=Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]Grier serves as Defoe's right hand man. Rarely speaking, he seems to be an ordinary thug at first, but he carries himself with a subtle nobility. Grier believes that with The Organization's domination, there will come universal order that will keep all people in line and prevent wars. In combat, Grier uses magic that makes him faster and much stronger than any normal human. With him fights Breaker, a mighty Titan that hits hard with a combination of strength and speed.[/FONT]


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[FONT=Tahoma,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]The Suits are the lowest minions of The Organization. Dressed in dark suits, they are the pawns Organization operatives use to achieve their nefarious goals. The Suits' greatest asset is their sheer numbers, but they also make capable[/FONT]spies and are excellent at information gathering. In battle, The Suits fight with a variety of magic and Titans. Just as The Organization brings about cold, unfeeling order with the help of savage evil deeds, its troops fight both with the cold Mindrone and the savage Redcap.
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Huntik: Secrets & Seekers: Episode 13: Home Turf

Original American air date: March 28, 2009

Lok goes to county Kerry, Ireland, to visit his mom and sister. Dante and the others come along for some rest and relaxation -- or so they think.​
 
Today's is the last new episode for the near future (at least through the month of April) -- so you can catch up (somewhat) from the beginning next week.

Also, the show moves to 7:00 a.m. on April 11.
 
Defoe and Grier are gone (they don't appear in the rest of season 1 at all), but now we finally get to delve into Zhalia's past. Also, it's good to learn a little bit about Lok's past outside of his mysterious Father, and Lunar and Solar are still awesome baby with a capital A.
 
During the first minute of the series, the TV signal for the CW conked out and was replaced with informercials, and the show didn't return until the last 7 minutes. Did this happen to anyone else? In any case, it really sucks, since from what I saw, this episode seemed like one of the better ones. In fact, a pattern has been emerging; the better episodes are commonly the ones featuring guest-star Huntik Foundation/Organization members.
 
Ok, here are my thoughts on this ep:

1. I thought it was great meeting Lok's mom and learning she was once part of the Huntik Foundation herself.:) I'm also glad that she's ok with Lok being part of Hunrik, seeing he can pretty much handle himself.

2. It's too bad Lok's sister, Kathy, doesn't know about Huntik. It's probably too dangerous for her.

3. I'd sure like to know what's the connection with Klaus & Zhalia.

4. I thought the battle against the Organization in those caves was terrific.:D However, what I didn't like about it was when one of the suits was draining Dante's energy and Zhalia didn't do anything about it!:(

5. I'm glad Zhalia chose not to use drain Dante's health with that amulet.:sweat: I liked how she gave it some serious thought.:)

6. In the second battle, I thought it was great when Scarlet and Lok's mom joined in the fun with their own titans!:D

7. I'm glad Zhalia lied to Klausabout "not getting the chance" to drain Dante's health.

A great ep. 4 stars.:D I really hope we learn more about the connection with Klaus & Zhalia in the near future.
 
This was definatly a good episode of Huntik, but I felt that a few parts seemed rushed and at one point they went into a commercial while Dante was in the middle of a sentence, it felt a little strange. Overall though I did feel the episode was a good one and we got to see a little bit of Lok's family, which was cool, my only complaints with this episode is the overuse of the same Titans over and over and the feeling that some things felt rushed with the dialog. One thing that I love about this series is the animation style, it's just so crisp and true to life right down to the hair movement of the characters, not a lot of animated series can compete with the artistry of this show.
 
Well, so ends what has been a pretty decent half-season. Too bad 4kids won't continue but I guess they don't have much of a choice, the 2nd season won't be ready for a LONG while so they have to stretch the 1st season out quite a bit. But what a way to leave it off, with Zhalia revealed to be an enemy agent (albeit one with major conflictions because she's developed feelings for Dante), the possible start of a Scarlet/Lok/Sophie love triangle and signs of the Organizations having new villains in place of Defoe (who may be dead or mutilated) or Grier. And considering the Foundation almost lost this one . . . these guys could be serious threats indeed.

The animation's been up and down, and this was somewhere in the middle. It had its choppy moments, it had its smooth moments. Overall, the major appeal of the animation is the backgrounds, which are absolutely gorgeous. When they aren't relying on stock animation as much the fights are generally better off, but when they rely on stock animation too much (like episode 3 in particular) it can make the battles difficult to follow.

The music is much the same way. It's like a poor man's Motoi Sakuraba. The orchestrated stuff is great and occasionally memorable, the 80's-style prog-metal guitars not so much.

The characters are okay. Lok is generic and hasn't developed an awful lot other than he has begun to snap a bit in the last two episodes, but the adults like Dante, Zhalia, and Grier stand out a little more and have showcased more development (ESPECIALLY Zhalia, who by far is the most original and intriguing character IMO).

The voice acting has been pretty good. The VA for Sophie has been doing good work, I can count the amount of times her accent has slipped on one hand for the first 13 episodes. Yuri Lowenthal, Marc Thompson, and Karen Strassman have also been doing strong performances (although Thompson also has a weak performance as Cherit). I think my favorite is Richard Epcar as Grier, though. I also like the use of foreign accents in this dub, it lends an aura of authenticity and they are far stronger than a typical 4kids dub.

So, for the first 13 episodes, I give Huntik a solid B. They have a solid foundation going (ha ha), now let's see if they can experiment with the formula more and amp it up, the show's got the right stuff but it hasn't begun standing out from the pack too much yet.
 
You can watch eps on the 4Kids website.

While the show is reminiscent of both Winx Club and W.I.T.C.H., I don't think Huntik has been as good through the first 13 eps than either of the others. However, there is room for good story and character development and this ep hints at some of both. It'll be interesting to see if anything comes of Zhalia's possible trechery or a possible romance involving the main characters. I'll be waiting for new eps to air at some point.
 
One thing I thought was kind of neat was that both Sophie and Lok seemed kind of surprised by their own feelings there. Sophie seemed kind of surprised that Lok and Scarlet holding hands bothered her and Lok was surprised that it bothered Sophie.

Figuring out puzzles and magic can be easy, figuring out emotions can be hard. :p
 
So far the show seems rushed, and rough around the edges. I forgot who said this but someone here said that it feels like some ones first attempt at a cartoon and that the person has some great ideas but does not know the best ways to use them. I agree. The show could be great later on and it's already quite good.
 
This episode was really fantastic. Yeah, it seemed rushed, but there wasn't a moment wasted. Four new major characters were introduced - Sandra Lambert, Cathy Lambert, Scarlet and Klaus - we learn of Zhalia's betrayal (although it was foreshadowed previously), there was a glimpse at a possible romance between Lok and Sophie and we got excellent battles with stronger-than-normal Suits with new, more powerful Titans.

You know...when Dante says to Zhalia, "I knew I could trust you," I thought for an instant that he might know of Zhalia's treachery. The way Thompson delivered that line and his facial expression just seemed suspicous. But either way, you know you have a quality show on your hands when you become invested in the characters' motives and actions.

And FYI, although the episodes will go into reruns on TV this week, 4Kids will continue to upload a new Huntik episode every Thursday to 4KidsTV.com. I'm not sure whether this will start today (4/2) or next week (4/9), but I plan to make talkbacks either way (and then bump them when the episodes eventually air on TV).
 
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