- This article is about an episode of that title. For the location, see Vale of the Unicorns (location).
"Vale of the Unicorns" is the eighteenth episode of Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders. It is a character episode for Moondance. Its international titles include Catalan "La vall dels unicorns", French "La Vallée des licornes", German "Das Tal der Einhörner", Italian "La vallata degli unicorni", Portuguese "La Vallée des licornes", Russian "Приключение единорогов" ("Unicorn Adventure"), Serbo-Croat "Staza jednoroga", and Spanish "El valle de los Unicornios".
The unicorns, the most magical animals in Avalon, are in danger. Sierra, the Queen of the Unicorns, is missing and a successor must take her place. The leadership must fall upon one of her relatives. Moondance, a daughter of Sierra, must go to the magical place and preform a series of tests to determine whether she should become the new Queen. The Jewel Riders journey to learn about the mysterious secret of the unicorn magic. Moondance must choose where her loyalties lie, becoming the new Queen or staying with her best friend, Fallon.
Plot summary[]
On some rocky seashore somewhere outside Avalon, the evil Morgana appears to force Sierra the Unicorn Queen to walk the Path and retrieve the Unicorn Jewel, which is apparently one of the Wizard Jewels. But Sierra walks off the Path on purpose and mysteriously vanishes to not allow Morgana to get the jewel.
Now without a ruler, all the unicorns are summoned to the titular Vale of the Unicorns to observe or participate in a series of trials. Shadowsong, being the resident unicorn who does not live with the Jewel Riders in New Camelot, has the honor of summoning Moondance, Sunstar, and Cleo from the Crystal Palace to the Vale. The Jewel Riders accompany them and arrive too.
At the Vale, Sunstar's father explains that, with Sierra missing, the descendants of the first unicorn have to undergo the trials in order to become the new unicorn monarch. The participants are Violet, Toriel, Kiernan, and Moondance. Unfortunately, none of the unicorns can have magical help of any sort, so Moondance has to give up her Moon Stone during the trial. And if Moondance succeeds, she has to quit being Fallon's special friend, to Fallon's despair.
Moondance undergoes the trial in a labyrinth filled with Indiana Jones style death traps and invisible paths. Kiernan decides to follow Moondance the whole way, because he thinks that is the easiest way to survive. Moondance helps him when he nearly falls off the invisible path.
Meanwhile, the Jewel Riders decide to figure out what happened to Sierra. They check out the Path, which sends unicorns who fail to walk it correctly into the Wild Magic with no way out. The girls summon the Gliders to send them into the Wild Magic, where they succeed to find not only Sierra, still alive, but also another version of the Path. By this time, Moondance and Kiernan have reached the actual Path, and they decide to walk it together.
But then Morgana appears and forces them to retrieve the Unicorn Jewel. After Moondance and Fallon help each other walk the path, the Jewel Riders and Sierra escape from the Wild Magic, while Moondance uses the Unicorn Jewel to destroy Morgana's power in the land.
Unfortunately, it seems that Kiernan and the jewel are lost to the Wild Magic after the battle. But then Kiernan shows up with the jewel, thus proving that he can be a decent Unicorn King in the future. Sierra gives the Unicorn Jewel to the Jewel Riders so it can never fall in the hands of evil, and pledges for all the unicorns to help the Jewel Riders in their quest against Morgana.
Behind the scenes[]
Original script[]
- Main article: Vale of the Unicorns (script)
Avalon: Web of Magic connections[]
- The plot of this episode is basically Cry of the Wolf, in which Stormbringer is summoned to Aldenmor, and Adriane follows her. Adriane and Stormbringer even communicate mentally in the same way as Moondance and Fallon.
- Sierra shows up in Avalon as a human mage who lives outside Carlsbad, New Mexico. She helps the mages hide a herd of unicorn foals in Song of the Unicorns.
- Violet shows up in Song of the Unicorns as one of the unicorn foals.
- Song of the Unicorns also contains a subplot concerning the selection of the new unicorn prince/princess.
- Two Unicorn Jewels show up in Avalon. Kara is equipped with one, and the wishing Power Crystal she finds is shaped like a unicorn horn. The latter is more similar to the one in this episode.
- The Practice Web at the Unicorn Academy is similar to the Path. Both are crystal pathways that lead into the Wild Magic / Magic Web.
Some parts of the episode also resemble elements of the Unicorns of Balinors series by the "Song of the Rainbow" writer Mary Stanton.[1]
Media[]
References[]
External links[]
