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It was... a show that existed. So while watching it, it seemed like a fun mindless trashy fantasy show but overall the recent Dragon Age one was better for the same vibe. But thinking about it for more than a second there's a lot of "why did this even exist?" combined with some of the worst adaptation choices in Season 2 were setup for this. I was switching between "Wow elves are just Velen peasant misery simulator before the humans" as being brilliant or lazy while watching it, but leaning more on lazy now. Also characters such as the Dwarf warrior lean hard into "Bury your gays" tropes and fridging for the backstory. If you're going to bring in Eredin and Avellach into this, at least tie them more to interact with the protagonist character so there's a motivation to go after that bloodline.... Otherwise there's no point merging those characters over to the main Witcher world instead of a parallel elven world. A huge missed opportunity was to go proper Cronenburg on the trial of the grasses. Some good practical effects to make it look like his body was liquefying and changing. Instead the "mature" rating is from a mandatory "fuckity gently caress fuckity bye" at the start of each episode and some extra CG blood splatter? It seems like there were ideas for a good cheesy Xena like show in its own universe (the Empress who wants to do good but is evil due to the road to hell paved by good intentions and the plucky reluctant Marvel-Bioware gigglesquee heroes fighting her over six seasons and a movie) but really just doesn't work as a Witcher show. So in summary, watch the DA one or Cyberpunk Edgerunners instead? Atarask fucked around with this message at 05:55 on Dec 28, 2022 |
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Dec 28, 2022 05:51
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Or watch Arcane, if you haven't already. I was genuinely shocked at how good that show was.
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Dec 28, 2022 08:38
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Arc Hammer posted:The politics tuff in the books is interesting less in itself and more in how it is shown affecting everyday people. The little vignettes showing how the decisions by monarchs change the world are really neat in the books. I liked the little history text blurbs with the different army fronts marching around and loving up, and totally brushing over or misconstruing events that the characters actually participated it
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Dec 28, 2022 13:08
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Atarask posted:Instead the "mature" rating is from a mandatory "fuckity gently caress fuckity bye" at the start of each episode and some extra CG blood splatter? The worst kind of ""mature"".
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Dec 28, 2022 14:30
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thekeeshman posted:Or watch Arcane, if you haven't already. I was genuinely shocked at how good that show was. Oh yeah, this should go without saying for anyone into fantasy poo poo. Arcane was absolutely phenomenal, and completely independent of your experience with League of Legends (don't play league of legends).
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Dec 28, 2022 16:26
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The Witcher books get worse and worse as they continue. Ciris chapters are a slog of misery porn, yennefer spends a decent amount captured, only geralts and the crew are out there having fun
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Dec 28, 2022 19:07
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itry posted:The worst kind of ""mature"". Show me full frontal goddamnit
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Dec 28, 2022 19:07
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Terror Sweat posted:The Witcher books get worse and worse as they continue. Ciris chapters are a slog of misery porn, yennefer spends a decent amount captured, only geralts and the crew are out there having fun The last 2 or so of the main line story are fuckin slogs. So it’s not like changing them for the better is out of the question but it doesn’t seem like there will be any “improvements” emerging.
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Dec 29, 2022 01:35
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I read a lot of fantasy and didn't find any of the Witcher novels to be slogs. There are definitely worse out there, like Stephen King's dark tower book where at the end of one book a character is about to give birth, then there is an entire book that is flashbacks and dumb robot bullshit, then he only gets to the birth in the book after that. Hey Stephen, more like Wolves of poo poo! Also Steven Erikson had chapter after chapter of misery in the later Malazan novels, with children slowly dying as they crawl through a slave mine or a nightmare wasteland. At some point it's like "when will they get to the fireworks factory?" and there is just no payoff. I felt that way about Dark Tower. The (temporarily happy) end of the Witcher series felt earned to me and was about more than just Geralt, which reflects on how the books were told by multiple different narrators, some of whom I believe never even met Geralt but were still integral to the timeline or whatever. Anonymous Zebra posted:There are plenty of great scenes in the main series, Geralt on a ferry trying to hunt a river monster while a scholar keeps trying to convince him that river monsters don't exist, everything leading up to Ciri on the ice skates, Geralt, some dwarfs, and a gnome getting drunk on moonshine while shooting the poo poo with a vegetarian vampire, etc. But the overall plot is not worth the number of books it takes to finish and is not hurt by writers cutting all the fat out to get to the main story. This scene and the one where that mortally wounded guy is begging Ciri to gently caress him are my favorite scenes in the books by far, super hilarious stuff
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Dec 29, 2022 06:17
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Blood Origin was terrible and it drives me mad that every single bad review on IMDB is about the diverse casting. It's not the cast's fault that the show is bollocks guys! The worst bit for me was the generals and mages turned against the kings because they wanted to sign a peace treaty which would put an end to their careers...and used it to unify the kingdoms which surely is a better way to end their careers? It made no sense at all! It reminded me of late stage game of thrones where they killed the Sandsnakes and dorne effectively ceased to exist. I'm STILL not clear on Lenny Henry's motivation. He's lowborn and he hates everyone, but what was he gonna do with his big monster? Especially since they lock him away and his monster doesn't seem to mind?? In fact it basically vanishes until the story needs it again. And for it to use the monoliths and make the conjuction of the spheres into a thing that someone kinda did on purpose was dumb. As well the main characters just being in love after so short a time. A criminal waste of Dylan Moran as well, why even bother having him in it? I feel like they wanted to do what the witcher games did really well and use accents but then just mixed irish and scottish with some english people and called it a day. I also feel like they didn't tell us enough about why they suddenly had no food. Crops failed across the ENTIRE continent? Or what the gently caress an Elfyn is, that was in the subtitles loving loads including a person saying "I didn't think they let Elfyn in the guard". I must have missed a single line explanation? It felt like if it had leaned into being cheesy it might have been good but it didn't, it was just marvel style quippy. God the quips were so loving bad and so in your face as well and that's not including the most obvious one of "come with me if you want to live". Also there was too much not-very-good singing. The singers were good, just the actual songs. The Icelandic elf stopping to sing at The Lark was such a strange bit, related to that. And I don't know who minnie driver was meant to be or why she was telling Dandelion the story. Taear fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Dec 29, 2022 |
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Dec 29, 2022 09:32
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Taear posted:I also feel like they didn't tell us enough about why they suddenly had no food. Crops failed across the ENTIRE continent? Or what the gently caress an Elfyn is, that was in the subtitles loving loads including a person saying "I didn't think they let Elfyn in the guard". I must have missed a single line explanation? The Dwarves buried the monoliths to make these ground above them fertile, then those fields got destroyed when the elves dug them up to get their monoliths
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Dec 31, 2022 01:31
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When did this quip poo poo get really popularized? It certainly can be traced back to the likes of Whedon for sure but when did it get to be the standard for every show written be it appropriate or not.
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Dec 31, 2022 02:48
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Didn’t Whedon bring it to the MCU which probably answers your question…?
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Dec 31, 2022 04:00
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Age of Ultron was the first time it became powerfully, distractingly obvious to me. Every single character was a quip machine, no matter their background or situation, it was awful.
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Dec 31, 2022 04:05
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I think the problem is less with Whedon or Mamet (he's the guy who came up with "Well, THAT happened!" way back in Glengarry Glen Ross), but with writers and executives who've been trying to copy their styles without every really understanding them.
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Dec 31, 2022 08:32
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Kill All Cops posted:The Dwarves buried the monoliths to make these ground above them fertile, then those fields got destroyed when the elves dug them up to get their monoliths I remember her saying that but surely there's not only loving 12 fields in the entire Continent??
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Dec 31, 2022 08:56
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Sadly, and not unsurprisingly with their track record, you've given this about 10,000% more thought than the writers did already
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Dec 31, 2022 13:25
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Jerusalem posted:Age of Ultron was the first time it became powerfully, distractingly obvious to me. Every single character was a quip machine, no matter their background or situation, it was awful. Was that the one with the "Hide the Zucchini" line? Ugh.
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Dec 31, 2022 16:54
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Jerusalem posted:Age of Ultron was the first time it became powerfully, distractingly obvious to me. Every single character was a quip machine, no matter their background or situation, it was awful. Directed by: Joss Whedon Written by: Joss Whedon
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Dec 31, 2022 18:18
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Joss Whedon and Aaron Sorkin have done more damage to popular culture than pretty much anyone imo
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Dec 31, 2022 20:50
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Open Source Idiom posted:I think the problem is less with Whedon or Mamet (he's the guy who came up with "Well, THAT happened!" way back in Glengarry Glen Ross), but with writers and executives who've been trying to copy their styles without every really understanding them. ah yes, classic quip-fest GGR.
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Dec 31, 2022 20:54
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Pattonesque posted:Joss Whedon and Aaron Sorkin have done more damage to popular culture than pretty much anyone imo I see that and raise you JJ Abrams Sorkin only matters to establishment american liberals
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Jan 1, 2023 12:49
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Taear posted:I see that and raise you JJ Abrams JJ's cursed gifts to television and cinema is FASTFASTFASTFASTERDOITNOWDON'TSTOPTOTHINKORFEELJUSTMORECINEMANOW style of pacing where if you're not running and yelling all the time then you're boring, and the disgusting Mystery Box style of storytelling where you're sold on a fun surprise and by the time it comes to open the box and pay off the mystery of what's inside, the box is empty. This is why The Rise of Skywalker is the the most JJ Abrams movie ever made, probably even more so than Super 8 used to be. He then trained an entire team of proteges to do this and inserted them inserted them around Hollywood with his nepotism powers. nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 23:10 on Jan 1, 2023 |
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Jan 1, 2023 23:08
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Taear posted:I see that and raise you JJ Abrams mmm this is very fair Axis of Well ... THAT Happened
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Jan 1, 2023 23:25
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Pattonesque posted:mmm this is very fair It's a triangle diagram between Self-Importance, Creative Bankruptcy, and I literally can't think of a point to cover Joss Whedon in that trifecta because he coves both self-importance and creative bankruptcy at the same time.
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Jan 1, 2023 23:30
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nine-gear crow posted:It's a triangle diagram between Self-Importance, Creative Bankruptcy, and I literally can't think of a point to cover Joss Whedon in that trifecta because he coves both self-importance and creative bankruptcy at the same time. sexual assault?
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Jan 1, 2023 23:51
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it's usually sexual assault yeah. let's say sex pest at minimum to cover the bases
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Jan 2, 2023 22:11
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nine-gear crow posted:He then trained an entire team of proteges to do this and inserted them inserted them around Hollywood with his nepotism powers. This is the problem, really. The Joss Whedon movie formula in a vacuum can be fun, it's just when it's applied to every movie in a hundred major properties that it starts to seem really shallow.
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Jan 3, 2023 00:49
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Holy cannoli. This show was never great, but the prequel makes Joss Whedon look like Shakespeare.
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Jan 3, 2023 01:19
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https://i.imgur.com/tnv8CF2.gifv
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Jan 3, 2023 01:58
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Anonymous Zebra posted:I mean, the actual loving book is actually worse for this than the show has been thus far. Huge stretches of the main series are completely free of Geralt. Yeah I mostly agree with this, I liked the first two seasons for what they were once I realized they were going to be B-tier camp instead of Witcher 3: The Series. I do think the comparisons to Marvel schlock are off base because the show is by and large earnest and serious about what it's showing you (even when it's being silly): the stakes are real and while CHARACTERS are being silly the show was never pointing out "Hey isn't this all dumb and weird?!" to the viewer. Some examples are the episodes about the dragon or the satyr in the first season, which looked like exceedingly dumb Hercules and Xena tier effects, and had quips, but were treated with gravity and substance by the actual plot of the episodes. Tender Bender fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Jan 3, 2023 |
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Jan 3, 2023 06:32
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I enjoyed it because it was B tier camp with Superman killing people with swords and neat CGI.
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Jan 3, 2023 10:53
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Tankbuster posted:I enjoyed it because it was B tier camp with Superman killing people with swords and neat CGI. It wasn't though. That's what it ended up being but it's not what the show feels like, it's not what they want If they'd leaned into the xena air at the end of series 1 it could have been fine
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Jan 3, 2023 17:42
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Taear posted:It wasn't though. That's what it ended up being but it's not what the show feels like, it's not what they want They couldn't really do that because the proportion of monster of the week plots drops steadily as the books progress.
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Jan 3, 2023 18:03
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Edgar Allen Ho posted:Holy cannoli. This show was never great, but the prequel makes Joss Whedon look like Shakespeare. I still have no clue how the plan of "annihilating everyone in favor of ending a three-way thousand year blood feud" somehow results in an immediately united polity when, in reality, the exact opposite would happen. I can forgive things having to move at a rapid pace to fit into a four episode miniseries, but when you get poo poo like the bank scene where those two guards apparently had the world's heaviest doorjam and a flamethrower just hanging around, it breaks believability in a way that makes me start cackling like crazy instead of taking anything even remotely seriously.
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Jan 3, 2023 19:24
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eXXon posted:They couldn't really do that because the proportion of monster of the week plots drops steadily as the books progress. They had plenty more short stories they could do. Instead they decided to re-write the books for some reason.
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Jan 3, 2023 20:24
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Panama Red posted:Their on-screen romance felt more like a on-again, off-again fling than the teenage YA love story presented in the books. That the result turned out to be one big destructive clusterfuck shouldnt be surprising - they quite literally couldnt help themselves and had no chance of just ending it.
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Jan 3, 2023 22:46
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Nektu posted:I mean it wasnt even "real" love, gerald cheated by using the genie's wish to get her infatuated with him. That’s not what the wish was about.
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Jan 3, 2023 23:59
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chaosapiant posted:That’s not what the wish was about. Sorry, OP. But ... magic's gone for me.
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Jan 4, 2023 03:46
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chaosapiant posted:That’s not what the wish was about.
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Jan 5, 2023 07:22
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