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Open Source Idiom posted:Not sure who you're classifying as newbies, but I've been steadily impressed by Zoe Robbins this year. Zoë Robins and Barney Harris were the best of the Two Rivers quintet, yes. Now it's her and Dónal Finn so at least it's been weirdly consistent in that regard. Every scene she has with Kate Fleetwood and Daniel Henney has been straight loving magic.
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Sep 5, 2023 08:12
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I just hate the whisper anger poo poo that Lan and Perrin's actors do. Muttering under your breath to show anger just does not come across well and is hard to hear and I don't want to turn on subtitles.
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Sep 5, 2023 08:23
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I used the "English with boosted Dialog" option. That made it all very easy to understand. There were some scenes where they really screwed up the mixing (big explosion being tuned down so that you could hear the grunting). But overall it was the first time in a long time that I could actually watch without subtitles 99% of the time.
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Sep 5, 2023 09:04
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DTurtle posted:I used the "English with boosted Dialog" option. That made it all very easy to understand. There were some scenes where they really screwed up the mixing (big explosion being tuned down so that you could hear the grunting). But overall it was the first time in a long time that I could actually watch without subtitles 99% of the time. Is this in the audio options on Amazon? I need this, because audio mixing in modern productions is dire. It's shocking watching movies from the '80s and '90s where I can see what's happening and hear what people are saying.
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Sep 5, 2023 09:28
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Yes, it's one of the "languages".
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Sep 5, 2023 09:59
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Can't wait to give it a shot for next week!
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Sep 5, 2023 20:46
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Vim Fuego posted:I appreciate that they are condensing things down so they can potentially move through a complete plot in the remainder of this season + the next one. I'll be astonished if if gets a 4th, so telling a whole story in the time they have would be great That's.... Not how they are condensing things, and there are many more books to go (yes there is a lot of cruft in this series) but they would have to go full ham and change the pacing 3 fold to get to the end in 4 seasons.
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Sep 5, 2023 21:12
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I meant they can potentially wind stuff up on a plot line they decide on or create, not power their way thru the next 15 books. I don't know if they're doing the plots of books 2 & 3 or if they've diverged enough to be something effectively original.
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Sep 5, 2023 21:37
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On the whole I'm liking this season a lot. Liandrin is an absolute scene-stealer so far, nu-Mat is great as is his entire sub-plot with Min (we only got to meet her for what, five minutes last season?). This show was always going to live or die on the strength of the characters and I'm pretty pleased on that front. One gripe would be that the pacing still feels pretty choppy and abrupt at times, and it feels like certain scenes and situations Just Happen for the sake of moving plot along without giving us enough context to follow the narrative. Example: how did Rand get into that fancy party? They just show up there so that we can get some pointed exposition and then they leave. Sure I can imagine a plausible excuse, but I would've liked even just a single line of dialogue that they bribed a guard or something to bridge that gap. There's lots of little rough edges like that. Perrin's subplot in particular feels like half of it got left on the cutting room floor from the way it's been strung together. DoctorRobert posted:Egwene in particular is pretty bad in general. Maybe the actor is not super into the role or something I think she's not been super great at the emotional & dramatic scenes -- episode 3 being a very relevant example of this. I wouldn't go so far as to say she's "bad," but any scene she has with Liandrin or Nynaeve and I'm watching what they're doing and not her, every time. HOWEVER, I think she has been super great at capturing some of the understated bits of comedy, which imo this show desperately needs more of to balance out all the grim-dark. The scene where she goes to ask Alanna for help and is palpably uncomfortable and awkward from before she even enters the room is definitely Good Acting.
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Sep 5, 2023 22:21
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King of Bleh posted:Example: how did Rand get into that fancy party? "I could get used to you looking like this. " "People are staring." "They know we weren't at that dinner." They just crashed it. That's why Selene went and got him that fancy coat, so he'd look the part of an outland Lord.
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Sep 5, 2023 22:26
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CainFortea posted:They just crashed it. That's why Selene went and got him that fancy coat, so he'd look the part of an outland Lord. I loved that coat, he pulled that off really well. I demand more coats. The season has been great so far, my wife was hooked on the first episode with Lan abs.
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Sep 6, 2023 00:11
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calandryll posted:The season has been great so far, my wife was hooked on the first episode with Lan abs. Can you blame her?
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Sep 6, 2023 01:17
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calandryll posted:I loved that coat, he pulled that off really well. I demand more coats. How do you feel about hats and scarves?
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Sep 6, 2023 01:20
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Fight choreography looks much better this season. The Shienarans actually looked formidable. Now if they would actually add blood to swords after a lot of stabbbing time, that would be great.
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Sep 6, 2023 01:54
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Burns posted:Fight choreography looks much better this season. The Shienarans actually looked formidable. Adding sihtric from the last kingdom definitely boosted the fight quality significantly
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Sep 6, 2023 03:15
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Yeah that guy was sick. But my boy Uno....he was my favorite Maybe it was just a flesh wound
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Sep 6, 2023 03:28
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Shageletic posted:Yeah that guy was sick. He better be the first one that pops out when they toot that drat horn.
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Sep 6, 2023 03:31
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Yeah I'm a little salty that they bothered casting and giving a few lines worth of characterization to Uno, just so you vaguely knew who he was so he could get the star trek Red Shirt treatment to make the Seanchan seem spooky.
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Sep 6, 2023 03:48
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nine-gear crow posted:He better be the first one that pops out when they toot that drat horn. The spoilered text is information that has been mentioned once or twice in the show, but is spelled out in much greater detail in the books. So it’s technically safe, but something inattentive viewers might have passed over.
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Sep 6, 2023 03:51
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I feel like the show is more comfortable with itself and telling its own spin on things. Some of the best episodes last season were when the show did its own thing (Logain and the suicidal warder episodes) and the worst was when it was trying to hit story points. It's like the opposite of Game of Thrones where I increasingly trust the writers to handle their own poo poo.
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Sep 6, 2023 03:58
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Grundulum posted:Can you blame her? I can not blame her, because she also liked the next set of abs. Was it on Rand? pseudorandom name posted:How do you feel about hats and scarves? She'll love the hats part. One of my favorite parts in the books was all the talk of coats.
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Sep 6, 2023 10:18
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nine-gear crow posted:Zoë Robins and Barney Harris were the best of the Two Rivers quintet, yes. Now it's her and Dónal Finn so at least it's been weirdly consistent in that regard. Every scene she has with Kate Fleetwood and Daniel Henney has been straight loving magic. quote:Kate Fleetwood is an English actress. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance as Lady Macbeth Yup, this checks out. Definitely need to find a copy of that Macbeth. Rand's actor kind of has the Harry Potter/Series of Unfortunate Events problem where he's mostly reacting to a bunch of more interesting performances played by some wonderful character actors, but I think he's doing a decent enough job. I really like his scenes with Selene, he comes off as decently charismatic in a way that I can understand why women seem totally taken with him all the time, but he's still a country bumpkin at heart.
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Sep 6, 2023 15:40
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He seems plenty proactive to me this season.
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Sep 6, 2023 15:43
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Bongo Bill posted:He seems plenty proactive to me this season. 
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Sep 6, 2023 15:45
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Strom Cuzewon posted:Rand's actor kind of has the Harry Potter/Series of Unfortunate Events problem where he's mostly reacting to a bunch of more interesting performances played by some wonderful character actors Seems like a challenging line to walk. On one side you have Mary Sues and plot contrivances to keep your main character the most interesting, and on the other side you have the situation described above, where the main character is reactive rather than proactive.
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Sep 6, 2023 16:10
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At least in terms of having agency, he doesn't seem reactive at all this season though? His mini-arc through the three episodes we have is entirely based on hunting down Logain and engineering a scenario where he can get close to him, something that appears to have taken months of time and effort.
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Sep 6, 2023 16:15
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King of Bleh posted:At least in terms of having agency, he doesn't seem reactive at all this season though? His mini-arc through the three episodes we have is entirely based on hunting down Logain and engineering a scenario where he can get close to him, something that appears to have taken months of time and effort. I meant more in terms of within the scene. You have stuff like his dialogue with Logain which is mostly "Logain chews the loving scenery, Rand responds". It's not quite as passive as Harry Potter, but half the time Rand is on screen I care more about whoever he's talking to than I do about him.
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Sep 6, 2023 16:34
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Strom Cuzewon posted:I meant more in terms of within the scene. You have stuff like his dialogue with Logain which is mostly "Logain chews the loving scenery, Rand responds". It's not quite as passive as Harry Potter, but half the time Rand is on screen I care more about whoever he's talking to than I do about him. And that's kind of just down to what you can do with the characters as written because Logain is a charismatic as gently caress dude who draws you in with his raw presence alone even though he's constantly teetering on the brink of total insanity but is at least actively trying to hold it all together. He kind of needs a straight man there to bounce off of for his scenes to work and in this case, it's Rand, but at least Rand has enough gumption to not really take any of his bullshit unlike certain Harry Potter characters do when characters start filibustering at them. I'm sure this dynamic will flip in due time as Rand slowly goes crazier the more he taps into the One Power so we'll get some chances to see him be the blooty hoo bonkers attention magnet in the scene as the show goes on. But yeah the stuff with him and Selene has been really good and they feel like equals in that plot as opposed to how he was a glorified background character for most of Season 1.
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Sep 6, 2023 16:47
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Yeah I'm hopeful that Rand's somewhat sleepy/broody performance is more of an indication of where the character is at emotionally at this point in the story, and we'll see more proverbial fire and brimstone from him as he comes to terms with the whole "chosen one" thing.
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Sep 6, 2023 17:14
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I’ve only seen the first two episodes but they’re really trying to get us mad at Moiraine huh?
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Sep 6, 2023 23:09
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Yeah, it seems a bit cheap / contrived / over the top to me. Like yeah we get it she's trying to push him away but it's gone past that point now into actual cruelty.
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Sep 7, 2023 00:10
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Seems an odd choice to have Rosamund Pike lead your show and then make the audience hate her. I really hope this isn’t a big fake out where it’s revealed that both of them are pretending to be mad at each other to make the other characters think they hate each other so they can do some plot to trick people. I don’t think that’s where it’s going but that’s one of the oldest fantasy tropes there is so who knows.
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Sep 7, 2023 00:27
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Hey no book spoilers
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Sep 7, 2023 01:29
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Yeah it feels like she is trying to push Lan away to protect him or some such nonsense like that. I'm sure later on things will resolve in such a way as she really respects him a lot and so on and she said they weren't equals because she views him as better than her or something. A tale as old as time.
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Sep 7, 2023 01:47
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Flowing Thot posted:Yeah it feels like she is trying to push Lan away to protect him or some such nonsense like that. I'm sure later on things will resolve in such a way as she really respects him a lot and so on and she said they weren't equals because she views him as better than her or something. A tale as old as time. I don't fully understand what Moiraine is trying to do here, but I suggest that we just take it as it comes for the time being. If Moiraine has actually been stilled as opposed to being cut off from the One Power (the show has not been clear on this) I suspect I can guess what is going on, but I legitimately do not know even the nature of what has happened to Moiraine.
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Sep 7, 2023 02:05
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People choosing to either push others away or to instead band together in the face of adversity seems like a big obvious motif this season, with Perrin's letter being the big unsubtle exclamation point tacked on to emphasize it.Flowing Thot posted:Yeah it feels like she is trying to push Lan away to protect him or some such nonsense like that. I'm sure later on things will resolve in such a way as she really respects him a lot and so on and she said they weren't equals because she views him as better than her or something. A tale as old as time. Classic sneaky Aes Sedai move!
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Sep 7, 2023 02:07
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I think all of you would be happier if you played a modpack. e: lol I have no idea how this got here. pseudorandom name fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Sep 7, 2023 |
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Sep 7, 2023 02:31
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Flowing Thot posted:Yeah it feels like she is trying to push Lan away to protect him or some such nonsense like that. I'm sure later on things will resolve in such a way as she really respects him a lot and so on and she said they weren't equals because she views him as better than her or something. A tale as old as time. That was my read on it too. "I'm gonna tell the truth in the way that will hurt you the most, so yeah, I do in fact think you're the better of us and always have, but endure this psychic damage from you assuming I meant the inverse. Bye."
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Sep 7, 2023 03:11
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pseudorandom name posted:I think all of you would be happier if you played a modpack. I mean, I think there's a couple of Wheel of Time-themed modpacks for Skyrim out there...
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Sep 7, 2023 03:11
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This show is greatly improved from S1 imo, but it still feels like it's in a rush all the time. Slow down, bud. Take a moment. Let the scenes breathe. Give us more connecting bits and character moments.
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Sep 7, 2023 05:25
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