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The actress that plays Julia has said that they aren't going to shy away from the Reynard stuff. Although I couldn't find a link regarding it, I think she mentions it (in a roundabout way) in the SyFy channel talking head videos promoting the series/introducing the actors. I'm cautiously optimistic regarding the series. The things that are pissing me off are the young Jane Chatwin stuff. The actress is horrible, her accent is somehow even more horrible, and I dislike the idea of Jane collaborating with the Dean regarding Quentin. We also really needed to see The Beast smashing the clocks in the classroom.
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Jan 18, 2016 01:16
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muscles like this? posted:I'm hoping that they start to give Elliot more stuff to do going forward because he's been pretty fun. Elliot is the best part of this series, it's really perfect casting. I was unsure on Quentin and Julia, but I am warming up to them. The actress who plays Alice is good, but I don't think she's right. Was Alice blonde in the books? Also, you can't have Margo/Janet criticize Alice's clothes when she is basically a loving hipster model. I pictured someone who dresses frumpier, or at least doesn't give enough of a poo poo to wear cool accessories and high heels.
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Jan 27, 2016 00:44
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The third episode airs tonight. I'm hoping that they get better with the pacing. I'm rather glad we haven't yet seen Fillory. Although I dislike the collusion of the Dean and Jane. It makes Quentin too much into ~*~The Chosen One~*~ and I really, really miss Josh. Katie seems like the moody female replacement for him purely to show Penny's body (not complaining about that part) and to make sure we know he's sensitive and heterosexual. Penny's sexcapades make Elliott look even more gay. And they need to give Elliott and Margot/Janet some character development besides "ha ha ha we're bitchy!" I wonder if they'll head to Brakebills South in this episode. There's no way they aren't going to show that, it's one of the most famous parts of the books. Mouse Dresser fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Feb 2, 2016 |
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Feb 1, 2016 22:31
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dangerdoom volvo posted:i hope they show foxes banging They'll probably show them sniffing the Alice fox will have glasses and a bow so we know it's a girl/her and then slowly pan over to a snow drift while soft music plays.
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Feb 2, 2016 02:02
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Cast Iron Brick posted:
Well, they did show Julia doing a spell at the ATM that suddenly dispenses a lot of money.  So that explains the designer clothes.The lead hedgewitch going from the hoodie and jeans look to the over the top runway gear makes me so angry, and I don't know why. Can't ANYONE in this show just look like a regular loving person? I don't mind Penny's getups, and Quentin looks fairly average. Elliott having the outfits makes sense, and I guess Margot/Janet makes sense, too. But loving hell, can we get even some of the background extras in jeans and t-shirts? Katie's outfits bother me the most. LOOK SHE'S SEXY AND EDGY!
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Feb 3, 2016 01:37
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Hedrigall posted:In the books we get a feel for all the blood, sweat, toil and tears it takes for Julia to earn even just one star. Meanwhile Quentin's and classmates are pushed to their mental limits to remember all the conditions and exceptions attached to the simplest of spells. Agreed completely. I liked this episode more than some of the others. I found Alice's schtick to be really, really annoying and uncreative. Overall, this show interests me enough to continue watching it, but not enough to really become invested or care about it. It's falling right into that lull of Guilty Pleasure Television. It also makes me want to re-read the books.
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Feb 10, 2016 05:53
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I've started re-reading the books and I am halfway through the first one. I figured out what really bothers me about the presentation of Brakebills: Grossman goes out of his way to say that each year (5 years total at Brakebills) only has 20 students. Year Four (to Quentin's first year) only has 10 for some mysterious reason. They covered that, sort of, regarding Alice's brother. But having SO MANY extras in the background is very distracting. Additionally, the school is talked about as some Victorian academic relic, and the fancy buildings and coffee houses on campus are less than charming. Finally, Grossman describes so many people as average looking, or odd looking (like Elliot), including one woman with a physical handicap- Gretchen. And the whole cast looking like runway models really downplays the idea that these are all brilliant loners who found their place. Oh, and one MORE thing: they all wear uniforms at the school! I get why they had to change that for television, but loving hell they don't need to buy out the whole mall. WHERE THE HELL IS JOSH, GOD drat IT.
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Feb 11, 2016 05:14
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Good things with this last episode: Cancer Puppy, Elliot and Margot getting bitchy, Alice smirking when she realized Elliot and Margot want something from her. Eh things from this last episode: Using the cancer plot to tell the audience that magic can't fix everything. Bad things from this last episode: Everything else. Especially the welters and the matching-but-individualized team sportswear. ALL HAIL CANCER PUPPY! 
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Feb 17, 2016 15:15
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Oroborus posted:I guess this episode did provide what others have asked for to a degree, the hedgewitch girl has started turning tricks for magic. Did it happen like this in the books or was it much worse? Fairly worse, actually. She never gets brought into the secret conclave, and has more weird, sad, dark, and hosed up things happen in her hedgewitch education. I'm re-reading book two, "The Magician King," right now and it spells out her whole journey. I hope they cover more of the book journey in the show, her story is really hosed up. I'm holding out until we get to see Fillory and the battle with Martin Chatwin. I have a feeling that that whole episode will be extra lovely and lame. I'll wager they'll gently caress up The City and it'll look like an ultra cool modern hop downtown fountain with a Starbuck's instead of the vacant library palazzo buildings.
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Feb 18, 2016 04:02
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Tiggum posted:And is there some reason why there's only one proper magic school? Seems like there are more than enough people who fail to get into Brakebills (or just get overlooked and discover magic on their own) to make it worthwhile having more schools. And I'm assuming there are other magic schools in other places - are they all so exclusive? I don't really get why hedge witches should exist at all. It could be an economic thing, except it isn't, because Brakebills doesn't seem to care about that and it seems like it should be super easy for magicians to get whatever money they need. It's said in the book that there's one school in the UK, a few across the continent of Europe, a few in Asia, 1 in New Zealand, and 1 in Tasmania. I would assume there's a Caribbean school, since there's a Jamaican professor in the books. Same goes for an African school, but it's not mentioned. I'm on to book 2 on the re-read and MAN are they loving up Julia's journey. I do not like "hay I'm gonna rape you lol psych here's magic drug den" instead of her finding her way there through the intellectual depressed support group. It's so much better when she finds her own way rather than being brought into it. That's the the whole loving point of Hedgewitches. It's been stated that they aren't going to shy away from THAT SCENE with Julia, so we'll see how stupid and awful it is when they get to it. Which at this pace, ought to be the next episode, or maybe after they invent some more stupid bullshit. Final complaint: Elliot loving SUCKS so far. There's no wry charm. He's just  Sassy Gay without any of the deep introspection. And Margot/Janet has no character beyond Bitch. For gently caress's sake, give us a reason to enjoy the show and the characters.
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Feb 19, 2016 05:10
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mastajake posted:Dear lord, really? The actor is great, it's just that the show hasn't given anything to Elliott besides OH SASSY.I'm irritated by Penny Quantum Leaping to Fillory. It makes the whole button thing a moot point. When Penny busts into the apartment with the button after Quentin cheats on Alice, there's such a huge tension and relief at the same time. Now that he can make his Next Leap into Fillory, it's loving idiotic. Also, that means his poo poo regarding staying in the Neitherlands almost impossible. And regarding Josh: If he's not in the show, then who is going to have the big palace in Venice? I'd like to think they wouldn't abandon Quentin talking to a loving dragon, but if they get rid of the Chatwin's Button, and Josh, then there's no point to having the Venice poo poo at all.
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Feb 19, 2016 15:18
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When they finally go to Fillory, it'll be a bummer because they won't have Penny find the Chatwin's button. It'll be because Penny can zap them there by wiggling his nose or some poo poo. I really liked the magic buttons, the finite nature of them. Who knows what they're gonna do with the Neitherlands, but they'll probably resemble Southern California beaches or some poo poo like that. It's like they're taking the broadest of strokes from the books and sexing them up to be super sexy and appeal to the teenagers.
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Feb 24, 2016 18:48
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WarLocke posted:
Yeah, he went to some warrior-filled world and met up with a lady and arguably fell in love with her. She died (in battle, I think) and he left because the warrior culture didn't suit him. It was during his travels that he decided to become really, really good at portals. He uses the portals in The Magician's Land to trace where Umber opened his portal to to confront the ram god. (I just finished the 3rd book and totally forgot about Josh and Poppy getting married and expecting a baby, too.)
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Feb 25, 2016 22:13
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Pretty much all that's left now is graduation, they get the cacodemons (unless they cut this, which they probably will), and then they go to Fillory. So I assume all of that will occur in the first 12 minutes of the next episode, possibly interspersed with Margot and Elliot having sex with the hot guy while sneaking booze into Amish country or some poo poo.
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Mar 2, 2016 00:52
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Really, all that's left at this point is graduation, ~*~ennui sex~*~ and then Fillory. I assume they're traveling there in the next episode at this rate. I don't even think that Quentin is going to sleep with Margot. I figure they'll just gloss over that, and then just after graduation have Penny zap them into Fillory. No Neitherlands. They'll not even wander around and meet the river nymph, they'll not battle into Ember's tomb with the two body guards, they won't meet the talking bear at the tavern, they'll just ZAP straight into The Beast's chamber with the captive girl and kill him and free her. MAYBE we'll see a ram god. I understand that a LOT of the book needed to be cut to make it to air, but WHY cut so much poo poo and then make up superfluous garbage scenes (not all are garbage scenes, but like 75% of the additional poo poo is- Cancer Puppy is the best)? This show is perfectly mediocre. Decent enough to watch, but not good enough to give a poo poo if it gets a second season. Mouse Dresser fucked around with this message at 00:38 on Mar 3, 2016 |
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Mar 3, 2016 00:34
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I'm assuming that Julia's plot is going to have her meet up with the FTB folks soon. Probably in a posh sky rise penthouse and not in France ($$$), and with no online support group for troubled geniuses. When Julia gave up the magic and was starting to turn her life around, only to be brought into a super magic hedgewitch group- it was pretty awesome. I'm interested in seeing what they do, though.
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Mar 4, 2016 18:27
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This past episode was pretty good! Nice introduction of Richard, assuming that he's replacing the FTB introductory plot line. It's a decent swap. Also, Gretchen! Maybe there's hope to see Josh at a later point. I'm not too keen on the idea of The Beast infiltrating and trying to kill Quentin et all. It really makes Quentin seem like ~*~The Chosen One~*~ instead of lucking into the situation.
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Mar 8, 2016 23:02
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nutranurse posted:Yeah, one of my favorite moments from the first book was during the final battle against Martin when he's all "SO YOU HAVE FINALLY MADE YOUR MOVE IN YOUR HUGE MASTER PLAN." and Quentin & Co are like "Huh? What dude? We just... kind of showed up. It's loving Fillory, who wouldn't take the leap?" Yeah, I think that's the worst part of this tv series. I'm liking Julia's journey, and I appreciate that it's being run concurrently to Quentin's, but I am loving DREADING when The Beast shows up to gently caress with Julia. But High King Elliott is going to be best thing ever. Why did they change Elliott's home from Oregon to Indiana? I live in Oregon and it's country as poo poo the moment you're 15 minutes outside of Portland.
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Mar 8, 2016 23:31
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WarLocke posted:I think you meant to say Reynard there? And yeah if they do it they're gonna gently caress it up hardcore. I don't think you can do that on television without it being either really drat offensive or cheesy/crappy as gently caress. No, I meant that they'd probably have some sort of invented poo poo where The Beast fucks with Julia because The Beast is the ultimate baddy 
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Mar 9, 2016 00:04
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Na'at posted:Or they could be going with her still resetting time and all that but instead of her smashing the watch because only a couple people died she can't do it because she's the dead one Maybe Eliza is the magic doll that got the rose thorns embedded into it and made it a real girl. Also: Fuckin' LOL at the teenage Jane going to Fillory through the linen closet while clutching a loving doll. Come on, guys, at the VERY least you could have cast a 10 year old.
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Mar 9, 2016 19:04
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mastajake posted:Based on the preview, it looks like some of those questions will be answered. So the button is in the show, huh... And we're getting the Plover's awfulness reveal really early. It's kind of a shame that they're going to the estate so early. It was one of the more charming parts in the later book that was worth the wait. Besides, the dragon telling Quentin to go there was pretty cool. Well, let's see what they do with this reveal, then. It looks super dark, which is cool.  I still miss Josh.
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Mar 10, 2016 08:41
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It's an interesting take making Plover The Beast instead of Martin. I also really liked how the episode ended. There's only a few episodes left, so I am anxious to see what they're doing with it. Moderately disliked the eliminating of 2 of the Chatwin kids and making them live with Plover instead of being neighbors, but that makes it all wrapped up in a little bow. I'm kinda glad that they haven't blown their wad in regards to Fillory just yet. Based on the episode titles, it looks like they're battling The Beast in episode 13; "Have You Brought Me Little Cakes?" is the title and I can just see The Beast saying that to them. This was a really dark episode, and Alice and Elliott were both quite good. I think this is the first episode where I really got the feeling that the writers were finally understanding the characters. Penny was TOO much of a douche, though. If they do the stuff where Penny stays in the Neitherlands and becomes zen, that'll be interesting. Edit: I'm really confused as to why Jane is like 17 and not 7.
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Mar 15, 2016 06:33
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QuarkJets posted:child actors are all terrible so it's better to replace child characters with adult characters wherever it makes sense I guess they're trying to make Jane about 15-ish, but it doesn't really make sense in the scheme of the whole "kids going to
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Mar 15, 2016 07:24
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geeves posted:But they didn't and I don't think it would be. It thematically undercuts Martin's fall. Martin wanted to escape his life and become powerful enough to stop his expulsion from Fillory and returning to the abuse of Plover. As someone else said, Martin gained powers at expense of his humanity and turned into something worse than what he wished to escape. The show demonstrated this better by this episode instead of having Jane say a "blink-and-you-miss-it" comment about Plover diddling Martin. The show also goes one further and showing that Martin possibly cursed his siblings to an afterlife of torment out of spiteful jealousy when he returned to Earth to kill Plover. Yeah, after re-watching the ending of the episode, I realize that we're lead to believe that The Beast is Plover, when it will be Martin. Also, Sera Gamble - one of the writers - confirmed that Josh WILL be in the series, but not in the way that we expect. https://mobile.twitter.com/serathegamble/status/704474600529235968 According to the preview for the next episode: Penny travels to the Neitherlands and sees a bunch of other magicians there. Maybe that's where we're introduced to Josh, and we learn that he's been traveling to the Teletubby world to gently caress one of them.
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Mar 15, 2016 17:45
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WarLocke posted:In the books at least, she became an established witch after running off to Fillory and presumably is older than she 'should' be because she's been loving with time, traveling back and forth while trying to find a sequence of events that results in Quentin and gang beating the Beast instead of dying. That explains Esme Bianco, but not why they've got her as a teenager when they're showing her first travelling to Fillory from Plover's house. She's the youngest of the Chatwin kids in the books. It's not really that big of a deal, ultimately, but it is sort of  when the Brakebills folks keep calling the Fillory books "kids books."
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Mar 15, 2016 20:15
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Hollismason posted:Elliot still consistently the best loving character in the books and in the show. Absolutely. Hale Appleman is great as Elliott. He's the best part of the show, hands down. Though I think that Jason Ralph is finally coming into his own with Quentin. Looks like next week's episode features going to Alice's parents' house. IMDB lists an actor as Mr. Quinn. I hope they keep him walking around in a toga, I liked that part. nutranurse posted:I'd call poo poo like Nancy Drew and Hardy Bros "kids books" and the protagonists for those are teenagers. Yeah, that's true. I guess I'm just irritated by all of the pointless changes, and took it out on the Jane thing. nutranurse posted:Watch them make Josh a hot surfer dude with more abs than he knows what to do with. If not that, then he's massively fat and there's a bunch of fat jokes at his expense.
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Mar 16, 2016 05:13
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coyo7e posted:Without the Plover sister/aunt/whatever it would be even darker, because Plover would've had to murder all those kids himself before vanishing into the ether. I'm thinking that it's going to be a fake out. We're supposed to think that The Beast is Plover, especially the with the line about extra fingers, but we'll see it's Martin and he'll give a Bond villain-esque speech about picking up Plover's research after he killed him or whatever. I also assume that Esme Bianco is going to come strolling in and be the one to actually kill Martin. Then we'll get her reveal to Quentin and company that she's been Jane Chatwin loving with time all along. So, effectively, making Alice's Niffin-ization worthless. Because SyFy.
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Mar 17, 2016 05:10
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IRQ posted:In fairness they either haven't gotten to, or don't plan tp get to, the part where they just gently caress around and party and do drugs all day like Jersey Shore and get all nihilistic for a few months which would make that theme a bit more clear.. I'm so torn on that section of the book. While the drama of it all certainly feeds into the story massively, I was growing so loving bored of "hey let's drink and do drugs we're so forlorn." Although I guess that it detailed the idea that even being a magician doesn't solve all of your problems. The show summarized that with Quentin's dad and Cancer Puppy, and has gone out its way with Julia to show that being able to perform magic doesn't make it all better. In fact, it can make it all worse. So cutting that entirely/downsizing it (whatever they choose to do) might be for the best. In a way it seems like they've shunted the whole "waaah I am morose and drunk" into the schooling year, rather than having it be a post-graduation thing. But they loving better have the cacodemons in their backs poo poo. I really loving loved how Quentin's demon had glasses and was a dork demon who needed direction.
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Mar 17, 2016 19:19
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WarLocke posted:The best part about that was that it ended up being completely useless. Josh wasted his the next day, Alice uses hers in a scene we're probably not going to get in the show, and when Quentin finally pops his it immediately gets eaten. Yeah, Janet released hers right after getting it, and it was basically only Elliott's that did any damage. During my re-read of the books, most of the characters retained the imagery I had pictured of them when I first read it. Only Elliott was replaced by the actor who plays him on the show. Hale Appleman is so good.
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Mar 17, 2016 20:07
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So... was Joe supposed to be Josh? Traveling dude who wants to bone things in all the universes....
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Mar 22, 2016 07:13
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STAC Goat posted:I don't know. I don't love this show. Its riddled with problems and it doesn't feel like a lot is happening. But from the way you book readers talk I don't have any interest in reading the books and I thank the show runners for making the changes they have. The only things keeping my interested at all are Julia's story and the Fillory/Beast stuff metaplot and from the sounds of it that stuff is all either show created or pushed up in advance from later books. My biggest complain about this show is that the Brakesbill crowd are all self absorbed assholes who don't seem to be doing anything to warrant a TV show and it sure sounds like the group message is "they're even bigger assholes who spend more time doing less in the books!" You're not wholly off-base. The thing with the books is that the characters have more depth. Yeah, they're petulant drug addicts, but there's a real sense of listless ennui that can follow when you move on to the next phase of your life. I read the first book shortly after graduating from grad school, and while I never got as extreme as the Brakebills kids, I did empathize with them. The Beast doesn't loom as the Big Baddie throughout the book. I think that what I loved about the first book as that there's the overarching idea that The Next Big Thing will NOT fix your problems. Graduating high school? Still have problems. Going to college? Still have problems. Learning magic? Still have problems. Go to the magical land of Fillory? Yup, still some loving problems. It's a coming of age story for the lovely 20 something that a lot of folks were/are. And I think THAT is what the show is missing. It's focusing on PLOT PLOT PLOT PLOT PLOT PLOT PLOT and giving us the broadest outlines of character. They started to show it in the past few episodes, especially with Alice and Elliot, and Julia's plot is one of the better ones of this season. I think that transferring Kady into Asmodeus is somewhat clever. I only wish it wasn't at the expense of having a regular Josh. Does anyone else think that Joe was based on Josh? If that's the case, BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 
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Mar 23, 2016 03:46
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Argue posted:Does the Neitherlands (book spoiler) persist across Jane's retries? Well... it's never wholly specified as to whether or not the Neitherlands timeline changes with her loving with things. Since it is the world between worlds, it's certainly arguable that it is exempt from Time Magic. In the books it says that doing magic there is heightened. There's certainly something powerfully magical going on in that place, and it would make sense if the Neitherlands is immune to time magic.
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Mar 25, 2016 04:13
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drat, they went there with the threesome. Even showed Quentin kissing Elliott. The episodes are better when they're written by Leah Fong. She really infuses the right elements of the books without too much extraneous fluff.
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Mar 29, 2016 06:58
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I'm assuming they're saving the traveling to Fillory for the finale. I wonder how much of it they're going to show, though. Like will the majority of the episode be on Earth/Neitherlands and then they enter the Fillory fountain and it's credits rolling? I could see them doing that. Making the second season about Fillory and defeating The Beast.
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Mar 29, 2016 17:16
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shadok posted:Using the high-pitched tinnitus sound in all the Penny scenes was clever. He's being exactly the same hostile dick to the other students that he always was, but for the first time we see his behaviour sympathetically, in context. Probably not. I was thinking of making a Google Doc for the discussion of differences. I am quite interested in talking about the differences. I don't hate the show, and in many ways, I like their changes better. The books are by no means flawless. There's just many elements left out at the expense of stupid poo poo additions that I get a little annoyed. Penny is by far better on the show. Though I wish he understood how shirt buttons work. Elliott is perfection. I love how Margot and Quentin were talking about healing him in the magic stream. They really captured that "something is fundamentally broken in Elliott" aspect.
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Mar 30, 2016 00:46
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I liked the books because they showed that the hero isn't always noble and selfless and prepared. Sometimes they stumble into something, succeed, but are still selfish shits.
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Mar 30, 2016 19:28
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shadok posted:
Yeah, in the attempt to make Brakebills and its students a little more realistic, they changed most of the characters from being super studious nerds. And they tried to make Quentin more nerdy while everyone else is super cool. Combined with his being a mediocre magician, it seems like Quentin's "Chosen One" ability is just that he memorized the Fillory books.
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Apr 4, 2016 16:14
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Josh!  Elliott with the carrot was incredible. I'm looking forward to the final episode of the season actually being set in Fillory. And I'm glad we didn't see that scene with Julia.
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Apr 5, 2016 05:52
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Cast Iron Brick posted:I'm much happier now that they've conceded that the show is a different loop from the books. Yeah, that was such a nice line that was a good joke for the book readers. And a nice little  to those of us who were bitching about the differences.
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Apr 5, 2016 16:56
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Edit: ^^^ Now you've got me rethinking it! It is curious that we didn't see the full invocation. And she seemed pretty out of it when Quentin arrived. Also, all of the FTB folks were gone...Mortanis posted:True, though it'd be pretty weird with the timeline. They beat the Beast, Quentin winds up in a coma, wakes and fucks around as king and bigger magic while Julia goes back to the real world and gets Reynard'ed and then shows up at Quentin's office job just to go back to Fillory? Yeah, especially since they had the goddess already show up and grant everyone's requests. They dipped into the scene with quick flashbacks, but it was the same goddess from her dream. I am just so loving excited for Josh. 
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Apr 5, 2016 20:50
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