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This series has a special place in my heart. Glad to see a let's read being done for it. Can't wait till you get to Taran Wanderer.
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May 18, 2023 00:37
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 00:52 |
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That's one of the many things I love about Fflewddur, dude's a prolific liar who gets outed by his magic harp over minor lies, yet the one claim that seems obviously false, that he's a king, is actually true.
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May 20, 2023 20:42
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We get a taste of it here, but one of the things I really like about this book and especially The Black Cauldron is how well it establishes the Cauldron-Born as absolutely terrifying unstoppable motherfuckers. It's also one of the things the Disney movie gets right about them too.
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May 26, 2023 19:15
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Having encountered the movie long before the books I have the Disney versions of most characters in my mind for most of the characters, especially Gurgi who looks like this in the film: This kind of half dog, half squirrel little muppet-looking thing. Honestly, the only two designs that the Disney movie got wrong were Fflewdur and the Horned King. Book Fflewdur is supposed to be a guy in his 30s with crazy blond hair, basically this 80s David Bowie looking MFer, and in the Disney movie he's an old rear end man for some reason. The Horned King, meanwhile, is supposed to be this jacked as poo poo barbarian in the books who just wears a horned skull as a mask, but in the Disney movie he's this skeletal lich like sorcerer more in keeping with how Arawn is depicted when we finally get around to maybe meeting him. It's a great design for what they decided to adapt the story into for the movie, but as a 1:1 book adaptation it's just so wrong.
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May 28, 2023 22:49
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:We don't get that kind of "not good, only amazing" cover art any more, and the world is poorer for it. Lookit dat PIGGY! Wouldn't surprise me. Then again, Alexander was also obviously trying to do a "What if Gollum, but a good person?" character with Gurgi, so it wouldn't surprise me if other authors had similar ideas or just ripped him off outright.
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Jun 1, 2023 16:56
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Selachian posted:They get overlooked a lot, but Alexander also wrote, and Ness illustrated, a couple of picture books set in Prydain -- Coll and His White Pig (where Hen Wen gets kidnapped, again, and Coll has to save her) and The Truthful Harp (about how Fflewddur got his harp). Worth seeking out for kids who can't handle chapter books yet. Both of those stories were then shoved into an ad hoc sixth Prydain book, The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain, which hopefully Wahad will cover after the main five books are finished. But we'll see.
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Jun 1, 2023 17:19
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Wahad posted:Unfortunately, at this time I don't yet have a copy of the short story anthology. But since I'll be at this for a little while yet, I'll see about getting one somewhere along the line. I just bought it myself on Amazon the other day, so it's still available out there.
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Jun 2, 2023 15:59
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regulargonzalez posted:Medwyn's offer to Taran is interesting given the events and ending of book 5. I have to assume Lloyd Alexander knew the general beats and such, but how much does Medwyn know about Taran? Does he make that offer because he knows Taran would refuse? (Because if he did decide to stay with Medwyn, the repercussions would be pretty bad for everyone and everything). This is also just Taran's whole deal summed up in a single scene: people (benevolently) temping him with offers to derail his quest and become a completely different person in the process, and Taran going "Nah, I'm cool. Thanks though. See ya!" and then leaving.
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Jun 4, 2023 20:19
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GodFish posted:Good old Doli! I remember him being a favorite of mine when I was a kid, so I'm looking forward to seeing more. One of the stories in The Foundling has a cameo from Doli in it, and reading it all these years later after the main books was like being reunited with an old friend... who's a complete loving rear end in a top hat, but that's beside the point 
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Jun 10, 2023 19:33
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MadDogMike posted:I always did love that the story ended with Taran feeling he did nothing but make mistakes, I definitely related at that age to someone who tried to do the right thing but felt like all they did was mess up all the time. As coming of age stories go, this series is one of the best ones at showing the growth from child to adult; Taran always had a decent heart but you can follow the improvements that come from experience with him. I think The Black Cauldron and Taran Wanderer are were Taran really does the most growing up. The Book of Three is just kind of the prelude to that with him kind of bumbling from incident to incident in a lot of ways, but The Black Cauldron is where Taran really becomes competent as a character and a person. The Castle of Llyr meanwhile is mostly Eilonwy's book of character growth with Taran mostly going "Oh for gently caress's sake, really?  " to a lot of its shenanigans, and then The High King is like everyone's final exam where they all put what they've learned over the last four books to the test and sink or swim on those merits.
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Jun 21, 2023 00:56
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King Smoit is probably my favorite character in the whole series. He's like Santa Claus, but he'll beat the poo poo out of you if you're naughty.
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Jun 22, 2023 05:46
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I appreciate that Alexander made the Huntsman an equally awful threat as the Cauldron Born. The idea that they're all bonded by dark magic into small hunting packs and that killing one of them just diffuses their strength across the survivors so that if you somehow whittle them down enough you end up with like one guy with the combined strength of ten men is very daunting. The Cauldron Born are an enemy you cannot kill. The Huntsmen are an enemy you don't want to kill.
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Jun 28, 2023 17:41
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regulargonzalez posted:I can't help but wonder though -- if they really are the worst of the worst, why wouldn't some of them go all Jet Li in The One. Kill the rest of your crew and become almighty. I'd imagine it was part of whatever unbreakable blood oath they took to Arawn that they couldn't just kill themselves or each other to become demigods, probably as a check on their power against him, but yeah it does raise some... interesting possibilities.
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Jun 28, 2023 19:49
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Coca Koala posted:Adaon seems like he's got a good head on his shoulders and I'm confident everything is going to work out swell for him! I hope he gets back to his fiancee that he can't shut up about safely after this wonderful adventure with his new friends.
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Jun 29, 2023 03:57
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Gwystyl along with Smoit is another series-long MVP character that this book introduces. I can't remember where exactly I read it, but according to legend, Lloyd Alexander asked his wife once who out of all the characters in the whole series did she think he was like the most and without hesitation she said Gwystyl, and after being taken aback initially he conceded that she was in fact right, unfortunately.
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Jul 9, 2023 05:59
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Genghis Cohen posted:Wow, Ellidyr is such a dick. "Go and warm your courage by the fire". It's not even that he needs to go and be a hero, Taran has the same problem there, it's that he needs to put down his erstwhile comrades while he does it. Taran is terminally heroic, but he wants to make sure that everyone in the party succeeds along with him. Ellidyr is also terminally heroic, but only if he gets to be the hero alone, gently caress everyone else.
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Jul 12, 2023 21:33
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Genghis Cohen posted:All consistently high quality stuff, as Taran continues to very slowly and painfully learn wisdom. I do think the danger and adventure as mere set dressing are pretty evident in that passage though. These fantastically bad, dangerous Huntsmen ambush our heroes, attack them, wound the most dangerous one, and then simply exit stage left, vainly pursuing some of them. The remaining heroes bimble off for some more dialogue and wild camping. That is perhaps one of the valid criticisms you can lobby against most of the books is that, due to the age range of their prospective readers, a lot of the dangers the characters face in them lack teeth. At least until a certain point in Book 4, Book 5 definitely. Still Adaon's dead now, so they're not loving around THAT much...
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Jul 19, 2023 21:25
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MadDogMike posted:Yeah, for a guy who was only introduced and existed for 8 or so chapters, his death was remarkably moving. Granted, in retrospective adulthood I have to admit he was sending up death signals pretty hard; if nothing else I can't see Taran doing any growing up when he's got a wise adult to consult. I always got the impression that Adaon was around the same age as Taran and the rest, maybe a little older like 17 or 18 to Taran and Eilonwy's 15, just a really well put together 17 year old thanks to his magic brooch powers. Flwedder's kind of the odd one out being this weirdo 20 or 30 something dude hanging around with a bunch of teenagers all the time, but he's basically as close as the group gets to adult supervision whenever Gwydion's not around.
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Jul 21, 2023 00:51
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Wahad posted:Chapter 12: Little Dallben The short story that deals with Dallben's childhood with the witches is equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking.
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Jul 29, 2023 21:45
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Probably gave them a minion's soul or something. "Yeah, sure, take it, I don't care." That's why the Creeper from the Disney movie's not in the books, Arawn hacked that little poo poo straight into the cauldron first chance he got.
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Aug 5, 2023 20:11
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Darthemed posted:What a cliffhanger! God, and I thought Let's Plays were cursed, but this is like 3 different Let's Reads at least now where the OP has either just disappeared or actually died. Scary poo poo.
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Aug 28, 2023 17:29
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Wahad posted:Sorry everyone. I should note I'm not, in fact, dead, or ill or anything of the sort, but real life did get in the way a bit. Chapters return on Wednesday. silvergoose posted:That's really good to hear, seriously, in this day and age. Yeah, by all means take your time, please. It's just good to hear that you're okay and doing well 
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Aug 28, 2023 21:25
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Yeah, so how's that "Well he looks so handsome and refined so he MUST be a good person!" thing working out for you now, Taran?
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Aug 30, 2023 17:11
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God, these books really do go from climax to "The End" at lightspeed, don't they? Llyr's a fun book, it's basically "the gang goes on vacation and solves a mystery". Like a big book-long Scooby Doo episode in a lot of ways.
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Sep 6, 2023 20:35
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Llyr has the unfortunate distinction of being the middle entry of the series with all that implies. You need it for the lull it provides between The Black Cauldron and Taran Wanderer and big chunks of The High King don't make sense with out, but yeah it was very much my least favorite of the five or just the one I think of the least when I reminisce about the series, and I stand by my description of it earlier as just a long vacation mystery episode if the books were a cartoon: fun but frictionless.
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Sep 9, 2023 20:46
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Darthemed posted:Finally, Fflewdur finds an appreciative audience. To be fair, it's not really until The High King where Glew starts doing things that really endear him to memory and by that I mean "make you really loving hate him". But that is all spoilers though. Llyan though is the best biggest kitty and her and Fflewdur are perfect together 
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Oct 13, 2023 05:14
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Wahad posted:Two chapters today, because I was busy saturday! Rhun has we we would call "Wile E. Coyote luck" 
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Oct 18, 2023 21:12
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Pistol_Pete posted:Hey, I loved these books as a kid! Amazing how it all comes flooding back when you re-read them. Fllewddur has such a unique place in the books and on the team because, like I said earlier, he is the closest thing to adult supervision whenever Gwydion's not around, yet that doesn't make him either responsible, nor an adult most of the time. He's trying to be, and that's what matters, but he still definitely knows that and is completely okay with Taran being in the one in the driver's seat... ostensibly, of course, because like 75% of the story is Taran running after the villains himself.
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Oct 30, 2023 17:21
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Coca Koala posted:I don't have a lot of deep thoughts but I'm really just enjoying the read - I can kind of see why this book feels like it's a bit slower and smaller than the other two, but it feels like good focus on the characters outside of an apocalypse. Like I said a while ago, it's basically just an anime beach episode or a vacation drama episode: a nothing plot that's used to flesh out the characters a little more. It's basically a book-length prologue to Taran Wanderer.
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Oct 31, 2023 02:29
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I'm honestly surprised that Lloyd Alexander never bothered to write a "what cool stuff was Gwydion up to during the books?" set of side stories, because it seems like he'd be a fertile ground to explore that kind of stuff. Though he is the more traditional type of hero that stories like these usually follow, so him being off-screen for most of them in favor of unexpected ragtag heroes like Taran and co. is the main selling point of the series.
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Nov 8, 2023 23:01
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Coca Koala posted:The tail end of this book is doing a pretty decent job of setting up some of the questions that will get tackled in the next two, iirc - Taran is beginning to observe that being an assistant pig keeper will be as limiting as he allows it to be and wondering if there’s anything else for him. Achren effectively becoming Dallben's housekeeper for Books 4 and 5 is hilarious and I wish Alexander devoted a little more time to it because again, the idea of two ageless impossibly powerful sorcerers living together on a backwater farm and who hate each other but are both in a kind of magically hamstrung stalemate so they can't hurt each other is very amusing. So Dallben's just like "clean my pots, lady." and Achren can't do poo poo about it is one of the weirdest and most intriguing twists in the story.
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Nov 25, 2023 22:06
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Wahad posted:And with that we come to the end of the third book! All's well that ends well. Saturday, we continue on with my (and many other people's) favorite book in the series, Taran Wanderer. Aww yiss. This is the big one, folks.
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Nov 29, 2023 18:17
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I don't know if I pictured Brian Blessed explicitly, but it was definitely one of those folks who talks in ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME for Smoit.
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Dec 14, 2023 10:16
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Morda.. the most messed up motherfucker in this whole series short of, well... we'll get to him soon enough, I guess. But Morda is just an absolutely hateable douchebag top to bottom.
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Jan 4, 2024 06:47
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Seriously, Disney picked the wrong book(s) to adapt into a film. This one's got all their 80s animated horror tropes: evil wizards, unpredictable magic, body horror polymorphism, a charismatic villain, the works.
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Jan 6, 2024 19:26
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And thus we cross the "Yeah, but nobody actually dies in these books" threshold...
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Jan 18, 2024 08:26
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Pistol_Pete posted:I remember this book kind of bummed me out as a kid. I wasn't used to protagonists who kept losing, or where they're forced to choose among a range of bad options rather than the obviously good and correct one. Meanwhile, I read this book for the first time when I was starting university during the middle of the 00s/10s financial crash and was like "Oh, this is meant to prepare kids for how lovely real life is. I like this."
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Jan 21, 2024 19:50
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Pistol_Pete posted:Taran: "So, you're my father! That's.... great." The ultimate "be careful what you wish for" outcome for poor Taran. But a great bit of foreshadowing/reinforcing of the main message of the book: You are shaped like yourself.
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Jan 26, 2024 10:57
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Coca Koala posted:It’s a really good section! I’m also looking forward to what I know comes next, but Craddoc is such a good contrast to the portion with Smoit offering to adopt Taran and Taran turning it down. The ongoing quest to find out who he is is just very well done - it’s got enough complexity that as a child reading it, you’re not always quite sure where it’s going and as an adult, you can see how all these lessons are piling up in different ways and you start to suspect you know what the mirror of Llunet is going to be, and what it’s going to reveal to Taran. Rian Johnson gave an interview about The Last Jedi once where he talked about Rey's arc over the course of the movie and the reveal at the end of the second act and it reminded me so much of the Craddoc section of Taran Wanderer. He said that when it came to who her parents were and where she came from, especially for a person like her who was trying to use a perceived lineage or connection to someone or just something important as a panacea for all her worldly woes, the answer she receives should be the hardest one for her to deal with: you are nobody, and your parents were nobodies too (followup retcons not withstanding). Taran effectively gets the same gut punch here. His whole quest is initially tied to the delusional promise that he's got to be descended from someone or something important and it'll fix everyone and tell him who he is and give him the go ahead to pursue Eilonwy romantically and then Craddoc comes along and rips his legs out from under him and confirms, at least initially, the worst fear that was silently driving him forward: you are no one of nothing from nowhere. Of course then Craddoc's like "lol jk, I'm gonna die now bye" and throws his whole identity for a loop a second time around, and priming his eventual reaction once he finally reaches the Mirror of Llunet. And unlike Star Wars, there's no JJ Abrams around to pussy out of it at the last second like a bitch hack.
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Feb 1, 2024 03:53
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 00:52 |
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This is probably my favourite stretch of the whole series coming up. I can't remember it it's all one section or diffused across the rest of the book, but Taran In The Village is just beautiful. A great "rebuilding the hero" sequence after brining him to his lowest point right here.
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Feb 3, 2024 19:39
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