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popculturebuffet · 3 months

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Thomas And Friends Retrospective: Thomas and the Magic Railroad Theatrical Cut (Commission for Lachie V)

Hello all you happy people and i'ts back on the train gang for more Thomas the Tank Engine

For those of you just joining us, a recap: For the past year and a half or so, i've been covering the first five seasons of thomas the tank engine on and off for @lachievpoststhings, who comissioned these as a fan of the franchise to get an outsider's perspective and hopefully get less jokes about Henry being walled up for always and always. Your free to jump in here and i'll have a post of the restrospective so far soon after this review's finished.

The basics are one day the good Reverend Bawldry, a longtime railway enthusist, made a bedtime story for his son about trains with human faces, kept making more as the kid loved them, and eventually turned these stories into a series of succesful books. Decades later in the 80's, up and coming exec Brit Alcroft seeked to adapt these books to screen and using amazing modelwork, velvety narration from Ringo Starr, George Carlin, Micheal Angelis and more across both ponds, Thomas became a massive success. While his US airings needed a wraparound, it got one in the superb shinging time station, your standard "kids learn lessons in a place" show, except this one has a magical tiny george carlin named Mr Conductor who shows up to give advice and schemer

This glorious large ham cooks up halfbaked schemes, is distrusted by children, and makes every episode better just by existing.

So with this success Brit Alcroftt decided to take her big IP to where all big properties go: the big screen. Luckily for her Barry London, head of Paramount at the time, had a daughter who loved Thomas and greenlight the picture in 1995 with a deal inked by 1996 and a script on the way. Unluckily, sometime after London left the studio and the project was canned because new studio heads are vindictive bastards. See how Final Space was canned after a studio change and goofy movie was given NO advertising after the exec pushing for it left. Thankfully after a false start elsewhere for Alcroftt, she decided to self fiance, finding that the Isle of Mann offered tax breaks. Helping was that London landed at another studio, destination films, so with their major backing and the isle of man cut the film was good to go.

So with that the film got underway and as far as I can tell it was MOSTLY smooth apart from a mishap with a James model.Post.. was a diffrent beast. The film had drastic changes done to it after a test screening caused Execs to panic: they changed most of the voice cast since the voices for most of the main cast were seen as "too old" and the one for one of the big bads, Disel 10 "too scary". That'd be bad enough.. but then they decided to ax an ENTIRE CHARACTER, PT Boomer, who served as a human antagonist.

Shockingly the excutives doing a power meddle did nothing to actually salvage the film: it bombed at the box office, closed the door on any future thomas films and ended Britt Alcroft's time at her own company.

So that leaves us with some questions: Was the film THAT bad? Was the original cut, which we now have thanks to a blu ray specail edition in workprint form, any better? Was their any salvaging this mess or was it always a silly engine? and why was schemer left out?

While i'll never be able to figure out that last question, the rest I hope to answer by tackling both cuts in their own reviews. I'm tackinlg the theatrical first as while it's the second cut, ti's the one most people have seen and i'm not watching the work print till the review of the theatrical cut is finished as i'm judging it as most people watching it would: this is the version that's most complete, wildly avaliable and that most people have seen, so I want to view it on that merit, albeit with the understanding it was cut up quite a bit, so I am giving it a little leeway.

So join me under the cut for the maddening mysteries of the theatrical cut of thomas the tank engine. I warn you the film your about to hear about is nigh incomprehinsible, quite mad, and has alec baldwin acting like h'es taken all the drugs in the world. You've been warned. Let's begin.

So since i've already covered behind the scene's let's jump into the mishmash of scenes hastily cut together then horrifyingcally stitched back together by the studio. Because "Plot" is being more generous than this cut deserves.

So the film follows the fate of two worlds: the world of Shining Time Station and the world of Sodor where thomas and friends live, the two ends of Mr. Conductor's universe. What does that mean?

I think it's supposed to be metaphorical like saying my world.. but having a magical being say that and say that about two parallel worlds is just confusing. Did he create Sodor? Did whatever race the mr conductors are did? This is more confusing than a film about stupid train children should be.

This is also the film's approach to it's world building as a whole: just throw something in that's confusing and hard to parse, never fully explalin it and walk on to the next bit of insanity. I'm not asking for through, complex world building from a Thomas the Tank Engine film, i'm just asking for a world where any of the magic you set up makes any sense.

The two shows this comes from don't have this problem. There is weird shit in both universes.. but both universes are consitent. Sodor is a british island, exists in the 1920's, and has a massive railway ran by Sir Topham "The Fat Controller" hat. The trains all have faces and are wholly sentient and are still treated entirely as trains. That's.. it. It's just the 30's but with sentient trains. It takes getting used to, they cause tons of accidents and weird shit happens.. but it's simple.

Shining time has more magic and what not but it's still consistent: Mr C is a magical entity of some kind with a vast family, he lives in shining time but can travel the multiverse and visits sodor frequently, bringing back it's stories for the kids he mentors. There's also magical puppets in the jukebox. Neither thing is explained, but we really don't need one and how both Mr. C and the PUppets operate is consitent.

The film.. is as consistent as a Warner BRos Discovery exec. The film just sloppily stiches a bunch of magical concepts and cliches together , expects you to just accept it and move on. The problem is unlike thomas and shinging time, it piles so shit on that you have no choice but to ask questions. And yes im aware i'm not the film's target demo.. but the film's target demo, younger children.. still deserve some respect. Shining Time and Thomas never fell like they think the audience is morons and you should never treat children like idiots just to justify your sloppy plotting. And chidlren aside..adults still had to take their kids to this. 5 year olds can't buy movie tickets.. well they can but the theater has to be pretty fucking neglegent. The adults who were kind enough to take their kids to see this didn't deserve to have a confusing mess shoved on them.

Speaking of a confusing mess let's get back to the film. The Film has two major storylines across the two worlds which quickly overlap:

ON earth curious city kid Lily Stone, played by Maura Wilson, is sent to vist her grampy burnett, played by Peter Fonda who to his credit takes the roll seriously. Burnett has an assitant/sidekick/local orphan boy named Mutt who, given the two minutes i've seen of the workprint, marries her in that cut but here is just kinda.. there so Peter Fonda can explain his train backstory: he was once the conductor of Lady, a magical train that could cross betwen worlds and i'm just going to go ahead and get this started

Things the Film Just Wants you To Accept: 2

Lady was injured by Disel 10 , played by Neil crone. I'll point out the original actors when I do the workprint if you were curious. He's an evil Diesel who has a grappling claw and a confusing world domination plan. Burnett's spent his life trying to fix Lady with no luck.

Meanwhile on Sodor, Sir Hatt is going on vacay so he asked Mr. Conductor to go watch his stupid train children for him while he's away. We have a new Mr. C in this film I assume, as while the film never explains it the series did expalin it's swapping mr c's with Ringo Starr's versoin being the cousin of his succesor, the george carlin one. So I assume this is also a cousin as Mr. C also has one he also hands his hat off to. More on that towards the end and more on the ocusin in a bit. Point is new mr. c is played by Alec Baldwin.. and baldwin spends the whole film acting like he's tripping balls. Baldwin is hamming it up so hard trying to be a chldren's character he comes off like Mr. C took enoguh coke before comming to sodor that he dosen't come down for TWO DAYS. Baldwin mostly acts hammily, hyderactively and goofily. It dosen't work on it's own as it's way too over the top even for this film and trying way to hard. It is however a nice jolt of hilaroius nonsense in a film that's mostly confusing nonsense.

Anyways Mr C soon has a problem :his sparkle, his magic dust, is running out. And apparently if it runs out , the magic of sodor and shining time both dies with him. Or something.

Things the Film Just Wants you To Accept: 3

He dosen't notice at first, being late while Thomas and Friends deal with normal business: Thomas is just a tad late, and Gordon, the biggest engine, is being a pompus asshole about it. Gordon is also played by Crone, who adlibbed msot of his lines for both Diesel 10 and Gordon, to the point one line later in the film is just gordon lapsing into a rant about how clever he is, how smaller engines can neve rbe useful, and how he's the best. He did it, he broke Gordon down to his bare essentials.

The two are soon confronted by Disel 10 who someone passed the background check and unveils his plan: he's going to find and kill lady, which will destroy all the magic in sodor and some how make him god emperor of all trains.

Things the Film Just Wants you To Accept: 4

First he plans to kill all the trains and ambushes them at night. Mr C finds his magic isn't working which isn't good. His escape plan is as diabolical as it is horrifying: he's going to poor sugar in disel's gas tank.. by waving a bag of sugar at him

Things the Film just Wants You To Accept: 5

So Mr. C heads off on an epic quest to find his magic, facing off with goblins, a wall of hands, a bog of eternal stentch, chily down with the fire gang and the most dangerous foe of all, David Bowie's Crotch. And I just described Labyrinth because Mr. C's quest amounts to "Dick around looking for clues and get kidnapped by a train" and i'd rather be talking about Labyrinth again... so let's do. Having relistned to it thanks to my nephew putting it on a playlist while I was in the car, i"ve come to realize I was WAY too hard on chilli down. While the actual musical number hasn't aged great the actual music is a fucking banger, having a nice surreal feel, the best drug trip song that's ever drug trip songed. Good stuff.

So back to my neverending torment Mr. C has a nap/is barely concious after Disel nearly threw him off a bridge this time so he has a prophetic dream

Things the Film Just Wants You To Accept: 6

Yes apparently in this time Alec Baldwin is the Kwisatz Haderach

He sees a future where due to him being absent shining time has closed down. The kid are gone, Billy was replaced by a terrible actor, and Schemer is seemingly dead. Wait.. that all happened in the main timeline. How is he sure the interstellar jihad the end of shining time is something he can stop?

Well he isn't so he calls his cousin Mr C Junior for help. Sadly this dosen't mean we get Ringo Starr or George Carlin but instead Micheal E Rogers. While his agressive scottishness is charming, he can't save this character as Junior is just kinda annoying at best. He ALLGEDLY has an arc where he learns his lesson and becomes better.. but he's really just a dumbass who wastes all his uncle's dust and his own remaining dust. He's only here because SOMEONE has to bring lily to Sodor

So before we get to that, let's catch up on everyone else. Burnett's dog is apparently also injesting spike and thus makes sure LIly ends up at shining time and sees Junior briefly. She then gets settled in with grandpa bonds with Dodger, just kinda putters around and...

FATHER THE SLEEPER HAS AWAKENED okay so stupid train children next. For a Thomas the Tank Engine movie the engines.. really don't actually do much in the plot. It's something I didn't notice in the film itself as the cut tricks you into THINKING their doing more than they are, cutting to the engines every few scenes as thomas tries to find Mr Conductor and stop Disesel 10 and his two comedic minions I haven't mentiond till now , who Disel sends to find the magic railroad. They do. That's it.. that's all they've done all film.

So we instead get a bunch of scenes of Thomas saying he's going to do something then just.. I guess doing something. We get bits of James and Percy who were originally voiced by Micheal Angelis, but instead replaced to get younger voices.. and instead got voice actresses who didn't really try to make thems ound masculine, resulting in Gender Flip James and Percy. James in paticular sounds like a dikensian orphan. I will say Eddie Glenn does a really good job at thomas but he and Neil Crone are the only ones who really get their rolls right out of the voice cast. I don't doubt these va's are good nor judge them for this: they werne't given much to work with, with Crone given nothing to work with and simply improvising, and were likely given little time to prepare given the rushed production schedule for the recut.

The most Thom=as contributes is loosing a truck, that will be important later, and figuring out that Disel's after the buffers which somehow allow people to travel on the magic railroad.

Things This Film Just Wants you To Accept: I"m So Tired

He finds out too late but thanks to Junior who brought a child with him because fuck it, they find thomas' missing truck and thomas and Mara Wilson go back to reality. A bad model of Thomas the film expects us to think is anywhere near acceptable

Things This Film Just Wants You To Accept: Stupid Train Models are for Cattle and Loveplay.

We do get a clever solution to the lady thing.. even if we never really get Burnett's backstory as that was cut because reasons. Since they have Sodor coal Lily suggests using it and I like it: it's a symbol of lady being both of this world and sodor. It's kind of cool in af ilm tha'ts mostly just confusing.

So lady returns to sodor, though Mr. C still thinks he and other Mr C who was busy telling Sir Topham Hat to go fuck himself and nearly getting murdered, using the last of his magic to save james, are dying as they still need that sweet sweet smack. I mean sparkle.. which is magical smack so it's better.

Before they can fix the crisis though Disel 10 shows up and we get a hilaroiusly green screneed ifnal chase as Burnet taunts his nemisis the sentient train. The chase scene.. is hilarously, horribly modleed and fun to watch. lady naturally wins, Disel 10 is left in the sludge but apparently comes back, and it's a happy end as Mara Wilson mixes well atter and railroad shavings to somehow create magic dust.

Things This Film Just Wants You To Accept: LONG LIVE THE STUPID TRAIN CHILDREN

So Mr C pases the cap on to his nephew who decides after his near death experince to man up finishing his nonexistant character arc. Mara wilson and co return home, the day is saved and the film just sorta ends.

That's.. the theatrical cut of Thomas and the Magic Railroad and as you can tell I was not a fan. It's entertaining for the most part and delightfully insane but i't sincoherence makes it REALLY hard to enjoy a lot of the time. As a Thomas film Thomas is barely a facotr in the plot, and as a shining time station film only two characters returned

Only. Two. Characters. Returned. The new characters are all bland cyphers, likely due to the cut changing. They TRY, Mara Wilson may of done this for the vacation but like Sir Micheal Caine before her she'll still work hard for the paycheck, but ther'es just nothing to hold onto. This film is a mess and I only recommend it if you have some friends to riff with, as I did with @jess-the-vampire or are good and baked. I was not but I hope to get some weed for my anxiety some day, and on that day I might watch this film. Oh who am I kidding i'm watching David Lynch's Dune and we all know it. Possibly with that episode of Sex and the City where Kyle Mclaclhan plays tennis shirtless at night as a prequel. His two best performances together at last.

So yeah not a big fan of this one. Not the worst thing i've covered but a hell of a film to unpack.. so you can imagine i'm just... PLEASED. AS. PUNCH. to be covering the other cut. Will be it be better? Worse? at least comprehnsible? Will I keep doing Dune refrences because I really fucking loved Part 2? All this and more will be answered next time but for now

#thomas and the magic railroad #thomas the tank engine #bad films #mara wilson #alec baldwin #henry fonda #animation #stop motion #thomas and friends #thomas #percy #gordon'#diesel 10 #schemer #shining time station

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notmoreflippingelves · 7 days

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For the pairing ask meme: Jo/Laurie from Little Women (really curious about it!) And Carla/Mateo from EoA (because kinda love your Mateo roasting and takes 😁)

Jo/Laurie (????)

This is hard, because I don't know whether I ship it or not. I do but I don't. I think if I were to guess I'd say overall, I primarily don't except for Winona Ryder!Jo/Christian Bale! Laurie from Little Women (1994). I guess I'm going to go with "no" overall, because honestly as much as I love that adaptation, Christian Bale Laurie is arguably too "cool"/suave compared to book!Laurie (who tbh is more than a bit pathetic sometimes). Like I'm genuinely a little "What are you thinking?" when Winona!Jo turns Bale!Laurie down but I am mostly okay with it in all other incarnations. I do also mostly like Amy/Laurie and Jo/Bhaer as much if not more , so yeah I'm not really cut up about it Jo/Laurie not being endgame.

Why don’t you ship it?

For me, it's largely that there is a sense (more pronounced in some adaptions than others) that Laurie wants to be a March Girl™ (gender-neutral) more than he wants to be Jo's life-partner which is not really the idea ship vibe--even if I can't exactly blame him as I too would do almost anything to be a March Girl. Like sure Jo was his first choice by far and I do believe that his eventual relationship with Amy is genuinely based on more than "settling"--but I also feel relatively sure that he might have hypothetically settled for Beth or Meg under other circumstances. And that's just not a solid start for a relationship, if your s.o. could've hypothetically is always low-key considering your sibling as a backup plan if things go south with you too. (I mean you could say that the same is true of Laurie/Amy, but I do think it's less bad b/c Amy has literally been in love with Laurie since she was 12 and because overall their personalities "mesh" a little better than Jo/Laurie).

I also worry a bit about how Laurie's wealth might hypothetically impact the Jo/Laurie relationship. I do think that he would continue to be supportive of her writing and theatrical dreams, but I can also see him overcompensating/supporting her "too much." Unlike Bhaer, I don't think Laurie is capable of offering her constructive criticism that is necessary for her work to improve. He's too much of an inherent simp who thinks Jo March is already the most amazing human to ever exist (again can't totally blame him for that) to even conceive of the possibility that she has genuine strengths and weakness. I can also see him throwing his money and influence around a little in order to get her published/earning favorable reviews. Jo is fiercely independent and so achieving her dreams on her own terms/by her own merit is supremely important to her--arguably more important than her achieving them at all. Laurie interfering in her career even positively/with good intentions would inevitably cause a lot of conflict between them and create some self-doubt of Jo as to whether she really "earned"/"deserves" her success at all.

What would have made you like it?

As I mentioned I do sort of like it even as I also dislike it. I guess I would like it more consistently/wish it was endgame if Laurie was just a wee bit less eager/obsessed/convinced they were "meant to be." Also if we had a stronger sense that Jo herself wanted the romance specifically as opposed to just Laurie staying in her life. Another thing that makes me a little wary about Jo/Laurie is the meta-aspect of knowing that Louisa May Alcott was very adamant about not wanting them together. Her publisher pretty much insisted that Jo needed to find love in Part 2 and so she created Professor Bhaer in order to give Jo an alternate love interest

Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it?

A lot, especially since I don't not ship it even if I don't ship it. Their "meet cute" scene at the ball is one of my favorite scenes in the book and arguably one of my favorite "character introduction scenes" in all of literature. I think that the two of them have great chemistry and a really supportive dynamic. They care deeply about each other and have so much fun together. (You see this as well in the sequels. Even though they're both romantically with other people, they are still go-to confidants and partners-in-mischief for each other).

I also think that narratively Jo/Laurie has to "work" on some level in order to justify the direction that story takes. The first time that you encounter the story, the reader/viewer needs to really like them together and assume that them being endgame is inevitable. It gives Jo's decision to reject his proposal more poignancy and agency. She needs to love him deeply and know that he loves her--even if they can't love each other in the same way--in order to fully be able to choose herself and her goals over him. If he's not an otherwise desirable option, her choice not to choose him isn't a real choice. She needs to be conflicted, tempted even, if her decision to prioritize her own dreams and needs over his and her family's is to hold any real weight.

And Alcott (and most of the adaptions) do a fantastic job of making Jo/Laurie seem plausible/desirable so that the rejected proposal emotionally fulfills its narrative purpose for Jo's character development (and a lesser extent Laurie's and Amy's as well).

Carla/Mateo (I ship it albeit very low-key though Carla probably deserves better)

What made you ship it?

Probably their interactions in late S3 most of all (especially the finale). I think there is clearly attraction and chemistry between them. They seem to have similar, slightly dorky and clumsy personalities that seem like they would mesh well. And shallow , I know, but their character models are also attractive and look good together.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

Is it bad if I say that I like how easily Rita!Carla was able to make Mateo look like the biggest fool in all Avalor?

I think there is a lot of potential for the two of them to bond. They're both very family-oriented, and I think there's a lot of potential for them to grow closer as being the only (and a little coddled/spoiled) children of very loving but somewhat smothering single parents (Victor and Rafa)--as well as missing their absent other parents (Ash and Mateo's father).

They are also arguably THE characters (well them, Victor, and Olivia) who are most actively interested in learning magic. (Gabe and Elena express some curiosity but specifically in the context of magic being a tool to protect the kingdom as opposed to something they want to learn just for itself). So it's nice to think of magic being another way that they can grow closer/flirt/have fun together.

I also adore the Delgado father and daughter relationship and enjoy thinking about how Carla/Mateo would impact Victor and his relationship with his daughter. Whether he's supportive (most likely) or hesitant (my personal head canon), it has the potential to be really fun/funny and heartwarming.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Carla/Mateo is one of the only Mateo ships that I can tolerate. Sorry not sorry. It's this and like two non-existent rare pairs . And even then, I don't think I am ever doing more than casually enjoying it, since my Mateo indifference is so strong. (I do really like Carla though and have a few more ships with her).

#little women #elena of avalor #carteo #for all that I dislike greta gerwig's little women in nearly every way #i will give her props for realizing that laurie is supposed to be a bit pathetic (affectionate) and chalamat delivered in spades #f*ck nearly everything else about that adaption tho; cringefail laurie and laura dern marmee deserved a better movie #moment of silence for the fact that no one has ever casted Daniel Brühl as Friedrich Bhaer #he has the perfect vibes in terms of being quieter and more scholarly love interest to the more openly/classically charismatic Laurie #while still being capable of delivering Bhaer as a swoonworthy love interest in his own subtler way #i dream of his umbrella scene even if I'm not entirely sure who I would've cast as Jo opposite him #and on top of that Brühl is literally actually German like Bhaer unlike Greta Gerwig who casted a Frenchman of all things #(no disrespect to your countryman saemi but he didn't even try to do a German accent)#I mean sure he was hot but...hashtag NotMyProfBhaer #I do like Gabriel Byrne as Bhaer a lot though even if he's still older-seeming than I think Bhaer needs to be #how did bhaer become the main character of the tags; this was supposed to be about jo/laurie and carla/mateo???

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willow-lark · 1 year

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Hi Lark! You seem really cool! I was wondering, what's your favorite Pride and Prejudice adaptation, if you have one? Have a nice day!

hello hello!! how's it going?

okay. okay. honestly THANK YOU for sending this to me. p&p is my FAVORITE NOVEL and i simply do not talk about it enough on here (or at all regarding my own personal thoughts). but i also hope u understand what u have unleashed within me. bc p&p is a topic that i will not shut up about once prompted. so without further ado:

The Complete Ranking of Every Pride and Prejudice Adaptation that I Have Seen Thus Far (*not including books/written work, bc i have read far too many of those)

Pride & Prejudice (2005 film)

this one is gonna be controversial, whichever one i pick as first. you know, it's got its merits and pitfalls in comparison with the 1995 miniseries, but this film is my comfort movie. it looks pretty, and it's got a pretty soundtrack, and keira knightley is pretty, and i think it adapts the story quite well for having to fit everything into two hours. each character is done well & it artfully represents the book. i just love this film okay!!

2. Pride and Prejudice (1995 miniseries)

okay i ranked this one #2 is everyone happy now!! but yeah. i mean. no one can outdo colin firth. that's a fact of life. this one adapts the books soso faithfully, it's so amazing to see. the whole tone is so well transferred onto the screen. collins is appropriately slimy, mrs. bennet is over the top, & COLIN FIRTH!!!!

3. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (2012-2013 webseries)

i found this one only a couple of years ago, and i was so mad to be late to the party >:( i love every single part of this adaptation. all the tongue-in-cheek references are so great and i loved how they adapted the bennet sisters, as well as the whole situation to the modern day. just spectacular.

4. Death Comes to Pemberley (2013 miniseries)

okay i will be completely fair i haven't seen this one in a while, but i did just talk to my mother, who's seen it more recently than i, and she insisted that i place this one as far as up as i could. from what i remember it was a very good story, with good acting and an interesting take on all the characters and what they would be doing years after the end of the book. definitely recommend!

5. Bridget Jones's Diary (2001 film)

another one i haven't seen in ages, and also of which my mother was very passionate about the ranking. colin firth AGAIN!! and another fantastically funny modern au that presents a new angle on it. still middle of the pack, though, since i don't have much to say about it 😭

6. Pride and Prejudice (1940 film)

ok now we're getting into territory that is just. not worth your while lmao. like this one was interesting to watch as an old movie but i was overall not impressed. like maybe there's some film buff out there who can tell me something or other about how it pioneered some technique or something, but...

7. Pride and Prejudice (1980 miniseries)

i... could not get through much of this one at all. it just seemed off? in tone, in plot, in characterization... i don't actually know that i finished it! it definitely could not compare with any of the films or miniseries that are higher up on my list.

8. Pride and Prejudice: A New Musical (2020 musical)

just... augh. when i saw that this existed i was super excited! like a p&p musical??? that sounds so cool! but i found it just to be so tedious. the characters & acting were poor, i didn't enjoy any of the musical numbers, and they styled the actor playing mr. darcy to make him look akin to a corpse. not everyone can pull off the colin firth look and you shouldn't force it!! there's this one moment about half an hour in when darcy & wickham meet for the first time that CRACKS ME UP. legitimately hysterical. i didn't make it much further than that in watching it.

/end rant. that was longer than i thought it would be & probably longer than u were asking for 😆 but THANK YOU for giving me the opportunity to talk a bit ab p&p bc i do adore it dearly and would always love to scream about it!! 💕🫂 i'm sure i've seen more adaptations than on this list, but these were the first to come to mind, lol

#angerycat!!#lark answers #pride & prejudice #pride and prejudice

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gay-pirate-anime · 1 year

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AHHH FINALLY YOURE EXCITED ABOUT THE LIVE ACTION TOO??? it makes me sad that everything I see are all "it's from netflix" "it's a live action" like pls for once in your life think positively all these negativity is not helping anybody out esp around the sandal gate like why is that so important? As long the core of Luffy and One Piece is shown everything is A-OK in my book!

OOPS I totally missed this message... I am so sorry;; I hope you don't mind me replying now!

yes i am extremely excited about it! I love that its made by and for fans-- i have good faith its going to be really enjoyable and i think the whole culture around hating on LAs is just plain silly. Complaining about the sandals is IMO frankly ridiculous and immature. It becomes a matter of stubbornness to admit that other adaptations have merit, which I understand considering the past of LAs, but this argument fails to aknowledge the recent improvements! I loved the Cowboy Bebop LA that Netflix did and if the OP one is similar in how they choose to adapt the source content I'll be very happy! Exactly as you said-- as long as the core of of the story is there. It's unrealistic to expect an exact replica of the manga on film, and there are certain things I think film actually excels at that it might even do better than the other adaptations.

We already know that the actors for the One Piece LA are superfans and were basically created in a lab for their roles-- so even if they end up just running around on a terrible set for ten episodes screaming typical canned bits I'd probably still really enjoy it

(I'd also like to add that when I saw the stage play at OP Tower (RIP) in 2018, it was absolutely amazing. So I KNOW that telling this particular story using real life people WORKS. And OP Tower did NOT have the budget Netflix has. So.)

#Speaking of the LA #can we get some new content soon PLEASE?!#i am SO impatient like if its coming out in July can't we at least have a teaser trailer!!1 #gah!!#jules talks #one piece live action #opla

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mooncicadas · 2 years

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complicated enid blyton feelings

now that the second season of the cbbc malory towers adaptation is out i have just been lounging about Thinking about blyton and how formative she was in molding my personality.

it was wild to me when I heard that in the west, librarians would refuse to stock her books stating that they had no literary merit but like. they’re STILL being read by millions of children in the commonwealth countries that britain exploited in the first place almost a whole century later and that Has to count for something. There’s something about them in a fundamental sense that captures their imaginations and makes them revel in the world.

i remember my father being really disappointed in me as a child for not reading as much indian authors. but what i was looking for wasn’t the bleakness of the everyday life i was already living but the novelty of rolling moors and islands and treasures and in a world where children seemingly had agency and power.

This is a lofty comparison to make but the reverence with which the characters take delight in simple food, nature, animals etc. feels almost ghibli-esque. I had a conversation with a friend the other day about how publishing trends lately especially for fantasy always come with the baggage of war and epic conflict and heavy plot that must keep going. Gone are the days of say Tamora Pierce books where you got to soak in the atmosphere and really feel a slice of life within that world.

I think the malory towers adaptation did a Great job at translating the books to television. I was surprised but pleased that they didn’t modernise it and kept it set in the 30s/40s just after war. And there is actual mention of war and rationing and financial trouble that add depth to the story. Darrell is exactly as I imagined her. Gwendolyn’s actress did an amazing job especially in season 2. And those lush Cornwall seaside pools and the towers themselves look just as gorgeous as I’d imagined if not more like seriously the location is bonkers. The cast is quite diverse as well- and much more accurately representative of what these boarding schools were like more than what blyton ever wrote lol. My one production gripe is I wish they made the school look more populated lol. Only the ten girls in the form were shown at all times so it all felt a bit emptier than I remember from the books.

They had to tweak a lot of the plots from the books to pad out runtime. Interestingly they cut out Mamzelle Dupont and sort of merged her with Matron. I found the plot of Pamela becoming a debutante especially jarring. But otherwise I think the show did a great job at capturing the friendship dramas and the childlike innocence and wonder of this world. Oh! And they gave Darrell dyslexia which I thought was an interesting choice.

Also. These girls are gay fr fr. Mary Lou has a crush on Darrell. Darrell has a crush on Alicia and Alicia knows it but only takes advantage of it sometimes. Alison from St Claires is also the gayest person i’ve ever read. And of course Miss Peters lesbian. Bill and Clarissa literally go live at a stable together after graduating. I found the lack of heterosexual romance in both these and all of blyton’s work SO refreshing.

Another thing I would grow up to find uncommon that blyton did right is an all girls cast or equally coed cast. There is little I hate more than the Smurfette syndrome trope. Also!! While there might be a bit of internalised misogyny in the way George from famous five is written but god!!! the way she’s written is transgressive and amazing even by today’s standards. I sought so much comfort in her whenever I felt like i didn’t fit womanhood and wanted to do things outside my prescribed gender roles.

However books have this very queer and nebulous sense of moral up-righteousness about them. You can see it the most clearly in the school series I think where you’re supposed to be rich but not too rich, be clever but not too clever at your talent, be a schoolgirl first, be sensible, play games, get tan, have good parents not silly ones, you can’t be a crybaby when processing trauma etc.

And ofc her racism towards Romani people, black people.... I can’t remember if she’d mentioned indians but yeah. I was listening to Third Year at Mallory Towers recently and was a bit blown away about just how little Blyton thinks of America and American girls’ values. And towards make up and grooming. It was a bit funny to read actually. And idk what she’s got against kids who like poetry because I can think of 3 characters rn who are supposed to read as silly for liking poetry. Cyril from Six Cousins at Misltletoe farm, that one girl from St Clairs with the dark eyebrows and light hair, and Ernie from Five FindOuters.

Anyway yeah... I reread two books recently and cried at one of them.

Six Cousins at Mistletoe farm was just as weird as I remembered. That scene of Jack being ashamed of his dirty sister when his friend came to visit was so weird sjdhfsjf why was that boy so interested in Melisande lmfao.

Family at Red Roofs was special to me even as a child. It was less meaty than I remembered but it still hit me and hurt when tragedy suddenly strikes and the children try to grow up and have each other to lean on. That scene where Jenny Wren says if u don’t want me just say so... i’ll stay here and help u out in a fix because fair is fair. Man... and when the younger two ate to cheer up the older two and the older two ate to cheer up the younger two. I remember being very fond of Mike as a kid and his business venture.

I think as a kid I used a lot of my imagination to fill in the sparse spaces between the description that blyton offered. Now that I look at work in a more of a mise en scene kind of way it’s different i think

Anyway. Here’s a cookie if u read all that there was no thesis statement to all this.

#enid blyton #malory towers #bbc malory towers #darrell rivers #six cousins at mistletoe farm #family at red roofs #my writing #texties

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fandomtrashgoeshere · 3 years

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Ok, so it’s been a long time since the Gilmore girls revival on Netflix, and an even longer time since the show ended, but I’m still mad. So this has probably all been said about the revival, and specifically Rory in it, but I want to say it anyway.

I have heard that the Rory storyline was what the original writer ASP wanted to do for the last season of Gilmore girls, and I understand that she wanted to see that through. But it just didn’t work. She probably had intentions for Lorelai and Emily for the last season too, but obviously changed and adapted them bc of the death of Richard (I can’t recall the actors name, but RIP he was a wonderful Richard) and ended up with a really fucking good storyline for the two characters his death most impacted. I loved everything about Emily’s storyline, seeing her in jeans was mind blowing. I also loved Lorelai’s storyline, although Paris working in the fertility clinic was just wrong. I didn’t like that for her. And you wouldn’t see her for that, you’d see a doctor who specialises in fertility services so idk why ASP thought to put her in that setting, so weird. Anyway, Lorelai coming to terms with her own experiences as a parent and relationship with her father coming to an end, was amazing. The phone call on the mountain? Amazing.

But fucking Rory. My biggest issue, honestly, isn’t that she was whiny and annoying and entitled, although she was and that’s shitty. It’s that she was going through the same things as part of her character ark that she’s already fucking been through in the show.

She already had an affair with someone who was in a committed relationship (Dean) and was visibly disgusted and upset with herself when she realised what she’d done. Then she goes and does the same shit with Logan? With like, seemingly no remorse? We’ve been through this Rory, that’s not who you want to be. Not to mention the boyfriend she keeps forgetting. There was no need for that, it wasn’t funny and just made Rory look like a bitch.

Then the shit with her work ethic. Many people have commented on how out of character it is for Rory to not do her research before a job interview, not be all in on her work in general. Absolutely correct, the Rory we know from earlier seasons was determined, hard working and always went the extra mile. If she’s struggling to get a foothold in the journalism industry, show her working her ass off trying to make it work and then finally finding her niche when she starts writing about the privileged elite world she was half a part of or something. Not this half ass bullshit the show gave us. We’ve already seen her crisis about whether she wants to do journalism when she quit Yale. That was her soul searching year, when she worked out who she was and what she wanted to do. She wouldn’t turn around and be all lazy and entitled about her work after that. This is the girl that always wanted to get into Yale on her own merit, to not get special treatment at her internship bc of Logan. We’ve seen this shit.

If I was queen of the world and got to write rory’s storyline for a year in the life, I would have made her have a good job at a good publication, (like someone as talented as she is would likely have years after graduating from fucking YALE) but she’s burning out because she works so hard and so much. No time for friends, relationships, and eventually she crashes and burns. Then she takes time off, thinks she’ll write the book she’s always wanted to write. No inspiration, tries many drafts but nothing is right, until she writes the Gilmore girls. I’d also have her end up with Jess but that’s just because I love him and they’re soulmates and I won’t be convinced otherwise.

Anyway Rory isn’t a shit person she just copped a shitty storyline rant over.

#gilmore girls #literati #rory x jess #rory gilmore #lorelai gilmore #emily gilmore #a year in the life #ASP what are you doing #still mad #staying mad

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dangermousie · 3 years

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I like how you said if by some miracle the 2ha drama is good, ha. I also just want it to come out because I feel like there is no way it can't be a terrible adaption but they casted so well it is giving me false hope and I just want the disappointment to happen sooner rather than later because I keep accidentally having expectations.

Yeah, I will happily eat a giant bowl of crow-filled wontons if this is a good adaptation of the novel, but I honestly cannot imagine how it could be - it’s literally everything that gives the censors fits in one package, even leaving aside the BL aspect. Yuwu could be pretty easily adapted faithfully (just run with the shidi/shixiong thing like Word of Honor and all you need is to remove the make outs to be set) but 2ha? How?!

But to me whether it’s a good adaptation is a different question as to whether it can be a good drama. Like I don’t think The Untamed is a particularly good adaptation of the novel but it is an amazing awesome drama. So while I don’t have much hopes for HYX as an adaptation, I do have hopes for it as a drama.

The thing is - their casting is on point not just for RanWan (it basically never happens when they cast the OTP and I don’t just go “these are the best choices available” but the much more rare “these are perfect choices per se”), but for the rest too. Like the actors they got for Mei Xanxue or Nangong Si are on point and if they had to turn Shimei into a girl (which they did), Sebrina Chen is also on point. And the concept art is amazing and the little clips we’ve seen are bristling with the novel vibe (the cynic/pessimist in me is wondering if they leaked some of those because they couldn’t get them into the main drama to go “don’t hate us we tried” but either way it’s awesome.)

I am 100% sure that if the censorship office didn’t exist (and unicorns roamed the land), with that cast and concept art and if they put care into the script, they could make a truly perfect 2ha adaptation but the world is what it is.

So yeah, all I am hoping for is a solid drama on its own merits, Chen Feiyu being feral, Luo Yunxi being intense, a lot of whump, beautiful visuals and design and some images to take for my imagination when I reread again. This is not that much so I am hoping I am granted that but either way, I just want to KNOW! I am not a Schroedinger’s Cat, and I don’t like uncertainty.

(To a less intense degree, that is all I expect from Winner Is King as well since it’s a favorite of mine, though not as much as 2ha and is much more adaptable with a cast I also like. But keeping expectations low when a fave book gets adapted, let alone when a fave danmei gets adapted in China, is the key to me keeping my sanity.)

#asks #2ha #hao yi xing

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battlestar-royco · 3 years

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IT'S BEEN 84 YEARS. LET'S TALK ABOUT NETFLIX'S SHADOW AND BONE.

8.7/10 ⭐️

spoilers for everythingggg under the cut! i'll be discussing its merits as an adaptation vs as a show, characters and plots, and the overall aesthetic and magic/world.

SHOW VS ADAPTATION:

i say this as someone who knows all the books very well and has been in the fandom for nearly a decade, so i'm biased. but. s&b functions better as an adaptation than as a standalone show. alina's plot moves so well, and satisfyingly renders so many iconic scenes and sites from s&b. the worldbuilding is also pretty easy to fall into, with a forgivable amount of voiceover/infodump. and, hurting budget aside, i mostly liked this visual interpretation of the gv.

(sidebar: the in-universe racism... doesn't work. i tried to view it in good faith but imo it was very heavy-handed. if it was framed like, "wow it's a SHU WOMAN saving the world!!!" it might've been better, but it's just racism without recompense. and it's a terrible look to make other characters of color racist. i just. why?)

as for the crows, however... i'm just not sure how strong they'll be for new viewers? i totally understand why they were included, and i really like certain connections the show made between the two series. it was a great decision to introduce the druskelle in the first Cut scene, and showing nina as a ravkan spy.

the new crows stuff felt in character, but i think the show is at its height when it sticks to the books. the first couple episodes switching between tgt and proto-soc gave me whiplash, but luckily it got more organic as it progressed. if i didn't know and love all the crows before going in, i wouldn't be that invested in them based on season 1. aside from a couple fantastic scenes, it really felt like the writers were trying to make fetch happen for like 4 episodes before they figured out what to do with everyone. plus, ravka is such a different vibe from ketterdam--tonally, sartorially, technologically, etc they didn't totally feel like the same world. it was pretty jarring. although i prefer the duo to the trio, s&b is alina's story and she is That Bitch who walked so the crows could fly. so i didn't hate their inclusion but the shoehorned content did at times disservice both plots, imo.

CHARACTERS:

way too many, which is yet another consequence of smushing everyone into one season.

MAL/ALINA/DARKLING: first and foremost, and i PROMISE i'm not saying this just to be a hater, but there needed to be less malina. i'll be the first to say that show!mal really has what book!mal wants. the new pre-fold scenes were so good. li and renaux have amazing chemistry, and their laughter over stolen grapes was a highlight. his stag plot was also good. THAT SAID, there were way too many keramzin flashbacks and malina parallels like.. 🤢🤢why do they want us to love mal so much. for what. they only needed the teacup scene but they clearly thought they were doing something with micro-aggressions and that meadow shot they showed like 6 times. knowing mal's original character, and how they scrubbed his show counterpart almost to the point of flawlessness, he's just never going to be my fave even though i do respect what they did with him. also, why were there like 5 fake deaths for this dude? boring.

the darkling was great. ben barnes knows what the fuck he's about, and he funneled manipulation and charisma into every scene. as for the backstory: at first i really wasn't feeling it, but i eventually did warm up to it and i'm so glad they showed it because oh god the cut and the creation of the fold were SO FUCKING ICONIC. also, love love love the baghra development. WE LOVE TO SEE OLD WOMEN/MOMS WHO AREN'T "EVIL"/"CORRUPTED" BY THEIR MAGICAL POWERS!!!!!!! BITCH! it didn't have to be 12 minutes long though.

i honestly don't have much to say on alina. jml was excellent in her role and very true to the book. without her book narration she feels much more consistently written.

TRILOGY CHARACTERS: i really felt the lack of genya and zoya. genya's character and actress are perfectly layered and effective, even though their roles are relatively minor. i'm so looking forward to her razrushost moment, but i wish they'd laid more groundwork for it. (and i hope throw out the wig and just dye her hair next season.) also like. WHY KEEP THE IRRELEVANT MEAN GIRL/DARKLING THIRST PLOT FOR ZOYA??? AFTER ALL THE EFFORT THEY PUT INTO IMPROVING MAL? they sacrificed so much for malina at the expense of other characters. finally, it was interesting how they decided to kill marie. i love the tailor magic flex. but also they clearly just did that to emotionally manipulate us and connect the crows so. hm.

CROWS: speaking of! the crows storyline felt a little like filler. honestly i wish they waited to roll crows into later seasons. i'd prefer little foreshadowings about them, a la the druskelle cameo or the references to nina and matthias. introducing the crows so soon makes the ice court heist feel less special. the recruitment was super tight and pragmatic, so this felt a little fluffy/fanservicey. kaz also comes off as sooooo old again. especially without the vulnerability of his book counterpart, he just seems like a 40-year-old in a 20something body.

i was pleasantly surprised to find jesper my favorite crow. like wow.... second amendment rights for jesper fahey only!! i like all the crows but book!kanej are my faves by a long shot. they felt a bit stiff tbh, like the actors were a little uncomfy with each other and/or their exposition-heavy lines. however, the one scene that felt EXTREMELY kanej to me was when they killed that dude in the church holy fuck oh my god. WE STAN AN ANGSTY BATTLE COUPLE WHO ARE BOTH DEAD INSIDE. highlight for sure.

and i actually kinda loved helnik? i know helnik is controversial for very valid reasons, but i thoughy their dynamic was fantastic and they were among the strongest performers. it was much less overwhelming than the constantly interweaving kaz/inej/jesper imo. they need to fire their location scout though. those green screen mountains and beaches were um. interesting.

aesthetic and magic:

i really hope they get a bigger budget for costumes, cgi, and sets next season! the keftas are serviceable, but they look a little cheap at times. i will also never forgive ANY of the crows' hats. it's mostly just a personal aesthetic thing but god i fucking hate them. the darkling was best dressed, but in general i liked the ravkan look more than the kerch. why were the crows always in the most elaborate getups? why couldn't they just chill in their waistcoats??? they never seemed relaxed in the way alina and co did; the clothes never felt worn or broken in.

favorite sets: the darkling's room, the crow club, all the grisha tents, the matthias/nina ship, the church where inej killed the squaller, outdoor fountain where they told the story of the black heretic. the lighting was almost always right for each scene, and there was so much detail in every one of them.

THE MAGIC WAS SO COOL! my greatest beef is alina's light--it often looked so fake, and it washed out jml. oftentimes it was fluorescent or blue, and it was used as a forcefield or orb. it's supposed to be sunlight bro. what is so hard about that? the darkling's magic looked good, other than the fold. i've always imagined the fold more like a huge black fog rather than a literal wall. so that was a bit game of thronesy, but not terrible.

and can we talk about the amplifiers? amplifiers are my personal favorite gv lore but season 1 barely gets into them. they never mention the bear zoya slew, nor do they establish the unique strength of the stag, sea dragon, and firebird. BUT THE ANTLER COLLAR FUSED INTO ALINA'S SKIN WAS SUPER DARK AND MACABRE AND I KINDA LIKED IT? ALTHOUGH I HAVE TO WONDER HOW TF IS SHE GONNA SLEEP???

if you made it this far, thanks so much! that's all i have for today.

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone spoilers

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carryon117 · 2 years

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Chapter Fifty-One:

“Okay so this one is a classic.” I say while queueing up The Wizard of Oz on the television in my living room. “It was one of the first films to have live action in technicolor, plus the music is great.”

Loki smiles at how excited I get as I continue to rattle on about the merits of Dorothy and how the entire trip to Oz is a metaphor.

“You know, darling. I would be able to see all of this for myself if the movie were to start.”

I snap my mouth shut and look at him sheepishly.

“Sorry, I got excited.”

“Never be sorry about showing passion. But maybe let me experience this one for myself?”

I nod and press play, allowing the opening credits to begin on the screen.

A little under 2 hours later the credits scroll past and I turn to Loki.

“Thoughts?”

“Well the metaphor was quite obvious since they used the same people.”

“Well yes, but what did you think? Did you like it?”

The look that Loki gives me is a shy smile, “I think I quite enjoy this sort of Midgardian entertainment. However, literature is still better.”

I start laughing at him, “You would be one to say that the book is better, even without reading it.”

“Are you saying that this story is also a book?”

“Yes. It was a book first. A lot of movies and some tv shows are like that. They adapt the story to the screen.”

He contemplates the information for a moment before asking, “I would like to read the story and form an opinion myself.”

“I’m sure we can find a copy around here or even at the public library.”

Loki’s smile falters, “You forget that I am unable to leave these few floors.”

“Not without permission or a guardian, and I’m sure we can get those. Just as I am sure that that rule is temporary.”

Loki looks at me hesitantly before he nods. “I hope so as well.”

I pick up my phone from the coffee table in front of us and notice the time and a few missed messages. 10:03 glows from the screen along with the notifications of 2 messages from Tony.

The first one was sent a few hours ago, “Kida, meet me in the lab at 10.”

While the second one was just sent. “Don’t make me sic JARVIS on you.”

I gulp and pocket the phone.

“Loki, I gotta meet Tony in the lab. I’m sorry that we haven’t trained yet today.”

“It’s okay, darling. One day of rest is acceptable.”

“Thank you, I’ll see you later. And try to get along with Thor, he loves you so much.”

Before I can hear an answer I bolt out of the room and down the hallway towards the elevators.

“JARVIS. Can you please take me to Tony’s lab.”

“Right away. Sir is waiting for you very impatiently.”

“It’s only a few minutes late, besides I only just saw his message.”

“I will relay that to him, Dr.”

“Thanks, buddy.”

The elevator doors slide open and I sprint off and towards the doors of the lab. I feel nerves hitting me from different directions. Why does Tony want to talk to me this morning? And why is there no music playing?

I hesitantly push open the door and enter.

Tony is at the same table that I saw him at last night. But this time instead of him standing in front of a mess, a simple box sits on the table.

“Ah, Gaia. I was wondering when you would show up.”

“Sorry Tony, I-”

“JARVIS told me. But no matter that you are late and made the amazing Iron Man wait on you.” He winks as I shrink in my spot. He waves a hand, gesturing to me to walk forward. Hesitantly I approach him and the work table, curiosity winning as to why he may want me here now.

“So I know that we are all good now. And I established, multiple times now, that you are part of this team. So I thought you should dress the part after all.” He opens the cover of the metal box on the table and I gasp.

Inside is a beautiful black tac suit. Long sleeves that end in purple gloves, the violet of my eyes reflected in the shades chosen to create the gloves, as well as the collar and belt of the suit. Mesmerizing silver threads dance through the black material and depending on where the light hits it, different designs shine. Silver flames and ice wind their way up the legs of the suit where they meet the rich violet belt. The bodice glimmers with silver flowers and vines, winding their way across the sleeves and black fabric. I can’t help but let my jaw drop as I take it in.

Tony laughs at my dumbfounded expression, “Well. What do you think, Kida? Need to try it on to be sure?”

“This is for me?” Tears are pricking at my eyes as I gently allow my fingertips to brush the fabric.

“Of course, I can't have a team member going out unprotected.”

I throw my arms around him and give him a huge hug. Tony freezes, unsure of how to react to the affection. He pats my shoulder, awkwardly.

“Well go try it on.”

I rush over to the bathroom that he points out on the other side of the lab, grasping the suit to my chest. Once in the bathroom, I carefully unfold it.

Between the black fabric and the silver accents, it almost glitters like scales, giving the suit a very celestial look to it. Grasping the fabric I realize just how durable it is, I’m not sure what exactly it could deflect or protect me from, but it is definitely armor.

I shrug off the short sleeve black tee and jeans and tug on the suit. I’m not sure how he was able to get the measurements so precise but it fits like a second skin, conforming to each of my curves and yet not squeezing the life out of me. I experimentally jump in place, the suit easily moving with each of my movements.

A loud knock on the door shakes me from the odd dance I am performing.

“Coming out anytime soon? I would love to see if my hard work pays off.”

I open the door and step out, confidence fueling my steps as I walk out of the bathroom and into the lab.

Tony begins a slow clap as I slowly do a 360 degree turn.

“I think I outdid myself with this one.”

“I think I would have to agree with you.”

“That’s good, because it not only looks badass. But it has communications built in, along with a tracker, and can resist smaller calibers of guns as well as non superpowered stabbings.”

“I absolutely love it.” I beam at him, gratitude filling me.

“I’m glad that you find it suitable.”

I groan, “That was a bad one even for you.”

“Cmon, not even one chuckle for your favorite oh so forgiving genius.”

I blink, not quite sure that I heard him right. “Forgiving?”

“I may not be 100% on board, but Barnes and Noble are going to be moving back later today. I promised that I would think about it, and I don’t have to forgive the guy but that doesn’t mean I have the right to decide who is on this team or not.”

I give him a serious look, “Okay, who was it? Bruce or Pepper?”

“Whatever do you mean?” He asks, feigning shock. “I have come to this adult conclusion all by myself.”

“JARVIS?”

“Miss Potts spoke with Sir last night.”

“Traitor.”

“Tony, it doesn’t matter who convinced you. But I think that this could help you.”

“Help me?”

“Yes. It won’t be easy, but closure never is.” I shut my eyes hard, my nightmare once again plaguing my thoughts.

“Sure, kid.” Tony turns away to start tinkering with another project.

“And one more thing.” He turns to face me as I stand in the doorway, posing in the new suit. “I think I will constantly be having to thank you.”

“At least someone appreciates me.” He comments with a forced sniffle.

I laugh and leave the lab, still wearing the suit.

#marvel reader insert #ao3 #ao3 fanfic #ao3 writer #ao3fic #marvel #marvel fanfic #marvel fanfic writer #marvel fanfiction #reader insert #archive of our own

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ryttu3k · 3 years

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Thoughts on His Dark Materials 2.05, spoilers for the whole trilogy!

jfc you ever see a character so magnetic... If Ruth Wilson doesn’t get an Emmy and/or a BAFTA I’m gonna riot (and unfortunately, that’s likely since SFF rarely gets big results in the award shows). Like how are you literally making me sympathise for Mrs Coulter. How. Because, yeah, she loves Lyra. She loves her so much that it informs every one of her actions in Amber Spyglass, including that one. But god if Lyra had accepted...

Also found it fascinating how Mrs Coulter was given three foils in this episode. Three direct comparisons! With Lyra - she even openly says how alike they are, with Lyra later denying that they’re anything like that - that she had not liked herself when she had Pan attack the Golden Monkey (subtitles used the non-canon Ozymandias name for him from the... stage show, I want to say? Or radio play? One of those. Pullman didn’t like it much, I believe, and I agree - I like that he doesn’t actually have a name, and someone in the sub pointed out it basically meant Mrs Coulter isn’t on speaking terms with her own soul).

Regarding Lyra: really enjoyed saying she’d rather be like Ma Costa or Lee. I just had this great image of her going, “I’d rather be like Ma Costa... or Lee Scoresby... or Iorek... or Mary Malone... wow, what the fuck am I bothering with biological parents for?”

Second foil - Mary. The sheer fascination mixed with absolute envy that Mary had these opportunities that she was denied. Like damn, what kind of a visionary would she have been in our world? ...Probably terrifying since she’s an Objectively Shit Person (how was it phrased? ‘Cess-pit of moral filth’? I doubt that’s just due to the world she’s from!), but still! And their reasons for wanting to help Lyra - Mary’s from curiosity and fascination and wonder, Mrs Coulter’s from... I guess possessive love.

Copypasting an entire comment here by GunstarHeroine from the subreddit:

SO MANY THINGS stood out in tonight’s belter of an episode, but Marisa Coulter’s meeting with Mary Malone and her subsequent Blue Screen Of Death on realising the reality of the patriarchy was something I will not forget.

Look at her. Look at her eyes, listen the words she uses. Marisa is absolutely fucking full of blinding rage at the truth she’s suddenly been hit in the face with. All her life she has been better, clever, smarter, and stronger than the men who dominate her society. And she has been forced to kowtow to these pissants, these simpering dull crude oppressors, slaving constantly in labour and cunning to secure the meagrest of breadcrumbs of respect and recognition in her academic and political fields. She has been forced to swallow the bitter pill of being ineligible for a doctorate, despite the undeniable superiority of her work. She has had to submit to her papers being published under the names of male peers and them taking her rightful credit. She has had to smile and simper and be agreeable and claw her way to power and respect through the utmost ruthlessness and cunning - and even though those things were always in her nature, the mental and emotional toll it’s taken on her is crystal fucking clear. She’s destroyed her own soul to rise to her rightful place.

And then she steps into another world and meets Mary. A doctor in her own right, with academic research in her own right, with her own brilliance in her own right. No fuss. No compromise. Just recognition on the basis of merit. And she realises, in that moment, what has been kept from her all her life, and how incandescently fucking furious she is.

Marisa Coulter is one of the greyest characters I've ever seen, and her handling in this adaptation is masterful. The way you can simultaneously despise her cruelty and feel desperately furious at what she's been forced to endure. Amazing.

And third foil, Boreal. Just flat-out calling him out on his greed. ngl I laughed when Will sliced the statue in half. Also his opening monologue about how there’s too little faith and too much consumerism... he says, from his Tesla, before they go to his mansion full of expensive items.

lmao god I can’t wait for *** ******* ** **** ***.

Speaking of Mary - she’s been told her role! I wonder if non-book readers have worked out who Lyra is yet, if Mary is the serpent? I want to say that’ll be in episode 7, not 6, since it’s just before the camp is attacked.

Also thinking that episode 6 will have Mary encounter the Spectres while passing through Cittagazze - in the book, it just says ‘you will be protected’, so it’ll be really cool if it confirms either of the two main theories, which is either a) the angels are protecting her (which would also be a fantastic way to introduce the angels in general, especially Balthamos and Baruch!), or b) the spectres recognising her as the Serpent and being fucking terrified.

Saw a preview image of Mrs Coulter surrounded by spectres and that’s gonna be a sight.

Want to kick Boreal somewhere uncomfortable after he hurt Will. Pretty sure Lyra did too. Leave him alone you bully!!

Side note, I am so amused they’ve made Pan’s new battle form a wolverine. And it’s still completely narratively appropriate! Like, yeah, it’s a reference specifically to Dafne Keen’s last major role, but also, the wolverine is the largest and strongest member of the mustelid family! It’s completely in character for Pan to use it!

Mrs Coulter and the Golden Monkey - li’l seatbelt was cute as hell. Rest was depressing as fuck. Daemons are souls, they reflect the human they’re attached to, and goddamn but you can learn so much about her by looking at him. The self-loathing - off the charts. The silence - she’s completely shutting herself off. If her daemon speaking reveals anything about her, then she has to cut herself off at all costs. Physically hurting him is literal self-harm. Just. Ouch.

The preview for next week showing Lee and John is giving me a heckin’ frighten. I’m sure they’re going to save Alamo Gulch for episode seven but I don’t want it to happen ;_;

Finally, on a meta note, it’s really fun watching all this come together for the non-book readers! Like someone on the sub was excitedly talking about a part in the opening credits where you see angel wings coalesce out of Dust. And that was a beautifully subtle note from the very start of season 1 that book readers picked up straight away, but now it’s all coming together for the non-book readers, and they’re going, “Wait, that’s not just cool imagery, that’s actually a depiction of canon!” Because yeah I do know the books, so I’m having quite a different experience to those who haven’t read them, and it’s just really cool seeing the non-book readers have these pieces falling together.

#his dark materials

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Bridesmaids Ten Years on: “It Should Not Have Been Subversive”

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“From the producer of Superbad, Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin” headlines the 2011 poster for Bridesmaids. It might as well have continued “comes a comedy starring… women!” While the producer in question, Judd Apatow, had nearly created his own subgenre of modern coming-of-age comedies featuring male friendships (regardless of the age his characters were ‘coming of’), a credible, genuinely funny, ensemble laugher starring all women was virtually unheard of. Or at least so it seemed at the time. Quotes on other posters included proclamations like, “Chick flicks don’t have to suck!” (Movieline) and “Better Than The Hangover!” (Cosmopolitan).

Ten years on, it seems both like yesterday when the film came out and also a whole era away: a time when women headlining a comedy movie was somehow strange, “chick flicks” were accepted to be a lesser form of cinema, and The Hangover was considered the pinnacle of hilarity. From a script written by Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig (who also stars), featuring a wedding where romance is in no way the focus of the movie, and starring a host of funny women, a smattering of gross-out humor, and some of the most honest and empathetic depictions of female friendship around, Bridesmaids was a beacon. And it shines just as strong today.

A week ahead of Bridesmaids’ 10th birthday (its original U.S. release was May 13, 2011), Den of Geek is chatting with director Paul Feig via Zoom. Feig is in Belfast and into week four of his fantasy adaptation The School for Good and Evil (based on the book). When we tell him we can’t quite believe it’s been 10 years he laughs, “You can’t? Imagine how I feel!”

While the movie itself remains fresh, funny, and sweet, that it was considered quite so daring just 10 years ago is a bit of a shock now. Certainly Feig never considered the movie to be subversive at the time.

“But everybody kept talking to us like it was!” he says. “It just made me mad because the whole subversive thing was, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s a movie starring women.’ And it was like, ‘Really?’ It was 2009 or 2010 at the time we were making it. It was like ‘Wow, if this is subversive, that’s kind of a sad indictment of the industry that we’re in.’ It was annoyingly subversive. It should not have been subversive. It should just have been a funny comedy starring funny people.”

He’s right of course. The fact is the movie was a benchmark. Feig explains that female writer friends who were pitching ideas for female casts at the time Bridesmaids was being made were all told across the board, “We have to wait and see how Bridesmaids does.” That is a whole lot of pressure for one movie—the idea that Feig’s comedy would influence the cinematic landscape for an entire gender. But the reality is, it did.

Feig is demure when we bring up how much the movie changed the film world, but he concedes that it did help to prove to studio execs that female-led films can make money.

“I’d been told in the years running up to that, when I would be pitching female-led projects, ‘Oh no, you can’t, because men won’t go see it. Internationally, it won’t work. Blah, blah, blah.’ All these rules, rules, rules, and you just start to go like, ‘Well, so we’re just going to accept those rules? So women can never have their own projects?’

“We were able to at least show them, ‘Look, if you do it, and it works, then audiences will show up. And not just female audiences. Men will show up.’ I think our movie benefited from the fact that women would bring their significant others to the film, whether they wanted to go or not, and then they could tell their friends, ‘Hey, you should see that. It’s really funny.’”

It worked. Bridesmaids was a massive success, both critically and commercially, grossing over $288 million worldwide (it’s the highest grossing Apatow movie to date) and bagging two Oscar nominations.

Bridesmaids isn’t the first female ensemble comedy, but it’s undeniable that it was a 21st century game-changer. Without it we may not have had movies like Pitch Perfect and its two sequels (if you think that film isn’t influenced by Bridesmaids, check out the poster), Bad Moms, Ocean’s Eight, Girls’ Trip, Feig’s own Ghostbusters reboot, Rough Night, as well as Melissa McCarthy vehicles Identity Thief, The Heat, Spy, Tammy, and The Boss.

Not every one of those projects is gold and nor should they have to be. The fact that they are allowed to exist and stand or fall on their own merits is crucial. It’s the equivalent of the idea that women in various forms of employment automatically have to be that much better than their male counterparts. Women should have the right to create and star in terrible comedies just as much as men…

Though she was relatively famous before Bridesmaids—perhaps most recognizable for her TV roles including as Sookie St. James in Gilmore Girls—it was Bridesmaids that truly pushed Melissa McCarthy into the mainstream. Nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as sister of the groom Megan in Bridesmaids, since then McCarthy’s become one of the highest paid actresses in the world.

It’s quite astonishing, then, that Feig didn’t actually know who she was before he met her at a table read.

“I had never met her before in my life,” he laughs. “We brought her in for an audition because she was friends with Kristen and Annie, and we were having trouble casting that role. Then she just blew me away. And I can’t believe to this day that I did not know she existed until the moment I saw her because she’d been working a lot before that.”

Feig’s first encounter with the script and McCarthy was at a table read back in 2007. Feig says he was in the middle of post-production on an “unsuccessful Christmas movie” called Unaccompanied Minors, which featured Wiig, when Apatow called up.

“He said ‘I know you like to work with female characters, so you should come and see this.’” Feig recalls. “I remember just going like, ‘Oh my God, we can have an amazing vehicle for the funniest women we can find.”

It wasn’t until three years later though that the project finally came to fruition. Feig says all the basic structure of the script was there but with some differences to the detail. The airplane scene wasn’t originally in the movie, and the women made it to Vegas. The character of Officer Rhodes (played by Chris O’Dowd) was a little different. And the infamous dress shop scene, where the group gets explosively ill after Wiig’s Annie takes them for a meal at a cheap restaurant was, according to Feig, “a little more of a competition about Helen [Rose Byrne] wanting an expensive dress and Annie trying to steer towards a cheap dress.”

The dress shop scene in the finished film has become notorious with food poisoning landing in full force during a bridal fitting, McCarthy’s Megan straddling a sink, and Maya Rudolph’s bride-to-be Lillian forced to relieve herself in the middle of the road wearing a wedding dress. Yep, not only is Bridesmaids a film about women, it’s a film where women have violent diarrhea, a massive taboo, even still. Feig recalls it was a delicate balance to make sure it was character driven and not just gross.

“When we first came up with the idea and pitched it to Kristen, she was a little nervous, but rightly so. I mean, honestly, with Judd and I, two guys suddenly going, ‘Hey, let’s do this,’ it could have been terrible,” Feig says.

“We like to have these outrageous scenes that stick with you, but they can’t be outrageous just because, ‘Hey, let’s just have something, everybody shits and farts all over the place.’ That’s not funny to us. What’s funny to us is the idea of she’s competing with somebody who has more money. She has no money. She’s going to try to compete by taking them to a shitty restaurant and saying it’s a good restaurant. And it’s going to blow up in her face. How does it blow up in her face?

“The funny thing is she’s not going to admit in front of her nemesis that this blew up in her face. And so now the comedy is like, ‘We’re just going to throw so much evidence at you that you’ve screwed up.’ The comedy’s going to be like, ‘I’m fine. They’re fine. Nothing’s wrong. I’m not sweating. I’m not about to die.’ And that’s why it’s funny. Then that allows us to go like, ‘And now let’s just have the evidence be hilarious and go crazy with it.’”

So much of what works so brilliantly about the movie is the chemistry between all of the cast. Wiig and Rudolph were already best friends in real life, and the rest of the cast, who all came from the world of improv, had either worked together or at least seen each other’s work.

“The great thing about comedy people, in improv especially, is they’re not lone wolves,” Feig explains. “They live and die by the interaction they have with the people they’re working with. So you don’t get a situation where somebody is a diva or trying to be like, ‘Oh, they’re stealing my jokes.’ They want to make each other as funny as they can while they also make themselves as funny as they can. So it was just a wonderful, supportive set. I mean, we had so much fun. There were never any moments of anything other than just laughing and having a great time.”

Though most of the cast was recognizable, to a U.S. audience at least, from TV shows like SNL, since Bridesmaids their careers have boomed. As well as McCarthy’s enormous success, Wiig has most recently starred as a main character in Wonder Woman 1984 (with a chance she might return for another installment); Ellie Kemper is now best known as The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmit; Wendi McLendon-Covey is the star of The Goldbergs; and Maya Rudolph seems to be in everything—we loved her as the Judge in The Good Place, among other things.

Pre-Bridesmaids Australian actress Rose Byrne was probably best known for serious roles in movies like Sunshine, 28 Weeks Later and Troy, and while her character, Helen, is something of the straight woman of the gang, she’s had plenty of opportunities to exercise her comedy chops since, with movies including Neighbors, Instant Family, and Like a Boss.

Though the antagonism between Annie and Helen and the effect it has on Annie’s friendship with Lillian is the central tension of the plot, it was always important to Wiig and Feig not to turn Helen into the villain of the piece.

“Helen doesn’t really do anything terrible,” Feig explains. “I always said, we have to face this from Helen’s point-of-view, which is: Helen meets Lillian. Lillian’s this awesome, smart person. And she then meets her friend who she’s heard all these weird stories about and the friend is kind of a mess. And so to her, she goes like, ‘That’s kind of a toxic friend. I’m going to, in a very lovely way, try to steer Lillian away from this bad influence in her life and towards better things, because I think she can go better places.’ So from Helen’s point-of-view, everything that Annie is doing is terrible because Annie’s trying so hard.”

It means that Bridesmaids very clearly avoids the trope that women aren’t able to get along, and Feig and Wiig pointedly wanted to avoid any sense of it being a catfight.

“We like to redeem people at the end,” Feig says. “It’s really sweet to redeem Helen and go, no, she’s just this needy person who has a husband who was never home. And she’s trying. She clearly has no self-confidence whatsoever, no self-esteem and so she’s just trying to buy it. So it just makes everybody redeemable and lovely at the end.”

Feig says he’s always been fascinated by female friendships and says he’s mostly friends with women. It’s another reason it was always important to him that despite being a “wedding movie” that Bridesmaids kept the relationships between the women at the heart.

Says Feig, “I don’t consider this a romantic comedy, even with the Chris O’Dowd love story. To me, that’s just a prize at the end that Annie gets when she works herself out with her friend. But that’s what drew me to it. If you look at my other movies, I’m just obsessed with the idea of female friendship and exploring it on screen, because I just find it to be one of the most interesting and fun and sweet relationships in my life that I’ve experienced.”

It’s this authenticity that helps Bridesmaids still ring so true a decade on. Though a comedy about women, written by two really funny women, which isn’t a romance and contains farts and shits shouldn’t be subversive, it was definitely a trailblazer. And Feig concedes that it’s helped with “getting over that stupid hurdle of ‘chick flick.’”

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“I despise that term because it’s just a way for guys to dismiss movies starring the opposite sex,” he says. “Hollywood is not an altruistic town. They’re not going to do stuff just to do the right thing. It has to make money. We were at least able to show: look, you can actually make money and do the right thing.”

Bridesmaids is now exclusively streaming on Peacock.

The post Bridesmaids Ten Years on: “It Should Not Have Been Subversive” appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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lattereadsra · 4 years

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I don't think this is an ask but I wish we got a Ranger's Apprentice animated series/movie instead of a live action

I would love an animated series! I’ve been watching the Tangled TV show and it has this neat storybook style art. I think something heavily stylized like that (or like Spider-Verse 👀) would be amazing

I’ve also been saying for ages that it would work better as a miniseries or a full length show, a la GoT or Good Omens. I think the people in positions to make these things happen are too caught up in the idea of movie adaptations. RA, especially early on, feels more episodic. The pacing would be awful for a movie, even for a series of movies.

Season one would be books 1 and 2, culminating in the duel with Morgarath and Halt just barely missing Will. During the training, throw in some lines about the Temujai warriors, maybe about the Scotti at the border to help set up future seasons

Season two is book 3 and 4. The alternating viewpoints in book 3 would make for great A and B plots in episodes

Season three is book seven. Out of order books are a lot easier than out of order episodes in a TV show, so I think it would have to be chronological. After Will splits off, he spends the episode getting lost until he collapses. There are two options—either the last moments are the other rider finding him, or the beginning of the next episode is that. Depends on if you want a darker tone. Also, Will being separated allows for easy A and B plot structure

Season four is books 5 and 6. I would adore Malkalam’s interrogation fully animated. Can you imagine the effects? And Grimsdell wood in general. So spooky, I love it. I forgot to mention that prior to now, Alyss is made a more important character. She shows up to more things (welcome home parties, downtime, etc). As fans of the book, we know she’s going to be the love interest and we also know that she’s kind of forced in, so we can avoid that with hindsight. (I would also be okay with a bigger adaptations change to make Hill canon, but for the sake of argument, I’m trying to stick as close to the books for this as possible.)

Season five is books 8 and 9. I think at this point in the series you could argue for the books to be split because of length but I like how cleanly the arcs break up. You could either have the same VA for Halt and Ferris and let the actor have fun with it, or have two different VAs who sound similar. I could honestly argue for either way. Both have merit.

Season six is book ten. If we made it this far, the show will hopefully be popular enough that they can pull in some really good consultants on historical Japan so that everything is respectful. Imagine the landscapes, though. Animated, stylized Japanese topography. I’d die

Lost Stories is an odd duck. I would love to include them, but it’s hard to find where they’d fit in a way that doesn’t ruin the flow. We could make the seasons longer, a little more flowing, and split the books up further, but I personally like this structure. If someone wants to figure that out in more detail, I’m happy to see it work, though. Maybe a miniseries between seasons, animated by different people in different styles to give newer artists a chance to work on a bigger project?

Adapting the story now that it’s complete lets us address issues and ideas to make the new version better. More diversity, clearing up the timeline a bit, making minor characters more defined early on, etc. The biggest thing, in my opinion, is the magical elements. I would love more magic in RA, but there needs to be a careful balance because we have arcs later on that are explicitly about fakers, both arcane and divine. But there are also moments that are undeniably magical—the Wargals, The Kalkara, and the hypnotism in book 6. That’s not how real hypnotism works and is borderline magical in its effects and application. I think if more magical elements are added to maintain consistency, they should be grounded and treated as natural. Beasts that come from mythology but are just more weird animals, for example. Maybe give the Rangers a more magical connection to nature that Halt has to sever when he’s banished. The Bedouin live around springs and oases that extend their lives a bit and give them stronger bodies that can withstand the desert. No spells or transformations or anything really flashy. That way, there becomes a distinction between “real” magic and what Malcolm and Tennyson do. The Wargals aren’t treated like fantasy monsters. No one really questions how they’re real. Magic like that is just part of the world.

That would be the biggest change. (And canon Hill if half the fandom wouldn’t be upset over losing Willyss.) I’d love to see an otherwise faithful adaptation of the series. I think structurally and stylistically, it’s already set up for a great TV show. And making it animated like anon suggested would be absolutely amazing, particularly if the producers allow a more unique look rather than trying to mimic classic Disney CGI style. It looks great, but it’s so boring and they all look the same. Give me Tangled the Series style, or Into The Spider-Verse, or even a more traditional comic book style (think Teen Titans or Batman the Animated Series) or something inspired by anime or more recent Western cartoons.

I’m not going to tackle BB and TRR because I haven’t read most of them, but they would most likely be spinoffs/sequels. Same with TEY, though I don’t know if there’s enough there to make a full, satisfying show. (I haven’t finished TEY either whoops) I also didn’t mean for this to get away from me like this, but here you go. All my RA adaptation thoughts in one place

#ranger's apprentice #rangers apprentice #ra adaptation #literally all the characters #latte has opinions #thank you so much for the ask!

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everybodylovesrand · 4 years

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Raje Judkins answered some questions about the show. Filming spoilers for the show below:

Q: What part of the books should you be caught up on for the first season?

A: Depends on if you like to read something before you watch it or not.

Q: What are you finding most challenging about going from book to screen? A: The hardest thing is the physicality of production. In the first book alone they go to more than 20 villages and cities. To try to do that is physically impossible for the show, so most of the work we don in the room is geographical, figuring how to condense the story and move it through places we can physically create.

Q: Do you have a favorite chapter from the whole saga? Mine is Veins of Gold. A: So many. But Honey in the Tea is the one off the top of my head.

Q: We can’t wait to see Elayne, Aviendha and Min

A: Me either. Three of my favorites.

Q: Has any post-production work begun or does that not start until filming is completed?

A: Nope! We do it simultaneously. Before the corona hit, I was prepping 2 episodes, shooting 2 episodes, in post on 4 episodes and writing Season 2 simultaneously :-0

Q: Will there be a soundtrack? Who’s the composer? A: Of course! David Buckley. Plus a few incredible musical guests we’ve already had.

Q: Are Min/Elayne in season 1? A: The Wheel weaves as the wheel wills

Q: Are you going to merge Min and Elayne? A: Hell no

Q: First moment you were speechless on set? A: First time walking into Emond’s Field with my mom

Q: Is mat fluent in the old tongue yet? A: We’ve had a couple cast members speak in it already and they NAILED IT

Q: Which character has your favorite costume so far? A: Ooo this is tough. Probably Geofram Bornhald.

Q: How is the cast and crew weathering the pandemic? A: Our team in Prague did an amazing job of getting everyone out and keeping them safe. And now everyone’s home and we all live on Instagram.

Q: Who is your favorite Forsaken? A: Ahhh. I love the ladies. Graendal, Lanfear, Moghedien. And Ishamael holds a special place in my heart the more time I spend with him

Q: What’s been your favourite shooting location so far? A: Slovenia! Spectacular stuff there

Q: Yes or no. Have you had to make any cuts be it a scene or character, that has been painful for you? A: Yes.

Q: How are you planning to handle the visualization of the weaves? Any little tidbits? A: We are trying to stay as true to the books as possible. I’ve been giving a bunch of VFX folks long diatribes about channeling, weaves, threads, earth vs. air, etc and they early stuff has started coming in. It looks FUCKING AWESOME. I screamed when Rosamund started channeling

Q: Similar to Them performing in an old Inn, what other iconic moment filmed stands out to u? A: Rand and Tam walking through the Westwood

Q: Blink twice if Min is in season 1. A: 😉😉

Q: Will Jeff Probst be one of the Aiel? Can you make some calls? A: If he dyes his hair red 😉

Q: Which WOT book title best describes your self isolation experience? A: A Memory of Light…

Q: Can we expect a trailer for the show anytime soon? A: Probably not for a long while sadly.

Q: Can you guys do a big WoT Wed announcement during the hiatus to keep all us fans hyped instead of al A: Yea! It would cheer us all up and we have some fun news

Q: Is Lan going to be as much or an absolute stud in the show as he is in the books? A: You’ve seen @danielhenney right?

Q: If you were an Aes Sedai, what Ajah would you choose? A: Such a good question. They all have merits but GREEN for the win. If only to hang with @priyankabose20

Q: Will we have to wait till season 2 to see any Aiel? (Other than Rand)

A: Nope. And the one you see will shock you. Hah. Amazon shouldn’t let me be on here when I’ve been cooped up for a week.

Q: RJ writes a lot of internal headspace stuff. What’s 1 hint on how the show will handle that? A: That’s the biggest difficulty of any novel adaptation. Figuring out how to make the internal monologue come out clearly to the audience. A lot of the changes we make and stories we tell differently are designed to serve exactly that purpose – showing you what those characters internal monologues from the book are without them just saying it out loud in exposition

Q: Are you using taller actors to portray the Aiel, or camera trickery? A: Trying to get tall folks. But I’m less concerned with height and more concerned with acting ability.

Q: Since JordanCon was cancelled, can we maybe get an extra treat next month? A: Sure! What do you want?

Q: Do you have a favorite Wise One? A: Avi

Q: How many trollocs do I have to take out to become a writing assistant? A: Violence is never the answer

Q: What would you say the CGI to practical ratio is going to be? A: Tring to do as much in camera as we possibly can!

Q: How are you handling sword forms and their names? A: We have a for real sword master on the show who walks into every room and tests out everything as a weapon. He could most definitely kill me with any item in my office.

Q: How are the horses on set? Is Mandarb spectacular? A: They are so great. Honestly I love our horses. Mandarb and Aldieb are downright sexy

Q: When will we get more casting announcements to hold us over? A: I’ll try to get them to put out something soon. A lot of folks in all departments are affected by the state of the world right now though, so I can’t promise a timeline

Q: will we see the prologue from the Eye of the World on screen in season 1 A: You will hear that phrase

Q: What has been your favorite set so far? A: Fal Dara!

Q: Please tell me you’ve cut Narg!! A: Never!!

Q To what extent has Harriet McDougal been involved with the project? A: She’s a consulting producer so she’s been out to Prague to the sets and reads all the scripts and sends me her notes on them. She and Maria are hugely helpful for maintaining the truth of the series and always keep me honest when it comes to things that change too much

Q: Is any aspect of the show still in development, or has it all stalled because of the virus? A: A lot can be done virtually! I’m still doing VFX, editing and the Season Two Virtual Writers Room! And I can do it all in pajamas

Q: Will min, elayne, and avienda have to be combined into a single character?

A: Girl you crazy. I’m not going to combine huge characters like that. Maybe sometimes a minor character folded into a more major one to make better use of our cast but nothing nutso

Q: RJ created 1000’s of character. Given that did you feel the need to create new characters? A: Anyone “new” is inspired by characters in the books or a number of characters combined. If we paid to cast all speaking roles in the book we could only afford to have a radio play

Q: So far, what is your favorite prop in the show? A: Great Serpent Ring. We all want one.

Q: Will Loial portray the Ogier species, or will he be humanised for screen? A: He’s an Ogier!

Q: How involved, if involved at all, is Sanderson in the writers room? A: Brandon is hugely helpful. I talked to him before we started Season Two while he was in Prague to get advice and he reads all the scripts and gives notes. He’s incredibly thoughtful and understands the process of adaptation and what’s required from it. I feel so lucky to have him involved. I would have him do more if I could make him!

Q: What words of hope would you offer a fan afraid that the show will cut out a lot of content? A: I genuinely think we are cutting less than most people think. When I see people ask questions like “are you cutting Min?” It blows my mind. I don’t know how you do an adaptation without some of these characters. I think it’ll be more of the smaller stories you’ll miss. We can’t have Rand and May (sic) travel to many many inns on their travels across the countryside for instance. It’s just not producible. So that will be more of what you miss I think, and the books always exist to read for that 🙂

Q: I think Bella is such an important character, will the same horse play bella through the series A: We’ve already had to have two Belas. It turns out a horse for riding on film is not the same as a horse for pulling a cart and SHE MUST DO BOTH

Q: Can you please make sure you do a great job? Book are so great A: This is are a really good idea

Q: Now you’ve met them, settle the score: who’s better with women? Rand, Mat or Perrin? A: I think they’d all say it’s the other

Q: Will the show be understandable for those who didn’t read the books? A: That’s the idea. If there are little things they don’t get though, luckily google exists

Q: Who is your favorite Aes Sedai in the books? And you can’t say Moiraine/Siuan or the Wonder Girls A: So many rules. I honestly love all of them though (except Galina that bitch) Alanna Liandrin and Verin are probably my Top 3. And Siuan! There’s too many I love. Sheriam! Pevara!

https://www.wotseries.com/2020/03/22/show-runner-rafe-judkins-does-an-ama-on-instagram/

#Wheel of Time #The wheel of Time #Rafe Judkins #answers questions #WOTonPrime

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