Fantasy and fantasy-like worlds...

[rogueslayer452]

++ Fandom Friending Meme! Since there's been a lack of good friending memes lately, for anyone who has been wanting more people to converse/squee about fannish things (or anything, really), definitely go there and find new friends. :)

++ There is going to be a prequel series to The Dark Crystal to be released on Netflix called, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. The teaser is very short and only features a brief glimpse of what may be to come, but I'm actually pretty excited about this. The Dark Crystal is one of my favorite movies from my childhood, it is a pure masterpiece with the way it was done, the story and the world, it was so uniquely creative and immersive and completely different from any of Jim Henson's other works. It's too early to tell obviously, but the fact that this prequel is happening and they're collaborating with the Henson Company to make these characters and world again leads me to believe that they'll hopefully do this justice.

++ While I don't particularly care much about Game Of Thrones anymore, the new trailer for S7 looks pretty damn hype. Particularly because Daenerys arrives at Dragonstone, the place where she was born. While I want her to travel further into Westeros and basically confront the Lannisters, I want to see this emotional reunion of sorts, a place she was taken from and where she will gain her strength to continue onward on reclaiming the Throne. The sixth season was surprisingly good and a huge improvement from the lackluster and disappointment of the previous seasons (for multiple reasons), and while I'm not getting my hopes up I do want the momentum to remain high and for shit to get done.

(For real though, what would it take to get an actual faithful fantasy adaptation of A Song Of Ice And Fire? Less of the HBO shit and more of something that is fantastical and larger than life, like seen with Marc Simonetti's artwork?)

++ It seems that Will & Grace and Roseanne have hopped on the never ending revival bandwagon. I've already stated my less than favorable opinions about this trend of revivals known, though I've read that these two particular revivals will be ignoring their series finales, which were considered terrible or retconning in the worst way. So I can't be mad about that. But will they attempt to fix and improve things or just make it worse?

Comments

[nemophilist.livejournal.com]

I still miss how great season one of GOT was. I gave up around season four and the 'bad pussy' bit. WHAT THE FUCK.

I wish it had been done better. :/

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Same. The fact that it's won so many awards for such abysmal writing continues to baffle me. I mean, I'll give credit where credit's due, the first season was decent enough, but after that it got really bad. The blatant rape/exploitation of women and continued male gaze of the series turned me off completely, and most characters are watered down versions of their book counterparts that it's just disappointing.

(And let's be honest, I'll forever be bitter that they failed to bring in Lady Stoneheart and Arianne Martell, not that I would trust them with the characters now esp considering the absolute failure of the Sand Snakes, but still.)

I kinda wish it had been handed to people who actually cared about the series and wanted to enhance it and perhaps make certain things better, y'know? I wanted it to get that Legend of the Seeker treatment, make something great by ignoring the bad aspects of the series and turn it around into something fantastic; not necessarily lighthearted but something actually entertaining and fun with less of what they have been doing with it for the last several seasons. ASOIAF had so many fantastical aspects to it, but HBO decided against having those things and just focused on the most boring parts and filled in the gaps with gross unnecessary things. It just disappoints me that they didn't take full advantage of focusing on the grand scale of this fantasy world, going bombastic with the sets and recreating some of the fantastical aspects.

[nemophilist.livejournal.com]

Yep yep yep.

I love how fucking done GRRM is. He even changed the ending from what he told them hahah.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure about the ending part, but he hasn't written an episode for the show for some time (which I guess was the original deal or contract that he would write for one episode per season), and has shaded the show for both not including important characters and killing off characters that are still alive in the books.

[sixphanel.livejournal.com]

The Iron Throne is one of the most disappointing things ever created for the show. I mean, that inspires... nothing!!! In the books you read so many things... and then they did *that*. Sure, it's easier to take to conventions and that sort of thing but... I agree, the artwork you share is fantastic (I had seen some of them, but not all! really exciting :D). THAT is more like it.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Exactly! Seriously. Like, the Iron Throne itself is supposed to be this massive intimidating beast of a throne which demonstrates the power of the one who sits upon it, instead the one created for the show just looks like any other chair. It's honestly the blandest thing ever in comparison to the descriptions from the books. It's like they didn't even try.

Perhaps it was meant to be something more marketable, like you said to be taken to conventions or made into action figures or whatever, maybe they didn't have the budget to make it as big as it should have been, but honestly. Have more of an imagination and creativity than that, JFC. This is a fantasy world, try to think outside the box and go nuts with how fantastical to make things.

(What's interesting is that GRRM has even mentioned that the Iron Throne in that artwork linked is the most accurate depiction he's seen yet.)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

I'm keeping an eye on that friending meme. I remember a fandom friending meme where I added a lot of people a few months ago and then most of them left to Dreamwidth. ^^;;

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that happened to me too. I don't blame them for doing what they thought best, but in truth it just sucked because I had made some new friends and they all just left. :( I feel like there should be more friending memes now more than ever to see who else is still here and need more LJ friends to converse with.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Yeah I'm not sure that I see the need for a Roseanne revival, it feels like they would need to retcon most of the final season, not just the finale episode itself (at least I'm assuming that they will want to back to go back to the Connor's roots of being a struggling working-class family?) And I understand when viewers talk about the last season with the lottery win not existing for them/pretending it never happened, but it seems odd for the show itself to do the same thing and make one of its seasons not canon....

And then everything was wrapped up pretty definitively at the end, so I'm not sure how they can pick things back up for a new season very easily

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

The whole final season was a mess, but I feel like the show went on a huge decline a couple seasons before that. I saw someone point out that the latter half of the show was becoming less Roseanne Conner and more Roseanne Barr, which was probably due to things happening BTS. But the show definitely took a huge jumping of the shark with them winning the lottery. If anything else, they should ignore all of that last season (and some before that) and just continue on with the roots of what the show started out as and kind of go from there. IDK. I just don't think there needs to be a revival, despite the final season/series finale being the most controversial and debated about of the show.

Though it does make me wonder how things are going to work out on an emotional level, due to Glenn Quinn being gone and how that will affect the characters, especially since Mark was such a huge part of Becky's story throughout the show.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

I think revivals make sense when there's a reason, and make less sense when the characters are just more or less in the same place, but older.

I mean, in a way I see the back seasons of Buffy (4-7) as being almost two different shows, so in the same family as a revival; the first three were about high school. The last three, while back to back were about similar happenings but in a more adult-oriented context. Even then, some people still think that didn't work. (I think it works when I look at the two blocks separately, as opposed to seeing it as a straight series.*) Whereas from what I've heard of some revivals, nothing's really changed. (I don't want to veer into Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch territory, so I'll leave it at that to be on the safe side.)

I did watch a bit of Girl Meets World, and GMW seemed to do it well. I will say that. But the characters were in different places, both physically and in life. The focus was more on Corey's daughter. And it was actually interesting for me to see Shawn, Corey and Topanga as adults.


*I mean, even the premise changed a bit. Literal old school Buffy was about the idea of high school as hell, among other high school tropes. So once they graduated the premise changed completely.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I think revivals make sense when there's a reason, and make less sense when the characters are just more or less in the same place, but older.

Exactly, and that's why every time anything is announced as a revival I am immediately skeptical because most times these revivals are nothing more than mere reunions that have little to no progression of character development or of the story itself. Revivals, I feel, should be to further advance the story that has something else to tell. But most these that are getting announced most likely are doing it to bank on the nostalgia, and that's it. Revivals have become the Hollywood remakes of the television world.

I mean, in a way I see the back seasons of Buffy (4-7) as being almost two different shows, so in the same family as a revival

BTVS is one of those unique examples, I find. The show definitely reinvented when it went beyond those high school years but it was done so organically to the development of the story and characters, and I think that's why it differs from most other shows because it truly was a coming of age story and demonstrated how to develop these characters and the plot even further.

[silverusagi]

What is the point of revivals when they're ignoring the way the series ended? I mean, how is there an in-universe fix for that?

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Well, even though uncommon and unconventional in itself, I suppose if a series finale is more or less universally disliked by the fanbase a revival ignoring it entirely is somewhat forgivable, depending on what is done. And with sitcoms, I think most will be able to suspend belief and be able to accept it.

[noybusiness.livejournal.com]

Here's hoping for The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. There have been a lot of Dark Crystal prequels in comic and novel form recently; Legends of the Dark Crystal, The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths, Shadows of the Dark Crystal, Song of the Dark Crystal, and now the sequel The Power of the Dark Crystal.

I can't wait for Dany and Jon to meet!

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I really need to get to reading those, actually. I'm always up for more of The Dark Crystal.

That is one of my biggest anticipations for the season! Dany and Jon finally meeting. Dany sharing scenes with all the other characters is something I've been waiting for for a long, long time.

[sictransits.livejournal.com]

Definitely checking out that friending meme!

I hadn't heard that Will & Grace was ignoring the series finale. I'm glad, hopefully they can fix everything now. =)

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

The whole thing with Will and Grace basically not talking or speaking with each other for years all because of some stupid argument/disagreement and then them finally speaking once their kids were getting married was beyond ridiculous and stupid and made no sense whatsoever. That was not the way to end the show. So hopefully they'll get it right this time.

[jediknightmuse.livejournal.com]

OMG I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THE DARK CRYSTAL SERIES! I freaking love that movie (not AS much as Labyrinth, but it's definitely one of my favorite movies, and now I need to watch it, 'cause it's been a while) so much. It should be interesting to see what the end up doing with it. I always thought the ending was weird with all the guys who come together to form one guy or something? It's been a while so I don't quite remember what happens), but otherwise that movie is pretty damn close to flawless.

I'm really excited for Game of Thrones this season. Between the trailer and the photo shoots of the Starks that I saw...I'm so ready for it.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I always lump my childhood favorites together, there is honestly not one I favor over the other. The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, The Neverending Story, they all receive the same amount of love as some of my favorite childhood fantasy films.

I always thought the ending was weird with all the guys who come together to form one guy or something?

There is a lot of lore that goes into that, it is explained somewhat in the film and goes into detail in the novelization, and from what I heard some in the prequel comics as well. But it's incredibly fascinating stuff (http://darkcrystal.wikia.com/wiki/UrSkek) and adds more layers, much of which I didn't quite understand growing up but find intriguing now with the world-building.

[jediknightmuse.livejournal.com]

I would say out of those three, Labyrinth has a bigger place in my heart, but I think a large part of that is because my high school ex-best friend and I realized that we both had seen the movie and that helped us connect even more. These days, because we're not speaking any more, I can watch the movie without thinking about the fact that we're not friends any more, but after we stopped being friends, it was harder for me to watch it. I tried to get the same friend to watch The Dark Crystal and I think I remember her both being horrified/scared of it and kind of confused by it, haha. I love The Neverending Story but I've never had huge connection to it like I have with Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal.

Ah, okay. That's actually really interesting.

I'm so stoked for this new show. It should be interesting to see what they do with it. And the fact that it's a Netflix show SHOULD mean that it'll be really good, I think.