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PaperclipPerfector  7mo ago (text post)   2925 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for September 8, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I've been watching the new season of Wheel of Time, and kind of like it. I haven't read the books and don't plan to, so that might affect my enjoyment, but in general they seem rather fun, with alright actors and nice costumes. I'm especially enjoying the costumes.

As a huge fan of the books Season 1 was a massive letdown. I was willing to cut them some slack on some of the standard woke stuff (every country's demographics looking like a college brochure, unisex magic source instead of the book's gendered system) but Rand's final showdown with a weirdly laid back Ba'alzamon being about Egwene being too cool to settle down and start a family really crossed the line for me.

To hijack this thread, what's everyone watching? I finished Midnight Mass recently and thought it was great. Well-written, unpredictable, and balanced takes on religion. Starting Yellowjackets now and am not particularly enjoying it.

I managed to make it through Yellowjackets season 1, thanks to it being a series I could watch with a ladyfriend. I made it about 1 episode into season 2 before I lost complete interest.

Wheel of Time season 2 seems to land better for me than season 1, but maybe that's because all of the outrage has mostly blown over. I was a book enjoyer of this series decades ago and was upset at the tv adaption for many of the same reasons that you've outlined. After enough time to forget my frustrations at season 1, I'm casually watching it again. They really double down on the girl power/strong women stuff and Rand's power use seems to be really one dimensional compared to Aes Sedai power use Hard to say whether the series will die or not at this stage.

Foundation is also something I'm watching, but with related issues. Strong (largely unlikable) women of colour are the main protagonists (except of course for Harry Seldon; arrogant old white man). The antagonist evil emperors are of course also white men. The best warrior general in the galaxy (who will inevitably turn good rebel) is gay. One of the other straight male heroes is strangely attracted to a plump homely woman with short hair who talks down to him. Now that I think about it, the vast majority of relationships in this series are interracial. The series only vaguely holds to the premise of the books at all.

I'm resigned to tv shows and movies basically not being made for people like me as time moves on. If the culture continues lurching in this direction, I eventually won't be able to enjoy anything new and will have to sate myself with a back catalogue of archeomedia. If I'm lucky AI generated content will come to the rescue before that happens, but there's no guarantees.

Which Foundation stories are adapted? What's the plot?

If they wanted Strong Female or Male Of Color, doesn't the Mule story center around a female? Bayta something? And isnt Hober Mallow (maybe I got the name wrong, I mean the Trader protagonist) some kind of colored? There's already diversity! And do they really portray Hari Seldon as arrogant? Jesus.

The series is very loosely based around the premise of the first few books. Basically, the establishment of the Foundation due to the development of Psychohistory and the weathering of crises. The second season has strong foreshadowing of The Mule and is also currently establishing the setup of the Second Foundation of mentalists.

I only read the first few books in the series, but apparently a main character which is a robot guiding the Empire's destruction is a character in one of the later books.

To be fair it's difficult to adapt a book series like Foundation that is largely comprised of vignettes with a rotating cast of characters to a TV series which has the audience expectation of a consistent cast that they can emotionally engage with. That said, many of the 1950's cultural themes and values have clearly been stripped out and replaced by current year identity politics.

Thanks, I might grit my teeth and check it out.

Yeah, the end of Season 1 didn't really make sense on it's own terms either, I thought it was absurd plotting.

As a non-book reader, the ethnicity of the casting of the Two Rivers characters doesn't bother me all that much on a visceral level, possibly because the in-show world building isn't very deep, so I don't have a strong sense of those in Two Rivers actually being a distinct ethnic group. My impression from the in-show world building is more that the timelines are shorter/shallower than the book timelines, and it may not have been all that long since the Breaking. Maybe only a few hundred years? So these are all towns full of refugees from the past world wide civilization that was destroyed, and in the show it's been long enough for low technology to be the only thing living characters remember, but not so long that visually (or even especially culturally) distinct people groups have formed. It isn't like the Balkans, where in addition to looking similar physically, every village has its own distinct embroidery pattern or something. I realize this probably doesn't make as much sense overall as the book world building, though.

Anyway, the in-show logic of the first four episodes of the new season is alright, much better than the end of Season 1, and it's handled rather well for following a separated ensemble cast. Visuals are really a strength -- most of it looks quite good, with nice shots, sets, lighting, costumes, etc (as long as, again, it's meant to be a continent full of refugees and relatively short timeline).

My impression from the in-show world building is more that the timelines are shorter/shallower than the book timelines, and it may not have been all that long since the Breaking. Maybe only a few hundred years?

Well who knows? They felt free to make up a wife for Perrin. The idea makes sense but doesn't leave too much room for Artur Hawkwing, Trolloc Wars or Cadsuane the in-lore girlboss - would've thought they'd leave some space for her at least. Anything can happen.

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