#a better fantasy show than netflix's witcher

[theforgottendaydreamer]

I love how inclusivity is handled in The Dragon Prince, here's why.

In most shows, as much as it bothers me to admit so, some people are right, inclusivity does feel forced sometimes. But it's not the characters' fault, it's not because of them being part of the lgbtq+ community, or being disabled, or being POC, or being strong women who do not conform to patriarchal standards.

It's not that.

It's that the show they are part of is a straight, white, abled parade - and notice, most of said shows won't even pass the Bechdel test.

So yes, in a show written by and aimed to straight, white, abled people, even I, a gay, non-binary, chronically ill person feel weird seeing charcters that are there just for the sake of inclusivity, albeit 'inorganic'.

In a show with the premise of "straight, white, abled men are the indiscussed MCs", seeing that one side-character that stands out and is often ridiculed and/or reduced to a single trait of their 'personality', such as 'the gay one', 'the asian one', 'the disabled one' (etc) is upsetting and feels uncomfortable as hell.

But TDP is different.

They immediately introduced powerful women, people of color, characters that are openly part of the lgbtq+ community, disabled characters etc. And not one of them per 'category', no. For the lgbtq+ community we have Amaya, Janai, Runaan, Ethari, Terry, Kazi. For the disabled community, we have Amaya again, Villads, and even a disabled wolf Ava. For the POC community, we have literally half of the cast, starting from King Harrow, then Ezran, every sunfire elf, Terry as well, etc. Same goes for women, who take up on roles that are rarely considered 'for women', like Opeli being the main member of the High Council, Amaya being the General, Rayla being the main Dragon Guard, Claudia being one of the main antagonists, etc.

Both main and side-characters are part of the communities, everything is so much more organic, enjoyable, thrilling.

We do not come in 'minor quantity'.

We are everywhere, among others, living our lives, doing our best, existing, thriving, proud. It's not just one or two of us among thousands. Surprise, 'categories' can mix! Just like I, a real human being, can be gay, enby as well as chronically ill, we can have characters like that as well! Amaya being lesbian and disabled, Terry being black and trans, Janai being black and lesbian, etc. And, another surprise, 'categories' don't define us. We don't 'shove it' in anyone's face like they say we do, we're just being us and cishets are upset because we don't conform to their sick standards.

Inclusivity is organic in TDP because nobody in that universe questions anyone else's color, gender, orientation, etc. And it's organic because we didn't have to wait half a season to see a black character, or a disabled character, or a gay character.

The key to inclusivity is to realise that we aren't just 'bonuses'. Fill shows and comics with lgbtq+, POC, disabled, and female characters. Not just one every 15, 20 characters. Everywhere.

We are everywhere! We are proud! We deserve to be seen! We deserve to be depicted as the normal people we are, without diminishing our traits but without making them our whole personality either. Treat us like human beings, be considerate like you should be with everyone on the planet of course, but treat us like humans.

Antagonising people who are 'different' (in the mind of straight, white, abled people) will not suppress us. We will keep insisting until you hear us. It's literally one of the main messages, one of the main teachings of TDP and it's so damn important.

Every single person on Earth should watch it. Every single kid should be introduced to TDP at an early age. Every old bigot should watch it, as well. Everybody. Even if it's considered a y7 (y10 for s4 and s5 apparently) show, everyone, no matter their age, should give it a try and watch it thoroughly.

Lots of love to the creators and everyone, literelly everyone involved in the production of one the best, most entertaining, most exciting, most formative shows ever. Please, keep it up! And thank you so much!

#tdp #a better fantasy show than netflix's witcher #inclusivity #lgbtq+ #disability #poc #bechdel test #janai #amaya #terrestrius #terry #claudia #ethari #runaan #rayla #ezran #king harrow #kazi #the dragon prince #villads

[dominogodbane1]

Wiedźmin (THE WITCHER) 1984 fantasy show by MIDJOURNEY A.I

#the witcher #Wiedźmin #the witcher 3 wild hunt #geralt of rivia #yennefer of vengerberg #triss merigold #cirilla of vengerberg #ciri #jaskier #a.i. art #a.i generated #i.a #dominogodbane #80's #tv show #better than Netflix #adaptation #andrzej sapkowski #book #fantasy #dark fantasy #art #illustration #cd projekt red #video games art #rpg #SoundCloud #Digital art #vesemir #eredin

[stromuprisahat]

Slightly incoherent The Witcher S02 rant

(Finished and posted two years later with no Starbucks involved...)

They’re trying so hard to be The Next Game of Thrones, they’re erasing everything that makes The Witcher special. Things are changed unnecessarily, *new* *original* storylines added- much simpler and inferior to source material.

There’s a lack of ~variety~ of dangers. Different kinds, different degrees... It’s all life-threatening, fatal. The writers forgot some things can be dangerous only thanks to specific circumstances. Leshy in the woods can be just that- monster living in witchers’ keep’s backyard, not some weird parasite trying to murder or transform all the witchers.

Another trend I've noticed is "No rest for the heroes.". Characters aren't allowed to have a place and/or time to develop without preasure. The most peaceful part of Ciri's story got turned into parade of incompetent, inconsiderate idiots. It’s the same issue I had with first season of Shadow and Bone, where MC's studies and integration into new enviroment got struck out. Both were lacking "action". Both got cut short and re-written to be more "eventful". In both cases the story AND characters suffered. Characters aren’t developed, they become changed. Netflix seems to have a pattern, and- considering second season of S&B- doesn’t learn from its previous terrible results.

Another huge issue is pacing. The whole season feels like it happened in a week, when Blood of Elves took more than a season of the year.

“I know someone...” As it turned out, we all do.

When we’re at things I hate, there’s the trend of connecting EVERYTHING. You have a minor part to fill? Give it to one of already existing characters to make their path more eventful and memorable. What happened to random soldier, corpse no. 54 or anonymous inkeeper in shithole MC’s just passing through? You don't constantly cross ways with the same three people! Make the world real by houndreds of faces you'll never see again! It’s like the creators didn’t notice this is a TV show, not a video game, where you have to animate every different feature, so more NPC with the same faces are to be expected.

I also dislike the trend of giving some storylines to one-off side characters or making new things up just to make them important enough to keep them around (Istredd, Dara, Stregobor). Why can't you accept some people appear, fuck up your life and you never see them again? Are they pushed to keep some actors around?

The books are mostly following Geralt’s and Ciri’s story, but not exclusively. Show offers a chance to add more background politics, wider picture. Instead they bait us with well-known, already beloved characters that get reduced to something they’re not. I’ve made a separate post about Francesca Findababair, but they didn’t treat Philippa any better. Instead of a badass, crucial for the plot, the intelligence behind Redanian Intelligence, she’s just an owl. Dijkstra’s messanger to keep in touch with some sad little elf kid.

Voleth Mier disaster

There isn’t more genric evil creature in fantasy than “demon”. Then they call it “Mother of Evil”? She’s feeding on fear? I’m starting to suspect someone in the writing room has some serious mommy issues. ... and no imagination.

Apparently Blood of Elves without a final boss fight is too boring to adapt faithfully. There’s no time to increase the stakes gradually. Every season needs to end with a BANG!

Shared dreams? Why is there the need to connect everything even more to make it MORE important and SPECIAL and INTERESTING?

Vesemir and the rest of Kaer Morons

Why the fuck is Coën Wolf, not Griffin? Remember how I talked about unnecessary changes? Why bother keeping names, when everything else is different?

Eskel didn’t deserve this shit. The writers are counting on our pre-existing knowledge of his relationship with Geralt, so his death has at least some impact. Zero effort on their part, merely one (1) flashback. The Wolf funeral is plain stupid, while supposed to look "cool". a.) There isn't many witchers, they tend to die on the Path. b.) I'm sure the mutations just make the witchers tastier. No side effects. c.) Eskel was a fucking tree. Did the wolves just use him as a fancy chewing toy?

Lambs is a dick, but a dick, who loves his family. Not a bully picking on young traumatized girls.

Vesemir’s probably the second worst, considering the whole mischaracterization mess. They’ve changed friendly grandpa into "Let us use Ciri to make more witchers". Not OOC at all.

The writers also kinda missed the whole point of only four witchers living in the gigantic keep, but never mind that...

Why do they bother looking for new stories, when they just grind it into homogenic crap corresponding with The Pattern™?

Since when are witchers training in temples? (So much for neutrality...) And where's the chubby Slavic panímáma? Melitele's tample was about healing and herbs, not magic, that's Yennefer's storyline. Yes, it matters. It completely changes the perspective.

Since there’s no emotional build-up for anything, creators went for low-haging fruit. But Roach had to die for more reasons. Aside from the obvious (Horses aren’t immortal and we can’t kill the bard.), it’s the perfect way to get Geralt on gorgeous black Friesian. Y'no, because other horses are never so cool. And the Hero™ can't ride just some chestnut these days... Don't get me wrong, I love Friesians since I was a child, but this trend is beyond annoying.

Why change 14th of the hill? That’s Triss’ storyline and passing it on Yennefer served absolutely nothing.

Then we have Rience, who is for some reason super powerful- not only he doesn't have a problem drawing from fire, he can teleport to witcher's keep? Place full of magic, the very same one that's hard to find and he's never been to? Compare with game!plot, where Lambert’s dimetrium bombs messed with Yennefer’s magic enough for her not to be able to call someone.

There should be a list of banned words, or words and phrases that are often overused: power, protect, save, curse(d), fault, ~ needs you. ~I~ need you., Together. *meaningful pause*, You can fight this., glowy eyes = evil, suicidal self-sacrifice, not perfect but real, family, I beliiiiieve in you., force, darkness...

Sorry, but using a quote from one of the strongest moments of Blood of Elves in completely different situation will NOT give you extra points. Quite contrary. This is how you ruin one of he best parts of the books- by holding a sword to your SO's (who's been through some serious shit) neck.

Honorable mention of Emhyr var AnotherDumbVillain, for publicly proclaiming Ciri’s his daughter ...now the whole Nilfgaard knows what he wants. Stupid and the easiest way to let his enemies’ spies know just HOW much is she valuable.

Things I liked about this season: Tris and Ciri's meeting, Vereena, Yenneskíer chemistry

If there’s one thing second season of The Witcher taught me, it’s “Keep your expectations low, you’re gonna be let down anyway.”.

#The Witcher (TV series) #season 2 #Blood of Elves #Philippa Eilhart #Voleth Meir #Kaer Morons #Ciri of Cintra #Roach #Triss Merigold #Yennefer of Vengerberg #Rience #Emhyr var Emreis #q: Disturbance #V #parallels&references #Shadow and Bone #bad writing #TWN critical

[maidenvault]

Watching PD is a good reminder that fantasy TV actually can look better than garbage with a not-huge budget and Netflix and Amazon have no excuse. The lighting and cinematography were so beautifully done in this show and the costumes were incredible, the sets, the make-up….The Witcher costs 10 million per episode to do what??

#I know game of thrones spent a ton shooting in different countries but even their costumes looked cheap and shitty sometimes tbh #the lack of effort bothers me so much #penny dreadful

[limerental]

I thought I was the only one who didn’t really like book or game Dandelion, he literally just the paint by numbers stereotypical DnD Pervy bard Archetype, he does definitely have some sweet moments with the other characters and some genuinely funny moments, but I find it surprising that of all the fairytale and fantasy tropes the Witcher books subvert, this one just isn’t, in fact Joey’s version of the character is a better subversion than the original is

Yeah I honestly think most affection for dandelion is built off the back of association with show Jaskier and the really wide interest in analyzing him is based purely on that. I mean, he's a fun and silly character! But he's one of many characters and the focus seems really disproportionate. The show makes Jaskier much more sympathetic and smooths off his bad qualities but literally he's not even Geralt's closest pal in the books.

Though my other suspicion is that many people only selectively read the books based on interest they already had through the lens of the Netflix season. So their biggest takeaway is Dandelion for hyperfixation reasons

#my other suspicion is that some people read only the short stories and then get stuck in the saga and then idk #dandelion i just find frustrating most of the time

[thenightling]

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Review

I originally wasn’t too interested in seeing Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves but much like with Over the Garden Wall I was pleasantly surprised after I had heard many good things about it and finally checked it out for myself.

The tipping point to make me finally check out the movie was when someone said it was essentially “Jaskier the movie.”  Jaskier (often translated to Dandelion) is my favorite character from The Witcher novels and Netflix TV series (The novels are Polish, the show is American / UK made).  

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among thieves has nothing to do with the previous films (and animated series) with Dungeons and Dragons in or as the title.  This is a stand-alone movie, just set in the same world as those other stories.  You do not need to have seen any previous Dungeons and Dragons movies or played the role playing game to be able to follow this movie. The movie has the atmosphere of a fun high fantasy film from the 1980s.  Someone described it as being the Dungeons and Dragons version of Pirates of The Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.  And they’re right.  It does have the same vibe.  

This is very much a high fantasy.  I define high fantasy as a fantasy story set in its own world with its own cultures and social norms and this his definitely a high fantasy in the common tradition of resembling the middle ages.

I used to think it trite that so many fantasy stories are set in the middle ages but some years ago I came up with the theory that worlds that have magick as a crutch would be slower to technologically develop.   After all necessity is the mother of invention.  If magick is there you don’t need to invent a lot of the technology our own world relies on and so the culture would be slow to progress.  Though I admit to having a soft spot for the rare high fantasy story set in a world that resembles The Victorian Era (late nineteenth century).   Carnival Row is a good example of that rarity known as Gaslamp fantasy.

The main protagonist of Dungeons and Dragons: Honor among thieves is Edgin who is sort of a spy or secret agent known as a “Harper” who poses as a bard.  He eventually decides that the selfless life isn’t as rewarding as he hoped and he gets a bit greedy, which unfortunately leads to disaster for him and his friends. But they are actually honorable and set out on a quest to rescue Edgin’s daughter and stop the scheming of a former ally and a Red Wizard. There’s a lot of humor and heart and though parts of it are predictable (such as what the tablet of re-awakening would end up having to be used for) it was still fun and enjoyable.  I liked it.  It stirred fond memories of similar movies like Willow, Dragonslayer, or LadyHawke and other beloved fantasies from the 1980s.  My favorite scenes are the interrogation of the dead (though I sort of guessed how it would go).  And the single-person transformation chase with the Teifling.

I genuinely think Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves had better writing and more likable characters than the ones in The Witcher: Blood Origin. This is what The Witcher: Blood Origin should have been like.  Instead The Witcher: Blood Origin tried too hard to be dark and edgy and lost all sense of fun.  Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves remembered the fun.  

It was nostalgic and good.  Not the greatest movie ever but fun one and I’d happily watch it again.

If I were to have any complaint it’s two petty things.

1.  I had to Google it to make sure the children from the 1980s Dungeons and Dragons cartoon (who make a cameo in this as live action characters) were not killed. The movie does not make it clear they survive but the director says they survived, he did not kill them off.  2.  I think they could have done a better job with the movie poster.  It’s pretty generic.

But as I said, I liked it.  It’s a good, fun, popcorn movie.  It’s a bit predictable at points and I wouldn’t have minded a new twist such as Edgin actually being able to bring back his wife (because I’ve seen the “almost resurrected a loved one but didn’t” plot done to death).  It’s still a fun movie though and very nostalgic in nature.

#Dungeons and Dragons #Dungeons & Dragons #Dungeons & Dragons: Honor among Thieves #Dungeons and Dragons: Honor among Thieves #Dungeons and Dragons Honor Among Thieves #Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves #Dungeons & Dragons Honor Among Thieves #Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Among Thieves

[volfoss]

hi sorry im like. so so mad about media so im putting this silly rant abt the witcher under the cut <3 spoilers for ummm the books or smth but i dont think my mutuals are into this so 👍

So i just hit Blood of Elves (the 3rd book) and met Triss. so not only did she literally SA/take advantage of geralt (as is the fucking pattern in these books w women towards him and the author and the plot treating any time geralt gets in this position as haha funny so many hot women want him :/) but she is um. absolutely fucking horrible. it is so confusing to me how so many fans love her (because even if you've only played the 3rd game, she LITERALLY point blank jokes with him about how people will no longer take advantage of him since he no longer has memory issues, and when he asks who was taking advantage of him, she was just like me :3. like its never elaborated on its just a fucking joke because we <3 feminism in this series!!) but if you've read the books it just becomes more clear how shes treating him. its a really disgusting pattern of behavior where most of his lovers either treat him like a freak and a mutant (which is sure soooo funny when hes treated like that by normal citizens) or just like a sexual object for them to use, with no regards to his consent. and by god triss has embodied both of those so so badly, where shes just nonstop either lusting after him (when he shows literally NO interest in her at this point lmao) or just treating him like shit. shes constantly guilt tripping him about ciri which is so fucking frustrating bc all the stuff shes bringing up under the guise of haha epic feminism moment is handled SO badly. she basically forces femininity on ciri who is like. barely 12 or 13 by this point (if my math is right) and who literally asks if triss will turn her into a boy and who is more than happy with dressing in male clothes. but triss finds this an absolute travesty that ciri literally has a diy haircut (or one of the men did it for her bc its mega crooked) and takes it into her own hands to turn her into a super pretty polished girl like. adjacent to beauty pageants but fantasy medieval. it is um. incredibly frustrating to see all of this and how triss consistently tells geralt his parenting sucks and that ciri shouldnt be with him (despite the fact ciri only feels safe around him and he does a rly good job parenting in his own way. like its not traditional bc he IS a cringefail adoptive single dad but its also like it doesnt need to be and he cares about her safety so much but wtv) and that he just overall sucks as a person. but we r supposed to root for the two of them to get together as in most of the games, she's the primary/most fleshed out romance option. and its like i do NOT expect ppl just playing the games or watching the netflix series to read the books but its also like she is genuinely really bad to him a lot, just talking down to him and it is actually um. very interesting bc geralt as a character is very emotionless a lot of the time (some of this is due to him being a witcher but some of it is just his personality or the trauma hes endured) but the increase of him just being upset or silent and resigned has increased tenfold in just the first 100 pages of this book. its so so frustrating to see esp after seeing how bad yennefer was treated, i really hoped triss would be better. but in every single way she's been worse.

#twist rambles #hi. sorry the mental illness is exploding im literally having to pause reading so much bc it is making me so angry. #i love seeing at the point where i gave up on being coherent w capitalization like. no one is going to read thru this but consider i need #to get the frustration out basically so <3 #guy thats like haha i would never just rant abt this on main <3 and then does so hours later bc the frustration is just so bad. like it + #could be such an amazing series but the way women r handled. bad. #ask to tag #sorry im just ough. i needed to get this out so i could keep trucking through reading. but its literally just like?? the feminist thing for #triss to do is obviously just make sure ciri knows the female beauty standards and its so :/ #the stuff w geralt isnt even like. everything im putting in this silly rant bc i legit do not remember all of it bc the horrors r just + #stacking and multiplying nonstop lmao. its just been really frustrating bc im mainly reading this for ciri and geralt but the romance + #subplots have been fucking HELL. anyways sorry for the long post under the cut etc :)

[khaosandbees]

The Witcher : Blood Origin thoughts:

*these are just my opinions, feel free to disagree with me

- the costuming was pretty good, it is not all coherent, but it is all pretty, and mostly helps establish characters in universe

-The sets were decent as well. The different places had different forms of architecture, but it was quite generic. The Xintrean throne room is literally an empty concrete block, and it did not feel grand enough to be a throne room. Also the war spoils were literally on a small rack in the corner of the room, they are definitely rich enough to at least have a better trophy rack.

- the writing was... bland. It felt like a very generic fantasy show. The characters are not very compelling, they all feel easily replaceable, and you barely get a sense of who these people are or why they are doing what they are doing.

-The romance, while giving cute bard x witcher parallels, felt really forced. I just didn't feel the characters had a lot of chemistry, and their relationship felt more begrudging friendship than anything. That being said the premise is not bad, it could have been a great plot point if it was written better.

- I appreciate the gayness. Lesbian dwarf is good, we like that, even though it is kind of a passing mention. Representation is representation. Eredin and Brian was cute, and I think it was an actually interesting premise. We're either of these great representation? not really, they were not all that relevant to the overall plot, and didn't show up much, but it is definitely something. Also this means that Eredin is canonically gay for when he appears in the main series, so I am interested to see how that plays out.

- The characterisation of specifically Eredin and Avallac'h was sub-par. I didn't care much about them as characters in this series, they don't really seem like the same characters as the books (ik Netflix is its own canon but still). They both feel too twink, for lack of a better word, and are generally unimposing. This might be fine though, as they could totally have them develop more before they reappear in the show, but I feel like some of that should have happened on screen in this series.

-I like how they have more poc in this than in the witcher. Ik it's easier when you don't have books to follow, but they do a pretty good job with diverse casting.

-Jaskier's song is not good. It sounds pretty, but the whole point of it is to tell the story, and it doesn't even try to tell it. They really should work on the narrative use of the songs instead of just trying to write poplar songs for the real world.

Overall, it was meh. Not a horrible show but not great either. It was a very pretty pie, with sub-par filling. It is very visually interesting (pretty) That being said I will probably watch it again.

#the witcher : blood origin #the witcher #twn #twbo #witcher blood origin #blood origin #the witcher blood origin #eredin #jaskier #song of the seven #bo

[pangolinheart]

I’m partially using this as an excuse to let out these ideas that have been pinging around my brain

I tend to keep certain things in mind when coming with outfits/glams for my characters, so this is all just nonsense about what fashion tastes I assign to them

Tyr is more understated. He doesn’t like calling attention to himself and it’s reflected in what he wears. Casually I put him in something more for fitted but not revealing or just what I feel like is the fantasy fashion equivalent of a nice t shirt. The shirt I tend to doodle him in is deadass just a rip of that shirt from the Netflix witcher where Geralt is fishing around in the lake. The dalmascan top is more of a workout shirt/ “it’s really hot out here but I don’t want to be bare chested” top.His armor got a little more ornate as he’s gotten through expacs, but I still try to keep it simple and with more plate than fabric.

The operative word for Monroe is loose. Point shirts, long jackets, that sort of thing. She gets more accessories/ jewelry. I tend to giver her silver/black more than gold since she’s got a lot of warm tones going on already and silver and a colder black/gray stands out more. More willing to show skin than Tyr, mostly in the chest area than anywhere else. She’s predominantly ranged so there’s not much difference between casual and armor.

Both of them lean more masculine for fashion, so skirts/ dresses are not really in their usual attires/ in their comfort.

Freya is the most feminine. She wears mostly skirts/dresses. She not like opposed to pants, but it’s more of “if there’s no other choice” option. Also has a preference for loose. I would describe her taste as cottagecore/elegant. I personally don’t dress in her degree of feminine so it’s a little harder to pick out for me.

Kuzhuk is the least caring about his fashion. All he wants is for it to fit and not be restrictive. He doesn’t wear a shirt or many accessories. Not opposed to skirts, he just doesn’t think about them much.

Oooooh I love fashion analysis!! Poor Tyr already stands out in Eorzea, so I'm sure he doesn't need to attract more attention by being a flashy dresser. Tyr definitely feels like, in a more modern setting, he would be a "Jeans and a T-shirt" guy - in a good way. (Though horns might make putting on a t-shirt problematic...) I think the shirt you mentioned is a good fantasy equivalent - and it seems like it clasps or button or laces or something to make it easier to put on.

There are a pretty good number of secondary and tertiary characters in FFXIV that are always seen wearing armor or otherwise uncomfortable formal clothing that they probably don't wear all the time, and I semi-regularly wonder what they wear in their free time when they're not wearing armor or a uniform....

Monroe has good taste I looove some of the long jackets in FFXIV. The fact that a lot of her accessories are silver is an interesting choice! I feel like some people might go with gold because it's closer to the warm tones in her color scheme, but I like the way the silver pops. I've also always liked all of Monroe's piercings. Long Viera ears means there are soooo many possibilities for piercings!

Freya definitely looks like she could pull off flowy, drape-y, feminine dresses dresses and skirts! (She's lucky she's a viera and therefore tall lol). The options in-game for actual dresses is a little limited, but I can envision it very well nonetheless.

Kuzhuk is valid for never wanting to wear a shirt. Hopefully he doesn't get sunburned.... Sunburn is also something I think about a lot in-game/in fantasy settings in general. Probably because I'm the type of person who gets a sunburn if they so much as glance at the sun through a window. It's bad enough that when I was in elementary school some other kids started a rumor that i was a vampire because if I spent too much time in the sun at recess i would get a sun poisoning rash... Kuzhuk seems like he's probably better equipped to deal with it, though!

#ffxiv #asks and answers #other people's ocs #what's the POINT of an MMO if you can't wear cool outfits? #i love hearing about character fashion

[wearesorcerer]

Tagged again by @we-are-ringmaster . BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Favorite Color: I'm going to pretend I didn't say what I said before (even though it is absolutely true) and instead say that rainbow is an amazing and underutilized color scheme. #lovechaosbolt

Currently Reading: Thanks to a five hour wait at the mechanic's, I have made it halfway through The Last Wish (The Witcher, book 1). Finally, well-written fantasy not by Neil Gaiman!

Last TV Show: I binged season 4 of Overlord last night after finding out it had finally released; it wasn't as good as previous seasons. Gradually making my way through what's left of Bee and Puppycat, having gone back to watch the original (pre-Netflix) series. The original stuff is better than the Netflix stuff and the Netflix stuff outright skips important details that it later refers to (like the wedding or having someone state that Pretty Patrick is the mayor so that Puppycat's question "Wait, he's the mayor?" doesn't come out of nowhere), so I'm being extra slow getting through it. However, this certainly isn't my cuppa and I'ma have words with the friend who suggested it.

Currently Working On: My day (well, night) job -- proofreading transcripts. The current case is bad enough just in the charges (don't ask), but it gets worse from unexpected angles with each new document I read. At least the pay is reliable.

Tagging @we-are-knight .

[abysscronica]

other than One Piece what other fandom are you in? or better what shounen did you watch?

You mean to talk about or submit ask on it? I don't know about fandoms per se, but I can tell you the media I'm familiar with.

This is my Anime Planet profile, I use it to keep track of the manga I read & anime I watch. It's public, so have fun.

You can find the rest of the media I'm familiar with under the cut divided in categories.

Comics:

The Peanuts poetry!

Corto Maltese for the artwork more than the plot

Lucky Luke

TMNT (original series)

Sturmtruppen

Tex here and there

Alan Ford (before reboot) here and there

Batman (stories with Joker and/or Harley Queen before the reboot)

Marvel comics: everything mutants-related and the major crossovers from the beginning until 2010s

TV series and movie franchises I somehow appreciate or know enough, in categories:

Please keep in mind that the comments are my opinion and my alone! You're entitled to love and hate whatever you want, always.

Comfort shows (yes, leave me alone):

Friends

HIMYM

The Office

Sex and the city

Emily in Paris

(first three are for comedy, fourth is for vibes, and last two are there mainly because of outfits & scenery, I really don't care about the plot)

Epic fantasy series:

Game of Thrones good up to season 5

The House of the Dragon liked it

The Lord of the Rings trilogy LOVE LOVE LOVE IT

The Hobbit trilogy okay?

The Rings of Power didn't enjoy it

Primal amazing

The Witcher good to laugh & pass time & Cavill

Shadow and Bone cute

The Dragon Prince cute

Avatar, the last Airbender loved Aang, Korra okayish

The Legend of Vox Machina cute

Urban fantasy series:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer good

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina season 1 good, season 2 okay, the rest you can skip

The Walking Dead first three seasons nice, then dropped

Once Upon a Time season one good, then dropped

Wednesday cute

Superheroes series:

all MCU movies and series (Netflix & Disney+) too many to comment, ask me if you're curious

Spiderman (1994) good

Batman the animated series great

The Boys & Gen V enjoyable

Invincible enjoyable

Space opera (and similia) series:

Star Wars original trilogy the only one I respect

Star Wars prequel trilogy meh

Star Wars new trilogy what the hell was that?

Star Wars... filler duology? Rogue One is good

The Mandalorian enjoyable

The Book of Boba Fett some episodes are good

Futurama good at the beginning

Doctor Who (new series) watched up to Capaldi, the first seasons are good

Star Trek new trilogy cute

Rick & Morty love it

Other sci-fi series:

Arcane amazing!

Stranger Things seasons 1 & 4 are good

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) enjoyable

Alice in Borderland enjoyable

Love Death Robots like it a lot

Heroes season one only

Crime/suspance or so:

Squid Game enjoyable

Breaking Bad okay

Sherlock first two seasons good

CSI (LV & Miami) first seasons great

OITNB love the beginning and the end

Thirteen Reasons Why first season only worth it

The Dropout very good

Killing Eve ups and downs

Vintage series:

Happy Days

E.R.

Others:

Zerocalcare's series as an Italian, really appreciated them

Band of Brothers loved it

The Crown enjoyable

Cobra Kai okayish

Community first seasons enjoyable

Sex Education cute

The Queen's Gambit very nice

Scrubs cute

The Looney Tunes (many but not all the series) too many, ask me if you're curious

#personal #media I'm into #more or less #some more than others

[mioreviews]

The Witcher Season 3

[ Hollywood / Fantasy Adventure ]

Where to watch: Netflix

Rating: 9.5/10

Everyone say goodbye to Henry Cavill (╥﹏╥) SO SAD I thought Henry Cavill's portrayal of Geralt was so good. I understand that he wants to go to try different roles though. If you haven't read my past reviews, go read my <The Witcher Season 2> review (I never posted a season 1 review because I watched it too long ago).

Very unique & fun episodes. They did some new storytelling methods in some of the episodes, and I absolutely loved it! Such a good way to spice up the season and give the viewers something new.

Great flow/pacing. I thought it would drag a bit, but it did way better than I expected it to. Maybe my expectations were really low though idk.

Portrayal of character chemistry. I feel like a lot of series don't show enough chemistry between the actors/actresses because they're so distracted by the story or the CGI. So I loved this.

If I ignore this con, I'd honestly rate this season a 10/10...

C'mon Ciri!! Aka Ciri is still helpless and clueless ugh, but good thing is season 3 ended with Ciri possibly getting over her helplessness. I'm excited for season 4 independent Ciri. That might be a cool way/excuse for less Geralt in season 4, but they already recast Geralt so idk.

Overall,

<The Witcher Season 3> did it again! Very The Witcher-esque & a great addition to the series. Props to everyone who was a part of the production. There were a lot of callbacks to past seasons (which I think was kind of funny because it's only season 3 but they're already doing nostalgia callbacks lol). It was a little slow here and there, but I think there was enough big story moments to make season 3 worth it! A great season to say bye to Henry Cavill with. Thank you for all the hard work put into this!

#the witcher #the witcher season 3 #netflix #hollywood #netflix review #netflix recommendation #hollywood review #hollywood recommendation

[moonah-rose]

For the fanfic asks, and because you know my answer to this when it comes to your world-building is "fuck yeah, here's all my money":

9. in an ideal world where you’re already super successful and published, would you want to see a tv or movie adaptation of your work? why or why not?

Absolutely but depends what kind. Twenty years or so ago I would have said movies because Lord of the Rings, which even though it's not my fandom, I still think is the epitome of fantasy adaptations. Yes they are long but it's three movies and you get the world and characters perfectly depicted.

Sadly though, movies now have to be part of a big expanded universe and three movies is never enough and yet somehow feel like too little (the Hobbit movies ugh). And so many of them feel like more spectacle than using the time to flesh out the story and characters.

TV however has come leaps and bounds and if I was writing a world I wanted to audience to enjoy spending time in and exploring different locations and characters I think TV is the best format, obvious examples are Game of Thrones but I'm actually thinking more along the lines of ATLA, She-Ra, and even Buffy to a point though that was more episodic than an overall narrative.

But to be honest; the thing I'd be most honored to have an adaptation would be a video game, a la Red Dead, Last of Us, The Witcher (which is a brilliant adaptation). Because what better way to adapt great world building than actually create the world in 3D so people would not only want to watch but want to explore and live in themselves, but also because cutscenes are now just as emotional as anything out of a movie or TV show now that everything is motion captured with actual actors.

I mean fucking look at this performance, it's better than most Netflix shows!

So yeah in short TV out of the two but also a secret third option, video games.

#fanfic asks #tlou

[felassan]

Giant Freakin Robot - ‘Exclusive: Dragon Age Netflix Series In Development’

With so many video games being adapted to television series and movies when it is all said and done it stands to reason that every game will get its own live-action production. But some are better options than others and that is what we have with this latest news. Giant Freakin Robot has the exclusive from a trusted and proven source that Dragon Age is getting a series on Netflix and the show is in active development right now. This has the chance to be a massive world-building affair.

There are few details around what a Netflix Dragon Age series would look like, but based on the original game, there are a number of ways for this to go with significant latitude around character development especially. Unlike some other video game adaptations, the role-playing aspect of the game would give creative options for new characters, especially not often afforded by other productions. Sure, there are rules to this Dragon Age world with set starting characters, but they aren’t as clearly defined as other shows we’ve seen produced based on video game IP.

Created by BioWare, Dragon Age is a franchise at this point, encompassing a number of different video game titles that have been released on all of the major platforms. There are four main series games (Origins, II, Inquisition, 4) and four spin-off games (Journeys, Legends, Heroes of Dragon Age, and The Last Court) which have been released over the last decade-plus. It stands to reason this series would begin around the relative events of Origins which works to world-build around the beginning aspects of the world. 

Like a number of other legacy role-playing games, there are world elements in Dragon Age that have similar through-lines to standard RPGs. Set in the world of Theda, the original game implements elements of high fantasy wherein humans are part of the world, but so are elves, mages, dwarves, and the rest of the fantasy crew you’d expect to see in these settings. Theda is an insular world but broken into factions and territories that have geopolitical aspects to them.

And of course, with any series, there is the question of what we would be signing up for in terms of story and antagonist. While Dragon Age has a number of companion players that would almost definitely get a chance as key characters in any story, there is also the trouble this world sits on the edge of to start. That is the attack of the Darkspawn which surface every few hundred years to reign terror on the region. It is called the Blight, and this would almost assuredly be where a new series began, working on the eve of this event. 

Netflix isn’t new to the video game adaptation, having already produced The Witcher which is heading into its second season. It has been one of the platform’s most popular offerings, becoming one of the most-streamed series ever for the streaming service. One could imagine a Dragon Age series reaching similar heights if done well. There is the source material for *ahem* ages here and plenty of worlds to build. I am sure we will get more news on the new series sooner than later. [source]

Not sure if this is true or not but  (◯Δ◯∥)

#dragon age #bioware #video games #long post #longpost #mj best of #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #tags due to the da4 concept art #dragon age: absolution

[edgepunk]

The Witcher Netflix Rant from your local frustrated Slav I cannot tell you how tired and frustrated I am by TWN and its treatment of Slavic people. An actual Polish man has pitched the show to Netflix, multiple other producers of Slavic descent have been alienated and felt like they didn't belong there because of how they have been treated, then ultimately left the production that has been handed over to a literal Karen that doesn't give a shit about it. The show has removed every instance of Slavic(mainly Polish)/other European (Germanic, Nordic) influences, cultural significance and turned it into an uninspired, boring, muddy fantasy. Hell, I have tons of criticisms about the games, but at least they kept the Central-Eastern European influences and, despite TW being a dark fantasy, weren't scared to make the games look bright and colorful. You'd think that Girlboss Lauren and her posse would put some effort into representing the cultural influences since the games pretty much got the series popular with the blend of different Central-Eastern European (mainly Polish, obviously) cultures and the usage of Slavic folk music thanks to Percival. A lot of the themes in the books draw from Poland's history, which also have been lost in the show (here is a post that's written by an actual Polish person and explains it better than I could since I'm not actually Polish, ya know). All of that has been lost, both the writing and aesthetics lack the cultural and historical significance that has influenced the world of The Witcher, because the showrunners are a bunch of Brits and USAmericans who aren't willing to put any effort into trying to understand the history and culture. They just want to make the next GoT, which,, huh? GoT ended up like it did, but to give them some credit, in the beginning the writers mostly stuck to the books instead of making a badly written Wattpad fanfiction from the get-go.

And it's possible for a western person to try to understand the circumstances, look at Craig Mazin, the man who directed HBO Chernobyl. Of course it's dramatized, of course they added some things that didn't actually happen and a few things were inconsistent. But you can clearly see in the production of the show that they put a lot of effort and interviewed people from Ukraine. Not sure if it's true, but I've seen somewhere (or was it a podcast?) that they gave the scripts to some Ukrainian people who were alive during the Soviet Union and asked them to correct the dialogues to make them sound more authentic, closer to how people adressed each other during the USSR (and how Eastern Slavs adress each other since it's a little different than western people do, including us Western Slavs, here is a nifty post explaining it if you're interested).

Can't speak for all Slavs, but the overall reaction has been positive from the people I talked to and my older family member. Note that a lot of "older" people here have been born pre '89 (that's when the USSR fell apart, the disaster happened in April '86), so the majority of them lived through the disaster. The biggest criticism people had that they turned Dyatlov into too much of a villain. when in reality he was way calmer during the night the disaster happened. Not to mention Mazin had it more difficult since he was adapting a story from real life that affected thousands upon thousands people. Mazin is a westener, he could've just shrugged it off and said "eh who cares about these filthy Eastern Euro people" but he and his team went out of their way to actually approach the victims, read several books written by people who actually lived through the disaster, that affected them and their families to make the story more authentic and respectful. Now, why can't Miss Lauren and her posse do it with a fantasy setting? Because they don't care. The only instance of "Slavic influence" (using that term very loosely) in the show is during the Striga episode when they mention a "vukodlak" which literally translates to "werewolf" so like,,, eh. It's still a werewolf, just a different version. I'm sure the writers were patting themselves on the back for including that word they found on the werewolf Wiki page. It would've been so nice to see a Slavic piece of media make it to Hollywood, but you see how that ended up. We barely get any recognition and if there is a Slavic character in a western production they're always: an assassin, gopnik, Seksi Female Spy that falls in love with the American, thief, mob boss, and I could go on. They never get the language right, because all Slavs speak botched Russian, right? All of us are named Anton, Ivan, Nikita, Natasha or Svetlana. And there are other mythical creatures besides Baba Yaga which Hollywood can't get right either. And it bleeds into the fandom too, all the modern AUs take place in the US or the UK. When other Slavic people criticize the show for its westernization they are told by westerners to shup up or they're "haters" (I do actually hate the show and the corpo bullshit Netflix is trying to pull here so,,, you can come at me all you want lol) tl;dr: The Witcher was the perfect opportunity for Slavs to have something positive in Hollywood, but it got doomed the moment it was handed to an USAmerican woman who doesn't understand the cultural influences and has zero interest in doing proper research. I probably would've forgiven her and her team if they actually tried, but they didn't. But seeing how other cultures that aren't USAmerican are being treated in movies and TV shows it shouldn't surprise me. Also I feel like I have to clarify - this has nothing to do with the actors, this is purely on the writers, the background and costume designers that put zero effort into researching the different cultures (not just Slavic, but I am Slavic so I wrote this from my perspective) that influenced The Witcher universe.

#the witcher #twn critical #if anyone actually takes their time to read my frustrated rambling I'll kiss you on the mouth #dw I'm fully vaccinated djdhdfj #long post

[bamf-jaskier]

Netflix's diverse cast means nothing when the showrunner is happy to behave like she did when challenged by far right commentators. Her allyship is performative when she ignores and lectures voices telling her to disengage. TWN is cheap western fantasy without any of the passion of the books and a huge disappointment to me. I am hoping rings of power delivers on the good story that boost their diverse cast, like Netflix promised.

I just had kind of a revelation this morning and it put together a lot of things so I’m just gonna answer this ask.

So first. Hating a show because one show runner ran her mouth on twitter is quite frankly stupid because The Witcher flat out has done more work for diversity in fantasy than any other fucking show I can think that came out before it. And there are so many people on the cast and crew who are people of color and actively advocate for themselves and write the stories.

Secondly, Lauren Hissrich fucked up. She engages with criticism too much on twitter and she engaged with The Quartering who is a very popular gamer but is also a white supremacist. And you know what? She apologized. And hasn’t been on twitter since. That’s right. She learned her actions have consequences and is trying to do better. The opposite of performative. So yeah. I’m not going to throw out the diversity of an entire cast and crew of people working extremely hard just because of one woman’s mistake on twitter.

But to continue.

People search out reasons to hate the show in increasingly creative ways. And one of the new ones that is extremely popular right now is by saying that the show is racist and the show’s diversity doesn’t mean anything. 

But last year, when a lot of POC in fandom started talking about how they felt excluded because of racism present in the fandom there were a lot of people really pushed this “fandom is escapism” mentality. And they said that people should be able to do whatever they want and racism doesn’t factor into why they ignore canon characters of color.

But I haven’t seen people say this since Season 2 came out.

Largely what I’ve seen is people trying to say that enjoying the characters of color in the show is racist because they are written in a stereotypical/problematic way. And that even if you want to change the problems in canon and make them better in fanon you are still problematic because you support this horrible racist show. And if it’s not a problematic thing about the creator. And other types of thought processes like this.

It’s almost like people have given up trying to defend against racist/misogynistic behavior and are instead trying to hunt down and call it out in other people. Even literal white supremacists are using this model, calling out Netflix Witcher for poor rep and then saying casting an asian woman is a horrible thing to do in the first place. 

but what I think a lot of people don’t understand is that the reason you push for diversity in fandom is so that diversity will matter outside of that.

Ignoring and hating characters like Netflix Triss in FANDOM directly lead to the show Whitewashing the character due to FAN complaints. It is very important to understand the impact that canon diversity has and that fans should support it.

It’s not about shipwars or headcannons or hating a particular character. It’s not about how the bastardized a particular scene or changed a plotline. Because that’s been happening in media FORVER. The Witcher didn’t invent changing the original text to fit the screen and they certainly won’t be the last.

Talking about racism and fandom is about supporting diversity is about creating a safe space. And I don’t think a lot of people seemingly understand that.

They think of it like a revenge model. When in actuality, for me at least, I am passionate about diversity and equity in fandom because I think that’s what fandom’s heart is.

This is none more present than in how people have reacted to Mistle’s casting. The misgynoir has never been more clear. 

There is not a single book without graphic Sexual assault described in it. It is ever present and you can’t fucking escape it. But the show is clearly different. In fact, Screenrant wrote a whole article about how the show change even Nivellen’s story to be more condemning of SA.

And in the books, Duny, Triss, Vilgefortz, Bonhart, Jaskier, Mistle, and Auberon all commit some form of SA and harassment. but no one ever said that the show was evil for casting a brown man as Vilgefortz. Or condemned the show for not writing Jaskier as a misogynist.

But suddenly once a black woman is cast as Mistle people are so goddamn excited to hate the show for this. People get upset because it’s not “book accurate” if you say you don’t want Mistle to SA Ciri because you are tired of women getting fucking raped and it’s not important to the plot. No one said this about Nivellen in S2. No one said this about Duny or Vilgefortz when they were cast.

Ciri is undeniably queer. And her relationship with Mistle spans 3 out of the 5 books. The relationship is essential to her character. Ciri being assaulted. Is not. The same thing could be accomplished with simple Stockholm syndrome. SA is not required and it’s almost weird to see people act like they want to see a black woman SA Ciri just so they can hate the show all the more.

So yeah. I’ve been holding these thoughts in for awhile but I figured I would share them.

This fucking sucks too because people shitting on every new thing to come out of the show ruins the people who enjoy it. Who see themselves represented in it. Who want to enjoy themselves but can’t because of hateful fuckers.

As a friend said:

if the show does it the show is bad (and you're horrible). if the show doesn't do it the show is bad (and you have bad taste).

This got insanely long but I’ve been thinking about this for a long time and had to share it. Reflect and learn. I know I fucking try to. A big one was a discussion that helped me see why people see Triss as SAing Geralt in the books.

Under the cut you’ll find a list of trigger warnings for each book. Just I’m case you want to dive into them. Don’t want anyone to be shocked by how much more graphically violent they are than the show lol.

1 The Last Wish, trigger warnings:

* - Dubious Consent

* - Violence, Gore

* - Incest (mentioned)

* - Still-birth/Child death (mentioned)

* - NonCon/Sexual Assault

* - Child Sexual Assault/CSA

* - Underage

* - Suicide (mentioned)

2 Sword of Destiny, trigger warnings:

* - DubCon

* - Mysogyny/Xenophobia

* - Violence, Gore

* - Very NonCon/Sexual Assault

* - Child Sexual Assault/CSA

* - Suicidal Intentions

* - Major Character Death (mentioned)

3 Blood of Elves, trigger warnings:

* - DubCon

* - Violence, Gore

* - Torture

* - NonCon (Drug Use)

* - Underage (depending on country)

4 Time of Contempt, trigger warnings:

* - Misogyny/Xenophobia

* - Violence, Gore

* - Animal Death

* - Miscarriage (mentioned)

* - Underage

* - NonCon/Sexual Assault

* - Child Sexual Assault/CSA

* - Suicide

* - Very DubCon

5 Baptism of Fire, trigger warnings:

* - Violence, Gore

* - Misogyny (& Weird Bigotry/Misandry)

* - Animal Death

* - NonCon/Sexual Assault

* - Underage (discussed)

* - Incest (mentioned)

* - Violence against/Death of Pregnant Women

* - Abortion

6 Tower of Swallows, trigger warnings:

* - Violence, Gore

* - Drug Use

* - Misogyny/Bigotry/Xenophobia

* - Underage (discussed and mentioned)

* - NonCon/Sexual Assault (of a Minor, Child Sexual Assault/CSA)

* - DubCon

* - Major Character Deaths

* - Past Abortion

* - Violence against/Death of Pregnant Women

* - Suicidal Intentions

* - Child & Animal Death

* - Torture

7 Lady of the Lake, trigger warnings:

Everything is Cranked to 11

* - Violence, Gore

* - Misogyny/Xenophobia

* - Torture

* - NonCon/Sexual Assault

* - DubCon

* - Underage

* - Drug Use

* - Incest

* - Child and Animal Death

* - Cannibalism

* - Major Character Deaths

* - Suicidal Intentions

#these are my thoughts #if you share my thoughts or have thoughts on my thoughts let me know so I'm not just screaming this into a void #the witcher #asks #anon #twn #fandom racism