The Shannara Chronicles

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Knife
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Re: The Shannara Chronicles

Post by Knife »

mr friendly guy wrote:I don't even remember the race in the books to be honest. I suspect this was something the television producers added to make the characters seem more round.
Yeah, it wasn't in the book. IIRC, a bunch were chosen each year and were taken to the Elcrys, if the tree wanted them to be chosen, it would have a branch droop down on them to signify that she would accept that person as her attendant. In the book there was no question that the Elcrys was magical. It was when Amberlee was chosen that was a bit special because female chosen were only once every thousand years or so. Chosen were men mostly, so having Amberlee chosen was just a curiosity at that time.

It turns out that that curiosity was very important but not going to spoil it.
They say, "the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots." I suppose it never occurred to them that they are the tyrants, not the patriots. Those weapons are not being used to fight some kind of tyranny; they are bringing them to an event where people are getting together to talk. -Mike Wong

But as far as board culture in general, I do think that young male overaggression is a contributing factor to the general atmosphere of hostility. It's not SOS and the Mess throwing hand grenades all over the forum- Red
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mr friendly guy
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Re: The Shannara Chronicles

Post by mr friendly guy »

No need to worry about spoiling it for me, but I know you meant other people who don't know the ending. Hopefully they don't get rid of the ending because it would really cheapen the story.

Watching the third episode now, and Allanon kills the fury with a sword instead of blue mystical fire like in the book. Not too sure I like this. I can understand its a cost thing, or maybe they don't want to make it seem like they're ripping off Star Wars with force lightning. But one of the highlights of the book was Allanon's duel with the Dagda Mor. Hoping they do show some of the mystical battles later on.
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Re: The Shannara Chronicles

Post by Lord Revan »

mr friendly guy wrote:No need to worry about spoiling it for me, but I know you meant other people who don't know the ending. Hopefully they don't get rid of the ending because it would really cheapen the story.

Watching the third episode now, and Allanon kills the fury with a sword instead of blue mystical fire like in the book. Not too sure I like this. I can understand its a cost thing, or maybe they don't want to make it seem like they're ripping off Star Wars with force lightning. But one of the highlights of the book was Allanon's duel with the Dagda Mor. Hoping they do show some of the mystical battles later on.
It could also be budget thing have them use swords now so that they got the money to show the "big" Important battles in full, because even practical effects cost money (come to think of it I think they might be more expensive per shot then CGI) and the budget for series like these is finite so they'll have make choices as to how best use that money.
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Re: The Shannara Chronicles

Post by Imperial Overlord »

FaxModem1 wrote:
Because it kind of seems that she's a cheater who used her family connections to stack the race in her favor.
The impression I got was that the others practiced in public and she had to practice in secret to keep her participation under wraps.
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Re: The Shannara Chronicles

Post by mr friendly guy »

Well they really seem to play up Allanon's physical prowess in this series. In the Sword of Shannara he wrestles a Skullbearer and beats him, but then Allanon was a 7 foot giant.

Manu Bennett is pretty bad ass action guy. The way he dealt with the

Changling without needing magic actually works for that scene. Not only did it show how tough Allanon is physically imposing, it also occurred very fast so that the best thing he could do on such short notice was to get physical.

Edit - tried using the spoiler tags but for some reason they are not working.
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Re: The Shannara Chronicles

Post by Knife »

meh, don't have cable, going to have to wait until MTV releases it for free.
They say, "the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots." I suppose it never occurred to them that they are the tyrants, not the patriots. Those weapons are not being used to fight some kind of tyranny; they are bringing them to an event where people are getting together to talk. -Mike Wong

But as far as board culture in general, I do think that young male overaggression is a contributing factor to the general atmosphere of hostility. It's not SOS and the Mess throwing hand grenades all over the forum- Red
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Re: The Shannara Chronicles

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mr friendly guy wrote:Well they really seem to play up Allanon's physical prowess in this series. In the Sword of Shannara he wrestles a Skullbearer and beats him, but then Allanon was a 7 foot giant.

Manu Bennett is pretty bad ass action guy. The way he dealt with the

Changling without needing magic actually works for that scene. Not only did it show how tough Allanon is physically imposing, it also occurred very fast so that the best thing he could do on such short notice was to get physical.

Edit - tried using the spoiler tags but for some reason they are not working.
Yeah, I think in the third book, the Jachrya is supposed to be ridiculously tough and more or less immune to magic and he still manages to beat it.
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Re: The Shannara Chronicles

Post by Crown »

Serious question; at what episode do we expect this show to stop being like 70% exposition? Because we're 5 episodes deep and they're still "world building".
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Re: The Shannara Chronicles

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Crown wrote:Serious question; at what episode do we expect this show to stop being like 70% exposition? Because we're 5 episodes deep and they're still "world building".
Thus far there's still a lot of exposition going on, although I suppose given this is a "new" franchise a fair amount is necessary.

Anyways I'm just glad Spoiler
Manu didn't kick the bucket after going up in flames; he's one of the few reasons I keep tuning in after all.
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Re: The Shannara Chronicles

Post by Crown »

Balrog wrote:
Crown wrote:Serious question; at what episode do we expect this show to stop being like 70% exposition? Because we're 5 episodes deep and they're still "world building".
Thus far there's still a lot of exposition going on, although I suppose given this is a "new" franchise a fair amount is necessary.
I've stopped watching. I might binge it at the end of the series/season, but I can't be bothered watching such mediocre stuff piecemeal.
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Re: The Shannara Chronicles

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Ok, so this thing just hit netflix so was able to binge the first four episodes (watched the free first two episodes when it came out) and man o man is this thing bad.

First the good: The visuals are very nice and the CGI isn't bad. I appreciate, like I said way back when it first came out, that they went post apocalypse instead of Lord of the Rings with the scope and feel of the world. The costumes are nice and fit for a post apoc show and it's nice to just not have a knock off LOTR. It has some major good actors in it.

Now the bad, those good actors are being used as shit by the director. Seriously what the fuck? And the thing is written very poorly, let alone major breaks from the book that just make no sense. Jesus some of the lines are cringe worthy, almost to the point of wanting it to break the fourth wall to apologize for them or at least acknowledge to the audience they are just there for the exposition and back ground.

They are trying to make Amberle a major bad ass but then have to gimp her by writers fiat so she's captured at points so she needs Will and Alanon. It's fucking ridiculous especially since in the book she was a strong character, just not a ninja bad ass. I don't get this change. Eratria was the ninja bad ass, why no let her do that role? And in the book she saw both her chance to get away from the Rovers and her chance at a life with Will almost from the beginning. Not in this show. I mean in GOT I immediately recognized the Ygritte right off as the same kind of character with Jon Snow but not in this show. Back and forth back and forth in meaningless stupid game that makes no sense.

Bah. I'm giving it like one or two more episodes to make me care and I'm done.
They say, "the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots." I suppose it never occurred to them that they are the tyrants, not the patriots. Those weapons are not being used to fight some kind of tyranny; they are bringing them to an event where people are getting together to talk. -Mike Wong

But as far as board culture in general, I do think that young male overaggression is a contributing factor to the general atmosphere of hostility. It's not SOS and the Mess throwing hand grenades all over the forum- Red
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Re: The Shannara Chronicles

Post by Crown »

Knife wrote:Bah. I'm giving it like one or two more episodes to make me care and I'm done.
Let me know if you soldier on. I quit around that point and since it's not on Netflix in the UK I'd have to go out of my way to watch it and I can't be arsed if it stays as bad as I remember.
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Re: The Shannara Chronicles

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I think I'm on episode 7, well watched 6 and 7 is next. And I think there are only 10 so I will probably finished it but I'm not happy. A lot of the changes to the story make absolutely no sense and make it cheesy and bad. Pretty much at this point I don't know why anyone is afraid of the Elven army, they go down like bitches in every single fight and their commanders are fucking stupid and arrogant beyond belief.

I mean, I get it, the escort of elven hunters that went with Will and Amberle were basically redshirts, but damn let them fight and die with some self respect instead of 'rawr charge' swing their sword once and die. And with 10 episodes to tell the story, they for some reason decided new characters and new plot twists were needed like at Pykon and why have the Elven army march out and do a rear guard action (which would have been neat and fun to watch) lets have them stay at the palace and wait for the demons to attack, oh well we can send out two named characters to find the demon army. Fuck.
They say, "the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots." I suppose it never occurred to them that they are the tyrants, not the patriots. Those weapons are not being used to fight some kind of tyranny; they are bringing them to an event where people are getting together to talk. -Mike Wong

But as far as board culture in general, I do think that young male overaggression is a contributing factor to the general atmosphere of hostility. It's not SOS and the Mess throwing hand grenades all over the forum- Red
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Re: The Shannara Chronicles

Post by Zwinmar »

I probably would have more problems with it if I actually remembered the books, its been so long since I read them, over 20 years ago. Anyways my major nitpick is Wil using some 'chalk' on the sign to spell out "Safehold" on the San Francisco road sign....when other letters are clearly visible and there are huge gaps...
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Re: The Shannara Chronicles

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I just finished all of it in one setting. The strongest episode was the pilot, but overall I thought it to be a decent outing and I am looking forward to more of this.
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Re: The Shannara Chronicles

Post by mr friendly guy »

And the thread lives with the power of the mods over undeath. :D

I thought it was ok, but I most probably won't be following season 2. For some reason it just didn't capture the feel of the book for me. But then I read the book in the 1990s and maybe I have nostalgia making me view it through rose tinted glasses.
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Re: The Shannara Chronicles

Post by Thanas »

oh fuck me I didn't look at the year. My bad.
Whoever says "education does not matter" can try ignorance
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A decision must be made in the life of every nation at the very moment when the grasp of the enemy is at its throat. Then, it seems that the only way to survive is to use the means of the enemy, to rest survival upon what is expedient, to look the other way. Well, the answer to that is 'survival as what'? A country isn't a rock. It's not an extension of one's self. It's what it stands for. It's what it stands for when standing for something is the most difficult! - Chief Judge Haywood
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