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Author Topic: Dark Crystal, Age of Resistance  (Read 6644 times)

Ratman_tf

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« Reply #15 on: September 16, 2019, 02:24:59 PM »
Episode 3 "What Was Sundered and Undone"

Aughra meets the Skesis. Apparently they weren't always so corrupt. Now I'm kind of interested what the Skesis were like before Aughra gave them custody of the Crystal.
I suspect Aughra's next visit it to the Mystics. We'll likely get some more backstory then.

I'm really enjoying seeing Gelfling society before they were (almost) all wiped out.

But I'm also getting a kind of "filler" vibe from this episode. I do like a story to take it's time to establish stakes and build tension, but there's the danger of the story stalling out if it's not paced well.
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Doom

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« Reply #16 on: September 16, 2019, 08:49:18 PM »
The writing is generally good but...the SJW maniacs blew it all up. Damn them all to hell. They enfaginated puppets. It was completely unnecessary for a character to have two fathers.

Dammit. They enfaginated puppets.
(taken during hurricane winds)

A nice education blog.

Ratman_tf

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« Reply #17 on: September 17, 2019, 12:11:45 PM »
Quote from: Doom;1104336
The writing is generally good but...the SJW maniacs blew it all up. Damn them all to hell. They enfaginated puppets. It was completely unnecessary for a character to have two fathers.

Dammit. They enfaginated puppets.

You must be further in than me.

Episode 4 "The First Thing I Remember Is Fire"

I really liked the Hunter Skeksis, until he started jumping around like Yoda in Attack of the Clones. Sometimes less is more, and I'm assuming they used CGI to have him leap around like a squirrel on crack. Bleh.

I knew Rian's Dad was gonna die when he learned the truth about the Skeksis.

The stone golem thing was cool.

I miss the music from the movie. They played the title theme like once in the first episode, I think. Since then, the music has been bland and forgettable.
« Last Edit: September 17, 2019, 01:06:32 PM by Ratman_tf »
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danskmacabre

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« Reply #18 on: September 17, 2019, 06:36:51 PM »
Quote from: Ratman_tf;1104435
You must be further in than me.
I really liked the Hunter Skeksis, until he started jumping around like Yoda in Attack of the Clones. Sometimes less is more, and I'm assuming they used CGI to have him leap around like a squirrel on crack. Bleh.

Yeah it kinda lost me for a while when the Hunter Skeksis starts jangling about as a puppet, then goes all "Predator" leaping about perfectly.
Then jumps down and goes back to being a puppet again and all jangly.
Just looked stupid and pulled me out of the immersion for a while.

So far, I've watched up to and including episode 5.
Overall, still really liking it.

Ratman_tf

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« Reply #19 on: September 22, 2019, 03:51:49 PM »
Episode 5 "She Knows All the Secrets"

Or Aughra kicks the plot forward.

The Chamberlian is always a fun villian. Aughra gets everyone together in a dreamfast like state to do an exposition dump and give out the main quests.
Seladon sides with the Skeksis and becomes the new All-Maudra.

Pretty good episode. Aughra is a great character, being the embodiment of Thra, but also being her own person, with her personality quirks and doesn't take herself dead-seriously, thus avoiding becoming a stick-in-the-mud.
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Ratman_tf

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« Reply #20 on: October 01, 2019, 02:09:19 AM »
Episode 6 "By Gelfling Hand ..."

Totally worth it for the Speak for the Dead song/scene.
Seladon becomes the goth queen of the gelflings.
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BoxCrayonTales

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« Reply #21 on: October 02, 2019, 08:10:25 AM »
Quote from: danskmacabre;1103184
I've watched the first few episodes so far and overall I really like it.
There ARE some SJW moments in there, such as they ensure the female characters pretty much lead the show and make a special point they're mentally and physically superior to male characters.
If you read the lore from the books first published decades ago, then you might have learned that the gelfling were always a matriarchal society. That wasn't added by SJWs. Since on Earth human society was generally ruled by men for most of history due to physical differences like greater strength or whatever you care to name, then it stands to reason that the gelfling are ruled by women because they are physically superior to the men. For all we know, it's the men that get pregnant like seahorses.

Not only that, but the same lore from the 80s explained that Aughra, the Skesis and the Mystics were all hermaphroditic. Both male and female at the same time. That was always there, not added by SJWs.

If you tried really really hard, then you might be able to contrive a vaguely anti-LGBT message out of the show by pointing to the skeksis' transgression of gender norms. According to their lore they used to strut around naked and holding brightly colored fans before their "beauty" started fading.

Also, would you even notice these "SJW moments" if the genders of the gelfling cast were reversed and men were depicted as superior with women relegated to minor roles at most? While there are plenty of shows with obnoxious propaganda, there are loads of times where I feel people are looking for things to be offended by. Outrage culture goes both ways.

Quote from: Doom;1104336
The writing is generally good but...the SJW maniacs blew it all up. Damn them all to hell. They enfaginated puppets. It was completely unnecessary for a character to have two fathers.

Dammit. They enfaginated puppets.
Because God forbid we depict a space alien culture that seems accepting of gay couples, but relegate them to nameless minor characters with barely any screen time.

We never see any explicit confirmation that Deet's fathers were gay. If we analyze the work in isolation, then we could just as easily come to the conclusion that Deet's mother was a polyandrist (married to multiple men) because the gelflings are matriarchal.

Also, did you not notice the Ornamentalist skeksis? It's affectations are clearly queer-coded.

Ratman_tf

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« Reply #22 on: October 02, 2019, 01:28:12 PM »
Ok. I'd like to request that this thread be politics free. The occasional comment either way was tolerable, but I don't want arguments to take over the thread.
If any of you want to make political/culture war comments, please fork a thread over on Pundit's section.
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Ratman_tf

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« Reply #23 on: October 02, 2019, 10:12:02 PM »
Episode 7   "Time to Make ... My Move"

All around great epsiode. The connection between the Mystics and Skesis is explained to the group with... a puppet show. :D
We see that at least one Skesis isn't completely rotten.
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Pat
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« Reply #24 on: October 04, 2019, 09:48:04 PM »
Watched the whole season. (Don't worry, no blatant spoilers.) Much better than I expected.

first episode was the weakest. The background infodump at the start felt like third rate fanfic, telling rather than showing. And even though special effects by definition show rather than tell, the gaudy tour of the world felt were equally shallow, like a transparent attempt to show off all the locations. Which admittedly were kind of amazing, but it was overwhelming, and with too little context. It would have worked better if they gradually revealed all the different places over a couple of episode, incorporating them naturally into a developing story.

Also, Rian is a complete asshole. He maliciously bullies podlings and doesn't even comprehend that it's wrong, and then acts like a spoiled baby when daddy didn't put him in charge. Fuck him. Even though he ends up becoming the most stereotypically protagonisty hero in the season, he has no real character development, and no moment of self-realization. The second character, the book-loving princess, doesn't come across as much better. She's a bit nicer on the surface, but incredibly entitled. Deet is a bit of one dimensional stereotype, but at least I like her. Same with the quasi-joke character, the podling paladin. Some of the supporting characters are great. Mother Augrha is awesome, while the Chamberlain is deliciously hateable, and most of the rest of the Skeksis are strong. Nice trick with the spiders talking. All in all, some really good voice acting.

As I mentioned, the special effects in the first episode are kind of amazing, but they never stop being amazing. Seriously, even if everything else was shit, the way an alien world is visually detailed would still be worth watching, and stealing from. There's just so much going on, and it's so different from the flora and fauna of our world. The whole thing makes me wonder about the budget for each episode, because clearly didn't just blow everything on the 1st episode tour. While they're obviously puppets at times, that's actually a significant part of the charm. They do a good job of differentiating the various Skeksis and even the different gelflings, instead of making them all look alike (which would have been easy to do).

The plot's kind of weak. They just kind of travel about because of plot devices, and then come back, and things just sort of fall into place. The villainous actions are actually more interesting, because they do a good job of building the threat. The Skeksis are what happens when high level monsters rule a world in D&D. The demihumans and their allies are completely outclassed, not just at an individual level, but also by the resources the Skeksis are able draw on. There's literally a point in the series where the Skeksis are all alone and everyone else is ganging up against them, and it's not the Skeksis who are pissing their pants. But... there's also not much character development. They're static archetypes and quirky characters more than fully developed people, and things tend to happen to them rather than things happen because of them.

Thematically, it's an odd mix. It's a really dark story. We're not talking about glorious, heroic war. This is genocide and atrocities, and it's blatantly rubbed in the viewer's face. And we've seen the movie, so we know it's only going to get worse. But it's also clearly high fantasy, with the major characters following a heroic arc, even though some really dark things happen to major characters. And then there's all the snot jokes that make adults wince, but would have 5 year olds crying with laughter.

Altogether, it kind of works. The puppet show you just mentioned? It's absurd, with stage props, a dissonant operatic section, a frenetic motor mouth frustrated with a slow drawl, and more. But it's really fun, as well.

I'm not saying it's deep or revolutionary, it's not. But it's good, an unusual mix, creates a wondrous visual world, and the characters are interesting.

Don't really see the politics. More major female characters than male, but that's about it.
« Last Edit: October 04, 2019, 09:57:47 PM by Pat »

Ratman_tf

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« Reply #25 on: October 04, 2019, 09:57:22 PM »
Quote from: Pat;1107673
I'm not saying it's deep or revolutionary, it's not. But it's good, an unusual mix, creates a wondrous visual world, and the characters are interesting.

That's my impression so far. It works, and it has it's moments, but I have yet to see something that resonates as strongly as the original movie.
3 eps to go though...
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Ratman_tf

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« Reply #26 on: October 06, 2019, 03:32:35 AM »
Episode 8   "Prophets Don't Know Everything"

Loved the scene where Seladon meets with the Skesis.

"No!" :D

With 2 episodes to go, I'm wondering if they're going to wrap everything up, or leave it open for more episodes.
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« Reply #27 on: October 06, 2019, 01:58:14 PM »
Quote from: Ratman_tf;1107845
Loved the scene where Seladon meets with the Skesis.
I was going to allude to that, but it sounded like you hadn't seen it yet. It's funny and not funny at the same time.

Ratman_tf

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« Reply #28 on: October 06, 2019, 02:17:22 PM »
A lot of early reviews (reviewer are really the pits nowadays) compared the series to Game of Thrones. I can see the similarity, a bunch of people dealing with medieval style politics while a big fantastical threat looms on the horizon. But I'm more reminded of Elfquest, with a group of travellers encountering the different ethnicities of gelflings (and other, fantastical creatures) in their journeys. Plus the tone of Elfquest is a much closer match than GOT.
« Last Edit: October 06, 2019, 02:20:15 PM by Ratman_tf »
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Ratman_tf

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« Reply #29 on: October 07, 2019, 11:31:38 PM »
Hell, I forgot to update.

Episode 9   "The Crystal Calls"

Episode 10   "A Single Piece Was Lost"


Well, I'm glad I gave the series a shot. There's plenty to like, and my nit picks are small.

One problem with prequels is when they try to explain everything from the source, instead of coming up with new lore. When they showed the Shard and the Garthim, I was like "Ok, yeah. Get on with it."

I really liked the fight with the Skesis and Gelflings. The Skesis weren't so much warriors (excepting for the General) as playing at being warriors.

So, we're left with a few cliffhangers, the big one being Deet's fate. I'm actually looking forward to the next season.
The notion of an exclusionary and hostile RPG community is a fever dream of zealots who view all social dynamics through a narrow keyhole of structural oppression.
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