This is a site for discussing roleplaying games. Have fun doing so, but there is one major rule: do not discuss political issues that aren't directly and uniquely related to the subject of the thread and about gaming. While this site is dedicated to free speech, the following will not be tolerated: devolving a thread into unrelated political discussion, sockpuppeting (using multiple and/or bogus accounts), disrupting topics without contributing to them, and posting images that could get someone fired in the workplace (an external link is OK, but clearly mark it as Not Safe For Work, or NSFW). If you receive a warning, please take it seriously and either move on to another topic or steer the discussion back to its original RPG-related theme.

Author Topic: Foundation (Spoilers)  (Read 3539 times)

Ratman_tf

  • Alt-Reich Shitlord
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8330
Foundation (Spoilers)
« on: September 24, 2021, 11:01:33 PM »
I only got around to reading the book earlier this year. I knew they'd have to "elaborate" to fill out the story. It's a collection of short stories, dealing key events in the larger Foundation story.

Episode 1. I like the effects, The GCI is well done, and the costumes are elaborate without being stupid. The religious aspects weren't very interesting. Kind of boilerplate mysticism. Maybe that was the point.
The scenes from the actual short story were well done. The arrests and trials. The sabotage of the sky tether gave the impending fall of the Empire a much needed kick to get the Emperor (and us) to "feel" it.
Not fond of the cloning aspect. I'm not sure if that was in the story. I'll have to re-read it to make sure.

So, I'm middling pleased with most of it, not impressed with some of the changes, but agree with others.



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.
-Haffrung

Ratman_tf

  • Alt-Reich Shitlord
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8330
Re: Foundation (Spoilers)
« Reply #1 on: September 26, 2021, 03:06:52 AM »
Episode 2

Uhn... I hope they're going somewhere interesting with this.

I was on board with the idea of portraying the colonization of Terminus. Looked like fertile ground for some interesting storytelling.
I'm of two minds about the portrayal of the Empire. The books made it out to be a big bueracracy. This stuff about the Empire being a big, vindictive thing is interesting, but I feel it's more suited to much later in the series. Dunno. I kinda feel like I would be more invested if this wasn't trying to tell the story of Foundation, and was more of it's own thing.

Reminder that this is a spoiler thread.

Not thrilled with how they killed off Hari Seldon. I hope it's more than just some drummed up drama to "spice up" the show.



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.
-Haffrung

Shrieking Banshee

  • Narcissist Undead
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2507
Re: Foundation (Spoilers)
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2021, 10:29:47 AM »
Not thrilled with how they killed off Hari Seldon. I hope it's more than just some drummed up drama to "spice up" the show.

Probably is. Most showrunners have nothing but contempt for their source materials. They see adapting a book as somesort of punishment.

BoxCrayonTales

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • B
  • Posts: 3313
Re: Foundation (Spoilers)
« Reply #3 on: September 30, 2021, 03:44:44 PM »
Not thrilled with how they killed off Hari Seldon. I hope it's more than just some drummed up drama to "spice up" the show.

Probably is. Most showrunners have nothing but contempt for their source materials. They see adapting a book as somesort of punishment.
Why can't studios hire showrunners who actually like the source material?

Ghostmaker

  • Chlorine trifluoride
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4013
Re: Foundation (Spoilers)
« Reply #4 on: September 30, 2021, 03:55:49 PM »
Not thrilled with how they killed off Hari Seldon. I hope it's more than just some drummed up drama to "spice up" the show.

Probably is. Most showrunners have nothing but contempt for their source materials. They see adapting a book as somesort of punishment.
Why can't studios hire showrunners who actually like the source material?
Or at least familiarize themselves with it. You don't have to love it, just do a good job with it.

BoxCrayonTales

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • B
  • Posts: 3313
Re: Foundation (Spoilers)
« Reply #5 on: September 30, 2021, 05:05:42 PM »
Not thrilled with how they killed off Hari Seldon. I hope it's more than just some drummed up drama to "spice up" the show.

Probably is. Most showrunners have nothing but contempt for their source materials. They see adapting a book as somesort of punishment.
Why can't studios hire showrunners who actually like the source material?
Or at least familiarize themselves with it. You don't have to love it, just do a good job with it.
I assume that doing a good job with something means that you genuinely like it on some level, otherwise you wouldn't be able to muster the passion to do it right.

HappyDaze

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • H
  • Posts: 5337
Re: Foundation (Spoilers)
« Reply #6 on: September 30, 2021, 05:12:08 PM »
Not thrilled with how they killed off Hari Seldon. I hope it's more than just some drummed up drama to "spice up" the show.

Probably is. Most showrunners have nothing but contempt for their source materials. They see adapting a book as somesort of punishment.
Why can't studios hire showrunners who actually like the source material?
Or at least familiarize themselves with it. You don't have to love it, just do a good job with it.
I assume that doing a good job with something means that you genuinely like it on some level, otherwise you wouldn't be able to muster the passion to do it right.
I agree if we're talking about creative works. With some tasks though, it's possible to do a good job without really putting any heart into it, and some roles have a lot of such tasks.

Reckall

  • Junghian alchemist
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2004
Re: Foundation (Spoilers)
« Reply #7 on: October 01, 2021, 04:47:20 PM »
Not thrilled with how they killed off Hari Seldon. I hope it's more than just some drummed up drama to "spice up" the show.

Probably is. Most showrunners have nothing but contempt for their source materials. They see adapting a book as somesort of punishment.
Why can't studios hire showrunners who actually like the source material?

And of course they race/gender swapped Gaal Dornic and Salvor Hardin for no reason at all (except to con people in their being "diverse and inclusive" without renouncing the "Foundation" brand).
For every idiot who denounces Ayn Rand as "intellectualism" there is an excellent DM who creates a "Bioshock" adventure.

Warder

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 180
Re: Foundation (Spoilers)
« Reply #8 on: October 01, 2021, 05:57:56 PM »
As far as i have seen the episodes so far.. its ok only, nothing that notable or noteworthy i care about. The characters are mostly devoid of charisma, i had some hopes for the emperor but i lost interest. Maybve ill return for the last episode, but theres better sci-fi out there i like.

Omega

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • O
  • Posts: 17093
Re: Foundation (Spoilers)
« Reply #9 on: October 01, 2021, 07:50:09 PM »
Not thrilled with how they killed off Hari Seldon. I hope it's more than just some drummed up drama to "spice up" the show.

Probably is. Most showrunners have nothing but contempt for their source materials. They see adapting a book as somesort of punishment.
Why can't studios hire showrunners who actually like the source material?
Or at least familiarize themselves with it. You don't have to love it, just do a good job with it.

Odds are, of course, outrage marketing.
Hire someone that hates the product to adapt it. That will get fans screaming and that will attract non fans out of curiosity about what they are screaming about.

Or its just standard hollywood wanting a title and sometimes not much else. Why? Who knows. From reading alot of development notes on adaptions I get the impression the execs just dont care and the producer/director wanted to do some other movie and or literally make a live action fan-fic thats barely related. The "vision".

As for Foundation. Who knows. Genderswapping characters is nothing new so could be agenda, could be just marketing said they needed some female characters to draw in women.
« Last Edit: October 01, 2021, 07:55:58 PM by Omega »

BoxCrayonTales

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • B
  • Posts: 3313
Re: Foundation (Spoilers)
« Reply #10 on: October 01, 2021, 09:22:48 PM »
could be just marketing said they needed some female characters to draw in women.
That's a load of shit. All the gayswap fanfiction is written by and for straight women.

Women don't need female characters to get invested. They just need dudes who are easy on the eyes and have unintentional gay chemistry.

Shrieking Banshee

  • Narcissist Undead
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2507
Re: Foundation (Spoilers)
« Reply #11 on: October 01, 2021, 09:26:20 PM »
They just need dudes who are easy on the eyes and have unintentional gay chemistry.

Not even that. Just a scene where they say anything to one another.

Ratman_tf

  • Alt-Reich Shitlord
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8330
Re: Foundation (Spoilers)
« Reply #12 on: October 02, 2021, 02:23:07 AM »
Not thrilled with how they killed off Hari Seldon. I hope it's more than just some drummed up drama to "spice up" the show.

Probably is. Most showrunners have nothing but contempt for their source materials. They see adapting a book as somesort of punishment.
Why can't studios hire showrunners who actually like the source material?
Or at least familiarize themselves with it. You don't have to love it, just do a good job with it.

Odds are, of course, outrage marketing.
Hire someone that hates the product to adapt it. That will get fans screaming and that will attract non fans out of curiosity about what they are screaming about.

Or its just standard hollywood wanting a title and sometimes not much else. Why? Who knows. From reading alot of development notes on adaptions I get the impression the execs just dont care and the producer/director wanted to do some other movie and or literally make a live action fan-fic thats barely related. The "vision".

As for Foundation. Who knows. Genderswapping characters is nothing new so could be agenda, could be just marketing said they needed some female characters to draw in women.

I will say. Having Hari Seldon be a white male, and not having Gaal Dornick be better than him at psychohistory, and/or not portraying him as a buffoon was a pleasant surprise.
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.
-Haffrung

Reckall

  • Junghian alchemist
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2004
Re: Foundation (Spoilers)
« Reply #13 on: October 02, 2021, 06:17:18 AM »
As far as i have seen the episodes so far.. its ok only, nothing that notable or noteworthy i care about. The characters are mostly devoid of charisma, i had some hopes for the emperor but i lost interest. Maybve ill return for the last episode, but theres better sci-fi out there i like.

The changes, BTW, caused a lot of holes in the plot. They are sent to Terminus via "slow speed" (which still covers 50,000 light years in 900 days so it is still FTL) because the Emperor doesn't like for the Foundation to have hyperspace technology. Even if we ignore how stupid this decision is (just make a law which says that if someone returns he is to be executed immediately), sending them to Terminus with a fleet of Imperial ships and then leaving them there was not in the cards apparently - not to mention how a foundation meant to collect and preserve all human's knowledge so to shorten the interregnum after the fall of the Empire will have the blueprints of hyperspace technology among the first items anyway.

The Empire, given the current situation, doesn't have basic anti-terrorist measures in place.

If you want to defuse a crisis, arresting and killing diplomats is not the smartest thing to do.

The Foundation does seem forced to decide "what" to preserve. This was never a problem in Asimov's novels. Even when they were written back in the '50s it was assumed that a whole planet and technologically advanced storage methods would be enough to store everything. That was not the problem the Foundation had to face at all. And why, BTW, scientists and mathematicians should debate if save the knowledge of math in base 12? It isn't that you need a supercomputer to do it: Wikipedia is enough. The whole scene is an excuse to have a young black woman patronising a reunion of scientists.

A colony ship hasn't a fleet off ground vehicles for when they arrive?

Anyway, even the basic plot goes off the rails by the end of Episode 2, and by Episode 3 it has become its own (boring) thing (Salvor Hardin is not only race/gender swapped but directly not Salvor Hardin at all). I don't think I'll bother to watch the rest.
For every idiot who denounces Ayn Rand as "intellectualism" there is an excellent DM who creates a "Bioshock" adventure.

Ratman_tf

  • Alt-Reich Shitlord
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8330
Re: Foundation (Spoilers)
« Reply #14 on: October 02, 2021, 08:07:19 AM »
And why, BTW, scientists and mathematicians should debate if save the knowledge of math in base 12? It isn't that you need a supercomputer to do it: Wikipedia is enough. The whole scene is an excuse to have a young black woman patronising a reunion of scientists.

Yeah. That bit was cringey. I could see them debating the value of individual societies history and culture to preserve, but putting it in the context of a base counting system was dumb.
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.
-Haffrung