7/7/2024 Edit: Just to add a few words here. If I had to rank my all time favorite video games, both 2018’s God of War and 2022’s God of War Ragnarok would be in my top 5. Rounding out the rest (though in no particular order) would probably be Baldur’s Gate 3, Dragon Age: Origins, and maybe Mass Effect Legendary Edition. I recognize I cheated a bit there as the last one combines all 3 Mass Effect games (we don’t talk about Andromeda). So perhaps I should say all of these are in my top 10. Halo2 and 3 would be there as well. Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for sure. Maybe Fable 2. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. Morrowind or Skyrim. Last of Us (Can’t believe I almost forgot about that one). Last of Us Part 2 I have yet to play, though I will soon. The Uncharted games aren’t in my top 10, but they are up there no doubt. Same for the latest Tomb Raider reboots. Lost track of my count but that feels like around ten. Definitely a theme in my choices. I do like me a good RPG. In any case, if you haven’t played the recent God of War games, you really should give them a chance. Sometimes I think a good father son relationship is a topic underrepresented in today’s media. God of War addresses that, perceived or otherwise, scarcity with an incredible tale that all too often hit me with an emotional gut punch throughout its incredible set pieces and seamless cutscenes. Kratos learning to connect with his son after their mutual loss is a story I only wish I could experience for the first time once more. No matter, a revisit in the future will suffice.
As of this writing, I’ve watched a season and a half of Invincible, a show that, for me, has been one of the few antidotes to superhero fatigue post Marvel’s Avengers putting an end to Thanos (though the fatigue set in a bit before that if I’m being honest). Along with The Boys, it’s given the superhero genre a much-needed dose of gritty realism. With the second half of the second season of Invincible having been released recently, it felt like a good time to revisit what came before, prior to dipping my toes back into this gory, violent, fantastic, emotional gut punch of a story.
For anyone who hasn’t seen Invincible yet, I can give it a hearty recommendation. I don’t like the tendency that seems all the more common these days to compare everything to Game of Thrones. At worst, it’s a comparison without depth and just a way to grab eyeballs. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I get it. It’s convenient shorthand and I’m doing it here. But in this case, I do think a comparison is apt in one regard: few of the characters in Invincible feel without risk of an untimely death or an evil turn and the stakes are better for it. This sense of danger isn’t unique to Game of Thrones of course, but that story’s influence in bringing this “no one is safe” aspect of the grimdark genre into the mainstream is profound. Sometimes it is done well. Sometimes not. In the case of Invincible, I think it’s done well.
I suppose I should admit something first though. I haven’t read A Song of Ice and Fire (the Game of Thrones books). I know, I’m disappointed in myself too. My time has just been spent elsewhere. I’ll remedy that eventually no doubt. But oddly enough, the TV adaptation has actually held me back a bit from giving it a shot. Well, that and the fact it’s unclear to me whether the books will ever get finished. Absolutely no shade is meant to George R. R. Martin by me saying that. While I do think an author has a responsibility to readers to finish a story once begun, I also firmly believe authors have the right to do so in their own time and their own way. In any case, I watched all the episodes of the TV adaptation, though not without a few rage-quitting, favorite-character-dying induced breaks along the way (SPOILERS for Game of Thrones from here onwards. Thinking of Pedro Pascal’s character Oberyn Martell, and the Red Wedding, and Sean Bean’s Lord Eddard Stark, and … well … we’ll stop there before I get too sad). And now for my second admittance: I can only handle so much grimdark. I’m more of a fan of what I’m going to call grimgrey, if you will. It’s just my own personal preference, but it seems to me, if a story burns me too many times by taking characters I love and killing them off, or corrupting them, or showing they were corrupt all along, I pull back. A little to moderate amount of that, depending on the story being told, is good story telling, absolutely necessary even. But too much and I protect myself by calcifying my empathy, by telling myself not to care. What’s the point of caring about a character if terrible things, like getting their head crushed to a pulp due to a moment of arrogance, are just going to happen to them? Game of Thrones, the TV show, got that way for me. Of course, the heroes won out in the end, but that whole situation was marred by the lack of source material to keep the narrative aright. It didn’t feel earned in some ways, which was the worst of both worlds for me. It felt like the show just hurt me without adequate payoff. So, what’s all this got to do with Invincible anyway?
Everything. If you’ve seen the first episode, you know what I mean. Similar to Game of Thrones setting the tone early on by taking part in Hollywood’s favorite pastime and killing Sean Bean, Invincible sets the tone with a major twist towards the end of the first episode. This twist, well, I’ll admit it was almost too much for me at first. I’m a big old softy it seems. The final scene gave me flashbacks to pulling away from Game of Thrones. It took some time, but I eventually came back to Invincible through the urging of my girlfriend. And boy, am I glad that I did. The characters have a depth and feeling to them that would be lacking without the narrative as it is. At least so far, Invincible has dexterously managed the delicate tight rope of keeping it high stakes while keeping me invested. So, if you haven’t seen it, go give it a shot and come back later, cause now there be spoilers afoot.
Ok, Omni-Man. Mark’s dad. Nolan. Such a terrible person, but so well written. If the first season was about the unraveling of his façade, of Mark and his mother Debbie learning the truth of Omni-Man, the first half of the second season is about them processing the fallout. Tough to watch at times, in particular for Mark’s mom, but so effective. Debbie really needs a win, and I hope the newly released episodes deliver for her. The arc of her going to a therapy group for partners of dead heroes could only have ended as it did: with someone learning the truth. Her husband had been the source of so many of their losses. It hurt, but man did it make me feel for her even more, as if I wasn’t already a big fan. Such good writing. And Mark and his dad’s reunion … oof. I completely agreed with everything Mark said in that scene. Completely unfair of his dad to bring him there with unrealistic expectations. Utterly messed up that Nolan started a new family like that, but also completely in line with his character. Nolan was adrift, near suicide, and offered a chance to do good by the universe and did so, though not without benefiting himself in the process. He didn’t give proper thought to consequences and sired a child; Nolan is not a good person by any stretch and that shouldn’t be forgotten. But he’s also not a proper Viltrumite anymore, and that’s progress I suppose. I’m excited to see where the show goes next, I just hope it doesn’t lean too hard into the dark (why’d they have to do Allen the Alien like that???). I like my stories grey with an impactful, and generally optimistic, end.
All the best,
M. Weald
P.S. Currently in the midst of reading Stephen King’s Fairy Tale. It’s been too long since I last read any Stephen King. I think the last I read of his was that Bill Hodges detective series trilogy. Good to be back in a world of his creation. He is one of my all-time favorite authors and his infrequent dips into the fantasy genre have been some of my all-time favorite novels. Can recommend! Also, my YouTube channel has been a bit … derelict lately. Side effect of being busy. But I’m working on a Year of Sanderson post. Would give a timeline on that but would rather not jinx it.
Hey all. I got the Kirkus review for The Work of Restless Nights, and believe it or not there was nary a negative comment to be found! This one had me nervous, I’ll admit. The whole setup for self-published authors, any author really, is primed for inducing anxiety. You pay Kirkus a not so insubstantial amount of money and wait for a month or two to see what kind of review will emerge. Once available, you are given opportunity to read through the review and decide whether it will be shown the light of day or forever relegated to some forgotten server. If it had been the latter, I could only hope it would’ve been lucky enough to be stored next to the mothballed likes of Batgirl and Coyote vs. Acme. Thankfully, it has been released to the wild. It can be found here in its entirety: Kirkus Review. If you’re not wanting to read the whole thing, some highlights are below.
“The impressive debut of author Weald … The robot-uprising SF plotline is, literally, as old as robots in literature. The concept of a tech-soaked urban sprawl with overlay environments of virtual- and augmented-reality enjoyed by citizens wired directly into the digital mesh is cyberpunk 101. Weald does not radically reinvent such concepts, but thinks their aspects through with a seriousness of purpose and nuanced characterizations.Throughout, one finds the efforts of a serious literary novelist lavished on material that otherwise would fuel scores of sci-fi potboiler paperbacks and Japanese anime … Lengthy, immersive cyber-SF that puts fresh life into a familiar operating system.” – Kirkus Reviews
Definitely stoked! The full review shows that the reviewer really got my novel, really understood what I was trying to do, and I’m beyond grateful for that. I wanted to take familiar concepts, sci-fi/cyberpunk staples, and make them my own, think them through. Certainly the first time I’ve ever been associated with the term “serious literary novelist”. I’ll admit to myriad feelings arising from the “literary” connotation. I enjoy writing and consuming stories more often than not of what I would call the genre variety, a variety that has, at times, been maligned by certain holier than thou literary types. I got a minor in creative writing in undergrad, and one of my professors had a smidge of that prejudice, often wondering aloud why myself and another genre inclined hopeful needed, or even wanted, such fantastical elements to our stories. I think there was even a class whose discussion had turned to asking whether Stephen King could be allowed into the hallowed halls of the “literary” classification, whether academia could deign to bless him so, a discussion I find to be rather asinine. What is defined as “literary” changes over time given historical context and impact, along with the whims of the powers that be. Things that were considered populist at the time of release become literary years later, just look at Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Restricting high art or value to that of the literary world at any given moment is bound to make one look foolish in the end. I’m thinking of N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy as another prime example of incredible genre fiction that should be included as literary if anything should. Suffice to say, problems arise when confusing value with subjective taste when it comes to stories. Stories are incredible in all their myriad forms, literary or genre or anything else. See my blog post In Defense of Genre (And Everything Else) for my thoughts there.
Anyway, if it wasn’t obvious, I’ve had a bit of a chip on my shoulder ever since that professor thought of my writing as lesser simply because it included fantastical elements. This review gave me that warm fuzzy feeling as a result. It was a much needed drink of water in my writing journey, a journey that often feels like wandering through a desert alone. Even so, I’ll also admit to it making me wonder about the value of the literary classification in its modern incarnation. If it is to denote a certain style, deep characterization or playful prose or a tackling of broader questions of humanity, fantastic. But if it is to assign value, I can do without. And it’s not like any of those descriptors are unique to the literary world anyway.
All that to be said, I feel incredibly lucky and grateful to have gotten this review.
First off, I’m a big fan of Brandon Sanderson. When I was young, so pretty much from grade school through early high school, I read incessantly. From the time I first picked up the likes of Deltora Quest, Ranger’s Apprentice, Harry Potter, Eragon, or any book with Drizzt Do’Urden in it, all the way to borrowing my older brother’s copies of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series, it was hard to find me without a book in hand. But then I kind of … stopped for a bit. Or at least lessened the pace during the latter half of high school and the beginning of college. Part of this was because I finally started coming out of my shell. I was a nerdy kid emerging into an equally nerdy, but moderately more confident in himself, young man. And I started taking soccer more seriously, playing on different teams in high school year round and realizing I had at least a modicum of athletic ability. I didn’t play much soccer in college though. Early college has enough distractions without sports in the mix and I was a bit burnt out on it. I was an engineering student, so studies took up most of my time. But then of course there are the new and exciting social opportunities miles away from any parental guard rails. Granted, I mostly studied. I was and always will be a proud nerd. However, it’s also true I made lifelong friends and, in the … ahem … laudable quest of learning about myself and my place in the world around me, made my fair share of poor decisions. This included forever tarnishing the stench of Jägermeister after buying a handle and, well, I don’t remember much after that. All this to say, I was distracted from the safe haven books had provided me for years by a world I found myself wanting to explore in a more real way. I came back to books of course. Like hearing scraps of a forgotten lullaby and knowing only it made me feel safe, I would hear mention of fantasy or sci-fi stories and feel an urge to pause and listen. So I came back to fiction after a brief reprieve, and came back to an absolute banger: Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. I love the first trilogy in that series in particular, Mistborn Era 1 as it’s also known. It sucked me in immediately, brought me back to earlier days where my form of rebellion was staying up too late reading. I tore through those books. I don’t think I got a good night’s sleep all through the back half of The Hero of Ages because I couldn’t put the thing down. Probably scored a bit lower on a few engineering exams as a result. It’s no exaggeration to say I wouldn’t have gotten a creative writing minor, and wouldn’t have written my science fiction novel, without that trilogy reminding me just how much I loved stories and the art of storytelling. So, that was a long winded way of saying I’m a big fan of Brando Sando’s. I’ve read every Cosmere book available to date and immediately supported his record breaking Year of Sanderson Kickstarter when it was announced. I’m working on a YouTube video summarizing my thoughts on those 4 Year of Sanderson books, and I definitely want to put up blog posts or something about The Stormlight Archive or the Cosmere at large at some point. But for now, I’m settling for a few words on the surprise ending to the Year of Sanderson Kickstarter, the short story by Brandon Sanderson titled On Long Chills and Case Dough.
This was an interesting one to me. First off, it’s short. I know that’s obvious given it’s a short story, but it bears repeating because Brandon Sanderson doesn’t really do short. He has novellas, there is one in particular titled The Emperor’s Soul that I really enjoyed, yet there is a large difference between a novella and a short story, a difference of about 20k words on average. Most of his novellas are in service of the Cosmere, shining a light on characters who didn’t have their stories told in the mainline novels for one reason or another. This short story isn’t like that. It’s truly standalone, one he wrote in an attempt to polish his short story writing skills not long before getting his big break with Elantris and thereafter writing Mistborn. It’s a snapshot from his early days as a writer, published as a “Sanderson Curiosity.” I’m sure he’d be the first to say short stories aren’t his strong suit. In fact he says as much in his lecture series on YouTube shortly before bringing in guest lecturer Mary Robinette Kowal. Even so, I enjoyed this story. It’s an odd one, to be sure, but one that gave me more joy reading it than I’d anticipated going in. It’s a take on the hard boiled detective novels, black and white noir filled with femme fatales and bad days to quit the hooch. It has its own unique flair though, lending vulnerability to an otherwise parody of a voice. It takes place in a sci-fi future, from the perspective of a detective romanticizing the past. He’s an odd duck, this detective named Jack,calling women dames while smoking cigarettes (or “burners,” as he would say) with no real nicotine and drawing many a valid critique while doing it. But he has his reasons. And while I wouldn’t call his reasons unanticipated, that didn’t lessen the impact of hearing him let the cat out of the bag. If you haven’t read any of Sanderson’s other works, I don’t know if I’d recommend starting here. But if you’re interested in his quirky take on short fiction and hard boiled detectives, this is something I’d surely recommend.
Ok, I admit. The title is a bit of a mislead as I haven’t actually watched Rebel Moon. I’d been tracking its development, watching teasers as they trickled through the grapevine to eyes and ears eager for Zack Snyder’s take on Star Wars. Netflix hoped they were eager anyway. I’m a fan of Star Wars of course, not in a die hard sense, but enough to say the original trilogy, and yes, even the prequel trilogy (Jar Jar Binks included), were formative aspects of my childhood. The glut of Star Wars IP we’ve gotten post Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm has been mixed, as these things go. Check out my post On Andor and How to Keep and IP Fresh if you’re curious on my thoughts there. (TLDR: Latest trilogy, meh. Done both Luke and Rey wrong in my humble opinion. Andor, woo! So so good.) This is all to say I like Star Wars, and was curious on Zack Snyder’s take. I wouldn’t call myself a die hard fan of Zack Snyder though. I’m more ambivalent. His movie 300 came out while I was in high school, a freshman I think. Wasn’t allowed to see it in theatres of course. Too bloody. Too violent. Too R rated. But that is where older brothers come in handy, helping free younger siblings from surely irrational parental oppression since time immemorial. So he got a copy and watched it with his friends. Which meant I watched it too. I … well I loved it. At the time. I was an awkward gangly kid rushing headlong into puberty and wanting women to take him seriously. As any guy can attest, there’s this extremely awkward period where the girls have started maturing but the boys are lagging just a bit behind. Some more than others. What can I say, I was a late bloomer. I saw this movie right when I was wanting to shed the moniker of cute little brother, the term of address every woman my brother (a truly wise high school junior at the time) brought home would use when they saw me. The movie 300 convinced me the secret to getting women like Lena Headey was six pack abs and a grizzled, macho exterior. So the secret was to be Gerard Butler, if you will. It wasn’t, and isn’t, the secret of course (though maybe it doesn’t hurt?). But my scrawny ass didn’t know that. My scrawny ass also didn’t really manage to build any muscle till college no matter how hard I tried. So onwards through high school I trudged, always looking back to that movie with a sense of awe at its slow motion machismo. I still look on that movie fondly, and Watchmen too, but I don’t think anything I’ve seen from Zack Snyder since has really left much of an impression. He seems to struggle a bit outside the world of adaptations. I watched the Zack Snyder cut of Justice League. It was fine. I admit I was already somewhat in the throes of superhero atrophy at the time. Even so, it was fine. I watched Army of the Dead. It was fun, but while I do like Dave Bautista and Tig Notaro, it didn’t leave much of an impression either. So here we are at Rebel Moon, the launch of a new science fiction IP wholly embraced by Netflix and already promised its own Snyder cut. I love science fiction. I love Hollywood taking risks with new IPs. So, why haven’t I watched it yet?
Reviews I guess. One could argue there are 4 types of movies: those loved by critics and audiences alike, those loved by critics but too opaque or artsy for general audiences, those loved by general audiences but too droll or basic for critics, and those largely panned by both. Rebel Moon seems to be trending towards that last group unfortunately. 23% critic score and 58% audience score on rotten tomatoes. It may sound silly considering I post my thoughts on all things science fiction and fantasy on this blog, but I think it’s important to frame reviews, especially my own, by their context. People like what they like. Storytelling, art in general, is subjective. Its value is inherent. At the end of the day, we classify and review stories to help others find stories they might enjoy, not to assign value. There are movies I adore in every one of the aforementioned groupings, critics be damned. So, will I watch Rebel Moon? Well … I think I’m going to wait for the extended R rated cut. From everything I’ve read, it seems the version currently out is pretty, and at times entertaining, but lacking in depth, consisting of mostly references. And I should point out, not everything needs depth. Sometimes stories are just escapism and there is nothing wrong with that. But I don’t know. Rebel Moon in its current form just isn’t really peaking my interest. I think I’ll wait till the longer cut is released. Perhaps that will give it time to find its own, time for the characters to find their voices. Even so, longer doesn’t necessarily mean better.
I’m writing this with an hour left of 2023 and pondering what to say. Another year has passed with its highs and lows. From a science fiction and fantasy perspective, some stellar books, movies, games, and tv shows were released this past year. I managed to make a dent in my to be read pile and catch up on stories long past. Many of the stories I consumed I didn’t have a chance to cover on this blog. But from The Year of Sanderson books, to my delve into The Wheel of Time novels, all the way to the live action One Piece adaptation, it was a great ride. On a personal level, I’d say it’s been a good one too. I published my novel, The Work of Restless Nights, put out a blog post in 11 of the past 12 months, and started a YouTube channel I hope to similarly support in 2024. And of course there is the full time engineering job that I use to pay the bills. Still have that. I have good friends and an incredible partner. I have much to be thankful for. Even so, I can’t help but think of what I could’ve done better. I certainly could’ve written a bit more. All of my energy in that realm was focused on getting my novel ready to publish. Could’ve put out more blog posts and more videos. Nonetheless, not accounting for more global or macro happenings (not generally the subject of my meanderings here), 2023 was a good one, and I aim to make 2024 even better. I hope everyone reading this had a similarly solid 2023 with an optimistic vision for the near at hand 2024. Happy new year!
Short one today. I finished reading the fourth book of the Wheel of Time Series, The Shadow Rising, soon after wrapping up work this afternoon. It might be my favorite of the series so far. At this point, I can say I see the reason behind WoT’s reputation in the fantasy community. Nonetheless, I think I’m going to take a break from it for a spell. While I’m enjoying the world Robert Jordan has built immensely, it’s not without its quirks. I can only take so many occurrences of a man throwing up their hands stating they could never understand women, or of a woman saying the exact same thing about a man, before tiring of it. It feels a bit like the old “men are from Mars and women are from Venus” comedic bit at times. It starts to feel a bit silly. And old school. Empathy or understanding across gender lines is no different than any other exercise in compassion. In any case, it’s still a brilliant world with an intricate history filled with intriguing cultures and characters. I just wish the characters could show a bit more self-awareness at times. I think I’m going to read The Sunlit Man, the last of the Year of Sanderson books, next. Maybe some Ursula K Le Guin.
I also finished The Fall of the House of Usher today. I have to say, Flanagan is still the best in the business when it comes to monologues. Some brilliant writing there. For anyone who watches the show, listen for a line about Frankenstein in the final episode. Absolutely devastating. Nonetheless, I struggle with stories that devote much of the their time to terrible people doing terrible things. I come to stories more often than not to find the structure and purpose so often lacking in the world around me. As a result, while I recognize some of the incredible writing in this show, it’s in some ways just not my cup of tea. Even so, I’ll continue to give anything of Mike Flanagan’s a shot. Incredibly excited for his Dark Tower adaptation.
I saw the Creator at the movie theatre last week. For those who haven’t seen it yet, I’ll keep away from any major spoilers. The premise is that AI development reached such a level that robots were, for a time, ubiquitous in society, perhaps as numerous as humanity. They lived alongside in an often servile role. Then the explosion of a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles was pinned to robots, and any remnants of AI hunted down and mercilessly destroyed in the West. AI still is accepted in the East though, in a region called New Asia whose government and societal workings would have been fun to explore a bit more. It clearly serves as a reminder of the war in Vietnam and the US actions there, showing New Asia’s society as an intriguing meld of agrarian and high tech. It’s a Buddhist inspired culture where AI is welcomed and in fact cares for many a human refugee. New Asia serves well enough in its role, if a bit relegated as a backdrop, and the visuals were stunning. In any case, the crux of the movie is the US military learns of a weapon in development that will shift the balance in the war of AI extermination, and they pull a troubled ex-undercover soldier from his retirement to destroy it. It’s a straightforward premise, but earnest. I think that summarizes the movie as a whole: straightforward, but earnest.
So, what did I think of it? I enjoyed it! It’s not perfect; there are numerous plot holes. Some of the ramifications of the technological marvels shown, such as the ability to download a brain and then upload the results onto a very human-like robot, weren’t as fleshed out as they could’ve been. But even so, there were many poignant moments, and I was tearing up at the end. The visuals are stunning, the NOMAD satellite with its stark blue lights scanning the verdant mountains in particular evoking visceral unease. The soundtrack is fantastic. And it’s an original sci-fi IP in Hollywood, so something I’d love to see much, much more of. I thought the casting was excellent, in particular the young girl/AI. Her expression in the closing scene carried so much weight, so much subtext, for one so young. At the end of the day, I walked away from the movie theater having had a good time and wanting to discuss the movie’s finer points. I’d call that a success.
All the best,
M. Weald
P.S. I’ll get back to some books here next post. I’ve been reading either Year of Sanderson books or The Wheel of Time of late. Some hefty tomes, especially WoT.
Adaptations are on my mind. No real surprise there. We certainly have a profundity of them these days. Not that I’m complaining. I adore getting the chance to see that which was relegated to my mind’s eye given new form. In the recent past I’ve watched the new One Piece live action, the Cowboy Bebop live action, the His Dark Materials adaptation, and a rewatch of the classic Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. And I’m currently making my way through the newest seasons of Shadow and Bone, The Witcher, and The Wheel of Time. After all of this, I have thoughts on what makes an adaption successful. Would those thoughts be helpful to a random Hollywood executive stumbling their way through the internet until landing on the blog of a no-name, aspiring author such as myself? Beats me. They should probably be more focused on giving both writers and actors proper compensation for their work anyway. Big props to the WGA and the new contract culminating from their strike. The rise of generative AI and the world of streaming called for changes, and it looks like writers will get some much needed protections. Here’s to hoping the actor’s guild can be similarly successful. But I digress. Back to adaptations and the need for good writing before anything else. First, let’s look at the aforementioned adaptations on an individual basis.
One Piece: Starting off strong. The live action final product far exceeded my expectations. It’s great writing that is both respectful of, and in some ways makes the necessary changes to, the manga (and resultant anime) source material. I watched a video of Oda, the creator of the manga, meeting Iñaki Godoy, the actor Oda himself had a large role in picking for the lead character. The joy and respect going in both directions was palpable. That was an incredible thing to see, an original creator incorporated into the process to such an extent. I hope other adaptions take note. However, and this might be a hot take, nobody is perfect, and I credit the writers in making some tweaks where needed. The first thing that comes to mind is Sanji. In the manga/anime his character is, in part, defined by a trope that is a staple of the medium: the perv. While I enjoy anime, I only have so much of a tolerance for this whole schtick. The general treatment of women is a barrier to the genre, an apology that has to be made whenever introducing anime to someone new. The fetishizations and “fan service” in most just distract from otherwise fun worldbuilding or characters. I mean, I get it. Sex sells and all that. But there is a way to do it well for women (or men) that isn’t so cringey. I think the live action did Sanji well. They took pervy and made it flirty. They made him a sometimes misguided yet earnest romantic. I’ll take that change any day.
Cowboy Bebop: This is a tough one. I actually enjoyed this one more than it seems the general populace did. First off, I’m a huge fan of the original anime. The soundtrack and visuals and general vibe that descends into an almost cathartic melancholy makes for some impressive storytelling. But I’ll also say I’m a sucker for a ragtag crew trying to make it’s way through space doing odd jobs a la Firefly, and the anime still took me a little bit to get into. I think the live action would’ve done better marketed as it’s own thing. It feels like it tried to take the original Cowboy Bebop and strip out some of the melancholy. What was left was still fun and interesting. In my opinion, it was a laudable entry into the collection of misfit, found-families aboard a spaceship doing their adventures of the week. Yet, in stripping the melancholy, it wasn’t true to the original Cowboy Bebop, even if the soundtrack most certainly was. I wish it could have been judged in isolation. I want more shows like it, just maybe not attached to such a beloved IP. Related to that, Netflix axes things too early. I mean let a show find it’s feet before cutting it’s head off.
His Dark Materials: Was this one just not marketed well? I feel like my partner and I are the only ones I know who finished the final season, and I’m glad to say we did. I teared up from some of the final monologues. Lyra’s was straight from the book’s pages. For those who haven’t read the original books, I’ll summarize their message as there is nothing inherently wrong, or shameful, in being human, no matter what some major religions (original sin, cough, cough) would sometimes have you believe. Treat everyone with respect and kindness, love with an open heart, and you’ll do better than following the maxims of those who claim authority on your afterlife only to wield power over your actual life.
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: It’s a masterpiece. Peter Jackson’s whole trilogy is. As someone who has elvish tattooed on their arm and has read Tolkien’s works more times than I remember, I give the adaptation a whole-hearted recommendation. For any who hasn’t dipped their toes into the works that inform so much of modern fantasy, give it a try. Another possibly hot take: As much as I love Tolkien, the dude couldn’t write women at all. Like my comments on One Piece above, I actually appreciate the movie’s attempts to improve on that front.
Shadow and Bone: I haven’t read the original books, so my input here is skewed perhaps. I’ll have more to say later, but at this point I’m liking the adaptation a fair amount. Fun characters and tropes done well. Can recommend.
The Witcher: I’ll hold my full comments until I finish the season, but I see troubles ahead for this IP without Henry Cavill. I haven’t been sold on the character work or plotting that strays from the books. Not that the books are perfect, but I do wish the show could’ve hewed closer to them, or even the video games. Maybe give the writers from CD Projekt Red a crack at a live action. They’ve shown they’d probably be better at it.
The Wheel of Time: Another mixed bag. There are moments in this most recent season that were quite good. But there were also decisions I just don’t get. Drama for drama’s sake. Like Moraine and Lan. Why Moraine so mean? I get what they’re trying to do but it just didn’t land for me (Side note. Rosamund Pike is incredible. Not her fault at all). This is another one where I wish they could’ve hewed closer to the books while making tweaks where needed. I’m currently in the middle of reading the third book in the series, The Dragon Reborn, and so far I agree with Brandon Sanderson: This adaptation is a different turning of the wheel.
At the end of the day, I think an adaptation does well when it understands what worked with the original and stays true to it, updating only where needed. It’s often easier if the original creator is given more of a role to play, but not essential as the Lord of the Rings movies have shown.
All the best,
M. Weald
P.S. My website hit 5k all time views! Thanks so much to everyone checking it out. Here’s to hoping my book sales can hit that number some day. Shameless self plug: Buy Here
Short one this time, and it hopefully won’t be the only one this month. Just here for a quick update. As the title, and my previous post, already gave away, my book is stocked at a local bookstore, that being the Tattered Cover on Colfax in Denver. It’s an incredible feeling to see it on the shelves, and I’m grateful they gave it a chance. One day I’ll make it onto the main floor with the heavy hitters. For now, it can be found in the local author’s section downstairs. That’s all for now.
All the best,
M. Weald
P.S. That is indeed the same outfit that I am wearing in the cover picture on my website. It is entirely possible the pictures were taken on the same day :).
M. Weald 