Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

[Sharpandpointies]

They're making a Lord of the Rings TV show, set before the movies (ie, Aragorn's story).

.....

I'm not sure which is upsetting me more, the making of a Lord of the Rings TV show, or the fact that they're NOT making a Chronicles of Amber TV show (granted, SyFy was going to do that one, so it would likely have been agonizing).

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

They're making a Lord of the Rings TV show, set before the movies (ie, Aragorn's story).

.....

I'm not sure which is upsetting me more, the making of a Lord of the Rings TV show, or the fact that they're NOT making a Chronicles of Amber TV show (granted, SyFy was going to do that one, so it would likely have been agonizing).

Yikes.

Amber......Amber would be hard. It’s been years since I read the first series but that would be tough to translate over methinks.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

...sounds about right. ^_^

What about the Epoch of Apocalypse?

Years of Future Present?

The Most Civil War?

Grey Phoenix?

[Beadle]

What about the Epoch of Apocalypse?

Years of Future Present?

The Most Civil War?

Grey Phoenix?

The Trip-and-Stumble-a-Bit of the Mutants

[Sharpandpointies]

Yikes.

Amber......Amber would be hard. It’s been years since I read the first series but that would be tough to translate over methinks.

Could be easier than some. CGI has come a long way, and Hellrides could be done with that. Similarly the creatures. Swordfighting is swordfighting, regardless of whether or not both characters are superhuman. There's not a lot of flashy magic in the first series (and they could utterly ignore the second series, ugh, that was a crapstorm that even Zelazny didn't like, and he wrote the darned series), outside of Hellrides and actually walking the Pattern (which would be easy).

Each book is short, lending itself well to a season or a half-season. It teaches as it goes -- there's no grand infodump at the start, and the reader learns about everything as the narrator learns about everything (edit: and the writer...Zelazny was on record about having no idea where the books were going, that it was pretty much organic from start to end).

Heck, having the occasional Corim voiceover as a narrator would be perfectly in keeping with the series, as well.

It has more women characters than one might expect from stuff written back in the late 60's/early 70's, and with a little tweaking that could also be improved. Nothing wrong with a few changes to ethnicity as well; Oberon plainly gave no craps as to whom he slept with (takes after his dad...). Easy to make it more inclusive.

Maybe it's just me, but they're looking into the Wheel of Time. The Wheel of Time!!! You want tough to translate into TV? Yeesh. O_o Comparatively speaking, Amber is easy.

Granted, it's not as well-known, which is probably why they're focusing on Jordan's stuff.

[Dalak]

What about the Epoch of Apocalypse?

Years of Future Present?

The Most Civil War?

Grey Phoenix?

I'd give up a few years of my life to read a Plaid Phoenix storyline.

[Sharpandpointies]

Consider:

Nine Princes In Amber basically starts with Carl Corey waking up and knowing NOTHING about the actual situation, figuring he's just a dude on Earth. In short order, he works out something weird is happening. This is Zelazny doing the Urban Fantasy 'welcome to the fantasy world' before that stuff even existed. He then learns he has family, and that he knows a little about them and hates some of them. That's all. He then learns he is superhuman when Random shows up with non-human beings in pursuit, and a fight breaks out. Then Random and he start travelling through Shadow, and he works out something about what is going on. They start talking about Amber, thanks to Random. He learns a little more. They bump into Julian, stuff happens. They escape, save Dierdre. Weir come after them, they kill the Weir. He finally tells his siblings the truth, and they decide to go to Rebma to walk the reflection of the Pattern. More explanation of what that is all about, some Random backstory, etc.

I mean, this kind of build-up is tailor-made for a TV audience - give them a little more every episode, until the whole story comes out halfway through the first season. THEN we have a build-up toward climax, a war, the nasty stuff that happens after the war, Corwin tossed in prison, torment, secrets revealed, and finally a dramatic, magical escape at the end of the first season...leading into The Guns of Avalon for the second season.

And one could add stuff to this, because there's room to add scenes of talking, or background, or more with Dierdre, or so forth (I mean, there's likely some pushback on the squickiness of Corwin and Dierdre, but I imagine they could do something about that and Corwin doesn't exactly end up with Dierdre anyway).

It would work. And better than taking one of Jordan's utter monstrosities of a book and trying to squash it down into a single season of TV.

[Sharpandpointies]

Anima Game -- C'mon, people. Action sequence, it can't be THAT boring.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Fair points, Sharp. That could be doable.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Mind you, The Wheel of Time is a monster too. I can’t imagine it being worse than the Sword of Truth TV series (which wasn’t that great a book series either) but they better be ready to drop Game of Thrones Level
Money on it when they make it.

So. Many. Characters.

[Sharpandpointies]

Fair points, Sharp. That could be doable.

Just my opinion. ^_^ I've been hoping for an Amber TV show for a looooong time now, and we've finally arrived at a level of TV tech where it's decently possible without skimping on the visuals (or going animated).

Maybe they could hire some actual, skilled historical fencers to train actors for the sword fighting and do the choreographing, and end up with something decent for a change. Lots of European bladework in Amber (which would make it all the more fun when Benedict shows up with a rather large Eastern-ish sword).

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Just my opinion. ^_^ I've been hoping for an Amber TV show for a looooong time now, and we've finally arrived at a level of TV tech where it's decently possible without skimping on the visuals (or going animated).

Maybe they could hire some actual, skilled historical fencers to train actors for the sword fighting and do the choreographing, and end up with something decent for a change. Lots of European bladework in Amber (which would make it all the more fun when Benedict shows up with a rather large Eastern-ish sword).

GoT is weird about sword fighting.

There are several examples of pretty decent stuff, and then some examples of......well, less impressive stuff from supposedly skilled people.

[FistofIron]

alright, fist. had to crack open the core book but here is what you need to know about the RPG. please note that this is a older copy of the rules so it might or might not have changed.

first, you pick your race:

human.

dwarf. (also called rhulfolk after the name of their kingdom, rhul.)

gobber. (which is a type of goblin)

iosan

nyss

(iosan and nyss are both elves but with differences. nyss elves are more like traditional elves in that they are more or less tribes of hunter/gatherers but they are almost extinct due to the coming of the dragon everblight and his legion. iosan elves are more technologically but are slowly shrinking in numbers due to their gods going missing.)

orguns. (orguns are like orks but less violent. they are more connected with dwarves due to how their society is structured. they are more akin to samurai than anything else.)

trollkin. (basically trolls but more intelligent and tougher.)

next are the archetype.

you can be gifted, meaning you have a affinity for magic, intellectual, meaning you are very smart, mighty, meaning you are strong warrior, or skilled, meaning you are quick and cunning. there are sub categories for each but it's really up to you.

finally we have careers or classes. in order:

alchemist
archane mechanik (only for the gifted)
archanist (only for the gifted)
aristocrat (only for humans)
bounty hunter
cutthroat
duelist
explorer
fell caller (only a trollkin can have this one)
field mechanik
gun mage (only for gifted)
highwayman
investigator
iron fangs (only for humans and only if your character is from khador)
knight (only for humans or iosans)
mage hunter (only for iosans)
man-at-arms
military officer
pirate
pistoleer
priest (only for humans, gifted and you have to either be a worshipper of menoth or morrow)
ranger
rifleman
soldier
sorcerer (only for the gifted)
spy
stormblade (only for humans and only if you are from cygnar)
thief
trencher (only for humans, trollkin or orgun)
warcaster (only for the gifted)


now you can chose two careers (i was a pirate-duelist when i played) but some careers can only be picked as a starter career and some of them tend to lock you into what your second career is.

Much appreciated!

[Sharpandpointies]

GoT is weird about sword fighting.

There are several examples of pretty decent stuff, and then some examples of......well, less impressive stuff from supposedly skilled people.

I've seen some pretty awful stuff from GoT (and, yes, some stuff that didn't look horrid). That's not a shot at GoT -- there's awful stuff everywhere. And can one blame people? One takes a bunch of actors with little to no experience with weapons, gives them instructions on how to fight, and also need to make stuff big and obvious for people to watch on-screen. And thus, we end up with people leading with their bodies, attacking each other's weapons, not tracking, massively telegraphing (for the benefit of the other actor, I'm sure!), making huge swings, etc...also, in some cases, a complete lack of footwork.

But that's how it is. One actually wants ACTORS for movies rather than, you know, people who have practiced swordwork from the POV of realism. Because the acting part is kind of the important part, I know.

It's just irksome. ^_^

[master of read]

after re-watching some eps of "walker, texas ranger", i have come to the conclusion that cordell walker is the texas version of batman.

fight me.