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#bbc narnia cast
thirddoctor · 9 months
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hot take but Tom Baker as Puddleglum >>> Tom Baker as the Doctor
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filmmakerdreamst · 7 months
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How Lyra and Will suffered as Protagonists in BBC's His Dark Materials
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Despite the cast and crews open love for the novels, and the insistent diligence to stay as faithful to the source material as possible — even trying to fill in many of the gaps in the books, as seen in all three seasons of the show — the BBC adaptation never manages to capture the spirit (the only time I felt like it did was in the third season) because of the fact that every character is altered and changed. Not just adaptationally changed either like making a character dumber, softer or harder. They’re completely different characters, separated from the source material e.g. Mrs Coulter is changed from a seductive, calm character to a feral, suicidal character. I must admit, I did like the expanded self harm element that she causes her daemon. However I felt in the novel, if she were to harm her monkey, it would be ‘to keep her lust for power at bay’ rather than shame for herself.
The atmosphere was off yet the events were similar and the complete opposite at the same time. But you can’t have similar events play out with different characterisations, at least not with ‘His Dark Materials’.
Philip Pullman’s characters in ‘His Dark Materials’ are extremely charismatic, but to put it lightly, are not very palatable to say the least. As stated in @clarabosswald’s analysis, there seemed to be this weird need to make EVERY single character digestible or palatable in some way or another in the BBC adaptation, regardless of it making sense or not. I noticed this upon my re-read of ‘The Northern Lights’ that they even humanised the doctor that sexually assaulted Lyra by grabbing Pantalaimon, which was very troubling.
Now with the opposing ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ film, they changed the characterisations to make them more sympathetic and accessible to a contemporary audience. They even dug deeper with the character Edmund which I thought was a fantastic choice. But the reason why those character changes worked was because C.S.Lewis was not concerned with building character, he was much more concerned with the place of Narnia itself. He almost used his characters to explore the world of Narnia, e.g. some characters would leave one book and come back 5 books later — which is why some of the later adaptations of Narnia didn’t do as well in the box office as the first one.
The character changes in that film enriched the story without effecting it in a way, because ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ and the other books are driven by the plot. Where as ‘His Dark Materials’ is primarily driven by characters.
Philip Pullman in total contrast to C.S.Lewis, built the world (you could say he used the world) around the characters in order for them to get to Point A to Point B. But he was not concerned about exploring the multiverse so you could see the entire picture, like with C.S. Lewis.
I heard once that he described writing as wondering through a forest on a path and the path is your story. Theres a difference between the story world and the storyline. And as an Author, your concern is the storyline. It would be easy to step away and stray from the path and explore the forest and admire all the trees, but for him the most important thing to do was to remain on the path and focus on the story rather than the details along the way.
I’m not apposed to different versions of the characters or different storylines. But with ‘His Dark Materials’, those books are driven by specific character traits. And the fact that they changed them, while still being faithful to the events in the story, the story beats either don’t land or don’t hit as hard or don’t make sense altogether.
More specifically with the main characters Lyra and Will, but mostly Lyra since she’s the heart of the story.
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Lyra is first and fourmost a liar, which may seem a small part of her character but its huge. Her ability to lie and get her way out of situations is the cause of many events in the books. She’s feral. She’s wild. She’s manipulative. She’s described as a ‘half wild cat’ and a ‘greedy little savage’. She can’t sit still or behave herself. She’s impulsive. She’s a leader. She gets into fights. She gets dirty. She spends all her nights on the rooftops. She’s an extrovert. She’s street smart. She’s selfish. She’s brave.
She’s an emotional and passionate human being. Thats what makes Lyra a real girl, not just a character on the page. These nuanced character traits of hers is how she pushes everything forward in the story.
All of those negative/positive aspects of her character in the books were watered down so much in the series. To the point where alot of them were removed. Not only is that incredibly dehumanising but makes the plot points where “she lies” not land as well or plot points revolving around her “telling the truth” make no sense at all.
The whole reason why she’s called Lyra Silvertongue is because she tricked the bear king with her lies, a trait which is consistent throughout the entire story — but completely nonexistent throughout the show. Her tricking the bear king in the adaptation came off as a lucky experience rather something that comes naturally to her. Even the ironic plot point of her being given the Alethiometer “a device that tells her the truth” didn’t hit as hard. They tried to establish her as a ‘liar’ in the second episode of season one then gave up completely as the show continued on.
But the weird thing is, those flaws were still mentioned by other characters in the show, when it was not the character they were developing. Characters would mention that she’s a liar, insufferable, selfish or that ‘she doesn’t apologise easily’ — which seemed like an over exaggeration since the show version of her isn’t really any of those things. This applied when characters such as Lee praised her for being ‘brave’ and ‘good’. I heard a HDM podcast recapping season 2 saying that “her character in the show wasn’t hitting the right emotional beats” to be a child of a great destiny that every character seemingly falls over themselves to give their lives for her.
TV Lyra hasn’t completely lost her flaws, but she’s not as nearly as flawed as she was in the books. She felt so contained, rather than passionate. Which felt so odd because yes, Lyra grows out of some bad traits such as her rudeness, due to the influence of Will. But she isn’t naturally like that.
They changed her so much, but also tried to keep her “the same” that her character growth which is huge in the books felt like nothing had moved at all. It kind of got reduced to a simple thing like her innocence being taken away. It was like she wasn’t allowed to have any sort of loud, dislikable reaction in any way. It felt like they were taking away her agency.
And I know one of the biggest reasons why they changed her behaviour in the TV Show is because they aged the character up to 14–16 at the start. I get it. Theres a huge difference between 12 and 14 in terms of maturity . It works for the Will & Lyra romantic scenes as an adaptational choice later in the story (because she’s allegedly 12–13 in the books).
I think Dafne Keen was an inspired choice for the role of Lyra, since I saw some scenes of her in ‘Logan’ and I 100% believe she would of pulled off Book Lyra given the chance, but by the time they started filming she was already 13/14. And in all honesty, Lyra just becomes odd looking older. She’s just not convincing as a misbehaving little girl who can’t sit still, she just comes off as a really strange child thats immature or lacking in social skills. For example, there’s a scene between Mrs Coulter and Lyra in ‘The Idea of North’ where she’s telling a lie, but it doesn’t come off natural because 1. They didn’t establish her as a liar immediately and 2. Part of her ability to lie comes from her spontaneous nature of being a kid telling stories and using her imagination. Dafne Keen didn’t really look that age, for it to look like something she would do.
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They also made her relationship with Roger more of a focus in the show, which makes sense as her motivation in the later half of the books comes from wanting to rescue him. However, they made him ‘the only friend that she has’ which I found to be a strange decision because Lyra in the books has tuns of friends. I would say their friendship is more balanced in the series, where as in the book it wasn’t so much.
She forgets him a few times while staying with Mrs Coulter in the book where as she remembers him constantly in the episode ‘The Idea of North’ which felt like a confused choice to me. They were trying to have it both ways; have her be seduced by Mrs Coulter while also actively asking her to look for Roger.
The imbalance in Roger and Lyra’s friendship is important because it adds to the need to set things right with him in The Land of the Dead. It goes to the core of how everyone thinks she is selfish. She needs to save Roger to prove to herself she’s a good person.
In the book, when Lyra dreams of Roger in The Land of the Dead, the two of them have constant talks of how much he’s suffering. In the show, she just has alot of ambiguous flash forward dreams of Roger, with the story not prioritising them as important as the main plot of ‘Asriel’s War’.
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When she brings this up to Will in the episode, he dismisses it instead of agreeing to go (like in the book) because of his daddy issues, no I’m sorry, because of Asriel’s War which makes sense as it’s one of the main plots in the season — where it was more of a distracting B plot in the book — but it just kind of adds to the idea that “its unnecessary” or “why are they doing this?”.
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The desire to get to Roger and apologise in the show doesn’t hit as hard because there was more of a balance in Lyra and Rogers relationship plus the changes to her character just made it seem like “she just wanted to do it” rather than it being the most important decision she ever makes, to try to better herself.
While they go to the suburbs of the dead, Will and Pan constantly question why she’s doing this (a conflict that was not in the book — Will is steadfastly loyal to her by this point and Pan is too shivery to speak) while Lyra just snaps at them, making her seem mean for no reason. When she has a chat with her death, she doesn’t lie that an angel told her to do it (because they didn’t establish her as a liar properly), she just says that she wants to be good which is not a convincing argument considering what happens next.
When Pan and her have the argument while she leaves him on the doc, which is a great scene on its own (it made me cry), it also adds to the unnecessary nature of it all. It’s a scene that makes sense in the book because of Lyra’s impulsive nature, but because of her seemingly calculative nature in the show, it just looks odd. It’s described in the book that if Lyra had heard Pan speak, she would have folded and never would of got on the boat, but since the show did the complete opposite of that, It makes the scene more harsh and cold.
I think what the writers were trying to do was make it more of a mystery like ‘why is she doing this’ ‘its not too late to turn around’ a mission that appears fruitless at first, but turns out to be the greatest act of humanity — but again, I still don’t think that works because of how much Lyra’s entire character is changed. The act is not just for everyone else. It’s a major step in her character growth, to care about others.
In the Land of the Dead, obviously they had to cut out the whole section where Lyra literally looses her ability to lie while she’s telling lies to the harpies, then learns to tell the truth to the dead. This is the final step for Lyra’s character, finally learning the power of telling the truth instead of lies. They didn’t replace that with anything, only with her telling the dead true stories, which was heartwarming on its own, but obviously those story beats don’t hit as hard in the same way because like I said, its not presented as the final step in her character growth, its presented as a one off scene. This is one of the reasons why her character is pretty static in the adaptation.
In the Land of the Dead, its Lyra for the most part (apart from one instance) that keeps a cool head, while Will looses his — which again, the complete opposite. In the books, its Lyra that goes off the rails and its Will that keeps her centred.
Which brings me onto how the character of Will is changed in the adaptation, and how that effects the story from the second book onwards.
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Will was brought in by Philip Pullman in ‘The Subtle Knife’, to represent Lyra’s other half — in another parallel universe literally, and also to help her on her quest to fulfil the prophecy. If it was just her on her own with Pan, it wouldn’t work and would fail.
Though I was taken aback by his entrance in ‘The Subtle Knife’ — as it was such a jarring change coming from the suspenseful cliff hanger where Lyra walks into the new world after her best friend Roger got murdered — he quickly but surely became my favourite male literary character of all time.
I don’t have as a big of a problem with his character changes then I do with Lyra, because there were at least a few times in the show where he was allowed to act like ‘himself’. Amir Wilson was perfect casting as Will. It was like the character had just walked off the page it was that good. But all together, he’s a completely different character — which I can understand. Out of all the characters, I feel he’s the hardest to pin down and his development is done in a subtle and subconscious way.
Throughout the course of ‘The Subtle Knife’, he’s incredibly off putting as he’s mostly angry and tired and then he’s in pain because of his knife wound. It works in a book format, because your’e in his point of view and you understand that he’s a child thats at the end of his tether. But it would be hard to portray that in a nuanced way on screen, unless your’e clever with it.
They unfortunately took the easy route with his characterisation on screen by making him softer. Not only that, the writing for his character was incredibly inconsistent at times.
Will from the books is fierce. He’s frightening. He’s stoic. He gets angry. He’s a strategist. He does whats best for someone. He likes to stay invisible. He’s sarcastic. He’s an introvert. He likes to stay hidden. He’s practical. He’s a child carer. He’s naturally aggressive e.g. He beat up a bunch of boys at school because they were hurting his mother. He hardly smiles. At times, especially in the second book, he becomes incredibly depressed. He’s pretty much a 35 year old man in a young boy’s body. He’s incredibly soft, but the reader can’t tell until Lyra brings that out in him.
I would say Will is a more contained version of Lyra, yet the complete opposite of her. They’re like yin and yang. They both have something that the other lacks, and that helps them both grow up. Lyra brings out a softness out in him, brings out his impulsive nature where as he helps her strategise and learn not to just rush out and do things.
TV Will suffers from the same problem that TV Lyra does.
Every negative/positive aspect about him is watered down. Revealing a quite mild character. I feel that they didn’t touch on the fact that he was a child carer enough, which is a huge part of his character. It just came off as ‘he loves his mum’ more in the show. Will being a caterer is supposed to contrast Lyra whom didn’t grow up with parents and got to live out a childhood that he was never allowed to experience. This is a theme. Every character trait that contrasts Lyra in the books isn’t present so much. I would even go as far to say that they’re too similar in the TV Show.
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I was wondering throughout the second season why the storyline was static and wasn’t going anywhere. Certain plot points such as Will being a murderer, Lyra helping Will find his father, The fight for the subtle knife and Will becoming the bearer of the Subtle Knife felt tacked on or weren’t hitting as hard as they should.
At first, I thought it was because the novel was ‘the weakest in the trilogy’. I often see ‘The Subtle Knife’ as a bridge between both ‘Northern Lights’ and ‘The Amber Spyglass’.
But since re-reading the book, I went ‘Oh my God, its because they changed Will’s character arc’.
TV Will, the more I think about it, does not suit becoming the bearer of the subtle knife. The only times we see him fighting is in the boxing ring. He expresses incredible regret over killing a man instead of brushing it off because he was protecting his mother. Even when he’s under threat, he says ‘I don’t want to hurt you’ He even has to be persuaded to fight. There’s even a moment in the show where he says “Maybe we’re better off not fixing the knife at all.” which kind of dismisses the practical nature of his character in the book. Plus the knife being a part of him, the same way as the Alethiometer is a part of Lyra. Even the remarks that Lyra makes about him being similar to Iorek the armoured Bear don’t make as much sense, because of the fact that he’s softer.
Book Will struggles with his warrior nature, and eventually learns thats not who he wants to be. But he isn’t naturally a soft person. He learns to be through his experiences and his relationship with Lyra. Which is why it was so odd to me that they included the line in the show where Will is saying to his father in the Land of the Dead “You told me that I was a warrior; That I can’t fight my nature. Your’e wrong.” I was just like, what are you talking about? That is so not the character the show had developed. TV Will had hardly been shown to fight anyone of his own free will — it didn’t make sense to me. They were trying to have it both ways. Completely ignoring his basic character traits and flaws, yet still going through the same arc (a somewhat watered down one) one e.g. idolising his dad for his whole life, realising his dad ain’t shit when he meets him, finding Lyra missing, ignoring the task his father set him etc.
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Even the task that Lyra has to help Will find his father didn’t land as well because of the fact that the two of them were bonding straight away in the show, instead of it being like ‘oh no we’re stuck with each other’ to this slow process of her and Will learning to trust each other.
I understand that you have to translate Lyra and Will’s relationship alot differently in a Show format, because subconscious development doesn’t really work due to the lack of intimate point of views. Plus it adds to the narrative to flesh out their dynamic alot more on screen. The more something is changed in an adaptation, the more it stays the same.
I have openly praised the shows depiction of their relationship in another analysis I wrote (before i re-read the books) and how I loved how they gave them more soft moments. However, I will admit now that the soft moments that they had in season 2 felt off to me because they weren’t in character. I think, looking back I would of preferred more soft moments if they were in character.
Will’s initial softness towards Lyra in the show is partially to do with TV Lyra being much less feral and less of a threat. As a result their journey is warmer and far less angstier than it was in the books.
And that in turn messes with the tension.
The element of Will being slightly dismissive of her at the start, is important to how certain story beats land. It adds to the ‘OH SHIT’ when Lyra’s been taken and the task that his father set him that he’s been dreaming of his whole life suddenly isn’t important to him anymore. Thats why it’s such a big deal when he spends most of his time through ‘The Amber Spyglass’ looking for her.
But in the season 2 finale, it ends with Will going off into the sunset, presumably to fulfil is fathers wishes. Then in season 3, he finds her missing, goes ‘whoops’ and then there’s a montage of him trying to find her. Then when he does (quite easily) — he goes on about how “since his dad died he’s done none of the things that he asked him to do’ which makes him looking for Lyra within the show feel even more anticlimactic.
Also, this is more of a personal opinion that an analytical one, I did not appreciate when Lyra brought up going to the Land of The Dead, TV Will went “I saved you. I did everything I could to save you. You told me not to but I did it anyway” which felt to me like ‘Wow brilliant, of course you had to save her’
And instead of agreeing to go to the Land of the Dead with her like in the book, they had to insert some tension from ‘The Subtle Knife’ (because they messed with the tension in season 2) and have Will go on a rant about what his dad wanted him to do, Asriel’s war, dismissing Lyra’s wishes and even having him suggest maybe her dad regretted killing her friend.
This is something that Will from the books would never ever say, let alone to the girl that he loves. He’s fully aware how much her dad hurt her and he respects her too much by that point to ever suggest something like that. Even when he does think about ‘what his dad wanted him to do’ he’s still steadfastly loyal to Lyra. They were completely undermining the turning point in their relationship and Will’s character development by adding pointless drama to extend the episodes running time.
As mentioned in a very articulate post by @mamsellechosette24601 ‘the quest to find his father and fulfil his fathers wishes’ isn’t the point at all, its Will letting go of his childhood dreams, of realising what really matters is Lyra all along.
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Now I’ve seen in another analysis of the adaptation that their path to falling in love in the show is alot clearer than in the books which I can understand and agree with (to a certain extent) because the books were much more concerned with philosophy than romance. This is true for the romance between Asriel and Marisa in the Book vs the TV Show as well.
The concept behind their relationship remains the same:
“Will and Lyra are very good people who learn to trust each other when they’re at their most vulnerable, they become the only thing they have in a terrifying world of enemies. By the end, when they realise they're in love only to discover they can never be together, they make the mature choice, however hard it may be.”
But their relationship is totally different in the TV Show because of their character changes.
I would say Lyra and Will have more of a enemies to lovers storyline in the books — where as the adaptation version of them doesn’t. The screenwriters clearly tried to iron out alot of the problematic elements, especially in the beginning and focus on them being “friends” more. I’m not apposed to them doing that, but the way they did it ended up muting a few of their scenes together.
I’ve actually made an argument in my other account (against the ‘His Dark Materials’ analysis saying that ‘the adaptation did a much better job at showing when Will and Lyra fell in love’) that their relationship development was a lot subtler in the books because the characters were alot younger and more immature. And that it was more ‘obvious’ in the tv show because they aged the characters up, therefore they could have more mature conversations and scenes together.
This was before I did my re-read.
After re-reading ‘The Subtle Knife’ and ‘The Amber Spyglass’ comparing it with how their relationship is handled in the TV Adaptation. I would actually argue the opposite .
In some ways, the growing romance between the two of them is much more mature (and makes more sense) in the books than in the show, at least to me. Unlike in the TV Show, their relationship never enters into neutral territory, even when they finally learn to trust each other. Theres much less emphasis on their ‘friendship’.
After their brutal first meeting — where they attack eachother — in ‘The Subtle Knife’ Lyra is immediately taken with Will and constantly thinks about him and what he thinks of her. There’s even a moment in ‘The Amber Spyglass’ where she’s trying to hide that she’s in pain while they’re walking (because of all that time she’s been asleep) because she doesn’t want to appear weak in front of him. 
The way Lyra and Will meet in the show, is reminiscent of how children meet for the first time. Though quite skeptical of each other, they instantly bond and make friends after 5 seconds, because why wouldn’t they? They’re kids the same age after all. Even though there’s still an element of mistrust there, there’s hardly any conflict between them. They don’t play off each other as much. There is one moment where he gets angry at her for making him wait, but all that is solved in a minute because of Lyra’s ‘calm nature’
Even when Lyra gives Will away by accident and says that she lost the Alethiometer, he doesn’t shout at her. There are few comments here and there but theres no real tension between the two of them.
When Will and Pan have a conversation, its presented as Pan going up to him to have a chat after he had a bad dream rather than Will finding the courage to speak to him in the book and saying ‘I think Lyra’s the best friend I’ve ever had’. This is presented more as a statement in the show because their friendship has already been established and less of a discovery (as he wasn’t reacting to her that much in the book as he had alot on his mind).
Lyra and Will even have a talk about Pan’s conversation with him afterwards in the show. But in the book, that never happened. It’s mentioned later but never discussed, because of the fact that it was a private conversation between Will and Pan.
You could say this was another problem that the adaptation had. It’s mentioned multiple times ‘YOU CAN’T TOUCH SOMEONES DAEMON’ but not emphasised why thats the case.
In the books, it’s heavily implied that touching someone else’s daemon is the equivalent of touching someone’s genitals. There’s a moment in ‘Northern Lights’ where Lyra and Iorek find Tony in the fish house without a daemon and Pan wants to comfort him but holds back because of the taboo. Thats why it’s such a big deal when Pan comforts Will and starts licking him in the book.
In the show, its quite an underwhelming scene that lasts 5 seconds where Pan strokes Wills fingers and Lyra says in a quiet voice ‘In my world, your’e not supposed to touch someone else’s daemon but you didn’t do something wrong’
And don’t get me started on the 5 second panning away shot where they’re finally touching each others daemons, instead of the moving moment from the book. It didn’t feel like they really understood the gravity of what those scenes meant and what it meant for their connection.
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Again, this is more of a personal opinion. Near the end of the final book, when they enter the world of the Mulefa, Lyra and Will trust each other more than they ever have, which shows how much they’ve both grown since ‘The Subtle Knife’. Mary even describes that she never saw ‘more trust on a persons face’. But in the show, there’s this weird forced tension between them for the sake of ‘romance’. They’re suddenly awkward teenagers with each other — which was not a choice that I liked because it didn’t come naturally.
And when they have to be ripped from each other, a whole page worth of them bargaining to be together is turned into ‘I didn’t think it was possible to feel this bad.’ and ‘This is all wrong’, plus Mary and Serafina being weirdly insensitive while Will and Lyra are in different locations rather than being with each other.
This is possibly why I didn’t feel anything when they had to be forced apart because, the way it was handled felt rushed and soulless.
Overall, despite there being more ‘soft moments between the two of them’ Show Lyra and Will’s connection feels alot more shallow and simplified.
In the books, I got the vibe that even though they were very young, you couldn’t imagine them being with anyone else but with each other. They were each others other half. They were essentially the only family they had in a world full of enemies. There was never a moment in the books, where they weren’t already in love with each other to some degree. It went beyond the typical romantic duality.
In the show, it felt more temporary. This is mostly due to their character changes (they were too similar in my opinion). Like a connection between friends that became romantic at the end of the journey. And it’s something they’ll get over because “It won’t always feel like this” or “Its much more romantic to live for love than to die for it” or “It might not seem like it now but you have a future”
I think that was one of my main problems with the TV Show, it lacked emotion. Not just as an adaptation, but in general.
More than anything, the adaptation felt too confused. It was trying to reimagine the story while also paying homage to the original material. And thats why overall — despite my enjoyment for some of the episodes especially in season 3 — it didn’t work as well as it should have.
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milfjagger · 4 months
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in the spirit of just saying things recreationally i have two very specific types of childhood film nostalgia and one is watching things with my grandparents (mum’s side) i.e. tom thumb (1958), the count of monte cristo (2002), robin hood: prince of thieves and weird old british kids shows like tales from the riverbank. and the other is watching things with my granny/cousins (dad’s side) i.e. the mummy (1999), the 80s bbc narnia series, the monty python cast adaptation of the wind in the willows (1996) and this really bad but nonetheless formative cartoon film of the princess and the goblin
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tenebrius-excellium · 7 months
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Hi, who would you fancast as Gen, Irene, Sophos and Helen? Also, what would you do if ROTT ever gets a movie adaptation, one depicting the war with the Mede anyway? 🙈 🥺👉👈
Hii!!!! Oh my gosh fancasting Tqt is NOT easy...
...especially since a couple fancasts have already been made that I am SO down to agree with. I hope you'll forgive me if I partly choose people that have already been named within the fandom before...?
[Insert: ARE YOU KIDDING ME YOU MADE ME CREATE WHOLE POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS FOR THEM I SPENT THE ENTIRE AFTERNOON ON THIS AND I DO NOT REGRET IT]
Eugenides: Luke Pasqualino
Who else. He could pull off Young Gen, King Gen, and God Gen. I love his chill mannerisms and his cheekiness. But whoever has watched BBC's "The Musketeers" knows he can portray a dark, rash and dangerous side as well. The actor has Italian roots btw.
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Irene Attolia: Irene Papas
Sadly, this awesome actress died in 2022. She was Greek and played in "The Trojan Women" as well as "Iphigenia" - so, you know, she has the ideal Greek Aristocratic face. Isn't she the perfect Attolia?
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Sophos - Christian Martyn
How I found this actor, I don't know. I am not familiar with him, though he played Gilbert Blythe in "Anne with an E". Look. LOOK. Bear with me. He seems innocent, is the definition of too Nice™ and has this precious aura of childlike chaos about him. But he is also able to glow up into a warrior when necessary O_O
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Helen Eddis: Nathalie Emmanuel
Okay, look. While I'm personally highly satisfied with the above casts, I know full and well that this one isn't perfect. First of all, Emmanuel is far too thin and pretty to be Eddis. They'd have to change her nose at least, if not give her a rounder body type. But she is dark-skinned, her hair is short, her smile is fun and captivating, and I think this does reflect who Eddis is to some degree. I'm sorry I didn't find anything more accurate.
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To comfort you, here are some more random character casts that I found/came up with while working on the others:
King of Sounis - Jack Black
Nahuseresh - Dev Patel. Imagine the reddish beard oh my gosh
Kamet - Riz Ahmed (that one was the author's choice, I believe)
Ambiades - Austin North. Like, come on. He's gotta be the evil version of Sophos and he would be perfect.
Costis - he's honestly just that one real life Kristoff edit from Frozen. No, he's really Channing Tatum in "The Eagle". Look him up.
As for what would happen if The Queen's Thief Series got turned into a movie, I would SCREAM YELL CRY HAPPY TEARS.
They could turn the 6 books into 3 movies, I believe.
The Thief & The Queen of Attolia (the story would have to be slightly changed, e.g. older Gen and different politics, but they can really pull together the whole 125 pages of travelling to the temple into a 5min montage)
The King of Attolia & A Conspiracy of Kings (how Costis became King isn't as important, but it could serve as a sideplot/what Gen is actually contributing politically behind the facade)
Thick as Thieves and Return of the Thief (again, how Kamet came to Attolia isn't as important as the message he brought.)
The Queen's Thief reminds me much of Narnia (the world, the values, the fashion, the colors), Percy Jackson (adventure Greek setting), and Sinbad (adventure + navigating the Gods). If they ever turned that into a movie, I'D WATCH THE HECK OUT OF IT.
Thank you very much for asking!!!
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claireandacat · 8 months
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Simping over middle aged actors who don’t know I exist. An essay.
Maybe it’s just a general lady thing, but I have a tendency to crush on actors 10+ years older than me. Am I a lonely 26 year old lady waiting for her happily ever after while my catholic match profile is crickets?
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You got me there.
But like seriously it is a general human thing to find someone attractive and to feel feels. It’s in everything, life, movies, music, ballet, art, history. Don’t get me started on my favorite Corinthians verse about love.
I’ve been thinking about writing this post for a while now. I was basically inspired by Brittney Broski, who simps all the time and people relate to that and listen to her ramblings. I’m sure one other person out there is interested in hearing my simp interests. 😅😂
I have a top 5 of middle aged hot guys I absolutely love. All of these are crushes that started when I started getting crushes and I still find them attractive today as a 26 year old lady. In order of discovering and falling for them they are…
Ben Barnes
Robert Pattinson
Cillian Murphy
Sebastian Stan
Daniel Brühl
1. Ben Barnes
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I was 11, snacks and dance class was life, the hormones were starting to kick in and the second Narnia movie had come out. I wasn’t much of a Narnia fan but I was forced to tag along with the after school program I was in to a showing of this movie as a last day of school celebration. Ben Barnes as Prince Caspian was FINE AF to my 11 year old eyes and heart. I fell for him like a ton of bricks and would get 11 year old girl fantasies of being Prince Caspian’s princess.
He is over 40 now and still fine as hell. His character in Shadow and Bone is amazing. He def plays dark personality characters very well. He has a singing career as well and his cover of River was in my top Spotify songs last year.
I love that he is in T-Mobile commercials now. He is perfect. He is THE ultimate hot British actor. I hope T-mobile paid him well because my man is talented and deserves to be more than just a face of T-Mobile. When I was stressed and on edge at my previous job at an urgent care, seeing his face on commercials always made my 12 hour shifts better.
I’m surprised he hasn’t been in some BBC new classic considering he is both British and adorable and would totally make a good heart throb protagonist?!
2. Robert Pattinson
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I was in 6th grade and the Twilight books and craze was big at my middle school. Every other girl including myself was wearing team Edward or Team Jacob shirts. The Twilight movies also had come out. RPatz was the heartthrob of every girl. Move over Prince Caspian, Claire is grown and edgy and likes edgy hot guys that match 😂.
A couple years ago I watched his video on GQ where he takes a look into his career and decided to dive into some of these movies myself. His young self is cute as a button in the 4th Harry Potter movie even though his charming character has an unfortunate fate. He makes the perfect Batman, just add in the Chris Nolan plot and music and we got a perfect match. He totally captured the darkness and loneliness in Bruce Wayne/Batman.
Of course I HAD to see his Chris Nolan debut. If you read my other posts, you know I am a superfan for Christopher Nolan movies.
He is fine and cute in that movie. His performance is great. His performance in The King was also great. He def nailed that French accent.
He can be the American heart throb AND the British heart throb at the same time
3. Cillian Murphy
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I’m 16. I’m into zombie movies and 28 days later is on BBC even though the plot and IMDb pictures are scary, I still ditch my chemistry homework to watch it. Totally fine with any nightmares I’ll probably get. Still my favorite zombie movie to this day and one of the few horror movies I’ll still watch since converting to Catholicism.
This is the first time I actually fell for an actor because of their performance and then I deep dived into other works he is casted in.
I love his intensity and dedication to roles as well as approach. Even during his small role in Dunkirk. I love the power and darkness he puts into Tommy Shelby. I mean have you seen the scenes where Tommy is in full blown rage? He goes from zero to rage effortlessly.
His performance in Oppenheimer deserves an Oscar and if he doesn’t get it I am rioting. He nailed the look. He nailed the sensory overload/overwhelmed looks. Just perfect.
I’d love to just have a Guinness with him and just discuss Irish culture and his career over.
4. Sebastian Stan
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What is funny about this one is that for a bit I was a Steve Rogers stan. Like from ages 16-21 Steve was my man. That was until his friend Bucky stumbled upon in my dream one night. Originally that is how I knew Sebastian but then i stumbled upon The Devil All The Time where he has a small part as a corrupt small town sheriff and became curious.
Last summer I had a random dream about Sebastian whist I was simping on RPatz. Somehow my curiosity got me and I became a Bucky stan. Still to this day I simp over him, even though there’s another guy I’m simping over even stronger (see below).
He is just so fine and such a sweet human being. I read a buzz feed article about people who have met nice and cool celebrities and my Sebbys was on it. In that video he did for GQ of him reviewing his career, he is so humble, so genuine and always has something nice to say about everyone he works with.
And now the current middle aged actor I’m simping on…
5. Daniel Brühl
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See my alienist blog post
Three words. Calm. Collected. German.
Well more like handsome, multilingual, and German 😂
Wes references aside, It all started with my curiosity with the movie Rush. I had only known Daniel as Zemo in the marvel movies so I thought let’s see his other filmography. I fell for Daniel like a pile of bricks. The eyes. The hair. The talent. It was really Dr. Laszlo Kreizler that did it for me. According to Niki Lauda himself (God Rest His Soul) Daniel is a “down to earth guy” like who doesn’t love that?! Plus being a wannabe #tradwife finds it so adorable that he has a wife and kids. I never want to cheat on those ever I’m not that lady. But there is something so cute to me about a man with a family. Then again that’s what all my fantasies are.
Like 🥹🥹🥹
He is a perf trad man vibes. Who doesn’t love that?! His character in Rush gives the same vibe too. I also love me a smart and sarcastic man like Dr. Kreizler. Then again I’ve been told Germans are just that way and being that I’m about 1/3 German I could just find that sexy in my blood 😂
In conclusion
I have one goal in common with these men. I want to see them each in a Chris Nolan movie AND a Wes Movie. Not one or the other. Both. Rpatz and Cillian are halfway there.
My top 5 of middle aged actors that I will forever simp on: honorable mentions
Matthew McConaughey - his performance in interstellar is so amazing I’m naming my son Joseph in honor of not only the OG St. Joseph himself but his character in Interstellar. Also is pro American and sometimes stars in comedies.
Adrian Brody- a Wes regular. And on Peaky Blinders. I love his variety. “I think it STINKS!!!”
Chris Evans- I was obsessed with him and Steve rogers during my late teens for a MINUTE. So he has to be included here.
Ryan Reynolds’s. He was pikachu and he is a family man and has a beautiful family with Blake Lively.
Honorable mentions but they’re actors I find hot but they’re my age (Oct 1996 or younger/older by 5 years)
Tom Holland. Fellow 1996 baby and I’m pretty sure he would’ve graduated in my class. Plus he is faithful, anti Hollywood actor, and a loveable dork. Also he does it all.
Timothee Chalamet- probs the Leo DiCaprio of my generation. Plus that jawline and hair. Hard to find a cutie with hair texture like mine.
Tony Ravilori. Also a fellow 1996 baby and Wes regular. Has a charming simplicity in his characters.
Freddie Highmore- I just love his performance in The Good Doctor.
If they’re my age I may have an expressed interest in their work because they’re my age. I’ll be seeing them in 40 years on tv looking as perfect as ever still and me with my greying hair will wonder where time went.
Harry Styles. I was a one Direction girl. Been following his solo work for a bit and he is a fellow 420 user 😂
Honorable mentions but they’re actors older than my parents
Wes Anderson. year older than my mom and he fine as hell on top of being my favorite director.
Jeff Goldblum -it’s Jeff Goldblum
I’m not too crazy about the honorable mentions but they’re still cool. I’d have a glass of wine or blunt with them. We all have our favorites on differentiating levels.
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asoiaf-fancasts · 2 years
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Jaime Lannister - Fancasts
Age: 32 - 34
07 [Tryion’s Birth]
15 - 17 [Serving Aerys]
Appearance: As chid you could not tell him apart from his twin. Once he was older he grew to be a tall, handsome man with curly golden hair the colour of beaten gold.He has green cat-like eyes and a cutting smile. He is also muscular.
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Character: Peter Pevensie
Actor: William Moseley
Movie [s]: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe [2005] & Prince Caspian [2008]
[He is 17 - 20 during these movies so good for his last year of serving Aerys to a few years into serving Robert. He is relatively tall and is handsome with blonde hair that is unfortunately not curly. He does not have green eyes. He wears fantasy and 1940’s clothes.]
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Character: King Arthur & Edward de Vere [Younger]
Actor: Jamie Campbell Bower
Show: Camelot [2011] & Anonymous [2011]
[ He was 22/23 during these movies so good for the early years of serving Robert. He is tall and handsome. He has golden hair in both but it is curly in Anonymous and unfortunately darker. He doesn’t have green eyes unfortunately. He wears medieval ish clothes in Camelot and 16th century ish clothes in Anonymous.]
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Character: Francis
Actor: Toby Regbo
Show: Reign [2013] [Season 1 - 3]
[He was 21 - 25 during this show so good for pre series when he’s serving Robert. He is relatively tall and is handsome. He has golden hair that is curly at the ends. He doesn’t have green eyes but they look green in certain lighting. He wears vaguely 16th century clothes.]
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Character: Westley
Actor: Cary Elwes
Movie: The Princess Bride [1987]
[He was 24/25 during this movie so good for pre series Jaime serving Robert. He is tall and handsome. His hair is golden but it’s not curly and he does not have green eyes. He gets points for being the authors cast for Jaime. He wears medieval ish fantasy clothes.]
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Character: Lestat de Lioncourt
Actor: Tom Cruise
Movie: Interview with the Vampire [1994]
[ He was 31/32 during this movie so good for Jaime in the first book. He’s relatively tall and is handsome. He had golden and curly hair. He has blue ish green eyes. Only draw back is his pointy teeth. He wears historical ish clothes.]
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Character [s]: Arthur Pendragon & Giuliano de’Medici
Actor: Bradley James
Show [s]: Merlin BBC [2008] & Medici: Masters of Florence [2016] [Season 2]
[He was 24 - 29 during Merlin so good for pre series serving Robert and he was around 34/35 during Meici is good for later and future books. He is tall and handsome. He has golden hair that is unfortunately straight in both. He does not have green eyes. He wears medieval ish fantasy clothes in Merlin and Renaissance clothing in Medici.]
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Actor/Model: Christopher Mason
[He’s presumably around the right age for Jaime in the books and further books. He is tall handsome with often wavy/curly golden hair. He is muscular and has green eyes. He wears modern clothes mainly and no useable clips only close ups of pictures.]
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kitchfit · 5 months
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Year in Review: Books Pt 1
Tumblr deleted the entire first draft of this, which is cool and awesome. It was too long anyways. These aren't meant to be full on analytic reviews, just blurbs about my experience with the books and what I thought about them. I might move into more in depth stuff later on next year.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
He was pride. She was prejudice. Can I make it anymore obvious?
I started this on CD audiobook for the first half before driving my car off of a cliff. I was fine, but Elizabeth Bennet was a casualty of the accident, so I found the rest of the book on Libby with a different reader who had Very different vibes. It kind of fit how I felt about the book. Jane Austen is very good at regaling the audience from Elizabeth's point of view about how Darcy is the shittiest man alive, while turning at the halfway point to reveal he is actually the Only Good Victorian Man to exist.
I've seen this tale play out in both BBC and Keira Knightley formats, which are both fantastic in their own right, but I was significantly more invested in the characters this time around, especially the supporting cast. Elizabeth/Darcy romance was very cute, Jane and Bingley was adorable, Elizabeth's shitty cousin was hilarious. I like the glimpses of how she thinks about the rest of her family that you don't get in the movie. She hates how her dad views her mother as entertainment, she hates how her mother treats her children like products to be sold, she hates how her younger sisters make them all look silly. Damn she's really hateful, huh? Almost like she's preju-OHHHHHHHH.
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
The Funny Cat, The Spider Mom, and the Weird Door
This was a book I was excited to get into. The movie freaked me out when I was little, as did it everyone else, and I'll get to that since I watched it immediately after this. Maybe this Friday. But it isn't anywhere near as vividly horrific as the OG Evil Narnia. In a fun way. There's an implication in this book that the Other World and Other Mother are just two of many possible little horrors that live under your bed or behind the door that shouldn't be there that want to hurt and/or eat you. Kind of like real life. That's okay though, you can get through it alive. And Coraline proves it.
I like her a lot as a character. She isn't near as naive as she is in the movie, and catches on to the nature of what's happening on the end of night one, thus Other Mother kidnapping her parents to serve as motivation to come back. That gives the book freedom to explore the Other World and its nature thoroughly, and watch as it all crumbles around Coraline. I like that everything is just a bunch of bugs stretched into the visage of pleasant things by a giant spider. I also love that spider's contrary motivation. She needs to feed, but there is also a genuine desire to love Coraline, to be a mother, whatever her bizarre conception of what that means. Evil hungry desire is more pressing though. Get in my web, girl.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
Digimon season one for 1950s British kids.
At some point I decided to reread all of the Narnia books. I got through like, 4 of them in a weird order due to how Libby works. I promise I do read physical stuff its just hard to find the time to finish them. The first book the Narnia line up was originally written for my boy Clive's real life goddaughter Lucy Barfield , who was temporarily displaced as a child during WWII, as a children's story. He even dedicated the book and maybe the whole series to her. However, by the time he finished this one she was already an adult and "too old for fairytales." Classic blunder. I'll still read your stuff, Clive.
The whole of Narnia is a wintery wonderland turned on its head, its magic and majesty suffocating under a thick sheet of ice. Jadis is a very cool antagonist. She's not super complex, but she's a very strong character and extremely threatening villain, as we see throughout the series. The Pevinsies all have a sweet relationship. Edmond's an asshole in a very realistic sense, but they all care deeply for each other in an even more realistic way. The end of the book starts a pattern Mr. Lewis likes to repeat where a quick epilogue is hamfisted into the end that blows over large swaths of time in a hurry to resolve everything. I have problem's with that in later books, but it works best here, skipping to the famous reveal that time moves much faster in Narnia, and two decades or so only equals a few minutes in our world. A little fucked up. Go through puberty again, Pevinsies, this time in BRITISH SCHOOL.
Prince Caspian by Clive
Ocarina of Time for 1950s British kids.
The second book in the series gives more context to the world Narnia lives in, while also screwing with our perception of what Narnia is in first place. A previously unmentioned country to the east invades and colonizes Narnia, oppressing its people and removing magic wherever they can. Lewis can write about the complexities of colonization as he actually comes from a country familiar with this kind of shit, believe it or not. Who are they conquered by? A country of Minotaurs? Dragons? Wayward dwarves still allegiant to Jadis? Humans??? What the hell?
Turns out Narnia is the weird magic fairytale place even within its own universe. Everywhere else is inhabited by eternally 18th century European style society. It's also 1000 years later, but a year for our dudes, so the Pevinsies get to experience how Narnia has changed physically in all that time. Like Cair Paravel, that place two whole pages mention in the first book. I like that the age reversal thing is acknowledged in this book, and how that might have affected our heroes and their development. At the end of the book, the colonizing force gets sent to Earth, and Prince Caspian is crowned as King Caspian. Aslan (or maybe one of animals, idr) says outright that Narnia is better ruled by humans than its own people. Which is. An odd note to end on a book whose main conflict is colonization. Huh.
A Horse and His Boy by C. Staples L.
He was a horse. He was his boy. Can I make it anymore-okay shut up.
This is an interesting one. Five books into the Narnia series and we are introduced to brand new protagonist, with zero connections to previous characters, in a place that is not Narnia. He's a young boy who runs away with a talking horse in their desperate attempt to both escape slavery. They meet a spunky, ass-kicking princess who's also running away, this time from an arranged marriage. Narnia in this story is more of an ideal their working towards, rather than a physical place the story spends time in. The plot is very refreshing in this aspect, especially if its the fifth, or in my case, third Narnia book you've read in a row. It could likely stand on its own outside the rest of the series, though you do get a surprise cameo from the adult Pevinsies pre-wardrobe-return, which is fun.
I do have a couple issues with it though. I'd argue against the idea that all of Narnia is a direct analogue to Christianity. Aslan is definitely furry Jesus, and C. S.'s theological beliefs are an obvious intentional aspect of the storytelling, but most of the books have themes and lessons outside of that and pose a genuinely fun fantasy world to engage with. The religious metaphors in this book specifically are pretty heavy-handed though, and not very delicately woven in. The setting of the story also pulls allusions to several real-life Middle Eastern cultures, and if you think a white British dude in the 50s wrote about that respectfully? Sorry no. There's also a lot of mention of Boy (I straight up forgot that kids name) being Special and Different for having pale skin and blue eyes. :/. At the end is another rapid-fire epilogue that blazes through Boy's life as the new prince of wherever that I think the story could have gone without. Just let it end with dignified mystery, Clive.
The Magician's Nephew by Siwel S. C.
Honestly Clive the mulitverse trope has been done to death, bro
Last Narnia book on the list as of now. Luckily, its also the best one. This is a prequel to the whole of the Narnia continuity, which details the creation of Narnia and the origins of Jadis, but the actual plot revolves around two new Brit kids Digory and Polly. Digory is described as grubby at least sixteen times throughout the story. His mom is sick and his magic uncle sucks ass and he's scared and he has no friends. Polly decides to be that friend which ultimately burns her as he's also a bit of a selfish brat. Learning to get past that brattiness and mature enables Polly to forgive him and ultimately helps him save his mother.
The plot takes place in the Wood Between Worlds, which has still stuck in my head and spurned on my imagination years later. You move outside of Earth to find the grandness of the Milky Way, you escape the Milky Way to discover the imperceivable majesty of the universe, and you find the indeterminate edge of that universe and land yourself in an idyllic forest with trees so high you cannot see the sky, the forest's floor dotted with puddles leading to other worlds. Jadis' origin is also pretty fascinating. A queen so obsessed with ultimate power she destroyed her own empire rather than let her sister take it. Aslan roars the world into existence. The whole vibes on this book are pretty stellar, ngl.
The Bell Jar by Silvia Plath
You wouldn't be cool if it weren't for the lessons that you learnt in the BELL JAR, nah, nana nah nah.
And now for a weird fucking heel turn. And also the last book I'm doing for now. I'm going to be honest, my original interest in this book came from the song "I Cut Myself" by Talkshow Boy, who mentions the book in the above lyric. Also, my college roommate said she liked it a lot. I went in with zero expectations and was surprised at how hard it hit home. I've never been personally institutionalized, but I know people who have, and I can relate to the downward depression spiral Esther goes through in this book.
Its interesting to see the thought patterns and paradigms that Esther voices in her inner monologues that partially lead to her mental break. Little observations that reveal her hyper-awareness and implicit nihilism. They're good observations too. The vivid description of the horrific image of a woman giving birth compared to a dulled animal being hooked into a machine. You can see her perspective on a lot of subjects, probably even agree with much of it. It makes sense, as this is the author famous for vivid and introspective poetry more than anything. Looking at the historical context for this book made me sad, especially given how hopeful the ending was, at least how I read it.
Going to shift into movies at the end of the week. I'll need to start doing these at least bi-weekly if I want to finish before the end of the year. Also more bisexually.
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lurking-latinist · 1 year
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For the Classic Who Casting game: Narnia book of your choice?
Narnia's hard because so many of them are children, of course, but I think Lis Sladen would've been fantastic if for some reason you needed a grown-up Jill Pole for something.
(...And I now realize she probably leapt to mind because I watched the old BBC Narnia with Tom Baker as Puddleglum at an extremely formative age....)
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crazyk-imagine · 1 year
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GIFS I
Gifs I don’t want to lose :)
Top Gun + Top Gun: Maverick
The Dog fight Scene
More of the scene
More dog fight scene
Hangman & Coyote
Hangman and his darts
Bob in the sky
Hangman during the dog fight
The one time you see the other pilots
An adorable duo
Fritz during the dog fight
Bob’s move
“Hangman in costume”
“College Jake”
Yale in the sky
TGM cast
Bob
Bob and Mickey in college collage
Top gun as troubled birds?
TG and TGM teachers
Icemav
Bob and Fanboy as besties
Shock
Bob, Fanboy, and Coyote
Dagger Squad
Rooster @ Hangman
Hangman @ Rooster
Bob’s hair
Kermit and Lewis
Things associated with BB
The Squad
Brad
Quarter of the dagger squad playing jenga
Mav and Rooster
Mav runs to Rooster
Rooster learns Mav is insane
Bradshaw boys // B Boys 
Goose Goose
Anthony as Goose
Iceman, Maverick, Goose, and Slider
Iceman
Iceman being Iceman
Wolfman and Hangman
“Nerd” boys being proud of Nat
Glen
Cleaned up Dagger Squad 
Sassy Bradley
Edit
Should have been a real pic in the movie
Wolfman and Hollywood
Slider and Iceman
Top Daggers
Fanboy and Payback
Wolfman and Hollywood
Dramatic Hannix
Hannix
Sad Hannix
The cast 
Butts
Everybody Wants Some!!
Finnegan with his cowboy hat // Cowboy hat
Finnegan dancing // more dancing
Finnegan // Pt. 2
Finnegan and the bull
Finnegan and Coma dancing
Supernatural
Richard Speight Jr fangirling
Jensen *tsk tsk*
Gag reel
Dean
The cast and their hair
Dean stealing candy
Dean cleaning himself 
Funny post
Dick Hunter
More Dean
Alternate Dean’s
Swat Supernatural 
Dean
Sam and Dean
Dean
Devotion
Jonathon and Glen 
Glen in devotion
Glen in his uniform
Glen in his whites
Narnia
Lucy and Peter
Tiktok song
Dialogue
Susan w/ Eliza H lyrics
Pevensie Ages
Small timeline
Viva la Viva w/ Peter
Sad times w/ Peter
Moodboard series
Hamilton lyrics x Narnia peeps
William Mosley gifs // Pt. 2
Narnia book remodel
Peter edit
Parallels
Merlin
Merlin
Merlin and poetry
Merlin curses
Arthur’s love language for Merlin
More Merlin
Gwaine
More Gwaine
Merlin edit
Arthur
Arthur accpeting magic (what we deserved to see)
Non Merlin watcher comments
Rupert Young being cocky
Merthur
Break my heart // Pt.2 
Arthur learned the truth 
Edits
Merlin
Arthur messing with Merlin
Arthur defying his Father
The End
Locations 
Arthur undressing
BBC Merlin
BBC Merlin
Funny
Interesting 
Bridgerton
Kanthony
Character develpment - Anthony
The family dancing
The family
Mentions of the sting
Stranger Things
Equipped Nancy
Eddie
Nancy and Eddie
Platonic Soulmates
This is music
Ted Lasso
Jamie 
More Jamie
Some more Jamie
Jamie 
Jamie
Sleepy Jamie
More Jamie
Lot more Jamie
(Don’t judge me) Jamie
Character development
Jamie (cold upstairs, hot downstairs)
Jamie
Parallels
Jamie
The strings
Character arc
Cartwheels
Roy
Jamie
Cuteness
Dance Dance
Pass the ball
Dance dance again
Fist bump
Beard and Roy
The Richman Way
Lasso dance
The end
Uncle Roy
Jamie
Birthday
Jamie knows Roy
Progress
After the poster
More progress
Jamie being mature
Last practice
Jamie and Sam
Jamie
Ted and Rebecca
Jamie 
Jamie and Sam 
You missed a good one
Wizard of Oz
Father and Son
Jamie
Will and convos
Sassy trio
Tears
The Fashion Police
Team fines
Jamie and Dani
Facts
Jamie
Sweaty Jamie 
Triple Frontier
The boys
Makes me cackle
How I imagined the end in One Shot
The main four
Santi
Frankie
Will
More Will
Benny
More Benny
“After” the movie Benny
Menacing walk Benny (future unwritten scene?) 
AU Will 
Marvel/ DC
Zemo dancing
Bucky
More Bucky
Not Bucky but fits the vibe
Misc
Willard dancing
Willard and Ren Dancing
Marko, Paul, Dwayne, and David
Lindsay embarrassing Flack
Shane and Ryan through the years
Shane and Ryan
Ryan
Salem Saberhagen Icons Pt. 1 // Pt. 2
Salem Saberhagen
Chris Knight deleted scene
Chris Knight
Black Phone
Leatherface (2017)
Numb3rs “date night”
Eric saves Jack
Monk
The boys and Lassie
Benny icons for My babysitters a vampire
Bowers gang
(Book) Stan Uris
Stan and Ritchie
IT
Harry potter
Fred and George being adorable
Now you see me
Bohrap
Queen commentary
Tom Hiddleston is a real life prince
James Diamond
Kira Yukimura
Fic edits
BTR vibes
Glen Powell
P & P Trivia
Know your Leatherface
Drew in the puppy interview
Rafe obx 3
Lewis 
“College Student”
Art History meme
Deadpool
American Psycho
Shower AP Scene
AP Lines
Rafe
Phil Dunster
Dungeons and Dragons 
Aemond Targaryen 
Ken talk
Behind the scenes - HOTD - AT
DPS things
Wolf transformation
The toast
Aemond T
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mywingsareonwheels · 2 years
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The 1995 “Henry IV” tv film and why we all need it
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113549/
Here’s the IMDB link. But I’ll tell you about it here anyway. :-)
It was a combined version of Shakespeare’s Henry IV parts 1 and 2, conflating the two rebellions down to one. It worked perfectly script-wise, I note: bringing in all my favourite roles from part 2 (Doll, Pistol, Shallow) while the main plot was more focused on that of part 1.
It also brought in a bit of extra dialogue from Merry Wives of Windsor and, notably, it had an introductory scene in which Hal and Hotspur, as boys, were playing at swordfighting, and then overheard the scene in Richard II where Richard hands over his crown.
They had FUN with all the sun imagery.
ANYWAY. The cast. The fucking cast.
Ronald Pickup (voice of Aslan in the BBC Chronicles of Narnia) as Henry IV. Jonathan Firth as Hal. David Calder (who not enough people have heard of) as Falstaff. Elizabeth Spriggs as Mistress Quickly. Corin Redgrave as Worcester. Jane Horrocks as Doll Tearsheet. Rufus Sewell as Hotspur. JOSETTE FUCKING SIMON as Kate Percy. Paul Eddington (in his last ever role <3 ) as Justice Shallow. Toby Jones also turned up in a really tiny role!
And, in that introductory scene, ROGER ALLAM AS RICHARD II.
I can find a few photos on the internet of Pickup and Firth and Calder. I can’t find any of anyone else. Roger Allam fandom especially: if we can find them we need them. Because that was it, that was the moment, aged 17, when I fell in love with his acting. He was on for a tiny amount of time and he fricking owned it all. And up against Pickup who was no slouch. <3
Anyway. Does anyone have this? Because if so: please do things with it. It’s great. :D  (CW: I do note however that while Calder is great and gorgeously complex, it’s not the least fatphobic portrayal of Falstaff ever. :-/ I mean some of that is always a thing because it’s sadly in the plays, but if you want a portrayal that doesn’t lean *too* much in that direction, you want Anthony Sher for the RSC or indeed Roger Allam for the Globe, both available in film forms.)
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mokonahapuuuuuu · 1 year
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So yeah, I'm sort of back in the Narnia fandom, now that it's sort of my main fandom obsessions again ever since I was grade 9.
Anyways, on the topic of Caspian/Susan.
I guess I sort of shipped it back then, but if I didn't write any fanfics for them, perhaps it didn't have much to go on for them as a couple. Like how James Cameron in Avatar, I tried to write something for Spider and Quaritch as father and son, though as I said in my Way of Water post, Cameron didn't give me much in ways of substance for a fic. I also mentioned how even the first Avatar had big hype and then was easily forgotten.
I think C/S was a cheap way for romance, I suppose. In the original books and when BBC did the TV specials in the late 80's and early 90's, Caspian was meant to be a young boy. The Pevensie children were meant to be just that. Children, since this is a children's series. Like how Peter Jackson made the dwarves more attractive. Though I loved Richard Armitage in Robin Hood BBC, and he's a great actor.
Aside from C/S, if Caspian wasn't cast as Ben Barnes and just a younger kid, no one would care about the film in the first place. It was also eye candy to draw in female viewers, I suppose.
Aside from what I wrote, how does C/S go as a couple.
Susan is logical, strong and tact on the battlefield. Caspian is also a great fighter and archer. Maybe that's what they have in common.
That's just me though, if you'd like, add on to why Caspian and Susan even liked each other in the first place, or have the makings to be a couple.
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msclaritea · 4 months
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I will not be watching or supporting the Greta Gerwig Gay Reboot of the Chronicles of Narnia. Because that's exactly what Leftist tool, Gerwig will be spitting out.
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And America Ferrera should be honest about the real reason she got the role in Barbie. It's for the same reason that the BBC won't cast any minorities unless they're GAY. She's not doing shit for Latinas, the same way Ncuti Gatwa isn't doing shit for black representation.
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filmmakerdreamst · 1 year
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How Jack Thorne's 'His Dark Materials' wanted it both ways
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Despite the cast and crews open love for the novels, and the insistent diligence to stay as faithful to the source material as possible — even trying to fill in many of the gaps in the books, as seen in all three seasons of the show — the BBC adaptation never manages to capture the spirit (the only time I felt like it did was in the third season) because of the fact that every character is altered and changed. Not just adaptationally changed either like making a character dumber, softer or harder. They’re completely different characters, separated from the source material e.g. Mrs Coulter is changed from a seductive, calm character to a feral, suicidal character. I must admit, I did like the expanded self harm element that she causes her daemon. However I felt in the novel, if she were to harm her monkey, it would be ‘to keep her lust for power at bay’ rather than shame for herself.
The atmosphere was off yet the events were similar and the complete opposite at the same time. But you can’t have similar events play out with different characterisations, at least not with ‘His Dark Materials’.
Philip Pullman’s characters in ‘His Dark Materials’ are extremely charismatic, but to put it lightly, are not very palatable to say the least. As stated in @clarabosswald’s analysis, there seemed to be this weird need to make EVERY single character digestible or palatable in some way or another in the BBC adaptation, regardless of it making sense or not. I noticed this upon my re-read of ‘The Northern Lights’ that they even humanised the doctor that sexually assaulted Lyra by grabbing Pantalaimon, which was very troubling.
Now with the opposing ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ film, they changed the characterisations to make them more sympathetic and accessible to a contemporary audience. They even dug deeper with the character Edmund which I thought was a fantastic choice. But the reason why those character changes worked was because C.S.Lewis was not concerned with building character, he was much more concerned with the place of Narnia itself. He almost used his characters to explore the world of Narnia, e.g. some characters would leave one book and come back 5 books later — which is why some of the later adaptations of Narnia didn’t do as well in the box office as the first one.
The character changes in that film enriched the story without effecting it in a way, because ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ and the other books are driven by the plot. Where as ‘His Dark Materials’ is primarily driven by characters.
Philip Pullman in total contrast to C.S.Lewis, built the world (you could say he used the world) around the characters in order for them to get to Point A to Point B. But he was not concerned about exploring the multiverse so you could see the entire picture, like with C.S. Lewis.
I heard once that he described writing as wondering through a forest on a path and the path is your story. Theres a difference between the story world and the storyline. And as an Author, your concern is the storyline. It would be easy to step away and stray from the path and explore the forest and admire all the trees, but for him the most important thing to do was to remain on the path and focus on the story rather than the details along the way.
I’m not apposed to different versions of the characters or different storylines. But with ‘His Dark Materials’, those books are driven by specific character traits. And the fact that they changed them, while still being faithful to the events in the story, the story beats either don’t land or don’t hit as hard or don’t make sense altogether.
More specifically with the main characters Lyra and Will, but mostly Lyra since she’s the heart of the story.
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Lyra is first and fourmost a liar, which may seem a small part of her character but its huge. Her ability to lie and get her way out of situations is the cause of many events in the books. She’s feral. She’s wild. She’s manipulative. She’s described as a ‘half wild cat’ and a ‘greedy little savage’. She can’t sit still or behave herself. She’s impulsive. She’s a leader. She gets into fights. She gets dirty. She spends all her nights on the rooftops. She’s an extrovert. She’s street smart. She’s selfish. She’s brave.
She’s an emotional and passionate human being. Thats what makes Lyra a real girl, not just a character on the page. These nuanced character traits of hers is how she pushes everything forward in the story.
All of those negative/positive aspects of her character in the books were watered down so much in the series. To the point where alot of them were removed. Not only is that incredibly dehumanising but makes the plot points where “she lies” not land as well or plot points revolving around her “telling the truth” make no sense at all.
The whole reason why she’s called Lyra Silvertongue is because she tricked the bear king with her lies, a trait which is consistent throughout the entire story — but completely nonexistent throughout the show. Her tricking the bear king in the adaptation came off as a lucky experience rather something that comes naturally to her. Even the ironic plot point of her being given the Alethiometer “a device that tells her the truth” didn’t hit as hard. They tried to establish her as a ‘liar’ in the second episode of season one then gave up completely as the show continued on.
But the weird thing is, those flaws were still mentioned by other characters in the show, when it was not the character they were developing. Characters would mention that she’s a liar, insufferable, selfish or that ‘she doesn’t apologise easily’ — which seemed like an over exaggeration since the show version of her isn’t really any of those things. This applied when characters such as Lee praised her for being ‘brave’ and ‘good’. I heard a HDM podcast recapping season 2 saying that “her character in the show wasn’t hitting the right emotional beats” to be a child of a great destiny that every character seemingly falls over themselves to give their lives for her.
TV Lyra hasn’t completely lost her flaws, but she’s not as nearly as flawed as she was in the books. She felt so contained, rather than passionate. Which felt so odd because yes, Lyra grows out of some bad traits such as her rudeness, due to the influence of Will. But she isn’t naturally like that.
They changed her so much, but also tried to keep her “the same” that her character growth which is huge in the books felt like nothing had moved at all. It kind of got reduced to a simple thing like her innocence being taken away. It was like she wasn’t allowed to have any sort of loud, dislikable reaction in any way. It felt like they were taking away her agency.
And I know one of the biggest reasons why they changed her behaviour in the TV Show is because they aged the character up to 14–16 at the start. I get it. Theres a huge difference between 12 and 14 in terms of maturity . It works for the Will & Lyra romantic scenes as an adaptational choice later in the story (because she’s allegedly 12–13 in the books).
I think Dafne Keen was an inspired choice for the role of Lyra, since I saw some scenes of her in ‘Logan’ and I 100% believe she would of pulled off Book Lyra given the chance, but by the time they started filming she was already 13/14. And in all honesty, Lyra just becomes odd looking older. She’s just not convincing as a misbehaving little girl who can’t sit still, she just comes off as a really strange child thats immature or lacking in social skills. For example, there’s a scene between Mrs Coulter and Lyra in ‘The Idea of North’ where she’s telling a lie, but it doesn’t come off natural because 1. They didn’t establish her as a liar immediately and 2. Part of her ability to lie comes from her spontaneous nature of being a kid telling stories and using her imagination. Dafne Keen didn’t really look that age, for it to look like something she would do.
They also made her relationship with Roger more of a focus in the show, which makes sense as her motivation in the later half of the books comes from wanting to rescue him. However, they made him ‘the only friend that she has’ which I found to be a strange decision because Lyra in the books has tuns of friends. I would say their friendship is more balanced in the series, where as in the book it wasn’t so much.
She forgets him a few times while staying with Mrs Coulter in the book where as she remembers him constantly in the episode ‘The Idea of North’ which felt like a confused choice to me. They were trying to have it both ways; have her be seduced by Mrs Coulter while also actively asking her to look for Roger.
The imbalance in Roger and Lyra’s friendship is important because it adds to the need to set things right with him in The Land of the Dead. It goes to the core of how everyone thinks she is selfish. She needs to save Roger to prove to herself she’s a good person.
In the dreams she has of him in The Land of the Dead, her and Roger have constant talks of how much he’s suffering. In the show, she just has alot of ambiguous flash forward dreams of Roger, with the story not prioritising them as important as the main plot of ‘Asriel’s War’.
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When she brings this up to Will in the episode, he dismisses it instead of agreeing to go (like in the book) because of his daddy issues, no I’m sorry, because of Asriel’s War which makes sense as it’s one of the main plots in the season — where it was more of a distracting B plot in the book — but it just kind of adds to the idea that “its unnecessary” or “why are they doing this?”.
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The desire to get to Roger and apologise in the show doesn’t hit as hard because there was more of a balance in Lyra and Rogers relationship plus the changes to her character just made it seem like “she just wanted to do it” rather than it being the most important decision she ever makes, to try to better herself.
While they go to the suburbs of the dead, Will and Pan constantly question why she’s doing this (a conflict that was not in the book — Will is steadfastly loyal to her by this point and Pan is too shivery to speak) while Lyra just snaps at them, making her seem mean for no reason. When she has a chat with her death, she doesn’t lie that an angel told her to do it (because they didn’t establish her as a liar properly), she just says that she wants to be good which is not a convincing argument considering what happens next.
When Pan and her have the argument while she leaves him on the doc, which is a great scene on its own (it made me cry), it also adds to the unnecessary nature of it all. It’s a scene that makes sense in the book because of Lyra’s impulsive nature, but because of her seemingly calculative nature in the show, it just looks odd. It’s described in the book that if Lyra had heard Pan speak, she would have folded and never would of got on the boat, but since the show did the complete opposite of that, It makes the scene more harsh and cold.
I think what the writers were trying to do was make it more of a mystery like ‘why is she doing this’ ‘its not too late to turn around’ a mission that appears fruitless at first, but turns out to be the greatest act of humanity — but again, I still don’t think that works because of how much Lyra’s entire character is changed. The act is not just for everyone else. It’s a major step in her character growth, to care about others.
In the Land of the Dead, obviously they had to cut out the whole section where Lyra literally looses her ability to lie while she’s telling lies to the harpies, then learns to tell the truth to the dead. This is the final step for Lyra’s character, finally learning the power of telling the truth instead of lies. They didn’t replace that with anything, only with her telling the dead true stories, which was heartwarming on its own, but obviously those story beats don’t hit as hard in the same way because like I said, its not presented as the final step in her character growth, its presented as a one off scene. This is one of the reasons why her character is pretty static in the adaptation.
In the Land of the Dead, its Lyra for the most part (apart from one instance) that keeps a cool head, while Will looses his — which again, the complete opposite. In the books, its Lyra that goes off the rails and its Will that keeps her centred.
Which brings me onto how the character of Will is changed in the adaptation, and how that effects the story from the second book onwards.
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Will was brought in by Philip Pullman in ‘The Subtle Knife’, to represent Lyra’s other half — in another parallel universe literally, and also to help her on her quest to fulfil the prophecy. If it was just her on her own with Pan, it wouldn’t work and would fail.
Though I was taken aback by his entrance in ‘The Subtle Knife’ — as it was such a jarring change coming from the suspenseful cliff hanger where Lyra walks into the new world after her best friend Roger got murdered — he quickly but surely became my favourite male literary character of all time.
I don’t have as a big of a problem with his character changes then I do with Lyra, because there were at least a few times in the show where he was allowed to act like ‘himself’. Amir Wilson was perfect casting as Will. It was like the character had just walked off the page it was that good. But all together, he’s a completely different character — which I can understand. Out of all the characters, I feel he’s the hardest to pin down and his development is done in a subtle and subconscious way.
Throughout the course of ‘The Subtle Knife’, he’s incredibly off putting as he’s mostly angry and tired and then he’s in pain because of his knife wound. It works in a book format, because your’e in his point of view and you understand that he’s a child thats at the end of his tether. But it would be hard to portray that in a nuanced way on screen, unless your’e clever with it.
They unfortunately took the easy route with his characterisation on screen by making him softer. Not only that, the writing for his character was incredibly inconsistent at times.
Will from the books is fierce. He’s frightening. He’s stoic. He gets angry. He’s a strategist. He does whats best for someone. He likes to stay invisible. He’s sarcastic. He's an introvert. He likes to stay hidden. He’s practical. He’s a child carer. He's naturally aggressive e.g. He beat up a bunch of boys at school because they were hurting his mother. He hardly smiles. At times, especially in the second book, he becomes incredibly depressed. He's pretty much a 35 year old man in a young boy's body. He’s incredibly soft, but the reader can’t tell until Lyra brings that out in him.
I would say Will is a more contained version of Lyra, yet the complete opposite of her. They’re like yin and yang. They both have something that the other lacks, and that helps them both grow up. Lyra brings out a softness out in him, brings out his impulsive nature where as he helps her strategise and learn not to just rush out and do things.
TV Will suffers from the same problem that TV Lyra does.
Every negative/positive aspect about him is watered down. Revealing a quite mild character. I feel that they didn’t touch on the fact that he was a child carer enough, which is a huge part of his character. It just came off as ‘he loves his mum’ more in the show. Will being a caterer is supposed to contrast Lyra whom didn’t grow up with parents and got to live out a childhood that he was never allowed to experience. This is a theme. Every character trait that contrasts Lyra in the books isn’t present so much. I would even go as far to say that they’re too similar in the TV Show.
I was wondering throughout the second season why the storyline was static and wasn’t going anywhere. Certain plot points such as Will being a murderer, Lyra helping Will find his father, The fight for the subtle knife and Will becoming the bearer of the Subtle Knife felt tacked on or weren’t hitting as hard as they should.
At first, I thought it was because the novel was ‘the weakest in the trilogy’. I often see ‘The Subtle Knife’ as a bridge between both ‘Northern Lights’ and ‘The Amber Spyglass’.
But since re-reading the book, I went ‘Oh my God, its because they changed Will’s character arc’.
TV Will, the more I think about it, does not suit becoming the bearer of the subtle knife. The only times we see him fighting is in the boxing ring. He expresses incredible regret over killing a man instead of brushing it off because he was protecting his mother. Even when he’s under threat, he says ‘I don’t want to hurt you’ He even has to be persuaded to fight. There’s even a moment in the show where he says “Maybe we’re better off not fixing the knife at all.” which kind of dismisses the practical nature of his character in the book. Plus the knife being a part of him, the same way as the Alethiometer is a part of Lyra. Even the remarks that Lyra makes about him being similar to Iorek the armoured Bear don't make as much sense, because of the fact that he's softer.
Book Will struggles with his warrior nature, and eventually learns thats not who he wants to be. But he isn’t naturally a soft person. He learns to be through his experiences and his relationship with Lyra. Which is why it was so odd to me that they included the line in the show where Will is saying to his father in the Land of the Dead “You told me that I was a warrior; That I can’t fight my nature. Your’e wrong.” I was just like, what are you talking about? That is so not the character the show had developed. TV Will had hardly been shown to fight anyone of his own free will — it didn’t make sense to me. They were trying to have it both ways. Completely ignoring his basic character traits and flaws, yet still going through the same arc (a somewhat watered down one) one e.g. idolising his dad for his whole life, realising his dad ain’t shit when he meets him, finding Lyra missing, ignoring the task his father set him etc.
Even the task that Lyra has to help Will find his father didn’t land as well because of the fact that the two of them were bonding straight away in the show, instead of it being like ‘oh no we’re stuck with each other’ to this slow process of her and Will learning to trust each other.
I understand that you have to translate Lyra and Will’s relationship alot differently in a Show format, because subconscious development doesn’t really work due to the lack of intimate point of views. The more something is changed in an adaptation, the more it stays the same.
I have openly praised the shows depiction of their relationship in another analysis I wrote (before i re-read the books) and how I loved how they gave them more soft moments. However, I will admit now that the soft moments that they had in season 2 felt off to me because they weren’t in character. I think, looking back I would of preferred more soft moments if they were in character.
Will’s initial softness towards Lyra in the show is partially to do with TV Lyra being much less feral and less of a threat. As a result their journey is warmer and far less angstier than it was in the books.
And that in turn messes with the tension.
The element of Will being slightly dismissive of her at the start, is important to how certain story beats land. It adds to the ‘OH SHIT’ when Lyra’s been taken and the task that his father set him that he’s been dreaming of his whole life suddenly isn’t important to him anymore. Thats why it’s such a big deal when he spends most of his time through ‘The Amber Spyglass’ looking for her.
But in the season 2 finale, it ends with Will going off into the sunset, presumably to fulfil is fathers wishes. Then in season 3, he finds her missing, goes ‘whoops’ and then there's a montage of him trying to find her. Then when he does (quite easily) — he goes on about how “since his dad died he’s done none of the things that he asked him to do’ which makes him looking for Lyra within the show feel even more anticlimactic.
Also, this is more of a personal opinion that an analytical one, I did not appreciate when Lyra brought up going to the Land of The Dead, TV Will went “I saved you. I did everything I could to save you. You told me not to but I did it anyway” which felt to me like ‘Wow brilliant, of course you had to save her’
And instead of agreeing to go to the Land of the Dead with her like in the book, they had to insert some tension from 'The Subtle Knife' (because they messed with the tension in season 2) and have Will go on a rant about what his dad wanted him to do, Asriel’s war, dismissing Lyra’s wishes and even having him suggest maybe her dad regretted killing her friend.
This is something that Will from the books would never ever say, let alone to the girl that he loves. He's fully aware how much her dad hurt her and he respects her too much by that point to ever suggest something like that. Even when he does think about ‘what his dad wanted him to do’ he’s still steadfastly loyal to Lyra. They were completely undermining the turning point in their relationship and Will’s character development by adding pointless drama to extend the episodes running time.
As mentioned in a very articulate post by @mamsellechosette24601 ‘the quest to find his father and fulfil his fathers wishes’ isn’t the point at all, its Will letting go of his childhood dreams, of realising what really matters is Lyra all along.
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Now I’ve seen in another analysis of the adaptation that their path to falling in love in the show is alot clearer than in the books which I can understand and agree with (to a certain extent) because the books were much more concerned with philosophy than romance. This is true for the romance between Asriel and Marisa in the Book vs the TV Show as well.
The concept behind their relationship remains the same:
“Will and Lyra are very good people who learn to trust each other when they’re at their most vulnerable, they become the only thing they have in a terrifying world of enemies. By the end, when they realise they’re in love only to discover they can never be together, they make the mature choice, however hard it may be.”
But their relationship is totally different in the TV Show because of their character changes.
I would say Lyra and Will have more of a enemies to lovers storyline in the books - where as the adaptation version of them doesn't. The screenwriters clearly tried to iron out alot of the problematic elements, especially in the beginning and focus on them being "friends" more. I'm not apposed to them doing that, but the way they did it ended up muting a few of their scenes together.
I’ve actually made an argument in my other account (against the ‘His Dark Materials’ analysis saying that ‘the adaptation did a much better job at showing when Will and Lyra fell in love’) that their relationship development was a lot subtler in the books because the characters were alot younger and more immature. And that it was more ‘obvious’ in the tv show because they aged the characters up, therefore they could have more mature conversations and scenes together.
This was before I did my re-read.
After re-reading ‘The Subtle Knife’ and ‘The Amber Spyglass’ comparing it with how their relationship is handled in the TV Adaptation. I would actually argue the opposite .
In some ways, the growing romance between the two of them is much more mature (and makes more sense) in the books than in the show, at least to me. Unlike in the TV Show, their relationship never enters into neutral territory, even when they finally learn to trust each other. Theres much less emphasis on their ‘friendship’.
After their brutal first meeting — where they attack eachother — in ‘The Subtle Knife’ Lyra is immediately taken with Will and constantly thinks about him and what he thinks of her. There’s even a moment in ‘The Amber Spyglass’ where she’s trying to hide that she’s in pain while they’re walking (because of all that time she’s been asleep) because she doesn’t want to appear weak in front of him.
The way Lyra and Will meet in the show, is reminiscent of how children meet for the first time. Though quite skeptical of each other, they instantly bond and make friends after 5 seconds, because why wouldn’t they? They’re kids the same age after all. Even though there’s still an element of mistrust there, there’s hardly any conflict between them. They don’t play off each other as much. There is one moment where he gets angry at her for making him wait, but all that is solved in a minute because of Lyra’s ‘calm nature’
Even when Lyra gives Will away by accident and says that she lost the Alethiometer, he doesn’t shout at her. There are few comments here and there but theres no real tension between the two of them.
When Will and Pan have a conversation, its presented as Pan going up to him to have a chat after he had a bad dream rather than Will finding the courage to speak to him in the book and saying ‘I think Lyra’s the best friend I’ve ever had’. This is presented more as a statement in the show because their friendship has already been established and less of a discovery (as he wasn’t reacting to her that much in the book as he had alot on his mind).
Lyra and Will even have a talk about Pan’s conversation with him afterwards in the show. But in the book, that never happened. It’s mentioned later but never discussed, because of the fact that it was a private conversation between Will and Pan.
You could say this was another problem that the adaptation had. It’s mentioned multiple times ‘YOU CAN’T TOUCH SOMEONES DAEMON’ but not emphasised why thats the case.
In the books, it’s heavily implied that touching someone else’s daemon is the equivalent of touching someone’s genitals. There’s a moment in ‘Northern Lights’ where Lyra and Iorek find Tony in the fish house without a daemon and Pan wants to comfort him but holds back because of the taboo. Thats why it’s such a big deal when Pan comforts Will and starts licking him in the book.
In the show, its quite an underwhelming scene that lasts 5 seconds where Pan strokes Wills fingers and Lyra says in a quiet voice ‘In my world, your’e not supposed to touch someone else’s daemon but you didn’t do something wrong’
And don’t get me started on the 5 second panning away shot where they’re finally touching each others daemons, instead of the moving moment from the book. It didn’t feel like they really understood the gravity of what those scenes meant and what it meant for their connection.
Again, this is more of a personal opinion. Near the end of the final book, when they enter the world of the Mulefa, Lyra and Will trust each other more than they ever have, which shows how much they’ve both grown since ‘The Subtle Knife’. Mary even describes that she never saw ‘more trust on a persons face’. But in the show, there’s this weird forced tension between them for the sake of ‘romance’. They’re suddenly awkward teenagers with each other — which was not a choice that I liked because it didn’t come naturally.
And when they have to be ripped from each other, a whole page worth of them bargaining to be together is turned into ‘I didn’t think it was possible to feel this bad.’ and ‘This is all wrong’, plus Mary and Serafina being weirdly insensitive while Will and Lyra are in different locations rather than being with each other.
This is possibly why I didn’t feel anything when they had to be forced apart because, the way it was handled felt rushed and soulless.
Overall, despite there being more ‘soft moments between the two of them’ Show Lyra and Will’s connection feels alot more shallow and simplified.
In the books, I got the vibe that even though they were very young, you couldn’t imagine them being with anyone else but with each other. They were each others other half. They were essentially the only family they had in a world full of enemies. There was never a moment in the books, where they weren’t already in love with each other to some degree. It went beyond the typical romantic duality.
In the show, it felt more temporary. This is mostly due to their character changes (they were too similar in my opinion). Like a connection between friends that became romantic at the end of the journey. And it’s something they’ll get over because “It won’t always feel like this” or “Its much more romantic to live for love than to die for it” or “It might not seem like it now but you have a future”
I think that was one of my main problems with the TV Show, it lacked emotion. Not just as an adaptation, but in general.
More than anything, the adaptation felt too confused. It was trying to reimagine the story while also paying homage to the original material. And thats why overall — despite my enjoyment for some of the episodes especially in season 3 — it didn’t work as well as it should have.
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milfjagger · 4 months
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the bbc lion, witch, & the wardrobe is an all time classic. fuck CGI, we make actors dress up in crude beaver costumes like men!
one of my all time favourite bedtime tapes as a kid was this really good 90s silver chair audio dramatisation with a full cast & i think it shaped my personality more than i can ever really know. puddleglum nation RISE
i remember being absolutely terrified of maugrim (the chief of police who is also a wolf) and looking back on it now it’s so funny bc he’s literally just a furry …. also I LOVE THAT i got some of the narnia cds free with cereal or the newspaper or something and i’m not sure which adaptations they were but they were plays with a full cast as well. I definitely had the magicians nephew and voyage of the dawn treader, possibly prince caspian too but i don’t think i had the silver chair. and shaping your entire personality is literally how i feel about the 1960s hobbit radio dramatisation i quote it almost daily
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equixen · 10 months
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Equixen’s Master List
All my stuff grouped by fandom. Most links go to the related Tumblr post but a few of my older videos aren’t on Tumblr so those links go straight to YouTube.
The Chronicles of Narnia
FanFic Playlist: Our Hands Are Tied - Caspian/Peter
Fan video: Goodbye - Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter (gen)
Fan fiction: Our Hands Are Tied - Caspian/Peter
Fan video: The Great War - Caspian/Peter
Fan video: Run To You - Caspian/Peter
Poster - The cast
Fan fiction: Before You Go - Caspian/Peter
Fan fiction: Live With Me Forever Now - Caspian/Peter
Desktop wallpaper 2 - Caspian/Peter
Video edit: The Reunion - Caspian/Peter
Fan video: Immortals - Caspian/Peter
Fan video: Before You Go - Caspian/Peter
Fan video: What Hurts the Most - Caspian/Peter
Desktop wallpaper 1 - Caspian/Peter
Doctor Who
Fan video: Hold My Hand – 13th Doctor/Yaz
Fan video: My Once In A Lifetime – Doctor/Rose
Fan video: It’s Out of My Hands – 9th Doctor and Clara (AU)
Fan video: Beside You - Amy/Rory
Fan video: Hurricane – The Doctor
Fan video: You’re Everything – 11th Doctor/River Song
Fan video: Silence Is All You Know - 11th Doctor/River Song
Fan video: Here With Me – 10th Doctor/Rose
Fan video: I Do (Cherish You) – Doctor/Rose
Marvel Cinematic Universe
Fan video: Unconditionally – Natasha/Bruce
Fan video: Almost Love – Steve/Bucky
Fan video: Stay – Steve/Bucky
Class
Fan video: Never Gonna Be Alone – Charlie/ Matteusz
Fan video: Sine From Above – Charlie and Miss Quill
Poster: The Cast
Xena: Warrior Princess – Xena/Gabrielle
Fan video: Space Between
Fan video: Who Knew
Fan video: End of The World
BBC Sherlock – Sherlock/John
Fan video: All of Me
Fan video: The Truth In Your Eyes
Adam Lambert
Desktop wallpaper 1
Desktop wallpaper 2
Desktop wallpaper 3
Queer As Folk
Desktop wallpaper – Ben/Michael
Desktop wallpaper – Brian/Justin
Fan video: Say When – Ted
Fan video: It’s Complicated – Brian/Justin
Fan video: Pride – Brian/Justin
Fan video: All That I’m Asking For – Brian/Justin
Fan video: Permanent – Brian/Justin
Fan video: I’d Come For You – Brian/Justin
Other:
Fan video: Lose You Now – How I Met Your Mother - Barney/Robin
Poster: Team Free Will - Supernatural
Fan video: Somebody To Die For – Good Omens - Crowley/Aziraphale
Fan video: Better Than I Know Myself – The Witcher - Geralt/Jaskier
Fan video: Always Remember Us This Away – Outlander - Jamie/Claire
Fan video: So Cold – The Book Thief
Fan video: All About Us – The Newtown Girls - Alex/Scarlet
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thedreadvampy · 2 years
Text
hello I'm out here trying not to be a bitch about the fact that once again a popular adaptation of a thing, which I Don't Like, has supplanted the original version of the thing, which I Do Like, as the default version people think of when you say the name of a thing
generally I'm concerned that this is just an inevitable function of both Liking Things and Getting Older, especially in a time where everything is reboots and adaptations and sequels.
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