#the showrunners are fans of the book series

[thedynamic]

The thing that is so important about iwtv is that like. This is bad people the book series, and therefore it is bad people the television series. Does this make sense? None of them are good people they are all monsters. Louis is the worst of them all because he clings so hard onto his humanity that he can’t even recognize the monster within. Armand tortures everyone he spends an extended amount of time with because he knows nothing else. Lestat is so fearful of abandonment that his very being becomes an active grenade that pushes people away. Claudia is the worst parts of her parents put together and spat back out. Daniel is so fucked up that he is welcomed amongst vampires before he is ever even turned into one. They are all liars. They are all monsters. And they are all evil because they are all vampires. There is no moral high ground for you to sit upon while watching this show by saying that one is worse than the next. The entire point is that they all deserve this and they all deserve each other.

[mieczyhale]

@gay-jewish-bucky IT REALLY FUCKING IS. No matter what if it’s a canon gay couple it’s just not going to be good enough for the exact same people who complain about wanting more gay rep. Part of getting gay rep is accepting that we’re going to get rep for all kinds of gays, all kinds of relationships, all levels of relevance - not just the kind that some people want or deem acceptable.

We finally have what is, in my opinion, a pretty well balanced canon queer ship that isn’t just ~hints and eye contact~, that isn’t squeaky clean, that have meaningful conversations and show love and affection like it’s not a big deal. It’s treated on equal levels to any straight ship on the show and I think that’s a breath of fresh goddamn air tbh.

I know people are always going to complain, but this topic has gotta be one of the most annoying and most exhausting ones. People should be happy we get any kind of lgbtqa+ rep, and that that rep is getting not just more diverse over the years but better too. There’s never going to be Perfect Queer Representation and to bitch and hold out for it?? To nitpick the fuck out of every ship?? Why would you, y’know??

[middle-earth-mythopoeia]

I'm out of the blue here but why do Tolkien fans hate Rings Of Power? How is it damaging his work and legacy?

We don't hate it because it's damaging Tolkien's work or legacy, which stand on their own merits. We hate it because it's an awful adaptation that treats his world and characters horribly. We hate it because it's made by a company that utterly betrays Tolkien's values and showrunners who have arrogantly compared themselves to him as if they're on his level. Not only that, ROP is being shoved down our throats: it's all over online spaces, it's mentioned in Tolkien-related news articles that have nothing to do with it, and ROP images have even been plastered on the covers of Tolkien's books just to make more money for Amazon. I have more than a few criticisms of Peter Jackson's films, but they all pale in comparison to the criticisms I have of this dumpster fire of a show and the company that made it. ROP has tried to present itself as diverse, but it actually has extremely regressive writing and tokenistic casting, not to mention abhorrent labor practices because it's made by fucking Amazon. Its plotlines and dialogue and internal consistency are shit. Despite an absurdly high budget, its production value is also shit. Even if it were a standalone fantasy series that had nothing to do with Tolkien and we weren't comparing it to canon, the whole thing is embarrassingly, sickeningly bad. Does this answer your question?

[bruhstation]

it’s unreal how different my entire life could’ve been had it not been for britt allcroft. as I grew older and began to take more notice about the production behind-the-scenes instead of just the colorful trains and painterly backgrounds, her efforts in creating the thomas the tank engine TV shows through her writings, it shows how much she cared about the audiences of her show, whether it’s her intended target audience that are young children at home, or their guardians such as parents or older relatives alike. britt wanted to create a show that both entertains and educates without talking down or even babying the children watching. and she did! and for decades to come, this fanbase is still as devoted as ever, creating essays, documentaries, fan stories, and even more. I would also mention in full honesty that a majority of ttte fans especially outside of the UK and US wouldn’t have known about the original railway series books by reverend awdry had it not been for her.

britt’s dedication to her work not only go as far as being a showrunner, or a writter, or a name in the industry, but her involvement with the community. she is loved by many and will be missed by many also

rest in peace, britt allcroft

[queenvhagar]

Do you know where "the book is team green propaganda" came from? I often see this in the fandom in discussions

The showrunners themselves said this 🫠

Ryan Condal specifically called at least Blood and Cheese and the Aegon/Sunfyre bond propaganda, as in, he believes that women lie about their trauma and Alicent somehow got to the historians through all of this and lied about what she and her family went through (and apparently made up a grandson 🥴) with the specific purpose of slandering her ex bestie of three years/enemy of decades, despite the fact she apparently would kill her sons to reconcile with her... and he says the stuff about Sunfyre being beautiful and Aegon choosing his golden banner based on their strong bond was "Westerosi historical propaganda."

Basically it's their justification/shutdown of critics for what they view as their own superior writing changes to the story. These writers are high on their own fumes and their ego is so inflated that they think they can write ASOIAF better than GRRM himself (despite the fact that Sara Hess admitted she never even watched Game of Thrones and took no consideration of the universe when creating her own narratives in this show).

This also stems from this "maester conspiracy" where people believe a select group of people high up in society are secretly controlling things from the shadows and calling the shots... and like all similar conspiracy theories, this is actually deeply rooted in antisemitism.

It's very unlikely that a large number of people, even maesters, could collaborate in secret and all agree on set things in order to completely rewrite history... and there's the fact that the historical textbook Fire and Blood was written by GRRM as the in-universe definitive source on the real history, using a variety of sources including historians, eyewitnesses, survivors, and royal household staff, in which there are people sympathetic toward both sides of the Dance.

Despite all of this, writers and fans are convinced that somehow all the sources that paint TB in a bad light are fictitious propaganda while at the same time accounts that paint TG in a bad light are taken at face value, and vice versa: parts of the story that recount TG as doing something for realistic reasons, being Targaryen dragonriders with bonded dragons, or even being a loyal united front as a family are apparently lies and stolen from TB in order to make TG look better, so the show "corrects" this by giving it all to TB.

Really wild that anyone can think the author of a series known for his anti war, all characters and sides are morally gray, and each character is conflicted in their heart about love and duty stories apparently purposefully wrote a story where war is justified due to actual prophetic divine right... some characters are completely good and others are completely evil... and their motivation really changes whenever the plot or writers need it... and he did all of it by purposefully crafting a story based on lies for no reason.

And well, we already know that GRRM has some opinions about how stuff like this has failed the story.

[adventure-time-news]

Now that we've had some time to process today's announcements, here's a slightly more in-depth breakdown of the three new Adventure Time projects.

HEYO BMO

Heyo BMO will be a preschool show starring BMO. The Animation on Max Twitter account says that it "follows little BMO as he approaches each challenge he faces with his unique brand of enthusiasm and a curiosity to learn and fill his database."

This is the only project of the three for which we have received some promo art so far, which might mean it's the furthest along in development and the most likely to premier first, especially if they used rigged rather than traditional animation as is often the case with preschool shows. This promo art was created by 3D artist Crisppyboat, who has previously worked on a handful of web projects and indie games. I don't think this is the style that the entire show will have, but who knows.

Other people confirmed by Variety to be working on Heyo BMO are Adam Muto, who has been showrunner on everything Adventure Time since season five of the original show, and Ashlyn Anstee, who storyboarded on Obsidian and has written many children's books.

This show is especially interesting given that Adam Muto has often joked about the inevitability of a preschool spinoff of Adventure Time, and now that has finally come to pass while he is presumably still running the show.

SIDE QUESTS

Side Quests will be a "prequel series" to the original Adventure Time, likely meant as a return to the early seasons' storytelling style. It will be mostly episodic rather than serialised, meaning episodes will each tell their own story without much of an overarching plot, and it will target the original show's young demographic. Ice King is confirmed to be returning in this series, but that's about all we know about the plot.

Interestingly, Variety did not attach Adam Muto's name to this project. Instead it mentioned that Nate Cash will be involved. Nate Cash was supervising director on Adventure Time between seasons three and five, often alternating with Adam Muto in that role. So if Nate is producing Side Quests and Adam is producing Heyo BMO, this will be something of a return to form for both of them.

One question that I've seen a few fans ask is who will voice Finn in this show. Jeremy Shada can't really pull off the season one Finn voice anymore, and they've run out of younger Shada brothers to defer to like they did after the pilot episode. So a new casting feels likely to me, with Shada continuing to voice an older Finn in other projects like Fionna and Cake and the movie. Speaking of which...

UNTITLED ADVENTURE TIME MOVIE

This is the announcement that we know the least about. To give some historical context, an Adventure Time movie was announced all the way back in 2015 but never came to anything. There was also allegedly a plan to end season five with a TV movie back in 2014. Elements of these two movies were later recycled into the plots of several later episodes, most notably Something Big, and possibly Distant Lands: Together Again.

This latest attempt involves Adam Muto, as well as Rebecca Sugar and Pat McHale, who were both influential storyboard artists in the early seasons of Adventure Time before leaving to make their own shows; Steven Universe and Over the Garden Wall, respectively.

According to MidouMir on Twitter, who was live-Tweeting the Warner panel at Annecy, a brief synopsis was given as something like "Finn and Jake set out to find a birthday gift for PB but their adventure will lead them to world changing stuff." Other than that we know nothing about the plot.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

Adventure Time wasn't the only show to get spinoffs announced today. Regular Show, Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends, and Scooby-Doo will all be receiving new series too. We don't know anything about the Regular Show spinoff, but the Fosters spinoff will be a preschool show like Heyo BMO.

All of this appears to indicate that Warner's current animation strategy is to recycle characters who have already proven popular in order to try and attract a new generation of viewers. Original fans of Adventure Time are beginning to get old enough to have children of their own who might enjoy something like Heyo BMO, plus since the end of shows like Amphibia and The Owl House there has been a vacuum of popular "fandom" shows for the older children to younger teens demographic, which I imagine is what Side Quests is aiming for.

To be fair they have also announced a handful of brand new projects; Lovey Dovey, Bad Karma, and Barbara are all new shows announced today.

What are your thoughts? Is there anything I missed? Be sure to let me know!

[cha-faile]

babes. darlings. wot series readers.

I get it. I've read the books more than twenty times through. I was on theoryland. I was on dragonmount. I was am on tarvalon.net. I was on the grey-tower rp site. I was on irc with multiple registered wot usernames. I've gone to RL wot parties to meet wot fans I'd only hung out with online. I'm such a fucking wot nerd that I've visited wot fans on three continents to hang out with them in person. I have a Badali officially licensed Aes Sedai ring I wear most days, and I have had multiple Aes Sedai shawls. I've written wiki pages and articles for online WoT newspapers. I've literally taught WoT classes. I put the fanatic back in fan!

The show is different. the show has problems. the show has idiosyncracies and fuck-ups.

just. like. THE BOOKS!

fuck, I love it. I'm having such a good time loving it. I can love it and have criticisms. All I've done for over 15 yrs is lovingly critique the books! Why would the show be any different!

We are so lucky. Our showrunners love the source material! We don't see headlines like the Witcher, where the writers and directors literally hated the source material. We have real, handmade costumes and handmade sets like the much-lauded LotR movies, and unlike the much-maligned Rings of Power.

It's so much fun loving WoT. It's so delightful having theorizing back!! I get to make crackpot theories about the Wheel of Time again! how cool is that?! is the show perfect? Certainly not! but we're WoT fans! Since when have we needed perfection??

[justjensenanddean]

Justin Hartley Says Jensen Ackles Brings Tracker to the 'Next Level' as They Reunite for Season 2

Ackles will appear on the second episode of 'Tracker' season 2, airing on Sunday, Oct. 20 at 8:30 p.m. ET on CBS

The brothers are back together!

In PEOPLE's exclusive photo from the upcoming episode of season 2 of Tracker, Justin Hartley and Jensen Ackles reunite in their roles as siblings.

After first working together in season 1 with Hartley as Colter and Ackles as his estranged brother Russell, the longtime friends are coming together once again — but it isn’t without drama.

“Jensen and I have known each other for a long time, we just never had a chance to work together,” Hartley, 47, tells PEOPLE in a statement. “Jensen is the perfect guy to play Russell. It’s such a well fleshed out character in the book and even more so with what we’ve done on the show.” “And then Jensen just brings to it the next level,” he adds.

Episode 2 of season 2, titled “Ontological Shock” airs Sunday, Oct. 20, and sees Colter disappear while searching for a missing father. Reenie (played by Fiona Rene) then calls in Russell to help track him down in the intense hunt for the survivalist.

Hartley first teased Ackles’ return to the series during the Summer Television Critics Association 2024 Press Tour in July. Fans went wild seeing the two together at the end of Tracker season 1 when the Supernatural star made a guest appearance and they have been anticipating seeing him again.

“We got him, he’s coming back,” Hartley said at the time. “We’re having fun with that. It’s a great story.”

Although the This Is Us alum said “I don’t know” when asked how many episodes would feature Ackles, showrunner Elwood Reid assured viewers it would be for "more than one" episode. 

"It’s like family: when we text him [he says], ‘Tell me where and tell me when,’ and he shows up," explained Reid, who previously worked with Ackles on Big Sky. "He’s just that kind of guy.”

[splintersintime]

As someone who's a fan of Good Omens (the show and the book), in the wake of the revelations about Neil Gaiman I want to say that the victims' wellbeing is more important than any closure from the completion of Series Three. If the showrunners find a way to remove Gaiman and complete it without any input from him, that would be a blessing. But if it never sees the light of day, I'll accept it.

We had one amazing first series that was based on the novel which Terry Pratchett's daughter has stated was 75% his work. The second series ... well, no matter how good you think it is (or isn't), it feels like an impostor now - a way to string out the story and keep fans on the hook with a cliffhanger ending before rewarding us with a final series based on some alleged ideas that the two authors once had for a sequel. For me, I think I can be OK without it.

I'm angry and disgusted with Gaiman but I realised that I don't feel sad. For his victims, yes. For other fans who lost faith in an author they loved, yes. But not for myself as a fan. Because as good a writer as he was, his own books were never, unlike Terry Pratchett's, up there with my favourites. And that's because, ironically, Gaiman fails at writing happy endings.

[david-talks-sw]

I got a good feeling about "The Acolyte"

Not even kidding. Like, I've spoken before about why I'm wary of it.

George Lucas' Star Wars is something that intentionally has black and white morality, rather than shades of gray. Those movies are meant for kids and projecting a "gray" morality onto them then proclaiming it was George's vision all along is doing so in bad faith.

The narrative of the Prequels doesn't frame the Prequel Jedi in as negative a light as Leslye Headland, Dave Filoni, etc etc do.

See here for more details, but bottom line: yeah, a show that has a darksider as the underdog is bound to demonize the Jedi (who are the actual underdogs in the Prequels), and obviously that rubs me the wrong way.

BUT.

The trailer looks fucking cool. It really really does.

And more importantly? I've done some research... and Leslye Headland is ticking a lot of good boxes, in my book.

1. The Acolyte won't be a 10-hour movie.

I've criticized Disney Plus shows before, explaining that a big source for most of their issues is that these series are being structured as "long movies" rather than, y'know, actual shows.

But in this interview with Collider, Headland addresses that: it'll be a series. Not a long movie that you need to watch across four weeks.

Thank God. You have no idea how much that comforts me. Finally a showrunner who's, y'know, actually running a show.

And this goes hand in hand with what she told IGN, here, about how she's going about building suspense.

Yes! Exactly! That's how it's supposed to be!

Like, compare this to Baylan Skoll's storyline in Ahsoka.

In no possible way was that emotionally-fulfilling. For 8 episodes we had no idea what he was after, and the season ended where we still don't know. What does he want? What is he after? Your guess is as good as mine, it's something Mortis-related.

So yeah. Maybe getting the Emmy-nominated trained screenwriter on board to run this was a good idea.

2. Maybe the Jedi will not be as demonized as I originally thought.

Don't get me wrong. 80% of what she says about the Jedi makes me cringe. It's the typical fan's interpretation and y'all know I disagree with that interpretation.

It's painful to see her refer to the Jedi as an institution (not how the Prequels' narrative frames them) and to see her frame "Balance" in the "oh there's so many of them and just two Sith, that means the Force is out of balance" meaning... but at least she acknowledges the Jedi are a benevolent institution.

They're not an "elitist force hiding in their ivory tower" as others have described the Jedi.

Moreover, there'll be a variety of Jedi POVs, many personalities.

Yord Fandar, is described as a strictly by-the-book Jedi Knight and guardian from the Jedi Temple, is an overachiever and a rule follower.

The question now becomes: will the narrative frame him as "your typical Jedi" or is it just this one guy? I'm hoping it's the latter.

I also like how her reasoning goes re: Jedi drawing their lightsabers.

Which explains the hand-to-hand combat seen in the trailer.

This teenager is coming at Carrie-Ann Moss with a dagger, of course the Jedi won't draw her saber.

3. She's a fan of Star Wars... but a screenwriter first.

You can tell in the interviews she's a fan. She's using words like "BBY" and "EU" casually. In the above-linked interviews she's bringing up the Nightsisters, Timothy Zahn, The Clone Wars, she mentions she has a tattoo of Ralph McQuarrie's concept art of Leia, the High Republic books, etc.

She's done her homework. She's a fan.

But the vibe I'm getting from these interviews is that she's weaving in these various lore-elements in a more organic way, rather than in the "fan-servicey" way Dave Filoni has been doing in his shows.

The references and Easter Eggs will be there, but the narrative won't bend over itself just so you can get it. Crafting a good story comes first, and Andor is a beautiful illustration of why this is true.

Which is why I was never bothered about one of the writers never having watched Star Wars before getting the job. You need those fresh eyes when you're tackling something of this scale.

That makes sense to me. Maybe it's because of my own screenwriting experience, but yeah. That out-of-the box perspective is precious.

And like, obviously, that writer watched the films eventually, but for some reason everyone who bitched about Headland omitted that detail and opted for a more bad faith interpretation.

Hm. Wonder why.

Maybe it's the same reason that months ago this clipped audio circulated socials without context, in which she debates whether Star Wars only came from George Lucas and only Lucas is the key.

The FULL context of that interview reveals that she's actually:

debating the "autheur director" myth and positing that it was achieved by a collective of excellent filmmakers and craftspeople that George was skilled and smart enough to recruit...

the studios now think it's a simple as hiring one guy and throwing money at him, because they have no idea what the fuck they're talking about. See Napoleon (2023) for example.

Yes, she also does a jab to the Prequels, which speaks to the generation of fans she's a part of... but overall she's giving Lucas props whilst also stating an ideological difference, that's it!

George is a proponent of the "autheur" theory, Leslye isn't.

However, guess what, in like half the talks George gave post-selling Star Wars? He's giving shoutouts to everyone who helped make the first film, even remembering their names.

So I'm not even sure he'd vehemently disagree with Leslye, in fact they'd prolly have a conversation about it and immediately bitch about how stupid studio executives are :D

But that's not as incendiary, is it? Again, the more I do the research, the more it feels like the reason most of these influencers are hating on her is purely sexist.

I mean, on IGN she's even acknowledging that she does plan on taking stock of fan reactions for Season 2.

It's not a guarantee that she'll incorporate the feedback, but at least that's more consideration than, say, JJ Abrams or Rian Johnson gave the fandom.

She's even bringing the moral ambiguity that the Gray Jedi-loving edge-lords love so much.

"No, she's a woke feminist! Anything she does is evil! Eww, girls!"

🙄

Needless to say... I'm gonna give it a shot.

I think it's gonna be a good show, I think it's gonna be a solid story.

I'm crossing my fingers that they won't as biased against the Jedi as it seems they'll be. Even if they are... if it's still an enjoyable experience, I'll gloss over it.

As @gffa states in this post:

Worst case? It's not a story from George. I can dismiss it from my headcanon without a moment's hesitation :D

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

(CROWLEY LIVING IN THE CAR CONFIRMED! 🐍🚗:D❤)

Although the trailer for "Good Omens" season 2 shows the life-long frenemies living in quasi-domestic bliss (until Jon Hamm's memory-wiped Gabriel shows up), their living arrangement apparently isn't quite so simple. The latest issue of SFX magazine includes an interview with Sheen and Tennant, and although the pair say their characters end up closer than ever, SFX also reveals that season 2 will pick up with Crowley living out of his car (plants and all) while Aziraphale is thriving hanging among humans at his Soho bookshop. It's at the shop that Crowley often finds himself, according to Tennant.

"He spends a lot of time in the book shop," Tennent tells SFX magazine. "He only has one friend. He can only have one friend." As Sheen notes elsewhere in the interview, the pair aren't exactly on the run, but aren't off the radar of the powers that be in heaven and hell either. When Tennant notes that the pair are "kind of free agents" these days, Sheen says they're also semi-fugitives. "They are sort of in-between. But this amazing life they have created over a millennia, they are now able to enjoy in a slightly different way," he explains.

The pair might be retired from their jobs working for the big men upstairs (and downstairs), but that freedom leads to a dependence on one another that perhaps feels different than what they've known in all their previous centuries of coexistence. "That is the great liberation, and also the great prison, that they find themselves in," Tennant says after noting that Aziraphale is Crowley's only friend. "They have no one else. They have come to rely on each other more than they ever did. And more than they care to admit."

Fans have already caught a glimpse of that denial in the "Good Omens" season 2 trailer, when Gabriel asks Aziraphale whether the presence of one person in his life has ever given him an inexplicable sense of comfort, and the angel responds with a stuttering "No, certainly not." Meanwhile, the trailer edits in a shot of Sheen's character looking quietly delighted while sharing a drink with Crowley, making it pretty clear the angel's caught feelings. The actors don't address Aziraphale's heart eyes in the interview, but do talk about how the sense that the pair are, as Tennant puts it, "strangers in a strange land" will impact their relationship.

"That kind of connects them in a slightly different way," Sheen says. "They have always been the only two beings who could understand each other's position. Now they are pushed even closer together." 

Luckily for the two co-stars (and for fans), the show is never better than when it's exploring the closeness of the pair, as Crowley and Aziraphale possess a dynamic chemistry that gives their companionship an undercurrent of romance. How much season 2 of "Good Omens" may or may not explore that aspect of their relationship remains to be seen, but it sounds like series creator and showrunner Gaiman is well aware that the dynamic duo is at their best when it's them against the world.

[wisteria-lodge]

Can you talk about the cursed child?

I have two main questions when it comes to The Cursed Child. The first is... why was this project made? Because it wasn’t for the money, and it wasn’t for the fans, so I have to assume it was for JK Rowling herself. And my second question is - who is Jack Thorne????

Because he wrote it. John Tiffany is a director who works with Thorne and it's based on a “story” by JKR. But Jack Thorne is a kinda highbrow, kinda indie English playwright, and he clearly wrote most if not all of it. The biggest thing he had done at the time was a stage adaptation of indie Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In, so back 2016 I was asking myself - why is he attached to this project. (Is he related to JKR? Did he win a contest? Is he just that charming?) 

But now I’ve got a theory. See, Jack Thorne has one other very important credit. He is the showrunner and head writer of the well-regarded HBO His Dark Materials TV show adaptation… AND that TV show and Cursed Child were in production at the exact same time. There’s no real way of knowing which project came first - they were both announced in 2015, and Cursed Child was announced first, but then a stage play needs a whole lot less pre-production than three seasons of a prestige television show. 

What I think (but cannot prove) is this: JKR got wind of the His Dark Materials HBO TV series, and thought ‘I want one of those too.’ Especially because she is now in the process of getting exactly that.

I can’t actually prove that JKR is even aware of the His Dark Materials franchise… but I very much suspect that she is. Northern Lights/Golden Compass was released two years before Philosopher's Stone, and… a British author, YA , fantasy, seems like you’d want to read that for market research purposes alone - or at least keep tabs on it to make sure it was doing well. I also think there’s a similar vibe to the worldbuilding, a certain kind of ‘urban fantasy, but make it pre-industrial revolution’ that you don’t get with like, Edith Nesbit, the fantasy writer JKR most often credits as an influence.

Now His Dark Materials was a failed film series. They made one in 2007 with plans to make more, and it didn’t really go anywhere. I was a huge fan of both HDM and HP at the time, and I liked the film… but even then I thought it was hurting itself by trying so hard to be Harry Potter, when the tone of HDM was always darker and more sinister. It was nice to watch the HBO show treat the source material as basically a gritty adult drama (which it always was, just told through an intelligent child’s POV.) 

Marketing of movie vs marketing of TV show: 

Movie Lyra vs TV show Lyra:

HOWEVER. I think it would be very easy, if you were JKR, to see the new series as an adaptation of a children's book (comparable to Harry Potter), only marketed to adults. And you might think... that's kind of a cool idea. So I don’t know who approached who. But I do think that at some point Jack Thorne and J. K. Rowling were in the same room, and someone suggested… why don’t we give Harry Potter a little bit of the His Dark Materials treatment.

Because both vibe-wise and theme-wise, there are A LOT of comparisons you can make between the HBO His Dark Materials and The Cursed Child. They’re both fantasy with a kind of gloomy and oppressive feel. They focus a lot on bad parents, especially parents unable to communicate with their kids. They both feature alternate universes as a major theme, and the main plot of both revolves around a (doomed) attempt to resurrect a sacrificed innocent, and various adults attempting to separate a pair of friends. (The relationship between Albus and Scorpius is easily the best part of Cursed Child. Especially Scorpius, who is lovely.) But like… no one wanted a version of Harry Potter that felt like a knockoff version of His Dark Materials.

To me, Cursed Child feels less like an adaptation, and more of an attempt to recontextualize the original Harry Potter books into something more serious and more impressive. Cursed Child reframes Harry’s whole deal as being caught in a cycle of abuse due to the Dursleys… which the show frames so much more threateningly than the books ever did.

This play also does not frame Ron/Hermione as the best marriage... which makes me think of the when JKR told the Sunday Times

I wrote the Hermione/Ron relationship as a form of wish fulfillment. That's how it was conceived, really. For reasons that have very little to do with literature and far more to do with me clinging to the plot as I first imagined it... if I'm absolutely honest, distance has given me perspective on that. It was a choice I made for very personal reasons, not for reasons of credibility.

And then Cursed Child gives us a little Hermione/Snape, and we know how JKR feels about Snape. We revisit a lot of Slytherin characters actually, and it turns out they’re not just bad guys! Albus is in Slytherin (even though the end of Book 7 was written in a way that REALLY heavily implied he would ask to be Gryffindor just like Harry did.) The ‘all Slytherins are baddies’ thing seems to be an aspect of the worldbuilding that JKR is attempting to retcon. The earliest example of this is the 2008 interview where she talks about “Slughorn galloping back with Slytherins [to rejoin the battle of Hogwarts] but they’d gone off to get reinforcements first,” which… does not happen. That is not a thing that happens in the book. Slughorn comes back with reinforcements, but the Slytherin students spend the battle locked in the dungeon. JKR was was okay with the last three Potter films framing Draco way more positively than the books do, a trend which continues into Cursed Child. Draco’s easily the best parent in the whole thing.)

And (possibly the most important bit of recontextualization…) I think Cursed Child was supposed to make the Epilogue seem good, instead of something that all her fans either made fun of… or completely ignored. 

In a lot of ways, I think JKR is doing a George Lucas, but instead of going back and re-cutting, re-mastering and adding to the original work the way he is - she’s writing more and more sequels (and more and more additional material) in an attempt to make  the problems of the earlier books go away. 

I could talk for a very long time about The Cursed Child. Yes, everyone is out of character, yes it’s world breaking, it contradicts the original series all the time, it doesn’t work structurally, it doesn't work that the villain is Voldemort's secret daughter Evil Tonks, and it reads like fanfiction (in the sense that it uses tons of fanfiction tropes, often not super well.) I probably will talk about that stuff more eventually, but first I wanted to make sense of why it even exists, in the first place. 

[ewanmitchellcrumbs]

HBO have responded to George’s blog post already lol they are big mad.

“There are few greater fans of George R.R. Martin and his book ‘Fire & Blood’ than the creative team on ‘House of the Dragon,’ both in production and at HBO. Commonly, when adapting a book for the screen, with its own format and limitations, the showrunner ultimately is required to make difficult choices about the characters and stories the audience will follow. We believe that Ryan Condal and his team have done an extraordinary job and the millions of fans the series has amassed over the first two seasons will continue to enjoy it.”

Source

[retiredkat]

5 Ways The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon can improve in season 3 Dawn Glen6 hours ago

When The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon - The Book of Carol (the second season of The Walking Dead spinoff) previewed at SDCC last July, it was announced that a third season had been commissioned and would be set in Spain, all before season 2 had even aired. AMC clearly had such faith in the show that it was willing to commit to the third season without gauging the reaction to the second. Unfortunately, while some aspects of The Book of Carol received universal praise — largely the return of Melissa McBride as one-woman-cyclone Carol — the overall reviews for the show were mixed, and ratings were far from stellar.

It follows, then, that AMC will be looking closely at the show and potentially reconfiguring and reacting to the criticism. Star and executive producer Norman Reedus has repeatedly spoken about how the original idea for the show was a roadshow with Carol and Daryl travelling around and helping people they meet before moving on. He has also said that season 3 will be closer to this initial idea, with showrunner David Zabel labelling the series “an anthology of sorts.”

With the show moving on from France, it has a clean slate. What else should the show be looking to change in order to improve and garner greater audience positivity going forward, making it the solid hit it could be?

1) No more children

On The Walking Dead, Carol and Daryl occasionally found themselves taking on surrogate children, to varying degrees of success. Carol infamously suffered tremendously after losing her biological child Sophia and also took on some of her own: Mika and Lizzie at the prison, and Henry, the son she shared with Ezekiel. Every one of those children died in a hugely traumatic way, scarring Carol irreparably. And though it has made her guarded and — as some may see it — harsh in her interactions with children, still youngsters are thrust upon her, twisting the knife in her child-shaped wound, as she lives in constant terror of failing them.

As for Daryl, he's part a part of Rick's daughter Judith’s life since birth, giving her the nickname Little Ass Kicker. He’s also bonded with Beth, Lydia, and become a surrogate father for Judith and her little brother RJ after Rick’s disappearance. Then there's Laurent, the proto-Messiah who was the centre of the first two seasons of the show, and the reason Daryl stayed in France.

By now, we get it. Carol is drawn to but scared of kids. Daryl sees himself in every abandoned child, which triggers his hero complex. They want to save every kid, but we’ve been through every iteration of it. We've experienced every kind of parent/child relationship with Carol and Daryl. Anymore would be a retread. Let the title of The Book of Carol’s finale stay true: "Au Revoir les Enfants," which translates to, "Goodbye Children.” Let Carol heal and Daryl grow, without thrusting another child under their wings.

2) Make walkers the central threat

When the French location for the spinoff was announced, many fans were looking forward to exploring the origins of the zombie virus, thanks to the Fear the Walking Dead coda which showed French scientists discussing the virus. In the end, this topic was not touched on at all in Daryl Dixon. We saw Genet doing experiments on walkers, leading to some of the walker variations and the super-charged walkers who dominated the second season, but not the genesis of the French walker research.

As disappointing as that was for some, even if we give up hope of finding out the origins of the walkers, it doesn't mean we should give up on the idea of walkers being more central to the plot. The first two season of The Walking Dead were undoubtedly had the most terrifying, heart-in-mouth episodes of the show, and they didn't feature any overreaching, human threat. While “humans are the real enemy” is a sound premise, we have worn through every variation of evil megalomaniac, religious zealot, and misguided weakling leader storyline in the flagship show. Perhaps it’s time to return to something more primitive, with a focus on the brutality of basic survival?

It would be an ideal use of the brand new locations to highlight that when you have no knowledge of the terrain or facilities round the corner, your life is even more on the line than it would be in the well-trodden woods of Georgia. What if the lake you wash in has hundreds of walkers resting on the bottom? What if the hill you are standing on is actually a mound of walkers overgrown with grass? Making walkers an environmental hazard and focusing on the unpredictability of encountering them when you least expect it heightens the jeopardy for even seasoned walker hunters like Carol and Daryl.

3) Bring back the real Daryl Dixon

The biggest issue The Book of Carol had is that it seemed to forget why it’s title character is such a fan favourite. A man who has been defined by his loyalty and tenacity in the 11 seasons of the main show suddenly lost those qualities and became a shadow of the fan favourite he was. Having Daryl Dixon — who lived in the woods for six years, refusing to give up hope of finding Rick; who withheld Negan’s torture and abuse; who showed no interest in romance in 10 seasons, preferring to focus on his found family — emotionally abandon his American family and consider staying with a new French one in a matter of weeks is wildly out of character.

And it’s not surprising given that showrunner Zabel and Reedus could not seem to agree on Daryl’s motivation, with Reedus resisting the idea that Daryl had felt love for the French characters. Was Daryl resentful that Laurent showed up on the beach in the season 1 finale, or was it an active choice he made to choose Laurent and Isabelle as his family? The answer changes depending who you ask, and when. The Daryl that fans know and love would not reconsider where he belonged and who he loved after such a short time away. He wouldn't be saying that his connection to Laurent is more significant and "different" to his connection to Judith, who he has lived with for 12 years. Nor would he embark on a romantic relationship with a nun he barely knew (and who compared him to his abusive father), after a matter of weeks.

A cohesion must be found with the creatives on who Daryl is and what motivates him. He is — and should be — the man who will always put others needs before his own. But he is also a man who never, ever forgets who he is and what he stands for. Season 3 needs to embrace the Daryl fans remember and show that he remembers his family back home.

4) Embrace the show's history

One of the most successful aspects of The Book of Carol was the exploration of Carol’s grief over the loss of her daughter Sophia. It was rewarding for long-time fans to see the call backs to this pivotal moment, and emotional to see Carol be allowed to work through it on screen.

One of the issues with the later seasons of The Walking Dead was the large cast, which meant huge impactful emotional stories often got pushed aside to deal with the next big event or action-packed twist. Daryl Dixon’s smaller cast means that imbalance can be righted, and allows room for greater intimacy between the audience and the two leads. It is an excellent opportunity for the audience to be allowed to truly sit with Carol and Daryl as they grow through life. They have a chance to stop, breathe and talk through the many traumas they have experienced.

It would be wonderful to have Daryl talk about losing his brother Merle; about what Rick’s acceptance meant to him; about what kept him going during his torture and time at Negan’s Sanctuary; about his guilt over Glenn’s death. And many fans would love to see Carol talk more about losing Sophia and Henry; about having to kill Lizzie; about her marriage to Ezekiel and why it fell apart. It would be particularly effective to have Carol and Daryl address issues that exist between them, from Carol’s repeated attempts to run away to their fight in Leah’s cabin from season 10. Their long history is the meat that makes their relationship so juicy and multi-layered, so it's odd that much of their interactions could be between people who just met. Zabel and the other writers should be exploiting that history to create depth to their relationship, and add layers to their interactions with the new people they meet.

5) Decide on the nature of Carol and Daryl's Relationship

This is, without doubt, the most talked about subject when it comes to Carol and Daryl: whether they are, or should be, romantically involved. And it may seem as though this question has been answered; after all, David Zabel has made clear that he believes Carol and Daryl’s relationship is purely platonic. Despite this, several scenes in Daryl Dixon seemed to allude to something else. In season 1, Antoine (the pigeon man) suggests that Daryl had a girlfriend back home who waited for him. And half of Episode 4 of The Book of Carol focused on the pair's time with an elderly couple, Didi and Theo. It was very clear that the show was pointing to the older couple as a parallel to Carol and Daryl. It's implied that Didi could see they were in love, and Theo called the pair as “like an old married couple.” If we are to see them as purely platonic, why dive into those kinds of themes? It only creates confusion among the fans.

Even Carol’s reaction to Daryl’s romance with Isabelle creates muddiness about the nature of their connection. Carol was shown to be hurt and troubled by the depth and speed of their relationship. If her feelings were only friendly why would Carol not be overjoyed that her best friend finding someone? And why was Daryl repeatedly playing down his relationship with Isabelle to Carol, and reassuring her he was always coming home to her?

Carol and Daryl have been described as sharing one soul, and as each other’s “home.” In Reedus’ words, Carol is “the one person in the world he needs.” If Carol and Daryl will always chose each other over everyone else, how does a partner get a look in? Outside romances are a pointless waste of time as Carol and Daryl will inevitably move on, or the new love interest will die. Stating that they are each other's home, and having Daryl declare they will always stay together, leaves no room for another love, and means their only true happy ending could be with each other. If their home is each other, then that’s clearly where their happy ending lies.

So if we are to believe they are just family to each other, then the idea of their shared soul and need to be with each other has to be dropped (along with allusions to them as married couple) for a more believable, looser dynamic that leaves space for outside love interests. Otherwise, anyone who comes into their orbit will face the same fate as Isabelle.

And either way, stop having Daryl simply not answer questions posed to him as a way to avoid committing one way or another to his feelings. It's a ploy that was used in the flagship show and spinoff multiple times — "Would you settle (down)?" "Why not Connie?" "Have you ever been in love?" "You loved her?" It's a lazy, cheap way to allow the audience to believe whichever answer suits them, but which leaves Daryl's characterisation shapeless and turbid. The character deserves to have a rich and open exploration of love without the show hedging its bets for fear of dividing the already unhappy audience.

[olderthannetfic]

Update on the Bridgerton stuff: the online fandom is so homophobic and horrible, and the mods of stuff like the main subreddit refuse to do anything about it (but will remove comments by people upset about the homophobia for "generalizing") that LGBTQ+ fans have had to make their own spaces. There's a whole separate subreddit that bans homophobia called r/bridgertonlgbt, and of course the ones from the main one keep trying to get it banned with false reports by accusing them of "heterophobia" and "doxxing" (re: complaining about their homophobic comments in their own spaces). Assholes who are mad about them making a straight romance from the books lesbian in the show are also doing petitions and flooding like every Instagram post including one by the original author about how she was initially skeptical about such a big change from her books but she's had lots of talks with the showrunners and she trusts them, and has always supported greater diversity in the series. People keep misusing that stupid fucking George R.R. Martin quote (about how creators these days don't do anything original but just warp other people's existing works) when he himself has condemned "the show must be exactly like the books" fan attitudes, especially the racist tantrums around House of the Dragon casting a couple years ago. And on a post by the author HERSELF where she explains why she gave the go-ahead, supports these changes, and condemns homophobia in the fandom! How is she "warping" her own work???

I've heard about this all secondhand from my friend and it just makes me so glad I don't go on Insta or Reddit and instead keep my fandom activities to Tumblr or AO3. Where for all the drama over other things, at least this kind of rancid homophobia you get in spaces where everyone is cis and straight feels entitled to only ever consume straight and cis romance stories (they'll claim they "are okay with gay characters but new ones!" but their example is always like a side character who has an unhappy ending, can you really not get why queer fans are not satisfied with that?) at least that's not so much a thing here. Instead I'll be happily writing Francesca/Michaela and Benedict/male characters slash and ignoring and blocking the haters. And remembering that that show has way more fans than use social media and everyone involved is continuing to refuse to listen to the loud idiots online. Like everyone I talk to about it who isn't super online, most of whom are straight women, think the change is really cool and can't wait to see what they do with it. Some of them have read the books, but most have not.

But god, it just seems like toxicity from top to bottom over there. I really wish a lot of the straight women fans would just admit they don't like a lesbian romance because there's no one for them to find hot. And maybe consider why it's not a big fucking ask to "find something relatable" in gay romances, like gay people have had to do with straight ones for all time. Why must we continue doing that but you're entitled to whatever you want all the time? It's just so weird to see these attitudes still and in fandom in 2024!

--

These attitudes never went away.

On the fanfic side of things, the slashers just happen to have built the currently-popular platform, so the haters have to deal.

[nicetoseesofttotouch]

The audacity!!!!!

Book spoilers. Show spoilers, spoilers all around!

.

.

.

.

My expectations were low but holy hell! This Showrunner is awful, the skipping didn't do Polin any favor, they needed TIME to develop the friendship into more and not in like a scene snap, the friends to lovers of the book is well written and believable, this was... NOT. And why does it feel like they weren't the actual leads? Why make it about two leads per season when you write a million subplots?

She is like one of those fans that saw Benedict befriending a gay guy and said oh yes totally bi when CVD said explicitly that the storyline was to show how much he is tolerant about different kinds of love foreshadowing his future HEA. I have NO problem with anyone being queer as long as they don't change their book HEA, (this will be textbook queerbaiting to please a loud annoying internet minority) especially the ones who follow specific struggles, like infertility, not wanting their children to be bastards, the role and dangers of a woman in the working class, etc this leads me to the heartbreaking erasure of the best male written character on the whole Bridgerton series, you are not gender bending, you are erasing a whole book creating a fanfiction of what was the best and more complex Bridgerton book, Francesca married for love, she was completely in love with John and didn't develop feelings for MICHAEL until much later, she erase that, she'll erase the infertility struggle, of course she'll have John's baby, of course, of course it will be a boy who'll inherit the earldom.

And lastly I have no doubt that Jess Brownell will want to butcher TSPWL too... Maybe recast Phillip, maybe erasing him, who knows, but I know Eloise will also suffer from her awful writing.