Do you want a Improved Killswitch ( Like prior 3.2.0 ) as Top priority ?

EN-Esty · 2022-06-08T11:35:45+00:00

This should be considered a fundamental component of any VPN service and absolutely needs to be a priority for SurfShark. The current version is actually worse than not having one at all as it provides a potentially dangerous false sense of security. Frankly it's shocking that it functions as poorly as it does and if it isn't addressed soon I will be switching provider.

EN-Esty · 2022-06-02T13:57:48+00:00

Ah but what about the classic classic character creation screen?

EN-Esty · 2022-05-09T15:00:56+00:00

Here's their explanation. Unfortunately it looks to be far more complicated than a simple filter as it uses 3D meshes and particle effects but perhaps there are modern effects that can simulate it? Either way the term you want to look up is "optical flow".

EN-Esty · 2022-05-09T11:57:50+00:00

I believe this effect is explained in the appendixes of the first film. Obviously it's not a tutorial but I think they explain it being a flame/water overlay. I'll try to have a look when I'm home later.

EN-Esty · 2022-03-12T08:26:32+00:00

And LotR fans haven't come to terms with martial women after Eowyn? I don't recall ever seeing a negative reaction to her. Doesn't that suggest something other than sexism is the cause of the different response?

EN-Esty · 2022-03-12T08:19:37+00:00

Firstly, I expect the majority of people who know about LotR only do so because of the films - that is their reference point of what Middle-earth looks like. Second, they will have no understanding of the ages of Middle-earth, nevermind which age each takes place in and why they might look different.

Lastly, if an unrelated studio did a Star Wars spin off and radically changed the look of the ships, light sabers, Jedi, and troopers, viewers would be equally baffled/annoyed regardless of the reasoning behind the changes.

EN-Esty · 2022-03-10T21:52:20+00:00

I think it's largely about expectations. Why would a person watch a trailer based on an IP they already know? Probably because they like that IP. And whether people like it or not, the PJ films have established what Middle-earth should look, feel, and sound like in the minds of millions of people, just as the SW films have done in that universe.

From what the trailer revealed, Kenobi appears to fit nicely into that vision on all fronts. If you like Star Wars, chances are everything in that trailer fits with what you might expect from a new Star Wars property based on that character.

RoP on the other hand? Aside from a few sweeping vistas it just doesn't feel like the PJ films. Whether that's good or bad for the series itself isn't the point - if you went into that trailer expecting PJ LotR it's likely you left disappointed.

EN-Esty · 2022-03-10T21:36:40+00:00

One of the main characters in Kenobi appears to be a black woman in martial gear.

EN-Esty · 2022-02-26T12:02:45+00:00

Your title appears to completely contradict what he says in that article. The second sentence implies that he also said the first, when actually he says that the Metaverse offers nothing new compared to an MMO i.e. that it IS like an MMO.

EN-Esty · 2022-02-24T12:37:16+00:00

Probably because neither of them are African

EN-Esty · 2022-02-22T16:28:12+00:00

Lore-wise, as long as it doesn’t misrepresent the main themes and events of the books, I’m fine.

My point was that as far as the writers are concerned the lore is just something to dress their stories in. They want to tell the story of someone with a vendetta so they'll stick a Galadriel shaped dress on it regardless of how poorly it might fit. They want a Romeo and Juliet style forbidden relationship so they'll glue some elf ears on Romeo. Themes are the least of their concerns.

EN-Esty · 2022-02-21T23:03:59+00:00

You know that storyline in PJ's Hobbit films where Gandalf leaves the company at Mirkwood and travels to the High Fells of Rhudaur to investigate the tombs of the Nazgul because he suspects that Sauron is the Necromancer? Now, I imagine to most casual viewers that felt as authentically Tolkien and enjoyable as the rest of the films.

And yet for those who know a bit more about Middle-earth the idea that Gandalf goes back across the Misty Mountains after having just barely escaped Goblin town and the wargs, investigates tombs that shouldn't exist because the Nazgul are not dead, in a region that also shouldn't really exist at this time, and then having all but confirmed his suspicions about the Necromancer bounces back across the Misty Mountains to confront Sauron alone and without a plan - well that probably felt a little daft even before we consider that he achieved all of that and more before the rest of the company had even passed through Northern Mirkwood.

Why do I mention this? Because those of us who felt a slight pang over these scenes are not the target audience for this show. Satisfying us is both more difficult and less profitable and so the show will bend and break the lore in small and large ways all whilst wearing the skin of Middle-earth that the casual viewer enjoys.

I think people on this subreddit need to accept that and also accept that ultimately there will be no objective measure for when the show stops being a faithful adaptation. Our enjoyment is going to come down to our own personal tolerance for these breaks and for some people their tolerance has already been breached. For others it will come more slowly if it comes at all. Personally I'm going to try and enjoy it for what it is but I can't say I'm optimistic.

EN-Esty · 2022-02-21T14:51:01+00:00

Oddly enough that's actually one of the things that made me less optimistic about the show. The themes of the second age are actually quite different from those of the third age.

EN-Esty · 2022-02-06T08:12:31+00:00

You think it would demonstrate more care if the sword was already engraved with "Sting" & "Spiders Bane" before the events -- killing a bunch of enormous spiders inspiring Bilbo to name it Sting -- have even occurred?

The Hobbit trilogy is pretty poor but this is a decent spot by the OP and good attention to detail by the crew.

EN-Esty · 2022-01-20T07:23:25+00:00

I agree with your reply but just wanted to point out that Lee didn't know Tolkien. The closest they got was Tolkien walking into a pub Lee was drinking in and Lee being too starstruck to talk to him.

EN-Esty · 2022-01-20T07:11:18+00:00

I guess Tolkien had no knowledge of the source material either. Don't get me wrong I think the voice over is poor and lacking in gravitas too but the pronunciation is correct.

EN-Esty · 2022-01-09T21:16:45+00:00

Whether Moiraine was correct or not is irrelevant to the OPs point. Egwene believed she could be the dragon and this changed - and OP contends, weakened - her motivations and character.

EN-Esty · 2022-01-09T16:55:57+00:00

Emond's Field five - Egwene, Nynaeve, Rand, Matt, Perrin. I don't think Emond's Field is referenced in the show but in the book it's the town they grow up in which is in the wider area known as The Two Rivers.

EN-Esty · 2022-01-09T16:19:24+00:00

I agree completely. Egwene and Nynaeve (and women in general in this series) are already well developed and powerful and so this unnecessary change not only robbed them of agency but also did so at the expense of the male Emond's Fielders. This is especially true for Rand who the show defines almost exclusively by his relationship with Egwene, outside of which he's barely a character - a troubling position for what is arguably the lead character to find themselves in.

In addition, by creating a need for ambiguity around the identity (and sex) of the original dragon I think the change contributed to one of the biggest failings of the show; that is, whilst the show set up the identity of the dragon reborn as the central mystery of the season, it completely failed to establish what being the dragon means and why it matters. And if you don't have that, well, why should the audience care who the dragon is if they don't know what the dragon is?

EN-Esty · 2022-01-07T11:26:48+00:00

Notes on data collection and specific series:

-The word count does not necessarily reflect total word count for a given series. Rather, it’s the word count for the part of the series that’s been adapted. For example, I only included Eye of the World for the WoT word count (more on that in a moment).

-In the opposite manner, I only included the runtimes for seasons 1-5 of Game of Thrones. I haven’t seen or read it, but according to what I could find, season 5 is when they pretty much ran out of books? Could be wrong there.

-I realize WoT had a few things from other books, but in my mind, the overall effect wasn't that different. Although some things were swapped around, I feel comfortable saying this adaptation only covered 1 book.

-Same thing with the Witcher, I only included the 3 books the show is mainly based on, although I believe it may pull from a couple of others. (Again, could be wrong)

-I included the Lord of the Rings twice with both the theatrical and extended editions because it is cinematic perfection

EN-Esty · 2022-01-06T18:54:06+00:00

And that also probably means that everything is already written and implemented in the game. Now they just need to focus on the technical side

It doesn't mean that at all. It's a later stage of development sure but every aspect will still be undergoing active development right up until (and even after) launch.

EN-Esty · 2021-12-28T15:39:40+00:00

Well I'm sure that will make the censorship easier. We won't even notice when a thread gets removed because it will never appear in the first place.

EN-Esty · 2021-12-28T15:21:05+00:00

I agree with the sentiment that they are not spending enough time on character development and world building but disagree that it's necessarily due to the runtime rather than how incredibly inefficient they are being with the runtime that they do have and what they're choosing to focus on.

For instance, some people complain about using The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a comparison point but I think it's fair to do so. After all, the extended editions of the first two films total around the same runtime as the show and both series are large-scale high-fantasy epics with extensive lore; surely at least some comparison can be made. And here I think it's obvious that the first two films manage to tell a much larger story with greater depth than the first season of this show has managed in the same runtime.

And the reason is obvious when you start to compare scenes. For example let's just compare the prologues because the prologue of the first film in the trilogy is an absolute masterpiece in efficient and effective world building. In fewer than 10 minutes we find ourselves completely immersed in the world of Middle-earth and gain an understanding of its geography and its cultures, including their languages, histories, and conflicts. We immediately understand who the villains and heroes are, the beginnings of their motivations, and ultimately the stakes for the entire trilogy. Perhaps most importantly we see these characters and events unfold on screen rather than simply having them described to us.

This show, by comparison, allows just 1 minute of a rushed monologue by Moirane of the barest threads of detail about the dragon and the Aes Sedai, with the camera spinning aimlessly around her instead of providing any useful visual information. It's a good example of the missed opportunities and incredibly poor writing and direction the series has been plagued with throughout. If this show a comparable prologue to that of LotR then we would have had an explanation of the sealing of the dark one, the dragon, and the nature of saidin/saidar and the taint. That would have set us up perfectly for the dragon reborn mystery and made his reveal far more satisfying (and tragic) when we got it. Instead, we had no reason to care about who the dragon is because we didn't know what the dragon is. Seven and a half episodes of guess who and when it was revealed there was no reason to care because we don't understand its implications.

And this was not due to a lack of time. The Fellowship of the Ring spent 7 minutes of its 3 and a half hour runtime to establish the world we would eventually spend ~12 hours in; do we really believe the WoT could only spare 1 minute of its 8 hour first season to establish one we might be spending ~64 hours in, or that the details above couldn't have been presented within a comparable length of time? No the WoT had enough runtime, it just chose to spend it poorly.

EN-Esty · 2021-12-28T14:58:00+00:00

I'm sure we will get more details next season but that doesn't make up for it being incredibly poor storytelling not to do it this season.

EN-Esty · 2021-12-28T14:50:06+00:00

TV shows are different from films in that they filter their audience over time. If you don't enjoy a show you tend to stop watching and rating episodes, so anyone who has gotten to later episodes has presumably at least somewhat enjoyed the preceding episodes and will continue to rate them highly (with the exception of disasters like GoT). Basically over time you end up with episodes being rated by a condensed audience of fans who are predisposed to enjoy them compared to the more general audience you might get watching and rating a single film. A lower rating is therefore much more damning.

EN-Esty

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