I don't even like Tolkien (find his writing to be just excessive, I don't need to know the color of the buttons on the shirt of the dead character with no name), and even I have to agree, lol.

Too many re-interpretations of authors' works. Tolkien is highly detailed - not reflecting that (or worse, substituting your own details) in a movie or show is just hubris. If you're so damn good why don't you write your own shit. Oh, your name doesn't sell instantly is why.

[–] Norgur@kbin.social 18 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

We've seen this with the Witcher, we've seen it with GoT, we've seen it with LOTR: super artistic production teams which have their heads so deep up their own arses and are entrenched so deeply inside that weird removed-from-reality Hollywood bubble that they legitimately think they know better how to interpret the lore some world renowned author made than the author himself. Always ends in mediocre showsand hilarious interviews with said production teams where

a) everybody is wrong but them
b) bUt OuR vIsIoN

[–] DrBob@lemmy.ca 11 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Oh God The Witcher. The production team was handed an incredibly strong female lead character who was smarter, more politically astute, and more feared/respected than almost any other character in the series. And they immediately tore her down and made her a petty whining brat while claiming it was about female empowerment. A pox on Netflix and the entire production team.

[–] s38b35M5@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Didn't the show runner say that the dumb public was to blame for the failure of the show?

Edit: he blamed dumb Americans.

Baginski said, “When a series is made for a huge mass of viewers, with different experiences, from different parts of the world, and a large part of them are Americans, these simplifications not only make sense, they are necessary.”

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

He has a point about simplifications when it comes to media and art being approachable by the masses (and I say this with no insult intended, simplification of anything will always have broader appeal). See popular music vs avante-guard jazz (i.e. Miles Davis, probably the most-approachable of the type!)

But holy cow what a condescending, arrogant, insulting pick.

Fuck him and anything he ever touches.

[–] Zahille7@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

And we Americans complain about our own dumbing down of media to ship overseas.

I'm glad I didn't watch the show.

[–] Norgur@kbin.social 1 points 10 months ago

Thing is: They are working from the basis of media that has been successful already. So the amount of "dumbing down" neccessary to achieve a somewhat broad appeal has already been done by the author of the original, so to speak. Their argument doesn't hold any water whatsoever on no level imaginable.

[–] DrBob@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago

Projection is a powerful drug.

[–] Sylvartas@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There is some stuff I don't dislike about Netflix's Witcher, but god damn, I feel like they actively set out to do the worst rewriting ever with how they treated/portrayed basically the entire Lodge of Sorceresses

[–] DrBob@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

My hopes were so high for the stupid thing. They couldn't tell the story in front of them that was already loaded with allegorical social justice issues. They had to reinterpret the entire thing and just plain fucked it up. Just sad.

[–] FangedWyvern42@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Game of Thrones is an odd one, because what they did was fuck up the characters. All of them. I don’t think a single character who survived to the end was left unscathed by shitty writing outside of a couple minor characters. It doesn’t really help that they obviously rushed the ending out, which only made it worse by making the actions of the characters make absolutely no sense.