So...new love
Dec. 15th, 2010 02:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urthOkay, so in the course of a few days I basically inhaled 'Legend of the Seeker.' I still don't know if I'm really obsessed with the show or it was just really nice to feel the rush of new fandom love again. But I have thoughts...
NEW SHIP!!!. Richard/Kahlan is like the most epic thing...well maybe not ever but it's up there. Going in, somehow I had the idea they were a Robin/Marian type ship (which I didn't like) but it turns out their basically the adult Aang/Katara with a bit of Ned/Chuck thrown in. They're both bad-asses, and together they're unstoppable, they make each other more awesome not less so. And in a, to quote the show, "Undying love that can never be consummated." So it satisfies my need for angst along side my need for brilliant epic love stories.
Kahlan is totally my favorite character, followed by Zedd. Of the three leads Richard is actually my least favorite and I like him best in 'make shmoopy eyes at Kahlan' mode because he does do good shmoopy. But they're all pretty well done.
I actually thought Cara's redemption arc was really well handled, most shows can't get me to go along with it, but this one almost completely does. And Rahl is surprisingly charming for a bad guy. I would never root for him (he's not exactly Guy here, even if he IS quite attractive) but he's interesting (when he's not just serving as the mouth piece of the Keeper, that was boring).
On one hand I wish the show had continued, because they were obviously setting up for more but...I also like happy endings and as is the show basically ended with "And they lived happily ever after" so I'd be hesitant to say it HAS to come back.
Now, for the less that stellar aspects of the show. Because there were definitely a few.
While the female characters are great, they also have a bit of virgin/whore split going on. Kahlan walks around in white and is basically untouchable by any man, while the Mord Sith run around in tight red leathers and are all for sex and torture (mostly the later). I don't know if that falls under Goodkind's books or if that got exacerbated in the show. So I have a little bit of issue with the role of women in the series, and would probably have more if they weren't pretty well written in spite of that fact.
And, as is the trouble with a lot of fantasy stories, the sense of scale is totally lost. When the plot requires it it takes them weeks to get anywhere, but when the plot requires them to ride back and forth across the country in a few days they can do that. So it's hard to get a good sense of how much time is passing. I don't even want to think of how many times they doubled back over themselves in season 2, especially since there was supposed to be a sense of urgency to it that the longer they took the more people died and became zombies.
Overall I enjoyed the show, it reminds me a little of Robin Hood (which I loved) but more serious and plotty; a little of Merlin (which I'm kind of apathetic towards) without so many things that I personally find eye-rollingly stupid in that show; a little of Lord of the Rings (duh). But it's its own show, just reminiscent of other fantasy/adventure stories.
Anyway, I recommend it, or want people to have seen it so I can talk to them about it.
NEW SHIP!!!. Richard/Kahlan is like the most epic thing...well maybe not ever but it's up there. Going in, somehow I had the idea they were a Robin/Marian type ship (which I didn't like) but it turns out their basically the adult Aang/Katara with a bit of Ned/Chuck thrown in. They're both bad-asses, and together they're unstoppable, they make each other more awesome not less so. And in a, to quote the show, "Undying love that can never be consummated." So it satisfies my need for angst along side my need for brilliant epic love stories.
Kahlan is totally my favorite character, followed by Zedd. Of the three leads Richard is actually my least favorite and I like him best in 'make shmoopy eyes at Kahlan' mode because he does do good shmoopy. But they're all pretty well done.
I actually thought Cara's redemption arc was really well handled, most shows can't get me to go along with it, but this one almost completely does. And Rahl is surprisingly charming for a bad guy. I would never root for him (he's not exactly Guy here, even if he IS quite attractive) but he's interesting (when he's not just serving as the mouth piece of the Keeper, that was boring).
On one hand I wish the show had continued, because they were obviously setting up for more but...I also like happy endings and as is the show basically ended with "And they lived happily ever after" so I'd be hesitant to say it HAS to come back.
Now, for the less that stellar aspects of the show. Because there were definitely a few.
While the female characters are great, they also have a bit of virgin/whore split going on. Kahlan walks around in white and is basically untouchable by any man, while the Mord Sith run around in tight red leathers and are all for sex and torture (mostly the later). I don't know if that falls under Goodkind's books or if that got exacerbated in the show. So I have a little bit of issue with the role of women in the series, and would probably have more if they weren't pretty well written in spite of that fact.
And, as is the trouble with a lot of fantasy stories, the sense of scale is totally lost. When the plot requires it it takes them weeks to get anywhere, but when the plot requires them to ride back and forth across the country in a few days they can do that. So it's hard to get a good sense of how much time is passing. I don't even want to think of how many times they doubled back over themselves in season 2, especially since there was supposed to be a sense of urgency to it that the longer they took the more people died and became zombies.
Overall I enjoyed the show, it reminds me a little of Robin Hood (which I loved) but more serious and plotty; a little of Merlin (which I'm kind of apathetic towards) without so many things that I personally find eye-rollingly stupid in that show; a little of Lord of the Rings (duh). But it's its own show, just reminiscent of other fantasy/adventure stories.
Anyway, I recommend it, or want people to have seen it so I can talk to them about it.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-15 10:57 pm (UTC)Hmm...I'd be curious to see your reactions to the show, but I can definitely understand how your falling out with the books would influence your opinion of it. I enjoyed the show but haven't read any of the books (can't decide if I want to either), so I don't really have any crossover opinion.