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OT: Movies/TV Shows

Don't forget the magic that let Arya kill the Night King on her first try, because that would be totally ridiculous if there was no magic involved!
 
I feel like Arya could've been a character on Napoleon Dynamite where between chats with Napoleon and Pedro about mythical ligers (only probably his favorite animal), they could talk about skillz. Invincible centuries old undead zombie warrior killing skillz totally beat cake building in order to ask a girl to prom skillz.
 
Eh, GoT depended on magic a fair bit. Magically procreated/born Dragon's were a major plot device across multiple seasons (and the only thing that were able to push Dany's story forward believably) and the WW's were the dark cloud of dread hanging over everything for most of the series. Ressurections of multiple main characters, Faceless men, flaming swords, Bran.

Without magic most of the plotlines completely fall apart and pretty quickly.
Heard it said well in a WoT video

GoT was a medieval political drama with fantasy elements added gradually.


Random Note: Dany's story was the worst. Just terrible. Especially after the first book.
 
Heard it said well in a WoT video

GoT was a medieval political drama with fantasy elements added gradually.


Random Note: Dany's story was the worst. Just terrible. Especially after the first book.

Was it that gradual though? The story starts with magical direwolves that are basically guardians sent by the old gods being given to the kids, Jon going to a magic 700 foot ice wall and Dany is given dragon eggs.

There was always a very strong fantasy element from the beginning, but because there was tits, politics, and unpredictable violence it got ignored by a lot of people.
 
Eh, GoT depended on magic a fair bit. Magically procreated/born Dragon's were a major plot device across multiple seasons (and the only thing that were able to push Dany's story forward believably) and the WW's were the dark cloud of dread hanging over everything for most of the series. Ressurections of multiple main characters, Faceless men, flaming swords, Bran.

Without magic most of the plotlines completely fall apart and pretty quickly.

Oh not as a plot device - I mean more as in magic battles and spellfights. Which can look really dumb. But they do it well in this show.

This was something that Jackson was smart about in LoTR - the wizard battles weren't actually too magicky.
 
Haven't read the books, but the show is good so far, at least for the we're 2 years in and I've watched everything phase of COVID.
 
As someone who thinks the books aren't very good, imo the show suffers from the same thing the books do - the storyline is such an obvious LOTR ripoff it's pretty tough to get past.

They're also trying to walk a line where it's gritty like GoT but still kid-friendly. Which means plenty of violence but no sex. too bad.

And unlike GoT this world relies on magic in a huge way, which usually doesn't come across too well.....but I have to say that's probably the best part of the show so far - the magic doesn't look silly. it's pretty cool. and the effects in general are top notch.

Actors are all solid so far too.

It's clearly nowhere near GoT level but it might be a step up from the likes of Shannara chronicles or Badlands.
What?
First of all, there are female characters in WoT...but where the hell you getting this dumb idea from?

I mean you can argue that every single fantasy is a Lotr ripoff if you want, but I'd like to hear your parallels cause I don't see enough for that comment.
 
The thing is the first book IS heavily influenced by lord of the rings, Robert Jordan even admitted himself how big of an influence it was. However once you get through the first book it really becomes it's own thing as you are introduced to the wider world. Hopefully the show does okay and we get to see the tons of different nations and cultures from the books.
 
What?
First of all, there are female characters in WoT...but where the hell you getting this dumb idea from?

I mean you can argue that every single fantasy is a Lotr ripoff if you want, but I'd like to hear your parallels cause I don't see enough for that comment.

I kind of get where he's coming from with EOTW. Mysterious and wise wizardish person starts 4 (+1 in EOTW) naive shut ins from a far off and isolated village on a great quest to stop a big baddie. They meet a tree sheppard along the way (Ogier/Ent), big baddie lives in a mountain of sorts in the middle a desolate hellscape (blight/Mordor) of a land with a big and scary army of various types of inhuman creatures (Orcs/Trollocs) and a select few high powered underlings (nazgul/forsaken)

There are enough parallels in EOTW for it to be called pretty derivative of LOTR....but as you mentioned, a lot of high fantasy stories are LOTR derivative so whatev.

The parallels fade a fair bit as the story progresses.
 
I mean rural village attacked by orcs and black rider...err I mean trollocs and myrdraal protected by powerful magic being who leads them over a river on a ferry to go on a quest. They hide in an evil place. Some of the characters get stabbed with horrible poisoned weapons. It's pretty much a reboot.

The show is great though. Very much surprised by it so far.
 
Was it that gradual though? The story starts with magical direwolves that are basically guardians sent by the old gods being given to the kids, Jon going to a magic 700 foot ice wall and Dany is given dragon eggs.

There was always a very strong fantasy element from the beginning, but because there was tits, politics, and unpredictable violence it got ignored by a lot of people.
the show or the book?
the show downplayed the "powers" of the direwolves and the magic of the wall

i would say there was a fantasy element from the start but it was not strong and was not the focus

i guess zombies count as magic too but i would not consider walking dead the same as gandalf

either way the magic became more and more important as time went on

Dany is really the only main character with "magic powers" (fire does not hurt ) outside of maybe the stannis smoke baby (which actual seems really out of place now that i think about it)
 
What?
First of all, there are female characters in WoT...but where the hell you getting this dumb idea from?

I mean you can argue that every single fantasy is a Lotr ripoff if you want, but I'd like to hear your parallels cause I don't see enough for that comment.
judging only from the first 3 episodes

some unimportant folks have to leave their home with a wizard to escape some dark power and orcs so they can travel to a white tower
i am just waiting for the Ents to show up
 
I kind of get where he's coming from with EOTW. Mysterious and wise wizardish person starts 4 (+1 in EOTW) naive shut ins from a far off and isolated village on a great quest to stop a big baddie. They meet a tree sheppard along the way (Ogier/Ent), big baddie lives in a mountain of sorts in the middle a desolate hellscape (blight/Mordor) of a land with a big and scary army of various types of inhuman creatures (Orcs/Trollocs) and a select few high powered underlings (nazgul/forsaken)

There are enough parallels in EOTW for it to be called pretty derivative of LOTR....but as you mentioned, a lot of high fantasy stories are LOTR derivative so whatev.

The parallels fade a fair bit as the story progresses.
ya. what he said
 
judging only from the first 3 episodes

some unimportant folks have to leave their home with a wizard to escape some dark power and orcs so they can travel to a white tower
i am just waiting for the Ents to show up
Hmmm, I don't see it, even with that...I mean, basically every one of these stories is about someone finding out they're special, King Arthur to Narnia, it's always Everyman discovering their potential while on an epic journey.

Lotr, to me, was about Sam and Frodo, and I don't see a Sam and Frodo here.

To each his own...except for zeke...he's just wrong.
 
The thing is the first book IS heavily influenced by lord of the rings, Robert Jordan even admitted himself how big of an influence it was. However once you get through the first book it really becomes it's own thing as you are introduced to the wider world. Hopefully the show does okay and we get to see the tons of different nations and cultures from the books.
Influenced....well of course!
Wtf writes fantasy that isn't?

I'm doing this judging both series as a whole and I feel there are far, far more direct "rip offs," as zeke put it, than this.
 
the show or the book?
the show downplayed the "powers" of the direwolves and the magic of the wall

I don't know if I would say "downplayed", they very much explained it all in terms of magic/god stuff...but then rarely spoke of their origins again and just allowed tits and politics to ground you in what appears to be a magicless day to day reality.
i would say there was a fantasy element from the start but it was not strong and was not the focus

Yep, tits and politics were the "focus". But the plot falls apart immediately without the magical elements. It's a mediocre medieval drama without magic walls, wolves, white walkers, wargs, resurrections, shapeshifting, etc.
i guess zombies count as magic too but i would not consider walking dead the same as gandalf

The zombies in this story are 100% of magical origin. Again it's a matter of perception here. Because GoT crafted a world of gritty realism (tits, politics, and murder) it's easy to convince yourself that it's not about the magic.
Dany is really the only main character with "magic powers" (fire does not hurt ) outside of maybe the stannis smoke baby (which actual seems really out of place now that i think about it)

Well, Jon was kind of a resurrected jesus figure. Arya is a shapeshifter (yes, that's what faceless men are, it's a power granted by their gods and it's very clearly stated as that in both books and show). Bran a warg. The mum resurrected in the books (Lady Stoneheart). Melisandre/Thoros obviously.

All the show did was explain things as magic or of the gods once and then never refer to it as magic again and viewers just took the shit for granted. That's brilliantly done to remove the perception of it being a magical world (making it more traditional high fantasy), but the facts are the facts.
 
judging only from the first 3 episodes

some unimportant folks have to leave their home with a wizard to escape some dark power and orcs so they can travel to a white tower
i am just waiting for the Ents to show up

You're in luck, you don't have to wait until the middle of the story for the Ent this time.
 
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