The Shannara Chronicles

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Janeway’s Girl, Jan 5, 2016.

  1. Set Harth

    Set Harth Vice Admiral Admiral

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    On Demand to the rescue!!!
     
  2. Procutus

    Procutus Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah, I agree. While I can't recall every detail from the book (too many years and too many other Shannara novels in-between) I can certainly tell when 'creative license' takes over and they begin to diverge from
    Terry's vision of things. I'm still enjoying the show for what it is, but this last ep kinda pulled me out of the story.

    :scream:
     
  3. Mr Light

    Mr Light Admiral Admiral

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    I checked, my V.O.D. cable provider has some MTV shows but not Shannara.
     
  4. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I was LOL... I thought he was going to show the moon landing and then... the Enterprise! hahaha

    Thoroughly enjoying this embarrassingly bad but also pretty good series. Entertaining in that I have no idea what is coming next.
     
  5. Procutus

    Procutus Admiral Admiral

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    I'm enjoying it as well, despite the occasional creative differences from the source material. The whole thing with the human colony felt somewhat out of place, but hopefully they'll get back on track this next week.
     
  6. Mr Light

    Mr Light Admiral Admiral

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    Okay, I dug up my cable log-in to use the MTV app. Didn't work. Guess I just won't be seeing that episode :nyah:
     
  7. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    And a great quandary fell upon teacake, greyish and pregnant with BBS rules..
     
  8. Mr Light

    Mr Light Admiral Admiral

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    So I read a synopsis of ep 8 before watching ep 9.
    Is James Remar's character definitely dead or was it left ambiguous?
     
  9. Stephen Lee

    Stephen Lee Commodore Commodore

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    ...hmm since we didn't see his body getting ripped apart by the trolls, maybe he survived? He did get shot so our trio do think he is dead.
     
  10. Mr Light

    Mr Light Admiral Admiral

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    Very thrilling finale!

    I'm glad to see Amberle actually died, that the victory had a cost. It was also nice to see the Dagda Mor actually participate in the battle. Of course, if Amberle hadn't stopped to have a five minute chat with Will then a) a few hundred less Elves and Gnomes would have died and b) the Dagda Mor wouldn't have gotten anywhere close to the three.

    The only huge issue I had was how quickly Amberle and Will got back home. They just spent six episodes on this long meandering travel through different lands that clearly took several weeks, yet they get back home in the space of five minutes. While an army is marching on the tree at the same time. As the episode opened I kept saying clearly they're going to find a magical portal or a flying beast to take them back in time!

    My DVR cut out at the end, did anything happen after we saw SPOILER take off on a horse down a green Shire-looking countryside?
     
  11. BigFoot

    BigFoot Admiral Admiral

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    Are we supposed to use spoiler tags after an episode has already aired? That seems silly to me. Either way...

    Regarding the end of the finale:
    Yeah there was a short clip where a captured Eretria is being brought before what appears to be a troll leader. He (she?) takes of his mask and Eretria recognizes him (we don't see his face).

    Regarding Amberle:
    And trust me, if we get a second season, there's no way Amberle will stay "dead".
     
  12. Set Harth

    Set Harth Vice Admiral Admiral

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    It's gotta be Cephalo... right?
     
  13. Scout101

    Scout101 Admiral Admiral

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    As far as Amberle? Can't see how she plays a part. She's NOT dead, she'll outlive everyone in the show, she's just a tree now. If they want to keep the actress, they can grab onto the line about Elcrys being the lifeforce of the world, and have her 'speaking' to Wil as things are being poisoned from the Wishsong storylines. Sucks to have too much of her in this, though, as Eretria is supposed to get the guy in this one.

    You CAN keep things going with Wil and Eretria, though, and not needing their kids. They put that hook there when the stones healed her/brought her back to life. She already had some magic connection, so adding the stones to that and she can effectively take over that plot. And Wil can either keep using the stones or gets the weaker bleedover Wishsong powers that were more illusion-based. Not a huge stretch to adapt things and keep them going with these actors.

    Just hope they tighten up the writing. Less teen angst, not so many old-world trinkets and parties with movies and guns. Commit to the fantasy setting and go with it. Plenty of good source material, don't need fluff in a 10-episode season to pad things out. And without the massive battles in the next one, hopefully there's more budget for regular usage?

    Big complaint was just the pacing of this season. So much fluff that wasn't needed, and couldn't get 10 episodes out of a huge book without needing 3-4 episodes worth of added side nonsense? Come on. The quest itself was an afterthought, kinda disappointing. And Allanon stayed behind to help the elves fight a delaying war, slow siege. What we got instead was one small skirmish right outside the gate for about 2 minutes, wtf? And no particular demons or creatures, just generic orc mask leftovers from LOTR. Pretty big letdown, the battle should have been going for a couple episodes, getting more desperate, etc. Instead, got 100 guys in the woods. Also probably would have been easier for Wil and Amberle to get back if they remembered that they JUST met a guy with a giant flying bird, no? Oopsies. Especially seeing as how they Rocs actually played into the end of the book, odd to leave them out.

    Didn't hate it, but fairly disappointed. After the decent adaptations of LOTR/Hobbit, and GoT, guess I was hoping for a more faithful adaptation here. Especially with the author fully onboard and participating in this one. Felt pretty watered down and generic, but with familiar character names and most of the same/similar plot strokes.
     
  14. BigFoot

    BigFoot Admiral Admiral

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    That's what I was thinking. I could be wrong though.
     
  15. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    SO GoT stole this turned into a tree deal from Shannara.

    The great pace that pleased me kinda slowed in the last two eps.

    I have a question. What the heck was the woman Amberle saw when she was through the blood thingie? She wanted Amberle to stay. Amberle refused and went back. WHAT! To stay for what? It was all so unclear.
     
  16. Stephen Lee

    Stephen Lee Commodore Commodore

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    ^Yea, that part & the quest was very unclear. They do a better job explaining it in the book as per another review I read. I have not read the books yet but the basic idea is that when Amberle entered the bloodfire, she was informed that she herself was the 'seed' and she needed to sacrifice herself to become the next Ellcrys (the tree) and she did not want to do it. Also the whole reason for the quest was for Amberle to absorb the bloodfire. (this was never pointed out in the show, I don't think the characters knew either). I'm guessing the energy from the bloodfire allows Amberle to be reborn as the Ellcrys?
     
  17. Mr Light

    Mr Light Admiral Admiral

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    Ah, yes, I forgot to mention that. So they spend an entire episode journeying across the world... only to learn that Amberle just had to walk into the tree back where they had started? So they didn't have to go anywhere? I would say it was about her emotional journey to get to the place where she'd sacrifice herself, but she certainly seemed up for it from the get go.
     
  18. Scout101

    Scout101 Admiral Admiral

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    No, she had to go take a dip in the bloodfire first. Otherwise, she'd already been in the tree, no journey required. They just did a shit job with both the quest and the holding action on the part of the Elves, and spent too much time on parties, angst, and political intrigue...
     
  19. Mr Light

    Mr Light Admiral Admiral

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    Did the tv show clearly state that and I missed it?
     
  20. Scout101

    Scout101 Admiral Admiral

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    Pretty much :) They said the seed needed to be immersed in the Bloodfire to prep it for becoming the new tree. And then gave her a small seed. Was just more symbolic, as the catch was that SHE was the seed that needed to get to the bloodfire, not the trinket the tree gave her.

    Only part I didn't get is when she was trapped in it. It had no reason to want her to stay, so she should have been able to walk back out...