Apparently MTV has now enabled geoblocking on the episode...
When I posted the message episode was still viewable from Finland. Was viewable all day yesterday also.
The Shannara Chronicles
- Thread starter Sparkle Fabulosa
- Start date
When I posted the message episode was still viewable from Finland. Was viewable all day yesterday also.
So, assuming all goes well on the show, gets picked up, etc...
What's the long term plan? Saw that they pulled in the bad guy from Wishsong as the leader of the demons, so they already have that in place. Do they recast as a future generation (like the books) for next season, or do they try and stretch things with more of the current cast to go on the next quest?
Don't want them to go down the Heroes route of planning to recast, then finding that this cast is popular and just keeping down that path instead. Shannara series spans a thousand years or so (I think?), so wondering what the thought process would be if it was popular and had to keep going past the epic battle at the end of this book. Or do they stretch this book itself out, and bring in book 3 elements to kick the payoff from book 2 down the road a ways?
Was happy to see that they at least paid lip service to Sword existing, even if it was a one-off and they tweaked things, as well as retconning the elfstones into the first book. Also Jerle Shannara references in there as well, whether you want that to be more Sword reference or First King reference, I suppose...
What's the long term plan? Saw that they pulled in the bad guy from Wishsong as the leader of the demons, so they already have that in place. Do they recast as a future generation (like the books) for next season, or do they try and stretch things with more of the current cast to go on the next quest?
Don't want them to go down the Heroes route of planning to recast, then finding that this cast is popular and just keeping down that path instead. Shannara series spans a thousand years or so (I think?), so wondering what the thought process would be if it was popular and had to keep going past the epic battle at the end of this book. Or do they stretch this book itself out, and bring in book 3 elements to kick the payoff from book 2 down the road a ways?
Was happy to see that they at least paid lip service to Sword existing, even if it was a one-off and they tweaked things, as well as retconning the elfstones into the first book. Also Jerle Shannara references in there as well, whether you want that to be more Sword reference or First King reference, I suppose...
Okay, I'm a bit confused... I thought Shannara was the name of the world/setting of the series, but now it seems to be the name of some legendary family that Wil is the last heir of. Is it both? Did they name the world after the guy?
Which is why ITV's new Beowulf show has nothing of the kind in its language.
Maybe I am being a tad critical, because the violence made me cringe. I know it's not really "out there" and there are far worse things on television, it just didn't sit well with me. It was kind of interesting and I'm glad that I tried it.
The setting of the series (both the novels and the TV show) is the United States - specifically the Pacific Northwest region - thousands of years after society was wiped out by a nuclear apocalypse that was the culmination of years of cataclysmic war, although its current denizens (Elves, Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, and Trolls) refer to it as the "Four Lands".
The reason the series is called SHANNARA is because each of its books (with the exception of the Genesis Trilogy and Legends Duology) focus on the descendents of an Elf named Jerle Shannara (with the TV series' primary protagonist, Wil, being the current descendent of said elf, as explained by Allanon).
The title of the first novel, The Sword of Shannara, literally refers to a sword that Jerle Shannara forged - with the help of a Druid named Bremen (who is referred to offhandedly when Allanon and Wil are searching for the Druid Codex in Paranor) and which was the only weapon capable of stopping the fearsome Warlock Lord.
I jumped into Elfstones. It's just that when the book starts Amberle was already a Chosen and has disappeared, they've found out the Elcrys is dying, and they've found the dead Chosen. The whole thing so far has been from the perspective of Prince Ander, Amberle's Uncle she was talking to a lot in the pilot, and there has been no sign of Wil, Amberle (other than second hand references), or Eretria, and Allanon just popped up in the beginning of Ch. 5.
John Rhys-Davis is her grandfather, her father is a third son of his who is already dead when the story starts.
The show is TV14, and it's pretty equal to what you see on most shows aimed at teen audience. It's violence and sexual content is pretty much on par with what you'd see on a CW show.
The Dagda Mor is the bad guy in Elfstones.
I've been wondering about this myself. They have said they have a plan for more seasons, so at this point I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt.
I was wondering how much of that was referencing the events of the first book.
Just out of curiosity, what shows do you usually watch? It seems like most SFF shows these days are at right about this level of violence.
I enjoyed the episode. I was just hoping for a fun LOTR style fantasy adventure, and that was pretty much we it was. It wasn't the greatest thing ever, but I definitely enjoyed it enough to stick with it.
Honestly, as much as I love Game of Thrones, I think I might have enjoyed this a tad bit more. This was fun, and I definitely prefer fun over dark and gritty most of the time.
I was just talking about the show, and there really weren't any contemporary elements there, and despite the post-apocalyptic setting, it was pretty much your standard high fantasy setting.
EDIT: I'm reading through an interview with Terry Brooks on IGN, and he adressed the question of what they are going to do if it continues past this season.
EDIT: I'm reading through an interview with Terry Brooks on IGN, and he adressed the question of what they are going to do if it continues past this season.
Terry Brook to IGN said:
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I can tell you what shows I don't watch:
GOT
Spartacus
Camelot
The Tudors
The Borgias
Rome
All of them are too violent for me. I found Shannara to be very similar. Not as bad but enough that I don't want to keep watching.
GOT
Spartacus
Camelot
The Tudors
The Borgias
Rome
All of them are too violent for me. I found Shannara to be very similar. Not as bad but enough that I don't want to keep watching.
I thankfully have almost no recollection of Camelot. 
Ash vs. Evil Dead. But it's a comedy.
I was bored so I watched the third episode...
Okay.
I'm in.
On to episode 4.
I was bored so I watched the third episode...
Okay.
I'm in.
On to episode 4.
There's where we draw the line differently, I guess. I'm curious about that show, because I liked Army of Darkness, but what I hear about the extreme levels of gore has kept me away.
It's about as extreme as you can possibly get.
But worth it because of Ash and his hilarious one-liners! His cohorts aren't bad either.
Plus it has Lucy.
Finished episode 4. Now I'm officially hooked.
But worth it because of Ash and his hilarious one-liners! His cohorts aren't bad either.
Plus it has Lucy.
Finished episode 4. Now I'm officially hooked.
I watched the first four today. The modern speech of the characters is my biggest annoyance (well the fact only Jon Rys Davies has an accent is a close second). I guess its an attempt to have more teenagers identify.
The show is a lot better adaption than I expected. It is significant better than other fantasy adaptions like Legend Of The Seeker IMO. Its not on GOT level, but its been pretty good. The story moves faster than I expected it to. It will be interesting how they balance Arborlon demon defense vs Ellcrys seed quest in terms of screentime.
The show is a lot better adaption than I expected. It is significant better than other fantasy adaptions like Legend Of The Seeker IMO. Its not on GOT level, but its been pretty good. The story moves faster than I expected it to. It will be interesting how they balance Arborlon demon defense vs Ellcrys seed quest in terms of screentime.
I apologize if this has been covered. But for those who have read the books, do we at some point find out why exactly there are elves, demons, dwarfs, magic, etc. in what is basically our future? Or is this not really our future, but a fantasy world that happened to become industrialized and then destroy itself?
I don't know the books, but in the opening titles, there was an image of a stream of blood branching into a shape that looked like a diagram of an evolutionary tree, with humans at the top and the names of the other humanoid species on the branches. I take it, then, that the elves, dwarves, trolls, etc. are offshoot species of humanity as a result of some accelerated evolutionary process.
I don't know why magic would suddenly manifest in the world, but that's no more arbitrary than the various other fantasy series based on the premise that there used to be magic in the world but it went away somehow.
If I remember my lore correctly, magic existed in ancient times before mankind became the dominant species on the planet, and then it came back after the cataclysm that destroyed human civilization.
Why is it an annoyance that Davies is the only one with an accent? Why should people living in the Pacific Northwest two thousand years from now have to speak with a non-North American accent? (Yes, I know accents in two thousand years will not likely sound anything like our modern accents do. That's not the point.)
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