Spoilers Willow sequel series on Disney+

[Christopher]

I thought there was an interesting bit of setup and payoff. Hubert criticized Elora for lacking "situational awareness," but then we got to the part where Ballentine's men noticed that Elora's friends horses had been left there and debated whether it was a trap. And then Elora made her big loud speech and boasted that she'd cast a spell, which seemed to me like she was stalling and waiting for her friends to show up and save her, because she knew from the horses' presence that they must be nearby. So in that case, she did show situational awareness.

So you'd be OK with Willow saying "Yo homey, let me get a toke of that kush?" It's all fantasy so why not, right?

I don't care for reductio ad absurdem argument, so I won't respond to that. But basically, if it's a totally imaginary world that never existed, then having them speak 21st-century vernacular is no more artificial than having them speak Shakespearean English.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I don't care for reductio ad absurdem argument, so I won't respond to that. But basically, if it's a totally imaginary world that never existed, then having them speak 21st-century vernacular is no more artificial than having them speak Shakespearean English.

I admit to going there because I don't feel it's right to completely dismiss anachronism within the context of a fantasy setting.

 

[JD]

I was a little surprised by the more modern style dialogue, but honestly, it's kind of a nice change of pace. So many of these kind of shows try to do period style dialogue, and a lot of the time it just comes across as cheesy and pretentious, it's kind of nice to get a show that doesn't bother with that.

 

[Christopher]

I admit to going there because I don't feel it's right to completely dismiss anachronism within the context of a fantasy setting.

I'm not "completely dismissing" it, I'm saying it's worth examining the assumptions behind it. I'm sincerely asking how you would even define the word "anachronism" in the context of an imaginary world whose history is invented and does not map onto ours. Yes, most sword-and-sorcery productions present themselves as "the past," but it's a generic past that's usually an amalgam of numerous historical eras, combined with ahistorical elements such as magic and monsters. It's not the actual past and doesn't pretend to be, so how is the word "anachronism" even definable?

I was a little surprised by the more modern style dialogue, but honestly, it's kind of a nice change of pace. So many of these kind of shows try to do period style dialogue, and a lot of the time it just comes across as cheesy and pretentious, it's kind of nice to get a show that doesn't bother with that.

I think it's worth remembering that part of what George Lucas did with Star Wars was to take the pretentiousness out of space opera by having the characters talk and act like contemporary people, saying things like "You've got something jammed in here real good" or "Laugh it up, fuzzball" instead of something more affected. So it's no surprise that Willow was done with the same kind of natural language and relaxed attitude instead of affected "period" speech. I suppose in its way, it was a forerunner of things like Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, which also took a "modern" approach to the dialogue and characters and didn't worry much (or at all) about period authenticity.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

For me, it's that we are looking at a generation that was basically a core of original inhabitants in one limited area with some refugees arriving periodically. Kit stands out as having a different dialect than everyone she grew up around. Apparently there is no internet or social media that could have influenced her. It sticks out. I have learned to ignore it but I do have to ignore it.

They may be using that she's royalty to show how they don't see things like the rest of that world. The ones who seem most "modern" to me are Kit, Graydon and Boorman. So it could be to show how they indeed don't fit in and are outsiders to the majority ways of that world. EDIT: watching again, they all seem about the same, I just need to get used to it lol

 

[Nerys Myk]

It's a fictional world with it's own "history". How can anything be anachronistic? Most of these fantasy worlds grab language, fashion, architecture and weapons from all across actual history.

 

[valkyrie013]

Good episode, worse of the 3 so far imho.
Silas dying sucked, as said, now willow is the only little person. Go shiv somebody.. Classic..

Kinda wish they'd do better swordplay. Jade/Erin didn't look convincing at all this time.

For Willow, does that mean there is only so much magic one has? Or that it takes a toll and he can no longer deal with it? At least it showed him doing magic. But do hate when they Nerf a hero in some way. I mean not going around flaunting it, but able to do it at will without seemingly toasted after 1 spell.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Watched it again, liked it better second time around. Getting a little more in the vibe of our hapless group.

I'm still a bit confused by the ninja vanish after Willow's smoke bomb and the geography afterwards was a bit bewildering.

It's odd those lesbian cabineers are in the middle of this sunny spot in the middle of the storm like the opposite of Nockmarr. Are they magical or did Elora perhaps unknowingly conjure them? They do seem to be kind of randomly existing there. There is the odd shot of Willow seeing Elora's eyes light up for a moment. Of course, the sun only disappears when the bad men come and violate the space.

The were-rats was a fun old school moment. Is it just my TV or did get insanely dark (as in literally) by the end?

 

[Christopher]

I'm still a bit confused by the ninja vanish after Willow's smoke bomb

Not that confusing. The soldiers just took the opportunity to get to their horses and ride away under the smoke cover. Willow's tactic backfired. He was trying to give his team cover to spirit Elora away from the soldiers, but it worked out the opposite way, because Willow's team is a mess and the soldiers were more organized.

It's odd those lesbian cabineers are in the middle of this sunny spot in the middle of the storm like the opposite of Nockmarr.

They weren't in the middle of the storm. At the point when Elora cut her ropes and ran away from the soldiers, the lighting was fairly normal and the building storm was off in the distance. I think Willow's band were closer to the storm.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Not that confusing. The soldiers just took the opportunity to get to their horses and ride away under the smoke cover. Willow's tactic backfired. He was trying to give his team cover to spirit Elora away from the soldiers, but it worked out the opposite way, because Willow's team is a mess and the soldiers were more organized.

I understood what happened but it seemed odd they could do all that in what looked like one second.

They weren't in the middle of the storm. At the point when Elora cut her ropes and ran away from the soldiers, the lighting was fairly normal and the building storm was off in the distance. I think Willow's band were closer to the storm.

I mean every other thing was in the storm. The circle of trees Elora ran into certainly seemed to be in the middle of where they were.

 

[Christopher]

I understood what happened but it seemed odd they could do all that in what looked like one second.

It was more than one second, and it wouldn't have taken more than a few seconds to break off, run a few feet to the horses, and spur them into a gallop. I'm sure soldiers are trained to be able to mount a horse swiftly.

I mean every other thing was in the storm. The circle of trees Elora ran into certainly seemed to be in the middle of where they were.

Hardly in the middle -- the swirling clouds were in the background. As we saw at the end, their epicenter is Bavmorda's castle.

 

[valkyrie013]

Decent episode. Past 2 ep have been abit slow and abit boring..
Nice cgi of the "ghosts"
Hope it gets more interesting next week.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

A bit of a sobering episode but I liked that, helped ground the characters and a little bit of an attitude adjustment for the princess. Hopefully now that they're refocused, the back four episodes will have momentum propelling towards the end. I like Willow's somewhat druidic magic in the D&D sense as opposed to the flashy stuff often seen, where it seems more organic and nature based, it's a nice change of pace.

Black Hole Sun, not the worst choice...

 

[Vasquez Rocks]

I think this was the best episode so far. I liked the little bit of backstory on Bavmorda and the ghost like scenes from the movie. Something must have happened to Willow's wife Kiaya and son Ranon. They keep teasing the event that sent the Nelwyns underground. I'm really curious about that. Willow's family is something I loved about the original movie. It was nice to see Arik again finally, but what is going on with Graydon and that flashback of him as a kid? Black Hole Sun was a nice choice for the end credits even if it was a cover. I'm really enjoying the series. I hope it gets picked up for another season.

 

[Christopher]

Wasn't crazy about this one. It was just the gang holed up in a castle ruin for a whole episode, and their bickering is wearing thin. It felt like a money-saving bottle show, and it took too long to get to the meat of things. I'm torn on how heavily it tied into the movie, using actual footage as ghostly visions, but the way they integrated them into the new shots was technically effective, and it did serve to advance the narrative in a meaningful way.

Retconning Bavmorda into just a disciple of the show's villains feels a bit contrived, but I guess it helps tie things together. I suppose it's a good thing for the series to expand and deepen the movie's fairly basic worldbuilding. But so far the Crone has been more talked about than seen, so the idea of her/it/them/whatever as an even greater evil than Bavmorda doesn't really land, at least not yet.

I was surprised by Kit and Jade denying that they're in love. I got the impression in the first episode that they were already a couple, and I thought the reviewers were misreading it when they said Jade was surprised by Kit kissing her. But I guess the reviewers were right after all.

 

[Starbrow]

Very good cast choices, really enjoying the comedy and adventure part of the series.
Wasn't expecting to see such high quality monster-villains, that was a surprise.

The weirdest part is that i can't find much content on current Willow show. On youtube the one trending video for me is with 1 million views saying how this show is a disaster, than the usual haters like Nerdrotic and few random ones joining the trend.
On goggle search i couldn't even find any images of this 4 monster-villains other than this 4 plus few more from that fandom site.
Is this show beeing censored by google and youtube?

 

[Nombrecomun]

The weirdest part is that i can't find much content on current Willow show. On youtube the one trending video for me is with 1 million views saying how this show is a disaster, than the usual haters like Nerdrotic and few random ones joining the trend.

That is weird. I do see a lot of content about it on YT but it's all along what you said: bashing the show. I'm not a fan of Willow but it seems Youtubers have taken to criticizing it for being 'woke' and a bunch of other things rather than taking it to task for its merits and whatnot. I don't mean to go into that kind of charged discussion of the 'w' word but it's in a lot of those videos.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Buzz for the show seems to have died down about even here.

Today‘s episode was good for what it was.
Dealing with and resolving a lot of personal conflict between the characters.
Willow coming clean as living off his one time success reputation his whole life, while essentially being drunk.
Naturally being overheard by Elora.

Airk‘s story got put on the backburner again.

I liked the cold opening of the gang being thrown right into their next adventure running for their lives establishing the Crone is not done with them before getting sidetracked once more.

I am about ready for some swashbuckling and heroing with more wild chases, though.

maybe next week will give that to us and have the gang hunt the or…trolls all the way to Iseng… wherever Trolls take their hostages.

 

[Christopher]

I found today's episode pretty impressive, taking what had been set up as just simplistic savage villains -- connected to General Kael, Bavmorda's pure-evil general from the movie (played by Pat Roach, a stuntman who made a career of getting killed by Indiana Jones in at least one marquee fight per movie) -- and taking them in a far more complex and challenging direction, turning them into people who allied with Bavmorda for protection against their former enslavers in Galadoorn, Graydon's kingdom. The revelation of Jade's true origins is a bit on the nose, but interesting in the way it complicates the politics of the Willow universe, making it less of a traditional fantasy realm of pure good and evil and closer to the messiness of real history. The main disappointment is that there was no exploration of how the Reavers felt about Graydon, the prince of the kingdom that enslaved their people, or how he felt about his kingdom having enslaved them.

The show's universe is really small. Just by running into the woods to escape pursuit, our band randomly runs into a group who turn out to be escaped slaves from Graydon's kingdom; their leader is Boorman's ex-lover, the daughter of Kit's father's nemesis, and Jade's long-lost sister all at the same time; and they randomly throw Willow into a prison cell that just happens to have been built around the home of his old friend Rool. Even Charles Dickens would find all that a bit contrived. Is "Wildwood" short for "Wild Coincidence Wood?"

 

[valkyrie013]

It's okay, but I find it a bit boring.. Can we move on to the next city? Bit more magic? Bit more.. Well.. Fun and wonder?
Was kind of hoping it would be more aimed at kids.. More wonder, magic and fun times. Not the CW teeny angst. Owell. Hope for better next week.
Starring to wish they did a sequal movie instead of a series.