D&D Movie/TV Dragonlancing TV show being worked on by WotC confirmed

[Paul Farquhar]

Dragonlance is really hit by the "show don't tell" rule. Because it relies and awful lot on telling you who is good and who is evil. If it's up to the viewer to decide based on the characters' actions they may well come to quite different conclusions.

 

[deganawida]

Some good criticism of Chronicles. I think some of the “show, don’t tell” failures in Chronicles are improved in Legends, even though I don’t particularly care for anything outside of Chronicles except for this newest trilogy.

I also agree that almost all of the Heroes of the Lance have likability issues. I think some of that is due to how little the first three books focus on anyone who isn’t Tanis, Laurana, Tasslehoff, or the twins. For example, my favorite character, Riverwind, does not have a single PoV segment in the books. Sturm is also, despite being vital, given short-shrift on motivations and perspectives, though he does show more than tell more than any other character in the HotL IMO, and also goes through arguably more growth than anyone but Laurana. Yet, the trilogy uses Tanis “He’s Captain Kirk” Half-Elven as the focal point, and, I’m sorry, but he’s super immature and not a man of action like James T. Kirk despite what Tracy Hickman allegedly told Margaret Weis when she was having difficulty writing him. Had Tanis been really tempted to join the dragon armies for more than just Kit, he’d have had more depth than a puddle, but they wrote him as someone too good whose only real fault was loving bad people, and yet was able to keep from joining the bad people in doing bad things. Sad thing is that there is an interesting character there, he’s just never really given the chance in the first three books to develop (though he is better in later books).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I also agree that almost all of the Heroes of the Lance have likability issues.

In TV casting has a big effect on that.

 

[humble minion]

In TV casting has a big effect on that.

To be fair, in visual media the most awful characters imaginable can attract a devoted and protective following that will rationalise their every on-screen atrocity if a large enough proportion of the audience finds the actor hot.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

To be fair, in visual media the most awful characters imaginable can attract a devoted and protective following that will rationalise their every on-screen atrocity if a large enough proportion of the audience finds the actor hot.

I was thinking in terms of quality acting, not physical appearance...


But another issue with The Heroes of the Lance: there are simply too many of them! For good reason of course, they started out as a pool of pregens for players to some choose from. You could cut some (such as Stum and Flint) or reduce them to cameos - the novels did this to a degree. A couple could be merged, e.g. Tanis and Riverwind. And you would want to adjust the gender and ethnicity balance.

Then you have the kender problem. Not the usual RPG kender problem, but the problem of making them not look rubbish on screen (thinking of no D&D movie in particular). The Peter Jackson approach is too expensive and slow for TV, we know how bad green screening normally proportioned actors looks. You might cast a child - but then how do you make it clear the character is not a child? Or (I think this is the best option) you could go the Willow route and cast a small actor. I think Tass is too important a character to cut, but they could be gender-swapped without making much difference.

But however you go about making this show, there is no way to do it without annoying the heck out of the hardcore fanbase.

 

[Parmandur]

I was thinking in terms of quality acting, not physical appearance...


But another issue with The Heroes of the Lance: there are simply too many of them! For good reason of course, they started out as a pool of pregens for players to some choose from. You could cut some (such as Stum and Flint) or reduce them to cameos - the novels did this to a degree. A couple could be merged, e.g. Tanis and Riverwind. And you would want to adjust the gender and ethnicity balance.

Then you have the kender problem. Not the usual RPG kender problem, but the problem of making them not look rubbish on screen (thinking of no D&D movie in particular). The Peter Jackson approach is too expensive and slow for TV, we know how bad green screening normally proportioned actors looks. You might cast a child - but then how do you make it clear the character is not a child? Or (I think this is the best option) you could go the Willow route and cast a small actor. I think Tass is too important a character to cut, but they could be gender-swapped without making much difference.

But however you go about making this show, there is no way to do it without annoying the heck out of the hardcore fanbase.

Target is probably the softcore fanbase: both people with gentle fond memories of their youth reading the originals who dropped off after 3 or 4, and new people (there are way more new people).

It's distinctly doable.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Target is probably the softcover fanbase: both people with gentle fond memories of their youth reading the originals who dropped off after 3 or 4, and new people (there are way more new people).

It's distinctly doable.

Oh sure, it could be a good show. I'm just rebutting those who have said that the best way to adapt a novel to TV is to change nothing.

 

[amethal]

It really struck me that you'd need to do a bit of work to make ANY of the characters particularly likeable by modern lights, to be honest. Sturm is again and again a judgmental stiff-necked prig, Raistlin is a snide and selfish gaslighting user and jerk, Gilthanas is pretty awful, Tika and Laurana and Silvara (and even Goldmoon, early on) continually chuck their pride and dignity out the window trailing after men who constantly dismiss them in favour of other priorities, Tanis spends his time 'leading the group' by manipulating everyone rather than genuinely listening to their concerns

And Caramon is way too tolerant of Raistlin's jerkiness (and ends up a drunken bum at one point, although that might be in the Twins books). Re-reading the series as an adult (or rather trying to and failing to get through it), I found myself disliking most of the "heroic" characters and dismissing others as mere cyphers. And as for Tanis, Captain Kirk he ain't. At least Kitiara had some character, even if it was (to paraphrase Little Bill in Unforgiven), "bad" character.

and Tasselhoff is the source of ALL the worst kender cliches

Tasselhoff, on the other hand, is a delight. It's not his fault all the people who had previously been playing disruptive CN thieves decided to start playing disruptive CN kender thieves.

 

[Parmandur]

Oh sure, it could be a good show. I'm just rebutting those who have said that the best way to adapt a novel to TV is to change nothing.

That's for sure: but I doubt the population of people who would go "oh, hey, Dragonlance" is actually that hardcore on average.

 

[humble minion]

And Caramon is way too tolerant of Raistlin's jerkiness (and ends up a drunken bum at one point, although that might be in the Twins books).

Yeah, Caramon as drunken slob is how the Twins books start.

Through the Chronicles though, Caramon is a pretty damn convincing illustration of someone who has been ruthlessly gaslighted and emotionally abused for a long, long time. So I at least see where he’s coming from, but this doesn’t make him any more likeable, of course, especially when he splatters the fallout onto others. But again, that’s a pretty convincing, if awful and depressing, illustration of how this sort of character dynamic can often operate.