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Willow - Official Teaser Trailer

Argyle King

Legend
Most fantasy is post-apocalyptic in the sense that it typically involves a background of older, greater, more advanced societies that have collapsed. This has to do both with making magical macguffins rare and irreplaceable and a transposition of tropes related to medieval European views of the fall of the Roman Empire as well as more general myths and legends in premodern societies of lost golden ages. Scattered, post-collapse societies are also cheaper to film, can have simpler worldbuilding, and lend themselves to being populatated by a limited, manageable cast of characters. In a sense, there is nothing in this show radically more post-apocolyptic than the movie's visit to a ruined, troll-infested Tir Asleen. Obviously if we take this view to the extreme almost everything becomes "post-apocalyptic" and the term becomes useless, but I do think it is worth keeping in mind that fantasy typically has elements of a post-apocalyptic setting and ideas of collapsed, greater past societies are pretty thoroughly baked into the genre such that authors will incorporate them without necessarily always giving the matter much thought.

That said the show does seem to be introducing an element of lost advanced high tech or magitech to the setting with both the flamethrower and the way it portrayed the cuirass powerpack Boorman recovered being used in flashback, which certainly feels like a new element in the setting and a genre shift more towards the sci-fi. Perhaps their fantasy planet will turn out to be in the Star Wars galaxy for some sort of grand Lucas conjunction.


I agree with the first part. A big part of Conan lore, dungeon delving, and etc involved Finding old forgotten treasures.

But your second paragraph is more of what I meant. My perception is that the Willow show is going in a very different direction than what's usually fantasy, the older Willow movie, and even different from a lot of what was in the first two episodes of the show.

I'm not saying that's good or bad. It's just very different than I expected, and I'm not entirely sure that I know what type of show I am now watching.
 

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Aeson

I am the mysterious professor.
I couldn't make it out. Was that a Scorpions tshirt? I could tell she was wearing one of those animal onesies "the kids these days" wear. 🤣
I liked the sidequest comment. He wasn't wrong.
It was a character development episode and I'm ok with that. I'm not sure of the about face with the bone-reavers. I did find them amusing after though.
 




Tonguez

A suffusion of yellow
I’m behind (just reached Nockmaar) but a question - were Hubert and Anne suppose to be brownies? What was with Huberts weird speech patterns? Dumb they got killed off.
Is the show bringing back the brownies?
 

MarkB

Legend
I’m behind (just reached Nockmaar) but a question - were Hubert and Anne suppose to be brownies? What was with Huberts weird speech patterns? Dumb they got killed off.
They felt like the typical colourful cameo NPC, personality quirks dialled up to 11 so the DM can have some fun while surprising and entertaining the players. I swear Hubert did a knowing wink to camera at one point.

No, they're not brownies.
Is the show bringing back the brownies?
Yes.
 

Tonguez

A suffusion of yellow
A big part of the show revolves around the prince being taken to a fallen city (which is implied to have been something fantastic at some point in the past). Presumably, something happened there to cause the city's current state of disarray.

Various things (including Willow's flamethrower, and the armor pieces described by Boorman) indicate varying levels of technology being available. Disparate scraps of tech gives the impression that different areas of the world may have access to relics from a more-advanced past.

I'm not sure if the "Shattered Sea" actually means water. At first I thought that was the case, but some of how things have been described could be understood to mean some sort of wasteland (possibly radiated or ruined in some way).

As more details emerge about Elora Danan and what exactly Bavmorda was trying to do -notably banishing her soul- the more it vaguely resembles the background fluff for Warhammer's God-Emperor and how evil forces were trying to purge his soul.

Overall, it comes across as starting to feel more like there are touches of sci-fi or a post-apocalyptic setting. Though, in terms of being post-apocalyptic, the world isn't ruined. Enough time has passed that there is still a functioning world and society, but things from a previous age linger on.

The denim and graphic-print band tees also stand out as not quite fitting into fantasy.

Willow made a cameo in a star wars spin off game and there were once rumors that Willow occured in another galaxy in the Star Wars universe - so theres some rationale for the creeping sci-fi elements

non-canon rumours like those linking Star Wars, ET and Indiana Jones
 

Rabulias

the Incomparably Shrewd and Clever
non-canon rumours like those linking Star Wars, ET and Indiana Jones
Star Wars and ET are linked by canon. From The Phantom Menace:

https://wealthofgeeks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/E.T.-the-phantom-menace-galactic-senate-1024x576.jpg
 

MNblockhead

A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site
I'm sure many fans would hate it, but the idea of Willow being a post-apocalyptic setting with some sci-fi fantasy elements would be quite interesting if done well.
 

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