Benjamin Olson
Hero
Maybe they'll just abruptly start having flashbacks to Willow's adventures on Tatooine:
Willow - Official Teaser Trailer
Paul Farquhar
Legend
People in the 14th century would have danced to familiar, popular music. But 14th century music would not be familiar and popular to a modern audience. So, in order to reproduce an authentic 14th-century emotional response in the audience, the music had to be modern. It's no different to having them speak modern English because the language spoken in the 14th century would be unintelligible.
And it's a lot easier to read that it would be to hear spoken!
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Benjamin Olson
Hero
On the subject of A Knight's Tale, I actually finally got around to watching it a couple months back. I had avoided when it came out because it came out while I was directing a one act play I had written involving a peasant pretending to be a knight and the plot similarities meant I constantly got "oh it's like A Knight's Tale" from people. That and taking a much firmer stance against what I perceived as "anachronism" at the time made me resent it.
Now, on the other side of having done graduate work in Medieval Studies. I recognize that basically every piece of modern media dealing with the middle ages is an exercise in rampant anachronism (and for "medieval" fantasy that goes roughly quintuply so) and I appreciate A Knight's Tale precisely for embracing anachronism and wielding it to further its narrative. That said I was disappointed that the subsequent uses of modern music, being more purely a soundtrack element not quite so clearly "in world", did not, in my eyes, quite live up to the opening with We Will Rock You being stomped along to by the crowd as it is in a modern sporting arena. Some sort of Bardcore renditions of the songs would really take it to the next level for me.
Now, on the other side of having done graduate work in Medieval Studies. I recognize that basically every piece of modern media dealing with the middle ages is an exercise in rampant anachronism (and for "medieval" fantasy that goes roughly quintuply so) and I appreciate A Knight's Tale precisely for embracing anachronism and wielding it to further its narrative. That said I was disappointed that the subsequent uses of modern music, being more purely a soundtrack element not quite so clearly "in world", did not, in my eyes, quite live up to the opening with We Will Rock You being stomped along to by the crowd as it is in a modern sporting arena. Some sort of Bardcore renditions of the songs would really take it to the next level for me.
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Benjamin Olson
Hero
On the subject of modern music in the Willow series, I have mixed feelings simply because it doesn't feel in tune with the original movie. At first I felt it was an absolute mistake, then a trippy cover of Hurdy Gurdy Man that seemed to capture the mixed feelings of the scene wonderfully won me over at the end of the second episode to a "I guess I'm okay with it over the credits" stance. Now the show is testing me once again by using it over fight scenes and the like, and I think they'd do better to avoid that.
Actually I think they'd do better to lean on the music from the original movie. If that music doesn't fit at least a little somewhere in an episode it's probably a sign that the given episode has gone a little off the rails. And the best evidence for this is this fan tribute to the original main theme, which I think shows pretty clearly how in lock-step it was with the general vibe we expect out of the Willow franchise:
That said, whatever sins this show may have committed against the tone of the movie, they pale in comparison to those of the Chronicles of the Shadow War novel sequels.
Actually I think they'd do better to lean on the music from the original movie. If that music doesn't fit at least a little somewhere in an episode it's probably a sign that the given episode has gone a little off the rails. And the best evidence for this is this fan tribute to the original main theme, which I think shows pretty clearly how in lock-step it was with the general vibe we expect out of the Willow franchise:
That said, whatever sins this show may have committed against the tone of the movie, they pale in comparison to those of the Chronicles of the Shadow War novel sequels.
Arilyn
Hero
The modern music fits "A Knight's Tale" because of the movie's tone. It's not a serious story and the modern take works surprisingly well in that vein. The music doesn't really fit Willow, but I'm willing to overlook it. I'm finding, however, that I'm losing interest in the story and the characters. The tone has lost the light hearted adventure feel of the original movie. Willow almost feels like he's tacked on as an after thought, and it's all a little too serious and slow paced.
TheHand
Adventurer
Apparently they were just random NPCs in a forest?? Doesn't seem like they were brownies, but their scene felt so surreal I wondered the same thing!
Argyle King
Legend
I liked Knight's Tale because it was a movie adaptation of Chaucer's writing.
MarkB
Legend
I honestly thought they were some kind of guilt-induced hallucination brought on by the forest, which had been hinted as having weird effects. I only fully accepted that they were actually happening when Elora was recaptured.
Same
