Legend of the Seeker #10: Sacrifice

[Brown Jenkin]

Over in a thread asking whether or not anyone watches Smallville anymore, several people expressed the sentiment that most shows don't warrant a thread for every episode. Bearing that in mind, it strikes me as interesting to see Legend of the Seekri s amongst that select few. I watched the first few episodes and found it be of middling worth, with a heavily derivative set of tropes, a tired "chosen one" theme, and scripts that offered a preteen-accessible level of sophistication. Yet now it's evoking philosophical discussion. Did I give up too early? Has the show really matured so much already?

I don't think philosophical discussion was thier intent. The show is very straightforward and isn't trying to be deep with everything wrapped up with nice bows. I started going this direction when I became frustrated with thier lack of depth in the show when I felt that they were leaving out giant moral implications in thier attempt to wrap things up nicely.

 

[Felon]

Heh, I think it's more complex than some give it credit for . . . . but I wouldn't describe it as an overly complex and mature show. It's fun, reasonably well written and acted, uses many standard fantasy tropes (as do the books it's based on), but does play around with the morally gray areas and also plays a bit deeper than Raimi's earlier efforts Xena and Hercules (not that those two shows set the bar high).

Well, Xena and (to a lesser extent) Hercules were the reasons why I'd give Raimi and Tapert the benefit of the doubt in terms of the show maturing. Xena started off pretty bland, but in the course of its run it did some very ambitious stuff--too ambitious for its own good in many instances, as some folks were turned off by the way show didn't confine itself to set parameters of drama, slapstick, and so forth.

And aren't Goodkind's novels supposed to be libertarian allegories or some such--one free man versus an oppresive system? After about a decade of syndicated television shows being deemed non-viable, I can see why they'd play it safe at first, trying not to turn off markets. I was hoping they'd come out of their shell once the show's established.

 

[Merkuri]

The constraints of what they take time to explain in the TV show make the WoT comparisons more apparent/prominent than they actually are in the novels.

Well, I thought they were pretty prominent in the book, too. There were things over and over again in the books that reminded me of different elements in the WoT series. A lot were just small details but there were some big plot items, too.

My sister noticed them independent of me when she read the books, and I remember carrying the book around with me at work and a random guy saw me with it and one of the first comments he made about it (after asking me if I liked it) was whether I thought it had a lot in common with the WoT books. As I read on it started to annoy me more and more and it's one of the big reasons I stopped reading it.

I think the show is coming along well, though. I feel like as time goes on and they reveal more of the world the show is maturing into a good fantasy show. It's no House or Supernatural, but it's good enough that I look forward to watching it each week. There's nothing I can put my finger on in the last few episodes that I can say made them better than the first few, but they just seem better.

 

[Orius]

Over in a thread asking whether or not anyone watches Smallville anymore, several people expressed the sentiment that most shows don't warrant a thread for every episode. Bearing that in mind, it strikes me as interesting to see Legend of the Seekri s amongst that select few. I watched the first few episodes and found it be of middling worth, with a heavily derivative set of tropes, a tired "chosen one" theme, and scripts that offered a preteen-accessible level of sophistication. Yet now it's evoking philosophical discussion. Did I give up too early? Has the show really matured so much already?

Nah, more like it's one of the only things I'm watching, I feel like discussing it, so I'll post a thread if I don't see one.

Funny how I laid on the WoT rip-off comments real thick, and everyone decided to have a philosophical discussion instead.

 

[Steel_Wind]

The part that disappointed me in the show was Khalan turning over the child to the Mother Confessor - who has just confessed a Wizard of the first Order and ordered him to kill Richard - without using the moment to do more.

The response? "Ok - here's the baby".

The response they should have had? "Here's the baby... [Mother Confessor's arms now full, Khalan then jabs a dagger into her abdomen and twists it, without mercy]. "No, Mother, you are the monster."

The Mother Confessor had clearly gone over to the dark side. When she confessed Zed and ordered the attack on Richard? That was the moment Khalan would have made her choice.

The fact that she didn't make that choice in the episode annoyed me greatly. I guess the later scene where the confessors go for the actiony moment against the DaHarrans seemed a better pacing. But... I don't know. It rang false; especially the solemn funeral for her at the end. The Mother had turned to the dark side in a big way.

I guess the real plot point to bring out was that, once again, they find some way to nerf Zed so that Richard and Khalan have to do the job that Zed could otherwise handle on his own quite nicely. A defect in the premise of the series that comes to haunt its pages again and again...and again.