Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Geek Talk & Media
SciFi Channel Movie: The Legend of Earthsea
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Storm Raven" data-source="post: 3833765" data-attributes="member: 307"><p>About 10%-15% of the miniseries is loosely based on the books (there are three in the original trilogy <em>A Wizard of Earthsea</em>, <em>The Tombs of Atuan</em>, and <em>The Farthest Shore</em>, and then some <em>much</em> later written books in the series, <em>Tehanu</em> and <em>The Other Wind</em> as well as some short stories found in <em>The Wind's Twelve Quarters</em> and <em>Tales from Earthsea</em>). Really, as far as being a translation of the story in the books to the screen, the miniseries is a hideous misrepresentation.</p><p></p><p>The material concerning Ged and the Gebbeth is about 50% from the book, although the resolution is entirely different in the books, and actually makes some sense. Ogion is in the books, and he is Ged's teacher. The rest of this storyline is entirely made up for the miniseries. The crappy parts are the parts <em>not</em> drawn from the books.</p><p></p><p>The priestesses of the Tombs of Atuan do appear in the books, but their storyline is so altered as to be entirely unrecognizable. For example, in the books, Tenar is the chosen priestess <em>of</em> the nameless ones - she is devoted to their worship. The priestesses revere them, rather than guarding against them. I'd say that about 5% of this storyline comes from the books - mostly the names of the characters and the idea of a group of priestesses living in the desert; everything else was made up for the miniseries.</p><p></p><p>The "conquering king Tygath" storyline is entirely made up. The character doesn't appear in the books. The Khargad appear once in "war" mode in the books - as pirates; and they lose. The whole crap about "learning the secret to immortality" alludes to an entirely different storyline in the books, and the version in the miniseries makes no sense: Tygath's lame plan to get the secret really seems to have been standing there and yelling at the released nameless ones. None of this storyline bears enough resemblance anything from the books to call it anything other than being made from whole cloth.</p><p></p><p>So, out of three main storylines, one is about half drawn from the books, and the rest are pretty much just made up from whole cloth. There are other quibbles too - in the books Tenar and the other natives of the Khargad islands should be white, but Ged, Vetch, and everyone else living outside of that area should be dark skinned: Ged is described in a way that makes me think of him as looking like someone from the Indian subcontinent, Vetch is probably best described as black and so on. So the casting diverges significantly from how the characters appear in the books (which really got LeGuin's goat).</p><p></p><p>A lot of details were also drastically changed - in the books Roke is magically protected, and almost impossible to invade (due to the Roke Wind). Ged's use name is Sparrowhawk, his secret name is Ged (I still can't figure out why they reversed that). The Archmage is not killed,or presumed killed by a barbarian - he dies from exhausting his energy saving a pupil's life. The mages who leave Roke are much better trained than they appear to be in the miniseries. In his encounter with Yevaud, Ged does more than just guess the dragon's name, and uses his power over it for something much more altruistic. And on and on.</p><p></p><p>The miniseries is a barely passable generic fantasy. It is <em>not</em> Earthsea. The pile of steaming crap that it could have been was saved (somewhat) by the introduction of the handful of Earthsea elements, but all of the "new" stuff was painfully bad and poorly thought out. Given how little of it is drawn from the books, calling the miniseries "Earthsea" is a travesty, on the scale of someone making a movie out of <em>Rendezvous with Rama</em> but leaving out the giant alien spacecraft, or having the ship, but having the aliens show up and explain who they are, and why they sent the ship. Or making <em>Lord of the Rings</em> and having Gandalf take the ring, kick Sauron's hind end in an epic wizard duel, and then rule Middle-Earth forevermore as a benevolent wizard king.</p><p></p><p>Read the books. They are much, much, <em>much</em> better than the miniseries.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Storm Raven, post: 3833765, member: 307"] About 10%-15% of the miniseries is loosely based on the books (there are three in the original trilogy [i]A Wizard of Earthsea[/i], [i]The Tombs of Atuan[/i], and [i]The Farthest Shore[/i], and then some [i]much[/i] later written books in the series, [i]Tehanu[/i] and [i]The Other Wind[/i] as well as some short stories found in [i]The Wind's Twelve Quarters[/i] and [i]Tales from Earthsea[/i]). Really, as far as being a translation of the story in the books to the screen, the miniseries is a hideous misrepresentation. The material concerning Ged and the Gebbeth is about 50% from the book, although the resolution is entirely different in the books, and actually makes some sense. Ogion is in the books, and he is Ged's teacher. The rest of this storyline is entirely made up for the miniseries. The crappy parts are the parts [i]not[/i] drawn from the books. The priestesses of the Tombs of Atuan do appear in the books, but their storyline is so altered as to be entirely unrecognizable. For example, in the books, Tenar is the chosen priestess [i]of[/i] the nameless ones - she is devoted to their worship. The priestesses revere them, rather than guarding against them. I'd say that about 5% of this storyline comes from the books - mostly the names of the characters and the idea of a group of priestesses living in the desert; everything else was made up for the miniseries. The "conquering king Tygath" storyline is entirely made up. The character doesn't appear in the books. The Khargad appear once in "war" mode in the books - as pirates; and they lose. The whole crap about "learning the secret to immortality" alludes to an entirely different storyline in the books, and the version in the miniseries makes no sense: Tygath's lame plan to get the secret really seems to have been standing there and yelling at the released nameless ones. None of this storyline bears enough resemblance anything from the books to call it anything other than being made from whole cloth. So, out of three main storylines, one is about half drawn from the books, and the rest are pretty much just made up from whole cloth. There are other quibbles too - in the books Tenar and the other natives of the Khargad islands should be white, but Ged, Vetch, and everyone else living outside of that area should be dark skinned: Ged is described in a way that makes me think of him as looking like someone from the Indian subcontinent, Vetch is probably best described as black and so on. So the casting diverges significantly from how the characters appear in the books (which really got LeGuin's goat). A lot of details were also drastically changed - in the books Roke is magically protected, and almost impossible to invade (due to the Roke Wind). Ged's use name is Sparrowhawk, his secret name is Ged (I still can't figure out why they reversed that). The Archmage is not killed,or presumed killed by a barbarian - he dies from exhausting his energy saving a pupil's life. The mages who leave Roke are much better trained than they appear to be in the miniseries. In his encounter with Yevaud, Ged does more than just guess the dragon's name, and uses his power over it for something much more altruistic. And on and on. The miniseries is a barely passable generic fantasy. It is [i]not[/i] Earthsea. The pile of steaming crap that it could have been was saved (somewhat) by the introduction of the handful of Earthsea elements, but all of the "new" stuff was painfully bad and poorly thought out. Given how little of it is drawn from the books, calling the miniseries "Earthsea" is a travesty, on the scale of someone making a movie out of [i]Rendezvous with Rama[/i] but leaving out the giant alien spacecraft, or having the ship, but having the aliens show up and explain who they are, and why they sent the ship. Or making [i]Lord of the Rings[/i] and having Gandalf take the ring, kick Sauron's hind end in an epic wizard duel, and then rule Middle-Earth forevermore as a benevolent wizard king. Read the books. They are much, much, [i]much[/i] better than the miniseries. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Geek Talk & Media
SciFi Channel Movie: The Legend of Earthsea
Top