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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shayuri" data-source="post: 3701065" data-attributes="member: 4936">Hee...I think I'm getting cranky in my old age. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />I liked it while I was watching it, but once I got out and really started to think about it, I started liking it a lot less.The story was so...pedestrian. And so many of the gimmicks in it (I shan't spoil, I guess) seemed like desperate attempts to say, "Look! An unconventional element! That makes this ORIGINAL and ENTERTAINING!" But it was all just window-dressing that failed to conceal that the plot was still a paint-by-numbers, tired old "fairy tale" (which in my opinion excuses nothing) where the good guys suffer no consequences for their actions, and the bad guys die to the last man/woman...And was anyone else creeped out by the fact that Tristan's mom -didn't age a day?- Eighteen years and she was still the hot young thang that had a one-nighter with his (much older now) dad! Obviously it's not a time differential thing, because a week there still equaled a week in England...the plot depended on it. But really! Heck, Septimus looked young enough to be Tristan's brother!Anyway...I admit, it grabbed me at first, but it couldn't keep hold of me once I started to actually think it over. It's too bad, because the premise had promise, and I liked a lot of the things IN the plot...just not the plot itself.[sblock=If you're not sick of me yet, here's what I would have done...]I was thinking it was too bad that Primus died so early. It would have been really cool if Primus and Tristan had been a pair for longer, even until the very end. Primus could have been a sort of 'action hero,' supercompetent because of a lifetime of dodging assassination attempts from six brothers...yet not driven to evil himself because the crown was already his, really...all he had to do was survive. He could take Tristan under his wing...not knowing that all the while, he was nurturing a person that might threaten his claim to the crown! Then at the end, we have this delightful uncertainty... Will Primus and Tristan fight? Who will win? There could have been romantic uncertainty with Evayne. A sort of Han/Luke/Leia thing, before Luke turned out to be her brother. Then I think Tristan's journey to manhood is complete when he voluntarily turns his back on power...leaving the kingship to Primus. Evayne perhaps loves them both, but can't go back with Tristan...so stays to be queen. Tristan, now much changed, goes back to England, and we have that scene where he scares off his rival and disses his old lady love...which was a great scene and I wouldn't change a thing. We leave off with Tristan perhaps owning a shop...yet not being a 'shopboy' even so.I dunno. You could even make it more complicated... Maybe Tristan's mom was the daughter of the FIRST queen...who was that star that fell 400 years ago! Shortly after marrying and having Una, the witches nabbed her (you'd have to re-do some of dialogue about how long ago that happened) and the king remarried and had the seven sons by the new queen. That way Tristan has 'star-blood' which might explain why he can hear the stars whispering...which I think was neat and they should have done more with...and Una's weird immortality is explained...argh! I could go on forever. See? Great premise. Just needed more...work put into it. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />[/sblock]</blockquote>

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