So with the Wheel of Time in name only show being cancelled the usual suspects were out in force online calling book fans "toxic". This one fan of the show (who didn't read the books) asked me why I was happy about the show getting canceled and people losing their jobs. I told her that I was happy that it was cancelled because it was a major bastardization and didn't respect the source material. She couldn't understand that when you adapt a popular book series/comics the fans of the series have an expectation of a somewhat faithful adaptation at least. They act like we don't understand that you can't do a straight one for one adaptation.
I could've been more diplomatic but I told her that I have reached the point where I hate modern day adaptations because they attract normies like her who clap like a seal because the show craps all over the source material and adds the usual current year crap. She was never a fan to begin with. She called me a jerk.
Probably the easiest thing to do with an adaptation or period piece is to get the racial demographics correct. When they can't do that, then I know their priorities. I guess it just annoys me how they act like we don't understand that you have to streamline a large book series and that some changes have to be made due to the medium.
I'm honestly looking forward to the day when AI can just make a movie based on a command you give. I'll probably start with Moon is a Harsh Mistress or UBIK.
Rant aside, but why do y'all think that the entertainment industry seems to despise fans of the source material or make ridiculous changes and then use the "well we can't do a one for one adaptation" excuse?
Wear that badge with pride.
I still need to read Silmarillion. Well said all around
Popping right back up on your exposed shill account and continuing to post on it like nothing happened is an interesting strategy.
Remember when you tried to subvert a moment of White Solidarity, got outed as a shill, and then deleted your whole account history? That was fun. Can we do it again?
I'm sure you sent the obligatory kvetching DM to the jannie on your way out. See you on your alts!
Funny, considering the topic, how this exchange is a microcosm of successful gatekeeping, gone unrecognised by most.
Thanks. For anyone wondering WTF happened, SmiggieBalls returned after a few weeks of radio silence to just carry on as if he is a normal user here. https://archive.ph/wip/W0oTd
It’s a good post. What’s your (((problem?)))
Because despite those fans being free popularity and publicity they will still be a drop in the ocean of the potential consumer base. So the companies behind the adaptations aim elsewhere with money in their eyes rather than any form of integrity.
I guess that’s why I would rather things not be adapted at this point. Like the upcoming Narnia with Netflix.
You also have to realize that you're a nerd and a dork (probably) and always have been.
Nerds always had this complex that people hated them for playing fantasy football and dnd and video games, and they hoped of they could just show the world how wonderful the things they loved were the world would love the things and then they'd love nerds too.
That's where the games as art thing came from, show how legitimate it is, show the craftsmanship is equal or better than other mediums, and the payoffs are unique and worthwhile.
But none of that was true, nobody hated you for what you liked, they just hated YOU. And it was fine you had your stupid hobbies in your mutant community. But then you worked so hard to show them what your hobbies did, and we'll damn, that's kinda cool.
Well maybe there's something to this stuff, but holy shit we can't let these mutant freaks be in charge of it puke gotta clean it up for actual people. "Awwww look at the widdle freaks getting mad we wiped their slime off their stuff. Boo hoo I feel real bad about that"
In the same way that actual people can't interface with demonic totalitarians, Artisans can't interface with consoomers, and sentients can't interface with NPCs regardless of their affiliation. The guys who invent things like Ara Magika will NEVER be accepted as polite company, and trying to be will just get you slaughtered.
I agree with basically everything you said but there was literally not one question in the entire post.
Good point, let me edit that lol
Book adaptations can be good, look at the Martian adaptation of the book by the same name. Stayed largely faithful to the book, didn't gratuitously race or gender swap characters, and the adapted screenplay made for a great movie that kept the character of the book.
Where things so often go off the rails is when adaptations to not respect the source material. We have seen this over, and over, and over again. Need I remind everyone of the Starship Troopers movie, where the movie director admitted he didn't even read the book at all?
When the book is already pozzed to begin with its easy for them to faithfully adapt it. The other book by that author that is being adapted "Project Hail Mary" has a white male protagonist who acts like a total cuck for most of the book until he finds himself alone (somewhat) then does help save humanity. It's a great book but it does still feel like the hero fantasy of the effeminate liberal beta male.
So, just like the author, then.
Adapting stories accurately is incredibly simple, the Japanese succeed at it dozens if not hundreds of times a year.
That’s true. I’m not aware of an anime completely butchering a manga.
There are extremely rare cases like this season's The Beginning After the End, but even then it's a case of technical incompetence and not malice from the people running the show.
Tbf that story butchered itself later.
All I know is the three episodes I watched looked like shit, the fans were outraged, and the Myanimelist rating is under 5.3 which is basically what MAL would rate ISIS execution videos.
What’s that about?
I am.
Often for the worse. Rarely for the better. Usually when the manga isn't done yet, but also when the manga goes too long for one season, so they try to change the story to fit within one anime season.
In the current season, The Beginning After The End is getting a lot of flack for changing characterization of the main character to be more psychopathic and stoic to a retarded degree. The original had him need to be the cold ruler out of necessity. The anime instead has him wondering "why does that woman hold that dying man? What purpose does such an act hold?" as if he's never seen another living human before.
A similar change was done in Classroom Of The Elite, where they basically eliminate all emotion and desire from the MC, while in the novels he acknowledges the feelings and suppresses them, rather than simply not having them, which significantly changes how the character is portrayed. (And also makes some of his decisions which WERE, frankly, based on emotion, look even more bizarre and wild since he never shows an ounce of it in the anime prior or after those points.)
On a positive point one, Chrno Crusade outpaced the source material, and made up their ending wholesale. Religious anime so... Satan tries to pop up (explaining why so many demons were earlier in the series), and the church and their pet demon send him back to hell with the power of guns and violence, and the world is safe. Very safe ending, but satisfactory. In the source material? Martian alien skinwalkers PRETENDING to be demons because they're bible otaku. Yeah. It... doesn't work. Now, they just invented a logical ending BEFORE the original ending was made, so it's a different situation, but it clearly did diverge from source material, and wound up much better because of it.
Thanks. I’m not as well versed in anime or manga. Greatly appreciated
I still need to read the Martian. Got the book after seeing the movie. I simply ask that they adapt the spirit of the story. I liked the starship troopers movie but then learned about the book. I absolutely love the book. It’s a shame he hated it so much. If I was Heinlein’s estate I wouldn’t let them touch any more books
After I read it on Kindle, I made it a point to buy a copy of The Martian in hardback, as I do with all books I really enjoy. I want to be able to read books I enjoy if the power goes out.
Makes sense. Same here. Plus I have so many books it would take me a very long time to read them all
Women are retarded.
And all of this an anti-White Christian Male policy. The sooner you understand this, the better off you’ll be.
Rafe Jenkins said something interesting and telling about his adaptation of Wheel of Time. He said something along the lines that he couldn't see himself in any of the characters in the book. So he wanted to make a WOT world that would contain a character like him.
My response to him would be “well then wouldn’t writing your own story be more appropriate?” The YouTuber shills were saying “I know it’s not following the books but look at it as another turning of the wheel”.
Yeah, funny how that other turning has the same characters as the book turning.
In a sane world he would be banned from any future adaptations.
I think he's adapting the game "The Division" for a show
What’s the game about and how will he ruin it?
It's a Tom Clancy title. The US collapses after a pandemic and a special military unit, The Division, is activated to try and protect and rebuild the US and it's people.
So he will make it about a diverse gay neighborhood in San Fran
I'd say a good chunk of it is because there's a lot of ego's involved. Horrible people in arrogant circles with other horrible people in what has increasingly become a soul sucking industry.
Showrunners and company spokesman only care about spinning a narrative that makes the product look good to investors. Maximize their marketing appeal and minimize criticism, no matter how valid it might be. Fans aren't considered a cost effective source of revenue to please.
The writers themselves give almost zero fucks about telling a good story. They hate their jobs and they have no passion for creativity even if they ever used to. They're only there for the paychecks and to keep their career alive. And sometimes they'll pull asshole moves in their work just to piss people off as some kind of revenge or outlet, or because they simply think it's funny to piss on anything that can make a person happy.
Actors are much the same way, only more oblivious and less deliberate in their actions. Following trends no matter how stupid or horrible they are because that's just "part of the job".
And investors aren't quite what they used to be in the industry either. I mean obviously they're motivated by profit in some way or another, but how they value a product or a company has shifted drastically somehow. And I suspect DEI is only the tip of the ice berg there.
Laughs in Fremen.
Sorry, got sidetracked with shill patroling.
They are doing this in bad faith. They just don't want people questioning their political bullshit and lazy production.
Evil cannot create, it can only subvert and corrupt what Good has made. That's why the entertainment industry seems to despise fans of the source material and makes what seems to be arbitrary ridiculous changes. They see something that people like, something Good, and they start slavering, "yessss, we must corrrupt it to our own!"
Not even joking. That is the thought process to many of them: "I am not creative enough to make my own successful IP, so I will take an existing one, and pervert it into being closer to my own ideas and ideology."
Woaaaa, hold up. You met an actual FAN of the tv show? I've never even met anyone who's seen it. The TV show, despite being made from some of the most popular fantasy books of all time, totally flew under the radar.
Well it was online. I still haven’t met a fan of the show in real life
Phwew--I was worried about who you've been hanging out with Smith!
Because adaptations get made to make more money. So changes to get more customers are done to make more money.
I get that from a studio point of view but there is no point in adapting if you are going to inject lgbt, girl power, and race swap like crazy. Just seems like a lot of times they try to appeal to a tiny group of ppl. Why bother adapting when you openly say you hate the source material.
A company's access and ownership of IP's are frequently flaunted to appeal to investors. It hardly matters if the products themselves are good, because there's still a magic value attached to every IP. And even more applicable when factoring in streaming services.
Additionally, using IP's that people have at least heard of makes it easier to market. Even to people who've never seen or read a thing about the original works in said IP. It means there's less money that needs to be spent on marketing as well as at least a decent number of curious and yet gullible customers who'll check it out when it comes out.
When these companies use an IP nowadays, it has fuck all to do with caring one iota about the original story or characters. It's about trying to min-max those profits with just the bare minimum level of investment and effort.
And I suspect it's almost become a sort of ego-serving career game too. A writer who can totally dismiss the original story and rewrite it in a totally different way might bizarrely be seen as somehow more employable in the industry. IE, maybe they'd cater to a studio's whims more, even at the cost of opportunities for good storytelling.
Great points all around.
It's the same reason they tried to make sure canon doesn't matter. They realize they lack the creativity to make their own things so they need to hijack existing works to shove themselves in it in the hopes someone will actually remember and respect them.
Because they see the work as an extension of themselves they feel offended when people point out that they have bastardized the source material and failed to recreate the original work to an intentional degree (compared to previous where adaptions would take liberties due to expediency or original author wanting to minimize a controversial aspect of their work... something still done in anime adaptions of light novels or manga). Thus the fandom is always toxic even when the level bastardization has hit the point where the original source material isn't even apparent anymore. This is how we get a Minecraft movie that practically tells you not to play Minecraft. Or the diversity representation push so that every movie must have someone who looks like them instead of actually making characters people can relate to.