Thoughts for the Day

[mark_asphodel]

 Yay, Giants!  The part of my heart that is forever San Francisco is happy today!

Anyway... having finished reading this playthrough of FE12, I have the following to say.

I think my feelings about Shin Monshou equate to the feelings that followers of Tolkien's books have toward the Peter Jackson film adaptations.  Specifically, fans like this.  I think I've posted this link before, but I'm evaluating it in a new light.

Meh.  Going off to vote....

Comments

[shimizu-hitomi.livejournal.com]

\o/

Me too, and I'm not even a baseball fan!

I think my feelings about Shin Monshou equate to the feelings that followers of Tolkien's books have toward the Peter Jackson film adaptations.

I remember this link! And yeah, I think I feel similarly, though for me PJ's movies have just enough to redeem themselves (in the visual/aural departments) while the eye candy/remixed soundtrack in FE12 are not nearly enough to counter the stupidity of the writing. (Admittedly, the more I rewatch the movies, the less enamored of them I become, but in contrast I kind of just want to dismiss FE12 as a joke.)

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

in contrast I kind of just want to dismiss FE12 as a joke

I just find it so hard to believe that the reboot was done with any sort of love for the source material. If you love these characters and their world, why screw with the characters and do things that undermine the "sense" of their universe?

I can see some bright bulb thinking, "FE3 is a classic, but the characterization is kind of lacking and the hero is pretty lame. Let's fix it!" OK, fine. And maybe if MU had been a clever or savvy character, an anti-hero to serve as a real foil to naive!Marth while getting his own hands dirty, that could have worked. But if they wanted to subvert a myth, they went about it ALL the wrong way, because MyUnit is so... ugh! I think Bramimond has more personality. Add to that all the other cliches... I mean archetypes... they unloaded for the supporting cast, and the genuinely dumbass tropes like Frey's amnesia (one per world is enough, thanks), and it all smells pretty bad.

And then there's Marth. Who, if the sum total of the fan-translations to date can be trusted, is characterized so poorly that he barely even seems human. The script pretends to hype him up while diminishing his actual value, turning him into a pretty blown-glass bubble with no substance. And I don't think I saw a single believable human reaction on his part in anything I've read aside from maybe the new "boss quote" confrontation with Hardin. And all he does there is scream.

So, instead of one problematic protagonist, we get two. Yay. Double the fun, my ASS.

[korsriddare.livejournal.com]

As a fan of the book, I actually find the movies alright. Well, I do love certain scenes in them.

I find that a lot of the complains in that link(prior to the addenda) seems to be that PJ and the scriptwriters were... purposely trying to make it a world of Men. It might be the intent, but on the other hand:

'Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence.'

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

That, or a variant upon it, is actually my catchphrase over on DA. Words to live by.

I like the Jackson movies just fine, but I never was enamored with or that deeply moved by the books (and I read the Silmarillion, too). They're a fantastic intellectual/academic feat, but as a myth cycle, the "nobility" of it all just didn't connect with me. But the people who love Tolkien do love him (boy, do they ever) and FE12 makes me understand anew how they feel.