Quick Intro to Percy Jackson

It’s a good spot to start, what do you need to know getting into Percy Jackson. It’s a story of a boy who is in between two worlds. His mother is a human and his father, whoever that might be, is a god. As his powers start to manifest his human life is turned on it’s head. Monsters come after him and strange visions occur that make him feel separate. Until he finds out the truth of who he is.

Initial Impressions

I’m impressed by this show and the storytelling thus far. I won’t say “thus far” all the time, as it is only two episodes in. But the show is off to a great start. The acting is good, the storytelling, like I said, is very good. I think that this will surprise a lot of people.

I know that the original movie around the books was not considered good. That isn’t something something that should worry people if they are thinking about jumping into this show. What is on Disney+ thus far is a lot more fun than that sounded. And while I need to read the books still, my wife who has, says this is much closer to that.

What Hasn’t Worked?

But that isn’t to say that this is a perfect show. I think that it’s very good and I’ll go into a lot of those details down below. A few times I think that the CGI hasn’t been quite where I want it to be. Now, that is very limited. Percy Jackson is a show with a lot of money put into it, and you can tell very quickly that the CGI is going to be solid. Once or twice I feel like I wanted it to shine more. That is a small amount when you think about some Disney+ shows recently which are rougher.

What Works?

But that is it for negative for me, I think that a lot more works than doesn’t work. And a lot of that starts with the actor they got to play Percy. It is very hard to get kid actors who do an amazing job. Walter Scobell is fun to watch in the role and provides the emotion that you want to see. And supporting characters also work really well. Like most pilots, it isn’t perfect at the start, but the actors feel like they grow into their roles even across two episodes.

I also like how this doesn’t try to be something that it’s not. This is not a YA show, this is not a show that is mainly focused on having an adult audience. This is an adventure show for middle grade readers or people who grew up loving the series. Now, that is not to say that Percy Jackson is too dumb of childish. It just means that the show is going to paced in a particular way where it moves quickly. And that a lot of the dialog that you might expect from fantasy show targeted at adults isn’t there. It is more about showing, which is good and works very well.

Speaking of that, the final thing is that I think Percy Jackson really does evoke that sense of adventure. It jumps into the story and doesn’t really stop. There are some moments of humor to it, and some where there is depth. But so much of it just feels like an adventure. If you want more than that, there are plenty of big heavy fantasy shows with dialog or fantasy comedies. But Percy Jackson is not trying to be the next Game of Thrones, nor is it extending itself out like The Hobbit did.

Who Is Percy Jackson For?

First off, I think it’s simple to say, this is for middle grade readers and those who have read Percy Jackson. But I don’t think that is where it stops. This is a show for people who want to have a light fun adventure in the middle of the winter. Percy Jackson is going to deliver that in spades as I keep on driving home.

On the flip side, I don’t know how this has happened, but a lot of reviews seem to be disappointed in that it’s a show that is like that books. If you want the next big epic fantasy series to go along with Game of Thrones and House of Dragons, I don’t know what to tell you. Percy Jackson is not going to be for you. Or if you want something with more character development and depth, probably, again, not the ideal one for you. It is what it is and that’s a good thing. If it tries to be everything for everyone, it would fail.

Final Thoughts

I’m excited to watch more. Percy Jackson definitely caught my attention watching the first two episodes. I think there is room for continued growth and improvement of the show. But for the most part, it is a show that hit the mark for me. And something like a little bit less than idea CGI is not going to bother me.

I also want to know where the story is going. Yes, I expect it to be a simple story and I expect to enjoy that story. Percy Jackson is comfort food, the story is familiar, but it still tastes good. And around winter and around the holidays when things aren’t always the most relaxing, it is nice to sit back and enjoy something like Percy Jackson.

What do you think of the first two episodes of Percy Jackson? What might you want to see more of from the show?

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

The Most Faithful Adaptations

It should be just like the book. I know what I liked about the books, and I need to see them. I want the same monsters, characters, plot points, everything to be like I think it is.

The upside to that style of adaptation is that the fans of the book are going to love it. All the nods and details that are from the book are going to stand out and feel like you get what you want. It also means that it won’t diverge too far from the story and give the show runners and writers a chance to mess it up. We can all think about adaptations, like late Game of Thrones or Bourne Identity that don’t feel like the book.

On the flip side, it can make it harder to get into. Let’s look at Lord of the Rings, or Wheel of Time. Do we need a massive section of the movies of Lord of the Rings with Tom Bombadil? As a fan of the books I might have liked it, but probably even I wouldn’t have enjoyed it that much. That isn’t what makes the book(s) interesting. The first Wheel of Time book would need to be 15-20 episodes to really cover everything at least.

The Least Faithful Adaptations

So instead you could just let the show runners do what they want. Once it’s out of the authors hand, it can be someone else’s vision of what it should be. They own the story n ow so don’t make a big deal out of the fact it has changed.

This can be good in some ways as well. It updates a story, potentially, for a wider audience. More appeal means better chance to long term success of the show or movies. So if there are a lot of books in the series to be adapted, better shot that we get them all. Sure, they might be different in a lot of ways, but it is still an adaptation of the series.

The downside is pretty big, though. You might get a show or movie that cuts out massive parts of the story. You end up with characters being completely skipped over. The main character changes completely. The bad guy has completely different plans. The murderer in a who-done-it is a different person. And now the heart of what made the book(s) special has been removed.

Somewhere In Between

Now, both of those are extreme examples of everything the same or everything different. I think that basically all adaptations end up here. Somewhere instbetween. And they lean towards either side. Even The Bourne Identity which just basically has Jason Bourne (the name) and amnesia as the main things it takes from the books, is technically here. Game of Thrones, which was very faithful in the first season, ends up here as well as they dropped out plot lines.

I think that this is the right spot for things to be. Let’s look at a few examples

Wheel of Time

Wheel of Time meanders through the first section of the book. Everyone goes to Baerlon together. Shadar Logoth takes longer than it does in the show. It really breathes and gives you a chance to get to know the characters. It spends time explaining in more detail who the White Cloaks are and their intentions. We meet characters in different spots and get to see Moiraine use her power in different ways.

But that wouldn’t work as well in a show. Characters who are spending time learning things, Perrin for example, need the time to breath and think in the book. But thinking doesn’t translate well for television. A way was needed to show his struggles. While I think the show was heavy handed with how they did it, I know why they needed to do it. Plus a lot of traveling is only so interesting.

The Bourne Identity

This is an example of maybe how not to do it. Why, because it stripped a lot of the soul of it out. Now, the movie did well enough to get several sequels. So I know that I’m a bit in the minority on this one. But in terms of being a Bourne movie and someone who really liked the books, this isn’t a great adaptation. So a good action film.

But what made it not work for well what took it too far away. I think the idea of Treadstone being the bad guy for the whole of the movie. The books definitely don’t make you like Treadstone, but there is something else bigger pulling the strings, or maybe less bigger but scarier. The movie felt dumbed down from what the books were. The books are spy thrillers, the movie is an action film.

Game of Thrones

Now, admittedly, I didn’t watch all of Game of Thrones. I thought that the books themselves were average at best, and gave up after book four which was bad. But this one falls between, for me, what I’ve seen of Wheel of Time and The Bourne Identity. I think that they made some very needed changes to the show. Lady Stoneheart and that element of magic were pretty dumb in the books.

At the same time, they meandered through a number of pretty boring storylines. Bran’s story was never interesting in the book and the show didn’t do anything to make it more interesting. Even when things started to happen with that story, I still wasn’t interested in it. I think the number of characters and scope was just too big for the show and they never cut it down.

What Do We Do As Viewers?

First, know that it will be changed. Even things that are highly faithful, Game of Thrones probably the most faithful of my examples, will change. It’s not a knock or a negative that things change. It is needed sometime. Five episode of the Wheel of Time just with them traveling to places and listening to Perrin’s inner monologue to switch to Nyneaves and then to Rands, that’s not interesting.

Shows and movies have the ability to, well, show things. So a major point to a character that takes up pages in a book, that might be five minutes of showing something different on the screen. Different mediums need different things. So I always look for what the show feels like, and how well the aesthetic matches.

That’s the second thing, really, pay more attention to the feel of the show than the precise story points. Are they getting the feel of the characters right? Is the plot progressing to those key moments that it needs to. Even if those moments are tweaked slightly does it hit the major plot points. Wheel of Time is a good example of this, a lot has changed, but the major beats are getting used in the story. Sometimes in different ways but leading us in the right direction.

Finally, sometimes you need to just let it go. Don’t hold onto the book at all. For me, I had to let go of the fact that the Bourne Identity isn’t The Bourne Identity, it is it’s completely own thing. Now, I don’t like it still as an action movie, but that doesn’t have to do with the story or name but with the filming of the fight scenes. Change is going to happen, and it might be big changes, so sometimes I, and everyone, need to enjoy it for what it is.

What is your favorite adaptation of a book? And what book would you really love to see get adapted?

Send an Email.
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

A little bit of groundwork on how this is going to work, I am going to talk about stuff generally, plot, what worked, what didn’t work and some final thoughts. Then I am going to jump into spoilers. I will say that this is a show that I’m enjoying. It’s not perfect to completely true to the book, but that is okay, it’s worked well for television thus far.

Leavetaking

Things in Emond’s Field are not great this year, it’s been a tough winter, but winter ends when Bel Tine comes around. Rand and his father, Tam, come into town to bring mead and drinks for the celebration. They aren’t the only exciting things coming for Bel Tine. Moiraine Sedai and her warder Lan, and along with them a peddler, Paden Fain. Everyone is ready for a night of celebration when creatures of the dark one attack Emond’s Field.

Moiraine and Lan manage to drive back the Trollocks, but are not able to save everyone in the town. They have an idea as to why the Trollocks and dark ones might be attacking, but that requires that some of the Emond’s Field young adults need to go with them. This includes, Rand, Perrin Aybara, Mat Cauthon, and Egwene Al’Vere.

What Didn’t Work

This is an interesting episode, and I’ll talk about a few more thigns that didn’t work in the spoiler section, because somewhat by necessity they needed to change a bit of it because of how long the book series is. They can’t do everything in this series that the books do. On the flip side, some of the changes were a little bit rough.

All the main kids are older, and I won’t say that didn’t work, but they made some interesting choices with the level of relationship with Rand and Egwene and an interesting choice with Perrin. I can get both of them, though, the one with Rand and Egwene gave it more of a Game of Thrones feel, and I know it’s a fantasy book series so it’s going to get compared to Game of Thrones, but Wheel of Time should not be Game of Thrones, and while I don’t think it’ll try completely, they will give nods to that style I’m sure.

I do think they rushed some of the story. Now, I get that they are doing a 9 episode season which I’m guessing is all of the first book. But this is Amazon. 12 episodes and the pacing would have been amazing. 15 episodes and it probably would have been perfect. This is an epic fantasy series, don’t rush it too much. To go back to Game of Thrones, we know what happened when they rushed the end. I think just a few more episodes could have made this first episode better.

What Did Work

First off, the tone of the show is very good. Emond’s Field felt like Emond’s Field. The Aes Sedai feel like Aes Sedai from what we see of them. They set-up some important things early on for how the magic of Aes Sedai works and how the male side is tainted.

But to go along with the tone, the casting on this is amazing. I am not going to list off everyone because, well, everyone is great from Tam, Rand, Mat, Egwene, Perrin, Lan, Moiraine, and Paden Fain. Honestly, all the main cast are good. I think that we didn’t see enough of Nyneave to know if that casting is great, but the rest of them are very good. And I think as we get to see more of Nyneave her character will be more interesting. I don’t think I can overstate this enough, the casting might be the best I’ve seen for a show period.

Leave Taking Final Thoughts

I have some issues with this episode. Now, I don’t have major issues with this episode because it sets the right tone, it sets up the world well, and there is clear strength in the casting. My issues come from the pacing. This episode felt rushed. They packed too much into it, they packed some extra things into it, and it just wasn’t needed at times.

That said, this is going to be different from the books. Any adaptation of any book is going to be different because it’s a different person interpreting it than the writer or the reader. So this has the right feel and the right actors, if they can keep close enough to the story line it is going to be very good.

Overall, this is a series, and honestly most series are this way, give yourself three episodes with it. This first one sets the town correctly, but isn’t amazing. The second one I liked better, but I’ll talk about it tomorrow.

Have you watched the show, what do you think of it? Is it one you’ll continue watching the new episodes when they come out?

SPOILERS

Now, let’s get into a few small gripes, why they don’t matter that much, or maybe why they didn’t work for me. Spoiler, obviously ahead, let me repeat that, spoilers, obviously, ahead.

In the show they age the main characters up. This is not actually a big deal to me. However, they use it to make one interesting choice and one heavy handed choice. With Rand and Egwene hooking up, that felt too Game of Thrones, granted the characters are older, but it’s a bit odd to add into the story. Does it add drama, yes, is that drama really needed, no.

The second thing was Perrin being married. Again, this makes sense if they are older, and if any of them were to be married it’d 100% be Perrin. He’s the most responsible of the three boys. And I get what they did, I just don’t like it. Perrin killing his wife rushes along the storyline of how Perrin doesn’t like his axe. He wants to throw it away because he doesn’t like killing. He gets talked out of it and is told to throw it away if he ever doesn’t hate it and if he is ever not hesitant to use it. Him killing his wife is just too heavy handed for my taste.

And finally this isn’t a negative or a positive at this point, but Thom Merrlin isn’t in the story yet. He’s one of my favorite characters from the books. He is there in the books for Bel Tine and the Trollock attacks. And he joins with the group for a reason, now I’m sure that reason will still exist, I’m just going to be curious to see how they tie it in. The attack at Bel Tine was a good kicking off point for their friendship.

With the exception of the Perrin thing, the rest are nitpicks. I think that Egwene and Rand thing is fine. I get it, it’s a bit of Game of Thrones and a bit of them being older. The Perrin one is what stands out to me as I wish they had more time to build it out or taken that time. Though, it’s Perrin, so it’s harder to explain since a lot of it was in his head.

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

Why Do People Expect It?

I think before we talk about how you can keep up, we need to talk about why there is a pressure to keep up. And, honestly, if this pressure is even a good thing. I’ll answer the second question first. No, it is not a good thing. But let’s talk about why there is pressure.

People Want You To Like What They Like

This one generally is pretty harmless, though, it can be twisted. People often want you to know what is coming up and be involved in it because they are. They want to be able to talk about it with you, and, at it’s purest form, they want you to have the same joy that they are feeling.

It can be twisted into an expectation, though. Often people will use this as an expectation that you will like what they like. All of these things are very subjective. I might not like The Witcher not because it’s bad but because I don’t like fantasy. Now, we know that to be a lie, I do like fantasy, but as an example.

To Show You’re Cool

This one is never a good reason, liking something doesn’t make you cool. And expecting someone to like someone, or pressuring them to watch something and like something, also doesn’t make you cool. This comes from social media and the expectation that you can post about stuff and that will show a cool credibility. But there are plenty of people who will put on pressure and expectations that you need to keep up, or I need to keep up.

Why Should You Be Keeping Up?

There’s very few good reasons to be keeping up on everything. In fact, I don’t think there is a good reason to keep up on everything. Instead, I think that you can and should keep up on what you really love. But don’t give yourself the expectation that you need to.

Alex Radcliffe from BoardGameCo talked about this a bit with board games and board game reviews in particular. And it makes me think of a review that No Pun Included did on Tainted Grail. They powered through the whole game in a span or a week or two and did not like the game. And you can equate this to a Netflix show where everything drops at once. When you create an expectation for yourself that you need to watch something or play all of something immediately to be first, to be able to talk about it best, it loses it’s fun.

So you should be keeping up with stuff you love at a pace that is reasonable for it. For me, this can look like board games I don’t need to back on Kickstarter. For example, I talked about Mythwind today. This game is on Kickstarter currently and it looks really interesting. It is supposed to be like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing where there is no win condition. I want to play it. But I do not need to back it right now, I can buy it later if I really want to.

How Do You Keep Up?

The answer, to me, is you don’t. Not because it’s bad to keep up, but because you literally can’t. For board games, thousands come out a year, anime episodes, thousands a year, movies, most years thousands a year, comics, thousands a year. I could go on to drive home this point, but the point is that even if you have a very focused hobby, there’s probably more than enough to keep you busy for more than a year.

So I think the question is less how do you keep up, but how to be at peace with not keeping up?

Keeping Up Doesn’t Make You Cool

The first piece is that you aren’t cool by keeping up. Sacrificing sleep to watch a show doesn’t make you cool. Spending lots of money on action figures doesn’t make you cool. And it’s a bit harsh for me to put it that way. But let’s turn it into a positive, you don’t need to feel the pressure of this. It can be a load off of your shoulders as you remember that being the first to something doesn’t make it your life more enjoyable. Instead go at a pace that brings you joy.

Not Keeping Up Means You Can Delve Into Stuff Deeper

For a lot of people keeping up means diving into something 100% for a week and then moving onto the next thing. Netflix seemingly drops a new show ever week, add in Amazon Prime, Disney+, Funimation, CrunchyRoll, Apple TV and more how many things can you keep up on. The speed you’d need to dive into the new favorite thing is going from weeks to a week to eventually days before you need to move onto the next cool thing.

I actually really like that the Marvel shows come out one at a time. Because I get to sit with and think about the show more. I can go into the breakdowns that New Rockstars, ScreenCrush, and Mr Sunday Movies are doing. I can chat about it every week with a coworker who loves Marvel as well. If Disney+ dropped them all at once it’d be a one and done experience.

Relieves The Pressure of Having to Love the Right Things

When you stop trying to keep up, you don’t need to love everything. Or at least seem like you love everything. You now no longer need to think about something that doesn’t interest you. When I stopped watching Game of Thrones it was nice. I always knew I wasn’t that interested in it but it was a group activity, and that group was fun to be around. When that group stopped meeting, I watched some more on my own because I felt like I should.

It was only when I stopped watching it did I realize how much I didn’t care about Game of Thrones. And I was happier for not watching it because it’s a depressing and frustrating show. Now you might love the first seven seasons of Game of Thrones (or even eight) and that’s great, but for me, it was nice not to feel like I should be watching it.

And you can do that with anything. Whether it’s the newest hottest board game, the video game that drops on next week, whatever it might be. And it leads into the last thing.

It’ll Be As Good One Month or One Year Later

If it is something that is great, you can find it later. So going back to Mythwind, if that is a game I want, I can find it later. It might cost a bit more on the secondary market, but that’s okay, it’s not taking up space now. And as much as physical space, it’s not taking up head space. If a game isn’t on my shelf, I won’t see it and think about playing it. Same goes for Netflix or a book. Don’t add a show to your queue, if it’s worth your time you’ll find it again. If a book is really good, they’ll show up at book stores for a long time.

Will you miss out on the initial hype, on that moment in time when to be cool you Tweeted about it? Sure. But will you have the bandwidth to get in on that anyways? The more you have to try and keep track of and keep up with at once the less you can dive into it and enjoy it.

So Don’t Even Try?

There are some things that are worth keeping up with. So it’s not that you don’t try, it’s that you find what is worth keeping up with for you. What do you care about knowing about? What do you want to dive into deeply and get immersed in? That’s up to you, not what is popular at the moment, not the newest hottest thing that is coming out. It’s not that you don’t try, it is that you get to choose what you really care about, which is way more fun. And if something is great, you can always come back to it later.

What is the thing that you dive the most into?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

The Witcher is the story of three different characters, you have Yennefer the witch who can harness chaos to perform amazing acts of magic. You have Ciri the princess who has her own powers. And you have Geralt of Rivia, The Witcher. The show is about how they got to where they are in the present and how their stories intertwine. This is done through vignettes. For Geralt, it is about how he has to take responsibility and how while Witcher’s are monster hunters, he wants to be more than that. For Yennefer, it’s about what she’ll do for power and if it was worth it. And Ciri, it’s about staying alive.

I’m not going to go more into what the plot is, because, firstly, it’s a lot of vignettes that are working around the main points for the main characters and how it brings them all together. I’m also not going to do it, because it’s not a cohesive story. That’s one of my biggest knocks against the show is that for basically every character but Ciri, the vignettes jump all over the place and because of that you don’t get much payoff for the story. And even the vignettes are inconsistent. Some of them are told extremely well with a deft touch, and some of them beat you over the head with foreshadowing very obvious things. And even with the characters, Geralt’s stories are generally pretty good and they do come together with a solid payoff. Geralt is also tied to Ciri, and while her story wanders a little bit, there is more of a point to it. Yennefer, on the other hand, has her story wander a lot, and they try and make her a pretty sympathetic character, but really fail at it in my opinion.

The acting in the show is inconsistent as well. Henry Cavill is very enjoyable as Geralt. And there are other portrayals that work well, I think that Ciri is solid. But again, Yennefer’s acting, Anya Chalotra, is just lacking for me. And I put that more on the story than Anya’s actual skill as an actor, but she is given a story that is extremely unfocused and just ends up not having enough to work with in it. For me, a lot of acting issues can probably come down to the writing, but it was a shame because Cavill really does do a good job as Geralt and he makes the show watchable, otherwise, I don’t think anyone else would have been able to carry it.

The same for the world building in the show, it’s just inconsistent. The world itself is extremely interesting, the monsters who show up and things like that are different and really cool. But, you get bits and pieces of the world and how it works given to you generally not in the right order and not at the right speed. I don’t want an information dump, which they don’t do, but they mainly just pull things out of thin air with little to not explanation in the middle of episodes. It’s something, like the acting and the writing, that I hope they can clean up in season two. It goes too much between trying to have some Game of Thrones feel to it and epic monster hunting and back again without explaining why or how things are working.

And really, the same again for the effects in the show. Some of the things looked really cool. I know that the dragons weren’t the favorite for a lot of people, but I liked the design used there. But the opening scene is horrible. It’s such a bad use of green screen, Geralt feels like he’s on a sound stage maybe with the monster there, but there’s nothing else that he can interact with. The trees in the shot are horrible and static and just look so obviously fake. I think that it does get better and maybe a little more consistent throughout the show, or at least after that first scene, but it’s the first thing people see and it looks so bad.

Overall, this is a show that I generally did enjoy. I thought that once it get going, about episode four, it was interesting, because they created a more cohesive story for Geralt. But then they’d keep through Yennefer’s story in as well and that would mess things up for me. From what I’ve heard, this first season was based off of a series of short stories, and it feels like that, but that’s not a good thing, it doesn’t feel like a good episodic show, it feels, too often, like the worst part of episodic shows. There’s also the timeline piece. They are extremely subtle about it, and that’s something that they needed to be more obvious about, and then there were things that they could have and should have been subtle about because it would have been a good payoff. I’ll watch the next season when it comes out, but I’d say, if it’s just kind of interesting, probably skip it.

Did you enjoy The Witcher? Is it on the list of shows to watch for you if you haven’t seen it? Should I play any of the games/pen and paper RPG?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

This is a setting where your characters are going to be heading up nations and divinely appointed leaders. You might have to build up your nation and lands, but it has been divinely appointed to you. Birthright is a setting where you are going to play a more political game and where battles might be fought off screen or by giving orders to large armies versus the dice rolling and hacking and slashing and spell slinging that you get in other settings. You have things called domain actions where players hand out decrees and edicts that are month long actions. You could start building a castle, wage a war, or establish a treaty, any of these things that might take a while. Birthright has it built into the game to allow you to take these bigger actions. Even magic can be bigger in Birthright. You cast domain level spells or war combat spells which are going to be for a whole battle than just slinging a fireball. You might give orders to your wizards to cast 100 fireballs and that does something to the enemy troops or things like that. Every aspect of Birthright is going to be focused on this larger level.

In terms of the actual world, I don’t know that the feel of the fantasy in the world changes massively from other settings like Forgotten Realms, it’s still a fantasy setting with standard fantasy trimmings. But it’s going to feel different. This is kind of a setting where you would play Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones), you can take on roles as different houses and fight over the greater lands, or be all from the same house, make allies, and grow your influence in hopes of eventually taking the Iron Throne. That compared to a smaller game which can feel more like Lord of the Rings or Wheel of Time where it focuses in so much on the characters that you don’t pay attention to all the political maneuverings.

For some people, that’s going to be the type of game that they really want. I never really got that into Song of Ice and Fire, I prefer that smaller focus of the story, and while Song of Ice and Fire did have the characters is focused on, it was all about the grander political maneuvering. So I’m not sure that this setting would be for me. I think that there would be some interesting aspects to it, but I also have board games that give me more of an army versus army combat focus. Obviously in Birthright and any D&D or RPG setting is going to have more of that role playing feel to it. That part seems obvious, but it would make it a bit more unique, still I’m not sure interesting enough to really fully engage me.

How about you, would you play in this setting? Do you like the idea of a more political game?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

Will any of those movies make my list, you’ll have to see, but the big movies this year, for me, were primarily Marvel movies, and with #10MinMarvel podcast, I might like Marvel a little bit.

5 – Tucker & Dale vs Evil
What happens when a group of college students go out to a remote cabin to have a fun weekend? Clearly, the locals are going to attack them, but Tucker & Dale vs Evil does a fun twist on that. If you want a horror comedy film with some over the top deaths, this is a great film. Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk do amazing work in this film being the locals in this film, and how everything happens around them is great. I think that even if you don’t love horror, this is a film that it’s so on the edge of everything that you’ll like this film. If you do like horror, you’ll appreciate the tropes that they use throughout the film and how they subvert them often.

4 – Dog Soldier
Probably the least well known movie on my list, but one that I enjoy a lot. This is from Neil Marshall who directed the battle of the wall in Game of Thrones, or at least one of the episodes around that. He also has done The Descent which is really good as well, but Dog Soldier is my favorite. It’s not a big budget film, but it does horror well. What works well in this film is that it creates a limited area for the characters to interact with the world. So they are cut off, but more than that, they are stuck in a small area, and I think when horror films go too big with the world, it makes it less of a horror film, and that’s actually a trope that another film I like picks up on, see the honorable mentions below.

3 – John Wick
This was a new to me movie this year, and it was a lot of fun to binge through the series of movies quickly. But the first one is my favorite of them. The world in this movie and the sequels is cool, but what everyone is there for is the gun fu/gun kata action, and John Wick has some great action. There’s a scene at a club where there is a gun fight that goes across several floors and it works really really well. This film doesn’t have an extremely heavy plot, but it works well enough to get you into the action and Keanu Reeves is a lot of fun in this film. If you are looking for a straight up action film, this is one of the best that has come out recently.

2 – Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
I really enjoy this film in terms of a dumb pulp sort of film. You get a convoluted plot where you have a giant mystery that ties everything together. I really like the performances in this movie. Robert Downey Jr. does a great job especially in this film, and it’s before Iron Man. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is a lot of fun. It isn’t a deep film, but probably my most watched film of all time. I also like that this is a satire of the buddy cop genre of films as well, and done really well that way.

1 – Avengers: Infinity War
Now, as you’ve seen, I don’t have Endgame on the list. I think that the two movies are tied together so closely, that it felt a little bit odd putting them both on there. For me, Infinity War is the slightly better film. Some of it is that it doesn’t have that superhero ending, you end up in a bad place, and that is really interesting, without it being a super dark and depressing again, for a superhero movie. So you get something you’re very familiar with because it has that heroic feel, but at the same time, it subverts expectations. While it might not be the Marvel movie I want to watch the most, but for me, it’s the best Marvel movie.

There are so many good movies, I could easily do my top 5 Marvel movies and it would be pretty close to my top 5 movies of all time. I didn’t want to repeat anything on the list, but that’s what honorable mentions are for.

Honorable Mention:
Cabin in the Woods
Avengers: Endgame
Thor: Ragnorak
Dr. Strangelove
The Fifth Element
The Last Witch Hunter

As you can see, I really love the highly critically acclaimed movies, outside of superhero movies. My taste is really all over the place, but most of the time I just want to sit down an watch a movie that is fun, and not have to think about things too much, so that’s why t hings like The Fifth Element and The Last Witch Hunter make my list.

What are some of your favorite movies? Is there any crossover with my top 5 list?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

Vintage Copies of Books – So, books will show up multiple times on the list in different ways, but I think that there are different types of books you can pick up for that fantasy fan. And one of the cooler ones is vintage books. Getting an older copy of Lord of the Rings, even if it has a little bit of wear and tear on it is going to be awesome for a fan of Lord of the Rings, because the vintage covers and just the feel of the books is different. Or, it could be any other vintage sort of fantasy book, but there’s just something about having that almost collectors type book, that fantasy book lovers will really like.

Box Sets of Books – Here’s the other book thing. Box sets of books are also that other book lovers collectible thing. Again, box sets are the pieces that you can put on the shelf and show off. It also means that you can give them something they might not buy, for example, if they were picking up the Harry Potter books as they went along and they were published, they could have a mismatched set, but most book lovers will spend their own money on more books, not making a consistent collection, so you could give them that as a box set, so it is consistent, and it’s something that they’ll likely love.

Fantasy Themed Artwork – Now, this is a bit iffy to put on here, simply because, while Superhero artwork you can know has a recognizable superhero on it, fantasy artwork is all over the map. So, I would lean towards artwork that is based on something. So, Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter are good examples here. There’s going to be artwork that has been done depicting both of those stories, and if someone is a fan of that story, they’ll appreciate the artwork more so. That said, maybe the person has some obscure story that they like and there isn’t artwork on it, I’d be hesitant to suggest picking up large artwork, but postcard size stuff that is work appropriate and they can put up in a cubicle, that would work. Just don’t go with anything too large that they might not like because it’s just not their style.

Fantasy Themed Magnets – Fairly specific with this one, but I’ve found that a lot of people have pretty boring magnets, if they have many magnets on their fridge. Or they might again be using them at work in a cubicle. This is where you can go with the more generic fantasy, because, again, it’s smaller. And especially going with a cute art style or maybe a chibi art style, those work for a nerdy person’s fridge. If the person has a beer fridge or a wine fridge you can put magnets on, getting the hobbits drinking pints in chibi form would be great, in my opinion, for something like that. Or maybe, the person doesn’t want chibi but loves Dungeons and Dragons fantasy, get them dragon magnets. This also has the advantage of being something if you get a magnet that you can use as a stocking stuffer.

Lego – Yup, there are plenty of fantasy Lego sets out there, some generic, and then Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Sorry for you Game of Thrones fans, no Lego sets. This is another display type thing, or if they are younger kids, something that can be played with. But in our house, we have a Hobbit Lego on one shelf and a Hogwarts up on top of another shelf. So, you can go small or big with this, but Lego is a bit on the spendier side of things with the larger sets. It is a lot of fun to put together, and if someone has time off over the holidays, it gives them something fun to do through their time off.

Video Games – Woo, another generic category, but there are a lot of fantasy games out there. You can go retro if they have an older system or a Retron system and get them things like the original Zelda or Final Fantasy. Or, there are middle aged games (not games in the middle ages) like the original Dragon Age that have been ported over to the newer systems, but if someone still have an XBox 360, you could find it for that. There are so many fantasy games out there, figure out if the person you are giving the gift to like the more sword and sorcery style games, more story driven games, fighting, whatever it might be, and you’ll probably be able to find something unique for them. And if they are already a video gamer and have a lot of them, you can look towards more of the indie titles and there are a lot of interesting fantasy games out there.

Classic Fantasy Movies/TV Shows – When I say classic, I more so mean old ones. Find the fantasy movies or TV shows that people might not remember from back in the day. I’m sure there are plenty of good lists out there, or you could find the B-Movie classics in the genre as well. Definitely a lot of them you can check out, and if they are more of a classic one, the cheesy nature of them works better versus a modern cheesy story. Now, you still end up with some of them being too cheesy or dated poorly in other ways, so do a bit of research, but you can probably find bluray or DVD collections of them that would have a good variety as well.

This list is a bit more generic, so I apologize because it’ll make you do more work tracking stuff down. But fantasy is a bit broader than the board game topics and even broader than superheroes, because, while there are indie superheroes out there, most people think Marvel and DC. I tried to suggest some ideas that are a bit more specific for Lord of the Rings fans or Harry Potter fans, but there’s so much in the fantasy realm that it’s hard to cover some of the broader stuff. For that reason, if the person loves reading, books is always a great option, next time you see their book shelf, look at it and find what books might work there.

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

The idea of this is that as a fan or a consumer, we are demanding, creating petitions, threatening, and generally behaving like five year old’s that things are done the way that we want. And it isn’t just with the examples I gave, but those are a few that have been thinking about. It raises a few questions, what do we as fans of something “deserve” and what should be changed for us?

Let’s start by talking about Game of Thrones. There are a lot of complaints about Season 8 of Game of Thrones. I stopped watching much earlier than that, but I know people who watched through it and who didn’t like the end, because it felt rushed and because it didn’t go like they expected. Now, I think that there are valid complaints about how the last season went, and the show runners being given as much time as they wanted, but then deciding to rush the ending is a bad look. And it’s going to taint the fact that they are doing the next Star Wars trilogy after this one wraps up. Not like Star Wars fans have generally been that forgiving anyways.

I think what we need to unpack more is the complaints where fans are complaining because they didn’t want something to happen. Game of Thrones has built it’s brand on having slow seasons and then shocking and expected moments happen. With the last season, from what I can tell, again getting this information from people who are watching the show, the biggest complaint is people knew how they wanted the show to end, and when the last season, not even the last episode, the last season, went in different directions, they disliked that. I have issues with this complaint though, for several reasons. The first, it goes against the nature of the show. Game of Thrones isn’t supposed to be predictable, and when the complaints are that the popular fan series aren’t accurate, that should be fairly obvious. But more so, why is there this idea that we deserve a show go the way we want it. While it might be a minority, there are going to be people who liked Season 8 of Game of Thrones. So if it had gone a different way, they would have the issue. The job of the show runners and creators of a book, movie, tv show, play, comic book, etc. isn’t to please everyone. It’s to create the best thing that they can, now you could argue with Game of Thrones, maybe they didn’t do that by rushing the end, but this isn’t just a Game of Thrones problem.

This even shows up in the biggest movie franchise of all time, Marvel. When it was announced that we were getting a female super hero stand alone movie, I thought it was awesome. Captain Marvel was an interesting character that brought in more cosmic stuff to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, there was a large backlash over not getting the Black Widow movie that the “fans” had wanted. Now, I don’t want to belittle the idea that these people are fans, but threatening to boycott something or complaining loudly on Twitter and other social media because you don’t get what you wanted, I do question the fanhood some. Unfortunately, this backlash has hurt Captain Marvel in the long run. That wasn’t the only thing that Marvel has caught flack for and had people get mad about and demand changes from. I want to get into Kickstarter though, but you can go back and read about character arcs in the first three Phases of Marvel that I did when Endgame came out.

In Kickstarter, it’s interesting. There are two types of demands that you see on Kickstarter and the threat is pretty obvious, someone will demand a refund or threaten to pull funding on an active project. But the two types of demands are game play changes or extra things changes. And these go throughout the campaign, but also after the campaign and probably worse after the campaign. Both of these are extremely headscratching to me for one reason. Kickstarter is a platform for people to raise funds to do a project with the hope that it gets completed, not a pre-order system. So, as someone who pledges money on Kickstarter, I’m an investor, because I have faith in your project, if I get something back, that’s an added bonus.

Let’s assume that isn’t the case, even though that’s what Kickstarter is, and talk about the other things. Game play changes for me is the bigger of the two things. As someone who loves board games and who has dabbled in working on my own game, I don’t think I know enough about a game after having read through a vague idea of the game to tell you that you need to add in something to the game. Sometimes the people who are making a game have something obvious that needs to be fixed, maybe remove rolling to move, but don’t put money into a project because you like 80% of a project and then demand that the last 20% change for you specifically. If you need that change or don’t think that they are playtesting it fully to not make that change, you should assume that means larger issues with the project and pass on it. Or assume that if and when they do playtest it, that it will be caught or fixed if it needs to be. If I or you were a great game designer, we’d have games of our own on kickstarter.

Or, demanding extras, that’s it’s own ball of wax. This generally comes in later in the process when the project is running a bit behind schedule. I realize that it’s horrible that you won’t be getting that one out of fifteen projects you’ve backed and are waiting on right now, won’t be showing up on time. But does that mean that they have to treat you specially and give you more because it’s running late? For example, I’m in a project for a Shadowrun game, I have my copy of the game, but the fulfillment center screwed up massively and sent out extra copies of the games and games to the wrong address. Both of these are an issue, and while I think that there are probably things that could have been done better in handling the snafu, there are people flying off the handle about it. And they aren’t fine with the fact that the Shadowrun game that they got already has extra stuff as a surprise, they are demanding extra and different fixes to make them happy. Basically, you’re complaining about helping people get the copy of the game that you were complaining about before because it was delayed. Again, not a perfect example, because I think there is another fix that could help, but there would still be people complaining that they’re being asked to do something, even though they got more after complaining, because they couldn’t read information correctly when it was clearly laid out.

So, where does this demanding and threatening culture come from? I think it can be placed on several things. One, there’s this idea that something that is meaningful or interesting for you in some way belongs to you. Even on Kickstarter, I have a copy of the game so yes that belongs to me, but the idea and concept of the game were designed by someone else, and while at some point in time as a designer/creator things aren’t yours anymore, when it’s being created it still if yours. You get to put your stamp on it, but there’s too much of a mindset now that something being put out, because it’s meaningful or important to you, needs to be yours and go like you want it. Next, I think it can come out of jealousy. And I don’t know that is something people really consciously think about. I think, and at times I notice myself doing this, complaining about something that someone else is creating while wishing I had created it myself. Tied into that is the last piece, and that’s the delusion that you can do it better yourself. I am using that word intentionally, it is probably a delusion that you’d handle it better yourself. Now, sure, there are some people in Hollywood who probably hated Season 8 of Game of Thrones that would have done it better, but I’m talking about you and me, average people in the world. It’s a delusion that we could have done it better. I like to think that I would handle the Kickstarter situation that is going on with the Shadowrun game better, but the actual answer is that I’d be panicking and probably be radio silent right now, at least we’re getting regular updates.

Now, there’s a lot to parse through there. And I won’t lie, this article is very judging, and I’m not claiming that I’m above it. There have been plenty of things where I went – “You did what?” – or – “You better not kill of that character.” But, I wanted to write this to end on what we can do as a culture to move on from demanding and threatening and to allow creative things to continue to grow instead of scaring people out of the creative fields who have stories and ideas to share with the world that might be simple popcorn fun, but also might be important to making the world a better place.

There are a few things that we can do to try and make a difference. The first is to understand that the active creative work of someone can be picked apart for what’s bad, but also spend time trying to find what you like in the work as well. It’s easy, as the Twitter and online herd hurdles headlong into complaining to be swept up in it. Instead, take a moment to stop and think about what you liked about something before you join the echo chamber of complaints. You might find that there are good things to be taken from the story, from the moment, from the idea that has more depth than it would look like on a cursory glance. Next, encourage people to take risks and compliment people on taking risks. Again, this doesn’t mean that you have to love everything that is done, and maybe it isn’t your cup of tea, but recognize when people take risks and encourage them to do so. It’s easy to tell someone that a risk was bad and that they shouldn’t have done it, again, probably on social media, but instead appreciate the risk for what it was. Encourage people to take those risks and challenge them to pull off their next risk even better than they did before, realizing that it might never be for you, but it might be so important for someone else. And, finally, spend time encouraging those who are being run down by the herd. This ties into the first two, but there’s a mindset that you need to step in front of the herd and try and stop it, all that happens is that you get trampled and you feel like you wasted time trying to help. Instead, turn around and look at the person who is about to be trampled and engage in them in positivity and encouragement. Again, I don’t mean that you have to love and tell them that what they are doing is perfect, I mean that you let them know what you like and encourage them to continue to reach for the stars. Through a herd of negative, you have a chance to stand out and be a shining like for them to latch onto. And you might be someone who gives them confidence to continue.

What are some things that people have demanded be changed that you really like? Who are some creators that you’ve seen take risks that you think are interesting or important and that you want to encourage. Tweet at them, let them know somehow, but also leave a comment below so that we can learn about these interesting, boundary pushing people as well.

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

So besides the cute title, what am I getting at in an article about spoilers?

Part of me wants to try and define a set of rules for when something is still a spoiler or not. When has it been around long enough that it’s fair game and when should you talk in hushed tones about something.

This comes up with Avengers: Endgame coming out in a week basically and people, for good reason, not wanting to be spoiled on what happens. It also comes up right now because there have been massive spoilers posted on Twitter, including leaked footage at this point time, and it’s still just over a week away.

I’ve defined a little bit of what a spoiler is, but let’s nail down a definition.

A spoiler is an element of a disseminated summary or description of any piece of fiction that reveals any plot elements which threaten to give away important details. Typically, the details of the conclusion of the plot, including the climax and ending, are especially regarded as spoiler material. It can also be used to refer to any piece of information regarding any part of a given media that a potential consumer was not intended to know beforehand. Because enjoyment of fiction depends a great deal upon the suspense of revealing plot details through standard narrative progression, the prior revelation of how things will turn out can “spoil” the enjoyment that some consumers of the narrative would otherwise have experienced.

Wikipedia

That’s a pretty long definition from Wikipedia there, but I think it covers it really well. To cut that down, it is spoiling anything related to the plot that is shared with the consumer of the plot by an outside point prior to the consumer getting to that point of the plot. Generally, I think that does spoil the anticipation for something knowing information about it head of time.

By that definition, technically any time someone is consuming that plot for the first time, no matter when the plot was created, you can spoil it for the person. However, in order for people to be able to converse and discuss the book, movie, show, audio drama, whatever it might be, you can’t worry indefinitely about spoiling the plot for people. I think that is where the tricky point in setting up rules around spoilers is, because, the joke of Bruce Willis seeing dead people in The Sixth Sense is actually a spoiler for me, but I don’t care, and probably a spoiler for some others, but because of how long ago that movie came out, that has to be fair game at some point in time to discuss.

Let’s talk about two upcoming/ongoing things and what sort of time frame they have on spoilers. The two things are Avengers: Endgame and then Game of Thrones. Both of these have a massive focus in the public eye, and because of that there will be spoilers but more so, there will be a ton of people wanting to talk about them. So how do you handle talking about things like that?

Firstly, I would always ask if everyone is caught up on Game of Thrones (or any sort of show) or has seen the movie before diving into the discussion. And this is talking about the immediate time frame. Especially close to when the episode or movie has come out, because some people aren’t able to see it immediately, even if they do really care about the story. And then respect that if people haven’t seen it or read it yet.

Next, I would set aside space and time when you can talk about it. You won’t be able to talk about it with everyone, but create a time, with people who have seen it at a mainly private location to talk about it. There’s always the temptation to go out after watching a movie and grab drinks and talk about it, you will spoil something for someone one. It is important to discuss and talk about pieces of media, but be considerate of where you do that, even if everyone in your group is up for talking about it, those around you might not be, and in that short time frame, it’s very possible that you will spoil something for someone else.

This one is especially true in movie theaters. I haven’t had it happen, but I have heard of it happening. Someone coming in for the next showing has the end of the movie spoiled by someone leaving. Wait until you are in your car before talking about it. If you can’t contain your excitement with the movie, talk about it generally. “That was amazing.” or “That was underwhelming” are fine, but saying that Captain America kissed Wonder Woman as they flew the Millennium Falcon into at the Reaver ship and just escaped the explosion by hopping into the TARDIS and going to Vulcan, just a bit too detailed. However, if I heard someone saying that when leaving Avengers: Endgame, that would be hilarious.

Finally, do give it some time before talking about it freely. Something like Game of Thrones and Avengers: Endgame, I would say when the DVD/Blu-Ray’s come out for each of them respectively, then they are fair game to talk about. At that point in time, someone who couldn’t make it to the theater, for whatever reason, is going to have more options to watch it and less excuses for having not watched it. Even then, I would still be respectful and keep an eye out for people who might not have seen it yet, because there are plenty of reasons why someone might not have seen a movie yet.

What I didn’t talk about in here was social media and online. How do you deal with spoilers then? For social media, I’d say it’s simple, don’t post spoilers publicly for the movie/show until it’s after the DVD/Blu-Ray is out. There isn’t a good way to really tag them as spoilers so that people can avoid them. On forums, I know one that I’m on will have two threads. One for general thoughts on the movie, and another for spoiler filled thoughts. I even, in my review of Avengers: Infinity War, did a non-spoiler and spoiler review, and I’ll be doing the same for Avengers: Endgame. And one important thing will be for me to remember to put enough header section at the top so that in article blurbs, spoilers aren’t shown.

So how do you deal with spoilers? Do you have any additional rules that I haven’t talked about? Do you think you should always ask before spoiling something no matter how long ago it was?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.