Why I love LEGEND OF THE SEEKER
I'm a die-hard fan of the things that I love, or as my good friend Katie called me "Obsessively Nerdy." I don't dress up as characters at cons, but I do completely immerse myself into a fandom when I'm struck by it and I go utterly bonkers for it. I also rather confuse people by having the ability to completely severe myself from one fandom and immediately jumping ship onto another w/o any warning...what is to follow is my explanation on why that happens and what I've been looking for to feed my obsession monster that's been hungering for just the right franchise that it could really sink its teeth into.
I grew up in a unique time, every Sunday night ABC ran "The Wonderful World of Disney" and they'd run these 2 hour family movies that I'd religiously watch w/ awe and wonder. Before each movie, they'd crank out an old film w/ Walt Disney just chatting about whatever that they'd run before the film. At an early, EARLY age, I learned something very important...everything that I loved about my favorite animated films, everything that I loved about Disneyland, and the films produced by Disney studios - it was all thanks to the genius of one man. I knew this when I was like 4. I loved Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse, but I loved Walt Disney because he brought them all to me.
Then when I was 7, I was older and a new man's vision rose in the world of entertainment and for this Scorpio/Sagg cusp girl this man's wildly imaginative and creative visionary storytelling left a permanent mark on me and changed me...forever. That man was George Lucas and the film was STAR WARS. I was swept away by the visual effects and the amazing characters. Princess Leia was unlike any girl character that I'd ever seen before - she was strong willed, sassy, she talked back to the boys, and she fought as hard as they did for justice. I was smitten with Luke and I loved, loved, LOVED C-3PO and R2-D2. People ask me how it was that I was able to write C-3PO so well in my fanfics, it was easy for me - I spent years playing w/ my action figures as a kid and C-3PO was one of my best friends as a kid as well as the rest of the gang. I can hear him say anything in my head if I need to.
What I love about STAR WARS isn't the religious type teachings, I don't study every ship or gadget in the galaxy, or even know the names of every creature (although I do know an alarmingly large number of them) - I just always loved the sweeping vistas, the amazing characters, the FUN adventures, the epic battle between good vs. evil, and the swash-buckling swordfights. Things getting blown up was always a bonus.
So I loved the Prequels also - I racked up over 10,000 posts on THEFORCE.NET vehamently defending them against frothing fanboys until the SITH frenzy was over and then I felt empty. I had been a huge X-Files fan, but that was gone too. I went looking for a substitute but didn't find anything that suited me...until now.
I tried getting into Harry Potter but the truth is even though I love the books, I don't LOVE the books, they're for the generations behind me.
I did find the Terry Goodkind SWORD OF TRUTH books a few years ago and read about 1/2 of them. Terry is a fabulous writer who digs himself into exposition holes and deep philosophy arguments that bore the hell out of me because he dumps this junk right in the middle of these fantastically wild adventures. He also tortures (literally) his beloved characters and readers. I torture my own fanfic readers, but I would never stoop to the lengths that Terry goes to make his readers scream at his books...well Ok I would, but not as often as he does it. I was a Kahlan/Richard shipper before I knew what Shipping really was. *Sigh* What I took away from the SWORD OF TRUTH books were 2 things:
1) Terry wrote the most amazing characters possibly ever written - Richard/Kahlan and Zedd are masterpiece characters...it's been years since I've read the books but I've still got bright vivid memories burned in my brain on their adventures and their spirits. I LOVE these characters...deeply.
2) I desperately wanted to see Kahlan and Richard brought to life somehow, but w/ as dense as his books were I highly doubted that it would ever happen.
Anywhoo - I went off looking for something to replace STAR WARS and found SMALLVILLE. GAH! Millar/Gough did something that I never thought would be possible. I fell in love w/ the show when I first started watching it season 6 - I ran out got all of the DVDs and watched the whole series. First 1/2 of season 6 I was a diehard fan. Second 1/2 and through season 7 - I became a basher. I've NEVER turned against a fandom like I did w/ SMALLVILLE. It wasn't good for my health...literally. By season 7, I was frothing at the mouth so much that I completely forced myself not to watch the eps that I figured would really set me off - that helped ease my suffering some. However, writing to DC Comics w/ over 500 Superman fanboys and girls to back up my campaign, seeing Millar/Gough "quit" the show and seeing the reaping fruits of that endeavor with a fabulous season this year has brought me back into the fold, but I'll never be as passionate as I was at the beginning of season 6, the show burned me too badly.
In the wake of my Millar/Gough loathing I found TERMINATOR. I love this show, it satisfies the sci-fi geek in me. Every week the writers pull stuff out of their noggins that make mine ache. I'm proud of the huge fan community that I created for the show, it's the heir to BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and I hate Fox w/ a passion for putting on Mondays this Fall which will likely end up sealing it's fate w/ the show getting the usual Fox death chime axe of only getting 2 seasons after it finishes it's winter run on Fridays. The only thing that I find lacking in it is that deep shipper pull - I do feel that way about Sarah/John...shipping doesn't have to be romantic, the show just works better when they're working as a team. They've been fighting this season and the show feels lost as a result...although it's starting to come back around again.
So where does LEGEND fit in all of this? Well last winter I heard the first rumblings that Terry's books were purchased and that Sam Raimi was going to helm the project. At first it seemed like it was going to be made into Mini-series - then a TV show. I was beyond excited....a whole SEASON to tell the adventures of each book! Then I heard ABC was producing it and I nearly died - I haven't forgiven them for killing THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES when it came out. I would've gone to the panel at Comic Con but I didn't get there until the next day so I missed it. You can bet that it's going to be top of my list to goto the panel this year!
My favorite book characters of all time were coming to TV! *SQUUUUEEEEEE!*
I'm exactly the audience that they were looking for presenting this show to. I already know the characters and love them. I have a fuzzy memory of the books (I am rereading WIZARD'S FIRST RULE right now) and loved what I remembered...(and so far what I can tell with how they're doing the show - they'll jump over and ignore all of the stuff that I hated - YAY!) The show doesn't exactly follow the books, but it pulls out the things that I remembered most about the characters and the story that when I watch the episodes I get the warm fuzzies. More importantly the show is FUN. It's got great FX, great adventures, swash-buckling sword fights, and wonderfully rich characters. (Sound familar?) No, the show's not taking the more adult route that the books do (although it's certainly bloodier and more adult than I thought that Disney would've allowed it to be) but instead it's given me what I've been craving since 2005...it's my next STAR WARS.
The story parallels of the SOT books to STAR WARS are more noticable on the show then they ever were in the books, however, that doesn't bother me. With Zedd, Richard, and Kahlan on the road together trying to gather allies to fight against a tyrannical leader, my heart is HOME, and it's even more at home because of how much I love the 3 leads on this show. Kahlan will sacrifice everything of herself in a single heartbeat if it meant saving people from suffering or if it meant saving Richard's life. And Richard is headstrong but he's one of the greatest heroes ever written because he's got a pure, pure heart and his love for Kahlan is epically huge. The characters are flawed - they fight all of the time, they hurt each other with words, they feel miserable afterwards, they suffer, they make up, they laugh, and they love with deep, honest passion. The writers on the show get that about Richard and Kahlan. Yes, the adventures are different, yes there's no mud people, yes this is different and that is different...I don't care. What I care about is how are Richard and Kahlan being written? So far they're spot on as to how they're written in the books, other than Richard isn't mooning over Kahlan the second that he laid eyes on her like he did in the books. That is also fine by me. Bruce Spence could use toning down his yelling a bit, but I just love Zedd - he makes for great comic relief in the series.
Richard's sexy swordfighting skills so reminds me of Anakin Skywalker that I want to cry (Anakin/Padme being my other deep great 'ship of all time.) And Kahlan - Kahlan is quite possibly already the greatest female action heroine to grace TV in our times...she's like Samatha Carter or Teyla yet even more than them she's fierce and can be downright scary - I love that she's probably the most complex character in the entire series and that everything depends on her.
What I love about LEGEND OF THE SEEKER is that Sam Raimi did it right, even if the fanboys don't get it. He found these 2 wonderful fresh new faces to portray 2 beloved characters and gave them a chance to be the first to bring them to life. He didn't make the series depressing and brooding (although I do suspect that it will get darker as the series rolls along...because it has to) but w/ Rob Tapert's help they're making this wonderful world where everything looks lived in, the FX are dazzling but they don't stand out, they use old techniques (matte paintings) to help give the show an old-world fantasy feel, and it's just deliciously fun to watch each week. The show is a little cheesy - but it's my kind of cheese - it's the same flavor of STAR WARS - serialized, popcorn fun viewing with main characters who are not 1 dimensional... unlike say those on HEROES.
I knew that if they got Richard and Kahlan right that SEEKER would trump all other shows for me because of how much I love them. The fact that Bridget and Craig are fabulous in the parts is truly a bonus...as are Craig's amazing washboard abs and dazzlingly adorable smile. I never thought that I'd be happy with The Mouse again - but Disney has brought magic back into my life - I feel like a kid again.
I'm finally home and I couldn't be more thrilled :)
I grew up in a unique time, every Sunday night ABC ran "The Wonderful World of Disney" and they'd run these 2 hour family movies that I'd religiously watch w/ awe and wonder. Before each movie, they'd crank out an old film w/ Walt Disney just chatting about whatever that they'd run before the film. At an early, EARLY age, I learned something very important...everything that I loved about my favorite animated films, everything that I loved about Disneyland, and the films produced by Disney studios - it was all thanks to the genius of one man. I knew this when I was like 4. I loved Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse, but I loved Walt Disney because he brought them all to me.
Then when I was 7, I was older and a new man's vision rose in the world of entertainment and for this Scorpio/Sagg cusp girl this man's wildly imaginative and creative visionary storytelling left a permanent mark on me and changed me...forever. That man was George Lucas and the film was STAR WARS. I was swept away by the visual effects and the amazing characters. Princess Leia was unlike any girl character that I'd ever seen before - she was strong willed, sassy, she talked back to the boys, and she fought as hard as they did for justice. I was smitten with Luke and I loved, loved, LOVED C-3PO and R2-D2. People ask me how it was that I was able to write C-3PO so well in my fanfics, it was easy for me - I spent years playing w/ my action figures as a kid and C-3PO was one of my best friends as a kid as well as the rest of the gang. I can hear him say anything in my head if I need to.
What I love about STAR WARS isn't the religious type teachings, I don't study every ship or gadget in the galaxy, or even know the names of every creature (although I do know an alarmingly large number of them) - I just always loved the sweeping vistas, the amazing characters, the FUN adventures, the epic battle between good vs. evil, and the swash-buckling swordfights. Things getting blown up was always a bonus.
So I loved the Prequels also - I racked up over 10,000 posts on THEFORCE.NET vehamently defending them against frothing fanboys until the SITH frenzy was over and then I felt empty. I had been a huge X-Files fan, but that was gone too. I went looking for a substitute but didn't find anything that suited me...until now.
I tried getting into Harry Potter but the truth is even though I love the books, I don't LOVE the books, they're for the generations behind me.
I did find the Terry Goodkind SWORD OF TRUTH books a few years ago and read about 1/2 of them. Terry is a fabulous writer who digs himself into exposition holes and deep philosophy arguments that bore the hell out of me because he dumps this junk right in the middle of these fantastically wild adventures. He also tortures (literally) his beloved characters and readers. I torture my own fanfic readers, but I would never stoop to the lengths that Terry goes to make his readers scream at his books...well Ok I would, but not as often as he does it. I was a Kahlan/Richard shipper before I knew what Shipping really was. *Sigh* What I took away from the SWORD OF TRUTH books were 2 things:
1) Terry wrote the most amazing characters possibly ever written - Richard/Kahlan and Zedd are masterpiece characters...it's been years since I've read the books but I've still got bright vivid memories burned in my brain on their adventures and their spirits. I LOVE these characters...deeply.
2) I desperately wanted to see Kahlan and Richard brought to life somehow, but w/ as dense as his books were I highly doubted that it would ever happen.
Anywhoo - I went off looking for something to replace STAR WARS and found SMALLVILLE. GAH! Millar/Gough did something that I never thought would be possible. I fell in love w/ the show when I first started watching it season 6 - I ran out got all of the DVDs and watched the whole series. First 1/2 of season 6 I was a diehard fan. Second 1/2 and through season 7 - I became a basher. I've NEVER turned against a fandom like I did w/ SMALLVILLE. It wasn't good for my health...literally. By season 7, I was frothing at the mouth so much that I completely forced myself not to watch the eps that I figured would really set me off - that helped ease my suffering some. However, writing to DC Comics w/ over 500 Superman fanboys and girls to back up my campaign, seeing Millar/Gough "quit" the show and seeing the reaping fruits of that endeavor with a fabulous season this year has brought me back into the fold, but I'll never be as passionate as I was at the beginning of season 6, the show burned me too badly.
In the wake of my Millar/Gough loathing I found TERMINATOR. I love this show, it satisfies the sci-fi geek in me. Every week the writers pull stuff out of their noggins that make mine ache. I'm proud of the huge fan community that I created for the show, it's the heir to BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and I hate Fox w/ a passion for putting on Mondays this Fall which will likely end up sealing it's fate w/ the show getting the usual Fox death chime axe of only getting 2 seasons after it finishes it's winter run on Fridays. The only thing that I find lacking in it is that deep shipper pull - I do feel that way about Sarah/John...shipping doesn't have to be romantic, the show just works better when they're working as a team. They've been fighting this season and the show feels lost as a result...although it's starting to come back around again.
So where does LEGEND fit in all of this? Well last winter I heard the first rumblings that Terry's books were purchased and that Sam Raimi was going to helm the project. At first it seemed like it was going to be made into Mini-series - then a TV show. I was beyond excited....a whole SEASON to tell the adventures of each book! Then I heard ABC was producing it and I nearly died - I haven't forgiven them for killing THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES when it came out. I would've gone to the panel at Comic Con but I didn't get there until the next day so I missed it. You can bet that it's going to be top of my list to goto the panel this year!
My favorite book characters of all time were coming to TV! *SQUUUUEEEEEE!*
I'm exactly the audience that they were looking for presenting this show to. I already know the characters and love them. I have a fuzzy memory of the books (I am rereading WIZARD'S FIRST RULE right now) and loved what I remembered...(and so far what I can tell with how they're doing the show - they'll jump over and ignore all of the stuff that I hated - YAY!) The show doesn't exactly follow the books, but it pulls out the things that I remembered most about the characters and the story that when I watch the episodes I get the warm fuzzies. More importantly the show is FUN. It's got great FX, great adventures, swash-buckling sword fights, and wonderfully rich characters. (Sound familar?) No, the show's not taking the more adult route that the books do (although it's certainly bloodier and more adult than I thought that Disney would've allowed it to be) but instead it's given me what I've been craving since 2005...it's my next STAR WARS.
The story parallels of the SOT books to STAR WARS are more noticable on the show then they ever were in the books, however, that doesn't bother me. With Zedd, Richard, and Kahlan on the road together trying to gather allies to fight against a tyrannical leader, my heart is HOME, and it's even more at home because of how much I love the 3 leads on this show. Kahlan will sacrifice everything of herself in a single heartbeat if it meant saving people from suffering or if it meant saving Richard's life. And Richard is headstrong but he's one of the greatest heroes ever written because he's got a pure, pure heart and his love for Kahlan is epically huge. The characters are flawed - they fight all of the time, they hurt each other with words, they feel miserable afterwards, they suffer, they make up, they laugh, and they love with deep, honest passion. The writers on the show get that about Richard and Kahlan. Yes, the adventures are different, yes there's no mud people, yes this is different and that is different...I don't care. What I care about is how are Richard and Kahlan being written? So far they're spot on as to how they're written in the books, other than Richard isn't mooning over Kahlan the second that he laid eyes on her like he did in the books. That is also fine by me. Bruce Spence could use toning down his yelling a bit, but I just love Zedd - he makes for great comic relief in the series.
Richard's sexy swordfighting skills so reminds me of Anakin Skywalker that I want to cry (Anakin/Padme being my other deep great 'ship of all time.) And Kahlan - Kahlan is quite possibly already the greatest female action heroine to grace TV in our times...she's like Samatha Carter or Teyla yet even more than them she's fierce and can be downright scary - I love that she's probably the most complex character in the entire series and that everything depends on her.
What I love about LEGEND OF THE SEEKER is that Sam Raimi did it right, even if the fanboys don't get it. He found these 2 wonderful fresh new faces to portray 2 beloved characters and gave them a chance to be the first to bring them to life. He didn't make the series depressing and brooding (although I do suspect that it will get darker as the series rolls along...because it has to) but w/ Rob Tapert's help they're making this wonderful world where everything looks lived in, the FX are dazzling but they don't stand out, they use old techniques (matte paintings) to help give the show an old-world fantasy feel, and it's just deliciously fun to watch each week. The show is a little cheesy - but it's my kind of cheese - it's the same flavor of STAR WARS - serialized, popcorn fun viewing with main characters who are not 1 dimensional... unlike say those on HEROES.
I knew that if they got Richard and Kahlan right that SEEKER would trump all other shows for me because of how much I love them. The fact that Bridget and Craig are fabulous in the parts is truly a bonus...as are Craig's amazing washboard abs and dazzlingly adorable smile. I never thought that I'd be happy with The Mouse again - but Disney has brought magic back into my life - I feel like a kid again.
I'm finally home and I couldn't be more thrilled :)