- Joined
- Apr 19, 2019
Boy why the fuck did they bother doing Discworld in the first place if they were just going to turn it into Game of Thrones.
Terry Pratchett's "The Watch" - A diverse and inclusive steampunk BBC series inspired by the Discworld Novels
- Thread starter Judge Holden
- Start date
ddlloo
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2018
Because it has name recognition that they can hijack.
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2019
It’s like someone’s looked at the books and went “how do we remove everything from this that makes it beloved and idiosyncratic?” Where the fuck are Colon and Nobby and Detritus for starters?
I bet the trolls and dragons have been either removed or dramatically cut back to save money on the budget. And if you don’t have trolls then you don’t need dwarves, but you want to keep a “trans” character so let’s make Cheery a hideous Male human with terrible make up. But now there’s no disabled actors (because we’ve changed the main dwarf character) so let’s just make... (picks a character at random) CMOT Dibbler a girl in a wheelchair- rather than someone else where it might make more sense (eg one of the UU faculty).
It looks hacky as fuck with no respect or understandings why people love those books. What’s even more galling is that the BBC have managed to do adaptations with diverse casting that stay reasonably faithful to the source material (or at least the spirit of it). Dracula and His Dark Materials both spring to mind.
I bet the trolls and dragons have been either removed or dramatically cut back to save money on the budget. And if you don’t have trolls then you don’t need dwarves, but you want to keep a “trans” character so let’s make Cheery a hideous Male human with terrible make up. But now there’s no disabled actors (because we’ve changed the main dwarf character) so let’s just make... (picks a character at random) CMOT Dibbler a girl in a wheelchair- rather than someone else where it might make more sense (eg one of the UU faculty).
It looks hacky as fuck with no respect or understandings why people love those books. What’s even more galling is that the BBC have managed to do adaptations with diverse casting that stay reasonably faithful to the source material (or at least the spirit of it). Dracula and His Dark Materials both spring to mind.
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2017
I feel this is literally someone's pet wokeshit comics that they threw pratchettian names onto in hopes it'll get onto the big screen T_T
Also, what's telling is that even the crazy-woke autistic chick I follow on tumblr (like 90% of post screenshots I get are from her) hated this.
"Sometimes glass glitters more than diamonds because it has more to prove". Something is telling me that this glass started out as manure.
Also, what's telling is that even the crazy-woke autistic chick I follow on tumblr (like 90% of post screenshots I get are from her) hated this.
"Sometimes glass glitters more than diamonds because it has more to prove". Something is telling me that this glass started out as manure.
Zaryiu
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2017
I actually feel very, very mad over this. The sheer audacity of these piece of shit daring to shit on something created a man they will NEVER reach the ankle of in any way, well i won't shed a tear when they get what they deserve. This physically hurt me and i'm completely serious in saying this, it already is absolutely trashy went they do this with the work of people dead for decades or centuries but to someone who's been dead only a few years? They can go to hell, fuck'em!
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2014
Urge to A-Log...rising...
NOT. RESISTING. WELL.
I'm just gonna go the fuck home today and start reading straight off my shelf.
BECAUSE at least I still have Sir Pratchett's real legacy on printed paper, you fucking limey scum. And you'll NEVER take that away from me.
NOT. RESISTING. WELL.
I'm just gonna go the fuck home today and start reading straight off my shelf.
BECAUSE at least I still have Sir Pratchett's real legacy on printed paper, you fucking limey scum. And you'll NEVER take that away from me.
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2019
Kind of similar here, I went and bought 3 more of Pratchetts books for my kindle because after reading this thread and watching the animations recommended earlier I got the urge to continue reading his stuff. I've only read 15 of the discworld books so I still have a lot left to enjoy
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2014
This feels like one of those lazy jokes about diversity, those “hurrr, they’re probably gonna cast a black lesbian in a wheelchair as Sherlock Holmes” jokes. I have seen some bad, disrespectful, missing-the-point adaptations before, but I can safely say, without even seeing an episode, that this is the worst.
It doesn’t look like they even wanted to adapt Discworld. More like they wanted the IP rights so they could swipe the ideas they liked and trade off the name.
It doesn’t look like they even wanted to adapt Discworld. More like they wanted the IP rights so they could swipe the ideas they liked and trade off the name.
Jub-Jub
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2018
There's a reading guide that might be of use if you like one particular style or character group. It's not needed though, I jumped around for the first half of his works (dependeding on what the library had at the time) before reading them as they were released.
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2019
This is what you people get for being able to stomach Terry Pratchett's writing.
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2019
Thanks this is very handy. I've bookmarked it. I didn't read in any order, friends gave me random books they thought I might like and then I bought the ones that would show up first or recommended on amazon.
ddlloo
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2018
One of the best things about Pratchett was that you could continually see his improvement as an author. In a purely literary sense there is an immeasurable difference between his earlier works and his later ones. I do actually find it a little jarring to read the early discworld books these days.
It's one of my favorite things about Jim Butcher (my favorite current author) as well, seeing the quality of the prose noticeably increase every few installments.
Emperor Julian
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2015
Whats surprising is how easily it would have been to translate discworld into a socially concious series and they still seem to have fucked it up. The Cheery littlebottom casting is a real head scratcher with the social issues with Dwarves and gender being an obvious parable for LGBT rights, their's quite a few scenes which overtly spell this out such as a bad guys nervous breakdown in the fith elephant because she's horribly trapped by dwarven tradition. If anything casting a open non-binary feels a little tone deaf because the primary social issue in Dwarven society is they don't acknowlague gender.
It doesnt even really feel like discworld where the mark is closer to early modern gearing up for an industrial revolution where gunpower hasnt been invented. whereas this feels more a like a dr who episode.
Who ever made the call not to cast Charles dance as the Patrician should be fired on the spot.
It all feels very half hearted and cynical if anything they've swapped out a lot of in depth social commentry and ethnic representation for a more... generic form of representation, where everywere is an idealized northern london. Which is very 2010+ BBC when I think about it.
I honestly wouldnt be surprised if this isnt a rehash of another script with Discworld grafted on.
It doesnt even really feel like discworld where the mark is closer to early modern gearing up for an industrial revolution where gunpower hasnt been invented. whereas this feels more a like a dr who episode.
Who ever made the call not to cast Charles dance as the Patrician should be fired on the spot.
It all feels very half hearted and cynical if anything they've swapped out a lot of in depth social commentry and ethnic representation for a more... generic form of representation, where everywere is an idealized northern london. Which is very 2010+ BBC when I think about it.
I honestly wouldnt be surprised if this isnt a rehash of another script with Discworld grafted on.
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wtfNeedSignUp
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
I think the problem is that modern series writers are millenials who only ever read Harry Potter and YA novels. Their knowledge of Terry Pratchett's works is limited to the wikipedia articles.
They are literally unable to grasp the idea of allegories, instead needing to reduce everything into an on the nose current politics with their own individual take.
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2014
Ultimately, the overarching joke of Discworld is the juxtaposition of classic fantasy and cynical reality. At first it was just parodying fantasy, then it used fantasy to parody reality. The dwarfs and the world around them were used to parody questions of LGBT issues, feminism, fundamentalism, racism, immigration, industrialisation, integration etc, but you could also view them as a funny take on Tolkien’s dwarfs. Ditto the other races. Pratchett trusted the reader to draw their own conclusions. The books never felt like “HERE’S THE MESSAGE.”
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2018
I remember he was very proud of Small Gods, and how both atheists and the very religious would come up to him and praise him for how he portrayed religion in it.
A lot of the great writers are, at the end of the day, humanists. In Pratchett's case, it's just that some of his humans came in different species.
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2019
I guess my main problem with Pratchett and Brit humor more widely is that it just feels like a dude is standing there saying "Oo blimey ain't this a silly situation?" over and over and over. Can't those damn limeys ever let a joke stand on its own without aptronyms, wink-nudging and self referential bullshit?
Emperor Julian
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2015
Discworld does do that but a lot of the jokes land deadpan I'm not sure which books you're talking about and a lot of our jokes are bone dry.
Although we do have a bad habit of not being particulary earnest as a culture.
EDIT
I keep looking at the lineup and holy shit their's a lot of miscasting. James fleet as the Archancellor blows my mind considering he'd be okay as any other staff member except either ridicully or weatherwax Completly ignoring the ethnic and race contriversies and almost nobodies cast right in this.
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- Joined
- Feb 12, 2013
Holy shit I think I just figured out something...
The reason there are no dwarves is almost certainly because "dwarf" is considered an offensive slur against midgets by #woke diversity and inclusivity commissars who are attached most BBC projects these days
Seriously, I guarantee they are going to do a bunch of interviews and articles into the runup of this being shat out and they will smugly be gloating about how sensitive and thoughtful they are for not using such dated and problematic language
The reason there are no dwarves is almost certainly because "dwarf" is considered an offensive slur against midgets by #woke diversity and inclusivity commissars who are attached most BBC projects these days
Seriously, I guarantee they are going to do a bunch of interviews and articles into the runup of this being shat out and they will smugly be gloating about how sensitive and thoughtful they are for not using such dated and problematic language
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2014
I’m reminded of the Ankh-Morpork’s Campaign for Equal Heights, a pro-dwarf organisation that was made up entirely of humans, because the dwarfs would just attack you with an axe if you insulted them. I can’t imagine there will be any jokes like that in this adaptation - these seem like the kind of people that joke was targeting.