Lost in Adaptation

One thing that's kind of hard to convey without reading the books is the weight to the world building. It's not just a cool setting with ocean hopping and wizards, there's a gritty sense of time passing to the world. There's always a comment or touch of detail to every island, mountain, and town the books come across. It's still deeply unique as a setting, especially for the time.

When everyone was ripping off Tolkien with middle-Ages European fantasy and vaguely Norse/Celtic folklore, Earthsea's firmly Bronze Age. The closest cultures to compare it to would be Sumerian or Hittite with some Indonesian stylings. And the themes and mythology are far closer to Hinduism and Taoist teachings of balance than strict good or evil.

…It never occured to me that Dom hadn’t reviewed Twilight yet. I guess it’s probably better to review it now that the passion (positive and negative) around the series has largely died down.

Here's video of him telling he'll read the entire saga:

As someone who has only seen the movies and heard firsthand plot summaries from my sister who read the books when they were the big thing, I feel like these will be one of the closer sets of adaptations to the source, probably to his chagrin.

Edited by Weirdguy149 on Aug 21st 2020 at 6:09:13 AM

He's not doing Li As. Just reviews of the books.

I actually liked Breaking Dawn, at least more than the other books. Since halfway through it just jumps into the vampire idea feet first, and you suddenly get all these oddly memorable characters. In hindsight, it feels like Twilight's development as a story just starts in the first book, and the second and third are just a really long diversion. If Bella were made a vampire way earlier, you could explore the dynamics as she tries to keep to her rapidly fading humanity. But instead, without Edward or the other vampires around, a whole lot of nothing happens. Book 2's a real slog.

Based on everything I know of the books and of Dom, I think he's probably going to dislike them but not really have much to rage about until he hits Breaking Dawn. He's encountered enough mediocre to bad romance stories at this point that most of it shouldn't be that big of a surprise

But book 2 though. Having a girl so desperate to pretend Edward exists that she risks her life and goes through mental instability when he's gone, and never gets addressed.

Yeah and you have Jacob who doesn't understand the meaning of "I'm not interested"

Not like the books are entirely free of Yikes, just not, 50 shades level. Or "Kidnapped and Stockholmed by a Viking" level.

Edited by Ghilz on Aug 21st 2020 at 10:44:15 AM

Have you guys forgotten Renesmee and her not at all problematic relationship with Jacob?

Please, that one's just hilarious.

Like, "Im imprinting on your baby (Creepy CGI Monster Baby in the film) and will want to marry her and also I am telling both parents this right now and also this has never come up before." is so fucking out there I can't even be shocked.

Edited by Ghilz on Aug 21st 2020 at 10:50:01 AM

Dom notes Bella is terrible at parking

In her defense, it's hard to parallel park in an old-ass pickup truck in an era where parking assistance was not a thing.

Twilight Book Review Part 1 is out on Patreon, Episode 1 "Twilight Made Me Question The Existence Of Love"

The review is now out on Youtube:

Edited by jouXIII on Aug 24th 2020 at 9:02:41 PM

…Well that video sure went places.

Next episode on the Twilight saga is out:

As far as the movies go, I always thought New Moon was the least bad of the bunch.

Really? I got pissed off at Edward Iow-key threatening suicide early on and couldn't get over how much of a dick thing that was for the rest of the runtime.

New Moon problem is that it is boring. The most important contribution it have on the story is to introduce the love triangle, the Vampire council and the werewolf.

New Moon probably gets points from the Twilight-critical for not having much Edward and instead having a mostly well-adjusted and genuinely nice boy courting Bella (though as Dom points out even in this book he's not entirely free of coercive behavior). It's also Robert Pattinson's favorite, and lesser informed fans who only know that factoid and not his reasons for liking it might give it extra attention and find things they also like in it.

My reasoning for why New Moon is the least bad:

• Twilight is cringy.
• Eclipse is very forgettable.
• Breaking Dawn Part 1 has Edward’s most dickish move: forcing Bella to get an abortion.
• Breaking Dawn Part 2 assassinates Jacob as a character and also the fakeout fight scene pisses me off.

Twilight: Breaking Dom continues with review of Eclipse:

Eclipse: the character assassination of Jacob

Those "reading too deep" tangents almost make me wish Dom would rewrite the books himself…