Good Omens Season 2: Reaction with full spoilers

Hmmm. HMMMMMM. Hm.

Despite having gone through a very thorough Pratchett phase in my early twenties, I did not get around to Good Omens at the time. Well, that is not correct. I started the book at one point, but didn’t finish it. I just wasn’t in the mood at the time, it happens. When the TV show was announced, I gave it another go and finally finished the book. I found it … OK. Sorry? Then I watched the TV show – the first season, when we did not think there would be a second – and found it also OK. A perfectly appropriate adaptation that had the same strengths and weaknesses as the book, for better or for worse. The dynamic between Aziraphale and Crowley is the story’s main attraction, the other plotlines fail to feel as inspired, the characters aren’t as memorable and no other relationship is something anyone would care about. I’d have considered Good Omens a masterpiece if every plotline was on the same level. But as it stands, this is just one of those stories where you really, really cannot blame the fans for focusing on shipping the two main guys. It’s not only that they are shippable, but that there’s not really anything better in the story than their dynamic. Are there Good Omens fans who aren’t Aziraphale/Crowley shippers? This is hard to imagine.

Spoilers after this point.

Checking back in …

I hate the WordPress editor. There are little things that mess up my flow whenever I try to write a post, and it always ends the same way: me wandering off, doing anything else. This isn’t an excuse or even an explanation for why I don’t blog much anymore, but it is something that needs saying! I am very post-shy. I miss the times when I was young and the internet was younger, and we did not care, but now I feel like I am polluting the web with half-baked thoughts, and this is not good for anyone! Not to me, not to humans, not to the PLANET! Wah. Such pressure I am putting myself under. Maybe this is why I don’t manage to blog.

Anyway, I HAVE been reading. I did not read much last year, but I read Robin Hobb’s Liveship Traders trilogy because I wanted something pirate-related, and it kind of got me started on reading her entire series in the proper order, and reading more fantasy in general. I imposed a resriction on myself: Female authors only. Because sometimes when I read discussions, it’s as if people think the entire genre is just Tolkien, Sanderson, GRRM, Robert Jordan. And … Well, they do not actually think that, but on some level people simply do not do justice to the variety of authors and stories that have been around for decades … So, I’ve been thinking that not only will I read as many books by female authors as I can manage, but I will try to cover every decade! This is tricky because I do not think I even know much about fantasy of the 1940’s to 1960’s. And this line of thinking inevitably leads me to wanting not to narrow myself down to English-language writers, but include German and French ones as well … But we will see. I would like to write a couple of posts with my thoughts on the books I read – not reviews, because I like to engage with stuff on a level somewhat deeper than “this is good / this is bad”.

I cannot really predict if I will truly get around to writing, because my brain is very weird at the moment. When a book grabs me, I read it and I do not do anything else, I do not think anything else. I have not played Octopath Traveler II in weeks because my mind has been preoccupied with books. The guilt that I am neglecting videogames over books is almost as bad as the guilt when I neglect books over videogames. The day only has 24 hours! WTF! I swear I used to have more time.

So far, there have been only two types of books: The ones that are nice reads, engaging enough, but do not really hit me on an emotional level, I read them and move on; and the ones that blast into my brain like a storm, rewire all my neural pathways, become a part of my inner life in a permanent way. As exhausting as this can be, I do prefer the latter type! I am genuinely happy that I can still have such strong reponses to new-to-me stories, because so many people of my age group seem to have closed their minds to the idea that any new experience of idea could be worthwhile. Sometimes I read a book and it strikes me: I will never get over this. This will be with me now, forever. It will change me. I love that feeling. Anyway, I find myself needing a break after books that really work for me.

Posting this now without reading it over again and again because I am running out of steam and if I start revising and fixing typos, I’ll just end up leaving it as a draft. Forever.

Live A Live Appreciation

Taking a break from Return to Monkey Island (eeeeeeee!), I’ll write down my thoughts on Live A Live, which I finished last week after 35 hours of gameplay. I thoroughly enjoyed it! It is a lovely game and a very well-done remake – OK, I have not played the original, but this version looks and sounds gorgeous, and as a fan of the HD-2D style and of Yoko Shimomura’s music, I was in heaven!

I have thoughts on the individual chapters, the game’s overall structure and its kinship with Chrono Trigger. I could complain about some reviews that I have seen, but I try to hold myself back, as it would not be pleasant.

Spoilers follow, so please don’t read on if you have not played the game and completed it.

Octopath Traveler, Triangle Strategy, freedom of choice and breaking immersion

I love, love, love Octopath Traveler and Triangle Strategy. They are beautiful games with lovingly detailed worlds and characters that feel more alive than they have any right to be. I am thrilled that Square Enix is making this kind of game, because what they have been doing wit Final Fantasy breaks my heart, and this makes me feel a lot less neglected.

One interesting factor about both of these games is their non-linear storytelling, giving the player freedom of choice – to an extent, of course. The balance between free play and scripted story scenes is really very tricky, and neither game has mastered it. There are little moments that break my immersion, especially in Octopath Traveler: First of all, the fact that you have to choose to trigger the next chapter in each character’s story. You don’t automatically trigger cut scenes when you reach a new location, but have to go to the pub, talk to the barkeeper and select the story you want to play, should they be available. It is a little jarring. The second issue is that even if you’ve gathered all eight travelers into your group, the story-progressing chapters pretend that the respective character is alone. Not only do the other characters keep quiet in dialogues, but there some scenes where the main character is hurt or caught, which only really makes sense if they are alone … So this is weird. Thirdly, the lack of interaction between the main characters is a little disappointing. Yes, there are optional “party chat” dialogues, but they are independent of the story and evolve around trivial topics. They are fun little bonus things, but I find them especally irrelevant when none of that personality and chemistry affects the main story at all, like at all.

I understand that it’s really difficut to program this sort of thing, but it would have been utterly amazing if the story played out differently depending on which characters you have with you. Or if your reputation system affected how NPCs talked to you and which places you were allowed to access. Of course this would end up being a nightmare of branching storylines and impossible to handle with eight characters … But a girl can dream, right?

Triangle Strategy found a good way to make it work. Here, you can actually influence the path you take, but it’s not overwhelmingly complex. When you look at the flowchart, you can see that the story always comes back to the same key moments, at least until a certain point in the game. You get variations of the same story, but it is still mostly the same story, which makes it easier for the creators to keep things straight. I was also surprised by how different each of my two playthroughs made me feel. (I want to take a little bit of a break before my third playthrough. Playing Live A Live now.) In videogames, freedom is always an illusion, but in Triangle Strategy it was a very good one.

Still, even here were immersion-breaking moments, though far more trivial than Octopath’s problems. Triangle, too, uses optional “party chat”-type cut scenes to flesh out the various characters. They do a good job with that, but since they unlock “randomly” over the course of the story, I ran into two or three instances where the dialogue did not really fit the current overall situation. Like referring to war when there wasn’t a war yet. There is also the fourth-wall-breaking issue with New Game +, when you have optional characters in your roster, but you have not actually met them yet … See, this is why more games need a time travel, meta or dimension-hopping aspect. Makes New Game + make sense! Justice for Bravely Second!

So, while I don’t think either game has completely mastered it, Triangle Strategy handled the balance between freedom of choice and scripted storytelling much better than Octopath Traveler. I keep my fingers crossed that the next game will have the classic JRPG gameplay of Octopath Traveler, but branching storylines like Triangle Strategy, depending on your choices, behaviour and party members. And if you could find a way to incorporate party chats in the normal gameplay … or just have the characters interact mor and build rapports … that’d be lovely.

I nearly forgot how good Elementary is

I am rewatching Elementary and, for nostalgia’s sake, looked back at old reviews and previews from ten years ago, when the show came out. Wow, what a trip into a distant past: back then, people still thought highly of Sherlock – the BBC show, that is, not the character. I only ever wached the first season of Sherlock, and did not really like it well enough to keep going. The fandom was incredibly off-putting, too, especially when they got into this huffy crusade against Elementary. There was not an article on the show that wasn’t brigaded by furious Sherlock fanatics, and Elementary fans even had to use alternative Tumblr tags to escape from the hatred.

Lucy Liu bore the brunt of the attacks, of course. Making Watson a woman? Unacceptable! In retrospect, it is really funny how wrong the haters were with their cynical, unimaginative predictions of how this character would be developed: that she would become a love interest, that she would be meek and passive, shoved aside or even killed off. And Sherlock fans – or at least the shippers – were still smugly riding on their wave of delusion that Sherlock was going to end with Holmes and Watson as a couple. That they were part of a milestone in LGBT representation. Theirs was the smart, brave show, Elementary was the conventional American rip-off. Why else would would you make Watson a woman, if not to pair her off with Holmes? She was obviously just there to remove the gay subtext, that was, for Sherlock shippers, clearly the main appeal.

Triangle Strategy is, like, my thing now.

Lately, I have become this grumpy person who cannot get invested in new things and keeps going back to old favourites instead. I abandoned Bravely Default II in favour of a Final Fantasy XII replay, I perk up when I hear about remakes or ports of old games, I cannot get interested in any fantasy novel though I try, I try. And I really have been craving stories to get lost in, exciting cliffhangers, characters to care about, something to make me feel new things and think new thoughts. I still have not finished Bravely Default II – and I don’t know why I should. Sometimes I solve a sudoku and instead of accomplishment, I get a pang of existential dread, am overcome by the futility of what I have just wasted 30 minutes on. I put numbers in squares and that is the extent of it. It is a trivial activity of no consequence. It has given me nothing. and yes, Worldle is the same. I know words. Hooray. Moving on.

So, in this circumstance of intense ennui drops Triangle Strategy. A game so good, it is unhindered by the clunkiness of its title. There is something so mundane about the word combination, so literal, I honestly did not expect such a vibrant and deep world to lurk beneath. I mean, they could have called it “The Scales of Conviction”, which is a serious fantasy novel title if ever I heard one! It was right there! You could have done this, Square Enix! Dammit, why didn’t you?! I mean, OK, giving my new favourite game a sillier title than you could have, that is the least of your recent sins. But still. Sometimes it is the littlest things.

Anyway, have I mentioned that I have been in a weirdly sentimental, backwards-oriented mood? I miss the 3DS. I miss it so much, everything reminds me of it. My Corona warning app going off? That’s like Streetpass, except awful! Visiting a gardening shop with my mom last summer? Holy heck, the aesthetics, it looks exactly like that Streetpass flower game! Bravely Default II? God, this only makes me miss the original Bravely Default (the reason I bought a 3DS in the first place) and Bravely Second, which perfected the use of the 3DS’ idiosyncratic features. Triangle Strategy? Yeah, well, I don’t play strategy games a lot, so the Fire Emblem Awakening flashbacks were intense, and that was the first game I played on the 3DS, all the way back … and it took me a while to overcome the Fire Emblem muscle memory and adapt to the Triangle Strategy gameplay. I had a great time with Fire Emblem Awakening back in the day. I was extremely invested in my bromance (I played as a guy, who I named Nepomuk) with Chrom. Ahh, Chrom! We would charge into battle side by side and obliterate the battlefield, the joy of two slightly overlevelled main characters. Triangle Strategy also gives me a prince to follow, protect and have bromance with, and the game hooked me like the most predictable fish in the ocean. I care a lot about Roland now. I care so much that at one point during my first playthrough, I was almost too worried for his emotional wellbeing to enjoy myself. Funny, I thought. this is what I always wanted: A game where I can make choices that matter, and characters I am invested in, a world to get lost in, something to take seriously, that occupies my thoughts. And it was briefly awful. It was great.

Aside from royal angstmuffin Roland, the character I am currently most fascinated by is Benedict … I have thoughts, spoilery thoughts, but I want to wait a little until I voice them out loud, because I am only on my third playthrough, and I feel like it will be a while until I have seen every possible turn of the story, tunil I have the full picture … You see what I am talking about? I still have not finished Bravely Default II, but I am on my third Triangle Strategy playthrough! And it will not be my last, not even for the month of April.

OK, a little bit more on that. Throughout Triangle Strategy, you find “notes”, written texts that give you a little bit of extra information about the world. It is not relevant, but it is there, and kind of fun to peruse when you aren’t in a hurry. The first two Bravely games were big on this sort of bonus information, and it really felt like the creators had developed a rich world and wanted to share. In BD, I spent an evening reading Ringabel’s mysterious diary. It left me confused, intrigued, with suspicions that later turned out to be correct. It added to the experience. Bravely Second had the characters keep a diary/record of their travels, and even the monster catalogue would gain new comments as you played. It was so much silly little bonus stuff. Bravely Default II continued the tradition of one character having a book, but only out of obligation. It was a key item, but not actually something you could read. It was one of many things where the game felt rushed, unfinished, barebones. So I was thrilled that Triangle Strategy let me discover random scraps of texts, not relevant but fun little details that fleshed out the world and made it feel alive.

So. I want to spend some more time with Triangle Strategy, and then perhaps I will have a few things to say about the game, the characters, the world, the themes, and my experience playing it. I know this post was essentially worthless babbling, but at least it shows accurately where my brain’s at right now.

For now, just these assorted thoughts:

• ‘Tis a crime the level cap is 50.
• Since I am a recorder person now, I applaud the game’s soundtrack for using one! I also applaud it in general, it is very good.
• There is a character named Anna and she is a ninja! Life goals.
• There is a character named Rudolph Mueller and I literally – yes, literally! – laughed for five minutes straight when I read that name. This is not a badass name. This is an any-random-old-grandpa-from-my-German-home-village name.
• Speaking of names: “GustADOLPH? Gee, wonder what he‘ll be up to.”
• “Exharme? Is this the little brother of Exdeath?”
• “Why are Frederica’s siblings called Thalas and Erika? Shouldn’t it be … Fred and Erika?” ;D
• Horses going up stairs looks so silly. I love it.
• This game has the slowest start of any game ever and I love it. It is bold and confident. It is a choice. Yes, all of these characters are important. Deal with it. But it does kind of make me proceed slowly in my third go-around.
• Grand Norzelian Mines background music is just the best.

Countdown to The Wheel of Time: Music!

The Wheel of Time is coming out in a mere week! Aaaaah! I am excited. I have a bottle of wine that I am going to drink while watching the first three episodes, and I bought this bottle in 2019 around the time that filming started, specifically for this purpose. Because it says “Ogier” on the bottle. (It’s a winery, apparently.) But what with first reactions trickling out, and premiere events happening over the next days, and reviews out soon, and interviews, promo clips and stuff coming out every day, it’s suddenly really difficult to keep ahead of … fandom conversation … and probably not worth it because we’ll have no need to read between the lines and come up with theories and wild, fear-driven speculation once the episodes are out. There are also a lot of bad-faith trolls muddying the waters – and there is no point trying to engage calmly with someone whose real issue with the show turns out to be the showrunner’s sexuality, or the main actresses being “ugly”. Not worth it.

Still, there is one aspect of the TV show that I want to talk about quickly: the music. A while ago, Lorne Balfe was announced as the composer, and he has since talked about his approach and introduced a bunch of songs which, if I understand this correctly, are not directly from the soundtrack, but more or less the conceptual basis for the music that will play in the show. It’s not an approach that I’ve ever seen – and how cool is that? For me personally, the songs themselves range between “not my cup of tea” and “pretty fucking great”, but I have not listened to them all. I do wonder how different the final soundtrack versions will actually be, but I really appreciate that the approach isn’t to use a standard orchestral score with the usual instruments and styles and be done with it. Balfe pointed out that our idea of what a fantasy soundtrack should sound like is pretty limited to a narrow, western understanding. I totally agree!

I’ve gotten a little more interested in music lately, after picking up an alto recorder during lockdown and spending a lot of time on Youtube, learning new things about music history and more. Even though I’ve always liked music, and I’ve played instruments since I was little, I’ve only been familiar with a very small sliver of this incredibly complex and evolving world. I’ve now discovered unknown-to-me instruments and learned about how the current versions of standard orchestra instruments came about. I find myself more interested in the “lesser” instruments, the ones people scoff at and find irrelevant because they have no place in standard orchestras or standard rock bands. There is an obsession with respectability, and when you realize how expensive the “respectable” instruments are, it seems rather elitist as well. I guess it depends on whether you understand making music as something exclusive for serious professionals only, or something for everyone, for fun and self-expression. I’ve seen people worriedly ask if a given instrument is worth learning at all: Is it relevant, is it useful, is the range sufficient? Who cares about these things, as long as you like the sound and enjoy playing?

(There are cranky guitarists who really hate ukulele players for choosing an “easy” instrument and daring to play “for fun”, when they, the guitarists, have put in so much hard, painful work and why is no one worshipping them for it?? It’s some of the most hilarious stuff I ever read.)

Back to the topic of soundtracks. It is interesting that the standard orchestra sound is considered timeless and universal, fitting for fantasy, historical drama, science-fiction and contemporary stories alike. Yet many of the orchestra instruments are technically “anachronistic” to a fantasy or historical setting. There was no Böhm flute or a clarinet or tuba in the Middle Ages. Seeing that Thom will play a guitar in the Wheel of Time TV show caused a lot of mockery, because people think of the guitar as a modern instrument, even though it’s much older than that. It’s not just that our understanding of music is focussed strictly on the western standards, but at a very limited time frame within the western tradition as well. We’re missing out on a lot of cool, unique sounds.

Some time last year, I was checking out the sound of the aulos, an Ancient Greek instrument (and the name of a Japanese recorder brand, that’s how I came across it) and similar old-old instruments. I found the Youtube channel of Abraham Cupeiro and saw him play the carnyx. Well, imagine my delight when Lorne Balfe not only announced that the carnyx will feature on the Wheel of Time soundtrack, but that the very same Cupeiro will play it! How cool is that? Things are coming full-circle for me, musically! So satisfying.

(Honestly though, the carnyx looks like a nightmare to play, just based on its shape and how it’s held. Is it heavy? Is it difficult to balance it? I’d be scared to drop this thing! I’d break it before I get a sound out, wah, anxiety!)

Another cool aspect of the Wheel of Time soundtrack is the heavy use of singing – in the Old Tongue from the books. The Old Tongue is not a fully functional conlang, but appears to have been expanded for the show, so I am obsessed with puzzling out the lyrics of these songs and perhaps figure out the grammar. It is surprisingly difficult to even just recognize basic sounds when you don’t have any real reference points! Still, I will make this my mission …

This & that: Adaptations, continuations, contemplations

Gosh, there is suddenly so much to keep track of.

There will be an animated TV series based on Final Fantasy IX, interestingly not produced by a Japanese anime studio, but a French studio by the name of Cyber Group Studios. It will be aimed at children aged 8-13, which does seem a good fit, since children of that age are old enough for the story’s darker themes, but not so jaded that they cannot also enjoy the colourful, lively world of FF9, and get emotionally invested! It’s really cool that there might be a whole new generation of Final Fantasy IX fans, and that perhaps the game will be getting the attention it has always deserved!

There will also be an anime adaptation of Legend of Mana – and even a whole new Mana game for consoles, hooray! Square Enix doesn’t always celebrate franchise anniversaries with a boatload of new titles, spin-offs and side projects, but the Mana series has been having a moment for a while now, with Trials of Mana, and now a remake of Legend of Mana, but also this anime, this new game … Since Secret of Mana was one of the most formative games for me, I’m happy to see the series alive and well.

I admit, I haven’t played Legend of Mana, but I have read the manga adaptation by Shiro Amano, and I really wouldn’t mind if the anime took its cues from that version of the story … It has such a delightful, irrevent sense of humour! I remember it fondly.

Continuing with the theme of “everything is a reboot or sequel, nothing new is ever created: Good Omens is getting a second season …? Simon Pegg is working on the apparently-happening-someday Galaxy Quest TV show? Hmm … OK, we will see.

Don’t get me wrong, I see the potential in a Galaxy Quest sequel for television, but I had an irrational moment of disappointment reading Simon Pegg’s name, because he’s already been involved in the new Star Trek movies, and I’m tired of seeing the same handful of names attached to all science fiction franchises these days. I have nothing against Pegg specifically, he might actually be a good choice here, certainly better than a lot of other people who were attached to new Star Trek, and new Star Wars, and new everything else … But I just don’t fully trust Hollywood at the moment.

As for Good Omens, I am mostly indifferent. I didn’t actually find the book that great, since everything that wasn’t Crowley/Aziraphele just lacked a certain spark …? The TV show was a faithful adaptation that was similarly lacklustre most of the time, but banking heavily on the charisma and chemistry of Tennant and Sheen. Perhaps this sequel will actually be more fun than the original, without the underdeveloped B and C plots and less memorable characters weighing down the good stuff. There is a chance that it will be self-indulgent nonsense, of course … and I gotta say, I did read Angel Sanctuary back in the day, so I am still completely sated when it comes to “Heaven VS Hell except angels are militant assholes and our heroes are kinda stuck in the middle” narratives! Man, Angel Sanctuary was a lot. They should make an edgy live-action adaptation of that one, the reception would be completely hilarious.

Oh, even Germany’s cult classic science fiction series Raumpatrouille Orion is getting a sequel! I was actually pleased to hear about this, because I’ve been thinking for a while now that German TV could really try to expand its horizons a little, beyond dreary and repetitive crime procedurals. And when you already have a popular sci-fi TV show in your cultural repertoire … well, why did it take them 55 years to come up with this idea? I like what the creators are saying regarding their plans for the new show, and I’d like to rewatch the old series one of these days – it’s only seven episodes!

Meanwhile, The Wheel of Time has debuted its teaser trailer featuring the series’ new animated logo. Ditching the Mickey Mouse silhouette of the original logo is a smart move, and choosing the ouroboros over the wheel makes sense to me, too, because the former is immediately understood as representing eternity and cycical time, and probably comes across as cooler and more eyecatching to the unititiated than a … a wheel. The show is now officially announced for 2021, and we have finally entered the promotion timeframe, meaning that now we can expect trailers, promo images, and eventually interviews and all this stuff before the eventual premiere. I’m excited. It is good.

3×3 Eyes Reread, part 19: Love in the time of Sanhara

That’s it … the ending of 3×3 Eyes …

After an admittedly very long break, I am back to discuss the ending of 3×3 Eyes. The final stretch of the story is a rollercoaster of emotions, but it also really drives home that when all is said and done, 3×3 Eyes is a love story. Yes, supernatural horror fantasy action adventure … but at its core, it’s about love. Even the final action scenes are less about letting Yakumo apply his fighting skills, and more about the bond between Yakumo and Pai and Parvati, and between a certain other pairing.

SPOILERS: volumes 35-40 (ohhhh … the entire manga)

(I also reference The Good Place in a way that might count as a spoiler, at least regarding its pholosophical ideas if not its plot, so beware if you’re sensitive to this sort of thing.)

This & that & killing time in a pandemic

I keep trying to write down my impressions of Bravely Default 2, but then I get bummed out by how overwhelmingly negative I get, then I take a break, then I play more so the draft becomes outdated, and the cycle continues, haha. I’m almost at the end of the game now, so I might as well hold out a little longer. Most of my issues are gameplay-related, but I would also like to be able to judge the overall story and the … the character arcs? Does the game even have character arcs? Because … *sigh* I feel emotionally understimulated, and this at a time when I could really use some honest, fresh escapism!

On the plus side … if I was more invested in BD2, I probably wouldn’t have done so many other, random things the last few weeks. Perhaps this is the one thing I’m honestly a little proud of: I’ve managed to be spontanous. I’ve always admired people who just … do things. (Whelp, this is me almost quoting Bruno from Strangers on a Train, my favourite movie but not a character I identify with, lol). But I tend to stifle my creativity by self-doubt and hesitation. I spent 3 hours trying to decide if a 2 hour movie would be a good use of my time. Have you ever read Momo by Michael Ende? Where the scary “gray men” trick all the adults into “saving time”, but it turns out that the supposedly saved time is just … gone? How is there a children‘s book about the most quintessential anxiety of adulthood?! Anyway, this week ‘ve spontanously moved around some furniture, and then just before bed two days ago, I thought “I should try to make some mustard!” so the next morning I got up at 5:30 and made mustard. So I’ve been spontanous!

Oh, I also sorted all the Legos by colour, organized all old toys, and gave make-overs to some very ratty old Barbies, and then decided that they should be DRESSED PROPERLY, so I started crocheting them little sweaters … The unexpected side effect? My jaw and neck are less tight! Turns out that when I crochet, I hold my head in a position that relaxes my neck muscles! Who’d have thought? This is the kind of life-changing magic you only encounter when you actually do new things!

Anyway … The Wheel of Time! Filming on the TV show has started up again and as Deadline reports, the plan is to shoot the second season as soon as Season 1 is complete. I approve! It means we could get Season 1 this year and Season 2 next year, avoiding a long break between first and second season that might cause viewers to lose interest and drift away … It also just makes sense that you wouldn’t call back the cast and crew from all kinds of different countries during our pandemic, just for a few weeks of finishing touches.

In recent weeks, the official social media accounts have become more lively, and the sporadic “WOT Wednesday” teasers have become more substantial. Yesterday, we got a little teaser clip of Daniel Henney as Lan and before that was Rosamund Pike as Moiraine and before that a glimpse at a certain dagger … and these had been actual footage from the show, which is exciting stuff. I am so curious for a full trainer, and for marketing to start in earnest. It shouldn’t be long now … And even if it IS long, this year has been flying past so quickly, what even is time?

Lan is looking good there. I didn’t have much to say about the Moiraine teaser, in part because it was little more than an animated picture, showing mostly just her face and no further details … and I was sold on Rosamund Pike from the start, height not withstanding, she had the energy. But Daniel Henney’s Lan actually looks so different from Daniel Henney, older and less like a smiley dog person, so it’s a proper transformation, I love that. And while still a short, short clip, there is more visible here than in the Moiraine clip. It made me realize though that what I am really looking forward to is seeing all these characters in a shot together, interacting, to see how it all feels when it comes together …