Best part of Pompeii is it is Ancient Rome protected from centuries of revisionism and changing culture. There is that one house where the dude decorated everything with erotic art and bragged about the size of his dong lol
I have seen some articles about translations of various graffiti found outside fighting pits/coliseums and its pretty clear humans have the same sense of humor now as they did then. I was shocked as how much erotic art was being found in just normal dwellings that clearly were not the ultra rich. It very much appears if you could own a house you wanted to hire some guy/girl to go paint as many boobs and dicks on everything you could.
Watching this show felt like reading a young adult fantasy book which is ok. Young adult part is bad, the book part is good. 6/10, will give season 2 an honest try.
It is absolutely based off of a young adult novel series, so... That is to be expected.
They took a lot of liberties with the casting (but it is Netflix, so at least we only had one black transvestite as a side character), but this turned out better than I was expecting. The CGI was good and the sets were top notch. The merging of the two book series is... awkward? But it gives other points of view, rather than following Alina around for 95% of it.
Watching this show felt like reading a young adult fantasy book which is ok. Young adult part is bad, the book part is good. 6/10, will give season 2 an honest try.
Just finished this. Thought it was pretty cool. Whoever wrote the books or adapted this to tv played way too much final fantasy. Felt like it was one big final fantasy game which is a good thing.
This was pretty good. Will definitely watch season 2. Some of the narrative is a bit rushed and doesn't make a whole lot of sense but it had good characters, acting and an interesting world.
So we see the events leading up to General Kirigan creating the Fold and we see how he got the power to do so, yet he doesn't use any amplifiers as was suggested earlier in the show. He just reads a piece of paper and then... does it. Fast forward to his plans with Alina to use the amplifiers and her power together with his to move it so he can conquer the world. It doesn't make much sense. Why doesn't he just go around the world threatening nations with that power and creating more... how come he could only do it once... centuries ago... and now he needs the sun summoner AND amplifiers?
I mean they didn't spell it out in great detail, but I thought it was pretty obvious that the general did have an amplifier - the disc under the skin of his hand that Alina cut out near the end.
I'd assume the reason he wanted Alina is that he can make the fold bigger by himself but not smaller, so it's just as dangerous to Ravka as it is to anywhere else. Using it as a weapon is like spraying toxic waste everywhere. She can shrink it or cut holes in it though, and that makes it actually useful as a weapon.
I mean they didn't spell it out in great detail, but I thought it was pretty obvious that the general did have an amplifier - the disc under the skin of his hand that Alina cut out near the end.
I'd assume the reason he wanted Alina is that he can make the fold bigger by himself but not smaller, so it's just as dangerous to Ravka as it is to anywhere else. Using it as a weapon is like spraying toxic waste everywhere. She can shrink it or cut holes in it though, and that makes it actually useful as a weapon.
But he did have an amplifier when she first showed her power and that's why she had to touch his hand and she was way more powerful and then couldn't even create s*** the next day in the witches hut. Also they mention that he'd been collecting the amplifiers so it makes sense that was just another one.
He did not have amplifiers when he created the fold. And you're assuming he did when they were in the throne room and she touched him, but there is no evidence that is true. In the flashback he read the "forbidden material", a little note, then went outside and created the fold. He did not have an amplifier.
That amplifier in his hand was literally implanted at the same time her antlers were. Episode 7 around 25:40 and they never say that he had any amplifiers implanted beforehand, just that he was looking for them. Which is my original point. The amplifiers are nebulous and a major plot hole. We don't really know anything about what has or has not been found or used before the stag was killed.
The point is he absolutely did not have amplifiers when he created the fold, so why does he need them at all? And if he's gotten some since doing that, then why does he need her AND more?
He did not have amplifiers when he created the fold. And you're assuming he did when they were in the throne room and she touched him, but there is no evidence that is true. In the flashback he read the "forbidden material", a little note, then went outside and created the fold. He did not have an amplifier.
That amplifier in his hand was literally implanted at the same time her antlers were. Episode 7 around 25:40 and they never say that he had any amplifiers implanted beforehand, just that he was looking for them. Which is my original point. The amplifiers are nebulous and a major plot hole. We don't really know anything about what has or has not been found or used before the stag was killed.
The point is he absolutely did not have amplifiers when he created the fold, so why does he need them at all? And if he's gotten some since doing that, then why does he need her AND more?
idk if they don't do a good job explaining in the show (i am only 2 episodes in and not paying the strictest attention tbh) but The Darkling is, himself, an amplifier. But him creating the fold wasn't necessarily linked to that, he created it using the merzost, which is their banned magic. It may be that it is connected though, idk. Use of this magic is so abhorred and dangerous that I can't imagine they'd want to use it all the time.
idk if they don't do a good job explaining in the show (i am only 2 episodes in and not paying the strictest attention tbh) but The Darkling is, himself, an amplifier. But him creating the fold wasn't necessarily linked to that, he created it using the merzost, which is their banned magic. It may be that it is connected though, idk. Use of this magic is so abhorred and dangerous that I can't imagine they'd want to use it all the time.
They do cover this in the show, but just with a single line of dialog, I think.
When the Sun Summoner first meets the old lady, there is a line about how Darkman can "naturally" amplify other caster's powers, and that's what allowed such a large display for the King.
During the flashback episode, the old lady talks about how dangerous the forbidden magic is, and might have used the word Merzost (but it meant nothing to me at the time). Doesn't he also go all black veiny after reading the paper?
The show has enough plot holes that it can be a bit annoying if you dwell on them too much. The one that got me was that the White Ravka people are supposed to be racist, yet they don't notice some brown girl traipsing around the most secure building in their kingdom? A limp can be harder to notice, but that's what gave them away (after seemingly hours of face to face contact with people)...which lead me to think just how shitty and nonsensical their security was, altogether.
My biggest nitpick was actually with the sound. I had issues understanding some of the actors, due to how they had the audio set up for the show (or at least how it played on my various systems). The dialog was set at 5, and the rest of the show was set at 11; it may be the worst show I have watched, in terms of difference in dB between scenes.
The teenage romance stuff was a bore to sit through as well, but that can be remedied with a fast forward button.
Barnes hard carried most of this season. The thief crew turned out being great. I was never terribly interested in the Alina and Mal plot lines without the others around. That C Plot with Nina was pure young adult garbage.
The Nina stuff was terrible because her and the Viking had this weird sexual chemistry right from the second he chained her up that made no sense and was completely contradictory to the words they were saying to each other.
I have seen some articles about translations of various graffiti found outside fighting pits/coliseums and its pretty clear humans have the same sense of humor now as they did then. I was shocked as how much erotic art was being found in just normal dwellings that clearly were not the ultra rich. It very much appears if you could own a house you wanted to hire some guy/girl to go paint as many boobs and dicks on everything you could.
There was a wall that seems to have been a "public graffiti" spot that served essentially as their social media (And it seems these were common in Roman cities). The translations from that wall effectively read like modern trolling on social media...Its all talk of who is fucking who, dick jokes and then trolling the people who talk about stuff. Kind of wild how little we've changed.
The Nina stuff was terrible because her and the Viking had this weird sexual chemistry right from the second he chained her up that made no sense and was completely contradictory to the words they were saying to each other.
Haven't gone beyond the third episode, and don't care about Spoilers...But do they not end up fucking? Because yeah, the "acting" was really thick with sexual chemistry...thought we were headed for a weird captor/captive romance thing there. That would be hilarious if it was unintentional...The actual actors have to have had a thing then. Honestly her scenes felt more like a couple roleplaying than a fucking scene between someone being held captive and her kidnapper.
Haven't gone beyond the third episode, and don't care about Spoilers...But do they not end up fucking? Because yeah, the "acting" was really thick with sexual chemistry...thought we were headed for a weird captor/captive romance thing there. That would be hilarious if it was unintentional...The actual actors have to have had a thing then. Honestly her scenes felt more like a couple roleplaying than a fucking scene between someone being held captive and her kidnapper.
They end up falling for each other. Which is obviously a common literary theme. However there was no flow to the interactions and they just seemed smitten despite acting like they hated each other right from the start.
Well the Darkling was just about to inject Alina when they were interrupted in that one scene so something tells me this show will have some sex in S2. There was a lot of innuendo and I'm pretty sure it has a TV MA rating
