The Shrine

Just a heads up, the first episode of the 22 episode first season of Legend of the Seeker, an adaptation of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series by Sam Raimi.

WHAT!!! I completely forgot about this!

What channel is it on? I will check it out for sure. In spite my gripes about Richard:

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I do enjoy the story and other characters.

I've read some Terry Goodkind long ago. I know what kind of books these are, I just don't recall the storylines and such. However, is this a television series you are talking about? If so, is it a web series? Network television? Cable access? A guy with a VHS camcorder and He Man figures?

Anyone have a link to a web site about this?

It's a Sam Raimi series. So it will be syndicated and probably in a B-movie style format similar to Hercules the Legendary Journies. I wouldn't be surprised if Bruce Campbell, Ted Raimi, and Rene O'conner are in it. That's actually just my guess, we'll see next Saturday.

http://www.legendoftheseeker.com/

There's a 10 min video of the first episode. I'm impressed so far, and damn excited!

Kahlan looks ok, but she doesn't seem to have the presence the Mother Confessor should have...she looks weak, but we'll see.

Richard looks about like I pictured.

I wonder how far into the series they will go... I wonder how awesome Mord'Sith will be

Sorry about the name, I had to =P

I think they both look about like what i pictured. I never thought of Khalan as strong... just a hot ass brunette, and the actress fits the bill, lol.

Watching the trailer, though, i didnt picture Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander to look like that. I had more of a skinny Dumbledore in mind, frail and such. Doesnt he bitch about his bones creaking all the time? I sort of feel like all wizards should have beards.

Yeah Zedd looks weird to me as well.

God, I hope it's better than Hercules or Xena. I'm not a fan of the series or anything (never read it), but it would certainly disappoint a lot of fans who do.

Hercules the Legendary Journies was one of my favourite shows growing up; and I actually still really like it to this day. I certainly wouldn't mind seeing another similar series based on a book series I already like.

And for those who care and read fantasy, The Confessor just came out in paperback. I've read the first 150 pages or so and Goodkind does well to bring you up to speed/jog your memory on what is going on. The story, so far, is the typical Richard-is-the-best-at-everything (this time its Ja-La, a rugby kind of game they have played in the Old World forever, but he picked it up only months ago), but i still myself reading. I dont know how Goodkind can make me roll my eyes at the main character every other sentence, but keep me interested in the series as a whole. I gave up on The Wheel Of Time many books ago, but still read The Sword Of Truth, go figure.

Oh, Goodkind also is following the annoying trend and printed the thing in one of those slightly longer oversized paperbacks, so it was like $10. Fuck you.

Crazy suggestion Seek, why don't you change your name from Legend of The Seeker to just "The Seeker", we all get the reference and it was your original name.

Eric wrote:Crazy suggestion Seek, why don't you change your name from Legend of The Seeker to just "The Seeker", we all get the reference and it was your original name.

I like this one better at the moment. The OCD people here are just going to have to cry =P

My impressions from somebody who hasn't read the books:

Amazingly corny title? Check.
Wizards? Check.
A wizard pretending to be crazy? Check.
A wizard name with an overabundance of Zs? Check.
A wizard whose every word uttered has to be the corniest and more cliched dialogue ever conceived? Check.
Wizard rules that just so happen to fit the story in order? Check.
Wisps? Check.
A destiny? Check.
A destiny involving "every thousand years"? Check.
A destiny involving a farm boy (or "forester", close enough)? Check.
A destiny to kill an evil overlord? Check.
A one-dimensional overlord who's just dripping with EE-VUL? Check.
Evil overlord must always kill at least one henchman, after detailing the history of how loyal he is? Check.
An overlord name with Dark in it? Check.
The discovery that hero's parents were not his biological ones? Check.
Said family ties immediately destroyed, making traveling to this destiny a lot easier? Check.
Hero falls in love with someone he knows he can't have? Check.
But gets her in the end anyway? Probably.
A book of ultimate power that can't fall in the wrong hands? Check.
The Sword of a Thousand Truths? Check.
Spirits of the underworld? Check.
A boundary that has been in place for many eons, yet is easily defeated by magical bombardment? Check.
Or one of hundreds of other magic implements found at your local "crazy magic blind lady" shop? Check.
Cleavage on every chick? Check.
Matrix-like bullet time (erhm...I mean "arrow time")? Check.

I'm not saying that I won't watch the series. I still enjoy it. However, if I had happened to have picked up the first book in this series and started reading it, I would have thrown it in the trash after about 100 pages into it, and sworn off fantasy as this cliched, repeated garbage that hasn't had an original thought since it was founded with Lord of the Rings. (Except maybe Dune. That's a fucking fantasy series!)

In fact, the only original thing in this series seems to have is the Confessors, and that one power can't exactly make up for the 10 thousand other cliches in the beginning.

Ha, thats a GREAT list, Sine. Everytime i write about a book in the series all i do is bitch about it, too, but for some reason they are easy to get sucked into and are enjoyable. Ive never been able to place a finger on it either, it is what it is... a terrible cliche fantasy series that is somehow fun.

I find it funny that nobody really objected to that list, either. I pretty much expected a bunch of seething outbursts from everybody who read the books.

There isnt much to dispute, lol, everything you said is right. What makes the books interesting is probably the non stop action and ease of read. Goodkind gets philosophical (even political) at times, but never really too long winded that it gets boring. Who knows, i love to hate, but love the series.

Flip wrote:There isnt much to dispute, lol, everything you said is right. What makes the books interesting is probably the non stop action and ease of read. Goodkind gets philosophical (even political) at times, but never really too long winded that it gets boring. Who knows, i love to hate, but love the series.

I also thought that the initial books did one of the finest jobs of combining fantasy and romance into something that a fan of ether genre could probably enjoy. The characterization in the first couple of books is fantastic. it's when they stop introducing characters that it kind of gets bland due to stagnation and really it's stopped progressing and developing persnality and devolved into being really really samey

Ive watched the first 7 eps on hulu and boy is the show sort of blah. Each episode has a mini storyline while they are also progressing, slowly, the main 'battle with Rahl' story. Maybe i dont remember my books that well, but i dont think any of the smaller stories are in the books at all. They all follow the same formula of, Richard gets tricked by a towns person, Richard saves the day, the towns person apologizes then becomes a seeker supporter. Its not a bad way to show how eventually the world rises in support, but it is also getting old. In the last episode i watched, they finally introduced the boxes of Orden, so they are sprinkling in some Sword of Truth in more than just character names.

It is fun to watch only because ive read the books, otherwise i wouldnt stick with it. The show feels a lot like Xena or Hercules and i never much cared for those series. The characters are likable and i think they did a good job casting in terms of looks. I dont feel like Richard is as influential in his speeches or has that air of authority yet, but i suppose he didnt in the earlier books. Later, people are supposed to FEEL how good he is and want to follow him based on his principles and demeanor. Right now, he seems sort of like a bumbling hero.

Anyone kept up with the series?

I have a similar opinion of the show, except I never read the books. I pretty much hated the Hercules/Xena shows because of the same boring bullshit they are doing with this show.

SineSwiper wrote:I have a similar opinion of the show, except I never read the books. I pretty much hated the Hercules/Xena shows because of the same boring bullshit they are doing with this show.

I just learned that LotS is made by the same people as Herc/Xena... which i did not know, but now it makes sense why i get that feel, lol. It is disappointingly formulaic, but im still interested to see where it goes.

So they finally introduced the Mord'Sith. I shrieked when I saw Denna for the first time lol

The series almost lost me until that one...it was pretty good and pretty true to the book. They didn't go into too much length or detail of Denna and Richard's relationship, but I was satisfied.

Probably should have been a two-part episode. As it was, his behavior was about as believable as Young Vader's turn to the dark side.

Season 2 started. Its pretty good so far, better than the first season. The second season is based on the Stone of tears book, but I wonder how much they will go into.

Nice, Stone of Tears was my favourite of the books, it was also the longest.

I forget which other one I liked, Faith of the Fallen I think it was called.

Was Faith of the Fallen where he was enslaved and ended up carving the statues? If so, that one is really good, but I think Stone of Tears was one of my favs as well. Richard ends up learning so much about himself in that one, so I dont know how much theyre going to reveal in the tv series. Seems like a lot to get into.

I dont really like the sisters of light, who are heavy in the second book, but i also thought Faith of the Fallen was the best in the series. They have a long way to go to reach that one, though. It annoys me that the sisters are so bumbling even though they are super old and should be wiser.

It might be the next book, but if this is the one where Richard has to have sex with some rando girl to save the world, then i stand by my not-so-good opinion of Stone of Tears.

I forgot which book that is... ---SPOILERS--- It was Kahlan and Richard that had to have sex with some other person I think, and it ended up actually being the 2 of them together.

Seraphina wrote:I forgot which book that is... ---SPOILERS--- It was Kahlan and Richard that had to have sex with some other person I think, and it ended up actually being the 2 of them together.

Haha, yeah i remember now. SPOLERS::: They were supposed to both simultaneously do other people but ended up doing each other unbeknownst to Richard to until a little later. How ridiculous is that? I think Goodkind was pandering to his sexually frustrated nerd teen audience with that one. I looked it up and that was Blood of the Fold, the book after Stone of Tears.

Yeah, I don't remember the whole reason behind it, but it was weird.

I love Cara though, she's turning out to be true to her character so far I think.