| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 27 Mar 2021 : 13:20:03
Netflix seems to have just released some series called DOTA: Dragon's Blood. Apparently DOTA is "defense of the ancients", but this series is based on a DOTA2 expansion. The original DOTA had some links to Warcraft III, but the version 2.... is it linked to warcraft? To be clear, when the warcraft MMORPG came out, I went the path of Everquest2 instead, and while I know warcraft was way more popular... I never got into it (the graphics at the time just weren't for me, I like EQ2's graphics). Anyway... long story short... is this series, does anyone know, related to warcraft? I'm thinking not.
Before reading further... if you are interested in this now, go watch the show first. Its only 8 episodes at 22 minutes each. Its not a hugely in depth thing as yet, but I felt it was worth some time. That warning aside, let's see if there's anything we might want to mine out of it.
What's in this series? They have some interesting little storyline. I won't call it incredibly complex, but they essentially have a storyline of an elven war fueled by religion. There are the elves that worship a tyrannical (insane?) goddess of the moon, Selemene, who likes to depict herself as a peace loving, healing goddess... but she's only worried about getting devotion and worship. In some ways, it MIGHT represent the way that Eilistraee MIGHT have acted after absorbing Vhaeraun to a degree (don't hate me for saying that). Then there's some elves who whisper about another moon goddess, who appears to be related to shadow that they call Mene. In many ways, Selemene seems to appear like if Lolth and Eilistraee were combined .... or in some ways how the Raven Queen might be considered if she were a goddess of moonlight instead of darkness.
The reason why I mention this, is that to a degree this kind of looks like the crown wars in possibly a slightly different skew. It could almost be as if Lolth had been split off from Sehanine Moonbow before being possibly absorbed or sharing the body of a demon (which this series explores the concepts of beings becoming intertwined... there's a whole other story line going with a human and a dragon "god" getting intermixed... and a demon trying to take over another dragon "god").
What else can we mine from this? There appears to be a concept that when "eldwyrms"... elder dragons... go into a deep sleep, they're dreaming themselves into something resembling a godhood, or an astral self, etc.... I think I personally like THIS concept to tie with the air dragons of Coliar. I've often said they seem like they should "act" like gods there. This might be an interesting way to represent that, where they might be psychically projecting a "godlike" form of themselves.
Another thing that might be minable is that I really do like how they make a lot of these dragons LOOK.
Oh, finally, they have a conceptual plant that I think would be a great addition to Toril. In fact, given that we already have a Moonflower family of elves, it would seem to best tie this in a similar way. In our world "moonflower" means "morning glory", which is a vine like growth, to note. Basically, many flowers are heliotropes... they turn to the sun. They have two different flowers it seems that "follow the moon's light" instead one is a "lotus" and another looks kind of like poppy or tulip or lily.
So, what I was thinking is maybe a Luna Lily? A flower with ties to the moon, and from which some extract might be taken only in the light of the moon while its blooming (maybe "milked" from it like what I understand is done with poppies). Now, I'm not talking about making drugs like opium with it... what if it can be used to make things related to moon magics? Maybe combined with inks to make the magic of a scroll. Maybe mixed with paints to make marvelous pigments, etc... |
| 6 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 05 Apr 2021 : 12:15:19
quote:
Originally posted by The Arcanamach
Watched this and Dragon's Dogma, both can be mined for good ideas and are decent stories in their own right (but neither of them are nearly as good as The Dragon Prince).
Agreed, and I had not thought about the similarities between this and dragon's dogma (which I also watched). I don't want to give away too much because that's the heart of dragon's dogma. But yeah, neither is up to the par of dragon prince (though DOTA does have pretty decent graphics, and I felt dragon's dogma... not bad, but a little lesser). |
| The Arcanamach |
Posted - 05 Apr 2021 : 03:38:38
Watched this and Dragon's Dogma, both can be mined for good ideas and are decent stories in their own right (but neither of them are nearly as good as The Dragon Prince). |
| Azar |
Posted - 29 Mar 2021 : 23:28:17
quote:
Originally posted by Lord Karsus
quote:
Originally posted by Azar
quote:
Originally posted by Lord Karsus
-I finished Record of the Lodoss War OVA about a week or two ago after years and years of wanting to watch it but not being able to find it online/streaming/etc...was left very disappointed. That series did not age well.
I like it.
The artwork is gorgeous (I do love me some 80s/90s cel art). The animation itself is - aside from a few obvious hiccups - not up to, say, Akira's level of quality, but it is very good (thanks to the budget available to an OVA). The characters are based on obvious fantasy archetypes yet still fun. The plot isn't terribly original by today's standards, but it is interesting enough to keep a viewer's attention. The music is incredible.
If nothing else, Record of Lodoss War is worth watching to see old-school Western tabletop fantasy through an Eastern lens and there are worse ways to kill a few hours. Also, I'm fairly certain that this series influenced other fantasy-genre anime that followed. That said...I'm not here to tussle in a protracted argument; I simply wanted to offer a defense for a favorite series of mine  .
P.S. Am I the only person that thinks "Tiamat" during the intro when the five dragons make an appearance?
-It wasn't bad by any means. It just shows its age. Same way, say, Darkwalker on Moonshae, or The Crystal Shard. In and of themselves, they're not bad, but the level of storytelling and whatever has grown more complex and mature since the late-80s/early-90s.
Agreed. However, for me, that's increasingly becoming a positive; nowadays, it seems that darn-near every new fantasy IP has to be labyrinthine in its complexity and their idea of "mature" involves "heroic" protagonists that are a hair's breadth away from clear-cut villainy. |
| Lord Karsus |
Posted - 29 Mar 2021 : 22:50:28
quote:
Originally posted by Azar
quote:
Originally posted by Lord Karsus
-I finished Record of the Lodoss War OVA about a week or two ago after years and years of wanting to watch it but not being able to find it online/streaming/etc...was left very disappointed. That series did not age well.
I like it.
The artwork is gorgeous (I do love me some 80s/90s cel art). The animation itself is - aside from a few obvious hiccups - not up to, say, Akira's level of quality, but it is very good (thanks to the budget available to an OVA). The characters are based on obvious fantasy archetypes yet still fun. The plot isn't terribly original by today's standards, but it is interesting enough to keep a viewer's attention. The music is incredible.
If nothing else, Record of Lodoss War is worth watching to see old-school Western tabletop fantasy through an Eastern lens and there are worse ways to kill a few hours. Also, I'm fairly certain that this series influenced other fantasy-genre anime that followed. That said...I'm not here to tussle in a protracted argument; I simply wanted to offer a defense for a favorite series of mine .
P.S. Am I the only person that thinks "Tiamat" during the intro when the five dragons make an appearance?
-It wasn't bad by any means. It just shows its age. Same way, say, Darkwalker on Moonshae, or The Crystal Shard. In and of themselves, they're not bad, but the level of storytelling and whatever has grown more complex and mature since the late-80s/early-90s. |
| Azar |
Posted - 28 Mar 2021 : 22:47:56
quote:
Originally posted by Lord Karsus
-I finished Record of the Lodoss War OVA about a week or two ago after years and years of wanting to watch it but not being able to find it online/streaming/etc...was left very disappointed. That series did not age well.
I like it.
The artwork is gorgeous (I do love me some 80s/90s cel art). The animation itself is - aside from a few obvious hiccups - not up to, say, Akira's level of quality, but it is very good (thanks to the budget available to an OVA). The characters are based on obvious fantasy archetypes yet still fun. The plot isn't terribly original by today's standards, but it is interesting enough to keep a viewer's attention. The music is incredible.
If nothing else, Record of Lodoss War is worth watching to see old-school Western tabletop fantasy through an Eastern lens and there are worse ways to kill a few hours. Also, I'm fairly certain that this series influenced other fantasy-genre anime that followed. That said...I'm not here to tussle in a protracted argument; I simply wanted to offer a defense for a favorite series of mine .
P.S. Am I the only person that thinks "Tiamat" during the intro when the five dragons make an appearance? |
| Lord Karsus |
Posted - 27 Mar 2021 : 15:53:06
-I finished Record of the Lodoss War OVA about a week or two ago after years and years of wanting to watch it but not being able to find it online/streaming/etc...was left very disappointed. That series did not age well. I binged Gundam Thunderbolt, which was great, and now I'm re-watching the original Gundam, which doesn't really feel too dated so far weirdly enough. Don't have anything in my list of things to watch once I eventually wrap up Gundam, this show seems interesting enough to give a chance to. |
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