Varun Vasudevan

Great article. Probably the two main takeaways are below but the whole piece is enlightening. Not very surprising. Everyone knows these to be True at some level. But hard facts are needed for a conscious change.

my contribution to the discourse

@HalfSpace_Genie Yes fair enough. Eg. Avengers had a lot of scope for adaptation and character arcs coz they weren't that crazy popular. Some characters were totally changed as per the casting. But you can't pull the same thing off for batman or spiderman or Harry Potter etc. Without conflict.

Slightly unrelated, but I think there’s an angle of considering the popularity of the work you’re adapting and the medium you are using. For example, if you’re making a standalone movie adaptation (regardless of popularity), you have greater latitude to take creative liberties. However, if you’re making a multi-season series adaptation, excessive deviation from the source material can alienate fans. It can be especially problematic when the work is very popular. More often than not, fans of the original work will be contributing a lot to marketability and hype. Alienate them and future seasons will struggle for eyeballs, even when the show is critically good.

What makes a good adaptation? People who clearly know what they are doing. 2 parts to that: Knowing the source material well + Knowing one's art/skill. So when they take creative liberties (which you simply have to) you stick to the essence of the source & elevate it in a way.

It’s okay for hard things to be hard. On the subject of AI and writing, I like the way George Saunders puts it:

@Spirited_Gal Beautiful illustrations

there’s a reason why I commission so much artwork for my books… *sigh* maybe one day

Amazing season. Love how they gave so many animators freedom. And how they understood the manga themes & powers so well that every creative liberty only elevated the story. Talented people who know the source material making art with joy. THIS is how you do an adaptation.

@tech_meks @robinhobb Thank you. Guy Gavriel Kay is really highly rated and this is most famous book. I'm also reading him for the first time but heard a lot. I tried Devils this year and it's just not my jam. I've heard First Law is pretty grimdark too. Not my genre but he's clearly a good writer.

@VarunTheV @robinhobb You have good taste in books! Never heard of The Lions of Al-Rassan before, going on my reading list. I'm just about to start Assassin's Apprentice, will be my first Robin Hobb book. Have you tried The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie?

Nothing better than the feeling of buying new books for the library. Pratchett is a re-read (want to finish the entire collection). Rest I'm going to read this year. Can't wait.

@ZB_Steele Yeah AOT salvaged coz the rest of it was so well planned. He said he wanted to end at 100 chapters. It's clear what he had planned and what was a bit of the extended roundabout stuff in the last arc. JJK modulo proves that without fan/editor/anime pressure Gege is smooth af.

@VarunTheV Is that right? That's wild to hear with how foreshadowex & plotted out the manga is 😂 I still say AoT isn't bad tho, like it lands the plane but people wanted one last twist and were mad ab it Agree JJK ending is fine. People were mad ab the big death i think

Re:CSM ending. IMO it's only the mass popular manga (that get anime adaptations) that suffer from this problem of unfinished/rushed/unsatisfactory endings. The popularity makes them extend the story to the point where the author is jaded/tired & then quits or rushes the ending.

@ZB_Steele AOT the author wanted to end early but they did that whole plan where they wanted to end anime and manga together so they asked him to Extend. Last arc wasn't planned. In the end they couldn't pull it off coz covid delayed anime. JJK was fine tbh. Modulo proves it.

@VarunTheV I have to agree, although I've always thought the hate AoT & JJK got for their endings, especially AoT I do feel like CSM p2 lost its focus around the halfway point, but the weekly posting and rabid fan base are at minimum partly responsible for that

she cooked lmao

Genuine question. Why does everything look like this now? Wife has a rule that she can't watch anything too dark or shadowy. Rules out 90% stuff these days.

@triempery I think I'll now start the series and try to read it on one go. The paperbacks (my go to way to read) are a little expensive where I am but I'll still to get around to it.

With the reveal of the RILL LORD cover I can say, at last, that the Triempery Revelations series is complete. The books are all out there. Release date is April 26 but pre-orders are available and some intrepid readers have already gotten copies. Thank you to every reader! 😃

@triempery Brilliant cover.

@MalazofWesteros @triempery Damn that cover is great. I love how it's on the same thematic lines as the others. But totally a finale level one on its own.

Official cover reveal of my most anticipated book release of the year: The Rill Lord. Book is officially our 26th of April and with it the 6 books saga concludes.

@SWHannahAuthor Was it @ZB_Steele? I got your book recomm via him recently.

I dunno what happened on the 20th-23rd March but there was a flurry of people buying Icebreaker! I wonder if someone mentioned it somewhere - either way seeing those big (for me) numbers always makes my day 😊 so thank you and I hope yall enjoy the weirdness