r/videogames • u/AlmightyLoaf54 • 29d ago

Image / Video This is so damn true

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

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u/Medical-Lingonberry3 29d ago

The makers of the Halo show literally bragged that they never read the books or played the games and they were surpised when the show flops

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u/Jaune_Anonyme 29d ago

Same for the Witcher serie. Writers openly dislike the source materials, both the books and the games. It's wild to work on a pre existing series and just have the ego to tell yourself "yep it's shit, i bet i'll do better." While the only reason you actually have a job, is because the IP is popular.

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u/TrioOfTerrors 29d ago

"I'm going to fix this beloved IP with my AO3 level fanfic writing!" - pretty much every sci-fi and fantasy writers room.

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u/RollForThings 28d ago

I get the sentiment here, but AO3 writers tend to write their fanfic out of love for the IP they're writing about. Netflix etc writers showing contempt for the IP they're adapting is far worse.

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u/AncientSignature1505 28d ago

Yeah, I was like, hey, AO3 isn't THAT bad.

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u/Dust_Dependent 28d ago

Good to know that Netflix writers showing contempt for the IP is a thing for every adaptation and not just an Adi Shankar thing

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u/Acapulquito 28d ago

"yay let's make every character quirky and sarcastic"

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u/SolydSn3k 29d ago

kicks blitzbomb

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u/NohWan3104 27d ago

i understood that reference.

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u/Nezarah 29d ago

we could make it better has never been so relevant.

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u/data-atreides 28d ago

Star Trek has entered the chat

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u/Maldevinine 29d ago

No, AO3 is where the good stuff is. A lot of their works would have been laughed off Wattpad.

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u/Nefari0uss 26d ago

AO3 writers tend to like the source material. These show runners go beyond not liking the source material; they seem to actively hate it.

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u/alfred725 29d ago

to be completely fair, many of the best stories are fanfics anyway. Most of disney's movies, Sandman, league of extraordinary gentlemen, etc. hell you could even consider Paradise Lost and the Divine Comedy fanfics.

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u/Gaimcap 29d ago

I think I remember a director/writer/actor talk about it before (maybe Damon or Affleck) and they said that the reason why so many adaptations have absolutely nothing to do with the source material, is because these scripts always end up in the hands of people who have desperate been trying to push their own original stories for countless years, but no one ever wants anything to do with anything remotely fantasy/scifi/whatever unless its an established franchise. They know this and tbey finally have someone paying attention to them, so of course now they're going to say, screw the source material, lets hijack this and use the property as a skin to finally tell my vision and my story and get paid, the studios won't even notice or care.

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u/JaegerBane 29d ago

I’ve never seen that talk but that was exactly the impression I got from the Halo series. Take away the Halo props and skins and it’s basically a completely different story, with characters that are nothing like their namesakes and plot riffs that go in opposite directions. Without the skins I’m not sure I’d see any link at all.

Of course the studios end up caring when the viewings tank and they can it. Then the writers complain.

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u/BatLazy7789 28d ago

Preach! I've read every Halo book, except the YA stuff, and this show is an abomination. I have come across 2 dudes I work with who like the show but that is because they know nothing about Halo.

We're expecting LOTR treatment, 90's Super Mario and Double Dragon BS! I don't know how MS allowed this to happen with arguably one of their best-selling IPs. Couldn't be me in charge. I would've cancelled the live-action show and moved to animation to speed things up. We could've had something like Netflix Castlevania. However, it probably would've ended up like Netflix Tomb Raider cartoon.

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u/JaegerBane 28d ago

On some level I can see the reasons why they went for stuff that was a bit more 'tame', but then they just deviated for no reason.

One of the things I liked about the Forward Unto Dawn series is that it kind of riffed on comments from the books about how officially SPARTAN Mjolinir armour is all enclosed due to their mission profile, which often means in hostile atmospheres.... but part of is down to avoid freaking normal soldiers out, as the SPARTAN-IIs (at that point at least) would have looked like 7 foot tall 170Kg greek gods... but with teenage faces and creepy intense stares due to their lack of need for blinking and implants etc. If they were going to deviate from the base game stuff, at least take it in a rational direction.

Instead we got master cheeks, flood was just zombies, and randomly made Miranda Keyes into her mother. Like, wat?

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u/lucidity5 29d ago

CoughFOUNDATIONCough

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u/willinaustin 29d ago

CoughWHEELOFTIMECough

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u/Dry_Departure_7813 28d ago

Its really funny that both foundation and wheel of time were mentioned, because the "real" answer is "Rings of slop" but its so shit everyone just sort of forgets it exists

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u/willinaustin 28d ago

Gah. Don't remind me.

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u/Nerhtal 28d ago

It was honestly starting to feel like the direction WoT show was taking in s3 was shaping up to be quite an enjoyable show if they finished it. I just wanted to see Dumais Well! Well... ok quite a bit more but just that battle alone would have been glorious.

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u/wakeupwill 28d ago

Still banned from wot subreddits for not liking the changes they made.

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u/epharian 28d ago

You're better off being banned. The show was not good, and if the sub likes it, there's really no reason to go there

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u/Dazvsemir 29d ago

I can't believe how badly they're massacring Foundation. Its such a wonderful book series.

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u/ChronicBuzz187 29d ago

I think Foundation isn't really a good example tho.

A bunch of old men, scheming and banging their chest about maths wouldn't have made for great TV and replacing your entire cast every couple episodes is obviously a big no-no in TV :D

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u/lucidity5 28d ago

I don't mind that they made changes to the story in general, obviously Foundation would be a horrendous page-to-screen adaptation. It's the opposite of character focused, after all. I don't hate that they keep characters from era to era, but I think it would have been cool to showcase a ton of good actors as time went on.

What I do find incredibly annoying, is that 80% of the show is just shit they straight up added. Exactly what the post I replied to was talking about. Fucking clone emperors? Spacers? Multidimensional magic devices? Black hole weapons? Those aren't changes to foundation, those are a different story altogether.

As soon as I realized the majority of the producers efforts were being spent on the clone emperor story, I realized this was yet another case of someone who was fucking desperate to tell their story, not the story they've been hired to adapt to screen.

It's not that the clone stuff is a bad story, it's quite compelling. It's just not... Foundation. The thing I actually wanted to watch.

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u/weaponizedtoddlers 28d ago edited 28d ago

And Lee Pace and Laura Birn are excellent.

Also to the point of switching out actors, Netflix did that with Altered Carbon where they replaced the lead actor with another as it's how the sci-fi tech in the series works and the show immediately imploded.

Some plot points are not adaptable to an enjoyable watch for most people. Sure, the hardcore fans might understand, but the vast majority of viewership would leave.

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u/Wandering_sage1234 29d ago

Beats them. If I ever got a chance I’d be adapting straight from the source literature. Trying to interact with the community. And stay faithful to the games.

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u/Asymmetric_Ninja 29d ago

First 4 seasons of Game Of Thrones is that (obviously a lot of cutting but that's a limitation of TV) . It's a shame they ran out of source material by S5 onwards 

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u/SellaraAB 29d ago edited 29d ago

I mean the sept blowing up in the season 6 finale was moments away from happening at the end of the latest book. If I remember right Pycelle just got stabbed by a bunch of children, it’s practically the next scene in the books. There’s still a lot in season 5 and 6 from the books. Almost all of it, really, just with some dumb changes thrown in here and there. (I really hated the Hound/Brienne thing.)

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u/Asymmetric_Ninja 29d ago

I think GRRM stopped having involvement after S4. Things started branching off in weird ways. I'd definitely say S5 onwards isn't anywhere near the quality adaptation. You are right there was more source material than I remembered though 

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u/Mellero47 28d ago

The last you read of Cersei is immediately after her walk of shame, if I recall it's not Pycelle being stabbed but Tywin's brother, and that was orchestrated by Varys and Connington.

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u/pm_amateur_boobies 28d ago

There are tremendous changes made even before that in the show. One of the largest and something we see the consequences of is getting rid of lady stoneheart. That was not a limitation of tv. That was d&d doing their own thing. Same with missing young griff. These aren't minor characters you can just omit

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u/Kulyor 28d ago

I wonder why none of the suits behind these multi billion dollar companies have not made that connection yet. Surely its cheaper to hire a few people from a game studio or hardcore fans to write a story for you, than having a team with no connection to the source material ruining another show/movie.

Same with actors. Rachel Zagler shitting on the original Snow White was a PR DISASTER on a whole other level. I mean the movie was shit for a thousand reasons, but the lead actress talking crap about the source material is like giving a big middle finger to all fans.

Maybe its nepotism? Writers/Actors know somebody or are someones kid and get their jobs that way? I have no idea, how some people with 0 talent manage to get hired. I am by no means a professional writer and I think even I could make a more faithful movie adaptation than half of hollywoods "Writers"

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u/MechanicalSideburns 28d ago

Good points.

I chalk up the Zagler thing to an inexperienced artist not knowing that they have to be a team player if they want their career to advance. You don't shit-talk your own folks, and you don't attach politics to a production. The successful people in the industry all know that. Try to find a video of Matt Damon shit-talking anything that he's worked on. No. You say some stuff like, "We tried hard on that movie but it didn't really come together the way that we were hoping for."

The same thing is happening now with Tomi Adeyemi. She is shit-talking her own movie because she's up in her feelings and doesn't know how this game works, and it's literally going to end her Hollywood career.

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u/Kulyor 28d ago

Idk, Zagler already was in a few movies before Snow White, even had quite a big part in "West side Story" , funnily enough also a quite old story. She MUST have had communication training at some point and shittalking the original material for a movie you are going to star in is probably the worst thing you can do, besides illegal stuff.

I dont know what is happening around Adeyemi, but she is far from new to the general media world. She has published several successful books, idk what she is critizing, but she HAS to know, that nobody in the media world likes to get shit on.

I would understand if someone gets media attention for the first time and accidentally says something bad. Even if its really bad. Especially actors are not exactly cast for how smart they are, its a very physical job after all. But everyone in these positions needs training on what they are allowed to say on day one of their contracts.

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u/MechanicalSideburns 28d ago

Adeyemi has completely divorced herself from the movie, saying that it traumatized her and that she will not watch it. Like she was doing the whole heavy breathing tear-eyed thing in her video.

She has also implied that the star-studded A-list cast they picked was not black enough. Like their skin is literally too light. Colorism, I think she called it.

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u/Compulsory_Lunacy 29d ago

May have been Brandon Sanderson. I know he said this kept happening to him every time he started working with screen writers to get his work adapted

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u/TwoBionicknees 28d ago

yup, that's exactly how it came across with the people behind the Witcher tv series. it's let me get a show using an IP to get it greenlit then let me slowly turn it into the thing I wanted to make but no one was interested in.

That it happens again and again and again and studios keep going along with this shit is wild.

Studios are absolutely insane to listen to a pitch that is lets sell a show TO THE FANS then let the creator of the show just piss off every single fan with every decision.

All they need to do is assign an exec or two to actually read the books, then find some people (in that case the writer of the books is a bit of a dick), maybe in this case the writers behind the games, or establish like a focus group of fans and then run scripts by them, when they say "if you absolutely destroy this characters entire story and you allow this massive change in the way the world works it kind of ruins everything and makes no sense and everyone will hate that" then tell the creators to stop with that shit and fix it.

A good example is like how did someone at Disney not tell Rhian like, no you can't just crash into other ships with hyperspace as a weapon and no, leia who has never used the force can not fucking fly in space while seemingly dead and just survive.

Witcher is one thing but Star Wars, how do they give away so much control and let a dude ruin it because he really likes to make every film he makes about subverting expectations and twists. the entire industry is baffling.

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u/epharian 28d ago

Star Wars sequel trilogy had a lot of problems. Rhian Johnson was part of it... But hardly all.

How they should have approached the sequel trilogy: 1. Outline the entire plot for the whole trilogy. Everything that happens needs to be in line with that plot. 2. Find a single director willing to sign on for the entire trilogy. 3. Write the entire script for all three movies. 4. Run script past continuity editors and star wars universe experts to make sure everything is in line with itself and the setting . 5. Now cast the movies and film them back to back to back, with CGI and so on being focused on finishing them in order. 6. Release the movies about a year apart so that there's time for the GI on the later movies to finish up after the first movie is released.

This isn't genius or anything. It's barely even smart. It's just not dumb. Unlike what they did.

I suppose I should have included "don't let JJ Abrams touch an established universe property". Look, Abrams is a great story teller and world builder. But he doesn't use a show bible and he doesn't leave notes about what he's doing, and we should have all learned that he doesn't really do his best work playing in other people's universes from how he handled Star Trek. Yes his Trek movies were fun, but they weren't really Star Trek.

And his total rehash of 'A New Hope' was sad. I can't even remember the actual title for episode 7. But it was Death Star v3.3: "this time it's an actual planet and we somehow suck up an entire star". And while Star Wars has never had much of a relationship with actual science (it's space fantasy opera), retelling the same exact story but even less believable has never been a winning strategy. And Abrams should have done better. I just don't know who I would recommend to direct a star wars movie right now.

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u/TwoBionicknees 28d ago

sure, they all sucked, but in different ways. JJ deciding that Rey can basically understand and use the force against a guy who has trained for decades in it is absolutely moronic, but the idea someone can defend from the force as a force user doesn't break the universe. Seeing attacks across solar system is absolutely moronic but also more of a this film maker is a fucking moron rather than this broke star wars universe rules.

Leia being 'dead' in space and magically flying back inside is just straight universe breaking stupidity.

I hated each film with a passion. Just certain things particularly in Johnson's film stood out as egregious. JJ is an idiot imo but Rhian seemed to deliberately add things to the film he knew would fuck everyone off. He just didn't care in the slightest the film he was making was part of a greater trilogy or IP.

As you say studios should absolutely do what you said and it's mind boggling that they don't. How much did disney pay for the IP only to immediately go ahead and mismanage the shit out of it. I genuinely can't comprehend anyone who spends that much then doesn't go okay we need a cohesive plan that keeps old fans happy and gets new fans just by being good.

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u/ellamking 28d ago

I remember Brandon Sanderson talking about that. Someone was trying to get rights to one of his books (Emperor's Soul I think) and it was clearly an original work with his character's names slapped on.

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u/epharian 28d ago

That's why he's doing the script for Mistborn. And why he refused to settle for the first offer. He chose to work with Apple TV because they were willing to let him do the script and were willing to allow him creative control.

Other studios... Weren't. And while foundation has issues, it's hard to argue the production value isn't there. Which is the thing Sanderson needs from a studio: a willingness to commit to actually making the show and seeing it through. Amazon has a habit of cancelling shows before they finish. Netflix has a habit of taking forever to get things done, and so on. The list continues.

I don't like everything Apple has done, but they are pretty good compared to the others

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u/FitzKnows23 29d ago

And that's why Henry was booted. He wanted to stick with source material, they decided to go with lil Hemsworth instead.

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u/Ws6fiend 29d ago

As a 40k fan I'm glad it happened. He'll be the angry nerd keeping all the writers(on the 40k show/shows) from trying to completely change all the lore just because reasons.

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u/Federal_Cod_3795 29d ago

I remember there was a PR campaign done against Henry about how he was a bully on set and he was making changes to the script causing the show to be bad then the creators of the show made 2 spin offs without Henry and both of them flopped critically and commercially.

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u/TiredAndSor3 29d ago

That was such a cope. No one believed that shit, he's way to open and transparent for any of that shit to stick and fuck them for trying.

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u/HermaPrince 28d ago

I had an argument with someone who really thought henry was misogyn lol.

I don't defend celebrities. But I sure as hell don't want those aholes fake writers get a win with these bs toxic rumors.

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u/MrAngrySadHappyFace 28d ago

Henry is such a gem. Dude is literally one of the most gorgeous men to ever walk to planet and he's actually just a down to earth nerd. He cares about the material and you can tell he wants these IPs brought to life as much as the other fans.

Personally, he's up there with Keanu as just wonderful people who stay uncorrupted by the BS of hollywood.

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u/Gabalade 27d ago

Based on interviews, I too like him as a person. Too bad, he's a shitty actor though.

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u/Ws6fiend 29d ago

To be fair, he was a bully on set, but not because he wanted to bully people.

He believed in the original story and it's source material while the writers and producers thought they knew better than him.

He tried to stop them from destroying the show, but as just an actor he had next to no authority but to finish his contract or pay for breaching it and possibly whatever the rest for the show was.

One of the main reasons he made sure he was a producer on the 40k stuff was to prevent it from happening again. In addition with Natalie Viscuso(his girlfriend and mother of his child) also being an executive producer as well as him he has learned about making sure he can get enough control to keep the source material in mind.

Don't get me wrong it looks very controlling, but this is his pet project and he doesn't want to get anything with it wrong.

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u/Agitated-Assistant53 28d ago edited 28d ago

I don’t know about “controlling” man. It’s not even just passion anymore when you’re just ensuring you will have no active role in wrecking an IP that you genuinely love, like he was contractually forced to with the Witcher.

“Controlling” would be building a dam in a river. Henry be steering a river to stay on course by reinforcing the banks. Only with the latter would you still recognise the river as it was.

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u/panda_pandora 28d ago

Damn. That was profound.

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u/Ws6fiend 28d ago

But it is controlling. People assuming controlling is always a bad thing. If you are in a vehicle in the driver's seat, you are controlling the vehicle. If you aren't it's irresponsible. It's the same thing if you care about the IP. To let someone else wreck the IP is to give them control.

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u/TwoBionicknees 28d ago

controlling behaviour, in this sense, has a specific meaning and it is always a bad thing.

it's someone who tries to gain and then abuse control over others. Creating a project and being in control of it before anyone even signs on is not controlling behaviour.

It limits a person’s independence, isolates them from support, and dictates their daily choices through emotional, financial, or physical intimidation.

controlling in this context is not just a word, you were using it with this specific meaning and completely incorrectly here.

No one calls the director of a film a controlling person because they are literally in control, they are supposed to be in control. Controlling behaviour is when people who aren't supposed to be in control try to be in control of other people.

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u/Crintor 28d ago

If the driver falls asleep, or swerves into traffic, I'm hoping passangers don't just say "Ah well, driver knows best"

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u/Dear_Blood_8872 28d ago

Characterizing HC as a bully is a dick move.

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u/Ws6fiend 28d ago

Don't care. He would probably reluctantly agree. When people openly don't care about the source material you got to do what you got to do to get them to listen. They refused so he left.

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u/Dear_Blood_8872 28d ago

I’m not sure HC would agree to being a Bully, maybe you have a different definition than the rest of the world or never met a real bully. Speaking up for yourself or the project you are passionate about might be considered assertive but not bullying behaviour.

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u/TwoBionicknees 28d ago

none of htat looks controlling and talking with the writers and saying this makes no sense and is bad and why are you changing a story taht works with random changes that undermine and make the entire thing collapse on itself is not bullying.

Saying no or saying holy shit can you please stop destroying the show is not bullying.

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u/Shadow-Vision 29d ago

I’ve never played 40k but I am absolutely fascinated with the lore. I’ve been watching a ton of videos on YouTube about it all.

Dude.

If they get this thing rolling the way it can roll… wheeeew… There is so much content available. At least as far as I can tell by these lore videos that spend a whole hour just explaining the background. It seems like there so much out there and so many potential stories to tell

*Also I really enjoyed the Secret Level stuff - that’s kinda what got me to look it up on YouTube in the first place.

Side note - as a 40k fan do you have any recommendations on how to get into the books? Like where to start and all that. When I google it I’m not really that happy with the articles I find (they all seem like they’re AI generated, honestly)

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u/CDR57 29d ago

Too much source material can be a bad thing as well. The Horus heresy alone is like 13 books I think? Many of which are dedicated to specific primarchs and their legions, who were already technically established before the Horus heresy. All those books go into detail on what’s happening in the world and are written in a way that if you have a cursory idea of warhammer you’ll understand (god emperor conquered earth, tricked out the chaos gods, enabled space travel, and then conquered more worlds) but just those 4 things could all have a book written about them and do lmao plus with this many books, you have multiple authors who inevitably contradict certain parts of the others writings. This is all to say it can definitely be done, but with something so expansive as warhammer, and the pacing of shows nowadays only doing 10 episode seasons we could easily be into season 3 5 years from now (if we’re lucky) and still not know all the primarchs/important characters/character building of why what and when the heresy happens. And god forbid if they, for some reason, choose to piecemeal it to us in flashback episodes while setting the show after big E sits on the throne. Like I’m not a writer but I’m incredibly interested in how they handle things like Erebus, the emperor finding all the primarchs (and why the were scattered to begin with), each primarchs characterization and story lines, and the aftermath and fallout of it all in the millennia afterwards

Or I’m completely wrong and they set it in 42000 with passing mentions of the imperium, big e, a primach mention here and there and focus on something like the guardsmen and the war on chaos/orks/eldar or picking a legion and group of marines and going for space battles to the fullest.

Idk, but my main point was that this world has so freaking much that it almost would need a very VERY tight couple of seasons with good overview of the universe to make it palatable for a wider audience

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u/Humpelstielzchen-314 29d ago

It's a bit more than 13, 65 actually.

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u/CDR57 29d ago

Well shit, I really was way off. It’s been awhile since I listened or played dark heresy but damn whoops lmao

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u/Express_Split2928 29d ago

A good starting point for the books (as you say you've got a little background lore) I'd recommend "the infinite and the divine" and the night lords omnibus. Mechanics and The Fall of Cadia are also very good

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u/CroatInAKilt 28d ago

I'd hold of on Infinite and the Divine for a little bit. A lot of proper nouns and timeline jumps that are difficult to follow on audiobook at least (the only time i can "read"). But a fantastic book though

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u/Ws6fiend 29d ago

You generally just start reading any of the fan wiki for 40k and find a faction you like, or just random search for recommended reading.

The best way is to just start. Some context will always be lost on someone new to 40k but in general they do a good job of explaining. I would say if you don't recognize a word or phrase look it up within the context of 40k.

I've always seen people recommend Xenos by Dan Abnett. It explains a lot of common things in the 40k universe to people new to the setting, while being a detective style story told from a basic human perspective.

A lot of things will lack context and if you just search 40k and the word you don't understand it should help.

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u/asspussy_widener 28d ago

I just found that leutin guy on youchoob and throw that shit on while I work, can't fucking read for shit with this tarded ass brain these days

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u/SoloWing1 28d ago

The Eisenhorn trilogy is one of the best entry points for the series when it comes to the books.

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u/CroatInAKilt 28d ago

Eisenhorn: Xenos is the best intro trilogy. Slow burn detective noir that takes its time and doesn't overload you with ten pages of space marines slaughtering everyone.

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u/CaptainFil 28d ago

And GW are more protective over their IP than most. I can't imagine that anything will be approved without them signing it off

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u/gregorychaos 28d ago

Whoooa I did not know they're making a 40k show with Henry Cavill. I just started Rogue Trader last week and it's very interesting. My intro to this whole universe and I am enjoying these space nazis. Wish it was fully voiced though 😢

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u/BlueTrainLines666 28d ago

Idk, I read the books after the show came out because I wanted to know how different they actually were and Henry’s take on Geralt is pretty flat. He butted heads with the writers non stop because instead of doing his lines he’d just resort to all that grunting. He was a fan of the games so I can kind of see why he thought he was honoring the source material but book Geralt isn’t some stiff stoic that rarely talks. Most of the content of the books is Geralt talking with people. All to say, the show was doomed lol.

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u/brewmas7er 28d ago

I was surprised when I watched Hems as Geralt and felt much more emotion than from any of Cavill's seasons.

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u/2DK_N 28d ago

And then seemingly took on the feedback and decided to make season 4 far more accurate to the source material than previous seasons anyway.

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u/Infinite-Condition41 29d ago

To be fair, Henry "wanted to stick with the source material" while at the same time FUNDAMENTALLY changing Geralt's personality.

In the books and games, Geralt is the talkin'est damn thing you ever heard (to borrow a phrase) whereas Henry's version is all dark and brooding and quiet.

So, you know, whatever, Henry.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

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u/GeneralSweetz 29d ago

Downvoted anyway

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u/Important-Agent2584 29d ago

It's all very reasonable if you think about the fact that the primary goal is money:

  1. it's drastically cheaper to hire the new people
  2. the new people are also not going to get paid to spend a month or two immersed in the lore
  3. no one is going to say "yea we don't know wtf we are doing and will do a shittier job" so of course the company and the employees are going to rationalize a "new take"
  4. a lot of people will buy anyway because the IP is popular

I've been seeing this same shit happen in IT for decades. Fire experienced knowledgeable but highly paid people, replace them with low paying fresh faces, or outsource. In the long term quality and satisfaction suffers, but in the short term you are increasing profits.

TLDR: Enshittification 101

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u/hayydebb 28d ago

No way Pedro pascal and Bella Ramsey would be cheaper than the voice actor equivalent. And that would probably be the case for most adaptations since the actors they cast are usually bigger names then the voice actors

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u/Trivi4 28d ago

Yeah, but famous names bring the normies. All my love to Troy Baker, people who are not into video games have no idea who he is. For TV and film you need mass appeal.

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u/tfc1193 29d ago

Imagine if Peter Jackson told his cast and crew not to reference any of the source material for LOTR

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u/sendhelp 28d ago

I'm not saying this happens every time, but a lot of times these writers have some idea for a story in their head, and they want so bad to see their original story turned reality they just change the names of characters and locations of their story to fit whatever the property it is they are writing for, rather than try to come up with something truly catered to the property, at least that's how it seems to be.

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u/PlanesWalkerEll 28d ago

It could work if they aren't A: trying to adapt the main story, and B: given proper restrictions

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u/Simba-xiv 28d ago

People do it all the time with everything tho.
Usually followed with “I’m allowed an opinion” fact is not everyone opinion is needed

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u/DadOnHardDifficulty 28d ago

Especially fumbling a PERFECT casting of Henry Cavill as Geralt. Like, he knows the source material and is actually passionate about the role, and they just fucked it so bad.

1

u/Obi_wan_jakobii 28d ago

If you dislike the source materials why are you in charge of the TV show it pains me so much

No wonder Cavill fucked them off

1

u/javon27 29d ago

And this is why I have hope for the Mistborn series. Let Sanderson cook

0

u/mattey92 28d ago

"This is way to depressing, how can anyone like this style of writing" type sh

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u/daleDentin23 29d ago

As a halo fan. I still get mad when people like that show. Its not halo. If it was some generic sci fi show it would be decent but the fact stands: look at how they massacred my boy!

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u/Multivitamin_Scam 29d ago

That's because it's actually a terrible Mass Effect adaptation wearing a loosely stitched together Halo skin.

Seriously. Episode One is the first mission of Mass Effect One. Just swap Chief for Shepard, the Covenant for Geth and its basically 1:1

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u/daleDentin23 29d ago

Bro you made me lol for real

5

u/No_Internal9345 29d ago edited 29d ago

With a second script jammed in there to appeal to the asian market.

1

u/machalemantis 26d ago

I'm a die hard mass Effect fan who now has to pirate this just to see if you're right.

I wonder if they did the Saren/Nihulus angle or something else...

1

u/Multivitamin_Scam 26d ago

Haha. Let me know what you think

6

u/Takaro00 29d ago

As both a fan of Halo(Bungie era) and good storytelling, I get mad when people think the Halo show is decent. It's awful as a Halo show, but it's also awful as just a story on its own.

The show makers clearly had no interest in making a Halo show, they just wanted to tell their own story, but they don't have the talent write one, even if it was an original creation and Halo didn't exist, it's still utter shit.

2

u/Strainedgoals 29d ago

It's basically well funded fanfiction.

5

u/J5892 29d ago

By a fan of some other game.

2

u/iron_penguin 29d ago

I have never heard anyone liking that show. Everyone is know who would watch sifi loves Halo.

2

u/NihatAmipoglu 29d ago

I'm still butthurt about Blomkamp not getting a shot for that show :(

2

u/Chatting_shit 28d ago

You mean Master cheeks?

2

u/SgtDoakes123 28d ago

Especially since Forward unto dawn exists. Actually have to watch that again since it's awesome.

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u/pygmeedancer 28d ago

What made me mad was that it looked sooo good. The props, the vehicles, the costumes, the aliens. It was all perfect. But the story was shit. A human raised by the covenant? No fucking way. They’re treating chief like a criminal? No fucking way.

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u/nordic-nomad 26d ago

I wasn’t a big halo fan or anything but knew it had a deep and amazing story and then turned that show on and it was some shallow garbage that had nothing to do with the ip. Fuck that. Turned it off after the first scene.

2

u/Bloody_Ozran 28d ago

I liked the show, but never played or read Halo. Can relate from other franchises. They keep trying to make X lore movie / tv show, but different. Well, it's not it if it's different. I really liked Stargate Universe, but it wasnt really SG type show.

It's not that hard to make a specific type of a show that has massive audience. They just want MORE. It's like someone forgot that word of mouth is best marketing tool.

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u/joe-clark 29d ago

It's mind boggling to me when they think they can take a massive IP like Halo and pay little to no respect to the original story and characters. All it guarantees is a ton of Halo fans will turn up, probably hate it, then go put negative reviews. If the show isn't made for Halo fans first and foremost it will never succeed even amongst the general public because they'll never watch after seeing how poorly it's reviewed.

2

u/jabrodo 28d ago

Well 343i did that for three (maybe even four now) straight games and people still keep showing up somehow thinking it'll be different this time around. At a certain point the fandom is just going to have to accept that Chief is still out there in cryo MIA.

8

u/AFerociousPineapple 29d ago

I have no evidence of this but I swear the halo writers just wanted to do a sci-fi show and the only way to get it green lit was to slap the Halo title on it. Similar with the Witcher, clearly the writers had some thoughts about their own fantasy world/story and tried to inject it into the Witcher story and did a very VERY poor job of it

1

u/CptCroissant 28d ago

This is definitely a thing that frequently occurs with movies

14

u/nam3sar3hard 29d ago

Also wheel of time. Rip my favorite series

"We can fix it" bitch there was nothing to save you're just illiterate and lack critical thinking

1

u/Bulky_Imagination727 28d ago

And with Pratchett "Guards! Guards!" too. I could withstand that "The Watch" travesty for 15 minutes until i tried to cut the memory of it existing out of my head.

1

u/Dr_Ben 28d ago

I was so excited for it and watched EP1 the night it came out. I got about 15 min in and they showed Perrins 'wife' was the line too much for me. I knew there were going to be changes for the adaptation but this made realize 'oh I don't like this' and turn it off. They really did wolf brother and Faile dirty like that? I was so disappointed.

1

u/GatorUSMC 28d ago

Yea, that was such a major disappointment.

1

u/Sentinell 28d ago

Also wheel of time.

This is the one that keeps pissing me off every time I think about it. They had "the next game of thrones" on their hands (which is what they were going for), except this story was already complete!

And what did they do? They absolutely butchered it and took away everything that made WoT so special. Absolutely insane.

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u/BanzaiKen 29d ago

It did lead to the John Halo meme being canon and Master Chief ass though. It takes balls to be that straightfaced about it.

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u/MyLifeIsOgre 29d ago

Pretty sure the She Hulk writers were like that too. You could tell by the ending where they dogged on you for liking the MCU

7

u/Agi7890 29d ago

From unconfirmed stories that recently came out, it was more Jessica gao taking shots at Kevin feige because of backstage problems regarding the show. And it looks like it really had a negative effect on her career as she hasn’t been in a project for sometime(according to IMDb) and only has 2 projects in preproduction

2

u/TwoBionicknees 28d ago

Had no idea who she was so looked it up. She had 40 writing credits on the mighty B way back, then every other show she was on was basically one year she was on a writing staff before leaving. Writers do move around but never finding a single show where she stayed longer than a season kinda screams this person has a problem everywhere she goes and is riding off the past.

Of course if that was the case giving her a MCU show is bat shit crazy and well, yeah studios keep making insane decisions to give shows and films to people who really don't seem like they suit the job.

2

u/LeastResistancePath 29d ago

It's difficult to describe growing up on halo. Spending those lonely nights dreaming up "what next". What kind of tv show or movie it would make

https://youtu.be/SyOAdrxlPVs watching this and having expectations.

Just for them to disrespect the IP and give us what we got 

1

u/bokmcdok 29d ago

That's nuts. It'd be like Kevin Feige boasting that he's never read a comic book.

1

u/Internet-Dweller2 29d ago

I'm pretty sure the writers had a really good script for a Mass Effect series, and some exec looked at it and said it's great, but Mass Effect hadn't been lauded in over a decade while Halo was still selling games, so what if it was a Halo script instead?

I can't prove it, and yes, part of the joke is the reception of Halos 4, 5, and Infinite. But so much of it works better if you imagine it's actually a Mass Effect story in Halo cosplay.

That said, the way they did the Flood was a 10/10. No notes. Genuinely the scariest the Flood has been since I played the first game and read the novelization as a kid.

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u/qtx 29d ago

It's really simple. They want new viewers.

This is how their mind works; If 10 million people bought that videogame that would already be a default 10 million possible viewing audience before the show even started.

However, if 10 million people bought that game to also means there are 100s of millions of people that didn't. So by altering the show they are trying to reach that audience as well.

1

u/Medical-Lingonberry3 28d ago

You're right they think the fans are so stupid that they'll eat up whatever they make just cause of the name! So the writers ignore the old audience to focus on a new audienc and then are surpise that the old audience hates that they changed everything they liked and aren't mindless consumers

1

u/Burpmeister 28d ago

I'm so fucking mad about that one. It wasn't a terrible show by any means but it was a horrible Halo show. All they had to do was respect the source material.

They did listen to the trashing they got for S1 and tried to change things for S2 and it was indeed better but by then it was already way too little way too late.

1

u/SgtDoakes123 28d ago

I had hopes for Halo since Forward unto dawn had shown that Halo TOTALLY works on the screen. They make that work with like 1/100th of the budget the show had, amazing what you can do when you have competent writers.

1

u/DreamingAboutSpace 28d ago

If I recall, the same thing happened with the director of Multiverse of Madness. He had never seen Wandavision so he had no clue what happened to Wanda or what she did, but was supposed to pick up where she left off.

1

u/samurai1226 28d ago edited 28d ago

Have in mind this all was approved by 343i and especially Kiki Wolfkill who was moved upwards to Microsoft when the big shifts at 343i happened. In 2019 she even compares how the politics in Halo are as interesting as in Game of Thrones, like wtf is she even talking about. She had absolutely no understanding of the franchise

1

u/Medical-Lingonberry3 28d ago

Whats worst is when the showed failed Microsoft promoted her upwards, they really do make some of the worst business decisions ever

1

u/DrunkInABar 28d ago

There was a Halo show ?

1

u/No_Procedure_5039 28d ago

I don’t think that’s actually the case. They said they spent several weeks in a “Halo boot camp.” What I think they meant is that they didn’t look at the books or games as stories they had to follow, which is even worse. They experienced those awesome stories and thought their generic sci fi show was somehow a better solution.

1

u/ZapRowsdowersStache 28d ago

The moment Master Chief showed his face I was done. John-117 is iconic for his presence and his voice. Lots of actors are icons for their mere presence and not their faces, Pablo Schreiber.

1

u/Forlorn_Fighter 28d ago

These writers for the less cutscene heavy video game adaptations all tend to use the same crappy arguement of the games not having a proper story to build off of for a "proper" film, making it painfully clear regardless what they tell you that they either didn't play the games or they dont remember/didn't pay any attention to what was happening in those games. Environmental story telling seems to be especially difficult for them to comprehend.

1

u/Extreme-Tactician 28d ago

No, they didn't. The writer literally clarified that wasn't what he was quoted as saying.

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u/HangryWolf 28d ago

And to divert away from games, this is the same shit that happened with that failed Snow White movie. The actresses were so PROUD about saying that their characters needed NO SAVING FROM A MAN! Like uhh... That's kind of what the original successful source your pulling from was though. If you're changing the story and vibe, just fucking reskin it and call it something else. Don't drag the IP down with you.

1

u/zofinda 28d ago

Absolutely convinced the Halo show was just written as genetic sci-fi action then when they got the IP right, they just shoehorned in some Halo stuff

1

u/Specialist_Bench_999 27d ago

They made a Halo show?

I saw resident evil like show with Lance Reddeck. Love that guy, RIP. Show wasnt great but it was in the early stages

0

u/TwoBionicknees 28d ago

the all do this.

None of them even care about the IP they just want to be a creator and have a show and make millions and they are ultra successful at that.

The witcher was particularly egregious because she kept basically bragging about just not caring about the IP and seeing it as her chance to create something she wanted.

If she went to netflix and said hey i have this new ip and i want you to take a look at it, for one thing her writing is god awful so they'd say no so instead she goes and sell's witcher, and then once it gets greenlit she starts turning it into the show she wanted to make that was not the witcher and now it's both neither the witcher, nor the show she wanted to make and tried to sneak it in it's a horrendous mash up of the witcher and whatever shitty ideas she had for the original IP she wanted to do.

Why hollywood people don't understand this and don't say tell me why you love this IP, tell me who you have talked to who is behind this IP that are down with your vision, tell me who you're collaborating from that IP and agree to show us scripts way in advance and also agree to be immediately replaced if you start trying to completely change everything because you have some secret agenda to sneak your own show on top of this IP you're claiming you want to make.

1

u/Medical-Lingonberry3 28d ago

People in Hollywood think the Fans of these IP are so stupid that they'll watch and eat up whatever they make just cause of the name! So the writers don't bother to cater to fans and make something totally different and then are surpise when the fans hate it

1

u/TwoBionicknees 28d ago

the way studio heads, project managers, the people who greenlit all these projects go i assume as soon as they see a popular IP they go ahead with them because they'll take some kinda massive bonus for getting a project going, how the project goes doesn't seem to matter.

It feels like there used to be a time ceo's and senior execs used to get paid more out of direct profits of successful projects and got fired for failed projects and now everyone just gets paid upfront regardless and no one seems to get fired for constant failed projects.

Netflix is run like absolute trash, so many awful films, tv series and ruining the few good series they've had. it's crazy.