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Penny Arcade - Comic - Blood Of Elves

DogDog Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
edited December 2019 in The Penny Arcade Hub

imagePenny Arcade - Comic - Blood Of Elves

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

Read the full story here


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  • PohtHehdPohtHehd Registered User regular
    edited December 2019
    Nice, love the Witcher.

    PohtHehd on
  • DjiemDjiem Registered User regular
    what

  • marsiliesmarsilies Registered User regular
    I think the joke is that the violence on the show The Witcher is so gory and realistic, it seems like Henry Cavill was just straight up murdering people.

    Bill Hicks had a bit about this over 20 years ago:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWcEOG1A7j8

  • A Dabble Of TheloniusA Dabble Of Thelonius It has been a doozy of a dayRegistered User regular
    Ok that is now my favorite edited post ever

    vm8gvf5p7gqi.jpg
    Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    marsilies wrote: »
    I think the joke is that the violence on the show The Witcher is so gory and realistic, it seems like Henry Cavill was just straight up murdering people.

    Bill Hicks had a bit about this over 20 years ago:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWcEOG1A7j8

    Also Cavill has been very vocally really into playing Geralt.

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  • LucascraftLucascraft Registered User regular
    Jerry summarized a lot of my own thoughts surrounding the new Netflix Witcher series.

    There's a lot of discussion about the show right now. And a lot of it baffles me. Because like... do people not understand complex storytelling anymore? The show isn't even doing anything new. Nor is it even that complex. Three timelines that merge at the end. Easy concept. But I feel like a large part of the audience is asking, nay demanding, that everything be spelled out for them in stone, whether it's because they're too lazy to think it through, or too dull to comprehend it. Either way, a lot of the online narrative surrounding this show makes me sad for 2019 culture.

    The show is fantastic.

  • ironzergironzerg Registered User regular
    It's nothing to get too worked up about. If something is wildly popular, it's because people like it, despite what the Internet says.

    The show is fantastic, and the only thing the online narrative surrounding it tells us is about the people who are discussing this online.

    Trying to paint this thing with a broad brush is doing a disservice to the show, and anyone who is actually enjoying it...which by all accounts is a metric fuckload of people.

  • The Black HunterThe Black Hunter The key is a minimum of compromise, and a simple, unimpeachable reason to existRegistered User regular
    Lucascraft wrote: »
    Jerry summarized a lot of my own thoughts surrounding the new Netflix Witcher series.

    There's a lot of discussion about the show right now. And a lot of it baffles me. Because like... do people not understand complex storytelling anymore? The show isn't even doing anything new. Nor is it even that complex. Three timelines that merge at the end. Easy concept. But I feel like a large part of the audience is asking, nay demanding, that everything be spelled out for them in stone, whether it's because they're too lazy to think it through, or too dull to comprehend it. Either way, a lot of the online narrative surrounding this show makes me sad for 2019 culture.

    The show is fantastic.

    As much as I hate doomsayers, I think there is a case to be made that people's ability to engage with complex stories has diminished.

  • DarkewolfeDarkewolfe Registered User regular
    The only thing I don't love about the show after one episode, and I'm told this gets better, is that the brooding edgelord main character who is too stronk for friends is an insanely dull main character. I also don't think much of the actor, though, everything is emotionless and dull when he's on screen. I'm hoping this improves with further episodes.

    What is this I don't even.
  • Elric4985Elric4985 Registered User regular
    Jokes on them. It's already been picked up for another season

  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    Lucascraft wrote: »
    Jerry summarized a lot of my own thoughts surrounding the new Netflix Witcher series.

    There's a lot of discussion about the show right now. And a lot of it baffles me. Because like... do people not understand complex storytelling anymore? The show isn't even doing anything new. Nor is it even that complex. Three timelines that merge at the end. Easy concept. But I feel like a large part of the audience is asking, nay demanding, that everything be spelled out for them in stone, whether it's because they're too lazy to think it through, or too dull to comprehend it. Either way, a lot of the online narrative surrounding this show makes me sad for 2019 culture.

    The show is fantastic.

    As much as I hate doomsayers, I think there is a case to be made that people's ability to engage with complex stories has diminished.

    Is it that, or is it that it's now easier for people to express their displeasure and we now hear from a wider swathe of the population rather than the Nielsen families or whoever took the time to fill out phone polls?

    Police Squad! got cancelled because (according to the president of ABC) it expected too much effort on the part of the viewer, so maybe we're just not good at complexity in general

    [Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    Yeah, I'm not sure that 50s television was an example of people engaging in complex storytelling...

    (Maybe I'm just biased because only certain things stick out from that era, though.)

  • ironzergironzerg Registered User regular
    edited December 2019
    Is it that, or is it that it's now easier for people to express their displeasure and we now hear from a wider swathe of the population rather than the Nielsen families or whoever took the time to fill out phone polls?

    The Internet acts as a megaphone that loudly accentuates those who chose to shout into it.

    Season one wasn't very complex. They tease the different timelines pretty early on, and by episode 4, it's obvious what they're doing. And it was done really well. It adds the history and backstory, while still entertaining viewers with a fairly cohesive story throughout the season.

    People who didn't like it might just not like it. Which is fine. But it would be a huge mistake on on Netflix's part to make any major revisions to try to appeal to those who didn't like it. Instead, they should double down on what people liked, and keep a good thing going.

    One could argue that what happened to GoT is that it got extremely popular, then they tried to push the popularity dial to 11. In their own hubris threw the series into a widening maw of madness, from which emerge something no human mind can comprehend, who then proceed to open one of his six mouths to sing the song that become Season 8, and thus ended the world. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

    ironzerg on
  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    edited December 2019
    Darkewolfe wrote: »
    The only thing I don't love about the show after one episode, and I'm told this gets better, is that the brooding edgelord main character who is too stronk for friends is an insanely dull main character. I also don't think much of the actor, though, everything is emotionless and dull when he's on screen. I'm hoping this improves with further episodes.


    The thing about Geralt is he's significantly older than he looks, due to Witcher shenanigans. He's also seen a lot of shit. People around him don't know a lot about Witchers aside from rumor. They say he doesn't feel human emotion, he just doesn't correct them. Throughout the series he generally shows a fair amount of compassion. He doesn't just grimly butcher his way through everything. Though he is, usually pretty taciturn.
    Spoilers for some resolutions of stuff in the first few episodes
    Ep1 listens to both sides and while he probably empathizes with Renfri more, tries to defuse the situation so neither kills the other until the situation forces his hand.

    Ep2 Gets captured on a hunt. Ends up killing nobody because the "monster" was stealing food to help refugees whose land was stolen by the people he was stealing from. Geralt stoicly accepts death, but otherwise talks his way out, killing nobody.

    Ep3 instead of easily killing the super gross and dangerous monster, insists on taking the way more risky route of breaking the course because the striga was also a victim
    And several more instances through out. As someone else described it, he's pretending to be true neutral while being actually chaotic good.

    Tofystedeth on
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  • LucascraftLucascraft Registered User regular
    Henry Cavill describes the character as a white knight who desperately tries to hide it.

  • BloodySlothBloodySloth Registered User regular
    ehhhhhhh I would say popular storytelling is, on average, pretty complex right now. Certainly more than it has been in previous decades. I think that's part of why we've been seeing a focus shift toward more longform stuff told in installments, like prestige TV shows.

    It may be more that The Witcher's sense of place and of the passage of time is pretty weak, and both are necessary to really sell the timelines thing.

    The show was a lot of fun, though, and I'm glad we'll be getting season 2.

  • LucascraftLucascraft Registered User regular
    I just noticed that the URL for this comic has a different title than what appears on the page.

    The title of the strip per the URL is "Special Effects."

    https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2019/12/27/-special-effects-

  • PohtHehdPohtHehd Registered User regular
    Maybe...'I met a traveller from an antique land,
    Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone...'
    Eh. Too long.
    "And with strange aeons even death may die."

    Ouw se on coq é coq lá sé rwa an lé pil firmié ay. Shengonia momige. Ara. Sdebi. Man amarani. Asauznan falafashtamash dahsnan.

    See you on the Path, dear reader.

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