Tuesday, March 12, 2024

One Piece Live Action vs the Avatar the Last Airbender Live Action




For a while now, I have been thinking about whether it is better for an adaptation to focus on the fans or on a larger audience. Which is better for the overall story. I can think of adaptation which focused on what the fans wanted and were good properties


and adaptations which focused on the fans and were bad properties.


The same goes for the focus on the larger audience.


For me, I think the world has to feel like the same sort of world. Walden's LWW was not perfect by any means and I nitpick it a lot more readily than I did back in the day when I first watched it. I have grown to acknowledge the glaring problems although, when I watch it I can still enjoy it for the most part, and nostalgia can always take me back. Prince Caspian, I enjoy more now than I did back then, but, I still enjoy LWW more. Most of the time I cannot even watch VODT. 


These adaptations tried to give Audiences what they thought we wanted (spoiler alert they were wrong a lot of the time), but, it was not just for Narnia fans in general but, rather for generic fantasy lovers. 


Honestly, the Percy Jackson movie focused on the larger audience and cared little for the fans and although the fans bashed these movies for years, we may be seeing people warming up to these movies and them soon becoming classics (or at least the first one),  because the Percy Jackson tv show cared only about the book and made the adaptation long and drawn out somewhat boring and hard for new of casual fans to enjoy without general confusion. 


The one that confused me and started writing this post in the first place was One Piece Live Action and Avatar the Last Airbender. 

Eventhough, it seems to me that they did the same sort of things to these adaptations, it confuses me that they got completely different reactions from fans. 

I was not a fan of the Last Airbender and I loved the tv series, but, I have seen so many online who did not like it as fans. As for One Piece, I loved it and a big chunk of the first seasons of One Piece anime. And I have found no one online who did not love the series fans or not. 


But, this is what confuses me: These shows did pretty much the same things, they changed storylines, plot details, had some different character arcs and different script lines. To me, they are exactly the same in how they handled the material. So, why was general consensus different (although, my opinion was not different, I loved both.)? 


I still do not know but, I just wanted people to think about this and come up with some suggestions and ideas. Is it better to focus on the fans or stick with the larger audience, or focus on making a good story out of the adaptation or stick to the same beats as the story? 


What I would say from my research is there has to be some sort of spirit that the audience feels is close to the property the adaptation is from. In other words, it has to remind the audience of that property in a good way. 


As for Easter eggs in stories I find them completely useless unless they actually help the story in some way. (Why did they include the albatross in VODT if the albatross served no purpose to the movie story? This just seemed like an insult to fans because they took out all meaning out of that scene.) 


Some will argue that the characters for Avatar The Last airbender were not the same as the characters of the animated series, but, that cannot be the reason that it is disliked compared to other adaptations because I can point out several adaptations where the characters were different or had different character arcs and the fans and others still loved those adaptations. Walden's LWW is the first one that pops into my head, Peter was not a reluctant hero in the book like he is in that movie. In the One Piece Live action, Sanji  had quite a few different characteristics and characterizations from the anime. 



Last of all but not least,I am once again going to reference Anne of Green Gables (Kevin Sullivan 1st movie), Gilbert in this movie is not the same character in the book. He is more mature in the movie, in the book, he is teasing girls on a regular basis and calling them names not to mention pranking them. He and Anne both grow up during this book. In the movie, he starts at a different point then Gilbert. I would say that in the movie, I do not feel like he grows up and changes but, only Anne does. But, everyone praises this movie for being so book accurate.(Which is why I have another beef with the Anne with an e series, Gilbert is a perfect character in the series and can do no wrong, Anne on the other hand messes up all the time.)




Anyway, this was very interesting to note and I hope I can get others thinking about this and coming up with different theories. 


Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Anne of Windy Poplars ( Anne the Matchmaker) by Rebekah Walton

   As it falls once again, and the cold is starting to move in as the leaves change colors many of us turn to Anne of Green Gables the series of 8 books that LMM wrote with the feeling of fall every so present in the pages. Instead of reading the first book of the series once again, my mind turned to finishing the series. 

      I was reminded that I have yet to finish Anne of Windy Poplars or Anne of Ingelside, and now that I have finished Windy Polars my next venture will be Anne of Ingelside, I have already read Rilla of Ingelside which I would argue is the best book of the series. But, that will be known for sure when I can finish the last books and 2 spin-off books. Which as every fan knows will be the Anne of Ingleside I have mentioned, The Blythes are Quoted, and the Chronicles of Anvolea books. But, while finishing these books is good, I reflect on the fact that adaptations have not been so good over the years.
     
      A lot of the adaptations forget a characteristic of Anne that is mostly present in the later books, the ones after she gets engaged to Gilbert. Anne becomes a matchmaker of sorts in the later books. Anne’s House of Dreams involves Anne looking at others and helping with their romantic lives. I would say that the later books including Anne of Windy Poplars make this Anne’s main job or career in life, yes, Anne teaches school and on occasion writes a story or two, but, those things get a back seat to the work she does on the people of the town. 

     We hardly notice that she quit her job as a teacher because Anne still is very present in the town and she is the same. In any case, all the adaptations seem to overlook this factor, in the Kevin Sullivan series, Anne only deals with Katherine Brooks and the Pringles and does not seem to get anyone together in the 3 movies I have watched. Sure there is one movie that is a prequel/sequel I haven’t watched of the series, but, I don’t know anyone who has and I would argue that Anne being a matchmaker in that movie would be quite odd, so, I doubt it happens. 
     
     Now, we look to the other adaptations, Anne of Anvolea the BBC/ Canadian production in the 1970s. This was a well-made serialized version of Anne of Anvolea and Anne of the Island it does not include any of the other books and so, it does not have Anne as a matchmaker since Anne does not become one until Windy Poplars, then her stories for the most part always involve romances. Anne in Anne with an E is completely different than Anne Shirley Blythe of the books and I have not finished past the 1st season, but, really even if I did the series had taken such a turn that I am not sure you can even include it in the list of Adaptations, because Anne is not Anne. Gilbert is not Gilbert either, but, at that point who even cares you are making a different story. 

      Anne was not traumatized by her youth. And thus, dealt with problems in a very different manner. Also, Anne of Green Gables is not depressing, so, anything that is depressing can not be truly called Anne of Green Gables (the feel is all wrong.). But, besides all that I am still not sure why they did not make Emily of New Moon. It fits better with the tone and if you want a girl that is Emo and likes Wuthering Heights and Emily Bronte, Emily of New Moon is the series to do. Plus, you have no real competition for a previous adaptation, since the only adaptation is hardly remembered and not all that hard to beat in terms of being better. 

    Of course, the Anne of Green Gables that is the best is still the Japanese Anime. But, since they only made Anne of Green Gables it is hard for them to put in that Anne became a matchmaker later in life. Other adaptations fall short of including this characteristic of Anne and Anne of Windy Poplars the 1940 version is the same as all the others. They put focus on Anne and the Pringles and ignore people who have little to nothing to do with that plot line. So, where the book solves it but the Pringles take Anne’s gesture as a kind person to be a blackmailed threat, the movie paints the Pringles as won over by Anne making the play evolve around Jen Pringle and then make Katherine a Pringle as well. 

      Also, were they suggesting a romance between Tony and Katherine? I thought those two were cousins in this movie. But, maybe they just had the same last name or were distant enough to get married. I know in Jane Austen’s day you could marry your cousin but, this movie was in 1940 and no one said that anyone could marry their cousin in Canada at that day. Also, by making Elizabeth an orphan, the movie rounds off with Anne and Gilbert getting married and adopting her instead, of the girl leaving with her father.
     
      They condensed the story a lot like they did with Anne of Green Gables and I found myself wondering if LMM had watched this movie too. She had hated the version they made for Anne of Green Gables, at least the second half so much. I understand that maybe they wanted to fix the problem of Poplar probably being too long for a movie, but, I hate to say this since I think Anne the Sequel messed up in so many ways by excluding Roy from the story, (Roy is so important to the books and is a main reason why Anne marries Gilbert.) I think the Kevin Sullivan adaptation did the Katherine Brooks storyline and Jen Pringle storyline better than this version. So, in essence, this movie just continues to mess up and forget that Anne was a matchmaker.

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Philippa Blake (née Gordon) by Rebekah Walton


This is how important Phil Blake was, without her, Gilbert would have likely died and Anne and Gilbert would have never married. 


You may have guessed that the next character I was going to talk about as underrated character of the Anne of Green Gables series was Philippa (Gordon) Blake. If you did, you are correct and Philippa is my favorite secondary character in the series. Phil is funny, beautiful, and rich. She is a mankiller. She has multiple guys hanging around her at all time. I cannot believe I have to say this, she is not a lesbian unlike both of the web series based on Anne of Green Gables: Project Green Gables and Green Gables Fables. Her story is not a coming out story at all, it is instead a rich girl marrying for love, a man, that was thought to have no chance at first glance. Jonas Blake is a man thought to be definitely below Philippa’s league.

"She was certainly very pretty, with a vivid, irregular, bewitching type of prettiness. There was a gloss as of brown nuts on her satin-smooth hair and a soft, ripe glow on her round cheeks. Her eyes were big and brown and velvety, under oddly-pointed black brows, and her crooked mouth was rose-red."
                                            Anne and Priscilla's first sight of Phil

Philippa by all descriptions was very beautiful and could have easily be the most beautiful girl in the series. She has not chosen to go to college because she cares about learning but rather her father decides for her, because she hates making decisions. This is why Phil has a hard trouble choosing between the men that hang around her at first. Phil’s wish to marry a rich man only is because she cannot imagine herself without the fine things in life, and so, it shows her character development when she chooses Jonas, a poor minister who wishes to be a missionary. Good actresses to play Phil would be:




Phil is one of the most important secondary characters in the whole series, she single handedly gets Shirbert together and is essentially all the comic relief of any book she is in. The audience understands Phil and loves her, because we feel that Phil is us looking at the situation of Anne and Gilbert and telling Anne to marry Gil. Phil says the things we wish we could say to Anne.  For example:
Right after the first proposal which both Phil and Anne knew was going to happen, this happened: (Anne had been trying to avoid being proposed to by Gilbert.)

Anne did not answer. At that moment she wished Phil were a thousand miles away.

"I suppose you've gone and refused Gilbert Blythe. You are an idiot, Anne Shirley!"

"Do you call it idiotic to refuse to marry a man I don't love?" said Anne coldly, goaded to reply.

"You don't know love when you see it. You've tricked something out with your imagination that you think love, and you expect the real thing to look like that. There, that's the first sensible thing I've ever said in my life. I wonder how I managed it?"

Phil also sent a letter to Gilbert telling him he had a second chance with Anne which helped his speedy recovery.
Another time, after Anne rejected Gilbert the first time, Phil told Anne, ‘’I’d marry Gilbert Blythe if he were rich.’’


As for the actresses who have played Phil in the past:

  


The web versions would have made LMM roll in her grave. Nothing was essentially wrong with the look of any one of them but, as mentioned above the two web series went wrong by not understanding that if Phil were translated to today she would still not be a lesbian. Just because Phil did not like the boys she was previously met does not make her a lesbian or a bisexual. My sister who hung around guys and was friends with them for several years, never fell in love with any one of them until she met her now husband.Serious, I can name so many people that did not fall in love with anyone until they met their husband, that this whole thing is not even an issue. Instead, Phil finally found a guy who was not as superficial as all the other guys she met.  He was nothing like the hot boys she met on a daily basis and saw Philippa for who she truly was as a person. Other men had seen her for her looks or her riches, but he understood her. Phil instead would be one of those classic pastor wives, infact, she was a Pastor’s wife, who is a hot model and her husband is an average looking dude. Which is very common in all the churches and congregations I have been to over the years. The pastors look like average dudes who are most likely balding and their wives look like hot models. I have no understanding of why anyone would want to change my favorite character besides Anne into a woman with this type of sin constant in her life, but, they did anyway. 

Just to show you how funny Phil can be, I decided to show clips from the BBC tv series who got this character completely right:



Also, I will quote some of her lines from the books.

Phil asks Anne and Priscilla what they think of her looks:


Phil acknowledges that Gil likes Anne:



Phil is not a perfect girl in the books, but, she is a very honest girl. Phil may have scolded Anne about leading on Roy, but, I think this was mostly because we tend to dislike the traits we see in ourselves when we see them in other people. Immediately after scolding Anne, Phil decides that was not the thing to do and she regrets it.


Phil would rather have a guy with humor and character rather than just have him be handsome and rich. She had to go against her mom’s expectations of her in order to marry Jonas. Although, her father was not against it since Jonas was a minister and his dad was a minister. Phil is not someone to use to champion an agenda, but instead a clear declaration of someone who realizes what is important in life, not money or even beauty. She realized that her husband did not need to have his treasure on earth, but, rather having a treasure in heaven was far more important.

                   She firmly believed that Christians did not just have to be serious and solemn but, could also have fun and joke and laugh. She is able to learn from her mistakes and is very intelligent in most subjects and Anne only beats her in English. Phil is not only a real important character to Anne and Gilbert and the reason why Gilbert proposes to Anne again, but, also she was a good mother to her two sons and her two sons later go off to war in the books. Anne may have been what I wanted to be when I was younger, but, Phil is what I truly wish to be now. A caring friend who is there for others and maybe I put up a front of superficial but, I am really not that way in my heart. I marry the man I love regardless of the material items he has on earth, but, rather consider the treasure he has gained in heaven. And if I do get married and have kids, I would like them to be brave enough to go to war if need be for the sake of the country and the world.



Sunday, September 22, 2019

Roy Gardner by Rebekah Walton



A character often overlooked in the Anne of Green Gables series is Roy Gardner, Anne’s perfect man. In the Kevin Sullivan movies, they disregarded him entirely and add in a Morgan Harris. It was obvious they did not understand why Roy Gardner was included in the Anne series. There are other adaptions of Anne which included Roy but, did not understand who he was suppose to be including the web series adaptations Green Gables Fables and Project Green Gables. Both of these portrayed Roy badly, and allow the audience to see this the relationship between Anne and Roy as a bad thing. This is not the case. It is important that Roy Gardner and his relationship with Anne be portrayed correctly as I believe LMM was trying to make a point by showing Anne in a relationship with Roy. Roy is not just a love rival to Gilbert for Anne.  The BBC tv series of the 1970s, did an okay impression and explanation of Roy, but, I think they lacked in making us fall in love with Roy. Roy should be by all accounts a second male lead.

Anne is proposed to by many men throughout the series, but the most important two men who proposed to her were Roy Gardner and Gilbert Blythe. Roy Gardner is about as important as Mr. Collins is to the story of Pride and Prejudice. Mr. Collins allows Elizabeth to confirm her convictions about marriage that she will only marry a man she loves. Roy Gardner on the other hand, is the character who reveals to Anne that she cannot marry a man who does not have the same humor as her. There is nothing initially wrong with Roy Gardner, the audience or the reader only dislikes Roy because of their affection for Gilbert. This is what's wrong with the two webseries that include Roy:
Roy  vs.                          Gilbert 
         




Both of these actors lacked in looks and character to Gilbert. Roy only lacks in humor to Gilbert, not in looks. As the audience, we should find Roy objectively more handsome than Gilbert. Not to mention, we should find Roy romantic. It is like those second lead guys in kdramas which everyone finds more objectively handsome than the male leads. Now, maybe I shouldn't blame the webseries too much because they did not have a lot of money coming to them and they had already picked Gilbert before they went looking for Roy. 

It is critical to cover why Roy Gardner is important to the story of Anne Shirley Blythe, and what he adds to the story.
For the Kevin Sullivan films,
The issue about giving Anne a second love interest that is not Roy Gardner, means that you are changing Anne’s character.

Anne would have never gone for Gilbert if she had not first dated Roy Gardner. Anne gets upset with Dianna over marrying Fred at first, because Fred is nothing like the man Dianna imagined marrying when they were children. Roy Gardner is to me a significant part of the story, because this is why I felt so close to Anne growing up and reading these books, this is why I defended Anne against my siblings and why at times, I am exactly like Anne.


 Anne would have never gone for anyone that wasn’t her romantic type before she realized that is not what she wanted. Before Roy, she wanted one type of man in her life, and often in the world today we are told (as girls) that our perfect man does not exist. But, that is not what Anne learned, she didn’t grow up and learn that her dream guy did not exist, instead, she found her dream guy and realized that she did not truly want to marry him. That is completely different. In this way, we can see two women who learned the same lesson but, one had to learn it by trial and error and the other learned the easy way. Dianna learned that she did not care for her dream guy when she fell in love with Fred, but Anne had to learn that Roy, her dream guy, was no longer what she dreamed of after he proposed to her.


Morgan Harris who they used as a fill in character for Roy Gardner in the Kevin Sullivan movies doesn’t really work as a replacement for Roy Gardner at all. Anne would have known that she didn’t want to marry Morgan Harris, unless she had already changed who she wanted in life. Morgan Harris is guy Anne barely knows when he proposes, Roy Gardner and her had been dating for two years when he proposed. Morgan Harris was not Anne’s ideal man and did have a sense of humor and did not write and quote poetry. Anne would have never considered Morgan Harris in the books. Morgan Harris would have been as disregarded by Anne like Billy Andrews was when had his sister proposed for him to Anne.




 Anne was very much attached to her idea of the perfect man. In fact, let’s look at what really happened with Gilbert and Anne during the first proposal.






Anne did not answer. At that moment she wished Phil were a thousand miles away.

"I suppose you've gone and refused Gilbert Blythe. You are an idiot, Anne Shirley!"

"Do you call it idiotic to refuse to marry a man I don't love?" said Anne coldly, goaded to reply.

"You don't know love when you see it. You've tricked something out with your imagination that you think love, and you expect the real thing to look like that. There, that's the first sensible thing I've ever said in my life. I wonder how I managed it?"


The problem with Anne is that she thinks that she wants to marry this perfect guy. So, when she finds the perfect guy and chooses not to marry him it becomes more impactful than finding just another guy who wanted to marry her. Anne turned down many men who proposed Gilbert and Roy were not the only ones.
In the Book of Revelation chapter, Anne realized what her love for Roy Gardner truly was as Gilbert is dying.

Oh, what a fool she had been not to realize what the bond was that had held her to Gilbert -- to think that the flattered fancy she had felt for Roy Gardner had been love. And now she must pay for her folly as for a crime

 
People may wish to think that even if Roy did not exist Anne would have still realized her love for Gilbert when Gilbert was dying. But, I would argue that Gilbert would have not been in such a serious state of sickness if it were not for Roy. Gilbert had given up all hope of marrying Anne, because of Roy. And we can see clearly from how fast he recovered later, that Gilbert’s will to live had a lot to do with if he would survive scarlet fever. When he had no will to live, Gilbert was on his deathbed. So, if Roy did not exist Gilbert would have not given up the will to live earlier and he wouldn’t have been deathly sick. Instead, Gilbert would have recovered earlier and been about and around before Anne heard about him ever being sick. Anne may have realized later the fact she loved Gilbert, but, it may have been much later in life.
 Just listen to Gilbert explain how he survived after the second proposal:
"I have a dream," he said slowly. "I persist in dreaming it, although it has often seemed to me that it could never come true. I dream of a home with a hearth-fire in it, a cat and dog, the footsteps of friends -- and YOU!"

Anne wanted to speak but she could find no words. Happiness was breaking over her like a wave. It almost frightened her.

"I asked you a question over two years ago, Anne. If I ask it again today will you give me a different answer?"

Still Anne could not speak. But she lifted her eyes, shining with all the love-rapture of countless generations, and looked into his for a moment. He wanted no other answer.

They lingered in the old garden until twilight, sweet as dusk in Eden must have been, crept over it. There was so much to talk over and recall -- things said and done and heard and thought and felt and misunderstood.

"I don't see how you could keep on loving me when I was such a little fool," said Anne.

"Well, I tried to stop," said Gilbert frankly, "not because I thought you what you call yourself, but because I felt sure there was no chance for me after Gardner came on the scene.

But I couldn't -- and I can't tell you, either, what it's meant to me these two years to believe you were going to marry him, and be told every week by some busybody that your engagement was on the point of being announced. I believed it until one blessed day when I was sitting up after the fever. I got a letter from Phil Gordon -- Phil Blake, rather -- in which she told me there was really nothing between you and Roy, and advised me to `try again.' Well, the doctor was amazed at my rapid recovery after that."

Gilbert, was sick in bed and read a letter from Phil Blake telling him to try again and he immediately got better from his fever.



"But I'll have to ask you to wait a long time, Anne," said Gilbert sadly. "It will be three years before I'll finish my medical course. And even then there will be no diamond sunbursts and marble halls."

Anne laughed.



"I don't want sunbursts and marble halls. I just want YOU. You see I'm quite as shameless as Phil about it. Sunbursts and marble halls may be all very well, but there is more `scope for imagination' without them. And as for the waiting, that doesn't matter. We'll just be happy, waiting and working for each other -- and dreaming. Oh, dreams will be very sweet now."



Gilbert drew her close to him and kissed her. Then they walked home together in the dusk, crowned king and queen in the bridal realm of love, along winding paths fringed with the sweetest flowers that ever bloomed, and over haunted meadows where winds of hope and memory blew.



Roy Gardner description in the book:

 “Tall and handsome and distinguished-looking – dark, melancholy, inscrutable eyes – melting, musical, sympathetic voice – yes, the very hero of her dreams stood before her in the flesh. He could not have more closely resembled her ideal if he had been made to order."

I have always imaged Roy Gardner as Cary Grant: (if, Cary Grant had no sense of humor)




This was Anne’s ideal perfect man but, he did not have something that she realized  that she really wanted and that Gilbert had, her sense of humor. Roy Gardner is overly serious.
‘‘But then, Gilbert could see a joke. She had once told Roy a funny story -- and he had not seen the point of it. She recalled the chummy laugh she and Gilbert had had together over it, and wondered uneasily if life with a man who had no sense of humor might not be somewhat uninteresting in the long run. But who could expect a melancholy, inscrutable hero to see the humorous side of things? It would be flatly unreasonable.’’                                         

                                         -Anne’s thoughts about Roy vs. Gilbert before Roy’s proposal.

‘‘I was swept off my feet at first by his good looks and knack of paying romantic compliments; and later on I thought I MUST be in love because he was my dark-eyed ideal."

                                                              -Anne’s thoughts about Roy after his proposal
Eventhough, Anne with an E had such great potential and yet failed to follow the book and characters at all from the book series, that show's fans are right about one thing: If the show had a Roy Gardner which so far it does not, Timothee Chalamet would make a great Roy Gardner. He has a good look for Roy Gardner and I could imagine him quoting poetry to Anne by firelight. In fact, I might consider making that fmv if no one else does. Anne and Roy Gardner.




You might ask me, what is the real difference between the looks of Gilbert Blythe and Roy Gardner. According to the books, Gilbert was tall and broad shouldered and had brown curly hair and hazel eyes. He had a splendid chin according to Anne. In other words, Roy Gardner had black hair (which does not have to be curly), and Gilbert Blythe has brown hair that has to be curly. More Roy Gardner suggestions are: BooBoo Stewart, Charles Melton, and James Reid.

(Speaking of Booboo Stewart there is a Filipino actor that really looks similar to him...Gil Cuerva, with long hair just look him up and compare to Booboo Stewart.)







If Anime continued with Anne’s story and made Anne of Anvolea and Anne of Island, Roy Gardner would probably look similar to Laurie from  the Little women anime.

Now, for a moment compare those actors to the ones that played Gilbert. I love Jonathan Crombie and I think he did play a good Gilbert. And the anime version of Gilbert was pretty good as well. The BBC Christopher Blake as Gilbert was an okay actor but, I would also loved to see what Robin Halstead did with the part in the prequel to Anne of Anvolea. But, this description easily fits Rhys Matthew Bond, Colin Firth, and Jonah Hauer-King, and/ or Orlando Bloom.





Also, I do not mind Lucas Jade Zumann, he looks like he could be  younger version of Jonathan Crombie. (Another reason why I am so upset that Anne with an E did not follow the books at all, that show had good potential with great actors.)



But, regardless Roy Gardner is an important character in the books and should be treated as such in adaptions to the story. And I wish more series would focus on the importance of Roy Gardner to the story. In fact, if I made a series about Anne, I would start with Anne of Anvolea and Anne of Island and make hundreds of women and girls fall in love with Roy Gardner. Gilbert Blythe is awesome but, he was clearly made for Anne, while Roy is the ideal guy that we fall in love with in our dreams.