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Outlander II: Sing me a Song...


Theda Baratheon

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You all might enjoy this article on Tor.com as much as I have, as I staunchly am convinced that the opening music and credits that precede each episode of a series I love have a huge amount to do with making a series successful.  These are brilliant for Outlander, in my opinion.

There is a huge error however.  "Afro Cuban" . . .  They went to Jamaica, not to the Spanish Caribbean.  Due to the differences in who came from Africa to where, Jamaican Afro rhythms, even in the mid-1700's, are very different from what one would hear in Cuba at that time.

https://www.tor.com/2018/08/03/why-im-obsessed-with-the-outlander-theme-song/#more-360700

Others that taught me how important this element of television is were, first, Buffy, I think, followed by Deadwood, Boardwalk Empire (which visuals I got sincerely tired of by season 3, though the music remained fine) and Justified.  Orphan Black's  was the most original, it feels too me, though I'd give Turn: Washington's Spies and Ministerio del Tiempo, the Spanish series' opening / title credits, which seem to have influenced Turn's, prizes for theirs too (the music isn't as good for Turn, Ministerio or Orphan Black, as the brillians of  Outlander and Deadwood).

I also really like it when a series changes up certain aspect with each new season.

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8 hours ago, Zorral said:

You all might enjoy this article on Tor.com as much as I have, as I staunchly am convinced that the opening music and credits that precede each episode of a series I love have a huge amount to do with making a series successful.  These are brilliant for Outlander, in my opinion.

There is a huge error however.  "Afro Cuban" . . .  They went to Jamaica, not to the Spanish Caribbean.  Due to the differences in who came from Africa to where, Jamaican Afro rhythms, even in the mid-1700's, are very different from what one would hear in Cuba at that time.

https://www.tor.com/2018/08/03/why-im-obsessed-with-the-outlander-theme-song/#more-360700

Ah yes, I totally agree. I love Outlander's style of credits (with their zoomings) and song. (and its changes every season or even in the same season).

And thanks for this article! I didn't know that the origins were from the Battle of Culloden and Prince Charlie :P

SO tiresome as he was in Season  2.....

Now I barely remember season 1, but is the song connected to the story that Claire listens to in the castle of the MacKenzie's?

Quote

Others that taught me how important this element of television is were, first, Buffy, I think, followed by Deadwood, Boardwalk Empire (which visuals I got sincerely tired of by season 3, though the music remained fine) and Justified.  Orphan Black's  was the most original, it feels too me, though I'd give Turn: Washington's Spies and Ministerio del Tiempo, the Spanish series' opening / title credits, which seem to have influenced Turn's, prizes for theirs too (the music isn't as good for Turn, Ministerio or Orphan Black, as the brillians of  Outlander and Deadwood).

I also really like it when a series changes up certain aspect with each new season.

I had to look it up. Yeah, I have not watched Turn, but the credits have the same style of El Ministerio del Tiempo!

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13 hours ago, Meera of Tarth said:

Ah yes, I totally agree. I love Outlander's style of credits (with their zoomings) and song. (and its changes every season or even in the same season).

And thanks for this article! I didn't know that the origins were from the Battle of Culloden and Prince Charlie :P

SO tiresome as he was in Season  2.....

Now I barely remember season 1, but is the song connected to the story that Claire listens to in the castle of the MacKenzie's?

I had to look it up. Yeah, I have not watched Turn, but the credits have the same style of El Ministerio del Tiempo!

Yah -- it took me a while to figure out what it was that El Ministerio del Tiempo's credits reminded me of.  It would be interesting to learn what it was connection the creators of both had in common that got them to this design.

It's been so long I barely remember Claire in the MacKenzie castle at all!

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1 minute ago, Zorral said:

Yah -- it took me a while to figure out what it was that El Ministerio del Tiempo's credits reminded me of.  It would be interesting to learn what it was connection the creators of both had in common that got them to this design.

Yeah, I don't know....maybe both series had nothing in common and they just came up with the same?

I'd look up to see if I discover about the origins of the credits of the Ministry.

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@Zorral I have just found it. It basically explains the origin both from the music and the design of El Ministerio.

About the latter it says that they wanted something with puppets, like a fake 3D, a protagonist who was travelling and their inspiration was Saul Bass and "Catch me if you Can". They wanted to show trips, villains, doors, clocks...

They wanted to create something a little bit humourous, and thus the shadows. And a little bit of SteamPunk as well.

This is the article, in Spanish:

http://www.rtve.es/television/20150227/cabecera-ministerio-del-tiempo-como-se-hizo/1105838.shtml

This is the storyboard of the credits:

http://www.rtve.es/contenidos/documentos/stroyboard_cabecera_elministeriodeltiempo.pdf

(I'll copy+paste this post in the thread of the Ministry as well so as not to derail this one).

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On 8/5/2018 at 5:56 PM, Zorral said:

It's been so long I barely remember Claire in the MacKenzie castle at all!

Sorry, I had not seen this the first time.

It's the scene of 1x03. From the Wikia:

Quote

 

Jamie eagerly invites Claire to sit with him. He translates Gwyllyn's song for Claire, saying it's about a man out late at night on a fairy hill on the even of Samhain when he hears the sound of a woman's sad singing from the very rocks of the hill. "I am a woman of Balnain," Jamie translates. "The folk have stone me over again, the stones seem to say. I stood upon the hill and wind did rise, and the sound of thunder rolled across the land. I placed my hands upon the tallest stone and traveled to a far, distant land where I lived for a time among strangers who became lovers and friends. But one day I saw the moon came out and the wind rose once more so I touched the stones and traveled back to my own land and took up again with the man I had left behind."

Claire asks if the woman came back through the stones and Jamie says yes, she did, that they always do. Claire thinks it's a folktale and madness to believe it, yet the song described what had happened to her. She thinks if half of it is right, a woman leaving her home, then why not the half where the woman returned? Geillis had said there's many things in this world not explainable. A newly hopeful Claire realizes she must escape from Leoch and make her way back or die trying.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Meera of Tarth said:

Sorry, I had not seen this the first time.

It's the scene of 1x03. From the Wikia:

 

Absolutely.  You're right then, for sure!  The show seems to make more sense of these than the books do.

Maybe this is because the books, starting with Dragonfly, just get bigger and bigger and BIGGER, with more and more stuff, but most of it repetitions of what people,wear, smell, drink, eat, lactate, etc., and less and less of Things That Happen.  Very seldom, very occasionally, and not even in every book, something drops in about going back and forth and Gellis and stones -- including gem stones.  And then we all just forget about it all while a baby chews on its favorite teething substance and screams the second it is not given what it wants and the world smells of piss, shit, lactation and Claire and Jamie, Brianna and Roger, occasionally, but never as often as they like due to babies, etc., have the greatest sex the world has ever known, no matter how filthy, stinky, miserable -- or even how they age.

:laugh::cheers::read:

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15 hours ago, Zorral said:

Absolutely.  You're right then, for sure!  The show seems to make more sense of these than the books do.

Maybe this is because the books, starting with Dragonfly, just get bigger and bigger and BIGGER, with more and more stuff, but most of it repetitions of what people,wear, smell, drink, eat, lactate, etc., and less and less of Things That Happen.  Very seldom, very occasionally, and not even in every book, something drops in about going back and forth and Gellis and stones -- including gem stones.  And then we all just forget about it all while a baby chews on its favorite teething substance and screams the second it is not given what it wants and the world smells of piss, shit, lactation and Claire and Jamie, Brianna and Roger, occasionally, but never as often as they like due to babies, etc., have the greatest sex the world has ever known, no matter how filthy, stinky, miserable -- or even how they age.

:laugh::cheers::read:

Hehe! I've not read the books, but I suppose that they are very descriptive as you say... :P....too much considering all that<_<..mmm.

I love the show. I got hooked two years ago and I can't wait for the next season this fall. Every year I need a dose of Outlander.

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11 minutes ago, Meera of Tarth said:

Hehe! I've not read the books, but I suppose that they are very descriptive as you say... :P....too much considering all that<_<..mmm.

I love the show. I got hooked two years ago and I can't wait for the next season this fall. Every year I need a dose of Outlander.

Up until reaching the Caribbean the series was a LOT better.  But now it all looks so fake, so not what and where it is supposed to be.

The books though, are beyond self-indulgent.  And Claire has become Mary Sue of All Mary Sues, and Brianna is fast catching up.  And a LOT of really STUPID stuff, and I mean lots, including the classic "all this could be avoided if only somebody said something, but they don't because . . . well the author doesn't let them."

 

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On 8/11/2018 at 8:33 PM, Zorral said:

Up until reaching the Caribbean the series was a LOT better.  But now it all looks so fake, so not what and where it is supposed to be.

The books though, are beyond self-indulgent.  And Claire has become Mary Sue of All Mary Sues, and Brianna is fast catching up.  And a LOT of really STUPID stuff, and I mean lots, including the classic "all this could be avoided if only somebody said something, but they don't because . . . well the author doesn't let them."

 

I also liked more the first two seasons, although I quite liked season 3 as well and their separation time storyline, the pirates' stuff, etc. (except that I found the ending a little bit rushed).

I don't like Mary Sues....  :stunned:

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15 hours ago, Martini Sigil said:

As storytelling goes, this is a really terrific show... the complaint I hear from the people who've read the books is that it can move through the material a little fast at times...

They should be grateful that the show moves through the endless repetition, which only gets more repetitious of non-plot-story elements, which pile up like the fabled Alpine snows of pre-climate change.  Smoke from the hearth smell it! Snot from the kid look at it! Stink from unwashed bodies inhale it! Mud everywhere smell clean look! I understand realistic depiction as much as anyone.  However, piling it on and on and on, while Claire never ages despite an occasional pull-out of a grey hair,  and Jamie still being the strongest and knowing everything and having all his teeth, Claire and Jaimie both having always the exact skills needed from language to performing testicular surgery -- and then the repetition of Jaimie in one peril after another from which Claire always rescues him -- even unto having conveniently inventing penicillin shortly before it was needed to save his leg and life -- no, the show isn't moving too quickly!

OTOH, I do appreciate that in the books the possession of historical and political foreknowledge is of far less importance than being literate and knowing how to use an ax and saw.

 

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3 hours ago, Zorral said:

They should be grateful that the show moves through the endless repetition, which only gets more repetitious of non-plot-story elements, which pile up like the fabled Alpine snows of pre-climate change.  Smoke from the hearth smell it! Snot from the kid look at it! Stink from unwashed bodies inhale it! Mud everywhere smell clean look! I understand realistic depiction as much as anyone.  However, piling it on and on and on, while Claire never ages despite an occasional pull-out of a grey hair,  and Jamie still being the strongest and knowing everything and having all his teeth, Claire and Jaimie both having always the exact skills needed from language to performing testicular surgery -- and then the repetition of Jaimie in one peril after another from which Claire always rescues him -- even unto having conveniently inventing penicillin shortly before it was needed to save his leg and life -- no, the show isn't moving too quickly!

OTOH, I do appreciate that in the books the possession of historical and political foreknowledge is of far less importance than being literate and knowing how to use an ax and saw.

 

This might be my favorite post, ever.

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22 hours ago, Zorral said:

They should be grateful that the show moves through the endless repetition, which only gets more repetitious of non-plot-story elements, which pile up like the fabled Alpine snows of pre-climate change.  Smoke from the hearth smell it! Snot from the kid look at it! Stink from unwashed bodies inhale it! Mud everywhere smell clean look! I understand realistic depiction as much as anyone.  However, piling it on and on and on, while Claire never ages despite an occasional pull-out of a grey hair,  and Jamie still being the strongest and knowing everything and having all his teeth, Claire and Jaimie both having always the exact skills needed from language to performing testicular surgery -- and then the repetition of Jaimie in one peril after another from which Claire always rescues him -- even unto having conveniently inventing penicillin shortly before it was needed to save his leg and life -- no, the show isn't moving too quickly!

 

Agreed with so much of this, and I really enjoyed season 1 and 2.

Season 3, a couple of very good first few episodes, up until 5 or 6 when Claire returns to the Scotland timeline, after that it's a long road downhill for me. Only at the end of the season does it pique up again. And yet I have high expectations of season 4 regardless of season 3 being a big step down.

The thing that stood out to me the most is that the characters didn't look aged. 20 years have passed when she has returned and both Claire and Jaime look at best 3-5 years older.

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10 hours ago, Calibandar said:

Agreed with so much of this, and I really enjoyed season 1 and 2.

Season 3, a couple of very good first few episodes, up until 5 or 6 when Claire returns to the Scotland timeline, after that it's a long road downhill for me. Only at the end of the season does it pique up again. And yet I have high expectations of season 4 regardless of season 3 being a big step down.

I liked the first episodes as well in the 20th century. However, I also enjoyed the Scotland timeline, except, possibly, the ending. Not that I didn't enjoy the Caribbean, but it was too rushed for my taste.

 

10 hours ago, Calibandar said:

The thing that stood out to me the most is that the characters didn't look aged. 20 years have passed when she has returned and both Claire and Jaime look at best 3-5 years older.

Mmmm, yes, I agree with that.

I'd have appreciated to see them older. Especiallly Claire. Jaime might look like he has aged more, so I can buy him being in his mid fourties (with a little bit of imagination because he still looks so young). However Claire looks almost the same, not 50 (I think she is supposed to be 50?).

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She's supposed to be around 50 I think yes. Possibly early 50's because she might be early 30's in the "Jacobite Rising" timeline of season 1 and 2.

One thing I am looking forward to in season 4 that is that Murtagh will return. That camaraderie was definitely missing in season 3.

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