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Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (spoilers)


Matrim Fox Cauthon

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So has anyone been watching Netflix's Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance? Impressions, reviews, or thoughts about the series?

Overall, I personally liked it a great deal, and I think that it easily lives up to the legacy of the first film. It definitely traverses some dark paths in its stories, but I appreciate how that sells both the evil of the skeksis and cognitive dissonance of the gelflings who previously benefited from their patronage and social systems.

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7 episodes in, not quite a binge worthy show for me, but I do enjoy it, and the last few episodes have been great. I will admit that as someone who didn't watch the original up until recently, part of me wishes this was live-action. But there are plenty of good visual ques, great music, and it's a really solid fantasy story. And the voice acting is exceptional. 

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I've started to watch it, and I really like it, I think it 'captures the essence' of the original quite nicely whilst still managing to feel modern and relevant.

Having said that, I'm a little confused as how it works with the Lore. I can't quite remember the original story, but so far the show doesn't seem to mention the Skeksis' splitting off from the Mystics.. which was the most essentially great element of the original story. Is this bit still part of the lore or have the retconned it somehow?

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6 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

I've started to watch it, and I really like it, I think it 'captures the essence' of the original quite nicely whilst still managing to feel modern and relevant.

Having said that, I'm a little confused as how it works with the Lore. I can't quite remember the original story, but so far the show doesn't seem to mention the Skeksis' splitting off from the Mystics.. which was the most essentially great element of the original story. Is this bit still part of the lore or have the retconned it somehow?

Yeah, have patience with that. I think, right now, the main "retcon" may be how the story ends. While this is a prequel, I'm not sure they're going to end the story with nearly all the Gelflings wiped out.

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18 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Having said that, I'm a little confused as how it works with the Lore. I can't quite remember the original story, but so far the show doesn't seem to mention the Skeksis' splitting off from the Mystics.. which was the most essentially great element of the original story. Is this bit still part of the lore or have the retconned it somehow?

The series eventually gets around to explaining that point about the Skeksis and urRu. Admittedly, it's a bit confusing, because the opening narration probably represents an unreliable narrator. For example, the opening narration says that the skeksis helped Aughra build her Orrery, but it was actually built by the urSkeks (i.e., TekTih) before the split happened. 

 

9 minutes ago, Corvinus said:

Yeah, have patience with that. I think, right now, the main "retcon" may be how the story ends. While this is a prequel, I'm not sure they're going to end the story with nearly all the Gelflings wiped out.

I'm not sure if it will be a retcon. There are canonical comics that take place after the Dark Crystal movie where the gelflings have re-emerged as a presence on Thra. How or why is not entirely clear, but it's probable that the Netflix series will attempt to address that. But having rewatched the Dark Crystal film, I could see how there is enough wiggle-room with the wording around the gelfling genocide to permit possible survivors apart from Jen and Kira. 

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1 hour ago, Matrim Fox Cauthon said:

I'm not sure if it will be a retcon. There are canonical comics that take place after the Dark Crystal movie where the gelflings have re-emerged as a presence on Thra. How or why is not entirely clear, but it's probable that the Netflix series will attempt to address that. But having rewatched the Dark Crystal film, I could see how there is enough wiggle-room with the wording around the gelfling genocide to permit possible survivors apart from Jen and Kira. 

Based on Aughra's words about many possibilities, I'm thinking we could be watching an alternate reality to how things were in the film.

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I enjoyed it. I still prefer the film, though. There was a bit too much comic relief thrown into the series. The skeksis were too comical for my taste. Loved the archer, but thought the hunter was lame. A big plus for me was the expansion of the world-building Loved seeing all the gelfling clans. 

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Chamberlain was fantastic. And appeared life-like. The best part of the series. The puppetry for the skeksis was miles ahead of the other creatures in Thra, other than Aughra. There were moments with the gelflings when I couldn't help but be reminded of Team America, the fights mainly.

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3 hours ago, Astromech said:

Chamberlain was fantastic. And appeared life-like. The best part of the series. The puppetry for the skeksis was miles ahead of the other creatures in Thra, other than Aughra. There were moments with the gelflings when I couldn't help but be reminded of Team America, the fights mainly.

I think its part of the shows charm. They could have gone for a much more up to date look for the show, and mixed puppetry much more with computer graphics to create something more modern. But I'm glad they didn't do that. The ganky look to the Gelflings and Podlings adds something unique, a bit of character. As someone who grew up watching the Muppets and Dark Crystal I really appreciated that the show isn't a CGI monstronsity.

I'm also not sure exactly what they did to the Skesis but there is something a little less terrifying with them in the show version.

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7 hours ago, Heartofice said:

I think its part of the shows charm. They could have gone for a much more up to date look for the show, and mixed puppetry much more with computer graphics to create something more modern. But I'm glad they didn't do that. The ganky look to the Gelflings and Podlings adds something unique, a bit of character. As someone who grew up watching the Muppets and Dark Crystal I really appreciated that the show isn't a CGI monstronsity.

I'm also not sure exactly what they did to the Skesis but there is something a little less terrifying with them in the show version.

I don't mind it, actually prefer it to CGI. My previous post reads like a complaint when it wasn't intended to be. Puppetry has its limitations after all. The skeksis looking so much better probably has to do with having actual actors in the costumes as opposed to the gelflings and podlings. But the skeksis also seemed to emote much better than the gelflings. Their facial features were so much more detailed. Chamberlain looked fantastic. 

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On 9/9/2019 at 8:35 PM, Triskele said:

We got to know the emperor so much better in this one than the original film, but man, Chamberlain by Simon Pegg was so spot-on a recreation of the same character from the original. 

Well yeah, because this Emperor (SkekSo) dies in the first few minutes of the film.  The new Emperor is the Garthim Master, SkekUng, who isn't present in the series.  There is mention of several Skeksis who are away.   There are 18 Skeksis in the series but only 10 appearing so far.  The other 8 are yet to be seen, though 3 were mentioned by name.

The character of the General must be a title too, like Emperor, because SkekUng is referred to as the General in the film, while the General in the series isn't him.

 

On 9/10/2019 at 11:31 AM, Heartofice said:

I'm also not sure exactly what they did to the Skesis but there is something a little less terrifying with them in the show version.

I think they're just less decayed in the series.   The Darkening catches up to them by the time of the movie.

On 9/10/2019 at 9:27 PM, Triskele said:

Yeah, with the other characters, while the puppeteering is amazing, it still gets a bit into the uncanny valley.  The Skeksis (and the two Mystics we get) for me, do not.  I was repeatedly blown away by how real it looked.  


I believe they used subtle CGI on the puppets to add to the effect making them seem more real than in the movie.  I think I heard that in the documentary that plays after the final episode.

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3 hours ago, SpaceChampion said:

The character of the General must be a title too, like Emperor, because SkekUng is referred to as the General in the film, while the General in the series isn't him.

Are they not the same character in movie and series? They look very similar to me. 

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I think they're just less decayed in the series.   The Darkening catches up to them by the time of the movie.

I think it's a general aesthetic decision by the show to make it more accessible. Going back and watching the movie, its incredibly dark and creepy, almost the entire time, every scene has a lot of rotting texture but also a lack of light. The series visually is a lot more colourful and it feels softer. 

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8 hours ago, Heartofice said:

Are they not the same character in movie and series? They look very similar to me.

Nope.   Here's a comparison.

One is SkekVar and one is SkekUng.  Their head shapes are similar, and it is fair to mistakenly assume the differences were due to update of the puppet design, because the differences are slight, but they are definitely not the same characters.  And spoiler:  SkekVar is now dead, so obviously can't become emperor.

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It's a bit of a shame that we did not get to see the urRu counterparts for SkekVar the General (urMa the Peacemaker) and SkekLach the Collector (urSen the Monk). 

We know that SkekUng becomes the Garthim-Master and General, but I'm curious what his title was before that. Given that his counterpart is UrIm the Healer, I suspect that he was possibly the Soldier or Torturer. 

So we will probably see SkekUng, SkekNa the Slavemaster, and SkekShod the Treasurer next season, plus possibly non-before seen SkekLi the Satirist and SkekSa the Mariner. What I look forward to in this prospect is that SkekTek, who has been something of an outsider among the skeksis in Season 1, was part of the political faction of skeksis that included SkekUng and SkekNa. So with the recent creation of the garthim and the possible return of SkekUng and SkekNa, SkekTek may find his luck on the upward swing next season. 

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