[polishgenius]

Abyss, on 01 September 2016 - 05:26 PM, said:

Y'know, Mark Hamill could totally nail the role of Achamian.

Well, apart from being white.


That could end up being the biggest barrier to getting this show made with the budget it deserves- except Kellhus, and possibly Cniaur, if they were casting accurately all of the major actors should be of Middle-Eastern descent.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

amphibian, on 02 September 2016 - 11:36 PM, said:

Cause, on 02 September 2016 - 09:31 PM, said:

Which book is TSA I cant recall

I think TSA = The Second Apocalypse, which is the forum or the whole entire series. Not sure which part of it Azath is referring to.

The whole series (initially planned as three trilogies, of which The Prince of Nothing is the first), though it was a discussion in those forums that I think I remember presenting compelling evidence that

Spoiler

simply believing in something supernatural, or getting enough people to believe in it, is not sufficient to directly make it true. For instance, Mimara's Judging Eye can apparently see, objectively, whether someone is damned or not, and personal belief or group belief don't seem to determine damnation or nondamnation. Likewise, what most people believe often turns out to be wrong. All the non-Dunyain have mostly false beliefs about the causes of their actions, and even the Dunyain have false beliefs about their own true nature.

However, there are more nuanced and indirect ways in which believing something can, in certain senses, "make it become true", which is how Moenghus tries to explain prophecy in terms of the Dunyain belief that "what comes before determines what comes after". People may allow a belief, or a story, to influence their behavior so that they make it true in the present, and so that all their histories and memories proclaim it as having been true in the past. When people have access to powerful magic, like the understanding of physics implicit in the Gnosis, they can remake the physical universe... and Kellhus's discovery of the meta-Gnosis implies the possibility of not just operating through the laws of physics in our universe, but the physics of different possible universes.

Likewise, beliefs don't directly determine what the gods are, but gods appear to "harvest" and "feed" off of the souls of their worshipers after death (and maybe before). So perhaps more worshipers -> more souls to feed on -> more power in the material world -> ability to provide benefits to attract more worshipers.

Getting back on topic, TPoN being optioned doesn't necessarily mean TSA or TAE (or the short stories, or the unnamed third part of the series) have been optioned. Making TAE into a TV series is in some ways a very different challenge from TPoN.

Spoiler

Probably more SFX heavy, for one.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 03 September 2016 - 09:17 PM

[Cause]

polishgenius, on 03 September 2016 - 01:40 PM, said:

Abyss, on 01 September 2016 - 05:26 PM, said:

Y'know, Mark Hamill could totally nail the role of Achamian.

Well, apart from being white.


That could end up being the biggest barrier to getting this show made with the budget it deserves- except Kellhus, and possibly Cniaur, if they were casting accurately all of the major actors should be of Middle-Eastern descent.

The Norsirai are obviously Nordic. The Scylvendi are white with dark hair (all white people but the nordics). The Zuemi in the setting are black skinned but have green eyes so I don't think a real world parallel exists. The ketyai are dark haired, and have dark skin. They could be interpreted to be anything from Arabs to Mediterranean,.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

polishgenius, on 03 September 2016 - 01:40 PM, said:

Abyss, on 01 September 2016 - 05:26 PM, said:

Y'know, Mark Hamill could totally nail the role of Achamian.

Well, apart from being white.


That could end up being the biggest barrier to getting this show made with the budget it deserves- except Kellhus, and possibly Cniaur, if they were casting accurately all of the major actors should be of Middle-Eastern descent.

There are many different skin tones (and facial features) in the Middle East and Mediterranean. And Bakker said he purposefully mixed up qualities associated with different ethnic and cultural groups to play with our expectations---so the Scylvendi might seem to be based on Mongolian or Turkic peoples, but they have fair skin and light eyes.

The text does specify olive skin in places, but not iirc specifically Arabian features for Achamian etc. The Three Seas seem to be based more on the Mediterranean... so even if actors of Middle Eastern descent are hard to come by, there are plenty of actors of Italian, Jewish, Greek, Hispanic, and Latino descent who would have the right skin tone. (Iran has had a very good film industry for a while now, though I don't know how available Iranian actors are.) The Fanim do seem closely based on Arabian peoples, but it's not clear how closely they physically resemble, say, Bedouins... they have very few spoken lines in TPoN books and wouldn't have to be especially famous actors.

Some people would probably protest, but some people will almost always protest... it's not like making a series specifically about Egyptians and not featuring anyone who looks remotely Egyptian.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 03 September 2016 - 09:01 PM

[Puck]

Azath Vitr (D, on 03 September 2016 - 08:59 PM, said:

There are many different skin tones (and facial features) in the Middle East and Mediterranean. And Bakker said he purposefully mixed up qualities associated with different ethnic and cultural groups to play with our expectations---so the Scylvendi might seem to be based on Mongolian or Turkic peoples, but they have fair skin and light eyes.

Actually, the Scylvendi sound an awful lot like Scythians, up to and including the fair skin, so could get away with europoid festures. I'm more doubtfull of the willingness of those responsible to fill the cast with enough diversity to represent the differences of the people of the Three Seas. It goes from nordic looking to medditeranean to arabic (and Shigek sounds pretty much like Egypt), details like eye colours aside (there are coloured contact lenses for that).

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Puck, on 03 September 2016 - 10:23 PM, said:

Azath Vitr (D, on 03 September 2016 - 08:59 PM, said:

There are many different skin tones (and facial features) in the Middle East and Mediterranean. And Bakker said he purposefully mixed up qualities associated with different ethnic and cultural groups to play with our expectations---so the Scylvendi might seem to be based on Mongolian or Turkic peoples, but they have fair skin and light eyes.

Actually, the Scylvendi sound an awful lot like Scythians, up to and including the fair skin, so could get away with europoid festures. I'm more doubtfull of the willingness of those responsible to fill the cast with enough diversity to represent the differences of the people of the Three Seas. It goes from nordic looking to medditeranean to arabic (and Shigek sounds pretty much like Egypt), details like eye colours aside (there are coloured contact lenses for that).

A lot of them would be extras.

I don't remember any complaints about Game of Thrones using Hispanic, caucasian, and black people for Dorne and a mix of black people and other ethnicities for Meereen. The Zeumi could be differentiated by having the darkest skin tones (like Michael K. Williams, significantly darker than most African-Americans). South Asians are another possibility.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 03 September 2016 - 11:34 PM