This guy says its a terrible idea but then doesn’t elaborate on why he thinks that. I think he is wrong, and the Fallout show is doing a good job convincing me of that. When people who love, know, and respect the source material create something new, it turns out to be pretty good.
Just the other night I thought: “Man, it would be so cool if Todd could do what he did with the Fallout show, but make it a Morrowind show instead.” Todd played a big role in Morrowinds development and he had previously said while he would love to remake it, it would be “too much reading for the modern audience.” So why not remake it as a TV show, Todd?
I think it’s interesting that he believes that, personally.
Dragon Age has 3 main things going for it:
- The Darkspawn
- Templars vs Mages
- Whatever the fuck Solas is doing
While the Darkspawn could work for TV (it’d just require a bunch of makeup and we’ve seen shows like The Walking Dead pull-off the whole zombie thing), it’s pretty hard to do anything low-scale with them, since they’re either small bands attacking small villages or a large invasion force during a Blight. Game of Thrones and Lord of the Ring pulled-off large-scale battles, but they also had rather large budgets by that point.
The Solas arc doesn’t really work for TV because of the budget it would require for all the insanely high-level and trippy magic stuff that would be needed. And also because anyone who isn’t already of fan of Dragon Age would be confused as fuck about what Solas is doing.
I could see a series about a smaller part of the Templars vs Mages working, personally. Unlike Solas and the ancient Elves, most “regular” magic is pretty low-level and tame. Blood Magic shouldn’t be as expensive as some of the ancient Elves’ magic worlds and Demons would probably need to be adapted to look differently than they do in-game, but it’s got potential. Not sure if I trust most network to handle the writing of it, though.
Also, they made Dragon Age: Absolution, which was pretty damn bad and felt like someone tried to smash 3-4 seasons-worth of plot into 6 episodes. The characters were walking tropes, the villain went from one of the most brilliant minds of the Tevinter Imperium to an obsessive weirdo, and it had some of the most forced romance and comedy bits I’ve seen in a while. In my opinion, the show also does an awful job with their portrayal of Tevinter, essentially contradicting a lot of established lore from the game for no apparent reason.
Not sure how many people in the community actually remember, but back in the day they made Dragon Age: Warden’s Fall with Machinima to setup the events of Awakening (haven’t watched it in forever, but I remember liking it). It’s dark and gritty like Origins and Awakening were, and less “witty” like Inquisition’s writing.
IDK, I think a Morrowind show would be very hard to do well because:
- they’d have to pick a build and alienate a bunch of fans
- the main story line is decent, but the point (to me) was the journey, and that’s hard to capture on screen
- the fantastical creatures and weird setting would probably be too expensive
It would probably be easier to put Skyrim on a screen instead, that world screams Nord paladin build imo.
Just make it a show about Caius Cossades, or the Schism of the Three Houses or something. Doesn’t have to be exactly about the Nerevarine, though it would be cool. But either way, its certainly possible.
Fallout seems cheap but literally everything needed to be either a handmade prop or CGd into the scene. It’d be no different than for Morrowind or anything else.
Make it a prequel and you can avoid most of those issues. Even the expensive setting can be mitigated by padding the episodes with “cheap” cloak and dagger and politics scenes.
I think it would be cool to have a miniseries that focuses on a different element each episode, but without a central character. So an episode about the dark brotherhood, one about the great houses, one about the blades, etc. Finish it off with two episodes, one a prequel for our hero, and the second the fight with Dagoth Ur. That was you get the different perspectives, but you don’t need to do that journey part.
IDK, it would be cool but I’m worried they’ll screw it up.
