Christian Bale did what!?

I'm sure many of us have heard of what Christian Bale did. He got a bit irate with someone and yelled and cursed at them a lot. I won't link to the various audio or songs made of the incident, because it's easy to find and I like to try to keep this place somewhat clean. :P

I wasn't shocked and appalled by what Christian Bale did (I won't to into details. Just google it.), as so many others seem to be. I was amused by the audio, and I still giggle like a child when I hear the "WTF Is It With You!?" song, but do I think Christian Bale is a big huge jerkface for life? No. Do I think he's a saint? No.

The fact of the matter is I don't know the man on any kind of personal level, so I laugh when others presume that they do.

I've also lost my cool with people at times. Perhaps not to the extent that he did, but I have. Others have as well, and plenty others have lost it far worse (physical fights, anyone?). So I'm not sure why people want to play the "I R BETR THAN J00" game. Is it because he's well known? Maybe.

This whole incident reminds me of the Alec Baldwin incident, where he left a less than voicemail or some such for his daughter. There was cursing and ranting involved, and naturally the internet police jumped all over that and there were outcries of Alec Baldwin being a bad father and a bad person.

Seriously?

For those of you who have parents who have never snapped or yelled at you, I wanna know what kinda sugar coated candy land you're living in.

When we lose our cool, it's not a shining moment, no. But it should be remembered that everyone has their moments of anger, grr, and rage, so condemning people for very human things we're all susceptible to is just a tad hypocritical, no?

Legend of the Seeker

Fans of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series likely knew about the new television series based on Wizard's First Rule that came out yesterday. At first I was excited about this series, Legend of the Seeker, when I first heard about it a while back. Though Goodkind's later books left a sour taste in my mouth, I found his first book to be made of awesome and win. My excitement died a little when I realized that it was likely the people making the series might botch a few things, but I accepted that.

When I watched the first episode of The Legend of the Seeker, I was very surprised to find they hadn't botched a few things - they had botched very nearly everything. Before I dive too deeply in my comparisons and contrasts and pointing and laughing, I want to give a heads up that this will most definitely contain spoilers. So if people don't want to be spoiled, I suggest they not finish this article.

In the Sword of Truth Series, the two main characters are Richard Cypher and Kahlan Amnell. Richard's character was shaped heavily by the way his father raised him, and his friendship with Zedd, his best friend. Richard is this opened minded, intelligent, thoughtful, inquisitive man. Please note that I'm stressing the man. He's not a teenager, he's well out of his teenage years, and somewhere in his mid-twenties.

Kahlan is a woman of power and prestige in her homeland, so she carries herself in a certain way. With dignity and grace and strength. She is also a woman, and not a teen. During her first encounters with Richard they had a couple misunderstandings, but mostly they got along great. He was always very kind to her, and enamored with her from the get go.

Let's look at the television series...

Richard is no longer anything he once was in the books. In the series, he is whiny, reckless, and has many moments of teen angst. He and Kahlan were right bratty with one another during their first encounter as well, before parting ways for the first time. In the series, likely what I found most appalling, was the fact Richard didn't even know Zedd. At times he was downright disrespectful to the man.

I understand things likely have to be changed from book to series, but did they have to change parts of the foundation?

Kahlan gave Richard the Book of Counted Shadows in the show, then he burned it to keep it out of the D'Harans hands. Oh, and the D'Harans aren't blue eyed and blond anymore. Did I mention D'Harans broke the Boundary (That rift between the living and dead) with a catapault? Then Richard and Kahlan went on Slaughterfest '08 in the Hartland Woods.

We learn in the first episode that George Cypher is not Richard's biological father, where that came later in the book series as a plot twist.

Craig Horner looked nice without his shirt on at least. Gogo, fanservice!

So the cons are: Everything.
The pros are: A moment of fanservice.

I may try to watch another episode, but if it's more or less the same, I likely won't be watching this series.

Perhaps I'm speaking unfairly, and judging too harshly based on the fact I read the book. Perhaps people who haven't read the series and don't know 'what's supposed to happen' will like the show, and not find it to be hollow and too-fast paced with terrible inter-character relationships. It is targeted to a younger demographic than I am, after all. And when I was a teen I'd watch a show if it had fanservice. I admit it. I watched Smallville because Tom Welling was hot.

But once the novelty of that passed, I was done with Smallville. It didn't help that the characters they focused on couldn't act their way through a high school play, but that's neither here or now.

So if you're a teen and like fantasy and stabbity stab and shirtless guys? Give LotS a go! If you like things with substance, I'd pass.