Wow. Earthsea isn't horribly face-suckingly bad. I'm *shocked*. In fact, I can actually see the justification for most of the changes they'd made, and not totally disagree with them; they've effectively made the world smaller, less numinous, less dark, which is a crying shame but is necessary within the limits of the media.

Except for the fact that Ged looks and sounds like an upper-class hobbit instead of a disfigured dark-skinned blacksmith's son with a thick Gontish accent. And all the gratuitous sex. And turning Vetch into a fat parody of himself (although he's *still* the most fanciable guy in the story, so they didn't get him *entirely* wrong.)... And a bunch of other little things that they changed for no good reason. But Ged is still acts like Ged, despite looking and sounding and being raised entirely wrong, which is more than I expected (however badly they've butchered Tenar).

If *I'd* done it, I'd have just started out with a close adaptation of Tombs, which stands alone and is in some ways the simplest and most conventional story of the three, and focused on making Earthsea as very Earthsea as it is, but that probably wouldn't have sold on cable at all, so. My lack of burning hatred is probably due entirely to my very low expectations. And the knowledge that it couldn't do any more harm to Earthsea than The Other Wind did. I put it in on while studying and only got sucked into paying attention when I heard a few lines of the king's visit to Thar and went "Wha? Is the Place a Handdara Fastness now?" This wasn't helped by their persistently calling the Kargad people Kargiders.

Also, it scares me how many of the actors and actresses I know. Darn it, I'm becoming a media fan against my will. I must fight this. If anyone other than me needs needs to throw off the show's influence, I found the actual book at thuongviet.com/entertainment/enovels/display.php?ID=303&vn_enc=utf8 .

Also, snip of Earthsea fic. Basically gen, and as far as I'm concerned the Other Wind never happened (literally-- I read it once and blocked the memory out of my mind) and the hawk still flies bright against an empty sky. The movie will be worth it if the only result is somebody writing more Estarriol fic, really.

( The tiny, well-trimmed boat came in with the fishing fleet to the docks of Ismay... )