S01.E02: The High Aldwin

[Mr. Sparkle]

The Nelwyns welcome the outsiders to meet with their High Aldwin leader.

Streaming on Disney+ November 30th. 

[Bort]

So far, the show has some pacing issues, in that I wish they’d pick it up a bit. They keep stopping for days, isn’t this supposed to be a rescue mission? Like, shouldn’t there be some sense of urgency here?

[rwlevin]

Wow, Sorsha was kind of a jerk to Willow, wasn’t she? I mean, he pretty much saved everybody from being pigs and used trickery to defeat her mom and she says he’s not a very good wizard?

[raven]

2 hours ago, rwlevin said:

Wow, Sorsha was kind of a jerk to Willow, wasn’t she? I mean, he pretty much saved everybody from being pigs and used trickery to defeat her mom and she says he’s not a very good wizard?

Right???  She scorns his ability as a wizard and refuses to let him have any interaction with Elora.  Sorsha is coming off as not very likable, what with insulting Willow and marrying off her daughter and all, even though Sorsha got to marry for love.  

Though maybe Sorsha had a point - Willow sees Elora and what does he do?  Magically uncovers the tattoo (how did it get covered up in the first place?  I guess that magic was good enough for Sorsha?)  and promptly starts saying "Elora Danan" over and over, as WELL as holding a big celebration, when everyone knows that 1) keeping her identity secret was supposed to be important 2) Willow has had a vision of her death and 3) someone's been kidnapped and potentially being tortured or whatever.    Kit is annoying but her sense of urgency was welcome.

Then they leave oh-so-important Elora alone in the woods so that she can get kidnapped.  Sheesh.

I am somewhat intrigued by Potential Betrothed Guy.  Is he good or evil?  Hmmm.  Ancient languages, you say?  I'm interested.

Not-Madmartigan is kind of funny.  Jade is the best.

Warwick Davis is apparently ageless.  I wonder if the show will explore why everyone closed ranks, so to speak - the Nelwyns are living mostly below ground it seems (they even say that it's safer below ground) though they were farmers in the movie.  Sorsha et al in the castle with the magic force field and no one seemed very happy with things even before the attack.  

There's lots to nitpick but I'm still interested to see what happens.

[Bort]

1 hour ago, raven said:

Right???  She scorns his ability as a wizard and refuses to let him have any interaction with Elora.  Sorsha is coming off as not very likable, what with insulting Willow and marrying off her daughter and all, even though Sorsha got to marry for love.  

Though maybe Sorsha had a point - Willow sees Elora and what does he do?  Magically uncovers the tattoo (how did it get covered up in the first place?  I guess that magic was good enough for Sorsha?)  and promptly starts saying "Elora Danan" over and over, as WELL as holding a big celebration, when everyone knows that 1) keeping her identity secret was supposed to be important 2) Willow has had a vision of her death and 3) someone's been kidnapped and potentially being tortured or whatever.    Kit is annoying but her sense of urgency was welcome.

I sit on both sides of the fence with Sorsha. Yeah, she was mean to Willow, and it's not nice to marry her daughter off to someone she doesn’t know but she’s A: kind of right about Willow’s sorcerer abilities. (Elora’s birthmark must have been covered up by Raziel and Cherlindrea [I had to go to IMDb to find out how to spell their names] at the same time they put up the barrier.) and B: she at least expressed her own dislike of the arranged marriage, so she not unaware of it. I think it would’ve been better if she’d expressed this to Kit instead of unilaterally demanding it of her. You’d think Sorsha would learn from what Bavmorda used to do to her and not repeat it.

[thuganomics85]

Liked seeing more Willow this time, but I do have to admit that I thought Warwick Davis was a bit shaky here so far.  Especially in the flashbacks, where Joanne Whalley seemed to be on a whole other level.  I wonder if he's still trying to feel out this character again and not only just bring back what people remember/loved about him, but have him older as well.  I did think he fared better in his scenes with his daughter/Mims and as the disgruntled mentor-type figure with Elora.

So, not only is Elora the key to stopping the big threat (although according to Willow's visions, she might actually have to die?), she might very well be stuck in the middle of a love triangle between two princes, because Graydon clearly seems to be infatuated with her.  And that's despite being betrothed to Kit, although it's really, really doubtful she would give a damn about that.  Granted, she might have her own issues to deal with because she seems to be doing everything she can to piss Jade off.

Boorman might be a walking, talking cliche of the snarky rogue character, but the actor is selling it enough to make him my favorite character besides Jade.

Not surprised that Ralph Ineson's character got infected or something and is now working/being controlled by the bad guys.

Still seems to be a lot of set-up going on here, but I'll keep watching.

[Tachi Rocinante]

Agree with others on the pacing. 

And just because she looks dead in his vision doesn't mean she is dead . . .

[Bort]

1 hour ago, thuganomics85 said:

Liked seeing more Willow this time, but I do have to admit that I thought Warwick Davis was a bit shaky here so far.  Especially in the flashbacks, where Joanne Whalley seemed to be on a whole other level.  I wonder if he's still trying to feel out this character again and not only just bring back what people remember/loved about him, but have him older as well.  I did think he fared better in his scenes with his daughter/Mims and as the disgruntled mentor-type figure with Elora.

Yeah, I kind of noticed that too, I was kind of taken out of some of his scenes a bit because he was making a frowny face like he was trying to cry and it wasn’t happening. And yeah, Joanne Whalley is killing it, I’m glad they got her for this, I think she helps carry the show better than it would if it was just Warwick Davis by himself.

Interestingly, the actress playing Mims here is Annabelle Davis, Warwick’s real life daughter.

[Mr. Sparkle]

Oof, that was worse than the first one. Just boring and so cliché. I'll stick it out because it's only 8 episodes, but I really hope it picks up. 

[nodorothyparker]

Warwick Davis was a little better in this episode but only by degrees. A lot of his line readings still seem off, like he's struggling to figure out how to play the same character but much older and with more gravitas while still doing an awful lot of exposition dumping. I hadn't realized until I was reading some article about the series that he was only 18 years old when George Lucas tapped him for the original film because he'd liked working with him so much as one of the main ewoks in Return of the Jedi when he was just a teenager. Rewatching the movie with my kids before starting the series, I pegged him as kind of young looking to be playing a guy with two kids, but not that young. 

This episode felt oddly like both nothing happened and that they were speed reading through a lot of table setting. I'm still trying to suss out the timeline: Did that big fight between Sorsha and Willow where she basically turned him out away from Elora Danan happen before Madmartigan wandered off to wherever he went? Elora's age in those scenes would suggest that it did (And Madmartigan didn't have any opinion about that, given everything they went through?), but it makes more sense narratively if it happened afterward and a panicky Sorsha was closing ranks because he didn't return. I feel like I'm spending a ridiculous amount of effort trying to figure out how to square the backstory where everybody knew at the end of the movie that they had Elora Danan safe at Tir Asleen and then everybody ... just kind of forgot? But still talked about her in hushed tones as the promised one ... somewhere?  How long has the barrier been there? We know it didn't exist as a thing in the movie timeline, but the kids talk like it's always been there as long as they can remember. Did they just think it would keep them safe forever and thus no need to prepare Elora for anything at all ? Maybe I'm missing something.

No, Willow wasn't a great sorcerer then. His character in the film was more about potential and faking it until you make it with a couple of work arounds because he wasn't there yet. And yet the "disappearing pig trick" Sorsha was sneering about saved them all. We don't really know yet what kind of sorcerer or wizard he's become in the years since, although we're apparently supposed to assume he's developed quite a bit in that time. 

Boorman may be a retread of a character, but he's also really saving a lot of those scenes sitting around in the forest waiting for anything to happen and keeping them from feeling too much like Degrassi: Fantasy World Edition. Graydon at this point is reading like the bookish geeky guy in such epics who just happens to know or come across some vital bit of information to save the day. The actress playing Elora is doing a credible job showing first her delight and then her utter frustration as the Harry Potter of the series. i really liked Mims with what little they gave her to work with. 

[MissLucas]

I like my fantasy fluffy and fun and on paper Willow should deliver. But yeah, it's struggling on many fronts. And despite some massive exposition dumps there are still so many open questions as you all pointed out. What really doesn't help is that the characters/actors I liked best - Mims and Prince Airk - are sidelined 🤷‍♂️

[arachne]

Like many of us, I couldn't stop thinking: Those seeds better sprout before the episode ends. Chekhov's gun strikes again! 🙄

[Abra]

On 12/5/2022 at 6:58 AM, nodorothyparker said:

I hadn't realized until I was reading some article about the series that he was only 18 years old when George Lucas tapped him for the original film because he'd liked working with him so much as one of the main ewoks in Return of the Jedi when he was just a teenager.

Warwick being only 18 when the movie came out is absolutely blowing my mind.

I haven't watched the third episode yet but I feel like expectations are way, way too high for this. Please do not give me a TV show based on basically YA movie Willow that follows some kind of GoT/LoTR template. Not everything these days has to be somber or darkety dark and I am not looking for Oscar level performances in my sincere but still goofy fantasy show.

[nodorothyparker]

17 hours ago, Abra said:

Warwick being only 18 when the movie came out is absolutely blowing my mind.

Wild, isn't it? I had to look it up to fully believe it. But sure enough, Davis was born in 1970. Willow the movie came out in 1988.