Borealis wrote:The third episode of ToH came out today, and since I haven't seen any threads about it yet, thought I'd be the first.
First, I'll get my criticisms out of the way.
1. I've read OBS more than a few times and I still found this issue hard to follow. I can't imagine how someone who's never read the books will keep up with the story.
2. Just a niggle and discussed previously, the design of a fleet pinnace and an aircar. They look almost identical.
3. The design of the Sirius. Yes, the visual effect of having hot nodes is good, and it definitely looked like a cargo vessel with the containers, but where were the impeller bands?
4. Honor's and McKeon's relationship still doesn't click. It's like watching Anakin and Padme in the Star Wars movies, very stilted. Yes, Honor's and Alistair's relationship at the time was stilted but it still felt 'off'. Probably because there didn't seem much difference after they double-teamed Klaus and reconciled.
5. The Basilisk Terminus. Enough said.
6. Klaus Hauptmann. He didn't have the 'square face and powerful jaw with white sideburns'. He also didn't come across as arrogant and petty.
Now for the kudos.
1. How the writer conveyed the first time Scotty fired a weapon that killed the target. Definitely a sense of feeling there.
2. The Medusa Surface NPA headquarters. My first though was 'Wow!'. One of the best pieces of art in the series so far.
3. The explanation of what Haven's plan was. It was concise and made sense in just a little exposition. One of the few sections of this issue that wasn't confusing.
All in all, I've very much enjoyed the series so far and look forward to the rest.
On a side note, I'm curious if Top Cow or Evergreen have anything in the way of sales figures to provide an idea of popularity...
I don't have any figures I can give you, but I agree with your analysis of the real strengths of the issue.
I actually think that in some ways ---
some ways --- people who read the book are a little . . . handicapped when it comes to understanding the story being told in the comic books. What I mean by that is Honorverse fans know the ends and outs of the
Basilisk Station thoroughly. They are aware of all of the intricacies of the plot, and they are aware of a lot of background information – I'm not talking just about tech goodies here, but about the interaction of the characters — that there simply isn't time and space to put into a graphic adaptation. There's more texture to the novel because it's longer, because I was able to spend more time on its facets and aspects in a way that Matt and the crew at Top Cow really can't.
I've used the example of the second Terminator movie at conventions to talk about how bits and pieces can be taken out of a story without destroying it
as a story. It can frequently
shift or change a story — sometimes into something completely different — but it can also be a matter of emphasis. And sometimes, whether you want to take something out or not, you simply don't have a choice. You run out of minutes for a movie, or out of panels for a comic book.
The example from Terminator 2 is the scene in the service station after John and the Terminator have busted Sarah out of the mental hospital. In the movie as it originally aired, we see John asking the Terminator if there is not a way he can learn to be "less dorky," and the Terminator tells him that he has a DIP switch which can be set in order to allow him to learn to become more human. The way that the movie was edited, the viewer is left with the assumption/impression that the DIP switch was reset
before the Terminator was sent back. In the original screenplay and script, Sarah and John open the back of his skull and remove the chip
in order to reset switch. But as soon as the chip is out — and the Terminator goes off-line — Sarah tries to smash the chip. She's stopped only because John puts his hand out, covering it as she brings the hammer down, and she manages to divert the blow before smashing his hand, instead. "What do you think you're doing? We
need him!" John says, and his mother replies "You don't understand! One of these things killed your father! We can't
trust it!"
John, of course, realizes they can't survive without it, and after a bit of back and forth he takes his hand away and says, in effect, "If I'm this military genius who's supposed to save the entire human race, then I think it's about time my own mom started listening to me! Do what you want."
Sarah tries another two or three times to crush the chip, but inside she knows John is right. So the switch is reset and the chip is reinstalled, and that's a subtext for everything else that happens in the rest of the movie. But by deleting the scene in the editing process, they were able to save some of the time they
had to save to get the original cinematic release down to a manageable length. Now if it had been left in, then the dynamic of the characters — the way that from that moment on
John becomes the true leader and the way the Terminator begins growing and changing from that point on — would be very different and, in my own opinion, stronger. But the story worked for all of those who didn't know that scene had ever been there just the way it was. You could argue, in some ways, that the move was "dumbed down" by excising the scene and the events it portrayed. But you can also argue that the guys who watched the movie understood the story
that they actually saw just as well as they would have understood the original story if the scene had been left in.
I think Tales of Honor has a little bit of the same quality. Those of us who know the complete original story feel like important pieces are being left out or de-emphasized, and they quite possibly are. But the fact that we're trying to compensate for their absence may well mean that we are seeing holes that people coming to the story for the first time
won't see.
It's that whole collaboration/condensation thing again. It's such a different medium from the novels that it really does have to be its own subtly (or in some ways not so subtly) different story simply because the storytelling constraints are so different.
As for the relationship between Alastair and Honor, you're absolutely right that it's critical to the story and to the future of their relationship. I'm not totally satisfied with it myself, but I also don't see any way that Matt could have fully replicated the events and the personal tensions which went into that relationship in the novels in a comic book format. I think he's hit pretty darned close to it, and the problem with the places where I'd love to tweak it is that I'd end up unbalancing it in those spots, which would require additional tweaks, which would create additional imbalances, which would require more tweaks, which would . . . . Well, I think you can see where this would be headed.
And, again,
we know all of that subtext is there. We know all of the aspects of their relationship and how it provides the foundation for what's probably Honor's most important single friendship (with the possible exception of her friendship with Mike Henke). But the person coming to the novels through the medium of the comic books doesn't really need
all of that background, doesn't really need to understand it
perfectly, to see how vital it becomes to her in the future course of the story.
The truth is that so far, in my opinion, this is been a very, very strong effort on Top Cow and Evergreen's part. They are swinging hard at the task of trying to open a very large, very complex literary universe through the limited bandwidth window of the comics — and the game — and so far, I think they're doing a really good job of it.
By the way, if you haven't seen the trailer for the comics, go take a look!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqxiKPJZLlE
but yes... 
umm in that case... Moving right along