Review of Earthsea

Earthsea (2004–2005)
1/10
A brief list of things that are wrong with this mini-series, Just off the top of my head.
19 December 2004
Warning: Spoilers
What an abortion.

1) Ged does not have a girlfriend. He shows off to the black-haired sallow (East Asian?) half-witch daughter of an evil sorceress who both repels and attracts him. She does not wish him well.

2) Ged's Dad is not a blustery stock comedy character. He is an ill-tempered village blacksmith who does not hesitate to beat Ged and is far more menacing than cuddly.

3) The witch of Ten Alders, Ged's first teacher is not a motherly good witch type. She is strange and fey and tries to enslave Ged with her spells.

4) The battle of Ten Alders is not fought in daylight and does not involve Ged singlehandedly tricking the Kargides into going over a cliff.

5) The title 'Magus' is never used in the books.

6) oh, yeah GED is the secret name and Sparrowhawk is the use name. Additionally before he is given the name Ged by Ogion, his name is Duny.

7) There are no girls at the school of Roke. Women become village witches or evil sorceresses (kind of a high-born witch) but never mages.

8) The Doorkeeper of the school of Roke is not an amusing trickster, but a mysterious, mild but powerful mage, one of the nine Masters of Roke.

9) Jasper is politely condescending to Ged, but it is mostly Ged's own sense of inferiority that causes him to take such extreme umbrage.

10) Vetch is not a fat stock comic sidekick character, but a stolid stout-hearted friend, occasionally light-hearted but mostly serious and with a great deal of the good sense that initially Ged lacks.

11) The Archmage Nemmerle spends all his power and his life closing the hole that Ged creates to summon Elfarran.

12) It takes Ged a whole year to recover from the attack of the shadow and he is described as seriously scarred.

13) Jasper does not become a Mage.

14) I don't even know where to begin with the dragon thing, but the dragon that Ged defeats by using his name is Yevaud, the corrupt dragon of Pendor, not Orm Embar eldest and wisest of all dragon kind. Way too much wrong here to even go into.

15) Kossil is not a young blonde junior priestess vixen, she is a heavyset middle-aged High Priestess of the Kargish God-King who believes only in power.

16) The God-King is not hunting Ged, sleeping with his priestess or making war on the Inner Islands. He doesn't even come into the story.

17) Tenar is not a junior priestess, she is Arha, the reincarnation of the High Priestess of the Nameless Ones. Technically she is the Senior Priestess of the Temple complex.

18) Thar is not some kind of beautiful, kind and wise mother superior. She is the tall, thin High Priestess of the Twin Gods who is stern but fair and not cruel to the young Arha.

19) The Nameless Ones are quite different from the shadow that comes through the hole that Ged opens. The Nameless ones are ancient, chthonian, maleficient powers bound to the place of the Stones. The shadow that comes through the hole is more like that evil that lurks in Ged's own heart given form and power.

20) The Nameless Ones do not need to be kept from escaping into the world. They just don't do that - they are bound to the tombs of Atuan. Arha's job is to propitiate the Nameless Ones with rituals and blood offerings. In the past the Nameless Ones were consulted as an oracle but not at the time of the tales.

21) Invade Roke? Please. Things that threaten Roke can't even GET there. The Roke wind blows them away.

22) The shadow does not talk to Ged and profer the usual "You can't know the POW-ah of the DARK SIDE" kind of temptations

23) Vetch is not killed by the gebbeth and brought back to life.

24) There is no 'Amulet of Elfarran' The thing that Ged and Tenar put back together is the Ring of Erreth-Akbe which when rejoined allows them to recover the lost rune of peace. This does not magically kill all monsters, make the sun shine brighter and bring forth in Earthsea goodwill to men.

25) Ged and Tenar do not kiss and become lovers. In fact in Tehanu it's mentioned that Mages are celibate and that this is currently enforced with spells which make it impossible to even think of them that way.

26) Oh, yes there's PLENTY more
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