levzloi
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Posts posted by levzloi
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8 hours ago, technoblue said:
I was happy with the first season. I’ve been reading the Ars Technica episode commentary as well. The writers who put it together are avid WoT book fans (something I can’t claim). I have observed that Amazon’s adaptation is controversial if you are coming from that side of it. I think I lucked out having fewer expectations on this. I was just keen to see more high fantasy on the small screen. It is curious, though, reading about how much was changed.
I'm not going to tell you what you can and can't like, I'm sure it's much easier to enjoy as a new viewer not attached to the books, but the story and characters have been changed significantly. Existing story-lines and character development that they could have used on the Emonds Field five was sacrificed for new material that largely didn't make any sense or difference in the long run.
First season spoiler
SpoilerRand is really the main character in the first book although each of the five have VERY important roles to play, and great storylines down the road. They really sacrificed his development as a character and showing the true power and danger of the dragon reborn in the name of equity and mystery (the women were never possible dragons, only the three boys).
I personally feel the writing is the biggest issue, they seem to be going for the JJ Abrams "who cares if it makes sense, it'll look cool" style. Which is really geared to piss off detail oriented super fans like me, just as it already has in Star Trek and Star Wars. They have already casually done many things involving the one power that are explicitly impossible in the books, simply because that's the scene that they want on screen. As big as the book series is, and as important as the one power is to it's story progression, I can't see how this attitude of making up the rules as they go along isn't going to come back and bite them. They seem hell bent on rewriting it as they believe it should have been rather than actually adapting what is already on the pages. Anyway, just my two cents.
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On 12/2/2021 at 10:13 PM, levzloi said:
I'm going to be honest, I think you're tilting at windmills here. I think I know where you're coming from, everything put out in all forms of media over the last 20 years has increasingly been tailored to a particular political agenda that I largely disagree with. That being said (again don't want to get into politics here), I think you've formed an opinion on over 14000 pages of content by watching less than 5 minutes of a poorly edited episode of a made for TV adaptation. But that is completely your right, as is my God given right as a geek to tell you how wrong you are.
@sqidd, I know you've deleted your posts on this, but I felt I needed to offer somewhat of an apology. Although I still feel you jumped to conclusions on a very small sample size of 5 minutes of the first episode... and although I would continue to defend Robert Jordan's work in the Wheel of Time... you were absolutely right about the direction Rafe Judkins (the show-runner) was taking the Amazon adaptation of the Wheel of Time. He clearly wanted to insert his world view into Robert Jordan's world, and I can't emphasize enough how disappointed I am in the extremely heavy handed adaption we ended up with. So @sqidd you were right.
On 12/2/2021 at 10:15 AM, levzloi said:I'm not going to say that the Showrunners won't take it that direction, they could, given today's society they are very likely to lean that direction. And I don't want to get this thread shut down for going political, so I'm not going to talk about that more. However the book the first season is based on, was written over 30 years ago, by a man, a Vietnam war vet, and I can tell you it's anything but sexist towards men. Simply because racism is portrayed in a work, doesn't make that work racist, by the same measure, simply because sexism is portrayed in a work, doesn't mean that work is sexist.
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5 hours ago, sqidd said:
It's interesting to see how many people defend sexism (according to the "new rules") as long as it's pointed in a "approved" direction. I.E. men.
The sexism in the show doesn't bother me. The hypocrisy does. And because of the spotlight the show shins on that hypocrisy, I can't enjoy it.
I'm going to be honest, I think you're tilting at windmills here. I think I know where you're coming from, everything put out in all forms of media over the last 20 years has increasingly been tailored to a particular political agenda that I largely disagree with. That being said (again don't want to get into politics here), I think you've formed an opinion on over 14000 pages of content by watching less than 5 minutes of a poorly edited episode of a made for TV adaptation. But that is completely your right, as is my God given right as a geek to tell you how wrong you are.
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1 hour ago, Dynaman said:
as for in-universe consistency. The books managed to do so though there is an obvious bit where it was stretched out from a single book(*) to a trilogy and then to the 15 or so it ended up being.
(*) - It has an obvious spot where the first book was left with a hook to continue it if it sold well enough.
That's one place I will give them pretty extreme latitude, the ending of EOTW is really confusing. Several things were ret-coned out of the first book specifically, Moiraine's staff for instance. Honestly I'm not a big fan of the 2nd book, hopefully they will curtail almost all of the wandering around and just stick to the main plot points. I feel the series starts to find it's way in the 3rd book, Mat finally becomes an interesting character, and then Jordan hits it out of the park for the next three books, before the plot bloat begins to set in during the next four books, and finally he turned it around in 11 and Brandon Sanderson was the least bad choice to bring it home in 12-14.
1 hour ago, technoblue said:The test will be to see if the series can create consistency within its universe. That's what matters to me.
Obviously there are massive amounts of background material, secondary characters, bloat and story lines that can be cut re-arranged or merged without too much regret. My biggest issue is that the show-runners/Amazon/writers seem to be going with a little to much JJ Abrams "who cares if it makes sense, It looks cool!" I hated the first episode, but I understand how constrained they were by time and getting out of the two rivers, and I have to admit that their ham-handed use of tropes is useful for establishing characters and attitudes without to much exposition. I genuinely enjoyed 2-4 and I'm excited to see 5 tonight, so don't think they've completely botched it, however, the attention to detail and in world rules seems to be going by the wayside in favor of what they must feel is dramatic on screen and very hand-wavy with the rules. I think this season is just going to be like that, and I hope it's just studio interference that may be lessened in future seasons as the show-runners and producers who know the story might gain more power. But time will tell.
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11 minutes ago, sqidd said:
The show could have easily been written to where it wasn't men vs women. Any number of defining factors could have been used. The story was birthed as a sexist message.
My personal feeling is that the point of the philosophy behind the books is that men and women are naturally different, complementary, and unequal (because who is equal?) There are plenty of reasons not to like any given series, and heaven knows they did a terrible job building the worlds foundation in that first episode (due largely to studio interference reportedly) but in my opinion you are reading way to much into the motivations behind a great sci fi/fantasy question. What if all the male magic users went insane and the women had to hunt them down?
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41 minutes ago, sqidd said:
So they wrote a story to support/give an excuse to a sexist agenda. Doesn't change what it is.
I'm not going to say that the Showrunners won't take it that direction, they could, given today's society they are very likely to lean that direction. And I don't want to get this thread shut down for going political, so I'm not going to talk about that more. However the book the first season is based on, was written over 30 years ago, by a man, a Vietnam war vet, and I can tell you it's anything but sexist towards men. Simply because racism is portrayed in a work, doesn't make that work racist, by the same measure, simply because sexism is portrayed in a work, doesn't mean that work is sexist.
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3 hours ago, sqidd said:
I didn't make it 5min. The anti male sexist messaging was too grating. My wife felt the same.
SpoilerAssuming they are following the structure of the books, and the nature of the world, it's really more of a deconstruction of imbalance and female-centric power. The important nature of yin and yang, male and female, and the inherent differences and even inequalities in the genders. The first episode was not good, it was rushed, poorly edited and the cold open ,which nobody likes, was completely irrelevant for the story,. As a lover of the books, I'm still upset at some of the changes they have made, but it does get significantly better in episodes 2-4. The red Aes Sedai (chanelers or magic users) you meet in that horrible cold open have the job of hunting down all male chanelers (magic users) who without exception will go insane and become extraordinarily dangerous because the male part of the "One Power" has been corrupted by the dark one. As a result most red sisters are pretty blatantly sexist with a lot of them just hating men. That is not the attitude of all women, or even all female magic users. As the series progresses, we see that women are just as capable of screwing up the world as the men. In other words, I'd give it more than a 5 min chance, it's a great story.
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52 minutes ago, Sandman said:
So i recently moved. So i had to pack up all my toys. I was packing my sentinel eta legioss. I forgot to lower that tail fins so when i put the plastic cover over top, the tail fin snapped off. I figured it would just snap back in but nope it's an actual break. Anyone know how i can repair this or if it is possible to repair?
Post lots of detailed pictures for a helpful response.
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4 hours ago, blackconvoy_D01 said:
I'm a player, lol!
Do not fall into the trap of "GOTTA HAVE IT NOW". I made sooooo many poor purchases that I regret in my first 6 months collecting. Be patient, it will come up for sale somewhere and at a reasonable rate.
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@shindrome smooth transaction and easy to work with.
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1 hour ago, Arthurius said:
So can these Riobot cycles actually transform back and forth without issues?
I wouldnt be getting two, and although i might not have cared as much to transform the previous riders into armored mode, i do very much love the look of the armored mode for Houquet. I would probably still very much just like the bike and figure itself though.
5 minutes ago, Mog said:Short answer: Yes, but there are things to be cautious about.
Some parts do have a tendency to pop off. But most are ball-and-socket joints, so it’s just a matter of popping them back into place.
Getting the hip armor to separate from the bike (or pushed back into the bike) can be a scary moment, but there’s a tip probably about 100 to 200 pages back in this thread about how to properly do it.
And unfortunately, there have been multiple reported incidents, where the joint that connects the rib plating(?) (best way I can describe it) has cracked or broke. Thankfully haven’t had it happen to any of mine yet, but it is another area to be careful with.
What he said. The engineering on these things is amazing, truly incredible. However that means there is lots that can go wrong. I'd personally decide which mode and pose you want to display it in, and then pose it and leave it. Constant transforming back and forth is just asking for component failure.
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8 hours ago, Kyp Durron said:
Oh no, not until they finally release my shadow fighter! 😛
If it's just a new head, I'm not sure how interested I might be. if its actually a redesign and re-imagining of the shadow fighter or drone with an updated sculpt, that might be interesting.
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1 minute ago, no3Ljm said:
Order placed as well.
Here are the stores that's accepting preorders for Fuke:
https://www.amiami.com/eng/detail?gcode=FIGURE-133380
https://www.hlj.com/1-12-scale-riobot-genesis-climber-mospeada-vr-038l-fuke-type-bartley-set88053
https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/NEOGDS-508303
Amazon, bit pricey, but the shipping is cheap.
https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/B09KN2YXJ5/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=RIOBOT+VR-038L&qid=1636344587&sr=8-1
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2 hours ago, seti88 said:
I doubt sentinel would tweak it much...whole thing looks quite finished?
otherwise...*Looks for ...how to perform plastic surgery on toy figure's... thread.*
I doubt it will change, like it or not it is consistent with the art design on the previous three.
That being said this looks amazing!
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8 minutes ago, f-valk said:
Scalpers prosper because of dummies like me. I may be looking for the cheapest deal, but I am still paying scalper prices. Once you fall (back) into that collecting rabbit hole...
Getting Yamato 1/48s was less cutthroat on secondary market even when it was several years after release. Vendors based out of HK would still post as auctions on evilbay. Shame that Yamato company went under.
The only Bandai dxs listed on eBay i see by Japan based vendors are mostly buy it now but with head scratching mark ups.
I never understood why they post listings at double msrp. No one would buy them, so why list at that price.
Make more valks available, or do re runs please, Bandai.
Buy on Yahoo Japan through a proxy and ship surface. Automatically going to save you $50-100.
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7 hours ago, Podtastic said:
Now that is a useful post. What were the Sardaukar armour/uniforms/weapons like?
https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/Sardaukar?file=Sardaukar_fighting_stance.jpg
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22 hours ago, sqidd said:
I think the real problem with Momoa was that he was being, himself. The guy has a ton of charisma, and most of the things he acts in plays to that, The problem is he doesn't really act. He plays slightly different versions of himself. It makes it hard for him to fit into a movie like this. He's kind of like The Rock in this way. Fun to watch when he's doing "Rock Stuff". But he isn't going to fit into something "cerebral".
I don't want to take anything away from either of them. I've met The Rock (through a friend who worked on the Fast And Furious cars) and the guy absolutely oozes charisma and it super fun to be around. From what I hear Momoa is the same way.
I think it would be very interesting to see him play the other iterations of Duncan, such as the Mentat from Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. Maybe he has the chops for it, maybe not, it would be interesting to see.
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25 minutes ago, Kanedas Bike said:
^Also this, but I didn't watch any of the made for TV stuff, just this and the different versions of the '84 movie, which I also enjoyed.
-b.
The mini series was good, much deeper into the story than Lynch's version, or Villeneuve's Dune. It did have generally very good performances from the leads, but very much leaned into camp with the production design, and it simple didn't have the budget to really show the world of Dune. That is perhaps Villeneuve's Dune strongest aspect, it shows the world magnificently, and also does a very good job of showing rather than telling (which was the most glaring problem with Lynch's telling rather than showing). However, I agree that it could use a bit more telling. It's greatest weakness is that it simply ends halfway through the second act. It's not as bad as just abruptly fading to credits at a random scene, but I still don't feel it's as natural or as solid an ending as The Fellowship of the Rings. Of course FOTR was already cut out of LOTR as the first of three books, not just one book, so it's not a completely fair comparison.
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12 minutes ago, peter said:
What's the consensus, worth watching in theatre? I hear the visuals are incredible, but are they enough to get me off my lazy butt and into a theatre.
I'm familiar with the background story, watched the 84 version numerous times, will it just piss me off when they cut it off and make me wait for part 2?
Thinking about just skipping it in theatres and watching them both back to back when part 2 is available to stream.
ABSOLUTELY!! Especially if you can in IMAX. It's not a perfect adaptation, but in my opinion it's by far the best one yet.
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14 minutes ago, Angesdad said:
Just what I needed to hear from someone who's attempted it. Thanks @levzloi, my biggest concern was exactly that which is to disassemble without causing damage but I guess it'll be extremely difficult as freezing heating prying dipping biting with teeth will have to be involved. Only if these parts weren't superglued..
No problem, here's the project thread, and I should have said "almost certainly" rather than "probably".
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8 hours ago, Perxion said:
Hi guys,
Since nothing is happening and Wonderfest is a bit short, I made this image.
I gathered some 3D models that I had scattered around and this tribute to the iconic image of the Legioss + Tread came out.
Enjoy it!
Greetings.
Obviously very cool and a ton of work. Still, made me think of this.
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2 minutes ago, Angesdad said:
Hello, has anyone had balls to disassemble a DX 1J head visor because you had to fix it, repaint it, etc? - Just that my 1J copy has a rather bad paint job & finish on the clear green part that I would like to isolate and refinish the clear green. I tried polishing it with Tamiya polish but can't get rid of dust nibs. I've done a 1S as a big piece of fiber was stuck on clear green part and painted over. Yup, my OCD is kicking in.
Seriously recommend against it, I did a Yamato 1J head for the total repaint in my profile, trying to pry apart only deformed the plastic, and in order to get the parts to separate I had to soak it in goo gone overnight, which destroyed the paint and I'm assuming would remove the tampo. In other words, unless you're doing a complete custom you're probably only going to make it worse.
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Just saw it in IMAX, really enjoyed it. I think Hanz Zimmer might have been trying to give Tenet a run for it's money in the volume over dialogue department, and they really allowed most scenes to develop and breath (maybe just a tad to much). Still a really good adaptation, I'll plan on seeing it again in IMAX. I really hope they make the second.
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1 minute ago, lavinrac said:
Update.. I dragged it out of storage.. The hands do all have an insert piece. but they are slightly different sizes. If you don't mind a little shimming with some plastic sheet styrene sheets, (pla plate for gundam'ers out there) and you dont mind using one of your other many valk hands as a donor... this might be the best way to get a truly 'sturdy' solution. see pic...
I'd second this, soak that movie hand in googone for a day or so, pull it apart, and dremmel out an area on the TV hand to fit the Movie hand block, then glue it using plastic welding superglue. Alternately you could try as has been suggested before, and us a VERY small screw to remove the ball from the arm socket, then use plastic welding superglue to glue the ball back on the broken hand, once it's thoroughly set, drill a VERY small hole through the ball into the hand and place a screw or rod joining the two pieces.
[Amazon] The Wheel of Time
in Anime or Science Fiction
Posted · Edited by levzloi
Spoilers on the ending of the finale and loooong (I took way longer on this than i should have, but I guess I've still got a lot to unpack about this series.).
Yeah, from what I've read of non-readers reactions, they've generally varied between your reaction, "It's obviously Rand, otherwise they wouldn't have been trying so hard to avoid him and focus on the others", and "it can't be Rand, he's so boring". I think in either case the tradeoff in character development was not worth it. You can see from the chart below, that Rand it far and away the main character of the entire Wheel of Time, and that any efforts by Rafe to force other characters to the front is going to require them to make up content, which hasn't exactly gone well for them so far.
So I'm just going explain the main difference between the book ending and the show ending not all of it, because it's Very different.
Lord Aglemar and his men traveled to Tarwin's gap to meet an army of Trollocs they knew were coming (the Sheinarians have an extremely deep respect for Aes Saidai by the way, his angry reaction to Moiraine was needless show drama as was Moiraines condescending remarks to his sister, Aes Saidai would consider it extremely rude to mention someones lack of strength like that). Moirain refused to help them because she and her crew had to get to the eye of the world to protect it, not "defeat the dark one". The Eye of the World was a reservoir of pure uncorrupted Saidin, the male half of the one power. It was Rand reflexively drawing on this massive source of power that not only defeated the "Dark One", but also turned back the Trolloc army at Tarwin's gap saving Lord Aglemar and the majority of his forces from being wiped out.
So instead of Rand saving everybody basically accidentally in a way that can't be repeated (he remembers very little of the experience, not how he did it, and the eye of the world is depleted). We have one woman tower trained but not strong enough to be Aes Saidai using two likely weak channelers, and two incredibly powerful but equally untrained channelers to absolutely wipe out the Trolloc army, and burn out and kill all but Egwene who then heals (healing is not one of Egwene's strengths) Nyneeve of being mostly if not all dead. There are many problems from a book readers perspective.
1 While linking is a thing, and it does result in one individual being able to channel much more than they can on their own, the sisters linked to the head of the circle are protected, and although they can be used to the point of exhaustion and pass out, they can not be burned out in the circle, only the one leading the circle can do that to themselves. But who cares, It looks cool!
2 If five random women had enough power to nuke a whole army of Trollocs, why haven't all 1000 or so Aes Saidai gathered in circles and just gone and nuked the blight and all the Dark Ones forces? Their oaths do not prevent them from using the one power against shadowspawn and Dark friends. But who care's, it looked cool.
5 You can't heal death, and you can't heal burnout/stilling. But who care's, it looked cool.....
4 So the Dragon reborn, the most powerful and terrifying channeler who has ever lived, has done nothing with the one power except break down a door, push a trolloc off a cliff, and disintegrate a bad guy that apparently saw getting disintegrated as a win. But who care's, it looked cool?
Now to be fair, the first book's ending is almost universally considered confusing, and doesn't really work with the rest of the series. So this is one area that the writers had a lot of latitude to come up with something different and better. They did not.
Spoilers on the nature of the One Power
Additionally the writers have gone out of their way to change or avoid talking about the nature of gender and the one power. This is one of the fundamental building blocks of Robert Jordan's universe, and Rafe feels it's extremely problematic to say that men are men, and women are women, and generally speaking they are different, complementary, and unequal in many ways. In the books the one power is split in two equal parts, Saidin(Male) and Saidar(female), essentially Yin and Yang. Women are only able to touch and use Saidar, and men are only able to touch and use Saidin. Each are very different in nature and handled very differently. Saidar(female) must be surrendered too and then guided, to fight it would be to be destroyed. Saidin(male) must be constantly fought, to surrender to it would be to be destroyed.
They are fundamentally different, men cannot see women's weaves, and women cannot see men's weaves. And in fact they are so different that neither gender can teach the other how to channel. Unfortunately the male half of the power was corrupted at the end of the Age of Legends, and any man who touches Saidin will be slowly driven insane and become a threat to the world.
That is why men who channel are hunted down and gentled, not because they are men touching the one power and men are cursed, but because the male half of the power is corrupted and that is all they have access to. THAT is why the Dragon Reborn is so terrifying, not because he will save the world or destroy it, but because he is prophesied to save the world AND destroy it.
Now, you may agree with Rafe that making women and men fundamentally different is problematic, but that is how Robert Jordan wrote it. He meant it as a critic on gender relations and balance, and how the greatest feats of humanity where achieved when when men and women worked together, and that is tied to the very core of the story in every book. Rafe and Co are now going to spend the rest of their time writing their way around this fundamental building block, and I think they have demonstrated that they don't have the chops for it.
Spoilers on the Age of Legends
The finale's cold open showed the Age of Legends near it's end, however in the books at this point, the war against the shadow had been ongoing for hundreds of years, although highly advanced it was no longer utopia. Book fans were pretty pissed off by the portrayal of Lews Therin Telemon, the OG Dragon (NOT dragon reborn) in this scene.
In the books, He took 99 other male channelers with him and sealed the Dark One in his prison. The female Aes Saidai of the time refused to help not because they knew what would happen as a result, but because they thought their own plan of using two massively powerful one power super-weapons, one male and one female, to shield the dark ones prison was the way to go. Unfortunately the super-weapons had been captured and recapturing them was extremely problematic. Additionally it was only a matter of time before the Dark One's forces figured out how to use them and completely destroy the forces of light.
So the Dragon (who was in fact the supreme leader, not the woman shown in the show) acted out of calculated desperation, not male arrogance and hubris. As a result of this, the Dark One was successfully sealed in his prison along with the forsaken (extremely powerful male and female channelers that followed the Dark One for various reasons).
Unfortunately also as a result Saidin was corrupted by the Dark One when he was able to touch it through Lews Therin Telemon and the 99 companions. This resulted in all of these incredibly powerful channelers and in fact all men who could channel going insane and tearing the world to pieces over the next several hundred years, bringing about the end of the age of legends, and bringing on a new dark age that people have been trying to crawl out of for the last 3000 years. So they took this opportunity to show an extremely complicated and tragic situation, and turned it into "men are dumb and they always screw everything up, good thing women are here to pick up the pieces." Sigh.....
Spoilers on how they could have handled a certain actor's absence
I thought this was handled very clumsily. Obviously I'm willing to cut them some slack, because they were thrown a curve ball by Barney Harris not returning after COVID. And if this were the only writing failure, I'd be much more forgiving. However, by either re-shooting or reediting with different dialogue just two scenes (the outside the waygate scene, and the scene on the balcony when Rand thanks Moiraine for healing Mat) they could have adjusted it to Mat is only partially healed, he must remain in Tar Valon to be attended to and fully healed by the Aes Saidai. So he has to stay behind. Then next time we see him, the looks different as a side effect of the healing process. Boom awkward story beats defeated, and ironically much closer to the books.