Dear Adapters of Arthurian Legends

[sour_idealist]

Two of the following women are portrayals of Morgana, in allegedly non-updated Arthurian retellings. One of them is a space hooker. I mean that literally: she is high-class, but she is a prostitute, and she is from a speculative fiction series.

Who's the odd one out?



Still no answer? And it doesn't count if you know the fandoms. Well, if you still need help, let's try some full-body shots.



...It's still pretty hard to tell, isn't it.

Let's think about this for a second. A prostitute from a series set over a hundred years in the future looks right at home and not at all out of place next to two women allegedly from immediately post-Roman England, in a period when years only had three digits.

Hollywood? Something is very, very wrong here.

For those of you who are curious: The lady on the bottom (in the first set) and on the right (in the second set) is your odd one out: Inara Serra, from Firefly. The others are from Excalibur and BBC's Merlin respectively.

Comments

[chelonianmobile.livejournal.com]

This is why I worry my novel will never get made into a movie or TV show. Because my heroine is thirteen years old, modestly dressed, and, by TV standards, ugly.

[indemaat.livejournal.com]

TV adaptation means that the elements of the story that won't work for TV are thrown out.

[chelonianmobile.livejournal.com]

If, fate willing, my work does get made into a TV show or movie and anyone involved tries to make one of my characters dress like a hooker when I didn't say she was supposed to, I'll sue. Then again my current original work is steampunk, so they'll all be in pseudo-Victorian outfits, which aren't known for exposing excessive flesh, so I might get away without that problem. And, again, the heroine's only thirteen, which I hope is enough to keep her out of the fanservice arena.

Even if it never gets made into a movie I'd kind of like to see my work made into a low-budget-but-still-cool BBC show, a la Neverwhere. Could be fun.

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I mean, there's nothing to say Morgana didn't dress like a hooker (it's unlikely, but theoretically possible) but even hookers wore five times that much back then. I'm honestly as irritated by the ridiculousness of the outfits as the fanservice. I mean, in a different setting Morgana #2's dress would be pretty classy.

And yeah, that would be fun. For some things, TV shows make the best adaptations.

[chelonianmobile.livejournal.com]

I am including an adult male character with the intention of him providing a spot of fanservice for the female readers, but he's not a major character, he has purpose other than fanservice, and he does wear a reasonable amount of clothing throughout most of the book.

[indemaat.livejournal.com]

I had guessed it was the first woman in each series of pictures. Mainly, because her dress was more complex to make than the dresses of the other two women.

Anyway, a portrayal of historical events (such as in a play or in a painting or a film) often says more about the fashion of the day the portrayal was made than about the fashion at the time of the events it is picturing.

This summer I visited a church in Germany where they showed a set of stained glass windows that depicted the life and times of a woman that left her home, did a lot of good works and became a saint. The woman had lived in the 6th or 7th century, but the first set of windows had been made in the 13th, and as a result, she wore 13th century fashion. (As did all the saints in that church as it was 13th century.) A few years ago an artist was asked to make a new set of stained glass windows depicting the same events. And in true style of depicting someone in the fashion of his day, he gave the woman a knee length skirt.

There isn't actually a whole lot of information of what people wore in the 6th century, how they dressed. Most comes from guesses made centuries later. And according to Terry Jones, making the people of the British Middle Ages puritans is one of the things the Victorians did for us.

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

That is an excellent point! Except that in both of these adaptations, no other characters were dressed this ridiculously. Still loaded with anachronisms, but it was anachronisms like plate armor and helpful wooden signs, not modern formal gowns.

And although I didn't know about the whitewashing, I think it's fair to guess that they wouldn't have worn those outfits.

[bonnieubul.livejournal.com]

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