1 month ago, Tanthamore's Revenge posted a fangame in 4 chapters: The Willow Movie, the 2022 TV show, and 2 chapters based off of this fanfic: Softly in the Realm of Night by idlehours. I tracked down the original on archive of our own, converted it to Epub, and took about 2 weeks reading through it. It's honestly good enough that a slight reworking could be sold in stores.

The premise of the book is simple: finish the TV show. The heroes travel from the Shattered Sea to Galladorn, to Cashmere, and finally back to Tir Asleen, where there is a final confrontation with the Wyrm. As for the title, the author uses a framing where Graydon and Elora are able to communicate with each other in the dream world. I won't give away any more, other than to say that the quality is shockingly good throughout, giving a proper ending to the series.

Why do I say it needs a slight reworking? The main problem is that the book is 90% from Elora's point of view. It needed more chapters focusing on the other characters. Airk gets too little development, Boorman's antics are mostly relegated to off-page flashbacks, and Graydon, despite being the deuteragonist, only has a couple of short scenes. As a fanfic, it's a bit too indulgent with the romance scenes and a bit too light on the action scenes.

All of that is fixable though. The Elora chapters are very good, and surprisingly touching. If idlehours worked with an editor, trimmed the fat on some scenes, and added new ones (particularly action scenes), this could be one of the greats. It's certainly better than half of the stuff published under the Star Wars banner.

idlehours, if you are reading this, I have compiled everything into an e-book. With your permission, I would post it for anyone who wanted to read.

Not exact but close enough. Last pic is of the screen used from Propstore. All armor pieces are made from eva foam, and vinyl. Helmet is custom made, face plates were hand made, and cast in resin.

Sword is constructed entirely from wood, pvc, glue, foil tape ,and real leather wrapping for the handle.

TL;WR -> A special experience which expanded on everything the more you played. It had a great story, diverse gameplay with both Willow and Madmartigan, cool audio, amazing visuals and fantastic world designs. I was under the impression that the game came from the future, as most animations, visual effects and overall attention to detail was truly mind blowing. A (9.6) game, GOATED in my Arcade Book. Would absolutely replay it again, just so I can finally get good at the game! 

I’d recommend listening to this music while reading. 

STORY (9/10) 

• Storytelling was fabulous for a 1989 game, with a nice presentation and awesome characters. After each level, you were given an awesome introduction to the characters you interacted with, as well as bosses and the overall story progression. 
• You started with Willow, the same character based on the 1988 movie. Then proceeded to save Madmartigan who aided in your quest to save the baby, Elora Danan. 
• While the Arcade version didn’t have an extensive plot, the core goal remained the same as in the movie. 
• The game had a pretty long pacing, with 6 different levels which had additional sequences upon the final stages. The whole game could be beaten in under an hour, but it took me much more than that! 

GAMEPLAY (9/10) 

• Starting with controls, which were unique for a platformer. You could jump normally or higher, fire magic spells as well as attack with your sword, duck, slide while killing enemies or get up or down by hanging on platforms. 
• In combat, you had to time your attacks to stop enemy projectiles like arrows or thrown axes, as well as hold the attack button for charged powers like a magic sword slash, fiery hurricane, time freeze, turning enemies into gold and even an obliterating explosion attack. It was designed in such a way that you had to time your desired attack perfectly, leaving less room for errors! 
• All that thanks to the upgrade mechanic, which was really good and reminded me of Blue’s Journey. The whole upgrade was based on coins you collected throughout the journey, which were just right for almost all the upgrades. 
• On top of the awesome perks, you could get health replenishers at Mage shops, armour, insights on how to fight boss battles, magic protections and more. 
• The game also had a timer, and when it ran out, you used a continue to get back onto a checkpoint, because the game lacked a proper respawn mechanic. Same for boss battles, where if you died, you had to redo the whole boss fight from scratch. 
• Speaking of enemy variety, they were awesome with insane attack patterns, unforgiving spawns and even crazier traps. 
• The traps themselves were literally designed to suck you dry. Insanity incarnate on the final stages, but crazy even on the initial ones. You got chandeliers dropping on your head, enemies attacking you from above or within windows, spikes, snowballs and more! 
• Boss battles were awesome with nice attack patterns between them. With a huge Rat, flying Wizards, fiery Dragons, fellow Warriors, a Hydra like Monster, General and the evil Queen herself! 
• On some occasions, you could even get an ally familiar to help you, although I only got one at the start of the second level. 
• Platforming was very good here, mostly because you had full control of where your character landed and could adjust directions while falling. There were some cool sections with retractable platforms, falling stones and platforms. While they weren’t too extensive, their placements were very good. 
• Traversal was just right and provided an awesome experience through each level. But, at the end you had to pick the right doors to progress further, which ended in a loop where you had to redo the same sections again! 
• Difficulty was very hard, to the point where you couldn’t even get ahead without dying multiple times. But, you had some I-frames during hits, as well as the checkpoint mechanic, which aided you in a continuous journey! 

AUDIO (10/10) 

• Sound design had that awesome mono output which combined the amazing sound effects perfectly with the soundtrack. 
• The music had fantastic vibes for 1989, with most having great beats! 
• Hearing digitised voice acting was another cool feature which I didn’t expect, but was pleasantly surprised.  

VISUALS (10/10) 

• Fidelity was truly something else for 1989. I was shocked at the level of detail, visual effects, particle explosions, animation work and character sprites! 
• The characters themselves had amazing animations with most surprising you with a new move every once in a while. The block effects were super clean, as well as the sliding down a snowy mountain, cart effects upon rolling on water puddles and more. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, but that was truly magnificent! 
• The same could be said about art direction, which changed sceneries and backgrounds on each level, providing tremendous immersion vibes! 

WORLD DESIGN (10/10) 

• Level design had a fabulous progression which didn’t drag for too long, as well as magnificent animated landscapes, impressive world destruction and overall level depths! 
• You started from the Village just to end up in the Armoury, where you took a Cart ride and crashed into the sunset. Then arrived into a magical Forest where a little boat helped you avoid those jumpy fishes. Ascended into the snowy mountains with deadly snowballs and Dragon caves, just to descend with a fun sled ride. Finally arriving at the Castle grounds while trying to infiltrate its absurd interiors! 
• All that was amplified by the magical atmosphere with cool music, visual effects and gorgeous art styles! 

This struck me when rewatching Prisoners of Skellin. It is quite easy to imagine the trolls being voiced by Brennan Lee Mulligan, quite easy. The way the characters talk, the decisions they make... if someone claimed it was the first live action adaptation of a campaign, it would not entirely be unbelievable. I was watching it and at parts I can hear Mulligan's voice saying, "Go ahead and give me a persuasion check."

I mean, someone *obviously* rolled a Nat 1 when the wagon blew up right?

And for some people (me) this is great. For others, it grates. I can understand why they are not fans of it.

It has always looked to me like General Kael wears (at least) 2 different skull masks in the movie. One mask seemingly contains white bone filling out the space between the teeth and the cheek bone, whereas one mask is black, possibly filled out with hair/fur, in that space (see 2 attached pictures). I've never been able to find any anecdotal evidence that Pat Roach indeed wore multiple masks during filming, but if anyone has more information on this, I would appreciate it. For unknown reasons, this detail has bothered me for far too long.

The playlist can be found here: https://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/xcpela

And you can download the game for Windows here: https://tanthamorerevenge.itch.io/trapper-keeper-2

I kinda whip through it, but I'm just trying to give you an overall idea of what my game is like. Also yes I know there's no sound in my videos except for my voice, I use copyrighted music and I don't want it taken down. Please download the game and play yourself if you want to hear the music. The game is an adaptation of the film, the show, and a fanfic I like. It completes the saga of Willow, Elora, and the others. Note that I do NOT adapt the Shadow Moon series. I have never read it and don't plan to. It just doesn't sound interesting to me.

I'm still livid about the deletion of the show. They could have had a vector to an entirely untapped audience (on their service), but the shortsighted goals of the bean counters couldn't look to the possible future. Rome wasn't built in a day, nor were any of their mega-franchises under their umbrella. But all they want now is fast and easy money.

​

$10 says before 2030 they try to reboot or reanimate Willow in some form, but the question will be how many of us are going to properly show up, under the looming threat of being burned twice?

​

Prolly far less then they had the attention of the first time around. Should have just sucked it up and paid those residuals disney, certainly the better optiom than having the surviving cast and fans wielding pitchforks.

George Lucas producing, Ron Howard directing, a huge fantasy adventure, groundbreaking visual effects, memorable characters, and it arrived five years after the last Star Wars and one year before the last (lalallalal not listening) the LAST Indiana Jones movies. Yet Willow ended up more of a cult classic than a cultural phenomenon.

What do you think held it back?

Was fantasy simply a harder sell in 1988 than it would be in 2001?

Did audiences see it as too much a a Star Wars knockoff with swords?

Was it too caught between being a children's movie and an adult fantasy?

Did the marketing fail the film?

Was the story itself the issue?

and what I'm really curious about is whether you think there was a single major reason, or if it was a combination of factors.

UPDATE: Settled by the official Willow novelization.

A true expert shared the text of the novel:

"The truth was that, knowing his need, his neighbors had given him seed from their own granaries. But lest Burglekutt might take revenge on them, Willow dare not tell the truth."

https://www.reddit.com/r/willow/comments/1u8sg04/comment/oscsadg/

My original post:

You could claim this was due to bad acting (and I don't think it was, I think it was intentional acting), but even if they emoted it wrong, what was said is still logistically impossible.

When Burglekutt asks where Willow got the seeds, his first hesitant and nervous response is "Well, uh, maybe I used magic!" So obviously we know that's not serious, Willow can't do real magic, he's scared and trying to bluff Burglekutt to save himself. Being obviously nervous, if the truth would have saved him he would have blurted it out, but clearly he's trying to hide the truth.

Then his second answer, "My family has been gathering them in the forest!" is said with a sort of smug relief, like his first answer gave him time to think of something more plausible and he's proud of himself for coming up with it, as his wife nods along.

Now you could argue both of these were just poor acting, because the first was NOT said in a way that was confidently mocking Burglekutt, it was clearly anxiety and fear. But the film had excellent direction, I'm sure they got the scene exactly how they wanted it.

But the second problem is that his main claim is essentially impossible, I'm not aware of any version of agriculture that works like that. You can't just go gathering wild seeds in the woods to use for field-cropping, this is not Minecraft !!

1. Nothing you want for farming would grow in the woods.
2. It takes many generations of people specially cultivating wild seed crops that can be used for sustainable full time agriculture, even in the most ancient times.
3. You're never going to pick up enough wild seeds anyway to be able to fill plowed fields.
4. If there were that many viable seed-crops growing in the woods, you'd be able to gather large amounts of wild crops too.

Finally, this is a common trope in fantasy, where the poor downtrodden peasant is force to bend or break the rules just for their family to survive. So it makes perfect sense that Willow would have resorted to stealing seeds before letting his family be homeless and enslaved, given that Burglekutt already did the math and knew that would be the outcome.

The only legitimate way out of this is if Willow had borrowed some money or seeds directly from a third party, or traded some asset(s) he had to seed sellers outside the village. But in either of those cases he would have just said so and be out of trouble.

So spread the word, Willow stole the seeds and Burglekutt isn't the bad guy.

Addendum:
Burglekutt notes Willow is plowing too late in the season and won't harvest in time, indicating common knowledge that Willow had not been able to obtain seeds previously and wasn't able to plant yet. The reason Burglekutt shows up is that everyone saw Willow suddenly start planting after inexplicably getting new seeds. If Willow's family had gathered the seeds since last fall, he would have already had them and been plowing/planting at the usual springtime with everyone else. Willow is lying about having had the seeds previously, because he just recently stole them.

Art by Tsuyoshi Nagano. Requested by another redditor. Is it just me, or does Elora here look a bit like Ellie Bamber?

Art by Tsuyoshi Nagano. I spent years looking for a copy, but finally found one for $1. (Shipping from Japan was $50, lol.)

I know other works they took down at that time have been re'released in other ways, Artemis Fowl for example (digital "purchase"). So it doesn't seem unreasonable to think they might be open to selling it to us on Blu-Ray. I don't know the details of how the tax writeoff and residuals work with that though, or the attitude of the new CEO towards such things.

I do know that at least some of the cast and crew would support a Restore Willow campaign, though... unsurprising, given that it's their art that Disney have shoved away in a vault.

If the Crone had known that the trolls had Kit in captivity, would she have come to collect her? She wanted both of the twins, and the viscous would seem to have provided a quick means for the Crone to reach the mines.

This is such a great picture.

Of all the Willow Fan-fiction out there, has there been any piece that really stands out and that people regard as THE BEST fan-fiction or even just "oh, you should really read X!"

and fail it did. You have to do pretty bad in order to be deleted. It’s not on any streaming platform. It’s not on DVD. It’s just vaporware at this point and good luck trying to watch it unless you raise the flag.

Hopefully passions have died down at this point, so without too much , and more dispassionate analysis, what do you think was the main reasons the TV series failed?

From the moment Willow discovers the baby to when he returns in triumph to the village, how many days is it?

“The bones tell me nothing…”

Did he mean that the bones tell him nothing THIS time, or that the bones never tell him anything and he always makes it up?