Or so the chap from the other day said.
(The one who suggested Jangar and Vegeta — the Dragon Ball character — share an anti-hero arc.)
Here's what he said in response to my reply agreeing with him:
yep, exactly what happened with Vegeta. Also, the complementarity between Darius and Jangar is awesome. They are great foils to each other, like Vegeta and Goku. Also, I love how you melted themes from both Lord of the rings and Game of Thrones, many of which you did better with than they did. I wish you wrote the rings of power series for them
Quite the remark, and one I gladly accept as I sit cross-legged on my thorny throne.
Tongue and cheek aside, while my ego revels in comments like this, I'll never claim The Divided Region supersedes the works of Tolkien and Martin.
Those are giants of the industry who gave the rest of us lowly scribes the chance to tell our stories, and for that, I'll always be grateful (even if a certain author has left the rest of us hanging out to dry. I swear I'm not looking at you, Martin).
That said, I've always told people who ask what TDR is about that if Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones made hot, smoking love,
This series would be their leaner, meaner child.
As for The Rings of Power, I simply cannot comment on that.
I've not watched it for several reasons; the main one being that I'm always dubious whenever iconic stories are remade or adapted into spin-off series.
There's always a risk that the storyline gets lost, characters get neutered, and the last I've heard…
The Rings of Power checked all of those boxes, sadly.
But I can assure you The Divided Region doesn't sanitise any parts of the plot nor its characters.
I write what the muse demands, and nothing more.
And given Exiled alone has clocked in a whopping 15 years of watch time on YouTube (yes, years), I'd hazard a guess that's one of the reasons listeners have loved it so much.
Perhaps you will, too.
To listen to the full, uninterrupted, ad-free version of Exiled, go here:
https://djjwatsonstore.com/products/Exiled
Have a great weekend. Stay classy.
DJJW