lordyam Conan live action tv series
May 10, 2019 17:04:18 GMT -5
Post by lordyam on May 10, 2019 17:04:18 GMT -5
Since my last thread got positive response I'll try a final attempt at a revision.
During my last thread I realized a few things. One, Conan stories can kind of repeat themselves. As short stories that's perfectly fine but in a live action tv show there needs to be some degree of variety and consistency. As such I AM going to change a few stories if only for the sake of adaptability. I understand that this isn't necessarily popular (god knows a lot of DeCamp's changes weren't needed) but telling stories in mediums is a tricky thing. Certainly if one were making an hour of the dragon game you'd want a big final boss fight rather than a conversation followed by the side character wasting him. It's also important to realize that while people on tumblr can be annoying some of the points (that in a modern day setting certain elements of the old tales would get the show writers crucified and the show cancelled) are also legitimate. My goal is to find a balance between the badassedness of Howard's original tales while still making it possible for a modern audience to enjoy. Please let me know if I succeed or not.
Season 1: This would be an adaptation of the Thief stories; however Conan's backstory wouldn't be fully revealed until the finale episode Homecoming. There are hints throughout the story (Conan references Venarium when talking to Nestor, and we get the hint that SOMETHING wild and epic went down there). With the Frost Giant's daughter there's one tricky element; while it is largely clear that Atali's putting Supernatural Mojo on Conan audiences can be incredibly stupid and they might not get it. Also, in the times of me too (when a LOT Of people in the showbizz industry have been outed as harrassers at best or rapists at worst) that might obscure the point. It's unfair but it is a legitimate concern.
So without further ado, lets begin.
Feature length pilot: This would borrow a few elements of the Snow Devil by Steve Block (The reason Conan goes north is to honor a debt that the aesir asked of them, the idea of a big badass warchief threatening everyone.) I'd also have the frost giant's daughter thrown in but with a twist. Atali, Ymir and all the other members of his brood are concerned that Bolverk is leading the Vanir down a path of self destruction. They've noticed Conan and think he may be a champion that they can use to take Bolverk down. As such Atali leads him through the wastes.....but then we get a change. Atali explains what's going down to Conan and explains that while normally she would kill him, that's not going to happen. She heals him to full strength and then sicks her brothers on him; if he lives he's worthy to take Bolverk. If not, oh well we can always get a new champion. Conan lives and Atali "rewards" Conan. She also leaves a piece of her cloth behind (and confirms that no Bolverk is NOT Ymir's son). Conan uses both of these to unnerve Bolverk in their final fight and is able to kill him. He decides to head east into Hyperborea.
(before I continue YES I know the change is controversial. But with Me Too going around even if you were to rightfully point out the whole badger game/supernatural mojo audiences might dismiss it as the excuses of sexist old men, and since is the pilot you kinda wanna start off on the right foot.)
Season 1:
Episode 1: Conan is captured by a slave raid in Hyperborea and thrown into a prison. He meets a few other prisoner and befriends them (one of them is a Hyrkanian, who teaches Conan some Zamorian and Hyrkanian; another is a Nemedian adventurer who teaches Conan Nemedian and a few other smatterings of language.) Eventually they do a jailbreak, but most of the prisoners die (including the Nemedian, who asks Conan to return a ring he had stolen from his father in Numalia.) Conan and the Hyrkanian are the only ones who escape, and they both go their separate ways. Conan heads to Numalia and returns the ring, deciding to stick around.
Episode 2: God in the Bowl: A feature length adaptation of god in the bowl (about an hour long). The only real change would be to have an extended fight sequence with the beast. Through camerawork we only see the beast AFTER the fight ends (we see flashes of the creature; glowing green eyes, scaly skin, hints of a snake like body that kinda thing.) From afar Thoth Amon observes the scene. "Interesting....." he declares.
Episode 3: The City of Thieves: Conan decides that he won't let civilization get the best of him. So he decides to travel to the City of Thieves in Zamora in order to get better. Here the reason Zamora is a shithole isn't any genetic inclination on the parts of the Zamorans to be thieves (because you don't need to be politically correct to find THAT racist); it's because since Yara rose the political institutions have collapsed (The king is an alcoholic drunk to escape Yara and since the country's an absolute despotism civil service has kinda ground to a halt.). We get the exposition about Yara in THIS episode (Conan befriends a court secretary who slums it in the dives of Zamora and they hit it off.) We also get the confrontation in the bar, followed by Conan walking the streets. The episode ends with Conan in front of the Tower of the Elephant.
Episode 4: Basically the rest of Tower of the Elephant. Conan meets Taurus of Nemedia, they hit it off, and we get everything else. With Yoga Kosha we get a color filter over the flashbacks. This is our first major bit of exposition after all so you want to REALLY wow the audience. Episode ends with the collapse of the tower of the elephant.
Episode 5: Thief adventure: This kinda sets the stage for the next section. Conan starts to make a name for himself; he meets the thief who will show up in Black Colossus, and the guy teaches Conan some more tricks. Conan also meets his long term girlfriend/fuckbuddy (the blonde girl). However, things start to get harder for thieves in general. Due to Yara's defeat the King is reasserting himself and as such the guards are actually doing their jobs now, which has made life a LOT harder for the thieves.
Episode 6: Nestor is introduced and starts hunting for Conan; At the very end, Nestor runs Conan out of town with the Zamorian guard hot on his heels. Nestor is starting to grudgingly respect Conan for showing a lot of grit.
Episode 7: Halls of the Dead: Essentially the Halls of the Dead Story. We see Conan and Nestor get to know each other as they dig deeper into the ruins (it's like how in Dark Horse when Conan and Nestor get to talk.) It ends with Conan fleeing from the Zamoran capital with his ladyfriend for greener pastures.
Episode 8: The Red City: Conan manages to escape to Corinthia, and runs into Nestor again. They become friends, and Nestor even teaches Conan some other languages (we also get more hints about Venarium and Conan's childhood; Nestor also reveals more about his past to Conan). However, Conan's ladyfriend is growing dissatisfied, and the seeds begin to be set for tragedy.
Episode 9: Things fall apart; Conan and Nestor continue bonding, but they hit too high profile a target, causing their fence to betray them. Nestor sacrifices himself to help Conan escape from the guard, but gets captured.
Episode 10: Rogues in the House Part 1: Nestor is executed. Amidst the jeering crowd Conan vows revenge. Conan avenges Nestor by killing the priest, however this pisses off the establishment, and his girlfriend (Seeing a chance to advance her station) betrays Conan. Meanwhile Murilo hears of Conan's exploits and decides to recruit him. Conan breaks out and we get him dumping the girl in a cesspit (I'd do this in a way similar to the original iron fist comics. Danny tries to get revenge on Harold Meachum.....but when it comes Harold's just a broken pathetic man waiting for the end so he ultimately decides "fuck you're just not worth it.) Conan dumps her in there; the episode ends with Thak roaring and overpowering Murilo
Episode 11: Rogues in the House Part 2: Essentially Conan and Murilo vs Thak. We get the badass fight sequence and then in the final few minutes Conan cuts Nestor's corpse down and buries it.
Episode 12: Homecoming: Conan returns at last to Cimmeria; he tells his mother about his travels, and is briefly considering staying behind. However, he has a final heart to heart talk (with either his mom or grandfather) and this spurs Conan to keep going and not give up. However, he's not going to the southern lands immediately. Maybe he'll go.....east.
As all of this is going down we get flashbacks of Venarium and the buildup to it. Turns out that when Aquilonia set up the Cimmerians played possum by pretending to be interested in trade. As part of the infiltration Conan seduced the daughter of the camp's commander and then rummaged through the documents while she slept. When the battle went down the girl and her father were spared.....but needless to say they parted on VERY bad terms.
Season 2:
Episode 1: Conan arrives in Agraphur, the capital of the Turanian empire. He gets caught committing robbery, but due to the need for soldiers he's offered a choice. Death or enlistment. Conan naturally chooses enlistment. To his pleasant surprise he runs into Arslan; they happen to be in the same unit. They catch up on how they've been doing, and things seem pretty good. However, things get REALLY interesting when they're assigned to attack the city in which Conan and his pals were held as slaves. This is after a training montage (we see that the Turanian army has BRUTAL standards of discipline and incredibly tough training.)
Episode 2: Conan and the Turanian army attack the city; during the fight Conan faces the general who had carried out the massacre of the rebels in single combat. The general boasts "I remember you Cimmerian. Your head will join those of your friends." Conan overpowers the bastard and kills him, earning him and Arslan accolades and a promotion to a more elite unit.
Episode 3: Conan and the unit attack a Hyrkanian city, which is one of the few cities not yet under Turan's sway. In the end Conan plays a key role in the final battle. The young queen of the city is taken alive and bundled off to be married to Yildiz (Conan is rather conflicted about the whole thing).
He also befriends a young foppish aristocrat assigned to the unit. Sadly things also take a turn for the worse; both Arslan and Conan's commander (who despite being of noble birth is actually a decent guy) are killed, and the guy replacing him (General Reshit) is for lack of a better word a complete asshole.
Episode 4: Reshit's assholery builds up Conan's discontent until finally Reshit tries to massacre a tribe under a flag of truce. Conan is sickened by this and so quits in disgust (but not before gutting Reshit alive). Conan is captured and sentenced to die but the young nobleman he befriended secretly helps Conan escape out of gratitude. He tells Conan that the next time they meet they'll be at square one.
Episode 5: Conan is part of an invading army that gets wiped out by demons defending the city of Yaralet. Conan finds a slave girl in the aftermath and saves her. We learn that Conan enlisted in a mercenary army hired by Strabonus to take the city of Yaralet through his conversation with the slave girl. Realizing that retreat isn't an option, he decides to take out Atalis and Than. He breaks into the city and manages to take out Than and Atalis.....but Strabonus is an ungrateful shitbag and gives him a mere pittance for his heroic efforts. This is the start of Conan's disdain for the greedy toad.
Episode 6: The Duke of Lions: Conan falls in with Amalric; Conan manages to rise up the ranks and also bonds with the rest of the unit, earning their respect. This is intercut with scenes of Shevetas searching for the city of Kuthchemes. It ends with him dying and Thugra rising up.
Episode 7: The first ten minutes shows Thugra gathering his army; we see him strong arm numerous tribes into following him (he gorily kills quite a few who refuse to play ball, while in others he plays on the fact that the other city states regularly exploit them). The horde quickly gains in power, and so naturally Amalric decides to head south. We also see Akbitana fall in an incredibly bloody battle. The episode ends with Thugra appearing to Yasmela and creeping her out.
Episode 8: Yasmela meets Conan and persuades him to lead her army. The rest of it is basic buildup to the epic battle sequence that will occur next episode. Conan meets his old thief friend again, who helps Conan realize that Thugra is Natohk. He also reveals that there's a lot of discontent amongst Thugra's forces, and the heroes get welcome reinforcements for the battle from various Shemite tribes who fled north to escape Thugra (including some Asshuri).
Episode 9: Big badass battle sequence. Conan defeats Katuman and then pursues Thugra (like in Dark Horse i'd have it be that Thugra's mistake was trying to claim Yasmela rather than going around. It makes more sense.) Conan corners Thugra, who is kinda desperate at this point. Conan kills Thugra and he and Yasmela fuck on the altar.
Episode 10: A timeskip has passed and we find that Conan and Yasmela have become lovers. However Yasmela is feeling weary of the crown, and she wants her brother back. She and Conan are also having.....trouble. They're two very different people. Over the course of the episode things fray, and Conan decides to go to Kuthchemes to get the gold needed to pay for the ransom.
Episode 11: Conan and a select crew manage to go to Kuthchemes, battling numerous horrors. Sergius is one of them and he betrays them out of cowardice. Conan and the others retaliate by leaving Sergius to die in the desert (burying him up to his neck in the sand. Sergius swears that he will escape and get his revenge.) Conan returns with the gold, and Yasmela is able to use it to pay off Strabonus. However, Conan is kinda sick of this and so leaves.
Episode 12: This is basically the courtroom episode. We're shown what happens through flashbacks. Ends with Conan bursting out the door and riding off into the sunrise.
Season 3: Queen of the Black Coast Storyline
Episode 1: Everything up to Conan's meeting with Belit; he manages to win Belit over and agrees to join provided she spare the few members of the Argus. Belit agrees to these terms and now Conan is officially on Team Belit.
Episode 2: We learn more about Belit's origin story; N'Yaga was the one who raised her and he's pretty much the only person she'll listen to (and even then she kinda has a mixed record.)
Episode 3: Rumble in the Jungle: Conan and Belit tangle with Thuthmekri over some treasure.
Episode 4: The Well of Skelos Part 1: Conan and Belit run into Kalanthes, and Kalanthes is able to persuade them to aid him in recovering a dangerous artifact from the Well of Skelos (They've been promised a lot of gold in exchange.) They enter the Island, but soon shit begins to get weird. Note: One thing I liked about Dark Horse was that it explained why Thoth would do something so stupid and reckless like wasting a child of the serpent on a plan that was bound to fail or had a high risk. I'd sort of do something similar in that it was part of a larger scheme in the war; Thoth was trying to keep Kal from returning with an artifact
. One thing I would have is the reveal that Stygia WAS actually a nice place once upon a time for a short period before Thoth Amon rose to power and turned it into a shithole (I know book of thoth is controversial but having the Stygians as always chaotic evil raises a lot of unfortunate implications).
Episode 5: The Well of Skelos Part 2: Conan and Belit aid Kalanthes and his crew, journeying deeper into the temple. However, shit gets REALLY REALLY weird and between a horrific toad monster and Thoth's agents they barely make it out alive (though they do manage to get quite a bit of treasure in the process.) Kalanthes repays them for their service by placing Ibis's blessing upon them, so as to protect them from any magic attack that Thoth might pull on them.
Episode 6: The Walls of Khemi: Conan and Belit are being increasingly harried by the Stygian navy; Thoth can't go after them directly but he sure as hell can make their lives miserable by siccing the Stygian Navy upon them. As such they go on the offensive and manage to burn the Stygian Fleet in the dock.
Episode 7: The Fires of the Ultimate South: In the aftermath of the battle, the heroes head south to regroup and recruit more soldiers. They also manage to have an adventure down there.
Episode 8: The death: One of the few GOOD things Brian Wood did was the death arc; the idea of Conan being out of his element by facing something like disease (which can bring down even the strongest of men and which can't be outsmarted or outfought). Belit pulls through thanks to aid from a local witchdoctor but Conan is unnerved by how utterly helpless he was in this situation.
Episode 9: Sack of Abombi: Conan gets over his BSOD by taking part in a raid; he saves Belit by facing his fears. One of the two chiefs shits his pants before fleeing in terror.
Episode 10: Belit faces her past with Conan's help.
Episode 11: Filler episode: This is to lighten the mood before the Zarkheba River incident. A bit of a breather before the hammer blow
Episode 12: Feature length episode (sorta like how the final episodes in Game of Thrones have longer run times; since this is a pivotal moment you wanna go all out on it.) Ends with Conan vanishing into the jungle.
Season 4: A major theme of the season would be coming to terms with loss. The shadow of Belit's death will hang over Conan for the entire season, and it's not until the Illbars River that he finally lets go and forgives himself.
Episode 1: The Bamulah. Conan falls in with the Bamulah. Due to his grief over Belit he's adopted a "fuck it all" attitude, and doesn't really care anymore. We see him getting more ruthless.
Episode 2: Vale of Lost Women Adaptation: This would be majorly overhauled (because if adapted straight it would be cancelled; also given how the real Cynthia Ann Parker ended up, saddened at being taken from the world she'd come to know, shunned by society, framing it as a heroic liberation just seems kinda icky). Livia, rather than being a captive, is with Bajujh willingly and even has a son with him. Conan double crosses Bajujh and Livia flees. Conan manages to save her, and she reacts with fear, begging for her life and that of her child. This helps Conan finally realize how low he's sunk so he spares Livia, sending her home to Ophir. However this costs him command of the Bamulah, who see sparing a potential enemy as a weakness.
Episode 3: Snout in the Dark Part 1: Conan arrives in Shumballah and gets dragged into the intrigues of the city.
He has an affair with Queen Tananda but it's very empty compared to what he had with Belit.
Episode 4: Snout in the Dark Part 2: I'd hold over a few things from the Dark Horse adaptation, namely Conan leaves with the rest of the royal guard. Diana is a Nemedian Noblewoman in this story.
Episode 5: Conan runs into his old unit from Season 2 and is appalled at the miserable state of affairs. Turns out that after Conan left Amalric died, and the man who replaced him (Aratus) has mismanaged the unit disgracefully. Conan challenges Aratus for control and wins, sending Aratus fleeing.
However things aren't going quite so well for Conan romantically; Diana makes a move on him, but Conan is still wounded by Belit's death and doesn't take (Causing her to have an affair with Conan's second in command.)
Episode 6: Regaining your Drive: Conan is forced to take on some jobs in order to help whip the unit back into shape; but that is easier said then done.
He manages to pull it off though by taking a Shemtic City State.
Episode 7: The Rebel Prince: Conan takes the Company to fight in the Civil War in Koth.....unfortunately he does TOO good a job and Strabby ends up suing for peace, which the prince accepts. Out of options, Conan takes his mercenaries east.
Episode 8: Return to Turan: Conan takes the crew east, where they start kicking ass and taking names all the way through Turan. We also meet Olivia during this point, and see the horrors she endures.
Episode 9: Conan and the others continue their escapades....but they are spied on by Sergius and Aratus. Seeing a chance to get revenge on Conan for what he did to them; throughout the season we see Diana and Conan's second form a romantic relationship.
Episode 10: Blood on the Illbars; the events leading up to the Illbars, and the Illbars itself. Everything goes wrong. Diana, the royal guardsmen who have been accompanying him since Snout in the Dark, the other mercs? They're all butchered to a man.
Episode 11: The Crucible: In the aftermath of the Illbars River Massacre, Conan is at his lowest point. Taunted by visions, he must find the strength within to fight on (we see hallucinations of Belit, Diana, his friends, even Amalric makes an appearance). Unlike the comic (where we find out that the ghosts are VERY real) I'd keep it ambiguous as to whether or not they are appearing or if it's just a hallucination. Conan ultimately faces his doubts and forgives himself, settling his arc for the season. He then proceeds to rip Shah Amurath a new asshole.
Episode 12: Iron Shadows in the Moon: This would be another feature length episode and the season finale.
Season 5:
Episode 1: We have a bit of a timeskip here; Conan and Olivia are now lovers and Olivia has really adapted to being a pirate (Even the other men follow her without question.) However Conan's escapades have caused a lot of problems for Turan's navy; Conan meets the squadmate who let him go back in Season 2 and is tragically forced to kill the guy. Olivia doesn't understand since he was Turanian but Conan is genuinely upset (the guy HAD been his friend and had saved his life.)
Episode 2: Devil In Iron Part 1: This....would require an overhaul. The original story had WAY to many moving parts in it and it creates a kind of convoluted mess. So I'd change things somewhat while keeping the cool stuff like Khostra Khel. Basically Octavia escapes on her own initiative and flees to an island in the Vilayet with Jenhugir in hot pursuit. As it happens Conan and his crew have set up shop on the island for the night at the same time. However, this is complicated when Khostra Khel is revived from the dead, setting the stage for a glorious clusterfuck.
Episode 3: Devil In Iron Part 2: Basically everything explodes in a three way battle between Conan Jenhugir's forces and Khostra Khel. In the end Conan comes out on top, albeit with less soldiers than before. Octavia tries to make a move on Conan but Olivia VERY quickly stomps on that. Conan's HER man. No one elses.
Episode 4: Raid on Khwarazeim part 1: Octavia suggests that they attack Khwarazeim; Conan agrees but feels they'll need more pirates to pull off the attack. As such he starts to gather his forces.
We get a lot of cutthroat negotiations with the pirate captains, and even with some local Kozak tribes in order to secure aid. We also see a bit of back and forth between Octavia and Olivia. Octavia is rather appalled that Olivia (a princess) is so at home amongst the pirates (even the men leering at Octavia show Olivia nothing short of respect).
Episode 5: Raid on Khwarazeim part 2: Khwarazeim burns as the gamble pays off; Octavia kills Ghanzavi as a bit of payback and the city is looted dry by the pirate armada. In fact it's such a success that most of the crew decide to retire on the gold they've looted. Conan is one of them but Olivia is rather used to life as a pirate and so they part ways (Conan also doesn't want to jinx things). Conan heads back west with Octavia.
Episode 6: Conan and Octavia have their own adventure
; in the process they develop a romance more gradually, with Octavia even realizing how shallow her life back in Nemedia was. This also fleshes out more of her backstory.
Episode 7: Conan and Octavia meet Taramis when Conan saves her from bandits; he impresses her to the point where she offers him a position in her guard. Conan has his run in with Vladislav's crew but doesn't meet the man himself.
Episode 8: Conan earns his keep in Taramis's guard; Taramis and Conan do NOT have a romantic relationship. Rather there's a genuine sense of friendship between them. Valerius has a crush on her but Taramis is oblivious. We also meet Khajara and establish her as this really sweet cutie who has a very idealistic view of the world (yeah it's not gonna last). However we also see Constantius arrive, we see him conferring in the shadows with an unknown partner.
Episode 9: Salome reveals herself, and we get everything up to Conan's crucifixion and Olgerd saving him.
Notably Octavia replaces Igva (for the sake of pragmatism.)
Episode 10: This would cover two sections; on one hand we see Valerius trying to survive in the increasingly decadent regime. We also see some young women getting sold into slavery (one girl in particular, Khajara, will come back).
Episode 11: Setup for the finale. Conan usurps Olgerd but leaves him alive. Salome and Taramis have that scene in the dungeon but Salome also gives a bit of a motive rant. She rants that Taramis had EVERYTHING handed to her from birth whereas Salome had to whore herself out to survive, and how while Taramis had loving parents her father figure threw her aside like garbage because she didn't live up to his standards. It's clear that Salome is an evil bitch but it does give her a bit of pathos. Taramis also shows a bit more backbone, calling Salome out on the fact that her crappy childhood doesn't excuse her wickedness. Valerius learns that Salome is impersonating Taramis and the stage is set before the final battle.
Episode 12: Big final battle sequence; Thog goes down with more difficulty and Taramis does express a small bit of sympathy for Salome as she dies (i.e. "Yes she was a monster, but she was still my sister. And....maybe if she had been raised alongside me things would have been different.") Conan takes his leave after crucifying Constantius
; Octavia, having grown close to Valerius during their time on the run in the city, opts to stay with him.
Season 6:
This would feature another deviation; Conan would be a protagonist but we also focus on other characters as well to add more variety. Yezdigerd would get more focus, and we also focus on Khajara (because with Conan we don't want to keep repeating the same formula again and again; seeing people REACT to his rise allows the story to progress while still keeping things interesting.
Episode 1: Conan heads back East to Pillage Turan; he meets another chieftain and manages to take control of the guys army. Despite the guy's attempts at treachery Conan manages to win the challenge for control of his army.
Episode 2:
This would be a departure since for the first time in the entire show Conan DOESN'T actually show up. Instead the focus is on Khajara (the unfortunate girl sold off into slavery) going through ABSOLUTE TORTURE in Turan as everything that can go wrong for her DOES go wrong (her master is a disgusting pig who rapes her). Eventually she reaches her absolute breaking point, but gets comforted by another slave in the household. The slave tells her "life's not a fairytale. It's brutal and cruel and you have to do whatever it takes to survive in this world." So she takes advantage, levying her natural charms, pretending to submit to her master while plotting his downfall, and finally succeeds by revealing her master's plan to assassinate Yezdigerd to the man himself. She parleys this into being a new concubine.
Episode 3: The Red Eagle: Conan learns that the Red Eagle (one of Yezdigerd's greatest generals) has held several villages hostage to force Conan into a confrontation. Conan being Conan, he manages to outsmart the guy and kills him, sending Yezdigerd his head. We also focus more on the other plot of Khajara worming her way into Yezdigerd's heart (she's become a LOT more ruthless and cruel in her actions, either discrediting rivals or even having them maimed.)
Episode 4: Yezdigerd is deeply furious but Khajara manages to use her (Admittedly limited) experience with Conan to suggest using stealth. Send someone to infiltrate the horde and destroy it from within. Yezdigerd agrees to this and decides to dispatch Kerim Shah. From here we see intrigue as Conan and the others do their thing but we don't get the reveal of WHO the spy is until the very end of the episode. The audience (and Conan) are led to believe another man was the spy. It's only at the very last scene that we know for certain (after Kerim set up another person as his fallguy.)
Episode 5: Kerim Shah, as per his plan, lobbies for an attack on the city of Agraphur itself. Conan allows himself to be swept up in it, and manages to persuade even Olivia (Who is now the Pirate Queen of the Vilayet) to help out in the attack; however the trap is sprung and the entire army is mostly wiped out. Everything's in shambles for Conan but Khajara is now on top of the world, having been promoted to his chief wife for her role in suggesting the plan.
Episode 6: Agraphur. Conan is able to rally his soldiers to at least help him save their compatriots; ultimately Conan is able to succeed by holding Khajara hostage. As cruel as Yezdigerd is he DOES love her and so reluctantly orders the release of the hostages in exchange for her life (Conan has her at knifepoint and only frees her AFTER the prisoners are free and clear.) This would be a way to show that Conan's no boyscout. It's made clear that he ABSOLUTELY WOULD KILL HER if Yezdigerd said no. It also gives Yezdigerd a bit of humanity, showing that he DOES love people even if he's a ruthless SOB. It also gives him reason to SERIOUSLY hate Conan (Conan basically made him show weakness in front of the entire capital city.)
Episode 7: Journey to Vendhaya. Conan heads ever eastward and manages to fall in with a tribe of badass warriors.
He overcomes disdain in order to get the position but get it he does. However, Yezdigerd's suffering a bit of bad PR since Conan forced him to release the prisoners and so sets his sights on Vendhaya to hopefully distract people.
Episode 8: Conan exploits but we also see Kerim Shah (who's star has also risen) set things up with the Black Seers of Yimsha and poor Bundra Chan's condition worsens. The chiefs are also captured.
Episodes 9-11: People of the Black Circle adaptation: A lot of plot threads are tied up. Kerim Shah gets his comeuppance, and Conan is able to leave again. He and Yasmina have a complicated relationship. Yasmina is clearly attracted to Conan and is seriously considering his offer but she feels obligation. Still, she and Conan part under amicable terms.
These would be longer episodes than usual (a little over an hour.)
Episode 12: Conan heads back west but Yezdigerd's in a pretty shitty position. His attempt to take Vendhaya has failed, and now many of his courtiers are plotting against him. After one attempt at his life fails he initiates a massacre godfather style to shut down ANY Further attempts. He swears that Conan will pay for his humiliation. This will bare bitter fruit in the final season.
Season 7: Episode 1: Shadows in Zamboula Part 1: Conan makes his way to Zamboula, but is incognito since he's now numero uno on Yezdigerd's hit list. I'd ditch the black cannibals and replace them with a bunch of random thugs holding Nefertari hostage. Conan DOESN'T ask for her body as payment but asks for gold.
Episode 2: Shadows in Zamboula Part 2: Conan and Nefertari take down Tortamesk. Conan also takes the Star of Khorala before getting his revenge on Aram Baksh.
Episode 3: Conan joins the rebel prince's army back west; he meets a young mercenary named Amalric and they hit it off. He's also bought a new set or armor and weaponry with the money gained from the Star. The war goes badly and they flee south into Shem.
Episode 4: Conan purchases Natala from a Shemite city state they conquered but as they flee yet more enemies into Stygia things REALLY go bad when Stygia unleashes a black magic plague on the army, decimating most of them. Conan, Natala and Amalric flee into the south, but they get separated. Conan and Natala go one way, Amalric and a few other mercenaries go the other.
Episode 5: Shadows of Xuthal: This would be a longer feature length episode and would be a straight adaptation of the story
Episode 6: We cut to Amalric for most of the episode; he saves Lissa from a few other guys (they're not all black; some are but others are white). Amalric falls in love with Lissa and decides to help her, slaying the evil demon that lives in the tower. He nearly dies, but Conan and his allies save him.
Episode 7: Conan takes Amalric back to Tombalku, and he explains how he and Natala got in good with Sakumbe. We're introduced to a lot of the political conflicts in the background but things explode into violence; Conan, Lissa, Amalric and Natala flee the slaughterhouse. Natala goes with Lissa and Amalric while Conan heads west.
Episode 9: Pool of the Black One, Part 1: Conan, having fled Tombalku, finds himself on Black Zaprovo's ship. Conan begins to plot taking control of the ship (as well as stealing Zaprovo's woman.) Conan ambushes and kills Zaprovo, but then the creatures attack.
Episode 10: Conan saves Sancha and the crew from the Creatures, and they flee.
Episode 11: Conan and Sancha have a pirate adventure; however their success pisses off a lot of other captains, who start making plans.
Episode 12: The other captains ambush Conan, and their efforts result in Conan loosing the wastrel on a reef. He and Sancha manage to escape the ship, but go their separate ways.
Season 8: This season would also have an overarching theme; Conan realizing that his heart just isn't in mercenary life anymore. It's just more of the same to him.
Episode 1: Conan the Scout: Conan takes a job in the Aquilonian army as a scout; we get buildup for Zogar Sag in this episode, as he gets beaten and begins plotting his revenge.
Episode 2: Beyond the Black River Part 1: Everything up to when they break into the pict camp
Episode 3: Beyond the Black River Part 2: The rest of the tale.
Episode 4: Conan gets captured by the Picts; he manages to escape, going into the wilderness and finding the treasure of Tranicos.
Episode 5: The Black Stranger Part 1: Buildup for everything; Conan only appears towards the end of the episode
Episode 6: The Black Stranger Part 2: The rest of the story. Conan sends Tina and Belesa with some of the treasure to Khitai.
Episode 7: The Battle of Vedilidad: Conan raids the city but is bothered to find that his heart just isn't in it anymore. He kinda wants more in his life at this point. So he voluntarily steps down as a pirate captain and decides to try being a mercenary again.
Episode 8: Conan goes to Stygia and finds work there, but again he can't shape the feeling of malaise. He is interested when Valeria proves her badassery and he goes to help her.
Episode 9: Feature length episode: This would be easily the longest episode in the show up to this point. We get the entire episode of Red Nails from beginning to end.
Episode 10: Jewels of Gwahalur Part 1: The first part of Jewels of Gwahalur, but Valeria is alongside Conan this time.
Episode 11: Jewels of Gwahalur Part 2: Conan and Valeria continue the adventure, but since Valeria's there they walk away with both the girl AND the jewels.
Episode 12: Conan, Valeria and Muriela head north to Aquilonia.
Season 9:
Episode 1: Conan returns and manages to regain his position in the Aquilonian army. However a major pict attack occurs. Conan manages to successfully fend off the attack, earning a major promotion.
Episode 2: Conan continues to kick ass and gains more acclaim from the people; this doesn't sit well with Numidides (who despite being a handsome and charming man has a MAJOR dark side.) In the end he has Conan drugged and thrown into the Iron Tower to be executed on trumped up charges.
Episode 3: Conan is held captive in the Iron Tower and set to die. Valeria risks everything to save him and does.....but dies in the process. Conan decides that this means war and goes after Numidides.
Episode 4: Conan begins to rally the troops, scoring major victories. Numidides begins to grow increasingly unhinged.
Episode 5: The Day of the Lion: Conan and Numidides face off in a winner take all showdown for Aquilonia's crown. Conan stranges Numidides to death on his throne and takes the crown. Hurray......now he has to deal with the tedium of actually RUNNING a kingdom.
Episode 6: The Phoenix on the Sword: Somewhat longer than usual episode (An hour and ten minutes, possibly an hour and 15 minutes).
Episode 7: Conan gets his first real taste of responsibility when a farmer demands justice for his murdered daughter (a nobleman had murdered her when she refused his advances.) Conan agrees to help the farmer get justice and has the nobleman executed for his crime. However, this pisses off the kid's dad, who tries to assassinate Conan at a banquet. The experience is when Conan starts to realize the importance of being King.
Episode 8: State Visit: Conan undergoes his first State Visit, to the Nemedian capital of Belvarus. We see more of Conan getting into the role of King and we also get our first glimpses of Zenobia and Tarasus.
Episode 9: Conan has to fend off yet another attempt on his life....but this one hits a lot closer to home. See.....it's the daughter of the commander of Venarium that he slept with all those years ago. Turns out that the fall of Venarium basically ruined her life and she blames Conan for it. This is yet another major turning point for Conan, as he's faced with a stark reminder that your actions do have consequences.
Episode 10: Filler episode
Episode 11: The Scarlet Citadel Part 1: Notably here Conan's rejection of the offer is a sign of his growth during the latter half of this season.
Episode 12: The Scarlet Citadel Part 2
Season 10: The Hour of the Dragon Season
Episode 1: A sort of prologue: We see the Zamorian thieves trying to get the heart of Ahriman from underneath the temple. While Conan makes a cameo appearance or two the thieves are the main focus.
Episode 2: Xaltotun rises; We see him waste the Nemedian Royal Family with a plague, and we ALSO see him put Epimitreus in a coma to keep him from interfering (which explains why the fuck he didn't warn Conan in the book.)
Episode 3: Conan as a captive in Belvarus's royal palace. Zenobia frees him, and we get the daring escape (the fight with the beast is more extended.) Conan flees after giving her a big damn kiss.
Episode 4: Conan meets Zelata and frees the Countess Albiona from the Iron Tower.
Episode 5: The escape; Conan meets the Priests of Ahriman and they agree to help him escape. We also see Valerius beginning his hunt for Conan, sending the ninjas after Conan.
Episode 6: The battle sequence with Conan in the castle and the forest of ghouls. We also see Xaltotun revealing more of his evil plan, and making arrangements (creating framework for his spell.)
Episode 7: Conan heads to Argos; literally the entire section in Argos. We also see Xaltotun's machinations develop.
Episode 8: Conan and the Black Corsairs; However we ALSO see Valerius going off the deep end and the development of Xaltotun's machinations as they progress.
Episode 9: First part of the Stygian infiltration. Ends with Conan encountering Akivasha
Episode 10: Akivasha up to Conan leaving the temple. He flees home.
Episode 11: Setup for the final battle; Orastes finally realizes that he's bitten off more than he can chew and dies for it; Conan returns to lead his people.
Episode 12: Big final battle sequence. I'd have Zenobia be the girl on the altar (as Tim Truman said it's more dramatic) and Conan confronts Xaltotun as well (he tries to resist the heart but as it weakens him Conan decapitates the bastard. He then proceeds to win the rest of the battle.
Grand Finale Movies:
These would tie up some of the loose ends (Yezdigerd, Thoth Amon). Yezdigerd gets defeated when his attempt at getting revenge on Conan fails. Conan kills him. Thoth Amon tries to complete Xaltotun's work but also to revive Greater Stygia and rule over both as a god emperor. He too is defeated.
During my last thread I realized a few things. One, Conan stories can kind of repeat themselves. As short stories that's perfectly fine but in a live action tv show there needs to be some degree of variety and consistency. As such I AM going to change a few stories if only for the sake of adaptability. I understand that this isn't necessarily popular (god knows a lot of DeCamp's changes weren't needed) but telling stories in mediums is a tricky thing. Certainly if one were making an hour of the dragon game you'd want a big final boss fight rather than a conversation followed by the side character wasting him. It's also important to realize that while people on tumblr can be annoying some of the points (that in a modern day setting certain elements of the old tales would get the show writers crucified and the show cancelled) are also legitimate. My goal is to find a balance between the badassedness of Howard's original tales while still making it possible for a modern audience to enjoy. Please let me know if I succeed or not.
Season 1: This would be an adaptation of the Thief stories; however Conan's backstory wouldn't be fully revealed until the finale episode Homecoming. There are hints throughout the story (Conan references Venarium when talking to Nestor, and we get the hint that SOMETHING wild and epic went down there). With the Frost Giant's daughter there's one tricky element; while it is largely clear that Atali's putting Supernatural Mojo on Conan audiences can be incredibly stupid and they might not get it. Also, in the times of me too (when a LOT Of people in the showbizz industry have been outed as harrassers at best or rapists at worst) that might obscure the point. It's unfair but it is a legitimate concern.
So without further ado, lets begin.
Feature length pilot: This would borrow a few elements of the Snow Devil by Steve Block (The reason Conan goes north is to honor a debt that the aesir asked of them, the idea of a big badass warchief threatening everyone.) I'd also have the frost giant's daughter thrown in but with a twist. Atali, Ymir and all the other members of his brood are concerned that Bolverk is leading the Vanir down a path of self destruction. They've noticed Conan and think he may be a champion that they can use to take Bolverk down. As such Atali leads him through the wastes.....but then we get a change. Atali explains what's going down to Conan and explains that while normally she would kill him, that's not going to happen. She heals him to full strength and then sicks her brothers on him; if he lives he's worthy to take Bolverk. If not, oh well we can always get a new champion. Conan lives and Atali "rewards" Conan. She also leaves a piece of her cloth behind (and confirms that no Bolverk is NOT Ymir's son). Conan uses both of these to unnerve Bolverk in their final fight and is able to kill him. He decides to head east into Hyperborea.
(before I continue YES I know the change is controversial. But with Me Too going around even if you were to rightfully point out the whole badger game/supernatural mojo audiences might dismiss it as the excuses of sexist old men, and since is the pilot you kinda wanna start off on the right foot.)
Season 1:
Episode 1: Conan is captured by a slave raid in Hyperborea and thrown into a prison. He meets a few other prisoner and befriends them (one of them is a Hyrkanian, who teaches Conan some Zamorian and Hyrkanian; another is a Nemedian adventurer who teaches Conan Nemedian and a few other smatterings of language.) Eventually they do a jailbreak, but most of the prisoners die (including the Nemedian, who asks Conan to return a ring he had stolen from his father in Numalia.) Conan and the Hyrkanian are the only ones who escape, and they both go their separate ways. Conan heads to Numalia and returns the ring, deciding to stick around.
Episode 2: God in the Bowl: A feature length adaptation of god in the bowl (about an hour long). The only real change would be to have an extended fight sequence with the beast. Through camerawork we only see the beast AFTER the fight ends (we see flashes of the creature; glowing green eyes, scaly skin, hints of a snake like body that kinda thing.) From afar Thoth Amon observes the scene. "Interesting....." he declares.
Episode 3: The City of Thieves: Conan decides that he won't let civilization get the best of him. So he decides to travel to the City of Thieves in Zamora in order to get better. Here the reason Zamora is a shithole isn't any genetic inclination on the parts of the Zamorans to be thieves (because you don't need to be politically correct to find THAT racist); it's because since Yara rose the political institutions have collapsed (The king is an alcoholic drunk to escape Yara and since the country's an absolute despotism civil service has kinda ground to a halt.). We get the exposition about Yara in THIS episode (Conan befriends a court secretary who slums it in the dives of Zamora and they hit it off.) We also get the confrontation in the bar, followed by Conan walking the streets. The episode ends with Conan in front of the Tower of the Elephant.
Episode 4: Basically the rest of Tower of the Elephant. Conan meets Taurus of Nemedia, they hit it off, and we get everything else. With Yoga Kosha we get a color filter over the flashbacks. This is our first major bit of exposition after all so you want to REALLY wow the audience. Episode ends with the collapse of the tower of the elephant.
Episode 5: Thief adventure: This kinda sets the stage for the next section. Conan starts to make a name for himself; he meets the thief who will show up in Black Colossus, and the guy teaches Conan some more tricks. Conan also meets his long term girlfriend/fuckbuddy (the blonde girl). However, things start to get harder for thieves in general. Due to Yara's defeat the King is reasserting himself and as such the guards are actually doing their jobs now, which has made life a LOT harder for the thieves.
Episode 6: Nestor is introduced and starts hunting for Conan; At the very end, Nestor runs Conan out of town with the Zamorian guard hot on his heels. Nestor is starting to grudgingly respect Conan for showing a lot of grit.
Episode 7: Halls of the Dead: Essentially the Halls of the Dead Story. We see Conan and Nestor get to know each other as they dig deeper into the ruins (it's like how in Dark Horse when Conan and Nestor get to talk.) It ends with Conan fleeing from the Zamoran capital with his ladyfriend for greener pastures.
Episode 8: The Red City: Conan manages to escape to Corinthia, and runs into Nestor again. They become friends, and Nestor even teaches Conan some other languages (we also get more hints about Venarium and Conan's childhood; Nestor also reveals more about his past to Conan). However, Conan's ladyfriend is growing dissatisfied, and the seeds begin to be set for tragedy.
Episode 9: Things fall apart; Conan and Nestor continue bonding, but they hit too high profile a target, causing their fence to betray them. Nestor sacrifices himself to help Conan escape from the guard, but gets captured.
Episode 10: Rogues in the House Part 1: Nestor is executed. Amidst the jeering crowd Conan vows revenge. Conan avenges Nestor by killing the priest, however this pisses off the establishment, and his girlfriend (Seeing a chance to advance her station) betrays Conan. Meanwhile Murilo hears of Conan's exploits and decides to recruit him. Conan breaks out and we get him dumping the girl in a cesspit (I'd do this in a way similar to the original iron fist comics. Danny tries to get revenge on Harold Meachum.....but when it comes Harold's just a broken pathetic man waiting for the end so he ultimately decides "fuck you're just not worth it.) Conan dumps her in there; the episode ends with Thak roaring and overpowering Murilo
Episode 11: Rogues in the House Part 2: Essentially Conan and Murilo vs Thak. We get the badass fight sequence and then in the final few minutes Conan cuts Nestor's corpse down and buries it.
Episode 12: Homecoming: Conan returns at last to Cimmeria; he tells his mother about his travels, and is briefly considering staying behind. However, he has a final heart to heart talk (with either his mom or grandfather) and this spurs Conan to keep going and not give up. However, he's not going to the southern lands immediately. Maybe he'll go.....east.
As all of this is going down we get flashbacks of Venarium and the buildup to it. Turns out that when Aquilonia set up the Cimmerians played possum by pretending to be interested in trade. As part of the infiltration Conan seduced the daughter of the camp's commander and then rummaged through the documents while she slept. When the battle went down the girl and her father were spared.....but needless to say they parted on VERY bad terms.
Season 2:
Episode 1: Conan arrives in Agraphur, the capital of the Turanian empire. He gets caught committing robbery, but due to the need for soldiers he's offered a choice. Death or enlistment. Conan naturally chooses enlistment. To his pleasant surprise he runs into Arslan; they happen to be in the same unit. They catch up on how they've been doing, and things seem pretty good. However, things get REALLY interesting when they're assigned to attack the city in which Conan and his pals were held as slaves. This is after a training montage (we see that the Turanian army has BRUTAL standards of discipline and incredibly tough training.)
Episode 2: Conan and the Turanian army attack the city; during the fight Conan faces the general who had carried out the massacre of the rebels in single combat. The general boasts "I remember you Cimmerian. Your head will join those of your friends." Conan overpowers the bastard and kills him, earning him and Arslan accolades and a promotion to a more elite unit.
Episode 3: Conan and the unit attack a Hyrkanian city, which is one of the few cities not yet under Turan's sway. In the end Conan plays a key role in the final battle. The young queen of the city is taken alive and bundled off to be married to Yildiz (Conan is rather conflicted about the whole thing).
He also befriends a young foppish aristocrat assigned to the unit. Sadly things also take a turn for the worse; both Arslan and Conan's commander (who despite being of noble birth is actually a decent guy) are killed, and the guy replacing him (General Reshit) is for lack of a better word a complete asshole.
Episode 4: Reshit's assholery builds up Conan's discontent until finally Reshit tries to massacre a tribe under a flag of truce. Conan is sickened by this and so quits in disgust (but not before gutting Reshit alive). Conan is captured and sentenced to die but the young nobleman he befriended secretly helps Conan escape out of gratitude. He tells Conan that the next time they meet they'll be at square one.
Episode 5: Conan is part of an invading army that gets wiped out by demons defending the city of Yaralet. Conan finds a slave girl in the aftermath and saves her. We learn that Conan enlisted in a mercenary army hired by Strabonus to take the city of Yaralet through his conversation with the slave girl. Realizing that retreat isn't an option, he decides to take out Atalis and Than. He breaks into the city and manages to take out Than and Atalis.....but Strabonus is an ungrateful shitbag and gives him a mere pittance for his heroic efforts. This is the start of Conan's disdain for the greedy toad.
Episode 6: The Duke of Lions: Conan falls in with Amalric; Conan manages to rise up the ranks and also bonds with the rest of the unit, earning their respect. This is intercut with scenes of Shevetas searching for the city of Kuthchemes. It ends with him dying and Thugra rising up.
Episode 7: The first ten minutes shows Thugra gathering his army; we see him strong arm numerous tribes into following him (he gorily kills quite a few who refuse to play ball, while in others he plays on the fact that the other city states regularly exploit them). The horde quickly gains in power, and so naturally Amalric decides to head south. We also see Akbitana fall in an incredibly bloody battle. The episode ends with Thugra appearing to Yasmela and creeping her out.
Episode 8: Yasmela meets Conan and persuades him to lead her army. The rest of it is basic buildup to the epic battle sequence that will occur next episode. Conan meets his old thief friend again, who helps Conan realize that Thugra is Natohk. He also reveals that there's a lot of discontent amongst Thugra's forces, and the heroes get welcome reinforcements for the battle from various Shemite tribes who fled north to escape Thugra (including some Asshuri).
Episode 9: Big badass battle sequence. Conan defeats Katuman and then pursues Thugra (like in Dark Horse i'd have it be that Thugra's mistake was trying to claim Yasmela rather than going around. It makes more sense.) Conan corners Thugra, who is kinda desperate at this point. Conan kills Thugra and he and Yasmela fuck on the altar.
Episode 10: A timeskip has passed and we find that Conan and Yasmela have become lovers. However Yasmela is feeling weary of the crown, and she wants her brother back. She and Conan are also having.....trouble. They're two very different people. Over the course of the episode things fray, and Conan decides to go to Kuthchemes to get the gold needed to pay for the ransom.
Episode 11: Conan and a select crew manage to go to Kuthchemes, battling numerous horrors. Sergius is one of them and he betrays them out of cowardice. Conan and the others retaliate by leaving Sergius to die in the desert (burying him up to his neck in the sand. Sergius swears that he will escape and get his revenge.) Conan returns with the gold, and Yasmela is able to use it to pay off Strabonus. However, Conan is kinda sick of this and so leaves.
Episode 12: This is basically the courtroom episode. We're shown what happens through flashbacks. Ends with Conan bursting out the door and riding off into the sunrise.
Season 3: Queen of the Black Coast Storyline
Episode 1: Everything up to Conan's meeting with Belit; he manages to win Belit over and agrees to join provided she spare the few members of the Argus. Belit agrees to these terms and now Conan is officially on Team Belit.
Episode 2: We learn more about Belit's origin story; N'Yaga was the one who raised her and he's pretty much the only person she'll listen to (and even then she kinda has a mixed record.)
Episode 3: Rumble in the Jungle: Conan and Belit tangle with Thuthmekri over some treasure.
Episode 4: The Well of Skelos Part 1: Conan and Belit run into Kalanthes, and Kalanthes is able to persuade them to aid him in recovering a dangerous artifact from the Well of Skelos (They've been promised a lot of gold in exchange.) They enter the Island, but soon shit begins to get weird. Note: One thing I liked about Dark Horse was that it explained why Thoth would do something so stupid and reckless like wasting a child of the serpent on a plan that was bound to fail or had a high risk. I'd sort of do something similar in that it was part of a larger scheme in the war; Thoth was trying to keep Kal from returning with an artifact
. One thing I would have is the reveal that Stygia WAS actually a nice place once upon a time for a short period before Thoth Amon rose to power and turned it into a shithole (I know book of thoth is controversial but having the Stygians as always chaotic evil raises a lot of unfortunate implications).
Episode 5: The Well of Skelos Part 2: Conan and Belit aid Kalanthes and his crew, journeying deeper into the temple. However, shit gets REALLY REALLY weird and between a horrific toad monster and Thoth's agents they barely make it out alive (though they do manage to get quite a bit of treasure in the process.) Kalanthes repays them for their service by placing Ibis's blessing upon them, so as to protect them from any magic attack that Thoth might pull on them.
Episode 6: The Walls of Khemi: Conan and Belit are being increasingly harried by the Stygian navy; Thoth can't go after them directly but he sure as hell can make their lives miserable by siccing the Stygian Navy upon them. As such they go on the offensive and manage to burn the Stygian Fleet in the dock.
Episode 7: The Fires of the Ultimate South: In the aftermath of the battle, the heroes head south to regroup and recruit more soldiers. They also manage to have an adventure down there.
Episode 8: The death: One of the few GOOD things Brian Wood did was the death arc; the idea of Conan being out of his element by facing something like disease (which can bring down even the strongest of men and which can't be outsmarted or outfought). Belit pulls through thanks to aid from a local witchdoctor but Conan is unnerved by how utterly helpless he was in this situation.
Episode 9: Sack of Abombi: Conan gets over his BSOD by taking part in a raid; he saves Belit by facing his fears. One of the two chiefs shits his pants before fleeing in terror.
Episode 10: Belit faces her past with Conan's help.
Episode 11: Filler episode: This is to lighten the mood before the Zarkheba River incident. A bit of a breather before the hammer blow
Episode 12: Feature length episode (sorta like how the final episodes in Game of Thrones have longer run times; since this is a pivotal moment you wanna go all out on it.) Ends with Conan vanishing into the jungle.
Season 4: A major theme of the season would be coming to terms with loss. The shadow of Belit's death will hang over Conan for the entire season, and it's not until the Illbars River that he finally lets go and forgives himself.
Episode 1: The Bamulah. Conan falls in with the Bamulah. Due to his grief over Belit he's adopted a "fuck it all" attitude, and doesn't really care anymore. We see him getting more ruthless.
Episode 2: Vale of Lost Women Adaptation: This would be majorly overhauled (because if adapted straight it would be cancelled; also given how the real Cynthia Ann Parker ended up, saddened at being taken from the world she'd come to know, shunned by society, framing it as a heroic liberation just seems kinda icky). Livia, rather than being a captive, is with Bajujh willingly and even has a son with him. Conan double crosses Bajujh and Livia flees. Conan manages to save her, and she reacts with fear, begging for her life and that of her child. This helps Conan finally realize how low he's sunk so he spares Livia, sending her home to Ophir. However this costs him command of the Bamulah, who see sparing a potential enemy as a weakness.
Episode 3: Snout in the Dark Part 1: Conan arrives in Shumballah and gets dragged into the intrigues of the city.
He has an affair with Queen Tananda but it's very empty compared to what he had with Belit.
Episode 4: Snout in the Dark Part 2: I'd hold over a few things from the Dark Horse adaptation, namely Conan leaves with the rest of the royal guard. Diana is a Nemedian Noblewoman in this story.
Episode 5: Conan runs into his old unit from Season 2 and is appalled at the miserable state of affairs. Turns out that after Conan left Amalric died, and the man who replaced him (Aratus) has mismanaged the unit disgracefully. Conan challenges Aratus for control and wins, sending Aratus fleeing.
However things aren't going quite so well for Conan romantically; Diana makes a move on him, but Conan is still wounded by Belit's death and doesn't take (Causing her to have an affair with Conan's second in command.)
Episode 6: Regaining your Drive: Conan is forced to take on some jobs in order to help whip the unit back into shape; but that is easier said then done.
He manages to pull it off though by taking a Shemtic City State.
Episode 7: The Rebel Prince: Conan takes the Company to fight in the Civil War in Koth.....unfortunately he does TOO good a job and Strabby ends up suing for peace, which the prince accepts. Out of options, Conan takes his mercenaries east.
Episode 8: Return to Turan: Conan takes the crew east, where they start kicking ass and taking names all the way through Turan. We also meet Olivia during this point, and see the horrors she endures.
Episode 9: Conan and the others continue their escapades....but they are spied on by Sergius and Aratus. Seeing a chance to get revenge on Conan for what he did to them; throughout the season we see Diana and Conan's second form a romantic relationship.
Episode 10: Blood on the Illbars; the events leading up to the Illbars, and the Illbars itself. Everything goes wrong. Diana, the royal guardsmen who have been accompanying him since Snout in the Dark, the other mercs? They're all butchered to a man.
Episode 11: The Crucible: In the aftermath of the Illbars River Massacre, Conan is at his lowest point. Taunted by visions, he must find the strength within to fight on (we see hallucinations of Belit, Diana, his friends, even Amalric makes an appearance). Unlike the comic (where we find out that the ghosts are VERY real) I'd keep it ambiguous as to whether or not they are appearing or if it's just a hallucination. Conan ultimately faces his doubts and forgives himself, settling his arc for the season. He then proceeds to rip Shah Amurath a new asshole.
Episode 12: Iron Shadows in the Moon: This would be another feature length episode and the season finale.
Season 5:
Episode 1: We have a bit of a timeskip here; Conan and Olivia are now lovers and Olivia has really adapted to being a pirate (Even the other men follow her without question.) However Conan's escapades have caused a lot of problems for Turan's navy; Conan meets the squadmate who let him go back in Season 2 and is tragically forced to kill the guy. Olivia doesn't understand since he was Turanian but Conan is genuinely upset (the guy HAD been his friend and had saved his life.)
Episode 2: Devil In Iron Part 1: This....would require an overhaul. The original story had WAY to many moving parts in it and it creates a kind of convoluted mess. So I'd change things somewhat while keeping the cool stuff like Khostra Khel. Basically Octavia escapes on her own initiative and flees to an island in the Vilayet with Jenhugir in hot pursuit. As it happens Conan and his crew have set up shop on the island for the night at the same time. However, this is complicated when Khostra Khel is revived from the dead, setting the stage for a glorious clusterfuck.
Episode 3: Devil In Iron Part 2: Basically everything explodes in a three way battle between Conan Jenhugir's forces and Khostra Khel. In the end Conan comes out on top, albeit with less soldiers than before. Octavia tries to make a move on Conan but Olivia VERY quickly stomps on that. Conan's HER man. No one elses.
Episode 4: Raid on Khwarazeim part 1: Octavia suggests that they attack Khwarazeim; Conan agrees but feels they'll need more pirates to pull off the attack. As such he starts to gather his forces.
We get a lot of cutthroat negotiations with the pirate captains, and even with some local Kozak tribes in order to secure aid. We also see a bit of back and forth between Octavia and Olivia. Octavia is rather appalled that Olivia (a princess) is so at home amongst the pirates (even the men leering at Octavia show Olivia nothing short of respect).
Episode 5: Raid on Khwarazeim part 2: Khwarazeim burns as the gamble pays off; Octavia kills Ghanzavi as a bit of payback and the city is looted dry by the pirate armada. In fact it's such a success that most of the crew decide to retire on the gold they've looted. Conan is one of them but Olivia is rather used to life as a pirate and so they part ways (Conan also doesn't want to jinx things). Conan heads back west with Octavia.
Episode 6: Conan and Octavia have their own adventure
; in the process they develop a romance more gradually, with Octavia even realizing how shallow her life back in Nemedia was. This also fleshes out more of her backstory.
Episode 7: Conan and Octavia meet Taramis when Conan saves her from bandits; he impresses her to the point where she offers him a position in her guard. Conan has his run in with Vladislav's crew but doesn't meet the man himself.
Episode 8: Conan earns his keep in Taramis's guard; Taramis and Conan do NOT have a romantic relationship. Rather there's a genuine sense of friendship between them. Valerius has a crush on her but Taramis is oblivious. We also meet Khajara and establish her as this really sweet cutie who has a very idealistic view of the world (yeah it's not gonna last). However we also see Constantius arrive, we see him conferring in the shadows with an unknown partner.
Episode 9: Salome reveals herself, and we get everything up to Conan's crucifixion and Olgerd saving him.
Notably Octavia replaces Igva (for the sake of pragmatism.)
Episode 10: This would cover two sections; on one hand we see Valerius trying to survive in the increasingly decadent regime. We also see some young women getting sold into slavery (one girl in particular, Khajara, will come back).
Episode 11: Setup for the finale. Conan usurps Olgerd but leaves him alive. Salome and Taramis have that scene in the dungeon but Salome also gives a bit of a motive rant. She rants that Taramis had EVERYTHING handed to her from birth whereas Salome had to whore herself out to survive, and how while Taramis had loving parents her father figure threw her aside like garbage because she didn't live up to his standards. It's clear that Salome is an evil bitch but it does give her a bit of pathos. Taramis also shows a bit more backbone, calling Salome out on the fact that her crappy childhood doesn't excuse her wickedness. Valerius learns that Salome is impersonating Taramis and the stage is set before the final battle.
Episode 12: Big final battle sequence; Thog goes down with more difficulty and Taramis does express a small bit of sympathy for Salome as she dies (i.e. "Yes she was a monster, but she was still my sister. And....maybe if she had been raised alongside me things would have been different.") Conan takes his leave after crucifying Constantius
; Octavia, having grown close to Valerius during their time on the run in the city, opts to stay with him.
Season 6:
This would feature another deviation; Conan would be a protagonist but we also focus on other characters as well to add more variety. Yezdigerd would get more focus, and we also focus on Khajara (because with Conan we don't want to keep repeating the same formula again and again; seeing people REACT to his rise allows the story to progress while still keeping things interesting.
Episode 1: Conan heads back East to Pillage Turan; he meets another chieftain and manages to take control of the guys army. Despite the guy's attempts at treachery Conan manages to win the challenge for control of his army.
Episode 2:
This would be a departure since for the first time in the entire show Conan DOESN'T actually show up. Instead the focus is on Khajara (the unfortunate girl sold off into slavery) going through ABSOLUTE TORTURE in Turan as everything that can go wrong for her DOES go wrong (her master is a disgusting pig who rapes her). Eventually she reaches her absolute breaking point, but gets comforted by another slave in the household. The slave tells her "life's not a fairytale. It's brutal and cruel and you have to do whatever it takes to survive in this world." So she takes advantage, levying her natural charms, pretending to submit to her master while plotting his downfall, and finally succeeds by revealing her master's plan to assassinate Yezdigerd to the man himself. She parleys this into being a new concubine.
Episode 3: The Red Eagle: Conan learns that the Red Eagle (one of Yezdigerd's greatest generals) has held several villages hostage to force Conan into a confrontation. Conan being Conan, he manages to outsmart the guy and kills him, sending Yezdigerd his head. We also focus more on the other plot of Khajara worming her way into Yezdigerd's heart (she's become a LOT more ruthless and cruel in her actions, either discrediting rivals or even having them maimed.)
Episode 4: Yezdigerd is deeply furious but Khajara manages to use her (Admittedly limited) experience with Conan to suggest using stealth. Send someone to infiltrate the horde and destroy it from within. Yezdigerd agrees to this and decides to dispatch Kerim Shah. From here we see intrigue as Conan and the others do their thing but we don't get the reveal of WHO the spy is until the very end of the episode. The audience (and Conan) are led to believe another man was the spy. It's only at the very last scene that we know for certain (after Kerim set up another person as his fallguy.)
Episode 5: Kerim Shah, as per his plan, lobbies for an attack on the city of Agraphur itself. Conan allows himself to be swept up in it, and manages to persuade even Olivia (Who is now the Pirate Queen of the Vilayet) to help out in the attack; however the trap is sprung and the entire army is mostly wiped out. Everything's in shambles for Conan but Khajara is now on top of the world, having been promoted to his chief wife for her role in suggesting the plan.
Episode 6: Agraphur. Conan is able to rally his soldiers to at least help him save their compatriots; ultimately Conan is able to succeed by holding Khajara hostage. As cruel as Yezdigerd is he DOES love her and so reluctantly orders the release of the hostages in exchange for her life (Conan has her at knifepoint and only frees her AFTER the prisoners are free and clear.) This would be a way to show that Conan's no boyscout. It's made clear that he ABSOLUTELY WOULD KILL HER if Yezdigerd said no. It also gives Yezdigerd a bit of humanity, showing that he DOES love people even if he's a ruthless SOB. It also gives him reason to SERIOUSLY hate Conan (Conan basically made him show weakness in front of the entire capital city.)
Episode 7: Journey to Vendhaya. Conan heads ever eastward and manages to fall in with a tribe of badass warriors.
He overcomes disdain in order to get the position but get it he does. However, Yezdigerd's suffering a bit of bad PR since Conan forced him to release the prisoners and so sets his sights on Vendhaya to hopefully distract people.
Episode 8: Conan exploits but we also see Kerim Shah (who's star has also risen) set things up with the Black Seers of Yimsha and poor Bundra Chan's condition worsens. The chiefs are also captured.
Episodes 9-11: People of the Black Circle adaptation: A lot of plot threads are tied up. Kerim Shah gets his comeuppance, and Conan is able to leave again. He and Yasmina have a complicated relationship. Yasmina is clearly attracted to Conan and is seriously considering his offer but she feels obligation. Still, she and Conan part under amicable terms.
These would be longer episodes than usual (a little over an hour.)
Episode 12: Conan heads back west but Yezdigerd's in a pretty shitty position. His attempt to take Vendhaya has failed, and now many of his courtiers are plotting against him. After one attempt at his life fails he initiates a massacre godfather style to shut down ANY Further attempts. He swears that Conan will pay for his humiliation. This will bare bitter fruit in the final season.
Season 7: Episode 1: Shadows in Zamboula Part 1: Conan makes his way to Zamboula, but is incognito since he's now numero uno on Yezdigerd's hit list. I'd ditch the black cannibals and replace them with a bunch of random thugs holding Nefertari hostage. Conan DOESN'T ask for her body as payment but asks for gold.
Episode 2: Shadows in Zamboula Part 2: Conan and Nefertari take down Tortamesk. Conan also takes the Star of Khorala before getting his revenge on Aram Baksh.
Episode 3: Conan joins the rebel prince's army back west; he meets a young mercenary named Amalric and they hit it off. He's also bought a new set or armor and weaponry with the money gained from the Star. The war goes badly and they flee south into Shem.
Episode 4: Conan purchases Natala from a Shemite city state they conquered but as they flee yet more enemies into Stygia things REALLY go bad when Stygia unleashes a black magic plague on the army, decimating most of them. Conan, Natala and Amalric flee into the south, but they get separated. Conan and Natala go one way, Amalric and a few other mercenaries go the other.
Episode 5: Shadows of Xuthal: This would be a longer feature length episode and would be a straight adaptation of the story
Episode 6: We cut to Amalric for most of the episode; he saves Lissa from a few other guys (they're not all black; some are but others are white). Amalric falls in love with Lissa and decides to help her, slaying the evil demon that lives in the tower. He nearly dies, but Conan and his allies save him.
Episode 7: Conan takes Amalric back to Tombalku, and he explains how he and Natala got in good with Sakumbe. We're introduced to a lot of the political conflicts in the background but things explode into violence; Conan, Lissa, Amalric and Natala flee the slaughterhouse. Natala goes with Lissa and Amalric while Conan heads west.
Episode 9: Pool of the Black One, Part 1: Conan, having fled Tombalku, finds himself on Black Zaprovo's ship. Conan begins to plot taking control of the ship (as well as stealing Zaprovo's woman.) Conan ambushes and kills Zaprovo, but then the creatures attack.
Episode 10: Conan saves Sancha and the crew from the Creatures, and they flee.
Episode 11: Conan and Sancha have a pirate adventure; however their success pisses off a lot of other captains, who start making plans.
Episode 12: The other captains ambush Conan, and their efforts result in Conan loosing the wastrel on a reef. He and Sancha manage to escape the ship, but go their separate ways.
Season 8: This season would also have an overarching theme; Conan realizing that his heart just isn't in mercenary life anymore. It's just more of the same to him.
Episode 1: Conan the Scout: Conan takes a job in the Aquilonian army as a scout; we get buildup for Zogar Sag in this episode, as he gets beaten and begins plotting his revenge.
Episode 2: Beyond the Black River Part 1: Everything up to when they break into the pict camp
Episode 3: Beyond the Black River Part 2: The rest of the tale.
Episode 4: Conan gets captured by the Picts; he manages to escape, going into the wilderness and finding the treasure of Tranicos.
Episode 5: The Black Stranger Part 1: Buildup for everything; Conan only appears towards the end of the episode
Episode 6: The Black Stranger Part 2: The rest of the story. Conan sends Tina and Belesa with some of the treasure to Khitai.
Episode 7: The Battle of Vedilidad: Conan raids the city but is bothered to find that his heart just isn't in it anymore. He kinda wants more in his life at this point. So he voluntarily steps down as a pirate captain and decides to try being a mercenary again.
Episode 8: Conan goes to Stygia and finds work there, but again he can't shape the feeling of malaise. He is interested when Valeria proves her badassery and he goes to help her.
Episode 9: Feature length episode: This would be easily the longest episode in the show up to this point. We get the entire episode of Red Nails from beginning to end.
Episode 10: Jewels of Gwahalur Part 1: The first part of Jewels of Gwahalur, but Valeria is alongside Conan this time.
Episode 11: Jewels of Gwahalur Part 2: Conan and Valeria continue the adventure, but since Valeria's there they walk away with both the girl AND the jewels.
Episode 12: Conan, Valeria and Muriela head north to Aquilonia.
Season 9:
Episode 1: Conan returns and manages to regain his position in the Aquilonian army. However a major pict attack occurs. Conan manages to successfully fend off the attack, earning a major promotion.
Episode 2: Conan continues to kick ass and gains more acclaim from the people; this doesn't sit well with Numidides (who despite being a handsome and charming man has a MAJOR dark side.) In the end he has Conan drugged and thrown into the Iron Tower to be executed on trumped up charges.
Episode 3: Conan is held captive in the Iron Tower and set to die. Valeria risks everything to save him and does.....but dies in the process. Conan decides that this means war and goes after Numidides.
Episode 4: Conan begins to rally the troops, scoring major victories. Numidides begins to grow increasingly unhinged.
Episode 5: The Day of the Lion: Conan and Numidides face off in a winner take all showdown for Aquilonia's crown. Conan stranges Numidides to death on his throne and takes the crown. Hurray......now he has to deal with the tedium of actually RUNNING a kingdom.
Episode 6: The Phoenix on the Sword: Somewhat longer than usual episode (An hour and ten minutes, possibly an hour and 15 minutes).
Episode 7: Conan gets his first real taste of responsibility when a farmer demands justice for his murdered daughter (a nobleman had murdered her when she refused his advances.) Conan agrees to help the farmer get justice and has the nobleman executed for his crime. However, this pisses off the kid's dad, who tries to assassinate Conan at a banquet. The experience is when Conan starts to realize the importance of being King.
Episode 8: State Visit: Conan undergoes his first State Visit, to the Nemedian capital of Belvarus. We see more of Conan getting into the role of King and we also get our first glimpses of Zenobia and Tarasus.
Episode 9: Conan has to fend off yet another attempt on his life....but this one hits a lot closer to home. See.....it's the daughter of the commander of Venarium that he slept with all those years ago. Turns out that the fall of Venarium basically ruined her life and she blames Conan for it. This is yet another major turning point for Conan, as he's faced with a stark reminder that your actions do have consequences.
Episode 10: Filler episode
Episode 11: The Scarlet Citadel Part 1: Notably here Conan's rejection of the offer is a sign of his growth during the latter half of this season.
Episode 12: The Scarlet Citadel Part 2
Season 10: The Hour of the Dragon Season
Episode 1: A sort of prologue: We see the Zamorian thieves trying to get the heart of Ahriman from underneath the temple. While Conan makes a cameo appearance or two the thieves are the main focus.
Episode 2: Xaltotun rises; We see him waste the Nemedian Royal Family with a plague, and we ALSO see him put Epimitreus in a coma to keep him from interfering (which explains why the fuck he didn't warn Conan in the book.)
Episode 3: Conan as a captive in Belvarus's royal palace. Zenobia frees him, and we get the daring escape (the fight with the beast is more extended.) Conan flees after giving her a big damn kiss.
Episode 4: Conan meets Zelata and frees the Countess Albiona from the Iron Tower.
Episode 5: The escape; Conan meets the Priests of Ahriman and they agree to help him escape. We also see Valerius beginning his hunt for Conan, sending the ninjas after Conan.
Episode 6: The battle sequence with Conan in the castle and the forest of ghouls. We also see Xaltotun revealing more of his evil plan, and making arrangements (creating framework for his spell.)
Episode 7: Conan heads to Argos; literally the entire section in Argos. We also see Xaltotun's machinations develop.
Episode 8: Conan and the Black Corsairs; However we ALSO see Valerius going off the deep end and the development of Xaltotun's machinations as they progress.
Episode 9: First part of the Stygian infiltration. Ends with Conan encountering Akivasha
Episode 10: Akivasha up to Conan leaving the temple. He flees home.
Episode 11: Setup for the final battle; Orastes finally realizes that he's bitten off more than he can chew and dies for it; Conan returns to lead his people.
Episode 12: Big final battle sequence. I'd have Zenobia be the girl on the altar (as Tim Truman said it's more dramatic) and Conan confronts Xaltotun as well (he tries to resist the heart but as it weakens him Conan decapitates the bastard. He then proceeds to win the rest of the battle.
Grand Finale Movies:
These would tie up some of the loose ends (Yezdigerd, Thoth Amon). Yezdigerd gets defeated when his attempt at getting revenge on Conan fails. Conan kills him. Thoth Amon tries to complete Xaltotun's work but also to revive Greater Stygia and rule over both as a god emperor. He too is defeated.
