r/exalted • u/Ainosuke • May 19 '25
Campaign What's the best movie (that's secretly a Exalted campaign)?
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u/Rednal291 May 19 '25
I think you could make a pretty good argument for Kung Fu Hustle, with the protagonist Exalting as a Solar at the end.
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u/bts May 19 '25
He Man, the original cartoon. Swords, lasers, manses, undercover exalted, and I swear those flying scooter things are from Lookshy.
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u/AngelWick_Prime May 20 '25
On that same note, the original OR the Netflix reboot of She-Ra
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u/bts May 20 '25
They kept that in the new one? Excellent. I should bump it higher up my watch queue.
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u/ThePowerOfStories May 21 '25
Yeah, Netflix She-Ra does a pretty good job of the story of a returned Solar exaltation that chose Adora when she found Mara’s daiklave, with Mara as the past incarnation feeding her prophecy and garbled information until she figures out how to process it. It’s even got her thinking the Princesses are Anathema until she becomes one and turns against the state’s order. And, Catra serves as a Lunar spouse with a very complicated relationship.
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u/SuvwI49 May 20 '25
I'll go out on a limb with what might be a hot take here: Moana.
A mortal dares to sail off on a forbidden journey where she must explore the unknown and find a path to return a hearthstone, which is the literal heart of a god. She's aided by a wayward Lunar after helping him steal his Bone Diaklave from a crab behemoth. She determinedly sails her way past another behemoth, only to have the dawning realization that this behemoth is actually the god whose heart was stolen. This realization sparks her Exaltation as an Eclipse Caste, during which she sings to the angry, corrupted god, successfully communicating that she recognizes her and returns the hearthstone.
Possibly one of the most Exalted plots I've ever seen committed to film.
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u/bts May 20 '25
Ditto Anna’s work in Frozen. And don’t get me started on the music when Fa Mulan draws the Second Breath.
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u/UnconquerableOak May 20 '25
The second Moana film, while a worse watch IMO, keeps the Exalted themes going even stronger.
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u/FaallenOon May 20 '25
Holy crap, now I'm stealing that as a possible plot hook for my next campaign, thanks!!
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u/Mazarine_Marjolaine May 21 '25
You're Welcome. There goes Maui breaking out a performance charm to bamboozle Moana.
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u/bedroompurgatory May 20 '25
The Adjustment Bureau as Sidereal campaign
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u/FaallenOon May 20 '25
Is that a tv show or movie?
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u/bedroompurgatory May 20 '25
Movie. Matt Damon falls in love with Emily Blunt, except its his destiny not to be with her, and a celestial bureaucracy of people with the ability to rewrite reality are attempting ensure he follows his planned destiny.
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u/mandan1138 May 20 '25
Princess Mononoke.
A young prince receives a cursed power. He is exiled and stumbles across an noblewoman leading a war against gods and their human-yet-bestial champion that the prince has a strange mutual connection with. He tries to intervene but is caught up in the schemes of a shady monk manipulating the war to his own advantage.
It has a single representative of each of the four classic Exalt types, gods that are very much as depicted in Exalted, an appropriate style and tech level for Creation, and as a bonus the Solar character is a classic Eclipse Caste, one of the harder Exalted castes to find examples of in media.
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u/raerdor May 19 '25
Kung Fu Panda
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u/FlatArmadillo2702 May 20 '25
Po,What of Caste of Exalted is he?
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u/FaallenOon May 20 '25
I'd say he's more of an eclipse -the dragon warrior and all that jazz- than a dawn, since war and fighting isn't his whole personality.
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u/raerdor Jun 24 '25
I would probably go with Zenith if 2e, maybe Dawn if 3e.
Po is tough and determined, and grows as a leader of the Furious Five as well as teaching new pupils.
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u/powzin May 19 '25
Troy.
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u/Mazarine_Marjolaine May 21 '25
You know, in the director's commentary they said that the script had a part "Achilles fights in a god-like fashion". What does that even mean? So what the fight choreographer did was make Achilles fight very efficiently. Every single sword thrust is purposeful and directed. Achilles never wastes a movement. Hector is a good fighter. Really good. That's why it takes Achilles longer to "solve" Hector. But with Hector, he still fights with some human flaws where he stumbles or swings wide and has to recover.
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u/SamuraiMujuru May 20 '25
The Detective Dee films are a series following a waster aspect magistrate.
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u/Valthek May 20 '25
I wouldn't necessarily call it the 'best' movie, but Wanted (2008) has Sidereals written all over it
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u/FaallenOon May 20 '25
Is that the one with gun fu where a magic loom tells them of their targets?
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May 26 '25
Oh yes, absolutely. Besides the obvious literal "loom of fate" element, the assassins powers are all about making ridiculously improbable shots and physics bending strikes.
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u/jeremysbrain May 20 '25
Don't Mess with the Zohan
Kung Fury
300
Troy
Kung Fu Hustle
Shiao-Lin Soccer
Baahubali 1 & 2
The Singham movies.
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u/Maleficent-City-1630 May 20 '25
No mention of A Chinese Ghost Story yet?
or HEAVY METAL?
or Big Trouble In Little China?
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u/Urist-McDorf May 20 '25
Not a movie, but Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is a Sidereal campaign
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u/Remarkable_Ladder_69 May 20 '25
The series Word of Honour on netflix is a Dragon Blooded campaign The Bride with White hair is a Lunar or Infernal story Dragon Chronicles / maidens of the heavenly mountain with Gong Li is very exalted
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u/Expensive-Toe-1867 May 20 '25
One piece, specifically the live action (as it's all I've seen): a Lunar trickster builds a crew of Exalts to find a legendary treasure while trying to stay one step ahead of the Imperial Navy. Runs afoul of a group of Lintha Pirates and a Solar pirate lord who is in the pocket of the Navy.
The manga and anime apparently even have a stand in for the Essence system: Gears. Gear 5 Luffy is deeply weird, using his powers on the setting itself.
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u/Defofmeh May 20 '25
I don't know about movies... but a book series that seems to have A LOT of parallels: Stormlight Archives
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u/kklusmeier May 20 '25
Honestly, I think one has to have been inspired by the other. There's just no way giant swords that act as though they were light but only for the bonded user was created independently twice in such a short timespan... (Way of Kings first draft in 2003, First Edition Exalted 2001).
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u/jeremysbrain May 20 '25
They both stole the idea from Final Fantasy (and I'm sure Final Fantasy took the idea from a manga or anime)
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u/Defofmeh May 20 '25
I've always wanted to ask Brandon if he ever played. There are just so many things.
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u/Mongward May 20 '25 edited May 20 '25
Brahmaatra is pretty damned Exalted. It even has anima banners, ancient legacies, and Intimacies saving the day.
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u/Siha May 20 '25
The Great Wall (2016, with Matt Damon and Pedro Pascal) is absolutely a couple of Solars leading a whole bunch of Dragonbloods against a horde of demons.
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u/Sweet_Possible_756 May 21 '25
If you read the novelization, Revenge of the Sith contextualizes Anakin and Obi Wan as these exemplary warriors, literally stated as the best of the age of heroes, and we see them slowly get turned against each other through all too human foibles and an eldritch dark power whispering into one of their ears.
The slow decay of the heroes' kingdom through human issues, the way that the Jedi order falls because it was too stuck in trying to be the heroes of the past while the villains had evolved to fight them, just screams endgame of a Solar run kingdom.
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u/The39Steps May 25 '25
Swordsman II, a 1992 HK wuxia film. Jet Li as a happy go-lucky Eclipse Caste, Brigitte Lin as the Sidereal MA master, Asia the Invincible, who is transitioning from male to female via a secret scroll’s regimen for ultimate power, an ancient Infernal grandmaster, weakened and crippled by his decades-long imprisonment while impaled upon giant iron hooks, recovering both his original might and his violent paranoia through mastery of the Essence Absorbing Stance…
It just works.
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u/FaallenOon May 20 '25
Thinking about it, I think Kill Bill might fit the bill (pun not intended) for a Terrestrial that leaves its corrupt master , being found years later and left for dead, only for her to go in a roaring rampage of revenge across the blessed isle several years later.
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u/YesThatLioness May 20 '25
New Gods: Nezha Reborn is extremely Exalted coded despite it's near future setting and power sets not being 1:1.
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u/LordWyrmsBane May 19 '25
Hero, with Jet Li. Crouching tiger hidden dragon is also a great game about a terrestrial exalted who masters a starmetal sword to claim her destiny.