The animated series pulls fragments from Valve’s world and characters and patches them together with new pieces into an original story of sex, violence, and politics. Following the first season’s debut in March 2021, Valve did add of the show’s original characters to the game, Marci. While I found the first series too edgy and plodding, I do think it’s good to be able to separate source material from adaptations, to treat them as different things, enjoy them for different reasons, and not get hung up on differences. I found Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop to be fine because I was prepared for something on the scale of, like, a Canadian sci-fi TV series. And I’m currently watching Netflix’s Archive 81, which is based on a horror fiction podcast I really enjoyed but takes it in a different direction with a wildly different tone. It’s not the Archive 81 I knew, but that’s fine. I’m only disappointed that we’re not seeing a Dota series as joyous and silly as Valve’s game or Valve’s own animated shorts. While Netflix offer orgies, genocide, and showers of viscera, Valve goof off with gangs of cookie thieves.
