Creativity Quote by Todd McFarlane

McFarlane is voicing a very fandom-specific kind of whiplash: the moment when you get exactly what you asked for and realize that accuracy can still feel dead on arrival. The line lands because it’s conversational and slightly conflicted, the way people actually talk when they’re trying to be fair about something they didn’t quite enjoy. “I even knew some of the dialogue” isn’t a flex so much as a credential: he’s not judging from the cheap seats. He’s signaling deep familiarity with the source, and by extension, with the culture of adaptation discourse that treats “loyalty” like a moral test.

The real bite is in “too loyal.” It’s a neat inversion of the default complaint (Hollywood ruins everything). McFarlane, an artist who built his reputation in comics where voice, pacing, and panel rhythm are the medium, is hinting at an industry truth: translation isn’t tracing. A script that feels electric in a comic panel, buoyed by stylization and the reader’s control over tempo, can become stiff when performed verbatim. Fidelity can preserve the words while losing the experience.

Contextually, this reads like a creator/fan reacting to an adaptation of a beloved property (very likely comics adjacent), where the production may have treated the source as sacred text. McFarlane’s subtext is pragmatic, not precious: loyalty is only valuable when it serves the new form. Otherwise, it’s cosplay with a budget.