darchildre: a road leading straight to a distant horizon.  text:  "path of the beam" (road to faraway)
Renfield ([personal profile] darchildre) wrote2013-12-28 09:50 pm
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So, I went to see The Hobbit today and you guys, I am full of feelings about Middle Earth.

I used to reread Tolkien a lot and then I guess I reached a saturation point where I didn't feel like I needed too any more. (This point may have been the moment when I realized that there were significant chunks of dialogue in Two Towers that I could recite by heart. I'm pretty sure I can still do that.) So I don't reread LotR every year anymore and I go long stretches of time thinking that I've outgrown high fantasy. But then something comes along and makes me think about Middle Earth and no, I haven't outgrown high fantasy. I see the flaws in it now, maybe, but I still love it.

And I like Peter Jackson's movies. They're not the books, but they're glorious fanfic full of love for the source and that makes me happy. I don't need them to be the books - I have the books to be the books. The movies make me happy in different ways.


For example - I am totally into Tauriel/Kili, to a degree that I totally did not expect. They are adorable. Both of them are also totally great on their own, of course, but they make a really cute couple and I look forward to fanfiction.

Also I love Radagast to a possibly ridiculous degree. I'm pretty sure a lot of that affection is due to the fact that I am predisposed to love Sylvester McCoy playing a somewhat dotty wizard who's probably smarter than most people realize, but still. I have always been fond of Radagast, who just wants to hang out in the forest and talk to birds. That's great. That is totally the kind of wizard I would be.

Elven war acrobatics are totally hilarious and I love them. They are so ridiculous. As is the whole of Thranduil - he is so absurd and so great. I think he is my favorite elf ever.

There may come a day when I stop being the world's most ridiculous pedant and thus also stop complaining about movies featuring creatures who are supposed to be dragons but who are instead clearly wyverns, but it is not this day. I don't know, you guys, it really bugs me for no good reason. Other than that, Smaug was great.

The problem, though, with the Hobbit movies, is that they make you fall in love with all these funny, absurd, brave dwarves, and I know they're going to die. Even setting aside Thorin, Fili, and Kili, there was a bit in this movie where it suddenly hit me that, years from now, Balin dies failing to retake Moria, and the thought made me so very sad. These stupid, dwarves, you guys. It's terrible. The third movie is going to make me cry so hard.

I have to take my sister to the airport tomorrow and then go to work on Monday. This is sad, because it means I probably don't have time for a giant Lord of the Rings marathon any time soon.
selenak: (Thorin by Meathiel)

[personal profile] selenak 2013-12-29 10:49 am (UTC)(link)
I had similar reactions - especially surprise!affection for Kili/Tauriel, and advantage fretting on behalf of the doomed dwarves. In addition to Balin's fate, Philippa Boyens, cruel, cruel woman, also pointed out in the audio commentary to An Unexpected Journey that the skeleton holding the book next to Balin's tomb in Fellowship is none other than little Ori. Wahhhhh!
schneefink: River walking among trees, from "Safe" (Default)

[personal profile] schneefink 2013-12-29 10:53 am (UTC)(link)
Why is Smaug a wyvern?
schneefink: River walking among trees, from "Safe" (Default)

[personal profile] schneefink 2013-12-29 05:01 pm (UTC)(link)
I never noticed that! Cool :)