Random randomness

[wiseheart]

Cos I'm on sick leave, although the sickness has passed, and feel like babbling a bit, yo!

The telly - or why I might end up spend my hard-earned cash on shows that I cannot watch, even though everyone says they're rubbish.

I heard really, really bad things about Starz' Camelot. So I googled a bit, and what I saw confirmed my worst fears. Come on, guys, WTF, Arthur a girl??? Okay, I know he technically isn't a girl, but he looks like one. Imagining him having sex with the actual girls on the show is... off-putting, to say the least. No offence against anyone, but if I wanna watch femslash, the least I could demand would be that both participants be real girls, right? At least Bradley James looks like a knight who would be capable of raising his sword without collapsing under its weight.

But... the show stars Eva Green as Morgan, and she looks absolutely stunning. I could never warm up to Katie McGrath's Morgana, so perhaps I should give "Camelot" a chance, after all. Plus, it has Sean Pertwee, with whom I've been in selfless love ever since I saw him as Hugh Beringar. And Clive Standen! *flails* Granted, I only saw him in Dr. Who, where he had a total of about three seconds of screen time, but I'm so totally fangirling him. Embarrassing, really, considering that I could be his mother. Ah, well. I might even buy some random Robin Hood episodes to watch him. I'm shallow that way. I like me some ruggedly handsome men from time to time.


Procrastinating - or the pain of too many choices after finishing a story.

Now that I've finally gotten "Eye Witness" out of my hair (not that anybody but artemis10002000 would give a rat's arse about my Torchwood fic), I've taken a good hard look of my unfinished WIPs - and blanched. There are too many, in too many different fandoms!

My best candidates to be finished in the foreseeable future would be "Vox Angelica" in the Cadfael fandom, "Brothers-in-Arms" (also in the Cadfael fandom) and "A Visitor from Avalon", my Merlin-Torchwood crossover. Consequently, what have I done all day? Background work on "Sea-Flower", a pre-Ring-War Tolkienfic taking place in Umbar.

Yeah, right. That's me, doing the least logical thing. But at least I've figured out how to include the bull games and cast some of the characters. Not surprisingly, Princess Ivriniel will be played by Eva Green and Lord Caliondo of Umbar will be played by Clive Standen. What? I told you I'm shallow! And I need my visuals. I'm seriously considering having Colin Morgan play the Dark Elf assassin, but I'm not sure I can pull that one out. Although he'd be creepy. Oh, and the malicious Haradric slave girl is played by Indira Varma.


Baking - yep, I did some of that, too!

Not much; we won't dare eating anything with cream in the next few days, so I made some Ischler and a small lamb out of almond biscuit. And I hung up the decorated eggshells in the living room. Mum is pleased with the results, so I'm pleased, too.


Other than that, I'm lazing around and wishing I had people I could discuss silly fannish things with. But you can't have everything.

Comments

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I absolutely despised Weaving as Elrond. I still do. But again, there's precious little that I actually liked in the LOTR films.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I do remember that I have other, more substantial objections to the LOTR films: the Ents needing to be tricked into going to war and Faramir being changed beyond all recognition to name two. However, I have read the books so often -- and reread them every time after watching one of the films when they came out -- that in my head I just edit the films to match up with the book. The one thing that isn't so easy to fix in this way is who plays Elrond.

I did have a conversation with a colleague once where I said "That isn't how it really happened" about something in the films; my colleague made some comment about the books not being "real" either...

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

People nearly beat me up during TTT. I watched it with Mum and a friend, and at every five minutes, my friend and I were moaning: "That isn't how it should be! What are these freaks doing?"

And then the Elves arrived at Helm's Deep, Haldir made his grand entrance, and Mum asked in the innocence of her old heart: "Tell me, is that bloke actually gay?" Loudly. It was an epic moment.

Yeah, Faramir was my pet hate, too, aside from Denethor and his absolutely undignified death, and the horrid exorcism scene at Meduseld, and Saruman being a silly old hippie with a bad manicure, the Wargs that didn't look a bit like wolves, Pippin, who did look like an ugly old woman, Éowyn who was such an anorexic wallflower that by rights she should have collapsed under the weight of her mail shirt, the Barbie Elves in Lórien, Gimli cheapened to comic relief, and... and... and...

And don't even let me start on Frodo. Whenever he rolled his eyes back and fainted, Mum commented scathingly: "Did that little idiot keel over again?"

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

There were a lot of things I found very hard to take about the films, but Faramir & Denethor were the things I absolutely couldn't tolerate. Two of my very favourite characters, completely trashed.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Well, Gimli, Merry and Pippin were trashed, too. And Legolas, the Idiot. *grrrrrrr*

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Yes, but none of those was among my very favourites. And I don't much like book-Legolas to be honest. Or at least I thought he was the thinnest of the Fellowship characters in the book.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Funny, I always loved him. And Gimli. And their friendship. But again, I started off with "The Hobbit", and Legolas was the son of the Elvenking and Gimli was the son of Glóin, so I was kind of biased from the beginning.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I think I first read The Lord of the Rings and went back for The Hobbit, but I was so young it's hard to recall. Let's see, top ten LotR characters... perhaps Denethor, Aragorn, Faramir, Saruman, Elrond, Galadriel, Gandalf, Theoden, Bilbo & Treebeard, though I keep changing my mind. Denethor/Thorongil is the pairing I most adore.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

The films have completely changed my character preferences. I used to adore Aragorn, Faramir, Elrond, Galadriel, Gandalf and Frodo - now I can't stand any of them.

Well, Gandalf was okay as long as he was the Grey, even if a bit more hysterical than one would expect from an incarnate Maia, but when he became the White... Apparently, the bleach has ruined his brains and his character irreparably.

But Sean Bean made me a devout Boromir fangirl, and ever since then I steadfastly refuse to accept Aragorn's claim for the throne of Gondor. ;) Especially the claim of whiny, emo movie!Aragorn.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

My character preferences have stayed much the same, I just completely ignore the film versions even when I quite like them. I always felt Aragorn's claim to the throne rested more on the incumbent Steward's madness & his heir's death than anything else. I'd like to see what might have happened had Faramir been a different character who cared to challenge, especially after his alliance with Rohirric royalty.

Sean Bean was indeed wonderful as Boromir. His death scene was the best bit of all three films, I think, and the only thing that I felt was dramatically more successful than the book.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I think if Boromir were alive, Denethor wouldn't have succumbed to madness, and with the two of them around, Aragorn would have had a frigging hard time to get onto the throne. There was the small matter of Pelendur's Law, after all, which got conveniently forgotten, just because Faramir felt way too grateful and had no ambitions to rule, and everyone else was dead.

All my favourite scenes in the films were about Boromir. First, at the Council, where he tells the idiots that "One does not simply walk into Mordor..." Then in Lórien, when he speaks about the ringing of silver trumpets. And then, of course, the death scene. No offence to Viggo Mortensen, but Sean Bean was the absolute best, and the real hero of the first film.

The second and third films were so much worse than even the first one, IMO, that I won't even start about them. I'm quaking with fear how "The Hobbit" is going to turn out.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

No offence to Viggo Mortensen, but Sean Bean was the absolute best, and the real hero of the first film.

One of the good things for me was the way Mortensen & Bean played off each other. Bean was much weaker opposite Wenham.

The second and third films were so much worse than even the first one, IMO

Indeed. I was a bit curmudgeonly about Fellowship, but generally thought it was enjoyable, especially the first half, and while I didn't agree with all their decisions I could understand them. But the other two... there were bits I liked, but they were drowned in an ocean of bits I hated.

I'm quaking with fear how "The Hobbit" is going to turn out.

I was really looking forward to del Toro's vision. Jackson does seem to have pulled in some good actors, though, if Wikipedia is to be believed. Not sure what Ken Stott will make of Balin, my favourite TH character, though.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Wenham is a joke. A bad one. Unfortunately, just before the second film aired, I saw him on TV in some really cheap, Aussie soft porn, and whenever I was supposed to take him seriously as Faramir (hah! that caricature of an ill-used character!) the mental image before my eyes was how he scratched his naked arse after urinating in that crap.

You're a Balin lover, too? I absolutely adore Balin. Although I'm very fond of Bombur as well. Fat people must stick together, the world is a hostile enough place for everyone who doesn't look like a starving rat.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I was lucky enough never to have heard of Wenham before, and he was so bad I've gone out of my way to avoid him since.

And yes, a signed-up Balin fan. I'd love to write some The Hobbit fic with the early years of him re-establishing Moria. Perhaps more likely to put it as a Yuletide request.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I always felt that Faramir didn't want to rule Gondor. It was never his job growing up but rather Boromir's, of course, but I think that Faramir was never jealous of this. He saw what a hard job it was and then getting it instead of Boromir would always have reminded him (as if he needed to!) of how his brother was dead, and his father didn't think he was as good. I felt Faramir was quite pleased to be able to relinquish the ruling of Gondor to Aragorn and I think he had a better life for not having to do it.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

You do have a point here. I think he and Boromir would have been a fabulous team, sharing different kinds of responsibilities: those of the soldier and of the scholar. I think it tells a lot about Denethor's fortitude that he managed to be both.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think Boromir and Faramir would have been a great ruling team. They did seem to care for and respect each other, not so much in spite of their differences as because of them, so I think they would have been very pleased to have each other's help. You are right that it says a lot about Denethor that he could manage ruling Gondor on his own, but somehow his dislike and distrust of Gandalf who I adore makes me not care for Denethor.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I think that in a nutshell is what I love about book-Denethor; he's got the strong sides of both Faramir & Boromir.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Watching the LOTR films with you sounds like great fun! My family went to see them in the cinema and when we came out of TTT both my sister and I had identical reactions along the lines of "How could they do that to Faramir?". For reasons that aren't important the two of us ended up going to see it again with my aunt and her family; before going we warned my aunt that there were changes in the film that we found upsetting, without giving details. Her first comment when we got out was "They wrecked Faramir!"

I was never particularly fond of Denethor, so his death scene didn't affect me as much. The exorcism scene at Meduseld was horrid though and I will never forgive them for using Gimli for comic relief. However, as I mentioned above I only notice these things as I am actually watching the films, because as soon as it is not right in front of me my brain edits them to show the events as they appear in the book. Therefore the actual look of the actors playing the characters are more important to me than how they portray the character and what random completely pointless plot changes the film makers have implemented. Having said that though, I didn't much care for how Elrond was played in the film. I attributed this to them changing his character and making him more snobbish and superior than I think he comes off in the book. He does for example acknowledge that even if he sent one of the Elf warriors of old to go with Frodo this Elf would not be able to get him into Mordor by force.

I thought one of the best casting choices was Samwise. He looked like a proper hobbit in my mind. Boromir was good too, but he was never a favourite of mine.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Samwise was fantastic indeed. About the only good casting choice aside from Boromir.

It's interesting, that in the books, I didn't even like either Boromir, or Denethor. But I was completely converted by Sean Bean's performance, and now I'm a firm supporter of the Stewards against the King, hehehe.

As for poor Elrond... hard to believe that he used to be the one described "as kind as summer", eh? I used to love him in "The Hobbit" sooo much. And I feel deeply insulted on Frodo's behalf. How a fifty-some years old, steadfast Hobbit with a great deal of common sense ended up as a mentally imbalanced teenager on drugs, I'll never understand.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Yeah, even liking Weaving's performance, 'as kind as summer' got lost in the wash, unless JRRT was thinking of some desert country...

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Perhaps they thought they would prove Shakespeare's point from Sonnet #18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Yes, I know that is very far-fetched, but the idea made me giggle so I decided to share it.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

The thing I think they did best in the Fellowship of the Ring film was the Black Riders and their eerie screams; they make me jump with fear every time, even when I know it is coming. On the other hand I didn't find the balrog of the film anywhere near as frightening as I did in the book. What was scary about it to me was always that Gandalf -- the wizard we had learnt through all the book up to this point -- was scared of it. I can see that it is difficult to do that build-up of a character in a film, but they didn't even try in my opinion!

Have you heard the BBC radio play of The Lord of the Rings? It has Ian Holm as Frodo, and while it has obvious faults (like skipping things to fit into 13 one-hour episodes) it is worth listening to.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yep, the Black Riders were suitably creepy. And I loved Gollum, too, even though he was a bit too obviously CGI. They never really managed to make his movements seem natural, but he was well done nonetheless.

The Balrog wasn't bad, but it had too many devil-like attributes to be really scary. And yeah, characterization was rather low-key in all three films; what little was there, was done by the actors. *excuse me when I fangirl a little over Sean Bean's performance again*

No, I don't know the radio play. Ian Holm must have been quite good, though.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Edited to fix html-code.

Yes, Gollum was quite good. The orcs just seemed too ugly to me. Somehow they lost a bit of their power through that. Of course they wouldn't be beautiful but I think the film just piled on the ugly to the point where that was all the orcs were.

If you can get your hands on it, I definitely recommend listening to the radio play. They take liberties, like they start with the forging of the rings rather than the long-awaited party, but it is well done and as far as I can remember I was happy with the actors voicing all the main characters.