So, it is party time again, folks!

[wiseheart]

Each year this time, we launch my virtual birthday party, which starts on October 1 and ends on October 9 at midnight, sharp. The goals of the party are to post as many comments and collapse as many threads as possible, on as many new pages as we can. It is always great fun, as you can see if you check out the similar entries of the last few years.

This year, I'll also throw the real party at mid-time - and post the recipes of all the food that will be there for you, so that you can all participate if you want to. Virtual food has no calories.

Fandom-related discussions are as welcome as the ones about coffee or chocolate (just to name a few favourites from previous years), and, of course, pictures and recipes of birthday cakes. ;)

So, drop by, tell your story, post your pics or silly poems, ask questions you always wanted to ask and have a good time!

Soledad, in excited expectation




Oh, and by the way, to provide birthday gifts hobbit-style, I've got a revived story and a Kansas 2 update for you.

Enjoy!

Comments

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Ah, so you too were in Tolkien fandom back in the day!

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Yes - it was where I started out in fandom - wanting people to complain to about the movies.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Tolkien was probably my first offline fandom, way back in the 1980s, but I got online & into fanfiction with Blake's 7 in the 1990s. Most of the Tolkien fans I knew loved the films a whole lot more than I did, so I didn't get to complain very loudly.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

*nods*
I quite liked the first one, rolled eyes at some of the changes (especially Arwen) and things being missed out - liked the extended version more. Then had real problems with the second, especially the character assassination of Faramir, and all the excessive battle scenes. And the third was still a disappointment from there (evil Denethor, all the fighting, no scouring of the Shire, etc).

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Indeed, the first one was on the whole positive. I particularly enjoyed the Shire & Rivendell settings. Most of the changes (Glorfindel-Arwen; Bombadil; moving Boromir's death) made at least some sense.

But the cinema version of TTT was simply awful. Faramir was one of my favourites and I couldn't forgive that. And the warg fight/horse kissing -- don't get me onto that.

And, oh god, RotK -- suffice to say, Denethor was another of my favourites.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

and Arwen being randomly dieing...

Denethor is such a great and under appreciated character - just because he went wrong at the end - he managed to lead Gondor and hold Mordor at bay for so long. It is one of the things that makes me so sad that there is not more interesting Denethor stories in fandom.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I absolutely, positively agree with both of you. And I was so disappointed that so very few people were of the same opinion!

The Hobbit movies are evey bit as blasphemic. Interestingly enough, there, too, the second one is magnitudes worse than the first. I am already afraid of the third part.

Generally, the artwork is splendid, the writing is rubbish (save for the lines stolen from Tolkien), the canon rape is painful, and with the exception of Sean Bean and Martin Freeman, none of the actors really managed to convince me.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Generally, the artwork is splendid, the writing is rubbish
Yes. Although even the artwork fails at some points.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

It does, but it is easier to overlook, due to the hectic filming and the rubbish 3D stuff. It annoys me to no end.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

The bit that really disappointed me was Laketown - it just didn't look right to me -- too close to the water (I always imagined the buildings being on higher stilts with room for the boats beneath), too shoddy looking.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

You are right, Laketown was rubbish... and Beorn's house wasn't anything like on Tolkien's pictures, either.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Indeed! It was hard, back in the day, biting my tongue every time one of my friends raved.

I am definitely NOT going to watch the other Hobbit films -- the first one was bad enough...

Bean made Boromir into a tragic figure, in a way that didn't come over quite so well in the book. I found the settings got worse as time went on; the Shire & Rivendell were good; Moria a little disappointing; Lothlorien & Rohan completely wrong; Minas Tirith just rubbish.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Personally, I liked Rohan and loathed Rivendell - too decadent-looking for my taste, and the idea of everything, even the library (!) being open to the elements was just stupid, IMO.

The Shire ws beautiful indeed, Moria boring, and Minas Tirith, aside from the outside view where it indeed looked like a ship, could have been just any other city in Southern Europe.

What was your problem with Rohan? I mean, the buildings, not the Rohirrim, who were terrible.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Rivendell seemed to imply a lot of the use of the ring to make it safe and comfortable to live in....

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

The Rivendell Elves were terrible. I suspect Elven magic kept the books dry... I did like the valley a lot, though, and some of the Art Nouveau-influenced interiors.

Rohan was meant to be a plain with long grass, as I've seen in Mongolia. The NZ landscape was too rocky with too short-cropped grass, and not at all horse (as opposed to pony) country.

The buildings of Edoras were ok, but the hill fort had far too small a hill. (We have a set of hill forts locally, and they're nothing like that.)

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Boromir was good. Lothorien - yup, looked far too normal. Rohan seemed a mixture to me - I loved the horse heads on the end of the beams.
Minas Tirith seemed out of proportion, but some of the details were good - but the climbable rocks were wrong. Although I did enjoy seeming all the trebuchets.

I'm probably going to see the other Hobbit movie, just from curiosity.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Lothlorien seemed to exist in perpetual gloom, when the original is sunny.

Edoras wasn't too bad; some of the detailing was excellent -- it was the Rohan plains I really didn't like -- they should have been plains of long grass with no rocks, as I've seen in Mongolia. The rocky heath was terrible horse country.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

And those spiral staircases around the trees! Lórien was populated by Silvan folk - would they really hammer nails in the trees, so that Galadriel wouldn't have to climb a ladder? Oh, please!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Like a train crash you can't help watching with morbid fascination.
I'll watch it for Martin Freeman, though. He's an excellent Bilbo, IMO.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Indeed; far too few decent Denethor stories. One of my all-time favourites was Dwim's 'Star & Stone' (Denethor/Thorongil) but I don't think she ever finished it.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Ohh, I'll have to see if I've read that one - if I did it was years ago. I've read a lot of her stories and it will certainly be interesting to see her take on that time (and characters).

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I think it was called 'Star & Stone' -- it was my favourite of her stories, but I had to give up checking for updates because I was so upset at her abandoning it.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

*nods* It is so sad to see good stories abandoned.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I had very similar feelings about the first film, which I went to see with my brothers and sister and Mum at Christmas. Then we went to see the second one the next year, and when we got out my sister and I were both boiling with anger over what they did to Faramir. As it happend we saw it shortly after with my aunt, her husband and son; having warned them that there were things we strongly disapproved of, it was quite heartening to have our aunt come out of the cinema and her first words being "They wrecked Faramir!". :-)

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Everyone here seems to agree!