Visuals vs imagination
Aug. 4th, 2018 07:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wiseheartI've been reading (and writing) a great deal of Hobbitfic lately; meaning fics related to The Hobbit, not fics featuring Hobbits in general. As a consequence, I realized once again how much the Peter Jackson films have influenced the fandom... and not necessarily in a good way.
Granted, I don't like the Peter Jackson films. I hated the LotR trilogy already, due to the horrible casting choices, character rape and the unnecessary plot changes, although I always admitted that the visuals were stunning - even if sometimes really unpractical. I mean, Rivendell's library with its hand-written, millennia-old books, open to the weather? Or staircases around the mellyrn in Lothlórien? Oh, please! Yes, I know I'm a bit of a snob, but at least Hobbiton and Rohan were fantastic - and Minas Tirith was pretty impressive, too.
My expectations towards The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey were accordingly very low. So low that I was almost positively surprised. I mean, the whole Goblin Town scene was unnecessarily long, repetitive and downright disgusting, and some of the Dwarves were pitiful caricatures, but I liked Richard Armitage as Thorin, Fíli and Kíli were acceptable, and Martin Freeman was absolutely amazing as Bilbo.
I could even have accepted the additional plotline about Azog (if they only gave him a different name - after all, we know that it was Bolg who led the Orc troops in the Battle of the Five Armies). A visual medium is different from a book, and watching the Dwarves trapsing across Middle-earth without a challenge would have become fairly boring.
What I absolutely hated was the whole Thranduil bashing. There's nowhere mentioned that Thranduil would have turned away from the homeless Dwarves in their time of need. Portraying him as a heartless coward was a very low move and one I'll never forgive Peter Jackson. Not that he'd care, but I'll hate and despise him for that forever.
Now back to the visuals vs imagination part: visuals are very suggestive. People who only ever saw the films - or saw them before reading The Book - will stuck with what they've seen forever. For them, Thranduil will ever remain an arrogant, heartless coward, Legolas will always remain a stupid blonde bimbo, Elrond will always remain old and ugly and most of the Dwarves will always remain stupid clowns. Not to mention poor Radagast...
It is very hard to write bookverse fanfic in these days. A great many readers consider canon what they saw in the films and are irritated by their mental image being questioned. My Hobbit fics have been conceived long before the films came out, so my Dwarves actually have seniority, and yet readers would expect them to be movieverse dolts. No wonder that some of my stories have more chapters than hits!
I won't even start on the second film - Beorn was ridiculous; looked more like a mangy wolf than a bear, his home was everything but the wide wooden halls he was supposed to inhabit, and where came the idiotic idea that he was the last of his kind? I hated what Jackson did with Bard, too. The only character I liked was Tauriel, despite the stupid, half-arsed romance with Kíli. She was an OC, so it spared us the butchering of a canon character, and the actress so good that I could have bought even the romance. Especially as it, thankfully, led to nowhere. That would have required quite a stretch of imagination, no matter how handsome the actor was.
And then my recurring pet peeve: the Orcs portrayed as if they were diseased people. I mean, if you watch Body Bizarre, you see very similar images of poor human beings disfigured by horrible tumors and stuff. I find it highly irresponsible to portray evil races that way.
I was so disgusted with the second film that I still haven't seen the third one, although I own it on DVD. One day, I'll gather up my strength, take a big dose of anti-emetics and will do so. But not before I finish my ongoing Dwarf stories. Because visuals are very suggestive and they might lead my storylines astray.
Granted, I don't like the Peter Jackson films. I hated the LotR trilogy already, due to the horrible casting choices, character rape and the unnecessary plot changes, although I always admitted that the visuals were stunning - even if sometimes really unpractical. I mean, Rivendell's library with its hand-written, millennia-old books, open to the weather? Or staircases around the mellyrn in Lothlórien? Oh, please! Yes, I know I'm a bit of a snob, but at least Hobbiton and Rohan were fantastic - and Minas Tirith was pretty impressive, too.
My expectations towards The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey were accordingly very low. So low that I was almost positively surprised. I mean, the whole Goblin Town scene was unnecessarily long, repetitive and downright disgusting, and some of the Dwarves were pitiful caricatures, but I liked Richard Armitage as Thorin, Fíli and Kíli were acceptable, and Martin Freeman was absolutely amazing as Bilbo.
I could even have accepted the additional plotline about Azog (if they only gave him a different name - after all, we know that it was Bolg who led the Orc troops in the Battle of the Five Armies). A visual medium is different from a book, and watching the Dwarves trapsing across Middle-earth without a challenge would have become fairly boring.
What I absolutely hated was the whole Thranduil bashing. There's nowhere mentioned that Thranduil would have turned away from the homeless Dwarves in their time of need. Portraying him as a heartless coward was a very low move and one I'll never forgive Peter Jackson. Not that he'd care, but I'll hate and despise him for that forever.
Now back to the visuals vs imagination part: visuals are very suggestive. People who only ever saw the films - or saw them before reading The Book - will stuck with what they've seen forever. For them, Thranduil will ever remain an arrogant, heartless coward, Legolas will always remain a stupid blonde bimbo, Elrond will always remain old and ugly and most of the Dwarves will always remain stupid clowns. Not to mention poor Radagast...
It is very hard to write bookverse fanfic in these days. A great many readers consider canon what they saw in the films and are irritated by their mental image being questioned. My Hobbit fics have been conceived long before the films came out, so my Dwarves actually have seniority, and yet readers would expect them to be movieverse dolts. No wonder that some of my stories have more chapters than hits!
I won't even start on the second film - Beorn was ridiculous; looked more like a mangy wolf than a bear, his home was everything but the wide wooden halls he was supposed to inhabit, and where came the idiotic idea that he was the last of his kind? I hated what Jackson did with Bard, too. The only character I liked was Tauriel, despite the stupid, half-arsed romance with Kíli. She was an OC, so it spared us the butchering of a canon character, and the actress so good that I could have bought even the romance. Especially as it, thankfully, led to nowhere. That would have required quite a stretch of imagination, no matter how handsome the actor was.
And then my recurring pet peeve: the Orcs portrayed as if they were diseased people. I mean, if you watch Body Bizarre, you see very similar images of poor human beings disfigured by horrible tumors and stuff. I find it highly irresponsible to portray evil races that way.
I was so disgusted with the second film that I still haven't seen the third one, although I own it on DVD. One day, I'll gather up my strength, take a big dose of anti-emetics and will do so. But not before I finish my ongoing Dwarf stories. Because visuals are very suggestive and they might lead my storylines astray.
