I am re-reading The Ring Trilogy at a feverish rate and today I found myself poring through all of the Appendices in the back of the book, where all the language information is, and the calendar information, and the lines of kings, etc. and I found myself staring at a Dwarf family tree, and I completely understood it.
Intuitive understanding has arrived. I’m scared.
I have to confess, I’ve always been mystified by the whole LOTR phenomenon – books or movies.
Just don’t get it…
To me, the books were just something I read when I was in grade school. Nothing more.
But now that I’m an adult – I have gotten completely sucked in. And this process did NOT occur from the films. I saw the first 2 films – whatever, they were fine. Then I saw the last one and thought to myself, “I should read the Trilogy again”, rather casually.
And now I am sucked into the vortex of Tolkien’s world. It is addictive. I did not plan on giving a shit about Dwarf family trees and now … well, I just plain do.
Just give into the LOTR geekdom, Emily did.
Then you can start a whole bunch of “Who’s cooler: Gimli or L—–s?” debates.
My own reading of the books is progressing slowly, I’m only up to the Mines of Moria.
I’m now at the part where Gandalf and the Riders of Rohan show up at the last minute to fight the Orcs at Helm’s Deep.
Consistently amazed at how much Peter Jackson was able to incorporate and how he entered into the spirit of the books.
Aragorn and Theoden riding out down the gangplank – slaying everyone in their paths – That amazing shot from the film, with Orcs falling off to the side – How the hell did they do that, by the way? it looks so real. I assume it must all be digital.
Oh and this is not a Legolas-free zone. I do not know what Bill McCabe’s beef is with the elf – unless it is that teenage girls love him too. Which is a rather flimsy excuse, seeing as Legolas is quite a worthy character. So feel free to proclaim the name Legolas loudly.
LEGOLAS
I feel like I’m back in detox.
Aragorn and Theoden were probably live, but the falling Orcs were digital, considering that the FX firm was pretty much unknown before this series, they did one hell of a job.
And regarding Legolas, I’m tired of his jumping ability: the cave troll, the way he mounted the horse and the whole Olyphant thing. Oh yeah, the skateboaring shield scene. Not to mention the fact that he didn’t miss once during the entire Trilogy, he’s the Princess Leia of LOTR.
And the whole stick the arrow into the other guy thing, those things need some velocity behind them to be lethal, after all.
But that’s the whole attraction. Princess Leia was little more than a damsel-in-distress. Even a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, traditional gender roles appeared to apply. What does Jabba the Hut do with Leia the second he captures her? Puts her in a little Fredericks of Hollywood get-up, so that she has to be rescued – AGAIN. If Princess Leia were part of my group, I would want to ditch her – and FAST. She keeps getting captured, and then must be dragged from the scene in her thong bikini.
Orlando Bloom is not my type, physically – so I don’t really care about all of that. If I had to choose a man from the Ring Trilogy who was my type, it would be Boromir.
By the way, Bill – are you home from work today? I’m the only one in the office. It’s bizarre.
Though she often needed rescuing, Leia wasn’t just a damsel in distress. I’m told (I haven’t watched it that carefully) that she never missed with her blaster. And she did show quite a bit of spunk, instead of being the “someone save me” type.
Besides the director wanting to see Carrie Fisher in the slave girl outfit, I’m not quite sure why Jabba the Hutt would want to put human and near-human women in demeaning outfits. He’s a bloody worm, after all.
Yeah, my boss let me use a personal day from last year today. More home improvement, woo hoo!
Well, like I said – even in a galaxy far far away, in a time long long ago, traditional gender roles seemed to apply. Even for big ugly worms.
Sure, she was okay with her blaster – but she needed back-up. Her first line in the film (as the holograph) is “We need your help, Obi Wan Kinobi” and I would say that that was the over-riding theme of Princess Leia’s life.
Oh, and that’s awesome that you have another day off. It makes such a huge difference.
I need to do a little home-improvement myself – now that I have found out from other tenants in my building that THEY have put pictures up on THEIR walls. I was told, in no uncertain terms, that I could put up no pictures … blah blah … but I met up with one guy in the hall, and asked him, and he gave me a look like I was crazy. Like: “You’re actually gonna follow that bogus rule? Just putty up the holes if you ever leave…”
No hanging pictures, what a lame rule. As if anyone will notice the little holes, especially if you fill them with putty or white toothpaste.
I think the Jabba / slave girl thing was probably just the best pretext they could think of to let Leia be sexy for a while. I mean the girl was kinda repressed, in addition to her frequent need to be saved…
Good point. Perhaps Carrie Fisher said to Lucas: “You know what? I am sick of the damn danishes on the side of my head, and the toga. I have a hot body. Can’t I show myself off??”
Reminds me of a story:
When Julia Roberts, an unknown, was cast in Pretty Woman – she would not agree to do any of the nudity the script called for. (She has never done a nude scene).
So major negotiations began – because the script called for nude scenes, Gary Marshall wanted her to be nude, blah blah. But Julia and her agent stayed strong, and kept negotiating.
One of the people on Garry Marshall’s side of the fence (a woman) called Julia to try to get her to bend a little bit.
This woman said, “Listen, sweetheart, if I had a body like yours, I would walk naked through Bloomingdale’s.”