Lord of the Rings

I was thinking that might be the cause. We get Galadriel's creepiness and power hungry nature, but not much else in The Lord of the Rings in terms of shit they do. Well we do get to see a tiny bit of their hatred for dwarves and the dwarves hate for them.

Wait...forgot some shit from The Hobbit. Though the elves didn't show of their bastardyness quite as much as they did in The Silmarillion.

edited 19th Jan '11 7:53:18 PM by Aondeug

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

??

If those people read The Hobbit they'd know that elves can be dicks.

Or maybe if they thought about it a bit more, they'd realise that they elves could've done a lot more in the War of the Ring. They helped, certainly, but they could've done more.

It's not over. Not yet.

With incest craving I think he's referring to Maeglin in particular who if I recall turned out to be a creepy douche.

And yes. They really could have done more with the War of the Ring. That and I wonder at times why Elrond didn't back hand Isildur. Was he too weak to say "Bitch please. Ring. Now. Or your head is mine,"? Maybe I am forgetting something...

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

Because the movies got it wrong. Elrond was the flagbearer. Gil-galad was the leader, and Sauron took him out before that. If Elrond did say something, Isildir's response would have been something like "No, now can I have someone who holds an actual military rank to talk to?"

Except for 4/1/2011. That day lingers in my memory like...metaphor here...I should go.

In Weapons and Warfare there's a still photo of Gil-galad from when they were filming the Last Alliance scenes.

At some point I hope Jackson & co get around to releasing a Limited Ultra Collector's Edition with all of that footage included. Of course, it'll make the films about thirty hours long.

(The Extended Edition has about four hours of extra footage. It's about twelve hours total.)

It's not over. Not yet.

Ah. There we go. That's what I was forgetting! Thank you for clearing that up for me.

^Yeah I just watched them all back to back recently...Started at about noon ended a long time later...I had some short "intermission" type breaks between the disks.

edited 19th Jan '11 10:06:05 PM by Aondeug

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

I don't know if I could ever watch all those films again.

I'm glad they split them onto two discs, though, each one is the length of a normal film.

You do get some great scenes though, like the one with Boromir, Faramir and Denethor at Osgiliath.

It's not over. Not yet.

Yes. I rather liked that scene. I've only ever watched them back to back once before. With my grandpa. It's become a sort of minor tradition for him. Kind of like reading the books back to back every so often. He hasn't done that in recent years though. Last time he did it he got rid of his copies of the books. He's gone through many copies of them according to my grandmother. He's got a habit of purging his library every so often which while normally ok isn't in the case of Lot R since he just buys them again and again...

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

I'll be watching them all soon

Me

Some friends and I had a Lord Of The Rings film marathon about a month ago. We were going to start at eight in the morning, but two people were late (the only two that hadn't seen the films) so we started at ten and ended at around nine-thirty at night.

And yeah, Maeglin was the incestuous fellow I was referring to above. Interesting fellow, that one.

edited 20th Jan '11 8:19:11 PM by apassingthought

I really liked Maeglin. Currently reading through The Silmarillion again. On Of Turin Turambar at the moment. Half way through it.

And boy howdy is the tale of Beren and Luthien different from what was seen in The Book of Lost Tales 2. I rather liked the prince of cats from that version though I like The Silmarillion's Luthien more. I don't recall her being such a ballsy badass in The Lost Tales version...

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

I also liked Maeglin as a character. I wish that Tolkien had been able to complete the long-form version of the Gondolin tale. It would be interesting to glimpse more of his progression from a rather sympathetic character to a bitter traitor. I'd also want to read more about Idril, who I imagine, when development would be different from Tolkien's other heroines. I'm rather ambivalent toward Tuor, though.

Luthien will always be my favourite Mary Sue, and her dialogue with Morgoth in the poetic version is pretty awesome.

Idril? Oh phooey my memory is failing me... Help me a bit?

I haven't had a chance to read the poem yet sadly. That and The Children of Hurin are up there on my list of things to read.

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

Idril was Maeglin's cousin and Tuor's future wife.

As much as I hate to admit it, I haven't read the published Children of Hurin either. I understand that it's pretty similar to the Narn in Unfinished Tales, though, which I have read and do own (and is much superior to the Silmarillion version of the story).

I do hope to get around to reading it, though, since Turin is my favourite Middle-earth character. (And most of my other favourites are in that story as well).

I loved the version in Unfinished Tales. I love that book in general really...

Turin's your favorite? He's my grandfather's favorite of the First Age characters at least. Possibly his favorite character overall...

I think I like Sam best. He's the character that touched me the most. The Shelob fight is one of the most awesome things I've read. One of the most terrifying too... Shelob's a scary bitch.

And thanks for telling me who Idril is. Oh that was a moment...

edited 20th Jan '11 10:08:00 PM by Aondeug

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

Why does that not surprise me?

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Jackson's Pragmatic Adaptation is the best I've ever seen.

It took me two tries to read the trilogy. Do you know why? Because of fucking Tom Bombadil and the Barrow-Downs.

edited 22nd Jan '11 1:03:20 AM by Medicus

It's not over. Not yet.

Really? What took me forever were the first chapters before the hobbits left and The Council of Elrond. I rather liked the Barrow Downs and Bombadil though I don't mind that either is missing from the Jackson film. I had made...ten attempts? Twenty? A lot.

edited 22nd Jan '11 1:06:14 AM by Aondeug

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

You used the trope wrong. Yeah, he took out Bombadil and the Barrow-Downs, but he also added a lot of unnecessary filler and dragged out parts that were actually quite short in the books. I don't call that "Pragmatic."

Bakshi's was pragmatic, but it also proves that Tolkien really doesn't work on film.

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I don't think Jackson's adaptation fits squarely into any of TV Tropes' main types of adaptations (Pragmatic Adaptation, Adaptation Distillation, Adaptation Decay). It really has elements of all three (and this is even mentioned on the Adaptation Decay literature to film page).

Oh Tolkien can work brilliantly on film I think. I love all the adaptations I've seen of his work and I'm most fond of The Hobbit animated film due to nostalgia. The Jackson films are my second favorite.

edited 22nd Jan '11 3:53:07 PM by Aondeug

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

Slaps self

Sorry, completely forgot about the animated Hobbit. Yes, it is one awesome movie.

I think it worked for two reasons: One, The Hobbit was a much simpler story. Two, it was made in the 1970s before the world went stupid, and Three, it was Rankin-Bass and they knew what they were doing. Four, The Greatest Adventure is the best opening theme ever, second only to The Last Unicorn (which oddly was also Rankin-Bass).

Sorry, did I say two reasons?

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I'll agree with you on most of the points save the second. But then I tend to like a heap of stuff from most periods and don't really think the world went retarded after some point media wise. I can find good shit from the different periods. EVEN THE 80's. Oh Disney...You made The Great Mouse Detective then...

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

Count me in to those who love the animated Hobbit. I remember watching it in grade school and it was my first introduction to Tolkien (and probably also the fantasy genre).

I agree that Tolkien can work brilliantly in a visual format, but only if in the right set of hands. Even with missteps made by the storytellers, I think we're lucky that the live-action films are as good as they are and not as bad as they could have been  ^*

. We do have Sturgeon's Law working against us, after all...

That said, I used to be one of those people who wanted all her favourite stories to be turned into movies as soon as possible. Not as much anymore, as there's been too many awful adaptations released in the last decade to count. It's made me understand why Tolkien's estate is keeping his other stories under lock and key. So, as much as I think that there is potential for brilliant adaptations of a few Silmarillion tales, I'm somewhat relieved that it's not possible at the moment, as it can be hard to write a good script adaptation, cast the right people with the right dynamics, and have a great director all in the same production.

edited 22nd Jan '11 11:11:10 PM by apassingthought

My first introduction to Tolkien were bed time stories from my grandpa. On a trip to Vegas he told me the entire story of The Hobbit from memory over the course of the trip. We also watched the animated film together a lot. Reading to people and story telling's a big part of our family and remains very near and dear to me.

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah