My brother and I have been spending the past few days re-watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Which is an interesting experience in and of itself, surprisingly lacking in recriminations against Peter Jackson (excepting the elves at HD scene, which was totally unacceptable, especially when the sons of Elrond and the Dunedain could have easily been used for the same role and been far less thematically damaging), constant digressions about how frakking awesome Galadriel was (House of Finwë FTFW), giddy fangirlism of Glorfindel, an impromptu romp through the HoMe series, and finally, sad nostalgia during every battle scene considering how much more epic everything in the First Age must’ve been. And yes, every ridiculous stunt Legolas pulls in the movie just goes to show how much more awe-inspiring Maedhros et al had to have been.

Anyway. This re-watching made me remember just how influential a fandom everything Tolkien related had been to me, and left me rethinking some of the conclusions I had come to concerning it. So what follows is, in short, a look at the gender issues involved in parts of the story (especially where the Eldar are decidedly not consistent), what exactly is going on with the Númenorean Kings (yes, this is me discussing – and perhaps appreciating even above the Noldor – the Edain; shocking, but true), and recasting my opinion of Lúthien Tinúviel in light of some of what is written in the tale of Aldarion and Erendis.


( ITT: Arwen, Galadriel, Erendis, Ancalime, Luthien )

Star Wars, and no.

While we're on the topic of movies:

Watchmen.

( Watchmen spoilers, GN and film )

I am alive! Okay, so I’ve been stuck on dial-up for the last two weeks, which sucks (mostly because I really wanted to stream Doctor Who episodes), got sick a week ago (am better now!), and spent way too much of the intervening time playing Oblivion, now that my brother actually has a computer that will run it.

Battlestar last night!!! Honestly, I don’t think I’m used to watching this program with commercials, because the way they killed the absolute intensity was upsetting. Still, vintage Battlestar is vintage Battlestar, and I adored every moment of it.

( BSG 4.5 spoilers )


I also finally read Twilight the other day. The entire first book! I somehow managed to refrain from hurling it against the wall somewhere in the middle, read on a bit further, and then Alice and Jasper tricked me into thinking that maybe they were going to be interesting.

( Twilight fails epically )