Four Fannish Things Make A Post
Aug. 23rd, 2023 10:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kat_lair***
1. I have watched season 1 of Rings of Power over the last two days. Very short and spoilery comments under the cut.
I'm not a Tolkien purist so I have no feelings about the adaptation in that regard. I enjoyed the show as a whole but special mention to: young Galadriel who is not yet as all knowing as she is later, young Elrond and especially his and Prince Durin's friendship (I loved every scene with the two of them omfg the scene in the mines with the secret name, please give these two actors an award), Disa (my only grumble is the lack of beard, I really wanted some bearded dwarf ladies), Nori and Poppy (I ship it, extremely strong Frodo/Sam vibes, am sad Poppy didn't go with Nori in the end). fdjakdfn Isildur tho! Also, creation of Mordor! And Arondir was just all restrained passion/fury throughout. I'm also impressed with how my brain remembered that the man who fell from the stars was Gandalf. I didn't. Like you could've asked me how Gandal came to Middle-Earth and I would not have been able to answer it. But I had read all of Silmarillion and all appendices once upon a time and my brain recognised a familiar stimulus for what it was and my mouth quite literally voiced it with a loud exclamation of 'GANDALF!!'. I doubted my brain briefly with the Sauron double-cross because holy shit I did not see the Halbrand twist coming (like I knew he clearly wasn't what he said he was but this was a whole new level, extremely well done). Genuinely, this show played so much better with the messy shades of grey, portraying Uruk and Orcs with some autonomy (see also below article for some relevant commentary). Like ngl, I think Galadried should've taken 'Halbrand' up on his offer.
2. In an interesting contrast and a bit of a critique of the too clearly delianated good/evil order of Tolkien and others (Jordan gets a mention) is this essay on 'Sir Terry and the Gender Auditors' by Christopher Lockett that discusses Pratchett's 'magical humanism' and why it is in fact an anathema to the 'gender fundamentalists' (the author quite brilliantly refuses to use 'gender critical' because 'critical' implies ability and willingness to consider something in all its nuance and complexity, which is the opposite of what the people naming themselves 'gender critical' do and I'll be adopting this stance from now on, thanks) and anyone else who seeks to order and categorise the world and humanity.
3. Stray Kids are openly riffing Guardians of the Galaxy. Firstly, I laughed so much about this I legit cried a bit. Secondly, I fully expect there to be some kind of SKZ/MCU collab in the works because this was done with the confidence of people not afraid of copyright (Deadpool, pls let it be Deadpool).
4. There is only one fandom (to rule them all). Time is a flat circle. Please enjoy this cover of MCR's Black Parady by Xdinary Heroes
***
1. I have watched season 1 of Rings of Power over the last two days. Very short and spoilery comments under the cut.
I'm not a Tolkien purist so I have no feelings about the adaptation in that regard. I enjoyed the show as a whole but special mention to: young Galadriel who is not yet as all knowing as she is later, young Elrond and especially his and Prince Durin's friendship (I loved every scene with the two of them omfg the scene in the mines with the secret name, please give these two actors an award), Disa (my only grumble is the lack of beard, I really wanted some bearded dwarf ladies), Nori and Poppy (I ship it, extremely strong Frodo/Sam vibes, am sad Poppy didn't go with Nori in the end). fdjakdfn Isildur tho! Also, creation of Mordor! And Arondir was just all restrained passion/fury throughout. I'm also impressed with how my brain remembered that the man who fell from the stars was Gandalf. I didn't. Like you could've asked me how Gandal came to Middle-Earth and I would not have been able to answer it. But I had read all of Silmarillion and all appendices once upon a time and my brain recognised a familiar stimulus for what it was and my mouth quite literally voiced it with a loud exclamation of 'GANDALF!!'. I doubted my brain briefly with the Sauron double-cross because holy shit I did not see the Halbrand twist coming (like I knew he clearly wasn't what he said he was but this was a whole new level, extremely well done). Genuinely, this show played so much better with the messy shades of grey, portraying Uruk and Orcs with some autonomy (see also below article for some relevant commentary). Like ngl, I think Galadried should've taken 'Halbrand' up on his offer.
2. In an interesting contrast and a bit of a critique of the too clearly delianated good/evil order of Tolkien and others (Jordan gets a mention) is this essay on 'Sir Terry and the Gender Auditors' by Christopher Lockett that discusses Pratchett's 'magical humanism' and why it is in fact an anathema to the 'gender fundamentalists' (the author quite brilliantly refuses to use 'gender critical' because 'critical' implies ability and willingness to consider something in all its nuance and complexity, which is the opposite of what the people naming themselves 'gender critical' do and I'll be adopting this stance from now on, thanks) and anyone else who seeks to order and categorise the world and humanity.
3. Stray Kids are openly riffing Guardians of the Galaxy. Firstly, I laughed so much about this I legit cried a bit. Secondly, I fully expect there to be some kind of SKZ/MCU collab in the works because this was done with the confidence of people not afraid of copyright (Deadpool, pls let it be Deadpool).
4. There is only one fandom (to rule them all). Time is a flat circle. Please enjoy this cover of MCR's Black Parady by Xdinary Heroes
***