Hilarity from the LOTR peanut gallery

[mollyringle]

I just want to say I love the lordoftherings community. Two days ago there was this long, delightful, pervy-hobbit-fancying thread, which moved from "Frodo looks orgasmic when handling the Ring," to "Pippin's lips sure are pretty," to "Love that RAWR look Sam gives Frodo," to "Here, everyone! A photo of Dom Monaghan in the shower!" Great amounts of fun. (And, yes, of course I added my two cents to egg them on.)

Then today there was this thread about how Sam keeps losing track of Frodo in the second film, with suggestions that he get Frodo a shock collar, not to mention a more reliable chain for that Ring (you know, one that won't keep falling off?). This has evolved into a discussion of how many times Frodo falls over, Legolas prances or says something obvious, or Aragorn flirts with someone. [Edit: This site, which is linked in that thread, actually has the answers to some of those things, also including how many times "Frodo screams like a girl", "Sam looks like he's about to propose to Frodo", and "Gandalf looks particularly fluffy". Very, very funny!]

*sigh*
Yes, someday I'll post something unrelated to LOTR again. Just not yet.

Comments

[jedmiller.livejournal.com]

I was hooting about your "Goonies" reference back in the very long thread, but realized I may have replied to the commenter, not to you. That Goonies reference, man... damn... that is a lotta levels! You are too damn funny!!

Here are a couple of my own thoughts on the movie hopefully worth sharing (with all sortsa spoilers). I loved it and I love it more after two viewings and even more after thinking about it more. There's just so much amazing stuff that's still with me -- and will probably have me back at the theater soon... the dawn charge on the orcs, the Rohan fiddle music, Elijah Wood's face, those haunting images of Arwen in the future as the world keeps changing. The sheer reality of Gollum.

What makes Gollum breathtaking and groundbreaking is how seamlessly, effectingly and even at times unnoticeably he becomes a character in the story with emotional relationships to the others and to the story's themes. More like Yoda (who was sort of there) and Roger Rabbit (who wasn't there, but also wasn't 3D) than like Jar-Jar (blech).

At first the thing I hated the most was Frodo holding out the ring to the Nazgul. COME ON, PEOPLE...! But a friend made a dubious argument I'm willing to buy, that he was only trying to PUT THE RING ON, not hand it over.

The thing that felt the most wrong the second time round was Faramir. He's NOT Boromir. He DOESN'T covet the ring. But, I've been thinking about it and I decided, in an only somewhat coherent defense of the movie, that one good reason to have him try to seize control of the ring so starkly is for the sake of sheer variety. In the first movie we saw Bilbo, Gandalf, Aragorn, Galadriel and, almost, Boromir resist the temptation to seize and use the ring. Maybe the makers of LOTR: TTT felt like that theme was just getting old and to see a brand new secondary character show up and do the same thing would be old news--particularly given the pace of abbreviated character development the movies require.

But I still think it's the most alarming deviation from the book. Narrowly edging out Elrond's reprise of Anita from "West Side Story": One of your own kind/Stick to your own kind!! We can only hope Hugo Weaving will also show up in ROTK for a resounding rendition of "I Feel Pretty" in High Elvish. Hey! How about a whole "Hugo Weaves Broadway" album? Including favorites like "I Must Get Out of This Place For Us" and "Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat, Mr. Anderson." All to be followed by the two-month Caesar's extravaganza, "Weaving Las Vegas."

In 7th grade, my best friend and I wrote a 100-page parody of LOTR as a satire on our life at school. If you go to http://www.jedmiller.com you can read about it, and actually download it. It doesn't have the high-test belly-laugh impact of yours, but yours was the closest thing to it I've ever read in its comic spirit and its adoring mockery.

Thanks for posting it! Look at this wealth of conversation about LOTR. It's a good time to be a Tolkien fan.

Jed

ps - where in Oregon? I lived in Ashland during 1997.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Eck, Jar-Jar is not even fit to be mentioned in the same sentence as Gollum.

But I like the Elrond-Broadway idea, especially if he wears his 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert' drag gear. :) As I commented to someone else, I would love to see him and Legolas lip-synching to Abba's "Mamma Mia"...

100 pages! Dude, that's kind of scary. OK, I'll go check out what new devilry this is. Hehe.

On Oregon: I grew up in Corvallis, but currently live in (shudder) the Sacramento Valley.