blancwene

[blancwene]

First 6 minutes: summarizing and analyzing Mara’s fashion choices in the comics and other artwork

Last 3 minutes: me ranting about the black leather catsuit

I regret nothing!

[blancwene]

in which I succeeded at rereading the 90′s era Star Wars novels in 2020

For 2020, I decided to reread (in publication order) all the Bantam-era Star Wars books that were released between 1991 and 1999; that shook out to 38 adult novels, one canceled novel that’s available online, and 5 anthologies of short stories & novellas.

And since I was already writing reviews for each one, I figured: why not video reviews? (Although in retrospect, that was 44 video reviews...)

Here were some of my favorite moments:

When The Courtship of Princess Leia introduced one of my favorite Force traditions stuck in the midst of a subpar love story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WVGS8otV-Y

I loved Children of the Jedi right up until the unfortunate implications in the ending: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4ePYLjzsBY

My cat made a cameo appearance during a discussion of Assault at Selonia’s back cover blurb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmGPTow7Qd0

Somehow I ended up *wink wink nudge nudging* during my review of I, Jedi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YINVGHXg10s

[blancwene]

under a very bad sign

He’s damned if he’ll try to find meaning in a handful of cards, but he finds himself returning to them again and again as the days pass. Heartbreak in the middle, he guesses, crossed by a journey? A change? A star above, himself in confusion below. Death at the end. The other cards are mysteries to him.

(The Narrator goes west, in search of the Emerald Star.) 

[blancwene]

Birds Appearing in a Dream The Steward’s family dreams.

[blancwene]

Achievement unlocked: I finally have all 12 HoME books! It only took me, oh, 18 years...

[blancwene]

‘If I no longer love Diana,’ he wrote, ‘what shall I do?’ What could he do, with his mainspring, his prime mover gone? He had known that he would love her for ever - to the last syllable of recorded time. He had not sworn it, any more than he had sworn that the sun would rise every morning: it was too certain, too evident: no one swears that he will continue to breathe nor that twice two is four. Indeed, in such a case an oath would imply the possibility of doubt. Yet now it seemed that perpetuity meant eight years, nine months and some odd days, while the last syllable of recorded time was Wednesday, the seventeenth of May.

The Fortune of War by Patrick O’Brian

[blancwene]

[blancwene]

"Finduilas, daughter of Adrahil of Dol Amroth … was a lady of great beauty and gentle heart, but before twelve years had passed she died. Denethor loved her, in his fashion, more dearly than any other, unless it were the elder of the sons that she bore him. But it seemed to men that she withered in the guarded city, as a flower of the seaward vales set upon a barren rock. The shadow in the east filled her with horror, and she turned her eyes ever south to the sea that she missed.” the sea that she missed: a mix for Finduilas of Dol Amroth zip | 8tracks | lyrics & explanations 01. at last - neko case 02. sea and the salt - gregory alan isakov 03. lodestar - sarah harmer 04. rare bird - glen hansard 05. ocean night song - laura veirs 06. sparrow and the wolf - james vincent mcmorrow 07. the world is falling - mirah 08. sorrow - the national 09. lady divine - alela diane 10. gracious - ben howard 11. lille - lisa hannigan

[blancwene]

elizabeth's grand theory of faramirs

(Note: I do not like Faramir in the movies, and this is mostly an exploration of their differences from that perspective. I tried to avoid bashing, but eh. It’s also really long, much longer than I originally expected. You can watch/listen to the whole thing here.)

—

I think I’ve finally—after all these years—had an epiphany about movie Faramir vs. book Faramir. How the discussions generally seem to go is this:

Faramir = nice and mild, thus where movie Faramir = nice and mild, movie Faramir = book Faramir. Where movie Faramir comes across as morally unjust, movie Faramir not only isn’t book Faramir, but falls outside the acceptable range of Faramirness. These unacceptable breaks are regarded as lapses in his character, inconsistencies between mostly-like-Faramir and not-at-all-like-Faramir.

On the other hand, if we look at movie Faramir’s character as a whole, I think two critical traits emerge. One, he’s generally accommodating, good-natured, and conflict-averse (not willful or independent; also not scholarly or otherworldly). Two, he’s overpoweringly driven by the desire to earn the affection and approval of his father—it defines who he is in a very large part, and is his overriding motivation for everything. 

It’s not that he’s ‘not exactly like book Faramir,’ but rather, exactly what his defenders always said: he’s a different person. He doesn’t have OOC lapses now and then; his personality is radically, and consistently, different.

Read More

[blancwene]

 s-u-w-i:

Rohan family <3

Éowyn, Éomer, Théodred, Théoden :3 gonna color it later…

[blancwene]

I have no wish to do sums. To tell you what is two plus two...Non. I am an accountant creative. I take the numbers. I make them dance.

[blancwene]

As she stood before Aragorn she paused suddenly and looked upon him, and her eyes were shining.

[blancwene]

The Blue Castle illustrations by Masako Kubo

[blancwene]

Sourcebooks has a new edition of The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery out! It's a trade paperback, not the little MMP that Bantam released, and the cover looks pretty good. (True, it's not my favorite depiction of Valancy, but that one's impossible to find.)

[blancwene]

Finduilas of Dol Amroth by ~amiroprotein

[blancwene]

In short, he's a selfish dick: Mr. Rochester and the romantic hero

“And it doesn’t hurt that Mr. Rochester is, for my money, the sexiest guy in literature.” --April Lindner, "Author's Note," Jane.

“Are you anything akin to me, do you think, Jane? Because I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you—especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that boisterous channel, and two hundred miles or so of land come broad between us, I am afraid that cord of communion will be snapped; and then I’ve a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly.”

One of my friends said that Rochester would be the villain (à la Willoughby or Wickham) in a Jane Austen novel. And I don't think that's too far from the truth.

[blancwene]

When I get to the end of episode 52 of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

and realize Netflix doesn't have the last 12 episodes: