legendsisbetterthancanon

[legendsisbetterthancanon]

[legendsisbetterthancanon]

So here's something that has been bugging me for years about alternate universes in fiction, and it's really quite esoteric, so buckle up everyone.

Ok, here goes: when you consider AUs, reboots, remakes, adaptations, and alternate timelines of works of fiction, what you often find is that they will change key details about the characters. As simple examples, they might switch their sex, change their race or national origin, make them related to another character when they were unrelated in the original, etc. etc. AND YET, they remain, in some sense, the "same" person. You can even change the premises entirely, if you're more ambitious; you can take what had been a high-tech spy thriller and set it in a coffee shop; you can take an epic space opera and turn it into a gender-bent Regency romance about Lady Jane Kirk and Spockette looking for husbands in Klingonham; and yet somehow, in some esoteric sense, these characters retain some sort of identity, in spite of the fact that *everything about them down to their biology and the circumstances of their lives*, has been changed.

If you met two people in real life, one of whom was a female aristocrat in 19th-century England and the other one of which was a swashbuckling male starship captain in 23rd century space, you would certainly say that they were different people. And yet, in the context of fiction and AUs, these two very different people can be united by the concept of "Character". Character is a transcendent category; it exists independently of time, space, biology, and narrative circumstance. Indeed, as a writer, you can even pluck a character out of their home narrative and converse with them as if they were a real person. You can do this even if the character is dead. Indeed, you can kill them a million different ways in a million different universes, inflict any manner of suffering on them, and the *Character*, at the end of the day, will remain completely intact. Character, then, exists outside of the logic of the story. Within a narrative, you can kill a person so completely that they will never come back; you can even say that they've gone to eternal oblivion and will never exist again. And yet, there will still be some *non-diegetic* essence to them that survives death; that, indeed, can even interact directly with their creator. I hope that you understand what I'm getting at here: Character is, for all intents and purposes, a fictional person's eternal soul.

Okay, now; let's consider reality. You had something like a 1/60 trillion chance of being born with the genetic code that you have now, and even that is assuming that everything up to your conception happened in the exact same way, and has nothing to say about the likelihood of everything else that made you who you are. Assuming that there *is* some kind of an actual, physical multiverse (as many physicists would allow), then somewhere out there, there exists someone who is absolutely identical to you up to a single minor detail. Maybe their nose is slightly longer; maybe they were born a day earlier; maybe they actually did drop a knife on their foot that one time that you *almost* dropped a knife on thrir foot. But are they *you*? In a physical sense, I think that you'd have to admit that they were not. And yet, well...in a sense that goes beyond physics, they most certainly *are* you. And if they are you, then why not someone who is slightly different from them and so on until you reach the universe where you're a cheetah girl from Neptune.

Now, of course, this is kind of bullshit; because the thing is that Character isn't a real entity--it is essentially an arbitrary agglomeration of traits that you make-up and define into a simulacrum of a person; And yet, it is a quality that fictional persons, created and defined in the minds of their authors, most certainly do have; in fact, it is the *only* quality that fictional persons have. Do real people have this too? And if not, does this mean that fictional persons have souls while real people do not?

[legendsisbetterthancanon]

Smirnoff advertisements, c. 1970s

[legendsisbetterthancanon]

Well this didn't happen at all.

Thinking of being more active on this blog again to talk about Rings of Power and maybe HOTD and ASOIAF in general (maybe Elden Ring as well). We'll see.

[legendsisbetterthancanon]

Out of Touch

[legendsisbetterthancanon]

Thinking of being more active on this blog again to talk about Rings of Power and maybe HOTD and ASOIAF in general (maybe Elden Ring as well). We'll see.

[legendsisbetterthancanon]

Some of my thoughts on Rings of Power, specifically Episode 7 (in no particular order):

kinda goofy that they made Celebrimbor walk out of his tower in a daze, be knocked over by an explosion and lose consciousness twice in the same episode

glad that we didn't see the Hobbits, though I dread to see them in the next episode

the Orcs stopping the river with their catapult looked a little weird. I think I would have preferred if they would have just build a dam beyond sight of the wall. Not like the Elves would have noticed it, with they way they only realized an army was intruding into their lands after it had arrived at less than a mile away from them. (even though it didn't particularly bother me tbh)

find it kinda hard to believe that Durin + Disa and those bats were enough to hold that tunnel. The other dwarves really just didn't try again? The bats have already come down, it's just those two there now. You're telling me you couldn't get half a dozen armored soldiers in there, disarm them and drag them away so that the miners can work in piece?

The fact that Galadriel escapes with the rings isn't exactly exciting since I both know that Sauron will get the rings anyway but also that no harm will befall her

Speaking of Galadriel: I do not believe that that kiss was the only way Elrond had of slipping her the lockpick undetected

And what I believe even less is the fact that Adar just let her get away. Like... he told Elrond he would kill her if they didn't ceased their fighting. Elrond refused and promptly started fighting Orcs. Galadriel now has no value for Adar as a hostage because from his perspective, the elves have marked her as expendable. He now gains nothing from keeping her alive anymore. So I really don't get why he doesn't do what he said he would do, which is kill her the moment that Elrond leaves that tent. Literally, why does he just her let live?

And also, Galadriel wanting Arondir to spare Adar didn't really make sense to me. Galadriel doesn't want Arondir to give up his life by killing Adar, so instead she convinces him to wait till later when he... gives up his life trying to kill Adar???

I did kinda like that they had Adar just kill Arondir off like that. Made him seem more of a serious threat. However, the suddenness with which it happened makes me think that Arondir's death is gonna be a fakeout simply because I don't think they would end his storyline this quickly after doing so little with him this season

Also, the cut from Adar marching with the Orcs against the Elves during the night to when he arrives during sunshine was so jarring that I genuinely thought the Orcs had marched against the Dwarves instead and that that was the reason they weren't coming. But no, the Orcs just needed what seems like a laughably long time to cross that woodless field to get to the Elves. Just very weird editing, I have no idea what was up with that

And I thought that the guards of Eregion were kinda very quick to change their minds regarding Celebrimbor, mainly in favor of him. Like... two minutes ago you thought that this guy pushed an innocent woman to her death and had completely lost his mind, and now you belief him again? I know it's because Galadriel showed up, but it still happened so quickly... I don't know

Also, Adar's insistence that his army is undefeatable in battle. I just don't get why he would think that, I just don't get it. His army got their asses handed to them by a few hundred Numenoreans and only managed to gain the upper hand because they caused a fucking volcanic eruption. You're telling me that the mightiest Elven realm in Middle-Earth can't do better than that meager Numenorean expeditionary force? I don't know, I already found Adar's belief in his army's strength very weird in the previous episodes. And like... his perfomance in this episode doesn't make me revise my opinion.

Also also, the Asian archer Elf dying was a bit of weird scene to me. I think the show wanted the moment to be sad and dramatic, and I know that she was one of Elrond's companions on the way to Eregion, but like.. I don't know this woman. I don't think she's spoken more than ten sentences in that show, probably less. Just came off as a bit silly.

It's kind of surprising how much I don't dislike the show and even enjoy watching it even though I think so much of it is bad. I think it's because I compare myself to people who seem to actively hate the show whereas I'm mostly emotionally neutral to everything happening in it.

And with everything you can criticize about this show, there's still people *coughcough maulerandcriticaldrinker coughcough* who think that Celebrimbor's character was akin to Jar Jar Binks and that the sun shining on the elves during their initial cavalry charge while the orcs were shrouded in the darkness (you know, a scene very simply symbolizing good and evil... during a fucking sunrise, a perfectly fitting situation for that depiction) is too unrealistic for a fantasy show.

The discourse surrounding shows like Rings Of Power and The Acolyte has become so ridiculous. All too often nowadays I find myself having to defend shows I think are deeply flawed and badly written against people who also claim to dislike those shows based on bad writing, but whose actual reasons I can't take seriously.

(I liked Elrond's armor minus the helm. And the Orc makeup still looks really good. And I thought the Troll was presented quite threateningly, with him just kinda walzing through everything. Kinda makes Adar's seem especially weak when compared to Sauron's later armies, but I guess you can chalk that up to Adar not being supposed to be anywhere near as powerful as him. And I liked Adar's sword, it looks cool. And I am genuinely curious to know how the season is gonna end, thought that 's not exactly because I'm very emotionally invested.)

[legendsisbetterthancanon]

bolton occupation of winterfell is so funny they’re all in their councils like “stannis is out there in the SNOW he’s RIGHT OUTSIDE and he’s getting his DICK SUCKED RIGHT NOW by MEN WHO ARE ABANDONING US” meanwhile stannis is starving again (classic stannis) and he’s nowhere near winterfell at all

[legendsisbetterthancanon]

“average person eats 3 spiders a year” factoid actualy just statistical error. average person eats 0 spiders per year. Spiders Georg, who lives in cave & eats over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

[legendsisbetterthancanon]

been thinking about sigourney weaver‘s ‘manic mondays’ laugh lately

[legendsisbetterthancanon]

Everybody stop what you’re doing RIGHT NOW and celebrate the last Out of Touch Thursday of 2020

[legendsisbetterthancanon]

those fuck ass animatronics would not have stood a chance against this absolute god

[legendsisbetterthancanon]

i think we should go trick or treating on tumblr on halloween. going to send asks saying ‘trick or treat’

[legendsisbetterthancanon]

With @staff 's recent post saying 1/4 of this site is LGBTQ going around, I'd like to see what the actual demographic is

So!

Please reblog for bigger sample size!

[legendsisbetterthancanon]

Happy 08/15 everyone!

[legendsisbetterthancanon]

haha ❤️ hilarious post my friend! *eyes narrow and my face goes stone serious* but it does not resonate with my own ideological schema, so i shall not be reblogging it

[legendsisbetterthancanon]

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