#and then wandered over to LotR and the COMPLETE SURPRISE THAT WAS THE SILMARILLION

[red-winters]

Random Word Vomit About Stuff I Watched Growing Up

sometimes I remember that I was introduced to Monty Python and the Holy Grail through a complete misunderstanding as a little kid and have been plagued by half-remembered scenes of it for years having no idea what it was I had watched

My mom thought it was some sort of serious/dramatized Arthurian film about King Arthur and his knights and that it’d be educational, so she borrowed it from the library for me—now, this was several years before I had regular access to the internet, so my days were filled with listening to the same Kelly Clarkson songs over and over again and messing around on MS Paint for hours—so when the library had anything new, not-boring, and family-friendly (it was a hit and miss when you only had covers to go on) we got it. Oh, I was really young then, too. Six or so, maybe? Just arrived in the US or something and knew absolutely nothing about King Arthur/Arthurian Legends.

I could barely remember the plot years after, but little!me hated it because the completely opposite genre expectations + actual movie + confused tiny immigrant child = memories that feel like a really confusing and head-ache inducing fever dream

and OH that’s not even talking about that time we marathoned the 10th Kingdom like crazy people because we thought it was a really, really, really long film and hadn’t realized it was actually a series. I was sooo sick of it after that, I basically stayed away from any fantasy movies in the library for who-knows-how-long. In fact, if I recall correctly, that’s how mini-me instead started borrowing as many documentaries on String Theory and Astronomy as I could get my hands on.

(I completely forgot I had a String Theory phase as a kid until now. I wonder if I actually understood any of it back then??? In my timeline of Phases I Went Through as A Child, this was slightly before my Ancient Egypt and Egyptian Book of the Dead phase)

I only returned to fantasy when I first saw Princess Bride (which is why I will love that movie forever) and then got into historical/romance with Ever After (still a favorite!), Little House on the Prairie, and Anne of Green Gables. Then it was several years of pretty good movies like that, including Matilda, The Secret Garden, A Little Princess (which I still LOVE!), Mary Poppins, and the Sound of Music. Also, it was around this time I finally got into Cable Television, I think, which made things better.

Also, I actually saw LotR when I was really young, but I was too young to understand what was going on and basically thought it was a horror movie for years because all I could remember from the film was Gollum. My mom convinced me to re-watch it when I was fourteen, which I’m sure she deeply regretted when it was all I would watch for almost an entire year. I watched the trilogy at least once a day, several days of the week, every week for months. She had also given me a portable DVD player for a present that year, so even when we went out of the house, my family couldn’t get away from it.

Then the movies weren’t enough, so I dove into the Silmarillion for More Elf Content looking for elves like Orlando Bloom’s “Amazing, Fantastical, Regal, Pretty” Legolas and instead got the Hot Mess That Was the Feanorians and All the Elves of the First Age, basically, which was both hilarious and eye-opening. And these days, what makes it funnier is when I remember those posts on tumblr about Legolas basically being one of the youngest elves in Middle Earth and also some elf-equivalent of a country bumpkin.

Let me tell you, I was not prepared for the Silmarillion at all, but boy do I still love that book.