#mauya sárayulda enta...

[elmendea]

excuse my Quenya, but THAT FEELING when racist fucknoodles badger the actors on Twitter and think they’re being clever by saying “You're just pretending to be an elf/dwarf!”

...like, yes, Kyle. That’s what actors do. They pretend to be what they’re not. Kinda part of the job description, ya know? 🙄

[elmendea]

love how you've flip-flopped on the rop disaster 🙃🙃 consistency you 🤡🤡🤡

Lissincë, I haven't flip-flopped. What I've done is gone over the content I've been given since the first trailer, been impressed with it, been reassured by folks I admire and respect, and have changed my opinion accordingly. That's...not a crime, or an inconsistency. Changing one's opinion on something when the circumstances or events surrounding it change is normal. Actual clown behaviour is stubbornly refusing to change one's mind and lying to oneself and everyone else.

And frankly? I'm having a much better time having fun and being excited than I was while pissing and moaning and dodging the disingenuous alt-right neckbeards. Do you honestly want me to apologise for...enjoying fandom?

[elmendea]

"butchered charas, cheesy dialogue, lazy linguistics, rubbery CGI, & subpar costumes"

YOUR WORDS YOU CLOWN

Sanctus fæx, spare me. But okay, let’s break this down, shall we? I’m in serious pain and a vile mood to boot. Let’s have at it.

Firstly, I have, do, and will continue to critique the show on all these points. To wit:

1. butchered characters -- I won’t really be able to tell if a character has been chewed up and spat out and turned into someone else until I watch the actual series. And no, “Galadriel being a warrior” does not count as this, to me. I’ve read enough of the lore to see where that concept could be extrapolated from, and frankly? Galadriel is not actually just a holier-than-thou mystic sorceress we get shown primarily in the Jackson films. By the end of the Third Age she’s been fighting the long defeat and she’s tired. In the Second Age? She still has plenty of fire in her belly and it’s not a leap to imagine she had an axe to grind. Her life during the First Age was a little tempestuous, to put it lightly. When the Valar offered safe passage for the Eldar to get themselves (back) over to Valinor, Galadriel’s response was essentially “nah fam I’m good”. This is a whole post in itself, though, so I’ll leave this here until Friday.

I don’t think a character’s aesthetic can be butchered, technically, since I find it less important than the character’s personality -- see Elrond, for a prime example of my thinking, here. I still have gripes about some of those aesthetics  for more-than-aesthetic reasons (the short hair on male elves bothers me a little, not just because I don’t like short hair personally, but because I think it adds to the ever-so-slight gender ambiguity and largely feminine [in a non-gender-essentialist context, and for lack of a better word -- maybe “yin” fits more?] energy of the elves; but using Elrond as an example again: Rob Aramayo’s performance shows this energy, which is what allowed me to set those preferences aside.)

2. cheesy dialogue -- I have called it out when I heard it. Nori’s “there’s wonders in this world beyond our wandering, I can feel it” still makes me cringe. Again, for a more thorough judgement, we’re going to have to wait until Friday. But also, at the same time -- cheesiness can be highly subjective. I’ve had differences of opinion with people who found that line perfectly acceptable.

3. lazy linguistics -- still call it out and always will. To a pernickety point, I’ll readily admit. I still think “Elanor Brandyfoot” is the laziest effing name anyone could come up with (no hobbits had been named Elanor BEFORE Sam and Frodo visited Lothlórien, that’s kind of the whole thing -- and Elanor Gamgee’s nickname was “Elanorellë”, not Nori, which has obviously already been used for a dwarf), hobbits didn’t seem to use surnames or clan names before the settling of the Shire anyway, “Bronwyn” and “Theo” are so incredibly primary world-esque that it actually teeters on breaking immersion (and the “they might be ancestors of the Rohirrim” doesn’t really fly, either, as the Rohirrim are canonically descended from the Northmen). Lissincë, I’m a linguist in training, and that is ENTIRELY the fault of Tolkien’s Legendarium. This is my jam. You think for one minute that I won’t be annoyingly nitpicky about names, even if I enjoy the show?

4. rubbery CGI -- have called it out and will continue to do so. The first trailer, to me, was not their finest offering in the CGI department. The subsequent teasers and trailers have improved vastly, but I’ve never hesitated to point out what seems a little too CGI-heavy for my own liking. But again: this can be quite subjective. A lot of people hated the use of heavy CGI in The Hobbit films; I personally wasn’t terribly bothered by it.

5. subpar costumes -- not once, not once, have I been impressed with the show’s costuming. I have made that blazingly obvious, repeatedly. The closest I can come to actually liking the costuming choices is thinking the dwarvish costumes seem fairly solid and Dísa’s makeup is actually flawless for a dwarf princess. As I said above, I still dislike short hair on male elves. I was astonished in the worst way when I first saw pictures of Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor -- how they made such a ridiculously handsome man look so utterly downright dowdy is beyond me. I stand by that. I continue to be unimpressed with the costuming on this show. I really, really hope in later seasons (or even episodes) it improves.

I hope that was elucidating for you. 🙄

[elmendea]

why did you block me 🙃 afraid of the truth? 🙃🙃

Meldonya, you're on anon. I don't know precisely which one of the tiny yet odious clutter of racists, sexists, ageists, and/or negative vibe merchants I've blocked you are, but if you got blocked, it's precisely because you're one of the aforementioned.

I don't care about people being mad about The Rings of Power existing or having a low opinion of it on their own blogs (though I do wish there was like, a pro-RoP or at least a neutral-hopeful-RoP specific tag that people could use to skip the salt, if they wish), but when you bring that negativity into my Homely House unasked for, I will politely ask you to leave. Unfortunately, this is the bloody internet, and blocking is about as polite as I can get. Out of sight, out of mind, and we're both happier at the end of the day. My apologies, but I'm so tired of all this...roccomúco.