RotK stuff, a poll, and a HP rec

So. I *finally* watched the RotK trailer.

I'm terrified of spoilers, can you tell??

But yeah. Wow. Wow lovely soundtrack, perfect cuts, and just as stomach-clenching as the movie. Wow.

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Some links to noteworthy reviews of RotK:

This and this are beautiful anthems to the movie.

And a song to Theoden too...

Some wonderful thoughts on boromir, faramir, and duty.

Some neat points about color use.

Some great comments in this thread about LotR as a collective attachment to a childhoot vision of utopia...

What's said here about anti-hobbitlove and love unsullied by fear is completely worth reading...

And lastly, ajhalluk has some very good points on the 'missing' Eowyn/Faramir scene.

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There's some GREAT comments (near the end of the post) about platonic love, I think it perfectly sums up why even though I see the F/S and the A/L, I'm not inclined to search for fic for them. They're perfect, as they are, since the story outlines them to be this intensely close and marvelous and perfect friendship and it's gorgeous that people could be brought together like that out of a common sense of what is right and what is needed and the battlefield sentiment that:
I will die for you, because I have fought with you and have seen that you are human too. Or hobbit. Or---anyhoo, you know of what I speak...

I've always felt that it's the common decency and kindness between strangers that makes the world go 'round, and to induce a love-bond into certain stories and make the strange into familiar makes me want to smack my head and go "But that's not the POINT."

It's really kinda strange because I get the same particular type of squick as I used to get from Incest!fic, which is really, *really* strange because while Aragorn/Legolas and Frodo/Sam feels incest-y, I don't mind Boromir/Faramir...

::boggles at own brain::

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[Poll #231533]

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oh, and am back in Berkeley. so MUCH to clean ::runs around franticallly::

and I'm getting increasingly aggravated and peeved by this wallpaper. ::headdesk:: I *this* close to just posting the thing so I don't have to deal with it anymore.

Then again, I tend to tweak stuff *more* after other's have seen any of my stuff so it's probably a moot point. argh.

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...and a rec before I go...

Invisible to See by Pandarus

(HP with various pairings; to go through the chapters, use the green arrow buttons.

Marvelous lengthy novel with superb characterizations all around.

[quote]
Afterwards, when he finally reached the blessed isolation of his room, Draco Malfoy carefully closed the door, checked that no cringing retainer was loitering inside, and then was elaborately sick all over the three hundred year old Berber rug. A house elf apparated at once, its face contorted into an expression of stupid concern, but it vanished promptly when he barked out a sharp threat of clothing.
[/quote]

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okay, off to sleep now...

::collaspe::

randomness

Found a most hilarious post on A/L today written by lannamichaels (as pointed out by twinkledru in a further post here)

The FotR recap is more of a straightforward A/L scene-by-scene breakdown. But in the TT recap...

They see Gandalf. Aragorn kneels, Legolas stands, Gimli is gruff. Aragorn, by the way, looks delightful on his knees, which is why he kneels later for Theoden. Or maybe that's just to blow him. We all need a little lovin' sometimes.

::grins:: ah me ah my but I love the snark.

(Incidentally, I've always found the "You're late and you need a bath" scene where Aragorn comes back as snark between guy friends...)

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widget285 makes a good point about the fluidity and translucence of truth...

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hesychasm discusses the use and role of subtext (does sex simplify complex relationships into something easier to understand and control?)

I'm not sure what my response to the stated question is, but (in response to a point raised in the entry) I think that one can't just leave the subtext alone. Or perhaps more clearly, *I* can't leave the subtext alone: I have too much of an urge to prod the thing like an open wound. I have too much love for trying to seek out others who may see the same subtext, if nothing else than to just convince myself that no, I'm not just seeing things because I want it to be.

Skimming out the subtext is a huge part of the fun, for me, in watching movies or reading stories.

I think this might have a great deal with how I *adore* a finely written bit of denial and unspoken plot/backhistory, I'm so used to skimming out the subtext of my media that reading anything straightforward now seem shallow and one-dimensional.

And I'm not even talking specifically about *pairing* subtext either. For instance:
Surface(HP) is a marvelously layered tale with tons of *characterization* subtext.
Sparrow(PotC) has an entire *plot* as subtext, smooshed into a trim and effective 50 words.
Into the Dark(OUaTiM) is one where bare and simple words and sentances weaves around each other into a suprisingly *emotional* gut-punch of a fic.

I wonder how much of my love for reading and writing a story that tells itself sideways is due to how all stories have been told. To write an original story, at this point, I think we're near forced to tell a story in pauses, like how a song is made stronger with it's downbeat, like how a hammock is 85% air and a cat's cradle of string.