the Dalaverse

I had a craving for LotR tonight, so Ness and I watched "The Two Towers," and I jotted down brief thoughts -- mostly happy snark and "OMG I LOVE THIS PART -- under the cut.



Gollum would make a fucking awesome Tower of London tour guide. Think about it.

The sequence with Shadowfax running over a golden field in slow motion -- it is for every twelve-year-old girl that ever was and ever will be -- the twelve-year-old girl that is in all of us, Petee Jackson and Viggo Mortensen included -- and that's why I love it.

I love all the Rohan stuff so, so much that it makes the other two storylines extra boring.

Hee, Legolas and Aragorn slipping into Elvish is totally "Not in front of the kid!"

Aragorn: "Sam went with [Frodo]." Gandalf: "Did he? Did he indeed? Ooooh girl!" Gandalf is a total hobbit-shipper.

I never can tell which one of the guards that falls for Frodo's "Look! I'm a rock!" trick is the woman. They both have really pretty eyes.

Yay! Rohan! Shield-maidens of Rohan! Rohirrim! Theoden King! Oh, I love this plotline and everybody in it. And I love Eowyn's pure white dress, and the beautiful extreme isolation of the castle.

How do you even consider trusting somebody named Wormtongue? Shouldn't that be, like, Clues #1-7?

Gandalf TOTALLY pwns the Bitchy Old White-Haired Dude crown.

"I know your face." ::sobs:: And drawing the Sword of Self-Actualization. Bernard Hill is so great.

Re: the bit where Eowyn comments on Aragorn speaking Elvish: ...Aragorn can be kind of a Mary Sue, eh?

See, I forget about Sam and Gollum and Frodo every. Single. Time. It's not that it's not good, or necessary, but the Rohan stuff is so intensely good. OTOH, I love that after all this crap, they still goggle at the ollyphants. Annnnnnd we have Robin Hood Faramir, and this is officially where the Sam/Frodo/ring/Gollum storyline picks up

The stew! I love this whole part, it's one of my favorites, both the theatrical and restored footage. Agagorn: "Eighty-seven." Eowyn: "SHUT UP. You shut up RIGHT NOW." I must admit that I was totally confused by the Arwen flashbacks until Vanessa explained it to me, and maybe also the extended edition viewing.

These mutant hyena-beast things remind me strongly of the death dogs in "Willow," but I won't hold that against them, mostly because I love the counting bit.

Awww, Saruman totally broke up with Treebeard.

Even horses think Viggo is yummy.

Yay Gondor flashback! Sean Bean is sporting some gross hair here. Very greasy Prince Valiant. Ugh, Denethor. So wonderfully loathsome.

Reunion! Time for Legolas and Aragorn to be totally gay for each other yet again. And this is the start of all the most serious awesomeness.

IMDB says that many of Treebeard's lines come from Tom Bombadil. Unsurprising. I thought that part dragged the book down like a lead weight. At least here we get a bitchin' battle.

Oh, poor Eowyn. I'm not unsupportive of the need to have somebody in charge of the people, but it's still unfair. And it is still totally fucked up that a small boy with a too-big sword is out there instead of a sturdy-armed farmwife with a pitchfork. I want Ilane of Mindelan, dammit. But we'll have Eowyn in RotK, so I can wait.

Hee, the make-up sword. Better than a dozen roses.

This battle is fucking amazing. I'm just going to sit back, shut up and enjoy it. All I have is this:

Frodo: I can't do this, Sam.
Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you -- that meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That's there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo...and it's worth fighting for.

So great. Every single time.