Posts made by Aria

@ganymede said in Movie / TV / Streaming Peeves or Whatever:

@greenflashlight said in Movie / TV / Streaming Peeves or Whatever:

I no longer give a shit about Jared Leto after his behavior on the set of Suicide Squad, and will not watch his movies.

I no longer give a shit because of all of the rape allegations.

Especially considering how many of them relate to underage girls specifically.

Like, the level of anger that washes over me when that man's face comes on screen is entirely reasonable. It is also profoundly unhealthy given that there is not a damned thing I can do about his continued wealth and fame.

Ugh. Take your fucking upvotes for Bill & Ted and get out, both of you.

@misadventure said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@wizz yikes, maybe it's time to take that jewelry called nipple shields literally.

Why are cats this way???

"If cats looked like frogs we'd realize what nasty, cruel little bastards they are. Style. That's what people remember."

• Terry Pratchett

I was going to reply with a legitimate suggestion, but then this appeared on my Facebook feed and I'm laughing so hard that I'm just done for the night.

@ominous I would agree with all of this.

I saw it with my two best friends -- one who knew a bit about the world but had never read the books and one who didn't know anything about the world at all. They were both saying similar things to what you've mentioned above, but taking it another step or two further when it comes to exposition and world-building. Without having the context of the novels already in mind when walking into the theater, they weren't quite sure what the Benet Gesserit actually are, why Paul's birth was such a big deal, why House Atreides was sent to Arrakis, etc. -- save for when it was explicitly stated or very strongly implied. And they're both very intelligent women, one with a degree in English and one with a degree in film, so they're familiar with narrative structure and film language.

That alone is enough to tell me that the pacing was off, glossing over things that deserved greater focus in order to try and cram as much of the story as they could into the time allotted for an already long film. As I said else-thread, I think that this would have been better served with a long-form medium like a series. At the very least, a trilogy would be preferable for pretty much exactly these reasons, as well as allowing more time for what I felt were a few underdeveloped characters and relationships.

That said, I still very much enjoyed myself. I think there's definitely things that were done very well, from the cinematography to the score. And even for those who don't know anything about Dune going in, it was still engaging enough so that both of my friends want to read the novels and were talking about buying a copy in order to better understand the world.

That's really encouraging. I'm just hoping it pays off in the sequel, because I think the legacy of this film will really suffer without one.

@lotherio said in Dune:

@aria That would be better. In fact at least 2 seasons per book. With at least three panels of info, one for inner voice as subtitle, one for information, a large one for main sequences/ action.

Now I'm just confused.

So I saw the movie with my besties yesterday and -- don't worry, no spoilers! -- while I enjoyed it, everything said here about the world being very dense is accurate. Because of that? I think it's worth a viewing, but I also think that it would've been better served by HBO picking it up and doing the first two, maybe three, books as a three season series rather than Warner Brothers releasing it as movie duology. There's not a lot of time for relationships to develop, politics to be explored, or the world to be explained. It's certainly not bad. On the contrary, it's a beautifully done movie and should definitely be seen on the biggest screen possible. But.

@Ganymede Can you split this off with some of the previous posts to a politics thread, please?

@tinuviel I mean, if you really want to take on a 1,000 pound brown bear, go for it! They could use the calories before hibernation.

Today is Fat Bear Tuesday -- the last day to vote in Fat Bear Week, celebrating the survival, success, and overall adorable rolls of pure chonk of the brown bears at Katmai National Park.

@sahin said in RL Anger:

Needed to withdraw from my statistics class. Feeling very overwhelmed, and angry at myself for feeling like this is a way to get some breathing room.

Don't beat yourself up over this. I just asked for an extension on the final in my accounting class because I'm way too sick to concentrate on a five hour test and way too far into the class to be willing to drop it.

Do what you need to do for you and don't feel bad about that.

@arkandel said in Good TV:

One way could have been to replace one of the Fellowship members with her of course - Legolas would be the obvious choice in the books.

Can you imagine the number of shrieking early-00s nerdboys that would have resulted from that? I can. Ohh, I definitely can. It is the stuff of nightmares.

If there is one thing I actually enjoy about business school, it's using all of my newfound knowledge to convince my classmates that even if they don't believe the speculative investments of "property developers" to be morally repugnant, many of them are just bad business.

I dunno, bro. If you can't make a buck without breaking basic accounting and investment principles, maybe you're just shit at this?

@ganymede said in Good TV:

@aria

I spent my last Romance day with my partner watching The Heart, Parts 1 and 2, of SPOP because she’s this beautiful, nice blonde, and I’m a fucking cat.

Sam was the hero. I don’t think badly of Arwen, of course, but I do love me Eowyn.

I like blondes.

I mean, Eowyn was objectively cooler than Arwen, anyway. For many of the same reasons that Sam was the hero, Eowyn was also a badass. And not in the sword-swinging sense, though that certainly applies. She was a badass because of the reasons she wanted to swing a sword.

@arkandel said in Good TV:

@aria said in Good TV:

her great love, Aragorn, the handsome, brooding warrior who becomes the High King of Middle-Earth.*

The High King of Gondor and Arnor. </LotR snob>

I loved that entire rest of the quote.

Seriously, probably the only LotR "meme" that I love more is the one about humans being like elves to dogs. And that one makes me cry.

The following was written by Paula Simons for the Edmonton Journal back on Valentine's Day, 2002. And I love every word of it.

The other day, a bunch of us in the office, Lord of the Rings fans all, were talking about our favourite characters from the book and movie. I said when I was a girl, I loved to imagine myself as Arwen, the dark-haired Elven princess.

Arwen, for those (few) who've neither read the books nor seen the movie, is the heroic beauty who sacrifices her chance at immortality in order to marry her great love, Aragorn, the handsome, brooding warrior who becomes the High King of Middle-Earth.

But, as I joked with the guys here, I didn't end up as Arwen, married to Aragorn. I grew up to be Rose Cotton, married to Sam Gamgee.

That line got a good laugh in the newsroom. Rose Cotton, you see, is no elf princess. She's a short, plump hobbit, with a tendency to be bit bossy with her men-folk. Sam is her hobbit husband, a down-to-earth cook and gardener with hairy feet.

Most of the people I was talking to thought I was taking a shot at my husband. But in actual fact, I think I was really paying him the highest of compliments. As far as I'm concerned, Samwise Gamgee is the real hero of The Lord of the Rings, not Aragorn or Gandalf or Frodo.

Sam isn't a warrior by training or inclination. He isn't looking for glory or adventure.

He gets dragged into danger because of his love and loyalty for his gentle master, Frodo, the soulful hobbit who's been given the great task of destroying the Dark Lord's ring of evil.

As Frodo's squire, Sam travels all the way to heart of the Dark Lord's kingdom, battling orc-goblins, giant spiders and his own fears and frailties. He fights as bravely as any of the story's flashier knights -- more bravely, because he's no superhero with a magic sword, just an ordinary guy overtaken by extraordinary circumstances.

But his real heroism lies in his unshakeable loyalty to his best friend, and in his unshakeable loyalty to his hobbit values, his moral code.

When all the battles and quests are over, Sam returns to his prosaic hobbit life, marrying Rose, raising kids, planting trees and nurturing the community he loves.

The problem is, our culture doesn't validate the heroism of the Samwise Gamgees of this world. The romantic heroes every teenage girl is taught to pine for are the Byronic brooders like Aragorn.

But outside of books and movies, Aragorn-types are hard to come by. So, for that matter, are fantastically beautiful Arwen elf princesses.

No wonder so many people end up disappointed and disillusioned, hoodwinked by our cult of romantic love, which tells us that if we don't end up with an Arwen or an Aragorn, we have failed in the game of life.

On Valentine's Day, in particular, anyone, married or single, who doesn't have a storybook romance is all but encouraged to feel dissatisfied and cheated.

But life is not a fairy tale and love is not a myth. And this is my Valentine to my husband, my Samwise Gamgee. I call him that, not because he's short and stocky and hairy-toed -- though he is. I call him that because he's brave and funny and loyal and kind, because he's a fabulous cook who makes the best fried mushrooms I've ever tasted.

He's my hero, because when our daughter breaks a toy he takes out his super-glue and puts the little pieces back together. He's my hero, because when I'm sick he makes me steaming cups of honey-lemon water and steaming pots of chicken soup and rubs my back. He's my hero, because he can roll out a pie-crust, change a tire in a blizzard and settle our little girl to sleep faster than anyone else.

Is he perfect? Far from it. About as far as I am.

Here's my advice on this St. Valentine's Day. Don't flagellate yourself if you're not embroiled in a big-screen love affair with a perfect prince or princess. Whether you're coupled or single, straight or gay, spend today celebrating the heroism of real love -- not "romance, " but the love of friends and family and community, the "ordinary" garden-variety love that conquers darkness. Don't worry about loving like an elf lord or a princess. Love like a hobbit.

And may the hair on your toes grow ever longer.

@derp said in RL Anger:

@meg

I appreciate the hell out of all of you. Like -- I really, really do. I'm kind of floored by how this thing has taken off so far. It's -- just incredibly humbling.

Thank you so much. Each and every one of you. If you guys ever need anything at all, and I can provide it, please let me know. I'll do whatever I can.

Dude, you were already at the 50% mark when I made my donation this morning. You're gonna be fine. ^_^

(But also legit fuck your bank still.)

@derp Look, man. At one point I had a friend from these games cover a pretty expensive emergency vet bill and only let me pay, like... two-thirds? three-quarters? something like that back.

I've also helped people on these boards and these games pay for groceries and rent and broken computers and gas bills and moving expenses before.

Shit happens. Sometimes it's for stupid reasons, sometimes it's for things beyond our control, sometimes it's because we messed up. But sooner or later it happens to everyone, and I like to think we all end up even-steven eventually.