If you are signed up to get email notifications for this blog, you might have been shocked to actually get one now.
OHMYGOSH HANNAH’S NOT DEAD AND SHE STILL HAS A BLOG?!?!?!
Yep.
Hi.
…
This is kind of awkward.
My life has been kind of crazy the last few months. And I mean that as an actual, honest statement, not just an excuse. Moving cross country tends to do that to ya, and going on a family cruise, Christmas and a writing workshop, then actually moving into a new house… without internet for a while…
Not exactly an ideal situation for blogging, but. We’re slowly getting settled in, and “I-don’t-like-change” Hannah is attempting to adjust to a new journey of life. So many people have called it an adventure, and that it is. Though for a while, it would annoy me when they said it. Because everyone said it. And it echoed what I knew was to be true… even if I didn’t want it to be. I didn’t want to leave my Shire. But, there’s a Ring that has to be destroyed, new horizons to be explored, dragons to train, and stories to discover.
I do want to blog more. I really, really do. And I’m tired of making empty promises to my — what, three readers? I really apologize for being so inconsistent. I’d like to change that. But I’m not going to promise that I will.
I think I’m going to try writing a few posts, and not posting them immediately, kind of waiting until I have more than two to post. Maybe I can even get up to a one post a week! That’s my goal, anyway. We’ll see if I make it.
I’m really terrible about this whole blogging thing. 😛
And at this point, I’m not entirely sure if I should try to list all the things that have happened since May, or if I should just move on… So much has happened, but I’m not entirely sure how or what to explain everything… 😛
So, I think I shall compromise, between blogging about everything I missed, and moving on completely. Let me explain. No, there is no time… Let me sum up.
(Did you understand that reference?)
Summing Up May
Alright. So, as I did mention, in May I went to my first ever convention, Minneapolis BritCon! I had a blast, and I know all my friends did, too. 😀 Here’s a group picture of us in our Sherlock (and LOTR) cosplays:
From left to right:
Irene Adler, Me as John Watson, Moriarty (creeping in the background), Sherlock, Molly Hooper, Arwen and a Ranger. 🙂
The first day was Friday, during which we wore our Sherlock cosplays. We had a mini-Sherlock photo shoot, which was a lot of fun. 😀 Here are a few of the ones we took.
(The above one, though sad, is probably my favourite picture.)
(But strangling Irene was fun, too. XD)
This one was later Friday evening, in the Sherlock Party Room. We watched part of The Empty Hearse before we had to leave to head home to get a few hours of sleep before returning for a full day on Saturday, which was…
DOCTOR WHO DAY. 😀
Here’s a picture of our group in our Doctor Who cosplays…
From left to right…
Tenth Doctor, Amy Pond, the TARDIS, Eleventh Doctor, River Song, Clara Oswald, The Fairy Librarian (Okay, who wasn’t a Doctor Who character, but doesn’t she look awesome anyways? 😀 She totally could be a DW character. 😉 ) and me as the Eleventh Doctor. 🙂
Saturday was, in my opinion, the best day of the con. It was the only full day, and the only one where all of our group was able to come for the full/most of the day. We went to some really fun panels, took some more pictures… 😀
Oh, yes. Did I mention there were Daleks?? THERE WERE REAL DALEKS. But don’t worry, I saved the day. Doctor to the rescue!
Ten and Eleven!
I turned into a Weeping Angel in this picture, apparently. And I’m not sure what Ten is so excited about…
(Or we’re both just being dorks.)
Angels Take Manhattan photoshoot… I don’t like endings.
That about sums up BritCon… and the highlight of the month of May. In my next post, I’ll sum up the highlight of the month of June, which was… Any guesses? Some of you know. And some of you will have to wait until then to find out…
Well, in my defense, I am working on the Top Ten post as I promised. But what I had not realized before how much time it was going to take me to rate and write a little blurb about ten characters. 😛 So I will continue to work on it, and post it next Tuesday instead. I had no time to work on it this weekend due to BritCon. Which I will post about later that week, so stay tuned! 🙂
(This is also apparently the shortest post I have ever made? Haha.)
Did you all have a good weekend? Do anything special for Memorial Day weekend? I’d love to hear about it! 🙂
I did it again. I fell off the face of the earth. 😛
Time for another apology and catch-up post, I guess. 😛
Life’s been fine for the most part here. I’ve gotten into a few new fandoms, and haven’t been working on my novel as much as I should be. 😛 But I have decided that for every minute I spend watching one of my shows, I have to either spend the same time working on a blog post or my novel. Last week it didn’t work so well, but I intend to make it work this week.
So, new fandoms! Those are always exciting. And more than often heartbreaking, but y’know.
It’s only been recently that I got into Marvel — specifically the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) — and even more recently that I discovered the TV show Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Which I hope to review sometime later! 🙂 ) I have been completely captivated by the characters in that show, and have fallen very deeply in love with Agent Phil Coulson especially. The finale episode left me shocked and crying, and I do not know how I can possibly survive until fall for the second season!
Fortunately, I’ve had practice with Sherlock.
It’s been sort of strange to watch a currently running show, one that I got an episode each week. 😛 Along with AoS, I have also been watching Once Upon A Time, whose season finale also left me conflicted and agonized and dying for the next season.
At least with these shows I know I won’t have to wait two to three years for another three episodes… 😛
As I assume most of you know by now, I have a love for all things British, and especially love British TV shows like Doctor Who, Sherlock and BBC’s Robin Hood. Being in those fandoms, I certainly heard a great deal about BBC’s other sort of forgotten show (Robin Hood being the other…), Merlin.
A few weeks ago, I decided to give it a try. The first few episodes were a bit cheesy, and the effects very obviously budgeted. But…
The characters.
I fell in love with all of them so quickly it’s kind of hilarious.
I’m currently a few episodes into the second series, and can very much say I am a fan. 🙂
Last week, I watched the Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary Recording at Royal Albert Hall for the first time. And I fell in love (that seems to be happening to me a lot lately…). The music is absolutely gorgeous. Just simply gorgeous and the story is complex and dark and beautiful, and as are the characters. Since then, I’ve been working on learning a few of the songs, though my singing voice is nothing compared to any of their’s. 😛 I usually have to sing alone without the music because I can’t match their wide and gorgeous ranges.
I’ve been in a musical mood since then, but sadly, Netflix has a rather limited number of good or classic musicals available. I am very irked that they took off West Side Story before I got a chance to see it. At least the library has that one, so I’ll have to check that out when I get back to living at home full-time again.
Speaking of that, I only have a week and a half as a nanny left! Which is a really weird thought. I’ve really enjoyed it, and God’s taught me a lot during my time away from home. I am looking forward to getting to live with my family all the time again, but I am going to miss my little darling!
It looks like there is going to be quite a few big changes for me in my future, and honestly, I’m a bit scared. But I know God has everything in His hands, and everything will work out according to His perfect plan. Even if I don’t quite like what He has in store at first, I will be okay. I have my family, and we’ll stand together in God’s will.
Speaking of changes, I’ve decided to finally take action and start making changes on my blog! I really need to start doing more than one apology post every few months. 😛 So, I have hatched an evil scheme…
My dear friend and sister in Christ and OYAN, Lady A. Locksley, has recently announced on her blog that she is going to start a series of posts called The Hero Chronicles, in which she will explore some of her favourite characters and what she loves about them. I thought it was a fantastic idea — she’s full of those 😉 — and I decided it sounded like fun, and that might be a good way to get myself to post more often.
I think I will do something different a little different though. I don’t know about you, but I love lists. Don’t know why. But I always have. And I also love Top Ten Lists.
So, that is what I’m going to do.
Starting next week, I’m going to try to get a Top Ten Something Post out each week, during the first half of the week (Maybe Top Ten Tuesday, ooh, I like the sound of that!), and then leave the second half for a post about something else. That’s right, two posts a week. Can my procrastinator and lazy self handle it? We shall see…
What do you think of my Top Ten idea? Are you interested in hearing those? What Top Ten list would you like to see first? Right now I’m thinking I will either do a Top Ten Favourite Female Characters, Top Ten Favourite Male Characters or Top Ten Favourite Villains. Leave me a comment and let me know which you’d like to see!
The rest of this week is going to be pretty busy — as you can see from the countdown on the left of this post (*points*), my first con is coming up in just a few days!! I’m super excited to be going along with some of my dearest friends, and we’re all planning on cosplaying, which though will be a blast, I’m a bit nervous as it’s my first time officially cosplaying. But I know we’ll have fun. 🙂 And I promise to take pictures, and will try to get a post done about it to post next week after the first Top Ten post. 🙂
Hope you guys all have a great rest of the week, and may God bless you!
~hannah!♥
PS – Just realized that I never explained the title of my post. I meant it to mean this time I will actually get this blogging thing down, haha. Anyone recognize the quote? 😉
So I never did get around to posting either of my reviews for Captain America or The Avengersas I had intended, but since this is the freshest in my mind, I’ve decided to post the review for Thor’s sequel: The Dark World. About four weeks ago (hahaha, oops), I got to go home and got together with my dear friend Kelly, my sister Kiera and my mum to watch the movie I had been dying to see for the past few months. I had regretted not seeing it in theaters since first seeing the first Thor movie (which I reviewed here). Saturday morning, however, we ran into a slight problem. We realized that all of the copies at Redbox were checked out. After a little bit of panicking, I decided to just go ahead and buy the DVD. So, that is how I came to own my first Marvel movie. (Which I am a little bit miffed about now, actually. The one I bought has two special features – an extended Captain America: The Winter Soldier trailer and one deleted scene. It doesn’t even have a commentary. If you haven’t noticed, I’m a bit irked about that.) Once I was in possession of the DVD, I literally counted down the hours and minutes until 7 o’clock when Kelly came over and we took our rather late dinner to the basement and put in the DVD and the fangirling began…
THOR:
THE DARK WORLD
A MOVIE REVIEW
(WITH A REALLY EXCITING TITLE CAN’T YOU TELL)
ALL IMAGES, UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED WERE SCREENSHOTS TAKEN BY ME. ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO MARVEL/DISNEY.
CAUTION: THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. CONSULT YOUR THERAPIST IF YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT ANY HEALTH RISKS OR SIDE EFFECTS THAT MAY TAKE PLACE AS RESULT OF SAID POSSIBLE SPOILERS.
“You must be truly desperate to come to me for help.”
For the first time since the Bifrost’s destruction and rebuilding, the Nine Realms are finally at peace. But Thor’s heart is not.
Loki is imprisoned in the dungeons, sentenced to remain there the remainder of his days as punishment for his crimes on both Asgard and Midgard. Thor has reminded the Realms of Asgard’s might, and earned their respect. Odin believes it is time for Thor to finally ascend to the throne. It is a time for celebration… but Thor finds celebrating more difficult than winning the battles he had fought. His heart strays back to Midgard, where the mortal woman he loves, Jane Foster, remains.
Jane is in London, trying to get on with her life since Thor left, when her instruments start acting in a way she hasn’t seen in years… not since New Mexico. Not since Thor.
She follows the readings and finds some happenings that certainly aren’t from Earth. Jane falls through a portal accidentally and finds a mysterious red force… then wakes up back on Earth, where she finds she’s been gone for five hours.
Back on Asgard, Heimdall, the Gatekeeper who can see everything in all Nine Realms, tells Thor he can no longer see Jane. Concerned, Thor goes to Midgard, where he is reunited with her. After a slap and an interrupted near kiss, Thor discovers the dark force has taken hold inside her and whisks her off to Asgard to figure what is wrong with her. Soon, Thor discovers it is more than Jane’s life at stake – but the safety of all the Realms. In order to destroy both the dark force, known as the Aether, and the leader of the Dark Elves, Malekith, who seeks the power for himself, Thor must team up with his treacherous brother Loki, who reminds him he must indeed be truly desperate to come to him for help.
The Good – Why You Should Watch It
Overall, I was very pleased with this movie. Not only is it good for a sequel, there are some things I like about it even better than the first one. Here are some of the reasons that made me kind of bounce up and down and squeal with fangirl pleasure.
The Soundtrack
I get rather nervous whenever movies change composers. I’m afraid they won’t carry the same themes and feeling of the first movie while creating its own place in the music world. But that is exactly what Brian Tyler did. He took some of the major themes from Patrick Doyle’s soundtrack and kept them, while at the same time making them his own. Not only that, he added new and even more beautiful themes that make me want to cry when listening to them. Loki also got a theme! Which makes me really happy, because I could never identify if he had his own theme in Thor or The Avengers. But this time he definitely does, and is perfect, haunting, sad, mysterious and makes you wonder whether or not you can trust him. Though his theme isn’t on one specific track, you can hear it in multiple ones, like The Trial of Loki, Shadows of Loki, An Unlikely Alliance and a little bit (I think) in Deliverance. My favourite track, hands down, however is the gorgeous and haunting Into Eternity.
It makes me want to cry every time. (That also might be because what happens in the movie during that scene. But it is definitely beautiful and heartbreaking.)
My second favourite track would either be Lokasenna (which in Old Norse translates as “Loki’s quarrel” or “Loki’s wrangling”, which I’m still trying to figure out what that Norse legend has to do with the movie… I’ll figure it out eventually…) or Deliverance. I can’t pick which to put here though… so I’ll put both. 🙂
There’s one large disappointment with the soundtrack though: The tracks aren’t in order of the way the scenes take place in the movie. It drives me insane when they do that. Why don’t they put them in order? Is it really that hard? Maybe it’s just me. But I like things to be in order.
The Costumes
Oh. My. Word. I loved the costumes of the first movie. I have died over the costumes of this one.
Can I have one of everyone please? I’ll resist the urge to spam you with too many costume pictures. But oh my GOODNESS. They are all so BEAUTIFUL. I drool every time I see this one of Frigga’s:
And yes, that is Queen Frigga. Mother of Thor and Loki, Wife of Odin, Queen of Asgard, and so much more. And one of my now top favourite female characters of all time. Which leads us to:
The Characters
Frigga is one of the main reasons this point is here. I liked her in the first movie, but fell in love with her in this one. She’s a mother, and a warrior. Compassionate and firm. Perceptive and brave. Wise, and witty. You can definitely see Loki learned more than her way with magic from her – He has her fighting style and snark.
It’s not very often you can change actors for a character and I’ll be okay with it. It drives me up the wall, just about every single time. However, they pulled off an actor change very well, and I may actually like the new actor better.
Josh Dallas played Fandral in the first Thor movie, but turned down the second one due to his role in Once Upon A Time (He’s David/Prince Charming, in case you were wondering. Which I didn’t realize for quite a while…). This time, Fandral is portrayed by Zachary Levi – Who you may know as Flynn Rider/Eugene Fitzherbert from Disney’s Tangled. An interesting bit of trivia, Zachary Levi was the original choice for Fandral in the first movie, but had to pull out when his show Chuck extended its third season.
While not mirror images of each other, Dallas and Levi do look similar in costume. And Levi’s portrayal of Fandral is kept very close to Dallas’, which is definitely appreciated. Fandral and the rest of the Warriors Three also played a smaller part in this one, and while I kind of wished they had been in more, it also helped to keep the gap between the two actors smaller.
I think I may like Zachary Levi as Fandral better, one of the reasons being I have a hard time seeing Josh Dallas as anything but Prince Charming with a beard now… 😛 (Not while watching Thor now, though. Just while seeing him in pictures…) And I just really like Zachary Levi. There’s something about him that I like better, though I can’t quite put my finger on it. He has quite a few lines that made me laugh out loud. Definitely charming, and definitely reminiscent of Flynn Rider. 😉
Loki. Loki, Loki, Loki, wut Loki. I really cannot say anything about Loki without giving away major plot points. But let’s just say I’ve fallen deeper in love with him as a character, and also broke my heart into little pieces again. And made me want to scream and throw things at him and cry and give him a long hug.
And the rest of the characters (Gotta generalize at some point…):
I still love Thor, and while he didn’t have much drastic character change in this one, I’m okay with that. The changes were subtler. But I can’t mention them because of rather major spoilers. 😛 I still love his interactions and relationship with Loki, and it just makes my heart hurt most of the time.
I liked Jane a little bit better in this one, but she’s still not my favourite. Sif, I definitely like better, which I think is actually in part because of a really awesome fanfiction I read with her in it that finally gave her the development she deserves. Which has nothing to do with the movie’s portrayal of her, but. I definitely like her more than I did before.
The Romance
One of the biggest complaints I had about the first Thor was the romance. I won’t re-complain about it here, but my biggest complaint was that it was too fast. It felt a little better here, mainly because it didn’t feel as forced.
The biggest problem I had about the romance in the last one was the big kiss at the end. It would have been much better if they hadn’t kissed at all in the first movie. It would have made the first interrupted kiss in this one more frustrating, and the big kiss on Asgard more important. (And as a side note, I could not stop thinking of Anakin and Padme’s kiss from Attack of the Clones then. Natalie Portman on a romantic balcony overlooking the sea passionately smooching a guy all over again…)
The thing that made me happiest about the romance this time around is the lack of a significant love triangle. It’s obvious (to everyone but Thor) that Sif has a thing for the prince of Asgard. However, she keeps it to herself for the most part. She sees that Thor obviously loves the mortal woman, and it is not her place to approach him. Which is another reason my liking for Sif has gone up a few notches.
While I don’t know that I necessarily ship either Sif/Thor or Jane/Thor, I do love the way Thor treats Jane. His smiles are some of the most adorable things ever, especially his smiles as he watches her. So as long as he is happy, I guess I can put up with Jane. Wouldn’t mind a little more development and empathy on her side though. Definitely wouldn’t hurt.
The Emotions and Humour
This movie was an emotional whirlwind. I went from crying to laughing in the space of a few scenes. And then laughing again and then horror and then crying again.
The banter between Thor and Loki were probably my favourite scenes of the movie. Not only did they have me laughing for a few minutes solid (and can still make me laugh just thinking about them), it reflected the relationship they used to have before everything went wrong. Which we didn’t get to explore very much in either Thor or The Avengers, because they weren’t together very much, and when they were, well…
Darcy, Jane’s intern, while honestly a kind of pointless character other than to add humour, still always manages to make me laugh, and I still love her. I’m actually just realizing that she didn’t get to meet Loki. Which I am now sad about. I don’t ship them at all, as some people do, but I would have loved to see a snark-off between the two, or Darcy tasering him or something. Ha. So much potential there. *files away ideas in fanfiction plot bunny drawers*
More Asgard
We finally got to see more of Asgard! It is such a beautiful place, and I was so happy to get to see more of the palace. I will resist posting a billion screencaps of its glory and leave you with a mere one:
(Maybe two…)
(Okay, last one, sorry…)
(Okay, now this is the last one…)
The Bad – Maybe Not Why You Shouldn’t See It, But What Could Have Been Better
On a first viewing, I had very few complaints with the movie. It wasn’t until a second viewing and I realized a major thing…
All The Missing Scenes
There were SO. MANY. DELETED. SCENES.
And that makes me really, really sad and frustrated.
I mean this scene was really cute, and we got to see more of Asgard and more of Jane exploring Asgard, and I actually really liked Jane in this scene:
(Sorry for not being able to embed it here… Couldn’t find it on YouTube)
Or this one of Thor and Frigga discussing Loki…
Not only were there many deleted scenes (which were not on the DVD release and I had to find via YouTube), but there are many scenes that were filmed but have not been released as deleted scenes. Which is not okay, at ALL. I’ve seen gif sets and heard of a lot of scenes that I’m really upset about not getting to see.
There were scenes that were released in sneak previews and trailers that didn’t make it into the film, nor into any of the released deleted scenes I’ve been able to find. The primary one being this one:
(Clips at the very end)
I can’t express how angry I am about not getting that scene.
Okay, now I can no longer avoid spoilers.
SKIP FROM HERE UNTIL THE NEXT POINT IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT YET.
That scene of Loki screaming has to be part of his reaction to Frigga’s death. Which I NEEDED to see more of. I love what was given, but I needed to see more. At the very least seen it as a deleted scene.
Something else I felt needed a lot more to was Thor’s reaction after Loki’s death. He did not react as he should have. First of all, there was the really weird jump from Loki dying in his arms to suddenly Thor and Jane are in a cave… No Thor trying to take Loki’s body with him, no more desperate pleas for his brother to really not be dead (careful what you wish for), no Jane trying convince Thor they have to go on, no Thor creating a storm in his anger (would have absolutely loved that… and would have totally served Loki right when he woke up…)… They did not dwell enough on Thor’s reaction, in my opinion. His brother just died. Again. His brother just gave his life for him. C’mon, Thor, you know you love him and you would have been way more torn up over it than that. It was like once the scene had passed, it was all good. He didn’t even go back after the battle for the body to find it gone.
END SPOILER YOU CAN START READING AGAIN NOW I HAVE SOMETHING ELSE TO SAY DON’T SKIP TO THE NEXT POINT YET.
Anyway. Very disappointed over the missing scenes, and the lack of releasing them. And not only that, but while we’re on that topic, I am extremely frustrated and upset over the fact that there was only one DVD version released, which was an incredibly lame one with only two special features, as I mentioned before. What I didn’t mention before is the one-disc DVD is the only DVD release. If you want any substantial special features, you have to buy the blu-ray.
I’m not going to say how angry I am over what is so obviously a money making gimmick. What about the broke devoted fans who can’t afford to buy every movie on blu-ray? What about the people like me who don’t even own a stupid blu-ray player?
Okay, I’m sorry, I’ll stop now, I am just really, really not okay with this. I don’t even see that big of a difference in blu-rays and DVDs. So the picture’s clearer. Big whoop. Yay for another excuse to charge more money for something and oh, while we’re at it, let’s make it so the discs won’t play in a normal DVD player so people have to buy the more expensive one.
And now we’re moving on to a completely different rant and I will stop myself and move on… Sorry/Not Sorry…
The Completely Pointless Scene
Speaking of scenes, there was one scene that was absolutely and in every way completely pointless. A scene with the only point of showing Thor shirtless. Completely and utterly a waste of time. That scene could have been cut to make way for any of the scenes that got deleted. Any of them would have served a better purpose to the film.
The Villain
While Malekith was not a terrible villain… he wasn’t great. Really at all, unfortunately. Christopher Eccleston did great with what he was given, but Malekith was really a very 2D villain. I have no idea what his motivation was, or even his goal really. To take over the world, I guess?
This time around, Loki was more the anti-hero/probably-shouldn’t-trust-him ally than villain. But he was still much better than Malekith, who needed more rounding as a character as well as a villain. All we got was it would be bad if he got the Aether. Why? We don’t really know.
Plot
The plot could have been stronger, and the story goal clearer, other than “Don’t let Malekith get the Aether and let’s save the universe while we’re at it.” Like I mentioned last point, I would have liked to see clearer motivations for Malekith, which would have added a more driving force to the plot.
For the title, the Dark World wasn’t in it a whole lot. I would liked to have spent more time there. I would also have liked more time with Thor and Loki teaming up – they had a great (and by great I mean painful) event that drove them together, but then weren’t together for very long. I would have liked more with them on the Dark World, being forced to work together. And bantering and threatening to kill each other every other sentence.
More Asgard
I. WANT. MORE. ASGARD.
Asgard is a beautiful world, and I want to explore it more in depth. I want to see beyond the few walls of the palace we’ve seen.
While the Earth scenes didn’t exactly bore me, I would have preferred less of them if it had meant more scenes anywhere else. Hopefully, the next Thor movie won’t take place much or at all on Earth. I enjoy Thor’s interactions with Midgard, but let those encounters stay in the Avengers movies. Otherwise, it’s just like every other superhero movie where the big city gets destroyed in the big fight at the end. With Thor, we have the potential to go ANYWHERE in the Nine Realms. So show us more Asgard, more Vanaheim, more Jotunheim, more Svartalfheim. Show us Nornheim, show us Ria, show us Alfhiem. Show us the places we’re told about but haven’t gotten to see. We see Earth enough. Show us something different.
Content
The Dark World fits in the rating of “superhero violence” quite well. It earns its PG-13 rating, but it’s not overwhelming in any area, at least to me. There are explosions and battle scenes, of course. There are passionate kisses, but the romance doesn’t go beyond that. There’s the completely point- and shirt-less scene. There’s some swearing, slightly stronger language than the previous film.
There’s a lot of emotional pain and I would recommend staying away if you’ve grown any sort of attachment to the characters in the previous films they’ve been in.
I’m just kidding, this movie is all happiness and rainbows and fluffy bunnies, you should totally watch it, there are no depressing emotions that will wrench your heart out and shatter it into little pieces.
(… I’m not as convincing a liar as Loki, am I?)
I’m very interested to see where the next film takes off. This one ended with a big question… a really big one. More than one big one. Happily, a third Thor movie has been confirmed! Sadly, it will most likely be a few years before it comes out.
Have you seen Thor: The Dark World? What was you opinion? Leave a comment below and let me know!
Any of you planning on seeing Captain America: The Winter Soldier this weekend? I am BEYOND excited for it! Ah!
Okay, so I know it doesn’t really count, because you can’t see them, but I have been working on blog posts. I just haven’t finished any yet. 😛
I had a lot of fun with my review of Thor a few weeks ago, so I decided to do more movie reviews. I have two in the process of being written: Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers. They’re both mostly written… I just haven’t gotten around to finishing/polishing them enough to post. 😛
So, in the meantime, until I finish those, I’ll use this random catch up post to let you know what I’ve been up to lately.
1. New Social Media Accounts…
I now have a DeviantArt, LiveJournal, Figment, Wattpad and Twitter. I’m afraid I’ve rather neglected all of them except twitter, and I’ve only half-neglected DA. But I’ll get around to them eventually. 😛
2. New Fandom…
This last weekend, I had the house to myself. So I did two things; worked on a secret project that only two living human beings know about (I killed the other ones… yes, I’m kidding, do you really think I’m a psychopath serial killer??) and watched the first two seasons of ABC’s TV series, Once Upon A Time.
I had seen a few of the episodes before, but I watched from about the middle of the first season through the season 2 finale in the span of two and a half days. (Shut up – You were thinking. It’s annoying). I’d never really Netflix binged before, so I don’t feel too guilty about it. Stop laughing.
I’ll probably do a review on it coming up soon. And because of that, I will refrain from babbling about the one thing about it that I really want to, in order to ensure I will in fact post a review so I can flail and fangirl over my new favourite character and OTP (That’s “One True Pairing”, for those of you needing a brush-up in Tumblr-speak).
I think that’s about it for new news here… I get to go home this weekend, and while I’m super excited to see my family again, this weekend will be doubly exciting because I will get to see Kelly and together with my sister and mom are going to watch Thor: The Dark World!! 😀 Very, VERY excited, in case you couldn’t tell.
So, I think I’ll wrap up now, with the promise of eventually getting reviews for the other things posted eventually. Don’t be afraid to leave me a comment to poke me if I take too long. 😛 I really never mind getting feedback (hint, hint)! 🙂
Well, on the bright side, it wasn’t two months since I last posted. 😛
And I know I said I’d be back with a Doctor Who episode review, but I’ll just be fulfilling half of that. 😛 Doctor Who, no(t yet). Review, yes.
I’ve been in a super big Marvel mood lately after seeing the first two Iron Man movies and Thor for the first time. And to my slight annoyance, I have discovered I have become a slightly obsessed Marvel fan.
I was never really into superheros. Ripped men in spandex with no character development and no flaws and women in immodest and impractical metal bikinis just didn’t appeal to me (and frankly, they still don’t. I mean, seriously).
So when everyone was raving about the Avengers, I didn’t really give it much thought (as one of my quirks/problems is to automatically dislike something the majority is raving about. Which is why it took me so long to get into the Hunger Games. That’s probably a fault I should work on). I heard from some people whose tastes I usually agree with that Captain America: The First Avenger was good. I knew they weren’t ‘follow the crowd’ type of people, yet they loved the new Marvel movies. And I do have to admit that I was slightly curious about why everyone was suddenly on a superhero kick.
So, one night, a long time after everyone else had seen the Avengers, I decided to pull up Netflix and give Captain America a try.
I would start to talk about Cap here, but this is after all, a Thor post, even though it’s taking me a long time to get there. Sorry. Moving on. (BUT. STEVE. <3)
A few months later, Kiera and I watched Captain America, and then The Avengers. I liked it more than I cared to admit, but I didn’t really get obsessed with it.
Just recently, I had the opportunity to watch Iron Man for the first time. When I saw The Avengers, I had thought Tony a funny, sn/tarky (see what I did there) character, but I didn’t really connect to him. So while watching his movie, I didn’t expect to connect with him, or grow attached to him at all. But I did. And then I started discovering the depth of the characters in the Marvel cinematic universe. Turns out, at least some of them, are more than shallow, Mr. Perfect-Hair-And-Abs.
Last weekend, I went home and watched Thor with Kiera, Mum and Dad. It was really fun getting to watch something all of us together. It had been a long time since we’d done that. Dad did complain that Kiera and I talked too much through the thing, but he’d already seen it, so. Hey, we hadn’t seen each other for a while. 😛
Out of all the Marvel movies, I expected to like Thor the least. I had heard that it seemed like the there was no character development, that main plot of the movie was, “Hey, we’ve got this old town in the middle of nowhere. Let’s blow it up.”
And now, having seen it for myself (Twice in the past week… Shush. I had to rewatch it so I could review it. Quiet), I must disagree.
And here’s why.
(ooh, look, we finally came to the review part of this post!!)
THOR:
A MOVIE REVIEW
(WITH A REALLY EXCITING TITLE CAN’T YOU TELL)
All images, unless otherwise specified were screenshots taken by me. All rights belong to Marvel/Disney.
“Whoever holds this hammer, if he be found worthy, shall posses the power of Thor.”
Thor Odinson is destined to be king. He’s nearly there, too. On the day of his coronation, he kneels before his father, Odin Allfather, and takes the king’s oath. Odin declares him ki…. Hold on. There’s trouble abrew.
Three Jotun warriors, the Frost Giants who are the sworn enemies of the Aesir somehow managed to break past the defenses and into Asgard. They make it as far as the weapon’s vault – where they are dangerously close to stealing the relic Odin took from them when he last defeated them in battle, the casket that holds their power. With it, the Frost Giants can regain their former glory and become more dangerous than ever.
The three Jotuns are stopped, and Thor wants to march with an army into Jotunheim, the realm of the Frost Giants, and once again teach them a lesson. Odin refuses, and Thor declares, “As king…” To which his father reminds him he isn’t king yet. The trouble with the Jotuns stopped Odin one word away from passing the throne to his eldest son. And with Thor’s attitude, it doesn’t seem likely that Odin is willing to pass over the kingship right now.
A brooding Thor is sulking on what “should have been [his] day of triumph.”
“It will come,” his younger brother, Loki, tells him. Loki goes on to say that he agrees with Thor completely, and that the Frost Giants should be stopped before they can do further damage, but that there is nothing he can do without defying father.
Thor decides that is the best option, much to Loki’s chagrin.
Together with Thor’s closest friends, the Lady Sif and the Warriors Three, the two brothers march into Jotunheim. Needless to say, they are not welcomed, and are nearly killed in the ensuing battle.
Odin is not pleased with his son’s betrayal. “You are not worthy,” he tells Thor, before stripping him of his powers, his hammer Mjolnir and banishing him to Midgard – That is, Earth.
Thor has much to learn, as he finds in Midgard. Not all is as it seems… and with treachery in the House of Odin, Asgard is not the only realm in danger. Danger, which in order to save those he loves from, Thor will have to discover what being worthy really means.
The Good – Why You Should Watch It:
There were many pleasing surprises for me in this movie. I already knew some spoilers from being on Pinterest and Tumblr… it’s hard to avoid them, and it wasn’t until recently that I really cared. But even then, there were still some surprises, many of which I liked, some which I didn’t. Here are some of the things I liked most about Thor.
Pretty!
The film was both visually and audibly beautiful. The New Mexico desert may not have been very “pretty”, but I loved the rustic little town. Asgard was beautiful, and reminded me of a kind of sci-fi Rivendell. I loved the way Jotunheim and Asgard were contrasted on lighting and colouring. Asgard was lit with bright golds; a warm, noble feeling. Jotunheim was dark and blue; cold and shadowy. The characters were coloured accordingly as well, but that’s getting more into the costume side of things.
The soundtrack is one of my favourite things about this movie. Patrick Doyle does a fantastic job with the underlying themes of the score. If I had to describe it in one word, I would say, noble. Noble, with hints of bitter sadness in appropriate scenes. Sons of Odin is one of my favourite tracks, second only to Odin Confesses (because that one is so heart-wrenchingly beautiful and I just really like sad music tracks, don’t know why).
Here, listen to them while you read the rest of the review:
Letting Go, Loki’s Lie, and Forgive Me are also very beautifully sad (Listening to Letting Go now and wanting to cry. Argh. But you know it’s a good soundtrack when just listening to it makes your heart constrict). Brothers Fight and Frost Giant Battle are beautifully epic, and carry that feeling of nobleness. With Brothers Fight, it carries hints of the triumph of Sons of Odin but at the same time carries the heavy, bitter sadness, which is extremely appropriate and I find beautiful.
Alright, you’ve probably heard enough about the soundtrack. The whole thing is on Spotify if you want to listen to it there.
Moving on.
Costumes!
Costumes are oftentimes my favourite parts of movies. And these did not disappoint! While the “normal” clothes worn by the humans on Midgard were a bit, well, boring compared to the rest of the costumes, the garb of Asgard has me drooling.
My favourite costume has to be Loki’s. I don’t know why – maybe it’s the green. It might be his helmet. Is it possible to be in love with a hat? Because I think I am.
Just look at the beautiful leather, and layers. The gold isn’t overbearing but a nice underlying touch that still speaks of power. And compared to the bright red and blue of his brother Thor, his costume is much darker, going along with his overall appearance and makes sense in the light of the movie. It sets him further apart from the rest of his family.
Frigga, Odin’s wife, had some pretty awesome dresses as well. One of my favourites of hers is the one she wears at the end of the movie:
(Pardon the blurry screenshot. Costume shots can be hard to get.)
With her in that image is Sif, and while I feel her character could have been done better (which I will address later), I love her costumes. Her armor is really neat, though she of course has heels. 😛 Every superhero chick has to have heels. You wouldn’t be able to run and fight baddies without them, right?
Riiiight.
The armor and costumes of the Warriors Three and the rest of Asgard are beautiful as well. I’ve always loved Norse designs and culture, so that could be part of it, though their clothing is rather different than that of a typical Viking. Which does make sense, since they’re not Vikings. 😛
And once again, I’ve probably rambled too much on the one topic, so again, moving on to my next point.
Character Development
I was very pleased with most of the character development. Thor’s development from arrogant prince to real king material was perhaps a little fast, but still good. He had some pretty big failures, most notably when he attempts to get his hammer back, only to discover he can no longer lift it. A bit of his change at the end seemed a little quick, but overall, I thought it was good.
While Thor’s development was fine, and Jane’s not that great, the best character development in the film award definitely has to go to Loki.
His character is so fascinatingly complex that he captured my interest right away. As most people know, he is the villain, but to my surprise I found he was much more than that.
If you’re active at all in any fandom community on the internet, you’ll have heard of “Loki’s Army of Fangirls.”
I’m not the type of girl who typically goes for “the bad boys.” But well-done villains have always captured my writer’s mind, because to me, a story can be made or broken by the villain.
Before I continue, I want to make it clear that I am not what is typically called “A Loki Fangirl.” I’m not cheering for him to win, for the “good guys” to loose. His complexity of character intrigues me and makes me want to discover more about how his character ticks. He is the first character that’s really ever made me want to know everything about them, right now. I want to get to know them on a personal level and understand them as well as I understand myself.
Back to Loki. Now, this section will contain some spoilers, so if you haven’t seen it yet and don’t want to have anything spoiled for you, skip ahead to the next bullet point. I already knew this going into the movie, and it didn’t take away much of my enjoyment of it, though I might have liked to have been surprised. But if you’re on the internet at all, you probably already know this. 😛
Loki’s character is unique in that as a villain, we watch him fall. He’s kind of like Anakin Skywalker, though he never was really the hero to begin with. I’m not sure if I would classify him as an anti-hero, or what. He definitely wasn’t completely good, “hero material”. No, the master of lies and tricks was lying to us from the beginning.
His major character change started when they were in Jotunheim. The second time I watched it, I found it fascinating that he was lit differently than Thor. Thor was brighter, while Loki already in the shadows. Already they were setting us up for what we would soon discover about him.
During the battle, one of the Warriors Three (I can’t remember their individual names. Sorry) is touched by an Frost Giant. He cries out in pain, and there’s a hissing sound like his skin is burning. Frost bite, I guess I could compare it to. A few shots later, Loki is fighting an Frost Giant, who grabs hold of his arm. Instead of a burning pain though, Loki watches in horror as his skin changes to same blue colour as the Frost Giant who is grinning at him.
Later, after Thor’s banishment, Loki stands in front of the casket in the Asgard weapons vault. Odin comes in, and when Loki turns around, we see his face and eyes have changed colour – to the colour of the Frost Giants.
Odin tells Loki that he isn’t his biological son, that he was adopted. Loki is no son of Odin – he is Laufey’s son, king of the Frost Giants. The scene has to be one of, if not my all-time, favourite scenes in the film. Tom Hiddleston is an amazing actor, and carried the scene beautifully. I didn’t cry, but I was definitely crying on the inside as Loki is crying, asking Odin why he had kept the truth from him. “Because I-I am the monster parents tell their children about at night?”
Thus beings the complex twisting of his character. I think perhaps, I will do a full post devoted to him, but I want to get to know him better first. But I will tell you this – he made me want to cry multiple times in the film. Instead of rooting for him, I was begging him to come back. To stop this madness, to redeem himself before it was too late. Only one other villain has affected me that way, and Loki definitely wins the prize for most heart-wrenching villain.
Thor and Loki’s Relationship
I don’t know why, but I’ve always had a soft spot for brother/sibling relationships in stories. Thor and Loki, Boromir and Faramir, Mycroft and Sherlock, Katniss and Prim, the Pevensies. Maybe it’s because I have siblings, and therefore I relate to all of those characters just a little bit more.
At any rate, Thor and Loki’s relationship has made them two of my favourite fictional brothers. It adds another layer to them, because their brother is part of them. It makes Loki’s fall so much more bitter. Loki wouldn’t be as compelling a villain if he were, say, Thor’s uncle (which readers of Norse mythology will know, he actually was). They both love each other. Which makes the ending so much more painful.
There’s a deleted scene that takes place before Thor’s coronation with the two brothers. From a strictly technical point of view, I can understand why it was cut. The transition from the scene with Thor and Loki as children (which I also understand why there wasn’t more, but I would have loved to see more of them as kids) to the scene of the coronation is much smoother without it. But another part of me is sad it was cut, because it was a wonderful demonstration of the brother’s relationship. There’s wonderful banter, as well as bitter foreshadowing of the betrayal to come.
The Bad – Maybe Not Why You Shouldn’t Watch it, But the Things That Could Have Been Better.
Overall, there was less that I didn’t like than I previously expected. There were a few problems though, of course, so here are a few things I didn’t like about Thor, and some cautionary things if you’re interested in seeing it for the first time but are worried about content.
Character Development
Yes, this made it onto my love and not-so-much love lists. That’s because there were really well done, well rounded and developed characters like Loki and Thor and Loki (Oh, did I mention him already? His development deserves more than one mention; it was so wonderfully done) and Loki. But then we come to the two characters I feel should have had more.
I don’t dislike her. On the one hand, I really, really like her. On the other hand, she feels really underdeveloped.
I understand that she along with the Warriors Three were only side characters, and therefore don’t deserve as much development as Thor or Loki. But I feel that her character was slightly cliche. I was torn between liking her and groaning at every other scene.
I’m all for strong (both physically and otherwise) women characters. I’m a woman. I like female characters I can look up to. I love sword-wielding princesses, archer chicks, martial arts gals. I like that female warrior character who rolls down the hall to take out two baddies (or good guys) with a swift kick to the head. They’re fun. But they also deserve to be more than that.
With Sif, I feel like her only purpose was to bring a female presence representing Asgard to the film. She seemed to be just another warrior, kick-butt princess. Which made me sad, because I want to like her, and I do. But not as much as if they had let us get to know her a little better. The only time I felt emotionally connected to her was when they *MINOR SPOILER* were fighting the Destroyer, and she says to Thor while he’s trying to convince her to leave, “Stories will be told of this day!” And he replies, “Tell those stories yourself.” *END SPOILER*
I feel that she had more than a little crush on Thor, and one thing I’m not looking forward to about seeing Thor 2: The Dark World is I fear a love triangle is coming (Don’t tell me either way, I’ll see as soon as the DVD hits Redbox).
And that brings us to the one character I was most disappointed with:
I’m not really sure what my problem was with Jane. I think most of it was probably the romance, which I will address in a moment. Something about her just felt… flat. I did like her in some parts, but overall, her character was just ‘meh’. I think most of it was the romance.
So, let’s talk about both at the same time, so I don’t have to repeat it all one bullet point later.
The Romance
This was, by far, the biggest disappointment for me. There was potential, but in my opinion, the romance was not played right. It was too fast.
Thor’s part was handled well, I thought. He seemed to be more curious than anything else of Jane. He kind of seemed to have a little puppy-dog crush on her, which I found cute. He found her intriguing.
From Jane’s side though, it fell through.
It happened all too fast. She seemed to be more than curious about him from the beginning. The two biggest things that bugged me was *SPOILER* when she thought Thor was dead, there was an overdramitic, slow-mo scene with her screaming, “No!” and running to his side. Bit on the cliche side, in my opinion. *END SPOILER*
And, of course, they had to kiss.
I nearly squealed with delight when Thor kissed Jane’s hand the first time. I don’t know why I’m such a big fan of hand kisses. I find them really sweet, and gentlemanly. And the second time, the camera angle was all set up for a passionate kiss (it was about that time in the movie, right before the hero goes off to face off with the villain) and I was groaning already. Then Thor kisses her hand again, and I squealed happily again.
And then they kissed. Ugh.
I think it would have been much better if it had been left with another hand kiss. It would have created a greater sense of longing when other events transpired at the end.
Overall, I think those were the two points that bugged me the most. Now, onto a the content:
I found Thor to be a fairly clean movie. There’s some intense battle sequences, and a brief scene in which we see a battle-scarred Odin missing an eye, but no over-the-top gore. There’s some swearing, but not a lot, and nothing worse than a couple of d-words and h-words.
The Technical
The film was released in 2011 and stars Chris Hemsworth (Who I just recently discovered is Liam Hemsworth’s brother. Did not know that) as Thor, Natalie Portman as Jane, the Amazing Tom Hiddleston as Loki and Anthony Hopkins as Odin. It was directed by Kenneth Branagh and Joss Whedon (uncredited). The screenplay was written by Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, and Don Payne, and was based on the Marvel comics created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby.
It’s sequel, Thor 2: The Dark World was released in theaters in 2013, and is set to be released on DVD February 25, 2014.
Redbox here I come!
Would You Recommend it?
Yes, I would! I would give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars, the romance and weak development of some characters the things keeping me from loving it more than I do.
Have you seen Thor? If so, what did you think? Do you really like superheroes, or are you more like I was/isstillskindof?
I’d love to hear what you think! 🙂 Leave a comment below and let me know your opinions!
I apologize that it’s been nearly two months since my last post. December is always ridiculously crazy here because of Christmas and such, but it was even busier this year because I was getting ready for the One Year Adventure Novel Winter Workshop.
I had meant to do a post on the WW while it was still fresh in my mind, but it’s been three weeks already. Whoops.
It’s so weird going back to “normal life” after Rivendell. To everyone who was there: Thank you for making it one of the best workshops I’ve ever attended. I love and miss you all. ❤
So much has happened that’s blog-worthy since my last post. And I’m not really sure where to start. I guess with a general catch-up, and then I’ll get to why my post is titled what it is.
Well, there was Christmas. It was wonderful as always, though a little different this year than past ones. My family homemakes gifts for each other, which is one of my favourite parts of Christmas. I absolutely love making things for my siblings (and staying up late December 24th finishing them… heh heh). It’s such a wonderful feeling to put so much work into something and then see their faces light up with excitement when they open it. 🙂
On Christmas Day, some friends (Firiel, her sister Eowyn, and Maggie) came over in the evening to help us say Vale Undecem – that is, “Farewell, Eleven.” Yes, the Eleventh Doctor regenerated in this year’s Doctor Who Christmas special. We shrieked at unexpected plot developments, fell out of our chairs at the same time, and then cried when we finally had to say, “Raggedy Man, goodnight.”
The day after Christmas, I went over to Kelly’s house to watch Time of the Doctor (that’s the title special, for those of you who didn’t know) with her, because she was unable to come on the 25th. I cried again. I think she cried, too.
Then we finished some last minute cleaning for my dad’s sister and her family who were coming that evening. I was also trying to get last minute stuff done for the WW (read: mostly everything). They stayed for a few days, during which we got together with most of my dad’s family to celebrate, which was lots of fun.
They left on Sunday, and I was leaving ridiculously early Monday morning with Firiel to drive down to Missouri for the WW (Wasn’t in Olathe, KS this year. That was weird.) I stayed up until 1 AM trying to get everything together and make sure I had everything. And then got up at 5:30 (or maybe it was 6…?) because we were planning on leaving at 6 (or maybe it was 6:30. I honestly cannot remember.)
Firiel got here and we threw all my stuff into the back of her car in the ridiculously bitter cold (and dark) and with a last hug to my parents (who had claimed they were not going to be up to see me off, but stayed up with me helping me get ready until past 1 and then got up in time to make sure I had everything. They’re wonderful and I love them so much. <3), we were off.
We started out the trip by playing “Life is a Highway” by Rascal Flats (or as we knew it from, Cars.), which is a fantastic way to start out a road trip, if anyone was wondering. Everything was great, everything was grand, we had the whole wide world in the palm of our hands… (That’s Life’s a Happy Song, from the Muppets.)
Overall, I thought the trip down was kind of fun. Long, but fun. Firiel drove the whole way (I have the awesomest friends as well as family), since I don’t have my permit yet. We listened to Disney songs and show tunes and movie score. We listened to some of my cassettes of John Stanley’s Sherlock Holmes radio show from the 1940’s (which is a really fun listen, BTW). I read fanfiction out loud (and my laptop died in the middle of a story). We chatted. We got lost. We weren’t sure what state we were in. (But we were “definitely in Iowa” according to the gas station worker who was so kind to laugh at the poor lost Northerners. :P)
Somehow, the 8 hour trip turned into 11 hours.
Do not ask me how. We still can’t figure it out, because we only got turned around a few times, and not for very long.
But eventually, we pulled up in the parking lot of Heartland Retreat Center. We weren’t 100% sure if we were in the right place, so we left our bags (we had a LOT of stuff. :P) in the car and went in to make sure we were where we were supposed to be.
And we were.
Tineke, who works for the S’s, was at the front desk and told us we were in fact, in the right place, and handed us our packets with our t-shirts, and information/schedule/thing you could take notes in and told us everyone else was in the cafeteria for dinner. So we decided to unpack later (and seeing as since the other two girls we would be rooming with had the room keys), and go see everyone.
I’m not quite sure what happened next. I think Erynn was the first I saw. She came up and attacked me in a giant hug. And then I was hugging and saying hello to everyone and meeting new friends and lugging all our stuff up to our dorm (up stairs, ugh). Irie and Katie were dears and helped Firiel and I bring the enormous piles of our stuff over to the dorms. Each of the dorm rooms had a sign on the door with the names of the students staying there and a Middle-Earth place name. We were in Caras Galadon. 🙂 After dumping our stuff in any old place, we headed back to the main building for more hugs and meetings.
It’s a bit of a blur after that.
The whole week was kind of a blur.
This was my first workshop without my dad or sister, so my first workshop with roommates. And that was a blast. It was like having a slumber party the whole week. Erynn, Firiel and Chelsea, thank you for making my stay in Caras Galadon so much fun. 🙂 I loved getting to know you all better with our deep, sleep-deprived talks until 2 in the morning. ❤
And I want to keep going on about the whole week, but I should probably wrap up this post before next week.
But I haven’t talked about New Year’s Eve yet.
We celebrated New Year’s together. That was the best way I have ever spent any of my New Year’s before. We did a white elephant gift exchange, which was a blast. There was lots of food, and Lindsey was the epic DJ and played awesome music like the Red Hot Chili Pipers and Chameleon Circuit. We ate. We danced. I took video of the interesting way everyone was dancing.
There was a countdown on the screen for midnight. It’s kind of a funny feeling, literally watching the seconds of your life tick by.
Just a few minutes to midnight, Lindsey put on the last song: Song for Ten, from Doctor Who. I didn’t take video of that one, because I actually danced to it. Because it’s one of my favourite songs in the first place, and it’s just so right for what I was feeling then.
I wish today was just like every other day. ‘Cause today has been the best day, everything I ever dreamed.
After the song finished, there was about 2 minutes left of 2013. We gathered everyone together in front of the OYAN banner in the front of the room, and at exactly 12:00, the first minute of the new year, we took a group picture.
Then, in the first few minutes of 2014, we sang Auld Lang Syne (Which basically means “old long ago” or “the good old days”, FYI), with the lyrics on the projector screen. We got in this kind of swaying line thing.
Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot, and old lang syne? For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne.
When the song was over, someone called a group hug. A few people managed to escape, I think, but I think most everyone was in the huge knot of sweaty bodies and grinning friends.
It really was probably the best way I could have started off the New Year – with my OYAN family.
Now that covers Christmas and New Years Eve, now let’s talk about the exciting event that took place on New Years Day.
Sherlock returned.
The Empty Hearse, the first episode of Series 3, aired in the UK on January 1st, 2014. And for those people in the US lucky enough to know where to look for a link, we got to watch it, too.
I got to watch it with OYANers.
Originally, I had planned to use a livestream link I had found and watch it as it streamed at 3 PM here. But that cut in to critique groups time by a good deal.
Addison had a link, though, and he downloaded the episode to his laptop so we wouldn’t have to rely on the less than reliable internet in the retreat center.
So after the evening sessions, the laptop was hooked up to the projector and we got to watch it on the big screen instead of clustered around someone’s laptop.
I was shaking. I was literally shaking. I was wearing my John cosplay jumper, and my Sherlock trench coat and scarf. And I stole borrowed Firiel’s towel because it was bright orange and looked very much like a shock blanket and had it wrapped around my shoulders.
And ha, did I need that shock blanket.
This post is starting to get kind of long, and I don’t know that all of my readers have seen TEH yet, so I won’t say too much. I still have to see it a second time, because while watching it with a group of Sherlockians was one of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had, the sound and picture wasn’t that great, and I missed a few things. I’m hoping to watch it again soon, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. 😛
Watching stuff with OYANers is an absolute blast. We watched Time of the Doctor the next night.
I cried again. But hey, I wasn’t alone. 😛
Now. Like I said earlier, I should probably finish this post before it drags on into the next New Year. 😛
The last day of the workshop came, as it always does, too soon. You spend as much time as you can denying that it’s the last day, but that only lasts so long. After the last critique group, the last meal, the last session, you have to accept reality. And reality says you can’t stay in Rivendell forever.
The whole WW experience was vastly different than the summer workshops. Different in a good way, though. It was a more relaxed schedule, and there was no curfew (eheeheehee). The last day was also similar, in that it was different. There weren’t as many tears, though you could see the same sadness you were feeling mirrored in everyone’s faces. I just barely managed to hold it together as I hugged my friends. Not as many goodbyes were said that night, because there would be one more breakfast in the cafeteria the next morning.
People slowly started to drift off to bed. I was part of the stubborn group that stayed up the latest. Erynn, Irie, Addison, Justin, Jeremy, Mig and me. At one point we had almost decided to pull an all-nighter and watch the sunrise together before going to breakfast.
But we all had to travel in the morning, and after playing Amish Penguin Mafia (yes, you read that right) and listening to My Little Pony dubstep, we decided to turn in.
I had to say goodbye to Erynn then, because her plane was leaving really early in the morning. We walked back to our dorm with Irie, who was our next door neighbor. After shoving some of my stuff into my bags so I would have less to do in the morning, I got ready for bed after one more hug from Erynn.
Leaving is hard.
All that morning, I had a sentence that Doctor Who fans will know well running through my head: I don’t want to go.
In the morning, we went to breakfast, saying goodbye to those who had to leave. Sarah, Josh, Grace, Irie, Lindsey.
We packed our things and dragged it all back from Caras Galadon to the foyer of the main building. Had a minor panicky few minutes when we couldn’t find Firiel’s keys, but we found them.
Then with one last, tight hug to my friends who were still there, and with a wave, we got into the car and drove off.
I was struggling to keep back tears. Lizzy put on the track Evacuating London from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe soundtrackand we listened to it as we started the long drive back to Minnesota. After the track finished, I played The Breaking of the Fellowship from the Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack. Which only made keeping tears at bay more difficult, but the songs were both perfect for what we were feeling.
However, about halfway through The Breaking of the Fellowship, I was fiddling with my name badge. And I looked down and realized I still had one of our room keys. So we had to turn around and bring it back. I ran back into the building and turned it over to Tineke and Mr. S with a sheepish grin and then waved goodbye again and ran back out to the car.
Talk about anti-climactic.
Is it next year yet? I think I’ve probably rambled on enough about the WW, though I certainly could keep rambling. We drove home, which wasn’t as much fun as driving there. But it was good to see my family again.
But life didn’t exactly go back to normal after that.
And now we get to why this post is titled what it is. I’m sorry it took so long. 😛
At Thanksgiving, when we were celebrating with my mom’s side of the family, my cousin and his wife approached me with an offer. They asked me to consider nannying for their youngest daughter. It threw me off at first, I’ll admit. And at first I wasn’t sure I wanted to go. But I prayed about it, and I felt at peace and like I was supposed to go.
So, here I am.
After returning from the WW, I had one week to get ready, and then I left to live with my cousins. That’s where I am right now.
I’m on an adventure. Not quite as catchy as “I’m going on an adventure”, which is what I titled the post (no, really, Hannah, we didn’t notice).
I feel a bit like Bilbo sometimes, and that’s what kept running through my mind as I was praying over the decision of whether or not to go. Completely comfortable in my chair, but Gandalf came along and called me on this new adventure.
Life is an adventure. To quote Hook, “To live… to live would be an awful big adventure.”
And it certainly is.
So, I think that’s about it for now. I’m going to start trying to blog more (yeah, yeah, you’ve said that before). I’ve been thinking about what I should do to start posting more, and I think I may have come up with something.
I like reviewing things. That’s another thing that I want to do more of. And another thing I also want to do is rewatch through Doctor Who (the 2005 on, or NuWho as it’s also called) and BBC’s Robin Hood.
So… I thought, why not combine?
I think I’m going to start rewatching Doctor Who and posting a review for each episode. I’m hoping to start that soon. 🙂
This post has gone on quite enough. So I will end this with a wishing you all a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Sherlock Returns and Happy Adventures in Life to you all. 🙂
Heh. And there we go again, with yet another month of not posting.
Oooops.
So, as the title says, I apologize once again for not posting in such a long time.
Now that that’s out of the way, there’s a lot to talk about. A lot has happened in the past month.
First of all, Happy Thanksgiving (Yester)Day to all my US readers! 🙂 Hope you all had a good one. We spent it with my mom’s side of the family, which is always fun.
Now, onto the fandom things.
Exactly a week ago, I was still flailing in shock from a movie I had gone to see the night before – Catching Fire.
My dear friend Kelly and I went to a special double feature that AMC theaters hosted. They showed the Hunger Games first, and then Catching Fire for the 8 o’clock early showing. Well, that was the plan anyway. We got to the theater a little while early to make sure we got good seats. THG was supposed to start at 5, but there was a problem with the computers or something, and they had to reboot the whole system, which took a while because the system was so big. then there was a problem when they tried to re-upload THG to the system, in which the tail end of the movie got eaten, apparently. 😛 So the theater gave us all a free movie ticket and free drink and popcorn ticket. Which made the wait worth it – ’cause Kelly and I didn’t care, ’cause we got to hang out. And free stuff is always good! 😀
Then after about an hour of waiting, THG started. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn’t so excited for Catching Fire.
And then… Catching Fire happened.
I’ll try very hard to hold the “asljasldf”s and the spoilers, in case there are some of you who haven’t seen it yet.
But ahhhhhh.
It was much better than THG movie, IMHO. I thought THG was a good book-movie adaption, but Catching Fire was GREAT. I guess I’ve always liked Catching Fire better than THG anyway, but they pulled the movie off spectacularly.
There were a few things that I noticed had been left out, but most of them I understand. There was only one big thing that they left out that made me sad. (I shan’t mention it for spoilers sake. But if you’ve seen it, you know what I mean.)
The characters were fantastic. They did a brilliant job with everyone’s character development – and there were some brilliant new characters added to the ‘family’. I was concerned about Finnick, but ooohhh my, he was amazing. Johanna may be the best though. Gah.
I wasn’t expecting to cry very much in this one. But I cried through like half of it.
I’m slightly terrified for Mockingjay. O.o
I’m hoping to be able to see it again soon, and when I do, I might do a movie review post on it. I’d also like to re-read the books soon, so I might do a Hunger Games post in the future. Because sometimes I have mixed feelings about saying I’m in the Hunger Games fandom. (Besides the fact that we don’t actually have a name. Sad. I go with Mockingjays… rather be that than Tributes. O.O) But that’s something for another post. 😉
I didn’t have much time to recover from Catching Fire before Saturday came around.
And Saturday, November 23rd, as many of you know, was the 50th anniversary of the most amazing British sci-fi show ever: Doctor Who.
Again, I will try to contain myself from showering you with “alsdjf”s and spoilers.
In fact, I don’t think I’ll say much on it at all right now. Doctor Who has been such a huge thing in my life, it really deserves its own post. I’ve been meaning to do another of the “Why I Love What I Love” posts like I did for Sherlock a few months back.
(I feel rather guilty having said so much more in this post about the Hunger Games, when Doctor Who is a much bigger fandom for me. So I shall give you a gif that describes Doctor Who in two words:)
😉
Now, I think I just have one more fandom thing for the time being…
In my last post, I gave release dates for the US release of Sherlock Series 3. Today, I just found out that the UK now has a release date as well!
The Empty Hearse will air on January 1st, with The Sign of Three and His Last Vow the following two weeks.
If there are any readers out there who are from the UK, and who wouldn’t mind posting a livestream link…. you will have my undying gratitude and I will be your new best friend forever. 😛 😉
I think that’s it for now. I feel like I say this all the time, but hopefully FOR REAL THIS TIME, it won’t be so long before the next post.
Did you have a good Thanksgiving? Did any of you go to see Catching Fire, or The Day of the Doctor? What did you think? (Try to keep away from spoilers if you can, please. ;))
Okay. Let’s try to keep the “aslkjfsadf” down to a minimal level. You have no idea how difficult it is at this moment to try and type coherent words.
Sherlock Series 3 has a release date for the US.
*muffled screaming*
January 19th. This is not a drill. Or a joke. This is for real. For real.
Sherlock: The Empty Hearse will air at 10 pm (ET) on PBS’s Masterpiece, Sunday, January 19th.
Party at my place people.
A release date for the UK has yet to be confirmed by the BBC, but I believe it’s been said that it will air in 2014, and that BBC has “first window” rights, so we can assume that it will air in the UK sometime between January 1st and January 19th.
I’m thinking we should be able to peg down at least a handful of dates, though. Anyone know if Series 1 and 2 aired on Sundays or Saturdays in the UK?
And as a side note, it may take me a little longer to get started on the villain mini-series. Trying to dissect their motives and ideals and everything is making me realize I should really read/watch their stories again. So apologies in advance if I’m not able to get a post up by the end of this week. Hopefully soon.
Back on topic, what are you most looking forward to about Series 3? We’ve got the titles: The Empty Hearse, The Sign of Three, and His Last Vow. It’s easy to pin the stories for the first two (The Empty House and the Sign of Four), but not so much for the last one – His Last Bow is a collection of short stories as well as an actual short story.
I’m planning on hopefully reading and re-reading all of the ACD stories before Series 3 airs – and now I’ve got a date to look forward to!!
Wow, I have impressed myself that I managed to finish typing this without much “alsjdfalsdjf”. Cheers. 😛
Of Time, Space and Hobbit Holes 