#I think this review is solid

[lichqueenlibrarian]

Oh damn

[fictionadventurer]

The worst part about reading in a genre where you have low expectations (in this case, Christian historical fiction) is that when a book impresses you, you have no idea if it's actually good or if you're just overly impressed because it was a fraction of a degree better than the usual garbage.

[banditblvd]

Ziteboard.com was pretty average ngl

[porto-rosso]

brother where is the charles appreciation

[kanawolf]

War of the Rohirrim Review (to be possibly lengthened later if I see the movie for a 3rd time this week)

( @eosofspades 😄)

I'm going to start with the things I didn't like, just because that list is shorter. As a heads up, I'm a huge fan of Tolkien, grew up on the LotR movies, and generally love adaptations through the lense of something being an adaptation rather than trying to make things 1:1 regardless of medium so! Other people's mileage and enjoyment may vary, but I loved this movie and I would like for it to get more love.

Things I didn't like:

War of the Rohirrim has the problem of there being very few dark skinned characters in the Tolkien movies. This is a topic that I don't feel 100% qualified to talk about (given that I am, y'know, white), but I will say that the 3:1 ratio of dark skinned characters being antagonists vs good guys was not great

I wish the movie had been a 3hr one because honestly, I think they could have done with a little more time to flesh out some of the characters before the movie progressed into the second half

(This is a nitpick) Hera's clothes don't make the most sense consider prior Tolkien movies clothing for the women and read a bit more as "fantasy heroine" vs "Tolkien heroine". This is, however, definitely just a nitpick and honestly I did like her outfits in the movie (they're the sort of thing I design for my own ocs lol)

Things I liked / Loved about the movie:

The characters! Like, 80-90% of the characters I honestly loved! Could a couple of them have been better written? Possibly, probably, but to be honest I loved most of them and liked the rest.

(Ramble time)

Hera was such a lovely character and I think too many people keep calling her a Mary Sue / copy of Eowyn when that didn't feel like the case to me. She has maybe 1 moment of endurance that borders on unfeasible, but she's also Helm's daughter and he's referred to as having the blood of the ancients in his veins so she would have the same in hers. She does have some similarities to Eowyn in that they both are women who fight for their homes, but the reasons behind why they fight (Hera because there's no one left vs Eowyn's desire to fight are in fact different) and the struggles they have (which may be rooted in neither being listened to but, the Hera - Eowyn essay is for another day) are different! They're different characters! And it's really not that hard to see provided one doesn't see Tolkien woman who can fight immediately assume she's a copy of Eowyn. I also saw someone say that Hera was trying to prove herself in a world of men and just..... No. No. She doesn't want to marry that's true, but she's not trying to prove herself to any man. She's Trying to defend her home, not just from outside forces, but when it comes down to it, also from Helm's pride. She's not trying to prove herself, she doesn't even want to lead! She fights and leads because she has to, not because she wants to. In fact, throughout the movie, I feel like she always turned to violence as either a means to protect others, or as a last result - she's not the type of character to start a fight over an insult but she will end one if needed sort of deal.

I do wish her brothers Haleth and Hama had more screen time, but with the time limit I do think it was used about as effectively as it could have been. The boys have clearly different personalities, but they're family bonds are strong, with family ties being a key thing in the film between Helm and all of his family. I also liked their designs quite a bit (though Haleth having an uncut was a "choice" - which I am leaving neutral cause I liked personally but that's a me thing, and I am aware that it wouldn't be considered "accurate" for him to have one), and I liked that Hama was musically inclined.

Helm had a cool design and felt like flawed man which we do love to see.

Olwyn and Leif were absolutely wonderful characters and for technically being side characters, they really brought so much to the table. I loved that Olwyn is an older woman compared to Hera (and that they have different designs thank fuck), meanwhile Leif being younger (probably teens) really was a good choice in my opinion as it helped show all ages being effected by the pride of kings / lords / older men. I love them both so much.

Frealaf my beloved, my king, Oh I love him so very much. So his design is amazing, 10/10 (I've seen people compare it to book Faramir which is so valid). He's calm, loyal, steadfast, and supports Hers vocally when no one else does, and is just the fucking best really. His role in the movie felt really good, though I do wish we got to see what his relationships with Haleth and Hama were, instead of just his relationships with Hera and Helm (again, that's more of the stuff I would have liked to see had the movie been longer, but I understand time constraints). His appearance at the end was very well done and I loved how the movie showed his ascension to the throne and the beginning of the second line of Rohans rulers. Just...I love him so much.

(I'm gonna skip Wulf (and the other antagonist) for now because I don't want to spoil stuff for people and also because I'm still wrapping my head around him as a character but I will say - I like his design a lot and he has a couple lines that I really really liked as I feel like it hinted towards a theme in Tolkiens work that is adjacent to "a little power corrupts a little, absolute power corrupts absolutely", aka, when one becomes obsessed with a certain concept or goal, it can very quickly spiral and become the thing that damns you.

I'm also skipping the General, but his design also rocked (10/10) and I liked his entire demeanor and personality)

Other things I liked! I loved the music, Stephen Gallagher paid much respect to Howard Shore and nailed it out of the park, and I love the end credit song The Rider so much!

To be honest, I liked that the anime aesthetic they went for felt a bit more 90s, or a little old school (for some of us). I don't have much else to say about it tbh (there were some frame rate issues, but it didnt like, really hamper my enjoyment of the film, if anything I got a little chuckle out of it because it reminded me of the Rankin-Bass animated movies), but I just overall liked it and was genuinely amazed by some of the detailing they were able to do in the style they went for (the characters from far away do look a little funny though, just a heads up).

Neutral Things about the movie (aka, these things didn't really bother me, but they might make or break the movie for someone else):

The dialogue is a little clunky at times, not even necessarily in a bad way (in my opinion) just in a way that made me feel like the script had probably been rewritten a couple times / didn't completely Tolkien-esc (which was fine for me to be honest)

The low FPS on Freca at the very beginning of the movie, it felt a little like watching the old animated Hobbit. That being said, I've also heard that production for the film itself was rushed and if that is the case, a couple bad moments in the animation can be forgiven.

Lore? I have a general understanding of the events that inspired the movie and the politics between Rohan and Gonder at the time and tbh I really liked / enjoyed how the movie handled that, but I am aware that some people won't so, while I liked how they handled what little we do have on what happened in the appendices, I'm gonna leave this bit here just in case.

Overall, having seen the movie twice in theatres, I give the movie a solid 8.5/10. Are there a couple things I wish they had handled better / done differently? Yeah, but honestly they weren't such big issues that it completely tanked my enjoyment of the film. I also really really loved how they handled some parts of the story and I loved the majority of the characters. I think the art direction was great and tbh it felt like a nod to the old animated movies, which is always fun, plus the music was fucking fantastic. I suspect that they'll do some touch ups and edits to the film before it hits streaming services, which might help with some of the frame rate / animation issues (especially if the production and animatipn studio were in fact rushed).

I think the biggest thing is that one shouldn't go into it expecting a new Lord of the Rings. It's a different medium to those movies, it's meant to be a single movie, whereas Lord of the Rings was a trilogy (and this had room to tell more of a story and get a bit deeper with all the characters involved), made in a different time of the movie industry (it's been 20 years since LotR came out and the movie industry has definitely changed, not entirely for the better). I think a lot of people coming at the movie with negative reviews might feel that way because of comparing it to the LotR movies, much like people did with the Hobbit films, which might be why some people are so disappointed with it. I feel like if you don't came at it with that perspective or comparison, it's a lot easier to see the movie for what it is (a different story). Now, I also did not read a ton of other people's reviews for this movie because I read some and thought they were kind bleh reviews anyway so, I could be wrong on some of these things but, I did try to hit all the points I could (for now at least, like I said, might make a longer review if I see it for a 3rd time this week)

[alongtidesoflight]

a youtuber whose icon makes me think they're gonna share a solid review on the game: here's my thoughts on dragon age (and it's not just shitting on the game)

also them: i didn't like taash's design, not because of HER story, but-

me:

[probablygayattorneys]

I accidentally messaged a friend from the musical fandom that I usually contact through my main blog from this one instead but she saw right through me.

[katara-stan-club]

So my mom and I were talking about the upcoming tbb episode on our video chat today, and she hasn't read The Dark Disciple/seen most of Clone Wars since it aired, so I was explaining some of the Nightsister magic and who Quinlan Vos is to give her some context for potential theories. As I was telling her about Quinlan's psychometry, I was describing how it works and I got hit with the terrible/brilliant thought:

The batch has Tech's goggles from when he fell.

If who Fennec was contacting was Quinlan Vos undercover as a bounty hunter to try and rescue other Jedi/force users as he establishes The Path, he could find the batch and tell them about the m-count stuff, but. He has psychometry. And Tech's goggles are Right There. He could find out what actually happened and tell them.

Anyways, I'm gonna go chew some drywall and try not to let this thought consume my every waking moment until 3 AM on Wednesday as if that'll stop me

[stinkrascal]

im gonna be unwell about this game for so long

[feedgarf]

ok i watched Megamind vs The Doom Syndicate (planning to watch Megamind Rules sometime this week) and it was definitely not meant to be a 'Megamind 2' by any stretch of the imagination. But it's been so long since the start of it's marketing campaign that i can't actually remember if it was being marketed as such? a bunch of articles about the movie/show label it as a direct sequel to the first movie, but none of the actual official trailers call it that. if it was more clear that vs Doom Syndicate was the pilot episode to Megamind Rules, i think it expectations for it would have been appropriately lowered

to be fair, i think there would have been less confusion if Peacock Kids didn't market Megamind vs The Doom Syndicate and Megamind Rules as two separate things

[tinta--branca--art]

The culmination of my @the-passenger-if brainrot !! Voide and Jonny taking a well earned nap ;U;

[youreaclownnow]

just experienced some absolute PEAK

[fictionadventurer]

Many men had offered her many things in the past, love and friendship, luxury and jewels, entertainment, dogs, amusements, homage--some she had accepted, some refused, but no man before had offered her work. Peter had offered her that, he had offered her a share of his--not noble or inspiring or fascinating work, just his work, what he had. He had offered it her, called her great energies into play, and set her to work beside himself in a furrow. And she was glad; for some reason she found it very good.

--Desire by Una Lucy Silberrad

[phagodyke]

I slept rly deeply last night even tho it took me a while to get to sleep but I think that was bc I had acid reflux and I'd been playing videogames too late not anything else.... still only got 6 hrs but doing pretty okay all things considered 😚

[britneyshakespeare]

throughout the series of drake and josh it pretty consistently implies that josh nichols is a christian (josh peck is jewish) and in the finale of the series helen (played by yvette nicole brown, not jewish[?]) is portrayed as a practicing jew

[bearenjoyers]

my outfit for if i go into ng+ with this guy.