Vlog 11 + Thorin Plays Air Guitar!

We’ve all been waiting for the new vlog, so hurray! There was a lot to love about this one. The dwarf exercise routine was hilarious. But my favorite part was the little snippet of Richard Armitage in costume playing air guitar on Orcrist. Naturally I had to make a GIF so I could watch this bit on repeat. 😉

Duh!

I’m sure everyone has seen the Popcorn Taxi interview with Richard Armitage by now. If you haven’t yet, you can see it here.

There was a lot about this interview that I really enjoyed. RA and the interviewer seemed to have a good rapport, he was given time to flesh out his answers and of course there was all of that speaking with his hands (which I love). But there was one moment that really stood out to me. We already knew about the question where Richard was asked who would win in a cage fight–Thorin or Dwalin. But his reaction in the video was just priceless. It was like he was saying, “Duh! Isn’t the answer obvious?”

His reaction here reminds me so much of how my friends and I are together that it just adds another thing to the list of reasons I like  the guy. I went ahead and made a gif of his reaction, because I was watching these few seconds on repeat anyway.

Oh, and this post definitely gets the beardy goodness tag, because look at that gorgeous facial hair! 😉

Fangirling…

…makes my inner fangirls clash with one another.

I woke up this morning, checked my email and saw this:

And all is right with the world!

I’m kidding of course, but I found myself a bit annoyed that I let my RA fangirl win out over my Tolkien fangirl when it came to the voting. The thing is, Gandalf has always been one of my absolute favorite Tolkien characters–right up there with Faramir, Aragorn, Sam (the true hero of LOTRs in my humble opinion), and Treebeard.

Thorin, while I love Richard Armitage’s portrayal of him so far, has always struck me as something of a pompous ass. I appreciate that between the screenwriting, directing, and RA’s performance they seem to have rounded the character out a bit more. But if I put the movie aside and look at where Thorin is headed compared to everything Gandalf accomplishes in Middle Earth, the dwarf just pales in comparison the Mithrandir.

So, congratulations Gandalf! You totally deserve it.

And now I’m off to hide my RA fangirl card from those who might try and take it away. 😉

Meet Stick Thorin Oakenshield

Out of the blue I’ve developed this crazy love of making stick figures. It started out as a simple little stick figure hug that I made for someone and it has turned into this need to teach myself to not only to make the stick figures, but also animate them–before anyone starts to worry, I am exaggerating. 😉 But I have made 3 generic stick figure animations and now I’ve moved on to the most ridiculous of all. I’m actually laughing at myself because of how cheesy this is, but I’m still going to share with you all.

Meet Stick Thorin Oakenshield:

Yeah, I know he doesn’t really look like Richard as Thorin, but I’m still kind of fond of the little guy. Anyway I also decided that Stick Thorin needed to be animated and this is what I came up with:

Any guesses which scene inspired this piece of ridiculousness?

Add another addiction to the list…

…because I love me some Hobbit, Bagginshield and Durincest fanfic of the hot and NSFW variety. I was chatting with some friends about the possibility of posting links to some of my favorite fics and then today Agzy said she had thought about doing the same. That gave me the push I needed to go ahead and do this post.

Here is the deal, I know that there are people in our fandom who dislike the erotic fics. There are also people who despise real people fics. Then there is the issue of slash fics. I’ll tell you right now that this post is NOT for you if you fall into any of those categories. If you don’t like the stuff, just move along.

So with that warning in place, here are some of the fics that I’ve enjoyed recently (by no means a comprehensive list):

Bagginshield:

1. Leather and Rope by SplashTheWine–Bilbo wasn’t sure when things had changed, when things had shifted from flirting to where he was now… Bound and terrified. #NSFW #Slash #Non-Con at first
2. The Heart of a King by shinigami714–After leaving the goblin cave, Bilbo doesn’t remove the ring from his finger, unaware of its powers. Thorin’s company doesn’t see his return, and Bilbo watches as they discuss his abandonment of them. #NSFW #Slash
3. The Tenderness of a King by shinigami714–Fili and Kili out Bilbo as a virgin embarrassing him in front of the other dwarves. One dwarf intends to rectify the situation. #NSFW #Slash
4. The Voice of a King by shinigami714–Thorin can’t seem to hold himself back after Bilbo has a near death experience. Bilbo doesn’t seem to mind. #NSFW Slash
5. We’ll Have to be Gentle by ThorinOakenshield (Jensensational)–In which Bilbo is ready for another bout, but is sore from the previous round. So Thorin decides to be as gentle as possible. #NSFW #Slash
6. My Treasure by Stravaganza–After the defeat of Smaug, possessive! Thorin has his way with Bilbo… on top of all of that gold. #NSFW #Slash
7. The Curious Nature of Hobbits by Eshli–Bilbo has made the strangest thing that any of the dwarves have ever seen. None of them understand what it is. Thorin in particular is curious as to what a hobbit would possibly use an eight-inch cylindrical piece of polished wood for. #NSFW

Durincest:

1. Dirty Talk by ferowyn–Bilbo walks in on Fili and Kili who are having a very informative conversation. #NSFW #Slash
2. Silver Tongue by twodwarves_oneeagle–After Thorin accidentally walks in on Fili and Kili together, it leaves some interesting prospectives in its wake. #NSFW #Slash

Hobbit Cast RPF:

1. Post-Premiere Relaxation Manual by waves-of-sorrow–In which Richard is tense and Cate helps him relax. #NSFW
2. Methods of Persuasion by waves-of-sorrow–In which Martin is grumpy and anti-social and Richard attempts (and fails) to make him go out with the rest of the cast. #NSFW #Slash
3. Don’t Care Who’s Watching by brodinsons (aeon_entwined)–Aidan and Dean don’t care who’s watching, which gets them into an interesting situation with Richard. #NSFW #Slash
4. Untitled by Traveller–“Just get rid of this fucking thing,” Richard says, scratching at the beard.”
5. The Barber by FoxRafer–Aidan Turner cleans up Richard’s shaggy hair. #Slash

The Hobbit: Some Unexpected Reactions

After a decade of waiting…yes, I’m one of those…I got to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey last night. I’ll try and refrain from spoilers, (and I think I succeeded) but I do want to record some of my impressions while they are fresh.

HFR 3D:

Let’s start with the controversial bit. I went into the theater so excited to experience the HFR 3D. From the reviews I’ve read the prevalent attitude is that you either love or hate the format. That wasn’t the case for me. There were moments, when I truly believed the hype that this will be the future of cinema. The sweeping panoramic shots were magnificent. Small details were so very clear. And my biggest issue with 3D was eliminated completely. At no point during the nearly three hour film did I have to rest my eyes because of eye strain.

However, I can now relate to the critics who said they never adjusted to the new format. The immersive experience that I so enjoy when going to the movie theater was missing because I was fully aware through the entire film that I was watching a film. This was especially apparent to me after having watched the LOTRs trilogy last weekend at the same theater. There were moments that the screen was too bright–which if I understand correctly is a byproduct of filming in 3D. And movements on screen, that would normally be tempered by the slower frame rate, were extra clear and in your face, which distracted me, keeping me firmly in the real world. This seemed to be particularly noticeable with Bilbo.

Even with my reservations, I’m not ready to write HFR 3D off. This being the first feature film ever made with the new format, it would be crazy to expect perfection. So, this time it didn’t quite do it for me, but I could see glimmers of how spectacular the experience can be. There are more details that need to be taken into consideration with the added frames and I feel certain that film makers who use the format will continue to work out the kinks.

Content:

When I read the criticism about pacing, I wanted to reserve judgement until I had seen the film for myself. Now, I can agree with some of the complaints. The inclusion of Frodo, while understandable just dragged on for me. I think it was only a few minutes, but all I could think was, “Come on, let’s get to the story!” Likewise, the introduction of the various dwarves could have been more condensed than it was. I suspect that the dwarf arrivals were drawn out to give us time to get to know each of the dwarves, however, it felt like an excuse to fill time. (Yeah, harsh I know.)

Once the company hit the road, the pacing issues disappeared. In fact, the film was so jam packed–Trolls, Elves, Goblins, Riddles in the Dark, Orcs and Eagles–I would have felt cheated if anything passed the Bag End scenes had been shortened.

I loved seeing Sir Ian McKellan back as Gandalf. It really would have been a travesty for anyone else to play the role. Martin Freeman was a perfect Bilbo. He manages to balance the dramatic and comedic to perfection, as well as the inner conflict between the comfort loving Baggins and the adventure seeking Took. Richard Armitage truly was magificent as Thorin, his ablility to convey anger, vengance, fear, pride, and even gratitude were unhampered by the prosthetics. Plus, it was nice to see him wielding a sword again…this time with the adept skill of a hardened warrior!

I had intentionally avoided spoilers that gave away the ending to the film, as I wanted to be surprised by where Peter Jackson and company chose to split the story. So I won’t spoil that for any of you who haven’t seen the film yet, But I have to say, it felt like an appropriate ending, and left me with a great sense of anticipation for the next film. Do we really have to wait another year?

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On a side note for those who haven’t seen the film–if you are ever even slightly inclined to squee in public you must prepare yourselves. The below image is just a blip of a totally engrossing scene.

Richard Armitage with his Lego

There is a lot to like about this image…the smile, the holding of his Lego piece, the chest hair… did I just say chest hair? Yes, yes I did. I know that there are quite a few of us who have wondered about his chest hair when it isn’t removed for roles. This pic seems to indicate a nice smattering. Okay, I’m done now, I’ll go back to staring at that gorgeous smile.

Image Courtesy of BuzzFeed

 

 

Thorin’s Weapons

I don’t know about you all, but the amount of Hobbit related stuff that is in my email each day has just become too much to keep up with. I’m finding myself having to decided which articles and videos are interesting enough that I can make time for them. This video was in my email when I woke up this morning and made the keep list.  The most interesting part for me was being able to see how the weapons had been scaled–particularly how large the Orcrist carried by Richard Armitage was to account for the smaller size of his character.

DIY: Hot Dwarves Hoodie

We all remember those  “I ♥ Hot Dwarves” t-shirts from Comic Con back in July, right? At the time I thought it would be great to have one, but I wasn’t sure I’d ever wear it. Well, it didn’t really matter anyway, because you can’t purchase them anywhere (at least not that I’ve found). A couple weeks ago a couple friends and I started talking about actually making or ordering shirts. We played around on the internet designing t-shirts, sweatshirts and *cough* panties. It was all just good fun, but then I happened across reasonably priced sweatshirts and iron on transfers and thought, “What the hell!”

I started out with a design. It went through a few different incarnations, but this is what I ended up with:

Did you know that dark fabric transfers have a white background unless you change it?

Next came the template phase of the design:

Happy with the template, it was time to print and trim the transfer:

Finally it was time for the transfer process:

There are a few imperfections that bother me. The iron on transfer directions weren’t clear enough about how long to press down on the transfer, which led to “hot” being a bit singed…ItsJSforMe and Zan decided it was singed because Thorin is just so darn hot. 😉 The black shirt also shows through the white a bit. All part of the learning experience, I guess. Over all I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. And I can always make a new one for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug next year. 😉

 

Warner Bros is such a tease…

…but I love it! It seems that with each new trailer we get new blink-and-you-missed-it clips. If I weren’t so incredibly interested in this movie *cough* and a certain actor, I’d probably not even note the new bits. As it is, each new clip make me smile ridiculously and long for December 14th even more than I thought possible.

We’ve seen Thorin and the dwarves run out to attack the trolls, but have we seen Thorin actually making contact with the troll before?

How cool is this going to look on the big screen and in 3D?

 

Only a month left to wait. Only a month left to wait. Only a month left to wait…I can’t be the only one repeating this like a mantra, can I?