MEMM Day 28 - Favorite Middle Earth-related item(s) you own

I have a lot of Middle-Earth related mathoms, as they'd call them in the Shire.  Shirts, bookmarks, jewelry, mugs, posters, maps, pens, journals, board games, vases, candle holders, and of course the books and movies themselves.  Today, I'm just going to show you four things:

These are my favorite Middle-Earth-related items, and the ones I use the most often.  Not coincidentally, they are all from the same Etsy shop, The Ring and the Lion, run by my crafting friend Sarah.  She buys handmade pottery and then hand-paints phrases on them in Elvish with gold.  The two on the left she made for me by request, with specific phrases on them that I like to be reminded of.

The big green mug on the left says "Go where you must go, and hope!"  The brown mug says, "Forth now, and fear no darkness!"  The pale green mug says "May the stars shine on your journey."  And the blue vase says, "For all hobbits share a love for things that grow."  I use the big green mug for flowers too, when I have great big bunches of them.

My most favorite is the pale green mug:

I didn't capture it very well in the photo, but the handle of that one has a little leaf at the top of it, which is so elegant and Elvish-looking.

I actually have a tea light holder from her too, that says, "A light in the darkness shall spring" around it.  But it's really small and didn't look nifty with these pieces, so I didn't include it.  I've bought several other pieces from her too, over the years, as gifts for one friend or another.  Sarah makes other cool things too, and her whole shop is dedicated to Tolkien- and C.S. Lewis-inspired stuff, so definitely go check it out!

And look at that!  I finished the whole meme!  It only took me FOUR full months, but hey.  I didn't quit!  Yay!  Thanks for exploring the Middle Earth movies with me :-)  And as Gandalf says, "Go where you must go, and hope!"

MEMM Day 27 - Favorite end song

Obviously, "The Last Goodbye" from TBOTFA.  Nothing can compare.

And since I'm pretty sure you've heard the Billy Boyd version already, today I'm sharing Peter Hollens' splendid a capella version, which you've probably heard too, but just in case, why not?

My second-favorite ending song is "Into the West."  I have the sheet music for it, and I love playing and singing it.  The refrain in particular touches a melancholy-yet-contented chord in me.  Since I shared the Peter Hollens version of "The Last Goodbye," here's his version of "Into the West" too.

And actually, the first Peter Hollens video I ever watched was his rendition of "The Misty Mountains."  So I'm going to share it too.  Because I can.

MEMM Day 26 - Favorite one-on-one fight

Hmm.  This is actually a really tough question for me, because I'm not sure I have one.  I haven't had one particular one-on-one fight that I look forward to with great delight in any of these movies.  I guess I'll go with Sam vs. Shelob because it's such a heroic moment, and Sam really comes into his own there.

Also, I'm a big fan of killing spiders, or even just wounding and driving them away, so on a personal level, I'm happy Sam dispatches Shelob :-)

MEMM Day 25 - Characters you wish you liked more

Hmm.

Aragorn.

Arwen.

Frodo.

Thorin.

Faramir.

Don't get me wrong -- I do like all of them!  But not as much as I think I ought to, or as much as I'd like to like them.  Does that make any sense?  I know they're awesome, but the feels aren't there.

MEMM Day 24 - Favorite moment/line in The Battle of the Five Armies

Get comfy.  You know I'm truly madly deeply in love with this movie, but I've managed to narrow this down to my twelve favorite parts.  I tried shaving it farther, but I couldn't give any up to make it a nice round ten, so twelve it is.  And this is in order of how they happen in the movie, not of how much I love them -- if I could pick one favorite, I wouldn't be listing twelve!

1.  That little smile of dawning awareness that he could possibly kill Smaug -- that's my favorite part of the whole opening sequence.  Well, that and when he tells Bain to look at him, not the dragon.

2.  Bard's reunion with his daughters -- that look of relief he has!  The husky way he says, "Come here!" when he first sees them, the way he clutches them to him -- all so wonderful.

3.  Then there's Elrond's arrival at the evil fortress, and the subsequent fight.  I love that fight!  Especially how beautiful his cape looks when he's fighting.  It's hard to capture, but I tried:

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh.  I want one!

4.  Then there's the whole exchange between Thorin and Bard, which I dearly love.  Bard starts out really hoping he can just make this ugly altercation end before it really begins.

Thorin says he's listening, but he's really not.  He's already made up his stubborn mind.

Bard starts to feel this isn't going to work out, and he gets pretty sad over it.  Can dwarves really be this stubborn?

Thorin's like, "Yeah, you have no idea how stubborn we can be.  If I make sexy eyes at you, will you get scared and go away?"

And Bard's all, "You've got to be kidding me -- what's wrong with you?"  And then that hand-slam of frustration -- delicious!

5.  I also love the way Bilbo sneaks past those guards.  It's pure Martin Freeman adorableness -- the most obvious sneaking actions ever, and it cracks me up.

6.  I know we all love it when Bilbo reluctantly admits he's the hobbit who stole Thranduil's keys and helped the prisoners escape.  "Yeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssss."

7.  But I also deeply love it when he tells them he's not doing it for them, he's doing it for his dwarf friends, even though they're stinky and rude.

8.  Then there's this shot.  Wow.  Could Thorin's return from madness have been more majestic?  Nope.

9.  And his reunion with Kili -- ohhh, so heartwarming.

10.  Okay, and this is a moment that I loved a whole lot even the very first time I saw TBOTFA.  When Thranduil sees the slain elves, he reminds me so strongly of Legolas' reaction to Boromir's death in FOTR.

This sort of wonderment, of working to wrap your head around the reality of death.  Yeah, I know elves don't exactly die like humans, so it's not the same thing, but anyway, Thranduil's expression really reminded me of Legolas', so I like it.

11.  And I love Bilbo's farewell to the dwarves.  Oh, it makes me tear up every time.  Such a poignant, sweet moment.

"Don't bother to knock."  Awwwwww!

12.  Finally, I love Bilbo's parting from Gandalf.  He's such a different hobbit than he was at the beginning of the first movie, isn't he?

This shot of Gandalf as he leaves is probably my favorite single image in the whole movie.  The light is gorgeous, and it looks like the most perfectly Middle Earth place I can imagine.

(I know I totally didn't adhere to my own rules here, but I'm sorry, I just can't pick one.)

MEMM Day 23 - The Hobbit character you understand the least

Thranduil.  Whenever I think of him, there's a line from The Avengers that runs through my mind:  "That guy's mind is a bag full of cats."  He reminds me a lot of Loki, who I also don't understand in the slightest.

Actually, I do kind of understand him.  I mean, I get where he's coming from -- he just wants to protect his people and reclaim what belongs to him, and he does not care a smidgen for anything or anyone else.  He's selfish and isolationist, but I can get inside his head if I want to, unlike Frodo.

I think the biggest problem I have with Thranduil (and Loki) is that he's unpredictable.  I do not deal well with unpredictability.  Not in fiction, not in life.  This is why I hate and fear spiders -- it's impossible to predict where they'll go and what they'll do.  Same thing with Thranduil -- he might come over and help you out by giving you wagons of food and all the warriors you could ever need to wage a war.  Or he might decide he's no longer interested in this battle and just leave.  You.  Don't.  Know.  You can't count on him.  At all.  Ever.  ::Shivers::

I love predictable people and characters, I really do.  I married the most predictable man (with the broadest shoulders and the cutest dimples) I could find.  I want to know I can count on you, I want to know I can make a plan and it will get followed, and I don't want you to randomly surprise me by completely changing all the plans on a whim.

It's rather surprising that I like cats, isn't it?

MEMM Day 22 - Costume you most want to wear

I'd really like to know what Galadriel's costume from FOTR feels like.  I wouldn't want to wear it all the time, as I want my jeans with pockets, but I'd like to wear it once just to know how heavy it is, what the fabric is like, etc.  It looks heavy and cool and smooth, but is it?  It might be itchy, and then I'd hate it.

But to wear on a daily basis in real life, I would like to have Bard's coat.  I love coats, especially long ones, and a long leather coat?  I would wear that all the time.  I actually found one on Etsy when TBOTFA first came out, and if it hadn't been several hundred dollars more than I felt comfortable spending on a piece of clothing, I would have bought it.

MEMM Day 21 - Favorite couple

Kili and Tauriel?  Aragorn and Arwen?  Faramir and Eowyn?  Sam and Rosie?  Galadriel and Celeborn?  This should be an easier choice, considering how few couples there are in these movies.  We barely meet Celeborn or Rosie, so those are kind of out.  Faramir and Eowyn get a bit of development as a couple in the extended editions, but barely enough to count.  Which leaves me the choice between Kili/Tauriel and Aragorn/Arwen.

The funny thing is, this shouldn't be hard either.  Because Tauriel and Kili are two of my favorite characters, and Aragorn and Arwen don't make the list.  So clearly, I should be team Taurili (Kiliel?).  And I am, in that I ship them and not Legoliel (Taurolas?  I'm not good at the whole name-combo thing).  But their relationship barely gets started -- they get some cute chats and a few meaningful glances, and then a sad ending.  They don't get to know each other, that we see, and their only opportunity to do so would be while Tauriel's helping nurse Kili back to health at Bard's house.  And Kili's feverish or unconscious most of that time.  If Kili had lived, if they were able to go away together and find a place in the world where a dwarf-elf relationship would work out, then I would choose them.  But that doesn't happen.

So, surprise, surprise!  My favorite couple is Aragorn and Arwen.

And really, that makes a great deal of sense.  I love May-December romances, and Arwen is ever so much older than Aragorn.  I love romances between people who have known each other for years, who grew up together and then fell in love, and that's obviously the case for them.  And I love romances where they have to defy odds or conventions or some kind of opposition to be together.  Elrond opposed their marriage for a long time because he doesn't want Arwen to eventually experience the grief of losing her husband.  Arwen has decided the joy of their years together is worth the pain of eventual separation, and I heartily applaud her for both disagreeing with her powerful father, but also for initially obeying him, and slowly helping him change his mind rather than outright disobeying and opposing him.

MEMM Day 20 - Favorite moment/line in "The Desolation of Smaug"

Even though I've watched it twice since TBOTFA came out, I don't know Desolation of Smaug all that well, because I had only watched it twice before that -- once in the theater, and once when I got the DVD.  So this is a little bit tough for me.  Also, those two times this year are the only times I've watched the extended edition, so bits of it are really new to me still.

One moment that has always filled me with breathless delight, though, is Smaug the gilded dragon.  When he swirls up into the night, covered in liquid gold, I catch my breath in awe.  The first time I watched it, when I got there, I said, "OH!  Okay, all that stuff that felt too long before this was totally worth it."

Sadly, it's really hard to screencap his magnificence because he's moving really quickly the whole time.  And still pictures don't do justice to how liquid-shiny he is.

Still photos also don't do justice to how cool he looks spiraling up into the sky and showering gold down on the camera and the world below.

Also, Bard's entrance is thrilling and perfect.  I have a thing for silhouettes, and the first time I saw him standing above the dwarves there, I went, "Oooooh!  Who is that?"  One of the best entrances in both trilogies, I think.

And as for a favorite line, well... Cowboy and I quote Radagast a lot:  "This is not a nice place to meet."  Aside from that, I can't think of any I either love or quote a lot.  Yet.

MEMM Day 19 - A location you never want to visit

Mirkwood.  The place creeps me out So Very Much.  The sleepiness thing, the inability to think straight, and the giant spiders.  I actually don't know what those giant spiders truly look like because I always cover my eyes and cower in terror until Legolas shows up and I know it's safe again.

I am never going in there.

MEMM Day 18 - "The Hobbit" character you relate to the most

Bard the Bowman.

This is something of an anomaly for me.  And not just because, quite unexpectedly, he has become my favorite Middle Earth character, ousting Boromir from that spot.  I never thought that would happen, and it kind of shocked me when it did.  But the real anomaly here is that the character I identify with the most is also my favorite.  That's not usually true.  Almost always, the character I relate to the most is my second-favorite.  Sam in LOTR.  Willow Rosenberg on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Victoria Barkley on The Big Valley.  Dr. Watson in pretty much every incarnation of the Sherlock Holmes world.  Kate Wallace on Five Mile Creek.  Dr. Mike on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.  Billy Nelson on Combat! is more like my 3rd-favorite, but I would so be him in that show.  And on and on.  Only rarely is my favorite character also the one I see myself in.

The other two instances I can think of right now where my favorite character is also the one I identify with are hugely important to me:  Wolverine in the X-Men comics and movies, and Lucy in While You Were Sleeping.  Those are the only two I can think of.  And I think that's why Bard shot so quickly to the top of my Middle Earth Favorites list.  Because for me to start out going, "Bard is my favorite Hobbit character" after DOS, and then in TBOTFA identify so strongly with him -- that's potent.

I just looked in my journal, and after my second viewing of TBOTFA, on January 3rd, I wrote:

I definitely love this movie.  And Bard.  I identify very strongly with him, more than any Tolkien character besides Sam.  Possibly more.  I'm not sure.  Very close kinship.

After my third viewing, on January 18th, I wrote:

I realized, after I got home at 12:45am, that I now love Bard the Bowman more than Boromir.  I am shocked.  But it's true -- I love movie-Bard better than any other Tolkien-world character.  Book-Bard is too underdeveloped -- he's just grim and sensible, and happens to be able to understand birds.  But movie-Bard is stalwart and pure-hearted and noble and honorable and upright and brave and selfless and yeah... total love.

So yes, I think it was the realization that I identify with Bard so strongly that really catapulted him past Boromir.  But why do I relate to him so much?

Because everything he does, he does to protect his family.  They are his number-one priority.  Why does he set out to slay Smaug?  Because little Tilda asks him if they're going to die.  Why does he lead the survivors of Laketown to find shelter in Dale?  Because he needs to shelter his children.  Why does he fight so fiercely and valiantly in the ensuing battle?  To protect his children.  In fact, the movie makes this really explicit -- if you'll recall, Alfrid asks Bard why he's doing all these thrilling heroics, and Bard looks at his kids.

And I soooooooooo identify with that.  My family is also my number one priority.  Protecting my children is a huge part of my life.  Happily, I don't have to battle any orcs or trolls to do so, though I would if I had to.  Instead I have to battle the world around us, my own selfishness, and anyone who would try to influence them in a way I deem wrong.  I also try to protect them from things like falling head-first off the playground equipment or getting run over by cars or touching hot pots and pans or sticking keys into electrical sockets or standing on top of toy trucks to reach something or or or or....  My days are filled with protecting my children.

There are a bunch of other reasons I identify with Bard, like that he's helpful, he tries to convince people not to be stupid, he reluctantly becomes a leader because somebody has to do it, he gives people second chances, he doesn't just go along with what powerful people tell him, and he's really good at keeping secrets.  But it's that unwavering commitment to protecting his family that speaks to me the most.

MEMM Day 17 - Scenes/things you cry at

We watched TBOTFA on DVD once it came out, and yup, I still cry at the same things in it.  So now I can make this list and feel like it's very concrete, these aren't changing.  (Sadly, life has intervened and kept me from the Middle Earth Movie Meme for a little while, but I'm back to it now!)

The Fellowship of the Ring

I cry when Boromir dies.  Even thinking the line, "Be at peace, son of Gondor" can bring tears to my eyes.  Part of this is because he's my favorite LOTR character and I'm sad he doesn't get to be in the rest of the trilogy.  But a lot of it is because of how he dies, defending "the little ones" and atoning for his fall into temptation.


The Two Towers

In TTT, I cry when the Frodo-and-Sam-wandering-around-in-Mordor parts go on too long.  Just kidding.  I don't think I cry during TTT.


The Return of the King

I cry when Sam picks up Frodo and says, "I can't carry it for you, Mr. Frodo, but I can carry you!"

I also cry when Aragorn sees Arwen at his coronation.  And I cry when Aragorn tells the four hobbits, "You bow to no one."

EDIT:  I just realized I also generally cry at the Grey Havens, when Sam has to say goodbye to Frodo.  Partings and reunions make me cry.


An Unexpected Journey

In AUJ, I didn't cry at all until I rewatched it after seeing TBOTFA.  Now I cry when Bilbo says, "See, that's where I belong.  That's home.  And that's why I came back.  Because… you don't have one.   A home.  It was taken from you.  But I will help you take it back, if I can."  Knowing now how that would come back again during Thorin's death... wow, hits me hard.


The Desolation of Smaug

Once again, the middle movie doesn't really  make me cry.


The Battle of the Five Armies

(Source)

I don't really cry as much during this movie as you'd expect.  The first time, I cried over the deaths, but in all subsequent viewings, I don't.  But I definitely cry when Bilbo says goodbye to the remaining dwarves.  I start when Balin says, "You can tell them yourself," and I don't stop until the scene ends.  

I also tear up at the very end when Gandalf says outside Bag End, "And what about very old friends?"