Bofur Optimism Master Post

So I pulled out my TH: AUJ DVD again today and took screencaps. I also watched Goblintown frame by frame, and still cannot figure out where the Dwarves get split up. It also happens twice, unless some shots are out of order. Dunno.

I also find it frustrating that Fili is constantly next to Thorin, Kili, and/or Gandalf, and yet the camera never focuses on him. The next time someone on TheOneRing.net asks, "What would you like to see in AUJ EE?" I will answer, "More Fili." And then I will pause and add, "Bombur, to be fair."

Anyway, this post marks the return of my very own Bofur Optimism meme, newly reformatted. It will also be accompanied by the Dori Pessimism meme, and a few others that are not really memes (actually, mine cannot be memes, as they have not undergone memetic mutation, but what else should I call them?).

Without further ado:

 

 

 

 

*Whew*! I had no idea I had 22 of them. Goondess. What I am doing in my spare time...

Enjoy, or something.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Bofur Is Back

It is better to light a single pipe than to curse the rain.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

The Professor Knows Best

 



"Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?…If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!"

 - J. R. R. Tolkien

By the way, he is often simply called "the Professor" by his fandom and other groups on the Internet, just as Aristotle was sometimes called merely "the Philosopher" by St. Thomas Aquinas and other greats of the Middle Ages.

Also, here is the Bofur Optimism meme for today:

The words are from "So Bring On the Rain" by Joo Dee Messina. I used to hear it on the radio several years ago when mom had it turned on (I do not listen to the radio myself that much), and finally one day I googled it. It's a very pretty song, so you should go look it up and listen to it.

Or, as the Professor would say: The Darkness cannot conquer forever. There is light and high beauty beyond its reach.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

A Quote, Since I Haven't Done One In Forever

The quote comes with a bonus picture.

There is something which unites magic and applied science while separating them both from the wisdom of earlier ages. For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue.

For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men: the solution is a technique; and both, in the practice of this technique, are ready to do things hitherto regarded as disgusting and impious.

 

-- C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

 

Can you say "Saruman"? Can you say "Denethor"? Can you say "your average politician"?

 

To make up for the depressing nature of the quote, here's a Bofur meme.

 

 

Bofur's sheer adorableness coupled with his ridiculously lovely personality coupled with the adorable fact that he is trying to smoke his pipe in the rain... equals WIN.

 

In Pace Christi,

 

Elyse

More LOTR Pics (And the Return of Bofur Optimism)

I apologize profusely to the non-existent people who care about the Bofur Optimism meme that I have not been posting it of late. I have made memes of it; I just haven't shared them.

Without further ado, that shall be amended!

I have moved on from just Bofur memes, though. I decided to do one with Aragorn as King Elessar and call it the 'Hope' meme. However, I only have two of those so I had better keep my run with Bofur going until I run out of ideas and get some ideas for the Hope meme.

I mean, what other guy in Middle-Earth could possibly be more appropriate for a 'Hope' meme than the man whose name as a child was Estel, or Elvish for 'hope'?

Oh, and, "All's well as ends better!" is a quote from LOTR, from near the end of the book after the Scouring of the Shire. I believe the Gaffer says it. The Gaffer is so quotable- at least, Sam quotes him all the time!

Okay, now for some less serious pictures...

HAHAHAHAHA... I don't know why, but this picture makes me cackle insanely every time I see it! Just saying the words, "A flock of Smeagols," makes me giggle. Just all the little Gollum heads with wings...

It reminds me of cherubs! It's hilarious how cherubs are always depicted in art as little chubby naked baby angels with tiny wings when the Cherubim are the warrior angels in the Bible. Therefore, I always note this inconsistency to my family whenever I can on sheer principles (I also dislike the fact that the babies are always naked, INCLUDING baby Jesus, for whatever reason... o.O). It's even worse when the cherubs don't even have bodies and are just heads with wings surrounded with clouds and stuff...

Good gracious, I got to talking about fat naked baby angels from a Gollum picture. That says something about the convoluted and truly scary pathways of my mind right there. Just warnin' you all.

Screencaps of Boromir, oops, I mean Sean Bean from Game of Thrones. I think it's pretty safe to say that whatever character he's playing (probably something to do with the House of Winter or whoever else is coming) is going to die. Because Sean Bean always dies. Unless he's Zeus, and then he can live throughout the whole movie.

Sean-Bean-as-Zeus and the line, "I can't pee with her watching me!" were the only redeeming moments of The Lightning Thief movie. Seriously, don't watch it. It was terrible. The producers/directors/other bigwigs apparently Didn't Even Care. And now they're coming out with the sequel, and I have NO IDEA what they're going to do with it. I mean, the villain for the PJATO series is Kronos, introducted at the end of The Lightning Thief, and they cut him out in the movie to make Hades the Big Bad. (Have I mentioned that Hades is my favorite of the Olympians? For going to great lengths to protect his kids and also for being like the ONLY FAITHFUL OLYMPIAN to his wife in the original mythology.)

Stupid Hollywood.

Wellywood does it so much better.

I think this is one of the Oakentoons by PeckishOwl on Deviantart. If not, it sure looks like her/his work...

I like Thorin's glare and, "No." Looks like he's been around Dwalin for too long... *snicker*

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

LotR Pics of the Day

Lalalalala, it's spring break and I can do whatever I want, lalalalala....

Ahem. *composes self* Now that we have banished that fit of giddiness, let us proceed to more interesting stuff than me twirling about the room and celebrating no homework.

First off, I found this a long time ago, but it was so tiny and of such poor quality that I could never do anything with it. Now that I have discovered how to use Paint, I could just find the picture and add the caption myself. So, without further ado, here it is:

I feel so proud of myself. *giggles* This one has been a favorite of mine for some time (really, why is Boromir looking at the camera and Faramir looking off as if to say, "Oh, no! Here comes dad!") and so it's a delight to share it without it being the size of my thumbnail...

So, in other Tolkien-related new, the other week a few of the TH actors (namely Richard Armitage/Thorin, Andy Serkis/Gollum, and James Nesbitt/Bofur) held a live Twitter interview, some of the results of which are priceless. For one thing, the fanart:

Whoever drew this (it looks like piangchan.tumblr in the bottom left, or something like that), I salute you! Especially for the little question mark by Thorin's head. PRICELESS. In an interview with Martin Freeman, the question being, "Have a Twitter account, or I'd much rather keep what I had for lunch to myself, thank you?" Richard Armitage said, "I'd rather keep what I had for lunch to myself, thank you."
I don't blame him. I hope he NEVER, EVER gets a Twitter account. He would be inundated by creepy fans. Can you believe that in the Twitter interview someone apparently asked him if he knew about the Bagginshield pairing?? O.o I can't believe someone did that. That's just cruel. I mean, one of my guidelines for Sane Shipping is: Always Leave the Actors Out of It. Amusingly enough, Martin Freeman may know about Bagginshield. Apparently, he caused a mass panic in the Sherlock fandom when he admitted to reading fanfiction.

Me: Ahahahahahahahaha...

Anyway, if I ever met someone from LOTR or TH and if I were brave enough to say anything to them (so that's two impossibilities), I would just want to say thank you. And ask if I could hug them. Maybe. And then I would grab a flamethrower and help them chase away the creepy fangirls.

Anyway, back to the Twitter interview. So someone asked RA what was his 'recipe for life'. His response?

"Chocolate ice cream. Treat others as you would like to be treated. And lots of chocolate ice cream."

Can I get a resounding AMEN? Is any other reason needed to like this guy?

Sooooo. Now that I have had my say about various Tolkien things, yesterday was, of course, Palm Sunday. (If you do not know what Palm Sunday is, there is this little thing called Google...) My brother has dubbed it 'Facepalm Sunday' and took the opportunity of saying it several times throughout the day. So, in honor of Facepalm Sunday (which I seriously doubt will be adopted into the liturgical calendar anytime soon), I must share something I found a long time ago on Catholic Memes:

No irreverence intended! It's just so appropriate. I try to read a chapter of the Bible every day, and currently I'm in Exodus... or is it Leviticus... Nah, I think it's still Exodus. Y'know, all the rules and regulations- this is unclean, don't eat this. Don't do this, you'll become unclean. If you become unclean, kill a bunch of animals and it will all be okay...

Once again, no irreverence intended, but even once all the rules and regulations were set out straight the Israelites just couldn't stay away from the idols, now, couldn't they? You'd think they'd go for pagan religions that didn't require burning your first-born alive to Moloch, but then again... Of course, how much better are we today, now, mmm?

Yesterday was also the sneak peak for The Desolation of Smaug! I was expecting ten minutes of footage, with a few questions at the end, and we got so much more! It was great to see Jed Brophy and Peter Jackson carry on, particularly with the jibe about New Zealand and England's cricket match (lol) and how time travel was involved since it was early Monday morning over there during the live event.

We got to see a few nice clips of Martin Freeman doing one line half a dozen different ways (prompted by Bilbo noticing Kili is injured, which I'm betting leads in to the reveal that Thorin really didn't want to take his nephews on his epic Erebor quest- SAYING IT NOW, just as I predicted, "If there's a key, there must be a door," would be labeled Fili's 'blond moment'). We also saw pre-recorded videos from various cast members (the one of Dominic Monaghan outside his house was pretty funny), including one from Stephen Fry that apparently went on and on... so much so that they switched to a couple of other videos in the meanwhile, coming back to it twice to find that he was still talking! LOL.

One of the best parts had to be seeing greenscreen clips of Thranduil. XD Him lounging on his Moose Throne (as I have dubbed it) as the Dwarves are brought in. Neener neener neener, I have a throne, Thorin, and you don't, lalalala... And then the scene where he got right up in Thorin's face to yell at him! I had to clap my hands over my mouth since it was like seeing fan speculation brought to life!

I was giggling insanely afterwards. I mean, the fans are going to love Thranduil. The same people who brought us Majestic Thorin are also bringing us Thranduil Sass. Behold.

I was also pleased to see Legolas (not because of his looks; I've moved on from Elves) since I always thought that adding him to any movie adaptation of The Hobbit was a no-brainer. It looks like we'll have some nice scenes with him, including scenes of him disagreeing with his dad. Since I've been seeing fan-made gifs of Legolas in the background of the infamous moose scene going, "Daaaaad! You're embarrassing meeeeee!" and other things in that similar vein, it was priceless. To add to the fun, I found this:

That sword twirl... Okay, I'm officially dying of laughter. Better sign off before my gigglesnorting wakes up everyone else...

Oh, no, I can't! First I have to post my Bofur Optimism Meme of the Day!

Cheers!

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Even MORE LotR Stuff

Because the Internet is a wonderful thing, when it is not a terrible and horrible thing.

Now this next one I saw some weeks back and wanted to post it on the appropriate Sunday when we set our clocks ahead one hour, but when I looked for it then I couldn't find it. So, now that I have found it again, here it is.

And, finally, we have proof that the Maiar do, indeed, exist and are living amongst us:

I know I should probably do more actual writing on this blog than sharing of pictures, since writing is good for me and all that- keeps the creative juices flowing, blah, blah, blah. However, I have to make up for the fact that I was not in a position to appreciate it when the LOTR movies came out 11 years ago, so that's why I'm binging on Tolkien-related things now.

Besides, the only person I know of who looks at my blog on a regular basis is my sister and she only looks at the pictures anyway, so...

MORE PICTURES IT IS!!

Oh, and since I sort-of promised, here's another Bofur Optimism meme. I do hope it catches on. Somehow. Someway.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

*Sniff*

I was afraid to look up Green Lantern: The Animated Series for a week or so to find out how the series ended (WHY was it cancelled?? It was seriously amazing!!), since I was so sure that both Aya and Razer were doomed.

***CAUTION, READ NO MORE IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED***

But I finally did it. I looked it up. Then I found the episode on YouTube and watched it. Come to think of it, I probably should have watched the episode first and then read the recap, but it probably would have just made me sob even harder.

So, yeah. Aya goes back in time to the moment of the creation of the universe (and I don't care if that's officially the DC Hand of Creation. I reject their reality and substitute my own! That was the Hand of God starting the Big Bang. You cannot convince me otherwise) in order to ensure that the universe will never be able to support organic life. Hal tries talking her out of it, with no success, and ends up calling in Razer to kill her. Razer can't bring himself to do it, though, and when Aya reflexively attacks him and fatally wounds him, that snaps her out of her all-organic-life-must-die funk. So they race back through the portal and she heals him- and, yay, she turned all green and white again!- and it's not sappy at all because it is so BEAUTIFUL, and she downloads a virus in all the Manhunters to kill them but she takes herself with them and collapses into energy in Razer's arms.

*sniff*

OH, AND IT DOESN'T END THERE!

Hal and Kilowog try convincing Razer that Aya is gone, but he refuses to believe it. He tells them goodbye (and he actually shakes their hands! This is Razer who didn't understand the meaning of that gesture in episode 4!) and actually acknowledges them as his friends. It's so BEAUTIFUL! And then he flies off into the stars... and just when you think that is the last image of the show, a Blue Lantern ring appears and zooms off after him.

MIND. BLOWN.

However, I also wanted to do a little dance and point at the computer and say, "HA! I guessed that from the very beginning!" Because I did. People's Wild Mass Guessing on TVTropes did not influence me at all. Someone even speculated that he would be the first Star Sapphire. O.o I mean, really...

I mean, they overlooked the most important reason of all! Razer's eyes were blue. I mean, duh. I saw it coming a mile off. But that doesn't make it one whit less beautiful. Even more awesome: his voice actor posted a clip on YouTube of him doing the Blue Lantern oath in Razer's voice.

AWESOME.

And so I had to make a Bofur Optimism meme in honor of the demise of GL:TAS.

Of course, now is the perfect moment to illustrate the difference between the comic book fandoms and the Tolkien fandom. To the comic book people, I would probably be a poser.

I found this on Tumblr, a while back:

NEW MARVEL FANS: Hi, I'm new here.
OLD MARVEL FANS: Wow, you must be a poser, then.
NEW TOLKIEN FANS: Hi, I'm new here.
OLD TOLKIEN FANS: You're one of us now. You can't turn back.
--
NEW MARVEL FANS: Wow, these actors sure are hot.
OLD MARVEL FANS: You're only here for the hot guys, you must be a poser.
NEW TOLKIEN FANS: Wow, these actors sure are hot.
OLD TOLKIEN FANTS: Now you've got the right idea.
--
NEW MARVEL FANS: I didn't read the comics.
OLD MARVEL FANS: Poser.
NEW TOLKIEN FANS: I didn't read the books.
OLD TOLKIEN FANS: It's okay. Some people just don't have time for that, but you should try it one day.
--
NEW MARVEL FANS: I am going to make a cosplay.
OLD MARVEL FANS: You just want attention.
NEW TOLKIEN FANS: I am going to make a cosplay.
OLD TOLKIEN FANS: Oh, we don't cosplay in this fandom. We embrace our true forms.

'Nuff said.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Some More Stuff I Did In My Spare Time

As you no doubt know, if you've looked at my blog at all, I got my hands on a DVD of TH:AUJ yesterday, and memes happened.

We watched it last night. I managed to keep my comments to a minimum so family members who had not yet seen it could hear what was going on, so I was not threatened with duct tape, mercifully. However, I did go through it again today so I could pause it on favorite parts, look at stuff in the background, and take screenshots. Lots of screenshots.

And memes happened.

Bofur is the Boromir of The Hobbit as far as having the most memetically mutating lines. "Think furnace, with wings!" and Ridiculously Lovely Bofur and the Hat and it goes on and on...

This is one of my brother's favorite lines to quote. Whenever someone does something silly, stupid, or otherwise questionable, he is liable to pop up and say, "Thorin Oakenshield will not be responsible for your fate," or some permutation thereof. So, naturally, I knew I had to make a meme of it. I would actually be really happy if this one became memetic, as I can think of instances in Real Life where I could justify saying this.

For some reason, the image of Bofur trying to smoke his pipe in the rain (while on horseback, mind you... or should that be ponyback?) always gets me. I find myself telling the screen, "Ain't gonna work, honey," and (even stranger) not feeling very apologetic about it...

This is another meme I would like to catch on. Bofur should be memetic for many things: his Hat, his Ridiculously Lovely status, the 'furnace with wings' line and his 'well, that could have been worse' optimism. I have made two other memes with this picture headed by 'Optimism' with something at the bottom; I'll post them some time in the next few days.

Of course, seeing as how I am trying to start a trend, it will never catch on.

Now I just need to learn how to make gifs. Problem is, if and when I do learn how, I will inundate my blog with Fili gifs. I took a lot of screenshots of him, come to think of it... *innocent smile*

In Pace Christi,

Elyse