Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Tolkien appreciation day!

So, my 16 year old little brother lives with me now, and there are hundreds of vital nerdy things that he hasn't experienced. We made a list of movies that he needs to see, and now that we finished the Indiana Jones trilogy, it's on to Lord of the Rings. Of course, after fellowship and the two towers, Neko is drooling, totally hooked, and very anxious to see Return of the King.

That got me to thinking, the medieval-fantasy genre is enjoying quite the resurgence these days, but does anyone appreciate where it all came from? Every elf you create in Skyrim, every orc you kill in WoW, every Salvatore book you buy, every DnD saving throw you make, every re-watch of The Highlander you enjoy, every mana you tap, every wandering monster you play, and every thundaga you cast, was made possible by this man. Before Tolkien, elves were only found helping Santa Claus, and dwarves and midgets were the same thing.

So, as I bake the pizza rolls and put the mountain dew in the freezer in preparation for 3 1/2 hours of Peter Jackson magic, I just want to send a little thank you to the man who is the most responsible for who I am today. In a town full of Twilight/Harry Potter/Game of Thrones/ fans, I guess i'm just the Tolkien white guy.



Here's the list btw..
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5 comments:

  1. Brandon McMullinSeptember 12, 2012 at 10:20 PM

    So... Lots of things:
    1- your little brothers name is Neko? How did that happen?
    2- Having a noob watch a movie you enjoy is always so stressful, what if they talk during an important or foreshadowing moment? What if they don't appreciate the humor? What if they go to the bathroom too often and you have to keep pausing it until eventually you get the feeling they've lost interest?!? Ughhh it's too much!!!
    3- exposure to Joss whedon, I approve.
    4- YOUR youth was wasted with the star wars prequels, your brothers doesn't have to be!
    5- I hope u plan on showing him BOTH Trons.
    6- "Tolkien white guy" hahaha

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownSeptember 13, 2012 at 7:19 AM

    1-My mother isn't the most stable, or rational person
    2-Making sure you don't over-hyp a legendary movie goes a long way. So far, Neko has been blown away. Temple of Doom didn't impress very much, but its the weakest of the trilogy.
    3-Joss Whedon belongs on every list.
    4-Ive been thinking about just that, I think Im going to skip the prequels. I know that I wont let my son watch them.
    5-Of course.
    6-Thank you, I'm very, very proud of that pun.

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  3. Brandon McMullinSeptember 13, 2012 at 12:20 PM

    I like.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownSeptember 23, 2012 at 10:28 PM

    It does feel stressful when anyone watches something you feel strongly about because they are probably not going to like it nearly as much as you do. While I typically do not enjoy high-fantasy stories/games because they feel generic and bland, I love the Lord of the Rings because of how grand and epic it all feels.

    And Game of Thrones is amazing and should not be grouped together with Twilight and Harry Potter. I would not consider it as high-fantasy as it does not feature the tropes typically associated with the genre. The first season is only 10 episodes and you should spend a weekend watching the entire first season to see that the hype is actually justified.

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownSeptember 24, 2012 at 8:10 AM

    Working on the Game of Thrones weekend, I want to watch it with Steph though, and that can be tricky

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