aewyn

George R. R. Martin updated his blog with news about the casting for Game of Thrones, and wow, Sean Bean is going to play Ned Stark!! There were some rumours about it before, but now it's confirmed. Sean Bean isn't who I imagined for the role originally, but I think this is great news. I'd like to see most of the roles played by relative unknowns, but I think casting one or two high profile actors should bring the series credibility and attract watchers. I don't know the other actors, but they look very fit for their parts too. I had sort of pictured Tom Payne as Viserys, but I'm sure this other guy is terrific too. I'm getting more and more excited about this!! :)

I'm so excited about this! I know that sometimes fantasy books don't work as movies at all, but I feel pretty optimistic that the Game of Thrones will be great as a TV series, especially since it's made by HBO.
And Peter Dinklage is such a perfect choice to play Tyrion! I think he was everybody's number one choice for the part, and I'm so glad they cast him. I don't know anything about the director, but it seems people are pretty excited about him, so he probably doesn't suck horribly. I can't wait to see this!

I'm not going to say anything insightful about Amazon fail because so many people have said many eloquent things about it already, so I'll just link to this:
Amazon Rank.


I haven't been around LJ much lately, I've been busy with my studies, and also because I didn't have a working internet connection at home. Now that my computer is working again I've naturally been spending way too much time on icanhascheezburger and the failblog. Should I be doing something more productive with my time?

I saw the OotP movie yesterday, comments behind the cut.

( OotP spoilers )

It’s now less than one week until the OotP movie comes out and two weeks until the release of DH. I’m only now starting to really realise how close the release of DH actually is – I mean, I’ve known the release date for long, but for some reason it’s only now starting to really sink in that the last HP book is going to be released in less than two weeks. I don’t know how to feel about that – on the other hand I’m excited about a new HP book and look forward to it, especially the Draco and Snape related plots, but then other hand it’s weird because it’s the last HP book. All kinds of theories and speculations have been a large part of the HP fandom, and while I haven’t been very interested in for example theories about the location of horcruxes, it’s been interesting to think about the characters and what JKR plans to do with them. It’s weird to think that in such a short time we'll know what she has in mind for all the characters and how it’s all going to end.

New OotP trailers have been released; I’m putting my comments behind the cut in case there are people who’d prefer not to know anything about the movies. ( Read more... )

I’ve decided to try to stay unspoiled for DH and I’m still very valiantly trying to resist the temptation to read those recent DH spoilers, so I don’t have anything to say about those, but the release of those spoilers got me to thinking about DH and how it will hugely affect the way I feel about the series as a whole.

As the series progresses I’ve had this increasing feeling that the author and I just aren’t quite on the same page when it comes to many things. And since these potential points of disagreement have to do with such fundamental concepts as right and wrong, sometimes I feel quite uncomfortable reading the books. I hold out hope that JKR and I actually agree more than I think, and she’s planning to have the main characters really mature and develop and rethink some things in the next book. Then again, maybe JKR and I really just have wildly different ideas of right and wrong. It’s certainly possible.

What happens to Draco and Snape in the next book is certainly high on the list of things that will affect the way I feel about the series. I think it will be pretty horrible and depressing if in the next book JKR tries to convince us that they are Evil Evil Evil with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and that they were doomed from the moment the Sorting Hat decided to put them into Slytherin when they were 11 years old. That would certainly make me hate the books. But I don’t think at all that’s what JKR is going to do.

But there are things that I find problematic/disturbing that I’m not so sure at all that JKR sees them the same way. ( Read more... )

I haven't been much on lj lately, and I'm a bit out of touch with what has been happening in fandom, I even missed all the discussion about the strange book 7 title. So I ventured out to a Harry Potter discussion forum to see what people were saying about the title. I learnt that it can refer to a group of people, ghosts, inferi, a place, possibly a graveyard, horcruxes, the veil in MoM or that it has something to do with Halloween. Sometimes I wonder if part of the reason why JKR chose a weird title like that is because it gives fans a lot to speculate about. I think fans had a lot of fun speculating about the identity of the HBP, so maybe JKR wanted a title that people could have a lot of wild theories about.

Well anyway, now that the title has been released we can't be very far from the release of the final book in the HP series. I don't really know if I should be excited and enthusiastic about it. I mean, I really used to love books 1-4, and was really looking forward to the fifth book, but then I read OotP and HBP, and... I don't know, there are many things I love about the books that make me think that JKR does know what she's doing with the characters and the story, but then there are a lot of things that just make me think "What the hell was JKR thinking about when she wrote this?!?" So I don't know, part of me is sort of optimistic about the final book, but then part of me is more like "well, I guess I should read the book, just to see how bad it's going to get". I sort of miss my pre-OotP enthusiasm, though. It was kind of fun just liking the books and being sure that the next book will be great. I still enjoy being in HP fandom, but I guess now I'm more the sort of fan who enjoys fanfic and discussions about the books rather than a fan who really, really loves the books. I guess there's always fanfic if it turns out the final book is dreadful, but I still hope it won't be so bad that it makes me completely dislike the series.

A few comments about the OotP trailer behind the cut.

( Read more... )

I promise I won’t make tons of post posting my quiz results on fascinating topics such as “What flavour of Margarita are you?” or “Who's your cat's celebrity match?” but I have to admit I sort of like personality tests, and I blushingly admit I like Sorting Hat tests too. I know they’re silly, but I just can’t help it. I especially liked this test , because it actually was about your personality traits, not some random things like your favourite subject at Hogwarts or your favourite colour. (You know, the kind of sorting hat tests that sort you into Slytherin if you like green and potions, or Ravenclaw if you like blue and charms etc). I don’t know how this test is supposed to work, because it seems to me that things like the ability to handle stress aren’t particularly associated with any of the houses, but anyway, I thought this was sort of interesting.

I wasn’t terribly surprised that I scored lowest on Gryffindor and Slytherin. I do like Slytherins a lot in the books, but it’s not really because of any personal identification with the house, it’s more because I don’t like the way they often are depicted in the books. And I’m definitely not overly fond of Gryffindors. It could be just because of the books’ insistence on Gryffindor always winning everything and being regarded as the coolest and overall best house, but I don’t really think I think that highly of Gryffindor virtues. I do value courage, but it’s more the quiet kind of courage that I admire, the ability to do the right thing even if it’s difficult, and the type of courage that to me seems like the typical Gryffindor courage strikes me as the flashy, brash, bold type. Like, I imagine a Gryffindor doing something stupid brave because they don’t want to appear wimpish. And that kind of bravery leaves me unimpressed.

I really like Ravenclaw though. And Hufflepuff’s okay, I think. I don’t think I would be sorted into Hufflepuff if I were a fictional character in this fictional universe, but I do think loyalty and fairness are great traits to have. And hard work, too. I really do wish I wasn’t this lazy! Right now I’m supposed to be studying, and here I am, procrastinating by writing this pointless post.

Eh. Maybe I really should go study now…