Favorite Female Characters

Although I missed International Women's Day, I wanted to put together a list of my favorite female characters with something I like about each. Female characters don't have to just be "strong" (though that is cool too), but it's great when they have unique personalities as normal people and have their own role in the story apart from a leading or supporting male character (though this does not make their relationship bad or unimportant!). All of these characters are really great and I love how they are portrayed complexly - they are already cool and strong but have moments of weakness that show their humanity and ability to learn and grow. There are so many I want to mention and I'm probably forgetting some ladies I love, but here are my top choices at the moment:

Ellie Miller

Broadchurch

A detective sergeant and a mother, she's thrown into a situation she's not prepared to deal with but her compassion continually shines through.

Rose, Martha, Donna, Sarah Jane, and others

Doctor Who

Rose always puts others first and looks out for people many don't notice. Martha balances what everyone wants from her and stands up for herself. Donna sees the Doctor as he is and encourages people to be their best, even with her own insecurities. Sarah Jane is like another Doctor and adopts *all* the kids.

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Win and Joan Thursday

Endeavour

It's the 60s - Win, the mother of the Thursday family stays home and Joan, her daughter, has a job, and both are portrayed as good and important. Joan is funny and a bit adventurous and Win supports her family through thick and thin. (Dorothea Frazil is cool too)

Cully and Joyce Barnaby and Gail Stephens

Midsomer Murders

Daughter and wife of the lead detective, Cully and Joyce both have an interest in the arts (whether as a career or a hobby). Cully knows what she wants and works toward it, and Joyce likes to try new things and be involved in the community. Gail Stephens is a police officer and while junior to Barnaby and Jones, she has a different set of skills to contribute to investigations.

Molly Hooper

Sherlock

Molly has such a great character arc as she starts out as an awkward, love-sick, mouse and establishes herself and gets the respect she deserves. But it's the two sides of her existing simultaneously that make her so relatable. Also shout out to some other awesome women of Sherlock - Mrs. Hudson, Mary Morstan, Sally Donovan, Anthea, Janine, and Sarah.

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 Eowyn

 The Lord of the Rings

She's a leader and sacrifices what she wants for the good of others, not to mention brave and resourceful and all-around awesome. Shout out to the many other women of Middle-Earth as well.

Hermione Granger

Harry Potter

Her hard work and patient study make her the "brightest witch of her age," and she is strong and flawed and beautiful and loyal and keeps her friends together.

Maya Fey

Ace Attorney

How to summarize the awesomeness of Maya... She seems so real in that she has multiple sides to herself and surprises you as you get to know her. She's quirky and spunky most of the time but doubts her abilities and her worth. Throughout the series she works through personal tragedies while doing anything she can to help her friends. Franziska is also an amazing character I could go on about.

This is getting long so to say a few more:

 Lizzie, Jane, and Lydia Bennet from The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

Ahsoka, Padme, Leia, Siri, Bant, and many others from Star Wars

Carolyn Knapp-Shappey from Cabin Pressure

Emma Swan and others from Once Upon a Time

Fanny Price from Mansfield Park

Several of my favorite characters are guys, but these women are particularly special. I find many of them are realistic, relatable, and a great part of their story. For those in current series, hopefully this will continue! Who are your favorite female characters?

Closet Cosplay Challege - Results

 
First of all, you guys rock. Thanks so much to everyone who sent challenges! For a couple of these I borrowed something from a family member, made little things out of construction paper, or had actually already made something for a character, but otherwise this is stuff out of my closet. And sorry in advance for the quality of the pictures! I alternated between an iPod and digital camera, both with ups and downs.

Speaking of things I already made for characters - Shaak Ti suggested Elizabeth Swan, who I actually dressed as for Halloween years ago, so I had something okay for this:

accidental cosplaying in front of picture of actual character (right middle)

Shena had a few challenges- first an undercover Jedi (thought it was cool how this was open to interpretation, which I may have had a bit too much fun with) (I am wearing my Jedi tunic, it's just hard to see!):

cover

deep cover

deep deep cover

Sherlock Holmes:

I take the precaution of a good coat and a short friend

Rose Tyler (I went with her outfit from The End of the World, since I already made a shirt to look like hers):

we're in the year 5 billion! but first let me take a selfie.

Mary Margaret:

she makes me want to cut my hair and completely change my style

And Eowyn (was able to sort of pull off her costume from Dunharrow):

might be my new favorite costume of hers

Faith suggested two disney princess - Belle (who I'd love to cosplay for real now):

far off places, daring sword fights, magic spells, a prince in disguise...

And Cinderella:

learned my face doesn't like to cooperate for princesses so better to close eyes...

Zenta said Professor Layton (thank you bro for the shirt. and jacket. and hat.):

every puzzle has an answer

And Miles Edgeworth:

now then, if the defense is quite done embarrassing itself...

And last but not least Misty who, after I specifically said Smaug would be tricky, suggested I do said dragon. But just for you, my dear friend:

Benedict doing the motion capture for Smaug!

Mwahahaha! (I only laugh because I fail at doing a scary face)

And that's it! Again, thanks so much for the challenges, this was a ton of fun to do! Have a great week, keep calm, and cosplay motion capture versions of characters that are too hard.

Riddles in the Dark - Gollum's blog!

I don't need Gollum invading my blog anymore, so he and I worked together to create him one of his own! He writes and I moderate, just to make sure things stay friendly. ;) Please check out riddlesinthedarkblog.blogspot.com!

We're Back, Precious!

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Yes, yes! We have guessed the short blogger's password again! We has the blog! Hee hee hee hee!

Smeagol is the master now. Smeagol can do what he wants. Fish, yes we wants fisssh!

The short blogger can't complain this time! Smeagol will be a good blogger and post on the blog, not wait a long, long time without posting! It wants Smeagol to run the blog, doesn't it? Of course it does, precious.

We have worked very hard, yes so very hard precious. Planning, always planning! We wants to make our blog good. Good Smeagol! So we has a posting schedule. Look, look! And if it has any "feedback"...we likes our posting schedule. No, no changing.

Smeagol Story Sundays (Smeagol tells a story!)
Music Mondays (Smeagol sees many bloggers do this)
Tricksey Tuesdays (How to trick nasty hobbitses!)
We Hates It Wednesdays (People we hates! Especially Bagginses!)
Trust Us Thursdays (Smeagol gives advice)
Fissh Fridays (FISSSH! Raw and wriggling!)
Sneaky Saturdays (Shh! It's sneaky so it can't know what it is, precious!)

We start now! Today is Monday...so music! Yes precious, nice music!

Maybe it would like to hear Smeagol sing? Yes, yes it would! We has a video of us singing I Dreamed a Dream, yes we do. Our beautiful voice! Listen! Listen! We puts our heart into this song.

Hee hee hee hee! We must go prepare more posts! Gollum, gollum. May the precioussss be with you!

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what the blog looked like on this day

Bilbo Baggins on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

councilofelrond.com

THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS for The Hobbit.
Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit of The Shire and an elf-friend. He recorded an account of his famous adventures in his memoir There and Back Again, which was translated by J.R.R. Tolkien and has sold millions of copies worldwide.

I was quite looking forward to seeing this adaption of my book and I must say it did not disappoint! Of course quite a bit was changed from my memories of the adventure, but the film was quite enjoyable. For one, the locations are beautiful. The country they use to represent Middle-Earth, New Zealand was it? has remarkable landscapes that I must say do my land justice. The sets they build, such as Bag-End and Rivendell, are quite good, and I hear that many fans are happy to see them again after the Lord of the Rings films and "come home" in a manner of speaking.

Martin Freeman did an excellent job portraying me, I thought. Not only did he bear a good resemblance to me in my younger days, but he also provided a fairly accurate representation of me back then. I laugh to see how distraught he (I) was at all of the dwarves coming to tea! Yes, the old Bilbo Baggins didn't like surprise visitors, but now I always look forward to visits from my old companions.

The movie Thorin was a bit different, perhaps more likable for those who do not know him, but still showed his importance. His motivations are changed from the simple want for gold to wanting to help his people, and although it was not a focus in my book, I'm sure the thought of winning back their home did not escape the real Thorin.

His rivalry with Azog was quite interesting, and I am quite glad he never actually attacked our company! We had plenty of adventures without him! For that part of the story, I am quite in the dark. How strange it was to sit in the theater on pins and needles, knowing the outcome and being quite safe, but still wondering if 'we' would survive our encounter!

Unlike my book, the film also showed many of Gandalf's dealings during our adventure. It was nice to see Radagast the wizard in it, as I have never met the fellow, and understand a bit more of just what Gandalf was up to when he wasn't with us. He told me a bit, and described an encounter with Radagast during the Council, but seeing it made it much more real.

I must credit the filmmakers on their research! While the story of the Bullroarer is common knowledge in the Shire, not as many outside know of it. Also I believe I never mentioned that the spiders were from the line of Ungoliant in my book, did I? I've forgotten now. Perhaps Frodo mentioned it somewhere.

There is so much to talk about but I'm running out of paper! Let's see - the rest of the dwarves were all right, the singing good, the plate-tossing quite amusing (though I fretted through the whole thing!), the appearance of my friend Lindir was nice, oh, and Smaug! What a clever idea to avoid showing him throughout the film. It made for interesting shots during the battle. And his large eye opening at the end! Sent a shiver down my spine. I look forward to seeing the dragon in his entirety, but only on film! I should never like to meet a live dragon again.

I suppose that about does it! I'll likely remember something I wanted to say after I send this off - I'm getting old now! I hope you all have a merry holiday season and happy New Year! Sílo Anor bo men lín! May the sun shine on your road!

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Arda here! I saw The Hobbit the Sunday after it came out and loved it! It was so wonderful to go back to Middle-Earth and see familiar places and characters. But now we have to wait a whole year! Well, we waited even longer for this one so I suppose we'll make it. Anyway, Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you all! May the Lord be with you!

The Tolkien Tag - Nessima's blog party

councilofelrond.com

Nessima of Arda Nessimava is having a blog party! Today she did a tag and it looked like fun, so here we go! (spoilers ahead if anyone is being careful)

1. How did you first hear about LOTR & The Hobbit?
I can't remember the first time, but it was around the time the LotR movies came out. My brother read the books and got my mom and I to read them.

2. How many times have you read LOTR/The Hobbit? Or have you yet to read it at all?
Probably 3-5 times each...the first time Mom read them aloud to me, sometimes I'll just read parts - it's hard to remember.

3. Would you name your child after a character from it?
I'd like my kids to have normalish names, but I might consider Melian (Silmarillion character) for a girl's middle name.

4. What are your thoughts on Tom Bombadil? Do you think he should have been in the movie?
He's a lot of fun - really like his songs! It would have been fun to have him in the movie but he doesn't move the story along so I understand leaving him out.

5. Do you have a favourite piece of poetry from any of Tolkien's books?
Oh my...The song of the troll, there is an inn, Lay of Luthien, to the sea, and of course In Western Lands!

6. Have you read any of Tolkien's work besides LOTR and/or The Hobbit?
I've read The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales (and Bilbo's Last Song but that's really short). Liked them a lot, especially Unfinished Tales, but a bit hard to understand!

7. Can you write in the Tengwar?
Only if I have a guide! It's really pretty.

8. Were you at all disappointed that Prince Imrahil wasn't in the movie?
I don't remember considering it much when I first saw the movies - I like him, but it's another character to introduce and explain who doesn't do too much so again, I understand.

9. What would happen if you and Denethor were put face to face?
He would probably think "who is this and why is she here this is unimportant why does Mithrandir keep bringing these people..." and I would think "oh my goodness he rules Gondor but Faramirrrr." Or I'd be terrified because he's dead.

10. Would you rather reside in Edoras or Minas Tirith?
I guess I'd go Minas Tirith because of Aragorn, and the city is really cool. I love Rohan though.

11. What think you of Éomer's armour?
Never noticed it...I thought his helmet was a little weird, but I don't hate it.

12. What do you think of Boromir?
I like him, the poor guy. I can't say he's completely responsible for blowing up at Frodo since the Ring was influencing him, and he's human so more susceptible than a hobbit or elf (I think anyway). I like his relationship with Faramir a lot.

13. Which is your favourite LOTR couple: Sam & Rosie, Aragorn & Arwen, or Faramir & Éowyn?
Sam is my favorite character and I go by the name Rosie on some websites so I love them, and Faramir is adorable and Eowyn beautiful and they're both so strong so I love them too.

14. Did you shed any tears when Thorin died?
No...sorry, never liked Thorin too much. He's kind of grown on me recently, but...maybe the movie will make me like him more.

15. Which is most terrifying of the following: orcs nabbing you in your sleep, giant spiders crawling out of dark tunnels and forests, Nazgul standing right over where you're hiding, or a ghost army that doesn't like you very much?
My first thought is the spiders - I can't take spiders a fraction of their size, so I wouldn't do too well with that. I think I should be more worried about the others though.

16. How well would you enjoy life as a hobbit? Would it be preferable to being something like, say, an elf? Or a Ranger?
I'm most like a hobbit so I think I'd enjoy it pretty well, but I'd like to visit the others!

Can you guys believe that there is actually a live action version of The Hobbit in existence and the general public, regular people like you and me, will get a chance to see this movie in less than two weeks? And said movie looks awesome?

That's why the world is ending. It can't handle it.

Kidding of course! Thanks for reading all, and may the stars shine on your path!

The Pirates of the Ring

Ahoy, me followers! It be International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Today's the day to bring out all o' those piratey words ye have picked up and shout "Arr" to the world! To celebrate the occasion, I have here a script o' sorts - I give ye, The Council of Elrond: Pirated Edition!

Captain Elrond: Avast ye seadawgs, mateys of old. Ye be summoned here to meet the threat o’ Mordor. Ye’ll unite or ye’ll go down to Davy Jones’ Locker. Each race be bound to this fate, this one doom. Bring forth the Ring, Nine-fingered Frodo. (Nine-fingered Frodo places the Ring among the pirates.)

Barnacle Boromir: Shiver me timbers, it be true! In a dream, I saw the starboard side grow dark but on the port side a pale light lingered. A voice was crying: ‘Your doom be near at hand. Isildarr’s Bane be found…Isildarr’s Bane… (He nears the Ring.)

Captain Elrond: Blimey!

Gandalf Greybeard: Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. Drink and the devil had done for the rest. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum…

Captain Elrond: Arr, never ‘as a soul spoken those words ‘ere, Gandalf Greybeard.

Gandalf Greybeard: I isn’t askin’ for your pardon, Captain Elrond, for the Black Speech o’ Mordor may yet be heard in the four corners of the Earth! The booty be altogether evil.

Barnacle Boromir: Belay that, it be a gift! Why not use this Ring? Long has me dad, the Quartermaster o’ Gondor, kept yer waters safe from the brigands o’ Mordor! Give Gondor the weapon of the enemy. Let us use it against him!

Arragorn: Ye can’t wield it! None of us can. The One Ring be answering to Scurvy Sauron alone. It has no other captain, savvy?

Barnacle Boromir: And what would a landlubber know of this?

Arragorn: Don’t do anything stupid…

Long-legged Willy: (Jumps up.) Arr, this be no mere landlubber. He be Arragorn, son of Arrathorn.

Barnacle Boromir: Arragorn? Well blow me down! This… be Isildarr’s heir?

Long-legged Willy: Aye, and ‘is granddad be the Captain o’ Gondor.

Arragorn: Sit down, Long-legged Willy!

Barnacle Boromir: Gondor has no Captain. Gondor needs no Captain.

Gandalf Greybeard: Arragorn be right. We cannot use it.

Captain Elrond: You have only one choice. The Ring must be destroyed.

Gangplank Gimli: What be we a’waiting for? ARRR!! (Gangplank Gimli attacks the Ring.)
Captain Elrond: Belay that! We can’t be destroying the Ring that way, Gangplank Gimli, son of Grog Gloin. The Ring was made at the world’s end. Only there can we destroy it! It must be taken up to the crow’s nest o’ Mordor and cast deep in to the sea. One of ye must do this.

Barnacle Boromir: One does not simply sail into Mordor. Its black gates be guarded by more than just bilge rats. There be evil there that does not take sleep. And the great deadlight be ever watchful. Not with ten thousand buccaneers could ye do this. It be folly!

Long-legged Willy: (Jumps up.) Have ye heard nothing Captain Elrond has said? The Ring has to go to Davy Jones!

Gangplank Gimli: (Jumps up.) And I suppose ye think ye can do it?!

Barnacle Boromir: And if we fail, what then?! What happens when Scurvy Sauron takes back his booty?!

Gangplank Gimli: I will walk the plank ‘fore I see the Ring in the hands of a scallywag!

Gandalf Greybeard: Do you not understand that while we bicker among ourselves, Scurvy Sauron’s power grows?! None can escape it! (They argue.)
Ring: Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. Drink and the devil had done for the rest. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum…

Nine-fingered Frodo: (Stands up.) I’ll be taking it! I’ll be taking it! I’ll take the Ring t’ Mordor. Though I do not know how t’ hoist the sails.

Gandalf Greybeard: (Goes over to Nine-fingered Frodo.) I will help ye on yer voyage, Nine-fingered Frodo, so long as it be yours to sail.

Arragorn: If by me life or death, I can protect ye, I will. Ye have me cutlass.

Long-legged Willy: And you have me pistol!

Gangplank Gimli: And me cannon!

Barnacle Boromir: Ye be carryin’ all our fates, lad. If this be the will o’ the council, then Gondor be seein’ it done.

One Eyed Sam: (Appears.) Avast! Mr. Frodo’s not goin’ anywhere without me!

Captain Elrond: Nay, it be nigh impossible to separate ye, even when he be summoned to a secret council and ye be not.

Merry Morgan and Pegleg Pippin: (Run in.) Wait! We be comin’ too!

Merry Morgan: Ye’d have to feed us to the fish to stop us!

Pegleg Pippin: Anyways, ye need sailors o’ intelligence on this sort o’ pillage…voyage… thing.

Merry Morgan: Well that be ruling ye out Pip!

Captain Elrond: A crew o’ nine… So be it! Ye shall be the Pirates of the Ring!

Pegleg Pippin: Great! What be our heading?


Yo ho ho, what a tale that be! Thanks to me dad for the original idea, and to me brother for namin', suggestin', and proofreadin' the script. Twas originally copied from Council of Elrond before being translated into pirate. Hope ye all enjoy, and fair winds!

Gollum on The Clone Wars: Brothers

THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS. 
Gollum is a guide of the lands north and west of Mordor and an informant for multiple powers in Middle-Earth.  He is a fishing enthusiast and a skilled waterman, this feat being recognized by King Elessar himself.  When he is not fishing or searching for his precious, Gollum enjoys inventing riddles.

You didn't think we watched The Clone Wars, did you, precious?  Yes, yes, we watch it.  The wizard, the one who interrogates poor Sméagol [Gandalf], we heard that in some video games he is voiced by Tom Kane, who plays Yoda, yes?

What?  Noooo, don't hurt poor Sméagol for breaking the...hm?  The "fourth wall"?  What's the "fourth wall," eh?

The short blogger wanted us to write this before because the episode reminded her of us, precious.  Mmm, it reminds her very much of us.  But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Sméagol had a nice time watching this episode.  It wasn't our favourite, but we likes it much better than watching the fat hobbit in our movies.

This episode finally has Darth Maul in it.  The short blogger doesn't understand why he is not dead.  Sméagol understands.  Where we come from, many come back to life, yes they do, precious.  Like Wraiths, and the Eye, and the wizard, yes, they all came back once.  But they have magic.  Does Darth Maul have magic, precious?  We doesn't know.  It could have come back with dark magic, or maybe it just doesn't need it's bottom half.

For so many long years, Darth Maul was living in this strange place.  We lived in a cave for a very long time too.  Much longer than it did.  But we are not as crazy, are we, precious?  We wonders what made it insane.  Hate?  Yes, yes, that may be.  It hates the Jedi who took Darth Maul's legs and its position.  Just like we hates Baggins.  He stole our precious!  We hates it!  Hates it!  Forever!  AHHHHH!

Mm, yes, we will go on.

We thought the episode would be good joined with the next one, mmm, or having more story included.  Many of the scenes added something, yes, but didn't amount to much.  But Sméagol is patient and still enjoys it.

Sméagol likes the snake.  It is funny.  We would like someone to bring us things to eat like it does.  Nice rabbits and crunchable birdses!  We are tired of orcses.  And we would like a friend.  Yes, Sméagol would like a friend.

The fat hobbit doesn't count.

That is all we have to say.  We liked the episode, but not as much as the Mon Calamari arc.  Lots of fishess in those, yes precious!  May the precioussss be with you!

The New Master of In Western Lands!

Yesssss!  Precious, precious, my precious, oh my precious!!!  We has it!  The Precious!  We has taken over In Western Lands!

We are now very strong!  We are the master!  Lord Sméagol!  Gollum the Great!  The Gollum!  Yes, we will be called The Gollum!

Fissh, now we has nice fish!  Look!  Look at the sidebar!  Nice, juicy, beautiful fissh!  All for ourselfs, precious!  We doesn't have to share it with the fat hobbit, no precious.  We takes the fish for ME!

But good Sméagol will keep the blog running.  Good Sméagol always helps.  He even has an episode review, yes, from The Clone Wars.  Soon it will be posted.  Later, but very soon, precious.

Hmm, what else can we talk about?  Does it like riddles?  Maybe we gives it a riddle to solve?

What has roots...no.

Alive without breath...no.

Ah!  We has it.

High to low, then back again,
In darkened forest, stuck in pen.
Out at last and finally free,
To get back what belongs to me.

I guide and wait while planning all,
That those I guide will soon befall.
I'll bide my time and then attack,
So I can get my treasure back.

But then a new pursuit I found,
An easy way to be renowned.
This very day I hold new weight,
And that is why I am now great.

Who am I?

Difficult, tricksy yes?  Think it can solve our riddle?  Guess!  Yes, guess in the comments!  We'll tell when someone has it right, so don't look if it doesn't want to be spoiled!

While it thinks we are going to have some fissh.  May the precioussss be with you!  Hee hee hee hee!

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Note from Arda: Thanks for bearing with my April Fool's Day silliness! If you weren't around the time or wish to relive the glory of Gollum's temporary reign, here's what my blog looked like:

click to see larger

The Twelve Days of Christmas - Day 11

Two favorite Christmas recipes...

These are (imperfect) snowman top hats.  Mom and I saw them in a store once and thought they looked really cool, so we tried to make our own allergen-free version (three out of the four of us have food allergies).  They're kind of tricky to make, but so, so worth it.

They are made with chocolate, large marshmallows, and Oreos/sandwich cookies.  To make them, first melt chocolate chips (we used a make-shift double boiler).  The way I assembled them today was I dipped a marshmallow in chocolate, put it chocolate side down on the Oreo, spooned more chocolate on the top, and used a toothpick to spread the chocolate on the sides of the marshmallow and Oreo until getting something resembling a top hat!

I don't really have a second recipe, but I wanted to share a couple pictures of the cookies we decorated yesterday!  The recipe we use is a basic cutout cookie recipe from my aunt with powdered sugar frosting.

Here is a platter with cookies decorated by my mom, brother and myself...

And a few I did just for fun.  First is Piglet, then a japor snippet from Star Wars, Bilbo Baggins (as best as I could do by memory), Phoenix Wright, and Professor Layton (a snowman version, at least).  Piglet has frosting and the others were drawn with food coloring markers

Definitely had a lot of fun creating these Christmas treats and doing it with my mom and brother.  It has also been fun to eat a couple!

'Tis the night before Christmas, our goodnights have been said.  We're going to Mass in the morning, so I better go to bed!  May the Lord be with you this Christmas night!

Star Wars Challenge Day 7

Back to the bad guys - favorite Sith!  Mwahahaha!

Yes, well, let's get on to the post.

My favorite Sith is Count Dooku.

wookieepedia

 "Twice the pride, double the fall."

On day three I said that I liked Vader, even though he was a bad guy, because he had good in him, was good once, and had an awesome voice.  Dooku pretty much fits into those three as well.

He was definitely good once - he was a highly respected Jedi Master.  Jude Watson's The Legacy of the Jedi has a part that shows him as a Padawan, and another when he is training Qui-Gon, something I would love to see more of.

Does he still have good in him?  I can't say for sure.  In the Revenge of the Sith novel he almost seems a little fond of Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon's Padawan, and wishes that he was the one to become a Sith rather than Anakin.  Of course, he still tries to kill Obi-Wan so I'm not sure how valid this argument would be.

But his voice.  Wow.  Just amazing.  Christopher Lee is one of my favorite actors mostly because of his voice.

Something interesting about Dooku is how close his story is to Saruman's in LotR, and not just because they are played by the same actor.  In a nutshell...

"Gandalf! You have fought gallantly! Worthy of recognition in the archives of Minas Tirith. Surrender, and your lives will be spared."

"The Dark Side of the Force pierces all - cloud, shadow, earth, and flesh."

Saruman: *into the Palantir* "I have good news for you, my Lord.  The war has begun."
Sauron: "Excellent.  Everything is going as planned."

"Dooku!  Your lightsaber is broken!"

LotR Awards (and a guest post!)

Rebecca at Just me... gave me these awesome LotR awards!  Thanks so much Rebecca!
 


And now the questions that come with them!

1) Who is your favorite LOTR character and why?
Sam.  He's so loyal to Frodo, and I love that although he's in this huge world, fighting battles and facing dangers that most men would not see in their lifetimes, he stays who he is and doesn't lose his simple Hobbit self.

2) If you were in Middle Earth, what species would you be?
Probably a human, but otherwise a Hobbit!  I love their unique traits and charming lifestyle.   Plus I'm short.

3) If you were in Middle Earth where would you be from? Would you be from the Lothlorian Forest? Or maybe the great hall of Rohan? Where would your home be?
Again, with the Hobbits in the Shire!  It's so pretty and not too dangerous.  But I'd want to visit Rivendell sometime!

I give these awards to The Director at Castles, Quills, and Cameras, and any other LotR fans!


Also, on Friday I wrote a guest post on Sophia's blog, Life and Times of a Geek.  Go check it out!

Hope you all have a great week, and may the Lord be with you!

Happy Hobbit Day!

I'm know I'm posting this late, but it's Bilbo and Frodo's birthday!

Doesn't "Hobbit Day" just sound like a delightful holiday?

I've done little things for it in the past, but it would be so fun to have a real party some year.  We could have lots of food, music, and of course - do the Hobbit chicken dance.

Oh!  And not only is it Bilbo and Frodo's birthday...

It's Ashley Eckstein's birthday!

(from Wikipedia.org)

Can this day get any awesomer?  Ashley has been such an inspiration to many of us.  I could write a whole post on how great she is and how she has affected my life.

Speaking of which, I would like to thank all of you for the way you've affected my life.  I really appreciate you all taking the time to read and comment on my blog.  I have loved getting all of your comments, and the ones on my TCW review were very touching.  You are all really great people and I love you.

And in reply to said comments, I am planning on writing arranging for more reviews of The Clone Wars from our friends in the GFFA (galaxy far far away)!  Who will depend on who has the most to say on each episode.  I would love to write for ask Ahsoka, and will try to do her soon.  For all of you watching "Prisoners" tomorrow night, I hope you have fun!

But for now, have a blast!

LotR pics from Council of Elrond.