More Feelings

[grav_ity]

I expect this will be a trend.

Having had a few more hours to stew about it:

1. Fili's death. GOOD. LORD. Like, have we EVER seen a good guy die like that in a Jackson film? EVER? I was so unprepared, and I am still really disturbed by it and THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH FIX ITS IN THE WHOLE WORLD (p.s. please rec me a nice fix it).

2. They all died alone. Fans have spent two years torturing one other on tumblr with art of them dying in the other's arms, of seeing that last stand and being unable to stop it. Of screaming and grieving before going into that selfsame oblivion. AND THEY ALL DIED ALONE.

3. There was not a lot of music in this movie. Or at least not a lot of action music? That I remember? I'll need another viewing.

4. AND A HUG, OH GOD.

Yeah, I am probably never finishing that fic.

Comments

[periantari.livejournal.com]

They really shouldn't have died alone. I think it would it been better if it was quick and subsequent so we have time to see each's reaction. And the saddest thing is there is no proper reaction to Kili's death by his fellow kinsmen. If they had made it a bit more emotional and dramatic as how let's say, Haldir dies with Aragorn's look of disbelief, or if it had been like Eowyn mourning Theoden or Aragorn mourning Boromir, it would've been so much better.
Wished they did what was in the book in which Fili and Kili die defending Thorin!!

I have my review on my LJ... link to you in my comment back to you in your previous review.

Good thoughts.

[penknife.livejournal.com]

I understand that Fili's death was actually toned down in disturbingness from the first cut of the movie (beheading was at one point apparently involved), which ... I don't think it needed to be any more disturbing.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I was driving home today, and was all "They made it WORSE THAN WE WERE IMAGINING", which is something!

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I am not at all surprised to learn this! And also very glad I did not have to see it!

[eldanna.livejournal.com]

2) I think I've figured it out. I've been pondering it all day, and I couldn't quite get the thought together for my LJ post, but I think the reason the deaths didn't emotionally effect me with the sledgehammer I thought they would (beyond the hysterical laughter interruption) is that dying alone is tragic and horrid, but it's not so emotional. Dying in each other's arms would have had be in floods, but that didn't happen, and I was emotionally unprepared for what did and I get that I was really in too much shock over that to cry.

3) I remember hardly ANY music, and normally I notice. However, I figure it's because I was so into the whole film and the characters, that my brain just couldn't also process the music. But I think there was a lot less during the battle sequences than usual for PJ.

No, you probably aren't. We'll forgive you.

[eldanna.livejournal.com]

I kind of assumed something was...missing? Because the rest of it is, let's face it, pretty graphic, and yet Fili's isn't really graphic at all.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

That is it EXACTLY. I was relying on Dwalin and Balin to make me cry, and that just didn't happen. So it's this quiet horror instead of a big emotional outpouring and I am SO IMPRESSED WITH THIS DIRECTION. I can read fic and cry if I want to. ;)

[eldanna.livejournal.com]

I'm working towards impressed. It was certainly bold and unusual story-telling, which I appreciate, because if you've got a huge audience who knows what's coming and then you STILL MANAGE TO DESTROY THEM, you get an award for balls. I was just...shocked and surprised. Too much for tears. Maybe next time, when the shock is absent. And I can - hopefully - hear the words of the song.

Which is BLOODY AWESOME.

[shirebound]

*hugs you tight*

I'll be seeing it next week, and can't wait.

[shadadukal]

I haven't seen any fix-it yet that is movie-based.

At least each death had witnesses, well, less for Thorin but he actually dies in Bilbo's arms. Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage's acting just slays me.

[grey-wonderer.livejournal.com]

I felt like I needed to mourn Fili because he didn't get that in the film. The other two did but Fili was just gone. That was hard.

[dbalthasar.livejournal.com]

I think one of the things I really liked about the way the deaths were handled - and about the costs of all the battles in general - is that it's retroactive foreshadowing for LOTR? Thorin's line is wiped out in a heartbeat, not unworthily by any means - God, Thorin! - but quick and hard. If they can be snuffed out like that, what hope is there for Dain except to hide inside the mountain? Thranduil's army is decimated - what help can he send to anyone only 60/70 years later? He sent his son to Rivendell, and by this ending to the Fellowship, and that's sacrifice enough. The fight at Dol Guldur is why Elrond is so gloomy about their prospects: the entire White Council faced down Sauron, and the best they could do was to drive him back to Mordor, when they had their Rings and he didn't. If Galadriel couldn't take him, can anyone? For me, that's an extra dimension to the ending: it makes the later situation even worse.

[lferion]

I had not thought of this perspective, but it makes really good/horrible sense. I had noticed in AUJ how Elrond is so much lighter and happier than in Fellowship, and wondered at the choice, since 60/75 years is really not that long for an elf, and this completely explains it.

*Shivers*

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

RIGHT? The elvish storylines in this were just PERFECTION, and instead of cramming "btdubs, there's a WHOLE WORLD out there!" into one half paragraph at the very end of the book, we get the full picture, and that just makes LOTR stand up even better.

UGH, elf feelings.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

Well, that and the growing realization that winning probably equals losing Arwen, but yes.

[hiddencait.livejournal.com]

I don't think I will ever get over these boys dying alone. Like ever.

...and puh puh please finish it??? I need that fic finished right now. You have no idea how bad.

..OK you probably do as you've been experiencing Dwarf!feelings for a week or so longer than I have. But still.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I will do my best. I've realized I need a fix it as much as anyone else! It might just take me some time.