New members, introduce yourselves here!

[Misplaced]

On another topic, do you know anyone here who could help me with creating an Avatar related to Star Trek (TNG or ENT)?

If you tell me what you want, I might be able to accommodate you. Is there a particular character or scene that you wish to have?

[Grrr]

Hi BloodDragon!

Hi Yashida! I don't suppose your a Max/Logan shipper too?

Grrr

[Brandyjane]

Look to the Lord of the Rings movies for example: they're absolutely amazing movies and they even go through the effort of explaining the changes they've made in the extras, but I still don't agree with one of them. I completely understand leaving out the whole part with Tom Bombadil, that's not a change after all, and I even understand having the Elves showing up at the battle of the Keep instead of showing them fight their own battles elsewhere as it happened in the book, because it doesn't actually interferes with the essence of the story. But what they did with Faramir was completely wrong! Tolkien truly meant for Faramir to be opposite to his brother Boromir in regards to the One Ring; it is a very essential part of the story this emphasis that is made in the book about Boromir being unable to resist the temptation of the One Ring and Faramir telling Frodo that 'he wouldn't even pick it up should he find it lying alongside the road'. They just really, really shouldn't have changed that, because it changed the character of Faramir into something less than he was, completely unnecessary. I know they explained it with a need to show how dangerous the power of this ring really was, but honestly, even if I hadn't read the book I'd gotten that little fact already from the first movie! It's almost insulting how a lot of movie-directors underestimate the intelligence of their audiences...

I agree so much!!! Eowyn and Faramir were my favorite characters in the books. I still like the movies, but I was deeply, deeply disappointed by what they did to Faramir.

[Silverbullet]

Didn't read the boks but the movies seemed to indicate that Sam was the Hero not Frodo. Sam was always there to pull Frodo out of trouble that Frodo often brought on himself.

[Alelou]

That part was pretty true to the books, I think. People often debate that very topic.

[aadarshinah]

If you watch the commentaries, though, the screenwriters had a wonderful reason for chainging Faramir like they did - because, honestly, you can't go on for a thousand pages about how terrible this ring is and then have a guy say he wouldn't touch it with a 50-ft-pole. But LotR is the one movie - well, trilogy - that I thought was better than the books. Tolkien's one of those authors where it's like great idea, bad follow-through. Take The Two Towers, for instance. In the book, there's 600 pages of Aragorn, Gimili, and Legolas. Then there are 600 tedious pages of Sam and Frodo. The movie intersperces these, so the hobbit parts don't drive you mad... and then there's the part were actual trip from Hobiton to the Mount Doom takes only 3 months.... but that's another gripe entirely

[Alelou]

LOL. Not a hobbit fan, are you?

I loved Sam and Frodo, but yeah, I wanted a peek at Aragorn in all that stretch, damn it.

I couldn't ever get through The Hobbit, personally. I don't know why that felt like an animal story, when LOTR didn't. (I just never got into animal stories. The Littles, yes. Beatrix Potter or Wind in the Willows? Just couldn't. Tried. Loved the pictures. Couldn't bear it. Watership Down, either. I think Black Beauty is the only one I ever got through and I really didn't like it; I just felt that as a girl I was required to read it. I preferred fairies, princesses, ghosts, cowboys, famous American heroes, The Bobbsey Twins, anything by Louisa May Alcott, and Dark Shadows novels.)

[WarpGirl]

Beatrix Potter or Wind in the Willows? Just couldn't.

[aadarshinah]

Couldn't bear it. Watership Down, either. I think Black Beauty is the only one I ever got through and I really didn't like it; I just felt that as a girl I was required to read it. I preferred fairies, princesses, ghosts, cowboys, famous American heroes, The Bobbsey Twins, anything by Louisa May Alcott, and Dark Shadows novels.)

God. If it hadn't been required reading, I would never have read Watership Down. I mean, bunnies loose home, bunnies find new home, la de dah. Was there an actual story in it somewhere? It's not often that I actively hate a book. But that one... well, there are few that I dispise more than it. I think it's currently #3 on my list of worst books ever.

And it's not that I'm not a hobbit fan. I'm just not a Sam fan, espcially the movie Sam.... Then again, my 9th grade roomate was a huge LotR fan (with a shrine and everything, it was mildly disturbing) and would occassionally go on Sam-bashing rants for no reason I can recall, but which probably unconsciously influenced by negitive opinion of the charector....

[WarpGirl]

So just guessing you two don't like George Orwell's Animal Farm either? And I'm guessing no Charlotte's Web... Unfathomable.

[Misplaced]

So just guessing you two don't like George Orwell's Animal Farm either? And I'm guessing no Charlotte's Web... Unfathomable.

I'm kinda with Alelou. Never been a fan of animal stories. But when I was a kid, I enjoyed Charlotte's Web and the Frog and Toad stories. And I thought Animal Farm was exceedingly well written, but depressing.

But as an adult, I'd rather read about people... or folks that closely resemble people (aliens, fantasy creatures, etc).

But I do love LoTR. My husband introduced me to it, and once we got past the big meeting at Rivendale and onto the Mines of Moria, I was hooked. I am not really a fantasy buff (Sci-fi is my preferred "geek" genre).

[aadarshinah]

Orwell, yes, as the animals were nothing more than vechiles to tell his story of socialist utopia falling into the sins of communism... Charelotte's Web, no. I've always found something obsene about pigs... I mean, any animal that's closely enough related to humans that they test human medicines on it should not be raise for slaughter, in my opinion... That, and I've read in various religous critisims and commentaries that pork is a forbiden food in so many religions because of it's similarity to human flesh...

[WarpGirl]

I'm doing Frog And Toad with my 6 month-old nephew! It's not that I have an obsession with animal stories. I do tend to prefer "people." However, it boggles my mind how anyone couldn't adore Betrix Potter. I admit it. I need to find a copy of The China Shelf Luxery My sister (one of the 2 without kids) comandeered the only copy. But the ultimate "animal story" is Five Minutes Peace, any woman with children needs that book. It helps you raise unselfish kids.

aadarshinah You do know Wilbur LIVES right??????

Animal Farm truly freaked my teenself out! But it made a lasting impression and is one of the most brilliant books I have ever read.

[aadarshinah]

Of course I know wilbur lives... but that doesn't change the fact he only lives because a spider he knows happens to know how to spell, saving his life. If I want to read the story about the life someone waiting to be exacuted, I'll read, I dunno, Invitation of a Beheading. Or that one chapter from The Idiot...

And I think I've just discovered where my enjoyment of Russian novels stems from....

[WarpGirl]

Hmmm, but Wilbur was special that's why Charlotte did what she did. Anyway I'm not-so-sure that the story is supposed to be about a character awaiting execution... But I guess some people may think that's exactly what it is.