I vote midochlorians. A point in favor: pretty soon after that relevation, they were mentioned in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” The line – which is paraphrased, so no need to point out that I don’t have the quote exactly right – was “Darth Rosenberg is on the loose and none of you has the midochlorians to stop her!”
When you’ve got one source of geek fandom referencing something from another source of geek fandom, that’s a sign that it’s made ripples throughout the entire geek universe.
Probably more in denial. You’re talking about Judas Priest fans, remember. They don’t listen to fag music.
Ho-kay, so, you have this Star Wars universe. Pretty cool universe, no? There are these guys running around the universe with these l33t powers (limited pre-cog, telekensis, etc.). Three movies and a pile of books featuring these ultra-cool guys. Then comes the prequel and you find look that the reason these guys are so l33t is because they have parasites called midochlorians living in them. 1. Ewwwww. 2. You expect me to believe that these space samuari draw their powers from über-ameobas? That’s like saying, “Guess what? Superman doesn’t get his powers from the yellow sun, but rather a Kryptonian tick that has been living between his shoulder blades all his life.”
Also, apparently Anakin (maybe Vader someday later, but he’s now a small fry) was formed from these midochlorians. That’s right. Anakin is a Jesus-like character, complete with the virgin birth.
To me the ending felt tacked on, in a sense. I’m not sure what point Tolkien was trying to prove–if there was a point, besides perhaps resolving Saruman’s storyline–but for me, the more satisfying resolution was in the movies: Frodo and fellow hobbits go home, Frodo realizes the quiet life isn’t for him anymore, goes to the Havens, the end. That’s it.
Recall that he conceived the story in the aftermath of World War I, which saw a lot of young, formerly strong men returning in emotional shambles to what had been their normal lives and families, and Tolkien’s intent becomes somewhat more clear.
Don’t be so sure about that. I was a Judas Priest fan in the 80’s and pretty much all the other metal heads and Priest fans I knew already took it for granted that Halford was gay and didn’t care. I know that seems odd, it still seems kind odd to me looking back on it now, but for some reason it just never seemed to affect his coolness factor or Priest fans’ enjoyment of the band. Maybe it was because the music was muscular and aggressive enough that Halford’s sexuality was not perceived as having an emasculating effect on the band. It probably also didn’t hurt that he cultivated a biker/leather persona onstage rather than anything effeminate…plus he was a genuinely great metal singer with quite a powerful delivery. From what I remeber, he was perceived kind of the same way as Freddy Mercury. His talent basically overshadowed his sexuality and made metal fans respect him.
My first thought when Rob Halford came out was “I never knew he was IN.” I can remember people discussing the fact that Halford was gay in the early 80’s.
Posted by Annamika re the Scouring in LOTR: "… the Scouring itself seemed to me to be too much of an injection of real life into a perfectly good story. It was like, “Well, that was the fairy tale - here’s what really happened.” "
Well, yes - and that’s what I did like about it, I think. No place immune from evil, no place spared from the war. Hero hobbits show what they’ve learned & how they’ve grown and changed.
…both Star Wars and LOTR could inspire whole sub-categories of this thread topic alone. Some more that fired up the various LOTR message boards back when the movies debuted…
“Aragon would never allow Frodo to go to Mordor on his own!”
“There was no conspiracy! Merry and Pippen just ran into Frodo by accident!”
“Arwen took away Frodo’s display of courage at the forge!”
“Aragon is not carrying the sword! How can Pippen kill the Witchking without the weapons from the Barrowdown!”
etc… many LOTR message boards had brilliant multi-page debates, they were fun to read and participate in!
…and for the X-Files, (however I suspect that the outrage was mine alone!..
They killed the Lone Gunmen! B*stards! Although they had a habit of killing minor characters I liked, Scully’s sister was cool, perky and cute, and Agent Pendrell was funny, and deserved Scully, dammit!
Wasn’t there some (apparently serious) discussion of turning Lex Luthor into a Kryptonian, and a bunch of other oddball, canon destroying stuff in the Superman movie that was being considered a few years ago (not the current one)?
