Things that crack me up

[guanin]

“My whole life has been spent engaged with friends in intellectual debate - like whether Kirk is tougher than Spock or if Middle Earth is a more difficult place to live than Tatooine.
--the awesomeness that is Milo V.

Now see. Why can't this be the type of intellectual debate that I'll have to deal with in my exams? Why? I'd get such a better grade if they were on Middle Earth history rather than human rights, which is a little sad, but screw it.

Apparently diVide Pictures is going to a web series where they discuss such erudite fandom points such as who would win in a fight. Gandalf or Darth Vader. Which is silly because no way would a puny, little human who is only kept alive by machines ever have any hope of beating Gandalf. I mean, come on. Force or not, Maia! And a mighty powerful one at that. I think you can see which side I'm on in the LOTR vs. Star Wars debate, which is one I don't like to get into because it just runs around in circles and ultimately Tolkienverse has the most powerful villain anyway, so why bother? I'm a diehard Tolkienite and damn proud of it. *grin*

ETA: LJ has ads? Since when? I don't notice because of my lovely Adblocker thing, courtesy of Firefox. *hugs Forefox* That wasn't supposed to sound like an ad, but oh well.

Comments

[ti-ana.livejournal.com]

I think you can see which side I'm on in the LOTR vs. Star Wars debate, which is one I don't like to get into because it just runs around in circles and ultimately Tolkienverse has the most powerful villain anyway, so why bother?

Oh, no, no, no, don't even go there, girlfriend! :-P

[guanin.livejournal.com]

Oh, I will go there. Fine, I'll concede equal status just because they're entirely different things, but SW beat LOTR? Never! :)

[ti-ana.livejournal.com]

Hey, I love Tolkien as much as the next person, but come on, no comparison to SW! Let's call it a draw, just cause they are two entirely different worlds.

(But Darth Vader *can* crush anyone's trachea with just a thought from very far away... ;-))

[guanin.livejournal.com]

No comparison?! Sacrilige! You do know that Tolkien was one of Lucas's main inspirations that that without LOTR, the fantasy and sci-fi genres wouldn't look like they do today, right? It's publication was one of the most important events in 20th century literature. Tolkien created an entire history, not just world, history, from scratch, functional languages, functional scripts, distinct cultures that developed exactly like real cultures do, law systems, mythologies, etc. From my historian point of view, I can analyze this just as I would anything else I deal with (plus it's much more fun). And it was all one man. No other single person has ever created something this huge. (Oh, and Tolkienloved Spanish).

That got away from me. I get very passionate about this as you may be able to tell. I just adore it so much.

(But Gandalf can't die. He's a Maia.)

[ti-ana.livejournal.com]

Lol. Dude, I'm not knocking LotR, I love it too. Not as much as you do, but it's a great series. Personally, I could barely finish reading Fellowship (and it took me years to get through The Hobbit). I simply don't like Tolkien's writing style at all. I do respect him for his creation, though, and thought the story was wonderful and classic.

But, what Tolkien did for literature (especially fantasy), Lucas did for movies (especially sci-fi). Without Star Wars, we wouldn't have sci-fi as he know it today. Lucas sucks as a writer, I like his writing even less than Tolkien's, but boy, oh boy, what an imagination. So I say there's no comparison because they are two different genres. Sure, they've got stuff in common and sure, Tolkien is an influence on just about *any* fantasy/sci-fi writer in contemporary times (as is C.S. Lewis, actually), but it's just a whole other world entirely.

[guanin.livejournal.com]

I do love Tolkien's style in LOTR because it's that old fashioned, epic kind of narrative, but it does do down hill a bit in the other stuff. Cause LOTR is just one text among many and really only covers a very, little piece of Middle Earth history. I prefer the history that happens pre-LOTR personally. The First Age is much more fascinating.

I think the problem I have is that I'm not a sci-fi fan. I just can't seem to get into it. To many fancy, high tech gadgets. I like swords and bows and arrows and hand to hand battles, old style. I love Firefly, though, but that's Whedon. He always amuses me.

[ti-ana.livejournal.com]

Joss Whedon is all kinds of awesome. I haven't seen Firefly yet (though my roommate just put it on her Netflix for tomorrow, so maybe I'll sit down and watch it with her), but I do love his style.

I'm very much into both sci-fi and fantasy. Star Wars is mostly sci-fi, but the whole Force/Jedi thing sets it partly into the fantasy universe, so it's a mix of both worlds. The core of the plotline centers around Luke Skywalker and his relationship (or lack thereof) with his father, so in that sense, it's almost much less sci-fi than, say, Star Trek. But I'm a sucker for the high tech gadgets. :-D

[visiblemarket.livejournal.com]

Apparently diVide Pictures is going to a web series where they discuss such erudite fandom points such as who would win in a fight. Gandalf or Darth Vader.

So having watched neither series of films/read near series of books, I'm still reminded of a similar question posed in The West Wing: could a current president take George Washington in a fight? George Washington had the minutemen etc, and was pretty badass in his own right, but...a current president has, like, bombs (not that that's kept an old, old man on dialysis and living in caves from getting caught). And Darth Vader has, like, lazers, right? Yeah, I'm going with science over magic on this one.

[guanin.livejournal.com]

But that's cheating. You can't be bringing outsiders into this. These things have to be more old fashioned duel style or else I'm not buying it.

About Gandalf. He's a Maia, which is one of the race of beings that is sort of his equivalent to angels/gods, except its not that simple, but basically the most powerful beings on earth after the Vala, who are in charge of Arda (creation) and helped create it, so no way does a puny human stand a chance. Maia can't die, (there was this incident against a Balrog (scary monster thing) where Gandalf sort of kinda died but not died but had this trippy tracendental experience, but that was more "shed you're old skin to become more powerful" kind of thing) so lazers might hurt, but they would leave lasting damage. Voldemort would be dust in a second against Gandalf. And in Tolkien verse "magic" is not like in Harry Potter, it's more the divine force, essence of the world. It can get channeled into particular objects like the rings of power, but it's the same thing.

I'm going to stop there because I could talk about this forever (I've read all the books there are to read about this, so huge loads of info) since it's my favorite fandom/work ever. I'll just say that there is a reason why LOTR redefined the fantasy genre to the point that everything written afterward is influenced by Tolkien. Even George Lucas got influenced for SW.

[ykoriana.livejournal.com]

As a rabid, avid fan of BOTH Star Wars and Lord of the Rings (and a nice helping of Star Trek along, thank you very much), I can tell you that many a great house was divided on this.

My personal take on the matter, is that Vader might defeat Gandalf on a single battle, but Gandalf would win long term. Vader duels with Obi-Wan in ANH, but doesn't really "win" because Obi-Wan becomes a blue ghostie. Likewise, Gandalf takes a beating from the Balrog but survives and it is implied that the great powers of Middle-Earth resurrected him. So both Obi-Wan and Gandalf win long term.

And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is why Milo is clearly mu soul mate :-P

[guanin.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I don't know anything about Star Trek, though that may change with the new movie. Sci-fi just doesn't draw me in the way fantasy does. I've tried with SW, but it didn't happen. Oh, well. My sci-fi fan cousin balances us out. But I have seen the huge fights and try to avoid them as much as possible, so I don't know how SW fan Milo is going to do this. He's already biased towards the other side.

Mmm, I'm having trouble seeing it, though that force thing is a powerful thing. But yeah, no way in the long term. But Gandalf the White is the most powerful wizard ever.

[ykoriana.livejournal.com]

But Gandalf the White is the most powerful wizard ever.
Gandalf the White, guaranteed to remove any stain, or your money back! :-D(sorry, running gag from my Tolkien forum)

[guanin.livejournal.com]

*snort* That is so wrong in such a hilarious way.

What forum would this be? I'm looking for some now as I try to get back into the fandom.

[ykoriana.livejournal.com]

Well, it's the forum for the Portuguese Tolkien fan group (Tolkienianos) http://tolkienpt.neojag.net/ so it's all, like, in Portuguese :-) I've been a member for several years now, but it's gone rather quiet lately. Maybe when the Hobbit movie comes out, people will get their interest piqued again.