…so is everyone in this game. Not that that’s really a defence, but let’s look at everyone else here.
Merrill: says the plight of Kirkwall’s mages is ‘not her fight’ despite being a mage living in Kirkwall and the fact that the Templars victimise elven mages even more than they do human ones and are shown to abduct children from the alienage of which Merrill can become acting Keeper. She outright admits that she ‘barely looks at’ the alienage elves either, if it’s suggested she help them after her clan cast her out/are killed, although that line only unlocks if she is about to improve and start taking a more active part in their struggles.
Fenris: Is outright anti-mage, despite how often mage issues and slavery overlap. Like…he gets approval for trying to rescue Feynriel from slavers, but then disapproves if you don’t then turn around and send Feynriel to live as basically a slave in the Circle. He doesn’t get very involved with elven issues either, despite talking about knowing more about elven oppression than Merrill.
Varric: Just plain doesn’t get involved with any issues at all unless dragged in by Hawke and is a chronic fence-sitter.
Isabela: Also claims not to take sides, and while she shows a slight inclination towards pro-mage ideas, she never mentions elven oppression that I can remember. She’s anti-slavery, but also willing to let a slaver, Castillon, go free if it means she gets her ship. Basically uninvolved unless dragged in by Hawke – even her slave-freeing was a response to a situation in which she was already involved.
Aveline: Is pretty awful about both elves and mages. She outright says she’s willing to support Meredith in Act 3, turns mages over to the Templars and admits to it in party banter, does not force her guardsmen to investigate crimes against elves, as shown in the ‘Magistrate’s Orders’ quest and her dismissing accusations of one of her guardsmen raping an elven woman as ‘rumours’ despite it having been formally reported at the end of Act 2.
Sebastian: Is appalling about mage issues, and hardly talks about elves at all. Also tries to force Andrastian beliefs on Merrill far more than Anders ever does in his party banter. Assuming each dialogue only happens once, he has three banters of basically forcing Andrastian beliefs on Merrill to Anders’ one.
This is not an anti post for any of these characters! I love them all! Well, ok, I don’t like Seb very much, but that really isn’t the point. The point is that calling out Anders specifically for this issue is to single him out among the cast. Do I wish they’d all sort their shit out? Of course I do. But that applies to everyone on this list, and I don’t see why this one character is singled out for criticism when it applies, to varying degrees, to all of his companions.
Most composers spend just 10-12ish weeks working on a film’s music. John Williams spent around 14 weeks on each Star Wars movie, 40ish weeks total for the whole OT……but composing the LOTR trilogy’s soundtrack took four years
The vocals you hear in the soundtrack are usually in one of Tolkien’s languages (esp. Elvish). The English translations of the lyrics are all poems, or quotes from the book, or occasionally even quotes from other parts of the films that are relevant to the scene
When there were no finished scenes for him to score, Howard Shore would develop musical themes inspired by the scripts or passages from the book. That’s how he got all Middle-Earth locations have their own unique sound: he was able to compose drafts of “what Gondor would sound like” and “what Lorien would sound like” long before any scenes in those places were filmed
Shore has said his favorite parts to score were always the little heartfelt moments between Frodo and Sam
Shore wrote over 100 unique leitmotifs/musical themes to represent specific people, places, and things in Middle Earth (over 160 if you count The Hobbit)
The ones we all talk about are the Fellowship theme, the main Shire Theme, and the themes for places like Gondor, Mordor, Rohan, and Rivendell…but a lot of the more subtle ones get overlooked and underappreciated
Like Aragorn’s theme. It’s a lot less “obvious” than the others because, like Aragorn himself, it adapts to take on the color of whatever place Aragorn is in: it’s played on dramatic broody stringed instruments in Bree, on horns in battle scenes, softly on the flute with Arwen in Rivendell….
Eowyn has not just one but three different leitmotifs to represent her
Gollum and Smeagol both have their own leitmotifs! Whose theme music is playing in the scene can often tell you whether the Gollum or Smeagol side is “winning” at the moment
The melody for Gollum’s Song in the end credits of the The Two Towers is the Smeagol and Gollum themes smushed together (it’s Symbolic)
And then there’s the really obscure ones. Like there’s a melody that plays at Boromir’s death that shows up again in ROTK in scenes that foreshadow a major death or loss
Shore wanted the theme music to grow alongside the characters– so that as the characters changed, their theme music would change with them.
You can hear that most clearly in the Shire theme. Like the hobbits, it goes through A Lot
Like compare the childish lil penny whistle theme you hear in Concerning Hobbits/the beginning of FOTR with (throws a dart at random Beautiful Tragic Hobbit Character Development scene because there WAY TOO MANY to choose from) the scene when Pippin finds Merry on the battlefield, where you hear a kind of shattered and broken but more mature version of that same theme in the background
I could write you a book on how much I love the way the Shire theme grows across the course of these films
Unlike the hero’s themes, which constantly change and grow, the villain’s themes (The One Ring theme, the Isengard theme, etc) remain basically the same from the very beginning of FOTR to the end of ROTK. Shore said this was an intentional choice: to emphasize that evil is static, while good is capable of change
Shore has said that between all the music that made into the movies and the music that didn’t, he composed enough for “a month of continuous listening”……..where can I sign up
I feel like this is a thing that isn’t said often enough, but if you see an artist underpricing their work, instead of lecturing them on pricing, buy some art from them and insist upon paying what you think it’s worth. It is far more encouraging as an artist to have someone say ‘your art is worth more and here is the money for it’ than to hear ‘your art is worth more and you’re hurting every other artist here and no I’m not going to actually buy art from you, raise your prices anyways’
It took so long because we had to figure out all of the fitting systems for easy dress ups and for stuff to keep in place. BTW my muscles are a hack I saw from japan cosplayers: silicone bras and a thick stocking with the tattoo drawn on! Transformation and a constant tattoo in one swoop. I am so happy to role play as her at cons!
Context: they ate the candy from the gift basket, not realizing it was for the Captain from his husband and then filled it up with shit they hoped he’d like.
[Pence] was so concerned about the criticism he received from U.S. Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon that his staff went to the extraordinary length of asking the U.S. Olympic Committee to set up a conversation between the two – an offer Rippon turned down.
funeral-biscuit 