ever on and on

[aria]

Aten't dead! In fact I have been posting to both tumblr and twitter with reasonable frequency, but my life in 140 characters or gifs with capslock commentary is not ... particularly in depth. So: hello! I am here to warn you all that Martin Freeman's face has hypnotic powers of suggestion, because my recent fannish activities have fallen into one of these two categories:

1. rewatch Sherlock/rewatch the Granada Holmes series/desperately seek post-Reichenbach fic/reread the Paradox series & all of Katie Forsythe's fic in a fit of madness/gaze upon Sherlock vids/curse the heavens that I have to wait so long for the next series

2. reread the Hobbit/flop about and make joyful noises about how fucking perfect Freeman's Bilbo is going to be/watch the Hobbit teaser trailer about a million times/rewatch all the cast bits in the Extended Edition Lord of the Rings DVDs/read all the Mark Reads entries of the Hobbit & what he has so far of Lord of the Rings/accidentally trip and fall into the first few chapters of Fellowship, which is fair enough as I haven't done a proper reread in three years

I am combating this White Dudes Doing Stuff thing by working on my novel that has basically one white dude doing stuff, and plenty of ladies and nonwhite dudes doing stuff, which is great! But the fannish channel is all hobbits and detectives right now. (Although no hobbit detectives! There seems to be a pretty low crime rate in the Shire, but I really hope there's a hobbit detective in Bree or something.)

Meanwhile I want to pull out something that I posted last time I was reading Lord of the Rings, because it was SUCH FUN, and it is the One Ring game! The One Ring game basically goes: think of (a) character(s) from a fandom other than LotR, and figure out what would happen if they were given the One Ring and charged to destroy it. So, for example: Neville Longbottom would destroy that sucker; Andrew Wells from Buffy would hide in a dark room with it and call it his Precious and be totally useless; Benton Fraser would TAKE OVER THE WORLD. &c. Give me characters! I will tell you what they do! Epic quests and evil overlords for all!

Comments

[aria]

It is SUCH A FUN GAME, and would probably be an excellent conversation starter at fannish parties.

Will! I think he would actually be a really excellent Ringbearer; he's actually a lot like Frodo, in terms of being odd and quiet and doing what needs to get done. (We shall leave aside jokes about missing fingers, as those are probably in bad taste.) And Lyra would be the best of Sams -- if Will needed her to, she could take up the Ring for a short while and give it right back -- but if she was tasked with the Ring herself I ... suspect the world might be a bit doomed. Actually if Lyra was given the Ring she'd probably grow up to be very much like a more effective Mrs. Coulter.

...now I'm imagining Mrs. Coulter or Lord Asriel getting the Ring and THE WORLDS WOULD BE DOOMED.

[alice_pike]

True! Lyra could definitely talk Will out of his temptation, but I don't think she could do it herself. She's one of those I-want-to-see-it-but-at-the-same-time-I-DON'T types. Because she could do awesome stuff, but it'd be bad news in the end.

THAT WOULD BE...TERRIFYING. "Terrible, yes, but great," if you will.

Assuming a grownup Lyra.

[recessional]

Coming in from such_heights: I think the biggest issue with Lyra is whether or not you manage to convince her that the Ring is really evil and really must be destroyed.

Because if she really and truly believed that, the Ring wouldn't have a chance. This is LYRA. She is made of STUBBORN and LIES. If she decided the Ring wasn't going to get her, the Ring would fail to get her JUST BECAUSE SHE DECIDED - no virtue of her own, just NO I WILL NOT BE TAKEN OVER BY YOU I AM LYRA SILVERTONGUE AND YOU ARE JUST A STUPID LUMP OF GOLD.

On the other hand, if you haven't actually got her to throw herself into the fight with her entire being, the world is doomed.

Re: Assuming a grownup Lyra.

[aria]

Ooh, a very good point! Yes, if Lyra was made to understand that the Ring was entirely evil and needed to be destroyed, NOT A CHANCE FOR THE RING. Otherwise, doom!

Re: Assuming a grownup Lyra.

[recessional]

I mean, you'd have a wrecked and battered and broken Lyra at the end of it, because she'd just RIP HERSELF APART in her absolute refusal to let the Ring bend her to its will. She might even throw it into the fire and then just sort of sit down and wait for the flames to consume her and Pan, because she is so. goddamn. tired. now. and the idea of dissolving into atoms in the world of the dead sounds GREAT and besides, this is a fuckoff awesome story to tell the harpies, amirite?

But if you don't get her that bad, totally the road to hell becomes paved with good intentions, and eventually you have the Queen, not Dark but Beautiful and Terrible as the Dawn, assuming the Ring doesn't jump ship for someone else first.

Re: Assuming a grownup Lyra.

[such_heights]

oh maaaaan, LYRA FEELINGS. <333