The Last Goodbye?

Greetings again, dear friends.

 

Last night, I had the immense pleasure of attending a midnight showing of the third and final installment of the beloved Hobbit trilogy, The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies.

You know me.  I am the very epitome of a fangirl.  I spent several hours after the film spazzing about this and that and everything beyond and in-between.  Smaug’s siege and destruction.  The battle scenes.  The one-on-ones.  The wraiths.  Elrond.  Everything about Thranduil.  Bard.  Legolas (despite the fact that he is a sassypants show-off like his father).  Those rams large enough to ride on up the side of a mountain.  Kiliel (I SHIP IT).  Bilbo's little nose twitch thing.  And lots of other things that aren’t coming to my mind as I write this.  Pretty much the whole movie.  It’s been a while, oddly enough, since I so heavily abused caps lock, exclamation points, and nonsensical emoticons.

After my inner (and outer…) fangirl calmed down to a stable state, however, I realized what my true emotions were in regards to the film.

            Tauriel: ‘…Why does it hurt so much?’

            Thranduil: ‘Because it was real.’

I have ventured to many distant lands.  Each one has a special place in my heart and mind that is a permanent part of my being.  Middle Earth holds some of my particularly fondest memories.

The point is that The Battle of Five Armies, another end to another fantastic adventure, will continue to haunt me with sentimentality and nostalgia for many years to come.

When The Return of the King released, I was still quite young and a bit naïve in the ways of the world, but now that I’m an adult and am burdened with my cares and experiences, I’ve learned to value these childhood fantasies and to approach them in a very different way than I did before.  The wonderful thing is, that I can always relive them.

          “There and back again.”

As I mentioned in my previous post, I tend to judge films very subjectively.  That’s just how I am.  I wouldn’t necessarily call myself my Tolkien purist, but I am in agreement that this movie is in no way perfect in relation to the book.  There are so many things that I could pick at and whine about, but honestly, this movie was so epic that I feel like I can overlook those things quite easily, for the most part.  There are several things that I wish weren’t left out and certain things that I would change if I could, but that’s not what this post is about so I won’t go there.

The book is the book and the movie is the movie.

This movie made me feel so...inspired.  As an artist and a writer, this is a most beautiful feeling.  Battle of the Five Armies was entertaining from start to finish, with nonstop action and continuous development of both character and story.  I’m quite surprised, honestly, how much was covered in just two hours and a half.  I am impressed.

It goes without saying that this is something very near and dear to me.  What I have been able to articulate and put together to form this blog post barely scratches the surface of my thoughts on this topic.  There is so much more that could be said.

            “To these memories I will hold
            With your blessing I will go
            To turn at last to paths that lead home
            And though where the road then takes me
            I cannot tell
            We came all this way
            But now comes the day
            To bid you farewell.”

            —“The Last Goodbye,” Billy Boyd

Despite previously declaring that Battle of the Five Armies would be his last film within the Tolkien universe, director Peter Jackson recently stated that he would “probably” be up for another journey in Middle Earth.  Mr. Jackson, I’d definitely be up for that, too.

So is this really the last goodbye?

Personally, I’m going to hope that this isn’t the case. I think that the greatest stories are the ones that are never-ending; the ones that will forever be immortalized within the hearts of those who believe that there are much higher things in this existence, even if some of those things are just in our imaginations.

 “Still round the corner there may wait

A new road or a secret gate,

And though I oft have passed them by,

A day will come at last when I

Shall take the hidden paths that run

West of the Moon, East of the Sun.”

“The Road Goes Ever On,” J.R.R. Tolkien

NOVEMBER FAVORITES ♥

Here we go with round two of my monthly favorites! :D

This time I’ll begin with a movie, Thor: The Dark World.  I’ll admit that it was incredibly difficult for me not to go to the midnight showing, or even during opening weekend.  I had previously promised to take my brother out to see it for his birthday, so I ended up waiting 2 WHOLE WEEKS!  That aside…it was well worth it.  I’ll be brief and without spoilers.  Asgard was beautiful.  The landscape shots, the architecture, the costumes.  I wasn't as impressed with Malekith as I would've liked/expected to be, but I'm blaming General Zod in Man of Steel for that one.  He was the last movie supervillian that I experienced, and yeah.  Wow.  But I digress. 

 

Thor x Jane = love.  Loki was amazing, in every way imaginable.  The ending of the film certainly made me curious about the God of Mischief’s future role in the Marvel universe!  My second favorite character was Darcy.  She was hilarious!  And reminded me of myself in a few scenes…

 

…Here is the trailer!

 

 

 

 

The local radio stations have started playing Christmas music…DUN DUN DUN.  So it begins.  I live for this time of the year!  I’m super excited to finish up this term and start decorating, shopping, and baking to my heart’s content. ♥ But I’m going a little off-topic (again) here.  As for my favorite music during the month of November, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise when I say that I’m still addicted to k-pop.  Now that I’ve officially immersed myself in the world of Super Junior (in particular; I listen to other k-pop, too, I promise), I’ve come across some of their lesser known/less popular tunes, a few of which I’ve been absolutely loving.  Promise You by their subgroup Super Junior-K.R.Y. is one such song.   Also, Sorry Sorry (Answer Vers.).  How—no, WHY—does this video have less than a million views? o__o

 

I’d say that my absolute favorite for this past month has been Daydream.  Such a beautiful song!

 

 

 

Other (non-Korean, ha ha) music picks for November are Waiting for Superman by Daughtry, Honestly by Kelly Clarkson, and Strong by One Direction.

Lots of ramen and chocolate pocky have been consumed by me as of late.  Neither of these is particularly new to my diet, so I’m not sure if they count as a “monthly favorite,” but it doesn’t hurt anything to mention them here.  :)

 

 

As the weather gets colder and colder, our summer tans fade away, and we’d all look like Noh masks if it weren’t for makeup.  One look that I’m particularly fond of for myself during fall and winter is blush.  I don’t wear blush during the summer because all the sun exposure usually causes it to melt into my foundation and…yuck.  Besides that, blush doesn’t really show up well under summer’s rays, at least against my skin tone.  I like blush when it’s cold because it provides subtle color and an overall warmer look to the face.  It’s like a holiday glow! ^_^ My favorite everyday blush right now is one from e.l.f.’s Studio Line.  The color is called “Tickled Pink.”  It’s a perfect dark pink that isn’t too faint or too vivid.  It stays on quite well for up to 8 hours.  And you can’t argue with the $3 price tag!

 

 

 

Video games were pretty much non-existent in my life during the month of October, but I’ve been slowly easing them back into my schedule lately, because truthfully, I really miss gaming. ;__;  Back in June I received a bunch of 3DS games for my birthday, so I’ve been playing those.  I absolutely love Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance.  This is the first KH game that I’ve owned.  I played the original game years ago, but to be honest I don’t remember much about it.  This installment is just so.  Much.  Fun.  The characters and storyline are fantastic, and I love the suspense of not knowing which Square Enix or Disney element is going to pop up next.  I’ve also been playing Tales of the Abyss and Fire Emblem Awakening.  I just started those two, so I’m not going to comment on them right at this moment.

 

I’ll end this month’s favorites with an accessory.  Ya’ll know that I am a huge Lord of the Rings nerd.  I’ve been wanting an Evenstar pendant for as long as I can remember.  Ever since the Noble Collection came out with their rather pricey replica, it’s been near the top of my materialistic wishlist.  For a while it seemed like a bleak dream, because I’m a poor student and starving artist.  (Ha ha ha)  Just recently I found another, wayyyy cheaper replica on Amazon.  I bought it without hesitation!  Because it shipped from China, it took a while to get here, but!  It’s quite a lovely thing.  I wear it often, and am looking forward to wearing it with my Arwen look for The Hobbit premiere!

 

 

…And that’s all, folks!  I hope you enjoyed reading this post.  As always, if any of you have any questions about anything I’ve said here, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line!

 

Within the next couple of weeks, I will finally be posting either my ocarina review for Songbird Ocarinas, or my contact lens review for EyeCandy’s.  Or maybe both.  Who knows!  Christmas break is on the way, after all! :D

 

‘Til then!