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Mitasova
Joined: 11 May 2003
Posts: 103
Location: Russia
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 Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 3:55 pm Post subject: |
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| Thuriniel wrote: |
I guess that if we have not been able to convince on the more serious reasons why we love movie-Leggy, then it comes down to this:
In reality we're all a bunch of rabid fangirls with a bad crush on a blond prancing elf. We may be able to divagate and analyze the reasons why we love Leggy ... but deep inside, it's all a question of hormones. |
Ha! At last, out-and-out admission! Bwahahaha!
Ahem.
Seriously, though, I think that the actor's personality and looks factors heavily in the thriving Lego-love (several people on this thread said as much), and this is yet another concept that I just cannot get into. This is the character flaw of mine: for me, actors are irrelevant. I mean, I love the character of Boromir (both book and movie) to the point of losing my dignity and sanity. Sean Bean? Not so much. Sure, he's a fine actor and a good-looking man, whose picture I put on my desktop from time to time, but he doesn't affect my view of the character at all. But I'm yet to see a Legolas fan (admittedly, I didn't know many of them) who's not merging the character and the actor, at least to the certain extent.
| Quote: | | I still don't see it ... I don't know/understand why you think that Grima, for example, has more "presence" than Legolas ... but if it makes you feel better, apparently Tolkien said once that Legolas was the member of the Fellowship that did the least of them all. |
I think you misunderstood me. I don't know what you mean by "presence"; what I was talking about, was a clear-cut personality, some core trait that, though not limiting the character to this one quality, defines his essential nature (I think my Englihs's failing me here). I.e. Grima's personality can be summarized as "manipulative". He's not limited to this trait, there's a lot more to him then that, but take it from his personality, and Grima stops being Grima. As far as I can see, Legolas has no such core: all his qualities that were being listed are either not exclusively his, or negative (i.e. an absence of quality rather then a presence of one), or contradict each other. He is smudged all over the place.
| Quote: | | Anyways, back to the discussion. There are a lot of bad Legofics out there, I agree, mostly thanks to rabid teens with really weird ideas about Elves and romance. FFN is plagued with them. BUT there are also really bad fics on Hobbits, Men and ... are there any fics out there about Dwarves? ... poor Gimli. I have simply stopped reading in most archives ... OSA is one of the exceptions. |
I've stopped reading in most archives long ago. Now I read almost exclusively by recommendation. But badfic is not what I was talking about. Badfic can be avoided. Not so with fan worshipping. Maybe I'm a tight-assed prude (quite possible, given my background), but I find the kind of comments that are made about the character and the actor on the net appalling. Although I don't care much (read: at all) for Orlando Bloom, discussions about his private parts or his ability in bedroom make me intensely uncomfortable. I don't go to the actors-related threads on messageboards, avoid anything with the words Orlando Bloom on it and still the adoration wave is too huge to be contained. And splashes of it that reach me, smell bad.
To clarify: I'm not saying that that kind of attitude is limited to Legolas's fans only. Fans of almost every character/actor are guilty of that. I've made quite a number of comments myself which I'm now ashamed of, but the number of people who've seen those was relatively small. The sheer force of Legolas's popularity, though, knocks down even a civil casualty such as myself. That is basically what I meant by "the bad".
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Tanya |
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BittenBuggy
Joined: 27 Dec 2003
Posts: 2108
Location: Busy Being the Queen Of Everything.. And Trying to Catch the Yoda-Copter
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| Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 4:11 pm Post subject: |
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| Mitasova wrote: |
Seriously, though, I think that the actor's personality and looks factors heavily in the thriving Lego-love (several people on this thread said as much), and this is yet another concept that I just cannot get into. This is the character flaw of mine: for me, actors are irrelevant. I mean, I love the character of Boromir (both book and movie) to the point of losing my dignity and sanity. Sean Bean? Not so much. Sure, he's a fine actor and a good-looking man, whose picture I put on my desktop from time to time, but he doesn't affect my view of the character at all. But I'm yet to see a Legolas fan (admittedly, I didn't know many of them) who's not merging the character and the actor, at least to the certain extent.
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Sure, thats a huge part of it. I totally agree with you and I am EXCEEDINGLY guilty in regards to it. But guess who's not ashamed?! The BB! 
I think men are beautiful, and I shall coo and make disgusting noises and merge my characters and actors all I please... (Now isnt that literally a lovely thought?)
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LuthienTinuviel
Joined: 29 Dec 2003
Posts: 354
Location: Dancing in the clouds.
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| Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 11:20 pm Post subject: |
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If it's a question of prettiness, I highly agree with the opinion that Elijah Wood is the prettiest of them all. However, in my rather weird mind, I see loving Frodo almost akin to being a paedophile; he's just too cute. [I MEAN NO OFFENSE TO ANYONE. I did mention I'm weird.] So targeting my affections towards Legolas seemed like a good thing. ^_~
But in real life, Elijah's game. Dude's flawless AND cute? Damn.
And yes, it's hormones, the root of all girly screaming fans.
As for the book, I cannot really specify who do I really love. All have their positive and negative points, all are after all, full of human flaws yet managed to overcome them (or compensate for it; as evident in the case of Boromir).
I also agree with the fact that Legolas has the most lacking in details when it comes to his own family history etc. It's a bunny goldmine just waiting for people to dig in it.
Admittedly, I tried, and it flopped.  Oh, well.
So, my answer for the question; Why Legolas?
Hormones, plus the lure of his 'mysterious' self just waiting to be filled in!
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Thuriniel
Joined: 29 Jul 2003
Posts: 665
Location: Watching the purple sky fly over me ...
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| Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 8:20 am Post subject: |
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| Mitasova wrote: | | Seriously, though, I think that the actor's personality and looks factors heavily in the thriving Lego-love (several people on this thread said as much), and this is yet another concept that I just cannot get into. |
Believe it or not, I've never mixed the actor with the character ... I'm a lot more fond of Legolas than I am of Orlando. First came Leggy ... then I learned about Orlando, and, to tell you the truth, I wasn't that much impressed with him when I learned that under the ever-cool Leggy there was a mohawked brunette.
... then I started learning more about O and my opinion of him began to change, but I do keep them separate. And I think it has a lot to do with writing a Lego-fic ... I've done so much research about Legolas that he has become a very separate individual from the actor. The only thing they share are the looks  .
And just for the record, beauty is in the eye of the beholder ... Elijah might be cute, but he looks like a 10 years old to me, which, needless to say, is a big turn off!
| Mitasova wrote: | | what I was talking about, was a clear-cut personality, some core trait that, though not limiting the character to this one quality, defines his essential nature (I think my Englihs's failing me here). I.e. Grima's personality can be summarized as "manipulative". He's not limited to this trait, there's a lot more to him then that, but take it from his personality, and Grima stops being Grima. As far as I can see, Legolas has no such core: all his qualities that were being listed are either not exclusively his, or negative (i.e. an absence of quality rather then a presence of one), or contradict each other. He is smudged all over the place. |
English not my native tongue either, so don't worry. I don't think we'll ever agree on this one, because I just don't see Legolas as void of personality.
| Mitasova wrote: | | Maybe I'm a tight-assed prude (quite possible, given my background), but I find the kind of comments that are made about the character and the actor on the net appalling. Although I don't care much (read: at all) for Orlando Bloom, discussions about his private parts or his ability in bedroom make me intensely uncomfortable. I don't go to the actors-related threads on messageboards, avoid anything with the words Orlando Bloom on it and still the adoration wave is too huge to be contained. And splashes of it that reach me, smell bad. |
You're not the only one who has stopped going to message boards ... the bashing of O's current girlfriend really disgusts me and it's all over. About his ability in the bedroom, those comments always make me giggle ... you see, he's only a human being and not perfect, and I'm positive he has his bad bedroom moments ... and I'm certain he even farts and picks his nose ... and does many other things that everyday men do. So much perfection bestowed upon one single human being irks me. So I got fed up with it and left.
But the point is, we're not discussing O here, we're discussing Legolas ... am I the only one who has them separated? Lego-writers ... when you write about Legolas ... do you take into account the man under the costume?
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sindohte
Joined: 13 May 2003
Posts: 1621
Location: Rubbing up against an Elf
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| Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 9:24 am Post subject: |
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| Thuriniel wrote: | | But the point is, we're not discussing O here, we're discussing Legolas ... am I the only one who has them separated? Lego-writers ... when you write about Legolas ... do you take into account the man under the costume? |
I keep Lego and OB separate in my head. The only contribution that OB has towards my vision of Legolas is his physical characteristics. Other than that, my Legolas is nothing like Orlando. One obvious reason for that is OB is a 20-something year old English actor, while Legolas is a 2,000ish year old Sindar Elf. I think that is part of the reason fangirlies mess up with their Legomances. They drag too much of the modern day OB into their characterization of Legolas. And the end results tend to be frightening, if not downright ghastly.
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Viv
Challenge Admin
Joined: 24 Apr 2003
Posts: 71
Location: Texas
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| Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 9:42 am Post subject: |
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| Mitasova wrote: | | what I was talking about, was a clear-cut personality, some core trait that, though not limiting the character to this one quality, defines his essential nature (I think my Englihs's failing me here). I.e. Grima's personality can be summarized as "manipulative". He's not limited to this trait, there's a lot more to him then that, but take it from his personality, and Grima stops being Grima. As far as I can see, Legolas has no such core: all his qualities that were being listed are either not exclusively his, or negative (i.e. an absence of quality rather then a presence of one), or contradict each other. He is smudged all over the place. |
Legolas is intrinsically and stereotypically Elf. Just as Gimli is intrinsically and stereotypically Dwarf. Tolkien deliberately did not make them more complicated characters, so he could focus on the wonder of these two becoming friends, which is their whole point in the story. As an idea, they are both extremely compelling and complicated. Much as Arwen as an idea is much more interesting than Arwen the character (who is pretty thin).
And your comment about not knowing of any LoTRfic writer who is unable to separate Legolas from Orlando Bloom seems a little odd to me. I think this is a chicken-and-egg sort of issue. Does the writer write Legomance because she has a secret crush on the actor, or does she write it because there is a huge audience for the stuff and she's more likely to get attention for a sappy Legomance than for a grimy orc adventure?
Considering the several purposes for writing, I think it's unfair to say that every author of a Legomance is just writing her fangirl favorite character (or worse, her actor-crush du jour). |
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Anna
Joined: 29 Jan 2004
Posts: 548
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 1:01 pm Post subject: |
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Are Legolas and Orlando Bloom two separate beings to me? Hell yeah! They most definitely are! I am, after all, a PEF and not a POF (Pervy Orlando Fancier)... 
I´ve been a rabid Leggy-fangirl for years and years. Granted, OB does make a wonderful Legolas IMHO and he is oh so pretty...BUT he is simply too cute. Don´t get me wrong! I like him. I really like him. I wouldn´t kick him out of my bed, you know...
However, he´s nothing compared to Legolas. I know I´m pathetic...  31 years old and acting like a silly little fangirl... I should do what BB does - stand up for my fangirliness (?) and refuse to be ashamed!
Seriously, I normally go for guys like Aragorn or Boromir instead of pristine and pretty, pretty blond boys. But Legolas is an ELF! Get it!? An elf! Soo cool!
OK, I´ll shut up now. |
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Thuriniel
Joined: 29 Jul 2003
Posts: 665
Location: Watching the purple sky fly over me ...
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| Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 1:12 pm Post subject: |
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| Viv wrote: | | Considering the several purposes for writing, I think it's unfair to say that every author of a Legomance is just writing her fangirl favorite character (or worse, her actor-crush du jour). |
Very well put, Viv. Thank you.
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Aerin
Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 417
Location: ORLI'S LIPS are distracting me
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| Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2004 2:41 pm Post subject: Legolas and why? |
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Elven Kind are extremely facinating. I thought and still do think that the message sent in LOTR by Legolas and Gimli is extremely important. Tolorance and enjoyment of other cultures. Sometimes that means an open battle of wits and teasing. Orlando Bloom, is my other reason. When that guy appears on any screen, my husband is immedeately embarrased by my enthusiasm. I agree with all of the other postings on the Elf's behalf as well. There is a ton of wiggle room in his character, as many of you very talented writers have used. I am continually impressed with the quality of the writtings that I have read. Even though I think O. would blush to see some of the things written about his bod, and Legolas may not entirely approve of our voyerism. But with out us, he would remain the virginal elf that Tolkien must have had in mind for a "spin off" if you pardon the horrible literary impact of that phrase.
That is my reply. |
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BittenBuggy
Joined: 27 Dec 2003
Posts: 2108
Location: Busy Being the Queen Of Everything.. And Trying to Catch the Yoda-Copter
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| Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2004 4:48 pm Post subject: |
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Poor Orlando would have to be hospitalized in a very fancy mental institution after reading most of the fics written about him 
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-The Queen of Everything - so dubed by Aerin
-"My ultimate fantasy is to entice a man to my bedroom, put a gun to his head and say, 'Make babies or die'."
-"The Pope! how many divisions has he got?" - Stalin |
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queenoftheshire
Joined: 03 Dec 2003
Posts: 607
Location: Catching Birds with a Pool Skimmer
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| Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2004 9:55 pm Post subject: |
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| BittenBuggy wrote: | | Poor Orlando would have to be hospitalized in a very fancy mental institution after reading most of the fics written about him |
Better check in Viggo, Johnny, Elijah, and Dom while you're at it... 
Poor Billy is just left out... Poor Billy
Of course I've never written anything like that...
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BittenBuggy
Joined: 27 Dec 2003
Posts: 2108
Location: Busy Being the Queen Of Everything.. And Trying to Catch the Yoda-Copter
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| Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2004 8:03 am Post subject: |
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Sean B. and Karl are two other VERY abused men Just a question though... What about David?! 
_________________
-The Queen of Everything - so dubed by Aerin
-"My ultimate fantasy is to entice a man to my bedroom, put a gun to his head and say, 'Make babies or die'."
-"The Pope! how many divisions has he got?" - Stalin |
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Aerin
Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 417
Location: ORLI'S LIPS are distracting me
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| Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2004 7:15 pm Post subject: Only if I can be the admissions nurse |
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I will gladly let them check into the sanitorium, as long as I can be the admissions nurse! PS... awhile back some on asked about any personality trait that movie Legolas has... Loyalty. He was probably intended for Arwen, but Aragorn is who she fell for, and as his friend, Legolas continually reminds Arigorn that his Lady is waiting for him to come 'round. Another would be tenaciousness. When the orc gets too close he stabbs them with the arrows.
Most all of the legolas fics that I have read also pick up on an underlying Kindness. Unlike Elrond who is a real hard ass... no offense but he is... Even Gladriel is a little harsh...
But then he's a snob too. No one doubts that even though Tolkien did not write it, Legolas was an eye roller. Especially at first.
An Enigma. That is a personality in itself. |
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SpaceWeavil
Joined: 27 May 2004
Posts: 23
Location: Looking at shiny things
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| Posted: Sat Jun 19, 2004 9:37 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Most all of the legolas fics that I have read also pick up on an underlying Kindness. Unlike Elrond who is a real hard ass... no offense but he is... Even Gladriel is a little harsh...
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I tend to look on Elrond in similar terms – although he might be a font of wisdom he was also a soldier and a commander and I try to sometimes ease that into fics. As for Legolas, I don’t fancy Orlando Bloom in the slightest [whether that makes me weird or not, I don’t know]. One main reason is that my mother is obsessed with him, even to the point of having the standee thing in her bedroom, and I got sick of hearing his name and seeing his face plastered around the house whenever I visited. I suppose its ‘Bloom saturation effect’ or something. But he is quite interesting as a character for me because there is so little known about him from canon. That means there is a lot you can fill in, without worrying about getting facts wrong etc.
I will admit to mingling ideas from the film and from the book, in that the way some of the actors portrayed the characters sometimes influences how I see them, and it is handy when visualising the story for me, when I’m plotting and stuff, if I can picture someone in the role very clearly.
Jess |
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Aerin
Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 417
Location: ORLI'S LIPS are distracting me
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| Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2004 2:44 pm Post subject: Good Point |
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| Not everyone has the same taste, If my mom had a cut out of OB in her bedroom, I would have serious problems finding him sexy as well. I don not have a cut out of any one in my house, my husband would frown on that, and I think my dad would too. I think cutouts and posters and things like that should be left to the 12-18 set and usually are grown out of by the time we are adults, but to each their own, I am sure your mom has fun with her crush, and who's to say that is wrong, NOT ME. I had my room practicallywall papered with pinups of boys at one point. That was fun. That is what movies etc...are for. I still have a crush on Orlando, and Ben Affleck. and Josh Hartnet too. Am I too old for this? Probably. What was my point? Oh yea, takes all types to fuel the entertainment industry. And all sizes and shapes of men and women to fill it up. Who is your fave actor? |
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