The Hall of Fire

Wow that's ridiculous. I'm sure glad I decided to just get the "regular" Extended Blu-ray set.

I've flipped through various sections and read bits and pieces. My first impression is that this has some neat tidbits (like slightly more on the Avari, and one of the more explicit statements that the Valar did in fact make a mistake in summoning the elves), but nothing earth-shattering. Some parts...

TMR-cover-image-2-214x300.png So I started this book and it seems like it's going to be quite interesting. Ordway is cataloging the modern literature Tolkien read (more than generally believed) and secondarily pushing back against the portrayal of Tolkien as completely reactionary and out of touch ...

I like the idea! Not sure about the timeline though. How early did Sauron fall, or is it vague enough to leave some wiggle room?

So yeah, that's definitely two trees in the background...quite a flex there. I always expected some kind of PJ-style First Age prologue, but that they opened with this as the first official image suggests it'll be more substantial. The rumor mill is that the first two episodes from JA Bayona will be...

There are ways it could work. If we believe the rumors it sounds like they'll be starting with things relatively quiet buidling up to the big events slowly (no Sauron reveal in first season). So maybe they are around early on and then exit the stage and disappear from history (like migrating away be...

The prologue is vague enough about their early days to give some wiggle room. I'm ok with Harfoot proto-Hobbits as artistic license if Sauron doesn't know they exist (which means they'd probably need to get written out at some point).

Well it worked out with Stuart Townsend leaving, and recasting after a pilot is not uncommon.

Do you know if the anniversary edition is 4k-exclusive?

Not buying it, doesn't make any sense with what we know of the rights. New Line/WB's contract only includes LotR and The Hobbit, and Amazon had to negotiate directly with the Tolkien estate for the Second Age. Wegotthiscovered is also known to be a crapshoot in the accuracy of its rumors.

Will the Ultimate edition come in standard non-4k Blu-ray? I'd been thinking about upgrading my DVDs but the color grading correction sounds nice. However I have no plans to buy a 4k TV.

I don't expect this to actually happen, but I'd rather see a shorter "de-extended" cut of RotK that is longer than the theatrical but removes some of the more egregious EE material like the cartoon stuff with the Dead and Aragorn beheading the Mouth. And as long as I'm wishlisting, maybe e...

I have seen the critique before that Gandalf is describing Valinor, men have an unknown fate when they die, and Hobbits are technically a branch of men. Meaning that Gandalf's speech is wrong since Pippin would not have seen the far green country. I think this misses the thematic point, but there is...

Exciting news! I'm very curious whether Amazon has seen this material?

Well, I finished this about a month ago and I'm just now getting to the review. I don't really have an excuse, with current events I can't say I've been too busy haha. tl;dr: It's quite good in many ways, but I do think you're a little hard on Christopher. So this book is impressively thorough and I...

I've always liked this interpretation of Sound of Silence from a vocal jazz legend:

Well, I started reading it! I'll wait until I'm further in for comments.

Watched RotJ. This movie is simultaneously great and kind of lame and Ian McDiarmid really elevates it, so while not the best Star Wars movie it is probably the most quintessentially representative of the entire franchise. ;) Jabba's Palace, most of the action besides the Ewok battle, and everything...

When we look at Dune and how Frank Herbert's son Brian has handled the legacy, we can see how differently it could have gone and should be very grateful we got Christopher. In partnership with Kevin J. Anderson, Brian Herbert has written thirteen prequels, sequels, and interquels so far (there are o...