Smaug The Dragon/ IHeartCharacters

I Heart Characters! is a weekly meme hosted by Dani @ Perspective of a Writer to showcase our book blogger love for characters! Each week she’ll supply a topic and you’ll supply the character. Post on whatever day suits you, about characters from whatever media you love (books, movies, K-dramas, television, manga, anime, webtoons, whatever!) and link up on Thursday so YOU and others can blog hop and share the character love. ♡

First, let’s clarify the difference  between movie Smaug and book Smaug. The movie Smaug has a sexy voice and looks like this:

While Thorin in the book describes Smaug as stealthier and more dignified than is movie alter-ego.

“From a long way off we saw the dragon settle on our mountain in a spout of flame. Then he came down the slopes and when he reached the woods they all went up in fire.”

  So why Smaug instead of Saphira from Eragon? Firstly, I haven’t read the Eragon series in a while, and can only remember some training passages. Secondly, Smaug is the dragon in all the fairy tales. In the old fairy tales, the prize is hidden behind the dragon, and only the best can kill, or in Donkey’s case, seduce the dragon.

  Those fairy tales set us up for disappointment. Almost every story had a dragon, but then we grew up, and it’s all androids, aliens and detectives. While I love all of those things, I’m a bit dragon-deprived.

  The Hobbit is our fairy tale. While there are no female protagonists, at least the prize isn’t a princess. They never said why a dragon would guard a princess. Where they all locked up? How do you lock up a dragon? If you did lock up a dragon, how would you give them enough room to kill all unworthy knights but not the princess?

  Gold guarding is a lot more realistic than princess guarding. There is dragon sickness on the gold, a defense measure to ward off the more intelligent potential thieves and for the dumber ones who get in have a reason to stay and be eaten, for they couldn’t steal enough gold to satisfy the sickness.

  Why does Smaug fly? To kill people, of course. He must keep the locals in fear of him, unfortunately alive because he has to eat sometime. Flying gives him an advantage because he can kill people stuck on the ground while negating the danger of ground weapons like axes and swords. The lakemen got around that, unfortunately, but what’s a fairy tale without a dead dragon?

Dragons on my TBR:

Tess Of The Road, Rachel Hartman

Dealing with Dragons, P.C.Wrede

Rereads:

The Hobbit, JR.R. Tolkein

Eragon, Christopher Paolini 

A Natural History Of Dragons, Lady Trent

What other dragons are on your TBR?

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May Ends/June begins

Yay. Summer. I hate summer. The heat. Like, why the heat? 

So here’s the tally of what I read in May:

There’s been a lot of Sherlove last month, despite   Sherlock Holmes Day not having a strong presence.I read The Return Of Sherlock Holmes , finally completing the entire Sherlock Holmes collection. I was mildly disappointed by CAM’s story, but still loved that evil bastard.

  You’re The Only One I Can Tell, Deborah Tannen. 2/12 Nonfiction 

Ugh. The first half was good, made simple/complicated conversations simple. But the second half got dull, and there was an off-handed passage about curing autism. Nope!

Hark! A Vagrant! 7/12 Kate Beaton 

It would’ve been funnier had I not read Step  Aside, Pops, the sequel, first. It’s disappointing, like when I read Furiously Happy before reading Let’s Pretend This Never Happened. The first books are still funny and good, but the squeal hangs over them.

 They are comics, books of comics,not comic books,  about pop culture, history, etc, anything that attracted the attention of the artist. It’s enlightening, but the Canadian references weren’t as funny as general, because I didn’t have the knowledge to foully enjoy them. 

 Currently reading: 

Carve The Mark, Veronica Roth, fantasy/sci/fi

There is no escaping the constant reminders of Divergent. Cyra could easily be Four, and the training sessions are similar. It’s also GOF-y, as the relationship between Cyra and her brother are similar to the Dragon siblings.

I might do theI heart characters, next month, it looks fun. Gotta go. Sorry about typos, this computer is an ass. 

I Heart Characters

Black Panther, As Seen By An Oaklandish White Girl

Good, but not always great. When great, not always wonderful. Sometimes wonderful.

Black Panther can be analyzed in several different ways, and receive different scores for each:

Characters: heroes 12/12

There is a plethora of heroes to choose from. Black Panther himself, a good man who proves to be a good king. Shuri, a warrior of technology, and a classic millanial. Nakita, defender of those with less. All are well developed, especially Shuri, who is somehow an engineer and a doctor. I loved her almost immediately, with her flip off and apology. It hurt when she belittled my city, when she didn’t consider all aspects of it.

Characters: villains 2/12

Really freaking bad. Two villains, Klaue and Killmonger. Klaue didn’t have much motivation outside of money. Killmonger was a creation of how outsiders perceive Oaklandish: poor and violent. Yes, most people are poor and there is some violence. But that’s only a  part of life. A lot of people take the poverty and violence to channel it into art and motivation. We use it to protest injustice peacefully on the streets. We are ourselves here, no matter what  our race, sexual orientation, wealth or status is. Black Panther chose to portray us the way most media does: poor and violent.

Via Screen Rant

Setting: Wakanda 12/12

This level of detail, from dance, music, ritual, costume, the place itself, wow. It is representative of African tribes while integrating a level of technology no one has yet. I wondered why they still mash herbs by hand, and yet that small, simple thing is something a culture might keep.

Setting: Oakland 3/12

I said it before and will again: this is not Oakland. And yet we do have boys playing basketball. We have boys in A’s jerseys, although you’ll see more Warriors. We have boys who have to deal with dead relatives. A small part is still a part.

Overall, it’s not my favorite Marvel movie. I enjoyed the freshness of it though, cause the old stuff has been old for a while. I loved the level of detail and the awesome panther suits. I’m biased because I’m Oaklandish, and wish they shone a more expansive light on the city of Black Panther.

Celebrities Who Love Reading

 

Emma Watson immediately comes to mind, not only for her portrayal of the book-eating Hermione Granger, but also for her feminist book club on goodreads.

 

Benedict Cumberbatch

I: And the book that changed your life?
B: Catcher in the Rye.

 

 

 

 

Breakdown

I blog about books, and I love books. Otherwise, I wouldn’t blog about them.

I’ve been reading, and I have ideas for posts.

But I’m breaking down and can’t do anything, so please bear with me as I try not to die.

Fault In Our Stars

“Sure, anyone can name fourteen dead people. But we’re disorganized mourners, so a lot of people end up remembering Shakespeare ends up remembering the guy he wrote the Sonnet  55 about.”

My Stupid_Assed Phone

A while ago mine recommended PKD’s Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep. I liked it enough, but wasn’t RTUs I as tic enough to pick up another til now.  Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said is starting slow, with back story clogging it up. I like the premise, a famous man loses his identity, but the sci-fi world seems like extra stuff that’s not relevant. And I do love SciFi.

No picture today, as I am using a phone because mi library blocked computer access and my mum got rid of internet at home. I’ll try to use a cumbepter at a school in the following weeks of break

Happy Star Wars!