Fannish 5 death postcript...

[fajrdrako]

In my last LJ entry I listed five favourite deaths from books and comics and then said, I can't think of any deaths in movies or television that would come even close.

I am an idiot. Or at least... I have a bad fannish memory.

The death of Boromir in the movie version of The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring gets me every time.

Comments

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

Aren't you forgetting someone else?

::points at icon::

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Hee. Well, yes, that's a great one. I have a feeling I'm going to be wandering around remembering new great deaths for days.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

'm going to be wandering around remembering new great deaths for days.

Isn't fandom fun? *g*

PS About The Unquiet Dead - I can either watch it now, after I've eaten (and fed the cats) or on Sunday. Tomorrow is a bit dicey for fitting it in. How's your weekend looking?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Re The Unquiet Dead - Sunday might be better for me now, too. Today is possible but seems to be awfully busy suddenly!

Tomorrow I'm going to a slashy brunch at 10:30 a.m. but can either watch it and comment before that, or afterwards.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

Well, it's the end of today here, so it looks like it'll have to be tomorrow for me. *g* Shall I go ahead and watch it whenever I have time during the day, then, and wait for you to post your comments?

a slashy brunch sounds like such fun. I frequently mourn the fact that I'm so far away!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I watched it, so I'll post now, and if you aren't still up, it will be waiting for you tomorrow morning.

Our slashy brunches are fun, and we go to a lovely restaurant now - though other locations are not impossible. We used to go to a pub where we would tease the waiter about slash - he made the mistake of asking one day how we'd come to know each other. So we told him. He was a psychology student at Carleton University.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Agreed. And in the book. Let me through, I'm a doctor! Where's the National Elf Service when you need it?

Gladys Huntington, Madame Solario: Kovanski – young Russian, shoots himself when he discovers that the American adventuress, Mme Solario, with whom he is in love, is involved incestuously with her brother.

Zoé Oldenbourg, The Cornerstone: Eglantine – deranged young woman, mortally wounded by a lynch-mob for being a 'witch' (it's early 13C). She's not a 'likeable' character, because her condition makes her do some bizarre and just plain wrong things, but to the modern reader, it's clear that she can't help being insane. She needs care, not being hacked up by a bunch of superstitious peasants.

Walter Scott, The Talisman: Scott's fictional version of His Loveliness, mispelled and slandered even as he is, gets even worse treatment than in reality, being badly wounded by the hero in a trial by combat, then knifed by his accomplice the Grand Master afterwards. This is overkill in every sense, and my h/c complex kicked in massively. It was even worse when I discovered the true story.

Five is too low a number.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

In the book, it's Boromir's funeral song that really breaks my heart.

I almost listed the death of Alexander the Great in The Persian Boy, but it seemed to me it was in one of those grey areas between fact and fiction. (If I am not giving Mary Renault too much credit for putting historical fact into heartbreaking prose.)

And come to think of it, there's also the death of Hephaistion in that same book. Damn. You're right. Five is not enough.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

More, going back in childhood:
Maleficent, in Disney's Sleeping Beauty: too glamorous and stunning to be killed.
Jadis, in The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe: I was distressed by the drawing of the battle, in which she was shown being mauled to death by Aslan. Again, far too glamorous and wonderful.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You had more of them than I did.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I suppose it comes of having an extremely active h/c complex. I'm not sure which came first: noticing that bad things happened to characters I liked, and therefore wanting to rescue and heal them, or latching on to these characters because they needed TLC.

And I mustn't forget one of my all-time greats. At the end of the Morte d'Arthur, another of these cases where the author turns your preconceptions around in terms of sheer, raw courage:

Then the king gat his spear in both his hands, and ran toward Sir Mordred, crying: Traitor, now is thy death-day come. And when Sir Mordred heard Sir Arthur, he ran until him with his sword drawn in his hand. And there King Arthur smote Sir Mordred under the shield, with a foin of his spear, throughout the body, more than a fathom. And when Sir Mordred felt that he had his death wound he thrust himself with the might that he had up to the bur of King Arthur's spear. And right so he smote his father Arthur, with his sword holden in both his hands, on the side of the head, that the sword pierced the helmet and the brain-pan…

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I think all my most impressive character deaths are ones where I wanted to invade the plot and carry out rescue and h/c.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I don't feel any impulse to rescue Boromir, or most of them... And though I identify with Lymond's desire to sav Khaireddin, I like the scene the way it happened. I don't know what this says about my attitude. Sometimes I like a character because of his death scene - Sydney Carton, for example.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I don't feel any impulse to rescue Boromir, or most of them...

Oh, I did!

[jkluge.livejournal.com]

Me, too. *Still*.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes. It doesn't seem to matter how many times I see it or how much time passes. It's still an amazing, wonderful, terrible scene.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Damn, I forgot about Boromir too... hmm, it's probably a good thing, I would never have been able to decide between him and Theoden if I'd remembered.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That's a hard call. I also thought about the death of Aragorn - not that we see the death itself, but it's another of my favourite moments.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Slightly OT, but what you said about Aragorn made me think of the LotR vid to The Mountain that uses Arwen's vision of Aragorn's effigy beautifully. Actually the whole vid is gorgeous, and it has a bit of Boromir too. Have you seen it? It's here at Shalott's vidding page (http://www.intimations.org/vidding/) if you fancy a look.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Beautiful vid! Thank you!

Predictably, I like the Aragorn scenes best.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

I love that vid - I even ended up getting the album the song is from because of it!

I fell in love with Aragorn in the films. He didn't make such a huge impression in that way from the books because I always identified with the hobbits, but Viggo Mortensen was so amazing in that role. It's interesting reading them again now that I know the films so very well!

[star-momma.livejournal.com]

Such a tough question! Boromir, definitely. Matthew in Anne of Green Gables - movie, book... I cry either way. Doyle on Angel. Can't help it. Hurts even more now that Glenn Quinn's gone in real life too. Old Yeller. Obvious, yes, but... hell, it's effective. I know I'm missing a million!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Matthew in Anne of Green Gables - movie, book... I cry either way.

Oh, yes! Good one. Have you seen the musical, where they just have his rocking chair rocking empty on the verandah? Waaaah! I practically weep just remembering.

Doyle on Angel.

Haven't seen that yet. I'm seriously thinking of watching Buffy and Angel.

Hurts even more now that Glenn Quinn's gone in real life too.

Did he play Doyle? What happened to him?

I know I'm missing a million!

Me too! I think I didn't even say Sydney Carton first time round. One of my favourites ever.

[star-momma.livejournal.com]

No, I didn't even know there *was* an Anne of Green Gables musical... definitely something I'll have to check out.

And you should watch Buffy and Angel. It will rub all your fannish tendencies the right way, I promise. Glenn Quinn did indeed play Doyle, and he overdosed a couple of years after his run on the series ended.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I didn't even know there *was* an Anne of Green Gables musical...

I've seen it several times. They perform it every summer in Charlottetown, I believe. Info here (http://www.confederationcentre.com/anne.asp).

I believe there is in fact another, newer, American musical based on "Anne of Green Gables". I wouldn't have heard of that one except there was some controversy about it as being American-not-Canadian, and a sort of unwarranted competition for the beloved old musical. Possibly the copyright has lapsed on the book now? So it goes.

Thanks for the encouragement regarding Buffy.