wilhelmina_d

Spoilers ahead. Lots of 'em. Massive spoilers.

I loved Thor: Ragnarok. It was fun to watch, light-hearted and I got to watch my favorite brothers bickering and backstabbing each other. The music was good and I've had Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song on repeat since seeing it. I'll certainly watch it multiple times.

That said, Thor: Ragnarok is *exactly* why I do not like comic books. I hate how many different Thors there are and how many different timelines and reboots and this and thats. This movie felt like it didn't belong to the other Thor movies in both visual style and tone. Not to mention that it seems to have forgotten everything in the previous movies.

I just finished rewatching Thor, Avengers, Thor: the Dark World, and the couple of scenes of Avengers: Age of Ultron that didn't bore me to tears (Cap and Mjolnir, amirite?). And there's a few big problems I have with TR when you look at how far we've come, namely one big, gaping hole: Jane.

In TtDW Thor (thought he) gave up Asgard for her. He had grown in wisdom and knowledge and experience and was a deeper, better man for his relationship with Jane. Even though you could see the strain in the relationship because of her focus on her career (same with Stark and Pepper) in the AAoU party scene, this was not something that should have been ignored and tossed aside with a throwaway line about who dumped who. This was a relationship that mattered and that defined Thor's newer, stronger (emotionally) character. I know why they did it - they wanted to open up a spot to put in Valkyrie.

Now, my $0.02 is that Valkyrie and Loki would have been the perfect couple. She's the brawn and the moral straight arrow (yeah, I know, that sounds weird especially when you see how we met her) to Loki's brain and lack of morals. They'd be the perfect yin-yang. Valkyrie is basically Thor in a dress. (Does she even wear a dress in this movie? I don't remember.) They're so alike that there's no room for them both in the relationship. Plus, I LOVE Jane's character and her relationship with Thor. As much as I loved the character of Valkyrie, I hated resenting her throughout the movie because Jane was supplanted by her.

OK, enough on that. The other big quibbles. I did not care one bit about Hela. Like all the villains in the Marvel movies, I would rather have fast forwarded through all her parts. She was boring with no motivation or depth (slightly less obnoxious than Ultron, but still). I hated the retconning of Odin into a bad guy. And Cate Blanchett looked as bored as I felt watching her. (I did like Skourge and found it shocking when I realized Karl Urban was the actor!) I liked the Grandmaster as villain far more and enjoyed Jeff Goldblum's screen time much, much more than Blanchett's.

Last, but not least, Asgard had to have had HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of inhabitants. Just to support the number of troops that Hela massacred (I will say that I thought it unfair that the Warriors Three were all slaughtered and so little attention was paid to it) there would need to be hundreds of people who fed them, made their armor and clothing, their families, etc. The city we saw in the previous movies was huge, big enough to house a whole civilization. Yet Thor gets maybe a couple dozen on the escape ship and says that Asgard's people are saved? So not believable. It really bothered me that they allowed Ragnarok to come because of the number of Asgardians that would have died.

The fight scenes in this movie were marginally better than those in past movies. I actually remember the Hulk/Thor fight in the arena and the scene with the lightning at the end. Most of the fight scenes in movies could be replaced by a "let's all go to the lobby" moment and I'd be ok skipping to the next bit where the characters actually have dialogue.

Overall, a fun movie, but one I'm considering "non-canon".

I don't know why, but this winter I haven't been able to get accustomed to the cold. It's nearing May and it's still cold, and all I want to do is curl up inside by the fire with a hot chocolate and a book. I blame the warm spell we had earlier this year. I think my body decided it was time to move into spring and summer back in February, and now that it's the end of April and we're in the 50s with a chill wind and rain I just refuse to accept it and acclimate.

I had the bright idea to try haltering the sheep this morning and giving them their grain while tied up. I thought it would get them used to a positive coming out of being haltered. Was I ever wrong. First, catching them stressed them all to hell. They freaked out and poor Iris was panting hard she was so scared. Second, I wrenched my back trying to get them cornered. Third, even when I put down the buckets of grain every time I moved they freaked out and knocked the bins over. Wasted probably a pound and a half of grain. Argh!

Still, despite that colossal mistake, week 1 of being a shepherd has been pretty cool. Still can't get Athena to come for treats, and Iris only occasionally will come up. Aphrodite and Demeter are getting very calm around me - in fact, once I finally got everyone tied and settled they ate grain while haltered, unlike the other two. None of them are what I'd call domesticated yet, but it's only been a week.

Now I think it's time for a nap.


Iris says "let us out"!



Aphrodite (left) and Demeter (right) allow chin scritches

I have made a lot of unhappy posts here lately - mostly because when it gets so stressful I just have to blog to work through it - so here's one where I'm actually feeling very happy and why. So, happiness is:

( beloved fuzzies )

( a growing garden )

( happy chickens )

I also got out to the Swine, Wine, and Roses festival out at the Conococheague Institute. It was gray and rainy (as it has been for the last month or two), but everyone there was in a great mood. I brought Xander with me and he was wildly popular. People always ask what kind of breed he is and they seem amused when I respond, "100% mutt". Got some BBQ from the Hempen Hill booth there. Hempen Hill is a restaurant about 45 minutes away from us and one of Himself's and my FAVORITE places, though I don't indulge nearly as often as I'd like.

There you go, a happy post.