spring is coming

Or so saith the groundhog. Whatever, little dirt-rat. We all know WINTER is coming.

Well. In April. So Winter is Coming (in Spring). You'd think HBO could've timed that a little more appropriately.

And speaking of appropriate: liked Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, Part One just fine. At least the parts with Bilbo and the dwarves in them, after we finally managed to get out of Bag End. Time Lord Radagast and his magic rabbit-sled was a little obnoxious, but the rabbits were a pleasant relief from the drama of the CGI hedgehog. The 6 year olds in front of us loved that part. They were bored to tears in Rivendell, and not entirely without reason. One can only watch Galadriel and Gandalf conversing with their eyebrows for so long.

--Which is to say, the part of Jackson's Hobbit that was also Tolkien's Hobbit was pretty awesome. The parts that were Silmarillion didn't bother me in theory, though in practice they, like the Bag End party, needed an editor. I wonder how much of that footage justified the third film.

What redeemed the film for me was the dwarves. After the joke Jackson made of Gimli in the LoTR, it was nice to see dwarves kicking ass like the stubby little vikings that they are. And so few elves! It was refreshing. Of course, I have seen the future, and Legolas is in it. The Legoes  for The Hobbit are already out in Downtown Disney, and the Mirkwood set reveals Legolas, a female elf, and cool spiders. There is a Lego/Legolas joke to be made in here, but I'm not the one to do it.

The Smaug set, however, is not available, or at least I haven't seen it. So dammit, bring on the dragon, already.