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Jenny's Archived Blogs - April - June
30/07/08
- 10 mnts of my favourite show that didn't happen
07/07/08
- An acquaintance with the parallell
12/08/08
- Chips with everything?
23/08/08 - I refuse to
wear short skirts and wave pompoms - unless Jonas asks me to.
August 23rd 2008
Oscar Wilde can resist everything but temptation, and I can resist
ranting everywhere but this blog. Apologies. What a peculiar opening
for a blog, well I have found something to prove that I'm not
completely random and insane. What do Oscar Wilde and Jonas Armstrong
have in common, you may ask. Well they were both born in Dublin (and
thus, I own both *evil laugh/strokes cat*) and they both left Dublin's
fair city to go over to England and live, in Oscar's case: a quite
brilliant existence, and in Jonas's case (both now and in the future),
in his own way, something just as wonderful. And they are two men I
admire exceedingly and have a great deal of time for.
Okay so there are quite a few differences and this blog is not going to
make you stop reading (assuming people do indeed suffer my rants) and
think that they were separated by birth (and a century). But it is
something fantastic indeed that both have the effect of bringing a
smile, or a sense of both pride and wonder, to me whenever I see/hear
them. And since discovering Jonas in Robin Hood, and becoming an
Armstrong Angel and a 'groupie' **, I have had a wish to see Jonas in
an Oscar Wilde production - preferably a televised one - and listen to
him bunburying all over Shropshire and wooing women with sensational
diaries. Oh please let it happen! As an Oscar Wilde fan, I have seen 3
productions of the Importance of Being Earnest (and acted in a fourth)
and seeing Jonas as the character of Algy or Jack would make and keep
such a smile on my face it could be harnessed for electricity.
Another quick shout out to the Armstrong Angels. I got the results of
my exams last week (I did better than I could have hoped) and I was on
edge the night before because all really hinged on one or two subjects.
I put my concerns in the 'Need a hug' thread and so many angels came to
put in some words of encouragement and some well-needed hugs. I was so
grateful for that attention and when I got my Leaving Cert the next
morning, I went there and thanked them all for their support - but I
want to just say it again: Thank You. JAF really is a wonderful place
and the Angels who make up the forum are the nicest people in the
world. Whether people agree or disagree over something, I don't get the
'fight or flight' urge, as I have done on other forums where you have
to defend your corner constantly. We can argue rationally and I really
value their ability to tolerate conflicting views.
Robin Hood is such a long way away that it is getting that bit more
difficult to maintain the levels of anticipation and excitement that I
had a few weeks ago. I wrote to RTÉ last week
asking(begging)
them to tell me when they were going to air Series 2. And I just have
to ask: "What is so attractive about January 2009?" Because I am going
to be one busy person come January. It's either a famine or a feast and
I wish I had something to cling onto during the long weeks of
September-November, before I can get my hands on the Robin Hood Series
2 dvd and commentaries.
Oh well, as they say: "C'est la vie". University is starting in
September and I will be a busy bee who is multi-tasking while hopping
on one leg saying the alphabet, so I suppose the postponement is for
the best. I must look on the Bright Side of Life.
"When you're chewing on Life's gristle: don't grumble, give a whistle.
And this'll make things turn out for the best."
*fades out blog to image of men on crosses singing*
**I refuse to wear short skirts and wave pompoms - unless Jonas asks me
to.
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August
12th 2008
I'd like to begin this blog by thanking everyone for reading thus far
and putting up with my rants. I find this blog a great vent for the
enormous chip on my shoulder that seems to rear its head on a
bi-monthly basis and command me to put it into paragraph form.
First of all, I would like to thank Lucky for putting up the last few
blogs I sent in in advance as I snuck out and went on off on my
holidays. She's a real gem and if I would have gotten away with it too
if it wasn't for that thank you that snuck in there. I had a wonderful
holiday so I did, and I feel as if I have completely exorcised the
exams from my system (and it feels good). The upside of being away so
long being that I saw the best London and South East England has to
offer. Notably the Cambridge, where we went on the punts (really long
canoes) and I exhausted myself giggling and filming dad with trees in
his face ("You've been Framed: you have no idea what a treat you're in
for) and Buckingham Palace where I was just swept away by the
gold-gilted everything and the secret mirror-door (got to get me one of
those). The downside being that, although I got some short spells on
JAF due to the unforeseen presence of a computer, the upside meant that
I didn't really get to keep up with all the happenings where Jonas is
concerned. There is no silly season in Jonasland!
I did have some idea about what I was going to put in this blog over my
holidays, where I mulled over ideas and sentences but I'll have to
write it on my hand for next time because just as I was going to sit
myself down to write this blog, I did the obligatory search on 'Today's
Active Topics' and found a long sought after interview with Jonas. It
was written in the third person, which was not my preferred format of
Question, Answer, but don't look a gift horse in the mouth people
always say to me. What really stuck out for me were the following
lines, when he was talking about Lucy Griffiths:
“He (Jonas) laughed about the fact that they did not get
along
well in their first few meetings. Armstrong admitted that he was
nervous when he first got the lead role and to make up for it acted a
bit arrogant which made early interactions difficult.”
The classic line from ‘Some like it Hot’:
“Nobody’s perfect” does not even come to
play here.
It goes beyond that. The simple fact that he admitted to being firstly
wrong, secondly nervous, and thirdly arrogant, really makes him a
wonder. I am quite sure that this journalist did not have a poker or a
hang, draw and quarter machine handy for this interview.
Jonas’s
honest explanation of why the relationship with a colleague was
initially frosty is really something remarkable. I hate using the word
“humble”, it should stay in Oscar speeches, but he
really
is so humble. It shows a maturity beyond his years. To admit you are
wrong is difficult for anyone, but especially to admit you are wrong
because you are nervous is indeed a rarity and that alone is a very
substantial reason why I am a Jonas Armstrong fan. I don’t
think
anyone is going to look at that quote and focus on only the arrogant
part. It happens. It shows that he is only a human being. I know us
Angels think he is a god but he is also just a normal man. It isn't
many people that would admit that they acted arrogantly to hide their
nerves. He's really gone up in my estimation for that.
It’s funny but I always get a kick out of seeing people
connected
with Jonas. Elaine Cassidy was back on television (hurrah).
She’s
in some romantic film on RTÉ 1 now called “Little
White
Lie”. I missed it last night but it’s online so I
might
give it a look in the next while. So all that remains to be said is
Goodbye and Thanks!
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July
30th 2008
Hi again! I think this blog should be reserved for the
10-Minutes-Of-My-Favourite-Show-That-Didn’t-Happen,
-But-I’m-Rather-Afraid-Might-Have. Er… if you
haven’t seen the end of Series 2, then you’re out
of luck,
I’m afraid. Spoilers can and will happen on this blog because
I’m from Ireland and I get BBC Northern Ireland –
sorry!
Well, not really, but I’m ever so polite.
Yes, I’ve decided that I’m emotionally ready to
discuss
Marian’s sad demise and its possible repercussions for my
beloved
show. Some of my thoughts have featured on JAF before but in a loose,
fragmented way, which I will try and remedy in this post. If I think of
anything awe-inspiring after I’ve posted this then
I’ll put
it in the next one – lucky you!
So, I’m sure you’ve already pictured the scene as
I’ve been rambling. So, Marian shouts, runs towards Guy. He
tells
her to get out of the way so he can kill the king. She tells him she
loves Robin Hood. He runs a sword through her and she dies in
Robin’s arms. Well, that’s if she’s
really dead and
it wasn’t a hallucination … Based on the little I
do know,
because this show is so secretive! – she is probably dead.
I hadn’t read any spoilers before I saw this episode. You can
imagine how shocked I was. It was like grief, it really was. I was
actually hysterical for the rest of the evening, and I spent the rest
of the night checking out other people’s thoughts on the
episode
and not believing for a second that it was true. I spent the next week
(my precious Christmas holidays with studying to do) with a dull thud
in my stomach and spending each night on the internet trying to figure
out why my favourite pairing, my favourite actress on the show, and one
of my favourite characters, who meant so much to my favourite
character, was picked off in some bizarre ratings greed. I know that in
TV-land the excitement ends as soon as the hero gets the girl, but I
mean it was really kicking off! No-one was bored with the pairing, in
fact people were getting sick to their back teeth of Guy/Marian and
even I, an avid Richard Armitage admirer in my spare moments from
admiring Jonas, was hoping that he would get relegated a little.
So how did it come to this? Well I suppose in some poetic way
it’s ended the love triangle. I did think it possible that
all of
the characters could have continued to exist without there being a
Guy/Marian side to the triangle. Marian was spending all her time in
the castle away from Robin, and indeed their time together was so
little in the later episodes that it was really getting farcical. So I
suppose the writers felt that a way to get away from all these lovey
dovey scenes with Gisbourne was to kill Marian and concentrate on the
essence of Robin Hood (stealing and giving etc). I think that is now
rendered impossible. Can Robin simply go back to stealing from the rich
and giving to the poor now? We did establish in episode 8, series 1
that Robin’s primary reason for staying in Nottingham was
because
of Marian. This is further cemented by the fact that he was prepared to
leave Nottingham forever because she was marrying Gisbourne. So how can
the writers possibly say that Robin can continue on? By the way, that
was such a complete cop out by the writers by getting Marian to say she
wanted him to keep fighting. I mean come on! Make it interesting if
you’re going to kill the prime motivation for all of
Robin’s thoughts and deeds. If she hadn’t said
those couple
of words, what would Robin have done? I for one believe that
Marian’s loss would keep him in the Holy Land, away from all
the
sights that would have reminded him of her in Nottingham. I really
don’t see how the writers are going to get themselves out of
this
one. Marian was the primary motivation for Robin. Who is going to take
her place? Much? I don’t think so. There is a gap that needs
to
be filled, but by whom? Marian’s memory, Marian’s
ghost?, a
new woman? If they had not killed her, then this situation would not
have arisen. They have succeeded in getting rid of the romance but now
they have only swash buckling and what little comedy Much and the new
and quite sexy Friar Tuck can muster under the circumstances. I see the
comedy clarinet getting a covering of dust by the end of Series 3.
I had genuinely believed that Vaisey would be killed at the end of
Series 2, leaving Gisbourne to take over as Sheriff leading to much fun
and angst for the remaining 13 episodes of a fantastic show. And what
are we left with now? A brooding, distraught Robin with no reason to
live, a guilt-ridden Guy whose feelings will erupt in further sadism? I
do honestly believe that Robin should die at the end of the series. I
think he should have let Guy free in a moment of forgiveness (or
probably just because he was sick of killing – she
wouldn’t
have wanted it etc.) I am adamant that if Marian is dead, then Robin
should die to the words "See you in Heaven, my love" etc. I don't
really want pensive, depressed Robin at the closing credits. Pensive
Much/Dead Robin is acceptable. To be honest, I think it is the only way
to conclude this on a psychological level. There's a brutal finality
about death. And I believe that our hero should breathe his last as the
orchestra begins the theme for the final time.
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July
7th 2008
It seems to be that time of the fortnight again: the tea is hot, the
sun is shining (for once!) and yours truly has an opinion on something
or other. I think you may have realised already that tangents are my
friends but I’m already forming a close acquaintance with the
parallel. It seems to cosy up to me and whisper sweet nothings into my
ear – actually it’s usually during Robin Hood
viewings that
it sidles up to me and throws me a cheesy pickup line – at my
most vulnerable. So anyway this particular parallel wandered through
the Gap of Rohan, over the Misty Mountains and into the Trip Inn. It is
the strangest thing. I mean obviously the whole concept and development
of the Robin Hood series doesn’t fit into the LOTR trilogy
because lets face it that would be out and out plagiarism as opposed to
the gentle copying that seems to take place.
Actually I’m pinning my hopes on there being a LOTR fan
amongst
the writers/producers because although they killed Boromir in
the-longest-death-possible-which-stretched-the-boundaries-of-my-imagination,
they did give plenty of flashbacks, mentions of his name and just a
sort of omniscience which I could feel throughout the trilogy to the
closing credits (he died in at the end of FOTR).
Now with my friend Parallel, can I just nudge you subtly in the
direction of Marian? As far as I know, the woman has been killed quite
horribly and her death was possibly verging on the unrealistic
regarding length – I don’t know, I’ve
never been
stabbed through with a long sword held by a man who used to run 19th
century cotton factories. Anyway, not to make light of something that
left me devastated myself, it is not inconceivable that in the pages of
Series 3, there might be images or references to Marian interspersed
with the action/depression/angst/possible but improbable humour.
I am a Doctor Who fan and like Marian’s death, I was
distraught
when Rose was left trapped in a parallel universe never to see the
doctor again. And then the next series contained so many links to Rose
– comments the Doctor made, awkward silences with Martha, her
jumper. It made me feel like a character I had grown to love was still
remembered. She was not simply cast off, never to be mentioned again
(see Carter/Luke Scarlett (for most of Series 1)/the other outlaws).
For me, Marian was my link to the Robin Hood legend and losing her
makes Robin Hood feel more distant.
So like LOTR, it would be really great to see some references to
Marian’s life and death, for her to be a real influence in
how
Robin now thinks and feels (not the vengefulness – more her
ideologies) and some flashbacks of their childhood – even
some
memories remembered or spoken about by Much or Robin. If I cannot have
my link, let me have some teensy tiny references please.
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