are you familiar with the works of... shan yu?

[rivendellrose]

Moments of Firefly synchronicity:

Trying to figure out which of the dodo's voices in Ice Age was Alan Tudyk's voice.

Listening to the interrogation scene in I, Robot and determining that yes, eerily enough, that is Alan Tudyk voicing Sonny the robot.

And then watching Mulan... and watching "War Stories" the next day, only to realize that the scary Hun general in Mulan is the same scary dictator referred to constantly all through Niska and Book's dialogue in that episode. Yup. Creepy.

~ * ~

I can't figure out how to cast on the knit stitches for making socks. This makes me very sad. But it's probably better, in the long run... I should be working on my papers.

Comments

[bloody-bint.livejournal.com]

OMG i had NO idea he did ALL those voices!!! Especially SONNY!!! *rushes off to watch I, Robot again* *sits abck down cause i'm at work* *sigh* :)

hinted movie spoilers, here...

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Neither did I, until last night... I haven't seen I, Robot since it was in theaters, waaaay back before I saw Firefly, so when I saw the listing I had to ask my friend, "hey, who's Sonny?"

Once you know it's him, you can hear it. It's really surreal. And... slightly creepifying, since I've been reading an ongoing fic where River gets Zoe a Wash!bot for her birthday, after Serenity.

Re: hinted movie spoilers, here...

[bloody-bint.livejournal.com]

LAMO Wash!bot!!!!! That is great... where do you read Firefly fics?/? I read simon/kaylee at imeantosay but that's it... are there more good sites or communities??

Re: hinted movie spoilers, here...

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Let's see... depends on what you're interested in. A lot of general stuff gets posted to fireflyfans, so that's a favorite of mine, and then there's zoe_wash if you're into the married couple, which I very much am. ;) I think that's where I found the Wash!bot story. But the best for keeping watch on the fandom as a whole is probably the_cortex - fandom news-feed sort of thing, with fic, icons, graphics, and whatever other major links come across that day. Generally a very well-run thing, and only one post per day.

Re: hinted movie spoilers, here...

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Ah - there's also the Glow Archive (http://firefly.populli.org/). Any kind of Firefly fic goes up there, although that does also mean you can run into stuff you don't want, sometimes. If you read the warnings, though, you can generally stay away from whatever you don't like.

Re: hinted movie spoilers, here...

[bloody-bint.livejournal.com]

Yippy thanks! those sound great!!!! i'll be joining right away! Thanks heaps Jen!!!

Re: hinted movie spoilers, here...

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

No problem, have fun! There's links to other pairing-based comms on the user-info for a few of those, if I remember right, so hopefully you can find whatever you're looking for.

[nekokoban]

... good god, it IS the same dictator/fighter/whutever, isn't it? o______o Weiiiiiiird. XD

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I kind of thought it was while we were watching Mulan... and then, sure enough, Book says the same name. Shan Yu, or however-the-fuck that'd be spelled. I couldn't help snickering, picturing the funny yellow-eyed dude who gets beat up by the little girl and the 'lizard.'

[narsilion.livejournal.com]

that man was so f_______ creepy! He kept smiling and his tone was so sweet while he was torturing Mal. Ugh, what a vile evil little man, I can't believe Mal let him get away!

[narsilion.livejournal.com]

Oh, and he creeped me out so much I forgot to say, I had fun today, lets do it again soon! Sorry you're having trouble with the casting, arghh.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Glad you had fun, and I hope the episode didn't creep you out too much. "Ariel" really is creepy in its own very special ways, too, and I figured "War Stories" had more worthwhile and funny to it, and was slightly less long-term sort of creepy. We should definitely do it again!

[narsilion.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the torture scenes were icky, but the fun parts are great, and you need to see the toture parts to understand how incredibly crazy Niska (was that his name?) was. YIKES! Great episode though, I loved it.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm glad you ended up liking it. *g*

[spazzychic.livejournal.com]

That is creepy, but cool :)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Yeah... never would've thought Firefly and Disney would come even close to inhabiting the same bit of my mental space. Shows what I know, apparently. ;)

[miss-arel.livejournal.com]

Funny, when I saw "War Stories" for the first time, 'Mulan' was the first thing I thought of. Shows you how my brain works.

But recently I learned that the Shan Yu Niska and Book mention is not officially based on anyone; he's a fictional character who presumably exists at some point between now and the events of Firefly. That's not to say that Joss might not have borrowed the name in sideways tribute to Disney's first movie to feature a butt-kicking heroine... just saying.I'm pretty sure there was never a real Shan Yu for either Disney or Joss to base stuff on.

Wow, did that make any sense at all?

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Really? I just assumed that both (independently, before I realized the similarity on Saturday) were based on some actual historical figure from Chinese history. Iiiinteresting.

[kleio-the-muse.livejournal.com]

Hee, never knew Alan had done so much voice-over work, so thanks for the info!

And to repay you on the information front: "Niska" is actually a word in Finnish, meaning the back of one's neck.

Nah, I think yours was considerably more interesting:)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

It totally surprised me, but it's great to hear him do other work - it really reaffirms what a talented fellow he is, for me.

I'm sure there's some way to twist the 'back of the neck' thing into significance, but I can't come up with anything interesting off the top of my head. ;)

Incidentally, I heard somewhere that Finland might be dropping Serenity - they haven't, have they? That'd be so awful!

[kleio-the-muse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they have:( It seems so unbelievably unfair, especially when the Jessica-bloody-Alba-in-a-bikini movie WILL open.

In fact, I just saw a car on my way to work with Into the Blue ads all over it. Had to fight the urge to stone it.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Eeee, I was afraid you were going to say that. *Hugs* I'm sorry, the complete idiocy of the film industry never will fail to surprise, will it?

[coralia13.livejournal.com]

Who knew Alan Tudyk got around so much? And that last one about Mulan is really, really neat.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

He's a talented man. I still wish I could hear him singing the part of Lancelot in the new cast of the musical based on "Monty Python's Holy Grail." He took over after Hank Azaria left. *g*

[coralia13.livejournal.com]

Oh, I heard about that! I wanted to see "Spamalot" before, but now my desire has doubled! Sadly, I am stuck in Missouri and Idaho for the rest of my life... Or, until this summer. Boo. My aunt and uncle went to see it, though, and said it was wonderful. And the soundtrack is AMAZING! I didn't realize it was the Lancelot role Alan had - that sounds so fabulous! Let's take a trip to NYC, shall we?

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Hey, at least you're partway to the right side of the country - I'm all the way on the opposite side! Poor Seattle - we're one of the top theater cities in the nation, but we still don't get first-run Broadway stuff with the original casts. *Sniffle*

We totally should. Alas, I am a college student, and airfare is fecking expensive nowadays.

[coralia13.livejournal.com]

That it is! I am hoping to visit my friends in Connecticut this summer, but... We'll have to see. It might be another long, long summer in Idaho, renting Blockbusters and reading fanfic.
Where do you go, if you feel comfortable disclosing that information on the internet? (If you don't, I totally understand.)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know how that goes - I was always like that when I got stuck at home for the summers, earlier in college.

I don't mind at all. I'm a fifth-year senior at the University of Washington in Seattle. Just finishing off a second degree, since by the end of four years I was sick to death of English and had finally realized that I liked Anthropology a hell of a lot better. ;) You? (Obviously, same applies as what you said - I know a lot of people are iffy about that stuff being common knowledge online.)

[coralia13.livejournal.com]

Hey, I figure if people are going to go through your journal entries to find out personal info about be, they deserve to stalk me. Or something.
I'm a sophomore at Washington University in St. Louis, major in English, minor in Writing and History, at least currently. Planning on study abroad next year for a year or a semester, whichever program accepts me, basically. What are your plans for after graduation, if you have developed any yet?

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

*Laughs* Yeah, I only worry about things like address, cell-phone number... stuff that could actually cause trouble. Beyond that... hell, if people are interested, no harm.

I'm impressed that there's actually a program for just writing at your school - is it specifically creative, academic, or technical, or all three together?

No firmly-laid plans for after graduation, just yet, but I'll definitely be back, at least for an MA, probably in anthropology. I wasn't ready for applications yet this year, and I've had a lot of people advise me to take a year between, to get more grounding in what I want out of life. Since I have no idea about that at this point, I figure they must be right!

[coralia13.livejournal.com]

The Writing minor is specifically creative writing, but we are required to take either Argumentation or Exposition. I wanted to get a Writing minor, so that's one of the reasons I chose WashU.

After college plans are for suckers! That's what I'm saying to comfort myself, anyway. Your tentative plan, however, sounds very cool. I am taking an anthro class right now - Anthro of the Modern World, which I like quite a lot, despite the face that the prof reminds me of Harry Potter's Professor Binns. (Have you read HP?)