[ID: The Bart chair meme. Bart Simpson, labelled “me”, prepares to hit Homer, labelled “people who erase aro and ace characters”, with a chair. End ID]
who’s the klutzy Hyrule ditz dropping all their rupees in grass????
a few years ago when I was really REALLY in to Twilight Princess and none of the newer ones had come out yet, and I had planned to write some Very Intense Fanfiction, I decided that I would make it a worldbuilding thing. Like, a cultural phenomenon in Hyrule where people go out of their way to hide rupees all over the place– along roadways and streams, in grass, under rocks, in old pots no one has used in years, or in old shoes, under fallen logs, under big honking rocks that no one has any reason to move. Originally, it was meant to be a sign of goodwill to travelers and those down on their luck, of community generosity and goodwill. Anyone can go out, comb a bit, and scrounge up enough for a meal. Or kids can run around having fun playing their seeking games and find enough for a sling shot, or a sweet. Parents teach their kids not to take more than they really need, to put some back, to keep the chain going. They make a game of it. Who can find the best hiding place? Who can climb to the highest branch, or swim to the bottom of the pond.
They tend to end up heavily clustered in the grass and under rocks along the main roads and paths. People leave out their old, well loved pots and butter churns and tipped over tubs, collect pretty rocks and bits of crystal, grow their herbs and bushes just a bit that wild out front– all to make an attractive place to maybe tuck a green or a red under. For some it’s a point of pride; for all, it tells you a bit about the person who lives there. It’s even practical, when you think of it! We all sometimes end up a little short, but there’s always some from the community to find, or something to tuck for yourself int he future when you realize you’re a bit skint. And when you’ve got a bit extra, well, it’s just NORMAL to go and find a little place to tuck it away and imagine who might find it. Maybe soon. Maybe in a few weeks or months. Maybe years, or decades. Don’t we all get a little big of excitement from the thought?
Communities don’t have really deep poverty that you can’t climb out of, not in Hyrule. There’s no embarrassment to have to pop out and look around a bit to afford a bit of milk or if you’ve forgot your wallet. If someone’s a bit too old or can’t see too well, there’s no shame in hinting, “Under the flower pot, grandma,” or, “Tomla, run out and fetch Mr. Tinkins a few rupees, there’s a love, always good at finding the odd ones out, that girl.”
Sometimes you find shiny rupees that weren’t hidden too well (maybe by that ferociously sweet village kid who keeps hiding them as quick as he’s finding them, bless him, just not very well). Maybe they hadn’t been there long. The contrast is huge when you find dusty, dirt-encrusted things that you think must be at least a few decades old. And then, sometimes you go digging back, adventuring down into the deep places and the old places where no one has traveled in centuries and you turn over a pot or open a little chest no bigger than a bottle and feel a little shiver to think of how long ago someone put this here. A little thankfulness to an ancestor, a little appreciation, a little shock because a silver rupee? Really??! How rich had they been, how powerful the empire, now all in ruins…
Sometimes in his travels, Link comes upon an old, dusty rupee tucked under an ancient discarded shield or a particularly handsome but impossible to move boulder that only a little magic or magical strength can budge. He grabs up the rupee under and feels a little shiver of familiarity… :)
favorite bits of the cast interviews in the LOTR special features:
Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, Elijah Wood and Viggo Mortensen all taking the piss out of Orlando Bloom for going on about a cracked rib too much, while Orlando Bloom desperately tries to wriggle out of talking about it (special mention to Elijah Wood’s “oh it hurts, babes, and I can’t ride the horse, babes” and Viggo Mortensen’s “they can be very fragile, elves, especially the…Mirkwood strain…”)
Ian McKellen commenting that “they never did find any suitable underwear for Gandalf…”
Dominic Monaghan going on and on about how Viggo Mortensen apparently had a crush on one of the Rohirrim extras (who like a lot of the Rohirrim extras was a woman in a fake beard) while Vigoo Mortensen just mutters “one could perhaps say something about Mr. Monaghan’s…proclivities…”
Dominic Monaghan’s imitation of John Rhys-Davies ordering food at a restaurant for the whole cast. “You have partridge? BRING THE PARTRIDGE!”
John Rhys-Davies talking about an incident with the Lothlorian boats and saying “if an elf and a dwarf are in a boat…and…the boat goes under…let us say that the blame was not placed on the elf” while Orlando Bloom splutters “he’s a big guy, man!”
Elijah Wood talking about how the hobbit actors shared a trailer with Ian McKellen and sometimes they would hear inarticulate bellows of protest from his side when they played loud music in the mornings
Viggo Mortensen talking about how, while filming with those same boats, Kirin Shaw (Elijah Wood’s scale double) started telling him “if the boat tips over…save yourself…I can’t swim.”
Elijah Wood describing how Sean Astin would try to direct the helicopters to land while they were on location, while the other three hobbits were screwing around and throwing pinecones at each other
Christopher Lee recounting how he had so much trouble going up some steps in Orthanc with his long robe that he stopped in the middle of the scene and said, “I cannot get up these goddamn steps, Peter.”
Viggo Mortensen mentioning that he left a weekend rehearsal and went walking down the street still swinging his sword around, and promptly got the cops called on him
![raavenb2619:
“[ID: The Bart chair meme. Bart Simpson, labelled “me”, prepares to hit Homer, labelled “people who erase aro and ace characters”, with a chair. End ID]
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