Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Reader Mail, Or "What The Hell Are You Talking About?"

A reader emailed me to ask not-quite-that-question after my assertion that Thorin's look was inspired by Kim Thayil, Guitar God.  The actual question was "Who's that?" but I'm having trouble dealing with a reality in which someone else of my acquaintance has somehow missed the 1990s so I prefer my edit up there.  Tomato, tomahto.

Anyway, I thought maybe a pic spam would be helpful in illustrating my point.  As an aside, the last picspam I posted about another Guitar God, Lenny Kravitz, leads the pack in hits from Trinidad and Tobago.  I'm totally with you there, Trinidad and Tobago, but let me introduce you to a few more fabulous dudes.

See this guy?  This is the clean-shaven fresh face the make up department at Hobbit Central started with.  Sweet?  Yes.  Intimidating fierce warrior?  With that hair cut?  Uh, no.


Courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.com
Old Vic 24 Hour Plays, November 21, 2010

Clearly a change was needed.  He worked on his fierce face in combat training.


Courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.com
Hobbit Pre-Production Video

He grew a beard in time for the press conference in February 2011


Courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.com
Ken Stott and Martin Freeman aren't buying that haircut anymore than I am

but shaved it off by the first day of filming in March.  Judiang celebrated.


Courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.com
Hobbit Pre-Production video, with Mark Hadlow in the background

We didn't get our first peek at Thorin till sometime in July in Entertainment Weekly and then he was kind of blurry and whatever is on the mantle above his head looks like a topknot which to me says Samurai.  Definitely fierce if unfocused.

Courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.com
Samurai Warf Thorin

Promotional photos from Recognize and Project magazines from the same month showed that the beard was back and the man could indeed be intimidating.

Courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.com
Project Magazine shoot

Around this time Peter Jackson spoiled us with not one but two production videos within weeks of each other.  The second one contained a sequence that I asked BccMee to make into a gif and that's when it hit me:  he looks like a rock star.  But which one?  There are lots of long haired bearded guys with guitars, right?

Courtesy last.fm
Hair flying lip curling Guitar Godness
 
While that's true the hair and the beard come and go for most rockers.  For Kim Thayil over the last twenty plus years the only thing that's really changed is the hat and the gray in his beard.  He found something that worked early on and stuck to it and in a world of Madonnas and GaGas I love that. Plus he kicks ass.  My suspicions were confirmed when I saw this picture of Thorin.
 

Courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.com
Fierce sword wielder is fierce

It reminded me a LOT of this picture of Kim Thayil.


Courtesy of last.fm
Fierce axe player is fierce

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  In case you have the impression of Thayil as a scary rocker dude, no.  He did a segment on Almost Live called "The Lame List" for years and it totally wasn't.  Who (or in some cases what) do you think inspired the look of the Dwarves?  Comments are open.



 

11 comments:

  1. Jazzy, the first time I saw you compare these two it was like a light bulb went off in my head. Yeah, I'm totally with you! And you know, if you wanted to do more rock god pic spams, this reader would not complain. ;)

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  2. Nice series of evolving RA/Thorin images. Snap!

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  3. Cool!!!
    An axe is an axe ... play it or slay with it. ;)

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  4. Oh, didn't realize I'd been invoked about the -sigh. Okaaaay. ;)

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    Replies
    1. Should I remind you of your beard memorial vid or no? *smooch*

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