(no subject)

YO, K2tog (it's like a code), Arthur/Eames, knitting, Inception, by lazulisong

Early Reunion, AU, Valka, Stoick, How to Train Your Dragon, by Raberba girl (Raberba_girl)

Through The Spines Unfurling (Five Things You Should Know About Cacti), Lee/Gaara, Naruto, by mstigergun. This is a fic of beauty.

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Have been watching the 2014 Romance of the Condor Heroes. 神鵰俠侶 is one of my favourite novels out of Jin Yong wuxia novels (I also adore 鹿鼎記 and 倚天屠龍記), and I have a soft spot for the televised versions, however ridiculously the condor is portrayed. When I first read the novel and came across the description of the giant condor, I assumed it was fake as I could not conceive of a bird that huge. Then I read more about birds and realised sure, they could be really big and perhaps Jin Yong just wrote about a slightly mutated version (you see where my X-men knowledge kicked in). (The novel describes a "man-sized" bird.)

The limits of special effects meant that early televised versions did have a man-sized condor, sort of like Big Bird that flapped fake-looking wings and did most of its flying off-camera, or in the distance. One took it on faith: this is TV, you are reminded while moping your heart out for the doomed romance of Yang Guo and Xiaolongnu. Then the 2006 China-made version featured a condor that Yang Guo could ride on could beat off dozens of men with its wings (my error - thanks for pointing that out, sabriel!). The 2014 version has one that humans could stand on, as though the bird was one of the Monkey King's magical clouds. That wingspan does not, even to my amateur eyes, look anything wide enough, and I'm vaguely dissatisfied that from being Yang Guo's friend, the Giant Condor has become something of a transportation device. Even if they needed to get to Xiangyang quickly. Seriously, they have qinggong, use it!