Fact on Fiction

First of all, it annoys me to no end when I see something like this:

If you're asking (non-sarcastically) "What is wrong with this?" then you may not want to read the name calling I'm about to do.

Also, I hope that "brian____007" is joking and gets his laughs from OCD nerds like me going ninja all over his post. If so, bravo to him.

Seriously, even Wikipedia has its facts straight on such things! That's saying something about a website most people say is full of junk. Shoot, it's where I go to first, then I use the links to verify the backup information.

Instead, I went to IMDB. Let's see: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone premiered November 16, 2001. And then the "copycat" The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring premiered...um...December 19, 2001. Okay.....

So let's jump to the next ones in the list. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets premiered November 15, 2002, while The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers premiered December 18, 2002.

Before I get to the 3rd movie in each series, let's pretend for a moment that neither series ever had a book out. Let's pretend these screenplays were written and filmed. The IMPOSSIBILITY of filming, editing, and marketing a movie in 33 days from the day "Thiefing Faux-Tolkien" went from seeing the HP premier to creating a movie of LotR's caliber twice makes my head hurt. It'd be such a whirlwind that the magician who can pull it off deserves every Oscar at that year's Academy Awards.

Oh, so let's look at the 3rd movie in each series. I'm not gonna go with precise dates.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban premiered in 2004. About a week after it premiered I got to see it. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King? Oh yeah, that was DONE being in theaters.

Now, people may take this to mean I hate Harry Potter. I don't. I love the series. Love the books. Love the movies. Especially a certain Molly Weasley line from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

What irks me more is when things I like get compared to things I can't stand. Like this example:

*headdesk* Really? That answer of "are you an idiot?" is appropriate. I'm gonna go ahead and define "idiot" as someone who doesn't take time to check their "theories" or "ideas" against facts, cause I'm bold like that.

I don't really need to go into too much detail here, but...HP had 2 movies in theaters and 5 books in print before Stephenie Meyere wrote "I'd never given much thought to how I would die..."

Another one that bugs me: The whole Shannara series (by Terry Brooks) is a ripoff of Lord of the Rings. No, only the first one is, the rest are pretty original stories by Terry Brooks, whether you like them or not. Also, only 2 of the characters from The Sword of Shannara (book 1) are in The Elfstones of Shannara (book 2). Calling ALL Terry Brooks' novels ripoffs from LotR would be like calling all epic fantasy ripoffs from LotR. (It's a geek blog, gotta stick with the geek knowledge.)

If you want to say "this is like that", then you may want to do some sort of research.

I'm gonna delve more fun into this. "The Monkees stole I'm A Believer from Smashmouth." Nope, other way around people. "Carl Perkins stole Blue Suede Shoes from Elvis." AMAZINGLY enough, wrong again.

Oh, and another one that bugs me...misquoting famous lines from movies and TV shows. For the 1,000th time, Vader did not say "Luke, I am your father." (FYI: Google "misquoted movie lines" and that is the 1st example.) Yes, it gives it better context, just don't tell me you "know Star Wars" and give me that line.

Quiz time. Pick the proper quote:
1. Is it "Mirror, Mirror, on the wall" or is it "Magic mirror, on the wall"?
2. Did Kirk and company ever actually say "Beam me up, Scotty"? Or did they usually go with "Scotty, beam us up"?
3. Let's go with this grammar guru pet peeve: "If you built it, they will come" vs "If you build it, he will come"?
4. Does Dorothy say "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore"? Or "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."
5. Does (this may come as a shocker to some) Dr. Frankenstein say about his monster (who is nameless) "He's alive" or "It's alive"?

I bet some of you would like the answers to above. Well, my snarky sarcasm should've given them away, but here you go: It's "Magic mirror, on the wall"...also "Scotty, beam us up"....and "If you build it, he will come"....Dorothy says "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore"....with Dr. Frankenstein saying "It's alive".

Okay, this nerdy, geeky rant is done. I hope you enjoyed it. If not, I'll always quote you as saying "This was one of the best blog posts ever".

Alien abductions are involuntary, but probings are scheduled.