hello vonnie
trying on a metaphor
@theartofmadeline
Peter Solarz
Misplaced Lens Cap
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
AnasAbdin
Mike Driver
DEAR READER
No title available
JBB: An Artblog!
d e v o n
No title available
JVL
Love Begins
we're not kids anymore.
cherry valley forever
roma★
No title available
ellievsbear
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Bangladesh
seen from India
seen from United Kingdom
seen from South Korea
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Australia
seen from Italy
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Germany
seen from Malaysia
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from United Kingdom
seen from China
seen from Canada
@charlidos
Now that Stephen Colbert can no longer do his talk show, I think he should make an effort to arrange another reunion with the LotR-gang. Right? He's got time. He's invested in the cause.
This zoom-reunion (together with that other one) was one of the only good things about covid. The world is pretty dark these days too, so Stephen, please help out. We need this.
(Perferrably all of them, in person, in a small room, for many hours.)
"Yes, it's true, it was my 11-year-old son who convinced me to play Aragorn; I was going to turn it down. He was there when the phone rang. It was my agent, and I started talking to him about the role. I was saying, 'But... what is it? The lord of what? Okay. But are there three films? I don't understand, what do you mean, three films? And what is the guy I'm playing? Aha, and he lives in the forest with short people who have hairy feet. Well, I don't know, I don't understand anything.' Then I said, 'I don't know, I've just come home from filming a movie. I want to be with my son, so it seems unlikely. Besides, they're already filming; it's to replace someone, it's kind of strange. Also, I haven't read that book. Well, I'm going to...'" I think about it, but I don't think so.' Then I hang up, and my son says, 'Are you talking about "The Lord of the Rings"?' And I say, 'Yes, that's the name. Well, but it's a very long story.' He replies, 'Yes, I know, Dad. And the character... Is he the king?' And I say, 'No, he's not the king. He's a woodcutter, I don't know. He lives in the forest, and he has some short friends and I don't know what. He's kind of a guide in the forest or the mountains, I don't know.' Then he says, 'He's the king! Later on, he'll become king. You have to make the movie.' And I say, 'I think the filming time is too long.' And he says, 'It doesn't matter, you have to do this.' And I said, 'Okay'"
A recent comment from Viggo on how he came to accept to play Aragorn. From here.
He keeps embellishing and changing this story! Like he's always done and like the storyteller he is. He likes to pretend he knew less than I'm sure he actually did about the books, considering he's a pretty knowledgable guy. All to give more credit to Henry, I believe.
(And yeah, there just no way to replace Viggo as Aragorn. He's too much of a legend.)
My gag reel's got "Hungry Eyes." And I'm pulling out my sword. ... Aragorn pulls out his sword, and Legolas is turning [looks sexy], and then he pulls out his sword, and then I'm throwing the bow: [sings] "Hungry eyes ..."
Orlando is describing just about every scene he has in LotR, right?
Because those are some terrifically hungry eyes he's throwing at Aragorn.
Hi there. It’s been a while. I remember you liked Marco Berger’s movies. Hawaii is my favorite. I once read a very good analysis you wrote about Plan B.
Im just saying hi to tell you I recently watched an Argentinian series by another director, Sergio Acosta, but could have been made by Marco, very independent and beautifully written, I understood more after watching it a second time.
It’s called Todo lo que me gusta, or in English, Everything I like. Here in the US it’s free on a platform named Tubi. If you find it somewhere, I’m sure you’ll like it.
https://youtu.be/IOxMjrEUHAg
Oh yes, we had a lot to say about Plan B and Hawaii. Ahh, those were the days! Love those movies so much.
And thanks for the recommendation! I haven't seen it.
But sadly, I can't find it available anywhere for my region (Sweden). And now I really want to see it! (Adding tags, in case someone can help?)
Viggorli Fanfiction Guide
What's this about?
Do you like Lord of the Rings slash and especially Aragorn/Legolas? Have you come across LotRPS before but weren't really sure whether it's something for you? You'd like to dip your toes in and don't know where to start?
Fear not, because the Viggorli Fanfiction Guide is here to help you! Back in the day, Viggorli was a very big and active ship with a lot of different archives, communities and discussion groups. The quality of fanfiction was generally very high and interaction between writers and readers was thriving. (For proof feel free to look at the comments on any of the Livejournal stories I post further down. AO3 authors today have wet dreams about review counts like this.)
If you always wanted to try out Viggorli, if you're curious about what the hype was about or if you're simply interested in fandom history, you're invited to read on and maybe sample some of the stories!
LOTRPS, anyone?
Viggorli (or Vigorli - both were used interchangeably) is the ship name for Viggo Mortensen/Orlando Bloom - both of (among many other things) The Lord of the Rings fame. Let's have a little visual aid, shall we, to set the atmosphere:
LotRPS (or Lotrips for easier pronounciation) turned into a huge fandom as soon as the movies came out. For everyone not familiar with RPS/RPF: It means real person slash or real person fiction - stories involving not fictional characters but actual people: actors, musicians, even YouTubers or other influencers. The moral question of whether it's okay to write about real people will not be tackled in this post. It's up to you whether RPF is for you or not - I'll not sway you either way.
In theory, RPF doesn't have to be (sexually) graphic or even slashy. In reality, it mostly is. Especially for LotRPS. With only three actresses (Liv Tyler, Miranda Otto and Cate Blanchett) on the payroll, but a whole plethora of hot men of every age and walk of life starring in these movies, it was probably inevitable that slash fans jumped on board right away. This trend accelerated as soon as candid and BTS material became available. From the first premier on it became apparent even to the uninitiated passerby that this cast was extremely slashable. And extremely slashy. Not only did everyone hug all the time. They kissed and jumped each other at every opportunity and had no problem licking each others' ears. Or fixing each others' hair. In front of a camera, no less.
Seriously, do you get this close with your co-workers? (Then again, who is lucky enough to have co-workers this gorgeous ...)
The slashiness only increased once BTS material and anecdotes from the fifteen months of filming became available to the wider public through interviews and extra/BTS footage on the DVDs. From that moment on it was only a question of who you liked best with whom. To get an idea of the variety, take a peak at the list of pairings over at Of Elves and Men as preserved by Fanlore.
Why Viggorli?
Seemingly out of the blue, Peter Jackson - in a stroke of genius - saw the potential of hinting at the fact that Aragorn and Legolas had known each other pre-quest. Some say, only half in jest, that he was shipping those two before anyone else jumped on the bandwagon. The films made Aragorn/Legolas a big ship: Legolas jumping to Aragorn's defense at the council of Elrond. Legolas' and Aragorn's "reunion" after Aragorn takes an unexpected and un-canon-y tumble off a cliff. Aragorn and Legolas standing too close and touching each other at basically every opportunity. The slashy vibes were so rampant that they obviously formed a circular argument: Aragorn and Legolas had so much on-screen chemistry, because Viggo and Orlando were getting it on in real life. And because Viggo and Orlando were getting it on in real life, Peter Jackson decided to just roll with it.
I mean, are Aragorn and Legolas acting like an old married couple or are they acting like an old married couple?
Aragorn/Legolas basically jumps at you from the screen. For many, it was natural progression that Viggo/Orlando were just as desirable together. Then there's the creative aspect: Switching to RPS opens up a lot more possibilities than sticking to Middle Earth as you will see further down.
This is not a post discussing the possibility (or probability) that anything ever truly happened between them. If you want more in-depth analysis and some good old tinhatting, check out @charlidos content who has written extensively about the innuendo between those two. The content gathered in that journal is both concise and extensive and sums up their history (without ever giving you a definite answer - because we have none).
But: You don't need to actually believe that both were (are?) in a relationship to enjoy this ship. It's totally up to you whether you see this as wish-fulfilment or a fictional outlet for make-believe. You do you!
That said, I would like to give you a starting point for your foray into Viggorli-fanfic, because the "example stories" on the Fanlore page are a pretty sad affair. Unfortunately, a lot of stories are no longer online or are permanently hidden behind a friendslock. But fear not, I'll find something for you to read!
I will try to sort tropes and genres into categories and give you a few examples. I'm by no means an expert - the way I group stories together is simply my version of trying to find a path through what has been written, trying to find trends and tropes that occur again and again and showing you some fantastic authors along the way.
So, without further ado (this introduction was too long to begin with), let's dive into the stories, shall we?
General Vibe
What can we truly know about actors, you might ask? Probably not much. Or maybe more than we realise. There are a lot of interviews available and both have talked extensively about the experience of filming those movies. Viggo had many nice things to say about Orlando, but Orlando especially was known to gush about Viggo endlessly. (Again, for further reading I recommend @charlidos.) From all the information these two have presented to the public, shippers have condensed what I would call their fanfic personas. Authors use these personas (however accurate they may be) as starting points for their fanfiction. Common tropes and themes you might encounter are:
The age gap. Viggo is 19 years older than Orlando.
The experience gap. By the time LOTR came around Viggo had more than two dozen movies under his belt, starring alongside actors like Nicole Kidman, Demi Moore and Sylvester Stallone. Orlando was fresh out of drama school, he landed the role of Legolas two days after finishing Guildhall.
Viggo is often portrayed as the more "artsy". I remember a time when basically every article called him a Renaissance Man. He not only works as an actor, but he also paints and writes poetry. If the mood strikes, he makes music. He founded Perceval Press in 2002, which publishes poetry and arts books.
Viggo is quite the globetrotter and is fluent several languages. He's Danish on his father's side, the family lived in Argentina when he was a kid. Authors who want to give their stories a little international flair, can easily do so!
Orlando, in contrast, is often portrayed as more focused on his career as a movie star, which then can act as a source of conflict in fanfic.
This dynamic can play out in different ways. The spectrum goes from creative (Viggo) / naive (Orlando) to jaded (Viggo) / wide-eyed wonder.
Orlando seems to have been a bit of a wild child during filming, doing all kinds of physical activities (surfing, bungee-jumping) - whereas Viggo likes to, erm, fish. The one time he could be convinced to surf he ended up with a massive black eye.
Viggo was divorced in 1998, during filming he was visited by his son (who was eleven at the time). His son Henry often is a fixture in fanfic. His ex-wife Christine (Exene) is a recurring character in fanfic as well, mostly in AUs. The break-up seems to have been amicable. More often than not Exene is not portrayed as the evil ex but as a supportive character, who sometimes even drives the slashy plot forwards.
Probably due to his perception as artist, Viggo is often portrayed as more introverted and solitary, sometimes as a loner. Orlando, on the other hand, is described as more "bubbly" and outgoing, he's more of a people person - or even people pleaser.
In addition to being portrayed as "artsy" and "introverted", Viggo is also often shown as extremely knowledgable in many (practical) fields and capable to handle basically every situation a fanfic author might throw at him whereas Orlando is often shown as klutz-y and putting his foot in it.
Often enough Orlando is portrayed as the inexperienced party of the relationship (sexually, but this might extend to other areas as well). When authors don't want to go down that route he ends up being a wild party animal with lots of sexual encounters and experiences to draw from.
Viggo is often stereotyped as the stronger, more masculine party whereas Orlando gets the role of the weaker, more feminine character. Hence Viggo is often the top in the relationship. The age and experience gap also plays a role in this portrayal.
These fanfic personas tend to persist even in an AU-setting. Of course not all character traits are always there to the same extent - that would be boring. The fun of fanfic is exploring different angles! But authors tend to take these traits as status quo and then they shuffle them around and play with them.
While in theory slash can come with any rating it is also true that most of the stories listed here are explicit. For many authors the smut was (and is) part of the appeal and even if a story is very long or character-driven or plotty it will usually have sex scenes. Stories with a lower rating exist, of course - but I think the percentage of smut/no smut you see on my list can be called exemplary.
Deciding which stories to put into this wasn't easy, of course. I left out some long-time favourites of mine to condense this a little. Please note the following:
There is definitely overlap between categories and some stories could be sorted into two or more categories simultanously.
I tried to find stories that represent "their" category. I also tried to find longer/multichaptered stories simply to keep you entertained for a while.
I tried to get some variety into the authors I list. This isn't at all easy, because quite a few of the authors I would have liked to recommend don't have their stories online anymore or these stories are hidden behind a passwort or friendslock. But if you find an author in here you like, chances are that author has also written other stories and those can be found with a little digging.
All the stories listed here are complete.
Fanfiction can be grouped into two big categories: Canon and Alternative Universe:
Canon
LotRPS Canon - The Scripture Let's start with stories set in canon. For an RPS-ship let's assume canon means both Viggo and Orlando are who they are - actors. Stories set in canon often deal with the time of filming the movies or with them getting together - the getting-together fics are basically their own subgenre (also lovingly called NZ fic). Every self-respecting author has written their own variation of the getting-together. Canon-stories often draw from known facts and tidbits of information we get from the DVD-Extras, playing around with them and interweaving them with the slashy narrative. This means a lot of stories rehash (in the best sense possible) the same plot points, because we know that these events have happened. (Viggo and Orlando sharing a trailer, the getting-lost in the woods adventure, the surfing accident ect.)
These stories can also look at the time after, but the canon-facts can get murkier, naturally, the more a story points into the future - of course this also means more freedom for the author.
A Thousand Words - Namarie Juniperjen's request for the Anglican Doorway ficathon - "I like getting together fics - either set in NZ, or in present time. What was the catalyst that brought Viggo and Orlando together? How did they both feel about it? Romance with a little angst, but a happy ending." Explicit
Even Angels Fall: To Crash, To Burn - Io When fame is overwhelming, even angels fall. Explicit / substance abuse / co depency / generally dark themes
Method Man (Chapter 1 / 2 / 3) - Jasmineskie How do you make friends with someone you can't understand? Explicit
Educational Endeavours - Salix Orli is curious… and you know what they say about curiosity and the cat. Luckily Viggo is around to help. Explicit
Canon-Adjacent I call stories canon-adjacent when they to some degree mirror canon and canon events. At some point - or in some details - they veer off, though. Plot-wise, this can mean that one of them is the actor we know, but the other does something else entirely. It could also mean that the stories explore different angles but end up with canon events. Strictly speaking, these stories are already AU, but I see them as a kind of thematic bridge to the "full" AU-stories, because they still use at least some canon facts.
Separation of Desire - chaosmanor I read this neat book called ‘There’s a Bear in There (and He Wants Swedish)’, by Merridy Eastman, about a time when her acting career failed completely and she worked in a brothel. I decided, since everyone else has moved on from the Rent Boy motif, there was space for me to play around there now, and hopefully find something new for you all there. Explicit / (some) violence
Destiny's Hands - Lostiawen An encounter with the supernatural changes a bitter drama student's life forever in a tale of love beyond death. Explicit / character death (trust me)
Perchance - chaosmanor Explicit
Future!Fic Naturally, authors tried to imagine what their future would look like. Topics like gay marriage or openly gay relationships in Hollywood were common themes. The trope of Orlando not coming out as gay to not endanger his movie stardom was very common to the point of it becoming repetitive - same with his straight (canon) relationships that were usually portrayed in fanfic as mere beards.
If Death Comes - Sindaliessen Viggo and Orlando have been together for fourteen years, ever since filming the Lord of the Rings. They have been married for four years, gay marriages being legal since 2010. They both have flourishing careers in the film industry. They have four children between them. They have an idyllic life until the day Orlando finds he has cancer. How will they cope, will Orlando beat the cancer and will their marriage survive if Orlando lives for Death comes..... in many forms. Explicit
Alternative Universes
AU-stories make up a huge portion of Viggorli, which is probably just natural. I mean: How many stories can you write about the same events without sounding repetitive? Thus, the Viggorli AU was born in which the author has free reign of where to put the characters and what to do with them. There is absolutely no limit.
Maybe it's interesting for younger folk to see that (now) popular romance tropes like enemies to lovers or coffeeshop AU didn't exist back then - at least not under these names. Surely, there were stories that involved tropes like slow burn or miscommunication. But these stories were not advertised as such and no author sat down with the intention of writing Enemies to Lovers. To this day, I don't think I've seen a story where one of them owns a coffeeshop (feel free to write one, though). The themes and tropes that were en vogue back then will become apparent if you read a few of the stories listed below.
Likewise, it might be interesting to note that "historically" there was no such thing as recasting Aragorn and Legolas in modern roles. Within LOTR fandom, AU meant something else - mostly what people would call canon divergent now. This means that stories where Aragorn studies STEM and Legolas is in a creative writing class simply did not exist (or they existed as crack). If you wanted to explore such themes you had to resort to RPS. This is supported by the general A/L to V/O pipeline. Almost all authors (at least in the beginning of the LOTR hype) started out with Aragorn/Legolas and then proceeded to Viggo/Orlando when the fictional ship couldn't support their creative ideas anymore. Even authors who would later be known for their excellent Viggorli stories usually have written Aragorn/Legolas first (like chaosmanor).
Some authors use other actors from LOTR as supporting cast, others prefer to come up with original characters to populate their world. If other actors are used as minor characters it's usually the "core" of the fellowship cast. Sean Bean often acts as Viggo's best friend / sidekick. One or all of the hobbits are more in Orlando's corner. Fan favourites from other movies (Johnny Depp from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise or Eric Bana from Troy come to mind) pop up regularly.
Contemporary Romance Let's put everything here that is set in "our" current world. The only difference is that neither Viggo nor Orlando are actors. But they can literally be anything else: rock stars, journalists, successful photographers, professional athletes, recovering alcoholics, cowboys. Go wild! If you can imagine it, it's possible.
The Journey is the Destination - lennongirl Orlando and Viggo meet in Spain under strange circumstances and travel through Europe together in Viggo's truck, getting to know each other and themselves. Explicit / drug use
Pictures at an Exhibition - Artemis Allen A famous actor walks into a bookshop. Explicit
From the Ashes - Jean A young journalist clashes with a reclusive rock star. Explicit
Chalk Butterfly - Cynical Terror An AU set in New York city around 2004. Orlando is beset with a rare skin disease which makes even the simplest of tasks painfully arduous. Beyond shy, he has few friends, but one unusual Wednesday morning on the subway will change everything... Explicit
Speculative (Fantasy, SciFi or Horror elements) Yes, of course you can turn Orlando into a vampire and Viggo into a werewolf. Naturally you can put them on a spaceship. And of course you can make things creepy and scary. It's fiction!
The Poet's Cat - Beryll Lonely poet Viggo finds a cute little cat on a rainy night. Teen
The Long Road Home - Geale Quite a ways away from the village, almost down by the forest, in his cottage, lived the artist. Now, the villagers knew nothing of this, but the artist was in possession of a star and where it guided him, they could never have imagined. General Audience
In Dreams - Jasmineskie It's been five years since Orlando's ship was lost at sea. Even though Orlando was presumed dead, Viggo never believed it. Belief is a powerful thing, but is Viggo's belief strong enough to help Orlando find his way home? Mature
Dark Dreams - Lilys Eyes Famous painter Viggo Mortensen buys an old cottage in the countryside. Charming and cozy, it does not seem at all like a place to harbour a dark secret. But appearances can be deceiving. Explicit
Wing!Fic Strictly speaking, this belongs with Speculative, but since wing!fic was such a popular trope (and I'm not seeing it nowadays anymore, sadly) I'll add it as its own category. Wing!Fic means simply that a character has wings. How their existence is explained is up to the author. Oftentimes, it means that one of the characters is actually an angel. These stories don't only play with the fact that big, feathery wings are decidedly sexy (IMO, at least), they also play with topics like demons and angels, higher beings, a world beyond our own.
Testament to Love - Ariel An angel and a mortal find salvation in each other's arms, but are they willing to live with the consequences? Explicit
Summer Wind - Jenlynn An artist goes looking for his lost inspiration. Explicit
Grounded - Razzle A story of a future imperfect. What if the story behind Orlando’s scar was less clear-cut than in our reality? Explicit
Angels Series (Part 1 / 2 / 3) - Jeyhawk Viggo is one of the good guys, an angel sent to earth with the sole purpose of doing good in his everyday life. Orlando is the lost soul that has been labeled insane for most of his life. They are meant to be together but things aren't always that easy… Explicit
Historical Gold If historical romance is your thing, this category is for you.
Cold Antiquity - Razzle AU. This universe based on the society of ancient Egypt. c. 1300 B.C. Viggo is brought in as royal advisor to the young prince of the kingdom of Hisi. Explicit
The Velvet Devil - gattorodo Explicit
Movie Tie-ins Rewriting existing movies with Viggo and Orlando as the romance leads was pretty common. The quality (or novelty/originality) of these stories could vary wildly. Some would stay very close to the movie they were rewriting, some would journey a little away from the original to keep up the intrigue even for people who knew the movie.
Hungry Eyes - Jenlynn In the summer of 1963 Orlando and his family vacation in the Catskills in upstate New York where Orlando meets a dance instructor who changes his life forever. Explicit
Portobello Road - Pfyre Some days you just never know who will drop into your life.... Explicit
Crossovers I've always had a soft spot for crossovers. And of course there are crossovers that fuse real person fiction with fictional universes. The one I'd love to recommend (an Alatriste crossover in which Alatriste has to rescue a young man named Orlando from many evil things) is sadly not online anymore in its entirety. I think it's logical that there were quite a few LOTR/LotRPS crossovers, putting one or both characters into Middle Earth. It was also quite common to cross one of them with any movie they other had made. But in the end, you could choose anything that tickled your fancy.
Chasing Shadows - laeglass Before heading home, Tom/Joey meets someone at a bar. (LotRPS/A History of Violence) Explicit
The One with the Irish Wake - Ranmaru It’s not just sadness that can be found at an Irish Wake. An AU with adjusted ages and a huge cast of characters including spies, sarcastic boffins, and two stubborn people falling in love. (LotRPS/James Bond) Explicit
MPREG MPREG, standing for male pregnancy, is a genre of stories where one of the guys gets pregnant. It's up to the author to decide how "technical" it should get. There were stories getting into the medical aspects of it and exploring how and why that might be possible. It was even more common to take a "magical" approach and just have things happen. My knowledge about MPREG is pretty limited, because it has never truly interested me. But let me recommend two stories by authors I absolutely love!
Thursday's Child - chaosmanor Explicit
Unexpected - Jasmineskie Prologue / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 21 / 22 / 23 / 24 / 25 / 26 / 27 / 28 / 29 / 30 and epilogue This whole story is an attempt to take a serious look at something unbelievable that happens to two real men. Explicit
The Road Goes Ever On: The Future is now! You think a ship like this can only be interesting while the movies came out? Then you'd be wrong! Naturally, the fandom has quietened down and a lot of people have moved on - just as the actors have moved on, but there are still people writing new stories today. They are not only writing AUs either - versions of how Viggorli might be possible right now are still being written:
come. and be my baby - lesamys They don’t really talk about it. Orlando buys a ticket at least once a year to wherever Viggo is. Sometimes they go camping by a lake or river and live off the land, which means eating whatever Viggo manages to catch for dinner because Orlando is uniquely terrible at fishing, a sport based entirely on patience and luck. Sometimes they spend the entire week in Viggo’s bedroom, on his ranch in Idaho, in his top floor attic apartment in Denmark, in the secret cabin in Vermont no one knows about. Sometimes they don’t even kiss. Explicit
Volcanoes - charlidos Viggo and Orlando go on a trip to Iceland and have to deal with 20 years of unresolved feelings. General Audiences
You can leave your hat on - Artemis Allen Total PWP. Immediately follows the screening of The Dead Don’t Hurt at the Soho Curzon cinema in London. Thanks to Randy Newman for the title. Explicit
Where to read
Viggorli and LotRPS in general predates AO3 - The Fellowship of the Ring came out in 2001. Because of this, everything you see on AO3 from the time when this ship was hot was archived after the fact either by single authors moving to AO3 or by Open Doors preserving certain archives. But it should also be an indication of the fact that only a small percentage of the fic written back in the day can be found on AO3.
LotRPS happened mostly on Livejournal and on dedicated archives, first static html archives and later automated eFiction driven archives.
A lot of authors posted exclusively on Livejournal, some of them did so only for a select group of friends (this is called a friendslock, I have written more about this here). Most of these Livejournals are inactive nowadays, which means the stories are still there but can only be read if you are in that person's friend circle. A lot of authors either got their journals deleted (see Strikethrough) or left of their own account, many setting up camp at Dreamwidth. Some authors got their Viggorli stories professionally published as original fiction - the fanfiction to published fiction pipeline is not a new development! For examples, try Bad Case of Loving You (general smutty fun in a hospital setting) or Clouds and Rain (Cowboy!AU very heavy on the H/C).
None of the dedicated archives are still online. Some have been preserved by Open Doors (like LOM or OEAM), but there were many more. Especially the loss of Mirrormere is quite a blow to the LotRPS community.
However, you can still find stories scattered in all kinds of different places, it just takes a little sleuthing. If you want to find the gems AO3 doesn't host, here are a few starting points.
Vigorli @ Dreamwidth This is a mirror of the old Livejournal community of the same name, which means old Livejournal posts were imported when the community moved to Dreamwidth. If you explore the archive you can find old stories - be prepared for a lot of broken links, though. The Dreamwidth community is still active today. If you want Viggorli fresh off the press, you will have to go there. Anglicandoorway @ Livejournal This Livejournal community might be a good starting point for further reading, scrolling and exploring. You should find a lot of still "readable" fanfic since stories were posted to the community and not to people's personal journals. If you visit the profile page of the community, you will see who was a member. Feel free to amble through people's journals for more reading material.
Lotrips Story Fingers @ Livejournal Just as the title says this is a community for people looking for certain stories. I can't promise that the links still work and maybe just reading all the descriptions of fics you can't access anymore will cause you depression, but I wanted to put this out there anyways.
LBES & OEAM & VOLA The old static versions of these archives can still mostly be accessed via the Waybackmachine. There are a lot of gems there, but if you find a multichaptered fic that sounds appealing - check first whether all chapters were archived. The Waybackmachine doesn't seem to go overly "deep" into a website, quite a bit of stuff is missing here or there. Just a gentle warning ...
And that's about it - I've rambled for way too long as it is. I've wanted to write a post like this for quite a while now and I hope this might be of interest to the 2 1/2 people who want to read more Viggorli. If you have any questions or additions, feel free to comment, reblog or send an ask!
One last Word:
If you find any broken links, please let me know and I'll try to fix them. If you want to read more from a certain category, comment or send an ask - it's likely that I can provide more recs! And feel free to share this, save and reference it. I wish you a wonderful time with any or all of these stories and don't forget ... keep shipping!
I've finally watched Heated Rivalry (was trying to wait to watch it legally here in my part of Europe...) after hearing so much about it.
It's so great to see a mainstream, very romantic, gay drama like this! It's definitely worth the hype and love it's getting. I love that it's basically about two lonely men longing for each other, focusing on how their relationship evolves over time and slowly developing a deep emotional connection, on top of the physical one. It was quite touching.
I've been part of that audience of "straight women loving gay-themed fiction" for a really long time, and it's always rather interesting to see the reaction from the rest of the world when they realise we exist.
As far as I can remember, the first time I encountered this kind of story was in my teens when I watched Maurice.
For me, it's still the epitome of a romantic drama with endless yearning and struggle for their love. I'm sure I, back then, thought about the fact that it was about men in love with each other, but I don't really remember. Because what I truly loved (and still love) about that movie is just that beautiful romance; the longing for love, the pain of loving, the inherently pointless struggle against those feelings, even when the circumstances of the time made it impossible.
Since then, I've always been on the lookout for more of that kind of story. Eventually I found it in fanfiction (and some really brilliant stories), but rarely found it in mainstream media. Only a few have managed, like Brokeback Mountain and Call Me By Your Name (even though they are both are quite tragic... While Maurice - from 1987 - has a mostly happy ending; a million years ahead of its time, I'm telling you).
There's also Queer As Folk (UK, come on, please) which was a bit of a cheeky sensation back in the day. I loved it enormously, it's brilliant and also seemed quite daring back then.
There are plenty of really good indie movies , of course: funny, smart, romantic, but mostly also rather low-key and low budget. Here illustrated by the infinitely adorable and romantic Argentinian movie Plan B.
It's surprising how unaware mainstream media in the west still seem to be of the Asian BL-industry, considering it's probably the biggest producer of gay themed drama. There are a handful of BL-dramas that I really like, and some of them are real gems. Like how I love and adore Cherry Magic, Semantic Error, To My Star and I Feel You Linger In the Air. Ifylita is, at its core, the most beautifully romantic drama, historic and supernatural, ticking all those boxes. I still curse the universe for not providing us with Ifylita season 2
I've seen how shipping the actors (par of the course for BL) has spread to Heated Rivalry too... I think it can be fun (obviously, if you look at my recent postings to this blog) but it can also quickly turn toxic and unreasonable.
And then there's Fellow Travelers, terrific and quite ground breaking from telling a story about an epic gay romance with such a broad scope. Also, there's Jonathan Bailey, a whole fandom unto himself, out gay superstar that he is.
I hope the popularity of Heated Rivalry will help to open up for an even broader production of high-quality gay-themed drama and movies filled with men gloriously yearning for each other.
It seems like the LOTR cast reunion you've we've been waiting for is gonna happen! 🤭
https://x.com/i/status/2009294047211307438
Empire just announced a cast reunion for the 25th anniversary, to be published soon.
I just don't know if V and O interacted with each other, though, as it seems it's V with Sean Bean and O with JRD
Oooh, exciting! Seems there was no full reunion, though... In the sense that they weren't all in one room. And no Viggo and Orlando together again. 😳
But still, yay! I hope the interviews are good.
Did you see that (pretty recent) interview with Orli in Fan Expo Chicago? It was last August or September, I think. He mentioned Viggo!
"Legolas never gets blood, never gets dirty. Viggo would love to talk about my pretty hair, clean face and hands and nails and stuff. It was funny."
I love how O said that V talked about his pretty hair... I'm sure V found the rest of O very pretty 💞
Yeah, I did! And it made me quite happy too!
(In fact, it made me so happy I did make a post about it at the time...)
I'm certain Viggo found all of Orlando very pretty.
It feels like a million years since the last time I saw st related to Viggo on Orlando ins. The first impression is that everyone looking at the camera and Vig look fondly at Orli (or just my imagination + terrible eye sight). Second impression is that this kinda look like it comes straight from some AI program (sorry I lost my fate but 😭)
Anyway, seeing st like this from Orlando after a long long longgggg time is really something for me. Can't deduce yet what that feeling is, but I guess it's a mix of "OMG my OTP live, they are real im not" and "OMG is that mean Orlando gonna come back as Legolas with AI help?"
Frankly speaking Im terrified...
Dont check grammar im just dead
I see the very same thing:
It's definitely AI, but I like AI best when you can easily tell it is (it's just scary when you can't).
Aragorn/Viggo is definitely looking fondly at Legolas/Orlando (perhaps the gift is supposed to be from Aragorn to Legolas? Orlando is probably, at the very least, a shipper.)
I love the AU-take on LotR: Christmas in the 70's, Professor Gandalf's yearly gathering of his favourite students.
Orlando is obviously still extremely sentimental about that time, forever living in the memory of the best days of his life.
Maybe they really are all coming back for this new movie? It'll be strange and I would be against deaging under normal circumstances, but since I want a reunion more than anything else, I don't care. Just get Viggo and Orlando in a room together again! With a camera!
Viggo taking part in a morning talk show in Toronto yesterday (I think) talking about his involvement in The Promise of Music, where the power of music brings people together.
Sounds like such a lovely project! I love Viggo's involvement in these things, he's such a genuinely generous and good-hearted person. I completely agree with Viggo that music really is such a powerful tool for good things.
(Also, he's as handsome as ever. Viggo never stops being the coolest about everything.)
Oh man, I'm so obsessed with these two lovely chaps. They are so pure and silly. There's something wonderfully genuine about them which I find ever so attractive. Also, they are both wonderful actors. I love that they're both doing so well.
I've loved Josh O'Connor ever since he did God's Own Country - it's one of my favourite films, actually. The gritty romance is so perfect. It's like a really muddy, modern version of Jane Austen, really. And Paul Mescal is amazing too; I recently rewatched Normal People and it's really striking how wonderfully vulnerable he is there.
Sadly, The History of Sound isn't scheduled to be shown here until early next year.
I'm all for this being the era of these wonderful British and Irish actors (Josh, Paul, Andrew Scott, Jonathan Bailey). When will all four work together at once?
I was the butt of most of the jokes, 'cause I never got dirty. Legolas never gets bloody, never gets dirty. Viggo would love to talk about my pretty hair, clean face and hands and nails and stuff. It was funny.
New quote from Orlando mentioning Viggo and his love of Orlando's general prettiness... And being very specific too! Not just the hair, but his face and hands too. Viggo spent a lot of time watching the pretty elf, apparently. And Orlando loves this fact, for sure. (From here.)
One of those kisses - by Viggo Mortensen. It was published in 2010, in Winter Songs. (Open the pic separately for readable size - it's just a little too long...)
This is one of his most beautifully tragic love poems, seemingly about an all-consuming love which he's lost. And it's a poem I know many VO-fans have interpreted as being about Orlando. Because it talks about a past love, in some "new world". It's nowhere near obvious, but it's at least possible.
It begins like this, with talks about them being alone with the moon and the stars:
And you’ll recall nights already coming into winter when we’d return alone with the stars and the moon speaking little
Makes me think of Viggo and Orlando's adventure getting lost in the forest, finally guided home by the moon (or was it the sun?). Illustrated here by Viggo being the star and king.
The paragraph continues like this:
easy together relishing our journey in that new world that life
"New world" makes me think of New Zealand - their journey and adventure on the other side of the globe for such a long time. A whole lifetime.
I thank the mysterious clemency of all that’s holy for placing you in my way we could track together if we wish to see what lies ahead
For one, this is obviously about a life-changing love, but what stands out to me is "we could track together" - isn't that what Legolas and Aragorn are doing while they're out searching Middle Earth for the hobbits?
And then there are these lovely lines in the final paragraph:
the moon just completing itself cold knees half-packed suitcase pictures and phrases hung on the mirror the mute alarm clock nose against bedsheet your body is my world finish me with one of those kisses
Those "picture and phrases hung on the mirror" makes many LotR-people think of Viggo's mirror in the make-up trailer, full of photos and scraps.
didn’t know when you left nor do I now that you’re gone how much you’d wanted to see how much was left unsaid
And here's how it's revealed this is someone who's no longer with him, but that he is living bereft of this great love.
It's such a beautiful, sad, romantic and mysterious poem. It kind of reads like a story. Maybe it is Viggo's way of writing fiction? Or maybe a way to tell about a secret love, long lost? I haven't read all the poetry of Winter Songs, but the ones I've read have been quite tragic.
That's my terribly Viggorli-infused reading of this poem, made purely for entertainment.
I hope that Viggo writes an autobiography one day. He seems like such an interesting and introspective man. By the way, what's your favourite non LotR Viggo film? Mine's Captain Fantastic.
Oh, yeah, an autobiography would be amazing!
But I do have a feeling that won't ever happen. He doesn't seem to feel the need to be in spotlight that way. He doesn't actively avoid it as much as he doesn't seek it. He does what he likes, lives where he wants and partakes in events he finds meaningful. I guess.
Maybe he'd write his autobiography in the form of a poem or a painting? Then again, maybe he already did?
My favourite film? Well, I love many of his films: Eastern Promises, A History of Violence, Captain Fantastic, Green Book, The Road. But he has smaller parts in two films which I love, Viggo or no Viggo.
Witness (1985) - small part for Viggo, but such a lovely movie. Always loved this one.
The Portrait of a Lady (1996) - in my view one of Jane Campions most underrated films. It's enigmatic, fascinating and romantic and Viggo is the most amazing, puppy-like lover.
(Neither gif was made by me.)
What would you say to Orlando Bloom 15 years ago from today's perspective? I'd say: "Forget about acting. Bad idea. Too stressful. Have you ever thought about photography? That's a great job too. And why did you stop making pottery?" You made pottery? Isn't that a pretty embarrassing hobby? Why embarrassing? Not at all. I actually like my pottery quite a lot. The bowls are cute. My mother kept them all. Pirates of the Caribbean is now available as a porn comic. Man, that question had to come. But that's nothing. Have you seen the porn version of The Lord of the Rings ? It's even better.
From an interview with Orlando in Skip magazine 2007.
A porn version of LotR he says? Does it contain hot man love between Aragorn and Legolas? Where I can I see it? Oh, I see, it's a private home video, only on one single VHS-tape, kept, securely, in Viggo's basement? Aha, OK then.
I can't keep up with Viggo - he's a cool guy. I'm so glad he's my mentor. I've learned so damn much from him. You have to see how the girls go crazy when they see HIM. I have the six to twelve year old fans - Viggo has the rest!
Orlando, thinking everyone above the age of 12 loves Viggo. Including himself.
The seque from mentor to girls going crazy is interesting, I think it's his own inner Viggo-fangirl talking.
(Appropriately inappropriate pic as perfect illustration for these very mature men...)
Have you met any of the cast of The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit? If so, what was your experience like? If not, who would you most like to meet?
No, never met any of them and, quite frankly, I don't really want to... Fan encounters aren't my thing, really.
However, I wouldn't mind sitting down for a proper conversation with Viggo. I feel like it would be such an interesting conversation; about politics, language, art. Because he really is the man.
And I wouldn't mind being in the audience when this gang, hopefully, have a reunion, telling all the untold stories from the set. When can I buy a ticket?
