Rache der Fledermaus

[winter]

I just saw Batman Begins again, in IMAX no less. Mmm, Liam with crystal-clear surround sound <3


- my research on Bhutan shows me that it's quite possible that people can speak English in a Bhutanese prison camp, or in a remote village; apparently English is the official language in school, since otherwise there are two languages: Nepali and Dzongkha. It also means that it's not a Chinese prison camp, even if we discard the fact that an American would not be imprisoned in a Tibetan lao gai camp, but transported to China proper.

- I need to find out what language Bruce is speaking in the arrest flashback. For the purposes of Snow and Steel, I'm assuming he can speak Dzongkha, which is a vernacular Tibetan dialect and national language of Bhutan. He'd certainly make an attempt to learn in the prison, he's that kind of guy. My bet's on Ducard also speaking it, and certainly Mandarin as well.

- OMG Liam squee!!!!!!!!! <- right, that's taken care of. Moving on.

- After taking the blue flower from Bruce, Ducard puts it in his buttonhole. Squee.

- Ducard's vicious, ambitious, driven, and convinced that he can impose his will on the world. There's a word for that attitude, and it's Sith.

- The phrase is "Always mind your surroundings". Right.

- Somewhere between Bruce entering the fortress and the birthday party, Ducard changes from calling him "Mr Wayne" to "Bruce". Fic fodder.

- What I didn't catch the first time around was that the flashbacks are stories Bruce tells to Ducard. Also fic fodder.

- Ducard is way too gleeful about being bested by Bruce. *shakes head*

- If they had been near the fortress, they wouldn't have spent the night outside by a fire, leaving Bruce to catch a chill. Therefore I was right about the hiking trips.

- Alfred: apart from the Michael Caine love, there are shades and layers to his character. This needs thinking about.

- I want to write about the kid from the Narrows turning into Anarky a few years down the road :S

- Come to think of it... Oooh, series idea. Or rather an idea for a loosely connected series of drabbles, which is what I do best, and what doesn't make me stress. Go me.


EDIT:

- Bruce starts off the party encounter with "I saved your life". There goes my theory of Ducard not being told who dragged his carcass down the mountain.

- Batman drowning in the crowd, before he hooks the railcar with his grapple: wonderfully iconic. They all fear, but he's a guardian demon for them, and so they flock under his wings.

- I think I've already identified a fanon point: more than one fic I've read referred to all of Ducard's pupils being Asian. To the contrary, each time we're shown a selection it's 100% politically correct - 1 white, 1 black and 1 Asian.

- Everyone in this movie is way too fond of throwing people's words in their faces.


Also, jewelry, but I don't have a camera right now :/

Comments

[winter]

You know, Alfred being a less successful Christopher Lee makes all kinds of sense. Only I'm now stuck with an Alfred who's a Tolkien maniac ;)

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

I'm just trying to resist the image of a butler like Christopher Lee. If he told you dinner was served, you would run to the dinner table to avoid his wrath.

But, Alfred being a Tolkien fan would be priceless :) Sly references and little injokes that make Bruce boggle would be right up his alley.

[winter]

Gaah. Now I'm thinking about what Alfred could be a fan of apart from Tolkien. Sharpe novels come to mind for some reason O_o

Where is my bunny mallet????

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Surely something older than Sharpe novels? I think it's time to ask the folk at <lj comm="hp_britglish" for help

[winter]

He insists on Sharpe. And just for myself, I'd rather not make it something I'm not knowledgeable about, because I've got enough trivia dilemmas preying on my nerves. Like the above-mentioned question on whether Bruce's grasp of either Mandarin or Dzongkha is enough to let him communicate with someone who speaks Mandarin and Tibetan, because I've made a bloody plot point out of the fact that Bruce and Ducard don't know said someone speaks English ~_~

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Like the above-mentioned question on whether Bruce's grasp of either Mandarin or Dzongkha is enough to let him communicate with someone who speaks Mandarin and Tibetan, because I've made a bloody plot point out of the fact that Bruce and Ducard don't know said someone speaks English

I suppose it depends on if either of them are *literate* in Mandarin.

I suspect Ducard is, especially if you are going with the canon background for him -- with that he's probably literate in Cantonese! He'd certainly have had time to pick it up.

[winter]

Ducard's not a problem, but I need Bruce to be the first one to meet Shan and talk to him in a language other than English. I don't need Bruce to say more than "go away", "what do you want" and "wait here" anyway, so I might put in that he'd been learning basic Dzongkha along with other skills... :S

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

BWAHA! I wouldn't object to Shape, since I am a huge fangirl :) How about the Hornblower novels, as well? They predated Sharpe, because Sharpe was inspired by them and they are fabulous as well :) And embody good, stalwart British stiff-upper-lippiness :)

[winter]

Well, there's the slight point that I have the barest idea of what Hornblower is about :S And no time at all to seize and read it - I do have to work, you know :P

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

Hornblower... hmm. Basic summary is Sharpe on ships with a less growly and manly hero ;) That's pretty much it. Upper class version of Sharpe, very polite and dignified and rising through the ranks at approximately same rate as Sharpe did. Also, very, very much about honour, loyalty and solidarity between allies, the kind of ideals that Alfred seems to hold with :D

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Hey, Christopher Lee going all fanboy in the LotR movie appendix were alone worth the cost of buying the Expanded Editions.

If you do that to Alfred, I will fall over laughing.

[winter]

Oooh yes. And whenever they let him do the cast commentary... you could hear the squeeing. Priceless.

Alfred is, surprisingly, all for it. Closet fanboy, I knew it!

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Forget about the cast commentary. Look at the actor interviews on the Fellowship EE dvd. Christopher Lee recited the One Ring poem in the Dark Tongue of Mordor from memory!

And turned into a 13-boy when he talked about meeting JRRT at a talk.

If you can transfer *that* onto Alfred... wow. Though Bruce will have a hard time when Alfred wants the weekend of to attend book signings and literary conventions.

[winter]

The only reason I wasn't completely floored by the poem was because, well, I used to be able to do it myself once ^^; I've never watched the whole appendices - where does he talk about meeting Tolkien?

I think I have a grasp on how to work fanboy!Alfred into a fic, though it'd have to be Batman Begins. Canon!Alfred is... stiffer.