Other Gods

/ July 22, 2019

A week ago I received a little prompt from Armitagebesotted.

“Are there photos of any other people in your special folder of the ‘best’ RA photos?” (Meaning, is there anyone else who is almost as special as him?)

It’s an intriguing question. Unfortunately, it has a really boring answer.

I’m exactly what it says on my profile. One-trick-pony. Meaning: Only Richard in my photo folders. Obviously I am not counting my private photography in that – my hubs and son are heavily featured males in *those* folders.

That’s just a minuscule excerpt from the folder with press and photographers’ images of RA, as well as screen shots. There are plenty more folders where this came from – one for each chaRActer. And no, there is not a single other eyecandy guy among those pictures.

Boring, as I told you.

What about you? Who’s your side-dish, as Perry used to call them, or collateral attractions, as Servetus says?

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70 thoughts on “Other Gods”

  1. Love your folders! 👍🏻 ‪There is only Richard for me, I’m not interested THAT much in any other actor 😉😍 And if it’s not Richard than it’s Monet, Korovin, Botticelli (and many other Renaissance artists) and … the list is long 😁 ‬

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  2. I have a folder with I don’t know how many sub folders of Richard. Divided by character and specific sex appeal.

    I DO have a few ‘side dishes’ tbh. Karl Urban during his LOTR heyday. Lord, I wrote enough Eomer. Bruce Hopkins for a time. (Gamling) Never was an Aragorn or Legolas or Thranduil fan. Blame Craig Parker for the start of my LOTR lurve. I admit an over fondness of Fabio, Brock O’Hurn and Jimmy Thomas. These days, my favorite side-dish is Mike Rowe. I don’t have shitloads of pictures of them, however. I do have quite a few Rohirrim pics, back from when I was writing a lot of Rohirric fic. But I refuse to keep anyone else, as I have decided that Richard will be the last great celebrity crush I have.

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  3. Genuinely only Richatd makes me go giddy and weak at the knees. I loved Keanu in my teens and did have a crush on Bertie Carvel in Jonathan Strange. But none make me feel that same way I do about RA…he makes me feel like I did when I was terribly in unrequited love with a friend in my 20s!

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    • Yeah, this is pretty much unrequited love ad infinitum… *sigh* Mind you, no, this is better than unrequited love. Love doesn’t really come into it for me. It’s just uncompromising crushing.

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      • It’s love in the sense of the perfect imaginary romantic but doesn’t actually exist love. I know it’s unrealistic as its the love in songs and poetry and films. I’m a deep seated romantic and this just makes me feel like a teenager again. Which I like, lol.

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  4. Today I filed some photos I had randomly saved over the last week or so. They were all of RA—all 127 of them. Yes. That’s my answer.

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  5. My first crush was Prince, I even bought foreign teen mags to get pics of him. Then I’ve crushed on Ewan McGregor, Ioan Gruffudd, Jason Isaacs, Karl Urban.. I think there may have been others too but after seeing Richard as John Porter he’s been the one. I

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  6. Oh, I have many many other crushes 🙂 Alan Rickman as Professor Snape, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, David Wenham as Faramir, Mark Strong as Prince Septimus, Paul McGann as Mr. Bush (who’ll get which fandom that one is from, I wonder?). But Richard reigns supreme 🙂

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  7. While Richard is my main “honey”, I must admit to having a few others. Martin Freeman (love Dr. Watson), Tom Hiddleston (in anything), Russell Crowe, and Gerard Butler (whom I’ve crushed on since 2000). But the majority of the photos I have saved (1500+ last time I checked) are of Richard.

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  8. I don’t have any folders of anyone crush worthy. If I need a RA fix I just go to your blog or stream North and South on Netflix. I do like Alex O’Loughlin on Hawaii 50, and I did spend a few hours on set watching him work and chatting, but I was in Hawaii anyway. Which is kind of the same as flying a long way to see RA in a play, and hanging out at the stage door. I did not get an autograph or selfie because I thought it would be uncool to the friend who arranged the visit.

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    • How cool – you got to visit the set of Hawaii 50? Nice. I love the idea of looking behind the scene – and observing the actors at work when they are NOT acting but in prep for their performance.

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  9. I was never a “fangirl” (of celebrities; I’ve always been a fangirl of Trek and general geek stuff), and I always thought “fangirling” was strange. That is until 2011-2012 when I saw the first Thor movie and then The Avengers. I fell in love with Loki, then subsequently the actor who played him. I was obsessed with Tom Hiddleston for about 4 years, which was a new experience for me. But over time I realized Tom didn’t quite “do it” for me, and I was fangirling over him only as an extension of Loki. I didn’t care about his other works. So when I fell for Richard and became obsessed with seeing everything he was in, not just the one thing that got me into him, I guess it was a sign. I still sorta like Tom, but only because he was my “first” celebrity crush and I have a lot of friends/connections in that fandom; either way, he’s not my number one. Richard is significant to me as a person and as an actor, not just as the physical embodiment of a fictional character I like. I still obsess over Loki, the character, but that’s an entirely different thing altogether, of course. In that case, though, “other gods”, indeed! 😀 (My name ‘Angrboda’ is from Norse mythology, so yes, my Loki obsession still runs strong…but my avatar is Thornton so I guess I’m mixing my obsessions together hehehee. I just wish they made Hot Toys-quality Richard figures so my HT Loki would have somebody to play with other than his brother! That’d be money well spent. *nods*)

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    • There is something special about RA that inspires long-lasting devotion to him. Maybe it’s his reserved attitude to celebrity, or his obvious attempts at remaining a “normal” person despite his “unnormal” job. In any case, after seven years and through a few ups and downs, I am still interested in him. Not just for the looks – although they still work on me – but for how I perceive him to be. I don’t really feel the need to have other crushes beside him.

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  10. Only here will I admit that my “only the very best pics” folder has 1951 jpgs in it. (I tried to make a best picks of the best picks folder one time and stopped at 200 jpgs. It’s hopeless.) It plays as a screen saver on my computer. The pics change every 5 minutes.

    There are no Abhishek Bachchans left—Bollywood got totally displaced by RA the night I watched N&S for the first time—but there are a few leftover Bruce Springsteens. Most of the remaining shots are of RA, plus a smattering of screen grabs of my very favorite fan comments about RA (that make me laugh every time they come up), such as Thornton saying to Margaret (at the train station): “I’m going to take you from behind…but is it possible for you to…look back at me?”

    There’s one other exception: Helen Mirren! Is she not the most gorgeous example of sexy at 70-something??? I love her red carpet displays at award shows, flouncing around in fabulous gowns that scream: don’t count me out of the game, watch how it’s done, you young ones. I’ve been a fan since her Jane Tennison days. I’ve watched a few of her earlier productions but inevitably think, “Nope, give me Helen the grownup.” Somehow she represents all of us, even the most ordinary looking, and she’s a superstar in my book!!! I’ve got 20 or so shots of her that make me shout at the screen “You go, girl!” every time they come up.

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  11. My discovery of Richard opened up a new world online for me. Desperate for information, I turned to the forums, blogs and YouTube. Prior to discovering him I’d sometimes searched actors I liked for information, and I joined Pierce Brosnan’s fan club online, but my crush on Richard is something else, totally different in its intensity and the way I have been able to fangirl. Whether or not I’ll get to the almost thirty years I did with PB is another story! So far I’m only nine years in and will be an old lady at this rate, assuming Richard continues to do what he’s doing of course hehe.
    I try to do a regular cull of my RA folder, because I accumulate a lot of screencaps and video clips for blog posts that end up not being used (plus it’s a good chance to rewatch something in order to acquire new ones!) Taking a look at it, it’s well and truly time for another cull! *cough* 185 folders/sub folders (his roles, photoshoots, audio work, interviews, appearances, candid pics, edits, early career……) – nearly 22,000 files. No idea how many pictures because they’re scattered throughout the folders (probably thousands) but it’s all Richard.
    I also checked for any other celeb I may have saved a picture of ….uhmm…two of Michiel Huisman and one of Alexander Dreymon (Uhtred in The Last Kingdom). I tend to “save” photos of celebs I like in my secondary Tumblr blog.
    No other “interest” of my life has ever used up as much of my time and attention as my enchantment with this English man. Nowhere close. Perfectly summed up, Besotted, me too!

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  12. I’m almost ashamed to admit it but I’m 81 and have been a “fan/wellwisher” of Richard’s since North and South first came to my attention, sometime in 2005. I immediately bought the book and the DVD – I forget in which order and have “loved” him ever since. He is the screensaver on my PC along with various ones of my 8 (soon to be 9) great-grandchildren. As you might guess, there are more of Richard (hangs head)!

    Although, because of hip and spine problems I’m not able to spend the same amount of time “Richarding” to quote my dear friend Mezz, as I used to. I’m slowly improving but in the meantime I’m very thankful for friends like Guylty and others who keep me going with their blogs. Even though I may not comment I am always there hovering in the background, avidly reading all the comments!!

    At my age I just hope Richard will get on and do many other projects as quickly as he can. I don’t want to miss out on anything if I can help it! 😉

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    • *waves to Teuchter* I’ve missed seeing you on the blogs, and I’m happy to hear that things are slowly improving for you.
      Age is but a number – I seem to recall you once said something along the lines that Richard keeps you feeling young at heart!! 😉

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  13. PS. It’s a long time since I counted how many pics etc I have of him but the last time I checked it was WELL over the 2,000 mark! Weelll over! 🙂

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  14. Teuchter, you are my new role model! Thank you for sharing your story. So you are 14 years in, and this might last until I’m 81, eh? Why, I’ve barely started (7 yrs/age 62). Shall I pace myself for the long haul? To quote Thornton in front of the strikers: NEVER! And you’ve reinforced my plan to fly to London for the Chekhov play. I can’t miss anything! Can we meet up in London?

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    • Sadly I’m in South Surrey BC Canada so London is out of the question. (I wish I could!). I have “met” Mezz many times via Skype and SueBC for real when we both attended The Crucible in a movie theatre. And we’d never met before. So nice!!
      I was actually in London in 2014 but just to change planes on our way to Scotland. Wish I’d known ahead of time. We could maybe have changed our travel plans. So near and yet so far!!☹️

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    • Teuchter is a darling!!!
      Besotted, we are very similar age/fandom wise, I’m hoping for 80+ lol. 😉 As for London and Chekov, go for it! Absolutely!! I’d love to be able to, but a trip from Australia is just not feasible. I was very lucky indeed to see him at the Popcorn Taxi event in 2013 (so long ago now!) so I will be forever thankful for that opportunity to see him in the flesh.

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  15. There are people I think are really good-Looking, Jon Hamm, Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Fassbender – and I wouldn’t kick them out of bed – but none of them rock my boat like RA, not even close. Even from a young age, I’ve had crushes on actors, and strangely they’ve nearly all turned out to be gay, bi or rumoured to be, e.g. Kevin Spacey (perhaps that’s just actors) .None have lasted as long or been as intense as our wonder guy. His are the only pics I have and his look is so varied that he might as well be a collection of handsome men – I even download pics that I already have, because I can’t resist them – how ridiculous is that,.

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  16. The only one who has made me make folders is Viggo Mortensen. He was the only one in my heart before Richard. I love them both equally.

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  17. Nice! It’s nice to see how very loyal you are, but your blog already betrays that. 🙂
    I have several side attractions: Colin Firth, Gregory Peck, Hugh Jackman, but I also have some David Bowie, Keanu Reeves, Pierce Brosnan, Simon Baker, James Stewart, Lucas Bryant (yeah, not known), Richard Chamberlain and Viggo Mortensen folders. However those folders are tiny compared to my Richard Armitage folder. Just did a check, I think the largest folder after Richard is Colin Firth with some 400 items. Richard’s folder has 3000 items… 🙂

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