I think the reason so many LOTR ripoffs fail is because they make their Aragorn analogue the main character, when the entire point of Aragorn is that he’s “the person the villains think is the main character, but is Not.”

Aragorn seems like a traditional King Arthur style hero— he has huge Main Character Energy because he’s supported by destiny, by bloodline, by all these magic artifacts and prophecies, and etc etc. Frodo and Sam are Just Some Guys. Aragorn recognizes that Sauron understandably thinks he’s the main hero of this story ….and he pretends to believe it too, spending the entire series using himself as a diversion to prevent Sauron from seeing Frodo and Sam.

Aragorn’s whole thing is that knows he seems like the Main Hero of this legend to people who don’t know better —- but he also knows that he isn’t, and that his role is just to keep Sauron’s eye on him in order to protect the people around him.

And it works! Sauron is so fixated on defeating his Legendary Destined Archenemy with Extreme Main Character Energy that he completely overlooks the two ordinary little guys who were the real threat to him all along.

“Danielle was in my apartment and told me about a party she was planning where everyone in the cast has to dress up like someone else in the cast. Naturally, she gave me Amita and for the next few days I scrambled to find a way to make that work. A very serious conversation with Freddy comes to mind where he generously offered style advice and thanked God he had gotten Kit. A couple days later, I showed up to Danielle’s apartment only to realize everyone had actually dressed up as me. It was obviously surprising and ridiculous and hilarious, but also it came at a time where I desperately needed something like this. Danielle set up a whole party themed around me because she’s an angel, and all the cast was there and giving love. It’s difficult to put into words what that meant to me at the time, but it was everything.”

I just read this excellent article by The Atlantic about the impact of Covid on immunocompromised people. As an immunocompromised person myself, it really spoke to me. While the article is long, I specifically wanted to highlight the parts taking about ableism.

I am so happy a piece of journalism is acknowledging how fucking disgusting and ableist society’s reaction to the disabled, elderly, and generally infirm has been during Covid. People like me- who are at a high risk of Covid- are treated like burdens. Like we’re dragging society down. Like it’s our fault things aren’t back to normal yet. I have heard some people say things that straight-up sound like eugenics, that we should let “the weak” die.

We’ve made enormous strides but our society still has so little compassion for the disabled.

Ed Yong was one of my favorite science writers before the pandemic and he has really been unparalleled with his Covid/pandemic material

I need to actually finish reading this one but I deeply appreciate him amplifying the concerns of the disabled community and immunocompromised people

This pandemic has really revealed how so, so many people, are actively eugenicists. “It’s only the sick and old that will die so we should open things back up” is such a fucked up idea.

Link to the actual article via 12ft.io, which should circumvent the paywall. It’s worth reading.

[video description: a man playing saxophone in front of a large pipe. everything he plays echoes back through the pipe, resulting in a call-and-response type song. the person behind the camera claps along to the beat. end description.]

a reasonable society would base their entire economy around this

the lack of compassion that a good portion of lotr fans show for frodo ("why can't he fight or do simple tasks" "why is he so weak" "why does he always need help / to be rescued") mirrors the lack of compassion of people for those who bear the burden of invisible disabilities. he's struggling against an immense weight at every step! something that actively tries to destroy him, worsening at every moment! his heroism is in just continuing to walk his path, step by step. his bravery is in just existing as himself under the debilitating weight of the ring. but because the influence of the ring is invisible, it is forgotten, and frodo is written off as a weak, cowardly, and/or useless character, much like disabled people irl. in this household we do not stand for frodo slander!!!

actually i am still thinking about this. in the movies especially the frodo & sam scenes are hard to watch, especially when contrasted to the quippy, active, external heroism of the three hunters. the road to mordor feels like a heavy, depressing slog; even the colours reflect this. frodo's feebleness setting in the longer we spend with the ring hurts to watch; it makes us cringe away from it. we don't want to look because frodo's sort of internal heroism is not glamorous. we don't like to fantasize ourselves as the protagonists of it. and it can hit quite close to home. but that's precisely why they are such good scenes! and why we must not look away, or shrink from the discomfort, or misunderstand frodo as a character. that would be a disservice to the narrative.

To be clear, when you ask a linguist “is X a word?”, they fully understand that what you mean is “are you aware of any prior attested usage of X to mean Y?”. They are being annoying on purpose.

The other possible response of a linguist to “is X a word” or “is Y grammatical” is going “I don’t know, do you think it is?” and getting out pen and paper so they can study you like a bug

i love to learn. unfortunately my brain doesn’t like to remember

the love affairs of a bibliomaniac, eugene field (1895) // the artist’s wife reading in bed, leopold von kalckreuh (1885-1890) // how reading changed my life, anna quindlen (1998) // crackers in bed, norman rockwell (1920) // pillow books, clifton fadiman (1955) // the wind rises, hayao miyazaki (2013) // reading in bed, helen h moore (1997) // sense8, the wachowski sisters (2015-2018) // reading in bed, emily haines and the soft skeleton (2006) // schitt’s creek, daniel and eugene levy (2015-2020)

The Ring: If I had a quarter for every time a hobbit picked me up, I’d have two quarters.  The Ring: Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

Of all the bearers of Sauron’s ring, 4 of them were hobbits.

I was wrong. It’s 5. Not 4

The lineage of ring bearers is as follows.

I love how Deagol counts as a ring bearer even though he had it in his possession for all of like five seconds

He held it for the rest of of his life!

[Image description: Tweet by @banalplay saying “but something happened then that the ring did not intend. it was picked up by the most unlikely creature imaginable: a hobbit, the same fuckin thing that just had it for like 500 years.” End Image Description.] Link to original here. Otherwise reblogging for the final rb there, which made me cackle.

From the ring’s perspective:

1. Home, the finger of my creator and other self.

2. Well, I don’t like it but I can work with this. Cause some trouble, get some revenge, find my way home, this is fine.

3. What the fuck is you?

4. Right personality, wrong species, I don’t know what you are but I hate you and I don’t know why you’re so resistant to my powers.

5. NO NO NO there are goblins everywhere how did I find another one of THESE horrible things. This one’s even more resistant than the last one and also disgustingly nice. I suffer.

6. Listen, I’ll cooperate, just get me the fuck out of this hellhole full of small cheerful people my power doesn’t work on properly. No, not like that. I hate you. Please stop. 

7. FUCK

8. (Frodo again) I still hate you with every molecule of my mortal form but at least you’re not number seven. Think I’m starting to get through finally. 

9. (Smeagol again) YES it’s you I actually missed you now get me back to the Master and NO FUCK NO I HATE YOOOOUUUUU…. *fzt* 

you CHAIN The One Ring?! you chain it like the prisoner?! oh! OH! trauma! deep psychological trauma for hobbits for One Thousand Years!

The purest expression of Love in Tolkien’s works is following

Sam follows Frodo into Mordor. Arwen chooses to follow Aragorn’s fate instead of the one she was born to. Amroth will not leave Middle-earth when Nimrodel cannot follow. Sam, Merry, and Pippin will not let Frodo leave the Shire alone. Beren and Lúthien follow each other into the darkest places in the world, or rather Beren goes, alone, repeatedly, and Lúthien pursues him with the same fervor that he once used to pursue her.

Tom Bombadil follows the river to find Goldberry and once he finds her he’s always following the path home to her; the only paths in the Old Forest that are dependable and constant are the ones that lead to his home and to Goldberry’s pool. “I have my house to mind, and Goldberry is waiting,” for him to follow her home at last.

Gimli follows Legolas and Galadriel into the West, and bears a love so powerful that he is the one exception to the rule; he bore no ring and yet is welcomed for the sake of his love for them. Sam swears to return to where he thinks Frodo died after the duty is done, but in that moment, the hardest thing is not the weight of the Ring or the fear of Sauron, but the burden of leaving him. Éowyn and Faramir stand together on the walls of Minas Tirith as they wait for the end. The Three Hunters push themselves to near impossible feats of endurance pursuing their friends when they are in danger. The ents constantly followed the entwives to their gardens, even though they didn’t care for them much, and the story goes that one day they will follow them and find “a land where both our hearts may rest”, a place where they can both be happy.

They go only because they would not be parted from thee – because they love thee, Éowyn whispers.

You can trust us to stick to you through thick and thin – to the bitter end…. But you cannot trust us to let you face trouble alone, and go off without a word, Merry scolds.

Don’t go where I can’t follow, Sam weeps.

Carmuel tropes that drive me insane

- poor boy & rich girl

- "we come from totally different worlds"

- ice queen & only one who melts her heart

- enemies to lovers

- playing dangerous games

- "let's be lonely together"

- they can see right through each other

- "you know this cannot work between us"

- "but I still think we deserve another shot"

- they can be their true selves when they're together

- they won't hesitate to save each other, even if it means risking their own lives

- selfish girl making a selfless decision by letting him go

- selfless boy making a selfish decision by asking her to stay

- banters, banters, banters

- I want to hate you, but I can't

- domestic fluff

- "she's love of my life"

- "I'll love you forever"

- maybe someday we'll be together

Every single odd number has an “e” in it.

LISTEN-

Not all of them. 30 and 50 aren’t spelled with the letter e in it …

father god 

…if you can split a number in half evenly, it’s even. 30 and 50 are odd.

-_-’

(15+15=30

25+25=30)

25+25 = 30? You sure about that??

Lord have mercy….

Bye

3 days into 2018 smh

LMAOOOOOOO

One

Three

Five

Nine

And since everything else after that is a variant of these numbers, then all odds have the letter ‘E’.

🗣YOU FORGOT SEVEN!!

It keeps getting worse.

LMAOOO WHAT IS GOING ON

My head hurts…

This is why that Tumblr University shit was the dumbest idea ever just look at this

who failed yall?

IM SCREAMING

You whole ass forgot about eight - a number with an e and is pretty fucking even

why would 8 be brought up if it’s EVEN in a post about ODDS??????? the post said “every single ODD number has an ‘e’ in it” not “every single number with an ‘e’ is odd” what the fuck

3 days until 2019 and we’re still here

happy New year’s eve

I’m going to bring this flaming dumpster into 2019 so future generations can see what a mistake Tumblr was

Er, guys two is odd and doesn’t have an e. Just saying…

did you deadass just try to tell me two is odd? i’m fucking crying throw the whole website away

Reblogging for the last one😂

The one thing I notice is that no matter how much you want to throw this site away, you just can’t.

TWO IS ODD?!?! PFFFTT I’M SCREAMING

Wait what about zero that’s an odd number ,no?

ok but hear me out fifty and thirty make up for the fact they have no e by the way they are pronounces third-E fifth-E

bro why do 30 and 50 matter THEY’RE FUCKING EVEN

what the actual fuck is happening

1 is an even number

I’m gonna smack you

-30 and -50 have an e in them

Wait why are we so quick to throw away the Zero idea

Zero isn’t a number

It can’t be divided by two though, can it

It can??? 0/2=0??

OD NUMBERS

onE

thrEE

fivE

sEvEn

ninE

OD numbers huh?

Anything that ends with a 0,2,4,6,8 is even and the rest is odd (1,3,7,9) stop freaking out y’all

YOU FORGOT 5

DUDE WHAT ABOUT FOUR

What about it?????

THAT DOESN’T HAVE E IN IT

THAT’S BECAUSE IT’S EVEN?????

A R E Y O U G U Y S O K A Y

21 days away from 2020, folks.

Please tell me I can start the new freaking decade with a post arguing about something as stupid as this. Please. 🙏

This is art at its finest

one week to 2020 dudes

I’m so done

Im so upset that even with all the “zero is odd” “no it’s not” stuff no one bothered to point out… It doesn’t matter. Zero, 0, zEro

But zero isn’t odd. It’s fucking the lack of a number. It’s neutral. It’s empty. There’s nothing there

Zero is a number.

A definition of an even number is that it can be divided by 2 and the result is a whole number. Since you cannot divide zero, you cant divide it by 2 and that means that zero is an odd number.

zEro, onE, thrEE, fivE, sEvEn, ninE, ElEven, and then the suffix -teen and every other odd number in english contains the names of the numbers 1 to 9.

zero is not a goddamn odd number what. even i know that and i’m not good at math. also you can divide 0 by 2, it’s 0, you literally just divide it  and you just get 0 out oh my gosh. you can’t divide by zero but you can divide zero. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parity_of_zero

https://www.britannica.com/story/is-zero-an-even-or-an-odd-number

https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/zero-odd-even.html Quote from this one “ So, technically, [zero] is even. In fact, it is the most even number there is.”

also does anybody on here ever look anything up or? this is making my brain physically hurt. christ.

NO. NO FUCK YOU ALL WE ARE NOT BRINGING THIS SHIT INTO 2020. WHOEVER BROUGHT THIS BACK DID IT ON PURPOSE AND I WILL FUCKING HUNT YOU DOWN FOR SPORT FUCK YOU. FUCK THIS.

This post was an absolute train wreck and I’m cursing my followers with it

Damn you

Saving this for 2021

@bring-us-a-rat @turning-darkness-to-light

It’s 2021

wait guys

what if we do it in spanish

uno is one and doesnt have an E in it

doNT YOU DARE BRING OTHER LANGUAGES INTO THIS FUCKING TRAIN WRECK OR I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND SLAP YOU

CINCO DOESNT HAVE AN E EITHER

What about 1,062,084? That doesn’t have an E

one million. and also thats even

Yall I swear we’re not even a month into 2021 and I can’t

Why am I just seeing this for the first time?

anyone in this thread smoke weed

“We are not bound forever to the circles of this world, and beyond them is more than memory.”

corporations are actively convincing us the reason behind global warming is that you, personally, aren’t reusing your pasta water to make tea and eating the teabag for lunch #vegan and we just let them

no seriously the amount of ppl I see who are genuinely trying to do the right thing and who think global warming is their fault because they have a car or turn the fan on in the summer or eat a goddamn buger is astounding. people are truly brainwashed into thinking anything we do as citizens has an effect on the environment that’s somehow more important than the actions of corporations.

in 2020, when everyone was isolated at home, fossil co2 emissions in the US only dropped by 11%. think about how insane it is that when almost every person living in the second largest GEG emitter was at home for months, the effect they had was a reduction of barely 11%. and yet that fucking carbon footprint calculator is shoved down our throat all day long. a whole 4 years ago when that article came out saying only 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions, everybody just blinked and went “no, thank you. now have you bought enough metal straws?”

and i’m not even addressing the blatant racism, ableism and classism that coats every single one of these “personal responsibility” arguments.

me: *writes fic*

me: great! time to post to ao3-

ao3 summary box: *exists*

me: 

ao3 summary box:

me:

ao3 summary box: 

me:

Ooh, this is actually kinda a neat thing, because you can think of it as a checklist:

For example:

Thus, in less than 100 words:

~~~~

The Anatomy of Story by John Truby is a really good book by the by, if anyone’s interested in this sort of thing.

Have you heard? There’s a rumor in St. Petersburg. Have you heard what they’re saying on the street? Although the Tsar did not survive, one daughter may be still alive: the Princess Anastasia! But please do not repeat!

Anastasia (1997) dir. Don Bluth & Gary Goldman

girls get it done