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All of that type of pop? music is just deeply uninteresting. Gimme some 90s riot grrrl, or death metal, or something. Beyonce? 
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Jan 7, 2018 19:27
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doverhog posted:All of that type of pop? music is just deeply uninteresting. Gimme some 90s riot grrrl, or death metal, or something. Beyonce? It's really more of an oddball cultural gripe than a music thing at this point. Also, I really don't think one's own taste in music would often be considered a personally held unpopular opinion either, nor should it be IMO. Do you like Aaliyah? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjDM0Fz5ccU TBH music is 100% about sharing because if its not a communal experience its just masturbation and while masturbation is OK, nobody should focus their life around jerking off. The content itself is irrelevant and subjective, just enjoy something and pass it on.
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Jan 7, 2018 20:06
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Pavement is the best musical act of all time.
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Jan 7, 2018 20:10
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Nicorette Larson posted:It's really more of an oddball cultural gripe than a music thing at this point. Also, I really don't think one's own taste in music would often be considered a personally held unpopular opinion either, nor should it be IMO. Haven't listened to her, or Beyonce really, enough to have an opinion. The post was not entirely in earnest. My communal music experience was, and still is to a lesser degree and frequency, in various forms of metal. However I question your premise that non-communal enjoyment of things is masturbation, and flat out deny that the content itself is irrelevant. That is elevating the social experience above all else, and frankly I pity the fool who lives their life like that. Art exists outside your petty social worries, and the person who cannot appreciate and feel things from outside what their social circle approves off is not in a good place, spiritually.
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Jan 7, 2018 20:25
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Aaliyah's music would have been 100% better without Timbaland.
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Jan 7, 2018 22:15
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Edgar Allen Ho posted:Lord of the Rings would not be improved by 30 minutes of magicbabble about why they can't fly the eagles to mordor, nor would star wars be improved by 30 minutes of technobabble about why there is a ww1 cruiser chase happening in space. Just accept that the characters are doing this because they know how space battles work in their universe. in all fairness those are works of fiction where the writer can invent any resolution they want and some resolutions will feel even more contrived than others given how it fits into the rest of the material in the book/movie/whatever, how gracefully a writer can produce a complicated scenario without it seeming forced is one of the many facets they'll always be judged on because unfortunately human beings will involuntarily feel off-put by contorted plots and strange resolutions whenever they consume them; a single facet of the whole being flawed, however, doesn't necessarily make or break a given work (lotr is still beloved despite arguably one bit of strangeness in an otherwise solid book) but it can be a symptom of a greater issue in other works that are very messy anyway we have historical evidence of classical writers critiquing uncreative plot devices and sloppy writing going back thousands of years, it's arguably as old as fiction itself, and some of their descriptive terms survive to the present day - antiphanes once summarized these issues by saying that deus ex machina happens whenever an author can't properly corral the circumstances of their own story and that's probably as true today as it was in 400 bc
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Jan 7, 2018 22:17
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Mu Zeta posted:Aaliyah's music would have been 100% better without Timbaland. Unpopular opinion: aaliyah's greatest contribution was the movie queen of the damned, which simultaneously owns and is terrible.
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Jan 7, 2018 22:26
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yeah I eat rear end posted:Unpopular opinion: aaliyah's greatest contribution was the movie queen of the damned, which simultaneously owns and is terrible. And the best part of that movie was when the vampire sings that high note, everyone in the theater burst out laughing, and then everyone in the movie had to pretend that it wasn't insanely funny and stupid.
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Jan 8, 2018 01:26
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Solice Kirsk posted:And the best part of that movie was when the vampire sings that high note, everyone in the theater burst out laughing, and then everyone in the movie had to pretend that it wasn't insanely funny and stupid. There was no pretending, it really was hilariously stupid.
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Jan 8, 2018 01:44
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There are many reasons why the eagles can't just fly to Mordor, the main one being that Sauron and his evil eye would see them coming. Is it a weakness of either the original work or the movie that this is not addressed anywhere? I guess so if only for the fact there has been so much whining about it. But, come on people. It really is not that complicated.
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Jan 8, 2018 05:00
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Those movies have much bigger problems anyway like the super boring scenes of the Ents walking with all their lines being super slow and incomprehensible. And all the long boring shots of New Zealand.
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Jan 8, 2018 05:06
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I grew up reading the books many times, and am ultimately incapable of judging the movies on their own. They did some things well, and some things in them are really bad and stupid. Like the treatment of Denethor. Why the character assassination? Did he gently caress your wife PJ ? Why do you hate Denethor?
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Jan 8, 2018 05:26
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I think The Last Jedi gets way too much credit for "subverting expectations" and doing something "brand new". This movie keeps TEASING new possibilities but keeps going "psyche". We learn that the rebels and the First Order both get their weapons from the same contractors and that the whole war is just "a machine". So the movie is trying to be all nuanced 'n poo poo, but we clearly saw in the first movie (episode 7) that the First Order blows up planets and kills people in cold blood, and we havent seen anything to indicate the rebels would do something like that. And the issue is entirely dropped and forgotten about in TLJ anyway, after Finn and Rose get back to the main plot. It's just brought up in a little sideplot and then forgotten about. And then Ren offers Rey to join him and "let the past die"...and then she doesn't. She refuses. So, uh, how is this different from the Original Trilogy, when Vader offered Luke to join him and Luke would rather commit suicide than do it? The details have been changed but the beats are the same, and Rey does exactly what a "Star Wars Jedi Protagonist" would do. The Prequels deserve more cred for doing new poo poo. Another unpopular opinion: I like the recent cold weather. Of course I live in the South so our cold weather is like the North's normal winter weather. Its in the 30s/40s during the day and maybe dips in the upper 20s overnight. Soon it'll be over and we'll be back to upper 50s and low 60s. But i try to enjoy the really cold weather because I know it'll be hot as gently caress soon enough. And over the rest of my lifetime, noticeably cold weather will become more and more rare.
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Jan 8, 2018 05:57
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The Last Jedi did surprise me in a bunch of different ways, but it also left me disappointed. You are telling me there was no plan? You never knew or gave a poo poo about who Snoke is? Luke just went off to die? Why didn't he go kill Snoke on an suicide mission or something in the 30 loving years he had time to do that in? Lazy writing. This winter in southern Finland has been dark and wet, but that makes my job easier, so I am conflicted about it. Not really, climate change is a disaster and there is a good chance we all will die when India starts fighting it with nukes. This is Finland, gimme snow and freezing loving cold god, do it.
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Jan 8, 2018 06:07
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Toying around with the possibilities of Rey being drawn to the dark side and Kylo Ren being somewhere in the middle, just to immediately revert to their original roles completely ruined the first interesting thing about the new trilogy. The Last Jedi was a mess. It was an entertaining mess but it's best if you don't think about anything that happened in it after leaving the theater. PHUO Rogue One is the only Disney SW movie that has come close to doing the series justice.
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Jan 8, 2018 06:15
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Blue Star posted:Another unpopular opinion: Afaik north American winters are getting colder and Euro ones warmer because something about the way air comes down from the arctic is changing. So you may be able to enjoy your kinda cold winter (and snow chaos) every year from now on. Here it's just been raining the whole time while barely ever going below zero (centigrade).
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Jan 8, 2018 06:21
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doverhog posted:You are telling me there was no plan? This is apparently the case. Abrams just did stuff with no plans or notes for anyone working on the sequels.
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Jan 8, 2018 07:01
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pidan posted:Afaik north American winters are getting colder and Euro ones warmer because something about the way air comes down from the arctic is changing. So you may be able to enjoy your kinda cold winter (and snow chaos) every year from now on. I'd love some of that cold weather here in Australia. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-05/hume-freeway-melts-in-heat-in-victoria/9307344
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Jan 8, 2018 07:35
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doverhog posted:There are many reasons why the eagles can't just fly to Mordor, the main one being that Sauron and his evil eye would see them coming. Is it a weakness of either the original work or the movie that this is not addressed anywhere? I guess so if only for the fact there has been so much whining about it. But, come on people. It really is not that complicated. iirc in tolkien's personal correspondence he actually berated himself for the way he used the eagles as a recurring device throughout the middle earth books so it's something he's indirectly acknowledged as being a little weak - that particular scene is whined about disproportionately because the internet does that e: vvv interestingly what the eagles exactly were and how much backstory they needed apparently changed throughout the publication history of those books, with little alterations present in tolkien's editorial notes and his published stuff, so the man himself had some doubts about what to do with them; either way not being totally pleased with how everything turned out is part of the creation process, especially for things of this scope, so it's unsurprising there's one or two things he'd critique himself over despite producing some very strong books otherwise hard counter has a new favorite as of 08:31 on Jan 8, 2018 |
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Jan 8, 2018 07:48
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The eagles though, are avatars or representatives of Manwë. It's a little fuzzy, but they are from god, like angels, like Gandalf is. They are not just big birds that swoop in when it's convenient. *and to add, the Valar do not want to directly attack Sauron. That's why they send angels like Gandalf over to pretend to be an old man and inflame the hearts of men and elves to do the actual fighting. doverhog has a new favorite as of 08:27 on Jan 8, 2018 |
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Jan 8, 2018 08:01
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Is there anything about Gandalf being an angel in lotr? I just reread it last year and didn't pick up anything like that. One of my favorite things about the books is that they keep stumbling upon stuff that is ancient and it seems like their time line is overall just a blip, as dramatic as it seems to those involved. I thought Gandalf was just a remnant of another time, like he spanned two eras but was not otherworldly (I mean besides the magic but that's a part of the normal world). I did follow up after I read it and I know the Tolkien universe is huge and is established over many books. So I'm sure what youre saying is true, I'm just wondering if I missed a major aspect of his character in reading the Tolkien books I have (the hobbit and lotr).
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Jan 8, 2018 09:02
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There are some references to it (eg he mentions his name is Olorin) but the whole thing about Gandalf, Sauron, and the other wizards being demigods or angels is from The Silmarillion.
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Jan 8, 2018 09:13
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Eela6 posted:Pavement is the best musical act of all time. I'm honestly not sure I disagree with this
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Jan 8, 2018 09:19
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life is a joke posted:Is there anything about Gandalf being an angel in lotr? I just reread it last year and didn't pick up anything like that. One of my favorite things about the books is that they keep stumbling upon stuff that is ancient and it seems like their time line is overall just a blip, as dramatic as it seems to those involved. I thought Gandalf was just a remnant of another time, like he spanned two eras but was not otherworldly (I mean besides the magic but that's a part of the normal world). It all blurs together, but the true nature of the wizards may be in the appendixes. I do not remember and take some form of pride in talking about LOTR here while refusing to look anything up. What would Gandalf be though? He appears as a man, but is thousands of years old. That is no man. The fall of Numenor happened because their kings could not accept that they would die, while elves and the Valar would live forever.
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Jan 8, 2018 10:59
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doverhog posted:It all blurs together, but the true nature of the wizards may be in the appendixes. I do not remember and take some form of pride in talking about LOTR here while refusing to look anything up. What would Gandalf be though? He appears as a man, but is thousands of years old. That is no man. The fall of Numenor happened because their kings could not accept that they would die, while elves and the Valar would live forever. I don't think it's ever explained entirely but "kind of like an angel" is sort of accurate. The wizards (there were...I want to say five, total) were immensely powerful and basically immortal. They weren't human at all; they just looked like old dudes with huge beards. I forget all the details but they were really some kind of spirit sent to deal with Sauron. Saruman was one of them but ended up going rogue and turning into a jerk.
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Jan 8, 2018 13:11
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They are of the same order as Sauron, the lesser angels, basically, with the Valar being the archangels.
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Jan 8, 2018 13:24
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ToxicSlurpee posted:I don't think it's ever explained entirely but "kind of like an angel" is sort of accurate. The wizards (there were...I want to say five, total) were immensely powerful and basically immortal. They weren't human at all; they just looked like old dudes with huge beards. I forget all the details but they were really some kind of spirit sent to deal with Sauron. Saruman was one of them but ended up going rogue and turning into a jerk. Turning into a jerk wasn't incompatible with Saruman's purpose. Making his own ring, breeding his own armies etc. were all in-line with the goal of beating Sauron, he just got a bit lost in the whole pretending to ally with the enemy bit of his plan, and he and Gandalf squabbling over Rohan cost him everything.
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Jan 8, 2018 13:37
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Saruman was driven mad by Sauron, like Denethor was, because they both in their arrogance kept using their palantirs even though Sauron had one and controlled all the others. Imagine you have a telepathy orb in your bedroom, and every time you use it, Sauron speaks to you. hosed up. He never had any chance of a real victory unless he actually got the One Ring, and even then he may he been forced to give it back to Sauron.
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Jan 8, 2018 14:01
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doverhog posted:Saruman was driven mad by Sauron, like Denethor was, because they both in their arrogance kept using their palantirs even though Sauron had one and controlled all the others. Imagine you have a telepathy orb in your bedroom, and every time you use it, Sauron speaks to you. hosed up. His method of trying to take down Sauron was extremely risky and likely to make things worse for everyone, but so was Gandalf's plan of sending some midgets to Mordor. From a neutral perspective all the wizards were barking mad. Only Radagast ended up "going rogue", abandoning the mission and not participating in the battle royale where the maiar all bashed their toy soldiers together vying for supremacy on middle earth.
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Jan 8, 2018 14:50
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I didn't read the books because I'm illiterate, but the movies were pretty cute and fun.
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Jan 8, 2018 15:13
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sassassin posted:His method of trying to take down Sauron was extremely risky and likely to make things worse for everyone, but so was Gandalf's plan of sending some midgets to Mordor. From a neutral perspective all the wizards were barking mad. Well except for the blue ones who just kind of disappeared so who knows what happened there
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Jan 8, 2018 16:53
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Aesop Poprock posted:Well except for the blue ones who just kind of disappeared so who knows what happened there Tolkien said they were trying to interfere in Sauron's operations in the East.
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Jan 8, 2018 16:58
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Aesop Poprock posted:Well except for the blue ones who just kind of disappeared so who knows what happened there The prevalent expanded universe idea is that they gathered their own armies in the East and either were defeated and absorbed into Sauron's forces, or that their efforts stopped the enemy's armies from growing even larger. The books give us no reason to assume they didn't act in the same manner (broadly speaking) that 3/4 maiar we see did.
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Jan 8, 2018 17:12
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sassassin posted:His method of trying to take down Sauron was extremely risky and likely to make things worse for everyone, but so was Gandalf's plan of sending some midgets to Mordor. From a neutral perspective all the wizards were barking mad. I really don't agree with this reading. Saruman clearly and unequivocally failed. He essentially became a servant of Sauron. Gandalf's plan was risky and perhaps insane sounding, but it worked, and it worked for the reasons he came up with it in the first place. The hobbits are small and good at hiding, and Sauron wont see them coming. The Ring is too dangerous to keep around, someone will use it eventually, so better to send it away. It makes sense, but yeah it was really risky, but sometimes you just gotta roll the hard six. There were no better options. I like to think the Blue Wizards did something really important out in the far east, like stopped Sauron from having a dragon to attack Minas Tirith with, but it simply isn't known.
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Jan 8, 2018 22:45
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Is there a tolkien/lotr thread on SA? If not where else should I go for that?
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Jan 9, 2018 02:13
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life is a joke posted:Is there a tolkien/lotr thread on SA? If not where else should I go for that? You want the dildo thread
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Jan 9, 2018 02:26
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life is a joke posted:Is there a tolkien/lotr thread on SA? If not where else should I go for that? There definitely have been. I don't know where the f they are now though but I mean, if you want to make one in GBS or PYF people will respond to it because we are huge nerds
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Jan 9, 2018 03:18
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the thread you probably want is Tolkien's Middle-Earth: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bombadil in the bookbarn
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Jan 9, 2018 03:21
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doverhog posted:I really don't agree with this reading. Saruman clearly and unequivocally failed. He essentially became a servant of Sauron. Gandalf's plan was risky and perhaps insane sounding, but it worked, and it worked for the reasons he came up with it in the first place. The hobbits are small and good at hiding, and Sauron wont see them coming. The Ring is too dangerous to keep around, someone will use it eventually, so better to send it away. It makes sense, but yeah it was really risky, but sometimes you just gotta roll the hard six. There were no better options. The other reason Gandalf's plan worked is that hobbits were hard to corrupt. He picked them for ring bearers and let Bilbo keep it for that long on purpose. Bilbo didn't really use the ring after he went home and only started to get screwed up by it when he used it during his going away party. It was safe in Hobbitton. Bilbo ends up being the first person to willingly give the ring away. Sam ends up doing the same thing later while Frodo managed to keep it from corrupting him until the very, very end of the journey. Literally every other race was easily tempted by Sauron. Gandalf didn't rust the elves with it because they made the damned things in the first place. Plus the elves knew exactly what it was and wanted nothing to do with it. Dwarves were greedy as hell and easy to tempt with visions of riches. Men were ambitious and power hungry and could be easily tempted with visions of thrones and kingdoms. Hobbits...well the ring had trouble with that. Hobbits were basically Amish, really; they just wanted to live simple lives where they'd farm and eat and smoke and get left the hell alone. You couldn't tempt them with huge piles of money or thrones of power because they didn't want those things. It showed Sam gardens. That was the best it could come up with to tempt him. Note that Gandalf wouldn't even touch the thing and refused it when Bilbo tried to hand it to him.
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Jan 9, 2018 04:13
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life is a joke posted:Is there a tolkien/lotr thread on SA? If not where else should I go for that? The books subforum has one.
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Jan 9, 2018 08:59
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