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That makes John Major Ungoliant.
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Nov 29, 2018 15:46
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I want to complain for the 100th time about most of the bad guys in the Jackson movies being ridiculous deformed monstars. The Mouth of Sauron is a great example. Plenty of Sauron's people were just regular dudes. What's so wrong with that? The Nazgul were able to have normal conversations with people when they were after Frodo in the Shire, they didn't just hiss and terrify.
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Dec 20, 2018 03:37
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euphronius posted:He’s not in the movie so you don’t have to complain !! Victory Okay what about my other complaint about the hissing screeching Nazgul who definitely had long normal conversations with people in the books?
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Dec 20, 2018 03:51
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euphronius posted:Not in the text of the book. It’s only implied. Nazgul definitely get quoted in the book as speaking in full and complete sentences. Maybe the secret answer is that Peter Jackson wrung every ounce of subtlety and nuance from some very subtle and nuanced books in his quest to make some action movies.
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Dec 20, 2018 04:04
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euphronius posted:What are you remembering them saying in the book Directly off the top of my head, Farmer Maggot quotes a pretty chatty member of the Nine offering to bribe him for some help, which is a little different than the guy hissing Baggins in the movie.
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Dec 20, 2018 04:18
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In Return of the King it says that Sauron strengthened the Lord of the Nazgul's flying mount by feeding it "fell meats". What do you all think those are, exactly? Some sort of evil liverwurst? Roadkill that's gone bad? Alligator steaks? Is Sauron doing his own meat shopping??
Teriyaki Hairpiece fucked around with this message at 08:58 on Mar 8, 2019 |
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Mar 8, 2019 08:56
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cheetah7071 posted:I recall Carcharoth had a similar thing of being the biggest evilest wolf in the world because it was hand fed by morgoth Maybe there's a service where you can get fell meats shipped to you in a styrofoam container with some dry ice. Omaha Fell Meats.
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Mar 8, 2019 22:04
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Usually the hobbit "coming of age" at 33 is said to be analogous to our human age 18. However, if you instead translate it to age 21, the age of majority in Tolkien's UK, at the start of the quest that makes Frodo just under human age 32, Sam 24, Pippin almost 18, and Merry almost 23. Also that would make the Bilbo they meet in Rivendell 75. That sounds pretty close to the way they're written to me.
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Mar 9, 2019 07:22
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The best evidence, if you do the math the way I've said, is that 111 translates into just about 70 years old. People used to make a very big deal about 70 being the natural upper limit of a life, your "threescore and ten", which comes from a Bible verse. That's a hell of a coincidence. Also if you follow this Tolkien went to war at the same age as Merry. Teriyaki Hairpiece fucked around with this message at 15:47 on Mar 9, 2019 |
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Mar 9, 2019 15:42
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Looking through this lens Merry reminds me of several early-mid 20's people I've known who were pretty sensible on their own but could act pretty wild and stupid when they were with younger friends. And Sam reminds me of some other early-mid 20's people who were very serious about their station in life and their work because they had decided they were Adults now and had to act like serious Adults.
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Mar 9, 2019 19:14
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WWI was a stalemate until 1917 when the Mûmakil were deployed.
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Mar 10, 2019 03:49
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Mahoning posted:So I picked up re-reading LOTR again the other day after stalling out at Christmastime around Emyn Muil and the Dead Marshes. The writing is SO GOOD after Frodo, Sam, and Gollum leave Faramir and are marching to the crossroads and towards Cirith Ungol. You really get this feeling of impending doom with the way Tolkien describes how there are no birds or beasts or really any sounds, the days are nearly indistinguishable from nights, the thunder/earthquakes rumbling. I like how Tolkien pays attention to the fact that his characters need water to live, unlike 99.9999999% of boring stupid fantasy writers.
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Mar 14, 2019 08:15
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Nessus posted:The Noldor at least required jewels of light imperishable to do it over. The orcs did it over fancy chain mail! That mithril shirt was worth more than the entire Shire just by itself.
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Apr 30, 2019 01:51
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webmeister posted:10,000 words of film-bashing I wouldn't mind that.
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Dec 7, 2019 01:31
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Bilbo, or the 120 Days of Breakfast Things to Do in the Marshes When You're Dead
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Dec 18, 2019 06:28
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The boxes set I grew up with. Someone posted The Hobbit from the set but not the rest. This is my conception of the "right" way these books should look.
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Jan 21, 2020 04:19
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Imagined posted:The people who insist that the LotR was allegorical or symbolic of WW1 or WW2, or of Tolkien's idealized childhood, generally drive me nuts. That being said, there are definitely some points in the books where I felt like his background as a combat veteran comes out. In particular, the passages in the 'The Two Towers' where the orcs are talking to each other about the progress of the war struck me as something Tolkien might have lifted nearly verbatim from his fellow soldiers during the war. It's parts like this that make me hate the way orcs are depicted in the movies. Movie orcs could never have a conversation like that. Just another example of the movies sanding down all the subtleties of the books.
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Feb 17, 2020 15:28
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I think making them inarticulate goo monsters was just Peter Jackson saying he didn't think the audience would be smart enough to know who the bad guys are otherwise and that pisses me off.
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Feb 17, 2020 21:20
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Denethor was so right Mithrandir aka Gandalf was literally just an undying spirit whose entire existence was fighting against Sauron and the allies of Sauron. Gandalf didn't give a gently caress about the people of Minas Tirith, everybody was just pawns in his long game. He's way more of a force of nature than an actual person.
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May 5, 2020 03:40
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I don't think Gandalf using people as tools is a cynical take on things, I'm not trying to piss people off, and I think it's explicit, not implicit. Gandalf only wants to defeat Sauron. That's his purpose! I'm not saying he has no feelings for his friends, he's not always super happy about the consequences of his actions but he's always sure about what he's doing. Gandalf is not a D&D wizard, a human who uses magic, he exists to organize various people to fight Sauron. Tolkien made this super clear in his retcon where everything in The Hobbit happened just because Gandalf wanted to bring back Dale/Erebor to strengthen the North to fight the forces of Mordor.
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May 5, 2020 19:49
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Pham Nuwen posted:The question that's really been bugging me is: did Gandalf gently caress? A wizard comes precisely when he means to.
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May 5, 2020 21:46
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The day was dark, and darkness held heavily on the day. I walked out to the parapet to look at the darkness, and darkness was on my brow. I ate three of the dry apples that were left in our chambers, but darkness laid upon my shoulders and I was unable to eat any longer. Then the door flew open and Gandalf was there! The hour grows short, said he, and we must rush to the ramparts. My leg twinged with its darkness. I retreated to the stony alcove of the little room. Do not tarry said Gandalf, and his visage took on an aspect I had never seen before. Not wholly an old man, but not entirely a young man either. His hands seemed to be made not of hands, but of the silvery mithlond, of which only the Old Tales told. Let us tarry in this chamber a little while, said he, as he unbuttoned my telthalan* *Telthalan were what the men of the West called pants, before the lower Ages corrupted their wear and usage. Teriyaki Hairpiece fucked around with this message at 05:27 on May 6, 2020 |
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May 6, 2020 04:36
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I hope that they find a secret codicil to Tolkien's will stating that no adaptation of LOTR in any form can exist if any of the Tom Bombadil section is excluded or abridged in any way.
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May 12, 2020 18:40
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Data Graham posted:The Rankin-Bass Hobbit really captured the gently caress out of Mirkwood, and really pretty much everything huh. Best adaptation so far.
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May 22, 2020 19:20
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The 2700's were a real lovely century to be a dwarf.
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May 24, 2020 23:13
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Imagined posted:Two questions from a recent reread. Gimli was in his 60's when Smaug got wasted. He grew up in exile in the Blue Mountains. Presumably he's traveled between the Blue Mountains and the Iron Hills/Erebor area a few times and so he knows where stuff is.
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Jun 8, 2020 08:20
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shirunei posted:Did Tolkien ever write anything on the ultimate fate of the Dwarves? My head canon is they were eventually subject to genocide. So greedy they delved so deep eventually delved into the real Durin's Babe which is the magma of the Earth and that's how we got Hawaii beginning the Fifth Age
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Jun 9, 2020 14:28
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She's not that bad only the one ex calls her the Nameless Terror and that guy's an rear end in a top hat.
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Jun 9, 2020 14:48
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:They're still down there, in the depths. Just don't come up to the surface much any more. Don't blame 'em. The Earth's crust can be like 40 miles thick. That's a lot of room for grand halls.
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Jun 20, 2020 05:08
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The older I get and the more I read LOTR, the more upset I get about Sam. He really reflects a certain idea of bourgeois people that the Lower Orders are happy with their lot in life and don't have greater or complex feelings. He's able to take on the Ring and still come home to the Shire and raise a family and plant all those trees and write the Book because he never had complex feelings to begin with. It's a perspective Tolkien takes. Like someone of a higher class might try to play an instrument and fail and then spend their whole life wondering what could have been, but someone of a lower class might try to play an instrument and fail and then just get on with doing laundry or fixing things or whatever. Because they don't exist on the same level. Except they do! It's all just human beings! Or Hobbits.
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Jun 27, 2020 02:53
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I just don't think Tolkien writes him as having the same depth as the more "aristocratic" hobbits and even if Tolkien might have wanted to be Sam and wrote him as amazing in that light there's a clear tradition of upper class people wishing they could live the simpler less examined and supposedly less stressful life they imagined the lower classes live.
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Jun 27, 2020 05:30
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I like the interpretation that Sam is the real hero and the actual protagonist, I always have, and the evidence is how much actual growth and change Sam goes through compared to all the other characters, and how unambiguously happy Sam's end is. I just am not sure the text reflects that reading.
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Jun 27, 2020 05:33
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My new fan theory is that hobbits disappeared from the world because once the Fourth Age had got on a little and the roads had been made safe for travel, the Shire was swamped with hordes of annoying Gondorian tourists.
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Jun 27, 2020 15:13
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Quoting myself on the age thing:Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:Usually the hobbit "coming of age" at 33 is said to be analogous to our human age 18. However, if you instead translate it to age 21, the age of majority in Tolkien's UK, at the start of the quest that makes Frodo just under human age 32, Sam 24, Pippin almost 18, and Merry almost 23. Also that would make the Bilbo they meet in Rivendell 75. That sounds pretty close to the way they're written to me. Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:The best evidence, if you do the math the way I've said, is that 111 translates into just about 70 years old. People used to make a very big deal about 70 being the natural upper limit of a life, your "threescore and ten", which comes from a Bible verse. That's a hell of a coincidence.
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Jun 27, 2020 15:18
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Heithinn Grasida posted:Aragorn forbid entry to the Shire for anyone but hobbits, which he himself abided by, apparently and met his friends at the border when he went to visit. I'm sure the proscription was followed for some years, but then young people in their late teens early 20's looking for adventure and an authentic experience probably started coming in, followed by some disreputable package operators out of Bree, and then it was off to the races from there. I'd imagine the tourists stayed out of Tookland, however.
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Jun 27, 2020 15:57
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Look at this quote from the Scouring quote:‘Not exactly,’ said Cotton. ‘Leastways not the shooting. Tooks started that. You see, your dad, Mr. Peregrin, he’s never had no truck with this Lotho, not from the beginning: said that if anyone was going to play the chief at this time of day, it would be the right Thain of the Shire and no upstart.
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Jun 28, 2020 04:18
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What is actually going on with Frodo's little episodes after coming home to the Shire? One of them lasts for over two weeks. What's actually going on there?
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Jun 28, 2020 04:20
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ChubbyChecker posted:I wonder if the Sackvilles pronounced their family name like Hyacinth Bouquet in Keeping Up Appearances. There's a section in the appendices where Tolkien says that all the names of the hobbits and places in the Shire that he uses are just his own made up translations of what they called themselves and those places. Samwise Gamgee is actually just Tolkien's made up name for a guy named Banazîr Galbasi, who was known as Ban Galpsi to his friends. So you can pronounce Sackville any way you want. Teriyaki Hairpiece fucked around with this message at 17:57 on Jun 28, 2020 |
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Jun 28, 2020 17:55
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ChubbyChecker posted:Hah, that reminded me of this: https://the-toast.net/2014/12/08/defeated-tolkien-estate/ I love all the ridiculous real names of the hobbits and Tolkien's defence: quote:This procedure perhaps needs some defence. It seemed to me that to present all the names in their original forms would obscure an essential feature of the times as perceived by the Hobbits (whose point of view I was mainly concerned to preserve): the contrast between a wide-spread language, to them as ordinary and habitual as English is to us, and the living remains of far older and more reverend tongues. All names if merely transcribed would seem to modern readers equally remote: for instance, if the Elvish name Imladris and the Westron translation Karningul had both been left unchanged. But to refer to Rivendell as Imladris was as if one now was to speak of Winchester as Camelot, except that the identity was certain, while in Rivendell there still dwelt a lord of renown far older than Arthur would be, were he still king at Winchester today. Teriyaki Hairpiece fucked around with this message at 06:29 on Jun 29, 2020 |
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Jun 29, 2020 06:14
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I like the idea that Aragorn keeps drunkenly taking the sword pieces out and losing them so when it comes time to reforge the thing he dumps out the scabbard and it's just the hilt and a button and some lint and a stick and a decades old flyer for nickel beer night at The Prancing Pony.
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Jun 29, 2020 16:34
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