#Mordor much

[nightswatchdisbandmentera]

The idea that GRRM is anti Tolkien is particularly funny because ASOIAF is sprinkled with rather intricate (and even passionate) homages to LOTR. And I can’t help but think of how Tolkien’s Fellowship, more specifically the Hobbits, may have inspired GRRM’s Night’s Watch. Jon Snow, for starters, is in many ways a combination of LOTR’s Frodo and Aragorn. And in the same way that Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin are unexpected heroes in LOTR (because who looks to a hobbit as the face of an epic adventure?), Jon the bastard becomes the leader of a ragtag of socially disenfranchised men (in the form of the NW) who are anything but heroic. Sure there’s the odd knight or noble in there, but the NW is quite full of criminals and the very worst of the social order. The hobbits aren’t the strongest or the sharpest but they become the face of the fight against Sauron. And the NW, while being severely undermanned and under-equipped, has become the main force that stands against winter. GRRM even adds a love letter to Tolkien’s Sam Gamgee by adding his on Sam - Sam Tarly - who acts as a moral compass and counselor to Jon, in the same ways that Sam Gamgee is key to Frodo’s journey. And just like Frodo, Jon gets his very own pair of jokester friends, one of whine is even named Pyp. So it’s all very beautiful and nice, and we should talk about it more because it’s super evident that GRRM is a massive Tolkien fanboy. But I do have to say tho, GRRM’s take on Gandalf is exceedingly hilarious just because Melisandre is famously very bad at her job.

#asoiaf #lord of the rings #lotr #Gandalf - old and scary and very competent at his job #Mel - very old very scary and displays varying levels of competence #jokes aside another cool parallel between Jon and Frodo is that both #choose to embark on this dangerous journey because who else will do it? #Lots of arguing about who will destroy the ring who should have it etc and Frodo is just like #I’m ready to do what needs to be done even if it takes me to Mordor #Which is very similar to Jon who watches the rest of Westeros bicker about some stupid chair #And he’s willing to sacrifice his life and win no glory to save humanity in the face of an existential threat #And don’t think I need to get too much into Jon’s similarities with Aragorn because they’re plain as day #Also the iron throne and the ring of power having cool parallels? #Anyway asoiaf is so heavily inspired by LoTR and grrm is a such a huge fanboy #It’s insane that people think he hates Tolkien or whatever #jon snow #sam tarly #pyp #grenn #the night’s watch #frodo baggins #sam gamgee #merry brandybuck #pippin took #melisandre of asshai #gandalf #valyrianscrolls

[autistook]

Frodo "heart eyes" Baggins

#lotr #lord of the rings #frodo #frodo baggins #look how much he admires sam #the pure love in the eyes #goodbye i am crying #long way to mordor etc... #frodo lotr #lotr frodo #elijah wood #sam x frodo #sam and frodo #sam gamgee

[sesamenom]

Ar-Pharazon from the Reverse Gondolin AU and as Witch-King of Numenor - thanks to @who-needs-words for helping develop this idea!

#silm #silmarillion #second age #ar pharazon #reverse gondolin au #(well more like the aftermath of gondolin reversal) #this au has consumed my life #on the plus side inspiration for feanor is finally reemerging from under the metaphorical couch so i might get something finwion-y done soo #aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa so much to draw so little time #seriously though golden nazgul is such a cool idea #whatever the mordor equivalent for the angband trio is (sauron pharazon and shelob maybe?) is going to look so cool in black and gold #black/gold black hole shelob!! #and prince elrond is super finwiony looking #also he has his wings & glowiness out a lot more so that'll be fun #but yeah basically in the au Prince Elrond realized via foresight what was happening/going to happen in numenor #so he went there and disowned ar pharazon (by extension removing him from the throne) and crowned tar miriel rightful Ruling Queen #then later when sauron showed up he came back kicked sauron out and outlawed the death cult #but between that time sauron secretly recruited ar pharazon by promising him kingship in exchange for his support #and anyways ar pharazon survived all the way to the TA as the Witch King #(mr. angmar here gets to be second in command of the nazgul sorry) #-imagine this guy showing up to be all 'bagginssss' though #the witch king of numenor is somehow even more dramatic #also the whole 'no living man can kill me' is. a bit different coming from a guy who has many enemies in the form of #a) his cousin the Ruling Queen of Numenor #b) his uncle the choice-of-elves-peredhel #c) a bunch of Faithful in the Halls #the dead guys aren't too much of a problem #but i wonder if he heard that prophecy and worried a whole lot more about the Ruling Queens #or Prince Elrond who in the au has very definitely embraced his maia-ness #and then imagine his surprise hearing 'but no living man am i' and it coming from. a random human lady.

[la-pheacienne]

Frodo and Sam lay eyes on Mordor for the first time

Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, Book 4, Chapter 2, The passage of the Marshes.

Two things I will never get:

Why some people say Tolkien's descriptions are boring/excessive

Why Frodo and Sam's parts of the books are considered the most boring/most tiring parts.

I'm reading TT in english this time and so far, Frodo and Sam's parts are my favorite. The passage of the Marshes is a stellar chapter, a truly unforgettable reading experience. The very first description of the mountains surrounding Mordor left me speachless and when Sam, (Sam!!! Cheerful, optimistic, joyful bubble of happiness Sam!) said "I feel sick", I felt it too.

#lotr #the lord of the rings #the two towers #tolkien #frodo baggins #sam gamgee #mordor #tolkien quotes #i love this part so so so much #TT 4.2 #The passage of the Marshes #aspa reads tolkien

[croc-odette]

the way it took less episodes for tng to begin to humanize the borg the most inhuman trek villains who were actively built up as literally like faceless drones there wasnt much of an ethical implication about killing but literally their second appearance in best of both worlds already trying to imagine what it would be like to be a borg drone from picards perspective and next they show up in i borg where its like ok we take the normal star trek approach of seeing every living being as worthwhile and not inherently monstrous and so on that was fewer episodes than what theyre doing with the gorn its like crazy

Even just from a style perspective, the borg spent a few episodes like ‘oh no, scary!’ And then bc that would have been boring to just keep doing, they started to do eps like ‘what if we captured a borg, could we ethically send it back with a disease to kill all of them’ or even just some pure drama of ‘what if captain picard…. BECAME a borg???’ And then an episode following up on the guilt of that. And even then, I was surprised how few tng episodes were about the borg. Snw is hamstrung by having half the eps in a season, but instead of really packing new stuff in, they keep wasting time on ‘what if we had cool guns to kill gorn monsters with’. Which while fun or silly in its own self-aware genre, feels really out of place and boring in Star Trek.

I think it also is just an incoherent view of the gorn as a species. They’re instinct-driven violent predators with no intelligence; but they’re also smart enough to build ships and space suits? They’re cannibalistic, but they’re also able to work together to command ships. They’re animals who are just trying to eat; but actually they’re intelligent enough to be ‘pure evil’. It’s whatever is convenient in the moment to justify unexamined thrill in murdering them.

If they were animals with instinctive behavior, then I think the Star Trek precedent would be: let’s defend ourselves and get the fuck out of here, but also these are just animals trying to survive and reproduce (ie: picard wouldn’t develop a bloodthirsty vengeful hatred against all bears if a bear killed a crew member). There is no ethical behavior behind animals eating and surviving. A wasp is kind of gross when it reproduces by injecting its eggs into another insect, but it’s not ‘evil’.

But that would mean the gorn wouldn’t be intelligent enough to have spaceships, which creates the convenient problem that our brave heroes HAVE to keep killing them without debate bc the gorn are able to pursue them! So somehow the gorn are smart enough to build spaceships capable of pursuing starfleet ships. They are smart enough for their actions to be considered ‘evil’. But not smart enough to be considered a race with a culture or intellect.

I’ve already talked about how the ep where they say the gorn block telepathy, meaning spock can’t talk to them, is a deliberate way of writing off diplomacy as a possibility. Those nasty gorn are just so mean and violent (and capable enough) that they block telepathy! It’s their fault! Which prevents a devil in the dark Horta solution, and allows the show to shrug and keep using guns as a solution.

I say all of this crap not because I really care about the integrity of the gorn. Who cares, it’s a fun alien. But in a franchise that wants to claim political awareness and goodness, its unsettling to dissect repeated writing choices over and over again (not just about the gorn) that support classic conservative and jingoistic talking points. “The enemy isn’t human or even intelligent, it’s an animal operating on base instincts; except when it’s so smart it can outwit our brave soldiers. And when you kill them, you can ENJOY killing them, because it’s one more dead enemy.”

The borg, changelings, jem hedar, Klingons, romulans— they were handled, some more than others, in ways that should invite criticism and skepticism about the intentions of the show. But they were humanized and explored further than ‘excuse to hand everyone an assault rifle and swat armor.’ A new show would ideally be improving or challenging past shows’ failures or missteps, not taking a huge step back. The gorn problem is even more glaring because it’s a sharp and bleak turn from the themes of trek shows that precede SNW, and from the actual episode the gorn come from.

#I know people hate me on this website for talking about the gorn so much #and I do think it’s funny. I also wish I wasn’t thinking about the gorn this much but alas #it’s bad tv and I’ll do it Gandalf. I’ll take the ring to mordor #Star Trek blogging #snw negativity

[minilev]

#struggling to draw again #was trying to spend as much time as possible with the friend that left the country #fucking mordor #my art

[dirtymeanuruk]

"I'm waking up to ash and dust, I wipe my brow, and I sweat my rust"🕸

Tuktaro always needs a reminder that he is a good brother and acolyte </3

#Tuktaro the uruk #uruk #orc #shadow of war #shadow of mordor #my art #zog's acolytes #The light came back in my neighborhood I'm happy- #I'm not as happy with this as with the Javaid one but it's something -3- #then I need to do my favorite girl Crane <3 #Tuk we love you so much you are the best keep it up *pat on the back*

[urwendii]

If I write the istar!Mairon thing I might self indulge so much bc the possibilities of uncorrupted Mairon are SO GOOD (pun intended)

#uncorrupted Mairon but still keeping his edge and sass #also the olórin aiwendil mairon trio has SO MUCH POTENTIAL #now i wonder who else would have Melkor seduced? i mean Ossë seems like an obvious choice #ok but a water based Mordor though #mhhh this thing is writing itself (lie) #REVERSE CANON: dark!Ossë and a Mairon who walked away from Melkor bc Aulë fought for him #WELL NOW IM EMOTIONAL #cassy.tolkien

[ghost-proofbaby]

i want you to know that i keep getting this biker couple's tik toks on my fyp and every time i see one i melt into the floor because its so 24 hours eddie and reader AND I MISS 24 HOURS EDDIE SO BAD AND I ESPECIALLY MISS WHEN THEY WATCHED HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON

STOP DON'T MAKE ME THINK ABOUT THEM WHEN I'M TRYING TO WRITE FOR MAROON DON'T DO THIS TO ME DON'T-

#sighs and opens up the google doc folder of all the one off things i've written about them and left unfinished #you're going to make me do it aren't you? #i'm going to have to write them again aren't i? #i also get biker's tik toks and just EVAPORATE because IT'S SO THEEEEMMMMMM waaaah #does it haunt you guys to know how much “beyond the hours” content i have that just... sits there? #y'all don't know what they've been up to but i do #and there was even a planned sequel i toyed with before the series blew up blew up #just refuse to write it until i finish mordor and maroon #and now the astarion fic #but i had another idea for them that was funny as fuck #but also i love leaving their ending as is #thank u ily <3 #24 hours

[frodothefair]

Huge inside joke with Mr. Nisile that nobody will get, but I feel the need to post it anyway.

Gaffer: Marigold, ever since you married Frodo you use far too much lavender to wash your sheets and clothes! You two are going to die of lavender poisoning, mark my words!

#based on the fact that my mom always thinks i use too much detergent because she can *gasp* smell it on my clothes and sheets #while she herself uses hardly any at all and often just plain water and hence her clothes seem like they have not been washed at all #nor does she wash them often #that woman is gross and has some vendetta against cleaning products thinking they make you sick or something #parents #flowers of mordor au

[ach-sss-no]

i started playing lotro by the way

i got the deed for survivng to level 14 without dying, and then i found out that apparently this game has instakill fall damage. no more stay-alive deeds for me. i've lost everything i worked for

#shadow of mordor taught me bad habits #my favorite thing to do in that game was jump off the tower #I am not much of a gamer by the way

[tolkien-obsessed]

#lotro #lotr #lord of the rings online #my screenshots #mordor #sammath naur #annatar #or antheron i should say #haven't really tried indoors gifs much but this looked so cool!

[lesbiansforboromir]

everyone be quiet... gollum game trailer

#lotr #tolkien #gollum game #gollum #lord of the rings #thranduil #gandalf #mordor #sauron #shelob #you've no fucking idea how much I love all these designs #CREEPY ELVES!!! #Youtube

[coralhoneyrose]

Wait but this is crazy, writing is so fun actually?? I love to write??? Who knew.

#My ability to stress myself out about this hobby so much that I forget how fun it is....unparalleled #And yeah that post from the other day about writing w/o inspo feeling like carrying the ring to Mordor is so real #Then lo and behold if you take a few days away from it and come back suddenly it's a blast again #A full on party #And now I have class soon but I'm so hype to write more after!!! #Personal #Writing

[samayla]

Well, I've seen Mr Bilbo's trolls and met Glorfindel!

#makes me wonder how much farther in this i'd actually be if my old distance app had worked indoors... #walk to mordor #nerd fitness #fitness challenge

[hallothere]

yeah, i buy him being gil-galad’s herald

#lotro #elrond #i will tag this #black book of mordor #bbom spoilers #no context but it is does happen #he's just so standing at attention to [redacted] #like he doesn't need to #if anything else [redacted] should recognize *him* #after all [redacted] was taking [redacted] to him when [redacted] #no no that's too much i'll stop