#so many darn elves!

[lordgrimwing]

Marsupial au

[from this ask!]

The basics: everything is the same but the elves are marsupial and have pouches to carry around their babies!

Why would @nighttimepatrons and I make this au? Because it’s cute. Imagine little elflets trying to climb into their parents’ belly pouches to hide. Imagine the process of pouch-weaning an elflet who is really too big to be climbing in anymore. It’s just cute, ok?

Now, let’s talk about some elves and their pouches!

Nerdanel: Very roomy, very comfy. She’s had a lot of kids in there. Solid 8/10 (points deducted because occupants might get banged against rock she’s chiseling for her latest sculpture)

Feanor: Comfy place to curl up for a snooze but it gets a bit hot, and he will kick you out when he goes to the forge. 7/10

Maedhros: Excellent, so roomy, can easily hold two or more elflets at once, he’ll never bump against pointy table corners. 9/10 (some argue it’s too roomy)

Maglor/Celegorm/Caranthir: it’s fine, I guess, but why would you go in there when Maedhros is an option? 5/10 (at least Celegorm has good stories)

Curufin: “Leaving was the right thing to do, but I miss him sometimes. I miss all of them—who they were.” 3/10 (sample size of 1)

Ambarussar: The only things in those pouches are arrows. Unrated.

Glorfindel: A good place to hide for a few minutes or to peek out of during hikes to enjoy the view but he will evict you when he’s busy. 6/10

Erestor: Due to unfortunate childhood experiences, the only thing getting into this half-elf’s pouch is lent and yeast infections. 1/10 (Glorfindel’s trying to help)

Celeborn: He looks like the weak link during pouch-weaning, but it’s a trick. Grandpa will Not let you inside when mom says no more pouch. 7/10

Galadriel: No one’s dared to get in lately, but Celebrian reports that she was quite comfortable. 5/10 (points deducted for intimidation factor)

Celebrian: Cozy, a little tight with twins, very easy to fall asleep. 8/10

Gil-galad: Little Arwen’s claimed it as hers and only hers, so it mut be good. 7/10 (unfortunately she had to be pulled out after he fell at Sauron’s hands, which is very traumatic for an elflet)

Elrond: Much to his children’s confusion, he doesn’t have a pouch. No one in Melian’s line has one.

Marsupial clothing would be designed so that elflets have pouch access, so it isn’t an uncommon sight for little heads to suddenly poke out from between the folds of a robe, or for an elflet to start pulling at their parent’s clothes, trying to find the opening. Pants are a no-go when an elflet’s involved, there’s just no room to stretch.

Pouch hygiene is very important. A healthy pouch is a little moist and it should be regularly cleaned to prevent itchy yeast infections. Lent and dust can also cause irritation. Elrond gives Glorfindel salves to try to get Erestor to use in his crusty pouch so he doesn’t itch himself raw in his sleep.

There are some less fun parts, too, of course. Like the fact that itty bitty elflets might not be noticed if they fall out of the pouch, leaving them abandoned on the ground and too small to be alone for long. Or the way kidnappers can hold out a sack and some elflets will climb right in because it looks like a pouch. But most of this is happy! (outside of Erestor being relentlessly teased by his human playmates and Arwen being traumatized by Gil-galad’s death)

Oh, did I mention that Gil-galad, Elrond, and Celebrian are a threesome yet, because they are.

And kidnap fam totally happens. E+E like Maedhros’ pouch more than Maglor’s.

Ask me about fics that live rent-free in my head!

#it's silly and i love it #rent-free fic game #elves but marsupial #nerdanel #feanor #maedhros #sons of feanor #gil galad #celebrian #elrond #erestor #glorfindel #celeborn #galadriel #so many darn elves! #the silmarillion #grimwing gripes #the void answers

[fearidescent]

I watched all episodes of The Grimm Variations, which released on Netflix earlier today. Here's my ranking, starting from the bottom:

6: The Elves and the Shoemaker. Setting is modern day Japan, which I'm not particularly interested in, and there aren't that many fantastical elements. The characters are pretty boring too.

5: Hansel and Gretel. This one is more due to the fact that I feel it diverges too much from the source material, particularly the ending. It feels like it could stand on its own, away from this anthology, but someone decided to tack the names Hansel and Gretel onto it, just to make it fit. Does earn some points for its sci-fi setting though.

4: The Pied Piper of Hamelin. The animation is pretty, as expected from a director who used to work for Ghibli. I do feel it loses some of that Clamp edge, though. The piper himself is an interesting character, and Maria is probably the best protagonist of the bunch. On the other hand, that teacher is probably my most detested character out of the entire anthology. Creep. The setting is a medieval village where fun is basically outlawed, and with that I'm sure you can guess how the piper lures Maria away.

3: Cinderella. The setting is Japan from I'm guessing from when it had just opened its borders to the western world? Not modern-modern, but not ancient either. Kiyoko (Cinderella) herself is a very strong villainess. I also like the outfits that the stepsisters wear. This story is probably also the most effective at the "what if [main character] was evil?" You can see why most people believe that Kiyoko is not evil, but considering we mainly see things from the stepsisters' point of view, Kiyoko's evil does become pretty obvious.

2: The Town Musicians of Bremen. On the surface, this one probably diverges from its source material the most, what with making the main characters humans instead of animals. But beyond that, it sticks to the story pretty closely. I like the character designs from this one the most, and the setting is interesting, kind of a sci-fi wild west pastiche.

1: Little Red Riding Hood. I like the setting from this one the best, a far future where the lines between reality and the virtual are blurry. The wolf, Gray, is an interesting villain for very much favoring the real to the artificial, which is usually what you'd expect for the heroes of these settings. Though it seems Scarlet also prefers the real to the virtual, so it doesn't feel like it's making a moral judgment on those darn kids who can't live without their phones or whatever. (Also Scarlet can stuff my stomach full of gemstone-lookalikes anytime.)

And there you have it! Feel free to reblog this to add your own ranking of these episodes, or just talk about the series in general.

#netflix #netflix anime #the grimm variations #fairy tales #anime #mal watches anime #anime review

[vyrid]

Hermione does not, in any way, overpower Tom Riddle, in any field. 

For evidence purposes, I'll use all of their achievements from book one to book 7. Instead of going on a long, disorganized tangent, we'll cut them down into 3 categories: studies, wit, and talent/strength. (I swear theres a difference between wit + studies.)

Studies --

During school, Hermione:

Was referred to as the brightest witch of her school year by Lupin

Got 10 OWLS (2 less than Bill and Charlie)

Prefect

She did get Slughorn's favour to an extent

During school, Tom Riddle:

Was referred to as the brightest kid to step into Hogwarts (possibly ever) by Albus Dumbledore

His grades are never revealed, but it is implied time and time again that he was a model student with a spotless record

Prefect and Headboy

Got a Special Award For Services to the School (hes a rat 😭)

Slughorn's favorite despite being Muggleborn and broke

There is not much I can work on in the studies department, because there isn't much text to support their performances involving the school directly, but it's obvious that Tom Riddle takes the cake. With every bullet point presented, Riddle's side of achievments is always 3x more impressive. I would like to add that he thrived in DADA and didn't shy away from any dark subjects, while Hermione was too scared to put thought into DADA + was too impatient with Divination (which I don't blame her for.)

If I had to compare them involving other characters, I would say that Tom Riddle is right up there with Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald, while Hermione falls below tier near James Potter and Severus Snape.

If Severus Snape is no match for Tom Riddle (atleast when he was sane), then Hermione isn't a match for Severus. Snape was the BEST potions boy to go to Hogwarts -- it could be argued that Lily was also up there but yk shes dead so we don't care about that -- and he wasn't scared to apply his studies in the Dark Arts to real life. He was a smart kid, and even though he was below Tom Riddle in terms of brilliance, he was pretty darn smart. If Hermione cannot even reach his level, it's kind of silly to compare her to Tom Riddle.

Wit --

This one is a no brainer. The thing that sets them apart is their ability to think outside of the box.

Tom Riddle believed in a world of magic. He believed there was not a limit in which magic could be stopped. He achieved GREAT things simply by letting his trust in his own magic and the wonders of the Wizarding World lead him to his goals.

Hermione is close minded. She believes what she wants to believe, and most of her information comes from her precious, reliable books. She was too close minded to believe in divination. She was too close minded to sit back and think that, perhaps, house elves were made a certain way in which they ENJOYED labour (which is a whole other discussion), she was too close minded to believe in the Death Hallows. She was too close minded to think that there could possibly be a better, alternative recipe to a potion that didn't come straight from the school book. Her refusal to simply believe held her back from many opportunities.

Hermione is studious. Tom Riddle is BRILLIANT. Most of Hermione's knowledge comes from what she's been taught at school, but Tom Riddle went out and learned his own knowledge. And that's not a bad thing. Being studious and smart already sets her apart from many, many people.

But Tom Riddle wasn't just a studious guy. He was a genius, a prodigy, kind of a psychopath. He learned at a young age how and exactly when to use his strengths to get what he wants. He carried himself up as social ladder reserved solely for purebloods before even finding out his heritage as the descendant of Salazar Slytherin. He made a grown adult women scared of him as a child. He didn't use his wit for good, no, but was he pretty damn smart? Yeah.

Talent and Strength --

When Hermione was a kid, she learned to utilize what she had around her to catch up with other kids. She taught herself the syllabus before even getting into school and even learned spells without being taught by Professors! She was always the first one to get the spell right and was quick on her feet in an argument. She had a lot of brewing talent in her. It is not easy to be thrown into a whole new world but she took all of it with grace.

She was amazing at spells. When the trio ran away during the 7th book, she was their rock to lean on--for strength, for protection, for guidance. She knew every spell in the book to hide them away from Voldemort.

Her duelling skills, while not on par with Harry's, were pretty darn good, too. She could hold her own in a duel if she really needed to get out of their alive, using her quick thinking and sometimes, deception. Ex. (When she changed Harry's face to not resemble him when they got caught by snatchers.)

I give Hermione a lot of credit in the book. She was stronger than she needed to be at a young age, and she handled it better than most people did.

Tom Riddle on the other hand...

His talent is unmatched when it comes to anybody else.

He learned to get a hold on his magic and command it like the king that he is at the baby age of one digits. Because of all the instances at Wool's Orphanage, it isn't crazy to assume that this wasn't just a case of accidental magic. He knew exactly what he was doing, and he knew exactly how to call onto his magic to do his bidding. I don't think even Dumbledore could have said he was able to do that.

He was a parselmouth. It's less a talent and more a skill, but he used his hereditary trait to manipulate and use another type of magic to do what he wanted. Speaking to snakes is one thing--getting them to actually listen to you has to count for something.

He made horcruxes at the age of 16. That is a type of deadly, deadly magic. It is so forbidden it doesn't even fall under Forbidden magic because it's blasphemous to even think to do it. The fact that his magic was so strong that he could go through that process and come our alive is actually crazy.

He made a whole persona for himself, under Lord Voldemort, and got a whole race of people to follow him blindly. He wasn't even a pureblood and he still had them down on their knees. That's talent.

He could perform all forbidden curses with ease and not get drained. Moody says that you have to mean your intent and that nobody can *just* cast the curses. You have to have the willpower and strength to cast them--the fact that Voldemort could cast dozens of them at a time without thinking about it already sets him apart in strength from Hermione. I doubt even Snape, as he brilliant as he is, would dare push his limits like that.

I don't want this to get SUPER long, but here are some things I left out about Riddle and didn't know how to add on the list.

He found the long lost Chamber of Secrets during his time at Hogwarts. It was there for millions of years--he can't have been the ONLY descendant. It's safe to say he was one of the first people to open it and actually use it for his own gain.

He acquired the Elder Wand. I mean, so did Harry and Dumbledore, but it doesn't change the fact that he did. He was kind of dumb when he grew up and became all insane but that's impressive, too.

It is implied that he was at the brink of winning the war before Harry killed him on Halloween. If he hadn't taken the bait, maybe we'd see a world overrun by his power.

He didn't inspire fear in just Britain. He inspired fear across the world. Harry Potter was known across every wizarding community, such as Bulgaria. That means they must've known Voldemort too. There was lots of foreign people at the world cup, but every single one of them ran at the sight of the Death Eaters--which means they recognize his sign in some sort of way. The Gregrovitch family recognizes him, as does the German witch does when she sees him in folds in fear.

Sorry, this became a long rant of Voldemort's powers and not just a comparison, but it does go to show that Hermione being even near his level. It's just not plausible.

You're welcome to argue with me or correct me on my oversights! I haven't fact checked everything and I won't be offended if you correct some points. (Also there is a lot of typos and I have a cut on my finger so please dont kill me for my grammar 😭)

#Tom Riddle #hermione granger #tom riddle vs hermione granger #harry potter #harry potter and the deathly hallows #severus snape #?? #in a way #he always shows up in these for some reason lmao hes just that iconic #power #comparison #harry potter discourse

[thenixkat]

Mundane AU!Laios thoughts

Note:

Probably contains spoilers

Mundane au= no magic and no fantasy 'races' (like... little people are a thing, they exist in reality, some people just have dwarfism. The elves are just skinny racist and xenophobic Europeans like? And there's already parralells made with the demi humans so if I do anything the orcs are Afro Native and Kobolds are somewhere African or Arab. And for the ogres... gigantism is a thing that exists in real like and totally a teen girl would just wear some horns.)

Thoughts:

The Toudens are European-born. From somewhere cold as hell, really isolated and conservative, that's close to some mountains, that's racist towards the local indigenous people.

(The sibs, but especially Laios got chewed out about some shit and has been trying to be better, slips up every now and then but takes criticism well so long as folks tell him what he did/said wrong).

Local weird kids put off vibes that the rest of the village didn't like, Laios and Falin grew up bullied and ostracized. Falin got sent off to schooling in the big city and later to a university in Italy where she met Marcille.

Laios dropped out of high school and joined the military as soon as he was able to b/c he wanted to get the hell out of dodge. Served for a few shitty years b4 just... deserting and backpacking across Europe just straight up homeless and working whatever odd jobs he could find. Man was going through it. Wound up in the same city where Falin was studying at a university in and decided to visit her. She took one look at him and refused to let him just go back to what he was doing, so Laios started couch surfing with her (very much against dorm rules but he looked terrible and Falin wasn't about to let anyone stop her from making sure her brother has a roof over his head and food).

Eventually, she takes him with her when she does a work-study in the USA for her ecology degree and they ended up staying/Falin kinda maybe sorta dropped out and got a job with a vet near where she was doing her work-study.

Laios and Falin are technically illegal immigrants but they're white so no one really questions their citizenship (their working on getting citizenship/papers)

Laios gets a GED. Does some self-study from Falin's textbooks and online stuff but that's about it for his schooling.

Laios definitely, like, lives in Falin's basement. Falin is the primary breadwinner in this household, Laios is aware of this and has learned to accept it even tho he would like to take care of his baby sister and sometimes feels bad about not being able to. They used to share a room in a cheap apartment but after building up enough savings they managed to buy a suspiciously cheap house in a rural town bordering a reservation and not far from a national park.

Laios still works odd jobs, mostly physical labor and stuff where they won't ask for a degree. Has worked retail, where his customer service was trash but he's darn good at just stocking and shelving shit.

Met Chilchuck while working retail, Chilchuck introduced him to the concept of a union which Laios thinks is really neat.

The town where the Touden's moved has a sizable population of people with dwarfism, Chilchuck is a notable member of the little person community in the area. The Touden's go to Chilchuck for help with paperwork (they pay him a small fee) and he doesn't ask too many questions about why they don't have this or that piece of documentation.

Laios enjoys doing citizen science and bird watching. During the tourist season, he runs a small wilderness guide giving campers and hikers tours in the local national park.

There's a hermit that lives in the national park illegally (Senshi) that Laios and Falin made friends with. They love his cooking.

Laios is active in the online furry community. He does commissions, mostly of digital and physical art or people's fursonas and vore stuff. He does great ferals, and decent anthros, but his human art is not good (he's working on it).

Laios is decidedly chubby in this, his weight goes up and down depending on the season and how much physical activity he's doing. But ever since he reunited with Falin, she's been making sure he doesn't skip meals if they can afford to eat. And ever since he met Senshi he's gotten heftier since he loves that man's cooking.

#nix meows #dungeon meshi #laios touden #mundane au #just a few thoughts

[bluedalahorse]

Hi! I hope everyone is doing well. I am popping up to let you know that I’m alive, that there’s a lot going on, that I still love YR, and that I’m thinking about boundaries and priorities.

I loved Young Royals season three. I especially love how it engaged with the legacy of Erik and the systems of Hillerska. I love that it took the idea of the legal system providing catharsis and that it threw that out the window. I love the way characters got words for what they were going through, how Felice got to name the racism happening to her and August got words to name his disordered eating. Most of all I loved the way Lisa wrote Sara’s relationship with her father and her reconciliation with Simon. That meant so much to me, and I can’t wait to imagine a future for the Eriksson siblings.

Here is a brief list of things I loved about the finale. They were all written in the afterglow of seeing the episode. I stand by them. Especially how much I loved Wille’s ending, and what happened there.

In the coming weeks, I’m sure there’ll be stuff I’m more critical of or don’t feel as strongly about. I especially have mixed feelings about the way Lisa seemed to structure 3.5 in a way that mimics the emotional roller coaster of trauma. I’m not really focusing on that stuff here or now, because I don’t want to. But it’s on my mind, and I don’t know if I’ll end up posting about it here and elsewhere.

At present this post isn’t rebloggable or tagged with much of anything. That’s because I’m trying to figure out the best way moving forward with tumblr. I don’t know if I want to delete this blog and abandon it entirely, but the pressure to present a curated version of myself is too much, and is a pretty big trigger for things like rejection sensitivity and anxiety. The pace here is also too fast and there is no way to keep up with everything, and (forgive me for this cardinal sin in tumblr-land) I wish I had some easier way to not see the same sets of gifs a hundred times with the same commentary. I’m experimenting with slower ways of doing fandom, where I can enjoy myself more.

I do, however, want a way to get the cultural footnotes for Young Royals, especially when they help me write better fic and create better fanworks. I know there’s some pretty darn useful posts about how lines get translated and various holidays and traditions (and looking forward I would like to know more about universities in Sweden, and how the monarchy works and such.) So I want to be able to find the stuff I need without having to spend as much time on what I don’t need. The resource posts people make are truly helpful.

And I also have some other fannish things I want to see here, like Les Mis and Interview with the Vampire. And the memes are nice. I miss the memes.

Before I make the decision about how I engage, I think it will be useful for me to know my priorities. So I’ve thought about them a bit, and I want to make the decisions that align with my priorities. Here’s what I want to focus on moving forward:

I want to spend more time creating. The thing that has always brought me the most genuine joy in this fandom is writing fic. YRS3 ended in a place of possibility for so many characters, and I want to keep writing about them and learning about them that way. (I won’t even lie, of course most of my ideas are about August—August and Kristina working on their intergenerational cousin relationship, August getting pulled into weekly DND sessions with Wille and Simon so they can all get better at being human together while pretending to be elves or something, August doing the personal and liberatory work that allows him and Sara to one day have a Second Chance Romance with they’re older, even August/Nils because oh boy did that season give me ideas about them I never knew I had.) One of my goals is to cut down on browsing time significantly so that I spend more time writing, especially so I can finish Heart and Homeland. I think it’ll make me happier.

I want to spend more time helping others create. Some of the most meaningful experiences I had in this fandom involved being a beta reader or hearing out another person’s fic ideas, and getting to live in that space of creation and collaboration. For that reason, I’d like to still make new YR connections on occasion, especially with people who wanna share their writing process with me. Tumblr may or may not be a place to do that. I’m still figuring out where stuff should happen.

I want analysis to be something I do as part of my creative process, and that’s it. I don’t know if this is fully true, but it felt like ten years ago there was more fandom meta focused on what fans wanted to write in their fanfics, and how their interpretations of canon led to them creating cool art. There was some meta that was about how to interpret canon “correctly” but that wasn’t the priority. Now, it feels like—and this is true even outside of YR fandom, so this is no reflection on YR specifically—there is more emphasis on having the “correct” interpretation of canon. About getting it right, and having the right predictions and interpretations. It feels competitive in a way that wears me down. From this point forward, when posting analysis, I’m going to ask myself, is this furthering my creative pursuits and my understanding of the writing process more generally, or am I just trying to win an argument? If the answer is just to win, then I’m not going to post my argument. That runs counter to my goals.

I don’t want to engage in any space where anonymous discourse flourishes. Even when well-intentioned. Being away for a while was clarifying for me on that point. Turns out one of the biggest triggers for my anxiety and shame are extensive, heated conversations where I don’t know who is saying what and who I can trust. Spaces where there’s a lot of anon conversation are probably going to be ones I block and unfollow first moving forward. It just seems like a good baseline for how I engage.

So this is where I am as of now. I’ll probably continue to hold off on doing much posting in the coming days, but I did want to poke my head up for air for a second to let people know what the state of everything is.

Here’s one picture of the plushes for the road:

And here’s a picture of the waffles I ate on finale day:

Oh, to have cloudberry jam and time spent with friends. These things are truly joyous.

#yr s3 spoilers #yr spoilers #yr season 3 #mostly tagging this in case anyone has those blocked

[shirefantasies]

Why is Tolkien so charitable regarding Frodo's missteps? After all, Tolkien conveniently and entirely blames all of Frodo's missteps regarding his handling of the ring on the ring itself.  "I do not think Frodo's was a moral failure. At the last moment the pressure of the Ring would reach its maximum -- impossible, I should have said, for anyone to resist."- JRR Tolkien. One can't imagine him saying anything remotely like this about the others who tried to take the ring. It's only Frodo's actions that Tolkien excuses by saying that anyone in Frodo's position would have done the same thing.

Hi there! Not sure if this comes from dislike of the character or just Tolkien’s handling, but if it’s the former I know I have characters I wouldn’t want someone to push me to like so I for sure will be surprised but respectful if Frodo is a character you don’t enjoy. Having people try to change your mind can be exhausting and annoying lol, so this’ll focus on just how I take things in the story personally! I am by no means a huge Tolkien scholar, but here’s how I take that situation with the ring and some evidence for the points as I at least see them (with some general agreement from other fandom and analysis discussions and conventions with other LoTR fans as well!). Hope this is at least an interesting read and I’m pretty darn flattered you chose me to ask this to ☺️

1. The ring bears a heavy weight (literally) on everyone’s decisions interacting with it, but I’ve always taken the story and Tolkien’s words on it as a bit of commentary on the folly of man, and as a religious person the concept of original sin. I.E. that we as humans (men, hobbits, dwarves, and even elves included in this setting) are simply not perfect and cannot be. Part of that evidenced in quotes like that from Tolkien himself but also scenes where even characters seen as beacons of good, strength, wisdom, morals, etc. do show temptation by the ring or that it would turn good intentions to evil. Galadriel and Gandalf, for example, are some of the most powerful beings and they tell Frodo that they would become corrupt and misuse the power they already have and that of the ring. Boromir as a character shows this too, because he is held overall pretty blameless too despite doing a bad thing. I love Boromir personally but nearly every fan on here I interact with does too and many discussions are had around his desperation, his life experiences up to the point of the fellowship’s travels, and how we all believe him to be a good man that made bad decisions out of both the influence of the ring and the pressure put on him to be his people’s hero. So I hold Frodo and Boromir especially on an equal ground of people who are flawed and strained, people tired of fighting and who just want an escape, frankly, a solution they don’t feel is coming especially not through the dark lens of the ring and its temptation to trust the way it warps you.

2. I think part of why Frodo gets emphasized in what can seem like the ‘oh he did no wrong’ narrative comes from the simple fact that he’s one of the characters who holds/interacts with the ring the longest. Besides characters like Bilbo and Gollum, we don’t see as much detail on a long time spent with the ring- in fact, beyond the what the Smeagol flashbacks do Frodo is the main indicator of it all for readers/viewers. Most of the other characters only touch/hold/carry it briefly, not for months like he does. So the weight of it does not fall as heavily on them, but we do see that Sam, the chief hero of the story (Tolkien’s words!), even hesitates before giving the ring back to Frodo after carrying it for a fraction of the time. Would Sam have been driven that much further down by it if he had been the one to carry it? I believe so, though it would have manifested differently (Frodo is more a quiet, brooding type who spits venom on occasion where Sam is much more a man of action and outward anger, so the ring would have twisted that and I think he would have been more tough and explosive while Frodo got nasty if that makes sense). Bilbo and Gollum take on similar traits when they try to snatch the ring and I believe Frodo would have descended further into those, too, with even more time carrying the ring.

3. If we’re looking at LoTR also as a showing that absolute power corrupts, we have to have someone like Frodo fail. We have to show even a ‘little guy’, someone young and joyful at the beginning of the story, someone with innocent beauty, falling to it for that very idea that anyone would. It’s almost easier to believe that one of the aforementioned beacons of power and strength like, say, Gandalf, would fall because they already have power to go to their heads. We see this with Saruman, for example, and how he literally falls from grace and dies trying to dominate. But a hobbit and a young innocent one falling when he has nothing of the sort is more telling and tragic. He never wanted this, in fact though he is brave enough to take it on he also tries to give it up numerous times because of the pressure that ultimately threatens to crush him. It’s a cautionary tale that’s sad because it’s true- pressure and power get to us.

4. I totally agree that Frodo made some bad decisions on his own, too! Once again, nobody’s perfect so as an author I can see why it’s realistic to have him screw up, but for sure I would not blame the ring on every single bad thing Frodo has done! The ring definitely amplifies and warps things, but one of the biggest tells of that is Gollum. Sam doesn’t trust him and is right to do so, and while Gollum is very essential to the story, Frodo does let fear and a desire to do every single thing right (again, pressure, imo a big theme here lolol!) take over the decision to trust their shady guide and then the ring takes the stress of that and Gollum’s words and twists all his feelings of exhaustion and resentment against Sam.

5. We’ll never know for sure, but I’ll wrap this up by saying I do personally believe that Frodo is by far not the only person who would fall in this way. He isn’t a perfect character, either, but that is exactly why what happens happens. But then that logic can by applied to many others too, like not only more obvious targets like Boromir or Gollum but even Gandalf, who feared what he would do with ring in hand, would succumb. The concept of the folly of man is especially interesting to me outside of ‘man’, like in the case of Saruman who is supposed to be of great wisdom and purity as a white wizard, but even he falls short. Even the Valar can fall short. Tolkien to me exemplifies the idea shown biblically that anyone can fall, even angels like lucifer/Maia and Valar like Sauron and Morgoth, if they let greed follow their hearts or do not trust the guidance of others. In this case, for Frodo that was Sam. Distrusting Sam gets him in world of trouble, Tolkien lists Sam as the chief hero, and to me the other core of Lord of the Rings is that NO ONE in that story can do it alone. Frodo would have died and fallen all the way without Sam. Rohan had to come to Gondor’s aid. The Three Hunters would not have succeeded if just Legolas or only Aragorn set out and I firmly believe that. Friendship and trust are what keeps us afloat, and Frodo’s mistrust in that, greatly amplified by stress, exhaustion, and indeed the ring, is his undoing. Human nature and evil temptation are a heck of a combo, friends!

Again, hope you find this an interesting read and even if you still don’t personally enjoy Frodo as a character I understand! I hope this comes across as just an analysis, for I don’t like debating and want to be respectful. People with the ‘I’m right, you are wrong’ mentality are a huge turnoff for me so I try to avoid that type of thinking. Thanks again for giving me a lot of food for thought anon, feel free to stop by more if you want to talk so long as this blog can keep a tone of study, not debate 🫶🏻

#lord of the rings #lotr #frodo baggins #the one ring #analysis #lord of the rings analysis #once again this is just how I see and interpret things! I am no scholar :) #thanks for an interesting ask and a chance to rant about something I love! hope it was interesting at least #ask #anon

[thepoparena]

Middle Earth Problems #1

Middle Earth consists of Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves and Men. These are their problems. [open on a shot of Samwise Gamgee standing in a field, eyes squinting directly into the camera, thumbs through the belt loops of his pants] SAM: You're best friend's uncle had a birthday party the other daaaaay... [cut to Sam, Frodo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey sitting in chairs in front of Frodo's Hobbit-hole, smoking pipe-weed. Sam opens his mouth, pauses as if to think better of it, then speaks] SAM: Disappeared? FRODO: Vanished. SAM: Turned invisible? GANDALF: Evaporateds. SAM: Dispersed? FRODO: Dissipated. SAM: Faded away? GANDALF: De-materialized. SAM: Just, poof and Bilbo was gone? FRODO: That's a Gondor-sized 10-4, good buddy. SAM: ...Well I'll be sock-darned. [there's a pause, then it's Gandalf turn to open his mouth, think better of it, then speak anyway] GANDALF: How do you knows about socks? FRODO: So later Gandalf was telling me how Bilbo could disappears because of some magic ring he got in his college adventure years. SAM: When he was hanging out with those twelve buff guys? GANDALF: Like, I'm sure you know what socks are objectivesly-like, but it's just odd it'd be in your local vernaculars. FRODO: I think it was thirteen, but yeah. Bilbo found the ring in like a goblin cave or something, won it telling knock-knock jokes to a fish or something. SAM: Are fishes good at knock-knock jokes? Not many doors to knock-knock on in goblin cave waters. FRODO: Something doesn't have to be a door for a knock to qualify as a knock. GANDALF: Familiars enough to be making puns about darning socks? Samwise, you are a Hobbits of many cultures. SAM: We're not talking about a knock, you can knock on anything. FRODO: Knock on wood. SAM: Knock yourself out. GANDALF: Knocks it off. SAM: But only a door can be knock-knocked. A knock-knock implies intent of entrance. A fish has neither the door for knock-knocking, nor the appendages required for knock-knocking in the first place... FRODO: Unless it's a mantis shrimp. Imagine a mantis shrimp could knock-knock pretty good. GANDALF: I'm pretty sures it wasn't a fish at all that your uncle Bilbo met, but I wasn't theres. I was busy looking into some... necros-mancers... [Gandalf starts starring off into the middle distance, lost in thought] SAM: I will concede that a mantis shrimp might be the one fish with any chance at a knock-knock joke competition against your uncle Bilbo, though I still argue it would have a distinct disadvantage do to its lack of doors. FRODO: Well, yeah, Bilbo won. Got him a sweet magic ring, and if you had let me get to the end of my story, that sweet magic ring is now... [Frodo proudly sticks his fingers through the straps of his overalls] ...mine. GANDALF: Oh shits! [Gandalf suddenly springs up and grabs his hat and staff] SAM: Where's the fire, fire-fighter? GANDALF: I thinks that ring might be the evil one ring of legend, forged by the dark lord Sauron... but I gots to get to the library to be sures. Should be back in about seventeen years. FRODO: Seventeen years? GANDALF: I'm a slow reader. Keeps it secret! Keeps it safe! [Gandalf bounds away off-screen. There's a pause, and Frodo sinks a bit into his chair, pouting] FRODO: Oooo, but I just got it! [cut back to Sam standing alone in the field, talking to the camera] SAM: Also, I'm pretty sure a mantis shrimp can't talk to begin with. [cue acoustic guitar]

#Middle Earth Problems #Lord of the Rings #Letterkenny #parody

[where-dreamers-go]

Reading and rambling: The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm

(Tales from Alagaësia VOLUME 1: ERAGON)

~~~

PART ONE: THE FORK

I. Mount Arngor

~~~

Ahem.

*looks at tiny, cute, little, colored map of the EASTERN REACHES*

That looks like it would have taken me the days to color. *imagining the ache of non-stop coloring the same spot over and over and over)

Anyway, what's with the random mountain? They don't get earthquakes do they?

*flipping pages*

Angela! Angela!

... Hmm 2018 copyright. Took me long enough.

*sees drawing of a fork*

Oh! The Little Mermaid! Cool.

What's with the hanging ornament with the page numbers? Should I know these symbols??

The day had not gone well.

I'm sorry. .. Blackberry mead... Like wine or expensive juice?

...picking berries in Palancar Valley.

Awh. Farm boy.

A pang of homesickness struck him.

Now?

...the Academy...

Academy? Oh okay. Not sure I even thought of him giving it a name. Then again he gives names to a number of things. Right?

He sighed, finding the sight depressing.

Do you need help? I can do that. Is it a lot for you? Or a lot in general? Are you exaggerating "mounds"?

It stood alone in the green expanse...

Oh, gosh of I were a place to have dragons... Where would I be? Hmmm. Maybe the big random mountain. A good stronghold though.

Two weeks of sailing to get there??? No. A close environment with the elves and Eragon? No. Can't do it.

How many names can this mountain have? Au least the dwarves know their history. Also, what the crap, elves? You know the mountain's name, but not where or why it has the name??? What? Like that's all you remember from class or something? Not important enough as your obsession with dragons and controlling nature that you claim to respect?

Dealing with them had proven far more frustrating than Eragon anticipated...

FINALLY! Eragon is with all the races in one place. Not just one. At least the dwarves gave him access to history and a MAP back in the day. But now... Oh oooooh. Do you know how happy I am, years later after reflection, that he's able to compare and contrast people? Also in a completely different situation.

Okay, so Eragon is eating. But it's never enough with all the energy he's using to help build??!?!!

I need to introduce him to carbs and stuff. Something.

Good, good. He doesn't want to experience anything like what happened fighting the Empire. Yeah, exciting, Eragon, but... Maybe you need a small hobby to entertain you.

"Barzûl," Eragon muttered.

Oh! That's a curse word. I know that. Right? Wait... Ha! Yeah.

A quill. Good to know.

Awwwwhhh he sleeps under one of Saphira's wings. Where else would he sleep? A rock?

Oh my goodness. Eragon and Saphira, let me do the paperwork. Just pay me in telling me what words you use to get the hair off your face.

A dragon destroyed his homework. That's messed up. I'd be upset about just that. Why don't you just burn it? Huh?

I wanna help decorate the halls!!! The echoes must be creepy in a place that large.

...and then the elves had refined the details.

Dude! The dwarves know very well how to build! When was the last time elves build anything out of stone? You didn't like Eragon's plan enough?? Just want the last say?

Darn, Eragon, get an assistant. Please.

I'll do it, but I require indoor plumbing and a cool cloak.

Oh. Eragon wants to problem solve. He wants to feel productive. Same.

Okay. I need to look up what an 'eyrie' is exactly.

Yeah, those Eldunarí need years of therapy. Poor things.

They can feel the light on their facets? For real or...?

Oh, the elves did windows. Cool. Cool.

*reads about Eragon talking with dragons*

See? I was right. Eragon needs something to do to distract himself.

Wow. That's a lot of information. I'm glad to see Eragon in a different setting, not war. But it's very new for him having so much pressure for the present to make sure the future is safer.

He's working smarter, but also a lot harder.

Woo!

#the fork the witch and the worm #Eragon #where dreamers go #tftwatw #reading and rambling

[kradogsrats]

So the most interesting bit for me in the new clip is, by revealing the succession crisis (something I’ve speculated on before but not been able to confirm since we knew literally nothing about the end of Luna Tenebris’s reign) they are exposing just how vulnerable Xadia is/was.

Remember that the dragon monarchy is formed well into the Age of Elarion, a rising golden period for humanity that comes with rapid cultural growth, presumably with corresponding magical/technological and population booms. Even in terms of human history, that's not super long ago. (Recorded human history is another matter, of course.) For elves, it could be considered recent. For the archdragons themselves, it's barely any time at all--Sol Regem was presumably in his prime when he became the first dragon king, 1200 years later he's starting to show signs of age. (Combined with the fact that a new dragon generation is only every 1000 years or so, we can probably ballpark that 1000 years for an archdragon is proportionally equivalent to 20-25 years for a human.) Relative to the dragons, the dragon monarchy is only about as old as... idk, the Department of Homeland Security. Feels like it's been around forever, actually established well within memory.

So anyway, Luna Tenebris reigns for 700-ish years, which is an appreciable amount of time (at least compared to Sol Regem's 200-ish), but a succession crisis is never a good look for a regime. It's especially not a good look only two monarchs in. This is a great opportunity for Aaravos, since the more the archdragons squabble, the more the elves can be brought to question whether any of this was actually a good idea, after all. When Aditi disappears, the elves are willing to question the benevolence of one or more of the archdragons--to the point that there are apparently factions willing to go to war against them (no doubt at Aaravos's prompting). Xadia basically grinds to a halt around an empty throne--which didn't even exist not all that long ago--and we all remember what Viren says about empty thrones.

The key thing, timeline-wise, is that after 700 years, humanity has had plenty of time to find its feet in the west. The mage wars have wound down, what will eventually be the five kingdoms are forming, and generally everyone has gotten their collective shit together. Which means, with a little push from Aaravos, they're absolutely poised to take full advantage of Xadia's weakened position. I'm willing to bet that the Orphan Queen's exposure of Aaravos's manipulations is all that prevents the total human conquest of Xadia, which we already know is something significant to Aaravos's plans based on how eager he is for Viren to get on with it.

Presumably after that fiasco everyone kind of shuffles their feet and looks generally embarrassed, then all go home and agree to forget all about it. Except on some level the damage has been done--humanity has seen just how much the dragon monarchy has destabilized Xadia, and how vulnerable they now are without a dragon on the throne.

Additionally, that was only 300 years ago, which is like... 2016-ish for Zubeia and Rex Igneous. (Maybe not the best example, given how hard I think many of us have tried to forget 2016-2020 and the fact that time has basically been fake since then, but bear with me.) Whatever dynamics were going on during the succession crisis are still pretty darn fresh, and I bet are going to factor significantly in whatever is going on down under Umber Tor.

#the dragon prince #sigh i really do need a meta tag don't i #luna tenebris #aaravos

[apihtawtoussaint]

The History of Arda (Very serious)

Part 1 (peyak)

1st - Eru Ilùvatar, Le Grand Papa, was.

But it was just him, so he decided to start a band. He created a bunch of little guys (Ainur) to be on vocals. Acapella band, very avant gard.

Eru Ilùvatar played dolls with them and decided that some were siblings even though he created them all at, presumably, the same time. This was entirely vibes based family planning.

Imagine all these little Ainur just singing their hearts out, but oh! What's this? One of them looks a little different?? Just, like, more beautiful and powerful than the others?

Well, that would be Melkor! He's the Lucifer coded one. And he's a curious little guy, he goes around the Timeless Halls, the Void, looking for something to do. Really, he wants to find the Imperishable Flame so he can create life and unvoid the Void. It's just a bit too Void for him, and I don't think that should be held agaisnt him.

Obviously, though, Eru Ilùvatar had it, but Melkor couldn't figure that out. And he's supposed to be the smartest Ainur, so that's out intelligence benchmark for these guys.

But rehearsals were over and it was show time! Eru Ilùvatar was conducting, everyone was doing their best, it was going great. Until Melkor decided to get jazzy with it and go off tempo.

Some of the other Ainur are into it, and suddenly there's a little noise rock sub band offshoot happening. Then, it's full on battle of the bands. Things are getting heated. Feelings are getting confused. Nobody knows how this is going to end.

It looks like Melkor's swaying the popular vote! But what's this?? Eru Ilùvatar with the complex composition that exposes Melkor as being not that great at music and really just loud???

And with that, the tides have turned! Eru Ilùvatar has pulled ahead! Adding salt to the foot that's kicking the downed man, he tells Melkor that because he is omniscient, even Melkor's music was part of his and there was no way he could have won. What a blow.

The afterparty was watching a music video Eru Ilùvatar had made for the winning song (his). Turns out, it was secretly also a workplace training video and it went over the creation of the universe, the world (Arda), and all living things in it.

He was especially proud of the Elves and Humans he'd thought of. And the Ainur were totally on board! They thought that these guys were just so cute and little. They couldn't wait to build them a fun enclosure where they could play with them and dress them up all fancy.

So a bunch of them decided they were actually gonna go and do the darn thing. And we must have hiérarchie; some of them were just better than the others.

The super cool ones were called the Valar, and the tinier ones the Maiar. For their crimes of being not as tall as the Valar, the Maiar were their servants (? Pay structure questionable).

Of course, Melkor went too. Can't have things going too well, you know?

Next time! Shit gets built, shit gets destroyed, many names are listed.

Part 2

#lotr #silmarillion #history of middle earth #to save my friends from my ramblings #i rant into the void #is the lord of the rings the most important cree text in history #why yes #most probably it is

[beck-a-leck]

I bit the bullet and posted the hyperfixation fic.

An Ill-Advised Journey - By TheBeckster; T, WIP, 1/?, 4.7k

When Bilbo Baggins left the Shire in the company of Thorin Oakenshield, she had not known she was pregnant. The thought of it being a possibility hadn’t even crossed her mind. She should turn around and return to the Shire. She should go home to safety and give up on this dangerous adventure. She should do a great many things. None of which are traipsing across all of Middle-earth with a pack of Dwarves. And yet...

If you've been here, then you know I have spent the last 2 months working on this story and honestly I'm just getting the Hyperfixation Fic out before I lose my nerve. (And really, I've only waited this long because I could not settle on a title, and darn it I'm still entirely happy with the one I picked)

Not entirely sure where it came from other than I've been doing a Tolkien deep dive recently, going through the books and rewatching the movies, which I hadn't done in a while, so the Hobbit was semi-fresh on my mind, granted it had still been like 4 months since I'd done the book and movies. And I guess I'm a creature of habit, and when things happen irl I guess I turn them into fics? Ya know, I love baby-fic, and I'm of an age where people in my life are having babies, and I guess when someone I know has a baby I end up writing baby-fic, because everyone deserves some soft baby cuddles. And then when I start new jobs, I guess I also write Rule 63 AUs, which also happened to me this summer. So the math works out, I suppose. Tolkien Deep Dive + Baby Fic Need + New Job Rule 63 AU = the most ill-advised road trip ever. (aka a fic for a fandom I've never been really into and never thought I would write, but current me is laughing at me from 3 months ago now) Okay look! Maybe I just wrote this story because I wanted to see the Company being all soft for a tiny baby! Sue me!

Snippet below the cut!

“Pregnant?” she echoed in disbelief. “At my age? Don’t be ridiculous. My courses are supposed to be ending. No, no that can’t be right. Besides, I haven’t –” the memory of that gentleman Hobbit from Bree sparked in Bilbo’s mind. “—Oh… oh I suppose I have. Oh dear. Oh my…”

Then she fell into a bit of a state, muttering to herself and thinking so deeply that she appeared to neither hear nor feel any attempts to get her attention.

“She gets like this,” Óin assured the Elves, “Give her a moment, she’ll either snap out of it, faint, or start whistling like a kettle.”

Bilbo did not start whistling like a kettle, nor did she utter one single “nope” before passing out. She did eventually reach the bottom of her mental spiral and reemerged to see three healers blinking patiently at her.

She laughed hesitantly. “I don’t suppose what you just told me a few minutes ago was all a hallucination?”

“That depends on what you believe we told you.” One of the Elves offered gently.

“That I’m pregnant?”

They all pursed their lips and shook their heads. “That’s real, lass.” Óin confirmed.

Bilbo dropped her head into her hands. “Oh, of all the times to leave the Shire unexpectedly. They’ll never believe that I… oh, dear. Oh, bother.” She looked up at Óin. “Did you know?”

“I suspected. Thought you were using us as an excuse to escape a scandal.”

Laughing just on the edge of hysterics, Bilbo shook her head. “Gracious no! If I’d known, I’d never have agreed to traipsing all across Middle-Earth with a bunch of Dwarves. That would have been right foolish, wouldn’t it?” Her eyes suddenly went wide. “Oh dear, I’ll have to tell the others, won’t I?”

#becky writes things #the hobbit #an ill-advised journey #i made a v strong margarita and decided this was what I was gonna do with my friday night #this being posting the story. not writing the thing #the hobbit fanfiction #idk this fandom what are the tags? 😭 #i don't even go here #i find it incredibly funny that I'm wearing my 'she doesn't even go here' hoodie as i type that phrase for the umpteenth time #apologies in advance to anyone who follows me for other fic content. until further notice i have the hobbit brain rot #and all other projects are on hold

[a-lonely-dunedain]

heyas friend! would you be interested in taking about ethedis a little bit? she seems pretty cool from what I've seen so far, and I'm kinda curious about her :D

oh! well sure I'd love to! provided I can get my thoughts into a half-coherent state. I haven't really written anything about her publicly, mostly because I don't really write much of anything publicly. or privately, for that matter. it all just floats around in my head like some kinda thought-soup. or smoothie. so it will probably be helpful to write some of this down anyway lol

ahem! so Ethedis was my first character, so the early parts of her story pretty closely follow the elf-intro quests. main difference being that she wasn't there when the Refuge of Edhelion fell. according to the game it was attacked like 600 years ago, and I think she's waaaay younger than that. I wanna say like 300-something? yeah she's baby. I mean still an adult by elven standards but like, in spirit, she is baby.

but yea she ends up there just as an apprentice Loremaster who's traveling with the sons of Elrond, both to help in any way she can and because this was a good opportunity to study some recent-ish history. also even tho she's from Rivendell she's probably been to the Blue Mountains a couple times. she's actually fascinated by dwarven architecture and culture, so she jumped at the opportunity to join Elladan and Elrohir's party. she wasn't even initially gonna be allowed to come, but she gave Elrond good enough puppy-eyes 🥺 he was like "fine FINE you can go just stop looking at me like that".

Also, I'd been toying around with the idea that in her travels to and from Ered Luin in the past she might've met Amdir and became friends with him, so that just makes everything in Bree So Much Worse for her. because now not only is she experiencing the loss of a mortal friend for the first time, But she's the one who has to help put him down. (not to mention the guilt of "could I have prevented this if I made it to Bree sooner?") it takes her awhile to fully understand that he's like, gone gone, on account of her being so young and like This Has Never Happened Before. anyway yeah, fun stuff :)

good news is that she bounces back from that pretty quickly! I mean kinda. She's just putting her strong emotions to a more productive use, that being hunting down whatever bitchass Nazgul was responsible for her friend's death! she has no idea what she's getting into :)

as far as her personality goes, she's bright, cheerful, and a bit of an airhead (surprising for a Loremaster I know). she's not exactly stupid or anything (I just play it up for comedic effect sometimes lol) but she is young and therefore less experienced and wise than most other elves you would meet in the 3rd age. the benefit of that is that she's not nearly as Tired™ as many other 3rd age elves either, and can handle a lot of emotional distress without losing her sunshiny demeanor. good thing too! Corunir definitely could use a sunshiny friend, considering all he's been through.

OH! right, speaking of Corunir and Ethedis!

When I met Corunir in Aughaire I was just like "oh this poor guy. Ethedis, go /hug him he needs it" and their dynamic just kinda escalated from there. Ethedis the Sunshine Elf™️ just goes "sad ranger??? NOT on my watch!". Ethedis provides much needed emotional support, and Corunir keeps her from walking off cliffs or into pools of death-water. mutually beneficial relationship 😊

In my headcannon, after Ethe masters the watching stones she's able to get close enough to one to damage its heart so Corunir has a path through Rammas Deluon, and they do the rest of the Eriador epic line together. Corunir deff wouldn't have wanted to leave Ethedis to east Angmar on her own, he finally got a friend gosh darn it he's gotta make sure nothing happens to her!

also they hold hands sometimes 😳 maybe even cuddle,,,, 👉👈

gah I'm bad at talking about this, what I'm trying to say is that they're adorable together. I personally headcannon Corunir as demiromantic ace, and Ethe probably is too, so their relationship isn't romantic for like a long time (what can I say? my demiro ace self likes to project onto my blorbos). I'm not sure when they develop romantic feelings for one another. I think there isn't one point I can point to and say "that! there's when they fall in love!", it's more of a gradual thing that just always felt natural to them. they don't notice their relationship changing from platonic to romantic, whatever state it's in is just what feels right. it's like, they don't fall in love, they just kinda end up there at some point. I don't know if I'm making any sense lol. point is, yes I ship my OC who has a personality *vaguely* based on my own with my favorite ranger, what of it? what is life without at least one shamelessly self-indulgent ship? I think everyone should get at least one, as a treat :) also:

*gently slides this image of Corunir and Eth over bc my friend did a rly good job on it and I need u to Look At Them*

anyway uh, yeah! that's some stuff about Ethedis :) my lil elf who's head is full of sunshine instead of braincells. I don't know how to end this post.

#lotro #lotro oc #corunir #I feel like I was just rambling here but like #this is what you asked for! #I think #hopefully? #either way it was nice to actually get some of this written down :) #I probably wouldn't've gotten around to it if someone didn't ask

[crymeariveronceagain]

Listening to Almost Human by Lauren Daigle and thought kotlc

What do you think?

yknow what that actually outlines a deeper message of kotlc which i think is super interesting, which is the idea that humanity is something singular to humans, which is actually a very important concept to us as a society. because, if we give non-human things humanity, then we're losing our grasp on what it means to be ourselves, and our knowledge of self as we've fought to understand it for so many years is getting epically screwed over.

this was a huge player in the very beginning of the series, especially in Everblaze, like, that one was straight up about what makes a person a person.

and this song, like, highkey really really really focuses on the way that love can cause a person to become more person-like, how a human can be made more human, more real, more living through being loved and loving in return.

I'm almost human Finally breathing, what is this feeling? Human Coming to my senses, losing my focus Taken by emotion, lost in the moment You make me feel Almost human

like these lines are so interesting in the context of kotlc because what kotlc has been doing is deconstructing, for both the reader and for Sophie, the idea that humanness is something unique, something exciting, and that's really the main point of kotlc. it's this, if there was another more powerful species, would they even want to interact with us? do we even matter? do they view us as animals, war hungry and callous? Cruel and unforgiving?

as you read the series, you see how the elves see humanity, and it's wrong. like, on every level, you know that the way the elves see humanity is not accurate, and isn't true. human beings fight wars, sure. they destroy, sure. but they also create. humanity is a resilient species, and it is in our ingenuity and creativity that we have our strengths.

as a human reader, you resent the elves for their view of humanity, and that's the intention, but like.

this song.

it really highlights the idea that there is something extraordinary about humans. that there's something especially good, there.

like, maybe, in our reckless way of loving, in our understanding of the world, in the warmth and in the pain, in the blocky buildings and the dusty streets, we've uncovered a reality that the elves have hidden away, in our struggles and in our pain we've come to an understanding that this world is not all there is, and that the greatest thing a person can do is to love.

the elves don't seem to have that understanding of the world.

for them, the greatest thing always seems to be perfection. you want to be perfect, because that is the greatest thing an elf can do.

and sophie, with her human ideas of love, just brings her recklessness with her, in a way, the idea that good is not always synonymous with perfection, and that she is meant for more than appearances, meant for more than shimmer and shine and jewel and pictures.

and, like, the "finally breathing" line really just draws out the idea that, in the context of kotlc, there's that love that there is that people stuff down, or twist, or hide, but it's not necessarily the best idea.

like, let's take the matchmaking system. an institution based on love, true and good and holy, for humans, was reduced to the perfection of genes and personality.

humans don't give a darn about that.

and like, there's freedom in it.

your love is yours to give to whoever you wish.

and like.

idk.

anon, you made me rant way too long, but you're just. so right.

this song is so very very very kotlc. i don't even know how to express it.

#half baked ideas here #kotlc #thanks for the ask! #english major rant #kotlc sophie #sophie foster #kotlc headcanon #kotlc headcanons #kotlc thoughts #kotlc society #kotlc matchmaking #kotlc elves

[fistful-of-spell-slots]

Dalle-2 D&D Guide: Goblins - Part 1 of 3

This is a first in a series of guides on how to generate fantasy characters using Dall-e. This is new tech that can create useful art. It can take the ideas in your head and bring them to life! However, it is not cheap. This is a tool more like photoshop. It's FOR artists. It's not a thing to bypass them. A good understanding of art and post processing techniques will go a long way!

To the DMs who just want to make one-off character portraits:

My hope is that this guide will help you get where you want without spending too much money.

Why start with goblins?

You might ask: austinitic_steel, why start with goblins? Aren't there cooler monsters to go with?

The answer is these are creatures mostly associated with fantasy that dall-e happens to know of. Starting with humans, or dwarves or elves would be too easy because dall-e is already good at human looking things. My feeling is that goblins are going to be the most telling for most of the fantasy prompts. Also...goblins are the classic creature to see first on a fantasy adventure. It's fitting that we put them first!!

Prompt structure in this guide:

Throughout this guide we will be going over best practices for the following general prompt structure:

a goblin, [wearing], [holding], [portrait shot/medium-close shot], [artist],[flavor],[art style],[quality]

Note that the goblin is not doing anything and we haven't specified anything about hair color or other distinguishing characteristics. This is because we're trying to be simple for now. We just want to build any given goblin and see how things like artist, flavor and art style affect the prompt.

My hope is thatThis guide will inform how we treat other creatures in the dnd verse.

Let's begin :)

0. Dall-e cares about context:

Prompt: "A goblin, portrait shot"

Dall-e interprets context from your text. If there's not enough context dall-e will give you a load of random for it's own reasons. Note that as of today I have no idea why it would give me two monkeys here. However, if we specify that the goblin is a man-made artistic creation, then suddenly we're in business.

1. The Art Style

First thing's first: the art style is an important part of the context of a prompt. Goblins do not typically exist as, for example, oil paintings. We will be going over the following:

1.1 Oil painting

1.2 digital art

1.3 fantasy illustration

1.4 matte painting

1.1 ---- Oil Painting

Prompt: "A goblin, portrait shot, oil painting"

Most of these (aside from the far right) look nothing like the goblins we're interested in. We need to use medium prompts that are more closely associated with fantastical creatures: "digital art, fantasy illustration, and matte painting"

1.2 ---- Digital Art

Prompt: "A goblin, portrait shot, digital art"

These ALL look like goblins to me. 100% what I Was thinking of. Dall-e is a little off with the color for digital art. Possibly because people get way more creative with digital art colors?

1.3 ---- Fantasy Illustration

Prompt: "A goblin, portrait shot, fantasy illustration"

These are pretty darn handsome goblins. 10/10 would date the far right. Not quite what we're looking for, but fantasy illustration definitely has some of the qualities we want.

1.4 ---- Matte Painting

Prompt: "A goblin, portrait shot, matte painting"

This is honestly pretty damn good too. The third one is a little too classical fantasy for my liking though. Also #2 and #4 look a little human and I'm worried this means dall-e was trained on too many matte paintings of human subjects. Adding a flavor modifier (next section) "fantasy" confirms this fear...

Prompt: "A goblin, portrait shot, fantasy, matte painting"

one of these goblins is not what it seems....

So it seems that digital art is our winner moving forward. however a close second is fantasy illustration.

2. Flavor

Next we can test some additional flavor modifiers for our prompts to get dall-e to better understand our context. we consider the following flavors here:

2.1 fantasy

2.2 high fantasy

2.3 dungeons and dragons

2.4 monster manual art

2.5 d&d

2.6 magic the gathering

2.1 ---- Fantasy

Prompt: "A goblin, portrait shot, fantasy, digital art"

This is very crisp and vibrant. I doubt the other prompts will beat this. It's probably because fantasy is just a bog standard term for lots of digital art. So here the context is strengthened.

2.2 ---- High Fantasy

Prompt: "A goblin, portrait shot, high fantasy, digital art"

well well well.....we meet again goblin I would date. These don't look right to me but they're not too bad. It might be a good one to keep in your back pocket if you'd like a wizard. Check out #2. Very wizard like imo.

2.3 ---- Dungeons & Dragons

Prompt: "A goblin, portrait shot, dungeons & dragons, digital art"

Here we get harrier goblins for some reason. It's actually quite possible that there are just as many "bugbears" as there goblins in dall-e training sets. bugbears are referred to as "hairy goblinoids". So perhaps this is still a good flavor to add but it's also maybe one that could confuse your dall-e.

2.4 ---- D&D

prompt: "a goblin, portrait shot, d&d, digital art"

The color palette here has become muted and the lines less well defined. It's likely that here there's less training data and perhaps older artwork.

2.5 ---- Monster Manual Art

Prompt: "A goblin, portrait shot, monster manual art, digital art"

Here we're again getting a muted color palette but the lines are better defined. It's possible this has better training data associated.

2.6 ---- Magic the Gathering

Prompt: "A goblin, portrait shot, magic the gathering, digital art"

These actually do look like magic card goblins to me in that there's a lot of variation. The clothing especially has something distinctly mtg in quality that I can't quite put my finger on. However, I think there's just too much variation here. Just look at the horns! Keep this flavor for when you want to get some interesting looking outfits.

To me it feels best just to stick with "fantasy" and not muck about too much with other franchises. Consider magic the gathering as a strong second for when you want to add some creative elements and consider high fantasy when you really want to hammer in the classical fantasy elements.

3. Quality:

I'm not going to talk about quality in this post. This has been well documented for photography and is an expanding study for digital art. For now know that I will be slapping on "trending on artstation, highly detailed" to all my generations.

Prompt: "A goblin, portrait shot, digital art, trending on artstation, highly detailed"

Why these phrases? mostly habit I guess....I haven't done extensive testing to ensure that these are the best phrases to use. For now, at the very least, it typically doesn't HURT us.

4. Artist:

I've done quite a lot of testing for artists in the current beta. We'll cover just a small number that I know will have some effect. Mostly the ones that dall-e knows about and which give vivid colors.

Let's try:

4.1 Stephan Martinière

4.2 Michael Whelan

4.3 Charles Vess

4.4 Marc Simonetti

4.5 Frank Frazetta

4.1 ---- Stephan Martinière

Prompt: "A goblin, portrait shot, by Stephan Martinière, fantasy, digital art, trending on artstation, highly detailed"

An artist add some distinct styling to the clothes and faces. Here he gives the goblins a devious look. They're also all eclectically clothed. Martiniere is a science fiction artist and this is going to result in issues later. Definitely a reasonable choice for some classic goblin portraits though. One strange quirk of Martiniere is that...all of these goblins are bald....Not sure why this is. Perhaps in the future everyone loses their hair?

4.2 ---- Michael Whelan

Prompt: "A goblin, portrait shot, by Michael Whelan, fantasy, digital art, trending on artstation, highly detailed"

Whelan also produces some good looking goblins. We get a goblin without clothing as though it were just a monster. The musculature is quite good here too. If you inspect the clothing closely you'll notice a lot of fantasy elements we're looking for. Whelan will actually be a clear winner later. Stay tuned.

4.3 ---- Charles Vess

Prompt: "A goblin, portrait shot, by Charles Vess, fantasy, digital art, trending on artstation, highly detailed"

Charles Vess is a comic artist and his characters are often quite stylized. This shows through here. Note the horns on THREE of the goblins. Not the right choice here. However, he'll be useful later for Tieflings.

4.4 ---- Marc Simonetti

Prompt: "A goblin, portrait shot, by Marc Simonetti, fantasy, digital art, trending on artstation, highly detailed"

Simonetti is does a lot of large landscape shots. The quality on these is going to be good but it also means that there's a lot less pulling portrait styles together. Stick to landscapes with Simonetti.

4.5 ---- Frank Frazetta

Prompt: "A goblin, portrait shot, by Frank Frazetta, fantasy, digital art, trending on artstation, highly detailed"

Frank Frazetta is a master of classical fantasy and Dall-e works very well for him. However he may not work out for some fantastical creatures. here we get some very human looking goblins. Consider Frank for your more human figures. The styles here are decidedly painterly. We'll see in later posts that Frazetta is much better suited to paintings.

--------------------------------- Disclaimer:

My personal belief is that AI art should be primarily for enjoyment. Please support art and artists and furthermore write to your senators about protecting the arts through subsidies, tax breaks for working artists and for laws that protect the jobs of artists. It will not be so easy to change the pose of your characters through dall-e. Consider paying an artist for a commission of that character.

-Austinitic_steel

#dnd character #dnd art #dall e ai #dnd stuff #dnd5e

[dovorionbird]

LUMINÉ...

Luminé is a descendant of the light elves race. He was also crowned Prince of Astrelaus, Kingdom of elves when he was chosen at the Ceremonial sacrifice for the Syarllúmin Sun. (Dead god)

He was worshipped by his people who would make festivals about him and his "Birthday". The reason behind this is that he was considered the "Reincarnation" of Syarllúmin, they thought about this theory because Luminé was the only elf that survived after the Ceremonial sacrifice for the dead god.

Luminé Diary P-15

In my world, there is no sun. Therefore, our god abandoned us, or most likely died. I feel rather confused about my emotions right now, after that sacrifice 21 years ago.

I don't like this feeling. The feeling of being worshipped is cursing the way I act, the way I think, and the way I fear the future. The people expect me to be the one to save them, yet here I am, a 25-year-old elf Prince trying to find that darn source of a curse.

Sylvain isn't helping; he's an ass for even destroying half of the evidence of Syarllúmin's remains!! Though I would say, without him that time, I could've died in that ruin alone.

Ugh, I'm going off-topic again. There are so many things in my mind right now that it's giving me a headache, but that's fine. Syarllúmin, if you were alive, I would've given you a big "F".

#oc character #oc #oc writing #writingoc #writing #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #artists on tumblr #oc art #tumblog

[weeniebagel]

Top 20 favorite Magic cards?

i dont play magic much at all anymore because i hate secret lairs but i do still sometimes run games of pauper or commander or paupermander

idk if ill list 20 cards but heres some favorites (under a read more because it may be a bit lengthy idk)

i like it when commander games are fast and everybody feels like they get a chance to play. this? does that. ramps you and each other player. lets you get consistent lands without explicitly making one player gain a massive advantage. gets you MAJOR brownie points at the table while making it all run smoothly. and just 2 mana! if im playing white i typically run this

mono black devotion is a very fun deck in pauper. being able to drop this guy each turn 4 turns in a row is a surefire way to make me smile like an idiot. being able to bounce em in multiplayer is nice, too, without feeling too busted usually. i appreciate indirect damage

when i first learned about paupermander (commander but you only use commons and an uncommon creature for your commander) i immediately set out to make something heinous. my first deck i popped together in just a few minutes was a lil midrangey elves and goblins deck, that just so happened to have a few infinite damage combos to wipe out any other player. ive since made even stronger decks that i like more, but grumgully will always have a special place in my heart

i like merfolk! theyre a fun tribal to run in lots of lil formats. true name is especially satisfying as a way to enforce pressure on heavily defended players. i like a lot of merfolk cards but this one comes to mind for some reason

first pauper deck i ever tried and enjoyed? blue green fog. favorite part of it? having 8 fog effects with just one playset of this one card. felt good to know i could pop some fogs consistently for p darn cheap.

my first time played legacy, i tried out monored prison. i managed to simian spirit guide and city of traitors into a turn one blood moon and my opponent who had a grip full of exclusively fetch lands just conceded turn 0. never before have i played with as perfect a balance of time spent playing to enjoyment. sorry for enjoying stun but i do

commander is full of fun creatures to build decks around, but grenzo is probably my all time favorite. it feels so nice to just pop stuff out of the bottom of your library for 2 mana. theyres so many strong cards with just 2 power! hell, even MORE with 3! its soooo satisfying to just play fast and wild and chaotic and let the cards flow how they may. sure it can be optimized so you get nutty and consistent combos, but personally its satisfying to open up the box and see what i get.

now, on the subject of favorite commanders, accidentally making a super strong food deck sure was something. im at the point with deckbuilding where even tryin to make something functional but not *too* strong is impossible, since synergies are so nutty these days.

stuffing this guy (and similar effects, really) into any deck just feels good. i love indirect damage and control effects since i tend to stack up creatures to defend myself more than anything, so consistent ways to blow up the table without hedging too many risks is nice. its a lil bull, honestly, but it works for me.

if im playing mono red i always run valakut. its that simple. i have very little nonbasics in mono red, so i can rock valakut and feel chuffed when i get to ping people down for just playing lands. i try not to avoid landfall decks because theyre just rewarding you for doing things every deck wants to do, but i do like valakut as a small bonus

last one because im tired. sometimes friends want to play a commander game and im not in the mood for something long. as such, i decide to get hectic and see what silly things i can get away with. if i can kill the whole table in one turn im happy, even if im dying at the same time. funny every time, really.

i still check out new sets but i dont play all that much. i just play on cockatrice with buddies these days, but i am looking into other TCGs these days. recently got a digimon deck built lol

#long post