#those goddamn sackville baggins

[impossiblebeararcade]

reading lotr for the first time and today i got to the part where frodo sold bag end to the sackville-bagginses??????? i could never have predicted this. i was in class and i audibly gasped and closed the book. i was absorbed in the book and it shocked me back to reality. i can’t believe this.

#and listen i've heard tolkien likes to ramble but dear god why are we spending so much time traveling from bag end to frodos new house #i am enjoying reading it #i like the character interactions and it's cute and all #but what the fuck #they haven't left the shire yet #i'm not complaining or bored or anything but as a first time lotr reader #this is a lot #i cant wait to meet faramir #i love him in the movies and i heard he's even better in the books #but i just went from rereading pjo to starting lotr and it's a big difference in writing styles and readability #lotr #lord of the rings #those goddamn sackville baggins

[lotrolulz]

My Ranger Feelings - Amdir (1/?)

And on the subject of fucking Ranger Feelings... you have wounded me to the heart, LOTRO. It was honestly unexpected but thrice as potent and painful to see this apparition during The Trial of Sorrow, which was named most adeptly. Fuck me. Just fuck me.

Amdir was the first ranger I ever met. Back before LOTRO went free to play, the man/hobbit introduction was different, with Strider being entirely absent and Amdir being the only ranger / main character you interacted with in the introduction besides Celandine Brandybuck and that idiot Sackville-Baggins. He sprung and saved you and the hobbits from jail by himself, faced the Nazgûl alone, fled with you to Archet and managed to organize / coordinate a defense against the Blackwolds and reunite the estranged Brackenbrooks with a fucking morgul blade stuck in his shoulder/chest for at least a day, all the while hiding how sick he was and how horrible he felt because, like all the goddamn fucking perfect idiot goddamn beautiful rangers, they never put themselves before others. All the while Celandine tends to him, and at one point even confides in you that she is very worried about him, but is almost smitten by his selfless courage. “He is so brave!!” she tells you, and redoubles her efforts to mother hen over him. He asks you to gather Athelas, suspecting his wound was poisoned, but in all likelihood he knew what a morgul blade was, and what happened to those injured by weaponry of the Nazgûl. He knew that they feared fire, surely he knew other things.

Even worse, when Celandine has you gather ingredients to make a tea that always helped her when she felt sick for Amdir, he confesses to you that he cannot stomach to drink anything, sick as he is, but begs you not to tell her that, and resolves to pretend to drink the tea so she wouldn’t know “her kindness (was) wasted” on him. Did he already know he was doomed? Jesus tap dancing Christ, Amdir. asdklfhlasfkhdfkh

Then, when Archet burns, pale as a ghost and nearing 2 full days (at least) with the morgul blade poisoning him, that badass motherfucker GETS UP and charges those Angmarim motherfuckers with you, killing a few of them before the bastards bring in their boss and overwhelm him with the foul magic in that morgul poison. He challenges the head Angmarim, declaring, “You shall pay for your crimes, Villain!” The vile creep replies, “Then come, Dúnadan. End this.” And he tries, but halfway through his charge he screams and collapses, the knife wound sapping his strength. You defeat the Angmarim bastard, but the Cargûl come, overpower you, and abduct Amdir.

If you played the man prologue, you teamed up with some other Rangers to attempt to find and save Amdir. If you played the hobbit prologue, you only find him when it is far too late. In one scenario you get to see the brave ranger who saved you reduced to a monster and are forced to put him out of his misery, and in the other, far more cruelly, you must watch him slowly descend into madness and despair and he loses himself to the morgul poison, and neither you nor your new ranger friends can help him in time.

It still fucking hurts. I loved Amdir. I still love Amdir. I will always love him, and he will always be my favorite ranger. He was the first I ever met, and he so strongly embodied everything that a Dúnadan is and should be. Selfless, brave, courageous, heroic, kind, and a defender of the helpless and innocent. I will honestly never forgive Turbine / SSG for changing the Hobbit/Man introduction and downplaying his significance just to shove in a big-name character. They did him a disservice and it is an insult to his memory.

I will make a post fully exploring my feelings on Amdir and going into more detail about how the ORIGINAL introduction showed what an amazing character he was, but.. f u c k. "Trial of Sorrow" indeed. Well played, SSG. 12 years later and you've managed to pinpoint strike one of my earliest and most tender memories.

I may never emotionally recover from this.

#RANGER FEELINGS #Reb's Ranger Feelings #LOTRO #LOTRO Game #LOTRO MMORPG #lotro rangers #Lord of the Rings Online #The Lord of the Rings Online #LOTRO Ranger Feelings #LOTRO Amdir #Amdir Ranger #LOTRO Trial of Sorrow #LOTRO SSG