#tolkienist

[hierarchyproblem]

I'd maybe nitpick and say that I don't think an urban industrial working class will necessarily or inevitably ever develop the ability to destroy capitalism and create socialism - everything that's been tried has failed, and the strategies that at the time looked most successful can in hindsight be seen to have contained their own failure at their heart - but the working class (along with the poor peasantry and the so-called lumpenproletariat) are the people whose class position gives them a material interest in destroying capitalism and creating socialism. So there's no getting away from class struggle, even as Marxism should've been jettisoned a long time ago, especially any part of the theory that makes claims of necessity or inevitability.

#this was an addition to anarcho-tolkienist's post but i'm mostly just restating the argument so it's its own post now #marxism

[pietroleopoldo]

I need to read up more about English ww1 propaganda and especially Anti-German propaganda because we were talking about Italian propaganda in comics of the same period and the professor made a joke about one of these comics being basically Tolkien and uhm. I felt my brain clicking.

#like yeah industrialization made war more destructive in general #but the way pesceful life in the countryside = italy and technology = germany in these comics really made me think lmao #i just never really thought about how common were these themes in war stories of tolkiens era i guess #i am not a tolkienist by any means and it shows in moments like this #personal #peaceful*

[does-it-please-you-shalori]

The authors of rings of power chose the worst fandom to pretend to care about

#you cannot pretend to know the canon around TOLKIENISTS #we're INSUFFERABLE about our knowledge of specifics #i took a TOLKIEN STUDIES CLASS last year in uni for crying out loud #tolkien #lord of the rings #silmarillion #rings of power

[dreamgirledward]

hey! if you're looking for a sign NOT to watch the rings of power, this can be it if you want 🥰 film-lover's psa incoming:

(this was originally a drop-down message on my the beauty of: lotr amv, which i deleted and copied here instead!)

lotr was created out of earnest love for the source material and the magic of filmmaking. the films took a total of 8 years to produce, including pick-up shots. they shot all three films continuously, well over a year, because peter jackson knew exactly what his vision would entail. the fellowship cast got matching tattoos after the experience because of how bonded they were by the end of production (john rhys-davies was the only one not to get one bc he said his stunt double, who does have a matching tattoo, did most of the hard work for him! ha!). the films put new zealand on the map and jackson opened the door for kiwi filmmakers of his generation and beyond in a way the world had never seen before. fun fact! the films also employed a huge number of Māori actors and you can actually hear and watch them doing the haka during specific battle scenes.

lotr is the perfect marriage of both 20th and 21st century filmmaking, expertly utilizing award winning practical and special effects mixed with cgi to create something wholly unique and almost timeless. compared to the two towers and return of the king being colour graded digitally, fellowship was still physically graded via colour timing (colourizing film in a lab, traditionally how all colour films were developed before the digital age), a prime example of just how new digital colour grading was in the industry. gollum was also a big first for the film industry: andy serkis shot his scenes in a motion capture suit (opposite elijah wood and sean astin), and the level of work weta digital put in to bring gollum to life resulting in such a sheer level realism was unprecedented. gollum still stands the test of time today and has aged incredibly well. the ai software, massive, was also developed for the first time for lotr to create large crowds and armies via visual effects, and changed the visual effects and 3d animation game forever. every single (computer generated) battle and crowd sequence you see in film & tv today is thanks to this software and lotr. the first time it was used was for the battle at helm's deep sequence during the two towers - and even then, that scene took over 100 days to film! the lord of the rings trilogy has been nominated 30 times and won 17 academy awards, honouring their revolutionary work in cinematography, score, visual effects, sound and picture editing, costume design, adapted screenplay, and more, and the return of the king was the first fantasy film ever to win best picture. the return of the king also accumulated eleven (!!) oscar wins, a record tied with titanic and ben-hur. aside from academy awards, the films, crew and cast have been nominated and awarded by countless guilds, boards and various awards ceremonies alike.

the rings of power however is a soulless cash grab that actively shits on tolkien's work, which is only loosely based on the novels at best. there are countless tolkien experts that can explain this much better than me, if you're interested in learning more i highly recommend reading up on it. the portrayal of galadriel alone is so severely out of character (just from the trailers!), i would argue these characters we know and love from the lotr books and films may as well be from an alternate reality of middle-earth. peter jackson and fran walsh are not affiliated with the rings of power. much like the house of the dragon, this is yet another attempt at attracting streams through the promise of nostalgia-bait, and it's riding the success of what came before it. and no, this is not because im a racist, woman-hating, anti-progressive, and elitist tolkienist, and the people who say this are performative and dont actually understand the underlying issue. the rings of power was funded because of jeff bezos personally involving himself in negotiations, and the series was created because he wanted it to be after obtaining the rights to develop a tv show. showrunners will label people like me criticizing and asking people not to support the series as anti-progressive until the cows come home because it makes them look good. if you still care about boycotting amazon, boycott this show. it's directly tied to bezos and his rotten money. if you must watch it purely for entertainment, fine, but this is a gentle reminder that pirating is easy and free <3

#this was a reply to my own post but linds pointed out most people would overlook a 'read more' so ty linds <3 #anyway copy + pasting my tags here: #guess i cant shut up about lotr! :) #please dont watch the rings of power for the love of GOD #before anyone comes for me about the show also being filmed in nz well guess what :) they're filming the next season in london :) #which means it will be shot almost entirely on blue/green screen #so do with that what you will ! #lotr #lord of the rings #lotr trilogy #the lord of the rings #jrr tolkien #the rings of power #amazon #jeff bezos #sammy.txt

[alanofalltrades]

Listen. In general, restrictions can help spark creativity. And it's true that as a GM, you should learn how to say "no".

At the same time, you can't forget to be kind and flexible. Sometimes a particular choice is important to the player.

But we all know this. So instead of dwelling on that topic, I'm gonna roast this guy's roster of acceptable ancestries a bit.

MAN but this options are bland. No tieflings, no dragonborn, even no gnomes? It's giving strong "we have LOTR at home vibes". We should all kill the Tolkienists in our heads as a matter of general policy.

And it's a weird choice after weird choice. All the banned ancestries have been part of D&D for few editions (well, more like one and a half for dragonborn, but still). There's no reason to ban them, unless you have an Agenda. Maybe even a Discourse.

Also, apparently half elves are "an entire new mechanical headache" and that's why they aren't allowed. C'mon. That's just a bad excuse.

I don't think I'd have fun playing with this guy.

#dnd #ttrpg #dungeons & dragons #dnd 5e #5e #d&d

[come-chaos]

Post-LOTR Marathon Thoughts

I saw LOTR EE in the cinema today. It was my first LOTR marathon ever, as well as my first time seeing FOTR in the cinema. Despite having spent a decade of my life as a devout Tolkienist and LOTR/Hobbit fan before I shifted focus to other fandoms, it was also the first time in several years that I watched a LOTR movie at all. Naturally, I was very curious about what my own reaction would be.

What follows is my attempt at summarising some of my impressions before I forget them.

Best movie: My favourite always used to be ROTK, and it’s still by far the movie that makes me the most emotional, but I can finally say that FOTR is a better movie. Everything about it is simply magical. From start to finish, it introduces the most incredible range of settings and concepts and people. Visually, I believe it has a far richer colour palette than the others. I also get the impression that it has many more subtle references to the book than the other movies do.

Best overall: The soundtrack. I have a pet peeve when it comes to singing in movies – I hate it when a movie makes no effort to convince me that the character is actually singing. It’s surprisingly common for movies to combine the most half-arsed lip sync possible with a blatantly obvious studio production that often features a ginormous and rather glittery reverb regardless of what room the scene is set in. I’ve always upheld LOTR as an example of characters singing being done well, and Eowyn’s dirge being my favourite example in particular, but this time I noticed something new about it. Something really cool. When the camera changes angle, or when an object passes in front of the camera, the acoustics of Eowyn’s voice also change. Absolutely marvellous sound mixing.

If I could change one scene: I don’t know whether I’ve matured as a movie watcher or if I’ve just gained a healthier perspective on the whole book vs movie debate, but I found myself having nearly zero issues with the ways in which the movies differ from the book, which came as a surprise to me. I even found myself thinking that several changes were, in fact, for the better – I could see now that the story really did benefit from being adapted to the medium, instead of following the book to the letter. Don’t get me wrong – I would have preferred a Gimli who isn’t the butt of every other joke, a Legolas who’s less into surfing, and a Haldir who heads to the Havens without passing Helm’s Deep. But all of that is forgivable. If I could change one scene, I’d remove the Paths of the Dead skull avalanche. As far as I’m concerned, it’s pointless, it’s not a reference to anything, the sheer number of skulls makes absolutely no sense, and if anything, it gives the entire dead army plotline even more of a Pirates of the Caribbean feel. Speaking of, I’ve always assumed POTC is the reason why the army had to be a sickly neon green instead of the more conservative ghostly grey – the latter was already taken. The green honestly never stopped annoying me, so if I could change one thing in addition to removing the skull avalanche, I’d drastically lower the saturation of the entire Army of the Dead.

Miscellaneous thoughts: Something that struck me several times during this marathon was how much I’m still in love with the overall plot and with so many of the themes. I love the characters – including Boromir, whom I discovered is far more compelling to me now than he was in the past. I love that even those with the best of intentions may struggle to do good. I love that Bilbo’s choice to show Gollum mercy made him less susceptible to the Ring throughout his whole life, whereas Sméagol’s corruption was facilitated by his murder of Déagol. I love that Sam’s love for Frodo is everything. I wasn’t prepared for the burden of the Ring to remind me so much of the struggle of living with a mental illness, which I’m going to guess is a result of my metacognition having improved considerably since I last saw the movies.

Moment that made my heart pound so hard it hurt: The Ride of the Rohirrim.

Moments that made me the most emotional: Absolutely no surprises here. In second place, as usual, came “You bow to no one”, while Frodo’s farewell at the Havens came in first place, as always.

#lord of the rings #lotr #personal

[thydungeongal]

Hey.

So I've hear you bringing up Rolemaster a lot on your blog but whenever I've tried looking it up in the past I've found very little information.

Could you kinda go over what the system is, how its different from other rpgs around and where to go to find the rules please?

Gotcha! I love talking about Rolemaster!

Rolemaster is a fantasy role-playing game that got its start as a booklet called Arms Law that purported to be a universally applicable combat system for all fantasy role-playing games. It had started out as a set of house rules the developers had used in their D&D game set in Middle-earth because they had found D&D's combat system too unrealistic and abstract for their tastes. Arms Law presented a combat system based around rolling 1d100 with various modifiers from skill, attributes, weapon enchantment, and so on, with the 1d100 roll being "open-ended," i.e. exploding on unmodified rolls of 96 to 100 meaning the tables could go very high, with attack results being cross-referenced against target armor type to find out the amount of damage and the severity and type of critical hit (if any) inflicted.

Character Law, or rules for creating characters (again, supposedly for all fantasy role-playing games but more like... For creating characters for use with Arms Law) followed in 1982 with the first full standalone edition of Rolemaster following in 1984. It very much follows the principles first set out in Arms Law: extremely detailed, lots of lookup tables, notably less abstract and supposedly more realistic than other fantasy RPGs. (I personally disagree on the realism point: Rolemaster is a silly game with funny tables and the tables are quite ridiculous.)

Ultimately it's very much a D&D style game: a semi-Tolkienistic fantasy action RPG where the focus is on combat and overcoming obstacles set by the GM. What sets it apart is that reliance on extremely detailed tables that often result in very unpredictable and surprising results. I've previously compared it to playing D&D where everyone has the Wild Magic Sorcerer's wild surge tables and those wild surges can be triggered by everything from attack rolls to skill checks. It's also quite math heavy, but a lot of the math is front-loaded into character creation and in play it's mostly rolling 1d100, adding modifiers, and looking up the result on an appropriate table.

Anyway, Rolemaster is still supported by Iron Crown Enterprises, but owing to the fact that I.C.E. went bankrupt at one point and the brand is maintained by a bunch of hobbyists their new output is understandably slow. The most recent version of Rolemaster is called Rolemaster Unified and it's being rolled out slowly. I.C.E.'s website has a pretty exhaustive introduction to Rolemaster as well as a system comparison page for the two other existing versions of Rolemaster, Rolemaster Classic and Rolemaster Fantasy Role-Playing. All of their output is available digitally on DriveThruRPG.

There's also a very good Rolemaster clone called Lightmaster, built on the d20 system SRD using the OGL, which rebuilds a different vision of Rolemaster 2e using a d20-based system. It's free and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to look into the system for free. Another good online resource is this site I recently found which is an online resource for Rolemaster Standard System (the officially supported version from the 90s) which is sadly not complete but also a very good resource for finding out more about the system.

Hope that helps. Don't hesitate to ask if you'd like some more information. I love talking about this silly game. :)

#rolemaster #thydungeongal answers

[jewishevelinebaker]

Im terminally a Tolkienist when it comes to worldbuilding

#aud.txt #your world doesn't make sense. buzz ill kill you

[demonscantgothere]

I think if they would only follow the source/canon, would it make the show a little boring? I'm not just talking about Sauron and Galadriel relationship but the show in general. It would be nice if the creators made something of their own or changed some things. Like how did they do that with Gal that she doesn't have a husband and a child. Hardcore Tolkienists already hate them anyway

Tolkien canon is so far from boring, so I don't know where that idea comes from? One of the future Sauron plots, which Charlie has already hinted at in one of his interviews, is how Sauron comes willingly to Númenor as a prisoner, speaks poison honey into Ar-Pharazôn's ear, and convinces the man to sacrifice his own people in the name of Melkor. Pharazôn names Sauron the High Priest, builds him a temple, and then agrees to wage a war on the Gods. I mean, how epic would that be on screen?

It's totally okay if they change a few things just like how they did with the Peter Jackson movies, but the trick is you don't change too much. It needs to do more than just vaguely resemble the original world it's based on, or you alienate established fans. The success of the original trilogy and The Hobbit franchise tells you there are a lot of established Tolkien fans, while they also brought new ones on board.

We already know that Galadriel does have a husband right now, but he's been lost to war. We don't know that she has a child yet. And while hardcore Tolkienists hated the show at first, a lot of them have come around post-finale and are finding the merit in the show now, so I'm 100% positive the showrunners are going to cling to that, while also still feeding the bait machine with shippers.

I'm positive we're going to get more Sauron and Galadriel scenes in the future, but I highly doubt it's going to be what shippers want. The ugly side of Sauron is going to come out, and that's either going to strengthen shippers or chase them off.

#saurondriel #sauron x galadriel #galadriel x sauron #haladriel #halbrand x galadriel #galadriel x halbrand #the rings of power #rings of power #trop #trop spoilers

[anarchotolkienist]

I do want to credit Dawn Ray'd for having a song on their most recent album that is simultaneously a reference to the Dagor Bragollach, where the dragon Glaurung suddenly appeared to deafeat the forces of the Noldorin, AND about burning down a cop shop. Truly, anarcho-tolkienist music at it's finest.

#tolkienposting #'the battle of sudden flame' if you care to listen

[junk-whunk-punk]

How did celebrimbor feel when he learned of annatar's betrayal?

Hewoow💋 Ohh asks about my fav stupidos why–

There's too many ways of courses of events. We can speak about canon and about lots of AUs where also silvergifting energy can be various.

In the canon, Celebrimbor probably felt not only the personal pain and betrayal of a "close friend" (recall that Annatar was firmly entrenched in his heart), but also guilt and shame in front of the whole world. After all, he allowed evil in a wonderful shell to pass into the very heart of the "forge of good" and destroy himself with its own forces. He certainly felt that it was his fault that Sauron had become stronger and more capable, and therefore the last thing he could do to save Middle-earth was not to reveal the secret at any cost. And he did it.

AUs are different, won't even speak about them.

(Lower will be a long text about my day dreams about stupidos)

But! Personally, I came up with a completely new plot in my head, which completely breaks the canon and will most likely make Tolkien roll in his grave and make tolkienists foam at the mouth in an attack of epilepsy eheehehslfks🤭

I LOVE!!! DARK!TYELPE AU!!! WHERE!!! THEY ARE BOTH!!! ALIVE!!! AND LIVING TOGETHER!!! IN MORDOR!!¡!¡!!¡¡! I mean, all the events before the capture of Celebrimbor were there, but... He stayed alive, or Namo just kicked him out of Mandos like 'Have thought about your behavior? Wanna leave? That's it, get away from here. And don't ever come back, please'. I tend to believe that two persons cannot be "just friends and colleagues" for a long time when one of them has a direct goal to gain the trust of the other at any cost, including seduction (I believe this was the basis of Sauron's technique).

But something went wrong, and the seduction just grew into something more. Both were forced to admit it. But the truth had to come out, since Sauron still had a purpose. In this case, Celebrimbor felt not only pain and guilt, but also felt as if he had been cheated on, that he had not just been betrayed, but simply pulverized and blown off the windowsill. He was just devastated. He also felt anger and resentment, emotions were boiling in him, but he was not sure that it was safe to show these emotions. After all, after such an event, he is unlikely to be able to trust anyone for a long time.

And the remaining love for Sauron poured salt on his wound. So, just to get over it, he switched sides. But he was not going to lose his honor and dignity (FEANOR's BLOOD FLOWS IN HIM!!!!) On top of that, Sauron also couldn't live in peace after everything his goal had forced him to do, so the option of a reunion was the greatest joy for him.

The second option (much nonsense): all the events, including the murder of Celebrimbor, took place. After the events of the Lord of the Rings and the fall of Mordor, Sauron in a near-ghostly shell remained wandering the world for unpromising purposes. After a while, he still accumulated strength for the corporeal shell, which facilitated his attempts to return to life. He began to join the societies of different kingdoms in a new guise, and no one knew about anything. (here it should be told about his depraved adventures and the continuation of the seduction of various rulers, but we all know how this happens). Just at this time, Celebrimbor was kicked out of Mandos and he finally returns to his scampish lover, they both pretend like two losers that everything has always been fine.

I love my nonsense help c:

#sirtack purrs back #silmarillion #celebrimbor #silvergifting

[kunosoura]

getting recommended a YouTube video critical about amazon lord of rings by “the traditionalist tolkienist”, briefly glancing at the channel, and seeing the number one video is about reading doomguy through the lens of Evola… like cool that YouTube has no qualms about just recommending nazis to me

[anarchistettin]

I guess it serves a lot of different narrative purposes? to ignore recent history but, people weren't as bigoted about queer gender in the recent past as they are today.

if you have a deep emotional reaction to that information - if you feel a strong need to refute it* - maybe you should take a time out from Discourse and just do some living? Focus on the Now.

*wikis and straight media aren't going to have the information you want, to prove me wrong. Check into queer writers. Leslie Feinberg is right there. If you stay in the dworkin zone & never leave it, you aren't going to know anything about the real world, other than what andrea and her even-more-rabidly-racist followers say. (Let's face it, dworkin was at least as messed up as she accused others of being!) Vary your sources. Even supposedly pro-trans modern voices repeat Way Too Much from shitty prototerfs and pseudofeminists. If you've ever thought about who Deserves the word "butch", you gotta be in the category (quarantined) for a while. Sorry <3. it's for everyone's health! these are terf positions, that you're spreading and treating as true. it's like when Joseph Campbell came out with his bunkum and all the tolkienists started pretending The Hero's Journey is a real thing. The damage broadcasts itself into the future and spreads geometrically. It makes you stupid, and immune to recovery, but worse! it makes you contagious. stop. repeating. old. bigotry. or die ^_^ <3

#if tumblr isn't a psyop then the USA got a freebie

[usatyimysh]

Recently saw off a friend on a long work trip. We exchanged letters so that she would not be so sad. I put a lot of effort into my writing.

here are a couple of photos

(she is a Tolkienist, so I tried to make a letter in the style of the Lord of the Rings. On one side of the letter were my thoughts, on the other side of the letter I left drawings and wrote a little fairy tale)

#lotr #lotr fandom #lord of the rings #letters #friends

[catshelob]

Around 20 Tolkien/Lotr influencers and creators were invited to London by Amazon, where they got to see 20 minutes of exclusive footage and got to talk with the 2 showrunners.

The people invited include:

TheOneRing.net

FellowshipofFans

Tolkien Talk

Digital Tolkien Project

Shaun Gunner of The Tolkien Society

SilmarEmily

AnexWilson

DrMaggieParke

The Tolkienist

The Broken Sword

Dr Una McCormack

TeaWithTolkien

obolseirooficial

Terra-Media Brasil

El Anillo Único

The Tolkien Professor

Prancing Pony Podcast

KnewBettaDoBetta

Don Marshall

Kai47

HappyHobbit

Nerd of the Rings

Overall they all seem to be very impressed with the snippets they saw.

However all of them keep paising the passion and indepth knowledge for Tolkien Payne and McKay (McPayne?) have demonstrated. I found this really incouraging because so far I felt like contrary to many claims that the creative team always seemed very passionate the show.

#the rings of power #lotr on prime #lotr amazon #Rop #lord of the rings

[fromtheboundlesssea]

Fitting you mention Rhaenor being more on lines symbolically as Tolkienist Dragon, because Rhaenor’s story and etc also ironically makes me think it could be potential backstory for one of the Nine Ring Wraiths. Great King of Man who fall into darkness because of his flaws and greed.

EXACTLY THIS

#keep the asks coming #neither gods nor men #NGNM meta