i want my long distance besties to be local besties is that too much to ask

ROTK ANNIVERSARY WEEK | Courage [3/7] ➼ Displays of courage in ROTK

in Fellowship of the Ring, Boromir carries his shield the entire time, symbolizing his role as a protector. he's always looking out for the hobbits and is often one of the first to speak up on their behalf (Caradhras, and after Gandalf's death, for example). however, he leaves his shield before confronting Frodo when he is under the influence of the Ring, essentially abandoning his role as a protector and attacking Frodo (it's also interesting to note that the only time he doesn't have his shield is when he is not himself). when he is back to being himself, he still doesn't have his shield, but he uses himself as a shield to protect Merry and Pippin, back to his role as a protector (causing his death). anyway i'm just thinking about how Boromir's shield is representative of him and his role in the Fellowship.

Rest in Peace, Bernard Hill 🤍🕊

15TH MARCH: THE BATTLE OF THE PELENNOR FIELDS

Elrond: Let's maybe not swear a binding oath to keep jewelry away from an Ainu at all cost. Let's maybe. Let's maybe just like, pinky promise to do our best. Trust me on this, you don't want to swear any oaths

I find this moment very interesting not just because of the Oath of Fëanor but because of what it says about oaths in general.

Because imagine that all of the Fellowship did swear to go with Frodo to Mount Doom. Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn would have felt obligated to abandon Merry and Pippin to the orcs to go with Frodo; who knows how the Ring could have used that guilt to twist them. Gollum would never have had the same dynamic with Frodo, because he hated Aragorn. Gollum wouldn’t have been at Mount Doom to destroy the Ring. Aragorn wouldn’t have been there to take the Paths of the Dead. Minas Tirith would have fallen. There would have been no march on the Black Gate that cleared a path to Mount Doom by distracting Sauron.

“No oaths,” means: the world is larger and more complex than you know. You don’t know that the thing you’re swearing to do will turn out to be the right thing, the best thing, in every possible circumstance. Have the humility to recognize that complexity.

Rereading the Lord of the Rings series recently, and it's so fascinating to me how much the series is a denial of the typical juvenile power-fantasy that is associated with the fantasy genre.

Like, the power-fantasy is the temptation the Ring uses against people It tempts Boromir with becoming the "one true king" that could save his people with fantastic power. It tempts Sam with being the savior of Middle Earth and turning the ruin that is Mordor into a great garden. It tempts Gandalf and Galadriel with being the messianic figure of legend who brings salvation to Middle Earth and great glory to herself.

The things the Ring tempts people with are becoming the typical protagonists of fantasy stories that we expect to see. and over and over we see that accepting that role, that fantasy of being the benevolent all-powerful hero, is a bad thing. LotR is about how power, even power wielded with benevolent intent, is corrupting.

And its so fascinating how so much of modern fantasy buys into the very fantasy LotR denies. Most modern fantasy is about being that Heroic power-fantasy. About good amassing power to rival evil. But LotR dares not to. It dares to be honest that there is no world where anyone amasses that power and remains good.

I guess that's one of the reasons its so compelling.

Cat vs Corn

(Source)

Reading the Lay of Leithian and I’m not over the fact that Beren and Finrod Felagund introduce themselves to Sauron as Nereb and Dungalef. It’s both utterly ridiculous and yet the best way to keep their identity secret because no one sane would use their name backwards to trick Sauron the Deciever of all people.

Let me put it this way. Y'know how people love Warlocks? Because they come built-in with a character conflict, and that conflict is directly tied to their mechanical identity. It's dramatic, it's interesting, and it basically gives you a real writing prompt where other characters just get a list of stereotypes and a background element like "you went to school" or "you like nature".

There are games where every class is a warlock.

female awesome meme: [5/10] warrior characters » éowyn

I don’t care if it’s 1 A.M. I don’t consider it “tomorrow” until I wake up.

These staves he spoke, yet he laughed as he said them. For once more lust of battle was on him; and he was still unscathed, and he was young, and he was king: the lord of a fell people.

fairytales which tell you to be both kind and clever fairytales that say to be kind is to be clever and to be clever is to be kind fairytales that say the cleverest thing you can ever do is choose kindness and that cruelty or thoughtlessness are always foolish but not kindness never kindness

you bring oil for the gate and food for the dog and clean out the oven and bake bread in it and the oven will hide you and the dog will not betray you and the gate will stay open for you and close on your pursuers, to be clever is just to know that if you are good in a world made of rules, goodness will be returned to you.

In [fairy tales], power is rarely the right tool for survival anyway. Rather the powerless thrive on alliances, often in the form of reciprocated acts of kindness —from beehives that were not raided, birds that were not killed but set free or fed, old women who were saluted with respect. Kindness sown among the meek is harvested in crisis.

— Rebecca Solnit, The Faraway Nearby