A 12-page KaiShin comic based on a tumblr prompt I saw forever ago. Continue reading behind the cut:

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fun fact about me is that when i was a kid id write capital E’s with as many of those little horizontal lines as possible and id call them ladder E’s and adults fucking hated them

artistic rendition

All capital letters should have a leveled-up form

So far I’ve got

Please add your own unsettling godtier capitals!

New alphabet dropped!

oh my god, it’s beautiful

(future handwritten notes are gonna be so wonderfully cursed now, thank you! :D )

well it’s going to take some getting used to, @ceekari (don’t mind the redacted letter between T and U)

But I think i’ve taken a real shine to it! 

you know what gets me about lord of the rings? evil is defeated by people who choose to fight against it without possessing absolute, or even very much, conviction that they can actually win. all the converging story threads that lead to the happy ending are carried out by people who are far, far more convinced that they will fail than that they will succeed, who had only the frailest, most foolish hope, who had blind faith and frequently wavering hearts not peace or ease or certainty.

middle earth isn’t saved because no one faltered or came close to despairing or who sank to their knees in weary defeat. it’s not saved by pride or conviction or even strength. it’s saved because enough people do what they have to do even if they have to do it in the darkness. in the dust. with the ashes of hopelessness and bitterness in their mouths. because enough people took another step. Frodo, Sam, Gandalf, Aragorn, Theoden, Boromir, Faramir, Merry, Pippin. And many don’t. For every hero there is someone who gives into the “reasonableness” of despair—Saruman, Denethor, Grima, even Gollum—but enough. Enough people said “it doesn’t matter if we lose, I will keep fighting” and then they do.

And that GETS me. It is the most hopeful thing about the lord of the rings to me. There is so much that sums up its spirit, so many beautiful quotes and moments, but to me it’s never been the most famous of the quotes about hope and love that hit me hardest but a line from the films. Before the battle for minas tirith, one of the soldiers says “we cannot defeat the armies of Mordor” and Theoden answers “no. but we will meet them in battle nonetheless.”

And I—That is the spirit that leads to the conquering of evil when it comes down to it, when we’re talking about the part played by humanity alone in the fight against evil. Not the conviction you’re going to win, not farsightedness into a perfect future, not perfect inner peace or certainty. But acceptance of the real possibility of defeat, of that defeat being more the reality, the future, of your life than the victory, and then doing the damn thing anyway because goodness is worth fighting for even if you lose.

You have unlocked a LINGUISTIC SUBTEXT of LOTR which is very dear to my heart, Estel vs. Amdír. Lemme explain.

Estel is the alias Elrond gave to Aragorn in the books when he was a child to protect him until he came of age. It’s Sindarin Elvish for hope. But it’s a specific kind of hope. I don’t have my linguistic notes handy, so I can’t remember where Tolkien wrote out the full definition in his own notes, but it’s basically:

estel, n. hope, faith, trust, belief.

But there’s another Elvish word for hope.

amdir, n. hope, expectation, extrapolation. from prefix am to, toward + verb tiro look. Same root as in palantir, far-seer.

amdir is rational hope: you look at present circumstances, and look ahead to see what’s coming. It means calculating likely possibilities, outcomes. What’s the best you can expect to happen?

estel is irrational hope. You know there’s just no way to win. Amdir says you’re screwed, and you say, “I know, but I’ll keep going anyway.”

estel is a FOOL’s HOPE.

Ring any bells? Because you’re absolutely right. There are a lot of people who fail in LOTR because they only had amdir. Saruman was entrapped because he saw no hope of victory, so he threw in his lot with Sauron.

Boromir had been fighting a losing battle of defense against the forces of Mordor and knew there was no chance of defeating the overwhelming forces of Sauron save by some extraordinary means. He saw in the Ring a hope of saving his city by using it as a weapon. He knew “one does not simply walk into Mordor”… it’s too well-defended. Deep down, he wanted to try the amdir option, not the estel option.

And then there’s Denethor. Denethor, most of all, is the epitome of amdir. In the books he is a proud man, but rational. He’s the Steward of Gondor, and he takes the job damn seriously. His people are the bulwark defending Middle-Earth from being crushed by Mordor, which is visible from his window. He’s done a good job of marshalling forces and stockpiling resources for this battle — in the books, he does light the beacons to summon Théoden – and he actually has a palantir he uses to spy on Sauron.

His mind is strong enough to resist Sauron controlling him. So instead, Sauron controls the palantir, making sure it only shows off the greatness of Mordor’s armies, allies and weapons, and every last loss and setback of Denethor’s side. He knew very well Théoden had been held up at Helm’s Deep and would arrive too late. He knew Aragorn was coming to claim the throne, which didn’t thrill him: he thought Aragorn was just Gandalf’s puppet. And when he finds out Faramir had done what Gandalf wanted and sent the Ring into Mordor with a hobbit instead of bringing it to him flr safekeeping, he rails at Gandalf for risking everything on a “fool’s hope.”

The final straw is that, after Faramir is injured, Denethor looks into the palantir one more time to see if there’s any hope left… and he sees the fleet of black ships coming up the river. He thinks it’s more armies from Mordor. In fact, it’s Aragorn bringing a spare army to save the day. But Denethor thinks to himself, “checkmate. We’re toast.” And he decides to kill himself and his dying son rather than let them be seized as trophies by Sauron (or in his case, as a prisoner.)

Denethor gives into despair, but he is not a total madman in the books. He just has a meltdown because he only has amdir, not estel, and only a fool’s hope could win against impossible odds.

Also? Samwise is basically old English for “half wit.” He’s a wise Fool. Théoden and Aragorn do what they can to help, and in the and Aragorn leads his armies to the gates of Mordor to divert Sauron’s attention from Frodo and Sam as much as he can. But it’s Sam’s dogged determination to keep going even if it’s hopeless (amdir-less) that saves them all.

Note that I think Tolkien may have come up with the Elvish word amdir and written out its definition after LOTR was published. But the concept was obviously burbling around in his subconscious already. The more you look, the more you’ll see how the different flavors of hope show up in his writing

So yeah, @itspileofgoodthings , I’m tempted to say you’ve hit on the hidden meaning of LOTR. But like all the great stories, LOTR is a tapestry with multiple threads of meaning. Suffice it to say you’ve hit on a golden thread.

The best description of “estel” that I’ve come upon is “hope with trust.”

It’s the sort of hope that goes along with Tolkein’s concept of despair, which is that despair should be the product of nothing less than absolute certainty that everything is fucked, categorically, forever. But because no one can know that with any real certainty, by definition there is always hope. Not the hope of planning, or the hope of dedication, but the hope of “we don’t know how this is gonna shake out, but if we don’t know for sure then we can’t despair, and if we’re not despairing then we must still have hope left.”

Estel is not an active presence of positivity as much as it is the absence of despair, but because it’s that last thing in between you and giving the fuck up, it’s powerful. It’s also very often underestimated, or denigrated, or mocked. Oh, you still have hope? How cute, how pathetic, how naive. But it’s not. It’s the essence of all resistance. And it really is just showing up and giving luck an opportunity to be on your side.

This is why I absolutely love Sam’s song in the tower of Cirith Ungol:

Though here at journey’s end I lie In darkness buried deep, Beyond all towers strong and high, Beyond all mountains steep, Above all shadows rides the sun, And stars forever dwell; I will not say the day is done, Nor bid the stars farewell.

At the moment that he sings that, he has almost given up; he decided that finding Frodo was more important than taking the ring to Mount Doom himself, but now he has searched the whole tower and he can’t find Frodo. He’s determined not to leave without Frodo, but he doesn’t know where he is; he knows the orcs are coming back, and that if he’s still there at that point, he’ll be killed or tortured (or both), the Ring will be taken from him, and all will be lost.

So what does he do?

He sits down at the top of the tower, and he sings. He sings about how even though he is “buried in darkness”, beyond all hope of aid, he will not say the day is done. For even if he fails, he realizes that “in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.” It’s such a very hobbit-y moment of courage and faith, where, faced with defeat and the loss of all he holds dear, he sings of the beauty that will still exist in the world, even should he fail.

And of course, that song is what leads him to Frodo.

IF THERE IS A POKEANI EP FOR THE AGES ITS THIS ONE MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAUHGUHAUHSUHGUDISHGGHUDHSG

When you need to use royalty free music but can’t find any you like so you make your own but then you remember you don’t know how to compose music but you spent all this time making it and you’re not turning back now

i was getting ready for bed and this gave me a heart attack holy shit

which Ocarina of Time boss is this

Ladies...

Is your ear cartilage symmetrical?

Are your pores drooping?

Do you have thighs?

Something Is Wrong With You.

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Wow lady you’re so strong and fierce! But you’re also fucking hideous without product! Use code FierceFeminist for 2% off on product!

drawings by Niuya, an animator of Hunter x Hunter 2011

Heres some more! How epic would hxh be if she drew the art and togashi writes the story

And even more of her amazing art

She sure loves drawing killua

I hate the trope of "I refuse to hit women!! [Gets decked]" cause it's boring but I do like the trope of someone in an RPG going "hey I don't wanna hit a kid that's kinda fucked up" and the kid just obliterates them

"i refuse to hit a woman!" = Sexist, overdone, does nothing to actually empower the woman or make the guy seem nice

"I refuse to hit a kid" = valid, even funnier when the kid whips absolutely ass in one go

X

losing my mind over this

Anti anxiety.

I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR THAT CAT ONE FOREVER

So mesmerized

The cat

Hey my followers with anxiety here’s some things that might help.

this for my followers with anxiety 🥺 i hope this helps

Idiots doing karaoke for @skuggspel17 ❤️ Hope that puts a lil' smile on your face ☺️

Spring has sprung 🌿💕🌿 once I unlock the shop and I can make qr codes I’ll probably reupload everything I’ve made with the qrs

some of the best writing advice I’ve ever received: always put the punch line at the end of the sentence.

it doesn’t have to be a “punch line” as in the end of a joke. It could be the part that punches you in the gut. The most exciting, juicy, shocking info goes at the end of the sentence. Two different examples that show the difference it makes:

doing it wrong:

doing it right:

Periods are where you stop to process the sentence. Put the dead body at the start of the sentence and by the time you reach the end of the sentence, you’ve piled a whole kitchen and a weird fridge smell on top of it, and THEN you have to process the body, and it’s buried so much it barely has an impact. Put the dead body at the end, and it’s like an emotional exclamation point. Everything’s normal and then BAM, her brother’s dead.

This rule doesn’t just apply to sentences: structuring lists or paragraphs like this, by putting the important info at the end, increases their punch too. It’s why in tropes like Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking or Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick, the odd item out comes at the end of the list.

Subverting this rule can also be used to manipulate reader’s emotional reactions or tell them how shocking they SHOULD find a piece of information in the context of a story. For example, a more conventional sentence that follows this rule:

Oh! There’s a ghost! That’s shocking! Probably the character in our sentence doesn’t even care about the jelly anymore because the spirit of a dead person has suddenly appeared inside her pantry, and that’s obviously a much higher priority. But, subvert the rule:

Because the ghost is in the middle of the sentence, it’s presented like it’s a mere shelf-blocking pest, and thus less important than the REAL goal of this sentence: the grape jelly. The ghost is diminished, and now you get the impression that the character is probably not too surprised by ghosts in her pantry. Maybe it lives there. Maybe she sees a dozen ghosts a day. In any case, it’s not a big deal. Even though both sentences convey the exact same information, they set up the reader to regard the presence of ghosts very differently in this story.