forestphantom05

[forestphantom05]

Saw this in theaters as a kids, and every time there was a Shelob scene, I would ask my mom to take me to the bathroom. Shockingly, she saw through my careful attempt at pretending I wasn't afraid, and kept me outside the theatre until she knew the scary spider scenes were all done (she already went to see the movie once before taking me).

What’s your core memory of watching the Lord of the Rings films for the first time because I will never forget how my extremely South Asian dad — during the emotionally climatic scene where Arwen is riding to the Havens and sees a vision of her son — paused, pointed, and said “Mashallah, Sister Arwen has accepted the hijab, alhamdulillah, praise be to god” and giggled for a good five minutes 😭

last time i shared this in a uni tolkien club someone called him a misogynistic fundamentalist because irl tolkien clubs are fucking deranged so please let me clarify that he was, in fact, joking.

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[forestphantom05]

I've had the honour of meeting them as well. All three of them were incredibly kind but Sean Astin has a special place in my heart.

I remember he took the time to connect each of his fans individually (not matter how many times the volunteers kept asking him to speed things up).

He's the kind of man who would make Sam Gamgee proud.

Patreon, Webtoons, Tapas, Bluesky, Discord Server.

There is good in this world. And it's Sean Astin.

I'm sure there's other good stuff too. Probably. But I'll fight for Sean Astin.

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My little daughter’s hand is broken and wrapped. The pain in her eyes is more than words can describe. We have no proper hospital, no electricity. Even cooking is done over rusty cans and open flames.

Everything simple has become dangerous—food, medicine, safety… nothing is guaranteed.

Just one reblog can help us be seen. Please, share. Help save a childhood that’s fading under the ashes.

Vetted by GazaVetters #520

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I didn't see anything, and neither did you! Got it???

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[forestphantom05]

I know it’s a low bar, but it’s just nice to see our party leaders acting like adults. Like Pierre Poilievre is not my favourite guy, but he was gracious in his loss tonight, and didn’t squabble over the results tonight

Jaghmeet Singh gave a really nice speech as he resigned. Mark Carney, thanking Poilievre for a race well fought, like, I want that in my elected officials, no matter the party

Gives me some hope

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I don't know half of Tolkien lore half as well as I should like, and I've studied less than half of it half as much as it deserves.

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[forestphantom05]

I can’t believe I just found out that Tolkien did a Gollum impression and narrated the entire riddle scene! How could I not have known about this?! You can listen to the whole recording here starting at the 30 minute mark. I wish he had narrated the whole book from start to finish! I would give anything to listen to that! 

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One of the funny things about LotR is that almost every people in it professes to disbelieve in the supernatural, but because they live in a fantasy world their baseline for "natural" is so jacked up. The Rohirrim are like, yeah, there's a wizard in this tower and ancient tradition that we have no reason to doubt says this mountain is full of ghosts, but walking trees? Short people? I don't think so. Galadriel is like, "Listen I heard you describe what I do as magic and look I just gotta clear some things up, okay." Gondorians are like, yeah, of course the Enemy has spectres of men who lived long ago and never died and can now fly above us and incapacitate us with just their voices. This is just a fact of life, okay? But shut up about this magic weed that makes comatose people better. That's an old wives' tale. Royalty? Press X to doubt.

The people group in Tolkien's work who seem most receptive to magic and least restricted by their own notions of what it can do actually seem to be the hobbits. And they use it to avoid meeting people they don't want to talk to

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[forestphantom05]

does anyone wanna hold hands until we feel a little braver

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People often say LOTR is a story about hope. (I'm reminded of it because someone said it in the notes of my Faramir post.) And that's true, but it's not the whole picture: LOTR is in large part a story about having to go on in the absence of hope.

Frodo has lost hope, as well as the ability to access any positive emotion, by Return. He is already losing it in Towers: he keeps going through duty and determination and of course Sam's constant help.

For most of the story, Sam is fueled by hope, which is why it's such a huge moment when he finally lets go of the hope of surviving and returning home, and focuses on making it to the Mountain. To speed their way and lighten the load, he throws his beloved pots and pans into a pit, accepting that he will never cook, or eat, again.

When Eowyn kills the Witch King, she's beyond hope and seeking for a glorious death in battle. It's possible that in addition to her love and loyalty for Théoden, she's strengthened by her hopelessness, the fear of the Nazgúl cannot touch someone who's already past despair.

Faramir is his father's son, he doesn't have any more hope of Gondor's victory or survival than Denethor does, he says as much to Frodo. What hope have we? It is long since we had any hope. ... We are a failing people, a springless autumn. He knows he's fighting a losing war and it's killing him. When he rejects the ring, he doesn't do it in the hope that his people can survive without it, he has good reason to believe they cannot. He acts correctly in the absence of hope.

Of course LOTR has a (mostly) happy ending, all the unlikely hopes come true, the characters who have lost hope gain what they didn't even hope for, and everyone is rewarded for their bravery and goodness, so on some level the message is that hope was justified. But the book never chastises characters who lost hope, it was completely reasonable of them to do so. Despair pushed Théoden and Denethor into inaction, pushed Saruman into collaboration, but the characters who despaired and held up under the weight of despair are Tolkien's real heroes.

(In an early draft of Return, Frodo and Sam receive honorary titles in Noldorin: Endurance beyond Hope and Hope Unquenchable, respectively. Then he cut it, probably because it was stating the themes of the entire book way too obviously, because this is what Tolkien cared about, really: enduring beyond hope. Without hope.)

Also, people who know more than me about the concept of estel, feel free to @ me.

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ATTENTION AMERICANS & CANADIANS!!!

There is a 1995 movie about our countries going to war, and it is FUCKING HILARIOUS!!!

The Plot: The president and his cabinet realize that when there's no war, people actually pay more attention to policies. So, to fix this, they look for a country they can start another Cold War with to help bring up the president's polling numbers in time for the next election.

The Title: Canadian Bacon

Starring: John Candy

And THE BEST PART? Alan Alda plays the president

If you haven’t watched it yet, I highly recommend. We all could use a laugh right about now.

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every day I wake up and it’s fucking january