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Literally explained to my dog that I couldn’t share my raisinets the other day because they are poison-coated poison. She wasn’t buying it.

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That GRRM quote about Aragorn's tax policies works really well as a manifesto for low fantasy, pragmatic, detail-conscious, politically and economically aware fantasy. But it does not really work as a criticism of Tolkien.

Yes, Tolkien's world runs on medieval monarchist logic where the Return of the True King automatically fixes almost everything, (the rest of it is tragically unfixable anyway), and we can and kinda should be grappling with the troubling moral implications of all that. But nonetheless we do get to see Aragorn's first few decisions as a ruler, and that does give us an insight into what sort of a king he's likely to be. And like the first ten things he does is granting lands, delegating responsibility, and promising to leave people the fuck alone. He gives Ithilien to Faramir. He reaffirms the kingship of Éomer and the independence of Rohan. He declares that the Drúadan Forest belongs to its inhabitants and everyone has to leave them alone forever. He gives the Shire its independence, bans Men from entering, and he himself obeys that law. He sends all the surrendered members of Sauron's armies back home, and makes peace with them. He frees Sauron's slaves and resettles them in the far-off, arable parts of Mordor.

So Aragorn is going to be a king who rules by delegating power and making strong alliances. And of course by Tolkienian Monarchist logic, the king doesn't have to act, the king being Good and True will automatically cause everyone else in the kingdom to act correctly and prosper. But on a more pragmatic low-fantasy level, Aragorn is an excellent judge of character choosing to delegate to people who know their local fiefdom better than he does, so in practice, I'm pretty sure the people who actually need to have tax policies are not Aragorn himself, but people like Prince Imrahil and Mayor Samwise Gamgee.

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Welcome to Swerve's! No guns, no swords, no briefcases!!

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So here we are, on September 30th, the iconic sound of the early internet will be silenced forever.

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star trek's like 'what if god was real but he was kind of a dick'

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My piece for @tftarotproject

The Emperor

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Day 56

Chitchatting

Comic: Batman (1940) #496

Context: They are taking a break of crime to snack and talk about life. Very cutesy, very demure 💕

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controversial opinion but ive suffered enough and should get everything i want for forever from now on and also im pretty cute

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found this comment under a video about three jokers and its sending me

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I could fix him but I kinda like him a little murderous and psychotic tho

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If I'm gonna say something nice about using Tumblr for social media it's that Tumblr doesn't make you aspire to something and that's a positive.

The big draws of Instagram/Tiktok/Facebook seem to be about proving you have a perfect life and a perfect face and a perfect body and then getting really sad when you don't stack up. Tumblr is a bunch of anime profile pictures loitering at a gas station.

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the new kids + interacting with harrison ford

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I ever tell you guys about my ethically dubious radio show back in college? The Mad Dad Hour?

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being on tumblr for a long time but never reading homestuck like