#bilbo has the fucking audacity!

[halfelven]

bilbo going off on another several hours long story and elrond falling asleep on him. that’s the level i imagine their friendship to be

[treesandwords]

For anyone who's into LOTR I am rereading (again) and took notes on the weirdest/most interesting bits this time:

There are/were other magic rings beside the main ones, which is part of what makes it so hard for other characters to believe that Bilbo's ring is actually The ring

At one point Tolkien jumps into the POV of a random fox walking by our protagonists' camp and then never brings it up again, no big deal

The ever-controversial Tom Bombadil has several other names we just never talk about? And the elves (at least in Rivendell) know about him and have known about him for many years now

They also consider giving him the ring but ultimately decide it would be a bad idea because "he'd probably just lose it"

A lot of what happens to Frodo after he's been stabbed by the Nazgul is less symptomatic of dark magic and more of just...having a severe shoulder injury?? Like "oh no my hand is numb and I'm weak and can't move it, must be the evils of Mordor" bro you probably just have nerve damage and blood loss

Bilbo straight up writes and sings a song about Elrond's dad in front of him and a bunch of other elves in Rivendell like. The audacity.

There's a river called "Wetwang" (yes it's called Nindalf in Elvish, but that's not important here)

Aragorn never tells anyone else that Boromir admitted to trying to take the ring, it's implied he even keeps it secret from Gandalf once he reappears

The "Two Towers" actually refers to Orthanc and Minas Morgal, not Orthanc and Barad-Dur as the films suggest

Eomer has met and possibly was friendly with Boromir

Also Aragorn, who doesn't look that old, straight up tells Eomer he'd met both his father and Theoden when they were younger and he just...has zero reaction?? Like if a guy who looked not much older than me wisely said "ah yes, I met your father and uncle long ago" in a way that implied they'd worked together as somewhat equals I'd be. A little uncertain to say the least.

Oh and he also hung out with Denethor back in the day

Eomer and Gimli have a running disagreement on whether or not Galadriel is real, and if so, how hot she is

This is common ish knowledge but there are elements of actual Old English embedded into Rohan's worldbuilding (esp. the names/ "Rohrric" language) and the whole location is genuinely just Tolkien's fantasy version of Anglo-Saxon Britain. He is very not subtle about it.

Saruman was FULLY RUNNING DRUGS BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN THE SHIRE AND ISENGARD

And this actually ends up contributing to a main plot in the third book

Instead of the Palantir falling out of Saruman's pocket when he dies like in the movie, Gandalf shoots a spell at Saruman and makes him run back inside Orthanc and Wormtongue chucks the Palantir down at him from the window in retaliation

I know the potato scene is *iconic* but let's be real the fact that Sam risks a fire and takes the time to make a full rabbit stew plus seasoning while they're on a dangerous secret mission to sneak into the Darkest Of Dark Lords' fortress is kind of hilarious

Minas Morgul is some serious eldritch horror cryptid shit

Denethor is honestly such drama queen. Like I know he's supposed to be a threatening and tragic character but holy shit.

Also the entire houses of healing segment is unintentionally comedic

Like between the old lady who runs the house giving absolutely zero fucks, and the herb master and Aragorn having a mini nerd off about what Athelas/Kingsfoil is called in different languages, and also Aragorn and Pippin roasting Merry - who has JUST woken up from an Evil Coma by the way - about not being able to find his weed

"This weed is better than I thought" -- actual quote by Ioreth re: kingsfoil

This is something I noticed that a lot of people don't mention - the "Evenstar" that Arwen gives Aragorn in the movies that's tied to her lifeforce/immortality isn't really a thing in the books. The closest to it is this green brooch that she gives him via Galadriel in FOTR - but the only necklace she gives to anyone is actually to Frodo, as a token that basically means if he ever wants to go to the Grey Havens (as he ultimately does) he'd essentially be taking her place because she isn't going

Ok the scouring of the Shire is pretty common knowledge but are we going to talk about Lotho Sackville-Baggins became Saruman's dealer and helped smuggle drugs pipeweed into Isengard (see I told you it would come back)

Also!! Lotho was possibly EATEN by Grima Wormtongue, or at the very least Saruman believes he was, yes this is an actual canon thing

Legit quote from ROTK: "Worm killed your Chief, poor little fellow, your nice little Boss. Didn't you, Worm? Stabbed him in his sleep, I believe. Buried him, I hope; though Worm has been very hungry lately[]"

Seriously what the fuck

Saruman is killed by Wormtongue (who is then shot by a bunch of Hobbit archers) and promptly....disintegrates?

Anyway if you're a casual fan who's only seen the movies, or if you haven't read the books in a while, I'd highly recommend.

[thesheelfsworld]

Trust me or f*ck off

Warning: mild swearing

Pairing: Thorin Oakenshield x reader; Thorin's Company x reader

Summary: Being an outsider, it was expected that the dwarves were doubtful of you, but they should at least let you do your job!

Author's Note: As always, English is not my first language, so please be nice and enjoy!✨

Here are part 2, part 3.

I was starting to lose my patience. 

I was offered this job because I am a seasoned warrior. Gandalf knew it, I knew it. Hell, half of Middle Earth knew it, but Thorin Oakenshield apparently did not. And he also didn’t seem interested in finding out. 

He had been doubtful of me since the beginning, which I thought was okay because I was a stranger and why should he trust me? He has lost more than enough and he felt I was jeopardizing his quest. I knew and understood all of it, I did! But he was barmy if he thought I would just sit there and be thrown inside a circle of dwarfs with Bilbo every time trouble ensued. 

I had been hired to protect Bilbo, so being next to him was natural and necessary to fulfil my duty, but seriously, if I get pushed around one more time while I’m trying to kill some orcs I am going to fucking lose it! 

We were intercepted by a relatively small group of orc scouts, everyone fighting off those foul beasts. I had been guarding Bilbo when a warg attacked us from the front, but it was not my first time facing such an enemy. My movements were sure and deadly as I fought back. The situation was under control, the warg was already severely injured and starting to lose assertiveness due to blood loss, only one final blow to end the fight, but before I could do so, blasted Thorin Oakenshield pushes me off with his big ass audacity and kills it! The fuck was his problem! 

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?” you screamed as you pushed yourself off the ground, Bilbo offering you a hand which you promptly refused, too pissed off to accept any kind of help.

“What am I doing? Keeping this company safe is what I am doing,” he scoffed as if it was the dumbest thing I could have ever asked him.

Oh, fuck no.  Anger radiating off of me, I came face to face with that short little king.

“I did not need you barging in. I had it under control. I am not a damsel in distress, I am a warrior like any of you, or even more so because I have actually been fighting for a living for most of my life,” I gritted, lips tight with refrained anger and embarrassment by being treated like this. 

Thorin held my gaze, he was not going to cower from my glare, but I already knew that and I was willing to take this pissing contest as far as he wanted to take it because I was done. 

“You do not talk to me like that and you most certainly do not tell me what I can and cannot do. I am your King! I will do as I see fit,” and as soon as he said that, he turned on his heel and left me with the words in my mouth. I moved to go after him, give him a piece of my mind when someone grabs onto me. 

“Lass, that’s enough. Yer only going to make it worse,” Bofur stood there, with my arm in his hand and a sorry look on his face.

I looked around the company, they had all seen our little stand-off, and could not help feeling even more embarrassed, and in turn, angrier.

“I am not the one in the wrong! I have been pushed aside, manhandled, literally kicked out of the way, and belittled throughout this entire journey. I am a warrior, a great one at that! but you refuse to see anything past my gender. You think I am weak and in need of someone to protect me, like a damn child. I am no respected member of this company. He has shown me that is what he thinks of me and you have all stood with him on it. I’m done.” The finality of the sentence made the comments of calming down to a prompt stop. “And he is not my king.” With that, you turned around and left in the opposite direction where Thorin had stormed off.

--

Thorin had been standing not too far from the group when you had your little outburst. 

In all honesty, he was not sure how everything went downhill so fast. One moment, he was fighting off orcs when he saw the warg approach you. He could not immediately go to you because he had his own fight and he and Dwalin were having each other’s backs. However, he still kept an eye on you. He saw how well you were handling the situation, and truthfully, you did not need his help, but logic and rational thinking were not always Thorin’s best qualities. He was anxious (and maybe even worried, if he was being honest), and as soon as he was done with his own fight, he went to you. To help you, that is. 

Only, apparently, you did not want his help? How was killing something that was attacking you a bad thing? And then you started yelling at him, and why were you even angry? Thorin had half a mind to walk off that fight before something else was said and he got furious, which for him, was not all that hard; and he got the last word, so that was a win. He was proud of his decision.  

But hearing how they-he had made you feel …. That was not what he thought of you. Your quick thinking and knowledge of the lands they travelled through saved them many times and the dwarves truly valued your input. But fair is fair, and Thorin knew that you were right.

None of them had let you fight if they could help it. And that might have been a bit his fault. He had been talking to Dwalin and Balin about the group’s safety, especially Bilbo’s and he might have, very casually, said something along the lines of protecting you inside the circle of dwarfs because … well, he did not want anyone getting hurt. Simple as that. Dwalin heard that as orders and then everyone took it in stride, they thought it was only natural to take care of the only woman in the group as well. Didn’t really put much thought into it. But they had made a mistake. 

After you left, Thorin rejoined the company. Not one of them said anything, guilt making its way up their chests and settling there. Until Bilbo spoke:

“She is right, you do realize? And I am not blaming you, I also drag her with me into the circle when danger finds us, despite having seen her kill more orcs than I can count and barely break a sweat,” his voice a bit saddened.  

Thorin knew he had to take responsibility for this. Even if he had not said anything, and they still took care of her, he should have said something.

She was employed for this quest because she had more experience in fighting than many of them, she knew the lands because she had travelled most of Middle Earth several times, she was a ranger. She knew what she was doing. He realized that now. He had to make it right.

---------------------

Part 2

Feel free to give me some feedback in the comments!

[mischieffoal]

LotR Musical: Round 3!

Just a bunch of my thoughts, once more. From Wednesday 4th October matinee

Pre-Show: 

Hobbit!Gimli asked if I wanted to play Ring-toss, and Lobelia challenged me to a game… if I gave her a spoon if she won. I went on stage, shook hands, bowed, played and failed, she got one, shook hands, happily congratulated her with a spoon. Which Rosie then accused her of stealing from me! The audacity!! 

Also, I gave Fatty a chocolate bar, and he loves it when people come back again because they always bring him snacks. Got some very funny photos with him. Also, he was having great fun yelling about food - “Hey! Everyone! If you want a Mars Bar, they’ve got a whole bag!”

Mrs. Bolger came and chatted to us about the party, and birthdays, and Rose having her birthday the day before Bilbo’s, and Fatty and Mrs.’ twins being born then too! A busy time in the Shire! The little fauntlings are over their with Fatty’s mum! For Bilbo’s speech, Gollum sat right behind me on the picnic table! He was wearing such a cute jumper. I have a problem. 

Act 1:

Gandalf!! I like this understudy! Actually much better than the original! Patrick Bridgman. More sure of himself, powerful in a way, authoritative. Felt more magic and different from the elves than Peter.

Aragorn carries Frodo in so many different ways in the space of about a minute (fireman's, bridal, piggyback, shoulders round)

When Bilbo says "I'm worried I'll turn into him", Gollum pokes his head in from the side and sneers. I’ve never noticed it before, it’s that subtle. You would only notice it at all if you’d seen it before, because he’s still in full hobbit costume. Holy shit it sent chills down my spine.

Each time they mentioned rings and losing their power, they all held theirs, including Elrond who doesn't even mention his

All the Hobbits are so HAPPY all the time up to and during star of Earendil, when around them others are worried and scared and sad - but they’re still set on their Adventure!! I love them!!

Gimli's outfit has the knotwork on the set, lit up in Moria, I really like that detail. It’s obvious, I just hadn’t made the connection before. He’s connected to the “earth” around them. 

Gandalf hugging Sam into Moria. Everyone in this show hugs so much and I love that.

It's *Legolas* who tells Merry that Gimli is singing a song of his ancestors. Goddddd the elf/dwarf everything in this musical. (Earlier, in the council, Gimli has to sit down on a bench next to Legolas, clearly hesitates, and Legolas literally turns his body away from him once he’s sat down)

The movement in Lothlorien is so *different* and fluid

Frodo just fucking crying his eyes out in Lothlorien. Everyone else is having the time of their lives. Poor poor man.

Boromir really is the bad guy in this musical, huh?

All the chest and head hand signs are so so sweet - touching you to me, sharing my mind and heart and soul. Elrond does it from his heart to Frodo’s heart, touching his chest and it’s just… so affectionate. The three hunters do the same to Boromir’s body, along with all their different prayer signs, and it makes me cry. 

This time the flute music truly was menacing - Saruman’s evil grin held for a while before playing

Have some accidental floating hobbits for the intveral:

Act 2:

R’s favourite bit was Aragorn and Arwen, she kept talking about it!

Aragorn/Arwen’s duet ends very abruptly with lighting changes and Arwen disappearing to aragorn finishing last note kneeling alone surrounded by men. Yes. God. Dream sequences for the win.

Legolas leaps around and does not-quite-flips in his fighting, whereas Gimli is always on the ground

Legolas snogging his bow

Legolas always looks so... clinical, practiced when fighting

"Come back when you're sober" catty asshole

Wonder - bunch of men (including many principles in human gear) sit on the round. As Galadriel sings each "out of", another person gets up and stands before her, until Aragorn, sword held high, “WONDER” - really uplifting. I also really really love Aragorn’s little bit “day may end”, why isn’t it in the cast recording.

When Gollum climbs, it’s up the wall rather than the ladders like Sam and Frodo, and in act 2’s lighting you can’t even see the holds - very creepy

Shelob was actually fantastic when I was properly aware of her. Beautiful and creepy and so much going on. 

Frodo and Gollum moving together and also SPEAKING together, when Gollum hears Sam say they'll destroy the ring

When Sam is convincing Frodo to get up so they can walk to mordor, he's reaching out to him, everyone comes on stage and reaches out to him, and he eventually manages to grab his hand

Sam yelling as he carries Frodo on his shoulders is spine-tingling again

Gollum's death, was, again, incredible

Sam and Frodo and Rosie standing together hugging as they wait for the wedding, making me awwww

Group Hobbit foot goodbye aaaaaaa

At the end as Frodo leaves, Gollum and then Bilbo play the tune accompanying him aaaaaa

Final observations:

Head holding situations: 

Aragorn and Boromir practically in each others’ faces as he dies

Aragorn and Frodo practically kissing

Gimli and Legolas do this too!! After they’ve proposed!! The spotlight has gone to Aragorn but they’re holding each other in the darkness!

Funny hobbit versions: 

Gollum x Aragorn Hobbit AU, 500k

Mrs. Bracegirdle is actually in the show! She’s Kelly!

Gollum is a Proudfoot. Need I say more.

Rosie is Scottish! How could I forget this!

After the show, I congratulated Rosie, Legolas, Haldir, Bilbo and Saruman! I passed on E’s praise of “gay supervillain audacity” and they laughed and said “well it’s hard to hide”. (Side note: they’re enby, of course this is why I find him so attractive)

And, finally, my favourite thing I noticed in the whole show:

For all of Act 2, Frodo's voice is tremulous, breathy and tired EXCEPT directly after Sam says “Well, there’s nothing we can do about that” (the elves leaving for the West). 

“Yes we can.”

Completely normal voice. Terrifying.

[linddzz]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

@gretchensinister tagged me, and I realized I can't mope about lack of interaction if I don't interact! This ended up being a really fun sort of retrospective :)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

44. tbh I think that's an inflated number since for some reason I posted every single chapter of the Evil Boyfriends Series as a separate ficlet??? and there's like 30 of those.

2. What’s your total word count?

349,680 if my math is right (it rarely is)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Rise of the Guardians, The Hobbit (movies), Fantastic Beasts (first movie only and wrote is in bold past tense there lmao), and now getting back into it (arguably returning to my roots of dramatic hot mess Nightmare/Dream King Sandmen) with The Sandman (Netflix)

4. Top 5 fics by kudos

Safe and Distant (Thorin/Bilbo, The Hobbit)

Mahrâna (The Hobbit, Thorin POV companion to S&D)

A Study on the Habits of the Adult Obscurial (Fantastic Beasts movie 1, Newt/Credence) ((ngl I was surprised this was so high in the ranking))

The Blizzard of '68 (Pitch Black/Jack Frost, Rise of the Guardians)

The Intervention (same as above lol, man that Evil Boyfriends Series was fun)

The Device Has Been Modified (Kozmotis Pitchner/Jack Frost. Rise of the Guardians movie/novels/a wild fuckin "Jack is a sci-fi AI" AU. holy shit I forgot about this one it was a wild blast)

5. Do you respond to comments?

Rarely and not as often as I'd like. I'm also bad at responding to texts from friends tho, so it's a Thing. I love and read every comment repeatedly though!

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Shiver/Tremble for the Rise of the Guardians. No question. They're also the darkest things I've written. First thing I ever wrote seemed to purge all my darkest impulses out right at the jump.

(I ain't linking those lmao. I don't regret writing dark noncon fic, or even taking on writing it from the predator POV. They're just my very first published works and shit is ROUGH.)

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

The Cultural Misunderstanding series of Safe and Distant and Mahrâna. Based on the fact that they actually ARE finished and I always held that the Evil Boyfriends Series isn't exactly a "good" ending for Jack, even if it isn't a bad one.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Mahrâna had a commenter who was mad that all the dwarves said fuck because "Tolkien wouldn't have them say that."

This was on the sequel to a fic where Thorin and Bilbo explicitly touched their dicks, and thus it remains the funniest comment I've ever received.

(They also thought Thorin was too obviously Mentally Ill and since there were no therapists in Middle Earth they didn't see why anyone would put up with him. So. Y'know. Fuck that commenter in general.)

9. Do you write smut?

YUP

10. Do you write crossovers?

Nah

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Safe and Distant has been translated to Chinese, German, and Russian!

Steady Hands has been translated to Russian

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Tremble, the equally fucked up sequel to Shiver, was done with a co-author where we went back and forth on chapters!

Currently, Audacity in Human Form has @amahhi as my co-author, as it's written based off of our RP where I wrote Dream and she wrote Hob, and she's who I bounce ideas on for adapting it all into fic form while she also acts as my beta editor.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

This is like asking for a favorite food why. Hell some of my favorite ships are ones I haven't written fic for (Newt/Hermann, Jayce/Viktor, William Laurence/Tenzing Tharkay to name a few).

(Tbh I wouldn't even say whether or not I write fic depends on how much I like the characters. Amahhi and I also have many rp storylines that are basically full fics of all of the above ships (shout out to the Newmann Star Trek AU that remains one of my favorites ever, along with the Willzing with Werewolf!Laurence). It just depends on if my brain figures out how they'd be written as a fic.)

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

A Study on the Habits of the Adult Obscurial. In my heart I still love my version of Credence, who is pretty much an OC of mine with how far I went "oh fuck that" at canon after the first movie. But between the terrible sequels, Rowling going full terf, and the fact that I had not actually plotted out a good outline and was hitting a wall.....yeah that thing's never getting finished. I recently put a note on there letting any new readers know it's officially abandoned.

Things That Were also ran into the problem of me taking on a big fic idea without the big fic planning. I had specific future scenes in my head but didn't have a strict guide on what happened when or how characters would get from A to B. That one I'm more sad about needing to give up on though.

16. What are your writing strengths?

According to friends and comments: dialogue, particularly capturing a characters voice in the dialogue and POV prose, and getting a solid characterization overall.

I'm also told I'm good at making a ship into a convincing couple and how they work as a couple.

Which is good for me, because those are my favorite things to write! Most of my fics are built on scenes of dialogue that popped into my head and the dialogue is what I have the most fun writing (hence why most of my Tumblr posts are goofy dialogue bits).

And I just like taking the characters as they are at a point in their story and going "ok, if these two get together, how does that happen?" and exploring it from there. Tbh I consider most of my successful fics to be character studies hiding in a full fleshed fanfic.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

What the fuck is a story plot????

Is a plot not just "two people take 50k words to figure their shit out with almost no other characters coming in?" What the fuck is actually planning out a storyline with beats to it and an outline? (Trying to get better on the last one, Audacity actually has an outline that includes what specific RP scenes to flesh out or what gets subtracted/added!) (As far as plot goes I've now accepted that I'm not actually A Writer. I just wanna do my drawn out character studies and that's what I'm gonna do damnit.)

Besides that: laying out scenes beyond just the dialogue. Using repetitive descriptive language or getting rambly with it. I legit don't know if my occasional super short sentence lines for character reactions come across as punchy or if it's just choppy and disjointed, which ties in with a general struggle to keep small scenes flowing into each other without getting bogged down in details that fuck pacing up.

According to my various betas: punctuation is my mortal enemy, and I don't know how to make a sentence that isn't a fragment or an eternal run-on. I will sometimes fight them on my sentences and they put up with a lot.

Also, writing discipline in general. I'm uh, very bad at making myself sit down to write even when I want to, and my job tends to burn up the executive functioning points that my ADHD meds give me.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language?

Did it a little bit for Mahrâna with Thorin speaking Khuzdul, but not more than short sentences and it took a stupid amount of looking things up for a couple sentences of dwarvish dirty talk lmao.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

If we count what was actually posted: Rise of the Guardians.

But there's some notebooks rotting away somewhere with a classic early 2000s isekai LOTR fic in it with an OC that was so much like Tauriel that my old buddy and I joked that "Peter Jackson fuckin stole my OC!!" This isn't a dig at Tauriel bc my OC was rad.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Safe and Distant/Mahrâna are my magnum opus, with Safe and Distant as my personal favorite even though there are bits I'd change (mostly in the smut scene).

I think finishing Mahrâna was a bigger accomplishment and it was overall a bigger challenge to write Thorin's pathos and the mental journey he had to go through, but Safe and Distant was just FUN to write. It was the last time I was young and dumb enough to do things like stay up until 7AM writing nonstop. I think I did a good job of managing to take my strength of chronologically disjointed, shorter character driven scenes and stringing them together into something cohesive. I still like the back and forth flashbacks I did and think I did a good job making the flashback scenes related to the current storyline, even with the flashbacks being out of order.

(Ironic that Bilbo was more fun to write, when Thorin was who I fixated on more ferally and thought about more as a character. I'm having the same thing now with Hob and Morpheus lmao. I love rotating those dark, dramatic, brooding king types in my head, but actually writing the internal brooding out makes me want to chew glass and bully their dramatic asses.)

((still don't know why tf I thought Bilbo would be the virgin of the two of them, or why I have that bit in there with a fucking hobbit being a little insecure about pudge. God I was off base with that lmao))

Tagging @alienfuckeronmain, @avelera, @spicedrobot, @insufferablearchanist

[novemberblueskyink]

Okay so first of all, we gotta set the scene. There's Gloin and Gimli, some Elves from Imladris (I think), an Elf from the Grey Havens, Frodo, Gandalf, and Elrond. Probably a handful of other people too, but my cat is on my lap now and I can't look at my book.

So Aragorn is lurking in the corner wearing his grimy old Ranger clothes like it's a personality.

And then there's Boromir. Who is, while travel-dirty, pimped out.

Lots of talking happened. Gloin told the Council about the Dwarves that went off to Moria under suss conditions and then their radio silence, which was suss. He mentioned that Sauron basically showed up on the doorstop of the Lonely Mountain and threatened them.

The part of the history of the Ring is told and then someone has the audacity to mention Gondor in the same room as Boromir, and he goes off.

He's like WAIT A HOT SECOND WE'RE STILL FUCKING FETCH. WHO SAID WE WEREN'T FETCH. And starts to talk about how hard shit has been.

There's some dream prophecy that he's come to Elrond to ask about which took forever because no one has maps or compasses or stops to ask for directions in Middle Earth.

And then Aragorn, dramatic bitch that he is, chucks the broken fucking sword on the table and says, "HERE I AM BITCH COME AT ME."

Boromir is like but who the fuck are you?

And Elrond, who is nervously biting his nails, imagining his nice house getting destroyed between these two, jumps in to explain who Aragorn is.

The Ring is taken out and some other important things are said.

Bilbo also gets fucking upset over anyone coming for his song writing bff and snaps off that bit about 'All that is gold does not glitter,' which he had written specifically about Aragorn.

Then Aragorn turns to Boromir, patronizing as hell, and tells him that he forgives the doubting Thomas since he *does look a little rough around the edges.*

He goes on to talk about the Rangers and how badass they are.

How Boromir (and Gondor by extension) doesn't know SHIT ABOUT SHIT outside their lands. How nice and cozy their tower and walls are compared to the Rangers wandering out in the cold and the rain, uphill both ways, slaying 'Nameless Things' and keeping Fear away. AND HOW FUCKING THANKLESS A JOB IT IS SO KINDLY SHUT THE FUCK UP.

Which is just hysterical to me. The whole thing reads like a drama to me and I love it 🤌💋

@gossip-girl-of-middle-earth

[sleepingfancies]

People often ask me why I love Lord of the Rings so much, and specifically the message behind the hobbits as a people, and the actions of Frodo and Bilbo.

It's because of things like TWD. Kind, compassionate, hopeful characters are repeatedly, brutally punished or even killed for having the audacity to believe in things like kindness and hope. Beth, Tyreese, Glenn, Carl - I won't be at all shocked if Ezekiel is next on the roster.

LotR shows me that kindness and hope are precisely what gets people through the hardest of times. It shows me compassionate, emotional protagonists who are never twisted into becoming "cold" or "hopeless" despite everything they go through, and you know what? They win. Hope wins. Kindness wins. They push forward and keep fighting for what they believe in and they win, because hatred and selfishness have never stood solidly against hope.

I get the message TWD is trying to send. I understand the contextual importance. But my god, it's so exhausting after awhile. It's so fucking exhausting watching people like Negan win over and over again, because... they're bad? At this point there's no reason why he keeps winning, why Rick's people keep dying, they just do. Because Negan is the Big Bad, and hope is futile, and everything is bleak and nothing matters.

It's bullshit.

You're telling me that NOBODY in Negan's camp has taken that STUPID fucking baseball bat and broken it over a slab of concrete yet and started an uprising? He's a man. He's not a fucking god. Take a goddamn pistol and put it between his eyes and he'll kick the bucket same as any other jackass.

And I don't believe for one second that kindness and compassion would be this fucking punished! I don't! Yes of course some people will take advantage of your compassion as they do in real life, but holy fuck, most people are trying to survive same as anyone else!! Kindness is something people remember. Compassion and empathy and mercy are things that become burned into people's minds and they know "this person is safe. This person is my friend."

I'm tired of seeing hope and compassion and goodness punished and killed. I'm tired of evil winning for the sake of evil winning. It's not compelling or puts me on edge, it's just exhausting.