The Hobbit’s official movie books really push the original timeline as the film one (despite 0 aging of characters in flashbacks pfft) BUT they also present Balin as the most ‘aged’ of the Company in both appearance and description at 178, despite Thorin — visibly far younger — being 17 years older than him.
It’s a conundrum, but I got an idea when I noticed Dwalin in the books supposedly lives to 340, even though a dwarf living to just 300 is supposed to be as rare as a human making it to 100! There’s been arguments that that was just a ‘typo’ on Tolkien’s part, but what if it wasn’t? What if we roll with that? Dwalin did look shockingly younger than Balin even though he’s just 9 years younger! That’s just 3 if you take it in human years!
So, using that 340 as inspiration and a base line, what if we say the direct line of Durin the Deathless plus the occasional offshoot like Dwalin just age slower than the typical dwarf? That their max baseline is closer to 300-350 or even 350-400 versus the usual 250-300? Because, if we go with, say, 400 as Thorin’s base max, suddenly we go from ‘Thorin should look older than Balin’ to ‘he’s in the human equivalent of his late 40s,’ and that seems much closer to the slightly aged up Richard Armitage we got in movies, doesn’t it?
This would also mean Thorin IS older than Balin despite their dynamic, but hey—sometimes your younger cousin is just wiser than you. 😂
33 notes
·
View notes
tbh, it seems to me that people started talking too early about the fact that aegon allegedly does not love his children, when he didn't have a single scene with them. helaena had only one, and even then she just sat next to them, but everyone agrees that she is a good mother.
considering the book canon, aegon from the show reminds me of my dad: a man who never initiates a pastime with me, but whose love I do not doubt (paradoxically? yes. but child-parent relationships can be ambiguous). he shows his love in a different way. this is one of the reasons why I can't be angry at aegon's failure as a parent, apart from the imposed marriage and fatherhood.
13 notes
·
View notes
Had Sophie stayed in the human world until she was older like the Black Swan planned for her to, do you think their experiment would have worked?
They want her to bring change to the human world, but an elf raised as a human being who came to the Lost Cities as an adult would have incredibly hard time adjusting or taking the Black Swan seriously for reasons that I think are fairly obvious. She would have had a life, with friends and family in the human world. Then they would require her to sever all of those relationships because they want her to bring change to a world that she did not even know existed. Once she got to the Lost Cities, she would have incredibly hard time integrating to the different clothes, food and culture. Once she got past those hurdles, she would have to work incredibly hard to be taken seriously. She would be a grown woman that no one in the Lost Cities is connected to, who is advocating for change in a world that she has no connection to. I am thinking of real life equivalents of this, like a child being raised in Russia, who only speaks Russian and thinks of themselves as Russian, is brought to the United States as an adult to tackle American social issues. They do not understand American social issues and it will take a long time before they do. Exchange the word Russia for human, Russian for human world and United States for Elvin world. Her credibility would be very low in this scenario, as she would struggle to get people to hear her thoughts on issues especially because she is not impacted by these problems. Moreso, she would view herself as a human being and would ultimately defend humans and even betray the elves if she felt the elves were going to harm humans.
Ultimately, the Black Swan would not work out. They would bring her to the world of the elves, use her for a different perspective then bring her back to the human world. Then, there is the problem of her abilities and lifespan. Would they leave her with her abilities and do nothing to do with them? Would they leave her, an immortal being, in the human world to spend the rest of her life with people who live quickly and die quickly? That is an interesting way to handle things.
There are so many ways the plans of the Black Swan could have gone wrong.
That depends on what you consider "working" for Project Moonlark. If we're going solely with the goal of bringing a new perspective to the Lost Cities, that still would've been achieved; she still would've been raised with the same human mindset that the Black Swan was looking for. If we're going with the goal for her "to be something new", then she still would've been that.
I personally don't think the problems you're suggesting would be too different from how it is now in the series. Perhaps they waited until Sophie was in her 20s or 30s, before people could notice she wasn't aging, but that's still so small compared to the elven lifespan. That's hardly a difference to their world and those who've lived in it for centuries.
Sophie now still had a hard time adjusting (and is still adjusting, over 2 years later), she had friends and family that she had to sever ties with, she's not used to the clothing and culture--though she has gotten used to the food for the most part. I think almost everything you're proposing isn't unique to an adult Sophie, it's the same as she's going through as a young teen.
I do think you make a good point about having no connections, though. The elven world is incredibly isolated, and she wouldn't have the connections or circle she does without being adopted and going to school, both things that only happened because she's a kid. However, I do think that could be compensated for via connections in the Black Swan. She wouldn't have as much exposure outside of them, but she wouldn't be completely on her own. However, that does also mean there's no easy way for other people to learn about her and hear about her the way there is now, but there could be gossip that makes her more known, people just wouldn't first learn of her at school as her peers.
Based on my understanding, I think the biggest problem they'd encounter is Sophie herself. She goes along with other people's suggestions and submits to certain authority because she's a kid, because she doesn't have the same sway as an adult. Her parents can tell her to do things and discipline her, the Black Swan can partially shut her out and guide her citing her youth. Adult Sophie would be an adult. Redundant statement, I know, but my point is she would be more on their level. She'd have more autonomy, be more individual. Even as unaware as she is, she's more equal. She doesn't have to listen to what people tell her, she doesn't have to do what they say. She's an adult who can do what she wants for her own reasoning. So the Black Swan would have to truly work with her more to cooperate.
However, at a certain point she doesn't have a choice in the matter. She has abilities, she doesn't quite fit in the human world (though in both cases she still sees herself as more human), the Black Swan can hold info over her head (like her parents/origin), etc. She's tied to them and I think would always end up with them and in the elven world.
The way I see it, Project Moonlark still would've worked, it just would've played out differently. Different people in her life, different setting, different dynamics between her and others. But ultimately the core of it the same. Her being a child is crucial to the story as we know it, but not crucial to Project Moonlark. Even if she prefers humans, she's not going to turn a blind eye to elven problems and ignore everything. Her age isn't a huge factor in the project on its own, so a lot of the details (leaving her life behind, struggling to adapt, etc.) are ubiquitous!
23 notes
·
View notes