Jasper :)

Certified fan of Tolkien's Legendarium, Art student, history nerd, 20

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It's been a bit over 6 months since I posted about my Tolkin shelf, and it has since become my Tolkien SHELVES.

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Following in Tolkien's footsteps and stopping for 20 minutes at a time to stare at trees on my walks.

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What a beautiful sunset...

Wait is that....

S-S-S-SAURON?!?!?!??

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Finally home from college and that means I get the pleasure if reorganizing my bookshelves. I decided to create an entirely new section for my little Tolkien collection!

I constantly fight off the worm in my ear telling me to buy more books (my collection has exploded as of late, and I am running out of room).

A little over half of my collection has been acquired second-hand, and the rest were gifts!

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I strongly believe that someone cannot simultaneously be a Tolkien fan and use AI.

The story of The Lord of the Rings is inherently anti-industrialist and pro-environment. Destroying the forces that seek to oppress and harm the environment is a significant part of the plot. AI is a force of destruction. It kills habitats and contributes to climate change.

Not to mention, AI is anti-intellectual and promotes a lack of critical thinking in a world that is rapidly being radicalized toward fascism.

Is it really worth it to destroy the world just for personal convenience? I personally do everything possible to avoid using AI because it's not worth it. It will never be worth it.

I mean, seriously. I'm not gonna tell you to go touch grass because I hate Big Lawn™️, but I will tell you to go touch the bark of a tree. Put your hand in a stream and feel the rushing water. Lay in a prairie and watch the grass wave in the wind. Listen to the birds sing. And then ask yourself: "are the cheap thrills worth it?" "Is the convenience worth it?"

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Watercolor portrait of Nerdanel. I seem to have forgotten that my blue paint refuses to cooperate, so I foolishly tried using it for her dress.

Also, it kinda looks like she's flexing?? And I didn't realize until I was almost done and started feeling intimidated cus she's literally MOGGING ME

(Excuse the poor camera quality my phone actually hates me.)

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Small watercolor portrait I made of Maedhros (and by small, I mean the page is literally 3x4.5in) I'm trying to force myself to not be a perfectionist with my art.

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Tired of the infantalization of the Hobbits. They can be full grown men and people will be like "aw look at my baby".

It's lowkey frustrating.

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If you genuinely think that Frodo could have rode the eagles to Mordor, I think that you didn't interact with the work enough (and you're probably annoying tbh). I know it's kind of an exhausted question/joke in the fandom, but it's so demeaning to everything that LotR is.

The eagles aren't a taxi service.

They would have 1000% been seen by Sauron or his spies and been shot down.

The hobbits were the best choice, because of their stealth. They're small and difficult to spot.

It would have just made for a bad story. The whole point is that the fellowship--and specifically Frodo--didn't HAVE TO suffer, but they did anyway.

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I need to see more people talking about the 1977 The Hobbit animated film. Imo it's the most accurate portrayal of the book and it's such a comfort movie for me.

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I am The Rings of Power's biggest hater

My somewhat controversial opinion is that I absolutely despise Rings of power. Now, I know that a lot of people argue that it is bringing more people to Tolkien's works, but is it really? To me, it feels like nostalgia bait for pre-existing fans. I'll admit, I took the bait too. I saw that they had released a show that was about LotR and I got excited, but the more I watched it the more I realized how un-Tolkien it is. And for taking his name, I would expect that they would keep some sort of semblance to the fantasy that he imbued into his world.

Besides being un-Tolkien, it has a great many other flaws as well.

It's terribly unimaginative

It wants to be Game of Thrones SO bad

its predictable

The characters are terribly mis-characterized

Despite trying to be diverse, it almost did the opposite?

It neglects, or even completely retells existing stories for the sake of their own narratives.

It feels like poorly written Fanfiction (no hate to fanfiction, I literally write lotr fics)

it was made by Amazon

Tolkien would have hated Amazon

Amazon why did you do this to me

Please Amazon stop retconning my favorite franchise

Actually, Please, Amazon just stop.

You literally put a billion dollars into this, when you could have stopped global warming

Where tf is Celeborn??

(I'll probably drop more RoP hate posts eventually)

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This old, abandoned copy of the silmarillion was my first introduction to Tolkien's works.

My great-uncle found it in an abandoned house in 2019 and gave it to my grandma. My grandma later, being uninterested with Tolkien, gave it to me because it was no secret that I was interested in fantasy.

I spent many hours reading it over and over in Ye Olde Covid Times and, with it, watched The Lord of the Rings trilogy many times over. I was enamored with the world that Tolkien created (and still am today). I have since bought second-hand copies of all of Tolkien's works about his legendarium. (Yes I do see the irony of me reading the Silmarillion before the Lord of tha Rings)

I have such a deep emotional connection to this book. I can't even begin to express just how much the gift of a book can change someone's life.