First Age Family Reunions Be Like:

Dancing under the stars and calling clients while lightly bouncing on the trampoline are not mutually exclusive with adulthood.

Don't deprive yourself of joy because you think maturity is being serious and worried all the time.

Unseen JRR Tolkien essays on Middle-earth coming in 2021

The Nature of Middle-earth will cover topics including Elvish immortality, the geography of Gondor – and which races could grow beards

‘The new collection, which is authorised by the Tolkien estate, will be called The Nature of Middle-earth, and will be published in June by HarperCollins, which promised it would “transport readers back to the world of The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and The Lord of the Rings”.’ —

‘The writings will be edited by Carl F Hostetter, a Tolkien expert and head of the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship who has been a computer engineer at Nasa since 1985. Hostetter previously worked with Tolkien’s youngest son Christopher, who curated the author’s posthumous output until his death in January, aged 95.‘

Hyphens, en Dashes and em Dashes

Oh- and let’s not forget the minus sign, that thing on your keyboard that can be misused as any one of the above! 

It took me a long time to understand the differences. 

The minus sign                         (-)

The hyphen                               (-)

The en dash                              (–)

The em dash                            (—)

Visually, not much in it, is there?  

But oh what a difference the length makes! 

The minus sign is a mathematical symbol. That’s it. Don’t misuse it for anything else.

The hyphen is used to join two elements to form a compound word, like  self-restraint. Numbers between twenty-one and ninety-nine should also be hyphenated when they’re spelled out. Sherlock Holmes-Watson or John Watson-Holmes (interesting to know which one wins in the battle). You should also use a hyphen in a compound modifier before a noun, as in The Crossed Keys Inn was a dog-friendly pub.

The shorter en dash  is used when describing ranges and with the meaning “to” in phrases like “Dover–Calais crossing.” It applies to ranges of numbers, such as times, page numbers, or scores (I’ll schedule you from 4:30–5:00). That said, outside of formally printed documents, it is increasingly being replaced with a hyphen, so if you miss this one, Sherlock won’t hang you for it. 

The longer em dash (—) is about as wide as the letter M (duh, now I get why it’s called this). It’s used to separate extra information or mark a break in a sentence.  An em dash is most often used to indicate a pause in a sentence. It’s stronger than a comma, but weaker than a period or semicolon. 

You can use a pair of em dashes to draw special attention to parenthetical information, as in

Sherlock—who was wearing the same purple shirt of sex—entered the room carrying his violin..

You can use a single em dash to add explanatory or amplifying information, especially when the information is surprising:

I opened the door and there she stood—Eurus, my long lost sister.

Em dashes can also signal a sudden interruption, particularly in dialogue:

“Wait! I forgot to tell you—” The door slammed shut between us and I missed whatever John was trying to say.

Interestingly, there is no firm rule about spaces around the em dash (either word—word or word — word). It’s a matter of style. Whichever style you choose, use it consistently throughout your document.

The em dash is a relatively artistic punctuation mark, compared to the more technical hyphen and en dash, both of which need to be used accurately in legal contracts, for example. 

theory: Aredhel was the most skilled among the Noldor at spells of concealment

support:

she was particularly friends with Celegorm, so it's reasonable to conclude that she, too, was a hunter. stealth is a valuable skill for a hunter.

why did a woman who grew so impatient with Gondolin that she badgered her brother for years into letting her leave, and then slipped away from the escort he insisted upon, even move to such a secret city in the first place? Because she's the one who helped hide it in the first place

seriously, someone in the building of Gondolin must've been an expert at concealment spells. Even with Ulmo's blessing, you simply can't build and move en masse to an entire city without anyone finding out where it is without serious juju. why not Aredhel?

Turgon let his sister leave Gondolin on vacation when he never let anyone else go not out of weakness to the pleas of family, but because he knew that if Aredhel didn't want Morgoth or his spies to see or track her, they fucking wouldn't see or track her - and if they could, Gondolin's hope of secrecy was lost anyway.

alas that Eol was even better at it than she was (maybe this intrigued her at first. maybe there was delighted hide-and-seek beneath the dark trees before there was only hiding)

alas that she didn't have time to teach Maeglin all she knew

What's the trope name for when someone finds out they're the Chosen One(tm) and is like "No, thank you" and goes and does something else

Metaphysical question - what do you suppose Tolkien meant to indicate by making the 'Flame Imperishable' so important in the early Valaquenta? It's supposed to technically be the thing that really drew Melkor off-course, is the stuff of souls, yet it winds up as this very mysterious, undefined force. Do you think it's the same light that filled the trees (and thus the Silmarils)? Tolkien loves his light, but I wonder how much these forces are connected in canon.

Oh my friend, you just ask the best questions. *evil cackle*

So, as for what the Flame Imperishable does, literally, that's pretty straightforward. (It's also sometimes called the Secret Fire, in case you wanted to search for that in an electronic version.) Eru uses it to kindle life in all beings from the Ainur to the Children, and without this force, that's impossible. Melkor goes searching for it and can't find it, and Aulë makes little dwarf puppets until Eru sparks them to life personally. Ye Olde classic subcreation examples, so on and so forth. Probably sounds familiar from our first thread ever!

I think that this theme of subcreation is really what Tolkien meant to hammer home with the Flame Imperishable, especially in the Ainulindalë. It's a force to give to living beings, not for them to control—and we never see it outside of this "life force" application. So, I don't really think that the Trees or the Silmarilli literally contained the Secret Fire, though I admit that would make a neat explanation for why Melkor was so obsessed with destroying the first and keeping the second.

But neither are we supposed to put the Flame Imperishable out of our minds when we think of these things. Remember how I mentioned searching for "secret fire" in an electronic copy? Well, I did! And the only time it's mentioned outside of the capitalized, proper force of Eru is in reference to... Fëanor.

...Fëanor grew swiftly, as if a secret fire were kindled within him. He was tall, and fair of face, and masterful, his eyes piercingly bright and his hair raven-dark; in the pursuit of all his purposes eager and steadfast... He became of all the Noldor, then or after, the most subtle in mind and the most skilled of hand.

And there's just too many connections here to dismiss, because when the man named Spirit of Fire grows to become a creator like there's a secret fire, the force of creation, inside of him? And he when makes three jewels with literal bits of his spirit, like a secret fire, inside? Isn't a coincidence. And notably, Tolkien says "as if," not "with," so this is still a simile—but it's a deliberate and telling one all the same.

What do you think would happen if Zhao was stopped from killing Tui? Yue would probably stay in the NWT and marry Hahn like you said, but again Sokka would probably try to persuade her to stay with him. He probably wouldn’t be able to convince her enough, but if he did, what do you think would happen?

I'm gonna be real with you: I think it would be very boring and unsatisfying. I think a lot of other people think so too, because every time I see a "Yue leaves the North Pole" concept, unless it's like a conflict-free modern au, Yue's character is altered from how she's shown in canon. They make her more adventurous, or more of a romantic, because as she is, she doesn't add much to the group dynamic. If the show was paced more like Game of Thrones or Harlots, more based in smaller scale machinations, more following characters' introspection, then maybe there would be something to work with. But in something so action-heavy (and I think we sometimes forget just how action heavy it is due to how often lots of action means just okay writing), a character with no interest or skill in combat doesn't mesh well long-term.

From a writer pov, Yue joining the group as it's shown to be in canon is pretty inefficient storytelling. There's nothing she could really bring with her canon personality and back story that isn't already there with Aang's connection to the Spirit World as the Avatar or Toph coming from a wealthy family. Not to mention that with her being the oldest of the group (Sokka is 15 during the events of the series, while Yue is introduced as being 16 years old, making her about a year older than him) any of the "innocence of the world" that people would wanna play with would have her come off as a bit ditzy when actual 12-year-olds in the group are shown to be more streetwise and worldly. Yue isn't a bad or poorly written character, in fact I think she's one of the most interesting minor characters in the entire franchise, but she wasn't written with the intention of being part of Team Avatar so it's no wonder she doesn't fit well among them.

So, yeah, I don't know because I don't care enough about this concept to give it any thought. An AU where Yue is sent to study statecraft or philosophy or similar topics under King Bumi's tutelage or where she has post-war peace talks with Mai representing the Fire Nation or where she goes on her own journey separately from the group with her own entourage, running into familiar faces and keeping a log of her experiences; it would be a lot more contrived, but the quieter, gentler, more introspective atmosphere it would allow would suit her much better than her staying put while the others fight their way through active war zones and bring her along.

Ko-if link is on my page

As is my commission info

ATLA writers, let’s talk about steel ships and what can go wrong with them

So, I live on a steel boat. It’s pretty cushy for the most part because it has a permanent mooring on a canal (so no currents and no tides), but guys, there are things to consider when you write your Zuko’s crew fics.

In no particular order, bearing in mind that I am not an engineer:

Steel + water = rust; steel + salt water = super fast rust.

Boats like mine are traditionally lifted from the water or put in dry dock to be painted with bitumen every 2 years to prevent that.  And that’s with fresh water and only the occasonal bump against another boat to worry about.

Anywhere water pools on the deck can have a rust issue (we don’t see any drainage holes on that deck with its solid walls.  Let’s pretend they exist.)  Anywhere that can get hit with salt spray can have a rust issue

The deepest pitting (rust pockets) will be around the waterline, places that get both water and oxygen. If one of those gets deep enough it can actually rust through and you are in a world of hurt.

Coal smoke is acidic. That’s also not great for steel.

Chimneys are another place that rust through pretty quickly, which can put you in a world of hurt because smoke kills, and so does carbon monoxide.

The second deepest pitting  on a boat is generally found on the steel close to the chimney.

If water (rain or salt spray) can get in your chimney you’ve just accelerated that process.

Talking of coal fires…

Anywhere you’ve got a source of fire you’ve got problems if it isn’t well ventilated.  Where is the boiler room? Does it have windows? Does it have vents in the door? How do they control air flow to the coal (and hence the temperature of the resulting fire)?

Where you have coal you have ash. Leave ash sitting too long and it will choke your fire. Leave hot ash in a confined space and you have another carbon monoxide problem.

They’re probably having to chuck ash into the ocean like, every day.

Historically there have been chemical carbon monoxide detectors, which is one possible way you might stop your entire crew dying of a deadly undetectable gas – if Zuko has access to it.

Let’s also talk propulsion

The engine is typically the heaviest part of your boat or ship. It’s normally positioned closer to the stern, which as a result will sit lower in the water than the prow.

Fire nation ships use propellors, which we know because Hakoda’s stink & sinks targeted them.  Where the prop shaft exits the ship is another point where water can get in.  There’s a thing called a stern gland which prevents this by forcing grease into the  area where the prop shaft comes through the hull. This minimises the amount of water that can get in.

Minimum water is still not no water though! There will be a wall to contain water that gets in like this, and modern boats have a bilge pump next to the prop shaft to get rid of it.

This is another point particuarly at risk from rust! Break out the paint again.

If the bilge pump breaks and doesn’t get fixed you quickly have big problems (a neighbour actually sank because of this).

Dark paint + steel + sunlight = surfaces too hot to touch.

Also, interior temperatures that are way, way too hot for comfort.

However, the temperature drops rapidly below the waterline. I spend six months of the year wearing thick woolly socks and legwarmers and the other six months wanting to lie on the floor all the time. And I only have a 2 foot draft.

Cold water + hot boat interior = condensation, which represents guess what? – another rust risk!

Talking of bitumen paint? That stuff gives off fumes that stink and aren’t great for human health.

More to follow when I think of it and have time. I’d love to hear from actual ocean goers on this one because that’s the side of things I know absolute zip about.

i love the silmarillion cause it starts with a group of deities chilling to lo-fi beats and it gets progressively more intense like at one point an elf literally fights off a werewolf with his teeth and it's not even the most dramatic thing that happens