One Of The Lawyers Currently Prosecuting Alex Jones Got Interviewed On Knowledge Fight. He Talked About

There’s some really disturbing stuff in The Nature of Middle-earth; I’m not sure whether these ideas were some of the ones Tolkien considered for how orcs were created, or if he saw them as something different, but he’s provided plenty of fodder for darkfic writers.

…it is recorded in the histories that Morgoth, and Sauron after him, would druve out the fëa by terror, and then feed the body and make it a beast…it [would become] an animal, seeking nothing more than food by which its corporeal life may be continued, and seeking it only after the manner of beasts, as it may find it by limbs and senses.

Jirt, that’s a zombie. It’s dead, non-sapient, still moving around, and only driven by looking for food. And typically created by an evil power through evil means. You invented Middle-earth zombies.

And worse, [Morgoth or Sauron] would daunt the fëa within the body and reduce it to a stupor of horror, so that it was impotent; and then nourish the body foully, so that it became bestial, to the horror and torment of the fëa.

This does seem like a mechanism for the creation of orcs. Morgoth takes an elf, overpowers the fëa so that it is no longer in control of the body, and then, well, the implication is that he feeds the body the flesh of elves or men to further torment the fëa. In the short term, the hröa is basically a beast under Morgoth’s control; over time, the fëa might become more active, but horrified, sickened, and twisted by the nature of the hröa and the purposes for which it has been used. It is evil because, outside of its control, it has done and been used for horrific things that it can’t process without becoming evil.

Brr.

One of the ballsiest things Tolkien ever did was write 473k words about some hobbits called frodo, sam, merry, and pippin and then write in the appendices that their names are actually maura, ban, kali, and razal. 

anyway I do think Smeagol could have been redeemed/rehabilitated if the story had played out differently

I did some more fantasy archery trope testing. This time the arrow stabby thing!

I know that Peter’s Jackson Lord of the Rings trilogy technically has flaws but also....it doesn’t. It’s perfect.

You know what the Fire Nation is missing? Lizards. Have you ever gone to a tropical place? There are just: Lizards. You see a wall, there is a lizard. You go walking, you find lizards. Azula is talking? There is a lizard trying to figure out how to get to the other side. Zuko is being dramatic? There is a lizard in the background as public. The escape from the boiling rock? A lizard also tags along. Just lizards, they really know how to set the ambient 

Me: I'm not one of those Autistics who needs noise-canceling headphones (/nm); regular noise levels don't bother me like they do some people

Also me: *puts in earplugs to vacuum* *world goes quiet* THIS IS BEAUTIFUL I'M BUYING NOISE-CANCELING HEADPHONES RIGHT NOW

Just got the most valid bookmark comment on Salvage:

Bookmarked by Misty_Silva_Moon, 11 Jan 2023

Tf w the kids don’t like the feral raccoon that u adopted from a dumpster

Establish dominance by declaring an Elf a “Man-friend” before they declare you an “Elf-friend”

Fact: Lúthien mostly uses her magic through music, as a possible nod to the Ainulindale; the power of this music was enough to move the heart of Mandos himself

Fact: Arwen is often compared to Lúthien in LOTR and the Professor, to the point where it's stated that "in her the likeness of Lúthien walked in Arda once more" or something, not an exact quote

Fact: The Silmarillion does not, as far as I can tell with my bad reading comp. skills, state directly that Elrond never saw Maglor again during the Second and Third ages

Fact: Maglor was also one of the best musicians in Middle-Earth and, given his epithet "the mighty singer" could very well have possessed similar song magic to Lúthien's

Perfectly reasonable conclusion: Maglor drops by Rivendell; finds Arwen, who inherited Lúthien's gift of music; proceeds to become some incomprehensible combination of music tutor, magical teacher and disaster weird uncle to her; and sticks around for her and Elrond. There are emotional father-son reunions. There are inside jokes like "don't let the TWINS near that WATERFALL!!". Neither Maglor nor Arwen ever has to be lonely again. I continue to procrastinate on the fic.