Jasper :)

I knew before that it will likely be a flop, but with recent things that have come out.... cough cough Andy Serkis is a white supremacist cough cough. I have no intentions of watching or supporting that damn movie.

Wait is that....

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).

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.

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

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.

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??

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.