Lead Them Or Fall

One of my cats was pawing at the door and meowing loudly, an indication she REALLY needs to use the litter box.  I let her out and decide, hey, I’m hungry, and decide to the kitchen.  I forgot to shut the bedroom door. 

Next thing I hear is the group going completely silent.  My husband very calmly asks me to come over and help him gather our two cats up.  I go over to where the group is and my black cat, Cacoa, is rubbing up against the guy’s leg, purring, and doing her “let me on your lap” meow.  The other cat, Jasper, is sitting at the window, chilling out.  I go over and pick up Cacoa and tell the big dude she’s harmless, loves laps, and would be thrilled if he pet her.  Very slowly he touches my cat’s face, and she leans right into his hand.  He then pets her back and sighs because she’s really soft and purring like mad.  After a few minutes he asks how to pick her up and if it’s okay if she sits on his lap.

I actually really like how there’s such a difference between the view of elves we get in the Lord of the Rings and that which we see in the Silmarillion. Like it’s such a meme, but at the same time I think it says something really interesting about the elves themselves.

Basically, they changed. And for immortal, mostly changeless beings, that says a lot. And the way I read it, they realized their mistakes from the First Age and made an active attempt to do better.

When Galadriel is tempted by the Ring, I wonder if she’s thinking about the how the desire for power, vengeance, and the Silmarils screwed everyone over in the F.A. I wonder if she’s remembering that the ring was made by Sauron - who, if we remember, captured and killed her brother Finrod (and at least indirectly killed her other brothers as well. And I think it gives her comment, “I pass the test” a little more background when you think about it in terms of the Silmarillion.

Elrond yelling “No oaths!” at the Council (over Gimli’s somewhat understandable confusion) makes a lot of sense given the F.A. He saw, firsthand, that oaths get everyone killed and also destroy continents.

And I think it gives more context to the overall cautious nature of the Third Age elves. Frodo mentions an old saying, “go not to the elves for council, for they will say both no and yes,” which is not particularly flattering to them. But it makes a lot of sense if they’re still somewhat traumatized by the Nirnaeth, the Kinslayings, etc, that they would be hesitant to give definite answers or advice.

Look at how badly we messed up in the past, I wonder if they’re saying. Don’t take our word for this. We don’t really know what we’re doing either.

Maedhros: GET BACK HERE YOU DUMB F*CK!

What name to call Aragorn

What name to call Gandalf

What to call their meals. Boromir thinks, if it is eaten at dinnertime, regardless of whether it is the first meal of the day or not, then it is dinner. Sam thinks it isn't proper to call the first meal of the day dinner. Aragorn suggests they combine the two words but now everyone is fighting over whether it should be called breakfast-dinnner or dinner-breakfast. The fight nearly becomes physical

Whether Legolas or Gimli is winning their daily argument with eachother

If hobbits are regular sized and everyone else is really big, or if everyone else is regular sized and hobbits are small

The same as above except with horses and ponies

If Gimli's beard is real or not. This one started as a joke between Merry and Pippin but then Legolas saw how mad it made Gimli and so continues to bring it up

Inter-hobbit fighting about whether it is called pot-ae-toes, pot-ah-toes, or taters

"Can Legolas really talk to trees, or is he just fucking with us?" Aragorn and Gandalf refuse to weigh in on this

Whether the Ent-draught caused Merry and Pippin to grow or if they just did that on their own. This fight is Pippin vs. Everyone Else

Whether the non-hobbits of the Fellowship would be Tooks, Brandybucks, or Bagginses. This argument is unintelligible to most of them, although Gandalf has the knowledge to be offended when Pippin suggests he would be a Took.

"What would happen if someone ate the ring?"

Fights over whether the elves, the dwarves, or the hobbits tell the story of the reclaiming of Erebor most accurately. Even though Gandalf was there, he just shrugs when anyone asks him

Which variety of pipeweed is the best kind. Merry threatened Gimli to a duel over this one