Sparkly Baubles

Tolkien wrote The Hobbit like waaaay before he even dreamed up the idea for Lord of the Rings, so when he DID dream up LotR, he had a whole bunch of stuff that didn’t make sense. Like plotholes galore

Like for example in the first version Gollum was a pretty nice dude who lost the riddle contest graciously and gave Bilbo the ring as a legit present and was very helpful and it was super nice and polite and absolutely nobody tried to eat anyone because this is a story for kids and that’s very rude

But that doesn’t work with LotR, so Tolkien went back and re-released an updated version of The Hobbit with all the lore changes and stuff to fix everything that didn’t work

This is the version we know and love today

BUT rather than pretend the early version never existed, Tolkien went and worked the retcon into the lore

If you pay attention in Fellowship, there’s a bit where Gandalf is telling Frodo about the ring and he mentions how Bilbo wasn’t entirely honest about the manner in which it was found

To us modern readers, this doesn’t make a ton of sense, so mostly we just breeze by it–but actually that line is referencing the first version of The Hobbit

The pre-retcon version of the Hobbit is canonically Bilbo’s original book. The original version with Nice Gollum is canonically a lie Bilbo told to legitimize his claim to the ring and absolve him of the guilt he feels for his rather shady behavior

Then the post-retcon version is an in-universe edited edition someone went and released later to straighten out Bilbo’s lies

So it’s 100% plausible that the in-universe editor who fixed up Bilbo’s Red Book and translated it from whatever language Hobbits speak was a human who knew about Christmas Trees and tossed the detail in to make human readers feel more at home, because that’s the kind of thing that sometimes happens when you have a translator editor person dressing up a story for an audience that doesn’t know the exact cultural context in which the original story was written

Tolkien was a medieval scholar and medieval stories are rife with that sort of thing, so like… yeah

No that’s right! The basic point still stands and is neat but a lot of Rohirric names are translated as Old English, like Theodred and Eorl and so on. Another interesting thing is that he sometimes modernized them to modern English because, apparently, those names were intelligible to Westron speakers, either because Gondorians knew them or because the Hobbits recognized them from their dialects (they once lived near the Rohirrim and borrowed a bunch of words, including their name for themselves). Here’s a good link about it from Tolkien Gateway, it’s SUPER cool. 

Crowns and Headbands / Hair Vines / Combs / Pins

Mignonne Handmade on Etsy

“Evermore” 2018

As the themed entertainment industry continues its trends towards immersion and intimate experiences, the opening of a place like Evermore should not be a surprise. Think of it as a Westworld/Sleep No More hybrid with a fantasy theme, Evermore will be a multi-sensory “living theatrical experience park.” From costumed actors, detailed sets, props and environments, the plan is to be storytelling on a whole different level. The park will have different themed parties and seasons, all with their own set of characters, stories, settings and visuals. Some mentioned include a Ghost Pirate Adventure, Victorian Masquerade, Norse lantern festival, and a haunted Celtic experience. Evermore, which is under construction in Utah, has a planned opening of July 2018.

Gold Fireflies Dance Through Japanese Enchanted Forest in the Summer of 2016

An array of photographers captured these stunning images of gold fireflies during Japan’s rainy season in June and July. A dazzling long-exposure effort, the fireflies resemble a chimerical glittery effect only seen by fairies in enchanted forests.

They’re direct foils for Ladybug and Adrien. 

“Duh, Becca, that’s why they’re in the show at all.” 

Let me explain. 

Kagami is bold, very sure of herself, quick on her feet, intelligent. All of Ladybug’s best qualities, but with very little of Marinette’s empathy and compassion. Kagami isn’t heartless, obviously, we’ve seen that. But, imo, she doesn’t have the level of kindness Marinette does. I mean, the girl helped Adrien, her crush, go on a date with someone else. That seems pretty selfless to me, and I’m not sure Kagami would do the same. 

Luka is soft and very kind, and is probably the character in the show with the most compassion save for like, Rose. He is gentle with Marinette, flirts with her delicately, and let’s her go when he knows that he has to. Aka, Adrien’s best qualities. 

Marinette falling for Luka is her picking out Adrien’s qualities, and Adrien falling for Kagami is him seeing Ladybug’s. But because that’s all there is to Luka and Kagami, because Luka doesn’t have Chat’s wit and snark and personality, because Kagami doesn’t have Marinette’s compassion and empathy, they don’t click. 

Basically what I’m saying is that their mixed personalities are what made them fall for each other. Singling out only one side of the personality, as Thomas has done with Kagami and Luka, proves that they won’t work as a couple until they know the whole truth. 

We’ve seen their attraction to each other using this, too. In Glaciator, Chat Noir switches to his personality as Adrien, soft, open, vulnerable, and we visibly see Marinette react positively towards that, because previously she had only seen him as a goofy, fun loving partner. 

When Marinette takes charge of situations, be that standing up for herself in front of Chloe or anything regarding her class representative position, Adrien is (usually) proud of her for doing so, and commends her on her good work (the one example I can think of where he doesn’t is Malediktator, but that’s because he was genuinely upset at Chloe leaving). 

And she looked at me and told me not to fall into the trap of “activist guilt.” I couldn’t remember the exact words, but, it was the first time I’d heard the term and it took a weight off my shoulders.

We do what we can. It’s so much better than giving up entirely or not doing anything at all because we can’t do it perfectly. It doesn’t benefit anyone in the end if we just sit around feeling guilty about every little thing in life. I’d just joined tumblr back then (haha, so like, eight or nine years ago at this point?), I was being exposed to way more than I’d ever been before (I was previously just into feminism and animal rights/wildlife conservation/environmentalism since I was a kid), and it was weighing on me.

As long as humans are humans and living flawed lives, many consumed by greed, there will not be anything in this world untouched by evil.

I usually avoid stuff that says it was made in China or other cheap looking knockoffs, out of fear of them being made in sweatshops (now, I know even a lot of big brands use those…), it’s exhausting. Then, I read something about how people who actually lived and worked in those would still buy this cheap stuff and how this shocked the foreigner reporting on it, but they just looked confused like, it’s what they can afford and them avoiding consuming it isn’t going to change the whole system from the ground-up.

… it went on about how “money talks” and choosing where to put your money still feeds the whole capitalist system and is nearly a way of comforting yourself, but you not buying doesn’t mean everyone else isn’t. What needs to be tackled is at a much higher level than any of us can reach.

Of course, I’d still, given the choice, give my money to companies I agree with and I’ll boycott what I know to support awful stuff, but I also feel no superiority over this and know now it’s not as black and white or easy as I thought it was.

This is the same reason that moral purity “you can’t enjoy [x] because it’s Problematic ™” is such nonsense, because nothing is pure. There’s something bad about everything if you dig deep enough. As long as we lived in flawed human societies we’ve got to make the best of what they offer us. If you have the choice and means, please, do support those who do good, but also, don’t beat yourself up over not living up to an unattainable ideal.

No one can. You’ll just make yourself so miserable, you either burn up and stop fighting entirely or you’ll make yourself a non-productive, depressed heap just out of a bleeding heart left unchecked. You can’t make a change to this world if you refuse to engage in it.