#and of course narnia and lotr had to make it

[frodo-with-glasses]

25 Questions with Phil Dragash: YES, SERIOUSLY!

So y'all know how I was reviewing Phil Dragash's audiobook of LotR last year, but kinda fell off somewhere in the middle of Rohan?? Well, guess what! A couple weeks ago, I received a tumblr message from the man himself, saying he'd read through all my reviews, had really enjoyed the little blast from the past, and was open to answering questions if I had any!

So of course, I had LOTS of questions.

The first one being: "Are you actually the real Phil Dragash??"

But I'm delighted to say that after exchanging emails with the work email listed on his website, I can confidently say that it is the real dude, and I've had a blast chatting with him! So for those of you who urged I listen to this audiobook—especially @laurelindorenan for her glowing recommendation—and for everyone else who likes the audiobook and/or enjoyed my reviews: I am delighted to present, ladies and gentlehobbits, this peek behind the curtain!

But of course I'm putting it all below the cut, because this man rambles like I do 🤣

Obligatory disclaimer: All opinions presented by Mr. Dragash are his own, I am not necessarily condoning any of them; please do not come after me for his opinions regarding pineapple on pizza.

25 QUESTIONS, LET'S GO!

1. Tell me how you got into Lord of the Rings!

I was ten years old when my dad took me to the library, and found a VHS copy of Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 animated Lord of the Rings film. I was already a fan of the “Chronicles of Narnia” and my dad just handed the tape to me and said “Look, C.S. Lewis’s friend made this”. I watched it, and had no idea what was going on. It was so hard to understand.

Fast forward to the year 2002 when “Fellowship” was out on DVD, and we had a movie night at my older cousin’s place, and watched the film for the first time. My 13 year old self was enraptured by it. Dad bought the DVD first thing the next day, and I’ve been a fan ever since! I, my brother, and our dad watched “Return of the King” in theaters four times, which was saying something, considering we only ever saw a movie once in cinemas. Between “The Return of the King” opening in December ‘03, I picked up the books and read (as well as I could) through them. A lot of friends kept joking “tell us how the damn story ends!”, good times.

2. When and how did you decide to make this audiobook? What’s the story behind the entire project? 

I was a very ambitious lad, and my first and biggest interest was filmmaking. I used to direct short films with my friends ever since my 11th birthday, and was the youngest in class at the filmschool I attended a few years later. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that I had massive ambitions to direct “the Hobbit”, which is silly in retrospect considering I was 16 years old at the time. I even sent my portfolio and DVDs of my films to Peter Jackson’s manager (who actually got back to me with a wonderful response, despite not being able to accept my ‘completely reasonable’ offer) When I was heartbroken and torn to pieces knowing I wouldn’t be directing the movie, a few more years went by, and I decided to reread some chapters of the “Lord of the Rings” books. I remember really well that this was late at night, laying in bed, and going through “King of the Golden Hall” and seeing how close to the movies it was, but also far more expanded. I thought “my extensive home-made short movies experience with sound design and sound mixing could work here, and I could just read a few chapters and try to make the soundscape as realistic as possible. Why not try it?” 

So, the next day I tried. The first two chapters I tried were “King of the Golden Hall” and “A Journey in the Dark” (which partly answers your other question about that chapter). I was so absolutely surprised by how well it was going, that I decided to upload them onto YouTube in March 2010 I think. I got a fairly good response, and I was planning on doing a few more random chapters. I never intended to do the whole thing. But this one comment on YouTube I’ll always remember, it said: “I think you should go from start to finish, because you’ll probably get used to the characters and sounds and people can also follow along in the story gradually”.

Taking that suggestion to heart, in August 2010 I went from Chapter 1 onward. 

3. Were you inspired by any other audiobook versions of LotR (such as the BBC radio drama)?

I was not, I actually haven’t listened to the BBC Radio drama until far ahead into the project I was doing. I did some research on what other audio productions anyone did with LOTR, from The Mind’s Eye edition, to the ‘60s Hobbit Radio Play; so I felt pretty confident. I just fell in love with the way the films brought Middle-Earth to life and seeing their incredible dedication for authenticity (from the props department, to the music), you really couldn’t do any better than that visually or audibly - at least in my opinion. I just wanted to hear Tolkien’s text but with the realisation of the films. 

However, if you listen to Chapter 1 of TTT, and hear how Legolas laments their absence from not being there to help Boromir at Amon Hen, you can clearly hear the inflection from the BBC Radio play’s version. I just lifted that because I thought it was a fantastic way to deliver the line.

4. Did you have any rituals for “getting into character” before recording?

If I were to show you the raw unedited recording sessions, you’d probably be surprised at how underdeveloped it is! I had no real rituals or warmups, I just went for it. Usually went in cold, and tried reading the entire chapter and doing all the voices at once. Then I’d be exhausted, and afterwards start cutting all the mistakes, and separating each character into different tracks – and then re-recording 50%-70% of it, as I was laying in the sounds. 

I think any character just needs a few words for me to say in their voice, and that helps for the rest of their dialogue. For Aragorn it was usually: “You cannot wield it! None of us can.” for Pippin it was: “Sometimes”, just random things that make things ‘click’ in my head. If I got lost or didn’t feel like the performances were working, I’d simply just watch scenes from the films to hear the real actors again!

5. Who was your favorite character to voice? Who was your least favorite? And why?

People who know me, know I love doing the villains. Sauron, the orcs, the Nazgûl, etc. I just love the idea of personifying things that scare you. Something completely the opposite of who you are. Always a fun time! Any character I can nail extremely accurately always makes me happy, but I’m always very critical of my own work, so it’s a rare thing.

My least favorite characters to voice are: Imrahil, Denethor, Arwen, Celeborn, Galadriel, Erestor, Lindir, Haldir, Goldberry, Gildor… I think the pattern is pretty obvious if you realize that I am incapable of providing a satisfactory voice that feels unique enough. They just sound to me like “I wish I had a broader range. They weren’t done justice.” I have feelings for most of the characters in this situation, but I’m a mere mortal. I can’t do all of them as well as I wish I could. I wish Aragorn was more like Viggo Mortensen’s voice (I tried with the nasally yells you mentioned!), I wish Gandalf had a richer tone, I wish Saruman sounded more majestic, and I wish Frodo was - in retrospect- more older sounding, too. There’s so much I wish I could do better, but to hell with it, I tried.

Fun fact: my least-favorite to voice are also Orcs because they destroy my throat after a while. Which is ironic, because of my first statement.

6. I noticed that you gave the men of Rohan and Gondor slightly different dialects! Are you pulling from any real-world accents to make that happen?

I did try to listen to Anglo-Saxon, and ancient norse but I just tried to make Rohan and Gondor slightly distinct in any way I could. I never really tried to make things too obvious, but admittedly, I think I just used my intuition (smoothing the R’s for the Rohirrim, making the Gondorians more ‘proper’, etc.). I do want to emphasize that this was a one-person project and keeping things together or consistent is definitely an extraneous exercise when you’re just trying to get something finished by yourself! 

7. Some characters (like Beregond and Quickbeam, to name a couple of my favorites) aren’t in the movies, so they don’t have an actor for you to imitate. How did you decide what they would sound like?

Well, in the case of Beregond, I realized he was just “your ordinary guy”, and seeing Minas Tirith through his eyes (and Pippin’s)  is such an amazing and interesting opportunity. It made the city feel so real, and I wanted to take advantage of that. I think I started with a ‘generic’ voice, but when I re-recorded him knowing more and more of the context and what he was saying to Pippin, and as a result who he is, made me adjust what I felt were more his personality. But still that ‘ordinary guy’ idea was the bedrock, and it’s been years since I heard that chapter, but I hope it holds up! (I just remembered Bergil is in that too, another voice I wish I could have done better) 

Another fun fact: when Pippin scares the kids in Minas Tirith, the audio was from something I videotaped when I was 10 years old with my friends, it had the perfect “kids-going-aaah!” sound.

If I had it my way, I’d have a cast of dozens in this Audiobook, so a lot of times I never felt like my voice was enough to truly capture the “We’re in Middle-Earth, we just have microphones to record it” idea. So I have to make compromises since I was the only one doing the voices. That being said, Quickbeam was a fun surprise because he felt like, as you said “young treebeard”, and these things just worked out through experimentation! I think Quickbeam turned out pretty nice. I like Quickbeam.

8. HOW—I ask with great enthusiasm—DID YOU DO TREEBEARD’S VOICE? How did you get that resonance and woody sound? Did you send your voice through a wooden box and re-record it on the other side like they did in the movies?

It’s really great that you know all the behind the scenes stories from the films! Especially what Ethan Van der Ryn, David Farmer, and the late Michael Hopkins have done with their incredible creativity. I had no such resources to produce Treebeard’s sound. What I did was a digital facsimile: a special ‘room’ reverb, with some other equalizing effects to boost the bass and (maybe, I can’t remember) another higher pitched track of the same voice faintly in there. 

You won’t believe this, but I was not going to do The Two Towers audiobook unless I could do a good Treebeard voice. In 2011 after finishing “Fellowship”, I was on the fence about continuing, and only committed once I knew I could do Treebeard right. Treebeard was the key to all this. This should come to no surprise to the ones who played the game, but I used a lot of sound effects from ‘Battle for Middle-Earth’ which contained a lot of clean sounds for ents, trolls, the balrog, the ringwraiths, and other monsters from the films. I used the ent’s footsteps from the games, and recorded my own foley for some of the trees snapping and leaves rustling as well. The “fart” sounds were the low creaking of tree branches, and - as they stated in the making-of for the films - very pitched down cow moos. 

9. Tell me about the foley work! Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been that nerd who watched the Behind The Scenes featurettes for fun, so I’m very interested to hear how you made the sound effects for footsteps and whistling arrows and jangling horse harnesses and such. 

I’m glad you are! I’ve collected sound libraries (ripped from video games, and finding and buying sound packs) for a literal decade, because I always needed sounds for the short films I made when I was younger. I just kept learning about how to mix sounds together, and it’s very creative and very enjoyable! That being said, the foley work itself is mostly recorded by me. If I can’t find a sound in the library I have, I will record it. Clothing rustles, and touch are all recorded while I listen to the audiobook playback and ‘perform’ each character. It’s a really arduous process, but I think it adds so much life into the sound. 

I went out into the woods (or backyard) with my mic to record footsteps, sometimes I would listen to the audiobook with headphones while performing the footsteps. When I would have traveled somewhere with different terrain I would be sure to record more foley (rocks being moved, or pebbles being stepped on) knowing I’ll use it for certain chapters. I do not want to reveal a huge secret about the predominant foley for the character's clothes, but an old backpack I used were 90% of the characters’ ‘movements’. Some wingflaps of the fell beasts were just my jeans. It’s a really creative process trying to find things that ‘sound’ right for an environment or action. The magic is putting them all together and hearing the result. Also, yes Sam’s pan is my grandma’s frying pan, and I know it’s sometimes annoying, but - look - Sam has a lot of stuff to carry.

I start with the background sounds (wind, tree rustles, water if there is any, etc.) lots of layers of them just to make them sound unique and not the same. Then I move to selective and nearer environmental background sounds. Then, the ‘hero’ sounds, the effects that are integral to the story (if it’s sword clashes, or an explosion, or who knows what), and finally the foley (footsteps, clothing rustles, breaths, etc.) - I had a friend record her own horses breathing and moving for a lot of closeups of the horses in the audiobooks. I think even if you can’t really hear some of their low breaths, their presence is still ‘there’. I personally think I got a lot better by the end of LOTR than when I started! 

I wanted to add, the sounds for little Elanor in the very last scene of “The Return of the King” (the baby sounds), I was not happy with the stock baby sounds I had, and asked my older cousin (an audio person too!) to send me recordings he made of his then-1-year-old daughter in a studio. So, my first-cousin-once-removed is Elanor! She’s 22 now. I feel old.

10. Do you have a favorite sound effect from this project? Mine is the “pat-pat” against cloth that’s used to denote a hug.

Absolutely, do you remember the two “watchers” before the tower of Cirith Ungol? The vulture-like statues that block the hobbit’s path out? The alarm sound is a wholly original sound design I did, and I’m really happy with it. It’s just ugly sounding, and that’s the point. I always wished I had more Nazgul, and I think the worst moments I had with mixing were the battle scenes. There’s just too much to handle and make it sound good. But I really tried.

I’m very glad you heard the ‘pat-pat’s. I try my best to perform every character when recording foley, and want even some of the sounds to convey something in the telling of the story.

11. What's the thought process behind your use of the various musical motifs from Howard Shore's score? (Read: Why do you use the Shire theme so often, and why does it get me in the heart every single time?)

I want everyone to know that this is a really important and valuable question, and one I never really get to talk about: To me, Howard Shore’s music is one of the very best things to come out of the films. He truly made an opera out of the story, and all his leitmotifs and orchestrations are a stroke of genius. They work on their own, and when reading the books as well, and as a nerd for films and all that stuff, I wanted to put a lot of care into how I’m placing the score, and for what scene, emotionally and leitmotivically, if that’s a word.

The Audiobook I did is obviously a ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ situation, so I can’t credit myself for the majority of the Audiobook I did, but I wanted to use all my filmmaking intuition to properly use the music to enhance the telling of the story. So, just like the filmmakers had to change and mix lines from the book, or make changes to make it work as a film, I felt like a lot of instances happened with the music for the audiobook. Obviously, I used the score when applicable to the intended scenes, but there are very often cases where they won’t work. I read as much as I could in the past about what the motifs were and where Shore used them in the movies, so I followed that trajectory for the most part. Gondor is Gondor, Rohan is Rohan, Mordor is Mordor, etc. 

Changes happen when I feel the emotions for a scene in the books do not match up to the ones in the films, and then there are brand new scenes and characters not in the movies at all, that I have to figure out! Take the pause from music between Gandalf falling into the chasm with the Balrog, and the fellowship successfully escaping. It’s perfect in the film, but I knew I couldn’t put the lamenting heartbreaking music in there yet, since the descriptions all drive the idea that escape is paramount. So I treated it as a ‘shock’ moment. No music until they’re completely out of the mountain, then the grief comes in. Things like that, a lot of fun creative thinking to get those emotions working!

I recall you mentioning the ‘Gimli / Legolas drinking game’ statement and how I used the hell out of it throughout the Audiobook, which is a good example. I pitched it up and down, for different moments, and it just has that hobbit mundane and jolly quality to it. So, in it goes to fill moments from the books. 

I also edited and modified existing motifs for completely different scenes and ideas. One of my favorites is when Treebeard talks about the Entwives. I needed this melancholy yearning sound that was really essential, and found it by reversing Eowyn’s theme, and pitching it down so the violin sounds like a cello/bass. To me it just felt extremely appropriate for the sound of a long-lost relationship while portraying a larger-than-life creature. 

Let’s also say Bombadil. I made up the idea that the last statement in the credits for “Return of the King”, was Bombadil’s theme. It’s actually just a reference to Der Ring des Nibelungen by Wagner, a very verbose beautiful crescendo, but I thought “I’ll pretend like it’s Bombadil, he’s last in the score even though he’s the first in Arda”. So I used that musical progression in his songs, that’s his leitmotif now (to me, anyway) He sings in that wavy up-and-down melody. Which is why you hear a lot of that in those chapters.

I also try to use recordings not from the original score: I looked far and wide for alternative recordings, predominantly the album by the Royal Prague Philharmonic, and the “LOTR Symphony”, just to make the Audiobooks feel different. I pitched down and moved and reassembled a lot of different cues for different scenes as well.

There are not a lot of instances of music from other movies, however, they do exist! I used music from “Battle for Middle-Earth”, the game “War in the North”, and for the last few chapters, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” since it just came out at the time. I used a lot of music from Howard Shore’s “Seven” and “The Game” during Shelob (I think), and for the Barrow-Downs. I used a tiny bit of underscore from the brilliant Don Davis’s “The Matrix Reloaded”, it had a really eerie choir which made me feel like it would be perfect for the fatigue and dizzying unreality of Mordor when Sam and Frodo were on their last leg, trying to get to Mt. Doom. Lastly, I used a little bit of music from Howard Shore’s “Twilight: Eclipse” for some dialogue scenes during Return of the King! And music from the independent film “Mongol” by Tuomas Kantelinen for the Woses when Theoden has to get help from Ghan-Buri-Ghan. Also the ending of ROTK has a few cues from “The Lord of the Rings musical”, lovely stuff.

It may surprise you that there is a small amount of score I actually ‘wrote’ with help from my brother (he’s a musician). It’s in the coronation of Elessar. It’s not very good but I needed something. There is also a cello version of “to the edge of night”, which I kindly asked permission to use by YouTube celloist, but I sadly don't think that video is up anymore.

Lastly, I use the Shire music so much because - just like Howard Shore said - it becomes a ‘hymn’ or an ‘anthem’ for the hobbits as they leave their comforts behind and are in a wide and unfamiliar world. Every little bit that reminds them of home, or relates to each of them, usually deserves a little ‘shire’ statement here and there. I feel if it’s in the characters’ hearts and minds, it has to be expressed in the music!

12. Out of all the chapters I’ve listened to so far on the Internet Archive, “A Journey in the Dark” is the one most plagued with editing issues; Sam’s temper tantrum over leaving Bill the Pony is cut out entirely. Which is a shame, because I was really looking forward to hearing your take on that. (Is it strange to say that I wanted to hear you break down into blubbering tears? Probably. Let’s ignore that and move on.) Is there any chance that you have a cleaner edit of that chapter somewhere?

I think you’ll be very unsurprised to know that “A Journey in the Dark” is the first chapter I ever recorded. I think you’ll also need to know that I did FOTR when I was 21 years old, and my grasp on doing better sound mixing or even getting the characters right was still a work in progress. I learned so much going chapter-by-chapter and felt that each succeeding one improves from the former. As a demo-run, I did “King of the Golden Hall '' and “Journey in the Dark” in early 2010 (in fact, I did only the first half of “JITD” back then. Stopping right after they are barred inside the mines, as the Watcher destroys the gate. I did the second half once I caught up with the story going chapter-by-chapter.)

There are so many issues with it, and I haven’t listened to it since. If you have headphones you’ll also notice that none of the voices really pan from left to right, or feel like they’re ever anywhere else except the dead-center. I was lazy back then. 

When I read the chapters, at the time, I was sharing an ‘office room’ with my younger brother, and as a teenaged younger brother does - continues strumming his guitar no matter what the other brother is doing. It was really fun, and funny and I was extremely sloppy with editing things out, and taking it too seriously. So, for sure you can hear ‘someone’ in the background during the early parts of FOTR, and I was too lazy to re-record or edit out the noises that weren’t supposed to be there.

Forgive me if this part is a lot longer, but now that you mention it, I want to get on my soap-box and rant about how many things I agree with about the Audiobook’s shortcomings and how many things have changed since the wee days of 2010: 

I didn’t really get a grasp on the characters, and I had no idea I was going to do the entire book. I did not take enough care with sound mixing (it’s a highly technical and rigorous practice, I’ve discovered. Even now, ten plus years later - it’s too technical for me to fully understand yet), and I did not thoroughly re-listen to the chapter when I was done with an edit or a sound-effects pass. Therefore there’s always been mistakes still in there, and just unpleasantly careless placement of sounds and music. I have often thought about re-recording it to get it up to scratch, but it’s been over a decade and I haven’t properly preserved all the sound stems without having to re-sound-mix the whole chapter again, and there is that little thing called ‘burnout’ which is hard to ignore. So, I apologize to everyone who has to suffer through that huge drop in quality with “A Journey in the Dark”. It quite literally was my first attempt, and it definitely shows. 

The good news is that a fan asked me the same thing about the missing piece in that chapter (the one you mentioned! With Sam and Bill!), and I’ve heard the same comments about it throughout the years. Why is it missing? I don’t know why! I recorded it, but in my loose run-and-gun past when I was a wee lad, I was careless, and just had the mp3 with that part missing. A rendering error, perhaps! Stupid 21 year old Phil just hodgepoging everything.

A Few months ago, I did get another email about that missing piece. I thought “okay, once and for all, I’m going to find that missing part.” - and I searched my old harddrives for some kind of archival copy with that part in it. Amazingly, it was a lot harder to find than I thought. Every rendered version of JITD either stopped right before that scene, or had it omitted. I actually found one half of it as a ‘demo’ piece I rendered years ago for a ‘sound trailer’, and then I finally found the original YouTube video I made - which had it intact! Now the hardest part was stitching it together with the rest. Took longer than I thought, but I finally amended this horrible incompetence. And yes, I will share the link to you! And be prepared to be disappointed at the 2010-era quality!

I don’t know if anyone knows this, but with the mp3s circling around, I have taken the liberty of re-recording and re-working some chapters from their original versions. I try my best to preserve the originals, but I also wish people to listen to the re-records. I have actually re-recorded and re-mastered “A Long-Expected Party” three times. 2011, 2013, and 2014. I re-recorded “King of the Golden Hall” in 2013, and “Shadow of the Past” in 2014. I usually try labelling the dates on the mp3 files themselves. The one I’m most proud of re-recording bits of, is “The Pyre of Denethor” as the first time I had Denethor say his last words he was mildly raising his voice, but I listened to it again one day and went “this man should be at the edge of sanity.” - so he absolutely yells now, and it’s such a night-and-day comparison.

Another addendum: I completely understand the complaints about ‘the sound/music drowning out the dialogue’. It’s been the #1 complaint over the decade. I completely understand. I never had professional sound mixing gear, nor did I have proper mixing headphones or speakers or a proper studio (most of the audiobook was recorded at my grandmother’s house!). The balance of the audio making it sound immersive, (like you are there!) and having clear dialogue to hear is - like I said - an extremely technical and complex process that I’ve never had the ability or tech to master. Let alone for a book that’s 48 hours long, and has so much sound and music to it. Nothing would bring me more joy than to work with an experienced sound mixer, and find all my audio stems, and for us to work together to clear up any and all issues. But as this project was a simple fan-made work, and I haven’t distributed it myself for a decade, who knows?

This is also why I never went on to do “The Hobbit”. Burnout is real, and I’ve never recovered from LOTR. The burnout… “it’s never really healed, Sam.”

13. What was your favorite scene to record and mix?

Mount Doom. Can’t get better than trying to make the climax as horrible and eucatastrophic as that. It all led up to this, and it was such a rush to work on. I remember how I was at the edge of my seat watching ROTK in cinemas for the first time, and how amazingly they pulled it off, and I wanted to definitely imitate that, but using Tolkien’s own writing. Just so cool.

I have two favorite chapters: The first one is “The Scouring of the Shire”. I remember well, when I was working on it, I realized this has never been ‘dramatized’ before. At least not in full. I felt so special being the first one (probably) to do it. I could imagine the entire chapter in my head like a film, and I could bring it to life with very little outside influence. Such a poignant and shocking chapter. 

I don’t think I would have done it as well without the experience I gained doing the rest of the Audiobook. Showing the strength of the four hobbits, portraying the dignity and resolve of their kind, giving that pathetic yet dangerous authenticity to Sharkey, and the ruffians, illustrating the battle of bywater with sound… this was done in 2013, so we all were able to listen to new music by Howard Shore (for The Hobbit), and I would be able to transpose motifs from that, into “Scouring”, and honestly I wouldn’t know how it would have worked out if the Hobbit films didn’t come out just at the right time. I think the score fits so well with the events of “Scouring”, there is a ‘mordor’ theme but it feels ‘unfinished’, like the remnant of an old defeated foe; there’s that wily progression for Radagast in the films, that I used for the hobbit’s rebellion and the conflict, and there’s a new ‘hobbit/shire’ motif that worked so perfectly for a ‘wounded, but recovering’ Shire. I feel so silly talking about decisions I made for this, but I always wanted to share some thoughts I had! 

Fun fact: I had a wonderful person ask if she would be able to play Rosie Cotton back in 2013, and I asked her to perform her lines. She was great, but I realized a very strange thing: when I put her in the audio mix, it would actually break the immersion, because you can hear a voice that wasn’t mine, and as a result - I couldn’t help but keep thinking - my voice for Rosie’s mother sounded like a Monty Python skit in comparison! And thus her lines had to be unused. It kind of just opened the fourth wall, breaking the illusion. Which is a shame, because I always dream of having a fully-cast LOTR Audiobook, maybe someday officially.

The other favorite is “The Tower of Cirith Ungol” just because I listened to it one day in 2014, and heard no errors. I was so proud. I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to change substantially. No one dislikes all the errors more than I do!

14. What’s your best memory from this entire project?

My late dad drove me and my brother out into a clearing at midnight in the forest. The sky was so clear and starry. And we were here simply to just yell at the top of our lungs to record material for “Helm’s Deep”. All the clear yells: “Elendil!!!” “Gúthwinë! Gúthwinë For the Mark!”etc. Etc. - I lost my voice, it was a fun time. He held the microphone for me as I splashed around a stream (for Gollum), once again at midnight since there were fewer background sounds.

I also tell this story a lot: A friend of mine who was listening to the chapters as I finished them - she hated the sound of knuckles cracking. And hated spiders. So, obviously, Shelob would have to have knuckle-cracking sounds for her limbs. So I recorded my own knuckles cracking and tried using it as much as I could for Shelob’s legs moving about. My friend was soooo ecstatic to know this fact.

15. If you could do it all again today, what would you change?

I would consider doing a ground-up re-recording of everything. With a budget, with a cast, with a lot more understanding of the story and intentions behind them. With VR sound options. With extra original music. That’s the dream. 

If we’re back to reality, I guess I’d just re-record a bunch of chapters since they could always be better, and tighten all the technical errors. But that would require a lot of assembling of the raw archived files, and re-building of sounds, and re-recording of lines. Also, as I stated before, I do not want to distribute my unofficial fan work just because I know that it’s a copyright nightmare. And burnout… “it’s never really healed, Sam.”

I like taking other people’s opinions to heart, such as the issues with Frodo’s youth or inflections and intonations for certain scenes that I didn’t quite fully grasp the first time. I would love to adjust things and make it closer to the book now.

- - - - -

And now! The Silly Questions Lightning Round!

(With thoughts from Lady Glasses in parentheses and italics!)

1. In Fellowship, long stretches of dialogue would often have someone randomly cough in the background. Tell me about the Cough. Why is the Cough there?

No one hates the coughs more than me. That’s either my brother minding his own business in the other end of our ‘office room’. I think you now know I was 21, I didn’t care, so these things are just left in because I was careless. However, sometimes there are intentional coughs to make it feel more realistic. It’s been years since I listened to it, so unless I somehow do a massive commentary stream someday (thinking about it), your guess will be as good as mine! The coughs heavily subsided once I did Two Towers, since I was by myself.

2. During the dinner scene with Farmer Cotton, someone burps. Who was that?

Mine. I have no regrets with that one. Or Pippin. I guess it could be Pippin.

(Darn! And here I thought it was Farmer Cotton, LOL)

3. How did you manage to make Bill Ferny’s voice so perfectly obnoxious?

I imagined Bill as an obnoxious guy. The image in my head gives me a good idea of what he’d sound like, and I’m so glad he’s so obnoxious that you had to mention it.

(He sounds perfectly punchable. Thanks, I hate it.)

4. Did you crack yourself up at any point in the recording?

Oh yes, in fact I have a whole outtake reel just for you!

(Warning to anyone who clicks the link: the April Fool's audio had me ON THE FLOOR)

5. Voice acting aside, who is your favorite character in LotR and why?

If you asked me in 2002 it would be the Balrog, if you asked me now it would be difficult because so many of them mean so much to me, and each of their aspects have something to aspire to. Gandalf, Aragorn, Sam, Frodo, Galadriel, the list goes on and on.

(That's beautiful, and so true. The story really grows with us, doesn't it?)

6. What’s your favorite color?

Blue. Always has been.

(Blue is a good color! 💙)

7. Political question: Pineapples on pizza, yes or no?

Yes, I still don’t get what the fuss is about

(Oooh, controversial)

8. Is a hotdog a sandwich?

No, it’s a hotdog!

(Counterpoint: A hotdog is a taco.)

9. What’s your opinion on geese?

They’re racist

(Racist against the entire human race, apparently)

10. How much would I have to pay you to say “I love boats!” in Merry’s voice? (It’s an inside joke with my friends.)

Nothing, it’s on the house!

(HOLY CRAP I LOVE YOU)

- - - - -

Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us! What are you working on nowadays?

I’ve actually had a few people ask me if I’ll ever do more audiobooks like this, and I seem to have tapped something. Yes, in fact! I’m working with a few creative collaborators on a small company to do the exact same sonic experience with other books! Since we’re very small, we are starting with stories in the Public Domain, and have successfully kickstarted (and finished) “The Jungle Book” by Rudyard Kipling. Which will be out (hopefully, officially) by early September! I’m really excited and hope this will lead to more projects, and - hopefully- back to Tolkien someday, in an official manner. Please follow my Instagram or Facebook for more info about it. (I also have a Twitter and Tumblr and more, but they’re all completely unrelated to LOTR and are just me drawing doodles and being a nerd, very unlike the Audiobooks I did, which is a bit confusing, I admit.)

- - - - -

And that concludes our interview! As I told Phil, it was so much fun to discuss a fellow fan's passion project like this. The more I read about it, the more I realized just how similar it was to my own experiences as a fan creator. We all start out as just a noob with a few unpolished skills, making something because we love it, and we learn and grow and hone our talents along the way. It's legitimately inspiring.

Needless to say, I am stoked to finish listening to the rest of this audiobook! Is it a bit weird knowing the creator of the thing might drop in and read my reviews?? Yes. Yes it is. But I'm gonna do it anyway. No holds barred! If I hear another cough, you're gonna know about it, Phil!

Also I may or may not do something with that audio of Merry because I'M STILL DYING OF LAUGHTER HELP

Anyway! If you made it to the end of this, you deserve a cookie! Everybody say thank you to Mr. Dragash, and go check out the other stuff he's doing nowadays! Namárië!

[witchyfoxelf]

[book review] northern lights by philip pullman (1995)

i first read this in college around when the ill-fated movie adaptation was coming out. i had seen the trailers and was thirsty for more fantasy type stuff, which it turns out was literally the entire cynical motivation for making the movie because they totally lotr-ed it up. the book is actually much more a response to narnia (which itself received the lotr-ification treatment in its film adaptations), but has a much different aesthetic/genre that the movie largely ignores, but we’re not here to talk about the movie rn i’m just setting the context of my first reading.

i was in the middle of reading it when the catholic church & others started calling for boycotts, and that was back during my misguided religious phase so at that point i was like “well, fuck.” but i was already in the middle of the book and i was really enjoying it so i kinda shrugged it off & decided that i enjoyed it but i didn't like that the church was the bad guys, and it was ok to enjoy something i disagreed with.

obviously now the anti-church stuff is a feature for me rather than a bug, so i was interested to see how i would feel about the book now with that in mind. and uh yeah, i do love that aspect of the book, very much so, yes. but it’s also so far in the background that a reader could be forgiven for it not being one of their biggest takeaways if they’re not paying close attention? like, by the end of the book it’s pretty fucking obvious that that was the entire point, but that turn happens in literally a line of dialogue at the end of the book (which i fucking love), but it’s not difficult to see in retrospect why even at my most brainwashed (not the fun/kinky kind, the boring religious kind) i was able to shrug it off and enjoy this as a silly little adventure yarn. which btw makes it pretty fucking hilarious that the church was so fragile about it, but whatevs!

but yeah, even though i don’t think it’s actually going to change anyone’s mind, that last interaction between lyra & pantalaimon that i alluded to earlier was everything to me this time. when pan says, “if they [the church] think dust is bad, it must be good!” and i forgot that that point was made that explicit in this book. it’s possible to miss its import if you’re just caught up in the breezy adventure the rest of the book has been, but it just absolutely turns the world upside down. i fucking love it.

also, another thing that hit me on a completely different level this time was this passage:

his hands, still clasping her head, tensed suddenly and drew her toward him in a passionate kiss. lyra thought it seemed more like cruelty than love, and looked at their dæmons, to see a strange sight: the snow leopard tense, crouching with her claws just pressing in the golden monkey’s flesh, and the monkey relaxed, blissful, swooning on the snow.

“strange sight”? idk man, sounds pretty normal to me.

other things i loved included serafina talking about feeling the starlight & moonlight on her skin. even though it wasn’t particularly foregrounded, all the witchy stuff was wonderful. i also loved iorek byrnison. as if having a magical little animal spirit that was part of yourself & you could talk to & cuddle wasn’t enough, lyra also gets a fucking armored bear king protecting her! what a lucky girl!!

and of course lyra herself was a wonderful protagonist. she’s just so fucking good. strong desire to protecc.

in the category of things i didn’t so much love was all the casual, careless racism. like, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t as bad of an offender as the aforementioned lewis or tolkien books, or a lot of its more direct influences like say the works of jules verne, but it still is rather frustrating all the same.

kinda par for the course for stuffy british adventure stories tbh, but again it’s not like outlandishly racist or anything, just… there’s an undercurrent throughout that i wouldn’t feel right not mentioning.

i also think it’s worth noting that while these books are marketed as y.a., they’re probably, uh, a bit heavy for the average kid? like, some genuinely traumatizing stuff happens!! but also idk kids are a lot more resilient than people give them credit for, i know this wouldn’t have phased me if i had read it when i was 12, just feels worth mentioning that it gets pretty dang dark.

so yeah, if you can shrug off the fairly commonplace racism of someone who seems like he’s trying his best but is too british not to be casually racist, this is a pretty great read. i find it very easy to get sucked in. lyra is such a great protagonist who you genuinely want to be safe, and the writing style hits that really nice sweet spot where it has a lot of inherent personality that leaps off the page, but it’s also still extremely approachable, which is just the perfect recipe to make something compulsively readable.

a-rank

[therealriver1]

(P.S This is part two continued from the previous post. Please scroll down to read the first half)

⦁ The Lovely Bones 2009 (This isn't a feel-good type of movie but still worth the watch) ⦁ The Brothers Grimm 2005 (Starring the late Heath Ledger with Matt Damon) ⦁ Pirates of the Caribbean 2003 series 1-5 (Definitely one if my favorite Disney films I'd say.) ⦁ The Chronicles of Narnia : The Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe 2005 (I confess I never read the books, but I really liked the movie) ⦁ My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2002 (I loved it! I still rewatch it every now and then) ⦁ 13 Going on 30 2004 (Young me was obsessed with this film and watched it quite a few times) ⦁ The Holiday 2006 (I don't really like all those cheesy Christmas movies, but this one was the exception) ⦁ Into The Blue 2005 (I admit during this time I wanted to see every movie Paul Walker was in) ⦁ Mamma Mia 2006 (A musical movie that didn't make me cringe. It was so nice to see them singing ABBA songs) ⦁ Gothika 2003 (Not your typical horror but psychological horror. Not everyone thinks it's great, but I liked the plot) ⦁ The Others 2001 (I used to think this was so scary! I grew up on horror thanks to my dad, I watched a lot of them, and this was a good one) ⦁ The Sleeping Dictionary 2003 (Young Jessica Alba looked stunning. It's a slow drama but you might like it) ⦁ The Mummy 1999 (I actually watched The Mummy Returns first without knowing about the original. I like everything Egypt, relic or mummy related) ⦁ The Transporter 2002 (I do believe this movie was a hit at the time and the action is top notch) ⦁ Real Steel 2011 (Giant fighting robots, c'mon! This was so much fun to watch) ⦁ The Thing 1982 (If you can't handle gore, you might not like it, but I thought it was great! I even enjoyed the version that came out in 2011) ⦁ The Ghost in the Darkness 1996 (Based on a true story of killer lions, this one was definitely memorable) ⦁ Down With Love 2003 (I don't watch a lot of rom coms, but this was so good) ⦁ Uptown Girls 2003 (A charming film starring the late Brittany Murphy) ⦁ The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 2012 (I of course watched all of the LOTR movies beforehand, but I enjoyed the Hobbit series more) ⦁ Wedding Crashers 2005 (If you are looking for a fun time then this one is a good choice) ⦁ Joe Dirt 2001 (Apparently there was a sequel that I never watched but I very much liked the first movie) ⦁ I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry 2007 (Adam Sandler and Kevin James pretend to be a married couple in this comedy) ⦁ X-men 2000 (I love all the X-men movies in the series) ⦁ Kate and Leopold 2001 (Your typical romance starring a young Hugh Jackman) ⦁ Hellboy 2004 (A cool action/fantasy film by director Guillermo Del Toro and it's based on a comic book in case you didn't know) ⦁ Van Helsing 2004 (Werewolves vs vampires in this one starring Hugh Jackman as the legendary monster hunter Van Helsing) ⦁ Meet The Fockers 2004 (I enjoyed this one more than the first film) ⦁ Awake 2007 (Imagine being fully conscious while under anesthesia and hearing and feeling everything that's happening around you. Starring Hayden Christensen, Jessica Alba and Terrence Howard) ⦁ She's The Man 2006 (I know I can't be the only one who loved this movie when it came out) ⦁ Wild Hogs 2007 (This is definitely one of my fave comedies to watch) ⦁ Face/Off 1977 (A great thriller starring Nicolas Cage and John Travolta) ⦁ The 6th Day 2000 (Another one of my favorites starring Arnold Schwarzenegger) ⦁ Beetlejuice 1988 (I just hope Beetlejuice 2 will be as good as the first one) ⦁ The Shining 1980 (Thrilling and psychological, I just had to add this to my list, it's a classic. Wonderful performance from Jack Nicholson)

[kanerallels]

top five favorite books? top five favorite star wars characters?

Oooooh. Okay that first one is gonna be HARD. Don't hold me to this later, please, I am a changing person. But I decided to think of the top five books I'd recommend at any given moment, so here we are!

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Valiant by Sarah Mcguire (read it I'm begging you guys)

The Out Of Time series by Nadine Brandes

The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis

Favorite Star Wars characters:

Kanan Jarrus (and the entire Ghost Crew I make the rules now)

Talon Karrde

The Vessel Crew cause they're ICONS

I might have to go with Anakin here. He's an old favorite

And then Ahsoka Tano because I'm not a heathen

[limulekhozoh]

we may be few in number... but we are fighters - all of us !! to the last dwarf !!

fili crown prince of erebor written by mary est. jan 2015 reboot nov 2019

[moonrainbowfish]

Helloooo, here’s my LOTR/hobbit ship request!

I’m a straight female, with curly brown hair and green and blue eyes. I’m about 5’6. I’m a Gryffindor, ENFP, Aquarius. The people closest to me say I’m Brave, funny, friendly, stubborn, overprotective, and tough. I’m usually the one in my circle who stands up for what’s right, I have a hard time being a bystander.

My hobbies include reading, writing, daydreaming, baking being in nature, watching my favorite shows/ movies and listening to music. I also want to start playing piano.

My favorite color is red, and my favorite animal is a lion. My favorite movies/books are Narnia/LOTR. My favorite weather is rain. My favorite smells are Lilac, a forest after it’s rained, vanilla extract, or a house after you’ve baked something.

Some more random things about me: I like chocolate, birds, dramatic music, battle scenes in movies where the good guy comes to the rescue, music that gives me chills, horseback riding, swords, dresses, and flowers. I’ve been told I have a powerful presence in a room, just by the way I carry myself. I struggle with maladaptive daydreaming, and anxiety. I would rather be super cold than super hot.

Thank you so much, I hope I did this right <3

Yeah you did! And I hope you will enjoy it, just as much as I loved writing it! 💖

For the Hobbit I ship you with:

Bilbo Baggins!

At first you would be best friends, inseparable without eachother. You went nearly everywhere together. While Bilbo is more on the calm and reserved side, you are definitely more outgoing than him. But you know what they say. Every introvert needs an extrovert in their life.

Bilbo really appreciates how you always manage to get him to come out of his shell. You truly never fail to amaze him. Soon he realized his feelings for you were stronger than he thought.

He would confess his feelings for you while you were visiting him at his house. He had cooked you a nice meal and served you some tea, before he blurted out his love for you.

You were nearly squeeling with glee when you heard it. So you rushed over to him, pulling him into a bear hug, returning his feelings. Ever since then you were a lovely couple. Some said you were quite an odd together, but you and Bilbo could care less about what others said. You loved taking a stroll in the rain, being silly and not caring about any other opinion.

You also enjoyed spending time together at yours, or Bilbo's home. A hobby which you both shared was baking. Together you made the most delicous cakes, pies and the best bread in all the Shire. Your house always smelled so wonderful afterwards and Bilbo knew how much you loved the smell of your home after you've baked something.

You'd love reading with eachother and exchanging your favorite books. Bilbo would also love to hear about your current daydreams. It doesn't matter to him that they maybe just little dreams, if it's coming from you then it's always beautiful. He appreciates anything you tell him and anything you give him. And you're voice just sounds like that of an angel.

For Lord of the rings I ship you with:

Samwise Gamgee!

Sam was your secret admirer. Back then you didn't know it was him. So you were quite confused, but also very flustered when you found the anonymous little love notes and flowers directed to you. He would soon grow the courage to ask you out in person, which of course you said yes to.

He really adores your beautiful curly brown hair and your gorgeous green/blue eyes. You're just so mesmerizing to him. Sam really does look up to you. He admires your bravery and how you always protect and stand up for those who can't protect themselves. You're a very noble and friendly person and that just made him fall for you even harder.

You and Sam would make an ultimate power couple. You're both strong and independent individuals who would do anything for their loved ones. Nothing could keep you apart. After all these years, your love for eachother just grew stronger. Together you're very brave and could face any obstacles.

Sam loves to take you on a romantic walk through the forest, which often leads to a picnic. Sam would really enjoy cooking and baking for you, or even better together with you. You'd have so much fun and really enjoy these lovely, private moments between you.

Whenever you're sad Sam will always be there for you. He's a very loyal and protective partner. And he would always respect your boundaries and feelings. He'd cheer you up by planting some beautiful flowers for you, which would attract some birds and by giving you chocolate. He'd do anything to make you feel better.

Your relationship is honestly so sweet and caring. Sam will always be a loyal and faithful partner to you and you both lived happily in your own little cozy hobbit hole, until the end of your days.

I hope you liked it! Thanks for requesting!

xoxo

-Freya

[aurore95]

Post 4 pics of media (songs, films, books, video games, comics, TV shows, etc.) that were life changing. Tag 4 other users to do the same :) 

you know when you’re on mobile and you’re like yes I’ll do this tomorrow on my computer and then it’s like 4 days later and you remember you were supposed to do the thing? anyway, here’s me, a little late! thanks for tagging me @rebouks​ ❤️

1. Anime - Fruit Basket (2001) _ you know i’m a weeb so obviously I had to start the list with an anime but seriously, I don’t think any other piece of media has ever had a bigger influence on my life. I discovered it at a pretty hard time in my life, and the outlook Tohru has on life, the way she treats others, just the way she is in general, it just had such a big impact on me, it totally changed me as a person and that’s when I actually started making a conscious choice to be a better person and be kind to others and all that. I wouldn’t be who I am today without Fruit Basket 😭

2. Video game - Quake 2 _ literally the first video game I got super obsessed with, the one that started it all! I got it on my very first laptop, and I would play it for hours and hours without stopping, although I wasn’t super good at it (I was just like 7-8ish and FPS are the worst haha). The next obsession after that was The Sims 2, and then well, it just went downhill after that! 😂

3. Manga - Tokyo Mew Mew _ THE MANGA, the one that got me so terribly into Japanese culture at the ripe old age of 10 that I ended up getting a bachelor’s degree in Japanese and living/studying in Japan for a whole year. So yh, pretty life changing I guess~

4. Books - Harry Potter _ after seeing the first movie with my class when I was 6, my mom got me all the books that were released at the time and that’s when I became a total bookworm, leading me to completely binging series like The Chronicles of Narnia, LOTR, or really any book I could find on my mom’s bookshelves (mostly murder mysteries). I didn’t really want to mention it because I wouldn’t touch the whole thing with a ten-foot pole nowadays but eh, it did what it did to me, so I can at least aknowledge that!

tagging @rarebritney​, @solitarygoddess​, @truedespair​ and @holographique​, of course you don’t have to do it (but I’m v curious and I’d love to know 🥰🥰)

[huntertherapyeras]

9 and/or 15 for the ask game!

hello beloved mutual !!! just gonna answer 15 bc another person sent me 9 before u (just havent answered yet djdj)

15) why did you start writing?

so it all started very early for me. my mom read me lots of books when i was little, like hp (yuck), the chronicles of narnia, the entirety of the the hobbit and lotr, etc. and i loved it! i was kind of an insomniac even then, she would read to me before bed and give me a cup of sleepy time tea with milk and sugar. it helped me wind down and quieted my mind! it was so soothing for me, that nightly ritual.

i often reenacted things that she read to me and things i saw from movies with my dolls, even creating mini fanfiction universes! i loved dreaming up new scenarios and characters. so you would think that that would make me a natural writer, right?

this is only half true. i had so much to write about! but when i started school... handwriting was hard for me. it was hard and painful and i made "stupid" spelling mistakes and the letters were all different sizes. this was largely ignored by teachers, but it was bad enough that it made me HATE writing. id still write stories, of course, but it wasnt about my advanced vocabulary and all the words i could use. the stories were simple specifically because trying to write more caused me pain and frustrated me. so i devoured books instead like a starving man and just kept absorbing, absorbing, absorbing. i was reading 500 page cornelia funke books at 8. i read the entirety of firestarter by stephen king at 9.

i wrote my first real story when i was ... maybe seven? 9? everyone was impressed. i wrote another inspired by a book when i was eleven. my mom loved it. all the while i kept reading. i even read shampoo bottles to improve my skills. i wrote another when i was 13. it was maybe 20 pages long and handwritten, and i was so proud of it.

even now, the plots of these stories stick with me. im always reimagining them and want to turn them into new stories one day - maybe when im a bit more grounded.

when i was nearly 14, i discovered fanfiction. it had all my loves - reading, writing, and tv shows/books - rolled into one! so i made a ffn account on my 14th birthday. 11 years on that site now. i wrote a truly terrible yu-gi-oh / h*rry p*tter crossover that got some really mean reviews that actually hurt my self confidence a lot! but still, i continued writing. poetry and fanfiction mainly. i got a tumblr when i was 16 and started blogging here constantly. i love talking about my life and the things i love so much!

so here i am. writing as much as my body allows me to. and loving it like a parent. because books are probably the only friend that has stayed my entire life. 💜

[todaydreambelieversfic]

Author Spotlight: Lilyvandersteen Day 1

Author Spotlight: @lilyvandersteen​

How did you get into Glee and Glee fandom?

I got into Glee when my hubby saw a commercial for it on TV and said, "Hey, isn't that right up your alley?" I'm sure he regrets ever pointing me to the series, seeing as I'm still obsessed with it years after it being discontinued. I got into the Glee fandom when Cory died. I wanted to know if Glee would still continue without him, so I Googled Glee, and ended up on the Glee forum (which no longer exists). There, someone pointed me to the fanfiction, and I jumped into it with gusto.

In general, what drew you into writing (and/or creating)?

I've always made up stories. From when I was very little. It's fun disappearing in another world you've designed on your own.

What was it about Glee that made you decide to write fanfic for it?

I ship Klaine, and I can see them in so many different scenarios. They just inspire me.

Have you been a part of other fandoms before? Have you written fanfiction pre-glee?

I'm a Harry Potter fan as well. Never published any fanfiction for that fandom, though I made some up in my head. I'm a LOTR and Narnia fan, too, but never felt the urge to write fanfic, though I've read some good Susan meta. And I love OMGCP and Zimbits too, and read its fanfic avidly. I may write some Zimbits fic in the future. Maybe. If I can tear myself away from Klaine for long enough.

Is there a trope you’ve yet to try your hand at, but really want to?

Hmm... I don't think I've ever done "There's only one bed." Or an amnesia AU.

Is there a trope you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole?

Whump. Anything hardcore. Also Mpreg.

How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?

Way too many :-) Seeing as I've written a Pride & Prejudice inspired fic, I recently talked with Lallagoglee about writing a Persuasion inspired fic as well. And then there's the Vampire Blam story I've had in mind for quite a while, and I've still got plenty of WIPs going on as well.

***

Check out Lilyvandersteen’s Fics

Out of the Blue -  Kurt organises a fake wedding for Brittana to get presents from random billionaires. Cooper is one of those invited, and he shows up with his brother in tow. Sparks fly, but not of the good kind. Enemies to lovers, anyone? With a slight Pride and Prejudice vibe?

The Christmas Guest -  Kurt goes home for the holidays and finds out a fellow passenger will have no-one to celebrate with, so he invites him to spend Christmas with the Hummel-Hudsons. Somehow, Kurt's family thinks the guy he brought home is his boyfriend. As the days go by, and his Christmas guest proves enchanting in every way, Kurt finds himself wishing they truly were dating. Could his wish come true?

Don't Jinx It -  Person A is having a really bad day, starting when he slipped on the ice on his way to work and severely sprained/broke his ankle. Someone stole his coat with his phone in the pocket while he was getting his xrays taken. And of course, there are no cabs available due to the weather. Freezing cold, miserable, and struggling to deal with the crutches on the icy, crowded streets of New York, he ducks into a coffee shop he’s never been in before, just wanting to warm up and rest his throbbing foot, but as he looks around, he spots his boyfriend of two years (who he has been trying to call all morning) in an intimate kiss with another guy. Huge fight and very public breakup ensues. Meanwhile, person B, who works at the coffee shop, takes pity on him, gives him a free coffee and pastry, and offers to drive him home after his shift gets over in an hour. Of course, it’s not a good idea to rush into a new relationship ten minutes after breaking up with your asshole ex, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make a new friend, right?

[jiangwanyin]

ooh ok; 1, 15, 17, 20, 22 :)

aw thanks thanks 😌💗💕

1. if someone wanted to really understand you, what would they read, watch, and listen to?

well the list does get longer and more specific the better you want to know and understand me, but for everyone's sake i think i'll just stick to things that give you a good general idea!!

read: first and foremost lotr of course and if you want to go even deeper, the silmarillion (and if you want to go still deeper, various bits and pieces from the history of middle earth especially athrabeth finrod ah andreth), norwegian wood by murakami, h is for hawk by helen macdonald for an insight into me coping with grief and trauma (no idea why anyone would want that but it's a deeply personal book to me and i can't just not include it), and the shadow of the wind by carlos ruiz zafón

watch: oh boy i can think of way too many but including but not limited to again obviously lotr, rocketman, howl's moving castle, empire records, kill your darlings, fallen angels, 10 things i hate about you, moulin rouge! and good will hunting as for tv shows, atla, seasons 2-4 of doctor who and i wouldn't force you to watch the whole thing but probably a few episodes of the untamed and merlin too

listen to: big god by florence + the machine, goodbye yellow brick road by elton john, rock n roll suicide and rebel rebel by david bowie, born on a different cloud by oasis, 5:06AM (every stranger's eyes) by roger waters, wooden ships by jefferson airplane, space truckin by deep purple (more for the vibes than the lyrics though) and aquarius from the hair soundtrack

15. five most influential books over your lifetime.

okay i spent way too much time thinking about this but i think i'm going to just recycle three from my last answer whoops sorry 😳

lord of the rings obviously

h is for hawk by helen macdonald

norwegian wood by murakami

on the road by jack kerouac (i'm not sure how influential it really was in the long term but i did center my entire personality around it when i was like fourteen so it goes on the list)

aand i'm going to be really pretentious and say oedipus rex OR 1984 i can't choose

i feel like i'm forgetting something but here you go also i guess i could include some children's books that definitely shaped how i turned out like the neverending story and the secret garden and inkheart and the series that maybe not started but absolutely fueled my dragon obsession aka the last dragon chronicles aand i can think of others that maybe as a whole weren't particularly influential as a book but did make me realize/come to terms with something about myself *cough* loveless by alice oseman as well as others i was into when i was younger ranging from the tibetan book of the dead (which i never actually read cover to cover but i was a nerd and i found it fascinating and although i wasn't exactly new to the idea of rebirth etc it definitely influenced the way i see life and death) and various books about greek and egyptian mythology i grew up on to random YA books i enjoyed at the time and that actually had an impact on me like life: an exploded diagram by mal peet and junk by melvin burgess — neither of which i remember too well now but again, fourteen year old me was OBSESSED so they deserve a place on the list just as much as the books i've read more recently and feel the same way about 😌

17. would you say your tumblr is a fair representation of the “real you”?

ah gosh for the first time in a quite some time since i've been on here i can actually say yes?? which is a very welcome change,, i mean obviously it's pretty fandom-focused and i seem to have lost most of my classic rock and astrology mutuals in the process of moving accounts so there's considerably less of that on here than there is in my life but other than that i think it is for the most part :)

20. would you rather be in middle earth, narnia, hogwarts, or somewhere else?

middle earth of course 😌💖🌷🍃✨

22. list the top five things you spend the most time doing, in order.

oh wow vicky you really decided to choose violence and expose my boring lifestyle 😔😔

sleeping obviously hsnfdj

probably just being on my phone especially on here yikes

watching movies/tv shows

listening to music

ahh i want to say reading but i've been slacking off lately but i guess it still counts in the long run if you add up all the time since my childhood (actually that may even move it higher on the list but i have no idea)

[ruffboijuliaburnsides]

seriously i just.  I’m just laughing over that 'whatever you’re into at the age of 12 will SHAPE YOU FOREVER so don’t PICK WRONG’ post.  What a depressing worldview that you have to STOP liking things that meant a lot to you as a kid just because you... became an adult?

and yes, of COURSE what you were into when you were 12, 13, 14 are going to be impactful to who you are as a person?  Those are the things that were IMPORTANT to you, that you held deep in your heart, that helped you get through the really shitty days of early-mid puberty.  The shifts into middle school, the changing social dynamics of your peers.

like, the idea that you can be into the WRONG THING and that will make you CRINGEY FOREVER is just so childish and ridiculous and completely unrelated to reality in any way.  When I was 12 it was 1998, I was mostly into Animorphs, Jane Eyre, Sherlock Holmes (the original ACD stories only), Narnia, and Anne of Green Gables.  Animorphs probably was the closest to “fandom” that I had because I had a single friend who introduced me to them who I would talk to about it constantly.  When I was 13 and 14 it was Sailor Moon and Lord of the Rings  15 added literally every other Tolkien middle earth book don’t talk to me.

I think it’s more accurate to say your first PROPER FANDOM says a lot about you as a person, because a lot of people in their 20s/EARLY 30s were getting into fandoms at 12/13/14 as they got access to the internet, and early fandoms tend to somewhat shape your ongoing fandom desires/how you approach fandom/etc.  I started in Sailor Moon fandom and frankly I’m glad bc it meant my first fandom was the ASMR forums which were full of encouraging, upbeat, and friendly people who very rarely criticized each others’ fics and if they didn’t like it, they just didn’t interact with it or the author, and were VERY encouraging of baby writers like me and my frankly awful fics that had interesting ideas and awful execution.  

I’m glad it WASN’T Lord of the Rings circa the movies beginning to come out because that was also during the beginning of the HP movies and between the two there was... so much drama.  so much hate for self-inserts and mary sues and the whole Protectors of the Plot Continuum and fanfic MST3King were things and it was just mean and unnecessary and while I definitely got involved with those things, it was easy for me to, a couple years later when I was out of the height of my time there, I realized that I didn’t WANT to be that negative and mean, and went back to being encouraging and doing my best to avoid interacting with authors and fics that I didn’t like.  Because I’d already BEEN in a fandom like that.  around 16/17 i ended up on LJ and frankly I think that was a good thing for me, because for all its faults there was by and large LESS meanness and more “just ignore it if you don’t like it”.  Not none obviously, but less than the smallish insular websites and forums I’d been on in LotR fandom prior.

...anyway all that said I’m a fuckin Hufflepuff, kiss my ass.

[magics-protector]

Hello darling! May I please have male ships for Narnia, Sherlock, Lotr/Hobbit, Spn, and Star Trek? I’m 5’7 female, long blonde hair, blue/green eyes, and curvy. I love history I can touch, I especially love old books! I enjoy writing, baking, grooming my horse, teaching piano, and lots of reading! I’m extremely emotional, I cry over every movie/book. I’m very feminine, but extremely tough. I have multiple health issues, which have caused me great pain, but still I endure! Thank you so much! ❤️

Of course you can! I love doing these!

Narnia

I ship you with....

Peter Pevensie

The young High King loves everything about you. There’s a calmness that comes with you that helps distract him from being in charge of an entire country. Being with you brings out a whole new side to Peter; he kind of has to take life at a fast pace - if he doesn’t, then the whole country could fail, so spending time with you; doing the things you enjoy with you really helps him relax and find joys outside of being High King Peter - with you, he is just Peter Pevensie. He likes the contrast of you being both feminine and extremely tough, he knows that you can protect yourself if he’s not there - which is a huge stress relief. He thinks the fact that you’re so emotional over so much is kind of adorable but he also gets very concerned at the same time. He is inspired by the fact that you deal with all the pain you suffer from - it makes him believe that anyone can do anything, regardless of what ails them - and that’s what he cares for the most about you. 

Sherlock

I ship you with....

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock takes inspiration from those around him and he helps improve those around him as well - he gives them that sense of adventure (even if it’s not wanted). I think the one thing Sherlock might find the hardest to deal with is the emotions (even though he has the most emotions) - but I can see Sherlock being that awkward shoulder to lean on whenever he’s needed (look at John coming to terms with Mary’s death). While Sherlock lives his days as if they were his last, I can see him sitting down and enjoying the little things with you (and plus, a violin and piano duet! SO CUTE!). Sherlock likes the type of people who’s looks are deceiving - look at his best friend for example, John is small and had a limp for a while, not very threatening but then BOOM! Army doctor who lives for the thrill! I think he’d be very soft when it comes to your multiple health issues and would do whatever he could to help, but he’d need help to help you so pls help the poor boy. 

Lotr/The Hobbit

I ship you with.....

Aragorn

My brother from another mother was the first one to come to mind when you asked for Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit. 

Aragorn craves a domestic life - just let the poor boy rest. He’d probably spend his days helping you out with baking, spend time reading with you and horses, Aragorn is a sucker for horses (you know it, I know it. The bro must have been a horse girl in another life). I think he’d try and make you sit down when it comes to more serious jobs (don’t be mad at him, he’s just worried). Aragorn is a bit of a history buff (he is older than he appears), so there are countless things you could do together. 

Supernatural

I ship you with....

Sam Winchester

It’s like a match made in Heaven. Sam is a nerd but he’s also tough - he loves the things you like to do. Dean always finds Sam in the library. Being with Sam has some downfalls but, there are so many benefits. While he may not like to bake, he’ll eat the things you’re making. He thinks you’re absolutely adorable when you watch movies together - just accept the big bear hug and you’ll be a okay (it also makes it feel like he’s protecting you, so let him have that). Sam is not one to hold anyone back form doing something they’ve put they’re mind to, so when it comes to your pains, Sam won’t stop you but he’ll really try and help you - almost taking over the situation to help. Sam just wants love and a quiet life - I’m sure he’d get that with you. 

Star Trek

I ship you with....

Spock

(When I realized I paired you with Sherlock, I absent-mindedly thought Spock when I saw Star Trek soooooo, here ya go)

Spock makes himself more emotionless than he is - like Sherlock. He rather enjoys taking the time to do little things with you. Reading is one of his past times and I’m sure he’d love to adventure through history with you. I think horses would be a bit of a shock with him and he’d try and avoid it (Just take McCoy and you’ll be fine). I think he’d call your extreme emotions ‘illogical’ but really he’d just wouldn't know what to do and you might have to help him understand. Spock believes in logic - i bet he listens to him too (hehe) - so I think he’d be amazed by you with how resilient you are with your pain. Spock has so many emotions - just teach him how to use them. 

Here you go! I hope it’s alright, I’m still getting the hang of all this. 

[critterlegion]

I’m starting to think I vibed a bit harder with C1

don’t get me wrong, I love the M9 and exploring Wildemount and meeting Matt’s fresh sparkling take on Drow and all the adventures we’ve had

but ...

I don’t feel like I’m as attached to the current campaign as a whole as I was to Vox Machina and C1. this could be for any number of reasons - my life is vastly different from where I was when I started watching CR from the beginning; I’m a vastly different person from who I was then; these are umbrella terms for so many things.

but I can’t help but feel I connected more with Vox Machina because they (as confirmed by the cast themselves) were geared more towards the classic high fantasy, LOTR-style adventure quest with the character classes to match, and that’s literally my bread and butter. that’s the genre I write most and my favorite to write, period. I cut many of my fandom and writer teeth on Narnia, Lord of the Rings, any number of tiny little fantasy books we found everywhere and knew I would want. They were all some kind of high fantasy, and I kinned with it.

that’s not to say I don’t like urban fantasy or fantasy comedy or gaslamp fantasy - pretty much anything with “fantasy” in the genre title already has a whole leg in the door for me. but I will always meander back to high fantasy in the end, something about that grand quest and lifeblood magic and a world that looks and acts completely different from the one I know has a hold on my heart absolute.

C2 feels more akin to TAZ than C1, just in the same universe as C1 with a few callback ties. I haven’t gotten into TAZ cause CR has my whole heart, but I don’t begrudge it its particular brand of existence. the campaigns my own DM builds are much closer to TAZ than CR, as she is a fan of both, and playing those sessions are the most fun times I’ve had in the past few years. And of course, I will forever love CR and the cast and crew and I dearly hope I get to meet them one day and maybe even work with them on something (THE THOUGHT!!!!!), but right now, right this moment, I’m not as gungho to watch the show, not as on point with catching up, and in a way, that makes me sad. 

like I’ve betrayed this thing that helped me survive 2 years of grueling scriptwriting education, that opened a whole world to me that I had hissed at previously (child of the Satanic Panic, it happens). I know change is inevitable and often good, but I’ve never figured out how to remember a golden memory without forever wishing I had it back.

[maychorian]

12!

(What would I blog about at different ages?)

At age twelve, I finally had my own room after having to share with my sisters for a long time. It was in the basement, but it was mine. My parents had bought me a desk for my birthday, and I had an absolute blast setting it up.

I think this was the year that I read Lord of the Rings for the first time, too. Holy smokes, what a revelation that was. Of course I loved Narnia, Redwall, all of that. I was super into fantasy fiction. But LOTR was obviously cream of the crop. For the rest of my adolescence, I read LOTR about once a year. The bookshelves of my room were packed with fantasy fiction that I got as gifts or bought with my babysitting money. This was the year I started making my own fantasy world, Maychoria (yes, the origin of my screenname), and dreamed about writing fantasy novels. I wrote my first novel over the ages of thirteen and fourteen, but at twelve I’m pretty sure I started worldbuilding.

So yeah, at age twelve I would have been blogging a LOT of fantasy fiction, particularly LOTR, and also gushing about my own world and sharing art that reminded me of scenes I had in my head.

[menphinasbow]

yvaine; neverending survey

BASICS.

FULL NAME: Yvaine Aradia (birth name Yvaine Mhenravi)

NICKNAME: I don’t know if Khit’li has any nicknames for her actually

AGE: I don’t keep track  should be around 22-23

BIRTHDAY: 15th Sun of the 4th Astral Moon

ETHNIC GROUP: Miqo’te Keeper of the Moon

NATIONALITY: Gridanian

LANGUAGE/S: Common Eorzean

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Heterosexual

ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Demiromantic

RELATIONSHIP STATUS:  Married 

HOME TOWN / AREA: all over Eorzea

CURRENT HOME: Mist, La Noscea

PROFESSION: Bard, Warrior of Light, Slayer of Primals, Moogle Collector

PHYSICAL.

HAIR: Long wavy turquoise with streaks of green

EYES: Emerald green

FACE: Oval

LIPS: Small, red

COMPLEXION: Pale as the moon

BLEMISHES:  None

SCARS:  Multiple battle scars, nothing permanent except one on her lower back from when she was little - one of her adopted siblings pushed her to the ground because they lost an archery duel with her and she hit a sharp rock

TATTOOS: None

HEIGHT:  5′

WEIGHT: 120 ponze

BUILD:  Petite

FEATURES:  Three grey clan marks on her cheek

ALLERGIES:  None

USUAL HAIR STYLE:  Always wore down or on a ponytail, and later on side ponytails

USUAL FACE LOOK:  Confused or concerned

USUAL CLOTHING:  Practical but chic adventuring gear. Leathers and armor in earthy tones and shades of green or blue. When not working, can be found wearing dresses that are more on the casual side rather than extravagant styles, making sure movement is always unimpeded.

PSYCHOLOGY.

FEAR/S: Failure, loss, being lonely or left behind, rejection

ASPIRATION/S:  To be a mother and have a happy family of her own

POSITIVE TRAITS: Dedicated, loyal, responsible, brave, honest, friendly, helpful, optimistic

NEGATIVE TRAITS: Naive, gullible, politically inept, inflexible when it comes to right and wrong, keeps putting others’ needs before hers, map illiterate

TEMPERAMENT:  Phlegmatic

SOUL TYPE/S:  Server

ANIMALS:  She’s basically a puppy

VICE HABIT/S: Doing something obviously dangerous without thinking when the fate of the world hangs in the balance

FAITH: Nymeia, Hydaelyn

GHOSTS?: Those who have died in her name

AFTERLIFE?: She knows where dead people go

REINCARNATION?: She likes to think so

POLITICAL ALIGNMENT: Hates politics

EDUCATION LEVEL:  Self taught and a smattering of short term schoolings

FAMILY.

FATHER: Ihko’to Rhisfu (deceased)

MOTHER:  Nihva Mhenravi

SIBLINGS: Only tons of foster siblings

EXTENDED FAMILY: Unknown

NAME MEANING/S: None in particular

HISTORICAL CONNECTION?: None

FAVORITES.

BOOK:  Romance and fantasy

DEITY: Nymeia

HOLIDAY:  Starlight

MONTH: April

SEASON:  Spring

PLACE: The ocean

WEATHER: Sunny but not too hot

SOUND / S: The waves of the ocean, the strumming of harp strings, birds singing, Moogle noises, Khit’li’s voice

SCENT / S:  Sea salt, the smell of spring, flowers, delicious food

TASTE / S:  Sweets, cakes, chocolate, oranges

FEEL / S:  The wind on her face, water lapping on her feet, the sure string of her bow and the strength of her arrows, cuddling against the warmth of her husband’s body, and lately the baby moving inside her

ANIMAL / S:  Bunnies, cats, butterflies, nutkins, all small woodland animals

NUMBER: None

COLORS: Green, blue, white

EXTRA.

TALENTS: Archery, string instruments, singing, attracting cute animals

BAD AT: Negotiating, determining people’s true intentions, having common sense when it comes to her own safety, reading maps, using magic of any kind, close range/bare handed fighting

TURN ONS: Loyalty, humor, sincerity, steadfastness, dependability, kindness

TURN OFFS: Cruelty, injustice, arrogance, rudeness, selfishness

HOBBIES: Singing, swimming, making music, weaving, helping people, collecting as many Moogles as possible

TROPES: It Sucks to Be the Chosen One,  Heartwarming Orphan,  Evil Parents Want Good Kids,  Skilled, but Naïve

QUOTES : “you know you were never meant for carrying this world                              your legs tremble beneath the weight                                   yet, you take another step                                   no, you were never meant for this                             but, that will not stop you from trying.���

MUN QUESTIONS.

Q1 : If you could write your character your way in their own movie,  what would it be called, what style would it be filmed in, and what would it be about?          

A1 :  I don’t know what it’d be called, but I know the style will be epic fantasy ala Narnia or LotR to showcase all the out of this world aspect of it and what else would it be about? Yvaine’s Warrior of Light journey of course.

Q2 :  What would their soundtrack/score sound like?          

A2 :  Same kind of epic fantasy feel. Lots of choral music and string instruments.

Q3 :  Why did you start writing this character?        

A3 : Because I like to treat every character I play in a video game as a fully fleshed out character with their own story. That’s why I could never use my own name in video games (while my husband always does, lol). And I already had a ready-made RP partner in @keeperprinceling​ which totally helped. Also the FFXIV story is too good to not play around in to be honest.

Q4 :   What first attracted you to this character?          

A4 : How she survived in this world when she started out having nothing. Pushing her on this adventure and seeing her discovering things and reacting to them for the first time was interesting to me, made me want to write more about her story and connect all the dots from her past that brought her here, being who she is today.

Q5 :  Describe the biggest thing you dislike about your muse.

A5 : I struggle with making her interesting enough for other people to be interested in her. I feel like she’s just this cookie cutter do-gooder who is your cliché Warrior of Light type of character sometimes, but I also don’t want to betray the character to make her “edgier” or more interesting in ways most people probably look for. I like her the way she is, even if she leans toward the boring/bland side.

Q6 :  What do you have in common with your muse?        

A6 :   We both love cute animals. That’s about it, lol. In a lot of ways, Yvaine is the polar opposite of me in that she’s wildly optimistic and extroverted, like she actively seeks out new people while I run and hide every time I hear the doorbell rings and aggressively hiss at the world in general.

Q7 :   How does your muse feel about you?          

A7 :   She probably just wants me to stop putting her through all these never-ending quests and let her have that family already.

Q8 :  What characters does your muse have interesting interactions with ?      

A8 :   Characters that are complicated and are not black and white brings the most interesting interactions out of her, because Yvaine herself is very simple in her thoughts about good vs. evil. But when she comes across people like Iceheart and Nero and any Garlean defector (especially when forced to work with them) her inner conflict and her inability to understand where they stand gives me life.

Q9 :  What gives you inspiration to write your muse ?        

A9 : The game itself and its story. Sometimes silly things like finding a house side by side with her husband (which spawned our Neighbors AU) and the Scion outfit which looked like school uniforms made me think of a high school AU. But I’m usually triggered to write by events that happened in the MSQ itself.

Q10 : How long did this take you to complete ?          

A10 : I filled everything in up to this last set then I let it sat in the Drafts for like a week because I kept forgetting it’s there.

tagged by: @alannah-corvaine​ ♥

tagging: this is long, so do it if you feel like it!

[nelayn]

11 questions meme

I was tagged by @zeroatthebone! Thank you <3 

Answer the 11 questions, come up with 11 questions of your own, and tag 11 people!

1. Who is your favorite visual artist?

That’s a very interesting question- I don’t have any...visceral favourites, like I do with writers, but Vincent van Gogh always enchanted me. 

2. Who is your favorite character to write and/or draw?

I haven’t written anything in aaaaages, but I loved writing for Finarfin, Earwen and Galadriel...

3.If you had to live somewhere in Middle-earth, where would you choose?

It’s a tosh-up between Imladris and Lothlorien, most days- but I’d definitely love to visit the Shire and also Fourth Age Ithilien...

4.What are your favorite and least favorite horror movies?

Horror as a whole is not really my genre, but I remember 8 year old me had a weirdly fond memory of the original Stephen King’s IT  movie? Like... I was very little so I couldn’t stay up all the way through to the end and I really wanted to find out what happened? And I was weirdly not that scared by it? I don’t have a particular least favourite because I usually stay away from ones that I know I won’t like. Unless the one time my friends dragged me to see a film where vampires exploded in the sun and I sat with my hands covering my eyes 85% of the time counts :p I don’t even remember its name :p

5. Bigfoot or Mothman?

I am largely unfamiliar with the concept of the Mothman, so I think that means the answer is Bigfoot by default.

6.What piece of advice would you give to 18-year-old self?

Have more fun. Love yourself more. Do more things. All the things you’re worried about are going to be okay.

7. What is the most interesting museum you’ve ever been to?

I went to the UK national Science Museum in London last week, that was pretty interesting! Getting to see the double helix model up close and personal was really awe-inspiring on the eve of starting a PhD in Biochemistry-also our volunteer guide was awesome and he gave all due credit to Rosalind Franklin and his stories were generally so engaging! Like- the perfect balance between emotionally engaging human stories and scientifically intriguing information.

8.What is the origin of your username?

My childhood LOTR self-insert (yes, I had one of those). I’ve actually been thinking, recently, how so many of us just spontaneously start making up stories in our heads (I think I started when I was about 7 or 8) and what kind of path of cognitive/psychological development that is based on. Are there people who do not do this? Where does it come from?

9. What is your favorite childhood book?

My first favourite is a book by Evgenios Trivizas, called “The Pirates of the Chimney”, which is fantastic- and then we have things like the “Three Investigators” books and the Narnia books and A Series of Unfortunate Events and of course Lord of the Rings, which probably counts as a childhood favourite because  I am positive I read the trilogy before the films came out- but considering that happened in 2001, when I was in second grade, I’m really wondering where on earth I got the reading level for it.

10. Can you juggle?

Absolutely not.

11. What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

I am ashamed to say that I had to look up the reference. (Monty Python ftw).

Tagging: (only if you want to and have nothing better to do, and with no obligation to follow all the rules) @anghraine, @swampdiamonds, @crocordile, @gloriousmonsters, @squirrelwrangler, @zeroatthebone, @valarhalla, @kanafinwhy, @allonsymiddleearth, @idleleaves, @kcrabb88

My questions: 

1. Autumn or spring? 

2. What (if any) is a favourite holiday for you and why? 

3. Do you have any personal traditions? 

4. Top 5 countries that you haven’t been to and you would like to visit? 

5. What’s a fictional character that makes you go “IT ME” ? 

6. Favourite comfort food? 

7. Movies for when you are sick? 

8. Books that you can read over and over? 

9. What’s a song that never fails to cheer you up? 

10. What’s your favourite hobby? 

11. How old where you when you went abroad for the first time?