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ghosting-medium · 1 year ago

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・❥・ North ˗ˏˋ꒰ ❄️ ꒱

Moodboard: Made by me

What North Looks like:

Credit: Guinevere Sophie

North is into formality, she looks like her lips are like a kiss of frost bite, with the color a lavender blue tinge. Her eyes were like sapphires that shine the brightest blue but would change to black, to whiteish, and pale gray. Her skin looks almost whiteish blue, possible cracking with looks of blue or gold. Her cheeks look wind whipped, but it looks like she felt nothing from it. It's very cold when North touches you, very much like a death kissed touch or when there is a sharpness to a harsh breeze - Moonlight

Palace, Residence:

North wants to have her palace remain slightly vague, and private. So the energy of her kingdom is cold, it's very ornate. Beautiful landscape, and buildings. Imagine gothic architecture in snow, and ice. Seemingly cold and empty, but there are traces of life and beauty hidden.

She does ask for her privacy to be respected, she allows people to see her Palace when she sees fit. Once invited, and given consent to see then it's okay. Please be respectful of the wishes of the deities.

Ruling, Domain:

North rules over protection, sleep, death, healing, transformation, discipline, responsibility, some aspects of spirituality, resourcefulness, justice (in terms of death)

Still respecting her wishes to not detail her domain.

Correspondences:

Days of the Week:

Monday - connections with the moon, however Monday sets the tone for the week. Can either flow positive, or negative. It can be about getting clear with emotions, or having the day being about your emotional state

Saturday - the day of Saturn, aka responsibility, life lessons, and getting organized. Devotional acts on Saturday for North could be getting caught up on work, chores etc, and organizing and cleaning your space. Get balanced and grounded as well for devotional activities and offerings. “I prefer more organized and clean rooms than messy ones, and by organized I mean organized in a way for you.” After all that work is done though, relax and destress as needed.

Special Days:

1, 11, 4 - so the first of every month, the 4th of the colder/winter months (December, January, February, possibly March - for northern hemisphere opposite for western hemisphere). The 11th of January in specifics.

I can’t find anything special about the 11th of January; I assume it’s a special day because it’s particularly cold. I’m getting the vibes of there being a celebration, or a holiday in the Fellowship specifically for North. On this day North is celebrated, winter/cold is seen with appreciation and beauty. Certain foods are prepared and ate throughout the festival, it’s distinctively different than Yule however has some underlying themes of the Winter Solstice, Yule etc etc. Very french like vibes, a lot of the food are french dishes (or inspired by), not all but most. There is typically some sort of music playing, ice statues, there are shimmering lights throughout the palace and the courtyard.

Foods: Warmer foods, seeing this as being more of a dinner, pot roast, warm vegetables, apples, fried apples with cinnamon (desert possibly?), honey on warm bread, crêpes, waffles, french cullers, soups, pan d’Épices

Drinks: Mulled cider, warm wine, milk, coffee, milk tea

Elements:

Air, Water

Numbers:

1, 11, 4

1 - the start of something, spend more time thinking about your actions and create more solidified plan before moving onward; number of thoughts in the air but not materialized yet. New beginnings, new ideas, starting to plan, stability, structure, trust in what will happen, self and figuring identity out

11 - It’s technically a 2 when reduced in numerology, but it’s also a master number in numerology. Double what number 1 represents

4 - means something is complete, or it needs to become complete, joining numbers together to create some form of wholeness. Completion/coming to completion, connection, corrections, order (from my notes, apply your own meaning for the numbers if you see fit)

Colors:

Cold colors, on the lighter spectrum. Deep dark and vibrant blues, a plum color

Planet:

Saturn, Neptune

Saturn - taskmaster of the zodiac, commanding us to get our work done and to work hard. Discipline and responsibility are important. Saturn makes us look at time, and asks us the questions of ïs there time for everything we want to do, or are there limits”. Managing the limitations that we find, and working through and around restrictions are important. Saturn also symbolizes old age in the aspect of life lessons. Structure, order, and the way in which we conduct our affairs and personal relationships (not just romantic) are all ruled by Saturn.

Neptune - Interesting enough Neptune is more fluid, and less rigid than Saturn is. I think this shows the duality that North is, and what they embody. In order to be somewhat fluid there has to be structure; and with being rigid there has to be fluid movement. It’s just like ice, and water. Ice can become water, and water can become ice. Neptune is about changing, and illusions, abstract thoughts and mysteries. Spirituality is something also ruled by Neptune. Using this neptunic energy can be useful in meditations to gain insights. Anything artistic is something that can be ruled by this planet; poetry, music, dance, glamor as well. Neptune is mysterious in the way that on the outside it’s enchanting and elusive on the inside it’s captivating but much deeper than what others might assume about it. The darker side of this planet looks into escapism, and delusions. Do you face the reality of life, or do you escape from it or do you find the balance that is needed.

Saturn and Neptune are opposites of each other, but they need each other for balance and harmony. If Saturn is the physical world, and Neptune is the metaphysical world than together you can create your dreams in reality and ground them, or you can be lost in delusions or lost in stress of physical materials not being enough.

Zodiac Signs:

More of the zodiac signs following after Libra

Scorpio, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces

Animals:

Chionophile - any organisms (animals, plants, fungi etc) that can thrive in cold winter conditions; these animals have specialized adaptations that help them survive in the harshest winters

Polar Bears

Penguins

Deer, Reindeer

Artic fox

Harp Seal, Leopard seals

Porbeagle shark

Tundra Swan

Steller’s eiders

Snowy owl

Plants, Fruits, Flora:

Allspice

Anise, Star Anise

Apples - Ruby Frost

Bleeding hearts

Cedar

Cherry

Cinnamon

Coral Bells

Fig

Holly

Hyacinth

Ivy

Jasmine

Juniper

Lavender

Lily of the Valley

Peppermint

Pine

Pomegranate

Siberian Iris, Iris in general

Essential oils/incense:

Allspice

Cedar

Cinnamon

Holly

Jasmine

Lavender

Peppermint

Pine

Crystals:

Amethyst

Black Obsidian

Black Tourmaline

Bloodstone

Blue Calcite

Blue Halite

Blue Sapphire

Clear Quartz

Fluorite

Hematite

Snowflake Obsidian

Divination associations:

Tarot

Death

The Star - Apples cut in half reveal a five-pointed star

Queen of Swords

8 of Pentacles

Apple - 9 of Earth (Herbcrafter’s tarot); the hidden star of hope sustains us, restraint and self-control with your bounty lead to community abundance. Apple is an ancient tree that contributes to the well-being of both the land and the people.

Knight of Pentacles

Runes

Nauthiz - represents need, restriction, conflict, willpower, endurance, self-reliance

Isa - represents ice, clarity, challenges, introspection, watching, waiting

Eihwaz - represents a yew tree, balance, death, the world tree

Algiz - represents an elk, protection, defense, instinct, guardianship

Sowilo - represents the sun, health, honor, resources, victory, wholeness, cleansing

Oracle - Moonology

Blue Moon - Believe in the impossible

New Moon Eclipse - Expect powerful change

New Moon - New start is coming

New Moon in Capricorn - Your hard work is paying off

Family:

Brother - Northwest

History, Mythology:

None recorded right now

Epithets:

Noble North - focuses on her personal qualities as a leader. North can be blunt at times, but they are honest. This epithet of them focuses on righteousness, honesty, generosity, and being a just leader.

The Statue - this epithet is focusing on outward appearances of looking cold on the outside, and unreadable, mysterious

Her Majesty - highlights her in a royal light, focuses on her responsibility, discipline

The Tender-Hearted one - connects with the side of her that they don’t show often, more outwardly caring, nice, parental like, protective but in a gentle way

Bringer of Death - her death epithet, otherwise known as “the soul taker”, this epithet solely focuses on her responsibilities of death, and navigating justice, fairness, and reality within it. The overall view of death, and how it affects everyone

Bringer of Life - the life epithet, focuses on her healing, sometimes fertility, and good health during and after birth, is also seen as the bringer of life when the winter lets spring come in.

The one who gives, and the one who takes - combines the ideas of Bringer of Death, and Bringer of Light together. It’s the balanced epithet of these two, also looks into transformation as life ends with death and the cycle goes on

Lady of Glass - Glass is referred to in two ways in this context; someone you can look through since of their honesty, and the stoic expression on their face.

Offering and Devotional Acts:

Listening to Music: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4RoZIoct4v0mzhRzaZ7Ymh

I find that she loves the Nutcracker a lot

Cleaning your room in their name, or with specific intent

Honoring her special days, and doing rituals with her, or in her name

Locating the North Star at night, and any other constellation you find (this aligns more with West though)

Wearing colder colors, hues of blue; or veiling your hair in these colors

Making to-do lists, and sticking to them

Creating vision, dream boards and then making steps to bring them into reality

Taking ice baths, or at least offering cold/ice water in a cup for North

Raising awareness for animals in colder climates that are losing their habitat from global warming, climate change

Donate to homeless shelters, especially when it starts to get colder

Offering apples cut into two (so the 5 pointed star on each side is visible), or offering an apple (or a part of an apple); then either consuming it after the offering is accepted and North allows you to, or giving it to Earth or an animal (that can safely eat the apple!).

Going apple picking

Making a simmer pot with some of her plants included (star anise, apples, cinnamon etc etc)

Growing some plants that can survive winter in your area, make sure you research what plants can survive colder weather as well.

Diffuse some of the scents she likes in a diffuser if you have one

Dedicate some crystals in her name, and wear them on your person or carry them in a bag

Make a satchel for protection, focus, clarity, and other intentions relating back to her

Try and get some deep, restful sleep with her aid if needed

Become comfortable with the idea of death

Have moments of meditation, and introspection about death and your beliefs surrounding death

Have moments to appreciate the cycle of life and death, appreciate how far you’ve gotten

Find beauty, and joy in the start of new things (cycles); easiest way to do this is to plant an herb from seed and nurture it from seed to sapling.

Perform magic for self-healing, or healing on others if they allow it

Research anatomy + physiology, medicine, maybe herbology with a focus on healing properties (do not substitute herbs with medication, or other medical needs and such)

Allow yourself to become more comfortable with responsibility

Create a schedule (based on your needs etc) and stick with it as much as possible, exercise discipline when needed

Research death work, spirit work, and familiar work

Mediate, and do some shadow work when needed

Devote time to yourself in her name, if it’s relaxing and maybe under her ruling and domain

Learn how to crochet, or knit! so you can make yourself some warm items

Look at photos of snow, snowy photography

Burn winter scented candles, or any other warm scent

In the winter, colder days:

Bundle up, and stay warm

Make hot chocolate, and other warm beverages: tea, mulled cider, mulled wine (only drink if you are of age!)

Make soup, or comfort foods that will bring a sense of relief into your life

Make snowpeople

Have snowball fights

Watch as the snow falls

Learn, try, or attempt figure skating or hockey (it doesn’t have to be turns and spins and complicated work, just getting on the ice is a really good start)

In colder months go outside, by a window and appreciate nature’s beauty

Make paper snowflakes

Go sledding

Food: Fried apples, apples, soup, crêpes

Altar Suggestions:

Cloth - white, silver, blue, purple

Bones - ethically sourced, better if they are animals that are associated with her

Oddities with relation to death, life, winter

Athame (knife)

Have the altar be facing north

Candles with herbs associated with them

Maybe try and keep a small cup/bowl with snow and keep the water that remains after it melts

Holly, other winter related flora

Pressed, or dead flowers

Apple peels

Crystals

Paper snowflakes

Snow Globe

Christmas lights

Items foraged in the winter

Offering dish - preferred to be made out of wood, but anything works

Terrariums - possibly get graveyard dirt (with permission, be super respectful follow graveyard and death work etiquette)

Artwork that you make of her, or something with her in mind

If your work also surrounds ancestors, grief practices maybe placing photographs of deceased people/pets on your altar might be a good idea as well

That is all the documented information that we have on North

Signing off, Ghost ⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

#North #Cardinal #The Way of the Fellowship #May the path guide you North

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frostyreturns · 1 year ago

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Frosty Ruins The Lord Of The Rings (1978)

This will be my first time ever watching this version of Lord Of The Rings, I didn't even know it existed until fairly recently. So this review is based on total first impressions.

To start with it opens like an old film serial and looks kind of janky. You could tell it was from a time where a lot of people probably didn't even know what Lord Of The Rings was, back when it was a far less mainstream property, back in the days where Robert Plant could slip plot details from the book into a song and expect that nobody would really take notice.

I'm not sure if the opening is live action or is rotoscoped like parts of the rest of the movie but it looks like they just filmed actors but did them all in shadow so they didn't have to design quality costumes. The voice over is classic 70's and is vaguely the same as the opening of Jacksons Fellowship Of The Ring, which becomes a theme.

The movie differs from the books and the Peter Jackson movies because it puts the scene of Smeagle murdering for the ring in with the introduction. However you can also see that Jackson obviously took a lot of inspiration from this version rather than just using the books as source material.

You can also see the ways that Jackson made it better, there are elements of the storytelling that to me are missing in this version. For example in this version as the nature of the ring is being revealed by Gandalf, he knows coming in what the ring is and begins the conversation by saying it is evil. Whereas in the movie there was some additional tension added by Gandalfs uncertainty, and there was a bit of a fake out and a moment of false relief. There's also the way Frodo just casually slips in the line about wishing this wasn't happening in his time…but it hasn't yet been established just how dire the situation is so the line falls flat.

As the animated portion of the movie takes off, you kind of see also that originally the story was marketted more exclusively to kids. The art style is a lot more cartoonish than I would have guessed, it's like studio ghibli crossed with an 80's cartoon like He-man. The voice over also sounds cartooney and is done in that same 80's cartoon manner. While I don't enjoy it as much as the live action which to me was near perfect…it's not terrible. The character design isn't my favourite but the art style is still very good even though the realistic live action animation rotoscoping doesn't mesh well with the cartoonish simpler animation or look all that great, but it is interesting, very well composed. The backgrounds look like they would all make good paintings that I would frame and hang around the house. The movie looks like it's a product of its time so I can see there being a dedicated fanbase for this version but I can also see people saying it's cheesy and dorky.

Speaking of bad character design. I hate what they did to most every character especially Sam, they made him look and sound like a little effeminate homunculus. Saruman the white they for some reason depicted in a red cloak. The Nazgul looked less intimidating and more zombielike, they had the movement of lurchy hunchbacks that would have been reminiscent of old 30's horror movies. Aaragorn also looked so frumpy and plain, almost native american looking. Elrond looked so plain and looked more like Kevin Nealon than the animated Kevin Nealon from 8 Crazy Nights where he played the mayor. The orcs and trolls looked like smudgy incoherent blobs, the only reason you can tell it's supposed to be a creature is the glowing eyes. Even the balrog looked weird and less intimidating…and they didn't really build it up in the Moria scenes like the books and other movies do. Although one interesting thing about the characters is I thought the voice actor for Frodo was excellent and actually sounded a lot like Elijah Wood, to the point I wonder if that effected his casting at all.

There are moments compositionally that seem amateurish, for example they introduce Merry And Pippin by having them simply walking behind the main characters without introduction, and then they threw in dialogue about them agreeing to follow them as far as Bree…but the audio sounded different and it sounded like the voice actor rushed the line to make it fit into the scene before it changed. Seems like they made a last minute change because they had to cut the scene where they introduced the characters or because they realized they forgot to explain who they were. Then it cuts to a shot of them doing a weird little dance and then the scene changed again…very strange and makes the whole thing looks less professional.

One other complaint I have is that the visual depictions of magic use are not well done at all, and if I did not already know what was happening I would have no clue what I was looking at. The duel between Gandalf and Saruman was just flashing lights, and there was a prolonged scene with the black riders where the background kept shifting in and out and it looked like they were in the sky one second and on land the next. And they just held out their hands and Frodo just seemed to stand there watching them point at him for no reason at all. Knowing the story I know what is happening but without the context of the books or the Jackson movies this scene would have been very confusing.

The action is also underwhelming. The way they swing their swords makes them look like less effective weapons than a twig, they hit enemies with a sword like they're using a blunt object, it's hard to describe what I mean but it just looks wrong.

The other main issue I have with the movie is that because it squeezes the whole story into one two hour movie a lot is missing, a lot is glossed over and many of the scene changes seem abrupt. For example they talk about going through Lothlorien and then cut immediately to talking with Galadriel. The biggest problem with this version is that so much is missing. It's only half the story with Return Of The King completely missing because of a cancelled sequel. But even much of the parts they did show were greatly cut down and much was ommitted.

One thing i liked about this version is that they never really explain in the Jackson movies how Frodo kept gollum in line. The idea that he could threaten to use the ring to command him as a thrall was never in the movie but it was in the books. So for all my complaints I can't say it wasn't a faithful adaptation. It was an interesting one time watch and for parts of it I did enjoy it, it is still Lord Of The Rings so it can't be totally bad. I'd certainly rather watch this than anything Amazon shits out. Overall though it wasn't good and it's enjoyablity depends on how much you enjoy anachronistic cartoons about classic fantasy literature.

#lord of the rings #1978

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space-ship-earth-crew · 2 months ago

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Had an unexpected surprise at a free Pomfret School concert yesterday. The orchestra performed the theme song for Season 5 Episode 25 of Star Trek the Next Generation, called "The Inner Light." https://bit.ly/3OtX25m (One of the best episodes of Star Trek if you haven't seen already)

As the orchestra performed in one of the most beautiful chapels in Northeast Connecticut, (sample of audio in last image) I couldn't help but have my imagination take me away into the world of Star Trek, which has happened in many churches since I was a kid, especially during doomsday sermons, where I imagined it was just a depressing program playing inside a holodeck, one in which I could exit whenever I wanted simply by calling for the Arch, and then explore the enchanted corridors of a galaxy class starship exploring the wonders of our Universe. ✨

This particular brain storm I had, put me inside a chapel devoted to all things Trek, with beautiful Star Trek sculptures and stained glass windows. I decided to bring some of my imagination to life through AI art and Adobe Photoshop.

While putting these together, I couldn't help but think of my dream for Spaceship Earth-Crew Fellowship of Trek! My entire life I've felt like I can't find where I belong in a world that feels alien to me. And the communities I wish existed so I could fit in, don't yet, so I want to do everything I can to get them started!

I always come back to the idea that perhaps the progressive side of the great religions may be a powerful ally, helping me achieve my dream. I know through experience, that the mention of Star Trek to even the religious, can provoke animated conversations about the future. You can even detect in them an admiration and fondness for Star Trek, even if they have devoted their life to Allah, Yahweh or Christ. I know I will not find any resistance to my dream from progressive Christians, Jews or Muslims who truly understand love. The progressive Christians will vibe with my idea of a man of color Star Trek Jesus, who sees every human being as a fellow crew member of Spaceship Earth. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AhQ3XpxTv/

Progressive Jews will vibe with the Star Trek Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations Philosophy while even reciprocating when you give them a Vulcan salute to live long and prosper. 🖖 Progressive Muslims will also vibe with the mystical vision of the Inner Light residing in every human being, ✨ even if some people have been blinded to it.

So imagine if I could partner with them to upgrade their faith to include something very important and part of all our lives, but for the most part, lacking in their holy scriptures; high technology. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CjEemd6go/

Imagine if beside every Church, Synagogue and Mosque, we connected it with a universalist secular space devoted to helping join all humanity as fellow crew-members of the same Spaceship Earth. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1JVeNnqBS6/

This is an idea as beautiful to me as the Inner Light flute solo.✨🎶✨

The full Inner Light track can be heard at the following link.

youtube

This concert reminded me of another episode of Star Trek with some great stained glass windows.

#star trek #STNG #Star Trek The Next Generation #Star Trek Voyager #Star Trek Discovery #Star Trek Deep Space Nine #Star Trek #Burnham #Janeway #Picard #Sisko #Captain Picard #Jean Luc Picard #The Inner Light #Youtube

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lovely-v · 4 years ago

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LOTR (films) Review

So I finally watched the LOTR films (20 years later). I’m super excited to review these because I read the books very recently so I feel at least a little prepared to voice some opinions. Overall I loved the films, here’s a very long (but by no means exhaustive) compilation of my thoughts, which are of course, totally subjective:

(Warning: a lot of me saying “well, actually, in the book...”)

THINGS I LIKED

- Casting! not much to say here, I thought the casting was great. One of my favorite actors that I didn’t think i’d have a huge opinion on was David Wenham as Faramir. I was kinda ambivalent on him when I saw pictures but i thought he did a great job. he showed his quality.

- Music. so much has been said about the films on the music front. I can’t offer too much original insight but when a bit of the Shire theme started to play as Frodo tries to make his way up Mount Doom I cried a little.

- Boromir and Aragorn. I liked the scene where they interact a little in Rivendell. I also like how Aragorn saves Boromir in the Moria battle and gives him this little nod of friendship. I think the films did a great job portraying the dynamic they have where Aragorn is clearly suspicious of Boromir’s motivations but grows to respect him to the point where he doesn’t even blame Boromir for being corrupted by the ring because he understands that, at heart, Boromir is a good person.

- Sam and Frodo in Osgiliath. I expected to be kind of annoyed with the way this plot point played out (I knew ahead of time that it strayed from the book), but I actually liked it a lot. As I’ll say later, there’s some gripes I have with the way the films extremely play up the disagreements between Frodo and Sam, but I loved the scene where Frodo pulls the sword on Sam and then seems so defeated when he realizes what he’s done. I was pleasantly surprised by how emotional this scene made me. It’s admittedly A Lot, but it was done nicely, especially in conjunction with Sam’s “there’s good in this world” speech.

- Treatment of the ending. I almost think I should dislike the ending as it is in the movies, but my heart is soft and I like that they sugarcoated it a bit. I know the whole point of the Scouring of the Shire and Frodo’s depression conveys a lot about war and trauma and I think that is important, but after watching these things for twelve hours I just wanted Frodo & co. to be happy and I was kinda relieved that they cut the Scouring. Does that make me weak and perhaps bad at film analysis? yes. do I care? no. I was also very glad that the movies didn’t portray how depressed Sam was about losing Frodo in the end. Yes, he cries, but when he walks home to his family he seems happy and in the books that scene came off so much bleaker. I definitely liked the lighter tone.

THINGS I WAS NEUTRAL ON/DIDN’T LIKE

- Arwen. (Neutral) I don’t hate her, I don’t love her. I think the story she and Aragorn have is compelling and I 100% get why the filmmakers decided to add it to give her character more depth, but it felt misplaced at times. maybe it’s just because it was the only storyline I didn’t know in depth, but the scenes with the Arwen/Aragorn flashbacks felt a bit confusing and disorienting. Don’t have anything against Arwen as a character though, I think she’s pretty alright.

- Gimli. (Complicated thoughts) I want to start off by saying I don’t dislike Gimli. I like him a lot! I just think the movies did him a bit dirty. He had some good movie-exclusive moments, but I think his character really fell into this place of being the butt of too many jokes. Would have liked to see some more serious Gimli development, especially with his relationship to Legolas. Their friendship felt too much like subtext here, whereas it’s explored far more in the books.

- Two Towers Pacing. (Didn’t really like). The pacing of TTT was...weird. maybe I’m going into this with a closed mind because of the books, but it was odd to have the movie begin with Frodo and Sam and then have them only appear for a few rapid scenes after that. I think the fact that a WHOLE LOT of what happens to Frodo and Sam in TTT is moved to RotK is what makes it feel that way? In the books, Two Towers ends with Sam discovering that Frodo isn’t dead from Shelob’s sting, and I was surprised by how long it took the movies to get to that part. However, I will give the films a little leeway because I think they needed Frodo & Sam content for RotK, since most of what happens in that book is them walking through Mordor basically starving and dying. Doesn’t make for great cinema I guess, so they had to put the whole Shelob/Cirith Ungol saga into the final film. Still, I think there’s a weird lack of Frodo and Sam’s presence in TTT.

- The go home/missing bread arc. (Full of rage abt this one) yeah. so. my criticism of this is gonna sound pretty tired because people complain and complain about this part of RotK. but I’m gonna complain some more!! I don’t think the split between Frodo and Sam does anything for the plot. I really don’t. I guess it emphasizes the fact that Sam doesn’t understand how much Frodo is projecting onto Gollum, but it’s just. unnecessary angst? They had enough angst in the Osgiliath scene! Which I actually liked! And it simply doesn’t make a lot of sense for Frodo to suspect Sam of eating the bread when Sam had already offered Frodo his own food and made it clear that he would very much starve if it meant making sure Frodo could eat. But what I hate most about this scene is not that Frodo gets mad and tells Sam to go home. No. It’s that Sam actually... thinks about doing that? he actually? goes down the staircase? emotionally this is bad because Sam clearly cared enough about Frodo to follow him this far, to nearly drown for him, so why would he leave now. Practically this is bad because 1. how would Sam get out of Mordor alone and 2. where would he go. He turns around almost immediately, yes, but what was his plan. where was he going. why.

THINGS I LOVED

- For Frodo! This line, and every other shoutout to Frodo. In the books, they didn’t really actively talk about/worry about Frodo (and Sam) as much as they do in the movies. I like that they talk about Frodo more in the movies! I like that they’re thinking about him! I know it was implied that they were in the books, but I really like how it’s shown here. I think it gave a more complete picture of how much they all care about him on a personal level in addition to just needing him to succeed from a pragmatic standpoint.

- Merry and Pippin! I feel like Merry and Pippin were so well rounded in the films. I’ve heard criticism about them being turned into comic relief characters (which they always were a little bit) but it honestly didn’t feel that way to me. They had a bit of a rough start because the films didn’t make their motives for going with Frodo as deep as the books did, but I think that by TTT they were absolutely amazing characters in every scene. In RotK their respective arcs hit really well and the scene where Pippin is singing to Denethor? *chef’s kiss* poetic. beautiful. sad. idk man I just feel like I have such a newfound appreciation for Merry and Pippin.

- Parallels! people have pointed out the parallel of Frodo and Sam’s hands before (drowning scene/mount doom scene) and I love how the movie did that. Just stunning. Also! The moving of the Smeagol & Deagol scene to RotK surprised me because in the books it was like,,,at the beginning of Fellowship, but I think the placement of it in the movies really helped emphasize the similarities between Smeagol & Deagol and Frodo & Sam (and how much Frodo fears this similarity.) There were a lot of other well done parallels between storylines and a few bits of dialogue that were repeated with great timing, but I can’t remember all of them at the moment.

Edit: here’s one I remembered! when Frodo wakes up after being rescued and sees Gandalf, he says Gandalf’s name in a very similar tone to the one he used at the very beginning of Fellowship. It was a nice little subtle connection.

- I can’t carry it for you...alright this is self-indulgent. everyone knows I love this line. I’m just so glad it made it into the movie intact. Sean Astin’s delivery was amazing. I cheered. My mom cheered. It’s a raw line and it makes me feel secret emotions...like if shrimp colors were feelings. that line makes me feel shrimp feelings. idk i’m so tired i just watched twelve hours of movies this review is decreasing in quality by the minute but i’m about done for now anyway

Various silly afterthoughts

- I would have liked to see Sam kiss Frodo’s hands at least once. This happens 50 thousand times in the books, they could have given me one scene. one little extended edition scene. Please Peter Jackson I’m dyin’ out here

- They literally made Gollum so hateable. kinda the point yes, but I was so on board with Sam’s murderous rage. I know why Gollum’s a profoundly complex character, I know why Frodo pities him, I know why murder is bad, but I too would throw hands with that creature. also he literally body shamed Sam so much what was that skdjksdjksd. Sam is lovely. let him commit a small homicide.

- the scene where merry and pippin drink the tall boy juice (as someone once referred to it in the tags of one of my posts)... not accurate to the books (since they don’t ever drink it with the end goal of getting tall) but so accurate to life. if I found some water that made me taller than my friends? let me at it

- Frodo panicking when he falls into the spider webs. so real bestie. i felt just as panicked watching that. i am terrified of spiders and Elijah Wood did an amazing job doing exactly what i’d do in the situation. yelping a lot and falling down.

- I feel like it’s never stated that Sam’s a gardener (or at least that he’s specifically Frodo’s gardener) until he tells Faramir he is. Did I miss this. Or do they really never say. are you just meant to know. are you just meant to pick up gardener vibes from him.

This has been a very chaotic lotr movie review. Thanks for reading.

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blackswaneuroparedux · 4 years ago

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Treat Your S(h)elf: Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger (2016)

“Humans don’t mind hardship, in fact they thrive on it; what they mind is not feeling necessary. Modern society has perfected the art of making people not feel necessary. It's time for that to end.”

- Sebastian Junger, Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging

The phenomenon of tribal solidarity is the subject of Sebastian Junger’s enthralling book, Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging. Junger offers a rich but unevenly researched patchwork of history, psychology, and anthropology to explore the deep appeal of the tribal culture throughout history. The result is less of a tour de force book that I would have expected from the likes of Sebastian Junger than an interesting and thought provoking read. Certainly it should be read by anyone interested in the human condition.

As a British ex-military veteran and a fan of Junger’s other books I naturally found it fascinating.The memory of my most recent tour in Afghanistan was still raw upon my return to Britain. Although the book really focuses on returning American army servicemen and their integration back into the American ‘tribe’ there were several themes that I and many others who had seen war could readily identify with.

“Tribe” is not a typical Junger book. He doesn’t tell one knockout story, as he did in the “The Perfect Storm,” which made him rich and famous, or as he did in “War,” which — along with his documentaries “Restrepo” and “Korengal” — established him as one of the world’s most mesmerising chroniclers of the Afghanistan war. Rather, he gives us an extended-play version of an article he wrote for for Vanity Fair — one that’s part ethnography, part history, part social science primer, part cri de coeur. Junger previously served as a war correspondent for Vanity Fair, embedding for long stretches at remote American outposts in Afghanistan’s frightful Korengal valley. This experience may help explain his interest in the intimate bonds that define tribal societies as well as the despair that can come from being wrenched out of a situation that makes those bonds necessary.

Junger’s premise is simple: Modern civilisation may be awesome, giving us unimaginable autonomy and material bounty. But it has also deprived us of the psychologically invaluable sense of community and interdependence that we hominids enjoyed for millions of years. It is only during moments of great adversity that we come together and enjoy that kind of fellowship — which may explain why, paradoxically, we thrive during those moments. (In the six months after Sept. 11, Junger writes, the murder rate in New York dropped by 40 percent, and the suicide rate by 20 percent.)

“I do miss something from the war,” Bosnian journalist Nidzara Ahmetasevic tells Sebastian Junger halfway through the book. Ahmetasevic is talking about the wartime closeness she shared with friends in a basement bomb shelter in besieged Sarajevo. “The love that we shared was enormous,” Ahmetasevic says. “I missed being close to people, I missed being loved in that way.”

The sentiment lies at the heart of Tribe, a book offering a surprising thesis about the ways humans have traded communal belonging for excessive safety.

Junger gets a considerable amount done in a quick 133 pages: Tribe posits a reason why white settlers found life among Native American tribes appealing, theorises about false PTSD claims among returned U.S. veterans, and conveys the author’s equality-minded view of how heroic behaviour varies between genders — all in addition to remarks on hitchhiking, attachment parenting, Junger’s dad’s opinion of military service, and more. It’s an awful lot of ground to cover in such a short book, and it’s inevitable that Tribe would either feel inchoate and sketched or else aggravatingly dense. Because Junger is an adventurous storyteller (rather than, say, an academic theoretician), he opts for the former.

It’s not necessarily a good thing. The book’s lightness makes it accessible, an easy entry point to weighty subject matter. But its concision can make Tribe feel breezy even as it discusses life and death — if not sometimes confusing.

As a former anthropology major, Mr. Junger takes a special interest in tribal life. He notes that a striking number of American colonists ran off to join Native American societies, but the reverse was almost never true. He describes the structure and values of hunter-gatherer groups, including the ones that lasted well into the 20th century, like the !Kung in the Kalahari.

Unfortunately, these parts of the book are also the dullest and most problematic. There’s a numbingly familiar quality to much of the social science research he cites. It is not exactly news that nations with large income disparities are less happy than those without them, or that group cooperation increases levels of oxytocin, the bonding hormone. He notes, for example, that American mothers in the 1970s had a level of skin-to-skin contact with their babies that traditional societies would consider criminally low. Fair enough. I wonder, though, if he realises that in saying this he’s crashing open the gate for every helicopter parenting (or attachment-parenting) demagogue out there? And that parents who actually have to go to work for a living - and therefore can’t have their babies pinned to their chests all day long for three years straight - will read these words and start rolling the eyes back in disbelief.

Though Junger cautions against romanticising tribal cultures, he sometimes does exactly that, and in ways that can be annoying. Tribe aptly opens with Benjamin Franklin’s observation, decades before the American Revolution, that more than a few English settlers were “escaping into the woods” to join Indian society. Franklin noticed that emigration seemed to go from the civilised to the tribal, but rarely the other way around. White captives of the American Indians, for instance, often did not wish to be repatriated to colonial society. At this distance, it is simply astonishing that so many frontiersmen would have cast off the relative comforts of civilisation in favour an “empire wilderness” rife with Stone Age tribes that, as Junger notes, “had barely changed in 15,000 years.”

The small but significant flow of white men — they were mostly men — into the tree-line sat uncomfortably with those who stayed behind. Without indulging the modern temptation to romanticise what was a blood-soaked way of life, Junger hazards an explanation for the appeal of tribal culture. Western society was a diverse and dynamic but deeply alienating place. (Plus ça change…) This stood in stark contrast to native life, which was essentially classless and egalitarian. The “intensely communal nature of an Indian tribe” provided a high degree of autonomy — as long as it didn’t threaten the defence of the tribe, which was punishable by death — as well as a sense of belonging. Tribe is then essentially a critique of modern civilisation, beginning with Junger’s observation of the inexorable appeal of Native American way of life to early settlers (“The intensely communal nature of an Indian tribe held an appeal that the material benefits of Western civilisation couldn’t necessary compete with”).

“The question for Western society isn’t so much why tribal life might be so appealing - it seems obvious on the face of it - but why Western society is so unappealing.” Junger is making a provocative point, but he is no provocateur. He swiftly justifies this jarring idea:

On a material level it is clearly more comfortable and protected from the hardships of the natural world. But as societies become more affluent they tend to require more, rather than less, time and commitment by the individual, and it’s possible that many people feel that affluence and safety simply aren’t a good trade for freedom.

All of these points have been covered in other, heavier books. Jared Diamond’s The World Until Yesterday examines traditional tribal lifestyles’ usefulness in the present day. The entanglement of war with human closeness and purpose is the focus of Chris Hedges’s War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. (Both Hedges and Junger include the same anecdote, in fact, about a teenage couple in besieged Sarajevo, that dies, sniper-shot, on the banks of the Miljacka River.) Junger also briefly mentions the work of seminal disaster researcher Charles Fritz, noting that Fritz could find almost no examples of mass panic during large-scale disasters. This plays into his overarching point that difficult experiences can be unifying rather than shattering. The exact same studies by Fritz and fellow researchers — and that exact same, crucial point — are detailed in Rebecca Solnit’s brilliant A Paradise Built in Hell.

Junger uses these insights towards another point. “Because modern society has almost completely eliminated trauma and violence from everyday life, anyone who does suffer these things is deemed to be extraordinarily unfortunate,” he writes. “This gives people access to sympathy and resources but also creates an identity of victimhood that can delay recovery.” This is an important observation. It, too, resonates quite closely with previous work - in this case Harvard psychiatrist Judith Lewis Herman’s seminal book Trauma and Recovery, which remarks that “to hold traumatic reality in consciousness requires a social context that affirms and protects the victim and that joins victim and witness in a common alliance.”

At best what Junger tries to achieve, then, is to assemble parts of all those books into one slim volume. So much the better for the busy reader. Unfortunately, Junger’s quick look at violence, trauma, and modern anomie also omits important information from other books, and as a result ends up on shaky ground, failing to consider counterpoints or bring its own arguments to a close.

Junger in the second half of the book proceeds through an examination of how disastrous or violent circumstances can create similar human closeness, and includes a discussion of how our society’s distancing itself from such harsh conditions has inadvertently sharpened those events’ capacity to traumatise the people who endure them.

War is hell, so this scourge of loneliness may seem the inevitable price for those who fight in them. The second half of Tribe insists that this impression is gravely mistaken. “Studies from around the world show that recovery from war is heavily influenced by the society one belongs to,” Junger observes. Iroquois warriors, for instance, did not have to contend with much alienation because the line between warfare and normal Indian society was vanishingly thin. This is not to deny that the Iroquois were traumatised by combat, but it was generally acute PTSD, limited in duration and distress. Their trauma was ameliorated by the fact that the trauma was shared by the entire tribe.

War, then, for all of its brutality and ugliness, satisfies some of our deepest evolutionary yearnings for connectedness. Platoons are like tribes. They give soldiers a chance to demonstrate their valour and loyalty, to work cooperatively, to show utter selflessness.

Is it any wonder that so many of them say they miss the action when they come home?

Part of the takeaway from this book is that regarding military service as a source of permanent psychiatric disability is incorrect for most (American) soldiers. Junger includes a lengthy discussion of how the U.S. Veterans Administration mishandles former soldiers’ mental health issues, and how America’s cultural misunderstanding of war plays into that deleterious milieu. The information isn’t wrong per se, but what it has to do with the rest of the romanticising of foregone tribal way of life, etc., or why that necessitates anything more than the 2015 Vanity Fair article from which the book sprung is never quite made clear. Worse, Junger says that the low rate of combat engagement among U.S. soldiers means their diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder often aren’t real - but he fails to consider that some soldiers develop PTSD from military sexual trauma, or from other adverse experiences outside of combat or before their enlistment.

Worse, he seems to misunderstand the diagnosis entirely. Here, as in the Vanity Fair article, Junger describes his own bout with what he calls “classic short-term PTSD,” departing from this insight to further dissect trauma and the ways modern society misunderstands it. The problem is, there really is no such thing as “short-term PTSD.” It sounds like what Junger had was post-traumatic stress, a weeks - or months - long psychological adaptation to adverse events (in his case, exposure to war) that typically resolves on its own.

Although psychological care can sometimes be relevant, most mental health professionals don’t regard this as an illness. (Tellingly, Junger’s approach to his diagnosis involved little more than an acquaintance’s ad hoc comment at “a family picnic.”) Post-traumatic stress disorder is only diagnosable after three to six months, does not often go away on its own, and can endure for a lifetime if untreated. The implication that Junger’s case is typical PTSD is misleading - and to some extent, calls his conclusions into question.

The problems in his argument go even deeper. “In Bosnia — as it is now — we don’t trust each other anymore; we became really bad people,” Ahmetasevic tells Junger. “We didn’t learn the lesson of the war, which is how important it is to share everything you have with human beings close to you.” Junger’s thesis is that other cultures (the “Stone-Age tribes” white settlers once joined) did learn that lesson. But he assumes that violence is innate to humans and necessary for human closeness, never parsing evidence that it is not. And he doesn’t examine what this Bosnian journalist means by “really bad,” and how becoming so after the war might have arisen directly from the painful, long-lasting effects of the severe trauma Junger doesn’t quite seem to believe in.

If there is any doubt on this point, consider the alarming rates of PTSD among our warrior class, and the desire among many of them to return to war — a subject on which Junger has been at the leading edge of the public discussion. When combat vets return home, the alienation and aimlessness of modern society aggravates their psychological traumas and prompts them to yearn for the brotherhood of combat. It’s not for nothing that a recent book on post-traumatic stress is entitled The Evil Hours.

Many soldiers actually miss war. “Adversity,” he writes, “often leads people to depend more on one another, and that closeness can produce a kind of nostalgia for the hard times.” Soldiers go from a close-knit group in which everyone has a purpose to a society in highly individualised lifestyles are “deeply brutalising to the human spirit.” Soldiers who come home to situations in which there is no social support from family and community are more likely to suffer PTSD than others.

Thanking veterans for their service aggravates the problem, in Junger’s opinion. “If anything, these token acts only deepen the chasm between the military and the civilian population by highlighting the fact that some people serve their country but the vast majority don’t.” Tickets to games and other such perquisites can incentivise veterans to see themselves as victims, making their reintegration into society much more difficult.

What they really need is the one thing that will make them feel like valuable members of society: jobs. In their tribe-like military units, they each had a specific function without which the group could not perform. The worst thing that can happen to them when they return is to feel useless, marginalised. The suicide rate in America mirrors the unemployment rate, Junger points out. The best protection against devastating depression is meaningful work.

“Ex-combatants shouldn’t be seen - or be encouraged to see themselves - as victims,” writes Junger. Lifelong disability payments for PTSD, which is treatable and usually not chronic, actually debilitate veterans, Junger claims. In war, the passivity of victimhood can be deadly, he explains. Turning veterans into victims when they return is not only confusing but also destructive because it erases their sense of self. Instead of sympathy, “veterans need to feel that they’re just as necessary and productive back in society as they were on the battlefield.”

Of course much of this book is really around the American experience of war and the experiences of American veterans returning home. So some points don’t quite stick with either British or European experiences. For example neither British or other European societies thank veterans for their service as a matter of course. Of course there are special days to commemorate major war events and even an armed forces day but on a general day to day basis one doesn’t go up to a military person to thank them for their service probably because British and European servicemen and their service don’t enjoy a privileged standing. Respected and admired yes, but not deified. How British and other European countries take care of their returning veterans is hard to detail as the experience varies in terms of disability allowances and other measures. Certainly a misunderstanding of mental trauma or PTSD of returning veterans has led sometimes to a criminal mismanaging of taking care of those most affected. Again, it varies from country to country.

Contemporary America is a considerably less consolidated society than it used to be. Cultural diffusion and economic stratification have increased the isolation felt by those who have borne the heat and burden of battle. I won’t a forget photograph shown to me by an older brother who had served with distinction in Iraq. He made a few American friends from the US soldiers serving there alongside and one day he was shown something that captured the dark humour and cynicism of war. The photo captured a graffito scribbled on a wall in Ramadi, Iraq, that read: “America is not at war. The Marine Corps is at war. America is at the mall.”

Multiple studies demonstrate that “a person’s chance of getting chronic PTSD is in great part a function of their experiences before going to war.” The relationship between combat and trauma seems to be a murky one. For instance, “combat veterans are, statistically, no more likely to kill themselves than veterans who were never under fire.” Junger says that even a significant number of Peace Corps volunteers report suffering severe depression after their return home, especially if their host country was in a state of emergency when they did. In Junger’s telling, particular burdens endured by socially disadvantaged Americans - from a poor educational background to chaotic broken family life - can make a candidate especially susceptible to PTSD. Indeed, these risk factors “are nearly as predictive of PTSD as the severity of the trauma itself.”

The decline of social order and solidarity has contributed to a loss of what researchers call “social resilience.” This has simultaneously supplied more potential candidates for PTSD and impaired society’s ability to help them recover. The United States must place a premium on boosting its levels of social resilience. Americans should no longer be content to simply thank veterans for their service; sporting events are not places of healing. Nor should they seek to outsource the responsibility to the federal government. The solution lies closer to home, in the mediating institutions of civil society — from families to churches to community and professional associations. I think this echoes the views of quite a few veterans in my experience with them.

More sensitively and perhaps controversially, ex-combatants shouldn’t be regarded, or encouraged to regard themselves, as victims. This I also agree with. America is still a tremendously affluent country, Junger writes, that can afford to perpetually care for a victim class of veterans dependent on government largesse, “but the vets can’t.” They have generally performed exemplary service for which they should be honoured, and they must know that their service is not over.

Next, Junger says, veterans (like most social animals) depend upon a sense of purpose that begins with a job and a position in society. Here the “hire vets” initiatives and retraining programs are necessary but insufficient. The traditional means of securing social resilience has been egalitarian social provision. Individualist America may blanch at that notion, but it should at least act to build a more open economy and inclusive culture where individuals can reliably advance by merit and develop social capital.

Not being an American I don’t wish to speak out of turn but as a veteran and especially in speaking with other British and foreign veterans I think Junger is on the right path. Victimhood and a lack of purpose are the unseen enemy that the returning veteran will continue to fight when he or she comes home.

To all this I would also that - arguably perhaps in America especially - a revival of national cohesion is needed if - as a nation that pays lip service to honour the sacrifices of its servicemen - it is to arrest the full savagery of battlefield trauma. This will require what Edmund Burke called “a revolution in sentiments, manners and moral opinions.”

One clue about how to achieve this can be found in the early pages of Tribe, when Junger tells an affecting anecdote about his father. Not long after the end of the Vietnam War, the author had received a Selective Service registration form in the mail, in case the United States government ever needed to conscript him into the military. When he announced that, if drafted, he would refuse to serve on political grounds, his father’s reaction caught him off guard. Although sternly opposed to the war in Indo-China, Junger’s father insisted that American soldiers had “saved the world” from fascism during World War II and many never came home. Junger writes;

“‘You don’t owe your country nothing,’ I remember him telling me. ‘You owe it something, and depending on what happens, you might owe it your life.’” This did not oblige anyone to enlist in an unjust war - “in his opinion, protesting an immoral war was just as honorable and necessary as fighting a moral one” - but it did mean that the country had just claims on its citizens, and refusing to sign a registration form constituted a dereliction of duty.

Year after year, Americans hear arguments for taking the stink out of their sulphurous political rhetoric. It would be better for congressional productivity. It would be better for our international dignity. It would be better for their national literacy, their local advocacy, their general civility and the future etiquette of their children. But the one argument I had not heard, until reading Junger’s book is that they should clean up their act for the sake of their returning troops.

Junger never makes this point explicitly. What he writes, simply, is this: After months of combat, during which “soldiers all but ignore differences of race, religion and politics within their platoon,” they return to the United States to find “a society that is basically at war with itself. People speak with incredible contempt about - depending on their views - the rich, the poor, the educated, the foreign-born, the president or the entire U.S. government.” Soldiers go from a world in which they’re united, interconnected and indispensable to one in which they’re isolated, without purpose, and bombarded with images of politicians and civilians screaming at one another on TV and cable.

It’s a formula for deep despair. “Today’s veterans often come home to find that, although they’re willing to die for their country,” he writes, “they’re not sure how to live for it.”

With that, Mr. Junger has raised one of the most provocative ideas for bitterly divided Americans to grapple with without mentioning a single political candidate, or even a president, by name.

In this age of social and economic fragmentation, many of America’s disadvantaged fellow citizens have begun to chafe against an elite class - left and right - that often behaves as if it were exempted from the national compact. Junger only hints at the necessary leap beyond a social-psychological view to a political-economic analysis. He writes, "As great a sacrifice as soldiers make, American workers arguably make a greater one…. [w]orking in industries that have a mortality rate equivalent to most units in the US military." He suggests, "It may be worth considering whether middle-class American life - for all its material good fortune - has lost some essential sense of unity that might otherwise discourage alienated men from turning apocalyptically violent."

Nobody then should be surprised if the ranks of disaffected citizens – not least those who have borne arms in our name and in their defence - ultimately decide that the sensibility of the tribe is superior to their own.

As a proud Brit who is guilty at times of poking fun at America but borne out of sincere fondness and respect for America I do sincerely hope during these turbulent times that they are capable of coming together and recognising their tribal identity is to be Americans first and other labels (liberal or conservative or red state or blue state) whilst not inconsequential are not important enough to undermine the primary American tribal identity. They did it so marvellously after 9/11, but that feeling as we all know soon dissipated. It can’t afford to be a house divided from within when there are predatory wolves pawing at the door (I’m looking at you Russia and China). Junger correctly writes America is a strong nation, “The only one who can destroy us, is, well, us…..which means that the ultimate terrorist strategy would be to just leave us alone.”

Tribe is an important, thought-provoking book that encourages Americans to see its veterans and American society in a fresh light. Policymakers of all political stripes would do well to consider Junger’s arguments, for as long as they fail to fully integrate returning soldiers, everyone will continue to pay a high toll for their incredible service and sacrifice.

Junger’s “Tribe” even if it was written in 2016, remains relevant and serves as an important wake-up call. Let’s hope we all don’t sleep through the alarm. But this too brief and too scattershot book with an important message won’t get us all the way there. There is an old South African Zulu proverb, ‘If you want to go fast, go on your own. If you want to go further, go together’. It’s up to all of us.

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rpgsandbox · 4 years ago

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Dearest Balin,

Almost six years have passed already since the last time you were here. I remember very well everything you and Gandalf said when we met. You were alarmed, and I took your warnings at heart, but I don’t think you would find it surprising to know that news of a nameless threat is hard to believe here in the dear old Shire. Gandalf came to see me again, on several occasions. He seems to care about our friendship, and he says I should indeed be worried, but his vague words of warning hardly make even less of a dent in the general sense of peace and protection that we enjoy here, away in the north-west.

But don’t think that I am completely clueless! All I need to know is to have a look at… the stuff I collected in my adventures to remember that there is a wide and dangerous world out there. Sometimes I even miss it, the road, the thrill, the narrow escapes. It’s my Tookish side. But then I look at my beautiful garden, my snapdragons and sunflowers, my trailing nasturtians… how they glow, red and golden, more beautiful than any Dragon-hoard that ever was, and I am back to being a Baggins.

I hope that what I say won’t be too much of a disappointment to you. You haven’t asked yet, but I know that you mean to invite me to join you in that Moria adventure you are always talking about. I am afraid that I have spent enough time crawling in the dark under the Misty Mountains not to wish to do that ever again! But there’s a good bunch of eager lads and lasses here that you might find to your liking. Why, they are just waiting for no more than a nod in their direction from me or from our Grey friend to go off into the blue for mad adventures! Theirs is an age that is more appropriate to that type of business, believe me, and I have taught them a thing or two. I suspect that Gandalf has too...

From a letter from Bilbo Baggins, Esq. to Balin son of Fundin

“This is the Master-ring, the One Ring to rule them all.”

The One Ring™ is a roleplaying game based on The Hobbit™ and The Lord of the Rings™, two extraordinary works of fiction by the beloved author and respected academic, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, published in partnership with Sophisticated Games.

First released in 2011, its award-winning design was hailed as the best attempt at bringing Middle-earth to the gaming table to date, thanks to its thematic rules and painstaking attention to detail. For 10 years, players of the game have traveled far and wide across Middle-earth, adventuring for multiple decades of game time.

Today, it is time for the game to enter a new era – this new edition of The One Ring brings players further into the Twilight of the Third Age with a new hardbound volume, presenting:

A set of updated and streamlined rules, developed thanks to years of players’ feedback and raising the game to the standards of quality that have made Free League so popular.

A new setting to experience – the Lone-lands of Eriador in the year is 2965 of the Third Age. This is a vast land that once saw the glory of the North Kingdom of the Dúnedain.

A complete visual redesign of art and graphics, offering a view of Middle-earth that is fresh and familiar at the same time.

Sample Spreads (Work in Progress)

“The Enemy still lacks one thing to give him strength and knowledge to beat down all resistance, break the last defences, and cover all the lands in a second darkness. He lacks the One Ring.”

The One Ring is set in the Twilight of the Third Age, a time-frame comprising the events narrated in The Hobbit™ and the start of The Lord of the Rings™. Encompassing more than six decades, this period is ushered in when Bilbo the Hobbit finds the Ruling Ring, and culminates with the war fought by the Free Peoples against the Dark Lord Sauron, and the destruction of the Ring.

The year is 2965 of the Third Age, and the players create a Company of heroes, Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves and Men seeking adventure in the Lone-lands of Eriador. It is a desolate country, a vast land that once saw the glory of the North Kingdom of the Dúnedain, the Men of the West. Here, many wars were fought, and countless ruins dot its landscape. Shadows move along its paths, and not all of them belong to the living. It is here that the One Ring lies, a seed of the past that will one day lead the world to open war against the returning Shadow.

This edition of The One Ring moves the focus of the game to the lands of Old Arnor, with a full description of the town of Bree and the surrounding areas, including famous locales like Weathertop, Fornost and Annuminas, providing the players with a new starting point for their adventures.

The Enemy is moving, and smoke issues once more from Mount Doom, in the land of Mordor...

“… you have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.”

In The One Ring, players create individuals who led an ordinary life until something made them realize that they were simply pretending that shadows weren’t growing nearer and nearer every year. They are not soldiers or mercenaries, nor are they subtle Wizards trying to weave the threads spun by fate: they are adventurous souls representing the various Free Peoples opposing the return of the Shadow.

The core gameplay of The One Ring revolves around two alternate phases — the Adventuring Phase and the Fellowship Phase. This structure follows the deeds of the players not only geographically, as they explore the land in pursuit of their goals, but also chronologically, as time passes and the Twilight of the Third Age enfolds.

The game mechanics have been created from the ground up to match the source material and emulate the action as depicted in The Lord of the Rings™ and The Hobbit™. They feature a set of custom dice, but the game can also be played using a standard set including a 12-sided die and at least six 6-sided dice. The accessibility and elegance of the system fits in perfectly with other games by Free League.

This new edition of the game further reinforces the connection between its mechanics and the stories that inspired them. The rules for things like hero creation or the use of Hope have been tweaked to make the game run smoothly without sacrificing their faithfulness to the sources, while those for Journeys and Councils, for example, have been completely redesigned. New rules, like those for Magical die results, have been added to evoke elements that are vital to the theme of the game, like the subtle magic of Middle-earth.

The new edition will be compatible with modules for the first edition, requiring only minor tweaking.

Created for the first time for this edition of the game, the Starter Set contains everything you need to start playing, and more! Focused on the Shire, this set allows for new players to enter the world of Middle-earth from the land of the Hobbits, where all the stories began. A number of pre-generated characters allow players to take the road to adventure in no time. The boxed set, mainly written by seasoned RPG writer James Spahn, includes:

Condensed rules, including everything you need to start playing in Middle-earth.

An adventure compendium, presenting a number of adventures to be played using the pre-generated characters contained in the box.

Pre-generated characters of esteemed Hobbits like Drogo Baggins, Paladin Took, Primula Brandybuck or Lobelia Baggins, and more.

The One Ring Starter Set – Contents Added as Stretch Goals are Unlocked

We know that many of you have been enjoying roleplaying in Middle-earth using the fifth edition ruleset in the Adventures in Middle-Earth. We are working on a new edition for the 5E rules as well – but it is not part of this Kickstarter. More information about this will follow in the months to come.

Kickstarter campaign ends: Thu, March 4 2021 8:00 PM UTC +00:00

Website: [Free League Publishing] [facebook] [twitter] [instagram]

#RPG #kickstarter #The One Ring #Free League Publishing #Lord of the Rings #LOTR #Middle Earth #JRR Tolkien

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mithrilhearts · 4 years ago

Note

Pass the happy! 🌻 When you receive this, list five things that make you happy and send this to 10 of the last people in your notifications. 💛💛💛 ;D

The continuation of my favorite tracks from the Hobbit/LOTR movies, because picking 5 is a joke for someone who loves music so much (complete with spotify links!) Enjoy (not counting actual songs, yet again!)

The Adventure Begins Another moment for me to go "LOOK", because it is absolutely a dream of mine to visit NZ and be able to run around screaming "I'm going on an adventure!!" Bilbo is just so precious and excited and my heart-!

Fire and Water What a way to open up BOTFA! Honestly! This music is so amazing, and of course it features my favorite bowman slaying the dragon! It's just such a good piece! Smaug's theme in here is just 👌👌👌

The Bridge of Khazad Dum The EPICNESS that this starts off with, and the scene itself is just so wonderfully done, but then you get to that bit where Gandalf...yeah. It's one of the most emotional scenes in a movie that I can barely get through just because of the music alone. It shakes me to my core and leaves me a mess every time. This has everything I love.

The Black Rider Okay so the Nazgul theme is just CHILLING. I am also so damn happy they did a version of this for the burning pines in AUJ, that just...I know I get the chills every time this theme plays, whether LOTR or TH. Great job Howard Shore, you are a GOD.

Courage and Wisdom I am NOT going to cry (I will always cry). Farewell Master Burglar... But also that head nod to the Fellowship at the end! BONUS: The Crack of Doom Yes!!! This one gets an honorable mention, because seriously...even 5 MORE was hard for me to narrow. This just...is a great bow on the struggle of this war against Sauron. So many feelings. ALSO. Part of this might have played during THE HUG in AUJ...not that I'm biased or anything. #Bagginshield

The Fellowship Reunited SUCH A BEAUTIFUL TRACK!!!! And oh my god!! When Aragorn tells the hobbits "You bow to no one" I LOSE IT!! This whole track is just a blessing for the soul, all 12 minutes of it.

#POSITIVITY WAR #reshirement #I really just need to do a giant post about all the music in these movies because apparently I have a lot to say #music really is my favorite thing #raz answers #lotr #lord of the rings #the hobbit

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inessencedevided · 5 years ago

Text

The Untamed, episode 50 - watching notes (part 2)

I had to split these liveblogging notes into two posts because tumblr doesn’t allow for more then 10 pictures in one post and it couldn’t limit myyself on the screenshots ^^

Click here for part 1!

THE HUG!!!

People so rarely HUG on this show!!! 😭😭😭

So of course, wwx immediately jokes

Guys he's OKAY!

That's wwx, not exactly like from the start, he couldn't be, but that's HIM. He's healing!! 😭😭😭

A Yuan You Little Shit!!! 😂

Embarrassing your dad in front of your other dad

"And when a pretty lady passes by..." 😂

That's the face of a man who does NOT want his husband to hear such a thing :D

And look at lwj's face

That SMILE!!!

Don't tell me this isn't the little family he longed for all these years that wei Wuxian was dead! 😭😭😭

"I will still plant you in that pit. Understand?"

Oh, he's immediately in parent mode. I'm overflowing with emotions gute 😭😭😭

I only noticed this when o took the screenshot but IS HE TOUCHING THE HEADBAND? 😭

And more importantly, lan Sizhui is letting him!

THE LEG HUG 😭😭😭😭

THEY'RE A FAMILY YOU GUYS!!!

They're little and broken but good, yes, still good 😭😭😭😭

Wen Ning 💔😥

I'm not good with good byes 😭

He'll walk back to cloud recess with A Yuan! 😭😭😭

"For the rode ahead, let me be on my own."

I'm so proud of him!!!!

But still so so so sad

This feels like saying good bye to a friend guys

Or like the end of lotr when the fellowship parts. It's that sadness that settles in your stomach like a warm cup of tea. It's still sadness, but it's comforting

I'm trying to somehow give wird to what I'm feeling because it's just SO much

Lan Zhan ... what are you doing?

Don't let these two part as well

I can't deal with that

Holy shit that silence

That silence after their melody

Guys no

Okay, there's still 12 minutes kettle

Holy shit it's Gusu

They're both at Gusu

That gave me scare

THEIR SONG!!

I'm still crying ...

WHAT A SHOT!!

I haven't stopped crying in a bout 20 minutes btw

They got their wish guys! 😭😭😭

And... lwj is chief cultivator now? Did I catch that right?

These two!!!!!

WHAT AN ENDING!!!

I'm not used to getting these okay?? 😭😭

Whaaaaaaaat

Right!

There's still the nie Huaisang question 😳

I cried so much I nearly forgot

Wait ... that's... that's

Was he the one who sent the letter????

😱😱😱

SO IT WAS HIM????!!!!

The whole plot against jgy's plot was HIM???

IT WAS HIM!!!

Floored

Wait what???

He even let Mo Xuanyu out, leading to wei Wuxian's resurrection?

I hadn't even made that connection!!!

WHAT KIMD OF CHARACTER OS THIS??

Like holy ... shit

They had me

Right until ... well really now, though I did suspect something for a second last episode

But still

They had me!

I did not see that coming!

😳

NO!!!

Can you not head different ways???😭😭😭

Can you not do this to me TWICE show??

Oh god, the way they look at each other

"I will wander the world and make it my own." Oh god guys. Guys. It FITS! The orphan, the outcast, the untamed. He's embracing it! 😭

And lan Wangji... he's chief cultivator. He can't always wander around ... 💔💔

Guys ...

"As long as the sea is bound to wash up on the sand, and stars are above you, we will meet again."

Fuck it, that deserved cursives

I. Cannot. Explain. To you what I'm feeling right now

This this right here

I love it and I hate it

This kind of bitter-sweet and gentle and peaceful "until we meet again"

It hits so so deep

That's... that's life

A thousand "until we meet again"s, even to those you love most

And there is nothing more tender than a promise, we will!

And it fits! As bitter-sweet as it is! It's also so them! They've always kept each other go when they needed it. Because that's what you do for those you love. You let them go. :')

Guys ... I'm overflowing with emotion

OH MY GOD WANGXIAN 😭😭😭

"Way ahead of you."

He was!!! He was!!!

Always one step ahead :')

It's a promise! All of this! This whole ending! It's bittersweet and a parting of the ways, but every sentence spoken is a promise: "We will find each other"!!!

Guys ...

I'm crying so hard

This hits something deep in me

I'm not going to tell you half my life's story but "let go of what you love" is something I learned early and this hits EXACTLY that spot

But ... in a good way 😅

I ...

Again the sound I made when the big orchestral wangxian part ended and it was just wei Wuxian's flute playing was not human

I watched it without typing from there, quite frankly, partly because I was hiccuping, trying to hold in sobs

So what I'm writing now is after I've finished watching.

I honestly can't explain to you what I'm feeling now. That last scene ...

The flute playing into the silence ... already did so much to me

And then

And ...

I have no words

I still have tears in my eyes typing this, even though I took five minutes to get myself together

What I can't show in screenshot, but what took my breath away the most was the fact that Wei Wuxian stops playing just before the end of the song

It's the second to last note he's ending on and ....

The last note of Wangxian never gets played!!!

The song isn't over!

WANGXIAN isn't over! 😭😭😭

I ... I can't put into words what that did to me

I heard that last note that REALLY WASNT THE LAST NOTE and I gasped

Because it just klicked in that moment

Something in my head klicked that THIS WAS HOW THEY'RE TELLING US !!!

This song isn't over

This STORY, their story, isn't over!

And that silence right after the song didn't quite end it took my breath away

It's like the show is telling us!

The silence! THE SILENCE IS WHAT MATTERS!

Look at the space in between! Listen to the silence! Listen to that note that could not be played! This! This is what we're ending on! Listen!

I want to bow down to whover wrote and directed this show!

Guys! I don't know how the book ends (and don't tell me!!) But they took the fact that they can't make this romance "explicit" and made poetry instead ...

All of it ALL OF IT is a promise: "we will meet again", "way ahead of you", the song isn't over, "Wei Ying" ... it's all a promise

I'm speechless

I'm crying and I'm smiling and I can't stop!

And then, of course, that last shot

The one wwx is smiling at Lan Wangji outside the shot (because again, look at what we can not show you!)

I cannot even begin to describe how happy I am that his smiling face as he looks at lan Wangji is the last thing were seeing

I'm smiling. I have tears streaming down my face and I'm smiling. :')

And then EVEN THE THANK YOU NOTE AT THE END FITS THE THEME!!! 😭😭😭

"Thanks to the author, Mo Xiang Tong Chou for bringing the characters to life."

"May their wishes come true thereafter." 😭😭😭

"Until next time."

I ... I'm speechless

@sweetlittlevampire @fandom-glazed @elenirlachlagos @allhailthedramallama @luckymoony @kyrrahbird @i-love-him-on-purpose

Thank you thank you thank you guys! (I might be a tat more emotional than usual right now 😅) honestly, thank you for the great discussions and your insights and reading my rambling and especially thanks to those of you who got me to watch this show in the first place. I am so so so happy right now and so sad that it's over! 💙🖤

#the untamed #sophie watches the untamed #wei wuxian #wwx #lan wangji #lwj #wangxian #lan sizhui #wen ning #jiang cheng #lan xichen #jin guangyao #jin ling #the untamed liveblog #nie huaisang #still haven't fully processed that reveal

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kaypeace21 · 5 years ago

Note

Do you have any meta/theory on the significance of the cleric/paladin d&d characters vs wizard/dungeon master. Is maybe one more Will and Mike's relationship and the other their role in the story as a whole? Sorry if you already mentioned this and this is redundant

Yeah, I’ve talked about it before. But why not talk about it again? It’s been a while- and Will’s recently published journal (plus st tweets) added more to this symbolism

The Duffers used Will and Mike’s d&d classes to say they’re soulmates! XD

Will in all 3 seasons identifies as a wizard- he even writes on the mixtape he makes “will the wise- wizard mix” (which is a different class than clerics). Even in s1 Will’s castle byer’s password was “rhadaghast” a lothr wizard.

But in s2 Mike (the paladin) says that Will is a cleric. Meaning this reflects how Mike (alone) actually feels about Will. In d&d, they have similar moral values, powers, and generally need and depend on each other in the lore of d&d. Mike says Will is a cleric,despite Will still identifying as a wizard in s3, since it shows how deeply Mike actually feels about Will.

It shows he views Will as one of the only people who understands him and views him as a his moral compass

“ strength of conviction gave many paladins a sense of common fellowship but did not always endear them to others. In many cases, paladins did not get along quite as well with other non-paladin adventurers, with the exception of clerics with similar beliefs.”

“A Paladin tries to hold to the highest standards of conduct, but even the most virtuous Paladin is fallible. Sometimes the heat of emotion causes a Paladin to transgress his or her oath (of honesty, courage, compassion, honor ,and duty). A paladin who has broken a vow typically seeks absolution from a cleric who shares his or her faith or from another paladin of the same order…

“The paladin might spend an all-night vigil in prayer as a sign of penitence, or undertake a fast or similar act of self-denial.”

“After a rite of confession and forgiveness, the paladin starts fresh.”

“Using the ‘lay on hands’ power, paladins can grant their comrades (or themselves) additional resilience with a touch of their hands and a short prayer, though they must give their own strength to do so.”

And Mike calls El a “mage” which wasn’t even a class in D&D (in the 80s)- A line he says to Max about zoomer (who he doesn’t like) …so… how much do you want to bet Mike was the one who made him and Will matching by giving him and Will “lawful good” (since this is writen in his starter kit). And he already ignored the fact Will is a wizard.

But in Will’s recently published cannon journal he also does this- he keeps Lucas (Ranger) , Dustin (Bard) and his own character (a wizard) …but he changes Mike to a cleric !!!

Because Clerics have the strongest of healing abilities

Mike thinks Will brings out the best in him. And Will thinks Mike as someone who helps him heal. So they both call each other clerics.

D&D also represents their romantic relationship

when they fight in s3 Mike says “I’m not trying to be a jerk. We’re not kids anymore. I mean…what did you think? That we’d never get girlfriends. Play games for the rest of our lives?” And the truth is that’s actually what Mike wants- which is why he was upset about Will trying to give away the d&d game . And why he still has all of Will’s d&d pictures on his basement’s wall (which he’s kept on his wall for years- despite removing the old poster from the wall). And during Hopper’s speech, when it pans to Mike , Hopper says “I miss playing games every night.”

* He also caresses Will’s d&d drawing- when he thinks he’s dead- and has a binder filled with every d&d drawing Will has ever given him.

In the first ep - Will admits he rolls a 7 (since he couldn’t lie to Mike)- and in the last ep of s1 (they show us Mike smiling at Will right before Will rolls a 14- since they’re 7s together.) Mike even apologizes to EL saying “sorry I sound like a 7 year old.” When talking about how all 3 can play with toys & right after talking about Will visiting to play. and mentions Will’s rolls as a way to convince Lucas to help him look for him.And Mike even mentions Will rolls as a way to convince Lucas to help him look for him in the first ep.

Mike in the last ep in s1 ,writes a d&d story for Will. in ep one Will tells Mike “it was a 7, the demogorgan it got me.”At the end of the season Mike writes a whole story of him and his friends killing a 7 headed monster, and showing the decapitated head of the monster to king Tristan (Will). Similar to how at the hospital he tells Will to not worry cause “it’s dead now”. This is right after Will rolls a 14 (cause Mike and Will are 7s together). And Mike who is a fan of starwars has King Tristan give them medals after killing the monster. Cause he wants Will/king tristan (instead of Leia -a girl) to present him with medals and be his romantic love interest (and praise him for being a hero)…

In the pilot, they even say Will uses d&d to “escape” his insecurities about his sexuality “like mike” & Mike uses d&d to “escape” his insecurities about not having a gf. * And no, dustin & Lucas didn’t use d&d to “escape” anything- in the pilot script.

Mike angrily yells “El’s not stupid. It’s not my fault you don’t like girls” to himself- cause Will hit a nerve when saying mileven was ruining their friendship - because a part of Mike is trying to use El to put distance between him and Will . Dustin in s1 foreshadows the fight, saying “all you want to do is spent time with her… and you know it and he knows it. And nobody says anything until you’re yelling at eachother like goblins with intelligence scores of zero.” (Another d&d ref/ ‘love makes you stupid’ ref.).

And also, maybe a part of him resents how Will is making him feel. So he says this whole speech , in the garage, to himself - to keep his romantic feelings for Will under control ( expecting Will to agree with the heteronormative statement). Which is why he was so shocked when Will (who he assumes is straight) and he expects would agree - instead says “yeah, I guess I did. I really did.” (about never getting gfs but instead being together for the rest of their lives).

And the “crazy together” scene (which is romantic since both Mike & Flo both equate love making you ‘crazy’. Flo says “ only love makes you crazy and that damn stupid”). And the ‘crazy together’ scene also has a zoom-in on Mike’s d&d game.

(x)(x)

Mike and Will both love each other (and El is just confused). He wants to be with Will- but he’s scared. The Hopper dialogue even says “Lately, I feel like you’re pulling away from me or something? I miss playing board games every night.” Mike was upset when Will gives the game up- but Will says “I’ll just play with yours when I come back… if we still want to play?” In other words- the ball is in Mike’s court- if he wants Will, he has to initiate it. Because Will assumes he was “stupid” to think he had a chance. Mike is also acting “stupid” because he’s pushing away Will despite loving him, and hurting him in the process (the opposite of a cleric).

But Mike in s4 will admit his feelings to Will… since after Will says this line, Mike asks

“Yeah, but what happens if you want to join another party? ” (find someone else (‘another’) before that- the other ‘species’, or just someone else: girl, guy or otherwise?”

But Will decides to make himself vulnerable and just be honest, and shyly admits “Not possible” (much to Mike’s happiness)

so yes- this tweet is about byler

They even answered the question of ‘what makes Mike crazy’ with one’ joke’ response - of Will asking about d&d. And in a separate post made fun of mileven by ending it with “can we just play d&d?”

And when, Mike and Will open up to each other about their mental-health issues, that’s when they both agree that no matter what they’ll be together- “crazy together”. It’s a double entendre - they’re crazy cause they’re in love- but also “crazy” and will be “together” to help each other through their issues. This theme is double-downed on in Will’s cannon journal (where it’s established “crazy together” is shown to be Mike & Will’s thing- not mileven’s). As Mike tells Will to tell him when he’s having ptsd episodes since- they're “crazy together”.

*Will draws Mike’s d&d character next to the sticky-note. And we also see throughout Will’s whole journal- Mike’s d&d character is always by Will’s (d&d character’s side). And on the cover of his journal Will ONLY draws his and Mike’s character- cause they’re “crazy together”.

Mike specifically says to get him when he’s having ptsd episodes about the mf (which represent Will’s se*ually abusive father- theory here/ here).

That’s what love is - like Flo said only love makes you “crazy” and “stupid” and this is only applicable to byler. Mike and Will love and bring out the best in each other- heal each other. Being “crazy together” to Mike is about being selfless and wanting the best for you partner’s happiness no matter what- with mileven it was simply a way to excuse his poor behavior to El (under the guise of ‘love’).

For all the supernatural stuff to stop , Will has to face his trauma and heal. This involves having a strong support (of friends and family) and Will learning to not hate himself any longer, because of his past abuse and sexuality. And to stop correlating his love (for Mike) with his past abuse/trauma (represented by the monsters. And Mike and Will have to embrace their love for each other. And let go of their shame. When Will ‘dies’ in s1, Mike hugs his mom ,and Heroes plays, and the lyrics are “and we kiss as though nothing could fall and the shame… was on the other side.” In s1 the term “other side” was used to describe the upside down. So it’s saying Will’s shame relating to Lonnie will eventually be on the other side, and so Mike and Will kiss ‘as though nothing could fall’. In Will’s journal he even draws Mike’s d&d character again with the caption “never Kenny Roggers”. This is because Jonathan asks ‘who would you rather be friends with David bowie or Kenny roggers?”. And Heroes was originally sung by David Bowie- making the byler hint of this being ‘their song’, more apparent. The cannon Will-comic is even titled the “other side” and Mike is on the opposite end (‘the other side’ waiting for Will who is trapped in the upside down looking up at the imposing figure of the demogorgan). The demorgogan in blue light and mike in opposing red light. The monsters Will created are based on the d&d game and his prior abuse at the hands of lonnie. But byler’s love is also represented by d&d- and thus the only way to stop it.

gif credit: cath-avery

#byler #byeler

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ettawritesnstudies · 4 years ago

Note

Book-bosomed, Appendix and Literature for the book asks!

Book-bosomed: what is a book you feel everyone should read?

The Little Prince. As a kid I thought that grown-ups were indeed, very, very odd, but I didn't think the situation was this dire. Too many of my peers have forgotten the wonder of being a child, learning about the world for the first time, trying new things just because you can, exploring the corners of your imagination. It's a good lesson to be reminded of every once and a while.

Appendix: Overdone book trope that you still love?

Royalty main characters are kind of overdone considering what a small % of the population are royalty and the fact that monarchies kind of suck in a lot of cases, but I love the trope of the "One True Benevolent Ruler who can Fix Things" and all of the variations, from the lost prince/princess with a rightful claim to the throne, to the wise old monarch who's ruled justly for ages

Idk for as much as I disdain irl politics, I love the court drama in fiction, especially when the power structure is teetering and one very tired person is just trying to do the right thing and keep it together.

Literature: Top 3 books you want to read this year.

uh, can I do series?

The rest of the Cosmere (2 books in stormlight, the mistborn books, and a few other standalones I think)

LOTR: my brother is doing the full trilogy for school, and I admit I never actually finished them (started Fellowship when I was 12 and cried when Gandalf "died", threw the book across the room, and then never picked them up again), so I really ought to do that at some point

The Terebinth Tree Chronicles by Hannah Heath - I read book one (Colors of Fear) and really loved it, so now I have 2 more to finish up waiting in my kindle library

Honorable mention: no less than 17 other series I started before my 3-year-long reading slump, when the rest of the books were published in the intervening time, and now I have to play catch-up slkfjsdjlksdf

Thanks for the ask!

Bookish-themed asks

#ask answered #taking 10 college classes in high school really messes up your reading habits and I didn't realize that until I was IN college lmao #am I going to finish all of those?#probably not #am I going to TRY #hell yeah

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gojira007 · 4 years ago

Text

Movie Meme

Took me a bit of time, but I was tagged by @bunnikkila to list my nine favorite movies, and since I can’t help but be ridiculously verbose about that very topic, you can see them all under the cut 8D

As for who I tag? Well, as always with the caveat that you are free to ignore if you don’t wanna, I’ll go with: @elistodragonwings @kaikaku @donnys-boy @robotnik-mun @sally-mun @fini-mun @werewolf-t33th @cviperfan and @wildwoodmage

and don’t worry, if you DO go for it, you don’t have to get as Extra as I did about it XD

9.)

Look, the meme is about Favorite Movies, not necessarily the BEST Movies, OK? And for the most part this list consists of films where that division is less meaningful in terms of how I evaluate the other movies on here. But in this specific case, “Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie”, which is ultimately not all that different from the “Mystery Science Theater 3000″ TV show it spun off from and thus not particularly impressive as a work of Cinema Qua Cinema, makes the cut primarily because it’s a movie I know so well and have enjoyed so often that I can practically recite the whole thing to you by rote; I quote it all the time in my day-to-day life, I think about it often when I need a little smile, and it’s also become my favorite tool for introducing newcomers to MST3K as a whole since it was designed with a slightly broader audience in mind than the more willfully-eclectic series. And given how much I love MST3K As A Whole, that’s an especially strong factor in its favor.

8.)

Looky looky, @bunnikkila, we (unsurprisingly) have a pick in common! I’m sure this is the one and only time THAT’S going to happen on this list. 8D

Y’know, nearly thirty years (and one fairly useless remake >_>) later, I think the thing that impresses me about “The Lion King” is just how much it is still able to grab me emotionally. Some of that is unquestionably tied up with how strongly I associate this movie with my family, all of whom it became very special to as a Shared Experience. But I also don’t know of a lot of people who haven’t had that same emotional experience with it, and that to me suggests there’s more going on here than just Nostalgia. The mixture of Shakesperean plotting with Disney’s signature strength of Character, for one thing, granting the movie’s story an Epic Scope that never forgets the emotional inner lives of its cast. The music for another, not only its instantly-iconic song-book but also its memorable score, armed with both Big Bombast and Gentle Sentiment. And the unforgettably gorgeous animation, rendering every last element of its world with believable naturalism and strongly-defined personality. All of it, together, makes for what I still personally consider the Crowning Achievement of the Disney Renaissance.

7.)

I think, if I had to name the thing I find most lacking in far too many modern Action Movies, it’s Clarity. They all tend to lard their plots up with a bunch of unnecessary contrivances and complications in hopes of making themselves appear more clever than they actually are, and all it usually does is just dilute the impact of the whole thing. “Mad Max: Fury Road”, by contrast, is all about Clarity. I could sum up literally its entire plot in a paragraph if I wanted, because it is basically One Big Chase Scene from start to finish, never really deviating from that structure for more than a few minutes at a time. And that, combined with its exceptionally well-crafted Action Sequences, means that the full weight of its visceral power hits you full force every time. But don’t be fooled; that simplicity is not to be mistaken for shallowness. Indeed, precisely by getting out of its own way, knowing exactly what it wants to do and why, “Fury Road” also delivers a story that is, in spite of what you might guess, genuinely subtle and smart. Every character is immediately unforgettable and compelling because their role in the story is so well-considered and their personalities all so stark. The world it crafts feels at once fascinatingly surreal and yet All Too Real at the same time because even its most Fantastic elements are ultimately just grotesque reflections of things the audience knows only too well. And most of all, it tells a story with real, meaningful Themes that are deeply woven into each of its individual elements, such that the whole thing is deeply satisfying emotionally, but also piercingly Relevant in all the best, most affecting ways.

6.)

Oh look, another pick I have in common with @bunnikkila! This must be the last one, right?

But yeah, this is just a legitimately great movie, at every level, in every way. Stylistically, it is one of the most radically inventive things to have ever been made in the world of Western Animated Movies, gleefully mixing together a vast array of Aesthetics and Techniques that are at once viscerally distinct and yet coherently connected, all rendered with a fantastic eye toward the world of Comic Book Visual Language that keeps finding new and extremely fun ways to play with that instantly-recognizable iconography. For that alone, I would call it one of the greatest triumphs of 21st century animation. But then, on top of that, the story it tells is one that is simultaneously Arch and self-aware, delivering some of the most fantastically hilarious punch-lines imaginable more than a few of which are at the expense of the very franchise it is working within...but also entirely earnest, sincere, and emotionally affecting. It is, at once, a movie that manages to be about The Idea Of Spider-Man in its totality while also being about just one kid coming to grips with who he is, what he can do, and what his life can be. I don’t know that I can remember the last time a movie so immediately and unmistakably marked itself as an Enduring Masterpiece, but “Into the Spider-Verse” absolutely pulled it off.

5.)

Ordinarily, I would cheat and give this slot to the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy in its totality. But somehow, the fact that this is about “FAVORITE” movies instead of just what we think the BEST one is compels me to narrow it down to just one. And if I had to pick just one, it would be the first of the three, “Fellowship of the Ring”. It’s not necessarily anything that the other two movies get wrong, either. All three of the LotR movies possess many of its keenest strengths, after all. For a starter, there’s the keen understanding of how best to adapt the source material without being enslaved to it; capturing many of its most iconic moments while cleverly tweaking elements to make them more cinematic, knowing what scenes to focus on for the sake of more clearly focusing the emotional through-lines of the story, and knowing what scenes, no matter how good on the page, ultimately don’t fit to the shape the adaptation has taken. There’s also its pitch-perfect casting, each and every actor doing a fantastic job of embodying the characters so well that even as your personal vision of them from the books may differ radically from what is on-screen, they nonetheless end up feeling Right for the part and a strong, compelling presence. And there’s the deft visual hand of director Peter Jackson, who knows exactly how to craft a Middle Earth that feels at once lived-in and real but also Fantastic and magical. “Fellowship”, for me at least, thus wins out mostly because it has the good luck of being adapted from the strongest of the three books, the point at which the narrative is at its most unified and thus has the strongest overall momentum. But also because so few movies have so swept me away with the sense of stepping into a world I have always dreamed of in my mind’s eye, and that’s the sort of thing that can only happen at the beginning of a journey.

4.)

Now here’s a movie that is literally sown in to my very being. It’s the last movie my mother saw in theaters before becoming a Mom. I grew up watching the “Real Ghostbusters” cartoon all the time and playing with the attendant toys; I had a “Ghostbusters” Birthday Party when I was, like, four years old. It has been my annual Halloween Tradition to get myself a big Cheese Pizza and watch this movie for about as long as I’ve had disposable income to myself. There is, quite literally, no point in my life where I don’t remember “Ghostbusters” being a fixture in it. And as a nice bonus? It is, legitimately, a Genuinely Great Movie. I realize that isn’t quite as universally agreed upon these days as it was even a few years ago (thanks, Literally The Worst Kind Of Virulently Misogynist Assholes lD; ), but I still feel pretty confident in saying this one really is That Good. I still find basically every one of its jokes hilarious; even now I could quote just about any one of them and get a laugh. I still find its central premise, What If Exorcism Was A Blue-Collar Business, a brilliant, almost subversively clever one that takes The Supernatural out of the realm of The Unknowable and into a world where even you, an ordinary person off the street, can in fact fight back against it. I still think it’s one of the all-time great examples of how to balance Tone in this sort of High Concept Genre Bender, by allowing The Story to be played relatively straight while allowing the comedy to flow naturally from the characters’ reactions to that story, allowing its Ghostly aspects to land as Genuinely Scary (or at least Worth Taking Seriously) without getting too Stern and Serious about it. And I still listen to that unforgettable Title Song all the time! So yeah, even if I could be more objective about it, “Ghostbusters” would almost certainly make this cut.

3.)

And so we come to the third and last pick I have in common with @bunnikkila, not coincidentally a movie that played a key role in solidifying our friendship, as bonding over our shared love of it was a big part of how we got to know each other on deviantART waaaay back in the day <3

By 2008, I really didn’t think it was possible for a movie or comic or TV show to really become “part” of me anymore, the way things like Sonic the Hedgehog or Marvel Super Heroes or Some Other Movie Character Who Might Be At The Top Of This List had. And then “WALL-E” came along and proved that to be completely, utterly wrong. I didn’t just love this movie, I was inspired by it, to a degree of strength and consistency that I’m still not entirely sure has yet been matched. And to be sure, some of that is undoubtedly because the movie had already basically won the war before I’d even bought my ticket; Adorable Robots In Love is something like My Platonic Storytelling Ideal, after all. But even setting that aside, “WALL-E” is a movie where even now I can’t help but be keenly aware, and gently awed, at the beauty of its craft; indeed, watching this movie in a theater did a lot to make me better understand why movies work on us the way they do, because I left that theater chewing so much on every last one of its elements. Its gorgeous animation, the way it conveys Character through Actions more so than language, the dream-like quality of its musical score (even as i type this i get teary thinking about certain motifs), the clear and meaningful way it builds its theme and story together so harmoniously, and the particular perspective it takes on our relationships with each other, with our environments, and with our own technology...all of it speaks to me deeply and profoundly, and it’s no coincidence that I have seen this movie more times in theaters than any other on this list (twelve times, for the record, and I still remember each and every time XD).

2.)

This one needs no personal qualifications, to my mind. Yes, I have some degree of nostalgic attachment to it for having seen it relatively young with my brothers and being deeply moved by it then, but it’s not at all like the kind of Nostalgia I have for “The Lion King”. “Princess Mononoke” is just flat-out, full-stop a complete Masterpiece, not just my personal pick for one of the single-best animated films ever made, but one of the best films period. It’s almost difficult for me to put into words how great this movie is, certainly in a way that hasn’t been repeated to death by thousands of other smarter people, because no one of its elements quite answers the question of why it is so great, to my mind. Yes, the animation is absolutely gorgeous with a design sensibility that brings Ancient Mythology to life so vividly that its influence can still be felt today (The Forest Spirit alone has been homaged all over the place). And yes, the music is hauntingly beautiful, at once capturing the gentle rhythm of nature but also the elegiac tone of Life Moving On. And yes, the story is an incredible mixture of the Broad Mythic Strokes of an Ancient Legend grounded in all too human Emotions and Ideas about the balance of nature, the full meaning and cost of Warfare, and perhaps most important of all, about how we determine Right and Wrong when everyone involved in a conflict is fighting simply for the right to survive. But all of those things add up together to something even greater than a simple sum, because each one isn’t just good in its own right but because each element so perfectly reinforces the other. And even having said all that? I really could just carry on singing this movie’s praises. Just...an absolute masterpiece, top to bottom.

1.)

I don’t imagine any of you are terribly surprised at this, right? I almost feel like it’d be redundant to explain my love for this movie, given how self-obvious I imagine it is to basically everyone who knows me Literally At All. But heck, I’ve rambled on this long, why not go all the way? Because the thing of it is, “Gojira” (to be clear, the original Japanese movie from 1954 rather than its American edit, “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” from 1956) doesn’t just top the list by being a Great Movie. Though to be clear, it really is. Flawless? No; there’s a reliance on puppetry that even for the time can be a bit chintzier than the movie can really afford, in particular. But brilliant, even so, a heart-wrenching example of Science Fiction Storytelling As Allegory, one that, in a rarity not just for its own genre but indeed for many movies in general, very meaningfully lingers on its deepest, darkest implications. Many a film critic has pointed it out, and it remains true: the stark black-and-white photography heightens the sense of Implacable Horror at the core of the story, and the way the central Melodrama, a tragic love triangle that carries with it many aspects of Class Conflict and Personal Desire VS. The Collective Good, ties back into the main story is truly beautiful in its elegance and emotional impact. Still, for me personally, it tops the list, now and always, because it is a movie that affirmed something for me, that the character I had fallen in love with as a child convincing his family to watch a monster movie with him on television to prove his seven-year-old bravery, really was as genuinely as powerful and meaningful a figure as I had always imagined him to be.

#movies #meme #gojira007

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popliar · 5 years ago

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Ateez in Seoul, 8 and 9 February 2020

Olympic Hall at Olympic Park

No one will believe this but I actually had my holiday with @flywithturtles planned before I knew the dates coincided with Ateez's Seoul concert dates. But it's true! I have the WhatsApp conversations to prove it!! Anyway I secured the tickets and all was well.

This is the first concert I've been to where they were handing out masks, making sure everyone had hand sanitizer and checking temperatures as you entered. Haha. Well they also checked our temperature going into the Line Friends store that day so, that's corona virus life. I was actually really worried the concerts would be cancelled, given so many other events have been, so it was a relief that it went ahead.

Structurally this is the same as the show I saw in August last year, after Wave/Illusion: starting hard with pirates, a lighter middle section, and a mythology-heavy last third. And then the encore which went for ages.

What's great to see is that the gaps and pacing downsides of the previous year have been corrected and improved. The pacing has been tightened up, the banter and ments flow much more smoothly and the show just feels very professional and well run.

Here's my post about last year's show: https://popliar.tumblr.com/post/187095347758/ateez-in-sydney-11-aug-2019

It's a shock to realise they've only been around one year four months but they were able to fill out a full 2.5 hour set, every song solid. And KQ spent proper money on this, the production was good - it's not like LAVISH but there were good stages and fancy screens and new VCRs and plenty of back up dancers, and it all worked well. There were maybe too many fireworks on the first night (I hate it when it obstructs the choreo) but they'd adjusted well on the second night.

Surprising but welcome - they had English subs for some of the ments. I don't think they were "live" subs because sometimes they'd get ahead of what the members were saying. But it was helpful. Even without them, body language and tone says a lot. Though I'm regretful that I don't understand Seonghwa's acrostic poems or all of their stupid jokes lol.

The show is called Fellowship and they leaned into it hard, asking Atiny to be part of their shared journey and to stick with them forever. It's a familiar refrain from other shows, but each time I find it both surprising and effective - this very overt, explicitly stated entreaty to be a fan, to enter into this imagined relationship, the appeal to reciprocity. "We've made you happy, make us happy too, be with us and we'll be with you."

But you can know a thing and it can still be effective. I did love the shows. I want them to be happy too!

A list of observations and random things:

Spoilers follow, I'd put it behind a cut but I can't figure out how on mobile haha

OK REALLY SPOILERS NOW

-first VCR to open the show expanded on the Treasure theme.

-Desire opens with blindfold choreo. Was this a gift for me? THANK U.

-for Lights, they had cute moments where they held up little speech bubbles over each others heads. They paired up with Hongjoong and Mingi, San and Wooyoung, Seonghwa and Yunho, and Yeosang and Jongho. Both nights, Woosan held hands. On the second night Yunho held Seonghwa's hand and Seonghwa was like a shy maiden. Mingi and Hongjoong had very strong flirty energy. Yeosang and Jongho are cute.

-the VCR in between part 1 pirates and part 2 fun boys showed what felt like a series of different dimensions? An ocean, a mountain, fields of flowers, cosmic surrealism, etc. As though each of them was alone somewhere in time and space.

-During If without you, they threw out balls to the crowd as gifts (mini riots ensued). Mingi put the empty basket on his head both nights, what a beautiful fool.

-Night 1 was the first time with the light stick! Hongjoong announced its official name: Lightiny (light of destiny) but also Tinybong lololol. The light stick is super pretty. I was tempted but didn't have time the first night. The second night it was sold out when I arrived!!!

-The VCR in between parts 2 and 3 is the really intriguing one. It paired them up into the Lights pairs again. Yeosang and Jongho searched for each other in a hall of billowing drapes. Mingi and Hongjoong were rockstars (with great lipstick). San and Wooyoung were mirrorverse versions of each other. Yunho and Seonghwa put together the pieces of a puzzle in a set that reminded me of both Treasure and Wonderland.

-In the intro to Say My Name on the first night, Hongjoong went halfway down the stairs then turned around, went back and grabbed his mic, then went down again lol. The second night he very firmly took his mic before descending the stairs lol.

-The final VCR before the encore showed them uncovering items on pedestals as though in a museum: a camera, a gramophone, a painting, a book of poetry by Yeats... Then they all created a painting together. When viewed through a red screen (like the puzzles in their albums) the pattern revealed a compass. They then all showed their wrists to reveal each had a compass tattoo.... WHAT IS THIS OT8 SOULMARK FIC!!!!!

-They said they had planned for every audience member to have this compass stamp (the Fellowship again) but it was cancelled due to health concerns. But we could see it with our true eyes, right???? On the second night, the 99s swarmed Seonghwa at this point to try to look down his shirt. I see. I see. (Later on Hongjoong also tried to peek into Mingi's shirt also fine just fine.)

-Early in the show Hongjoong said there would be clues through the show about the next steps in their concept/narrative. The hourglass and compass were very recurrent but these are not new. Hmm. I wonder.

-In one ment on night 1, Jongho spoke to all his hyungs informally and it was HILARIOUS. He did something similar on the second night, patting Yunho on the head and pinching Wooyoung's chin etc.

-During Star 1117 on the first night, Hongjoong and San started crying. Then in the following ment, they and Yunho and Wooyoung were crying, and Seonghwa and Jongho were teary. Yunho cried so hard (missing his grandfather!) that during Hongjoong's ment, Mingi quietly went over and gave him a towel. There were like five members in between that he passed to give him the towel, it was so sweet I'll cry. Night 2 felt more joyful and upbeat.

-Some ppl really left way too early like before the encore. The encore is half an hour long omg! You missed out on so many songs!!!!!

-On night 1 between main set and encore the crowd didn't quite know what to do. Huge kudos to the fans who led some cheers otherwise it would have been so quiet. Second night was better and also they kept the light sticks on while we were waiting which added to the atmosphere.

-They didn't sell a couple of sections in the hall at all, they were curtained off. It's interesting to think BTS had their first Muster here at around the same point in their careers. Like BTS, Ateez too are more popular globally than at home. They were beaten quite handily in voting on music shows by SF9 this comeback, who are more popular at home than internationally.

-It is great being in a huge fandom like BTS but also you know this is actually a great time to stan a group like Ateez. They're big enough to be exciting and have good shows, they are interesting and still developing, they're still playing intimate venues... They're good!!!!!

-A few of them had fake neck tattoos. San helpfully labeled himself "San" on the second night lol.

-Hongjoong briefly went off stage during sunrise On night 2. Hopefully just a technical issue.

-Treasure and Precious choreo start and end in the same place, echoing their musical connection.

-They had different encore outfits for Answer each night, before changing into hoodies. On night 2, Yeosang saw some of the others had scarves/banners tucked into their back pockets and was like "where's mine????" Instead of a banner, Yunho had a baseball cap. Seonghwa took his off and Hongjoong tied it around Seonghwa's wrist.

-For Star 1117, everyone held up their mobile phone lights. On night 2, San repeated the request in English too. Very pretty to see all the lights.

-On second night, Seonghwa and San got their mics and necklace tangled up during a ment lol.

Setlist:

(Intro)

Win

Horizon

Pirate King

(Introduction ment)

Medley: Twilight, Stay, My Way

Light

Mist

Desire

(VCR)

Illusion

Crescent

Wave

Sunrise

(Ment, lightstick announcement)

If without you

Aurora

Utopia

(VCR)

Say My Name

Dazzling Light

Hala Hala

Treasure

Precious

Wonderland

Encore:

(VCR)

Answer

(Ment)

Thank u

Star 1117

(Ment)

Promise

Dancing like butterfly wings

Setlist from: https://twitter.com/updateez/status/1226112679728812032?s=19

#ateez #ateez in seoul #200208 #200209 #concerts #actually using tumblr as a blog how strange #kpop

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dailyaudiobible · 4 years ago

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12/11/2020 DAB Transcript

Amos 4:1-6:14, Revelation 2:18-3:6, Psalms 130:1-8, Proverbs 29:21-22

Today is the 11th day of December welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I'm Brian it's great to be here with you today like it’s great to be here with you any day, any day at all - spring, summer, winter, fall - anytime at all. It's great to be here with you. Wait, that sounds, that sounds remarkably like lyrics I know - spring, summer, winter, fall, all you have to do is call and I'll be there. You've got of friend. So, friends, let's gather together here around the Global Campfire and take the next step forward in the Scriptures. And this is one day where we…we don't have to move into new territory. Most of the days we do have to move into new territory because of the territory that we’re in in the Scriptures, but today we don't have to enter into a new book. So, we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Amos chapters 4, 5, and 6.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for the next step forward that we get to take every day and that it reminds us of Your presence in our lives and of Your constant transformation in our soul. And, so, we take to heart what we just read, the last thing, the last thing blinking there before us as we concluded our reading today. “A man of wrath stirs up strife and one given to anger causes much transgression.” We know this is true. We can affirmatively shake our heads, but if we slow down enough, we know that this is giving us advance words for the season that we are in and all of the festivities that are around us. We need to remember this and not be a man or woman of wrath and not be one given to anger unless stirring up strife and causing transgression is the goal, which it’s not. The goal is to be Your hands and Your feet and to minister Your love into this world, especially in this season because we are known by our love. So, come Holy Spirit, plant the words of Proverbs into our hearts that we might carry it forward and that it might shape the way we behave. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it's the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here.

It's Christmas time. That is what's going on in the world so that's what's going on around here as well. And what a joy it is to just continue to move through the Advent season, just to sense that longing, that longing that we feel. This is the season to acknowledge that longing because it's kind always underneath it all isn't it? We are often…we turn that longing into what material possession or what type of scenario can I arrange for that will make that longing go away? Like, how can I fill that void? When it's way deeper than that. We’re just running at a pace that we never slow down enough to give any attention to it. That longing is the deepest cry of our soul, that all things would indeed be made new again. And we long for that. We long for the Advent of Jesus, right? The Arrival or this would be called, the second Advent, like a second arrival. But at the same time because it's Christmas season and this is the season to pay attention to that, we put ourselves in the position of the people who were waiting for the Advent of the Savior, who were waiting for Christmas even though they didn’t call it Christmas, who were waiting for Him to come because they had the longing in their soul too and there was a promise that He would come. And he did come. But we have that longing. Advent lets us tune into it as we wait and consider that in our souls as we move to Christmas where then with joy, we celebrate the arrival while still longing for the second arrival. So, it's a joy to spend that season together. And all things that are happening are Christmas related.

So, it's like we’re putting together our holiday Christmas party, our annual holiday gathering. It's virtual. It'll just show up as another program just like the community prayers do in a couple weeks, but we’re gathering all of the calls. So, you can use the Hotline button, or you can dial 877-942-4253. And those are, you know, those are the numbers that you…or that's how you would submit a prayer request or encouragement. Right now, also a holiday greeting. The one rule that I’ve been talking about is “don't combine”. Don't combine a prayer request or an encouragement with a holiday greeting. Just call in your holiday greeting and then if you have a prayer request or encouragement call that in separately. It’s one of the special times of year you can do that. And, so, yeah, don't be left out. Trust me. Every year lots and lots of people procrastinate and then it's too late. Don't be that person this year. Call in and share your holiday wishes with the community as…that we've been to each other all year as we’ve gone through the Bible.

The other thing is the Daily Audio Bible Shop is full of resources that make for unique gifts. And…like the God of Your Story, which is the written dated January 1st through December 31st devotional, essentially. I don’t really like that word because I think that what we’re doing here is way more than devotions, but in written form it is the gold that is the things that we talk about, the themes that we talk about as we go through the Bible each and every day. So, it is a perfect companion resource…in fact it was made to be “the” perfect companion resource to the Daily Audio Bible just to take the journey deeper. Maybe we listen to the DAB and then read that at night and it just kind of sows the themes in the stories that we are in deeper into our lives or if we’re out of…we’re like will gonna go off the grid on some type of holiday and we’re gonna be out of touch, this lets us stay right in step with the things that we are reading, but it's also a fantastic resource for anyone who wants to read through the Bible in a year and needs a friend to guide the way, to point out some of the beautiful things, the vistas that we get to see when we travel through the Bible together. So, the God of Your Story is available. The family Christmas record is available as well. You can get a physical copy in the Daily Audio Bible Shop, but you can stream it on Apple music or Spotify or Google play or wherever you can stream music. Just look for Family Christmas and maybe my name and you'll find it. That is the soundtrack for the community, that’s the soundtrack to the holiday season. It's…it’s something that I created over a couple of years and it's really meant to be that hot cocoa moment where you shut off everything in your house and you just got the Christmas lights on and just trying to find the Spirit of Christmas in the silence and just catch a breather in the festivities of it all, this is the soundtrack for that. So, check it out at. There are plenty of resources in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. If you spend $40 or more in the shop this season, we will include in your order the Daily Audio Bible Christmas ornament for 2020. We have one each year. We have for the last seven years. And, so, we have that this year as well. And you get it with your purchase of $40 or more in the Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you do that dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link on the homepage and I'm humbled…humbled to know that so many have clicked that link. And that is why we’re here or if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. And I'm humbled. Like, that’s not a joke. I'm humbled that…that that link would be clicked and that we would continue on and…as a community together. I thank you for your partnership. Or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, or holiday greeting right now you can hit the Hotline button in the app, the little red button up at the top, can’t miss it, or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning this message is for little Halo. This is Grandpa Bob from Michigan. Oh, sweetheart I heard your prayer and your cry out for help to deal with this person who’s being evil toward you and perhaps others. Honey just start off by praying for this person. They need God in their heart. They don’t have a mother who loves them perhaps or teaches them God’s way. But the sound of your voice, sweet innocent child, God loves you so much and He will give you the strength to deal with this person. I want you to know that you sound just like my grandbabies and that I love you. I want the best for you. And because you reached out God is going to help you deal with this person. He loves you. He loves you. You know what, and so do we. Call in again. Call in again. You are loved. Bye-bye.

Hello, I was just calling for prayer about… I feel so distracted with things that are going on in the world and so much of makes me sick and I try to keep listening to the Bible and I do but I have to keep reminding…like…keep staying focused on what I’m listening to and I try to read and it’s just everything is…it’s really hard to stay hopeful. And I just…no matter how hard I try to focus on God…it just…I don’t I don’t feel close. It’s just really hard. It just makes me feel sick, physically sick to my stomach. So, thank you for your prayers.

Dear Daily Audio Bible family it’s Faithful Hope in the UK and I’m calling this time to ask you to join me in prayer. I have mentioned previously that I’m in a nasty court case with regards to my children. And yeah. It’s nothing new. It’s been going on for several years. Anyway, you guys have been praying and I’ve felt that and thank you to everyone who’s joined me in prayer so far. But today I’ve just literally sent my ex-husband an email, asking him and his wife and his mother and even his church fellowship to consider having seven days of prayer and fasting…well…prayer and fasting for me and him and prayer from the others bringing this matter before the Lord because there’s no need for this acrimony. Obviously, it will only work if were humble and repentant and all of us who have been involved in this situation are humble and repentant of any harm we’ve inflicted on the other. So, I do ask you Daily Audio Bible family. I pray that…to pray that he’ll be able to respond to that positively, that he will join in this prayer and at the end of the seven days we will have a real praise report going forward. So, yeah. So, let’s just pray. Lord I do thank You Lord that You bring a peace that is beyond all measure that is hard to fathom Lord. And Lord I just pray that You would bring Your peace into the situation. Lord I pray that Steve and Jill would be willing to commit to this time in Jesus’ name. Amen.

[singing starts] He’s got the whole world in His hands. He’s got the whole world in His hands. He’s got the whole world in His hands. He’s got the whole world in His hands. He’s got my brothers and my sisters in His hands. He’s got my brothers and my sisters in His hands. He’s got my brothers and sisters in His hands. He’s got the whole world in His hands. He’s got the sun and the rain in His hands. He’s got the moon and the stars in His hands. He’s got the wind and the clouds in His hands. He’s got the whole world in His hands. He’s got the rivers and the mountains in His hands. He’s got the oceans and the seas in His hands. He’s got…He got…He’s got…He’s got me…and my…He’s got you and He’s got me in has hands. He’s got the whole world in His hands. He’s got everybody here in His hands. He’s got everybody there in His hands. He’s got everybody everywhere in His hands. He’s got the whole world in His hands. He’s got the whole world in His hands. He’s got the whole world in His hands. Dum pum. [singing stops] I’m His grace He shines. Loving you Daily Audio Bible family and praying…

Hello DABber family this is Walta the Burning Bush that will not be Devoured for the Glory of our God and our King. I just heard the sweetest call from Halo I think that’s your name and your mom inspired you to listen to the DAB and you called in praying for yourself. Hatred, you mentioned the word and you…you talked about someone in school that’s just being mean. And, so, I want you to know I prayed for you. And Father God I praise You for this girl and I thank You for Your love for You and her love for Your word and I pray that You will put a shield of protection around her as she goes to school. Help her to see these kids through Your eyes and Lord I pray that You will use her to bring them closer to You O God. And I pray O God that You stop them. Give her favor. Give them just the desire to get to know her and to be nice the next time they see her Father. I know that You’re able to work miracles. And Father God, thank You for all the kids listening God and all the parents O God in raising their kids Lord. Teach us O Lord to number our days. In Jesus’ name. Amen. And Candace from Oregon, I heard your praise report for Micah. I’m praising God for you. Have a wonderful, wonderful Christmas if I don’t see you guys or talk to you soon. Bye-bye.

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lizziestudieshistory · 5 years ago

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Books of 2020 - April

April was a strange reading month for me, on the one hand I read 10 books which is double my average 5-6 books a month! On the other I completely failed to read my OWLs Magical Readathon tbr... I did manage to read books that worked for the prompts but they weren’t the books I meant to read. Oops!

(Once again I haven’t proof read this and I’ll just apologise in advance for any mistakes, I’m lazy...)

OWLS Magical Reathon: Hogwarts Professor (what subject I specialise in will depend on the NEWTS...)

Wyrd Sisters - Terry Pratchett (Discworld #6, Witches #1)

OWLS: History of Magic

I loved reading Wyrd Sisters, it was so much fun! Pratchett retold Shakespeare’s Macbeth from the witches view point, but with his usual satirical twist. Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat Garlick shine through the narrative, offering a no nonsense, ridiculous, and lovable take on witchcraft (or headology) as worked to protect Lancre from Duke and Duchess Felmet after they assassinated King Verence.

The Shakespeare references, puns, and reworkings in this book was sublime! I had a great time picking them out and watching as the acting company performed the most ridiculous versions of Shakespeare’s greatest works. I adored the witches - which was a bit surprising. I’d gone into this thinking I’d dislike the Witches sub-series after reading Equal Rites a couple of years ago (to this day it is my least favourite Discworld book...) However, Granny Weatherwax is a very different character here and the story is so separate from the narrative in Equal Rites that I refuse to see this book as the second installment in the Wtiches sub-series. I’d highly recommed reading Wyrd Sisters, and it would be a fantastic place to start with Pratchett if you like retellings and/or Shakespeare!

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Anon, trans. by J.R.R. Tolkien

OWLS: Potions

I enjoyed this translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Tolkien’s style and tone suits this style of poetry (would you call it epic? It’s more of a romance...) Tolkien brought the story in Sir Gawain to life for me, in a way I’ve never experienced in other versions I’ve read. I fell in love with this simple tale from Arthurian Legend, which I’ve never done before... It’s beautiful, simple, and captivating. I would highly recommend reading this edition if you’re interested in Sir Gawain.

The Last Hero - Terry Pratchett (Discworld #27, Rincewind and the Wizards #7)

OWLs: Astronomy

This is a book of two halves for me. The story itself is a bit too simple for my tastes... We see Cohen the Barbarian (the only Discworld character I actually hate) heading towards the Hub to return fire to the gods, however, Ankh-Morpork sends a party afte him to prevent him from destroying the Disc. This party was hilarious: Rincewind, the Librarian, Leonard of Quirrm, and Captain Carrot Ironfounderson all confined to a tiny ‘spaceship’... This was not a combination of characters I ever expected to see and their personalities, particularly Carrot and Rincewind, created several spectacularly ridiculous moments I loved! But the plot itself wasn’t great, I was expecting a bit more from Pratchett at this stage in in the Discworld.

However, the artwork in this book was stunning! It worked so well to elevate the story, I couldn’t help but love it... If the artwork hadn’t been included this book would have been a lot weaker... It’s hard to rate the book because of this, but I did really enjoy it (and hopefully this will be the last time I have to read about Cohen the Barbarian and the Silver Horde.) Also, look up Rincewind as The Scream, it’s brilliant!

We Should All Be Feminists - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

OWLs: Arithmancy

I usually don’t read essays for pleasure, nonfiction has been relegated to academic pursuits for the last 5ish years... Yet, this classic (I’m calling it a classic, everyone should read it) essay from Adichie was incredibly powerful. It emphasised the importance of feminism to non-western/European women and highlighted how important and beneficial feminism is for everyone. It’s a really important piece for people to read and I’d highly recommend finding the audiobook, or a reading, done by Adichie as her passion for the subject shines through her words.

Beren and Luthien - J.R.R. Tolkien (Middle Earth)

OWLs: Transfiguration

I ADORED Beren and Luthien, it was the best book I’ve read all month. I was expecting to dislike this book because of it’s formatting. It’s told through several fragmentary versions of Beren’ and Luthien’s romance that at Tolkien wrote throughout his life. Christopher Tolkien edited together 5 or 6 (maybe?) manuscripts along with his own commentary, introduction, and parts of the Earendil story to give us a fleshed out picture of Tolkien’s greatest romance. Unlike The Fall of Gondolin, which I read earlier this year, the format worked beautifully for Beren and Luthien, probably because the different versions that have survived were incredibly different and more complete.

I was feeling a bit so-so about this collection until we started seeing the Lay of Leithian (sp?) woven in between a few prose versions of the tale. The verse in the Lay of Leithian was gorgeous, it was beautiful, etherial, and passionate. I actually cried reading a few sections from it, such as the end of Felagund’s part in the tale. It was such a shame Tolkien never finished the Lay as it probably would have been his best work within the Middle Earth legend. It was captivating and the poetry suited the tone and style of Beren and Luthien’s story. The verse would have made the final acts of Luthien in the Halls of Mados exquisite, poignant, and heartbreakingly tragic.

I cannot love this book more - it might be my favourite in Middle Earth, knocking The Silmarillion off the top spot... But, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this book for everyone. If you’re a Tolkien fanatic then I’d consider this a must read, it contains Tolkien’s most beautiful writing along with his most tragic romance! If you’re only mildly interested in Middle Earth then I don’t think you’re going to enjoy it.

The Children of Earth and Sky - Guy Gavriel Kay

OWLs: Charms

The Children of Earth and Sky was an incredibly read, it’s a powerful but understated historical fantasy set in a world based on (I presume) renaissance Italy and the Ottoman Empire at its height. There’s not a vast amount of story here, however, the character work, world building, and thematic discussion around history, religion, the ability of an individual to change the fate of nations, corruption of power, and so much more, was stunning. It was a beautiful study of characters and cultures, which was complimented by Kay’s sumptuous writing style. This was a gorgeous read!

My biggest criticism is for the romances, Kay had 4 main characters - two men and two women - and rather predictably they ended up in relationships by the end of the novel... The relationship between Danica and Marin did make more sense to me by the end of the book than the relationship between Leonora and Pero. However, both were a bit instalove-y and could have done with more development.

Nevertheless, I’d highly recommend this book! It would be an excellent read for people who aren’t fantasy fans as the fantastical elements are minor. The focus is on the historical influences, themes, and character development. It’s an excellent standalone fantasy book and I’m excited to read more of Kay’s work in the future.

The Merchant of Venice - William Shakespeare

OWLs: Divination

Most of what I could say about The Merchant of Venice has already been said before. Shakespeare’s portrayal of Shylock is incredibly problematic (I haven’t got the time or energy to go into why, but there are literally thousands of books, essays and blogposts about this, go forth and read if you want more details), the relationship between Portia and Bassanio makes NO sense, and I cannot believe that ending means anyone is going to be happy...

However, this play has a certain charm that I loved. I couldn’t help but like the relationship between Antonio and Bassanio, Portia and Nerissa are darlings, and I had fun reading the wacky plotline and (yet more) crossdressing shenanigans going on in here! I think most of my enjoyment came from the RSC version I watch alongside the play (currently availbale on Marquee TV). Either way, I’m happy to have read the play AT LAST and be one play closer to my goal of reading every Shakespeare play!

Assassin’s Apprentice - Robin Hobb (Farseer #1, Realm of the Elderlings #1)

OWLs: Defence Against the Dark Arts

We all know how I feel about Robin Hobb and the Realm of the Elderlings. I adore this world, Fitz and the Fool are (probably) the best written characters in fantasy and two of my all time favourites! I reread this for the Elderlingalong (that I somehow missed...), which gave me the perfect excuse to pick up the new 25th Anniversary edition with the GORGEOUS illustrations from Magali Villeneuve. I had a wonderful time rereading this and if you’re a fan of Hobb and you haven’t seen the work this book already you MUST get your hands on it ASAP.

Non-OWLs books

The Gathering Storm - Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (Wheel of Time #12)

I wrote WAY to much to include it on this long list of books... I’ll post my thoughts on The Gathering Storm separately.

Conclusion of my ramblings: I really liked it, there were flaws in Sanderson’s writing and treatment of some characters (Mat in particular), however, it was a really good installment in the series! Sanderson really impressed me and I’m slightly nervous and very excited to read the last two books in the series!

The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings #1)

I’ve already put up a lot of my thoughts on my latest read of The Fellowship of the Ring here. I really loved rereading this book (as I always do), I had a lot of new thoughts, and I gained a new appreciation of Boromir and Tolkien’s poetry. My annotation reread will continue in the near future with The Two Towers - I just need to clear a few urgent reads off my shelves first!

Currently Reading

Nevermore: The Trials of Morrigan Crow - Jessica Townsend

Buddy read book! I’ve actually finished this at time of posting but I’m trying to give an accurate view of my April reading!

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet - Becky Chambers

I was supposed to read this for Arithmancy, but I didn’t get round to it... I’ve also finished this one early this month.

Words of Radiance - Brandon Sanderson

Another buddy read with @towerofleeza! We’re not the best at reading this at the same time (sorry dear!) but I think we’re both loving it, I certainly am!

Witches Abroad - Terry Pratchett

I couldn’t help myself I needed more of the Witches! I’ve also finished this one at time of posting this and enjoyed it.

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