Lord of the Rings: J.R.R. Tolkien General

[Walnut Sparks]

TIL Bilbo was supposed to have had a pair of boots made for him in Rivendell during The Hobbit. Tolkien accidentally cut it from the text, but some of his illustrations show them. I did not notice until seeing it pointed out.

Edit: Okay, here is the full text. Apparently this was his intention for the first edition, then upon realizing his mistake, he decided it was better without it.

[SpoonyViking]

Oh, very cool! Thanks for sharing!

[sentence]

I actually did read main of Tolkien's books after playing the gacha (I don't recomment the gacha, it's PvP garbage which requires you to whale a lot and gameplay is quite boring on Day 3)

Bruh, the antagonists and female characters are non characters there. I get it's based on real mythological stories, but still it's so weird to read by modern standards.

But what is funny, it reads perfectly as Lostbelt setting. It even had two Fantasy Trees as it's foundation, then the Trees were eaten by a spider from outer space, and it is said that once last remnants of the Trees' light will be destroyed, the world will end. And the history read like a really corrupted humanity's history too.

I now imagine it is as the Lostbelt where Brunestud won, so it ruled by elves (dead apostles), and humans are not prime species anymore and merely played by new prime species. If Iluvatar is Brunestud of the Crimson Moon, it explains him being such absurdly huge asshole (even by gods' standards).

[Leftovers]

Stop reading immediately.

[Five_X]

My brain doesn't like seeing those words put together like that.

[mAc Chaos]

I'm ready for this fanfic.

[Maedhros]

What makes Illuvatar such an asshole to you? As far as deities and pantheons go, both He and the Valar seemed neither remarkably cruel nor remarkably kind. Heck, Illuvatar barely takes any explicit action outside of "all is god's will" type stuff.

[Deathhappens]

I actually did read main of Tolkien's books after playing the gacha (I don't recomment the gacha, it's PvP garbage which requires you to whale a lot and gameplay is quite boring on Day 3)

Bruh, the antagonists and female characters are non characters there. I get it's based on real mythological stories, but still it's so weird to read by modern standards.

But what is funny, it reads perfectly as Lostbelt setting. It even had two Fantasy Trees as it's foundation, then the Trees were eaten by a spider from outer space, and it is said that once last remnants of the Trees' light will be destroyed, the world will end. And the history read like a really corrupted humanity's history too.

I now imagine it is as the Lostbelt where Brunestud won, so it ruled by elves (dead apostles), and humans are not prime species anymore and merely played by new prime species. If Iluvatar is Brunestud of the Crimson Moon, it explains him being such absurdly huge asshole (even by gods' standards).

I mean, not to discredit your read (I am totally discrediting your read), but humans aren't "the dethroned prime species", they're the species that become the prime species after the Elves are dethroned.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, I have no idea what makes you think Iluvatar/ Erû is an asshole, all he wanted was to make music and then his creations started fucking everything up.

[Dullahan]

the idea of a "prime species" is totally alien to tolkien's world-view, and the question of who it is or isn't is one he would have rejected as wrong-headed in its entirety

[Deathhappens]

In the way Fate portrays it, certainly, but there is a lot made out of the fact that Elves are on the decline and humans are "meant" to inherit Middle-Earth from them (the dwarves, being Aule's children, are just "kinda there".)

[Maedhros]

Elves and Men are the "prime species" in that they're very obviously the author's favorites lmao

[aldeayeah]

Bruh, the antagonists and female characters are non characters there.

i won't abide by this Éowyn slander

[Dullahan]

Elves and Men are the "prime species" in that they're very obviously the author's favorites lmao

But that's not what Nasu means by it, so you are drawing an analogy between Tolkien's work and a definition you just made up - which is perhaps correct but entirely beside the point.

[InsertNameHere]

I actually did read main of Tolkien's books after playing the gacha (I don't recomment the gacha, it's PvP garbage which requires you to whale a lot and gameplay is quite boring on Day 3)

Bruh, the antagonists and female characters are non characters there. I get it's based on real mythological stories, but still it's so weird to read by modern standards.

But what is funny, it reads perfectly as Lostbelt setting. It even had two Fantasy Trees as it's foundation, then the Trees were eaten by a spider from outer space, and it is said that once last remnants of the Trees' light will be destroyed, the world will end. And the history read like a really corrupted humanity's history too.

I now imagine it is as the Lostbelt where Brunestud won, so it ruled by elves (dead apostles), and humans are not prime species anymore and merely played by new prime species. If Iluvatar is Brunestud of the Crimson Moon, it explains him being such absurdly huge asshole (even by gods' standards).

There was a LOTR gacha? I've got a fair bit of experience with the MMORPG (and it's actually relatively faithful to the books), but this is the first I've heard of there being a gacha as well. The Lostbelt setting part is a bit of a stretch, though.

I have absolutely no idea where you got the impression of Illuvatar being an asshole from. lluvatar is essentially a copy of the Christian God (the Catholic version, if you want to be precise) with everything that implies, and the Valar being a cross between the Norse/Celtic gods and the Catholic saints/archangels, right down to the primary antagonist and source of evil being a Valar falling to evil out of pride like Satan did. You also have to remember that Tolkien envisioned the history of Middle-Earth as being a prelude to our own history, hence all the emphasis on how the age of the Elves is ending and how Men will come to inherit the world. So the Elves-Dead Apostles comparison is nonsensical.

You do have a point regarding the lack of characterization most of the antagonists and female characters get. I consider that being partly due to their being based on mythological stories and that Tolkien himself had some hang-ups over how to write the villains. The Orcs in particular posed a dilemma for him: Morgoth couldn't have made them with souls that were inherently evil, because he held that evil can't create, it can only corrupt or destroy. At the same time, the view that they were tortured Elves didn't sit right with him either because that would imply that Illuvatar had made them with intentionally flawed souls (remember that Illuvatar is a stand-in for the Catholic God, so from Tolkien's perspective this would be akin to saying that God is the author of sin), and he rejected the possibility of their being soulless because he felt that would make them nothing more than mindless animals. He never did find an explanation that would satisfy him.

[Random]

I have absolutely no idea where you got the impression of Illuvatar being an asshole from. lluvatar is essentially a copy of the Christian God

Spoiler:

[InsertNameHere]

Spoiler:

It's really my own fault for trying to take this seriously.

[Maedhros]

But that's not what Nasu means by it, so you are drawing an analogy between Tolkien's work and a definition you just made up - which is perhaps correct but entirely beside the point.

I think you've got me mixed up. I wasn't the one drawing comparisons between Nasu lore and Tolkien lore, I just popped in to pick the low-hanging favoritism fruit.