Lord Of The Rings Extended Edition Final!

Lord of The Rings Extended Edition Final!

Going out for the last time to finish off the trilogy. This has been such a blessing to get to see on the big screen.

I have noticed so many details I never caught before like the curly ques on the freaking finger parts between the joints of Sauron's glove. What a drama queen, stamping his scary as Morgoth looking Armor with pretty little embellishments his enemies will only see right before getting smashed to death by his fist in their face.

I have experienced the sound design and music like never before. Like the impact of dark speech as it shakes the very floor under me. Or the ethereal laments of the elves for Gandalf's death as it surrounds me from all sides.

These movies are why theaters exist. And that I should get to see them in all of their might with so many other fans who feel the same love and aw as I do is amazing.

In this case, the book and the movie line up perfectly. Frodo's will was overpowered by the ring-

And then Gollum jumped out from nowhere, bit Frodo's finger off, had a happy dance, and slipped off the cliff crying with joy before all was done.

So yeah, Tolkien intended it that the hero failed and evil only lost by mere chance.

A Lord of the Rings thought I had just now.

Something about Lord of the Rings that's particularly chilling to me is that, in the end, Sauron won. Or at least came pretty damn close. He succeeded in corrupting Frodo within Mount Doom, right at the moment Frodo was supposed to destroy the One Ring, just like what happened to Isildur all those millennia ago. And that was when he had absolutely no clue that Gandalf was trying to sneak the Ring into Mount Doom and get it destroyed. His ability to influence the minds of others was just that powerful.

Sam couldn't have gotten the Ring off of Frodo, at least not without physically attacking him. And even if he could somehow bring himself to do such a thing, that could very well have resulted in him getting possessed by the Ring instead.* The only reason it and Sauron both got destroyed for good was because of Gollum arriving and doing what Sam likely couldn't have. If he hadn't been present, Gandalf and Aragorn's stratagems - to destroy the Ring and empty Mordor in order to provide a clear path for Frodo - would've backfired completely.

And even then, Gollum showing up just lead to - in the Peter Jackson films at least, I don't remember the exact events of the books - him and Frodo fighting to possess the Ring, with that fight ultimately leading to both of them going over the edge of that rock platform, and Gollum falling into the lava with the Ring. And as far as I can tell, Gollum never cared or even realized he'd doomed himself, until perhaps he hit the lava.

Ultimately, while the free peoples of Middle Earth were frequently able to resist and outplay him and his servants, Sauron wasn't defeated thanks to a hero mustering the resolve to resist him and cast away the Ring. He was defeated through a complete accident. Which is scary when you think about it

*Incidentally, I'm assuming this was at least part of the reason why Elrond never tried to take the Ring from Isildur right after the Siege of Barad-dûr. As bad as letting Isildur walk away with it was, Sauron having the opportunity to possess an immortal elf lord would likely have been infinitely worse.

Ever seen someone lipsync an entire song underwater?

Okay. It's time for an AI rant.

My nephew is 13 years old. Whenever he writes a paper for school, I check it over and fix all of his mistakes for him. He said to me, "Maybe I'll proofread your paper for you in exchange," meaning one of the scholarly articles I write for work. I said, "Cool," and gave him the file. And he said, "Well, this is full of errors! See, you always say you have a lot to correct on my stuff, and look at all the stuff you got wrong!" And I said, surprised, "What? Where?" Because I'm sure there are typos in the draft I sent him, but not, like, that many.

And then he pointed to the screen and said, "Look at all the blue and red lines you have."

And I said, "Yeah, but those are wrong. Like, those are blue and red lines I'm ignoring because the computer is wrong." And then I paused and added, "You know you can't proofread a paper by just looking at the red and blue lines, right?" And he gave me the blankest look, because that clearly is EXACTLY what he thinks. And it became even clearer suddenly why, whenever I correct something on his paper, his immediate reaction is, "It didn't have a blue or red line."

There's a very good reason for that: THAT'S BECAUSE THE COMPUTER ISN'T SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW THAT IT WAS WRONG.

I am so tired of being sold the idea that computers are better than humans and so we should just outsource everything to them, which is clearly the lesson my nephew is absorbing in U.S. middle school. COMPUTERS ARE NOT BETTER THAN HUMANS. Like, maybe they are better at humans at crawling through rubble to find people trapped inside. They are also better at preserving things in a searchable format. Things like that. Very limited circumstances.

I don't want to sound alarmist but everything I hear about people using generative AI freaks me out. It's not just that I'm freaked out by people being like, "I use it to write novels!" (Although I don't see how they do, I have tried to have it write fiction for me and the output was truly terrible.) But I recognize my bias around creative writing and so no one needs to credit my views on artificial writing. But! Other things are alarming, too! "I use it to brainstorm x, y, or z." But...why? Why not just...use your own brain...to...brain...storm? The computer doesn't even have a brain to brainstorm with! And you might be like, "But it comes up with things that my brain would never think of!" So would other people! You could also brainstorm with other people! Or even through Google to see what other people have thought before you (not AI). Please don't belittle the wonder of thinking.

I just feel like the marketing around generative AI boils down to "Wouldn't it be easier not to use your own brain to think about things?" Everyone. No. It would not be. Please just trust me on this. I'm not just an old person who is out of touch with technology or something. I promise. USE YOUR BRAINS. IT WILL BE OKAY.

My guess was Elurid and Elurin. Silly of me really, considering how no one has been able to find them since 506 of the First Age. Truly a rare type.

ITS ELLADAN AND ELROHIR

FUUCK

( art by @diomemedes)

important psa