u/tessaractIXI

That scene, the whole thing, will never not break my heart. I cry every time.

I was perusing through Tilda Swinton's IMDb profile and I noticed that the list of movies on her "known for" section are relatively low profile movies when compared to some of the many Heavy Hitters that she's been in. I was really surprised. ​ Especially considering​ the fact that she had a leading role in a Marvel movie, those typically end up on actors' "known for" list. But there are plenty of other films I would say she's more well known for than the ones listed. What gives? Why is it like that for her?

By ​the counsel of Huan and the arts of Lúthien he was arrayed now in the hame of Draugluin, and she in the winged fell of Thuringwethil. Beren became in all things like a werewolf to look upon, save that in his eyes there shone a spirit grim indeed but clean; and horror was in his glance as he saw upon his flank a bat-like creature clinging with creased wings. Then howling under the moon he leaped down the hill, and the bat wheeled and flittered above him.

This scene is crazy! In all my time reading stories of vampires and werewolves, I've never seen a scene like this. Obviously these are not your traditional vampires and werewolves of modern literature, but even just taken as it is, it's flabbergasting scene. ​It's dark and horrible and heroic and valiant and absurd and twisted and I love it.

By ​the counsel of Huan and the arts of Lúthien he was arrayed now in the hame of Draugluin, and she in the winged fell of Thuringwethil. Beren became in all things like a werewolf to look upon, save that in his eyes there shone a spirit grim indeed but clean; and horror was in his glance as he saw upon his flank a bat-like creature clinging with creased wings. Then howling under the moon he leaped down the hill, and the bat wheeled and flittered above him.

This scene is crazy! In all my time reading stories of vampires and werewolves, I've never seen a scene like this. Obviously these are not your traditional vampires and werewolves of modern literature, but even just taken as it is, it's flabbergasting scene. ​It's dark and horrible and heroic and valiant and absurd and twisted and I love it.

I just finished chapter 9 of the silmarillion, holy heck, what a crescendo of events, and I know it's still just the start​. It's really tragic that the Valar had such a pure unselfish love for the elves, and would be driven to the point of cursing and banishing them. And of course tragic is the kinslaying. I've got a gnawing thought, though. Tolkien repeatedly emphasizes how Melkor poisoned the mind of Fëanor with lies, and how those poisonous beliefs became sort of self-perpetrated half-truths. There's a lot of fault on Melkor, and growing fault on Faenor, but what about the Valar? They are so slow to act. It's ironic to me that a point is made where Fëanor might have acted differently, had a different fate, if only he had been willing to give up the Silmarils without the news of their theft and his father's murder. ​ Meanwhile the Valar already faced off with Malkor several times and suffered because of their slowness to act. They let him thrash Middle Earth and retreated to Aman. Malkor is allowed to amass huge armies and corrupts many allies while they're minding their business. Only in the final hour when the elves awaken do they feel the urgency to do anything. Then, they capture him, punish him, and pardon him. They let their guard drop, and he's out sowing evil Deeds again. They learn of Malkor sowing discontent when they summon Faenor to answer for himself, and still they don't do very much! Manwe initially stays quiet lamenting, and Tulkas and Oromë don't even get sent out until after a delay! After everything they've been through, the great evil that they saw, there's really no excuse not to act swiftly and immediately to rein Malkor in again, but they delay again. In that time, he escapes and becomes untraceable, something he's allowed to be able to do over and over and over again. I get it, he's tricky and he has the same powers they do to shed their forms. He has allies and clouds of darkness. Still seems to me like each time they lose track of him, it's because they are distracted with a delay to lament rather than act. They repeatedly hesitate to really take any quick decisive action against him. So it seems to me like they have fault in this. Because how differently might Faenor have felt and acted if he had seen them move swiftly and decisively against Melkor? Sure there was a ticking clock on reviving the trees, but both could have been accomplished at once (retrieving the silmarils - to their knowledge - and chasing Melkor). I feel like that would have given him a little bit more confidence that the Valar were in the elves' corner and ready to fight against evil and protect them. Maybe then he would have been less bitter and suspicious, less motivated to leave, less seduced by the lies of treachery. And yes, maybe Faenor and the Noldor should already know the Valar loved and protected and provided enormously for them, because of the extraordinary gifts and great lengths the Valar went to for them. But the elves are still basically just children at that point, there's selfishness there that comes from lack of maturity, lack of experience in the world.

So, I guess I kinda place some blame on the Valar. Tolkien doesn't seem to acknowledge this blame, at least so far. Maybe it will come out in the rest of the chapters as I read on, or maybe I just see the roles of responsibility differently.

I just finished chapter 9 of the silmarillion, holy heck, what a crescendo of events, and I know it's still just the start​. It's really tragic that the Valar had such a pure unselfish love for the elves, and would be driven to the point of cursing and banishing them. And of course tragic is the kinslaying. I've got a gnawing thought, though. Tolkien repeatedly emphasizes how Melkor poisoned the mind of Fëanor with lies, and how those poisonous beliefs became sort of self-perpetrated half-truths. There's a lot of fault on Melkor, and growing fault on Faenor, but what about the Valar? They are so slow to act. It's ironic to me that a point is made where Fëanor might have acted differently, had a different fate, if only he had been willing to give up the Silmarils without the news of their theft and his father's murder. ​ Meanwhile the Valar already faced off with Malkor several times and suffered because of their slowness to act. They let him thrash Middle Earth and retreated to Aman. Malkor is allowed to amass huge armies and corrupts many allies while they're minding their business. Only in the final hour when the elves awaken do they feel the urgency to do anything. Then, they capture him, punish him, and pardon him. They let their guard drop, and he's out sowing evil Deeds again. They learn of Malkor sowing discontent when they summon Faenor to answer for himself, and still they don't do very much! Manwe initially stays quiet lamenting, and Tulkas and Oromë don't even get sent out until after a delay! After everything they've been through, the great evil that they saw, there's really no excuse not to act swiftly and immediately to rein Malkor in again, but they delay again. In that time, he escapes and becomes untraceable, something he's allowed to be able to do over and over and over again. I get it, he's tricky and he has the same powers they do to shed their forms. He has allies and clouds of darkness. Still seems to me like each time they lose track of him, it's because they are distracted with a delay to lament rather than act. They repeatedly hesitate to really take any quick decisive action against him. So it seems to me like they have fault in this. Because how differently might Faenor have felt and acted if he had seen them move swiftly and decisively against Melkor? Sure there was a ticking clock on reviving the trees, but both could have been accomplished at once (retrieving the silmarils - to their knowledge - and chasing Melkor). I feel like that would have given him a little bit more confidence that the Valar were in the elves' corner and ready to fight against evil and protect them. Maybe then he would have been less bitter and suspicious, less motivated to leave, less seduced by the lies of treachery. And yes, maybe Faenor and the Noldor should already know the Valar loved and protected and provided enormously for them, because of the extraordinary gifts and great lengths the Valar went to for them. But the elves are still basically just children at that point, there's selfishness there that comes from lack of maturity, lack of experience in the world.

So, I guess I kinda place some blame on the Valar. Tolkien doesn't seem to acknowledge this blame, at least so far. Maybe it will come out in the rest of the chapters as I read on, or maybe I just see the roles of responsibility differently. ​

I'm reading the silmarillion right now for the first time and I've come across a passage that just blows me away. The deep love of the Ainur for the elves is just... So deeply and complex conveyed here with such beautiful heartfelt imagery:

"Here must be told how the Teleri came at last to the land of Aman. Through a long age they dwelt in Tol Eressëa; but slowly their hearts were changed, and were drawn towards the light that flowed out over the sea to the Lonely Isle. They were torn between the love of the music of the waves upon their shores, and the desire to see again their kindred and to look upon the splendour of Valinor; but in the end desire of the light was the stronger. Therefore Ulmo, submitting to the will of the Valar, sent to them Ossë, their friend, and he though grieving taught them the craft of ship-building; and when their ships were built he brought them as his parting gift many strong-winged swans. Then the swans drew the white ships of the Teleri over the windless sea; and thus at last and latest they came to Aman and the shores of Eldamar."

If that isn't the most beautiful image in the world and I don't know what is.

Imagine a fleet of Elvish boats being pulled by a fleet of swans and sailing across the sea.

And the lighting.... They sail under Twilight towards the shore across where a sheath of light from of a pair of golden and silver trees filters out, beaming out from over a Hill top. A hill that symbolizes the love of the Ainur for the children of Iluvitar, because they literally put a gap in their Fortress of mountains so that the elves who crossed over could still see the stars and the Twilight that they were born in across the sea where they came from in middle earth. A fortress the angels built to protect themselves from the most evil of angels. And they placed a hill there for the elves to live on and see out to. They broke their own defenses and let light shine into the rest of the world because they loved the elves so deeply. Instead of bending them to their will, they let them be who they are, and heed their needs, even as those needs and desires keep changing. There are many parents who don't love like that, and they are not even their own children.

I just... I'm taken by it all.

I'm reading the silmarillion right now for the first time and I've come across a passage that just blows me away. The deep love of the Ainur for the elves is just... So deeply and complex conveyed here with such beautiful heartfelt imagery:

"Here must be told how the Teleri came at last to the land of Aman. Through a long age they dwelt in Tol Eressëa; but slowly their hearts were changed, and were drawn towards the light that flowed out over the sea to the Lonely Isle. They were torn between the love of the music of the waves upon their shores, and the desire to see again their kindred and to look upon the splendour of Valinor; but in the end desire of the light was the stronger. Therefore Ulmo, submitting to the will of the Valar, sent to them Ossë, their friend, and he though grieving taught them the craft of ship-building; and when their ships were built he brought them as his parting gift many strong-winged swans. Then the swans drew the white ships of the Teleri over the windless sea; and thus at last and latest they came to Aman and the shores of Eldamar."

If that isn't the most beautiful image in the world and I don't know what is.

Imagine a fleet of Elvish boats being pulled by a fleet of swans and sailing across the sea.

And the lighting.... They sail under Twilight towards the shore across where a sheath of light from of a pair of golden and silver trees filters out, beaming out from over a Hill top. A hill that symbolizes the love of the Ainur for the children of Iluvitar, because they literally put a gap in their Fortress of mountains so that the elves who crossed over could still see the stars and the Twilight that they were born in across the sea where they came from in middle earth. A fortress the angels built to protect themselves from the most evil of angels. And they placed a hill there for the elves to live on and see out to. They broke their own defenses and let light shine into the rest of the world because they loved the elves so deeply. Instead of bending them to their will, they let them be who they are, and heed their needs, even as those needs and desires keep changing. There are many parents who don't love like that, and they are not even their own children.

I just... I'm taken by it all.

Lately I've noticed that the thicker / plus size outfits had a lot of problems. They sort of balloon unnaturally around between the knees and the waist. Other times, it's like the game just ignores the plus size and suddenly your avatar is super thin. That kind of pisses me off, it feels a little disrespectful actually.

I just finished Cinderella's and Tinkerbell's level 10 quests. I don't know why I play this game anymore, it's just less and less fun. If any character was going to put you in a beautiful gown and let you feel the magic of going to a ball, it should have been cinderella. But they stick you in a jacket. Great.... I've never felt more not magical and princessy in my life. Thanks for making my ball everything I never hoped it would be? The location for the ball was a great pick, but unfortunately the decorations were underwhelming. I congratulate Gameloft on actually putting people at the ball, unlike Snow White's level 10 request where I had to gather villagers to actually make it look like people were participating in the fair? But the fact that they all just stood in place like they were on stage was wholly unconvincing. Once again, very little effort and missing the mark. How simple would it have been to just let them do some pathfinding? As for Tinkerbell's quest, I blinked and it was over. I could not believe how short that was, it was like a footnote in the game. The last time I was this stunned was when I finished the wishblossom Ranch Main storyline and realized how little content they actually put in an entire DLC and then charged us for it like a full game. Shocking audacity. ​ They spent the entire 10 levels building up this idea that Tinkerbell is building up towards being able to talk to Peter again. You think that's going to be what her level 10 Quest is about, but oh no quick pivot off of that into something much less satisfying. What was even the point then of reiterating so many times how they're not talking to each other yet? Don't build us up for a story you're not going to follow through on. Also, I do not need another horse to fly. If I want to fly, I'm going to use pegasus. But do Pegasus or the pixie wings really make you fly? Absolutely not. If I have to see and hear the Hooves of my horse hitting the ground, it's not flying. A flying horse doesn't need to jump objects either. They need to take a page out of Hogwarts Legacy and allow you to legit fly, like in the air, with full maneuverability - and for the price point, they should have. Shame on them. Although that would be the tip of the iceberg of problems that Gameloft has with maneuverability in their maps. I guess I play because I love the Nostalgia but it's just constantly ruined by how often Gameloft drops the ball.

Hello, I'm a Layman so please excuse my very simplistic understanding and language on these topics. I grew up watching Star trek, watching my favorite Starfleet crews crews travel the quadrant. Everything seems to happen in a contemporary time period to whichever crew. But as I'm learning about the relationship between space and time, I'm understanding that the faster you travel through space, the slower you're traveling through time. ​ I'm realizing that this means if the crew ever found a way to travel fast enough to those far out reaches of the galaxy, they can't according to physics remain contemporary to their origins, Starfleet headquarters, earth. It's kind of strange because Star Trek treats all the cultures in the Galaxy as if they are like the cultures of the world on Earth, varying to some degree in technological progress, but all kind of living in the same "era." That's not realistic to what we know about spacetime, is it? I mean put aside for a second that it's a huge fictional given that alien cultures across the Galaxy would be developing along a similar rate of progression as we do. Assuming that that's given, it still doesn't make sense that traveling to them would mean we meet them in that same progression era. If we traveled that far out to Klingon space, no matter where they were when we started that Journey , they should be way more advanced and progressed by the time we got there, especially if we're moving that fast. It would be like jumping far into their future, and we would be coming back far into hours, right? Like maybe even leaving in the TOS era and coming back in the TNG era. Do I have that right? That's kind of heartbreaking for me because it means we probably can't physically have anything like a federation even if we did discover alien life and even if that alien life was encountered at a similar technological progression as us. We would never be able to stay relatively consistent with each other in terms of progress, technology, evolution as we interacted. Yes?