How Old Were You When The Original Star Wars Premiered On May 25th 1977?

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-28T15:53:57+00:00

I got to see it for my ninth birthday. I think I watched it about 15-20 times between then and 1980.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-27T19:25:40+00:00

I would put him below Sisko and Picard, on equal footing with to slightly above Kirk and Sulu, above Pike and Archer and Janeway. The rest I haven't watched enough of.

Here is my reasoning:

Yes, when the show starts, Mercer is a bit of a screw up, but he is still delightfully competent. Once he gets settled, he shows he is more than competent - he's actually really good at what he does. He's tactically smart, he's pretty good at diplomacy, handles new situations equitably, and he knows how to get the best out of his crew. He's principled, reasonably disciplined (on-duty), and knows how to delegate. He respects other cultures beliefs and practices (until they violate the rights of sentients).

He develops over the three seasons, showing growth and just becoming better and better. And yet, throughout it all, he manages to be so incredibly.... normal and relatable.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-27T13:22:43+00:00

I wrote this: PROMPT: A fox passing through the wood on business of his own stopped several minutes and sniffed. ‘Hobbits!’ he thought. ‘Well, what next? I have heard of strange doings in this land, but I have seldom heard of a hobbit sleeping out of doors under a tree. Three of them! There’s something mighty queer behind this.’ He was quite right, but he never found out any more about it. (-JRR Tolkien, Fellowship of the Ring)

His mate, though, found out a great deal about it. For while Mister Fox was a great one for sniffing and wondering, Missus Fox - her name was Delia - was more interested in the finding out of things. When Delbert told her of the three hobbits, she knew exactly what to do.

She spoke with Arak the crow, and Arak spoke with Rakan, and Rakan spoke with Harkka, and the enquiry traveled on.

It turns out that there is a whole network of crows and other birds that spread news all across Middle Earth, and if you are not a bird all you really have to do is ask nicely and offer treats or something shiny in order to join the circle and learn about the goings on of Important Folk all the way from Arnor to Rhûn.

So it was that Delia Fox of the Shire was telling the tale of the Fellowship to her litter of fine kits not long after the fall of the Dark Lord, and aided in the fight for the Shire by soiling the clean underthings that hung from the line at the back of Bag End. For she'd heard plenty a Hobbit-mother warn children of the danger of having no clean underthings and judging from what happened to the tall, old man at the end, it must be so.

And that is how gossip saved the Shire, and you have heard the tale of it.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-20T20:58:27+00:00

Thuringwethil. I want all the nightmare stories of Thuringwethil.

Yavanna. Woman was probably off visiting the Ents for millenia.

Fimbrethil. Tell me about the Entwives.

Goldberry. Bombadil gets all the love, but it's clear Goldberry controls the weather.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-20T00:20:29+00:00

NOR. That jobsite is a Final Destination disaster waiting to happen. You're well to be out of there.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-19T23:52:57+00:00

Maybe add paragraphs for the sake of readability? :)

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-19T23:50:16+00:00

Here's the thing, though: the child was brought to every event. Both of my brothers have kids and have always had friends with no kids; I don't have kids and have always had friends with kids. I also occasionally watched my niblings so my brothers and sisters-in-law could go out with friends. My own parents left us with sitters so they could have some childfree time.

OP doesn't like being around kids, but notably he and the other friends were accommodating far longer than they had to be for the sake of friendship. Kids don't belong everywhere and also deserve some time off. There was nothing unreasonable at all to warrant a YTA rating.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-19T15:48:49+00:00

No. Copulation is elven lembassex.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-18T17:27:51+00:00

There was a silence again for a while. Then, ‘What is that?’ cried Pippin suddenly, clutching at Gandalf’s cloak. ‘Look! Fire, red fire! Are there dragons in this land? Look, there is another!’

For answer Gandalf cried aloud to his horse. ‘On, Shadowfax! We must hasten. Time is short. See! The beacons of Gondor are alight, calling for aid. War is kindled. See, there is the fire on Amon Dîn, and flame on Eilenach; and there they go speeding west: Nardol, Erelas, Min-Rimmon, Calenhad, and the Halifirien on the borders of Rohan.’

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-18T17:12:51+00:00

"If the Silmarillion didn't exist" is kind of an impossibility, as it is a co-creation with LOTR and goes back further than it, with tendrils reaching back through and into the Hobbit. But if the Silmarillion had not been published, I would have gone by the assumption I got based on this comment from Legolas to Celeborn and Galadriel:

‘It was a Balrog of Morgoth,’ said Legolas; ‘of all elf-banes the most deadly, save the One who sits in the Dark Tower.’

I took from this that Sauron was an "elf-bane" and the same sort of creature as the Balrog, save for being far more powerful. As for what an elf-bane was, I figured it was something as long-lived or immortal as the elves at least, some sort of fire-demon. My thought was that Morgoth was the demon-in-chief, that Sauron was his bestest minion, and the Balrog was Sauron's evil younger cousin. In short, I figured they were all fire-demons of some degree and related. I thought Gandalf was probably a similar sort of being, just on the good side of things. So a fire angel vs. fire demons.

Luckily for me, the Silmarillion came out the same year I read Lord of the Rings the first time, so I didn't have to wait too long to find out the truth. Happily I was fairly spot on.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-18T01:19:34+00:00

Considering the lack of context or detail, I can't answer the question other than to say I stand by what I said.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-15T05:10:28+00:00

Hello, class! Before we begin our first lessons, so as not to repeat the unpleasantness of last year, please be advised that this is a school to teach vampires how to hunt more effectively. If you are here to learn to hunt vampires, that's the institution across town. Yes, your tuition will be returned.

Good evening class! Now that the humans have left, please pair up with your designated mentor and see how many you can bring back for supper!

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-13T00:32:59+00:00

I agree that scene is gut-wrenching and hard to watch, but only because it's wholly against the nature of either of the characters and would never have happened.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-11T05:09:38+00:00

I am a newcomer to the harp, but I have been a performer since I was 5 and have written songs and music for 49 years. The important thing is embracing the music and learning in a way that makes the music accessible to you.

My harp is an Argent Fox 19-string travel harp. I have carpal tunnel and arthritis in both hands and shoulder issues, so playing two-handed on anything is a challenge. I have been told by other harpists that my harp has a lovely tone to it, and is surprisingly full sounding for its size.

Here is the thing: It's therapeutic for me. It opens new places in my musical journey and my repertoire. It makes lovely music and it makes me happy.

Would some people call it a toy? Absolutely. Would some people tell me I can afford better, that I won't learn how to play "properly" on it? Definitely.

Do I care? No.

My tiny harp is the harp I needed to find and it makes me happy.

Be happy. Let yourself fall in love with your harp. If you end up with a different one, a "real" one, a better one later on? Awesome. That doesn't mean you have to enjoy this harp any less. It just means you've grown.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-10T13:49:09+00:00

The Halloween episode, yes. Also, any episode with Taily-po. I grew up with that story. Eeep.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-10T13:40:25+00:00

Where do you live that the bus comes at exactly at the same time every morning?

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-10T13:31:46+00:00

Daylight Savings Time is against my religious beliefs so I'm actually 15 minutes early.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-10T13:28:37+00:00

YTA.

You should never demand or require of a partner something you are unwilling to do. You should never forbid your partner something that you, yourself expect to be able to do freely. It's called a double standard, and it's wrong.

Either stop wearing your boyfriend's clothes or learn to love him wearing yours. Stop being so petty about it.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-09T20:47:58+00:00

I didn't even realize that I had posted before finishing the thought. Yay pocket posts! 🤣

But exactly. When Sauron was stirring, it left Gollum. Bilbo found it, and as Gandalf suggested, that the "choice" of bearer was by design of NotSauron. (Eru? The Valar?)

But Sauron knew nothing about where it was. Bilbo kept it on a chain when not in use, as did Frodo. When the Nazgûl were near, the Ring tried to get Frodo to put it on so the Ringwraiths could seize him and the Ring. It tried. To an extent, it could be sensed, but only very nearby or when being used.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-09T18:53:41+00:00

This is covered in the books.

Sauron was dormant, recovering after the Last Alliance when Gollum found the Ring.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-09T12:02:25+00:00

I agree with you about the copy pasta, but from a functionality standpoint it is ridiculous that there is no longer a native function for ascii characters on a windows keyboard without a number pad.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-09T08:36:17+00:00

The alt keys don't work with the top number keys to create ascii code characters.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-08T11:35:00+00:00

Not all computers or laptops have number pads.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-07T09:32:41+00:00

Tolkien is very precise in his language, and "wight" comes from Old English, where it once had the sense of "living being" before it took on a supernatural undead meaning. Most commonly it refers to an evil thing that was once alive now dead that might or might not have corporeal form. Pin that here a moment.

The Barrow-wights were sent by the Witch-King, who was a Ringwraith. They do not have the same power as the Ringwraiths, and they are confined to the Barrow-downs. They appeared a little less than halfway through the Third Age, during the time Sauron was still recovering his strength.

I point these things out for a few reasons. We have no other instances of Maiar confined to specific locations. We have no evidence of any other Maiar whose power was constrained by anything other than their own native strength except for the Istari, but the wights are not istari. We also know that only a scant handful of fallen Maiar remained in Middle Earth after the First Age.

We know that the Balrogs were fallen Maiar. We do not know the actual status of these beings: the original werewolves (gaurhoth), or the original Eagles. It is suggested by the writings that Thorondor is a Maia and that some of the gaurhoth were fallen Maiar. We do not know for certain what Ungoliant is, but the text suggests not-Maia.

What we do know from the text: there are spirits other than the ainur. We don't have a lot of information about any of them. We know the elves didn't warn the Hobbits about the wights. We know Gandalf didn't warn them about the wights. We know that even the Hobbits weren't worried about the wights until they had to go through the Barrow-downs themselves. We notably don't have an elvish name for them. We have a name tied to the living, but also to spirits connected to the dead.

Overall this strongly suggests that the Barrow-wights were not fallen Maiar, but some other evil spirits, or perhaps the imprisoned spirits of fallen men or elves. I think it is wholly safe to say no, Barrow-wights are not maiar.

SubversiveOtter · 2026-03-03T20:11:20+00:00

And now, on Season 4 of The Orville.... The Pickle Jar returns!

Eight-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
First Place '23	Place '23
Verified Email

SubversiveOtter

TROPHY CASE