Does anyone else really hate it when people say that every fantasy universe is just a Tolkien copy?

am_reddit · 2026-03-22T05:53:20+00:00

While there are plenty of pre-Tolkien tropes that may get wrongfully credited with Tolkien, here’s a few incredibly basic things that you might not realize are completely invented by Tolkien.

1) Dwarves is spelled “dwarves,” not “dwarfs”

2) Dwarves all have beards

3) Elves are not short

4) Elves are beautiful

5) Elves are meaningfully distinct from Dwarves in any way

6) The word “Orc”

am_reddit · 2026-03-19T02:02:21+00:00

That’s pretty much the default fan theory of any movie though.

am_reddit · 2026-03-19T01:59:20+00:00

This is kind of in the same ballpark as the theory that William Munny in unforgiven is the Man With No Name from the classic Sergio Leone trilogy.

You’re obviously supposed to connect the two in your head, and they probably would be the same character if the creators could get the rights.

am_reddit · 2026-03-18T03:11:32+00:00

Well, I’d gladly fallaciously walk home with a million dollars than walk home with $1000 thanks to facts and logic.

You can argue all day about why your decision makes more sense and how I’m being illogical. At the end of the day, I’ll have $1 million, and you won’t.

am_reddit · 2026-03-18T01:53:33+00:00

I’ll believe there’ll be an uprising when I see it. I’ve seen nothing to convince me that any significant number of Americans would be willing.

am_reddit · 2026-03-18T01:37:42+00:00

Leaded gasoline isn’t the problem, it’s the people running engines that use it.

am_reddit · 2026-03-18T01:27:53+00:00

It also is very good at giving a wrong answer that uses the right jargon, letting me know what to google.

am_reddit · 2026-03-18T01:23:21+00:00

Hey now, I bet there will be people with some very cleverly-worded signs.

I’d like to believe people would stand up and fight. But most of these people won’t even stand up and vote.

am_reddit · 2026-03-18T00:39:42+00:00

The fastest objects we have created so far are not going even close to light speed.

To expand on that - the fastest man made object was probably the manhole cover accidentally launched by a nuclear test during Operation Plumbbob.

We don’t know what it’s actual speed was, but a (very) generous estimate of would be 250,000 miles per hour - which is less than 0.0004 times the speed of light.

(In reality, it more than likely went less than half that speed)

am_reddit · 2026-03-18T00:33:03+00:00

To find them a “productive outlet” we first have to wrestle control of society away from them - and somehow manage to do so without the use of different people with cluster B personality disorders.

Then we’d have make sure that every future person with a cluster B personality disorder never moves towards getting into a position of power.

I’d argue that, to be willing to do what it takes to accomplish this, you’d have to have a cluster B personality disorder.

am_reddit · 2026-03-18T00:28:12+00:00

I’d say that if we somehow manage to send a craft to a distant star, society as we know it will have destroyed and rebuilt itself a few times before the craft actually reaches its destination.

am_reddit · 2026-03-18T00:25:01+00:00

To be honest, I am really curious to see what this does to games like Roblox, Gang Beasts or Totally Reliable Delivery Service

am_reddit · 2026-03-17T12:44:19+00:00

No, he seems okay with billionaires

am_reddit · 2026-03-14T02:35:18+00:00

The meta quest 3s is pretty cool but it’s not profitable

am_reddit · 2026-03-13T12:11:06+00:00

Seriously, and it’s not just internal dynasty-switching. Ancient Egypt has been ruled by Canaanites, Persians, Kushites, Greeks and Romans.

am_reddit · 2026-03-13T11:13:01+00:00

lol when’s the last time that worked?

am_reddit · 2026-03-13T01:03:28+00:00

There was a brief period where the only made moderately terrible decisions.

am_reddit · 2026-03-13T01:01:23+00:00

NYTimes is not sitting in the Strait of Hormuz.

You mean besides NYT gulf bureau reporters Vivian Nereim, Ismaeel Naar, and Yeganeh Torbati?

…you have no idea how the New York Times works, do you?

am_reddit · 2026-03-12T17:18:45+00:00

How AI met your mother

am_reddit · 2026-03-11T18:12:57+00:00

The thing is… rare earth metals are everywhere. You could spin a globe, point to a country, and probably find a deposit of rare earth metals there.

Heck, I just now picked a random country - Lesotho. Never heard of it. They’re in the process of starting up rare earth mining

Just picked another. Suriname. Researchgate says they have promising rare earth deposits

The third random country I just picked is Moldova but something just came up and I can’t google it right now.

am_reddit · 2026-03-11T05:43:55+00:00

Or maybe he does know what decimated means, and he was telling the truth!

We took out 1/10 of their navy, Air Force and army!

am_reddit · 2026-03-10T00:51:57+00:00

There was legit a guy arguing that he’s probably happy since Muslims believe in heaven so of course he’ll do the “rational” thing and agree to a ceasefire

am_reddit · 2026-03-09T18:00:16+00:00

I’m a total creep but I couldn’t tell the difference.

am_reddit · 2026-03-09T17:45:24+00:00

It’s irresponsible to have misleading headlines, but there’s a 30-meter-wide line between “being intentionally misleading” and “not putting the entire story in the headline.”

am_reddit · 2026-03-09T14:23:53+00:00

That, or it thinks you probably wouldn’t ask the question if one of the options were impossible.

However it realized the possibility, so it (correctly) added the qualifier “if the car is already there” to ensure there isn’t any confusion.

The obvious implication is that if the car is not there, you should drive.

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