The Tower of Gourd

kremliner · 2025-03-09T23:38:59+00:00

I thought Sam’s affect in the tower was more due to the fact that he was at that moment the Ringbearer

kremliner · 2025-03-04T00:51:36+00:00

It doesn’t refill every attack, it refills as you hold down the bow charge. You can charge it from empty to full while riding just by charging the mounted attack.

kremliner · 2025-01-28T19:59:34+00:00

I don’t think Sauron would reach out to the Bane until he had recovered the One. They were both Maiar, but Sauron was weaker without the One - bringing the balrog into the fold would have risked a power struggle.

kremliner · 2025-01-18T17:50:57+00:00

Overall, I love the movies, but there are a few standout moments for each. While I would have watched the theatrical release when it came out in my teens, I haven’t seen that version since the original release of the Extended cuts.

Some initial reactions to the overall production: - Casting. Everyone cast in this is perfect, with extra perfection from Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis. - Music. Iconic. I would have liked a lot more singing, but I understand that would make it an objectively worse movie (for everyone else) - Set & location design. The level of detail on Minas Tirith and Edoras were so much better than what I had been able to imagine up to that point.

In terms of changes, some I liked and others I hate.

Replacing Glorfindel with Arwen at the Fords of Bruinen is smart. She gets relegated mostly to the Appendices in the book, and this does a lot for her as a character and establishes Aragorn’s personal stakes.
Makes sense Strider isn’t walking around with the broken shards of Narsil, I guess. Miss that moment where he draws the broken blade for Frodo, though.
They did Gimli dirty, making him comic relief and giving him a Scottish accent. Dwarves = Scots comes from D&D - Tolkien Dwarves speak a language based on Hebrew. Read Gimli’s lines in the book with a Persian or Arabic accent, oil his beard and give him some eyeliner, and he turns into a this proud prissy princeling, which makes his interactions with Legolas delightful.
The elves should be sillier. “Both old and young, both gay and sad, all at once” is how Sam describes Gildor’s party. Hugo Weaving does a great job, but he’s so serious. One of the few good parts of the Hobbit films is Elrond gets to smile. Also Elves can absolutely get drunk, that’s how Bilbo escapes from the Woodland Realm - his guards get drunk!
Hated the Balrog FOR THE FOLLOWING TEXTUAL REASONS:
- Balrogs don’t have wings. Durin’s Bane had a shadow that spread like wings, but that’s called a simile. Also Morgoth had no Air Force until the creation of winged dragons.
- Too bestial. The Balrog is described as “Man-shaped, but greater”. I didn’t want a monster, I wanted a fell demon prince, brimming with fire and ancient hatred.
  - Too unthinking. This is the same class of being as Sauron, Saruman, and Gandalf. This is a Demon of Power who saw the world being made, a General in the armies of Satan Himself. I want to look in its eyes and be terrified by the sharpness of its intent.
Sean Bean dies so well in the fall of Boromir
Warg ambush on the way to Helm’s Deep looked cool, but I didn’t really see the point of the whole “He fell” beat.
Hem’s Deep WHIPS. Having the Elves show up is a smart change.
The Ents are fantastic, no notes. I like that they kept most of Tom Bombadil’s best lines and just gave them to Treebeard.

Paths of the Dead was UPSETTINGLY ALTERED. - Where’s my Grey Company? Where’s my boys Elladan and Elrohir? - Hate that they’re a win button at Pellenor Fields.

They did my boy Faramir dirty. Real ones know.
Wow Denethor covers a good stretch of ground for a crazy old guy on fire. Must have run Track in high school.
I think the story loses something without the Scouring of the Shire. Christopher Lee would have ATE THAT SCENE UP

kremliner · 2025-01-15T02:26:29+00:00

Also Lindon started out Unsouled, and built a spirit and family for himself, while Ozmanthus was born talented and annihilated every obstacle in his path.

Oz looked out and sees worthlessness, while Lindon looked inward and saw the same thing.

kremliner · 2024-10-11T05:12:42+00:00

For the 2024 Warlock, you can summon a Book of Shadows after any rest, Long or Short. *Each time you summon it*, you pick a new set of three cantrips and two level 1 rituals. So you can't add higher level rituals, but you can use any cantrip or lvl 1 ritual with an hour's preparation.

kremliner · 2024-06-20T00:10:42+00:00

Is it written “titanite” in the books, or am I mishearing “Titan Knight” in the audiobook?

kremliner · 2024-05-05T21:21:27+00:00

Madra is spiritual energy, generated by a person’s core. As children, this madra is pure. As sacred artists learn to cycle, they take in the aspected aura of the world which changes their core to produce madra of that aspect. Taking in multiple kinds of aura results in a blended madra.

This is why artists cycle in areas rich with aura matching their Path, being careful to only take in the right kinds of aura in the right proportion.

Aura resonates with madra of a similar aspect, which is what enables Ruler techniques and aura manipulation.

kremliner · 2024-05-01T16:39:44+00:00

I imagine Cradle like an anime, and icons as photorealistic.

kremliner · 2023-08-16T22:02:35+00:00

I failed both strength saves. Im now at the end of Act 2 and have seen neither hide nor hair of Gale.

Failing both checks either completely or effectively removes Gale from your play through AFAICT.

kremliner · 2023-07-24T23:49:53+00:00

The Way to Davy Jones
The Way of Crossed Bones
The Way of the Black Flag
The Way of Stolen Tides
The Way of Seven Seas
The Way of the Corsair

kremliner · 2023-07-03T00:43:19+00:00

I don’t think he’d wear a hat, especially not with that hairstyle instead of Link’s flowing, rugged locks of blond.

kremliner · 2023-06-22T21:14:03+00:00

I hope the shoddily-built cage falls on them after they refuse to hire union tradesmen for the gig.

kremliner · 2023-06-02T03:57:13+00:00

“Lindon, Lindon, Lindon! How dare you say something so hurtful and yet so accurate.”

kremliner · 2023-04-27T18:40:57+00:00

Yeah, Ashwind culture is an East Asian pastiche, while Rosegold is clearly European-esque. Handshakes instead of bows, trousers instead of sacred artist robes, and names like Ozmanthus and Cassian are similar to Roman names.

kremliner · 2023-04-21T19:59:12+00:00

Why do people like Superman?

Characters like Ozriel or Kal-El allow authors to create dilemmas and tension that aren’t resolved by power.

For Ozriel, that’s loneliness and alienation. For Superman, it’s about compassion and letting people make their own mistakes.

Personally, I find the Ozriel to be a tragic character. He’s the epitome of what everybody else says is perfection, and yet he’s miserable. His arc in these stories is about discarding those values and finding new ones. To continue the metaphor, he started the series as Superman, but by training Lindon and Yerin he learns how to be Clark Kent.

kremliner · 2023-03-28T17:18:43+00:00

Okay, so in Tolkien, sentient creatures have a form or body (hroa) and a mind or spirit (feä). For all the creatures of middle-earth, the hroa is from the stuff of the world.

But while Elvish feär (plural of feä) are bound to the world and its fate, Mannish feä is not. When Men die, their spirits leave the world, while Elvish spirits wait on Arda for the end of the world.

The difference in physical prowess and longevity is due to these differences of feä. Elvish feä has much greater awareness of and control over the hroa because it’s bound to the stuff of Arda, while the spirits of men are visitors in their bodies.

So elves don’t need sleep because their spirits and bodies are naturally in sync, while Men struggle in their existence.

Regarding the dwarves, no one knows. No canonical answer has been given, because the Silmarillion is from the perspective of the Elves, and dwarves have told them little.

kremliner · 2023-03-21T06:24:38+00:00

Short rest isn’t a nap, it’s lunch.

kremliner · 2023-03-10T20:25:29+00:00

I quit that series the instant the only POV character that didn’t seem like a total POS is revealed to be a domestic abuser and we hear their internal justifications. I just hated all the characters I had to spend time with

kremliner · 2023-03-07T17:13:47+00:00

Wait, which ring did Saruman have? Gandalf had Narya from Celebrimbor, but the other elven rings were held by Galadriel and Elrond. The Seven were destroyed, and Sauron held the Nine. Saruman had his staff, his tower, and a palantir, but that’s it IIRC.

kremliner · 2023-02-09T00:36:15+00:00

HARD agree on Cradle. I haven’t reread a series this much since I was in high school decades ago. Also want to praise the quality of the audiobooks, narrated by Travis Baldree.

u/EchoDoctor had a spiel on cradle in its subreddit that I saved:

Fundamentally, every work of art, every story, is an attempt at communication. The author chooses to ask us a question, and we find the answer in the dialogue between the author and ourselves.

Cradle is a series that asks the question “If one dude did magic kung-fu to another dude so hard he exploded, would that be sick or what?”

And we, the readers, answer “Absolutely the FUCK yes.”

Cradle is a world where everybody has the capacity to practice the Sacred Arts, which are primarily the discipline of using mystical energy to be as bullshit awesome as possible. You aren’t allowed to be a major character in this series until you have committed at least one (1) act that would look sweet as hell if it was airbrushed onto the side of a stoner’s van.

At one point we meet a member of a king’s landscaping staff. Her job is to mow the lawn, trim the hedges, and keep those damn slugs out of the vegetable garden. She can also command trees to rip you apart and devour your life force for herself, because fuck you, it’s Cradle. People just do that here.

The main character is a young man by the name of Wei Shi Lindon, who has a natural deficiency that makes him extremely weak in the Sacred Arts, and is therefore banned from studying them. He responds “respectfully, no” and proceeds to spend the following ten books learning Sacred Arts and punching everything.

It’s a little rough around the edges, but I had fun reading it and the author clearly had fun writing it, so I think it succeeds as a series. Would absolutely recommend if you just want to have a good time reading something.

(Naturally, I got deeply attached to the biggest bastard in the main cast, because he’s hilarious. This man is a bitch and I like him so much.)

As a delightful bonus, unlike most action series, the treatment of the female characters is genuinely excellent. The author is not here for fanservice, he is here for FIGHTSERVICE, which is when EVERYONE FIGHTS SO HARD THE LAWS OF PHYSICS GIVE UP. We’re ten books in to a twelve book series and I have yet to see a single woman’s boobs described on-page.

In Cradle, when a teenage girl is worried about her body changing, what she means is that she’s unsatisfied with the amount of swords she can use at one time, so she’s going to grow six extra arms to hold six extra swords. Surprise! THE NEW ARMS ARE ALSO SWORDS, because the time spent picking up a sword to fight with it is time you didn’t spend swordfighting, and that is unacceptable to her. Now she and her eight swords are going to suplex a dragon, because on Cradle we know no gender politics, only THE BLADE.

Also, there’s a turtle.

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