raymagnus.bsky.social
Father and Husband. Ask me anything. Fan of Logic, the X-Men, Tolkien and pro wrestling… as well as books, movies, metal, dogs, more dogs, history…. I’m weird, but the right kind of weird. I follow back.
261 posts
134 followers
252 following
Getting Started
Active Commenter
comment in response to
post
comment in response to
post
My good boy Magnus. Rescued in 2021. First pic is days after he came home.
comment in response to
post
I love my gov
comment in response to
post
That’s my gov
comment in response to
post
Could be worse. I’m getting money, and I’m getting drowned.
comment in response to
post
There’s a lot of similarity to mine. So far as we know, he’s a Malinois/Coonhound/Mastiff mix
comment in response to
post
lol I was hoping for some love for Gonturan (The Blue Sword), Dyrnwyn (Chronicles of Prydain) or Erias (The Dark is Rising) but yeah…. I appreciate any effort. If you haven’t read those, and have a taste for fantasy…. Do so
comment in response to
post
Thank you, I’ll check that out!
comment in response to
post
I’m ashamed to say I haven’t heard of one of those. What/where is Tortall?
comment in response to
post
Top 5 non-Tolkien fictional lands you wish you could visit
comment in response to
post
Top 5 fictional swords
comment in response to
post
You’re better placed to evaluate this than I am, but would an analogy to the Gospel of John (or better yet, the Exodus) be a better analogy? In which it contains a historical foundation, but was written down after the fact from multiple sources, and the stories evolved over the intervening years.
comment in response to
post
That’s a good point. I remember taking a tour of either the Vatican or Uffizi Gallery years back in which the tour guide said (insert Renaissance Artist here, I forget who it was) never considered any of their works as complete, and I often think Tolkien may have looked at his the same way.
comment in response to
post
The real question is why, knowing Tolkien’s writing process as we do, should we assume the published Hobbit and LoTR are final product?
I have an internal hierarchy of canonicity that I use, but I don’t regard anything as “the one and only truth”
comment in response to
post
I think the top right would be Saruman, sending the crebain to watch the pass of Caradhras. The row of black birds(?) seems to emanate from him.
comment in response to
post
Had the exact same thought. I think that’s a big indicator.
comment in response to
post
I always viewed TROP (and the Jackson movies) as being kind of an alternate-reality Middle Earth. That’s really the best way to compartmentalize those things.
comment in response to
post
My favorite fantasy series ever (The Dark is Rising) is YA-labeled, but it’s just impossible to care about the character’s age (which I don’t think is even mentioned after the first book)
comment in response to
post
That was my belief as well.
comment in response to
post
Most likely the latter, or they don’t have out-of-country data in yet.
comment in response to
post
That hour goes into the general pool. This is how they differentiate between “views” and “households”.
comment in response to
post
It means if you watched it twice, that’s six hours of viewership. Divided by a three-hour show that’s two “views”. It’s largely done to account for multiple Netflix accounts at a single location.
comment in response to
post
He started a thousand or more sentences with “and”, which I was always taught not to do.
comment in response to
post
Why, though?
comment in response to
post
It’s exactly the *right kind* of obscene though
comment in response to
post
I switched in November. Other than seeing up an Apple account it’s remarkably easy.
comment in response to
post
Very possibly my favorite lines in the book, along with these:
comment in response to
post
I’m a lifelong Illinoisan. This rocks. We are such an unserious bunch.
comment in response to
post
There’s more than enough to criticize without caring what any of the elves look like.
Other than pointy ears. I’ve always hated that.
comment in response to
post
“The wolves will eat well this winter.”
- Finnish Soldier, the last time Russians attacked Finland
comment in response to
post
I kinda think she should be already. Which means they’ve made a conscious decision to not do so in TROP. To be honest, their handling of Galadriel is both one of my biggest joys and one of my biggest regrets.
comment in response to
post
USA. I have a vague memory of a TNN era and a SpikeTV era too…..
comment in response to
post
One of my favorite moments in all of literature is when one of the Big Men threatens them and they… laugh. Loudly. Uproariously. Without a concern in the world. That must have been humiliating for that bully.
comment in response to
post
Even the book doesn’t much lean into the fact that his dad is nominally the leader-by-birthright of the Shire. There’s probably a valid question as to how much effort he put into his studies, but he certainly had tutors and instructors. He and Merry are as close to Hobbit nobility as there is.
comment in response to
post
Pippin is probably, after Frodo and alongside Merry, among the most book-learned Hobbits of his day. Being an aristocrat can do that for you.
comment in response to
post
comment in response to
post
My cousin - a lifelong Twins fan - once told me “Never let your happiness revolve around a Minnesota sports team”…. apparently not realizing I’m a fan of Chicago teams
comment in response to
post
I can’t imagine that Peregrin, son of Thain Paladin II, heir the Thainship and youngest of four - with three elder sisters - ever learned how to cook a darned thing for himself.
comment in response to
post
Imagine how INSANELY SERIOUSLY Hobbits would take a bake-off. They’d never shut up about it. “Oh, your uncle Bandobras went off to war, did he? Knocked the head clean off a goblin, is that right? Well, he didn’t win the Michel Delving Tart-Baking Contest two years running, DID HE NOW???”
comment in response to
post
A long-running joke in this town is that the ugliest building on NIU’s campus is the Art building, and the worst-built is the Engineering building… so yeah, this tracks.
comment in response to
post
I never said it was a good program, just that it exists.
comment in response to
post
In fairness, their website is poorly designed as well
comment in response to
post
Fair.
comment in response to
post
When did they play Oregon? I must have missed that…,
comment in response to
post
I’m sorry, what?