Bronwyn, The Lord of Rings: The Rings of Power

Far above the Ephel Dúath in the West the night-sky was still dim. There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach. His song in the Tower had been defiance rather than hope; for then he was thinking of himself. Now, for a moment, his own fate, and even his master's, ceased to trouble him. He crawled back into the brambles and laid himself by Frodo's side, and putting away all fear he cast himself into a deep untroubled sleep.

The Return of the King, LoTR Book 6, Ch 2, The Land of Shadow

Chrome Hill Dragon's Back

leehowdle

Something I don't think we talk enough about in discussions surrounding AI is the loss of perseverance.

I have a friend who works in education and he told me about how he was working with a small group of HS students to develop a new school sports chant. This was a very daunting task for the group, in large part because many had learning disabilities related to reading and writing, so coming up with a catchy, hard-hitting, probably rhyming, poetry-esque piece of collaborative writing felt like something outside of their skill range. But it wasn't! I knew that, he knew that, and he worked damn hard to convince the kids of that too. Even if the end result was terrible (by someone else's standards), we knew they had it in them to complete the piece and feel super proud of their creation.

Fast-forward a few days and he reports back that yes they have a chant now... but it's 99% AI. It was made by Chat-GPT. Once the kids realized they could just ask the bot to do the hard thing for them - and do it "better" than they (supposedly) ever could - that's the only route they were willing to take. It was either use Chat-GPT or don't do it at all. And I was just so devastated to hear this because Jesus Christ, struggling is important. Of course most 14-18 year olds aren't going to see the merit of that, let alone understand why that process (attempting something new and challenging) is more valuable than the end result (a "good" chant), but as adults we all have a responsibility to coach them through that messy process. Except that's become damn near impossible with an Instantly Do The Thing app in everyone's pocket. Yes, AI is fucking awful because of plagiarism and misinformation and the environmental impact, but it's also keeping people - particularly young people - from developing perseverance. It's not just important that you learn to write your own stuff because of intellectual agency, but because writing is hard and it's crucial that you learn how to persevere through doing hard things.

Write a shitty poem. Write an essay where half the textual 'evidence' doesn't track. Write an awkward as fuck email with an equally embarrassing typo. Every time you do you're not just developing that particular skill, you're also learning that you did something badly and the world didn't end. You can get through things! You can get through challenging things! Not everything in life has to be perfect but you know what? You'll only improve at the challenging stuff if you do a whole lot of it badly first. The ability to say, "I didn't think I could do that but I did it anyway. It's not great, but I did it," is SO IMPORTANT for developing confidence across the board, not just in these specific tasks.

Idk I'm just really worried about kids having to grow up in a world where (for a variety of reasons beyond just AI) they're not given the chance to struggle through new and challenging things like we used to.

I think this is an incredibly important post for a lot of reasons. You have to write a bad book in order to learn how to do something. You have to suck at playing an instrument before you can improve.

Struggling is part of the process, and I've had a lot of people argue with me that it shouldn't be who fail to see the point. When you replace an composer with an AI music generator, an artist with an AI-generated image, or an author with an AI-generated fanfic, you are missing out on the critical, fundamental experiences humans need to learn and grow. You are robbing yourself of essential skills you need as a person.

AI is not like a calculator, or a synthesizer, or a prompt generator. It's not a tool to aid in your process of understanding or creating something. It is replacing your ability to learn things, and that is going to do so much damage if you let it.

Writing is hard, but its through that struggle that I've come to love it and look forward to doing it. When I get stuck now I just think about it for a few days until I have my own new idea. Its infinitely more satisfying to work it out on your own. Plus the final product is yours- no matter how good or bad it is, it's yours. And the next one will be better, and the next after that. If you cheat and use AI to do the work, you never improve and you never get to have ah ha moments. The whole point of making something is to make it.

Rare Pair Bingo 2025

For March and April @tolkienpinupcalendar is hosting Rare Pair Bingo! This is a bingo style event. In total there will be three cards: one with the rare pairs, one with smut prompts, and one with non-smut prompts. We included a bingo card with non-smut prompts because sometimes you just want your blorbos to hold hands. We will be reblogging and sharing content from this event for all of March and April. Do not feel any pressure to complete all the prompts within one month (and don’t feel any pressure to finish all the prompts!).

How to play:

Option 1: If you have one rare pair you really like or one rare pair that really speaks to you, take that pair and use the prompts to create something for them.

Option 2: You can use all the bingo cards with different pairings and different prompts for your creations!

Any fic, art, moodboard, playlist etc. will be included and we are happy to reblog!

Additional rules:

You can use multiple prompts for one creation.  These can come from different cards (pairing + smut prompt + non-smut prompt) or come from the same card (pairing + smut prompt 1 + smut prompt 2, etc.). How you use the prompt cards is up to you!

If you want to play option 1 (only one pairing but using the prompt cards) but your pairing is not on the list: No problem! Just use the free space. If your pairing is a rare pair but not included, we would love to hear about it!  

How do I know if my pairing is a rare pair?  If you feel it is a rare pair it’s a rare pair. Our bingo list came from a google form that one of the mods created. Some of them have 300 fics on AO3 and some have less than 25 (Borry. The answer is Borry, Boromir/Merry and I need more signed @frosticenow). We did not want to have any strict definitions for rare pairs to keep it open. 

To get a bingo you need to have a line (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) filled and this can include the free space. To get a super bingo (we did not know what else to call it) you need to fill up a card, only one card. If you fill up more than one you get more than one super bingo! 

As always, if you want us to reblog please:

The most important rule is to have fun! We look forward to seeing what you create!

Mods @the-girl-with-the-algebra-book @bellejolras and @frosticenow

every mother who’s critiqued her daughter’s appearance based on ~what men do or do not like~ owes that child an apology

I can't imagine doing this. When I look at my daughter I think she's the most beautiful human who has ever existed. Like looking at her has cured my negative self-image.

nobody tears through library books quite as fast as a 12 yr old girl with no friends

i think we are all entitled to have that one character that we love and understand more than anyone else in the entire world, and we are allowed to be weird about it, and block people for bad takes that we don't agree with or interpretations of characters that make us see red.

One of the things I miss from ye olden days is when ship names weren't just amalgamations of names.

Like Angbang and Silvergifting - it shows those are very old ships. That was the way back then.

I would love to see more of those.

Not that it's important, these are just an old lady's musings. :-)

There are currently 2 ships in the fandom with fics but no official name, we should try this for Adar x Mirdania and Adar x Estrid.. :D

Oh yes please! 😍

I also feel the urge to compile something as completely useless as a list of all ships and their names. 😂

@valar-did-me-wrong @helenvader The pairing names I am aware of (*this is an incomplete list, pls add onto it, I just collected what I know from the top of my head):

Adar x Arondir - Silvanscars

Adar x Celebrimbor - Silverscars

Adar x Celebrimbor x Elrond - ScarredSilverStars

Adar x Celebrimbor x Narvi - ?

Adar x Círdan - Scarswright?

Adar x Elrond - Adarond

Adar x Estrid - ?

Adar x Galadriel - Adariel

Adar x Mairon/Sauron - Maidar; Saudar

Adar x Mirdania - ?

Celebrimbor x Annatar/Sauron - Silvergifting

Celebrimbor x Elrond - Brimbrond

Elendil x Miriel - Mirendil

Elrond x Galadriel - Elondriel

Galadriel x Halbrand/Sauron - Haladriel; Saudariel

Mairon x Melkor - Angbang

Adar x Elrond x Galadriel - Adarondriel

Mairon x Galadriel - Martanis

Mirdania x Galadriel - Artania

Kemen x Eärien - Keärien (ahaha yes, we coined that before S2)

Also, Sauron's name asks for something that would be Saudade*. Probably my biggest ship Sauron x Redemption. 🫣

*as per Wikipedia: is a word in Portuguese and Galician denoting an emotional state of melancholic or profoundly nostalgic longing for a  beloved yet absent someone or something. 

@mai-komagata reminded me of:

Akallanope - Sauron x Pharazôn

I love that one. 😂

I feel like I should come up with the name for Adar x Estrid since no one has joined me on ao3 with this ship yet, but so far I got nothing! I don't think we got enough Estrid in the show to have words associated with her yet.

Dear Friends in the Tolkien Fandom:

March 25th is Tolkien Reading Day. Who wants to band together in making March, Tolkien Fanfic Reading Month?

For one month, let's exert a little more effort in showing our Tolkien writers some love! They put so much time and work and love into expanding Tolkien’s world and stories for us. There's no better way to celebrate Tolkien Reading Day!

This is only a pseudo-event. Nothing formal or fancy. No invitation or registration required. No requirements or deadlines.

Simply gorge yourself on some Tolkien fanfic all throughout March. And PLEASE COMMENT if you can. It's the best way to guarantee we get more quality stories from our favorite writers!

When I first saw this shot, I thought Disa blended with the rock (partly due to dim lighting*). Then I thought that the draping of her costume resembles rock striations but that's not actually it either.

I went back to one of Kate Hawley's, s1 costume designer, interviews and it's really worth reading beyond these quotes:

"With Disa specifically, we talked about her being of water. I did all these other sketches, which are sort of just big bulky sketches because everyone tends to think of Dwarves as these sort of mass blocks. And actually, when you meet Disa, she's so warm, and there's this beautiful, sensual quality and warmth in the lights in her eyes, and all of those things were just about bringing them out more."

"And she talked about herself being the water over stone, which I thought was a beautiful thing, which sort of linked into the singing and that."

Fitting that her dress looks like running water, considering the view outside of Khazad-dum, similar to how elvish costumes uses vines and leaves.

"So we went back to Sophia and went, “Let's use all your beautiful physicality and make her sensual.” We were showing her statues of Brunhilda and all of that Nibelung, and that’s where the leg came in.

Then we went, “Well, how do we still make it feel Dwarfy?” And it's not just noses and ears and things like that. We looked at the boots, we created these boots that felt like Dwarven feet and gold feet, that was part of the craftsmanship of this world."

Disa is dressed to be desirable and to support Sophia Nomvete's performance. It's also not mentioned in the article but it bears reminding that in SDCC 2022 interviews, Sophia confirmed that her costumes were also designed to accommodate her as a new mother.

This isn't really an analysis but more appreciation of what Kate Hawley (who also worked on the Hobbit) brought to ROP. Luca Mosca worked alongside with her and built upon her foundation for s2 but I don't think new costumes were made for Disa. I might have love every costume but not liking an aesthetic doesn't mean there wasn't any thought put into it.

— [*Caps are brightened for visibility!]

credit: cap-that.com

I adore Disa as a character so much. But I have to admit that when I first saw her I was so struck by her appearance that she became a favorite character for *other* reasons. She is very sensual and sexy and I think a lot of that comes from how her costumes accentuate her body and don't try to make her appear smaller or thinner. If anything they emphasize her body size and shape and I love that. Even her facial features are strong. My primordial monkey brain sees her and goes "fertility goddess hnggg". Durin is a lucky man 🧡

Just noticed that, when Fëanor goes and confront Fingolfin in front of his father, he is not just carrying a sword, but "fully armed : his high helm upon his head", which brings the following observations/questions :

"Who's that over there, carrying a trident and a fishing net ? Someone from King Olwë's retinue ?" No, it's just prince Fëanáro in his outfit du jour. The day before he was wearing a bearskin and nothing else. Tomorrow, who knows ?

Feanorian Week Reminder!!

Hello Silmarillion Fandom! This is your reminder that Feanorian week will be taking place next month. Below are updated prompts (you are still allowed to suggest prompts)! When is it?:   March 24th, 2025—March 30th, 2025       

The prompts are as followed:

Rules: You are allowed to post anything fanrelated on the days.  If the prompts are not to your liking, you can do your own thing.  The tracktag is #feanorianweek.  Tag your work accordingly!  Have fun and be nice to others. Disrespect towards others will not be tolerated.  (apologies for the INCREDIBLY late reminder. This year has been a lot)

I need you all to consider the fact that Bear could be composing Galadriel & Celeborn's theme as we speak