Give me your LotR questions

[promethean75]

thank you, madam taxidermist. finally i get some proper representation around here. every time i turna round i get accused of being an existential-this and a marxist-that and one time this guy even had the nerve to call me a Dostoyevskyian nihilist.

[Harbal]

I still say there were far too many dwarves.

[Iwannaplato]

I still say there were far too many dwarves.

Despite the wealth of pro-dwarf arguments?

[Harbal]

I still say there were far too many dwarves.

Despite the wealth of pro-dwarf arguments?

I'll be perfectly honest with you; the dwarves get on my bloody nerves, and no wealth of argument is going to argue that away.

[Iwannaplato]

I'll be perfectly honest with you; the dwarves get on my bloody nerves, and no wealth of argument is going to argue that away.

It's tempting to now try to make you seem irrational, but I was just playing with you. Or, maybe your response was just drier humor than I'm used to and you knew that.

[Harbal]

It's tempting to now try to make you seem irrational, but I was just playing with you. Or, maybe your response was just drier humor than I'm used to and you knew that.

Well I didn't actually know if you were being dry, either.

It must be 40 years or more since I read the book, and I don't remember having a problem with the dwarves then. I watched one of the films on Netflix recently, and the dwarves just irritated me beyond belief. I just wanted the little bastards to be wiped out. I suppose it's Peter Jackson's fault as much as Tolkien's.

[Iwannaplato]

Well I didn't actually know if you were being dry, either.

It must be 40 years or more since I read the book, and I don't remember having a problem with the dwarves then. I watched one of the films on Netflix recently, and the dwarves just irritated me beyond belief. I just wanted the little bastards to be wiped out. I suppose it's Peter Jackson's fault as much as Tolkien's.

There's a lot of dwarves in the Hobbit and in his film versions of that. And I hated the film versions of the hobbit. It was like a long disney ride with, yes, dwarves. It would have helped if they were just a bit more handsome.

I loved Gimli. He was my favorite character and I'm a sucker for the facile 'born enemies become best friends' with Legolas thing.

I can't say I'd wanna be around a lot of Elves (in life, in films). The whole mechanized unity, lack of emotional expression thing. I'll take a surly dwarf over that. Falstaff over I don't know, a pack of Romeo's doing ballet.

But the dwarves in the Hobbit (the book) didn't bother me. In the film version, yes.

[henry quirk]

Astro,

Gandalf and the other wizards were angels, yeah? Diminished angels (had to be...can't pour all that power into a mortal frame). And each carried a staff. Is a wizard's staff his symbol of station or is it conduit for the metaphysical forces he commands or was it the reservoir for the power he can't contain in his old man body?

[Harbal]

Astro,

Gandalf and the other wizards were angels, yeah? Diminished angels (had to be...can't pour all that power into a mortal frame). And each carried a staff. Is a wizard's staff his symbol of station or is it conduit for the metaphysical forces he commands or was it the reservoir for the power he can't contain in his old man body?

It seemed to me that what his staff was able to do varied in order to accomodate the plot at any given time.

[henry quirk]

Astro,

Gandalf and the other wizards were angels, yeah? Diminished angels (had to be...can't pour all that power into a mortal frame). And each carried a staff. Is a wizard's staff his symbol of station or is it conduit for the metaphysical forces he commands or was it the reservoir for the power he can't contain in his old man body?

It seemed to me that what his staff was able to do varied in order to accomodate the plot at any given time.

Mebbe. Like you, I haven't read the books in a long time. The movies figure way more in my recollections than the words. With that in mind: it always seemed to me the staff was sumthin' more important than a tool. I think the staff is as much the wizard as the old man.

[Flannel Jesus]

What bedroom antics are like with a LotR fan:

1n62pa5omoe91.jpg (38.66 KiB) Viewed 607 times

[Harbal]

Mebbe. Like you, I haven't read the books in a long time. The movies figure way more in my recollections than the words. With that in mind: it always seemed to me the staff was sumthin' more important than a tool. I think the staff is as much the wizard as the old man.

I don't know, henry, I haven't given too much thought to where the staff ends and the wizard begins, but there just seemed to be some inconsistency. Sometimes Gandalf would blast his foes with his staff, and sometimes he just ran away from them, along with the others.

[henry quirk]

Mebbe. Like you, I haven't read the books in a long time. The movies figure way more in my recollections than the words. With that in mind: it always seemed to me the staff was sumthin' more important than a tool. I think the staff is as much the wizard as the old man.

I don't know, henry, I haven't given too much thought to where the staff ends and the wizard begins, but there just seemed to be some inconsistency. Sometimes Gandalf would blast his foes with his staff, and sometimes he just ran away from them, along with the others.

We'll have to wait on Astro to issue an expert rulin'.

[Harbal]

We'll have to wait on Astro to issue an expert rulin'.

I'm not sure about that. She has ignored my comments so far, and I think I may have done something unforgivable by disparaging the dwarves. Also, it is obvious that I'm not an aficionado, and so am not considered worthy of attention. I suspect her contempt for me is similar to that of mine for the dwarves.

[henry quirk]

We'll have to wait on Astro to issue an expert rulin'.

I'm not sure about that. She has ignored my comments so far, and I think I may have done something unforgivable by disparaging the dwarves. Also, it is obvious that I'm not an aficionado, and so am not considered worthy of attention. I suspect her contempt for me is similar to that of mine for the dwarves.

Poor Harbal: snubbed by a stranger on-line.