so on the subject of stolen property, i’ve seen various arguments on this point but it is in fact true that inheriting something from a relative, when you know full well that it was stolen, does not make it yours.
this clearly goes doubly so for powerful magical artifacts, and especially for artifacts which are strongly implied to contain part of their creator’s soul!
you can talk about consequences – maybe the artifact in question has benefits for you, maybe you’re not convinced its rightful owners would use it responsibly – but talking about the consequences doesn’t erase the fact that whatever benefits you think you’re getting are achieved through wrongful means.
which is why i, too, think Frodo should have given the One Ring back to Sauron. thief.
Hahahahaha here comes the law student nerd ready to complicate your wonderful post, op.
(Really this is just pretext for me to study for my property final in a week, so thanks yeah)
Because according to the principles of common property law, the matter of who actually owns title to the One Ring becomes really complicated really fast.
Buckle up babes for the pedantic law lecture no one asked for.
(more under the cut)
EXCELLENT
The best part of this is: trust me I guarantee Tolkien knew this much about the Common Law (English mediaevalists end up knowing ridiculous amounts about both Common Law and mediaeval Catholicism whether we want to or not), and indeed if you look at the text, this was relevant to the story.
It’s part of the reason that Sauron is as terrified of Aragorn’s potential claim on the Ring as he is of Gandalf’s or Saruman’s or Galadriel’s – if not more. Because in Middle Earth this shit matters. This is a world where a broken oath will literally bind your unhappy restless soul to the earth in spite of the dictates of the literal creator of the universe (who designated humans as Passing Beyond The World when they die). This is a world where a damn oath is responsible for Everything That’s Wrong With The First And Second Ages.
Oaths, ownership, duties, rights, things owed and owing: this shit matters.
And sure Aragorn is also direct line from Lúthien, but so is Elrond, and so are Elrohir and Elladan. So is Arwen. But what none of them have that Aragorn has? Is a rightful claim to ownership of the Ring.
So much of what Aragorn spends his time in the second and third volumes doing is Establishing Claim – establishing that everything that Isildur owned, he now owns. Why? Because it means he has power that is absolutely needed. “Isildur’s Heir” isn’t a woo-woo floofy-high-concept thing: it’s a literal matter of rights, duties and authority.
When he takes the Palantír from Gandalf and uses it, his companions are aghast, but he reminds them that he has both the right and the strength to use it – and the Right is actually important. Saruman was, face to face, stronger than Aragorn (never doubt that) and Sauron completely pwned him, but Saruman had no right to the Seeing Stone, no more right than Pippin.
But the Palantíri belonged to Aragorn: he’s not only Melian’s ever-so-great-grandchild, he’s also Fingolfin’s ever-so-great-grandchild, and since the Fëonori died out with the poor Ringmaker, the only competition Aragorn could have for ownership of the Stones are Galadriel and Elrond. (And that’s only if you are going right back to the maker-rights, and ignoring the establishment of the Stones as the property of Elros’ line rather later).
It matters. It changes how power works and doesn’t work. Aragorn’s status as the Heir is in fact grounded in these ideas, which play a hugely powerful part (in fact the fight over who rightfully owns the Silmaril Beren and Lúthien brought out of the dark is part of the bloodshed that makes it so that in the end the Silmarils themselves actively reject the last two living sons of Fëanor, negating their claim). Because Aragorn is the rightful inheritor of everything Isildur ever had, he can use the Palantír. Because he is the rightful inheritor of everything Isildur ever had, he can summon the Dead. And because he is the rightful inheritor of everything Isildur ever had, he stands equal to two of the Ainur, to the oldest member of the Trees-blessed Noldorin royal house, and to his own much more powerful (straight up) relatives as a potential claimant of the Ring.
And that is why Sauron is willing to take the chance to catch Aragorn, and (he thinks) ensure his capture, rather than attacking him earlier on when there’s a chance that (even if Aragorn can’t possibly WIN) he could still escape and then bide his time before the next Ring-War and learn to use the damn thing.
But. It’s also important when it comes to Frodo.
Frodo uses the Ring twice, and lays open claim once. Both of the times he uses it are on Sméagol, both times overwheming him and in the second case cursing him (“if you ever touch me again you will be thrown into the fire”). We get both moments from Sam’s POV, where the physical reality of Frodo is replaced by an image of him as a much larger figure, alight from the inside, robed in light, and with a “wheel of fire” at his breastbone.
Frodo does not have any genetics (so to speak) more special than any other hobbit. It’s not like Aragorn vs most humans, where there’s actually a legit difference because most humans were not, at that point, descended from a Maia. Frodo’s just this guy.
The only thing that’s really special about Frodo in terms of the Ring is that, like Aragorn, he’s the other person who has a viable claim. It would, as it were, have to go to the judges to figure out whose claim is better.
And this is why in the moment that he claims the Ring, in the Mountain, Sauron is fucking terrified. It’s why he drops everything else, even the issue of trying to keep his mindless drone-fighters going, even the maintenance of his actual control of weather, of light, of whatever fight he and Gandalf have going, to get his best servants back to the Mountain now now now now.
Because Frodo having an actual rightful claim on the Ring means he can, in fact, use it. Not well, which is why Sauron can paralyse him for that moment it takes for Sméagol to strike (and carry out both Frodo’s demanded oath – “save the Precious from Him” – and his Curse – “if you touch me you will be thrown in the fire” – at once), but he could. This tiny little person is a threat to Sauron, in the heart of his own home, because he has the right to have and use this Ring.
The tricky thing about Tolkien is that whatever his flaws (and he has many), the one thing he’s never unclear of is that the concept of right and might are actually separate. Just because you are strong enough to do or take a thing doesn’t mean you have any right to do it; and just because you aren’t strong enough to enforce your right, doesn’t mean it goes away.
…/UTTER NERD
I had a nerdgasm just reading this.
This is good and you should all feel good for writing it.
(As a former lawyer there is NOTHING better for studying than arguing fake cases in your favorite fictions. Things you thought you were tired of reading about suddenly become interesting when you are trying to prove some fucker wrong on the internet about like, whether or not testimony counts as hearsay if you can prove that the speaker was under the effects of a magical truth-enforcing curse.)
Projects laundry room cheat codes…
Cuh a real one for this!
WHY DO I HAVE TO PAY TO DO LAUNDRY IN A BUILDING I’M ALREADY PAYING TO LIVE IN????
This could be important for my fellow poor people who need to save as much as they can
I did the math. If I do a load of laundry every week (I technically have to do two, as my undershirts are washed at a different temperature and air dried), so its $6 a week. That’s $312 per year. There are six units in my building, assuming they are spending the same on average (but probably more), that’s $1872 per year that my landlord pulls in. I can FRIGGIN GUARANTEE YOU that the collective building *DOES NOT* spend $1872 per year in water and power to run the washer and dryer. I also pay $1200 per month in rent, which is $14,400 per year. Between 6 units that’s $86,400, plus the laundry fees lets call that $88k that the building pulls in per year. I can FUCKING GUARANTEE YOU this building does *NOT* use that much in water and property taxes, and every unit pays for its own electricity.
My landlord owns 10 buildings, all of the same design. The entire lot of 10 buildings has one superintendent. The buildings do not have AC, their appliances have not been replaced in a minimum of 20+ years, and the washer and dryer are…well they’re ancient.
I feel *ZERO* sympathy if I can make this work in the laundry room.
Reblogging again becuase this is great
Baahubali 2
GOT who?
LOTR what?… I am not entirely sure what just happened. Exploding balls of men with shields catapulting from palm trees. A man just sliding around this invasion on his shield, then Captain America-ing like 10 dudes with it.
Bollywood effects departments are having way too much fun.
I have no idea what I just watched but I am 100% on board.
OH OH OH I HAVE A STORY TO ADD TO THIS.
So I’ve had the pleasure of working in the armory dept of a Bollywood Film, and got to spend a lot of time hanging out with the Indian crews.
Basically, the effects are so outlandish because “ITS THE MOVIES, WHY NOT” and because it’s a lot of fun to come up with these silly cartoony things and figure out how to film them.
They actively try to out-do each-other to see who makes the silliest thing happen. It’s great.
AMAZING
I realize this scene looks completely cheesey and dumb but seriously…
Bahubali is like, a fucking amazing movie. It’s on Netflix. Watch the hell out of that shit
Okay but like, the one cannonball made of dudes hitting the side of the fortress instead of making it over has me CACKLING!
there are fanfics you will recommend to your friends with enthusiasm and then there are fanfics that no-one can ever know you have read
both are good and valid 😀
today I went out to get some research started with two other people i’m working with and we ended up on this fairly treacherous cliff/slope spot trying to navigate to some tricky coordinates and one of my group members slipped on the slope and started sliding and he reached out and grabbed for a sapling and the ground was so loose it just started going down with him and I was too far away to immediately help him but I wanted to alert my other group member to his peril but I fuckin’ panicked and I just said “THERE he GOES”
if you ever feel you didn’t respond correctly to a situation, ask yourself if you watched someone all but totally fall off a cliff and said “there he goes”
OBVIOUSLY he’s okay or I wouldn’t have posted about it. He got another, sturdier tree.
one time i was camping with my gf in a park that had hella bears and it was dark and we were sitting around the campfire and i had the sudden inkling to turn around and there was a bear not five feet behind me and my first instinct was to say “HEY. YOURE not supposed to be here!” and i feel like that has very similar energy
HEY!!!
What if someone got bitten by a vampire, but didn’t realize it. So then they go around and keep misidentifying all the symptoms, like
“Dude, you haven’t gone outside in a while.”
“Yeah, last time I went out I got this wicked sunburn.”“Are you still up?”
“Yeah, I started bing watching this show on Netflix.”“Dude, I’m seriously craving something right now.”
“Like what?”
“I dunno. Pizza rolls?”“Why is it that you never come into my house unless I invite you?”
“Um, it’s called ‘being polite’…?”“I tried cooking with garlic the other night and got this serious burn on my hand. I think I’m allergic, but all I’m getting on Google is vampire bullshit.”
“Dude can a mirror like… stop working or something?”
“Dude, why do you keep posting pictures of the floor?”
“…Those are meant to be selfies, I guess my camera must be broken.”“Dude, I am all for you expressing your religious beliefs, but could you not wear your crucifix when I’m around? It really bugs me for some reason.”
“Have you ever noticed how cute bats are? like really noticed? sweet lil balls of fluff with wings man.”
“I want to sleep in a coffin…ya kno, for like… aesthetic”
“What’s with your thing about necks lately?”
“MUST YOU KINKSHAME ME IN MY OWN HOME”
“I looked up my symptoms on WebMD, and it says I have cancer.”
This last addition made the reblog obligatory. This one wins.
except mirrors aren’t made the same way anymore so he would have a reflection, but then he’s visiting a museum with old ass mirrors and he just assume they don’t work anymore cause they’re so old
The Archery Range 