oh Ratbag, you loveable knuckle head..

Paying the Toll, pt 2: M Troll x F Human, SFW (for now)

I bet no one expected this to be updated! Including me! This installment is definitely not as long as I intended, because I got really hung up on details–that’s why I’m posting anyway, to get some momentum so that hopefully the third part will be both longer and not so tardy. 

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The tragedy of finding a fic like this, absolutely loving the premise, the prose, the plot, the imagery... only to find out there is only 2 parts and it hasn't been updated in years 😭

well

tagging @demial4 and @altsmatou

Nobody tagged me, but I decided to do it anyway~

Now let me see…

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

HAHAHAHA

Haha… yeah. The OGs now.

Open tag, join me!

ai'ght

0 pressure tag: @saintstars @howlsmoonhaven @hirazuki @fishing4stars @mirkwood-hr-department @ms-trash-panda

Thanks for tagging!!

No pressure tagging: @fairytiredreblogs, @imma-little-teapot, @celebbun, @melkors-defense-attorney, @theemoreader, @estramor, @0070070077

Yep, that’s me!

Tagging: @tar-thelien @junk-whunk-punk

oop thank for tagging vro AND AY LOOK

oh how did u knoooowwwww🤭🤭

absolutely open tag but @kay1mi @ironloki3 @ms-trash-panda @lyragoth @celebrimbor-loves-you @the-froggit @sinick @allofthefreedoms HOW ABOUT U no pressure tho👄

Thanks for the tag! I got: alternate universe.

I’ll tag: @shadowofwar-goober @pengtheplush @thefaearealwaysamongyou and of course anybody can join

Ah, yes, I remember this quiz! It’s been a year or so since I took it, but turns out I’m still the same old me:

Tagging:

@astariaeverlasting, @moonstonevulture, @dailyratbag, @cherry-poppins, and/or anyone who hasn’t taken the quiz yet 🤷

The irony of having a character some of my readers LITERALLY refer to as "Barbie" and his whole arc is about how dark and awful his life is except for that one "kiss" I keep teasing at but never granting to him.

I tag... YOU RANDOM CITIZEN! Because practically all my mutuals have been tagged already :P

Sauron's Orc Army by Darren Tan

book!scenes that aren’t in the movies:

It’s probably safe to say that Elves have an oath-trauma.

"How do you write such realistic dialogue-" I TALK TO MYSELF. I TALK TO MYSELF AND I PRETEND I AM THE ONE SAYING THE LINE. LIKE SANITY IS SLOWLY SLIPPING FROM BETWEEN MY FINGERS WITH EVERY MEASLY WORD THEY TYPE OUT. THAT IS HOW.

How we look like on the daily in front of the laptops

Dumb with him

Also this gif alone coz I think everyone should be able to have lil Tal in their pocket 😌✨

OMG I am sitting here GRINNING ALL OVER!!! 😁

Lookit him! Just lookit his little face!

He's so happy with all his Flaily-Arm-y Stompy Dancin'!

What a kick this is! Thank you so much for this shot in the arm!

The Silmarillion fandom is genuinely insane. Like, you hang out on tumblr, read fic on AO3 and you think, yeah. Lots of people have read the Silmarillion. It’s Tolkien. Everyone’s read Tolkien. Barnes and Noble has a whole bunch of the HoME and also a bunch of books by people writing about the legendarium. This is mainstream, surely.

But then you actually touch grass and talk to normal people. Not even that, you talk to people who self diagnose as hard core Tolkien fans. And. None of them have read the Silmarillion. The Silmarillion is famously a book that nobody reads.

And yet. On AO3 The Silmarillion and Other Histories of Middle Earth has more works than The Lord of the Rings. Think about that. That’s baffling. It’s ridiculous. Like I realize that LotR fandom is split a bit by the movie, but still. The Silmarillion has almost four times as many fics as the LotR movies. Everybody has watched the movies!

I need to know what percentage of people who actually read the Silmarillion went on to write fic or draw fanart about it. Because it must be insane, surely. Like, I’m pretty sure the Silmarillion wins some kind of record in this department.

Thinking about the fanfic bell curve where on one end you have “Perfect, needs no improvement or elaboration” (LotR sits here) and on the other you have “So bad it’s no fun to even think about” with the middle being the fanfic zone. But I think there may be a secret fourth Silmarillion option. Which is a book that is perfect* but simultaneously non existent. It’s not even a real story! The language is super pretty and deeply incomprehensible (especially to people who, unlike me, were not raised from early childhood on both the Bible and classic literature). And it’s more of an outline and an abstract painting of cultural and world building vibes (not cultural and world building facts and information) than an actual narrative. There are story hooks galore. There are vivid and fascinating characters, but their lives are glossed over and you only get one or two paragraphs of prose that will reorder your brain chemistry and haunt you forever. There are countless more characters who only exist as names, the implication of whose existence is fascinating. All of this is deeply frustrating, both to casual readers who just want a Normal Enjoyable Book, and super fans who want All the Lore. But it is catnip to anyone who engages in transformative work.

*I am aware that not anyone who is a fan of the silm thinks it’s perfect

In honor of The Professor’s bday today, I redrew on of my first and favorite bits of Silmarillion Silliness xD

old version here, crazy improvement in 5 years

I see this picture and it reminded me of whenever i encounter a shirtless Uruk

The caption is calling me out 😭

bring back ratbag for 2026

Ratbag for Warchief 2026!

The Secret Life of Orcs

If Elves represent ‘beauty and grace of life and artefact’, then Orcs, created in mockery of the Elves, must represent the opposite:  the ugly, the mean and the crass.  Yet, Elves are not unidimensional - they can be spiteful, materialistic and selfish, and likewise, Orcs are more complex than their role as villains might suggest.  How does Morgoth make the first Orcs?  Are they a unique species?  And finally, what characterises them as rational creatures? (1)

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Such excellent research. I love examining the inherent complexity of orcs and their origins ❤️

On the one hand, Shadow of Mordor/Shadow of War kind of seem to take LoTR's themes about the corruption of power and turn them into a Shounen Power Fantasy but on the other, Shadow of War still seems to end it on a note that's very in-theme.

I say "Shounen Power Fantasy" because you spend most of the game just Using Power to dodge the consequences of Using Power, with things only falling apart after Shadow of War ends.

On the other, Talion's story isn't one of someone who resisted its pull forever, just, "long enough."

He knew it was important, and so he held the line for years, only succumbing to the power of the Ring when he had absolutely nothing left to give, and it happened to have been JUST long enough to give The Fellowship a chance.

Meanwhile, Celebrimbor's fall came because he failed to understand his mistakes. He believed Sauron corrupted his rings' Power, when the tenet of Power in Middle-Earth is that nobody can resist its call forever. Even Frodo's will failed at the final hurdle. So he didn't notice until too late.

Ultimately, I think Shadow of War took the setup of Shadow of Mordor and gave a narrative payoff that made it FEEL like a story from Middle-Earth, and not just one that used "Mordor" as set-dressing. Even if the gameplay itself wasn't that much more interesting.