love how much of Aragorn’s initial interactions with the hobbits is just telling them not to say things
aragorn: could you stop casually invoking the dread name of the ancient and terrible evil that even now follows at our very heels for FIVE MINUTES
aragorn: hey I gotta take a breather can you take over the hobbit duties for a bit
gandalf: no worries got you covered
Aragorn’s given up
elrond: hey you can’t say that here
gandalf: you can’t tell me what to say, do I look like a hobbit to you
The film repositions this for comedy, but in Return of the King, there’s this scene:
Gandalf, outside the door: oh hang on, just a sec. for reasons I won’t explain; this is about to get super geopolitical. Try not to spill too many beans in front of Denethor.
Pippin: Do I have that many of them?
Denethor: right, you ignorant child! Under my skilled interrogation I shall force you to spill the beans.
Pippin: I know three things about beans and will share them (under skilled interrogation, discourses for a full hour on beans, the preparation thereof, the cultivation thereof, and the Shire’s various thoughts on beans in general)
Gandalf: (pretends to be annoyed) denethor if you wanted SENSIBLE discourse on geopolitical beans I am RIGHT HERE
Denethor, fascinated: no! I already know everything you’re about to say and I’m NOT accepting criticism at this time. And I genuinelyhave no idea what this guy’s going to say next - do you have ANY idea how fun that is for me
Pippin: now the classic market share of baked beans inna tin belongs to Heinz, but I myself am a Branston man, because - referencing my previous statements - if you want beans, you do NOT need to faff about with a tin opener. The decision to retain the pop-top -
Gandalf: this is unbelievable. denethor, can we -
Denethor: BZT! ✋ let him cook
(Later)
Pippin: are you mad at me for talking about beans for an hour
Gandalf: it was, in a weird way, the best move on the chessboard, and so politically savvy that it furthered three of my agendas, and was also really funny to listen to. Denethor has the long sight; he is accustomed to reading the minds and hearts of men at a long distance, these long years. Actually, maybe this has jaded him as much as anything else. To meet a mind whose umwelt, whose very nature, he has not already fully plumbed is not just an act of political obfuscation on our part; for Denethor himself, could such fresh provocation burst his stagnant social bubble, and save him from being so terminally fucking online? Might we have uncovered the potential of a Theoden thematic parallel? Much to ponder. The only unfortunate bit was that you kept freezing up and looking guilty when Denethor asked you about containers
Pippin: you said not to spill any beans and I was worried he’d trip me up
Gandalf: it is, as ever, like talking to a fucking genie with you people
really mean minecraft mod idea: rituals that work but in a very vague and hard to understand ways
at the start of a world, a set of actions are randomly chosen which have some positive effect. walking counterclockwise around a tree or throwing an item into a fire or killing an animal with an axe. there has to be a very large number of possible actions such that they won’t seem to repeat.
when doing a ritual, you get a buff that’s clearly there but kind of subtle. maybe ores drop more, or monsters don’t hurt as much. it’s never communicated that you have a buff, the idea is that you accidentally do a ritual and notice “oh shit I’m getting really lucky, maybe I should do that more”
there’s also a set of attributes which can greatly increase the effectiveness of your rituals, completely randomized per world of course. sometimes it’s additional steps, drawn from the same set as before. sometimes it’s decorating the ritual site in a particular way, with skulls or candles or flowers. maybe it’s more effective at a certain time of day or phase of the moon. maybe it’s more effective on the top of a mountain or in a cave.
because the magnitude and duration of the buff is randomized, you can’t really know if stuff you’re doing is helping, but you’ll be always trying shit out and modifying your rituals. the buffs get really impactful, and you can hardly play the game without them.
after a while you’ll build up elaborate rituals and intricate temples housing them, and importantly
half the shit you’re doing does absolutely nothing
if you get lucky a few times with a modification to the ritual you’ll adopt it even if it actually does nothing. depending on how succeptible to confirmation bias you are, you might develop whole rituals that literally do nothing but you’re entirely convinced that they do. you’ll be dancing around trees and putting pumpkins on your head for literally no measurable benefit.
will this be actually fun? probably not. will I actually make this? absolutely not. i just think it would be an interesting case study in behavior. if someone wants to steal my idea, please do and tell me so I can play it.
You could do a fascinating experiment with a fraction of the work by telling a group of players that the mod exists and you have installed it on a server and asking them to play for a set amount of time and see if they can figure out any of the lucky rituals. They would most definitely develop rituals all their own based on confirmation bias. And/or you could fuck with them by going in and upping the numbers in the game files for instance of diamond or whatever, and then undoing the change at a random later point.
I wanted to color something and this drawing was so clean and I like it a lot so I used it.
I want to practice using colors, for special occasions, but everytime I do it’s a different way because I have bad memory so I can’t remember how I did it.
8yo: I am writing a book. I’ve nearly finished the first chapter, I don’t know what to write next. [We establish he has introduced the main character, Johnson, and Johnson’s two best friends Dave D No.1 and Dave D No.2] Me: So in most stories the main character wants something. What does Johnson want? 8yo: To be an astronaut. Me: Does he get to be an astronaut in the end? 8yo: Yes but not in this book. Me: … 8yo: After lots of books. [We establish that book 1 ends when Johnson has met an astronaut by winning a competition for the funniest comic, and that the main conflict is that his nemesis Dave D No.3 also wants to win this competition.] 8yo: I’m going to write twelve chapters! Me: …I often find it hard to guess how many chapters it’s going to take to tell a story, it’s okay to change it 8yo [with equal enthusiasm]: I’m going to write this chapter and see how many I need!
character that claws their way out of the grave and builds their new life directly on top of it, while doggedly pursuing the exact goals that led them to the grave the first time.
