My devil’s advocate argument for the elves being there is that there were a bunch of battles in the north that didn’t make it into the movie and only get mentioned a little in the books, and one of the important themes of LOTR is that all these disparate groups had to band together to fight Sauron. So having elves be at Helm’s Deep is a way to show the different people fighting together in a movie series that was already pressed for time. Necessary? Maybe not. But it doesn’t bother me as much as some of the other changes, because I can at least see a rationale for it.

Yeah I ain’t watching that. They left out like at least a third of what made the books good IMO. Sounds like a waste of time.

OK, here’s the thing. Overall, Peter Jackson’s LOTR trilogy is extremely good. I think it’s the best Tolkien adaptation we’re likely to ever get.

HOWEVER.

The random “Arwen is dying!” subplot was incredibly fucking stupid and while it didn’t ruin the movies for me, it did dampen my enjoyment of them. There had to be a better way to get more screentime for Liv Tyler, surely.

Honestly? Gotta disagree. It’s been a long time since I’ve read the book but I remember being disappointed by it after seeing the movie. Maybe I’ll give it a reread and see if my opinion’s changed. ETA: fuck all the movie sequels though, no one needed that shit.

I love the Dark Tower series and hadn’t seen the movie yet. They dropped Susannah out ENTIRELY? Seriously???

Well, at least next year you’ll meet a dental hygenist with a spatula tattooed on her arm

Director’s cut of Goncharov

Being able to make notes about users like you can on Mastodon.

Check Caitlin Doughty’s “Ask A Mortician” videos, in addition to some of the other suggestions.

Wow, the 200m freestyle, the 500m freestyle, and the 1650m freestyle, huh? Did she ever compete in anything else, or were those numbers perhaps cherry-picked to make the situation look more dramatic than it actually is? Because if you look at her results holistically, she’s a very good swimmer, but she’s clearly not dominating 100% of the time the way she’s been portrayed.

At the NCAA competition where Thomas won one (1) race that conservatives cried and shit their pants over, a cis woman named Kate Douglass set 18 new records. Lia Thomas set zero new records. And crunching the rest of the numbers bears this out: she was a good swimmer before and after transition, but she’s not some unbeatable powerhouse that cis women have no chance at winning against.

Eight, but this account is only a couple weeks old.

Game no one’s mentioned yet: Look Outside

I didn’t but I knew a guy who did.

I’ve used EyeBuyDirect before and they were alright. It’s been a couple years tho.

Also: you might like Caitlin Doughty/Ask A Mortician’s videos and/or books. A lot of discussion about different cultures’ approaches to death and how people’s attitudes have evolved over time.

I’ve been pondering this myself. We had to have one of my cats (the one in my profile pic) put down last month, and we got a fur clipping, as well as her ashes. I’d like a piece of memorial jewelry or glass and I’m finding I’m OK with stuff that includes the fur, but not OK with cremation jewelry/cremation glass, and I don’t really know how to articulate why. I think part of it is that fur and hair are shed throughout a lifetime anyway, but dividing up someone’s bones or ashes almost feels like commodification to me.

(To be clear: I’m not judging other people who do this with their loved ones’ remains, be they human or animal; this is just, like, my opinion, man.)

It’s considered taboo according to some religions, but there’s not really any practical or medical reasons, other than the ones already mentioned.

Ianthe from The Locked Tomb. She grated on me at first but somewhere into the second book I was just delighted at her terribleness.

Like others have said, you didn’t do anything wrong. Maybe say a prayer or light a candle for the person and their family if you’re the praying type, but otherwise, don’t worry about it too much.

“Should you” as in “is it morally/ethically wrong?” No, it’s not. “Should you” as in “is it a good idea?” No, it’s a terrible idea. And I think you know that on some level.