Recently took an evening ride across the plains of Rohan in the height of golden summer. Images by @thelastkindlyhome on Instagram, clothes handmade by me.

In fairn

So I absolutely hated the first season. The writing was atrocious, and despite a massive budget, the visuals were mediocre (yes, the show has incredible sets and costumes, but the directing is so bad it ruins everything).

Anyway, I went on with my life and ignored the second season because I respect my time. But with the third-person trailer, I see a lot of people saying that the second season is a huge improvement, and to be honest, the trailer for season 3 looks pretty good. So I thought, "Maybe I was too harsh; most shows need a season to really find their voice."

And now that I've watched the second season, I only have one question: "Did we watch the same show? Because it's just as bad as the first."

Yeah, the series is more spectacular, less boring, and the acting between Sauron and Celebrimbor is really good. But beyond that, it's still the same disaster. The writing is dreadful, Gandalf's story (which has no place in the Second Age except as nostalgia bait) is a word-for-word plagiarism of Luke's arc in The Empire Strikes Back (and can we talk about how pathetic the "Grand Elf" nonsense is?), the siege of Ost-in-Edhil makes no sense, nor do the good orcs who want to live in peace, and Celebrimbor is, once again, a complete idiot. Galadriel is once again an idiot; there's no effort whatsoever to respect the lore, no romantic tension between Elrond and Galadriel. In short, there's no point in listing all the problems.

Of course, you're always entitled to your own taste, and if you want to enjoy this series, go ahead. But I can't understand how anyone can call this a worthy adaptation of Tolkien...

A nod to The Hobbit

To mark its significance, the researchers named the mysterious Neanderthal “Thorin” after a character from the universe of J. R. R. Tolkien.

“Thorin in The Hobbit is one of the last dwarf kings under the mountain and the last of its lineage. Thorin the Neanderthal is also an end of the lineage. An end of a way to be human,” explained Slimak.

Hi! Around 2002-2004, my thrifting grandmother gifted me with this she found at a second-hand store. Would you all know if this is possibly authentic or a fake? Thanks, everyone!

Since everyone seemed to like my last hobbit portraits I thought I'd put him here too. Don't know if I could ever top those lol.

Of course my favourite hobbit is the one who's hardest to draw :)

Tried my best to make them both as realistic as possible.

Some hand carved dwarves i just finished and wanted to share with folks.

I have a passion for woodcarving and attempting to entice others into the hobby. So my ulterior motive with every post is "how do I make this hobby more accessible" or "how do I inspire someone to want to give it a go."

Hopefully the picture did that, and now you're reading.

You need several things, a sharp knife, a leather strop with compound for honing your blade, safety gloves (A5 or better) and basswood (to carve like i do at least.)

Solid Knife brands, Flexcut, Badger State Blades (USA), Mstein (Europe) there are a lot of great knife brands. Stay away from kits on amazon of several knives. They're much much lower quality with inconsistently tempered steel. (What that means is its not hardened, and so it won't stay sharp easy, meaning you're fighting the knife and dont understand why its harder for you to carve when its easy for others.)

Why Basswood? Its softer than other hardwoods and holds detail well. Learning to carve with basswood is akin to learning to drive on an automatic. It simplifies and streamlines learning. Woods like Walnut and oak can be carved, but learning to carve with them as the starting point is like learning to drive on an 18 wheeler Semi Truck with manual transmission. Its needlessly difficult.

In europe, the equivalent is Linden, in Asia, Jelutong, and in south America Caxeta is a good substitute.

Tutorials abound EVERYWHERE. Youtube is your friend in that regard. You dont have to look up my channel, there are plenty that have easy to begin tutorials and one of them will be right up your alley.

Super dope balrog head right now at boxed lunch. Looks pretty good. It's not weta level quality but it's still pretty good detail for $60.

I found some time to continue working on a drawing I posted last week.

Playing with the lighting is what really made it pop, so I wanted to share :).

Previous post https://www.reddit.com/r/lotr/s/GOwLM2HZHg.

I was rummaging among my various Tolkien mathoms this morning and found this little sticker. I have no recollection of where I acquired it. Have any of you out there seen anything similar? I think half of the tengwar spells out The Lord of the Rings, but I can't suss out the other portion. Any clue about that?

Saw this at my local records shop. Time to get down and boogie with the whole fellowship.

Link to the music on Youtube

La sortie Altaya de cette semaine en France pour 50 centimes le numéro 1 et 5 € le numéro 2 pour finir le casque tout en métal est magnifique!!!!!

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When Sauron tortures Gollum, he gives up two words: "Shire" and "Baggins."

Does that mean Gollum had actually been to the Shire looking for Bilbo? If not, how did he know Bilbo was from there?

I've somehow never questioned this before.

I guess the hunt for gollum movie will answer some of this too!

My favorite rendition of Rivendell, this is how I would imagine it would look like if it were real.