I think the reason so many LOTR ripoffs fail is because they make their Aragorn analogue the main character, when the entire point of Aragorn is that he’s “the person the villains think is the main character, but is Not.”
Aragorn seems like a traditional King Arthur style hero— he has huge Main Character Energy because he’s supported by destiny, by bloodline, by all these magic artifacts and prophecies, and etc etc. Frodo and Sam are Just Some Guys. Aragorn recognizes that Sauron understandably thinks he’s the main hero of this story ….and he pretends to believe it too, spending the entire series using himself as a diversion to prevent Sauron from seeing Frodo and Sam.
Aragorn’s whole thing is that knows he seems like the Main Hero of this legend to people who don’t know better —- but he also knows that he isn’t, and that his role is just to keep Sauron’s eye on him in order to protect the people around him.
And it works! Sauron is so fixated on defeating his Legendary Destined Archenemy with Extreme Main Character Energy that he completely overlooks the two ordinary little guys who were the real threat to him all along.
There is a small but important scene right at the end of eldest, where Angela has just come back from poisoning the army and Eragon and Orik spot her and go to ask her what’s going on. The important bit happens here, Nasuada shows up to tell Eragon and Orik that yes Angela was acting under her orders, and after a brief chat, tells Eragon that she has chosen him as her successor as the leader of the Varden. It’s a big deal for both of them. But the detail I love in this scene is that Nasuada shows up guarded by 4 Urgals, including Nar Gharzvog, who had only joined the varden a few hours before, which most of the varden are angry about. While I think the text says that she’s dressed for battle a few pages earlier, whenever I picture Nasuada I always see her in a luxurious dress, and the picture in my mind of Nasuada stood calm and composed, looking incredibly beautiful, surrounded by a squad of urgals under the dim moonlight is one I have thought about for years. I’m still learning to draw, it’ll be years before I can replicate the image in my head, but this one scene speaks to Nasuada’s character so well, and I can’t wait for the day I can finally replicate it.
You pretend to be a small-time villain. At most, you annoy the local supers, but your crimes never hurt anyone. To you it's all good fun. Things change when a truly sadistic supervillain invades your turf and murders a few of the supers. No one has seen the extent of your true powers until now.
saw a cute pic and immediately started to redraw with them ( ended up spending way too much time on this I don’t know if I like the style I went with ) 🫠🩷
your inherent belief that a person who made a single mistake can never fully recover is very catholic of you
USA people! Buy NOTHING Feb 28 2025. Not anything. 24 hours. No spending. Buy the day before or after but nothing. NOTHING. February 28 2025. Not gas. Not milk. Not something on a gaming app. Not a penny spent. (Only option in a crisis is local small mom and pop. Nothing. Else.) Promise me. Commit. 1 day. 1 day to scare the shit out of them that they don't get to follow the bullshit executive orders. They don't get to be cowards. If they do, it costs. It costs.
Then, if you can join me for Phase 2. March 7 2025 thtough March 14 2025? No Amazon. None. 1 week. No orders. Not a single item. Not one ebook. Nothing. 1 week. Just 1.
If you live outside the USA boycott US products on February 28 2025 and stand in solidarity with us and also join us for the week of no Amazon.
Are you with me?
Spread the word.
some jayvik sillies
Merry, to Frodo, lying face-down on bed, regretting being alive: And then I called him dad.
Boromir, to Aragorn, sobbing: And then he called me dad.
MANIFESTING
Banner image courtesy of NASA (butterfly nebula)
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