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av_nefardec

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Posts posted by av_nefardec

    What Are The Two Towers?

    in The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit

    Posted

    Well Minas Morgul and Isengard would have been the "two towers" from which the two main armies of darkness issued. Both were the direct enemies of Rohan and Gondor, respectively. Barad-dûr was kind of a distant, abstract place in the Third Age - it was never directly attacked or forces were never directly sent from it like they were from Minas Morgul in "The Two Towers"

    still trying to find the pic of that dust jacket - i fear it's obscure.

    Your Views On Art

    in Hall of Intellectuals

    Posted

    Well I am a traditional artist as well as a digital artist, so I have biased opinions on this :(

    But really, the way I've always felt about Art was that the best artist is the one with the best idea, it's the artist who DOES the best idea first.

    So what I mean is that the modern works are commendable for their ingenuity - it's the idea that's worth so much money.

    But now my real issue with artwork these days - there is WAY too much commericialization these days in the arts. There are artists making MILLIONS of dollars off of 'blah' prints, like Thomas Kinkade, and like you said, the field of art is declining.

    Of course, TLA guys know how I feel about mass globalism/commericialization ;) I detest it in its every form ;D

    (now you guys are probably wondering why I am pro-business, and that is because I am pro-independently owned, small business :()

    As for the meaning of art - IMO, meaning is just as important as subject matter or technique, etc.

    An original idea, regardless if it is original in meaning or technique has merit IMO.

    So this is why I try to stay away from redundant political messages in my works - I really don't care much for uninspired work :/ whether it's uninspired in meaning or in technique or subject matter.

    Noldor Concept Art

    in General TLA Discussion

    Posted

    As soon as Quellion finishes four more pieces, TLA will be opening a new gallery on the website, but for now, allow us to treat you to the latest TLA works of Quellion:

    Noldor Villager (Male)

    noldor_villager_male.jpg

    Noldor Villager (Female)

    noldor_villager_female.jpg

    Soon to follow are the Scout, Banner-Bearer, and Herald! :lol:

    (note: these villagers aren't meant to be practical workers like Dwarves or Men ;))

    How Long Will The Usa Exist ?

    in Hall of Intellectuals

    Posted

    No I definitely agree with you.

    Imperialism doesn't have to be in the "antiquated" form we saw with Germany, France, and Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries -

    Look at what the USA ended up doing with Japan after the war...Germany...its own southern states.

    Now I certainly don't think it's a good idea to go around and lay our hands all over the world, but I never liked the regime Saddam Hussein was running in Iraq, and I'm glad that we're in control. Unfortunately, just like with removing cancer from the body, you can try as hard as you want to focus just on the malignant area of the body, but you're always going to destroy tissue around it, just to make sure you've got most of the problem taken care of.

    So there IMO was no other way to remove such a 'malignance', that is a corrupt regime, without adverse consequences. Please don't take me as callous here, it's just the truth. If you know otherwise of a way that the problem could be resolved, I'd like to hear it. Because after twelve years of coersion and appeasement, little was accomplished. I'm sure you've heard this before, but a repeat of the European policies towards Hitler was something we should have learned to avoid.

    Here are some parts of the UN Charter:

    to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and

    to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and

    to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom

    to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and

    to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples

    So it puzzles me then that even after twelve years of chances given to the Saddam's regime that the majority of the UN thought it not pressing to accomplish these above goals.

    So to conclude, I think the war was a necessary means to ensure a better future, even if the present must suffer. (and everyone suffers here, though at much different degrees)

    And it's only proper that the United States and its limited coalition remain in Iraq to finish the job -hopefully the Middle East will be as successful and amicable to the world in the future as Japan was after American reconstruction.

    What Are The Two Towers?

    in The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit

    Posted

    Did you guys by any chance read the excerpt from the letter I posted earlier?

    Tolkien himself wrote multiple times that he PURPOSELY left the precise pair of towers to be ambiguous. This means it could be any two towers, whether they are Isengard and Barad-dûr, or Minas Tirith and Barad-dûr; or Isengard and Cirith Ungol, or Isengard and Minas Morgul. There were connections between all of these pairs of towers. (and by Minas Tirith it's implied that the tower is the white tower of ecthelion, obviously)

    Minas Tirith and Barad-dûr - both connected by Palantiri and by the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

    Isengard and Barad-dûr - both connected by Palantiri and a dark alliance.

    Isengard and Cirith Ungol - two towers where major events occur in the books - i don't think I need to explain this.

    Though i believe on the jacket of the two towers originally drawn by Tolkien he drew Isengard and Minas Morgul. I'll see if I can post a picture. So while he himself may have preferred Isengard and Minas Morgul, he said multiple times that the precise combination can be any of several.

    How Long Will The Usa Exist ?

    in Hall of Intellectuals

    Posted

    That's not a contradiction at all -

    I said two things -

    I don't think it's up to my government to "level the playing field
    If the US can create a "beachhead" in the Arab Middle East, then it can slowly but surely take care of the radical Islam problem that is threatening the world right now.

    These two things point to my personal belief that each country should act for its own citizens and its own citizens alone. This is the ONLY thing I am saying.

    Did you know that more innocent children have been killed

    Perhaps then you didn't know that innocent children were being killed by Saddam Hussein while the rest of the world appeased him through the United Nations.

    Come on, it's all relative.

    No one says my views are correct, and I don't expect anyone here to agree with them. If you lived similarly to how I live, you would have a similar ideaology.

    This is not the place for personal attacks - and this is precisely what angers me outside of the forums with discussion like this. I've not had the pleasure of talking with one person who opposed the US led war in Iraq who could offer a more realistic plan of action than what actually occured. It's so easy to simply attack someone else's views without being able to support your own, isn't it?

    I started posting in this forum hoping that my ideas would be just as openly received as the next's - but I guess this isn't the world we want to live in?

    How Long Will The Usa Exist ?

    in Hall of Intellectuals

    Posted

    Anyway think about it, much of the luxuary (sp?) we have is thanks to all those African people dying of disease or hunger. Isn't it nice to live with something like that in mind?

    I guess this is where many Americans including myself would disagree Klaas.

    Granted, it's a horrible thing, but I don't think it's up to my government to "level the playing field" if you will, but rather is up to the individual :/

    And as much as one can think about a "low-growth" or "no-growth" economy, I think it's impractical simply because people are greedy - there's nothing that can be done to change that.

    You know, the second law of thermodynamics more or less says that however much order you put into a system, you get even more disorder. ;) Seeing that this holds true for just about everything, I've always believed in a limited government (though not so limited as to deny life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to its citizens).

    So I guess the more you try to help people, the more people need help :( It's a sad situation.

    How Long Will The Usa Exist ?

    in Hall of Intellectuals

    Posted

    History has proven that China will probably remain in one way or another :(

    dragging several other nations into the equation

    Er I wish that were the case, but unfortunately it's by far American soldiers being killed out there right now :-/

    Im sick of the us getting involved in every war in far off places that have notthing to do with them

    Well frankly, the wars have everything to do with the United States, in one way or another. +Oil = +Industry = +GDP = +money in people's pockets = +world trade, etc, etc.

    If the US can create a "beachhead" in the Arab Middle East, then it can slowly but surely take care of the radical Islam problem that is threatening the world right now.

    At least that's the aim of the actions :(

    But seriosuly, as much as one would like to think of Americans as 'cowboys' or reckless, it's more like we have goals and we (though not all Americans, obviously) will see them through even if it means getting the job done alone :-/

    But back to what Spiiietz wrote originally:

    econimic instability

    What do you mean economic instability? You must be reading some really loaded literature there ;)

    Economies are NEVER stable, they're always in a state of change and sometimes the change is negative, sometimes it's positive. Sure we've got a problem with jobs right now, but it's not like it's never happened before! Perhaps you've heard of the Great Depression or the American Civil War - American can survive a lot more than petty partisan pop shots like this...

    Mental LOTR Image Destroyed?

    in The Green Dragon

    Posted

    Well regardless if it was good or not, it will never be the same as my first impression :lol:

    Hobbit was remarkably similar to how I originally imagined it though.

    There should be an option:

    "Partially destroyed", because many things that they left out of the movie remain intact, and somethings were just changed a bit in my mind but for the most part remained.

    How Long Will The Usa Exist ?

    in Hall of Intellectuals

    Posted

    fruitless trivialites- fighting terorrism for instance)

    What's your definition of trivial?

    Please save the empty rhetoric for another forum.

    Remember, this is the 21st century - not the 5th century. Large powers simply aren't overrun by barbarian tribes or anything. If the US loses its sovereignty it will be to some larger international body in the interests of security.

    Though I (and other Americans) would rather die than give up our individuality in the world to such a body ;)

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