Simple hobbits have lots of friends
Read the article this discussion is about
- mkletch
- arizonan
- SweatyBob
This archived discussion is "read only".
For the corresponding "live" discussions, post in the active topic forum here.
» arizonan - OUTSTANDING!
I loved this article. It was the funniest thing I have read in a long time.Unless I am grossly mistaken, the actual point of the article was quite serious. The article dealt with the attempted modification of Middle-earth by some members of the role-playing community. A completely valid point, incidentally, one that bears more discussion, I think.
But the rest of the article was absolutely hilarious! Intentionally or not, Mr. Martinez has written some of the best satire I have read in years. One of my pet peeves is people attempting to assign allegorical meanings to stories that don't have any. This article (again, intentionally or not) seems to be poking fun at that. I'm not much into allegory, but I love a good laugh.
Apparently so does Mr. Martinez.
-- posted by arizonan
» SweatyBob - Well done...
Thank you for this article. It was good to read that someone else had a "revelation" regarding the attitude and opinion of how things should be, i.e. Middle Earth culture and society. I was once offended and deeply hurt by the shift in musical style the band Jethro Tull took in the 80's. I felt that they should have kept the bluesie-folk sound for eternity. Yet they changed; with the times, and because of the times.Granted, RPGers more than likely came up with thieving guilds in M.E. solely to use their already created characters from other RPG realms, yet I've come to the belief that this would have happened in M.E. anyway. Maybe they wouldn't have been called "guilds", but with the demise of Sauron there would have been countless persons, human or otherwise, roaming about with the need of leadership and organization. Times were changing.
If a thief wanted to join with other thieves for the purposes of networking, support, and more thievery, it would be absurd to be public about it. They wouldn't be thieves any more, they would be brigands and outlaws; targets of "reform". But a guild gives them secrecy and organization to remain busy throughout the year.
Much of M.E. would have been in chaos by the end of the Third Age. Changes were taking place all over; some good, some bad. Cities were destroyed, crops burned, men killed. It was a perfect time for lawlessness. Some people undoubtedly took the easy path of deception and thievery to put some food in their belly. Some people saw an opportunity to gain wealth through exploitation and dishonesty.
All in all, I don't think Mr. Martinez was far from the mark of reality in Middle Earth.
-- posted by SweatyBob
Please follow the guidelines set forth in the Suite101 Posting Etiquette when adding to the discussion.