• shneancy@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Bilbo was 111, and Frodo was 33 during the birthday party when Bilbo left the Shire.

      Only 17 years later, when he’s 50, does Frodo go off on the Quest to destroy the ring.

      I’m making my way through the books right now and I haven’t seen the films in ages, but if I recall correctly it’s much less clear in those that there was a time skip. Which yea if I were adapting a book I’d also skip the bit where JRRT says “and then nothing of importance happened for 17 years, apart from the fact Gandalf was travelling to do research about the ring and kinda went missing recently”.

      • Dharma Curious (he/him)@slrpnk.net
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        2 months ago

        That’s all very fascinating, and thank you for clarifying that for everything.

        But I need you to shut your lying mouth with that 17 years nonsense. I am 33. I am in way 17 years from 50 years old. Shut up. Shut up and stop talking your heinous lies.

        • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          Man, I’m 17 years older than you. It ain’t that different.

          You know, other than the aching joints, the gray hairs sprouting, having a strange urge to yell at anyone that steps on your grass (even if you don’t have grass), and a growing certainty that the newest generation are inherently crazy.

          But other than that, it’s exactly the same as 33.

          • moriquende@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Good to hear that the early 40s are not that bad. I’m 31 now and that ensures me I have at least 20 more good years.

            • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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              2 months ago

              Well, no promises. 51 could be the top of the hill everyone says you get over, I dunno yet ;)

              No bullshit though, even with the bad things that I went through in my late thirties and early forties, the age part of my forties was awesome. It’s this wonderful balance of being automatically assumed to be a grown ass adult in any given situation until you prove otherwise, but also being allowed to indulge in hobbies without attention.

              And, for me, that’s when I hit peak confidence and self awareness.

              But, I’m enjoying the hell out of fifty so far. It’s like I hit a half century, and a lot of the bullshit of the world doesn’t bother me as much. Something comes up, and my first thought is “well, after a half century of this kind of bullshit, this is nothing”. It’s like magic lol.

          • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            I’m not far behind you, I don’t think the younger generation are crazy at all.

            When we were young we wanted shit the Olds considered mad, it was actually worse during the cold War, there were things you couldn’t talk about.

            Boomers were epic assholes though, and dumb as fuck, so maybe that biases me, the Youngs just seem adorable in their unbelievable passion for shit that vague barely seems to matter. Everybody needs a hobby.

            • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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              2 months ago

              that part was meant as a joke about old farts always saying the next generation is worse than their own.

              Tbh, no single generation is free of assholes, nor is any free of good people. That’s because people are assholes for the most part, and every generation has people that aren’t :)

              But, yeah, the amount of energy pumped into very niche things seems to be unusually high for kids currently. It never ceases to make me happy though.

              • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                They’re welcome to it, they deserve some passion in life.

                I remember caring like hell about the earth, even trying to do things, that was considered about as threatening as the trans movement is to the same people now.

                I fucking love millenials, they were so perfectly curious and interested, they learned things. There might have been millennial assholes, but I respected them because they seemed to be assholes because they cared and were idealistic, which is a perfectly reasonable way to be an asshole to me.

                • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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                  2 months ago

                  I feel the hell out of that.

                  It’s part of why I married a millennial lol. Which sounds like an old school b movie. The horror! “I MARRIED A MILLENNIAL AND BARELY ESCAPED WITH MY SOUL!”

                  But yeah, that extra sense of caring, that seems to keep going up, even with all the anxiety and uncertainty the younger set has. They aren’t afraid to help people, to reach out. Not saying everyone, but it’s a lot different than when I was a kid, or a teen, or a young man.

                  It gives me hope, despite being a cynical old fart.

                  • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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                    2 months ago

                    They genuinely don’t belong in the world we were born in, they … are too fucking human.

                    We had to fight, for what came so noturally to them, makes my heart weep;

              • bufalo1973@lemmy.ml
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                2 months ago

                “My generation will put it right” Land of Confusion, Genesis.

                Yeah, right😒

        • CelloMike@startrek.website
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          2 months ago

          Random thought that I, a fellow 33’er, had yesterday - Sputnik was launched in 1957, 34 years before I was, I’m almost as old as the space age was when I was born

          Enjoy!

      • Egg_Egg
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        2 months ago

        People getting all out of shape about the age of the hobbits whereas Gandalf was created at the beginning of time, which is much older than 2019 years old. That’s likely the age of his current physical manifestation, but his spirit is truly ancient.

        The Universe in Middle earth is about 55,000 years old, but that’s stated to be created after creation, so Gandalf was created before that.

        • ccdfa
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          2 months ago

          Gandalf arrived in Middle Earth in the year 1000 of the Third Age. So he’s been around in that form for about 2000 years since Bilbo’s farewell party took place in the 3001st year of the Third Age. The Fellowship was founded in 3018 so Gandalf is about that old if we’re only counting his time in Middle Earth like you say

          Edit: This is in part why people are upset with the Rings of Power show. If this not-Gandalf character ends up being Gandalf, he’ll have arrived in Middle Earth about 3000 years too early. On top of that there are just a lot of other timeline deviations, including the order of the forging of the rings which you would imagine the whole show to be about.

          • bufalo1973@lemmy.ml
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            2 months ago

            The only way to solve that is to kill his form later. But we are talking about a show that cleaned its ass with the books and then threw them to a dumpster fire.

      • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        It’s kind of hinted at when Gandalf comes back and asks “Is it secret? Is it safe?” Frodo has to go looking for the ring and clearly hasn’t thought about it in a while.

        • shneancy@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          trueeee but 17 years would certainly not have been my first guess if I was asked “after how long do you kinda stop caring about a small trinket your uncle gave you & don’t actively remember where you put it”

          • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Once you get to a certain age, coming across some object in your household that you recognise but haven’t looked at for decades becomes pretty normal.

              • AA5B@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                But what if it has this neat trick where you can avoid unwanted visitors without actually having to be rude

                • shneancy@lemmy.world
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                  2 months ago

                  ye but i wouldn’t have known about it since i never put it on with an intention to disappear. Only after being told the ring is “special and powerful and stuff” i’d try to use it to do something i can’t normally, otherwise it’s just a trinket. Well, a trinket i’d be oddly attached to, but it’s a gift from my uncle so that attachment wouldn’t be that weird, right?

      • fox2263@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        And it’s that scene from Fellowship that we will get probably another trilogy squeezed out