I Cannot Enjoy... "The Lord of the Rings"

[@shadowcat6lives639]

I appreciate the kind of video you just made as it adds a lot to the discussion of making a story more realistic and flushed out. I would have to find it again but there's a video out there that goes into the geology of Lord of the Rings and how many of the features are unrealistic. Though I do believe that adds some context to your point as the discussion of minerals and resources would have to evolve from that geography. I know in Lord of the Rings meteorites exist canonically as the story has one of the characters making blades from them. As such, it would be expected that these resources exist but are not flushed out story-wise. I imagine it would be very interesting to try to recreate where they may be on a map. Further question for you, when it comes to the Bronze Age mod for imperator Rome what are your thoughts? Both overall and how they deal with facts lost to time?

[@Improbable_Gaming]

Thanks, I must still play the Bronze Age mod on stream, but I've been busy with life and the main channel.

[@holyrob3619]

I feel the same way , but with science fiction book. Like they try so hard to be plausible. Yet they fail in building society and it’s history. I guess is that most people don’t really understand the “fluidity” of historical outcomes.

[@Renatoioi]

what fantasy stories do you like?

[@Improbable_Gaming]

Hard to say about fantasy books, but this is certainly why I love Imperator over EU4, for example. It at least tries to have POPs, economic issues and so on. Victoria 2 and 3 are great as well, IMO.

[@euanpound639]

It would be incredibly childish for me to suggest your taste in stories is somehow "wrong" but I think you are overlooking the type of story Tolkien was making. Many people look at Middle Earth and Tolkien's legendarium and think of the "world-building" in it, languages, cultures, places, history, etc. This is all fun of course but the stories themselves aren't really so much about that. The Lord of the Rings is set in a world that likely doesn't have census taking. Arnor is long dead, Gondor exists as a shell of it's former self. The shire definitely doesn't have a complex economy. The only "faction" that would be capable of industrial manufacture and logistics on a grand scale are the forces of Mordor and Isengard. That's also the point of the story. Industry is associated with corruption and the forces of evil. In universe there would be no mechanism by which Gondor or any human power could easily "know" the things you want without falling into dominance and power. It's also important to note that unlike many other fantasy series war isn't glorified in the Lord of the Rings. The hobbits, particularly Frodo, are permanently scarred from their journey. If the forces against Mordor had armies as large as Sauron, if they had the metallurgy of Isengard, then they would be indistinguishable from those powers. Gondor would scar it's land. It's the personal attributes of the fellowship that win the war. Is this unrealistic, yeah definitely lol. But that's why I love it tbh.

[@Improbable_Gaming]

Thanks for your comment. To be clear, though, I'm not suggesting that the different polities tabulate the information I was suggesting in-universe, but that Tolkien presents it to the reader ex-universe. For example, given their tech level the humans probably don't have a formal written dictionary and language guide for Elvish, but the Tolkien fans do have something like that. Or rather, I am saying that this is what would make me personally enjoy LotR more. Since I fully accept that I am in the minority and my taste in stories is wrong, Tolkien was objectively right not to do so.

[@euanpound639]

@@Improbable_Gaming That's totally fair. I would love to see the resources produced by Gondor. The framing device would make it impossible in the story sadly. But supplementary stuff wouldn't hurt.