Another good episode! Keep em coming Juan Sierra!

I love listening you your Q & A while I work. There are some really creative questions that people come up with about obscure things, and I enjoy hearing how you answer them.

Thanks, I always enjoy these, thank you!

I recently found this channel, and am so glad I did. It’s been fantastic. I did have a question to put into the hat…. Why did Tolkien choose Rings as the tools of power? Did he have a fascination with Jewelry to some degree? Or was it simply the easiest thing to come up with?

Love the content!

@John-Sierra

22 күн бұрын

Thanks!

Melian as the chief of Wizards after the fall of Doriath is awesome! I’m sure she would be ready throw-down after the loss of her family & kingdom.

@John-Sierra

3 ай бұрын

She was only with them before meeting Thingol, however.

Just want to say that I really enjoy these videos! But I confess that I always skip over the readings and find myself wishing you'd have answered another question or two 🙂

@John-Sierra

3 ай бұрын

That's perfectly fine, when I started doing the readings, I figured some people woudln't like it, but a lot of people encouraged me to keep doing it. I do include timestamps so you can skip to any part of the video you wish.

@Hartenstine

3 ай бұрын

His Quora page is just as awesome.

@ZephyrOptional

3 ай бұрын

Feds might solve your issue with TikTok.

@ZephyrOptional

3 ай бұрын

Also. Prefer you to NOT stop the readings.

@ZephyrOptional

3 ай бұрын

The Q&A on this channel is one of the best around but recommend you listen to the readings. I personally find the readings as meditative with the Q&A bing intellectually stimulating, they are a perfect balance for a Tolkien Channel.

12:49 How much gold did everyone take home in The Hobbit? This had me thinking of a different question: Was Thorin so blinded and possibly a bit corrupted due to the sheer amount of gold surrounding him? I know Thorin was mean and had his prejudices with the Elves, but his decision to starve to death basically, instead of simply helping the men of dale was simply idiotic. Once his mind was taken off the treasure hoard a bit due to the battle of five armies, he seems to recognize how ridiculous he was being and made up with Bilbo. Edit: I didn't consider the fact that he was expecting his cousin, and thus reinforcements to show up at first, but even then he's asking for a war basically. Still it seems logistically Thorin would've lost more by not giving up anything in almost every scenario

@John-Sierra

3 ай бұрын

Tolkien called it "Dragon Sickness" in the book, the sort of extreme avarice to the point of lacking reason that one gets when faced with that much money. In the more expanded lore, it was explained that while the power of Melkor was imparted into Arda permanently (until it's conclusion) that his power lingered the most in Gold. it does not make gold evil, but in very large amounts can be a corrupting influence on someone vulnerable to that sort of corruption like Thorin was.

@ElectronicPulseBeat

3 ай бұрын

@@John-Sierra Thanks! I did not remember the Dragon Sickness part in the book!

I enjoy the videos, been binging them abit. How much knowledge do you prepare or is it all improv?

@John-Sierra

3 ай бұрын

For the questions in the videos, I've already answered them on Quora, but often "improv" a bit and expand on certain bits when reading for KZread. Some quora answers are easy and I can just answer them off the top of my head, some require research - especially when dealing with things like elvish customs and whatnot.

Thanks forr reading my question! And if it happens again, and you want to include my name (I don't feel the need), it translates to Kate. And, as would every Tolkien's character, I'm perfectly ok with people translating my name. I'm sorry it was hard to understand. I'm Polish and even in Polish I sometimes speak in a confusing way, I guess in English even more. And it was a difficult to express question, especially with the character limit. I still feel a bit unconvinced, because the "gold = Morgoth's thing" is stuck in my head... probably I think about Morgoth too much and about common sense too little, I'm a very abstract-inclined person... Hmm, wasn't this poem written by Bilbo? Bilbo wouldn't probably think of such metaphysical details. Makes sense.

@John-Sierra

3 ай бұрын

I understand the connection to Melkor's power and it inhabiting gold, but that didn't make gold inherently bad, just that large amounts of it can be a corrupting influence to a vulnerable party (Thorin's dragon sickness) Bilbo, who wrote the poem (and shakespeare from which the first line was derived) was not thinking of gold in the literal sense but as a stand-in for "value" that Aragorn is valuable, despite his shabby appearance. he wanders, but is not lost. I hope that clears it up!

@ZephyrOptional

3 ай бұрын

I believe it’s written that gold is specifically a conduit for evil but not inherently evil where silver is a conduit for good but not incorruptible. I think you’re right in thinking Bilbo wouldn’t know deep lore on these metals but did see the dragon sickness take his dear friend Thorin, but like Strider’s appears, he might not be sparkling but he’s golden through and through. The difference is simply that the metaphor for gold can be used as a positive but physical gold is often a gateway to the negative.

do you have an opinion you are willing to share on the rings of power?

@John-Sierra

3 ай бұрын

I did do this subject in a video, but the basics is I'm fairly neutral. the first season was "fine" it didn't blow me away, nor did i hate it. there's a lot of room for improvement, especially with costume designs.