Channelknight Fadran

Also r/lotr has gone off on another war trying to decide who the "real hero is"

"The real hero is Sam"

"The real hero is Gollum"

"The real hero is Bill"

The real hero is everyone except the actual villains, by Eru.

• The Three Hunters: They never forsake their friends, coming to the painful decision of leaving all the fate of Middle-Earth to Frodo and Sam and instead pursuing the captors of Merry and Pippin.
• Gandalf: He killed a Balrog! He killed a Balrog! And despite what the memes might tell you, he did not hate Pippin - on many occasions they laughed and smoked together, much as any old friend might.
• Merry and Pippin: They took down Isengard by teaming up with a bunch of trees, and spanned the gap between the kingdoms of Gondor and Rohan. Merry befriended Eowyn, and Pippin befriended Faramir - perhaps it isn't purely by chance that the two children of men would ultimately unify the kingdoms by marriage.
• Boromir and Faramir: Perhaps the most honorable warriors in all Middle-Earth, facing the darkness of Morder head-on with blades in hand. One would die by not one, not two, but three orc-arrows to the chest so as to defend his friends; the other, meanwhile, is a Captain of Gondor - a man of Quality.
• Theoden, Eomer, and Eowyn: They love their people before life and limb, and never once forsake them. Theoden-king died on Pelennor Fields in a battle to honor the old friends of Rohan, and was avenged by Eowyn - dearer than daughter - who, with the help of Merry, defeated the Witch-King of Angmar.
• Honorable Mentions: Bill the Pony and Barliman Butterbur (their deeds need no explanation), Smeagol and Gollum (without them, the quest would have failed), Lord Elrond and Lady Galadriel (the ones who gave the heroes light and hope in their darkest hours), Bilbo Baggins (HRAAAAAH), and - of course - the one and only Farmer Maggot (the one, of course, who won a shouting match with an honest-to-Eru Nazgul and managed to ride it out of his crops, before proceeding to give the hobbits a place to stay and a basket full of mushrooms)
• Frodo: His heart and will were stronger than any other, and his compassion was what carried the Ring to Mordor. Not once did he falter, save for the very end, when all the world came crashing down.
• And Samwise Gamgee was there for him, every step of the way.

I have now seen Everything Everywhere All at Once and can confirm that it is, in fact, damn incredible.

Also the internet is stupid, because google reviews put it at 3 stars, split completely between 5s and 1s. What I surmise is that the internet in question contains two demographics: Normal People and Idiots

(I'm not saying you're an Idiot if you didn't like the movie. I'm only saying you're an Idiot if you gave it 1 star on google of all places)

Anyway I'll probably have to amend my Top 11 movies soon

I’m going to rank the Pixar movies because that’s what I’m thinking about.

also I don’t want to fenangle the Shard into bulleting in reverse so we’re going from worst to best apparently

1. The Good Dinosaur - this movie sucks! Nothing happens, it’s incredibly boring, the premise is completely wasted. Anyway, onto the movies I don’t hate.
2. Cars 2 - I regret putting this here, because I like this one. And I won’t defend it as a movie, because objectively speaking, it is bad; I will only defend the fact that I like it, and my only defense for that defending is nostalgia. That’s right: this was my first favorite action movie, and I thought it was goofy enough to enjoy.
3. Brave - it doesn’t feel like a Pixar movie at all. Did you know it released the same year as Wreck-It Ralph? If you had asked me which of those two films seemed more like Pixar and more like Disney, I would have answered you wrong. Also there are too many butt and boob jokes and it’s just kinda bad.
4. A Bug’s Life - it’s okay I guess. I like the villain, but other than that it’s a really forgettable movie.
5. Monsters University - it starts pretty good, it ends really good, and the rest of it is boring. The theme is really poignant and relatable, but otherwise it’s an eh film.
6. Cars 3 - I dunno. A part of me just wasn’t into it when I saw it the first time. Considering how formative the original two were for my childhood, it felt a little cheap. I guess I might have to rewatch it sometime, considering I only ever saw it the once… but memory places it firmly in the low B-tier category
7. Finding Nemo - It was never my favorite. I’ve always liked it, but… eh.
8. Cars - You fools! You thought this would be higher, didn’t you? Well turns out the movie itself is better than I remembered as a kid, but somehow less enjoyable than I used to think it was. Basically, that means that it’s a pretty standard Pixar movie and it’s okay.
9. Toy Story - yes, I’m putting this lower than all the sequels and even some rather controversial titles. That is because I’m of the opinion that while Toy Story was (and still is) an excellent debut film, it’s ultimately just a stepping stone for what the studio would go to create. But I still like it a lot, and the incredible series it started really helps the film in hindsight.
10. Incredibles 2 - I liked it! Quite a bit, actually. It would have been impossible to make a worthy sequel to Incredibles, but by golly did they do their best. There are some issues I have (the villain’s a little uninspired, the eccentric billionaire guy is underutilized, etc), but I disagree with the ones most other people point out on the grounds that they are wrong. Bob does not resent his wife for doing hero work without him, he resents the situation that put the two of them there in the first place. Anyone who says otherwise is incorrect.
11. Lightyear - darn tootin’ I placed this over Toy Story. I’m really fond of this one, and for every reason except the fact that its meta-premise makes no sense whatsoever. Why does Andy’s favorite movie from the 1990s have such better graphics than their literal real life? Why is it that Buzz Lightyear toys are flying off the shelves instead of little Sox robots? But looking past that, I absolutely love this movie’s characters, plots, themes… it’s fun. I like it.
12. Turning Red - Okay… I like this one, and while I respect the people who don’t, I don’t respect the people who don’t respect it respectfully. It is not bad, it is not pointless, and it is not cringe. However, I was running out of middle-ground movies to use before I can get to the greats, so this one gets to go here.
13. Finding Dory - idk it’s just so cute! And I can respect its message a lot more now that I’ve been diagnosed with ADHD and probably Autism - there are a lot of characters in this movie with various disabilities (Dory’s short-term memory loss, the octopus guy’s missing tentacle, the nearsighted beluga whale…). I think it’s touching.
14. Luca - the only reason this one is as “low” as I put it is ‘cause I wouldn’t feel right putting it over Ratatouille. This movie is absolutely adorable and I love it so much.
15. Ratatouille - Do I need to explain myself here? Go watch Schafrillas’ hour-long youtube video about it.
16. Toy Story 2 - it took a good movie and made it great. I’d argue this is where they first really cemented their “format” of providing unexpected but realistic twists to established stories, what with the conflict suddenly surrounding Woody of all people trying to decide whether staying with Andy is worth it - after all, kids only ever grow up, not down.
17. Onward - I think this one got artificially lowered a little because I’ve seen it so many times. I love the story and the jokes and the characters; not much else to say here.
18. Soul - I NEED TO REWATCH IT GUYS. REMIND ME TO REWATCH THIS ONE. I ONLY SAW IT ONCE AND I NEED MORE FLESHED-OUT REASONS TO PUT IT HERE
19. Inside Out - I’ve also seen this one way too many times, but it’s never lost its touch for me. Even seeing it as a kid when it first came out I was touched by the story, and that was even before I knew what depression was, let alone have it.
20. Monsters Inc. - this one gets put this high on the basis that I said so. Maybe I just compare it a lot to the garbage heap that is Ice Age, but the fact that they just   chased a three-year-old child around with a microphone to get the most organic lines really shows with Boo’s character. Randall and the wheelchair guy are great villains, I love Sully (and obviously Mike), but most of all I just find myself loving Boo more than anyone because of how real she feels.
21. Up - I almost feel weird putting it this low, even though I’m pretty sure this is still top five. The reasons to love it are plentiful, but there’s a lot of people out there who form the “Up is overrated because people only focus on the opening” faction. I would like to dissuadr any such arguments because you are wrong and I really like this movie through and through. I think there’s something so incredible about the idea of making an adventure story about a guy who’s long past his adventuring days.
22. Toy Story 4 - I want to put it higher but it isn’t better than the Incredibles so here we are. I will defend this movie and all it stands for. It was a good evolution of Woody’s character, it was a good expansion of the franchise’s main theme, and it does deserve to exist.
23. The Incredibles - also deserves no explanation. This is the best superhero film… maybe ever. I love it and it’s really really good.
24. Wall-E - this one is probably my favorite Pixar film, but gets third place because it doesn’t make me cry. The story, music, pacing, and characters are all beautiful and entrancing and I love every minute of it.
25. Coco - It was a tough choice, putting this one in second. The music in this film is objectively the greatest in any Pixar, and the ending makes me cry. A lot. But ultimately it lost to…
26. Toy Story 3 - The greatest conclusion to any story arc ever made. I know I just spent a paragraph defending 4, but darn it does this movie make me cry. “So long, partner” never ceases to pull at my heartstrings

oh and I haven’t seen Elemental yet hehe sorry

For those of you who haven't subscribed to Veritasium yet for some reason:

• Apparently there were a total of thirty-two cases of nuclear weapons going missing during the Cold War?
• And there have been several instances of the bombs never being recovered?
• And there's literally one just lying in a South Carolinan field to this day because they couldn't get it out because it was STILL ARMED
• You've probably heard these stories, but all-out nuclear war was completely avoided on two seperate occasions by two seperate men.
  • One was Stanislav Petrov, who - upon receiving (faulty) signals that the USA had launched an ICBM at the USSR - reasoned that it must be a bug (it was), due to the fact that a preliminary strike would be much larger; and he held this decision even after the computer showed four more signals.
  • The other was Vasily Arkhipov, who was an officer aboard a russian submarine during the Cuban Missile Crisis. They hadn't received a signal from the USSR in several days, and the American air force was dropping warning flashes into the water to draw them out. Two of the officers on board came to the conclusion that war had broken out, and it was in their line of duty to launch their torpedoes - Vasily, however, refused to turn his key.
• Also he didn't bring this up but I would like to point out that one of the stockpiles for American nuclear weapons were in a special place called Manzano Base, and several were moved to an underground bunker beneath the Kirtland Air Force Base.
• I brought this up because the air force base in question is about twenty miles from my house.

Obviously, September 11 is a day that kinda sucks

So let me tell you the story of Todd Beamer

He was born on November 24, 1968. Played sports in school, attended California State, and married Lisa Brosious in 1991. They were going to celebrate their 10-year anniversary on November 2, 2001.

His job - an Account Manager - required him to travel several times a month. This time he opted to take a late flight to stay with his pregnant wife after returning from a five-day vacation on September 10, boarding a flight to San Francisco the following morning. The Boeing 757 - Flight 93 - was delayed forty-two minutes before lifting off.

Four minutes later, Flight 11 destroyed the North Tower. Thirteen minutes after that, Flight 175 destroyed the South Tower. Twelve minutes later, at 9:25, the cockpit of Flight 93 was taken by terrorists. They kept the passengers seated with the threat of a bomb, and changed the course of the plane towards Washington D.C. not long afterwards.

Several passengers managed to make calls to their families, who informed them about the three other attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Beamer placed a call from the plane seat phone, who only reached a supervisor and the FBI listening in. He informed them that a passenger had been killed (we do not know who), and shouted repeatedly "we're going down" when the plane turned sharply south.

He and his fellow passengers decided to act. Mark Bingham, Tom Burnett, Jeremy Glick, Lou Nacke, Rich Guadagno, Alan Beaven, Honor Elizabeth Wainio, Linda Gronlund, William Cashman, Sandra Bradshaw, CeeCee Lyles, and Todd Beamer voted to storm the cockpit - take it back if they could, fly it into the ground if they must. There are several exchanges that have been recovered from the plane's voice data recorder, but the most famous was the last heard on Todd Beamer's call, in which he said to the rest of the passengers "Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."

The suspected target of Flight 93 was likely the White House or the Capitol Building. Orders had been given to shoot the plane down if it continued its approach - this was not necessary.

It's unclear, but given the last recorded audio that was recovered before the crash - of the terrorist Ziad Jarrah, repeating the words "give it to me" - one could assume that the passengers completed their mission by intentionally crashing the plane into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing everyone on board.

He's immortalized in two movies, as well as several speeches and - oddly enough - An Amazing Spider-Man comic issue. In that, the titular characters says "Ordinary men. Ordinary women. Refusing to surrender."

I really really really really really want a cat

I cannot begin to express how much I want a cat

but I can't have a cat

and I cannot begin to express the sheer dispair this fact bestows upon me

Can I go to Space?

Can I look at an erupting volcano? Can I poke the lava with a stick?

Can I go hang out with some penguins without holding up the line full of slimy toddlers? Can I go to Antarctic and just chill for awhile? Can I make friends?

The reason I don't want to die is because I couldn't live with myself if I didn't ever do these things