Well shit, does that end the theorising? So did Morgoth have a body or not whilst in that fight you were describing?

Well, the pure power wouldn’t matter if it wasn’t concentrated enough to destroy the hröa their enemies was using to influence the Seen, I guess. Like they’d have first destroy their enemies physical being to be able to influence their incorporeal being?

And to do that, you’d want to focus your power, so you’d need a “lens” of sorts, meaning you’d use a body to fight the enemy?

Oh wait no, Morgoth didn’t have a physical body in that fight? Uh, I’d probably do well to read the Silmarillion again lol.

Oh I haven’t heard of French Maias, but I did know Sweden has Maja, that’s probably where it came to Finnish from, I’d wager. Yeah, Wikipedia says the Scandic equivalent is Maja, yeah. It’s a deviation on “Mary” as I suspected from Mary Poppins.

Huh, you do get what I mean. Have you ever imbibed any illicit substances, or just good narratives? (I’m hoping the answer is “both”, but I don’t judge.)

However, a hröa can also focus and direct the energies innate to a fëa, which could make the being more powerfu

That’s a very good point.

I don’t think there’s any evidence that a Maiar with a hröa is weaker than a Maia without a hröa.

I don’t think “weaker”. I just think limited until the body burns up and their full might is revealed, sort of. Like if they had to fight another maia, that is. Like a huge bodybuilder in a weird costume that limits their actions, but if you actually started a fight with them, they’d just punch you “for real” and the cardboard of their costume wouldn’t be in the way, it’d just tear off while they’re punching you through the costume.

I would say that without a hröa, the fëa can’t be “focused” and is therefore weaker (from the wiki (no source provided):

I get your point, but I think it’s more about the sort of fight that’s going on. Like if you have a lense, it’s not gonna make the light source more powerful, but it can focus it into a neater beam, making it more powerful in that spot, but then that focusing would mean that there’s less light going around “the room” in general. Like a beam of light that’s as powerful as an orb of light would burn your eyes if directed at you, but also, would be less blinding than an orb of light if directed away from you. So in that sense, the hröa being able to focus power would be a positive and a negative, depending on the type of environment/enemy you’re facing.

I wouldn’t say “restricts”, as much as “limits”. I do have a difference in mind for what I mean by that, but I understand just using cursive probably isn’t enough to communicate it.

May I ask what texts are you referring to that actually touch on this? I’m not implying disagreement or that I’ve read them, I definitely haven’t, my depth basically goes to the depth of ‘I read most of Silmarillion as a teenager’. I’m curious because I might be inclined to read them if I see them.

dissipate into nothing (Sauron after the destruction of the one ring

Tell me if I’m wrong, and I probably am, but isn’t this because Sauron poured so much of his essence (fëa I suppose) into the ring that after it was destroyed, he lost so much of his power as to not be able to exist anymore and thus dissipated into nothing? So before he did that, if his body was destroyed, he was able to hang on, but after the Ring was destroyed, he wasn’t powerful enough and thus “truly” died.

But yeah I don’t see anything contradicting my thoughts in that paragraph of yours. I’m just saying that for the while that any Maia inhabits a body, they’re less powerful than they are when disembodied, although I don’t know if then we also have to consider where that power can be applied to, as in the Seen and the Unseen.

it’s not something about being embodied that made them lose their bodyless memories

Isn’t it though? I get that Tolkien may have specified that the Istari not having their memories aided in them being more like the people they were sent to save, but…

Perhaps it is a property of being a body that you can not have the properties that the spirits do. A body is a finite.

IIRC having watched a lot of Nerd of the Rings and whatnot, a lot of the depictions of Balrogs have them as sort of fiery angels instead of the gory beasts we have in the Peter Jackson movies. Now if Balrogs are a sort of angelic but demonic things, then I’d go with your assumption, but if they were the Peter Jackson beast-like, then I think mine could work. In the sense that if being embodied means you just can’t retain all the knowledge you have in the spirit realm and the body affects your spirit as well, then having that sort of raging demonic beasts would make sense as even if they were higher beings while disembodied, while being embodied they’d just feel the rage and fury of the body and wouldn’t recall anything about being a Maia before eventually being disembodied again.

That was probably very incoherent. It was influenced by the thoughts I had when I used to do a lot of nitrous.

Oh lawdy-lawd, I never realised Maija Mehiläinen is nationalist propaganda as well.

That’s the Finnish name for it, works a lot better, I think.

Sulevi Riukulehto suggested that the book may have carried a political message. This view depicts the beehive as a well-organised militarist society and Maya as an ideal citizen. Elements of nationalism also appear when Maya gets angry at a grasshopper for failing to distinguish between bees and wasps (whom she calls “a useless gang of bandits” [Räubergeschlecht] that have no “home or faith” [Heimat und Glauben]) and at a insulting fly, whom Maya threatens to teach “respect for bees” and with her stinger. Riukulehto interprets this to mean that respect is based on the threat of violence. Collectivism versus individualism is also a theme. Maya’s independence and departure from the beehive is seen as reproachable, but it is atoned by her warning of the hornets’ attack. This show of loyalty restores her position in the society. In the hornet attack part of the story, the bees’ will to defend the hive and the heroic deaths of bee officers are glorified, often in overtly militarist tones.

This is fun because Maija is a very common name for women in Finland. Not this generation particularly but it’s like the Finnish equivalent of Mary or something to the generation that was born around 30’s-40’s. For some reason it was exploding in popularity from the the 1900’s (as in the oughts, not the century) to 1930 in Finland. And seeing how Tolkien definitely took influence from Finnish, I wonder if there might be an actual connection.

edit I changed the example name from Jennifer to Mary as I realised “Mary Poppins” is translated as “Maija Poppanen” in Finnish

Wow, who would’ve guessed?

Do this while having a penis and suddenly everyone is all weird about it.

Fking double standards.

How in the fuck.

Like what drives a majority of Americans to vote for a demented toddler. It’s insane.

As a kid I always wondered how on Earth did Hitler ever make anyone follow himself, how did those people not realise. Turns out a majority of people are just fucking morons.

I love how the statement receiving laughter from the crowd was a point in showing how it was political commentary.

Because me pointing them out wouldn’t make you argue and deny and ignore anything that happens to be a little bit shameful for you, because that’s definitely not a pattern of behaviour for you, right?

You support the far-right autocratic leader of Russia, Vladimir Putin. Thus, you support far-right autocratic views. Despite being a red-blooded American? Shame on you.

I told you you wouldn’t believe me about your tells. :)

Everytime your very clear bullshit gets called out it’s “oh well, I didn’t actually mean what I said so I wasn’t actually wrong”.

You’re a pro-Russian troll. Literally everyone can see it. The worst part being your childish attempts at evading a direct question, when you could simply lie and say “no, I’m not pro-Russian”.

Just say “I don’t support the far-right autocratic leader of Russia, Vladimir Putin”. If you don’t, everyone will know you do support him. Because why else this pathological avoidance of a simple yes or no question? It’s because there is a correct answer (“I’m not pro-Russian”), but you can’t bring yourself to say it, because it wouldn’t be true, and it might get you in trouble. :D

So to recap, you’re a red-blooded American communist who believes Ukraine is full of Nazis, and are pro-Russian?

Edit also you do realise the votes pretty clearly show several people interacting with this through votes, so ofc it’s being read lol

Oh that is true. Although they might just default into something boring like lidocaine.

I’ve asked you a simple yes or no question several dozens of times, over the course of months. You pathologically avoid it. Pathologically.

I @ you because I know your ego can’t handle me calling you the obvious pro-Ruski you are. You are constantly promoting Russian views, calling Ukrainians Nazis, etc, etc, etc.

You still can’t respond to a single yes-or no question. This isn’t about you “having a reasoned discussion.” It’s me baiting you into interacting with me, because you’re blind to how obvious of a propaganda troll you are. You personally remind me of visiting an exhibition of Soviet propaganda. Perhaps you just don’t know where the techniques you use are from, idk. It’s just… hilarious.

Your English also has several tells. You won’t believe me, but it does.

You simply can not answer any questions about Russian politics or whether you agree with them, but instead spend all of your time on Lemmy defending everything they’re saying and saying that all “western media” is “parroting Russian talking points”.

You’re willing to lie about being a red-blooded American, but you’re not willing to lie about being against Russia. You just don’t understand how ironic that is. You don’t understand just how much it gives away about you. Like I said, it’s weirdly amusing.

#Are you pro-Russian? YES / NO?

You have never answered the question. Which is evident to anyone who looks. :D This is very entertaining. In a slightly concerning way.

Are you pro-Russian?