The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum - View Single Post - With which Middle Earth Race do you most identify?

Aganzir · 11-17-2007, 08:31 AM

I've never actually considered myself anything else than a dwarf. I behave like a dwarf (whatever that means) and look like a dwarf (even though for some reason I'm unable to grow a beard). I've also heard more than once that my sense of humour is just so dwarvish.

When I was a child, I hated elves passionately for a year or so. I guess it was rather due to that everybody else seemed to think elves were oh just so perfect and wonderful than that I'd actually have hated them. The movies had just come out and the word 'elf' meant people like Orlando Bloom (who isn't elvish at all!). And in the movies dwarves were treated, well, very disrespectfully - Gimli was nothing but a joke, his main function was to make the viewers sneer and laugh at both him and the noble race of dwarves. I was terribly angry with this and I doubt I would've felt as I did towards elves had I never seen the movies.
Childish? Maybe, but it wasn't funny at all to see how Peter Jackson treated dwarves.

When I started roleplaying at the age of 12, my first rpg character was a dwarf. I remember how it upset my GM and fellow players (who wanted to play young and pretty women)- "You really want to play a dwarf!? And a male dwarf? You must be crazy!". But I'm quite sure I wouldn't have enjoyed roleplaying as much as I did (and still do) hadn't I decided to have a dwarf character.

I can't understand people who think dwarves are somehow worse persons because they're short, bearded, sullen, greedy or whatever. Not everybody need be "perfect". That someone doesn't understand why a certain person (be it dwarf or something else) has done what he did doesn't mean that what he did was wrong. I once argued with a friend for a whole two-hour bus ride about whether Mîm was evil or not. Some weeks later I heard my friend had been arguing about the same thing with her cousin who was reading The Silmarillion back then - and this time my friend had shared my opinion about Mîm. It was funny to listen to her complain about her cousin who had said Mîm is evil "without understanding his motives to do what he did". Yeah, didn't we have the same discussion a while ago?

11-17-2007, 08:31 AM	#8
Aganzir Woman of Secret Shadow Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: in hollow halls beneath the fells Posts: 4,511	I've never actually considered myself anything else than a dwarf. I behave like a dwarf (whatever that means) and look like a dwarf (even though for some reason I'm unable to grow a beard). I've also heard more than once that my sense of humour is just so dwarvish. When I was a child, I hated elves passionately for a year or so. I guess it was rather due to that everybody else seemed to think elves were oh just so perfect and wonderful than that I'd actually have hated them. The movies had just come out and the word 'elf' meant people like Orlando Bloom (who isn't elvish at all!). And in the movies dwarves were treated, well, very disrespectfully - Gimli was nothing but a joke, his main function was to make the viewers sneer and laugh at both him and the noble race of dwarves. I was terribly angry with this and I doubt I would've felt as I did towards elves had I never seen the movies. Childish? Maybe, but it wasn't funny at all to see how Peter Jackson treated dwarves. When I started roleplaying at the age of 12, my first rpg character was a dwarf. I remember how it upset my GM and fellow players (who wanted to play young and pretty women)- "You really want to play a dwarf!? And a male dwarf? You must be crazy!". But I'm quite sure I wouldn't have enjoyed roleplaying as much as I did (and still do) hadn't I decided to have a dwarf character. I can't understand people who think dwarves are somehow worse persons because they're short, bearded, sullen, greedy or whatever. Not everybody need be "perfect". That someone doesn't understand why a certain person (be it dwarf or something else) has done what he did doesn't mean that what he did was wrong. I once argued with a friend for a whole two-hour bus ride about whether Mîm was evil or not. Some weeks later I heard my friend had been arguing about the same thing with her cousin who was reading The Silmarillion back then - and this time my friend had shared my opinion about Mîm. It was funny to listen to her complain about her cousin who had said Mîm is evil "without understanding his motives to do what he did". Yeah, didn't we have the same discussion a while ago? __________________ He bit me, and I was not gentle.