Paper Telephone.

[Beregond]

Well, it's not so grande...

But it is finalized. Sorry for the delay...I bet you're all expecting something really good for all the time I had...

Usually people reach for great highs - well, I've never been high, so I've decided to try for something else - great lows! And I'm proud to say, this is the worst drawing I've managed all year! Yes folks, it even needed captions to explain itself. And there's a...well, I'll leave that as a surprise.

Hope you like it! I know I'll like all of yours better, and I sure can't wait!

[Eönwë]

Oooh, the suspense!

[TheGreatElvenWarrior]

Originally Posted by Eönwë

Oooh, the suspense!

Oh, yes! How can anybody wait this long without severely damaging themselves? I don't know, but it appears that we can...

[Eönwë]

Originally Posted by TheGreatElvenWarrior

Oh, yes! How can anybody wait this long without severely damaging themselves? I don't know, but it appears that we can...

Are you sure that everyone's not severely damaged?

[TheGreatElvenWarrior]

Originally Posted by Eönwë

Are you sure that everyone's not severely damaged?

Well, not I. Maybe you are.

*Checks this thread even though I know Nogrod hasn't posted the call yet*

[Nogrod]

It's coming along!!!

You just need to wait an hour or two more... I'll be on it soon.

[Nogrod]

Nogrod started with an experiment on how fast a simple picture with only a few twists would turn into something totally weird and unfathomable… Even if there clearly were a few different interpretations available during the first rounds they somehow always came back to the original theme. But the wealth of widespread artistic styles sure make the first rounds worthwhile even if the main theme kind of lulled to and fro with minor steps… but this wouldn’t be a Paper Telephone if it wouldn’t run amok at some stage. And well, it really did! With the help of Morgoth it was indeed corrupted stage by stage as you can see.

So here’s what Nogrod managed to draw with his Paint. You know, when middle-aged men are given free hands to do whatever they wish this is the best they can come up with…



TheGreatElvenWarrior should be given the “keenest eyes ever” –reward for spotting that unlit torch from the darkness.

“As he walks into Shelob's cave, Frodo's torch decides not to work.”

“Mehr licht” called Goethe when he died. Laurinque agreed – and a touch of a female eye to interior design is never out of place.



Wilwa dived spot-on to the core of the matter: the gender issue!

“A feminine Frodo Baggins, armed with a flashlight, approaches Shelob in her very homey cave.”

Being male and all, Hookbill clearly struggled with trying to visualize a “homey” cave, so he went with a typical men’s solution eg. to his childhood and his mom.



Legate then rushed on to reveal the whole depth of his learning in popular culture: The ‘Downer (which indeed is a nice crossbreed of Alien movies and Phantom cartoons!), The LotR, The Simpsons and The Star Wars.

“After Alien once again buried Phantom underground, Shelob the Chef lured the crossbreed of Frodo and Luke Skywalker armed with a flashlight into her lair.”

[Nogrod]

Eönwë went with the mood – and the complexity of the situation – being the literary guy he is.



But Mnemosyne was even deeper into the Star Wars mythology – but less knowledgeable of the ‘Downer. Which probably is the wrong order of priorities.

“Alien infiltrates a crack!AU!crossover of The Two Towers and The Empire Strikes Back, so that in the "enter the cave, face your enemies, and discover yourself" phase of the myth, Frodo will not see his own face after striking Shelob down, but Phantom's.”

Isabellkya was very true to the Star Wars but all her nice and laborous hints were overlooked… which would be sad if this wasn’t a Tolkien fan-site where we consider her pic’s fate as just decent. (Frodo beats Luke a Gazillion times, right?)



So as hinted already, Oddwen brought things back into the LotR – although there were clearly some major disturbances in the force… umm… in Eru’s graceful design…? Blame it to Morgoth.

“Samwise bravely attacked Shelob with a lightsaber and glowing clam, however Shelob is confident despite her severed leg and breaks the fourth wall.”

Clearly it was the work of Morgoth as Lommy managed to call in the next item… it was indeed something completely different.



So Greenie’s attempt was doomed to failure even before she concentrated into the pic. The Circus was let loose.

“A jedi Sam is in trouble fighting a surprisingly powerful Monty Python -freak Shelob.”

[Nogrod]

One can see the powers of the other Valar trying to retake control in Aganzir’s pic – but the dissonance is visible enough to carry further... cancer-like, it is.



And the dissonance grew stronger in the dark recesses of Brinn’s brain and got this kind of literary form:

“Unsheathing his sword, the fat hobbit Samwise Gamgee braced himself as he prepared to overtake the great and ugly She who says....Ni!”

The famous post-modern artist from the late eighties called Formendacil produced a masterpiece. But a question remains: are we positive Form has nothing to do with Bakshi’s animation as well? Maybe he has just lied to us about his age even more? You know, an Inkling and all… Anyway, there was no turning back after this one.



Morgoth clearly had no liking in High-Culture and whispered the catch-word to Beregond’s ear. And what else did he whisper to him or was it just the sickness of Beregond’s imagination?

“Braving its orange glow, Samwise confronts the hexapod knight who supports women's loos with narry a "Ni".”

Not knowing about Form’s post-modern artistic tendencies The Great Elven Warrior continued his style in her overall presentation of her work. Was that Gandalf’s brave last try to twist Morgoth’s plan (all evil loves classicism!)? Anyway the corruption was now holding the purity firmly on the edge.



Laurinque was clearly overrun by the evil bringing in politics and fear. Melkor had championed over the prof.!

“A terrified Samwise quakes in fear at the prospect of having to assault the utterly fearsome, pro-British National Party (which happens to support women’s loos), Hexapod Knight.”

[Nogrod]

Wilwa was clearly revealed to be a Brit and not a Canadian… The opinions differ into whether that is delightful and splendid… or just bad news.



Lommy went deeper into crushing Tolkien’s work. The gender-politics Wilwa had unknowingly called forwards a long time ago got finally named, and at the same time the male hero was greatly diminished - as the common status of men (unless you're a Scot)...

“Robin Smallburrow was frightened by the new feminist British party that even forced knights wear skirts.”

Legate had a clear view of how feminists look like and tried to hold true to the sentence not having the faintest of how Melkor would twist his work…



Aganzir seeemed to be liberally gender indifferent and that was the weak-spot Melkor hit into, diminishing the male heroes even more…

“Nogrod and Legate think crusaders should quit harassing hobbits.”

Mnemosyne had willpower enough to stay the course and tried to bring forwards some dignity… but what seeds of further discrepancy did she sow!



With Isabellkya it was all lost. Now where’s all the decency? What would have the prof said of this?!

“Nog and TUD (The Unidentifiable Downer), express outrage at the lack of humanity over the headline story in the latest issue of The Downer newspaper - which features SPM the Crusader repetitively pestering the miniature curly brown-haired girl; while wearing a sharp and intimidating sword.”

[Nogrod]

Oddwen tried straightforward tactics putting the moral message into the headline. You can see her calling help from the higher powers in there! There is hope! And note the nice copy of my earlier Facebook pic! (the beard though…)



Or there was hope before Hookbill took his turn. The infamous yellow journalism had a total triumph!

“Mr Underhill's usual morning ritual of staring at a bearded man was interupted by news of the Saucepan Man's latest 'child beating' fiasco.”

Greenie was squared… sorry, scared about the news and tried to give it the nicest possible interpretation.



But Eönwë was more into the gore… and anyway totally under influence of something: too much Freud and HP at least, a pinch of Morgoth to be sure.

“A smiling sun looks on as Samwise Gamgee cuts Hagrid's head off with his laser vision while drinking tea, only possible because he watched SpM hitting himself with a carpet beater as a child, according to the strange singing man.”

Brinn tried to bring the PT into the relatively sane trails – if you can call drawing Eönwë’s sentence sane in any measure possible. But she did a decent job there: all the details involved! What wounds this left in Brinn’s soul remains to be seen and studied by anthropologists, psychologists and the students of behaviorism.



Did Form just reveal the roots of his true identity and childhood experiences or is this just an evil trick?

“The baby Saucepan Man levitates before an onlooker in the 1930s while Beorn has his head blasted off by the hip young lovechild of Frodo and Cyclops.”

[Nogrod]

What was left to Beregond was just to wrap it up in a somewhat intelligible fashion – and it proved quite a task. Thence the captions… But it was a brave effort indeed! Even taking in some discussions from the thread!




So there you go!