Actually, it is a reflection of how crappy Middle-earth has become at the time. There really are no towns outside of the Shire, Rohan, and Gondor (there's Lake-Town). Fornost-
destroyed, Osgiliath- destroyed, Tharbad- destroyed, Minas Ithil turned into Minas Morgul, Khazad-Dum turned into Moria. Umbar taken by the…

And, personally, my "areas" are much more likely to be damp to swampy. Even when it's real winter outside.

I know, I lived in Schenectady for 3 years. 3 feet of snow on the ground from mid December to mid April. High winds. Sad impressions where people were blown over, cracked through the top layer of ice, and into the snow's embrace below.

Good thing I can't read!

You're thinking of Chicago. Those storm giants turn any would-be road construction crews into contractor-marmalade to sell at the Meat Jellies and Jams Faire, held every Overlithe in the Ruins of Eregion, also known as Hollin.

Depends on where you're going. where you're coming from, and when you're doing the traveling.

Who doesn't have a map of Middle-earth permanently seared into their brain already?

What really makes a difference is discussing the issue in an AV Club comments section about a cartoon dog. That's how to get shit done.

Weird. An online petition gave me the unlimited authority to say "Abso-fucking-lutely NOT" whenever someone claims that online petitions have never not influenced no one nowhere no matter where that nonsense is said, no backsies.

Yep, us little white suburban white kids were watching (and watching and watching…) Whoopi Goldberg's HBO special a couple of decades before there was an AV Club. She was no Eddie Murphy, but that's cause you can't beat action figure jokes and the big brown shark when it comes to winning the attention of little boys.

You know how IU is in Bloomington and ISU is in Terre Haute? Illinois State is in Bloomington IL. U of Illinois is in Champaign-Urbana.

jumping jebus, IN, of course IN.

I was hoping to live to see "Monster Manual: The Movie". I hope they do Fiend Folio next instead of just skipping to MM2. Gotta give the Flumph some love.

I pick Chaotic Neutral! Do whatever I want and fuck all yall if you don't like it.

falls on his face, or falls on his back?

me too. so does Deep Space 9 for bringing in the Tribbles and obliquely addressing the "Klingon appearance" issue between STOS and STNG.

no. it's your implication that all things done to make money are somehow similar in an important sense that goes beyond the fact that those things were all done to make money. and that whatever that similarity is, it outweighs the undeniable differences in the additional desires that motivate people to perform work.
no…

nah, plenty of movies get made out of vanity and the desire to fuck actresses. hollywood does not run on money alone. try watching entourage. you'll learn something.

The Sistine Chapel was the commercial mainstream movie of its time.

Nah, some of us thought part 2 sucked enough that we felt no need to see part 3. thus ironically-like, we like part 3 better than part 2.