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I’m thinking about Gilraen and Aragorn again.

Or rather, Gilraen and Estel.

Ever since I read about them in the appendices, I was struck by how little time Gilraen got to be a normal wife and a normal mother. No worries, just staying at home surrounded by the respect of her people.

But then, when she’s in Rivendell, she has to raise a child while completely masquerading his identity, having to get permission from some immortal she’s likely only heard of just to tell her son about his father.

Meanwhile, little Aragorn is fine. He’s strong, he’s well-educated, he has big brothers that play with him and teach him all he needs to know. He’s raised well, and, despite having a different name, is raised lovingly.

But there’s always Gilraen in the background, likely having to swallow her grief and her urge to teach her son about his father for the good of the world.

There’s Estel not even knowing his birth name, raised for some vague destiny that his tutor-turned-father won’t expound upon. Estel’s childhood was probably filled with “that’s not a question for right now” or “I’ll tell you eventually.”

Elrond built Aragon and his mother a great life, yes, but it was a life built on caution.

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Another instance of my opinion being jump started by a reblog, but I feel the need to point out something a lot of the fandom hasn’t—what about how Elwing was influenced?

I definitely agree with OP’s take on Elwing and the power of decisions. For many years I grappled with how Elwing could possibly be a good parent if she chose suicide with magical item over standing and facing the Sons of Fëanor.

Excluding the whole deal with Dior’s hand-to-hand assassination and the 99% sure death of Elwing’s twin brothers, I wondered what would be the motherly reason for her to leave. Tolkien usually doesn’t play around with maternal instinct among mostly elvish characters. (He does in Númenor with Tar-Ancalimë, but she does not enter into this tale).

It’s in the One Ring. It’s in Eöl’s (and later Turin’s) sword, Anglachel. It is, canonically, and at the very beginning, with the Silmarils themselves.

What is it? The crafter’s magic imprint. Sauron had his malice, Eöl had his manipulation, and Fëanor had his fire.

If I am to assume that Elwing did what she did because of personality magic, then I have to analyze what silmaril traits would drive her to do that.

The Silmarils seen to grant the user an excessive amount of pride which eventually turns into self-preservation, though this urge to stay alive is rather for the Jewels’ sake than the person’s natural instinct to stay alive.

Keep in mind the Silmarils are canonically affected by Fëanor’s madness and Morgoth’s prolonged fashion statement.

Elwing could not have been in her right mind in that battle. Combined with the equal and opposite effects on the four of the Seven that were left, the magic in the Luthien Silmaril would have been impossible to ignore.

Elwing still had a choice, but it was a tainted choice. That makes Elrond’s wariness towards magic items even more pointed. He’s a counselor to everyone in order to avoid an endless loop of Elwing-style decisions.

Elwing’s choice to keep the Silmaril did influence Elrond though. For instance, not only did he refuse to keep the One Rings in Rivendell, he did not agree with Isuldir’s decision to keep the Ring. 

Isuldir kept the Ring for the same reason that Elwing did, because his family died for it.

Elrond is full of cautionary tales, and while people usually connect that to his relationship with the Feanorians, the situation is complex. He watched how his mother’s decisions impacted him and his brothers, and does the opposite when it comes to the One Ring. 

His mother made a personal choice for herself, but the choice impacts Elrond. I think Elrond is more like Melian in this way, considering she cautioned Thingol against keeping the Silmaril in the realm. 

I just think it’s interesting to see how that impacted him.

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OH I just found this GEM of a hot take in my post history again.

Seriously, “Gold” fits uncannily well with the last few years of Númenor‘s existence. I don’t care if you don’t like Imagine Dragons. If you’re a Silm fan, PLEASE give the lyrics a chance

Reminding every Silmarillion fan to catch up on the downfall of Numenor with the concise adaptation: “Gold” by Imagine Dragons

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The ironic horror of “The Children of Hurin,” especially if you read the book-expansion published much later, is that Turin and Nienor (well, Niniel to him) were actually good for each other.

HEAR ME OUT.

Obviously it was incest. Their relationship was cursed into being that way while their father watched and their mother was completely unaware.

But part of the evil was that Turin was already broken and cursed and a disaster to himself. Nienor was traumatized and wounded and heavily dependent on outside sources to explain to her the basics of the world.

They found each other and there was joy, and romance, and apprehension, and expectation.

Nienor got pregnant for goodness sakes. And Turin was close to staying behind out of love for that child.

Had that chapter been another romantic side quest like Beren and Luthien or Tuor and Idril (or Caranthir and Haleth), Turin and Nienor would have been a healthy, gentle, loving relationship.

And that’s why their own discovery that they’re siblings is much more terrifying to read.

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Imagine you’re Elrond riding along the coast of Middle Earth. Imagine you’re Elrond and you willingly stray from your mission just by a day or so’s riding—because you can. Because if you detour you’ll hit a Númenorean colony town.

You get to this town just in time to see people being loaded onto the merchant cargo ships.

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People of Arda, this is a PSA to PLEASE stop shipping Galadriel x Halbrand, unless it is only to admire the absolute cringe fail way in which the show writers made Galadriel so self centered and stupid as to arbitrarily fall in love with the guy.

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One thing I loved about Rings of Power is that they had the guts to make the only man who knows how to pronounce Quenya when spontaneously inserted into English be none other than Pharazôn.

I just want to say for the record that the way he said “Elros Tar-Minyatur” gave me CHILLS from the accuracy.

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It bothers me very much how close Rings of Power gets to being moral and then turns around and eliminates the subtle metaphors Tolkien had with every piece of fiction he ever made.

I do like the show. I do believe it’s improving. I don’t utterly hate the thing, but I realize they’re making stupid lore decisions a lot of the time, and band-aiding a flood with only the slightest lore gratuity later.

Let me watch the show as I will, let me enjoy it as I will, but do not assume I adore the hot messes where hot messes abound. I am both interested in and disappointed in this adaptation. It’s got this weird sense of “we have to keep the morality in here for the nerds, but we don’t actually believe it.” The Legendarium was never about expressing political opinions. It was always about exposing Tolkien’s own moral opinions and imprinting them on the world. Wether that was his take on industrialism, treatment of veterans, or family relations, it was always about his philosophy.

He despised allegory, and at this point ROP is barely scraping along as a weak modern allegory.

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I was absolutely not prepared for the ROP season finale

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So I have an art blog…

A plane doodle of Celebrain from The Lord of the Rings

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People, I am physically straining myself trying to figure out how you even drown a royal-bloodline Numenorean. Any and all advice would be very useful.

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Uh-oh. Realizing that if we get Celebrain in the show, there’s gonna be ample room for her to fall in love with him partly out of pity over his human bloodline.

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Oh, Amazon. Just because you didn’t buy that page in the Tolkien Estate deal doesn’t mean you can’t read it to stay consistent.

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Am I the only one who really has a problem with slightly racist Gil-Galad?

Rings of Power makes him out to be rather cunning and condescending, whereas the latter parts of The Silmarillion clearly state that Lindon is a haven for representatives of nearly every elven subset, and in “Of the Rings of Power,” Gil-Galad leans heavily on elves from houses or races that wouldn’t trust a mostly Noldo ruler in a line of pure-blooded, problematic Noldor rulers (going off Erenion’s House Fingolfin edition).

A king who has cobbled together so many races, gives and takes advice from everyone in the books, and double checks with the non-elves who serve him to see if everything is going along fairly cannot possibly be the same person who goes “this table is for big elf boys only” to Elrond. Allow me to remind the crowd that Elrond is part Maia. He’s also not the kind of person to attempt to spring a secret at a diplomatic dinner. Especially not after (probably) witnessing what went down when Elu Thingol, an actual racist, got from the dwarves.

Correct me if I read the books wrong. I just felt like saying: Racist Gil-Galad don’t rub right.

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I know it’s a reblog, but I really think it’s time I examine myself on the exact same point OP made.

While I am still infinitely salty over Eärendil leaving to ask the Valar for a perfectly legitimate favor, I gotta admit I have come a long way from babying anyone in the Kidnap Family Circle.

Eärendil made a poorly timed selfless decision.

Elwing was most likely under the influence of Jewel magic hellbent on self-preservation.

Elrond and Elros have a completely undefined story arc that somehow ended with the two of them taking the polar opposite races.

I don’t baby my Fëanoreans—at least not anymore. They’re tired of war, but according to canon itself, still very willing to make it even if it’s the flimsiest set of odds in The World That Is. They made bad decision after bad decision and their lessons learned got morally blacker until the most justifiable deed that the survivors could do was keep two hostages who suddenly didn’t have parents to go back to. And not to mention (to my own Pro-Maedhros sadness) that Tolkien doesn’t mention Neylo’s views toward the twins. The Silmarillion only says that Maglor warmed up to the twins eventually.

I don’t entirely like the flavor of tragedy surrounding Beren and Luthien’s specific Silmaril, but I also understand that the degrees of justification to be found for EVERYONE are slim even for the innocent characters like Elwing (who is just out here trying to live a life away from the people who murdered her father and may have killed her little brothers).

A hot take: people are def allowed to have preferences and it’s understandable why the Fëanorians are fan favorites, but-

I’ve encountered so much fic where Maglor and Maedhros are treated with pity, where their actions are examined with complexity and they’re deemed worthy of forgiveness and love despite every terrible thing they’ve done (Elrond’s forgiveness and love, specifically.) But in the same fic, Elwing’s attempted su*cide is just reduced to an act of maternal abandonment, and that makes her unforgivable (and deserving of Elrond’s resentment.)

And that honestly just feels unfair.

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Following up on my previous post about the poor Star Isle soul who invented “My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean,” I think we should talk about the fact that ROP episode 7 has definitely given us ground for someone to invent “Barret’s Privateers”—

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I lay awake last night living in fear that some drunk Númenorean, most likely Elros, come to think of it, invented “My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean.”