#‘cause that’s how i feel about those books sam made for aragorn

[frodo-with-glasses]

Hobbit history, Aragorn

Hobbit History

If Aragorn learned about hobbit history from anyone, it would have to be from Frodo and Bilbo.

I mean, let’s be honest, if he’s gonna get any information about hobbits, it would have to be from the horse’s—or rather, pony’s—mouth. Hobbits tend to keep to themselves, and their doings and goings-on are generally of little consequence to the world at large. Of course Aragorn might know some things in broad strokes—at some point, he likely would have read in a footnote of some book of histories in Minas Tirith of King Argeleb II of the North-kingdom and his agreement with the Halflings concerning the settlement of the Shire—but information would be sparse, and many of the things hobbits would deem important about their own history would be completely unknown to outsiders.

Out of the hobbits he had the pleasure of knowing personally (he could say with all sincerity, if a bit of an ironic smile), the Baggins pair would be the best bet. Sam, though he did read and write well for his family, wasn’t terribly book-learned. Pippin rarely paid attention to his studies, if he attended them at all. Merry was more knowledgeable, but he was just as likely to share information that actually answered your question as he was to info-dump about his hyperfixation on pipeweed—on which he was a particularly good authority, if you wanted to know about that sort of thing. And then, there was Bilbo and Frodo, two old rich bachelors with nothing better to do with their lives than spend all day with their noses in books.

I can only imagine that some of those months in Rivendell—after the Council and before the Quest began—were spent with Aragorn, Frodo, and Bilbo walking in the gardens, or sitting on a high porch overlooking the valley, or huddling by the fire when it was cold and Bilbo was getting a chill, as they talked about hobbits and what they’d made of themselves in all these hundreds of years.

Aragorn would be surprised to hear that the Shire-hobbits sent some bowmen to the aid of the northern King in his war against the Witch-King of Angmar; “I have read many histories of Men,” he said, “and also the old Record of Kings, and I have heard the tallest tales of many lands, but never have I heard tell that the Halflings did this thing.”

“Well, we did,” Bilbo said with a huff. “We prefer peace, of course, and seldom go out looking for a fight, but we aren’t so fragile in a pinch, I hope you observe. Or do you think our aim is good only for darts?”

At that, Aragorn laughed. “As for darts, have beaten me soundly, my friend, and enough times that I should learn my lesson. I apologize. I did not mean to offend. If anything, I am more incredulous that such an act of valor should go without thanks or record from the Men of the North.”

“Well, that’s no surprise!” said Bilbo with a grin. “We’re used to being overlooked. Comes with the height, I suppose.”

Of course Aragorn would be very interested to hear about the Battle of Greenfields and old Bullroarer Took, and about the Thain and the Mayor and the general structure of power in the Shire (or lack thereof), but he was also interested in the little things—what Frodo and Bilbo called “family history”, and the invention of golf, and the gossip and rivalry between the Tooks and Brandybucks, about which he asked many intelligent and altogether too serious questions.

He had two motives in this, of course. The first—and the strongest—was that he wanted to know more about his new friends, and learning about their mundane and colorful history was an excellent way to do that. The second—less personal, but no less important—was to do his homework concerning this settlement of halflings that was, technically, still within the jurisdiction of Isildur’s line.

When he became King, he issued a proclamation that no Man should ever enter the Shire, and that it was a Free Land under protection of the Crown. When he came to visit his friends in the year 1436, he did not step beyond the Brandywine Bridge—even a King must honor his own edict, after all—but before he left, he did press a sizable purse of gold into the hand of the Mayor (that is, of course, Sam Gamgee).

“See to it that the best of your histories, and Frodo’s book, are copied by your finest craftsmen,” he said. “Your people have made for themselves an honored place in the history of our world, and so your stories deserve a place in the library of kings. This ought to cover all expense, and if there be any left over, keep it as a gift.”

Sam’s eyes went wide for a moment—the sum could have bought all the property in Hobbiton twice over!—but he was a little older and a little calmer than he was when he first traveled with Strider, so instead of a long string of exclamations, he simply clutched the purse to his chest and promised, “I’ll make every cent count, Strider. They’ll be the most beautiful books you’ve ever seen; save the ones the Elves keep, maybe.”

The work took years, but Sam would only deign to hire the best. Years later, when Sam travelled to Gondor with Rosie and Elanor, he had in his little wagon—wrapped carefully in cloth, and packed in water-tight chests—a beautiful little stack of books, bound in leather, dyed brilliant red and blue and green, with gold corner caps and satin bookmarks and woodcut illustrations on the inside pages.

Those books were kept in the royal library in Minas Tirith, and tended as long as their keepers could maintain them, and painstakingly copied for years long after the hands that made them had passed away. It was exactly was Aragorn would have hoped.

After all, hobbit history was Middle Earth’s history too.

WORD ASK GAME!

[anghraine]

Additional thought: it's not that this makes our heroes terrible for opposing them. The orcs are part of an imperialist war machine that their enemies are defending themselves against. OTOH the fact that orcs definitionally do not have a way out despite being ordinary people, and know this, and resent it, and want another kind of life, does feel tragic on some level.

It also feels significant that LOTR the book is particularly adamant on the point that acts that are broadly evil or wrong cannot be justified by who your target is or how noble the overall cause is. That's what the Ring is about, thematically—when Boromir says that good men can use the Ring for good ends and remain uncorrupted, he's fooling himself (with the able assistance of the Ring). It's one thing to defend your life and home for real, it's another to use that as a pretext for things that are simply wrong. It's not about finding the "right" target so you can feel just about doing something fundamentally unethical.

When Faramir says he would not lie to an orc, that's basically what he's saying. In his world, orcs are hostile, dangerous, ancestral and current enemies throughout thousands of years of history continuing right into the present moment and serving an existential foe. He doesn't know that some of them dislike Sauron and want to escape. But even an orc can't be justifiably lied to in his worldview, because he believes it's wrong to lie to any person. No matter how evil that person or their deeds, their actions cannot justify wrongdoing on his end.

For similar reasons, Aragorn isn't going to kill the Mouth of Sauron. He psychically challenges the Mouth (another Númenórean in the book), but actual violence against an ambassador, even a super evil sorcerous ambassador of Sauron, is simply wrong in the code that someone like Aragorn lives by. He can't just decide the Mouth is an un-person because he's a terrible person and justify a war crime.

I'm not arguing that Aragorn and Faramir have identical codes of behavior or that all heroic characters in Tolkien do (if you've followed me for long, you'll know this is very much not my opinion). But the larger idea here is that evil deeds cannot be made good ones by finding the right person to commit them against, and this encompasses the Mouth, this encompasses the human soldiers on Team Sauron that Sam pities, this encompasses orcs, this encompasses every single person. This was very much Tolkien's RL position on the atomic bombs in WWII, it's a whole thing.

And the inclusion of the orcs in this, awful as they invariably seem to be, defines them as people.

(This is not a full-throated endorsement of how Tolkien handles the orcs, btw! But I think it's important to the basic themes of the story that unethical acts cannot be converted to ethical ones by the character of your target. The orcs in LOTR are invading soldiers of conquest who pose direct and brutal threats to other people's lives, homes, and autonomy. Those other people have the moral right to defend themselves, but it doesn't give them total latitude to just do whatever to orcs or anyone else.)

It's interesting (if often frustrating) to see the renewed Orc Discourse after the last few episodes of ROP. I've seen arguments that orcs have to be personifications of evil rather than people as such or else the ethics of our heroes' approach to them becomes much more fraught. Tolkien's work, as written, seems an odd choice to me for not wrangling with difficult questions, and of course, more diehard fans are going to immediately bring up Shagrat and Gorbag.

If you haven't read LOTR recently, Shagrat and Gorbag are two orcs who briefly have a conversation about how they're being screwed over by Sauron but have no other real options, about their opinions of mistakes that have been made, that they think Sauron himself has made one, but it's not safe to discuss because Sauron has spies in their own ranks. They reminisce about better times when they had more freedom and fantasize about a future when they can go elsewhere and set up a small-scale banditry operation rather than being involved in this huge-scale war. Eventually, however, they end up turning on each other.

Basically any time that someone brings up the "humanity" of this conversation, someone else will point out that they're still bad people. They're not at all guilty about what they're part of. They just resent the dangers to themselves, the pressure from above, failures of competence, the surveillance they're under, and their lack of realistic alternative options. The dream of another life mentioned in the conversation is still one of preying on innocent people, just on a much smaller and more immediate scale, etc.

I think this misses the reason it keeps getting brought up, though. The point is not that Shagrat and Gorbag are good people. The point is that they are people.

There's something very normal and recognizable about their resentment of their superiors, their fears of reprisal and betrayal that ultimately are realized, their dislike of this kind of industrial war machine that erases their individual work and contributions, the tinge of wistfulness in their hope of escape into a different kind of life. Their dialect is deliberately "common"—and there's a lot more to say about that and the fact that it's another commoner, Sam, who outwits them—but one of the main effects is to make them sound familiar and ordinary. And it's interesting that one of the points they specifically raise is that they're not going to get better treatment from "the good guys" so they can't defect, either.

This is self-interested, yes, but it's not the self-interest of some mystical being or spirit or whatnot, but of people.

Tolkien's later remarks tend to back this up. He said that female orcs do exist, but are rarely seen in the story because the characters only interact with the all-male warrior class of orcs. Whatever female orcs "do," it isn't going to war. Maybe they do a lot of the agricultural work that is apparently happening in distant parts of Mordor, maybe they are chiefly responsible for young orcs, maybe both and/or something else, we don't know. But we know they're out there and we know that they reproduce sexually and we know that they're not part of the orcish warrior class.

Regardless of all the problems with this, the idea that orcs have a gender-restricted warrior class at all and we're just not seeing any of their other classes because of where the story is set doesn't sound like automatons of evil. It sounds like an actual culture of people that we only see along the fringes.

And this whole matter of "but if they're people, we have to think about ethics, so they can't be people" is a weird circular argument that cannot account for what's in LOTR or for much of what Tolkien said afterwards. Yes, he struggled with The Problem of Orcs and how to reconcile it with his world building and his ethical system, but "maybe they're not people" is ultimately not a workable solution as far as LOTR goes and can't even account for much of the later evolution of his ideas, including explicit statements in his letters.

And in the end, the real response that comes to mind to that circular argument is "maybe you should think about ethics more."

[andorseries]

i was just thinking. what do you feel when you watch/read the lord of the rings, the hobbit?

I feel hope. not the kind of hope you'd get in a church, or somewhere else like. it's the kind of hope that comes swiftly; something that you realise was always there, but you never notice until you're watching once again lady galadriel say that even the smallest person can change the course of the future.

just think about it for a second. what do you feel when you see those big wargs, scary uruks, ugly orcs? when you hear the screaming of goblins flying from the balrog of moria? the screaming of the nazgul? the darkness of mordor all around? there's so much darkness. so much fear, so much hatred. and then you find yourself asking /the question/, as if you were there: how can the good prevail over such evil?

but you know it can. because you imagine the green forests of the shire, you imagine mirkwood and what's become of it - you know that even in it's darkest times you'd still like to go there and see -, you think of rivendell and lothlorien, of the little shire rivers, of the things that grow. you think of beautiful things and you know that they are real, that they exist in real life, and that they are worth fighting for. that they are worth living for. that all of those monsters we see - orcs, goblins, balrog, uruks, trolls, nazguls, wargs, the dark lord himself, and even a dragon: you know that they represent the dangers of the world, the real world, that we must face even when we feel small. even when we are the smallest of all the small people. even when we are afraid, even when darkness seems to close in. we must fight for the good that are inside of us, for the good that is still out there. for those little rivers and mountains, for those green forests that might not be green for long now.

that's how tolkien's stories give me hope.

sometimes all I wish is to be bilbo baggins stepping out of his comfortable hobbit hole to an unknown adventure; and then I remember im already in one, in more than one, and I'm as brave as a baggins or a took. all of us are. 'cause are there any doctors or pills in middle earth to save frodo from his fears, his anxiety, his burden? is there anything to help sam control his anger? there's only love. love that we also carry. we might have all the science in our pocket, but we also have love. and it's love and friendship that take us back home.

and if frodo and sam can walk from the shire to rivendell and then to mordor, i can walk down the stairs of my building to go to work. if merry and pippin can fight a wizard with water and rocks (and trees), i can fight my own imaginary wizards throwing imaginary rocks at them and screaming fuck you saruman.

aragorn can resist the calling of the ring. I can resist the calling of the window.

legolas can give up his prince life to live on the road with a ranger. I can give up the comforts of home to face the world outside. to discover what's out there and what it has to teach me.

just like gandalf told bilbo, the world isn't in my books or maps. it's out there. and I wanna see it, no matter how dangerous it is. there's still beautiful things amongst all this evil - there are still things worth fighting for. and when you're done with it all, when you're sitting in your rocking chair by the fireplace, you'll remember those dreads you faced as something so small, but that made a huge difference. it wasn't as impossible as i thought, was it? I just had to keep walking.

you'll also remember all the good you have seen, experienced and shared with others. then your chest will be filled with warmth, and you'll know that there's nothing you would've done different. you would step out of that door and do it all again if you had the chance, 'cause now you know:

there is always hope.

[failedskillcheck]

Dude your fandom list is just like mine!! I'm so excited to see that, so I just had to send in a request!!

If you're fine with multiple fandoms in one ask, how would Aragorn, Samwise gamgee, Zelda (botw) and Mipha react to a s/o who's career is working with hospitalized kids? I'm hoping to start a career in using video games and pop culture as therapy for kids in hospitals and domestic violence shelters, like playing games with them or talking about their favorite cartoons to get their mind off of their pain and troubles. It's a sorta sad line of work, but I love making people happy and sharing my passions with those who might need it.

Sorry if that's too heavy a subject, I really do love seeing new blogs around! Thanks so much in advance hun, I hope you're doing well 💕

Ah thank you for being my first ask!! I decided to split this into 2 parts, LOTR and BOTW being separate.

Aragorn With A Child Care S/O

You met Aragorn when he visited Endoras, where you were caring for a haggle of children while the parents worked.

The children were immediately attracted to him, begging him for stories and to teach them how to swordfight. Meanwhile, he was attracted to you, the way you cared for every child fairly, treating them as your own.

It didn’t take long for you to fall for him either, although he was slow to return the feelings, he knew his odds of surviving the war was low and didn’t want you to get hurt.

You told him it would hurt you more if you were never able to act on your feelings towards him, and eventually he agreed.

When the war started, you left with him to Gondor, and when you finally reached the city, you decided to set up a permanent childrens hospital, as the war had left so many injured.

It took until after he was crowned for Aragorn to discover your hospital, and he was amazed at the amount of effort and money you’d put into the shelter.

Soon you started receiving anonymous donations of money, books, and toys.

Aragorn would feel frustrated that he didn’t know about your hospital sooner. He was King, but more than that, he was your partner. Had the war really caused his ignorance?

One day, he would just bite the bullet and come to see you, apologizing for not being more attentive to what you do during the day. He would ask you to let him sponsor the hospital, so that it could get proper funding.

Soon, it became part of his duties to visit the children at your hospital, telling them stories like he did in Endoras.

With his help, you were able to purchase new equipment and research medicines for the children. And then you opened other hospitals in other cities and towns of man, starting with Endoras.

Samwise Gamgee With A Child Care S/O

You had been dating Sam for a while before he disappeared with Frodo, Merry, and Pippin.

It took you a week of waiting before you decided to pack your bags and find them.

You made it to Bree, and as you were walking past an alleyway, you heard a sniffle. The sound made you stop in your tracks.

Sitting outside of a half-wrecked door was a little human boy, no older than five. He had nasty bruises on his arms, and your heart sank. You had always had a soft spot for children, and you knew you had to save this one.

As you picked up the boy, you saw a tiny bundle of blankets beside him, and a tiny hand reached at you as you bent over to investigate.

Taking the baby in your arms and the boy's hand in your own, you went back to the Shire. As you searched for your house key, you felt the key for Bilbo Baggin’s home in your pocket, which you had due to you cleaning his house for him.

You had access to the biggest hole in the Shire, which currently lay un-inhabited. You brought the children up the hill, opening the green door and tucking the boy in a guest room, and tucking the baby in a basket.

You sat down at the desk to work, surely more children needed help, how could you abandon them.

You wrote lists for groceries, wrote flyers, and worked well into the night. You knew Rosie Cotton, one of your closest friends, would help, you weren’t sure of the other Hobbits though. So you wrote letters. So. Many. Letters.

The next morning, you met the boy properly, learning his name was Buckley, and the baby was his sister, Natalia. Their mother had died, and their father had forgotten about them. You set them up with some food and water, Buckley knowing how to take care of his sister already.

You went all over Hobbiton. The market for more food, the crossing to deliver fliers to Bree and beyond, delivered your letters, and talked to Rosie, who agreed to help when she wasn’t working at the tavern.

When you got home, Buckley was playing with a little cloth doll above Natalia's head, and he tried to help you as much as he could.

Months passed, your shelter growing from Buckley and Natalia to twenty children piled into the hobbit hole. Needless to say, it was completely changed. Some of the other Hobbits had donated clothing, and a few had even gotten human clothes for the bigger kids.

The day Sam and Frodo came back, you were teaching a few of the children the names of the flowers in the garden. You had installed a little bell on the gate and the door, so you could hear new arrivals.

Without really looking, you welcomed them to the shelter,before standing up and seeing them. It took a moment for you to realise who they were, but Sam was already walking toward you with open arms.

A running jump later, and you were both on the ground, laughing and celebrating.

Two seconds later you started scolding him, and despite his best efforts, you still managed to chew him out think Molly Weasleys howler, but in person

Frodo would gift you and Sam his house to keep the shelter running, and Sam would dote on the kids constantly, teaching them how to garden, cook, and telling them all about the “Brave Adventures of Mr. Frodo”

You would both pass on the shelter and retire after Frodo left for the Grey Havens, moving into your old hobbit hole.

[strangeradventuresofp]

second thoughts (legolas x reader)

The Fellowship of the Ring - Part 3

masterlist

warnings: fighting, character death

part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5

a/n : part 3!!! i have so much fun writing this story and im so glad that i get to continue writing these chapters for you guys. thank you so much to everyone who is reading and showing support, it honestly means so much to me you have no idea. anyway, without further ado, here’s chapter 3! i hope you enjoy<3

“Are we lost?”

“No.”

“I think we are.”

“Shh! Gandalf’s thinking.”

“Merry?”

“What?”

“I’m hungry.” Pippin and Merry whispered between each other. They were sat opposite each other, their voices flowing through the space. Sam was sat up against one of the rocks near Frodo. Gandalf had perched himself upon a rock. He lifted a pipe to and from his lips, blowing out smoke when necessary. You were sat beside Boromir, who was beside Aragorn. Legolas was stood, his back leaned against rock, close to Aragorn.

“I miss home.” You mentioned. Boromir smiled, wrapping an arm around your shoulders and pulling you gently into his side.

“After the journey, we will return. We will drink and feast and celebrate. And everything will go back to normal.” He assured and you gave a small smile. Though, you were unsure of whether you wanted that to be your reality when you were to finish the journey. You had quite enjoyed the thought of travelling with Aragorn and then when his time had come… Well, you had not thought that far just yet. Anyway, this was all hypothetical, of course, as it had much started to dawn on you that you might not get the chance to return. Luck had been on your side thus far but for how long would it continue to come to your aid?

Legolas noticed the worried look that fell over your features and his brows drew together, wishing that he could read your mind to know what troubled you. He was about to pull you to the side to ask how you were when Gandalf let out a loud noise.

“It’s that way.” He pointed with his eyes, a smile tugging at his lips as he looked at Frodo who was sat beside him.

“He’s remembered!” Merry said with a grin, pulling the pipe from his lips. He pushed himself to his feet.

Gandalf stood with the aid of his staff. “No, but the air doesn’t smell so foul down here. If in doubt, young Meriadoc, always follow your nose.” He led the way, holding his staff up so that the light exuding from it would reveal more of the path. Legolas held back to walk with you. You smiled at him and he returned it. Each member of the Fellowship stepped down the decreasing concrete.

“Let me risk a little more light.” Gandalf muttered. His staff brightened the way. “Behold, the great realm, the dwarf city of Dwarrowdelf.”

Your lips parted almost immediately in awe, breath drawing from your throat. There were pillars hundreds of feet tall, all so intricately designed and decorated. Somehow amongst the darkness all of the stone seemed to turn from a dull grey to a shimmering silver. Dips and grooves were so perfectly sculpted that it seemed surreal.

“Well, there’s an eyeopener, make no mistake.” Sam said. His eyes were glistening with wonder as well as everyone else’s.

“It’s beautiful.” You whispered. It seemed as if the words were forced from your mouth. There was so much beauty and brilliance in the world that you had yet to see; the sort of the thing that excited you.

It did not excite you for long, however. Once you had been walking for a while again, Gimli paused. His eyes quickly scanned over skeletons leading to a room. He took an audible breath, running into the room. Your eyes widened and you quickly followed him. Your heart ached at the sight of him. His face was stained with more tears, his eyes flooded. His wails were unforgettable. A series of sobs left his lips, his chest heaving up and down as you gently placed a hand on his shoulder. You could feel tears begin to pool in yours eyes. You had not noticed that the others had joined you until the sound of extra footsteps echoed off of the walls.

“Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria.” The wizard took a breath. You moved away from Gimli, standing beside Legolas with a small sniffle. “He is dead, then. It is as I feared.” He handed his things to Pippin, delicately moving a skeleton to pick up a dusty book that it had been holding, once. A shiver ran all the way up your spine, your skin prickling in goosebumps. You snapped your head around to look through the door behind you, anxiety growing within your frame.

“I have a bad feeling about this place.” You hissed into the elf’s ear and he nodded, leaning into Aragorn’s ear slightly.

“We must move on. We cannot linger.”

Gandalf turned the page. “They have taken the bridge, and the second hall. We have barred the gates but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes. Drums. Drums in the deep.” He turned the page. “We cannot get out. Shadow moves in the dark. We cannot get out. They are coming—”

Suddenly a loud noise captivated the attention of everybody. The noise came from beside Pippin, who was stood looking extremely guilty beside a headless body. Before you knew it, the body fell flimsily down the hole beside it and the weight that it was attached to quickly followed. If you wanted not to be noticed then perhaps bringing Pippin along was not the right idea, for the noises echoed loudly around the space. After a little while of silence, Boromir let out an audible breath of relief.

“Fool of a took!” Gandalf snapped, tossing the book to the floor. “Throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity.” He snatched back his staff and hat and Pippin looked to the floor.

There was a faint bang in the distance. If anyone’s eyes had wondered, they were now firmly back on the hobbit. Breathing was audible from everyone in the room. You looked worriedly at Boromir, he, too, looked anxious. Your breath quickened, turning around to face the door but turning back when Sam spoke.

“Mister Frodo…” At his words, Frodo pulled out his sword which was glowing blue. Your eyes widened at the sight. He had told you before that his Uncle Bilbo had gifted it to him before he left Rivendell. It glowed blue if there were—

“Orcs.” Legolas confirmed at the overwhelming sound of energetic screams and shouts. Boromir turned, running to the door.

“Boromir!” You warned, gasping sharply when two arrows landed not even an inch away from his face, protruding out from the door. Sprinting to him, you helped him shove the door closed. You could make out Aragorn saying something to the hobbits over the vicious pumping of your heart. Instinctively you turned your back to the door, holding it shut whilst Legolas threw an axe to you. It threaded through the handle of the door kindly and you stepped away from the door slowly, pulling out your knives. The door began to wave outwards and inwards, like it was victim to an angry storm. Weapons were cutting through the wood at speed and soon enough the doors caved to the Orcs’ will. They came flooding through the space like they were on a water current. Legolas and Aragorn shot their arrows but there were too many. They continued to pour through until they reached you.

With a roar, you brought your knife up to counter a sword, plunging your other into the face of your attacker. You dodged an oncoming axe, dropping the floor to swipe its legs before heaving its own weapon into its chest. Swiftly you sliced through the flesh of one’s neck, spinning to punch another before you stabbed it in the heart; if they had hearts, that is, you did not really know. Your fingers tightened around the hilts of your knives, searching around. You quickly sheathed your knives, picking up an axe from one of those that you just killed. As you made for one about to attack Boromir from behind, you swung the axe over your head, burying it deep inside its skull. The body fell to its knees and you struggled to pull the weapon out, forcefully kicking the body to release the axe. Shouting, swinging at one’s knees before slicing its head clean from its body.

You shielded your face as rocks came flying from where the door was once. Sheer horror smacked you in the face at the sight of a cave troll. It had chains around its neck and a huge mallet in its hand. It came bounding right up to Sam after Legolas shot an arrow into the centre of its chest.

“Sam!” You cried, breathing as he managed to crawl out of the way. When you turned around, an Orc landed a punch straight to your nose. You fell, startled, wincing slightly at the pain. Your eyes widened as it swung its axe towards your head. With barely inches between you and the blade, you managed to roll out of the way. Suddenly the Orc let out a cry of pain, and you used the opportunity to ram your knives into each of its legs before pulling one out and driving it into its chest. When it fell to the floor, you managed to take a quick glance at the body. There was an arrow sticking out of the fleshy part of the side. A small smile tugged on your lips amongst the madness, your eyes searching.

Your smile faded when your gaze landed on Legolas. The troll swung its chain at him with ferocity, causing rocks to fall from the pillars and the walls.

“Legolas!” You screamed his name, tears in your eyes. He managed to swerve from all of the troll’s attacks. You did not see much of what happened next, for the number of Orcs seemed to increase again, but you cut down all of the Orcs that came your way with much frustration, the tears of worry in your eyes turning to those of anger.

When you next got a chance to look at the troll, it was attacking Frodo, Merry and Pippin. You began to make your way towards them, lunging at each creature that came to attack you, carving into their skin as if they were meat for dinner. The cave troll grabbed Frodo by his foot, and you called to him, raising the aggressiveness of your attacks unintentionally, frustration consuming your entire body. Frodo managed to slice something from the hand of the troll, giving Aragorn the chance to stick a spear just under its breast. It smacked Aragorn to the side and he hit a rock before his body tumbled lifelessly to the floor. Frodo desperately tried to run around the troll but to no avail. The troll pushed the spear into the hobbits chest.

A sob was forced from your throat, your chest heaving for breath. Merry and Pippin jumped on the troll, stabbing at its neck relentlessly. It managed to shake Merry off, dropping him to the floor from a height. Gimli ran at it, attempting to smack it with his axe but got kicked to the side. As you screamed, your knives tore and shredded through its thick skin. You swung an axe from the ground up to land firmly in the back of it. Legolas drew an arrow, aiming carefully before shooting it. The arrow buried itself in its mouth. It let out a noise. Then it fell to the ground, spreading the dust over the other bodies that lay there.

It took you no time at all to run to where Frodo’s and Aragorn’s bodies were. A few tears fell down your cheeks while you sprinted. You sighed in relief to see Aragorn crawling toward the hobbits body, but you frowned, noticing that Frodo still had not moved. The lump in your throat grew. Your breathing felt restricted, a small sob falling from your lips. Aragorn rolled Frodo’s body over into his lap.

A series of groans came from the mouth of the hobbit and your eyes widened, thinking that your ears had deceived you. The hobbit was stabbed, surely, he was dead! But Sam ran to your side, taking a deep breath before he looked to the rest of the Fellowship.

“He’s alive.” He confirmed. Everyone seemed to breathe at that.

“I’m alright. I’m not hurt.” Said Frodo, clutching his chest.

You smiled. “But how?”

“I think there is more to this hobbit than meets the eye,” Gandalf suggested with a knowing look. When you looked back towards Frodo, he pulled the fabric of his undershirt down, revealing a glimmering white chainmail material.

“Mithril.” Gimli whispered, a smile on his face. “You are full of surprises, Master Baggins.” Y stood, laughing breathily before turning to those behind you. Your gaze landed on Boromir and you smiled, wiping a bit of blood from his cheek comically. He chuckled, engulfing you in a hug. He gently pressed his lips to your to the top of your head and you smiled. Boromir left you to check on Merry and Pippin and you turned to Legolas, smiling.

“I was worried for you, mellon nin.” You avoided his gaze.

“And I for you.” He said. You could hear the smile on his face when he spoke, and your smile widened. You were about to say something else when more manic screams and shouts were heard, identical to the ones that were heard before the Orcs attacked you. Your eyes widened, turning to Gandalf.

“To the bridge of Khazad-Dum.”

And with that the Fellowship took off down the stony halls of Moria. You were all sprinting at full speed. It was a little surprising that the hobbits could keep up, but they had proven many times by now that they could hold their own and should never be underestimated. Screams echoed behind you and you turned to look, slowing when you noticed how many Orcs there were. This was a battle you were destined to lose. Fingers wrapped firmly around your wrist and you snapped your head forward again to see Boromir holding to you with one of his arms, pulling you along. Orcs started to pop up out of the floor and crawl down from the ceiling and quite quickly it was easy to see that there were way too many of them to even fathom fighting. The Fellowship slowed to a stop and you created a circle, pulling your knives from their sheaths and staring down the Orcs that surrounded you. The circle seemed to get smaller and smaller and soon you were shoulder to shoulder with Legolas and Boromir. The Orcs smiled maniacally at you. You took a sharp breath, ready to lunge at them when a very loud rumbling noise came from the end of the corridor.

Immediately, the Orcs turned frail, squeaking with fear and soon they scattered off just as quickly as they had appeared. You were alone again. The noise reverberated through the halls.

“What is that?” Somehow you had the nerve to ask the question.

“A Balrog. A demon of the ancient world.” You watched Legolas’ eyes widen slightly at the wizard’s words and you swallowed dryly. “This foe is beyond any of you. Run!”

Gandalf made for the opening that you had all meant to go down originally, the rest of you darting to the end of the hall to keep up with him. He stopped at the open archway, allowing the others in front of him. You ran just behind Legolas and Boromir was now leading the way. He moved down the newly presented set of stairs, not noticing the empty chasm that lay before his feet. He wobbled on the very edge, dropping his torch down the space as Legolas lunged forward, wrapped his arms around his chest and pulled him back.

Behind you, Gandalf clutched hold of Aragorn’s shoulder. “Lead them on, Aragorn. The bridge is near.” When Aragorn tried to help him, he pushed on his shoulder, forcing him away. “Do as I say! Swords are no more use here.” You raced down the numerous flights of stone stairs until you came to a halt. A part of the staircase was missing. Legolas jumped over it carelessly, landing perfectly on the other side. He held his hand out to you. You took a breath before leaping over the disparity, grabbing his hand tightly as he safely pulled you into his chest.

“Gandalf.” He gestured for the wizard to come next. Gandalf jumped and you gasped as an arrow missed your face by just a few inches. Legolas frowned, aiming and shooting, his arrow hitting the Orc archer right between the eyes. You ushered Boromir down and he nodded, grabbing Merry and Pippin before diving over the gaping chasm. You caught Merry in your arms, setting him down with a head pat before Aragorn tossed Sam to you. Catching him, you gently set him down beside Merry whilst Legolas dealt with Gimli. Once Gimli joined you, however, the rock that Frodo and Aragorn were still perched on began to crumble. You gasped, squeezing Boromir’s hand in anxiety as you watched. A huge roar echoed from where you had just come from, causing the archway to shake and break. A large piece of stone plunged from the ceiling, crashing down onto the very staircase that the man and the hobbit were situated on. Your heart stuttered as the rock destroyed what was in its way, falling into the abyss below. The stem of the staircase broke.

“Be careful!” You cried, biting your lip so hard it pooled with blood. Aragorn pulled a very terrified Frodo into his chest. You watched with complete anxiety yet confusion; you could see that the man was calculating something.

“Lean forward!” He instructed to the Ring-Bearer and as the two did so, the faulty staircase began to lean under their weight. Slowly, it moved towards the stable one, crashing into it and you let out a breath with Frodo in your arms. All you wanted was to sit and hug him and make sure that he knew everything was going to be alright – even though you weren’t entirely sure it would be – but you knew that could not happen. Legolas had safely caught Aragorn and the next thing you knew, the ten of you were rapidly rushing down the numerous flights of trembling stairs.

Eventually you got to flat ground but none of you stopped running. Your thoughts wandered to Gandalf, wondering if it was wise that he should be running like this, for it seemed he was far too tired even earlier.

The bridge was near. “Over the bridge! Fly!” Little attention was paid to the roaring fires acting as gates toward it. Whilst everyone ran, Gandalf made sure to lack behind and just as he turned around, slowly, a giant creature emerged from the fire. It had black tattered skin and horns, terrible teeth and bright white eyes. Its mouth opened, and it created sound unlike any other on Middle-Earth, its mouth mirroring hot embers. Gandalf turned once it had taken a step, fleeing towards the group of you who also began to scurry away from the creature. You sprinted, heart jolting each time you heard – and felt – the Balrog take a step. In single file, ushering the hobbits in front of you, you crossed the bridge. Boromir held you for a moment once you had crossed, making sure that you were alright before he let go, eyes widening at the sight of Gandalf still in the centre of the bridge.

“You cannot pass.” Gandalf yelled, facing the beast with his staff out in front of him, his long sword settled in his other hand.

“Gandalf!” Frodo screamed. You inhaled sharply, eyes filling with tears in worry. Aragorn squeezed your hand gently as the beast stood tall, erupting into a ball of flame.

“I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udun!” A great light emitted from Gandalf’s staff when he held it up, but the Balrog created a weapon of his own. A flash of lightning spewed from the connection of Gandalf’s staff and the Balrog’s sword of flame. You grasped Aragorn’s hand tighter, feeling all of the moisture from your mouth dissipate. The sword melted down into the abyss and the creature moaned ferociously at the wizard once again. “Go back to the shadow.” He said behind hooded eyes. It stepped toward him, creating a fiery whip which he cracked against the stone.

“You shall not pass!” As his voice echoed, Gandalf thrust his staff into the stone, white sparks flying from the collision. The beast raised his arm, stepping mightily towards to wizard, but the stone crumbled under its weight. He plummeted into the abyss. You let out a breath you did not know you were holding. Gandalf turned to step towards you.

However, as he did so, an orange-yellow string secured itself around his ankle, pulling him across the stone until he barely hung from the edge.

You gasped, shaking your head incredulously. “No…” Frodo ran for him. Boromir grabbed him, holding him close before he could reach. Your eyes were wide with anguish, Frodo’s screams painfully ringing in your ears.

“Gandalf!”

He looked amongst you. “Fly, you fools.” Was all he said before he spread his fingers out, giving in, and he fell. Tears pooled in your eyes, an aching sensation pounding in your chest, throughout your entire body. A few choked sobs escaped you whilst Aragorn, still latched to your hand, pulled you along, shielding you from the many arrows that were being shot your way. The final set of steps lay in front of you, and as Aragorn gently dragged you along, you found yourself looking back, filled with a sorrow that everyone was experiencing.

Upon exiting Moria, you found that Boromir was holding back Gimli, from going in there and no doubt trying to murder the Balrog that had taken Gandalf. Sam was sat on his own, crying into his hand. Pippin was sprawled out on the floor in pain, Merry holding onto him, both of them with tears gushing down their faces. If your heart was not already broken from the loss, it certainly was shattered now from the melancholy faces that lay before you. Slowly, you made your way over to Sam, resting a gentle hand on his shoulder as you knelt beside him. He looked up and threw his arms around your body, sobbing silently into your shoulder. You closed your eyes, tears streaming, hugging him as tightly while he clung to you.

Legolas looked around, it seemed as if for the first time that he was unsure of what to do. His chest ached, even harder when his eyes landed upon you, and how you quickly swiped your tears away before talking to Sam, wanting to be strong for him and the other hobbits.

Aragorn cleaned his sword with his clothes. “Legolas, get them up.” He came close to you and Sam and you shook your head gently.

“Leave them.” You sniffed.

“Give them a moment, for pity’s sake!”

“By nightfall, these hills will be swarming with Orcs. We must reach the Woods of Lothlorien. Come Boromir. Y/N, Legolas, Gimli, get them up.” Aragorn pulled Sam up from the floor. “On your feet.” Boromir made his over to you, wrapping a comforting arm around your shoulder. You smiled weakly at him, and he kissed your temple softly. “Frodo?” You heard Aragorn call, your eyes wandering to try to find the hobbit. Once you had found him, you sighed.

“It is hardly fair, that they do not get a chance to lament.”

“I know, but Aragorn is right. We must hurry to avoid the Orcs and another potential loss.” You nodded and Boromir’s words, hugging into his side, your eyes never leaving Frodo.

~~~

You had all been walking for a long while, but it was still light. You had been walking beside Aragorn, listening to him talk away about where we going and then after that and after that. It was not until he mentioned again where you were going now, that a faint memory flooded into your head. Your brows furrowed together whilst you tried to remember the details of the memory.

“What is it, Y/N?” Aragorn asked, concerned.

“Lothlorien. It sounds familiar.” You gave him a knowing look and his eyes widened, only slightly, in surprise. You both knew what that could mean. Legolas, however, did not, but he wanted to. He felt awful for eavesdropping yet again, but you intrigued him more than one ever had before, and his curiousness was getting the better of him.

Aragorn started to jog toward the forest, and you joined him, stopping once you were inside. Your eyes widened when you looked around, your breathing staggering only slightly, your heart thumping in your chest.

“Aragorn,” you whispered. “I have been here before.”

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[rosa-berberifolia]

The Long Haul|LOTR x Reader|Eomer x Reader - Part 3

A/N: Part 3 of 4 I think. Again, I am not super duper familiar with the books. This is based off of the movies primarily, with some changes to canon. If you hate it don’t be mean about it. I don’t know.

Warnings: violence, blackish magic type stuffs, blood, death and all that jazz

Word Count:

As the days passed after your return to Edoras you felt guiltier and guiltier. It seemed that Eomer paid no mind to the fact that he could never be with you. It seemed that his favorite thing to do when he wasn’t working with his uncle was to come find you, regardless of what you were doing, and take your hand to place a kiss to your fingers, smile sweetly at you, and then leave. Nothing had happened between you two yet. And even though that made you a bit sad, you felt it was better that way.

A raven came to Edoras one morning, for the king. It was from Treebeard, who said that the ents, along with two hobbits, had taken Isengard. You, Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas were relieved. You knew that you lost the two hobbits to Treebeard before the battle at the Helm. The two hobbits Treebeard was referring to were Merry and Pippin.

So the five of you, plus Eomer and some of the king’s men went to Isengard to see what was going on. And to your great relief, Merry and Pippin were indeed more than fine, and the place was crawling with ents. You all took the two hobbits back to Edoras with you, and a few days later the Beacon of Gondor had been lit. That same day, all of the Rohirrim, your company, and Eowyn left Edoras and met under the shadow of the mountain were they set up an encampment.

You rode with Eomer the whole way. And you could see Eowyn and Aragorn give you knowing look as you rode off. You looked away in embarassment. You were definitely going to have words with them later.

///

It was an eerily quiet night. The wind was almost non existent in the shadow of the mountain. And all of the men were quiet as they contemplated how they were probably not likely to live through the battle. You felt it too, but you kept it to yourself. You just wished that you and Eomer had been intimate with each other before the end.

You knew that this battle was going to go one of two ways for you. Either you would fight and lose, dying in battle, and hopefully atoning for your past sins, or; Frodo and Sam will succeed, causing everything evil to fall, yourself included - destroying the ring means your death. Either way, you die.

You noticed Aragorn talking to Eowyn later as he appeared to be packing up his horse. You knew he was leaving to go into the mountain. You couldn’t very well let him go in there alone. You shared a tent with Gimli. You came inside to find him and Legolas playing a game where one tries to slap the others hand before they can take them away. You chuckled and shook you head at there antics. 

“Aragorn is going into the mountain. Lets go.” You said and started to fill your bags. 

///

“Where do you think you’re off to?” Gimli questioned with his pipe as Aragorn and his horse walked by him.

“Not this time. This time you must stay, Gimli.” Aragorn countered.

Legolas walked up behind him with the other horse. “Have you learned nothing of the stubbornness of dwarves?” He asked smuggly. You walked out from behind Legolas, saying nothing but crossing your arms over each other.

“You might as well face accept it.” Gimli started, “We’re going with you, laddie.”

Aragorn smiled but then looked to you and it faltered. He shook his head. “Y/n. I must ask you stay.” Your eyebrows shot up as you shot his a surprised but scathing look. “Eowyn intends to fight in the battle.” He informed and your expression dropped immediately turning to worry. “Please stay and watch over her...if you can?”

You bit your lip to keep all of the angry words from escaping. Fuck. You sighed defeated. “Fine.” You said through gritted teeth. Aragorn walked up to you and put a thankful hand on your shoulder. You couldn’t help the smile that graced your lips. You knew and he knew this would be the last time you would see each other. Your chin wavered and before you knew what you were doing, you found your arms around him, and his instantly came around her. Y/n hugged Aragorn with a strength she didn’t know she had. But Aragorn was her best friend. Her first friend. Both knew that she wasn’t going to survive this war. Aragorn might. But she wasn’t. When they let each other go they smiled sadly at the other. Then Legolas stepped in.

“Mellon nin.” He said softly, giving a tight lipped smile. Y/n smiled back and wrapped her arms around his torso while Legolas wrapped his around her shoulders. He rubbed her back a little before pulling back.

“Aye lassie. I -” Gimli started but Y/n had quickly knelt down an hugged him tightly. Gimli sighed defeated and gently pat her back. With a deep breath Y/n got back up. She gave the three a bittersweet smile before walking slowly off towards Eowyn’s tent.

///

Y/n had gone to talk to Eowyn who lied straight to Y/n’s face about staying at the camp when the rest of the soldiers left.  Y/n just chuckled and shook her head at Eowyn’s stubbornness, figuring that she would deal with it tomorrow. 

Heading back to her tent, a familiar voice called Y/n’s name. She smiled to herself before turning around to meet Eomer’s warm brown eyes. He approached her and took her hand, bringing it up to his perfect lips and placed a gentle kiss there. Y\n couldn’t deny how much she wished to feel those lips on her own. She couldn’t help that her teeth took her bottom lip between them. T/n almost missed Eomer’s glance at her mouth. And almost as if it was a reflex, her tongue darted out to wet her lips.

“I - I - I - uh -” Eomer tried to form words. Y/n giggled and he shook his head and took a deep breath and started again. “May I talk to you about something?” He asked. Y/n nodded - anything to spend more time with him. Eomer held out her elbow for her and she wrapped her arm around his and he lead her away.

“Is it about the coming battle?” Y/n asked.

“I know you are planning on going.” He started, “Though I wish you would stay safe and stay here.” Eomer added with a chuckle. He knew Y/n was too headstrong. Y/n looked up at him, slightly worried. It was clear that he didn’t know Y/n’s lineage, nor did he realize she’d be dead soon, regardless of the battles outcome.

That only made Y/n want to be with Eomer even more. At least before she died. She couldn’t have been more delighted - nervous, but delighted - when it turned out Eomer had lead her to his personal tent. He lifted the flap to enter and motioned for Y/n to go in. Y/n smiled before quietly going inside. 

Y/n took a few steps in the tent and took in the items inside. Eomer stepped in and let the flap close behind him. He stayed silent as he watched her take in her surroundings. She stopped when she finally noticed him standing there.

Eomer smiled and took steps towards Y/n. He put his hands on her arms and rubbed them sweetly for a moment before he stepped even closer and then cupped Y/n’s cheek gently. The look he was giving, one of longing and want, sent shivers down her spine.

Y/n licked her lips and then pressed them together. The yearning for Eomer, the want of a chance to show him how much she loved him, it was building up to be too much. Gathering her courage, she reached up and put his cheek in her hand and pulled him closer until their lips met in a sweet kiss. After a moment, Eomer pulled away smiling. He rested his forehead against hers.

“I’ve been dreaming of doing that again for so long.” Eomer said in nearly a whisper. 

“Me too.” Y/n confirmed with a grin so large it hurt her cheeks. They stayed like that for a moment before they couldn’t help it, and they reconnected once more. 

Quickly the kiss grew deeper and more passionate. Soon Eomer had guided Y/n to his bed and laid her down with him on his elbows on top of her. His hand had thread through her hair, pulling her incredibly close. Y/n’s hands wandered every inch of his skin that she dreamed so much about exploring. Before she knew what she was doing, Y/n had worked Eomer’s tunic over his head. Eomer took the queue and started undoing the laces of Y/n’s outfit. Shortly after, both of them found themselves bare and they held each other impossibly tight, spending their night together, taking all the other had to offer. 

///

Y/n wasn’t able to find Eowyn - or Merry for that matter - before everyone left for battle. The sneaky pair must have disguised themselves. Y/n could use magic to find them, but there wasn’t time and she didn’t have the resources. Plus the amount of energy required to do magic was great, and she thought that she really ought to conserve it in case they needed it during battle.

She sat atop a horse, waiting with the kings company as Theoden made a speech about bravery. But his words had little effect when his company got a look at the battlefield. It was terrifying. Monsters and machinery littered the field waiting to get into the walls of Minas Tirith. It was one hundred percent accurate to think that she was going to die there. But with a rousing cry for death, the ensemble of heroes galloped towards the orcs and beasts.

///

It was a massacre. Olliphants crushed men and horse into the ground and Nazgul picked them from it before devouring them. The men were fighting frantically for their lives, trying desperately to make it to the end of this seemingly endless war. It was a miracle when Y/n finally spotted a familiar marking on the armor of a soldier. It was Eomer. Still alive. Still trying to encourage his men to keep going. Y/n made for him, and she called his name. He turned to see her coming towards him. The look of relief on him made Y/n smile. She came closer and Eomer put his hands on her shoulders, taking in her figure to see if she was hurt. And when he saw that she wasn’t, he gave a loud sigh and pulled her to him so he could wrap his arms around her.

“It’s pointless to try to win.” Y/n said with little hope. Eomer shook his head and then bent down to kiss her. 

“Perhaps we can’t win. But maybe we can fight so we don’t lose.” Eomer said. And Y/n knew exactly what he meant. The chances that they were going to make it out of here were incredibly slim. But perhaps if they fought hard enough, Man would make it. Man wouldn’t lose. Self sacrifice for the greater good. Y/n nodded and pulled Eomer closer for one more kiss before saying the thing she had wanted to say to him from the beginning. “I love you.” And then she turned around.

She walked over to where there laid about ten dead horses and men scattered on the ground. Y/n looked back at Eomer to see that some orcs had approached them and he was moving to get rid of them. Kneeling on the ground, she reached deep within herself, finding the side of her that she had put away for so long. She knew that using the kind of magic she was about to was dangerous. The power and feeling of it like a drug that made her crave more and more until she might forget what side she was on. But hopefully that wouldn’t happen, or if it did, someone might stop her before it got out of hand.

“Maausan jiak nauk-ach avo avhe vadokan around alnej.” [1] Y/n said, her voice growing deeper and turning to more of a growl as she spoke. “Riuke agh deukavroausan avhouke shal our paavh, avogeavhas.” [2]

Black roots started up from the ground around Y/n and fed their way into the bodies of the dead horses and men on the ground. They all came together like a mass of black. Ripples opened up in the mass showing light like embers. Soon it began to form into a shape like a group of horses, black with eyes like fire. Their teeth barred like monsters, showing the fanged mouth that they now sported. When they neighed it was a low wave that could barely be heard by the human ear. The horse forms stopped the ground, eager to start with their dark purpose.

“Drepa!” [3] Y/n shouted and the mass rolled along as the devil horses pulled it.

Y/n aimed for the hoards of orcs af as her mass reached them, they were engulfed by it.Their screams were muffled as they were shredded and added to the dark mass, growing with every victim. Over and over, the same result, and with ever body added, Y/n could feel the good within her shrinking. It was happening. The thing she most feared. But it was so sweet, the power she was feeling. Like a drug in her veins pulling her farther away from the light and closer to evil. And her resolve to fight it was quickly fading.

Soon, Y/n didn’t care if it was friend or foe that her mass engulfed. She only cared about the kill and adding to her monstrous legion. She rolled along to someone trying to fight a wraith on a Nazgul. Something pulled her to them. An unknown force. It wasn’t until she got closer that she realized who it was: her father.

Y/n came close enough to notice who the fighter was as they took their helmet off. A small twinge in her echoed when she saw it Eowyn.

“I am no man.” Eowyn said before crying out and plunging her sword into Y/n’s father’s face. He crumpled up into darkness before exploding, knocking Eowyn to the ground.

Y/n suddenly didn’t hear the battle around her. She did not notice the men and orc fighting. It was as if her mind and soul had been yanked from her body. The bodies in her dark mass started to fall out, littering the ground as her rolling slowly came to a halt. All of the bodies were released until it was only Y/n, and she herself fell to the ground. She could feel herself draining. Like a water-skin with a hole in it. She just lay on the ground, surrounded by the ones dead at her hand. And with her last breath she thought that she was happy to have been able to tell Eomer that she loved him at least once before the end.

///

And then Y/n woke up in a healers tent.

---

Translations

1 - May I reach to all the dead around me.

2 - Rise and destroy those in our path, together.

3 - Kill!

---

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@ladyideal

@merrillbee92

[caitlinsfandomthoughts]

A film fan’s reaction to reading The Lord of the Rings for the first time.

I’ve been a big fan of the Peter Jackson films (extended versions - nerd that I am) since I was about 11 and I think I know all of the big changes made in the adaptation: Arwen, Faramir, Aragorn falling off a cliff. I did read the first book around the same age (in the first of many waves of my lotr obsession) but I only really remembered Saruman of ‘Many Colours’.

However I have always wanted to properly know the book version of the story so finally started listening to an amazing full audio book reading by Steven Red Fox Garnett which I highly recommend:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwLvFU2onc7cPIEBee-_xMw

………………………………………………………………………………….

And here are my silly reactions and occasional analysis of the differences between book and film that I didn’t know about.  

The Fellowship of the Ring part six, one, two, three, four, five

The Great River:

Oh Boromir’s feeling tempted

The first time Sam sees Gollum, he tells someone (Frodo) and actually voices his suspicion that it IS Gollum. Frodo’s been seeing him since THE SHIRE, and probably suspected who it was since Moria? At least Lorien, but is like nah I’ll keep this info to myself. Oh Frodo you are too much like me.

Sam says he’ll watch for tonight but Frodo insists that he wake him during and they share the duty. I want to see more of this breaking down of class boundaries.

The build up to seeing Gollum has had legitimate tension in it that it doesn’t in the films so much as he is only seen once, or twice, I think twice. And every scene when he is ‘seen’ has been frightening, as has the Balrog and Moria in general. This is a credit to the book but I also wonder if these scenes in particular work well with the medium of audiobook. The times I have been listening to them have often been in bed at night with the lights off, so that adds to the experience.

TIME works differently in Lorien! Is this how elves experience the world? Is this how they live forever they’re just on a much slower timeline?

The third Aragorn-Boromir moment I miss from the film is when Boromir is actually trying to get Aragorn to face up to his duty to Gondor (I really love how he switches between ‘Gondor needs no king, and ‘Aragorn please come to Minas Tiriiiith it’s really preeeetty!’) and Aragorn says something like ‘I will not lead the ring within x leagues of your city.’ Film Boromir is currently filling the role of heir to the leadership of Gondor that Aragorn should be. His temptation by the ring is also a reason Aragorn is afraid of taking that role. The film not only makes Aragorn less perfect, but also weaves his and Boromir’s arcs together in a way I would’ve liked in the book.

 The Breaking of the Fellowship:

Boromir is not dead! What?! Boromir lives! Well for slightly longer than I thought, I really thought I knew all the changes like this but nope.

I mean, I probably wouldn’t really leave Frodo, the guy with the ring, alone when they know the enemy is close behind them, even for an hour but ok.

I like Boromir’s give me the ring speech, it’s similar to the film, but there is just more of it, he mostly comes off as genuinely believing his justifications rather than being power hungry, and they are pretty convincing, it’s easy to see why he would believe them. A couple of people just ‘simply walking into Mordor’ with no real plan and their most powerful and wise member of the group dead is really unlikely to work. He does eventually say that he would be king, but this doesn’t really seem to be his true motivation to me, it’s more the ring’s influence, I think he is more deeply moved by the fear that this plan will fail. I do actually love that idealism wins in the end and the message that using power, or a terrible weapon always corrupts. But I also love that Boromir isn’t strawmanned I guess, that you can see both points of view even when you ultimately only agree with one makes it a more compelling conflict.

Frodo take the ring off! Seriously though I do like that it is difficult to do that, it makes sense, and we get to hear that Frodo is fighting an invisible battle (while invisible himself hehe) when he puts the ring on, I think it is a little clearer here than the equivalent moment in the film.

It’s been way over the hour that Frodo said he needed and you still haven’t gone to see if he’s ok?!!!

Sam knows Frodo best, he knows why he would try to go on his own (for the sake of the others not in spite of them) and he also knows it’s a dumb idea and he needs someone/him. I also love that Sam is the first person Frodo thinks of when he thinks of the others he cares about, then Merry and Pippin, then ‘Strider’ I don’t think it necessarily would have been that way when they first set off.

Frodo you would be dead so many times over or just be in a cave somewhere with the ring if it wasn’t for Sam! Or really anyone, you need people. It’s interesting to look at it from a mental health lens, particularly the way the ring affects the hobbits. Frodo, was already a little bit of an outsider in the Shire, now with the ring he slowly has to battle more and more to maintain his sanity. Frodo doesn’t ask for help enough, he doesn’t tell anyone about Gollum, but Sam does (even if that person was just Frodo and not Aragorn) and now he thinks he’ll be better off on his own, with a combination of I can’t trust others, and those I do I don’t want to put them in danger, don’t want to burden them with my burden. And Sam is like, that’s not possible, no one can do that, you need people to help, especially given the burden you carry. I know that Sam is very influenced by the WWI batmen, and Frodo and Sam function as an idealised version of a master-servant relationship. But because I’m not a big fan of that I like seeing Sam’s relationship to Frodo as being that of a carer (as well as friend) in a mental health setting, through this lens he is a reminder to Frodo, the one figuratively struggling with his mental health, that you don’t have to, nor should you do it all alone.

And while I realise the reasoning of ‘I can’t go with the whole fellowship cause they’ll all go the way of Boromir’ is sound, I think Frodo takes it too far the other way by thinking he can/has to do it alone and I think we’re meant to see it that way, hence Sam.

Aragorn doesn’t see Frodo after Boromir does like in the film, although I liked this scene I think it works better without it, Aragorn letting Frodo go on his own seemed pretty unrealistic, and Frodo being assured that Aragorn can be trusted, unlike Boromir, lessens the believability of him deciding to go on his own. Here while they all give him way too much time to think given the danger, no-one seems to be saying we should let him go on his own, and they all rush off to find him when they realise he’s trying that. There’s more chaos as everyone goes off without listening to Aragorn, that’s a scene I would have liked to have seen in the film, and I think I’ll add it to my own personal collated headcanon.  

 *And that’s the end of book 1. I think I’ll post some final thoughts on it at some point then move onto the Two Towers*

[magics-protector]

Hello darling! May I please have male ships for Narnia, Sherlock, Lotr/Hobbit, Spn, and Star Trek? I’m 5’7 female, long blonde hair, blue/green eyes, and curvy. I love history I can touch, I especially love old books! I enjoy writing, baking, grooming my horse, teaching piano, and lots of reading! I’m extremely emotional, I cry over every movie/book. I’m very feminine, but extremely tough. I have multiple health issues, which have caused me great pain, but still I endure! Thank you so much! ❤️

Of course you can! I love doing these!

Narnia

I ship you with....

Peter Pevensie

The young High King loves everything about you. There’s a calmness that comes with you that helps distract him from being in charge of an entire country. Being with you brings out a whole new side to Peter; he kind of has to take life at a fast pace - if he doesn’t, then the whole country could fail, so spending time with you; doing the things you enjoy with you really helps him relax and find joys outside of being High King Peter - with you, he is just Peter Pevensie. He likes the contrast of you being both feminine and extremely tough, he knows that you can protect yourself if he’s not there - which is a huge stress relief. He thinks the fact that you’re so emotional over so much is kind of adorable but he also gets very concerned at the same time. He is inspired by the fact that you deal with all the pain you suffer from - it makes him believe that anyone can do anything, regardless of what ails them - and that’s what he cares for the most about you. 

Sherlock

I ship you with....

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock takes inspiration from those around him and he helps improve those around him as well - he gives them that sense of adventure (even if it’s not wanted). I think the one thing Sherlock might find the hardest to deal with is the emotions (even though he has the most emotions) - but I can see Sherlock being that awkward shoulder to lean on whenever he’s needed (look at John coming to terms with Mary’s death). While Sherlock lives his days as if they were his last, I can see him sitting down and enjoying the little things with you (and plus, a violin and piano duet! SO CUTE!). Sherlock likes the type of people who’s looks are deceiving - look at his best friend for example, John is small and had a limp for a while, not very threatening but then BOOM! Army doctor who lives for the thrill! I think he’d be very soft when it comes to your multiple health issues and would do whatever he could to help, but he’d need help to help you so pls help the poor boy. 

Lotr/The Hobbit

I ship you with.....

Aragorn

My brother from another mother was the first one to come to mind when you asked for Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit. 

Aragorn craves a domestic life - just let the poor boy rest. He’d probably spend his days helping you out with baking, spend time reading with you and horses, Aragorn is a sucker for horses (you know it, I know it. The bro must have been a horse girl in another life). I think he’d try and make you sit down when it comes to more serious jobs (don’t be mad at him, he’s just worried). Aragorn is a bit of a history buff (he is older than he appears), so there are countless things you could do together. 

Supernatural

I ship you with....

Sam Winchester

It’s like a match made in Heaven. Sam is a nerd but he’s also tough - he loves the things you like to do. Dean always finds Sam in the library. Being with Sam has some downfalls but, there are so many benefits. While he may not like to bake, he’ll eat the things you’re making. He thinks you’re absolutely adorable when you watch movies together - just accept the big bear hug and you’ll be a okay (it also makes it feel like he’s protecting you, so let him have that). Sam is not one to hold anyone back form doing something they’ve put they’re mind to, so when it comes to your pains, Sam won’t stop you but he’ll really try and help you - almost taking over the situation to help. Sam just wants love and a quiet life - I’m sure he’d get that with you. 

Star Trek

I ship you with....

Spock

(When I realized I paired you with Sherlock, I absent-mindedly thought Spock when I saw Star Trek soooooo, here ya go)

Spock makes himself more emotionless than he is - like Sherlock. He rather enjoys taking the time to do little things with you. Reading is one of his past times and I’m sure he’d love to adventure through history with you. I think horses would be a bit of a shock with him and he’d try and avoid it (Just take McCoy and you’ll be fine). I think he’d call your extreme emotions ‘illogical’ but really he’d just wouldn't know what to do and you might have to help him understand. Spock believes in logic - i bet he listens to him too (hehe) - so I think he’d be amazed by you with how resilient you are with your pain. Spock has so many emotions - just teach him how to use them. 

Here you go! I hope it’s alright, I’m still getting the hang of all this. 

[c-c-cherry]

Restless Nights

Basically just a vent fic. Happy Holidays you rascals. 

**A BEFORE-FIC MESSAGE**- This is part of a lil AU that I’m working on where the fellowship end up all coming back to Gondor once they finish their travels and settle what they need to settle. Set after the defeat of Sauron but before the Grey Havens. 

DESCRIPTION: Legolas is angsty and needs some comfort. Angst, H/C, fluff 

Word count: 2372

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇

“G-ah!”

A startled gasp followed by a momentary loss of breath jerked the elf awake in breathlessness. He clutched the sides of his sheets ferociously. His breath came out in short bursts as he watched as Gimli slept soundly beside him, snoring every couple of breaths. An onslaught of frustrated tears blurred his vision as he felt his body, drenched with sweat.

He could barely remember what the dream --nightmare-- was about. Only falling, disappointment, and the oncoming feeling of dread that gave him a sour taste in his mouth when he finally woke up.

“Legolas?”

A soft, groggy voice from somewhere in the darkness around him caused a startled sob to escape his throat, his breath shuddering as he looked around to find the voice somewhere in the jet black room, sheeted with darkness. It sounded like one of the hobbits... Frodo?

“Are you alright?” the faint glow of the moonlight through the window showed the culprit to be, unsurprisingly, Frodo, his large eyes glistening with worry.

“I’m fine,” he mumbled, managing to say without his voice breaking. He wobbled up, barely trusting his legs, stepping past all of his friends sleeping soundly beside him in various spots on the wooden floor.

Ignoring Frodo’s question and walking past him quickly, Legolas softly opened the door to the nice wooden cottage and swiftly shut it behind him and staggering across the balcony to the edge of the roof. Using his left foot first, he quickly climbed up on the roof and sat on the flattest surface of the roof, basking in the moonlight and the stars glittering above him.

Elvish instincts never go away- no matter how long you’ve been away from--

A shred of guilt sliced through him like a sword. A near 2 years had passed since the destruction of the ring, and he had yet to return to Mirkwood to address his father--and his people--about the decisions he’d made. He sighed. Although he already knew exactly what Thranduil would say, he couldn’t help but feel a slight lingering feeling to tell his kin what had become of him.

He could already feel his heartbreak at the thought of having to choose between his people and his new life. Maybe he didn’t have to if he just didn’t return to Mirkwood. Even if he did, what would he even say?

“It’s been a long time, Ada. Sorry I disappeared for years without a word! Also, I’m living in upper Minas Tirith among mortal men and I’m also engaged to a dwarf! How have you been?”

He could already see the looks of horrors on his fellow elves’ faces. He could just hear the endless questions about why there was such a large, binding braid in his hair and what it represented.

Maybe that’s what his dream was about. He couldn’t remember anything about it anyway, which may or may not be a good thing.

Normally he would be fine with just Gimli by his side at night. It had been fine for the past year and a half...But lately, his nightmares became worse and worse as the shock of the war slowly left him these past few years. He didn’t even want to think about what Gimli would think if he woke him up because of some silly dream. It wasn’t fair to him. He deserved to sleep soundly.

Thank the Valar that Gimli was an extremely heavy sleeper.

Feeling tears of frustration build up in his eyes, he closed them softly and let the crisp, night breeze hit his face. He was surrounded by people that loved him, but he just felt alone. Just him and his worries. He and his problems. Him and his--

“There you are.”

The gentle voice nearly made the elf jump, but (barely) kept his composure to look behind him. Legolas frowned, peering around the roof. How in middle-earth did he…?

“Frodo...how did you get up here?” Legolas asked, surprised. Frodo shrugged, the carefree hobbit smiling softly.

“Never underestimate what a hobbit is capable of. Sam and I did survive Mordor, after all.”

Legolas sighed, shaking his head and resuming his position on the roof, knees tucked into his chest. Maybe a sleepover wasn’t the best place for someone with a terrible time sleeping, but it was hard not to since everyone had agreed to be in the same place for once.

They had planned these little “hangouts” once they had all agreed to spend a little more time in Gondor, and Legolas didn’t want to be the one person that flaked out. If he flaked, Gimli would most certainly flake too, no matter how much he loved spending time with everyone.

Frodo and Sam had packed up their stuff from their cute little Gondorian cottage in the rural area of Minas Tirith. “The ring-bearers deserve only the best” the people of Gondor had said once it was decided that Frodo and Sam were to stay in Gondor before making the long journey to the Shire.

Merry and Pippin would stumble in with all of Middle-earth’s booze (which Gimli very much enjoyed), Aragorn would travel down from the castle and leave Faramir in charge whilst he took a small break once in a while, while they all crammed into a nice, secluded, wooden house in the Upper-town and had a nice night once in a while.

Gandalf was… where in Middle-earth was Gandalf? No one knew. He had left on some “trip” after Aragorn and Arwen were wed and Aragorn was crowned king, and hadn’t returned to Gondor since then. People say he’d turned up on the outskirts of Rohan, but the wizard was quite a mystery.

He didn’t seem like a sleepover kind of guy, anyway.

Legolas was initially worried about the others; while Gimli was a heavy sleeper, he was worried about waking the others up. Thankfully, it seemed like everyone else was prone to sleep pretty soundly at night, and he had yet to wake anyone up. Legolas would think that everyone would be sleeping in safety and comfort after the hardships they had been through…but Frodo was never the same after that ring.

Curse those easily-awakened, ever-vigilant eyes.

“So you haven’t told him yet, I’m guessing?” the hobbit asked nonchalantly. Legolas felt his whole body freeze up.

“What?”

“Gimli. You haven’t told him about the nightmares, yet. Or anyone else. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be outside alone, would you?”

Legolas swallowed instinctively. How in Middle-earth did Frodo know about it? Oh well, that was a question for another late night, he supposed.

“No, I haven’t.”

Frodo narrowed his large, glimmering eyes and inched a bit closer to him. The roof creaked a bit under the weight, and Legolas wondered for a moment if it would wake anyone else up, but reconsidered, as they all seemed to be snoring quite peacefully.

“Why?” the waning question split his heart in two, and he suddenly felt guilt gnaw away at him. He had been keeping things from the people he trusted most, wasn’t he? Did that make him a liar?

“It didn’t seem that important,” he mumbled half-heartedly, knowing what a stupid reply it was. Frodo unsurprisingly was not convinced.

“All right, then. Keep your secrets.” Frodo replied, and Legolas swore he recognized that saying. Feeling the guilty feeling worsen, he sighed loudly and stared intently at his feet.

“I was...I was scared...alright?”

Frodo raised an eyebrow, not following. Legolas felt the heat rise to his cheeks as the silence between them became deafening.

“Scared of what?”

Months of insecurities finally boiled over, and Legolas found himself spewing word vomit in place of proper sentences.

“That-that maybe Gimli wouldn’t love me anymore! That maybe he doesn’t deserve to be with someone who’s as messed up as me! Maybe I’m terrified that I’ll have to return to Mirkwood once everyone gets tired of me! Maybe I’m afraid of the fact that Gimli might just leave me, and maybe I’m scared--scared of everyone finding out just how horrible I am!” the elf replied, snapping at the hobbit. Legolas barely noticed he was breathing rather heavily.

“Sat-satisfied, hobbit?” he spoke in a shuddering breath.

Frodo was silent for a moment before wrapping his arms around his shaking friend. Legolas didn’t even notice how hard he was shaking until Frodo grounded him with a hug, letting him bury his face into his chest and try to regain his composure again. Tears threatened to fall, but he ceased them to. He had to keep some of his composure.

“Funny, knowing how long you’ve known Aragorn, I would guess that he would be the first one you would tell about all this stuff,” Frodo said in curiosity. Legolas pulled away from him for a moment in response.

He sighed, letting the breeze blow through his hair. “Aragorn seems...different. He’s more occupied with the kingdom, Arwen, the children he’s no doubt going to have very soon...he has more responsibilities now than to just put up with me.”

“Now whoever said that?”

A familiar voice had them both jump to attention as Aragorn stood on the balcony below them, looking out at the scenery of his kingdom.

“Evening Frodo, Legolas. What a beautiful night it is.” he turned and smiled up at the couple sitting on the roof, “Another nightmare?”

Legolas practically fell off the roof. How the hell did Aragorn know? He glared at Frodo, who meekly shrugged. Aragorn walked towards the ivy wall where they got up to the roof and smiled.

“Frodo hasn’t told me anything if you want to know. He’s not the only one with good observational skills.” Aragorn chuckled, climbing up the wall in a couple of swift movements, “You’re practically an open book, Mellon nin.”

Legolas felt himself blush, wondering just how much Aragorn had heard.

“How long have you been out here?” he stuttered, his heart beating a mile a minute.

“Long enough to hear just about everything.” the king replied, crawling across the roof and sitting on the other side of the elf. Legolas felt dread fill him. Of course, he had heard everything.

“Mellon nin, this does not concern me, and I’ve been holding off on talking with you just in case things would resolve themselves. But clearly, they haven’t. Something is not boding well with you.”

Legolas stayed silent.

“I would never forget about you, mellon.” His soft, understanding voice of his old friend caused him to lose his breath. It was ironic, he remembered being Estel’s comforting hand when he was a young child, still new to the world. Now he was a king. A king.

Why did that phrase sound so familiar?

Then it hit him.

A king. He was supposed to take over Thranduil’s position as king of Mirkwood. He wasn’t a dubbed a prince for nothing. But it had been so long since he had returned to Mirkwood...was the arrangement still into play? Would Mirkwood still accept him as a king? Was he even ready? And the wedding, the engagement, would that even be possible anymore? Could he even marry a non-elf if he was to be king?

He knew the answer to everything, but he couldn’t bear to think about it any longer. A breath caught in his throat. 

Aragorn noticed the elf’s distress and called for Frodo to give the two of them a few minutes. The hobbit nodded understandingly.

“Of course.”

The elf and king sat on the edge of the roof as Frodo crept back inside the sleeping cottage, leaving the two of them alone. Silence followed deafeningly. Legolas felt his heart pound rapidly, awaiting what his friend was going to say.

“You need to talk to Gimli.” he finally said. It was too gentle.

“I know.” he choked back, barely trusting his voice.

“And I need you to talk to me.”

“I-I know...”

A desperate whimper escaped him as Aragorn enveloped him into a hug, and Legolas felt warmth fill him. Such a coldness had filled him since the absence of fighting in his life, and he hadn’t felt so safe in so long.

“I know that things are hard right now, Legolas. Believe me, I do.” Aragorn said softly, grasping his friend and letting him bury his face into his cloak, “We can help. I can help. You just have to talk to us.”

“I don’t want to go back..” was all the elf could whimper, his shaking arms crossed over his chest, his frame shaking like a hunted, wounded animal.

“You don’t have to go anywhere. You can stay right here, Legolas. I promise you.” the king said reassuringly, but his cries only got louder. He had a feeling that he might have been talking about Mirkwood. Only his homeland provoked so much emotion out of him. Not necessarily good emotion.

Eventually, the elf calmed down and cleared his throat, sitting up and out of Aragorn’s arms with a pained look on his face.

“I’m sorry.” he sniffled, flicking away the last of his tears.

“I cannot accept your apology, for you have nothing to apologize for, mellon nin.”

Legolas laughed dryly and smiled teary-eyed at his hands.

“Mr. Strider?”

Both looked down at the balcony to see Frodo had stepped outside holding a mug of something warm. Aragorn inquired the hobbit, who smiled warmly.

“I hope I’m not intruding on anything, but I seemed to have woken someone up on the way in,” Frodo said sheepishly. Aragorn nodded understandingly and hopped down from the roof.

“It’s about time we get off this roof then, isn’t it?” he gestured to Legolas, who grabbed his hand weakly and climbed down onto the balcony. The elf felt exhaustion take over his body, and he turned to the door to the cottage, freezing in his tracks.

“Gimli.”

The dwarf stared concerned at his fiance, and Legolas saw nothing but love in his eyes. Legolas felt the tracks that were still wet on his face, and he suddenly felt very self-conscious.

Legolas was about to open his mouth, but Gimli just shook his head and pulled him into a warm hug. The thoughts that plagued him vanished just for that moment.

And Legolas felt nothing but love.

[naruhearts]

It’s Never Too Late to Start All Over Again

Now that @profoundzine Vol. 1 has been shipped out and released, public restrictions are lifted! I can finally share my published meta piece from the zine (written before S14 ended/14x20 aired. Now preconceived notions of FREE WILL and what constitutes it are being challenged re: TFW + Destiel, but I’ll tackle that next time!! We’re coming FULL CIRCLE here!). 

Accompanying artwork: the lovely @thedogsled who also tirelessly worked with me in editing this meta <3

- - -

Darkness. The phone call.  The glimpse of trench coat. And then there was light.

Cas’ emotive resurrection in 13.05 surprised general audiences, although no one was as shaken as Dean Winchester. The complex journey of these two men is one for the history books. It’s a narrative tango knitting them together like two intrinsic gravitational forces that found their match.

Castiel has come a long way since he first raised the Righteous Man from perdition. His very touch upon Humanity - in the form of the iconic handprint adorning Dean’s left shoulder - had sparked his Fall, and from that point on did Castiel’s self-democracy proliferate in the following ten years. His already humanistic predisposition warred with his sense of duty as the Angel of the Lord, yet Dean remained his one fixture of reason, anchoring him to human nature.

But let’s hit pause first. Rewind the tape to 4.01: Lazarus Rising. The episode title itself conveys the circular metaphor of human life, where Lazarus, the dead man of Biblical antiquity, lives again. Life is made up of flux, not permanence. The natural order of change wholly applies to personal human growth.

Dean’s starting point traces back to May 2, 1983 - the night John Winchester sent Dean on his first mission: take care of Sammy. Their Lawrence house is engulfed by yellow flame, and Mary Winchester burns. Mary’s death created her son Dean’s 14-year bildungsroman rife with many personal obstacles.

Dean then gets older. Embodying John’s ways of the Hunter, he internalizes selflessness, isolation, and wary pessimism against an evil world. Detachment is key. There’s no room for error, intimacy, or vacations on the beach with umbrella drinks and his toes in the sand - the latter a canonically ideal future that Dean let himself envision in 13.18.

Such Hunter ways cost him.

Toxic codependency offsets Dean’s repressive upbringing with Sam as the prioritized source of his personal bonds. Toxic coping mechanisms and emotional misarticulation govern his behaviour. Emotional dysregulation cripples his decision-making.

Dean is alone.

Then, on September 18th, 2008, Castiel meets Dean Winchester for the first time.

It happens fast. Sparks literally fly between the two men, with Dean frozen to the spot in simultaneous surprise and fear. After scathing words of disbelief are thrown in Castiel’s direction, the angel then offers his charge a perception that his charred soul never disclosed to anyone else: Dean doesn’t think he deserves to be saved.

He has been saved. By Castiel. And this is the unexpectedly beautiful outcome of Dean’s first rebirth: Castiel himself becomes the catalytic vehicle for his emancipation. Self-change starts from within, but Castiel lays important groundwork for Dean’s self-change. In other words, while Dean offers him free will, Cas offers Dean a compelling path: freedom to love himself.

During Supernatural’s 4th season run, we enter the newly minted age of Christian mythology. In Lazarus Rising, Castiel turns out to be an enigma of a creature: stoic, exclusively duty-bound, and having and wanting very little to do with human socialization. He’s on Earth for one purpose, and one purpose only: as an Angel of the Lord, Castiel obediently spouts rhetoric about the commands of On High - God’s plan. “Dean Winchester is saved,” announces Castiel, and the iconic phrase, in retrospect, holds no meaningful connotations. It is devoid of personality, with pure utilitarianism painting Dean as the means to an end.

Due to God’s absence, the 4th and 5th seasons show Heaven’s angels creating an authoritarian hierarchy. Dean and Castiel, both seeking their absent fathers, finally seem to be treading common ground with each other. In 4.07 the concept of free will - Humanity’s core strength - is introduced into Castiel’s narrative through Dean himself, where the hammer becomes the consistent metaphor for both Castiel and Dean’s automatic birth into subservience.

CASTIEL: We have no choice.

DEAN: Of course you have a choice. I mean, come on, what? You’ve never questioned a crap order, huh? What are you [...], just a couple of hammers?

Dean and Castiel also have their first intimate discussion. The audience observes that Castiel is opening himself up to Dean on the park bench, expressing his own vulnerability as he corrects Dean’s unfavourable impressions of him.

“I am not here to judge you, Dean,” Castiel says. “You misunderstand me [...] I am not like you think [...] I’m not a...hammer, as you say. I have questions. I have doubts.”

x

Castiel gripped duty in his palm. He has been subservient for years. And yet, from the point of first contact with his charge in Lazarus Rising, Season 4 wraps Dean and Castiel’s character arcs together - combines them into an extensive parallel narrative with self-actualization as their endgame.

Dean Humanity Winchester and Castiel then engage in their own scheherazade, each personal chapter shifting indelibly from reluctant allies to tentative acquaintances to fervent friendship to...something else.

Something profound.

Thibaut and Kelly, two prominent sociologists who brought interdependence to the forefront of healthy human relationship behaviour, would be flabbergasted with the potency of it in Dean and Castiel’s increasingly complex relationship.

Interdependence - known as the melting pot of dependence, respect, fairness, reciprocity, commitment, attraction, and satisfaction - unfurls between Dean and Castiel over ten years as the product of their personal development. Through trial and error, they decide that interdependence is achievable.

Their relationship has value.

And we observe how much Dean and Castiel value their deep friendship (heavily romance-coded relationship) numerous times. The classic mixtape of 12.19 is an illuminating example speaking to Dean’s perception of his relationship with Castiel. Audiences realize that mixtape gifting - long regarded as a conventionally romantic gesture - occurs between them offscreen, silently yet significantly indicating their closeness, and Dean rebuffs Castiel’s attempt to return it.

CASTIEL: Sorry Dean. I just wanted to return this.

DEAN: It’s a gift. You keep those.

The mixtape ‘Dean’s Top 13 Led Zepp Tra xx’ holds a major position in Dean and Castiel’s romantic narrative. Paralleling immortal elf Arwen gifting her necklace to human heir Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings when she tells him to keep it, the romantic symbolism of Dean’s mixtape is a testament to the interdependence surrounding Dean and Castiel, where Dean strips himself emotionally - shares the personal facets of himself - through music, Supernatural’s consistent medium for feelings and desires. Led Zeppelin, comprising the original soundtrack of Mary and John Winchester’s love story, forges an intergenerational romantic connection to their eldest son’s own life with the mixtape’s existence.

Now, Castiel coming back from the dead in Season 13 was nothing short of miraculous. His phone call to Dean harked back to Dean’s 4.01 resurrection in that after calling Bobby, returning to his family was tantamount. Yet Castiel’s own phone call is tinged with intimate quietness: the show does not expose what Castiel says to Dean. Privacy shields their conversation.

13.05 further transfixes audiences, because the narrative flow from Dean’s nihilistic grief pre-resurrection to optimism post-resurrection is blatant and deliberate. An emotional narrative rollercoaster, Dean’s internal state performs a rapid 180 over the course of the episode. The show takes much care in distinguishing the intense magnitude of grief between Dean and his younger brother Sam, where Sam’s positive functionality keeps up in the face of their recent personal losses (Castiel and Mary). Dean, however, internalizes these losses as extreme failures. Sam’s intentions to pull Dean out of self-destructiveness involve Dean’s usual performative coping mechanisms: ‘booze, bullets, and bacon’, but they are super unsuccessful this time around. Dean is not fine, and he subsequently backslides; his grieving psyche quickly spirals into depressive nihilism. Sam’s presence is no longer enough to stabilize Dean, and 13.05 contrasts him to Castiel, who is narratively defined as Dean’s anchor - his singular fixture of faith.

SAM: So now, you don’t believe anymore.

DEAN: I just need a win. I just need a damn win.

Sam and Dean are both affected by Castiel’s death, yet Season 13 minutely focuses on the narrative fact that one of these things is not like the other.

Love and...Love.

Indeed, Castiel is later framed as restoring light to Dean’s life; the visual narrative of bright lampposts permeating the dark of night - alongside the blue cross of faith - establishes the episode’s romantic context. The rich, tangible ambience of close-up camera shots between Dean and Cas, soft awash colours, and Steppenwolf’s It’s Never Too Late purposely evokes intimacy when the Destiel reunion finally takes place.

In 13.05 the show also reiterates the role of music in storytelling.

Tell me who's to say after all is done And you're finally gone, you won't be back again You can find a way to change today You don't have to wait 'til then It's never too late to start all over again To love the people you caused the pain And help them learn your name It's never too late to start all over again

Steppenwolf croons their relationship’s truth as Dean steps out of the Impala and locks eyes with Castiel at the telephone booth, no longer dead but alive.

Dean’s win.

The reunion is also both Dean and Castiel’s personal rebirth, where they are given the chance to push the boundaries of friendship - to enter an interpersonal relationship that features honesty and communication (represented by the telephone booth). 13.05 conveys their narrative aim to rectify the mistakes of their past. As Steppenwolf puts it simply, it’s time to love those they caused pain to. Know one another better. Practice interdependence.

Castiel later exchanges hugs with Sam in 13.06, which carries over the narrative interplay of familial versus romantic-coded interaction from 13.05. “I don’t know what to say”, Sam says. Dean, considerably more dumbstruck, states: “I do”, evoking wedding vows in that marriage is traditionally the lovers’ new beginning.

“Welcome home, pal”, Dean then murmurs, his wondrous green eyes wide. And he wraps Castiel in a crushing hug.

Dean is Castiel’s home.

Today, they are poised to navigate the waters of personal development in Season 14 by changing their internal dialogue. You know how the saying goes - you can’t freely love another person nor engage in a proper intimate relationship without loving yourself first. In Supernatural, Dean and Castiel are each other’s anchor for finding self-acceptance.

And like Lazarus, they are repeatedly reborn into the circular orbit of love.

[hiddendreamer67]

10. show some of your really old work!

BAM!

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9248590/1/It-s-our-story-now

That my friends is a link to my first ever big fanfiction. It made past Amanda really happy and I had a lot of good memories writing it. I don’t want to read it. Please don’t make me read it. It’s fun to read but for me it’s not just because I get that pressure of oooooooh goodness I need to finish that. 0.0 It’s an unfinished story about me and my friends going into Lord of the Rings. Oh yeah there was a bunch of shipping as well and it was freaking adorable and a good time. Oh my goodness I forgot I just threw a dog in at one point. Also just remembered all those long messages left at the end of Fanfiction.Net chapters RIP. Let’s see, here’s a snippet for you to behold:

After dinner, Amanda called a secret council of the girls. They all clustered around off to the left of the camp, out of earshot.

"Okay, I need to tell you all something, whether or not you've read or watched LOTR." Amanda said.

"L-O-T-R?" Alyssa asked.

"Lord Of The Rings." Abbi clarified, stressing the first letters.

"Oh." Alyssa said in realization.

"So for those of you who don't know, Boromir dies." Amanda said sadly. Some of the girls gasped.

"He does?" Alyssa said, gazing sadly at him along with the others.

"Yes." Amanda said.

"He had it coming." Rachael said in a calm tone.

"Rachael!" Emma scolded her.

"Well, just today he snapped at us about the sharing circle." Rachael justified.

"Yeah, but that's because his mind is being possessed by the ring." Amanda defended him, feeling a little sorry for the man. "Anyways, I just wanted you guys to be prepared. But, if for some reason he survives, if any of us are with him I want you to take the horn of gondor, break it in half if it's not already broken, and throw it into the river."

"Why?" Shealyn asked.

"'Cause I said so." Amanda said.

"Well that's undyingly helpful."Emma said sarcastically.

"Are you at least going to tell us how he dies?" Alyssa asked.

"By being shot with a banana." Abbi said.

"WHAT?" Olivia exclaimed.

"That's how he dies in LOTR lego video game." Abbi clarified.

"No, I'm not going to tell you." Amanda answered, ignoring her sister.

"So, let me get this straight- you called us over here so that you could tell us that a guy dies, but you won't tell us how." Emma said. "Then you tell us that if by some miracle he does survive, we're supposed to smash his horn and throw it in the river, but you won't tell us why."

"Pretty much." Amanda agreed.

"That's useless." Shealyn commented.

"Should have read the books." Rachael said, happy she had read them and already knew what happened to Boromir, although not understanding Amanda's plan.

"So what's going to happen after Boromir, you know, dies?" Abbi asked.

"Well, the fellowship gets split apart." Amanda answered. "Frodo and Sam go off into Mordor to destroy the ring. Merry and Pippin get kidnapped by orcs, and Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli go to rescue them before going off to help Rohan and later Gondor win the war- I think, I haven't actually finished the series yet."

"Ro-what and who's gone?" Shealyn asked.

"No, Rohan and Gondor." Amanda said. "They're two countries who are very close and have alliances. You can kind of think of them as having an alliance like Canada and the U.S."

"So Rohan is Canada in olden times?" Alyssa asked.

"Oh, so Rohan is one of those get along with everyone, drink buckets of syrup and watch hockey kind of countries." Shealyn said, joking.

"Canada's not like that!" Rachael said, having been there herself a few times. "Why would you think it is?"

"The Internet." Shealyn said.

"Oh, because the Internet is right so often." Rachael said sarcastically.

"No, Rohan is not Canada, Alyssa." Amanda said, ignoring her bickering friends. "I said the relationship between Rohan and Gondor is like the relationship between Canada and the U.S."

"So Rohan is LIKE Canada." Alyssa clarified.

"ROHAN IS NOT LIKE CANADA!" Amanda said. "Rohan is a country of men that is mostly known for its horses."

"Wait- men?" Abbi asked. "What happened to all the girls?"

"No, she means like a country of humans instead of, say, elves." Emma clarified.

"Rohan sounds more like Kentucky to me." Olivia said.

"Rohan's a state?" Alyssa asked.

"I thought it was Canada." Shealyn commented.

"Rohan is not a state, and it is still not Canada." Amanda sighed.

"But you said…"

"I know what I said!" Amanda said angrily. "Just drop it, okay?"

"Drop what?" Shealyn asked.

"The matter." Emma said.

"What's the matter?" Pippin said, coming over.

"Apparently Canada." Abbi informed him.

"What?" Pippin asked. "What's Canada?"

"A state called Rohan." Alyssa informed him.

"Huh?" Pippin asked, now more confused.

"Just…. Forget it." Amanda said slowly, face-palming.

"Anyways, why are you over here?" Olivia asked.

"I was sent to come check on you guys." Pippin answered. "It is getting dark, you know."

"What are you, our parents?" Emma asked. She was ignored.

"Who sent you?" Abbi asked.

"Legolas." Pippin answered. The girls all turned to face Rachael.

"Oh, Legolas." Amanda said all-knowingly.

"Oh shut up." Rachael glared at them. The others laughed.

"You can tell elf loverboy his sweetheart is alright." Olivia said, earning a hiss from Rachael.

"What?" Pippin asked.

"Tell them we're fine." Alyssa translated.

[blindestspot]

No Bastard Ever Won a War by Dying for His Country

Over the past year I've gotten a lot of asks about Jon and what I think is going on with him. During that time I've also managed to calm down about the inconsistent number of redshirts during the Wight Hunt. Yes, I remember that this was a thing that happened, along with a bunch of other dei ex machina, like Cersei's brilliant strategies for everything, Jon's repeated, increasingly dumb survivals and the whole Winterfell plot.

But calming down about them meant that I could think about Game of Thrones again in a manner that kind of naively assumes that the work is coherent . That 2+2=4, not 5, or orange, or a tiger. And this is what I think is going on with Jon and why it is so crucial to the whole work.

George R.R. Martin once said that A Song of Ice and Fire is supposed to have a bittersweet ending. Now that phrase covers a lot of ground. A bittersweet ending might be just ASOIAF's Scouring of the Shire (which at this stage is assured) and a few good guys passing into the Great Beyond (also nearly certain) – which would be a copy of Lord of the Rings.

A bittersweet ending might also be Davos, Brienne and Sam emerging alone from the rubble like the unhappy winners of a Battle Royale. A few good guys surviving would technically make the ending not a complete downer and thus "bittersweet".

However, a more nuanced look at a bittersweet ending should look beyond mere survival and destruction but at an ending that irrevocably changes the characters and how and what we think of them.

An issue that strikes readers as unrealistic about Lord of the Rings is  that a lot of its human and hobbit-y heroes move on from the events of the story into psychologically very ordinary, uncomplicated lives that they would have lead even without the events of the story. Sam, Merry, Pippin's (and to a lesser degree Faramir, Aragorn and Eowyn's) easy passing into normalcy feels vaguely hollow.

If GRRM really plans to have a realistic take on Lord of the Rings and its "bittersweet" ending (and with his complaints about Aragorn's tax policy it appears that this is a crucial element of ASOIAF), then obviously he is going to continue what he has been doing all along and create an interplay between narrative events and characterization. Take Arya, for example. In the early parts of AGoT she would have not wanted to become a Faceless Man – for obvious reasons. But Arya from a few books later, after events have matured and traumatized her, wants to become one. And that choice will again impact her characterization and that will in turn impact future events. 
It is logical that this interplay will continue right up until the end. So speculation has to take into account that these characters are dynamic and can be pushed by events into new directions. And not just "can" – but will be.

The question is not who will be alive to experience the Scoured Shire but who they will be at this point. And that change shouldn't just be cosmetic or physical, it needs to be psychological, visible, noticeable and profound. We shouldn't get an Aragorn who just walks into a kingship after a two battles, marries the cute elf girl and then doesn't have a tax plan.

And obviously, I am not talking about Gilly. I am very much talking about ASOIAF's Aragorn. I am talking about Jon.

...

Now here is a hypothetical scenario for Season 8: Jon with the help of Dany and her dragons (and, to paraphrase Roger Ebert, the usual stock characters who fight every fictional war for us, even those in space), fight the White Walkers, win, then fight Cersei, then win (the order of this is might be reversed) and then Jon's revealed to be true heir and has to rebuild Westeros.

How does any of this really change and mature Jon as a character? How does being right about everything (the White Walkers being the real threat), then leading a righteous force to victory over evil make him a realistic take on Aragorn?

It doesn't.


What Jon needs after five books and seven season of making serviceable to great, sensible, ethical, right strategic choices (with admittedly a number of great tactical errors in between) is being wrong. And not just being wrong about failing to communicate to his sworn brothers what his strategy is, not just wrong about going on that Wight Hunt, not just wrong to send Sam away, not just lightly ethically challenged for exchanging a pair of babies against one mother's will or misleading his love interest on his commitment to her political cause... but wrong in a truly profound way that the audience cannot blame on stupidity or short-sightedness.

I admit that calling it "wrong" or even "profoundly wrong" is a bit of misnomer. What I am trying to get at is the character going into a direction where the audience cannot and should not easily follow. Those actions would be too alien as might be their rationalizations. These actions should strike the audience as questionable, reprehensible, immoral, unethical, or dishonorable.

A perhaps too perfect example of such an action is Cersei firing up the Sept. It's mass murder and it's intended by her to be mass murder. If anyone in the audience found it not reprehensible and immoral, I would have some questions for these people.

But Cersei firing up the Sept was a success. Her survival was at stake - and she survived. Before her kingdom was full of powerful enemies and afterwards it wasn't. And she even snatched the Iron Throne afterwards despite having no royal Targaryen or Baratheon ancestry.

In realpolitik terms, Cersei made the "right" choice. All other choices would have lead to her death. The first rule of anything is that you cannot do anything if you're dead.

And frankly, that's a lesson Jon desperately needs to learn. His twice-tried strategy of rushing alone against an army of his enemies is idiotic. It might be honorable for a war leader to be the first person on the battlefield but it's not a winning war strategy.

It's not a nice thing to say, but it's necessary for a war time general or commander to be willing to have other people die for him and his goal. And not just for him but in front of him, literally shielding him. An army commander who isn't willing to ensure his own survival, is gambling with such terrible odds that he has already lost the war.

Cersei's strategy of killing her enemies instead of allowing herself to be killed is profoundly wrong, immoral and yet Jon needs understand that when mankind's survival are at stake an immoral action like that might be a necessary choice.

His attempt to drown in an ice lake alone is a sign that at this point he hasn't understood the necessity of being alive to lead a war at all. As George S. Patton put it: "no poor bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb son-of-a-bitching bastard die for his country."

Out of all our main protagonists, Jon has never been willing to play as dirty as it should be necessary for an apocalyptic fight such as his. Unlike Sansa's willingness to go along with Littlefinger's nefarious plans for her cousin in the Vale, Arya's willingness to kill potentially innocent people for the Faceless Men, Tyrion raping a prostitute and killing Shae, the torture of innocents during Dany’s Slavers’s Bay arc, Bran warging Hodor... Jon has nothing in his arc that is as dark, dishonorable or questionable as these things. Jon appears to be a character class apart, like the hero of a more classic fantasy epic.

Is this because Jon's so special that his arc is a whole different genre or is this because he hasn't leveled up in realpolitik yet?

Or is there perhaps even a third option to deal with his relative over-the-top good guy characterization?

***

You know, when it comes to stories about morality like Game of Thrones a crucial factor for their success is not just the quality of the good guys but also the quality of the villains.

And what makes a compelling villain?

IMO, they hit more than one of these characteristics:

1. They are well-rounded, fully realized characters, drawn with the same care as the heroes.

2. They are able to win against the good guys. They are not a cardboard that will be blown over once the heroes wave a magic stick or sword around.

3. Their evil deeds get an emotional reaction out of the audience. (Most audiences tend to have a vague discomfort with CGI mass carnage while reacting to a well-executed scene of high school bullying with actual empathy or even horror.)

4. Their motivations are understandable, perhaps even sympathetic. At best they are a well-intentioned extremist, utilitarianism gone wrong, rather than setting stuff on fire because their mom was mean to them once.

Now looking at this list, it becomes obvious that GOT has a problem with its current crop of villains. Any of the three that are left (Cersei, the Night King, Euron) could be the Final Boss – to use a video game term. But none of them are very compelling villains. Two of them are inhuman monsters. To call their characterization shallow would be an insult to puddles.

And Cersei, the only one with a decent characterization (and some past Mean Girls bullying sins of her own) suffers from being incredibly stupid in the books, having a prophecy running against her and stealing Aegon from Essos' story in the show. In other words, Cersei's chances of success and survival and actually making it this far in the books are as good as that of a snowflake on a hot summer's day. One suspects that she is a show-only final-ish villain, so if one looks for GRRM’s final-ish villains, they would not find Cersei.

Talking about chances of success – the Night King isn’t winning this either. Because then ASOIAF would reveal itself to be a nihilistic mess in which all the human storylines were nothing but shaggydog stories. So the Night King is  bound to melt in the summer sun along with Cersei. There is little question about it. And is Euron "was he even mentioned in the first book?" Greyjoy  really going to win the Iron Throne in the end? Is anyone taking this possibility seriously?

And what are their motivations? Ambition, being evil and being anti-human. None of them are particularly sympathetic.

In one word, GOT's current crop of villains is not particularly exciting – especially if you compare them with some of the villains that came before them. And if one of these three is the Final Boss, he or she is gonna be lame.

But a lame Final Boss is actually a great tradition in the genre. In Lord of the Rings Sauron appears to be literally two-dimensional and about as interesting as a character. (Gollum gets to be the well-written villain and he is doing very little damage to the world at large.) Voldemort in Harry Potter is completely outshone as the most despised, scary villain of the series by the one-book-wonder Dolores Umbridge who excels at committing low-key evil deeds that make every reader/viewer wince in sympathy. The Emperor in the original Star Wars trilogy is... there and then dead and has fewer fans than a one-line bounty hunter. And the same fans that endlessly shout "Han shot first", don't even appear to care that he got a complete face replacement in the Special Editions. And if there is one consistent complaint about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's that its villains tend to be boring and forgettable. Yet they're lame and forgettable to the tune of billions of box office dollars.

So a lame Final Boss for the heroes to fight... that is indeed a thing. And that might be just the thing GOT/ASOIAF is doing. This is what we have to seriously consider. We are likely to get a MCU villain... you know on the level of Ronan the Destroyer or Malekith, the Dark Elf. And you probably need to google in which movies those two turned up.

That would be a terrible let down.

Or maybe it's not actually that terrible of a thing? Because if our final boss and villain is not Cersei, the Night King, or Euron, it's a good guy gone bad. Someone who is currently fighting on the side of the living before becoming someone who needs to be fought.

It's possible that this is in the cards. After "Ozymandias", the penultimate episode of Breaking Bad, aired, GRRM wrote on his blog that "Walter White is a bigger monster than anyone in Westeros, I need to do something about that."  

The thing is that White appeared to start out as a sympathetic if flawed hero you were rooting for even as he was making meth. What made White monstrous is not doing depraved psycho shit beyond comprehension (like nailing a living, pregnant woman to a ship like Euron Greyjoy) but that he appears to evolve into this monster before the audience's eyes.

Breaking Bad tricks the audience into liking a character for much longer than he ever deserved and that becomes crystal clear in that penultimate episode. If GRRM wants a monster like White he can't use his old, repetitive trick of making a one-dimensional psychopath do depraved stuff. He has to logically progress a character we root for into a monster.

(Of course, GRRM might also not be able to pull it off, however much he wants to. It could be that he has not prepared the ground to make a main character go Walter White and thus it will always fall short of Breaking Bad's accomplishment. Sure, Greyworm or Dolorous Edd could become evil and monstrous but even GRRM should know that's not quite the same as making your main protagonist evil.

I might also be wrong on GRRM understanding what makes Walter White feel so monstrous. The first big sign that White took the road down to hell is not an act of murder or sadism but simply not helping someone who is choking to death. His monstrosity is based in a three-dimensional characterization, not in particularly outrageous acts of evil. He is monstrous because he used to be likable. If GRRM doesn't see that, he might actually think that one-dimensional psychopath Euron nailing his pregnant girlfriend to a ship is nailing the same kind of monstrosity.

He also could be talking about a plot point we now know about but that he has not published yet – like Stannis burning Shireen. So one should be careful looking for ASOIAF's Walter White.)

Interestingly enough, the trick Breaking Bad is pulling is quite old. White isn't making meth by chance, it was the worst thing his creator could think of besides him becoming an arms dealer. The twist of Breaking Bad's "Ozymandias" is actually not that White becomes bad but that he has always been bad. You'll find a similar character in Humbert Humbert in Nabokov's Lolita where his monstrosity is barely a plot twist and even Milton's Paradise Lost where it's none at all. (The trope of the protagonist being a piece of shit throughout the whole story usually goes down as "villain protagonist" and the list of stories containing one is pretty expansive.) But the plot twist of a surprise villain protagonist is such an old one that Aesop already codified it in his fable "The Farmer and the Viper" around 600 B.C. (Farmer helps harmless looking viper, then viper bites him because it's a viper. And has been a viper all along. Duh.)

Now if Dany, for example, turned into a villain then she would fall squarely into villain protagonist territory. But the fun thing is that doesn't mean that she is already one. The viper is not a villain until Aesop has it biting the farmer. If Dany decides to slaughter her future subjects by the thousands just so she can have the Iron Throne (and this is portrayed as despicable) then this will be in line with the Dany from the first season/AGoT who wanted the Dothraki to wage their type of warfare (pillaging, raping, enslaving, killing) onto thousands of her future subjects, so she could have the Iron Throne. But that doesn't mean that Dany will cross this particular moral event horizon.

Whether Dany will turn out to be a villain protagonist is not a question of foreshadowing. It's a question whether the authorial intent will will it into existence. The viper is a poisonous snake but if the author hasn't it biting the farmer, that poison doesn't matter at all.

Now Dany is a well-rounded character (same as Cersei) and might be difficult to defeat but her most likely, hypothetical, evil deed (mass carnage via dragon) is not particularly compelling and neither is ambition as her motivation. Villainous Dany is about as compelling as Cersei. Keeping Cersei for so long when there is Villainous Dany in the wings strikes me as a weak narrative choice: “Meet your new villain, same as the old villain...” The difference would be the element of surprise but that's a paltry surprise, especially since Villainous Dany was supposed to be The Big Plot Twist.

Honestly, Dany as the mass-carnage causing, ambitious type of villain is a low-hanging fruit. Call me edgy, but it's just nowhere near "Ozymandias". It's Boromir getting seduced by the Ring.

And there are not a lot of precedents for that storyline in ASOIAF. You know the story of a good guy gone beyond redemption evil. There is Theon, whose ambition, jealousy and insecurity drove him into sacking Winterfell and killing two children – but even he turned out to be not to be beyond redemption. There is Catelyn, but she goes crazy and becomes a zombie, so it's hard to compare.

But there is, of course, the most compelling, interesting and meaningful character arc of a good guy gone bad: Stannis Baratheon. But he isn’t a good precedent for a mass-carnage causing, ambitious type of villain.

***

You see, Stannis starts out as not exactly the most sympathetic character: he burns people and places of worship, he is a religious nut, he has his brother killed. But after getting defeating at the Battle of Blackwater, his arc does a 180. He gets the call from the North to save the realm, and out of all of the five Kings involved in the war of the same name, he is the only one he realizes that in order to "win the realm, you have to save the realm."

That isn't a coincidence. Stannis is also the only king who fights for a higher purpose. Joffrey, Balon, Robb, and Renly just fight for power (be it the power over all of Westeros or the power that lies in independence). Stannis is fighting not just for power but also for his religion, for his one true god; he is fighting a crusade. That out of all the kings, the king who believes that his religion will save Westeros ends up wanting to save it from a supernatural threat is not a coincidence. One thing clearly causes the other.

And once he makes this choice, Stannis, the Mannis (as he was lovingly called by his fans once upon a time) always fights the bad guys, he fights for the living. Of course, he doesn't stop being a religious nut, he doesn't stop burning people, he is inflexible in his beliefs, he still thinks he is the chosen one, he is Azor Ahai, he is the One True King, he belongs on the Iron Throne. But he is also the man who executes soldiers of his army who rape. He has good sides. But what weighs so heavily in his favor is that out of all the people in power in Westeros, he is fighting the bad guys.

And that matters – until it doesn't when Stannis strikes out to fight the Boltons. The Boltons are special because they are despicable without exceptions. Even the Freys have Robb's squire in their midst to have that one decent family member/bannerman that all of Westeros' notable houses appear to have. All but the Boltons anyway. There is not a good or decent living Bolton. They are the literal worst Westeros has to offer.

And yet, Stannis manages to cross a moral event horizon that makes everyone forget that he is doing it to fight the Worst. And that moral event horizon is not the sacking of a city, the killing of hundred of thousands. He is not extinguishing a house or a people. He manages it, doing something every single GOT character could do right now (save for little Sam.) He kills a single person.

And he doesn't come back from that. Like a proper Ozymandias, his hubris, his pretension to predestined, prophecied greatness is followed by his inevitable decline. Killing Shireen has Stannis losing his real world fans and his in-story followers, his wife, his fight, his priestess, his army, his purpose and consequently his life. He proves very quickly that not all ends justify all means. He is the living embodiment of the Friedrich Nietzsche quotation that "those who fight monsters should take care that in the process they do not become monsters themselves."  

Stannis' final turn into villainy is actually paralleled by something another character does in ASOIAF. Except he is not a character we meet; he is a story-within-a-story; a legend, a prophecy or both. He is who Stannis thought he was: he is Azor Ahai.

And Azor Ahai absolutely does what Stannis did to turn into a villain, a monster: he murders... sacrifices an innocent to forge Lightbringer to end the Long Night. The way the story gets told makes that murder necessary, but Azor Ahai as the hero and winner of the Long Night gets to tell that story, gets to tell history his way. It's a legend and of course Azor Ahai is its hero. But remember the first person who claimed that "only death can pay for life" was a liar who wanted to make sure that "The Stallion Who Mounts the World" died in the womb. (The second was Melisandre who tends to be wrong on a lot of things and whose track record on human sacrifice is abysmal.)

So there is absolutely a chance that Nissa Nissa's death was as necessary as Shireen's. We won't get the opportunity to fact-check the legend, the ancient history. But if it's a prophecy we might see its reality.

Of course, if GOT really goes the way of making a good guy go bad, then they can do this the middling way, the mediocre way. Theon's Sack of Winterfell Redux or Catelyn's descent into madness and murder. Or by making Dany a villain protagonist who is basically just another Cersei with dragons. And despite not quite measuring up to Stannis' dark turn – ambition, grief, fear, insecurity, jealousy, vanity, or disappointment leading to mass carnage delivered onto a hundred-thousand computer-generated extras is still more interesting than the Night King Sauron with his ice dragon.

But the reality is that we don't care about the 100,000 inhabitants of King's Landing. We will cry over a single Hot Pie before ever giving a fuck about a massive number of fictional people without any characteristics. Mass carnage is easy to oppose morally because it's something we oppose in real life but emotionally there is no difference between 10 fictional people or a billion fictional people – if they are simply there to be nameless, featureless cannon fodder. The ability to cause mass carnage doesn't make you the most emotionally effective villain by default. Quite the opposite.

If Bran were to warg a dragon and set King's Landing on fire, we would get that this whole Three-Eyed Raven thing didn't work out well for his ethics and be, like, "okay". If Bran set fire to Arya, he would immediately become the most hated character ever on GOT. (And that isn't an exaggeration for effect). And any good intentions regarding defeating evil would matter as much as the fight against the Boltons did once Shireen started screaming.

I would like to add that Stannis died pretty much immediately after killing Shireen, blown over like a cardboard once Brienne showed up. But who would defeat or want to defeat a Stannis, an Azor Ahai who succeeded at ending the Long Night?

The ultimate story subversion when it comes to the classic "good vs. evil" plot is that the bad guy wins.

And wouldn't that be something if it was surprise villain protagonist? We get someone winning that we would have been okay with winning until they turned into GOT's least liked character? Wouldn't that be bittersweet? Getting who you were okay with, perhaps even wanted on the Iron Throne, who might even know which is the right tax plan and what to do with baby orcs...  except they suck now?

Now who could that true Azor Ahai possibly be?

Is there someone who has been fighting monsters longer than anyone else has? Who has been so corrupted by that fight that he has tried and sacrificed already everything he could and had to defeat them? A man on quasi-religious crusade? A man who has the sort of righteous hubris and single-minded focus on the White Walkers that makes him often deaf to good advice? Who who has already laid down his life for a chance... and even a "no-chance-at-all-now-let-me-drown-in-an-ice-lake" at defeating the Night King? Is this possibly the same guy who we think is going to be crucial to the defeat of the White Walkers?  The one who has the perfect bloodline to claim the Iron Throne in the end? The one who is shown to Melisandre when she looks for her prophecied chosen one in the fire? The one who appears to be the straight hero of the story, the Luke Skywalker, the only major character where pulling a Stannis would actually shock us?  The one who has never been "profoundly wrong"?

I am not saying, we are getting "Aegon, the Worst of His Name". I am saying that if I wanted to create a villain who subverts all expectations while fulfilling them, a villain who is truly compelling and whose turn emotionally wrecks the audience, I would not make it happen by having Daenerys or Bran roast King's Landing. I simply would choose a more likable and successful version of Stannis and have him doing something terrible, wrongfully believing it's the right thing to do.

Now theoretically this could be anyone but little Sam. And regardless of that character's identity, they would be a great, compelling villain. Practically though, the best candidate for going off that particular deep end is not some random second tier character. And it's not Daenerys "What Even Are White Walkers?" or Bran "I'm a robotic, omniscient plot device now the Three-Eyed Raven now" Stark either.

It's Jon.

***

There is an issue with this though. Stannis murdering a family member/sacrificing a child for their royal blood to win a battle was simply a continuation of Stannis' previous actions. Stannis had no issue with his wife's uncle being burned as a sacrifice to R'hllor, had his brother murdered to win a battle, and attempted to have his underage nephew (Edric Storm in the books, Gendry in the show) sacrificed for his royal blood.

Killing Shireen is Stannis taking this to its logical extreme. Everything he does is simply something he has done before. Except this time the audience isn't given an out: Shireen doesn't escape like Edric/Gendry, we care for her (unlike Alester Florent) and she isn't Stannis' opponent in battle (Renly).

What Stannis is doing, is not surprising or entirely unprecedented. It is ultimately just a darker twist on something he has done before. Which is weird because you would think that something that crosses a moral event horizon would be a real departure from his previous actions. But it's not and that is really crucial if we want to discuss Stannis 2.0.

If a good character goes bad then having them simply do something they've done before –  except this time it's just too much – makes sense. Just like the road to hell is paved with good intentions, escalating villainy should be a slippery slope of ever indefensible bad deeds.

And this is why it makes no sense to look at Jon and wonder who he is going to burn at the stake for R'hllor – because he won't.  What he would do to incur the audience's disdain needs to be something he has kind of done before. And that he has done on the show before, because it stands to reason that the show would want to keep its foreshadowing. (Hence Gendry's slightly pointless kidnapping by Melisandre in the show.)

So the the baby swap is out since it didn't happen on the show. Breaking a vow is a bit too generic and on its lonesome will not evoke any emotional reaction. And making high-handed, impulsive decisions that end up with terrible consequences has been already done with Jon making a series of high-handed, badly thought through decisions that netted the Night King a dragon and destroyed the Wall and yet netted Jon no audience disdain at all. So probably not that one either.

That leaves his relationship with Ygritte. In the books, we only see this relationship from Jon's point of view with all his justifications and inner struggles and his self-knowledge that while he lies about his allegiance to the Wildlings' cause, his feelings for Ygritte are real.

Now if one imagines that relationship from Ygritte's point of view (as she is in the books), Jon would come out of that as a supreme douchebag. He lead her on, lied to her, pretended to have feelings for her, then left her, publicly humiliated her and finally participated in a battle with her on the other side. Jon doesn't kill her but he is willing to do so by fighting her.

Now a real neutral point of view that doesn't vilify Ygritte to prop up Jon as a cool dude (as the show has done with her allying herself with cannibals and the village massacre), would be more of a wash, ethically speaking. Jon lies to Ygritte but his life is at stake and it wasn't even his own idea in the first place. There are consent issues with their relationship and Ygritte is as willing to kill Jon when she participates in that battle as it's the case the other way around.

But then Stannis wasn't that unjustified to go after Renly who was willing to fight and kill him in battle after all. Killing Renly nearly rates as self-defense. And Edric Storm got away. The question is not how horrible Jon's actions towards Ygritte were. But rather what the escalation of that sort of overall action would be like.

Now due to time constraints the only relationship where Jon could pull an escalated "Ygritte" is his relationship with Daenerys. And here I am kind of puzzled by the discourse around the idea. Because as passionately as people argue about it, they actually agree quite fundamentally: that Jon is doing it/not doing because he is the quintessential good guy.

That he either betrays his lover or the plutocratic will of his nation is disregarded as some sort of higher purpose collateral that doesn't at all reflect on his moral character.

But isn't Occam's Razor to the question of how a "good guy" manages to betray either lover or nation simply to question the "good guy" part?

But let's step back a bit. The theory that Jon is playing Dany proposes that Jon initiates this emotional manipulation because she wonders aloud about two things (while he wants her commitment on the fight against the White Walkers): 1. Her ability to achieve her overall strategic goal of winning the Iron Throne 2. What happens to her rear if she pulls all of her forces north.

Now, Jon never actually answers any of these questions (or any questions on how to get the Northern Lords to remain loyal to him and Dany) and that is a bit problematic. Because the second question of what happens in a war if you leave one side open to your enemies is an enormously important one.

What Jon appears to do, is rely on a truism about the North: that it cannot be conquered in Winter (and Winter is here.)

*beleaguered sigh*

This truism exists in our world about two countries. One is considered unconquerable in Winter, the other unconquerable in general. And while these truisms have held true for few centuries now, the reality is that attempts to conquer them have devastated both countries on more than one occasion to the sound of millions of dead inhabitants and bombing it to the bottom of the HDI.

If Jon relies on Winter to protect him and his allies from Cersei, he is an idiot. If Cersei attacks the unprotected North from the South, his ability to fight the White Walkers will be profoundly diminished even if Cersei fails at conquering the North itself. Dany is right to ask this question and he is wrong to ignore it.

And if that theory pans out and Jon took these strategic, legitimate concerns as a sign that he needs to loverboy it up instead of thinking how to protect the North from the South, then that's next level mansplaining.

But forget that point for a bit and go back to the situation in which Jon supposedly initiates it. He is recovering after the Wight Hunt and Dany swears to avenge her dragon while musing on her overall strategy of winning Westeros. And while Jon isn't in good shape, he is not in mortal danger. Not in general, not specifically by Dany. She is letting her hair down and she's pledging her support to his cause.

Jon's life is not the least on the line and the question whether Dany would or would not have pulled out of the war against the White Walkers if Jon hadn't started flirting with her in that moment is an unanswerable hypothetical. No matter how you slice or dice it, it's not certain at all (not to the audience, not to Jon) that she would have pulled out.

So Jon had three choices in this moment: not initiate a romantic relationship with Dany, initiate a romantic relationship out of genuine feeling, initiate a romantic relationship to manipulate her.

None of these choices would spell certain doom. It's not at all like the relationship with Ygritte, where not going along with it would have blown his cover and cost his life. It's also distinct from that situation insofar as he didn't choose to go undercover with the Wildlings in the first place but was commanded into the situation by his superior officer.

If Jon initiated the relationship to manipulate Dany, he chose to do this voluntarily without true necessity. It's, in fact, as necessary as Littlefinger manipulating Lysa into intrigue, murder and ill-fated marriage was. Of course, without that manipulation Littlefinger would have never advanced at court and become Master of the Coin, Lord of Harrenhall and Sweetrobin's guardian. But none of these things were necessary to grant his survival at any time.

The key difference between Jon and Littlefinger is that Jon allies himself with Dany to ensure mankind's survival instead of personal gain. But on the balance, another difference between Littlefinger and Jon's situation is that the romantic relationship wasn't necessary to ensure Dany's support. In fact, even the idea that Dany's concerns are sign of her wavering in her commitment is a minority if not fringe opinion among GOT's audience.

And that makes the idea of Jon manipulating Dany very unpalatable. The lack of necessity makes him a Littlefinger, rather than a Robb or a Ned or even the Jon who lied to Ygritte. And audiences prefer to see their heroes as honorable fools rather than manipulative, emotionally abusive jerks.

Because there is the heart of the problem. If Jon is truly manipulating Dany, he is an emotionally abusive jerk. He is profoundly wrong. He is the guy that your BFF has warned you about. "He is just using you for [something.]"

And that hits home in a way shadowbabies and Frey Pies and Qyburn doesn't. We don't know any necromancers who vivisect people. But we know the kind of jerk that Jon would be. It's not theoretical, it's something we know and because of that will not appreciate.

***

But while this absolutely checks off “make the evil deed painful to the audience” point in the “compelling villain” check list, it’s still nowhere near as ethically questionable as Stannis burning Shireen.

But Jon's Ygritte storyline doesn't end with him duping, betraying and leaving her. It ends with her getting killed. And not just killed, but killed in battle against Jon and his brothers. While Jon is not directly responsible for her death – he neither instigated nor executed the killing – he was willing to risk that his actions would kill her in that battle. The goal of a battle is to win and to use the Patton quote from above "make the other bastard die for his country." Of course, Jon acted in self-defense, Ygritte was fighting that battle against him and the NW voluntarily, fully willing, ready and able to kill him.

But then, to go back to Stannis, Stannis was also just acting in self-defense when he send the shadowbaby assassin to kill Renly. Renly had the superior force and showed himself fully willing, ready and able to kill Stannis in battle. The question whether Stannis' assassination of Renly is justified is a digression too far because that is not the point. The point is that Jon and Stannis got some person killed who was really close to them (brother, lover) and that was kind of, maybe, perhaps justified self-defense. You can argue for it in both cases.

However, as I mentioned before, Stannis' ultimate escalation of Renly's murder is killing Shireen. There is no maybe, perhaps, kind of, about the lack of justification for it. Stannis did not act in self-defense, Stannis was not provoked. The true necessity was also absent... although the proof for that is just hindsight. The sacrifice was supposed to save Stannis and his army. It did not. Thus it was never necessary. The whole thing is just wholly indefensible.

Now would an escalation of Jon's Ygritte storyline limit itself to the affair and betrayal or would it go all the way down to that self-defensive arrow that Jon wasn't directly responsible for? Except for a Stannis-like escalation that arrow could not be self-defensive, it would have to be undeserved, unjustified, unnecessary and Jon's responsibility.

The audience doesn't even have to like Dany at that point. That would be just crossing all moral event horizons, turning Jon into a villain and serving a "King Arthur Aragorn Jon  Snow is the final villain" plot twist that makes R+L=J look like child's play in comparison. It would be truly an epic twist, ending up in the plot twist pantheon next to "Bruce is a ghost" and "Soylent Green".

However, I don't think this is gonna happen. A villain protagonist on that level would have been foreshadowed much, much more, both in the books and the show. "The villain wins" is also really nihilistic and ends up on a quite bitter note with very little sweetness. Davos, Brienne and Sam emerging alone from the rubble would be a more positive and happier ending. It's also the sort of plot twist you think of five books and seven TV seasons later (too late), not when you conceive the story.

So what will happen to Jon instead if he doesn't become a villain?

There are really only two options: his characterization remains in a class of its own and he remains the only truly good guy protagonist or he takes a level in realpolitik and starts to play as dirty as necessary in whatever way. Not quite Jon, the villain but Jon the ethically challenged, Jon the Utilitarian.

(By the way, I am not saying that he has to play dirty with specific characters to qualify, just that that he has to play dirty somehow. In fact, playing dirty with certain characters might evoke a negative, emotional audience reaction that is not in proportion to the ethics violation it presents and thus the whole Utilitarianism bit might accidentally devolve into perceived villainy.)

The really fascinating bit about this is that Jon's characterization will define ASOIAF quite significantly. Jon is so crucial to the story's most fundamental conflict, that even if you discard the idea that he is The Protagonist, you would still have to agree that he is one of the most important protagonists. His characterization will contribute and lead to the resolution of that conflict. If he resolves it by playing dirty, the moral of the story will quite different than it is if he resolves it by always taking the heroic, high road.

And it's not just the moral of the story. Once the story decides to land on "Jon, the moral" or "Jon, the Utilitarian", the question whether we are consuming "Lord of the Rings with boobs" or a true deconstruction of Lord of the Rings will answer itself. And that will reflect on more than just Jon's storyline. If Jon stays heroic, Night King Sauron, our final, two-dimensional villain and other neat and flat resolutions become much more likely.

As such I would argue that the Jon’s characterization will define how good ASOIAF's famed realism truly is, what ideals it propagates, and what kind of story ASOIAF is.

I honestly can't predict how this will play out. But I remember that Ned and the Red Wedding promised a deconstruction of the genre, an acknowledgement that taking the high road constantly can be a dead end in real life. Jon not needing to be smarter than them in the end would break that promise.

[mishavi]

I was tagged by @mademoisellebianx​ and @general-huxxxy​ (Thank you both so much!!!❤️)

Rules: Choose any three fandoms (in any order), answer the questions and tag 10 people you want to get to know better.

3 fandoms:

Star Wars

The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit

Marvel

The first character you loved:

- What first got me into star wars were the prequels when i was a child, so it was either Anakin or Obi-wan or just both!

-  Again it was so long time ago im not sure ahh but I think the first was Aragorn? Then Boromir obsession happened

- Thor!!

The character you never expected to love so much:

- Rogue One Suicide Squad?? Cassian, k2so, jyn.i was sure I wouldn’t get this much emotionally involved oh god

- with years i learned to appreciate and love Frodo more. And Hobbit made me really care about Thorin, so coming back to the book after this realization is painful. Also GOLLUM LOL

- Ant Man! i know him only from the movies i know hes kinda different in comics. but movie ant man is amazing i love scott

The character you relate to most:

it’s hard for me cause i don’t really relate to characters or see myself in them? or at lest i dont think about it

-uhhh probably Anakin/Kylo i guess LMAO i  have Anger issues and a lot of fucking regrets and dwell on the past (dont come with ‘’let the past die’ from tlj kylo literally talks to grandpas helmet) then again so many specific things other related to happened to him i feel like it’s also not entirely accurate. Also Hux, because stress

actually you know what scratch that  i relate to those praetorian guards the most

- Frodo lmao hes not special, goes through all the shit, and actually fails at the end and is not the same after what happened dfxghyfbhkvi

- nooo idea

The character you’d slap:

- Rain Johnson Kylo

- here i steal @general-huxxxy​‘s answer; Thorin when he gets the dragon sickness lmao 

- Cap, i love him but he was reeeally hypocritical at times

3 favorite characters (in order of preferences):

- Hux, Kylo(first place is changing between them frequently i like them both tho kylo was an asshole lately so) and I CANT CHOOSE obi wan? anakin/vader? poe??? 

- what the fuck i basically love htem all!!!! Boromir, Gimli, Legolas? Faramir Theoden Galadriel Eomer etc etc I CANT CHOOSE

- Loki Tony Thor Bucky (shh its 4 here)

Characters you liked at first but don’t anymore:

- i was in love with concept of Phasma and was so, so let down also i cared about tfa rey but dont care about tlj rey dont @ 

- hmmmm none

- nonnn

Character you did not like at first but do now:

- hmmm a bit random but i think Ahsoka! at first i hated her tbh i thought she was really unnecassary but with time she grew on me! (havent seen her in rebels tho)

- i dont think there are characters i didnt like and started liking, there are ones i didnt care that much for and learned to appreciate more, rather

- TONY!!! at first i didn’t really like him and how he was everywhere and his man fanbase. but dude do i fucking love tony stark with all my heart now hahaa cant wait for infinity war

Three OTPs: 

- Kylux!!!!!!1! Stormpilot!!! Obikin!

- BOROMIR/LIFE AND HAPPINESS i never shipped THat much in lotr, but gigolas, thorin/Bilbo!, sam/frodo

- stucky, tony/bruce / tony/pepper, thorki/

I tag: @topkyloren @jessjessbc @menaraline @moments-have-you @kyluxmillie ignore if you alread did it or you just dont want to lmao and i tag anybody who wants to do!

[quoratopstories]

What is the most pernicious and persistent myth about The Lord of the Rings that is believed by people who have seen Peter Jackson's movies but haven't read the books?

I don't know about "the most pernicious and persistent myth" but there are four which I found particularly annoying. Gandalf's weakness (though don't get me wrong Ian McKellan was perfect for the part), the changing of characters in order to create imperfection, the "need" for strong female characters, and the eagles being the fifth army.

Gandalf's weakness (and others' strength)

Gandalf's weakness in the movies is completely unnecessary and blown out of proportion. Not only is he portrayed as weaker than Saruman (when Tolkien stated many times that Gandalf THE GREY was stronger than Saruman) but Tolkien sometimes estimated him to be on the same power level as Sauron himself. There was likely no great fight between Gandalf and Saruman, and even if there had been Saruman would have been able to ambush Gandalf and Gandalf likely would not have fought back. When Gandalf fought the Balrog, it was to prevent it from taking the ring of power which was only a few hundred feet from it. When Saruman captured Gandalf, Gandalf likely could not justify breaking his order not to meet force with force, especially when he allowed himself to be captured by the necromancer centuries prior. Andrea Livo's answer to Who is stronger, Gandalf or Saruman? Andrea Livo's answer to How does Sauron's power compare to that of Gandalf? Andrea Livo's answer to If Gandalf ultimately gave in to temptation, what would he be capable of. What would he do if he took the one ring for himself?

But even if we ignore those two statements, Gandalf is portrayed as being weaker than the Witch King (a mere human) as well as weaker than Galadriel. Galadriel did indeed overthrow the evil of Dol Guldur but this was when Sauron was not present and it's defense was in the care of Kamul, second in command of the Nazgul. Of course she could overcome a human sorcerer, even one centuries old. Banishing Sauron, as she did in the movies, is an entirely different matter. Tolkien himself noted that neither Galadriel nor Elrond could overcome Sauron in a one on one fight even with the power of the ring. He even went so far as to state that ONLY Gandalf could hope to overcome Sauron if he had claimed the ring as his own. It should be noted here that a lot of Galadriel's wisdom and magic came from her time learning under Melian the Maia. Gandalf is described as being the wisest of the Maiar, which would also make him wiser than Melian, Galadriel's teacher.

Gandalf is also portrayed as being answerable to Galadriel. Galadriel was one of the leaders of the Noldor who rebelled against the Valar. Gandalf time and again throughout the books displays his loyalty to the Valar (even when it places his friends in jeopardy). He would not be answerable to an elf who rebelled against his bosses.

Don't even get me started on the "love" between Gandalf and Galadriel. The elves never even considered adultery. Their relationships were the perfect Catholic marriage. While I don't mind creative license, I do mind altering the fundamental intentions of the author.

Gandalf is an angel of Eru Iluvatar, the wisest of the Maiar, one of the strongest Maiar (he was (approximately) to Sauron what Manwe was to Morgoth), and has been around since before creation. And yet he is portrayed as weak and even ignorant in comparison to the other "wise" characters in the movies.

Characters that were made "more realistic".

One of my favorite things about the Lord of the Rings and several of Tolkien's other works was the fact that it clearly outlined black from white. While some people call this being unrealistic, I find that it is merely added to the overall feeling of fantasy. That being said there are many characters which dance close to the line between good and evil: Boromir, Gollum, and Feanor to name a few. Tolkien's tale was one of good people doing the right thing, of fighting "for the right without question or pause. To being willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause" (The Impossible Dream). It was never intended to be realistic any more than Beowulf or King Arthur. I loved how noble Aragorn was in the books, and how he knew he needed to wait until the right time to be king (none of that "I don't wanna" that we see in the movies). I loved the fact that Faramir was mentally stronger than any other man and rejected the temptation of the ring without a second thought. I loved how Gandalf could inspire everyone to find it within themselves to stand up to evil. How Denethor was actually a good ruler who had been standing in the face of defeat and extinction for far too long. And I loved how Frodo and Sam withstood a test that even a man could not pass instead of them being almost childlike and making it to Mordor purely by chance and not by strength of will. All of these changes in the movies detracted from the overall feel of Lord of the Rings.

If you want ambiguous characters and a sense of "realism" in your fantasy don't try to change something to your liking. Go read Game of Thrones. Or the Silmarillion. Skip to the section about the kinslaying.

Female characters.

I love it when a movie can pass the Bechdel test, even if it is a flawed test. But Lord of the Rings is one of a few exceptions that I make. Andrea Livo's answer to The Lord of the Rings (creative franchise): Why are there so few female characters in JRR Tolkien's works?

"Tolkien wasn't just a man created by his time period (he was actually rather forward thinking for his time), he was also writing about a story set in a Medieval society. Would it be historically accurate if he did add a ton of women fighters? No. He wasn't just writing as a man in the 20th century, he was writing as a man who was trying to copy the writing styles of the Old English/Anglo Saxon period (a time in which we only have 2, very short, poems written by women).

Éowyn was the exception, she was the model of a Viking/Scandinavian woman. These women were allowed to take on masculine roles if they wanted to (which at the time included many jobs that we now see both sexes doing). You'll note that while Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit are written with a male (Anglo Saxon) voice the Silmarillion reads more like a historical text. It is here we see the true importance of women in Middle Earth and their influence both on history and on the men around them.

While one may or may not agree with Professor Tolkien's choice, he had reasons behind every word that he wrote. On the outside it might have appeared misogynistic but it wasn't being written for a modern audience. The Lord of the Rings was not nearly as popular when it came out because of its fantasy elements. Now we complain that it was biased. But it was being written largely for himself, and for other scholars of Anglo-Saxon literature who would have appreciated it for what it was attempting (and I feel succeeded) to do."

The fact that the film makers gave Arwen more of a role than she had in the books was not terribly surprising. But I could not agree with what they did with Galadriel. Her magic was in general far more subtle in the books, and when she was truly aroused she was all the more terrible and beautiful. The film makers decided that was not enough, that they needed to throw her power in the face of audience especially in the Hobbit.

Tauriel was not only male in the books (as the Captain of the Guard) but she would have been completely unnecessary if they had remained true to the story. Thranduil was very active in the world, being the one to send Legolas to Rivendell to find out what was going on. In addition, he helped as much as he was able against the threat of Sauron, even when it was something as little as watching Gollum. Tauriel's main purpose (other than "love interest") was to serve as a voice against Thranduil's "inaction". Not only that but they completely changed what little we knew of the Captain of the Guard. The Captain of the Guard was an incompetent drunk who not only let the dwarves escape but was also likely the one who let Gollum escape 60 years later.

It also upsets me that the movies created Tauriel to serve as a love interest and not as a truly independent female character.

The Fifth Army

This is a minor issue in regards to the many sins that both trilogies committed against the books. Even many people who have read the books disagree with this one, but the fifth army was not the eagles. They did not even show up until the end, and would be considered an air force in any case. The fifth army was the wargs. Wargs, like the eagles, were an independent and intelligent race. While they could not speak like the eagles could, they had their own motives and evil goals which frequently lined up with goblins and orcs. They could be equated somewhat to Shadowfax's ancestor Felarof: they had human like intelligence but still agreed to being beast of burden to an extent. To quote the Hobbit "So began a battle that none had expected; and it was called the Battle of Five Armies, and it was very terrible. Upon one side were the Goblins and the wild Wolves, and upon the other were Elves and Men and Dwarves." In my mind the movies committed a huge sin by not only changing who the five armies were (either Men, Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, and Eagles or Men, Elves, Dwarves, Bolg's Army, and Azog's Army depending on how you look at it) but by leaving the wargs out of the battle entirely. Especially when the title of the third movie was “The Battle of the Five Armies”.

A few of the (many) other sins and myths in the movies are: the eagle's inability to talk (which spawned the huge myth that the eagles could fly the ring to Mordor), Beorn's appearance (he was a large MAN), Elven vegetarianism (they ate meat and hunted multiple times throughout LotR, the Hobbit, and the Silmarillion), that the Nazgul rode "dragons" (instead of the fell beasts in the books), that Shadowfax was white instead of grey (they still picked a gorgeous horse), Azog's existence in the Hobbit (he died almost 150 years prior), and many many more. Pick a scene from the movies. I'm sure that most of us die hard Tolkien fans could find SOMETHING wrong with it.

Read other answers by

Andrea Livo on Quora:

Where was Radagast the Brown during The Lord of the Rings?

Why is Elrond considered to be a Peredhil (Half-Elf) when he's actually not?

In The Fellowship of the Ring, why did Gandalf only pull out the bigtime magic against the Balrog? Could he have used that kind of firepower earlier to the Fellowship's benefit?

Read more answers on Quora. via Quora http://ift.tt/2jXqvEx

[ellekandera]

Faramir On Why Faramir Wasn’t Faramir

Heya, Lord of the Rings fans, how are you doing today? Fine and dandy? Munching on some homemade lembas? Listening to Sam talk about PO-TA-TOES? I get ya, I really do. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, be it the original books or the movies (any of them, even the weird animated ones), have made an enormous impact in our fandom culture. Almost everybody knows about them, and a lot of those people, including myself, love the world created by J.R.R. Tolkien.

But, therein lies the problem I must discuss for the day. Seeing as how LOTR was the first fandom I ever joined it holds a very special place in my heart. I own an edition that has the whole trilogy and the appendices combined, and I would bring it to school constantly so I could read in class. I still make sure to read it once every year as my own personal tradition. I do the exact same thing with the Peter Jackson movies, but as I got older I began to notice things, and for this rant I’m going to focus on one that I take umbrage with even to this day:

What the FUCK did they do to Faramir?

No, seriously, what the hell did they do to him? I understand that changes have to be made when adapting books into movies, but SERIOUSLY. There are some things you do not change simply because your changes are stupid and mess things up completely! It’s just so… baffling to me that professional screenwriters saw this and thought it was a good idea.

Okay, for those of you are a bit foggy on what I’m talking about, Faramir is this guy: 

Yeah, him. Shows up in Two Towers, brother to Boromir and son of this dude:

Needless to say, Faramir has some daddy issues. Anyway, in the movie, Frodo and Sam are caught by Faramir and his ranger-scouty bros and are taken to their super-secret waterfall hideout. He acts like a bit of an asshole, remembers the last time he saw Boromir before he died, and then captures Gollum. He then TORTURES Gollum and that eventually leads to him to finding out about The Ring and deciding he’s gonna take it back to Gondor even though Sam and Frodo both say, “Nah, bruh, that’s such a bad idea. This is why your brother died, bruh, don’t make the same mistake.” It’s only until they’re all at Osgiliath and the Nazgul come and make them all deaf and Sam makes his big speech for the movie that Faramir’s like, “Alright, bruh, I thought about it and I’ll let ya go. Just be careful of the super-scary spider and Gollum cause that bitch will betray you.” Then the movie ends. He shows up again in Return of the King, but we’re gonna focus on his Two Towers appearance because in Return of the King they portray his actual character correctly.

So, yeah, all that stuff Faramir did? Almost none of that happened. Yeah, basically, in the book, Faramir finds the hobbits, figures out they have the Ring, and goes, “Nah, don’t want it” and sends them on their way. Seriously. That’s why Peter Jackson’s version is insulting to his character. He knew Frodo had the Ring, he had all the chance in the world to take it, but from the very beginning he said “No.” He wasn’t even tempted in the slightest.

That’s why Faramir is so great! He’s loyal, brave, intelligent, and despite putting up with his father’s abuse for years he won’t sacrifice the greater good for him. The Ring probably tempts him with saving Gondor, with earning the favor of his father, with avenging his brother, but he won’t take it not just because he doesn’t want it, but because he won’t betray his morals and ideals for an easy way out. Even in the book when Sam reveals why his brother died he still won’t take it. One of his most famous lines is “But fear no more! I would not take this thing, if it lay by the highway. Not were Minas Tirith falling in ruin and I alone could save her, so, using the weapon of the Dark Lord for her good and my glory. No, I do not wish for such triumphs, Frodo son of Drogo." That is a nobility not even Aragorn has. Not even GANDALF went away untempted to take the Ring, and Faramir just sweeps it aside like it’s nothing. That is AMAZING.

Not even to mention the dream. Everybody remember the dream Boromir talked about at the Council of Elrond? The one about Isildur’s bane? Yeah, Faramir had that dream three times. THREE. The only reason Boromir went instead was because Denethor didn’t believe Faramir and suddenly his brother has it once and it’s like, “PROPHECY!” Thanks dad.

Oh, and you know the only other character in the books who was completely untempted by the Ring? Tom Bombadil. Yeah, this throwaway, almost completely pointless character in the Old Forest. Except him resisting the Ring isn’t that special because he’s probably some super powerful being. Faramir is just a man. A man with severe family problems.

Faramir is such a great character! So, why did ol’ Petey decide to change his character? Cause they needed another antagonist for Two Towers. Yeah, WHAT? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT! YOU HAVE PLENTY OF ANTAGONISTS! You have Gollum (who, btw, was never tortured by Faramir only interrogated), who is clearly going to betray Frodo and Sam. You have the Nazgul hunting them down, you have THE RING. The CONSTANT THREAT of The Ring taking over Frodo’s mind is kinda the big villain for their storyline. There was no point to changing Faramir at ALL, especially since they changed him back for ROTK!

And yeah, maybe they needed a way to get Frodo and Sam to Osgiliath, that’s fine, but you can do that without changing the core of a character! I can put up with the changes to Aragorn’s character because they made sense! He doesn’t want to be king not for just the sake of it, but because he’s afraid of becoming just like Isildur, his ancestor who fucked all the shit up. I can understand Arwen being the one to take Frodo across the river away from the Nazgul because they wanted her more incorporated more and so she has more character, that’s annoying I don’t get Glorfindel but fine. But don’t change such a good and important character like Faramir just because you want another antagonist, that makes no sense! That’s like having Neville in the last Harry Potter book actually join Voldemort, it’s dumb and makes no sense for his character!

You know what this change reminds me of? Bad fanfiction. Specifically, My Immortal (cue screams of everybody ever). You know why everybody hates My Immortal? Besides the bad writing, terrible plot, and having the mentality of a horny middle-schooler? Because they changed the characters so fundamentally that they weren’t even a shell of their former selves. That’s what Faramir’s character change feels like to me: cheap, annoying, and pointless.

So, a tip to all you fanfiction writers out there: don’t do this. If you’re going to have canon characters in your story, don’t change them like this. It makes people angry. Like me. And if I’m angry, there’s a good chance I’m going to make a long silly rant and post it to Tumblr.

Peace.

[caitlinsfandomthoughts]

A film fan’s reaction to reading The Lord of the Rings for the first time.

I’ve been a big fan of the Peter Jackson films (extended versions - nerd that I am) since I was about 11 and I think I know all of the big changes made in the adaptation: Arwen, Faramir, Aragorn falling off a cliff. I did read the first book around the same age (in the first of many waves of my lotr obsession) but I only really remembered Saruman of ‘Many Colours’.

However I have always wanted to properly know the book version of the story so finally started listening to an amazing full audio book reading by Steven Red Fox Garnett which I highly recommend:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwLvFU2onc7cPIEBee-_xMw

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And here are my silly reactions and occasional analysis of the differences between book and film that I didn’t know about.  

The Fellowship of the Ring part five, one, two, three, four, six

Lothlorien:

I really miss the film Aragorn-Boromir interaction in the aftermath of Gandalf’s death. Where the hobbits are in shock/grief and Aragorn rouses them to go. Boromir says ‘give them a moment for pity’s sake.’ Not only does it immediately set up the unstable power structure of the fellowship without Gandalf, to me it’s one of those really interesting conflicts where both sides are right. And as a leader it would be hard to make the right call. Obviously they can’t stay long, but Aragorn’s coldness isn’t the best for morale. I also like that it is the reverse of what you might initially expect for both characters. Boromir argues for compassion while Aragorn for practicality, and yet it works to add complexity to both. I think Aragorn is probably right, as he usually is, but it’s not like Boromir doesn’t have a point. He actually has more experience with leading large groups in a somewhat kingly manner than Aragorn does, and Aragorn can learn something from that. It can seem like Aragorn is shirking some part of his leadership responsibilities, like an emotional openness, or maybe just communication. It feels like Aragorn is leading in a bit too introverted way at the beginning, or in a way that still shows his reluctance. Anyway it doesn’t have that scene.

What it does have is Boromir being the one who is most reluctant to go into Loth Lorien. He’s like I’ve heard some not so good stories of this place and Aragorn is like well your people have your facts wrong and then is like you’ll only find evil in here if you bring it with you, Aragorn is apparently the king of throwing shade at least.

Haldir! And Sam was the loud breather.

They want to make Gimli wear a blindfold into Lorien but NO ONE ELSE! Racist elves. I mean I know that’s the point but whoa.

Gollum has been following them since like, the Shire, which is a long time to wait. I like the mention of Sting not glowing even though Frodo can hear he is near, nice way to say he’s not an orc, not truly evil. It is one of the few things I really liked in the Hobbit films, the use of this visual symbolism to morally complicate things when you meet him. (Poor orcs it seems you can kill without moral consequences).

Gimli is understandably not ok with the blindfold situation, I support him. Aragorn suggests they should all wear them, I like this, it’s probably the most egalitarian solution they could do, given how much they needed their help. Good Aragorn move. I think message-wise Boromir being the one who is most resistant to Lorien rather than Gimli is better. While there has been some both sideyness in the Elve/Dwarf racism, here at least the fault seems to be more with the elves, which is a more realistic depiction of racism than it being equal fault on both sides. Although perhaps this is better referred to as xenophobia since there isn’t an active exploitation of one race by another here.

Haldir is not a jerk! Or less of one. He doesn’t believe in the blindfold policy but he is still enforcing it so…

Sam says that Lorien is ‘like being inside a song’ I keep saying Sam is musical. ’Frodo puts his hand on a tree and feels the ‘delight of the living tree itself’ rather than thinking about its uses when it’s dead. I’m here for the tree love.

Celeborn is like we shouldn’t have let the dwarf in and then Galadriel is like actually dwarfs are cool! And he’s like yeah you’re right I’m sorry. Galadriel directly calling out anti-dwarfism and then speaking to Gimli in his own tongue gives a stronger reason for him to be enamored by her than basically she was pretty.

I can’t believe I forgot Sam making a poem for Gandalf’s fireworks in the film! Given I’ve been going on about him being a songwriter.

The Mirror of Galadriel:

Frodo sees Gandalf the white aw :’( It gets to me sometimes that Frodo and Sam don’t get to know that Gandalf is alive until the task is done and everyone else (except Boromir) gets to in the second book.

It makes some more sense now as to why Galadriel says she will ‘diminish’ and why the rings tempts her since the one ring dominates the three and with it destroyed their power probably would also.

Galadriel says the ring has a ‘will to dominate’ or something like that, she says Frodo can’t see the three rings through the one because he hasn’t tried, and that if he did it would destroy him. I may not have got that exactly right but it seems like Gandalf et al in Rivendell were saying hobbits can’t use the power of the ring only wizards and elves could. But Galadriel is like no it’s only because you haven’t tried. But also don’t try cause, you know, it’s evil and all (but that goes for everyone).

Sam did you not see the scary immortal lady lit with a power of her own screaming ‘ALL SHALL LOVE ME AND DESPAIR’? No it would not be good for her to take it!

Farewell to Lorien:

Finally the Aragorn doubt that I have been waiting for! Although he’s only really unsure about going to Minas Tirith or not cause Gandalf fell and now he has to take on his role and he’s like well he didn’t tell me what to do so… But still I’ll take Aragorn unsure which way to go and using the river to procrastinate as symbolic of his uncertainty of his own destiny as king, I’ll take it. I am missing another Aragorn-Boromir convo from the film. The one where Boromir is all stressed and kind of tries to confide in Aragorn and ends up goes on about Minas Tirith oh it’s so wonderful oh it’s so beautiful, have you seen it Aragorn? ‘Have you ever been called home?’ and Aragorn is just like yeah I’ve seen it, cool story bro. There’s a 3rd bit of film dialogue before the death scene that I love and I wonder if there’ll be anything like that.

Boromir definitely doesn’t want to talk about his Galadriel vision. But it sure has made him weird.

Why did they guide them out of Lorien only to then stop them and give them gifts? I’m convinced Galadriel wanted to show off her awesome swan boat.

I guess Aragorn’s gift of a personalised scabbard is more meaning full than a random head cutting blade. But I’m still not cool with him already having the sword.

I am surprised at how many of the gifts were different in the film, I think this scene was only in the extended anyway. Sam wanting rope was built up for so long in the book that I was surprised that he got it in addition to his gift. I do like that Sam appreciated the rope though, it was still a nice payoff.

Gimli’s gift is the same though :) I haven’t read the Silmarillion, though I have read that some jerk-elf asked Galadriel for a hair from her head and she said no, and he didn’t get the message until asking another two times. So giving Gimli three hairs (when he only hesitantly asked for one) is a big fuck you to that jerk-elf. In fact Galadriel says that everyone should stop saying that Dwarves can’t be courteous or whatever. Gimli specifically says that it was her calling out Celeborn and defending dwarves that made him like her.