#MAEDHROS LIVES(well. in this version anyway)

[aureentuluva70]

Just got my copy of the Fall of Gondolin and I was reading "The Conclusion of the Sketch of the Mythology" section, and I am obsessed with one of the early drafts, particularly concerning Maedhros's final fate in the story.

In this early draft, Maedhros doesn't commit suicide. Not only that, he never even steals a silmaril from Eonwë in the first place. Maglor is specifically mentioned as having stolen one of the jewels, but Maedhros is not mentioned alongside him.

We aren't given anymore info on Maglor's fate, though we do get a little more on Maedhros, and it legit made me spit my drink out:

LIKE, WHAT???!!!

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THIS (Talk about awkward roadtrip tho lol)

[luthnethril]

📓

Put "📓" or some other version of a book emojii into my inbox and i'll explain the plot of a fanfiction that I haven't written but I daydream about

one that's recurring and lives rent-free in my head even though it has barely any plot is a setting where the elves go to Valinor, but the Valar do not wage war on Melkor and imprison him into the Void, so he's just kind of. free out there because he ran off to hide and create Angband. Which is worse for the elves who remain in Beleriand and the Girdle of Melian is probably put up earlier. Anyway.

The main part of this fic idea is that we have Fëanor in Valinor with Nerdanel and his (so far) three kids with another one on the way living in the equivalent of an one-family caravan moving around every so often to explore more of Valinor's lands. They don't check in too often with Finwë and the palace due to a lack of a postal service in the middle of nowhere and anyway at some point in the early noontide of Valinor baby Maedhros is like. 40 years old, baby Maglor is like 20 while Celegorm is the equivalent of a very excited toddler and Caranthir is still an idea in the womb.

They've settled just outside this forest up North and one day Maedhros and Maglor are out playing/exploring the forest (bc, yk, this was the land where they were all going to be perfectly safe forever) when Maedhros picks up that there's something Wrong™; like perhaps a chill, or some more darkness than is usual in the North so far away from the Two Trees.

Now, at this point they do live in a Melkor-free Valinor, but because Melkor hasn't been imprisoned there are more thoughts spared for the elves who remained in Beleriand (and thought to be all dead) and Fëanor as well as Maedhros and Maglor have grown up with stories of the Dark Rider and the Journey West from Cuiviénen, so Maedhros feels the air shift and thinks. I've heard of this happening before.

So, he makes Maglor hide inside a tree trunk and tells him they're going to 'play a game' where he has to stay hidden in the tree humming the "don't notice me" song enchantment he's perfected for hiding from Nerdanel when she wants to make them do chores and make no sound at all or get out no matter what until Maedhros tells him it's okay to come out.

(Maglor has not picked up that anything's wrong with the forest, but he's picked up that his brother is worried and he's getting more scared every time Maedhros refuses to tell him what's going on).

Anyway, point is, Maglor does as he's told and hides and Maedhros goes as far away from the tree as he can trying to make sense of what's going on and then. Melkor shows up. He appears as an extension of the darkness, more solid and bottomless eating up the forest that existed behind him before he showed up, with sharp, visible teeth and glowing red eyes. No body, just solid clouds of light-blocking darkness surrounding small Maedhros.

Small Maedhros, with all the bravery that knowing Maglor is hiding behind him gives him, looks up at Melkor and lies. He plays dumb, he asks to know who he is, why he's here and lets Melkor underestimate him to make sure the Vala never suspects Maglor is also there and as vulnerable as Maedhros himself is. He tells Melkor that he has to get back to his father because he promised his brother he's take him out to play in the forest. That he's alone here and he needs to get back.

Melkor finds baby Maedhros very entertaining and does not suspect that he's being lied to by a child of Valinor and tries to trick/convince Maedhros to go with him, that he'll take him back to his family when 'we'll play a game' does not work. Maedhros insists that he knows the way back and doesn't need any help, thank you. Eventually Melkor runs out of patience and when Maedhros runs away from him reaches out with more darkness and shrouds Maedhros with it, taking him away.

The darkness goes away and the forest returns to normal. Fëanor, pregnant Nerdanel and baby Celegorm go out to find Maedhros and Maglor; they only find Maglor inside the tree when he passes out and stops singing the enchantment. They don't find Maedhros.

They pack up everything and ride back to Valinor to tell Finwë what's going on. Maglor wakes up on the way but he's in no state to say anything; his eyes are wide and he's shaking and he starts crying silently and humming the enchantment again and it takes Nerdanel hours to convince him he's safe now, at which point Maglor slumps against her, catatonic, and does not say anything else.

(Needless to say that Fëanor, scared shitless, is having an absolutely horrible time).

Finwë sends an army of search parties out North with Fëanor, but they never find a trace of Maedhros except the little copper eight-pointed star brooch with the red ruby in the middle Fëanor made for Maedhros when he was born and Maedhros dropped on the ground on purpose. They send people to Mahanaxar to ask the Valar for help. Maglor, scared and not talking, barely moving, tells Celegorm enough about the 'darkness' that took Maedhros that when Celegorm relays it to his parents and Finwë and Indis, everyone knows what exactly it was that took Maedhros.

They never find him. The Valar are all very sorry, but they can't do anything about it. Melkor shouldn't have been able to come into Valinor, just don't go up so far from the Trees again. It should be fine. It will never happen again.

Not really much plot after that actually. I've been thinking a lot about Fëanor's sons and their cousins growing up and Maglor being the only one who remembers Maedhros because he was the only one old enough to, Celegorm remembers him vaguely. None of their cousins have met Maedhros; Caranthir and the rest of the brothers are born and grow up with the knowledge that they have a brother Maedhros who's gone which their parents don't talk about (Nerdanel starts crying even as she tries to tell them about Maedhros so they'll know and Fëanor's face goes terrifyingly blank and the air sizzles around him so they never dare to ask). Maglor is always sad and melancholy and prone to shouting when people choose to forget Maedhros ever existed and his brothers minus Celegorm don't really connect with him because Maglor is making minimal effort to communicate in turn.

Eventually Maglor puts up a play/musical that's just what happened that day when Maedhros disappeared and that's the first time anyone really finds out how that went down and why Maglor feels so guilty and responsible about it in a way everyone thought up to then that made no sense/was just the trauma of meeting the Dark Rider. Maglor makes sure the costume for Melkor does justice to the terrifying embodiment of darkness with teeth and glowing eyes he saw as a child, which disturbs everyone greatly.

It makes the Valar very uncomfortable.

I had an idea of Fëanor obsessing over the idea of saving his son, never letting go or admitting that Maedhros is probably dead like Míriel and holding on to his grief and anger like it's the only thing keeping him from fading. Perhaps even going to Angband in secret to rescue Maedhros.

Another idea involves Maedhros being Melkor's personal favourite prisoner and being kept alive, meeting some of Mahtan's of Finwë's relatives in Angband, perhaps even escaping by himself when Melkor and Sauron are not there? Like I said, there's not much concrete plot besides the main idea here.

[redbootsindoriath]

Okay so I, like most Silmarillion fanartists, draw the Fëanorian twins as looking like...well...kids.  The book says they were the youngest in the family, and we all went, “Okay then they’re children.”  Which...yeah, that’s fair.  They really just seem to be chilling most of the time, which makes them seem a bit more innocent than the others.  But rather early on in my time doing Silm fanart, I thought about how funny if would be if they looked way older than their brothers.  But I never did anything with the idea.

Well, after finishing the Fëanorian Week drawings this year I was thinking about how I don’t really draw many Ñoldor due to not having headcanons about many of them.  And you guys know by this time that I love a bit of good angst, so I looked at the twins and said, “...ooh goody” and gave them a big old revamp.  (The drawing is of Amras and Maedhros, by the way.  For one thing, I’ve said before that I don’t like drawing identical twins. And for another…we’ll get into that in a second.)

Real quick, for those who aren’t super familiar with the different pieces of source material we have from Tolkien: in the Silmarillion both twins survive most of the story until they die together in the same battle near the end of the book. However, in one lone version of the story, Amrod dies when the ships are burned at Losgar.  Okay so.  That’s what’s been published, from here on out it’s just headcanon territory.

I think Amrod did die when the ships were burned.  Elves are spiritually a bit...different...so I expect twins have a particularly strong bond.  Amras wasn’t really able to handle the death of his brother, and went a little bit weird in the head.  He believed that half of his own soul died at Losgar, and half of Amrod’s still lived inside of him.  For the rest of his life, he answered to Amrod’s names, his own names, and Ambarussa, and signed his name and managed accounts as any of them as well.  He refused to acknowledge Amrod’s death and became irrational when any of his brothers mentioned it, so eventually they played along.  The story spreads that there were two of Fëanor’s sons that guard East Beleriand, but they are unsocial and rarely seen together.  People will report having seen one or the other of them but no one can tell the difference (in reality, this is because there is only one that is still alive.)

It’s uncertain who all knows about Amrod’s death, even among the Ñoldor that came with Fingolfin.  Most of the Sindar and Silvan elves don’t know.  Probably no humans know.  Anyone who does know doesn’t talk about it, and all everybody else knows is what they're told, and this is why in most versions of the story they both survive until Sirion.  For a while you’d see one or the other of them out hunting or going to war, and you just assumed the other was doing something else.  But then after Sirion no one ever saw either one.  Therefore, they obviously both died in the same battle.

Anyway, that’s just the version I came up with.  I don’t know if I’ll keep it, but it makes Amras a much more interesting character.  And that let me come up with a more visually interesting design, much older than I used to draw them.  Whether this was always the way they looked or a change that Amras went through after arriving in Middle Earth I haven’t decided yet.

[welcomingdisaster]

Russingon 5, 12, 13?

5. "Lies came between them": what are your thoughts on the relationship between Fingon and Maedhros during the fraught period of the Unrest of the Noldor?

I have a few different versions of this! Here's one:

As their fathers increasingly grow apart, Maedhros is generally the one who is more willing to doubt his father. He will never directly go against him, but he will sometimes (in private) voice thoughts along the lines of "dad takes things a little too far" or "I think x is kinda overblown" or w/e. Meanwhile, Fingon is the one who will absolutely stand by Fingolfin no matter what. After all, Fingolfin is the reasonable one, isn't he? He didn't threaten his brother with a sword. He's not endlessly whisking his sons away for stupid arrogant reasons. He's well-spoken and cool-headed and he's a great dad and shut up Maedhros Fingon will not hear a single word against him.

Anyways, one day Maedhros comes to Fingon all exasperated like, "Can you believe it, my father asked me to tell me your comings and goings? I delayed him for now and I'll just tell him the bare minimum but I cannot believe he'd asked me to spy" and Fingon is like "? Well, annoying that he's doing this, but I don't see the big deal. I tell my father everything he asks me about you, it's just what you do" and Maedhros does not talk to him for a year.

(And when he does, pre-EoN, it's very icy).

12: How did the relationship end? Were they together until Fingon’s death, or did they break up before that?

IMO they were back together until Fingon's death! United front at the Union of Maedhros, fucking on the Map table, talking about their cute little plans once they win the war, etc etc. 13: Did they ever get back together after re-embodiment? If so, how did it happen?

Well, if you assume Maedhros gets reembodied... yes, because it's more fun and they're my OTP, haha.

Anyways, I think Maedhros is sort of a recluse post-reembodiment. Very much keeping to himself. Not convinced on the whole living thing. Having issues with himself and also everyone around him.

Fingon has been prepared to dramatically reject him (due to all the, you know, crimes) when he shows up at his doorstep, but... he just keeps not showing up at his doorstep. Which hurts -- they'd been together for centuries, and now Maedhros won't even give him the chance to throw a glass of wine in his face and tell him it was all for nothing. Did he not matter?

Anyways, Fingon starts doing things specifically to get Maedhros' attention (does he know that about himself? IDK. Not always.). These things include garishly competing in jousting tournaments, drunkenly serenading Valinor with Their Song, sucking Ingwion's dick in the public baths so everyone talks about it the next morning, etc etc. All of these things convince Maedhros that Fingon wants absolutely nothing to do with him, so he avoids Fingon harder.

Eventually circumstances force them together, romcom style, and naturally they hook up. And keep hooking up from there. Fingon dares you to say something about it.

(Sobbing regretful confessions of guilt come much later, and they get back together for real, but it takes them some time to get there).

[erdasmcnonsense]

Since @theminecraftbee gave me permission to do so last night - just to prove OP's point of these being common enough in other fandoms as well - let's see how many of these can I get hits on just in Tolkien fandom alone! (Tolkien fandom here defined as "all Middle-Earth books and also the most prominent live action fandoms, minus Rings of Power" because I haven't watched that and am trying my best to stay ignorant about it because the other option would be frothing at the mouth with rage bc of everything I think they did wrong, so I really don't know that part of things at all. I'm going to treat any material the fandom takes as given but that is sourced from HoME or NoME as confusing to the newcomer because frankly, they are, since a newcomer in Silm fandom is likely to have only read Silmarillion and /maybe/ Unfinished Tales and CoH but almost certainly hasn't read HoME. Anyway, that's still a narrower fandom, though more well-established with older roots, than mcyt fandom, given that mcyt is more like a genre with lots of different specific fandoms that have some overlap in the fanbase)

unintuitive duo names/ship and group names: just off the top of my head, Silvergifting (formed of the English translations of the names Celebrimbor and Annatar), Russingon (technically a traditional mashing two names together, except that the first name does not actually appear in Silmarillion-as-published and is only mentioned I think in one of the texts in HoME, so a newcomer is not going to know how you get "Russingon" out of "Maedhros/Fingon"), Angbang (Sauron/Morgoth, pun on the name of Morgoth's stronghold Angband). M&M and C&C (maedhros and maglor, celegorm and curufin). Also idk if it counts when it's technically a canon collective name, but Ambarussa, since again it comes from HoME.

reducing characters to a specific trait: given the inherent weirdness of a fandom where a lot of material is actually unfinished draft versions and notes and summaries and so a lot of characters aren't very fleshed out, there is an argument to be made that it's not reducing if the character didn't have other traits to begin with, and there's also definite overlap here with the "treating fanon as canon" point but...

-> Pippin written as just inattentive and chaotic with basically no ability to read the room or shut up

-> Denethor being only considered as an abusive dickhead (which, fine, he is that too, but still), without taking into account the themes of despair vs hope his character embodies, or his intelligence or strength of will or any of a number of other qualities of his the book shows or hints at.

-> For that matter, Thingol being reduced to a greedy powerhungry asshole

-> Celegorm and Curufin being reduced to the dumb jock and the smart guy. Also, Maglor as just the music guy, following his eldest brother around and basically never making his own choices.

common au fanon that's confusing to the outsiders: okay i can't actually think of anything that'd really fit this one well that's actually a fanon au - Tolkien fandom has its fair share of aus, but none of those really fit this. If you're a LOTR fan, not familiar with the Silm part of the fandom, I suppose "Maglor living in Rivendell in the Third Age" might qualify, that's something i see people do even in fics that aren't specifically about that

-> Also, a lot of long-time Silmarillion fans have a habit of cherrypicking their favorite elements from alternate, older discarded for something new, or just-not-the-one-christopher-preferred, versions of events, and then using those and leaving new fans to just figure out by themselves, if they can, whether something is 1) firmly held headcanon alteration of that specific person, 2) common fanon, or 3) actually something that's mentioned in some more obscure text they haven't read. It was literally years after I joined the fandom before I figured out that the "crispy Amrod version" was actually from an alternate canon text, instead of a popular fanon au.

fanon being treated as canon: Glorfindel's personality being "a golden retriever in elf form". Likewise, Erestor's personality being "super serious and stoic". (Honestly it's a bit of a chicken-or-egg question for me - are Glorfindel and Erestor written with those personalities because they're shipped and "blonde guy with golden retriever personality/super serious dark-haired guy" is a common and popular ship dynamic so their fanon personalities were made to fit, or are they shipped together because their fanon personalities were already being written as "elven golden retriever" and "serious guy" and that's a popular ship dynamic? I genuinely don't know. Also, actually, Undying Lands granting immortality to non-immortals! Like i'm pretty certain, although i could be wrong, that at least one version of the Fall of Númenor specifically says that even if humans were allowed in Undying Lands they still wouldn't gain immortality by living there and that presumably also applies to everyone else, but I've seen a lot of people writing post-LOTR hobbits in the Undying Lands stuff as though Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, and once he gets there, Gimli, would be immortal

characters being treated badly to make a different dynamic look better: Elwing, and to a lesser extent Eärendil, being portrayed as jerks, and as bad parents (sliding scale from simply neglectful to outright abusive) in order to make the Kidnap Fam dynamic look less messed up by comparison. Look, I like the Kidnap fam as much as the next person (although admittedly I personally like it a little bit fucked up, even though i also like it to have a good amount of sweet moments), but writing Elwing to be a selfish and abusive bitch just to justify the Kidnap fam being cute and fluffy is just pointless and mean.

characters being reduced to their family dynamics: okay i can't actually think of a good example to this, though i'm sure there are some. Unless you count Elladan and Elrohir often being written as having functionally the same personality and generally only showing up as a pair, but frankly the source material does the exact same thing with them too and it's very common (if irritating) way of writing identical twins in the first place, so I can't even muster the energy to be annoyed about it.

characters being reduced to their ships: I've seen this done with Fingon when shipped with Maedhros sometimes, and like... honestly I don't even feel the need to prove this point though I probably could find other examples, literally every fandom i've ever seen does this to some degree with some characters.

The Discourse: *sigh* who would have thought that a book about elves being war criminals and murdering other elves over a bunch of shiny rocks would generate insane amounts of discourse (sarcasm). Yeah I am so fucking tired of watching people fight over whether Thingol/Dior/Elwing should have given up the Silmaril or done this or done that. Also, all the nonsense that periodically pops up over whether Frodo or Sam is Actually The True Hero Of LOTR and nonsense about Frodo being weak or whatever. Also the eternal arm wrestling over whether the Valar are good or Actually Evil or what (they mean well but also fuck up and make poor choices a bunch, if you ask me)

so a thing this fandom does that remains FASCINATING to me, as a function of the fact a lot of this fandom is people's first fandom or only current fandom, is just... assume a lot of things it does is a scourge that this fandom has invented or doesn't exist outside of it? or like, is uniquely bad here? and i won't deny that sometimes mcyt fandom is a bit more intense by virtue of numbers, but like...

duo names: confusing fandom-injokes to describe duos and groups tend to be an anime fandom thing specifically for many historical reasons, but they're not uncommon. hey quick--if you haven't been in KHR fandom, can you guess what 1827 is? no? i'll give you a hint: that's actually a ship name. or, ygo fans, tell me the difference between puppyshipping, prideshipping, violetshipping, and rivalshipping. my hint is that they're all kaiba ships and two of them are actually the same ship. good luck!

reducing characters to a specific trait: have you read fic in another fandom before? i would recommend you go do so and come back to me. my example here is "sasuke likes tomatoes", for the record.

common au fanon that's confusing to outsiders: my deep cut here is "when i got into certain tv fandoms i was baffled by the existence of sentinel/guide fics", which is a slightly older tv fandom thing so many of you probably don't know what i'm on about. but trust me: in certain fandoms it's ubiquitous and unless you've watched a completely different tv show you're gonna have to entirely pick it up from reading fic. oh hey, hybrid aus and watcher!grian, nice to see your relative here,

fanon being treated as canon: did you know there's this whole bnha character, naomasa, who is treated as canonically having a lie detector quirk? did you know that, best i can tell, that's not in canon anywhere, it just got echoed through fanon enough that everyone treated it as canon? 'fanon trait becomes so ubiquitous everyone assumes it has to be there' is not a new thing. also, batfamily fans, i have been lead to understand the tim and coffee thing is also this.

characters being treated badly to make a different dynamic look better: the fact we have the term 'character bashing' tells you all you need to know, here. if anything my one complaint on this front isn't even that it's happening--it's that i wish bashing and/or "not [character] friendly" was tagged a little more frequently, haha.

characters being reduced to their family dynamics: tale as old as time. "even the family dynamic thing" yes even that. just because this fandom tended to be particularly ship-adverse in the past didn't mean it didn't do basically the same behaviors as any fandom with shipping did with those dynamics, just gen. and other gen fandoms also do that. yes, down to the "and shipping reduces them to a ship, unlike my gen dynamic, which is very in-character; why can't people just be friends?" thing. some of you have to have been marvel fans right.

characters being reduced to their ships: some of you have to have been marvel fans right.

The Discourse: yeah this is an "actively running show" fandom thing, but also a hiatus fandom thing. ask a homestuck about vriskourse sometime. as much as i hate to say it, it probably made doomsday discourse look cute.

and those are just like... some things i've seen people complain about on my dash recently. idk it just hit me there are probably fans in mcyt fandoms who are assuming that some things (like hybrid aus or duo names) are the kind of things that only happen here, so i thought i'd offer some examples of other places they happen! i also have even more examples if you'd like.

to be clear: this isn't shaming anyone for complaining about any of these things. lord knows i go complain to my friends about it all the time, just the other day i was complaining in the category of 'they keep bashing my guy'. it's more of just... a gentle reminder that maybe we're big, maybe we're loud, maybe we have problems... but these problems aren't always unique.

so uh. we're all suffering together i guess...?

[silmarillaure]

Amrod & Amras headcanons because they had so much potential.

They’re the youngest grandchildren of Finwe, so the king always had a soft spot for them, not that he wouldn’t have if they weren’t but them being the youngest made their bond with him extra special.

They were very playful back in the good old Valinor days and definitely tricked people tons about who was who.

Being hunters as well, they naturally looked up to Celegorm who they were the closest with out of their brothers apart from each other.

They are the second and third tallest of their brothers. They resemble Maedhros a lot but they’re much leaner.

Despite their status as princes, they were fairly humble since the were closer to Nerdanel growing up.

They were very close to their dad too given they swore an oath for him obviously but by elven standards, they were young when Melkor started getting into Feanor’s head and he began his downward spiral so more often than not Feanor was in a bad mood and the twins didn’t want to disturb him.

I prefer the version Amrod doesn’t die in the ships because the Silm is tragic enough as it is so I like to think Amrod gets burnt but doesn’t die.

I see Amrod’s personality changing a lot after this event. He once had a sunny personality but he becomes increasingly reclusive and flinches when touched, even by Amras.

This obviously affects his beloved twin as well who’s incredibly regretful over even coming to middle earth.

Neither exactly want the Silmarils, they swore an oath though and they’re too proud to break it. All they really want is to go home.

They would have loved Mirkwood if they ever saw the place though.

Neither are on good terms with their father when he dies. Amras was incredibly mournful and Amrod more apathetic, to him it seemed like his loving father was dead long before that point anyways.

Like all of Feanor’s sons though, they were haunted by his ghost for the rest of their lives.

They get reembodied together the first out of the Feanorians, if were only counting Feanor's sons of course because Celebrimbor would be reembodied far before them.

Before getting reembodied, they get closure with Feanor. They don’t exactly forgive him but he’s still their dad and they do love him.

[galadhremmin]

Do you think the elves ate eachother on the Helcaraxë, Franklin expedition style?

Well good morning to you too! I love asks like these. 😁

My answer is simply; if you want them to! And I do, because I'm fascinated by real polar expeditions, and also think they were very badly prepared for the Helcaraxë. They spent all their lives in Valinor, where there is no true winter at all; freezing is itself one of Melkor's influences on the world (which just shows how much Arda is Morgoth's Ring! And how sheltered they have been from the world).

The only people to have some experience with colder temperatures were likely the Fëanorians, given that Formenos is north near the halls of Mandos, and Fëanor was prone to wandering. Still that is nothing compared to the Helcaraxë, and they did not pack up with the intention of that journey. They thought they would sail on the Telerin ships.

So...there are notes on Elvish bodies in LaCE that indicate the older the elf the greater the dominance over the body by the spirit. But I think most of the Noldor willing to cross were likely to be fairly young. Still probably a lot of adults, so presumably with the ability to do things like walk on snow, go without food for a long time, and withstand a great deal more cold than any of us. Still, the Helcaraxë is a very harsh environment even for them, the arctic but cursed, so things even out.

Also, I'm fairly sure the Fëanorians stole their horses (in my personal interpretation of events). And some other goods. In WoJ the wording is specifically that Maedhros returns Fingolfin's goods to them, whereas in published Silm it's that he gave horses in atonement. I think I prefer the stolen horses, for the simple reason that Fëanor was trying to force Fingolfin to back off. Maedhros returning them is still atonement, after all.

Burning the ships was a political move; it prevented his rival king from following and contesting his leadership + prevented followers from giving themselves over to doubt about trying to go back if things got frightening, or going over to Fingolfin's side. He was not trying to force Fingolfin to cross the Ice. The Ice was supposed to be uncrossable. He was trying to force him to tuck his tail between his legs and crawl back to the Valar. That Fingolfin and his people crossed was quite the surprise! They did the supposedly impossible.

Anyway, if I wanted to force my rival to crawl back I'd steal his extra blankets and food to encourage a swift journey back to temperate Tirion. It just makes sense.

Which is to say.

Fingolfin's host entered the Helcaraxë entirely unprepared. A lot of people died. We don't even know if anything remotely edible lived there; that is, except for their fallen comrades.

There is a note on Elvish bodies just sort of swiftly disappearing after death, which just means they'd have to be very quick about it! Unless the unnatural cold of the Helcaraxë prevents that somehow, which I prefer tbh. There is drama in not even being able to let the body cool, though...

Something I'm fascinated by is how Elves might see a sort of horror version of their tendency to want to arrest change/time, to 'embalm' as Tolkien put it in his letters in the freezing temperatures of the Helcaraxë. If you've ever seen human remains found in the arctic you know what I mean; I find them very touching myself. Their faces are preserved, their clothes...it's as if there is suddenly very little distance between you and someone on the other side of the gulf of time. Maybe they even found it inspiring in a way, saw a perverted version of something that they could accomplish in the changing world of Middle Earth in it...elvish cryogenics of very early Eregion, before they really learned to arrest change without freezing or arresting life? Many ideas...

Anyway you should watch The Terror if you're into arctic cannibalism haha. It was a good series!

[rivalsforlife]

Finally Making A Post Of Everything I’ve Ever Thought During The First Two Episodes Of Rings Of Power. I was going to do it sooner but wasn’t doing well for a weekend and then forgot. SO here it is to add to the Tolkien Adaptation Opinions pile while I delay going back to the jackson hobbit movies.

Please keep in mind this (and other posts I’ll make about this show) will have spoilers for stuff that will happen later that’s in the books, on the off chance a) people are reading this b) people don’t know what happens in the books and don’t want to be spoiled for it happening in the show. okay. here it is. This is mostly for me, please don’t feel obligated to read it got really long and rambly.

I’ll try to keep this coherent and go chronologically somewhat but I don’t feel like watching two hours again so I’m going off of memory. I’ll try to be more on top of it for the next episode haha.

SO honestly I wasn’t feeling it for a while but luckily I warmed up to it a bit more as it went on. I wasn’t a fan of the other elves bullying Galadriel in the beginning since she’s like... their princess. (Unless they’re sons of Feanor. I DID spot a redhead. I’m assuming that’s either Amrod or Amras since Maedhros should be quite significantly older than her.) I’ve read stuff since saying that it’s alluding to the kinslaying despite the part where they can’t use the kinslaying since it isn’t mentioned in the appendices and I can appreciate that but it just came off kind of odd to me.

Crazy we got to see Finrod though!! He... did not look how I expected. But honestly I don’t think there will ever be an adaptation that will do the Silm Elves the way I imagine them, except maaaybe if it were animated. I did laugh at the “I won’t always be here to tell them to you” “You won’t?” bit because I do think it’s in character for Mr. “AN OATH TOO I SHALL SWEAR AND MUST BE FREE TO FULFILL IT AND GO INTO DARKNESS”. finrod man can you have a normal conversation with galadriel for once.

Also like I mentioned in my immediate fairly spoiler-free opinions post I made just after I got back from seeing it in the theaters, it is weird seeing them skip over my favorite parts of my favorite book. “We left Valinor and went to Middle-Earth” YEAH A LOT HAPPENED IN BETWEEN THERE. but it’s fine. It’s not a Silm adaptation. It’s fine. It’s fine........

Oh also I did start getting a little teary when I saw the trees, but it was too brief for me. I think if they had a longer scene with the trees and the beauty of Valinor before Morgoth destroyed them it would have Hit a little bit more, but I’ll live.

The main Problem I have is that they seemingly changed Finrod’s death. Or at least didn’t talk about him dying to protect Beren, which I really think is an important thing to keep in given the Ring of Barahir (formerly Finrod’s) is an heirloom of some of the Numenoreans, and if you’re having Galadriel go there why not capitalize on that!! Plus him going after Sauron felt kinda... unnecessary. I think you could totally have Galadriel desiring revenge against Sauron without Finrod also having that vendetta. Like, “My brother was captured and tormented by Sauron” would be vague enough but also consistent with canon. I kind of wonder why they did it that way... 

Anyways I should take this opportunity to talk about The #Girl Of All Time. I like that they didn’t shy away from making her proud and headstrong. Though they did change her motivations to something more relatable than the version I prefer which is the “I want to stay here and rule my own kingdom, because I am more powerful here”. And honestly I’m kind of vibing with it. Like, I love Aragorn, they completely changed him in the Jackson movies, but I still really liked his character in spite of it being different. So I can go with Galadriel here.

The main parts that bugged me about the Galadriel parts is kind of... her status among the elves. Particularly her relationship with Gil-galad. I get GG is the High King and such but Galadriel is his... aunt. cousin once removed. relative who is older than him. who knows. but you don’t get that impression, and she can’t even really go and talk to him herself. Overall GG is the one I’ve been most disappointed by so far, and I’m really hoping that changes as we learn his motivations more, because I really do want to be sad when he dies. I want to be able to potentially accept him as the son of one of my favorite characters. And so far I’m not feeling it.

Elrond too came off a little bit too... insincere at times. Particularly in the first episode. Too politician-y in particular. Which is honestly a major letdown for me considering that I loved all the interviews his actor did. I’m hoping, again, that gets better -- I did like him more in the second episode, so hopefully it was just a bit of a rough start.

ALSO. THE HUAN STATUE. I’m assuming that’s Luthien with him!!! That’s such a nice reference I love it. I also saw a video pointing out another statue seemingly depicting an elf holding the dragon helm of dor-lomin and theorizing it’s FINGON which is also very emotional. Other theories are that it’s Beleg. We didn’t get a close-up shot like the one with Huan so I can’t tell if there’s seemingly “plaits braided with gold” there. but maaaaan fingon :( still the silm death that gets me the most.

Let’s see what else... Galadriel going to Valinor was on my “I Do Not Want This” list. but I think they did it about as well as they could. I get they’re trying to have a representation of her refusal to go to Valinor that’s not just her standing there and saying “I refuse”, and trying to fully capture like the weight of what it means to her to refuse that call, and I can stand by that even though I don’t like the circumstances that she was kind of forced into it by GG and Elrond. The Golden Portal-looking thing felt a little much though it didn’t bother me as much as it bothered my dad. And I didn’t mind her jumping into the ocean honestly. I don’t think it was a calculated decision at all. It was out of desperation to avoid going to Valinor no matter what. like Amroth, which is fitting, though Galadriel got luckier.

... Stuff other than Noldor happened in this first episode too but I have far less opinions on them. 

Harfoots: They’re cute. I like how they still have some of that Hobbit flavor to them with the gossipy ladies. They aren’t my favorite parts because I am tragically whipped for anything Noldor-related, but they’re so far a perfectly fine part of the story.

I’ll just do the episode 2 stuff here since I don’t really have much more to say on specific events. The Stranger... I don’t think he’s Sauron. Though he clearly is a Maiar of some sort. I don’t want him to be Gandalf? I’ll be fine with him being a Blue Wizard. One theory I have going around my head (though I’m not sold on it) is that he’s a maiar of some sort who got tortured by Sauron and escaped in the meteor somehow. I think he’s lost control over his powers which is the cause of the firefly killing thing. It’s interesting how his arrival kind of coincides with Galadriel refusing the call, plus all the stuff GG says about Galadriel inadvertently awakening evil, but I think it would be too much for him to be Sauron right now. I really don’t want Sauron interacting with Hobbits or pre-Hobbits because I think that really takes away from the later third age stuff. so... yeah.

I did have Tom Bombadil as my joke theory but I think he’s way too troubled for him. So... maybe someday Tom :( I believe in you. You’ll get into something that isn’t the bad Soviet TV adaptation of Fellowship or Lego LOTR.

Southlands: It’s an interesting concept considering my immediate reaction to hearing that their ancestors sided with Morgoth was along the lines of “THAT FUCKER ULFANG THAT GOT FINGON KILLED.” so I can buy the elves holding a grudge. It’s an interesting thing with the elves distinctly remembering these people who did things that messed up pretty much everything, and sided with Morgoth, in their own living memory, while for the humans this was a thousand(s) years ago and there’s really no reason for them to still be there.

I don’t love the romance, but I didn’t expect to, because I don’t normally go for those things. The one elf made a comment of “there were only two elf-human romances and they both ended in tragedy” well.......... I get you could argue beren and luthien had a tragic ending but honestly compared to the rest of the first age that’s the happiest ending you can get. And Idril and Tuor are totally fine, the Fall of Gondolin stuff wasn’t really their fault. Think this elf guy needs to brush up on his history :/

Also there’s Aegnor and Andreth which definitely was tragic enough to not actually become a marriage, that’s kind of how I feel this Arondir-Bronwyn thing is going to turn out. (though I think Bronwyn is more likely to die first than Arondir). The kid is definitely a future Nazgul candidate with that sword with the Sauron mark on it. ummm what else. oh yeah they talk about how they had a king that’s going to come back. My bets are either on Halbrand or Theo being descendants/heirs of that king. And then whoever is the heir is absolutely going to be a Nazgul. I was debating if Halbrand could be Theo’s long lost father but honestly I think that’s unlikely, Halbrand mentioned being from the other village that got destroyed, so.

Not loving Halbrand right now either he hasn’t made much of an impression. Hopefully that gets better.

hmmm while we’re talking about Southlands stuff I liked the fight with the orc. It’s a good baseline for how dangerous orcs are for people who aren’t trained fighters! 

ANYWAYS BACK TO THE NOLDOR. CELEBRIMBOR. I was so mad about this because I hated the first picture released of Celebrimbor like I was crushed, but the actor nailed it for me in those five minutes he was around. Right from “true creation requires sacrifice” to the passive-aggressive comments about Gil-galad to the gushing about the dwarves and wanting to see them at work. All fantastic. I just wish he didn’t look like that I’m sorry mr charles edwards. Now I’m sure I’ll get over it eventually.

Anyways, in more detail, I was clutching my popcorn and kind of swinging my legs when they were talking about it being Feanor’s hammer. Forced exposition? I don’t care! They’re talking about Feanor! Every time Feanor is mentioned I’m imagining like... you know that one blind guardian tides of war song where they’re regularly going “FEAAAANOOOOR” that’s what’s going on my head every time I think of him along with pillars of fire and strobe lights. (If you’re still reading this I’m amazed.) I love that Celebrimbor has that hammer. I also liked their little exchange with Elrond talking about the Silmarils being things that created “so much beauty........ and so much pain” and Celebrimbor going “true creation requires sacrifice” THE SACRIFICE OF ELROND’S MOM AND DAD AND YOUR DAD AND UNCLES? I liked that little bit. So much fun. 

And honestly I liked the little invented story about Morgoth and the Silmarils. I don’t think it’s meant for us to take it as canon. But it is a little bit of myth that I do think Celebrimbor would latch onto. And then the “but I aspire to do far more than that” YES! BRING ME THAT CRAZY FEANORIAN ENERGY!!!

Also why do you need that forge done by Spring, mr celebrimbor... I do think it would be a lot of fun if Sauron-as-Annatar is already here. Everyone’s like Halbrand is Sauron! The Stranger is Sauron! No he’s already here he’s already talking about some nice powerful rings. 

The little comment about “The High King... cannot provide that, so he sent me you instead!” with that pained smile. I WANT NOLDOR INFIGHTING. It’s some of the best Silm parts. As the last representative of the house of Feanor Celebrimbor has to bring it against Gil-galad who is either of the House of Fingolfin or the House of Finarfin. I get Celebrimbor isn’t as extreme but a little lingering bit of that old family resentment would be sooo cool to hint at. Especially since like... who does this guy think he is! We don’t even know who is dad is! And he’s going around being the High King! (Like I said I don’t like GG so far.)

Anyways I hope we get Narvi eventually and we get to see him work with Celebrimbor making the Doors of Durin. I want to watch that Star of Feanor get carved into it. Again Celebrimbor has been here for five minutes but he’s my favorite so far, which is deeply embarrassing. I have not improved from being fifteen. I see a Feanorian and I’m spellbound. I liked how excited he was about the dwarves. It felt VERY Feanorian. I know some of them worked with the dwarves and in particular I think Feanor would have loved those guys. So Celebrimbor kind of felt the most... I don’t know how to put it. Enthusiastic. Which he should be! Totally sold on him. And I am SO relieved about that, you have no idea, that I’m willing to set aside the appearance concerns.

okay I should probably talk about the dwarves and not just what Celebrimbor thinks of the dwarves. They’re lots of fun. I do wonder where this Elrond-Durin friendship thing came from? It’s an interesting choice. Khazad-dum is beautiful, I liked the relationship between Durin and Disa, so I overall don’t have any complaints here. But I also don’t have a ton to gush about because I’m not as crazy about dwarves as I am about the Noldor. You may be able to tell.

What DOES interest me is what’s in that box at the end... it looks glowy. The obvious and simplest and best answer is that it’s Mithril. Maybe they just found it in Khazad-dum. The absolute batshit theory that’s in my head (along with the “Maglor is in this” and “the Stranger is Tom Bombadil” theories) is that it’s a Silmaril. It would be Maedhros’s Silmaril. That would break me beyond repair. It would also be really bad and really funny. If it IS a Silmaril I want nothing less than Elrond going “PUT THAT THING BACK WHERE IT CAME FROM OR SO HELP ME.” but obviously it’s going to be mithril. 

... okay the thing is when I saw this in theaters I THOUGHT I heard the Valinor leitmotif when they opened the box which would definitely be a Silmaril hint, but when I rewatched when it was actually out it definitely was not that, but had some of the notes that play when you’re in Celebrimbor’s place, which is definitely more fitting for it being mithril, so crisis averted. 

uh does that cover everything? I think that covers everything I had immediate opinions on. I didn’t take notes for this which I probably should have done... well. Episode 3 is next, it’s actually surprisingly common for me to get hooked on stuff on episode 3, so I’m hoping they do that for me. It’s definitely numenor time this time which will be fun. earendil statue here I come! and maybe we’ll get to see something about that cult of morgoth eventually.

But an overall summary of my thoughts so far:

The Best: Celebrimbor

The Good: Dwarves, Harfoots, Southlands, Galadriel (with some reservations on her storyline)

The Mediocre: Elrond

The Uhh I Hope We Fix This Quick: Gil-galad

Overall I’d put it at about a 7/10. Lots of stuff I’m excited for or am at least wiling to hear out until they fully convince me about it. I’m a bit put off by some of the changes to lore re: Finrod, Gil-galad presumably forcing people to go to Valinor. But they’ve still got some time to go to convince me of that.

Look the only other adaptation that’s covering some second-age stuff we have is the Shadow of Mordor/War games talking about Celebrimbor. So as long as they do better than that (which is not hard!) I will be content. That’s my baseline and so far they are well above it ESPECIALLY on the celebrimbor front. 

I’ve been typing for an hour. I’m going to stop now. Thanks for bearing with me and if you actually read all that... incredible. Have a virtual cookie from me.

[outofangband]

yeah, i kinda wanna hear - what are your general headcanons for domesticated/working/tamed animals in angband? i would be very surprised if it was just the wolves and the dragons

(In response to this post!)

Angband World Building and Aftermath of Captivity Masterlist 

The wolves are interesting. I headcanon there are about five genetically distinct species of wolves that are cultivated by Sauron. Not all these can interbreed with each other though some can. 

Two of these species can interbreed with elves though this is rare and requires massive intervention.  Most attempts still fail. 

I talked about the captives and the wolves a bit here 

These are different from wild wolves like gray and timber wolves which are actually used by some of the orcs who live apart from the fortress. 

So I have this rather bizarre headcanon that a variety of sheep is domesticated in the orcish communities especially those who don’t travel for battles and don’t live in the main part of the fortress 

The “sheep” are used for labor (this species is bulkier and stronger and significantly larger than the average farm sheep) as well as for food and materials.

Obviously this is a heavily altered species as they do not require grazing lands and instead are fed scraps as well as various fungi that grow in the caverns. I have a few alternate theories of how they came to be but I don’t think they were artificially modified much but instead are a species native to the mountains and caves of the region

These and the smaller species of wolves are the most generally domesticated (note though that the wolves are not tame) but different factions of the fortress have other animals that are used (bats, larger lizards like monitors, etc) among them

Fungi is cultivated for food and gathered along with other organic matter (I go into this a bit more in this post!). Gardens as the elves would describe them are rare but not unheard of though most of what grows in these scarce places are medicinal rather than edible, if not actively poisonous. As suicide is always a risk among the prisoners, access to these is heavily restricted to the small group of Maiar who serve Sauron. 

Pets and animal companions:

Some of the elven prisoners who have been in captivity for decades and decades and are more or less loyal (or at least effectively so, whether or not they actually feel loyal) and who are actively working against the Noldorin armies and their allies are allowed animal companions.

This is an offer that is often very effective in getting otherwise passive prisoners to take a more active role serving their captors. Indeed Mairon notes it is often more of an incentive than anything else offered.

Especially in the mines where there is less ability to supervise every prisoner at all times, many of them have transactional relationships with small animals such as bats, fire salamanders or cave lizards (a species that @aronoiiel created!)

The slave gives the creature food and in return gets tiny bits of interaction with something not interested in their oppression and misery.

In one of my verses, Maedhros befriends a small baby dragon. I haven’t written about them in awhile because they’re undergoing some changes and The exact way they are befriended I once again have like ten alternate versions though in many he uses his Fëa to nourish them whether or not he chooses to do this differs

Anyways I apologize for how rambling this got!

Also I hope it’s ok to tag you but @foxleycrow just posted an absolutely amazing piece regarding Túrin and a baby dragon that everyone should see!! (Túrin isn’t in Angband but the dragon is from there)

[armenelols]

I'm properly bored as well lol. Bored enough and unable to find excitement in anything else, so I started making aesthetics.

Anyways. Hope your day's going well.

Here's my ask: what are your headcanons about the dynamic & relationship between Maglor and Maedhros?

Oh boy this is going to be long

When I got this ask I actually started writing a one-shot about them but my attention span is short so it ended up once again unfinished in my drafts :D it kinda shows through this post because I kept falling into my weird storytelling mode

Thus the reason it took me so long to answer lol

SO

The short version: out of the feanorian bunch, Maedhros and Maglor have always been the closest to each other. It doesn't change with time, even when they do.

The longer version has gotten very much out of hand, I strayed off topic several times, forgot to mention half of the things I wanted to but here go:

Maedhros is the oldest of Finwë's grandchildren, so I imagine him being very close to Maglor, as I headcanon them close in age (with Fingon being only slightly younger). Even after the rest of Maedhros's siblings are born, I still see him being closest to Maglor - two oldest of the brothers, of the cousins. Maedhros is the mom friend, and he tries to get along with everyone, take care of everyone. Maglor is too busy perfecting his music skill and occasionally acting snobbish to help (yes, I headcanon younger Maglor as a bit of a snob, sue me :D), but Maedhros doesn't mind because he loves his brother even if he sometimes makes him wish to bang his head against the wall. Repeatedly.

When their lives begin to crumble under their feet, Maglor lets go of his snobbish attitude and tries to help. Fëanor isn't himself anymore, and Finwë is too blind with his love to see what his son is turning into. Maedhros is trying to keep everyone together, Maglor as well, and Fingon and Finrod do their best to help. Fëanor is banished, and all his sons go with him. Nerdanel doesn't. Maedhros start breaking under the pressure put on his shoulders, but he prevails. With Fingon in Tirion, Maglor is now his biggest support.

Everything escalates.

After Finwë's death, I don't think they were given much time to grieve - not with all that happened afterward, and especially not with Fëanor being... Well, you know what I mean. Oath happens, and the first kinslaying, and Losgar. Fëanor is dead, Maedhros is captured and rescued. (in some versions, Amrod is dead, but I am following mostly Silm in this, so take that into consideration further on)

During my latest Silmarillion reread, I noticed a pattern - pretty much every time it mentioned feanorians wanting to do something stupid, being angry, or something similar, it only excluded Maedhros - never Maglor. So while I think Maglor was one of the more gentle brothers, I don't think he was an innocent dude just following his brothers around or something similar. I think that Maedhros's brothers didn't try to resist the oath much in general - at first, they did to an extent, but after some time, they stopped trying. Thus Celegorm's and Curufin's misadventures in Nargothrond (made stronger by the silmaril part) :D Caranthir, Maglor and Ambarussar would be somehow better off, but still not resisting that hard. In the later first age, I think, all of them were pretty much unrecognizable from their past, happier selves. Maedhros would keep his mortals, but the rest would be more looser with them.

Doriath changed that, I think: with the three Cs death, and Eluréd and Elurín lost, I think Maedhros finally snapped. He was tired, and he stopped caring - and I think that was also the breaking for Maglor (though in a different way), when he finally realized how far they have fallen.

When the third kinslaying came, Maedhros just wanted it to be over. Ambarussar were dead, and he and Maglor were alone again, the oldest ones. Silmaril was out of his reach, after being so close. And then he was presented with another pair of twins, as if Elurín and Eluréd come again, but this time... This time he didn't care for their lives. He was tired.

Maglor was tired also, but this time, he was full of regret from the past. He wanted to fix his mistakes. He didn't think anything could excuse his past actions, but maybe he could do at least one more good deed in his life.

He convinces Maedhros and they gain a whole shiny new pair of twins.

Maedhros, I think, grows to like them (not sure if I would go as far as to say love, depends on how long exactly they spend together), and for a time, Elrond and Elros make him see what he used to fight for. For better future, for better life. Maglor is doing his best, but he isn't sure how. Maedhros was the one used to keeping his family in check. For Maglor, this was a new field, and he didn't dare to go against Maedhros often.

War of Wrath happens.

Maedhros wants to steal the silmarils, Maglor doesn't. But Maglor is tired and goes along with Maedhros's wish.

Silmarils burn them, and Maedhros is dead - too tired, he has given up years ago. There was nothing for him left.

Maglor, for the first time in his life, is alone. He doesn't know what to do. And so grieves, and grieves, and grieves.

*but since we all love a proper happy end, Maglor is either going to end up hanging around in modern times, much more in peace with himself than he was at the end of the First Age. Or he crashes at Valinor, where his family is reborn because Mandos doesn't want to be anywhere near them. Maedhros is happy again, and has a new purpose in life. Maglor heals. They are together again, and happy*

[maitarussa-old]

I'm really sorry you had such a rough day at work, I hope you can have a relaxing afternoon/evening/morning (depending on your hours?)

I'd love to hear more about your fic verse and how it differs from the canon timeline. If you want more specific questions I'd be glad to think of some!

Your world building is amazing!

-@outofangband

Thank you!

My ficverse is fairly canon-compliant, with the main fic, Beyond the Darkest Night, taking place for the most part in the Fourth Age, and planned sequels afterwards.

Most of my fics and hcs take place in the same universe as BtDN, however, and a few things that are “canon” to my version that might not be confirmed as canon, but don’t necessarily contradict it (Tolkien’s canon contradicts itself enough anyway) are as follows:

Maedhros ends up in the Void after his death and forswearing the Oath (basically the entire premise for BtDN)

Elrond finds Maglor after the War of the Ring and brings him along to Aman.

The ban on the Ñoldor being lifted includes the dead, so the Finweans in Mandos are able to be reborn after the First Age. Most of them are.

The remnants of Sauron’s spirit are brought to Valinor for judgement by Gandalf.

Amrod dies at Losgar but his spirit lingers with Amras. At times when Amras is in battle, Amrod will appear beside him as a spectre and fight with him (especially during the kinslayings).

Maeglin survives the Fall of Gondolin (barely) due to Sauron’s token, ends up being taken in by the Fëanorians (this is a whole fic in itself that I’m working on). He still lives in Middle-Earth for many ages.

Gil-Galad is Maedhros and Fingon’s child, but was raised for a time by Orodreth in Nargothrond. His elder sister, Erien, was captured while still young and became Thuringwethil, though eventually she escaped Sauron’s influence.

A large portion of the survivors of Sirion are absorbed into Maedhros and Maglor’s people along with Elrond and Elros— this is both good and bad, but they are treated fairly well regardless. On the same note, the twins were treated kindly and they and Maedhros and Maglor grew to consider themselves a family of sorts.

There’s a lot that happens as a result of BtDN as well that I’m not quite going into bc spoilers, but these are just a few things

[arofili]

fic writer tag game!!

i was tagged by @meztliel, thanks so much!!

AO3 name: starlightwalking

Fandoms: mostly Tolkien, my current main WIPs are Hobbit and LOTR fics, but i’m definitely mostly writing for the Silm these days, just lots of oneshots. i also dabble in Les Mis (at least once a year for Barricade Day!) and TAZ :)

Number of fics: 179??? how??? and i’m only gonna have more!! i’m not even done with B2MeM20 yet!!

Fic I spent the most time on: oh geez. that’s a tough one. this fic that i just posted, a Measse/Thuringwethil oneshot, i started in 2015?? but i left it sitting for 5 years, so i don’t think that counts. and i guess this drabble comp would be the next candidate, i started it in May 2016 and i last updated it in December 2019, but it’s...a drabble compilation, not an actual fic. so i think i actually spent the most time on my current WIPs, “Moonlight” and “Roads Go On,” both originally posted in May 2018 (jesus i was still in HIGH SCHOOL) and updated.....last year...... really i just haven’t had time to work on them, rip, though i think about them constantly. that’s what happens when you’re not in high school anymore i suppose....

Fic I spent the least time on: i mean, something from that drabble comp, probably. Or a B2MeM ficlet. probably this Glorfindel fic? I only remember writing it because I know it was written in a hurry at like 2am and my friend Moth @thishazeleyeddemon loved it and I was like “wow weird considering how little effort I put into it!”

Longest fic: Currently my post-BotFA Tauriel fic “Beneath the Stars” coming in at 49k! RGO and Moonlight both promise to be longer, but that would require me actually finishing either of them... but I love BtS so much that I’m glad it’s up there, it was a real labor of love <3

Shortest fic: “The Lay of Nienor” which I just wrote this past month! it’s only 238 words long - but it’s in verse, so that’s pretty respectable!

Most hits: My first BotFA fix it fic, “A Merrier Place,” with 5544 hits - to no one’s surprise by my chagrin. That was one of my first forays into Hobbit fic and I wrote it shortly after the movie came out, when people were most in need of a fix it AU. So I don’t blame them, really - but as I’m sort of setting out to rewrite my thoughts on what actually would’ve happened in an Everyone Lives AU in my current fic “Moonlight,” I wish people would pay more attention to that...

Most kudos: My TRSB19 Gigolas fic, “Love and Fear,” coming in with 155 kudos! this fic features art from @ginogollum and honestly, it deserves that love! (though, I think it does say a lot about what fandom wants that my only romo!gigolas fic has the most kudos of anything i’ve written, and all my qp!gigolas fics are much lower down the list... though perhaps I’m being unfair, considering my qp!Domadry fic “Wedding Blues” has the second-most kudos at 147.)

Most comment threads: My other TRSB19 fic, the Feanorian Redemption/Rebirth story “ATATYA” - that’s 71 comment threads and 147 total comments including replies!!! :) that makes me very very happy, because I wrote the 45,000 words of that fic in like...two weeks, about? it was INTENSE. and i’m very proud of that story, it’s got a lot of headcanons that I stand by, and I reference it frequently!

Most bookmarks: I added this category bc it felt weird it wasn’t here. Again, this prize goes to “Love and Fear” with 43 bookmarks!! woah :o second place is “A Merrier Place” with 35, and then the first fic I haven’t already mentioned is “The Naming Dame,” a HTTYD book fic with 30 bookmarks! I really should go back and update that fic, considering I wrote it before the last book came out and there’s new relevant information...

Total word count: I also added this one because I wanna brag!! I currently have 739,961 words archived on AO3 - holy shit!! adding the ~253k words I didn’t transfer over from FFN, that’s nearly a million words of fic! by the time i finish B2MeM I might push past that threshhold!!!!! that’s so exciting!!!! (fun fact about me: before Tolkien, my main fandom was...warrior cats...roughly 215k of that fic I left to gather dust on FFN is WC fic........)

Favourite fic I wrote: This isn’t fair, I can’t choose just one!! Ugh...well, if I must, I think it has to be “ATATYA”? This is subject to change, and “Beneath the Stars” is a close second, but “ATATYA” is my first real Silm longfic and I’m very proud of what I accomplished there, especially in such a short amount of time. Bonus: my favorite oneshot / favorite non-Tolkien fic is “and Love,” the aro Magnus fic I wrote for ASAW last year!

Fic you want to rewrite/expand on: I mean, I already talked about how “Moonlight” is kind of a rewrite of “A Merrier Place,” so...hm. Well, earlier today in an ask game I mentioned my fic “fell and fey” which is the Eol-living-in-a-fairy-tale fic I wrote just this past month. I started writing a longer, more poetic version of that fic that I’d like to return to and expand on someday, but I wanted to get that idea out of my head and B2MeM was a great excuse to do it, so I went with the shorter version instead - for now!

Share a bit of a WIP or a story idea you’re planning on:

I’ve got a couple WIPs right now... here’s a snippet of ch8 of “Roads Go On” (which i PROMISE i will have up soon...i know i’ve been saying that for more than year but i MEAN IT this time...)

“What do you mean we can’t take the freeway?” Boromir snapped.

“My way or the highway, he means,” Gimli quipped. “And, uh...not the highway, I guess.”

Mithrandir shot Gimli a withering glare. Though he only smiled, some part of him shriveled up inside. A wizard’s evil eye was nothing to mess with.

I think I’ve already shared that snippet in a different tag game, so here’s one more for the road - this one’s from “Cause and Consequence,” my Halenthir baby OC fic. This snippet comes from a chapter that won’t be out for awhile (and might undergo some serious revamping before then), and it’s set right after the Nirnaeth, with my OC (Ryndil) about to confront their dad.

“This is no place for mortals,” Maglor said flatly. “You do know who we are, don’t you, Rýndil of Brethil?”

A shiver ran down their spine. Seven tall elf-lords, gaunt and scarred and bloody in the aftermath of a disastrous battle. Maedhros, the eldest, was a shell of the glorious figure he’d been on the battlefield; they weren’t sure if he was even awake, his eyes were so glassy and unfocused. Grief, they supposed. They’d heard the rumors about him and the High King, after all.

Maglor, leading in his place, trembling despite the firmness in his golden voice. Celegorm, bitter and angry and mean despite his fair features. Curufin, his dark shadow, flint in his eyes and venom on his tongue. Amrod and Amras, mirroring each other in their distrustful glares. And yet despite the blood and dirt and pain, a light shone from each of them. These were men to be feared, men to be worshipped.

And then there was him. Caranthir the Dark. Rýndil’s father, the blood flowing through their veins, the reason they were here in the first place. Gaunt and red-faced, the weary host of his defeated brothers, he had scarcely stopped moving about and making room for them since they arrived.

As much as Rýndil was of the Haladin, as much as they were the child of Haleth, they were bound to this family and people also.

there’s a lot of grief-stricken angry feanorian banter that comes after this (including some Maedhros characterization that i’m Very Proud Of), and honestly? i might just go ahead and post the whole excerpt if anyone wants to read it (it’s about 1.3k words) since I’m fairly sure I will be changing a lot of it anyway, even if it’s only for tone.

~

looking at these stats, i’m both kind of sad and kind of proud. like, i’m proud of myself for what i’ve written, and proud of the relationships i’ve forged with readers and writers on AO3, but i know lots and lots of folks who have waaayyy higher stats than me. i know considering i write a lot of gen and aro fic that i’ll never be a Big Name Fan, but that doesn’t stop me from being jealous... sigh...

anyway, this was very very fun!!! i tag @buffintruder @himrings @mushroomwriter @zealouswerewolfcollector @hennethgalad @absynthe--minded @stormxpadme @morifiinwe @raisingcain-onceagain annnd any other writer who sees this and wants to do it!! no pressure of course, only do it if you want to :)

(and LMK in replies if you’re interested in seeing more of that Ryndil snippet!!)

[dorwinionwhining]

Please share your thoughts on Russingon if you feel like it.

ahhh, i’m not used to being asked for my thoughts like this, thank you, anon!

and for anyone else who is curious: anon is referring to this lovely post on trauma in the silmarillion and the tags i left on it.

so, my thoughts.

i suppose i'll start with the wall of tags i was halfway through writing before deciding to delete them: maedhros and fingon are often portrayed as a pairing between a traumatized person and a person who helps and supports the healing of that trauma

this is a common couple trope that exists throughout many fandoms and i'm not all that shocked it's been latched onto for the two of them considering the main story we're introduced to their canon relationship through involves fingon rescuing maedhros from a widely known and accepted form of trauma: capture, torture and imprisonment by an enemy you're in the middle of fighting a war against.

but to me that portrayal does both of them a disservice. it dismisses potential sources of trauma in fingon's life as well as simplifying maedhros's trauma as resulting from a singular event that happened to him and that he was saved from.

one of the things i love about the silmarillion is how it shows suffering compounded by previous suffering. melkor's theme is repetitive. echoes of trauma build off of each other, rippling outwards so that eventually the entire world is infused with them down to its core.

look at what these two elves go through:

their homeland is invaded, their grandfather is murdered and the light of the world itself is extinguished.

the home maedhros is living in is robbed, his father instigates the kinslaying and the theft of the ships and maedhros participates. he then sets off on a harrowing trip across the sea to an unknown continent to fight a war against the strongest of the valar, and when he gets there his father decides to burn the ships, stranding them and preventing anyone from following. maedhros protest this but his father and brothers all decide to carry it out anyway, ignoring him. then his father dies. he inherits the kingship and is suddenly in charge of all his brothers and their men. this culminates in him getting tricked into an ambush where his men are slain around him.

fingon comes across the kinslaying as it's in progress and leaps in to defend fëanor's side without knowing what's happening, then fëanor and his sons set sail while he's left to wait with his father and their men for the ships to return. but the ships burn instead and his father decides to cross the ice. the descriptions tolkien gives of the landscape there make it sound like one of the worst places on earth. people die. fingon's sister in law dies. it's a terrible journey and when it's finally over they're met with a battle, which ends in a victory but also with the death of fingon's youngest sibling. then fingon hears that maedhros has been captured and is presumed dead, and he makes the decision to walk off alone into enemy territory in search of him.

this is just what happens surrounding their arrival in beleriand, it doesn't touch on maedhros's torture and it doesn't include fingon's rescue. it also doesn't include anything about the oath (despite my own personal belief that fëanor having his children swear it again over his dying body had to have been, uhhh, i'll say impactful to avoid going off on a tangent) and it doesn't include things that could have or had to have happened off page, the everyday stresses of figuring out food, water, shelter, combat, weather conditions, etc., or any of the politics, which would have been incredibly stressful, especially for maedhros after the death of his father and for fingon after fingolfin's arrival in mithrim.

and it's not like this just stops after the rescue. it's not like the two of them are ever given a clean moment to process what's happened to them. no one in this book is. new stressful events are always coming along on the heels of old ones, and often the best thing to do for everyone (because there's always someone else who is suffering more, now, in this moment) is to move on however you can. even if moving on means leaving pieces of yourself behind.

so fingon and maedhros interest me because their traumas, shared and separate, have so much potential to play off of each other, negatively as well as positively. how can they possibly navigate an intimate relationship with all of this behind them and even more ahead?

i understand why portraying them more simplistically is popular, why maedhros is often the one getting his traumas spotlighted with fingon as his well adjusted lover who helps him heal and offers him a bright spot in the darkness until he's tragically lost and maedhros goes back to unravelling. but for me personally i often wish there was more complexity. 

i can work with maedhros carrying lasting trauma from thangorodrim. i don't think tolkien would have written the line about him carrying a shadow of pain in his heart if it wasn't important. the silmarillion isn't a book that prioritizes character details. but if he's traumatized and fingon isn't then there needs to be a reason, an explanation, some thought put into why that's the case. is it something inherent in fingon's nature, in maedhros's? are there some things elves can heal from mentally and some things they can't?

and fingon can be traumatized without overshadowing or taking away from maedhros’s trauma. there’s not a limit, unfortunately, on the number of people who can be hurt by others and by circumstance. i want to see his coping mechanisms, his pain and suffering and how it develops as he loses more and more of his family as his father’s reign unfolds.

there's a lot of room for variation. i'm always interested when i see people exploring these two, and i'm always craving more.

and i don't want anyone to think i'm saying there's a right and wrong way to portray their relationship. even if you're someone with opposite tastes to me who loves the version i'm currently complaining about then i want you to keep loving it. this isn't a fandom i'd ever want to take anything away from. i'd always much rather just add more.

and yeah, i think this wall of text is gigantic enough. i kind of lost some of the points i wanted to make along the way. must be because i never got to the point in school where i needed to learn how to write essays so all of this was just a stream of consciousness ramble. i'll probably remember something important three days from now and be kind of annoyed.

but, uhhh, there's some of what i was thinking. again, thank you for the ask, anon, and i'm sorry! you were probably expecting something a little less ridiculous.

[atariince]

Read your opinion about L&B, It Is really interesting and I agree :) my question Is why do you think the feanorians did not dare to atack Luthien while she had the Silmaril? This has always been a mistery to me

Hi ! Thanks a lot for your positive feedback!

Your question is a very good one and we can only speculate and come upwith our own answers. I have a few hypothesis of my own, but there’s no way toascertain any of them.

But first of all, I’d like to emphasize the fact that this idea that the Fëanorians did not attack Lúthien once she had the Silmaril is an important part of the plot – I mean, beside the fact that it is a useful narrative tool which allows the second kinslaying to happen in Doriath and to involve Lúthien’s descendants, it is also useful for the characterization of Lúthien and it develops her legend and the way she’s regarded by the other characters.  

Anyway, here are my main hypothesis, in no specific order, and please keep in mind that they’re not incompatible and do not exclude one another.

1. The light of the Silmaril enhances Lúthien’s power

It’s hard to assert that the Ainur are actually more powerful in the light of the Trees, but you cannot deny that their relation to light is somehow remarkable. We know about Melian that “the light of Aman was in her face” and that it made her stand out in the dark when Elwë meets her, and this makes me believe that maybe, the Ainur kinda absorb the light; could they feed off on it? I have no idea, but that could be a possibility. This sole question deserves a whole post in itself, and I’m not doing that. Yet, I’ll just point at what is said in the Quenta about Lúthien wearing the jewel:

“And it is said and sung that Lúthien wearing that necklace and that immortal jewel on her white breast was the vision of greatest beauty and glory that has ever been seen outside the realms of Valinor and that for a while the Land of the Dead that Live became like a vision of the land of the Gods, and no place have been so fair, so fruitful, or so filled with light”.

We have the first words “it is said and sung”: no assertion – a legend, a saying, a rumour. No one witnessed it save Beren, Dior and possibly a few elves of Ossiriand. So, who knows? Now, all doubts put aside, this image of Lúthien gives way to many assumptions, including that of her power and the idea that the jewel indeed increases it. “Glory” here doesn’t only refer to beauty or fame, it is really a word that has to do with majesty, if not power. When we speak of the glory of the Valar, with speak of their majesty but also of the very might of their presence. This etymological point is very interesting, so I just drop that here and leave it to that because there would be too much to say. Anyway, it is obvious that the jewel allows Lúthien to enjoy the full might of her power (even though she’s a mortal at this point), and indeed, the sight of her in this situation must have been very impressive… to say the least.

So, we can easily imagine that, with the light of the Silmaril reflecting on her face, Lúthien appears not only lovelier than anything in the world, but also more powerful (after beauty and power are close intertwined n Tolkien’s lore). And maybe she is indeed more powerful while holding a Silmaril. Or maybe she just seems to be more powerful, but that would be enough for the Fëanorians to stand back.

2. Námo roots for her

The Fëanorian must have heard rumours about L&B’s miraculous returnfrom Mandos. They must have guessed that, whatever happened there was unusual, and that she benefited a very unexpected support from the Vala, that same Vala who actually cursed the Ñoldor. There’s no denying that Námo resents greatly the exiled Ñoldor, and surely the latter know they’re in his black book. Therefor if they know that Námo favours Lúthien, they wouldprobably be very careful in their dealing with her.

Or.

It could be both of those hypothesis, because in the end, the Fëanorians haven’t met Lúthien since her return, but they’ve heard rumours of her power, of her greatness, of the kind way the Valar treated her. They know just two things for sure: she could be dangerous, but she’s mortal now. Just. Be. Patient.

Which leads to my final theory:

3. The Fëanorians know nothing at all, and the narrator fills the gap

The Fëanorians might not be aware that Lúthien has the Silmaril; They might just know Doriath was ransacked by the Naugrim, and that Thingol’s treasure has been looted, including the Silmaril. So they’re looking for it, but they don’t know where it could be. And indeed, it’s only when Dior inherits the necklace that the Fëanorians learns that “A Silmaril of Fëanor burns again in the woods of Doriath” while the narrator explains that the attack on Doriath is due to the oath waking up when they hear of the “renewal of Doriath and of Dior’s pride”. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me because, well… when Lúthien wore the Nauglamír, if they knew that she did, there would have been something like “a Silmaril burns in Tol Galen”, and the oath would have been rekindled at this point… right? But no, it only happened afterwards.

Moreover I can’t believe that they went for a kinslaying partly because of “the renewal of Doriath”. I mean, even if the Fëanorians had their feud with Thingol, Doriath itself is more a shield against Melkor than an impediment in the war against Angband…they should be somehow relieved to see it back, don’t you think? So yeah, I’m not digging it. Consequently, it is possible that they just didn’t know Lúthien had the Silmaril, and only heard about it when Dior wore it, and Dior refused to surrender it and that caused the Second Kinslaying. 

The tricky bit is the actual journey of that Silmaril; there are severalversions which make it hard to follow, so I’ll go for a quick sum up:

In the published Silmarillion: the Dwarves loot Doriath, leave with a Silmaril; Beren and the elves of Ossiriand stop them on their way to Nogrod and Beren gets the necklace back.

In The Nauglafring : after the plundering of Doriath, Huan (stillalive in this version) leaves Doriath and finds Beren and Lúthien,who immediately understand what happened. Beren and his rangers march forth to stop the loiterers at the ford of Aros. Beren kills Naugladur and takes the cursed necklace to bring it back to Lúthien. Gwendelin (=Melian) comes to meet them and “she cried as in amaze beholding the Necklace of the Dwarves that hung about the white throat of Tinúviel”. Also, in this tale, after Dior’s return to Doriath, Maidros (Maedhros) “called to his brethren […] and he said to them how it was known to him that a Silmaril of those their father Fëanor had made was now the pride and glory of Dior of the Southern Vales.” Obviously, it seems theyhad no idea where the Silmaril was before that moment, that is when the “fame of that jewel spread like fire through all the regions of the North, and the Elves said one to another: “a Silmaril of Fëanor burns in the woods of Hísilómë”.” So they discrover the Silmaril with the rumours of the return of Dior.

The Earliest Silmarillion explains how “the dwarves are ambushed at aford by Beren and the brown and green Elves of the wood” and how Beren “takes the Nauglafring”. We also learn that “Melian warned Beren of the curse of the gold and of the Silmaril […] but the Nauglafring remains hoarded secretly in Beren’s keeping.” The idea that he kept it “secretly” is interesting; who knew about it? Surely not the Fëanorians, even though they might think it possible that the jewel is with Lúthien. But would they make war upon her if they’re not sure she has the jewel? I think not. Here, we don’t know how or when they heard of the return of the jewel in Doriath with Dior, only that “after vain bargaining the sons of Fëanor made waron him.”

In the Quenta, Melian warns Beren of the presence of the Dwarves’host; he fights them and takes the necklace. Then, “Melian warned them ever over the curse […] yet the Silmaril they retained”. Dior goes back to Doriath as king, L&B die, Melian leaves to Valinor, and as Dior wears the necklace “the fame of that jewel went far and wide.” And that’s how the Fëanorians seem to have learned about the Silmaril.

The Earliest Annals of Beleriand tell us again that it is Melian whosends Beren to stop the dwarven host; he takes the necklace and keeps it until he and Lúthien die; Dior is king of Doriath, Melian goes back to Valinor and only then “the sons of Fëanor hear tidings of the Silmaril in the East.”

In The Later Annals of Beleriand, Beren again “overthrew the Dwarvesat Sarn-Athad as they return eastward” and he took the Nauglamír and the Silmaril. We also learn in this version that it is after the death of L&B and the departure of Melian that the Fëanorians “heard tidings of the Silmaril in the East, and they gathered from wandering and held council together” which also seems to point toward the idea that they knew not where the jewel was after the ruin of Doriath, because if they did, they would have “gathered from wandering” much earlier and took council to decide if they should attack Lúthien whilst she had the jewel. 

The Tales of Years which accompanied the Annals of Beleriand is maybethe more complicated text, since Tolkien rewrote it several times.

the first draft reads: “the dwarves invade Doriath. Thingol is slain andhis realm ended. Melian returns to Valinor. Beren destroys the Dwarf-host at Rath-Loriel.” 

The second draft was altered and enriched: “the Dwarves invade Doriath. Thingol is slain and his realm ended. Melian takes Nauglamír to Beren and Lúthien and she returns to Valinor. Celegorm and Curufin destroy the Dwarf-host at Sarn-Athrad in Rath-Loriel, and are wroth to find the Silmaril not there. Dior goes to Doriath.” THIS is an interesting element for many reasons, and in the matter at stake, it means that the Fëanorians knew very early on what had happened in Doriath and they believed that the Dwarves had the Silmaril with them. However, even if they come to realize their mistake, it does not mean that they will understand that the jewel is now with L&B… they could guess it, but again, it would just be a hunch. Do you make war on a hunch? Especially after the vain killing of the dwarf’s host (because obviously they only killed them because they thought they had the jewel…); would they do the same mistake twice?

Likewise, the next stage gives: “The Dwarves of Belegost and Nogrodinvade Doriath. Thingol is slain and his realm ended. The Dwarves carry off the Dragon-gold, but Melian escaped and carried off the Nauglamírand the Silmaril, and brought it to Beren and Lúthien. Then she returned o Valinor; but Lúthien wore the Silmaril. Now Curufin and Celegorm hearing of the sack of Menegroth ambushed the Dwarves at the ford of Ascar and defeated them. but the Dwarves cast the gold into the river, whichafter was names Rathloriel. Great was he chagrin of the Sons of Fëanor to discover that the Silmaril was not with the Dwarves; but they dared not assail Lúthien.” Here for the first time we have hints of the Fëanorians knowing, or at least guessing that Lúthien has the jewel.  

The next step is basically the same, but what comes later is relevant: “The sons of Fëanor hearing news of the Silmaril that it is in Doriath hold council.” So, again, they dared not attack Lúthien, butit’s only after Dior’s return that they hold council? Hm. I’m not convinced.

What could we conclude after all this? Well, nothing for sure.

But! we see that nothing guarantee that the Fëanorians knew exactly where the Silmaril was after the sack of Doriath – even in the versions that involve Celegorm and Curufin: the boys were certain they would find it with the dwarves while Melian had it, but when they realise they were wrong, how could they be sure it is in the hands of Lúthien? They can’t. In the versions in which Celegorm and Curufin don’t appear, it seems that they all only learn about the jewel when Dior is back in Doriath, while some elements seem to indicate that L&B would rather keep it secret whilst they have it.

Besides, the narrator’s line concerning their refusal to attack Lúthien could be just an invention to increase her aura, to make her appear, through a simple narrative trick, much more impressive, like, “wow, look! even the fell Fëanorians wouldn’t attack her! The girl must be fucking savage”.  (And guess what, it worked.)

Actually, I think that if the Fëanorians had known about it, they’d have sent, at least, an embassy to L&B– after all, in the Naugalfring, they sendCurufin to Dior to discuss the jewel-issue, and in most versions they sentmessages to Dior. I’m pretty sure Maedhros wouldn’t have missed that opportunity to discuss the matter with her, precisely because she’s supposed tobe devoid of greed… but then again, I don’t think they exactly knew what toexpect from her, and of her actual power. So yes, it is possible that theyindeed feared her, precisely because they had little information about her.

There are two main elements that makes me favour that third theoryabout the Fëanorians’ ignorance of the position of the jewel: The first being the recurrent line referring to the fact the oath was awoken when they heard about the Silmaril being in Doriath. If they had known where it was before, why would the oath be awoken only then? The second element is more about the characters themselves, and one in particular… guess whom?

*Curufin*. He had been humiliated by Beren, completely, utterly humiliatedand despoiled. I’ve written enough about this character to have a rather good and full idea of him, and yes it is my own, but come on, don’t you think he doesn’t want to avenge his honour? I actually believe that if he had known for sure that Beren had the jewel, it would have been a very good justification for a gruesome revenge. And he wouldn’t have hesitated to ride to Tol Galen, not only to get the Silmaril, but also to make Beren pay for the disgrace (using the oath to justify it) (Curufin and the art of killing two birds with one stone).

But, those are mere speculations. The more I think about it, the more I believe it could be a bit of all those points that prevented the Fëanorians from attackingL&B. Now you can choose which theory you prefer, or you can come up withyour own 😉 Thanks for your attention!

[quentaleardanomion]

Amazon LotR Map Analysis

Unfortunately the LotR fandom, Silmarillion fandom, and general Tolkien fandom on Tumblr has seemed either entirely uninterested in this show, or openly hostile to it ever since its announcement. This, to me, is a shame, since the involvement of the Tolkien Estate, together with the learning experiences of the critically panned Hobbit trilogy and the immense budget given to this show all point to a series of good quality and impressive visuals. At the very worst case, we will get to see more Middle-earth on screen, and I for one am thrilled at that prospect.

Anyway, today marked the end of the long and emotionally fraught series of maps released by the “Lord of the Rings on Prime” account on their Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Through the whole process, many theories have been going around as to the meanings of the various maps, speculations on the inclusions of certain names, and so forth. Now that we have reached the apparent end of the map releases (since the Ring verse they’ve been accompanied by has been completed), it seems a good time for me to analyze the map in its final form, as well as any pertinent details from the previous incarnations that might appear striking. I’ll break the map down into sections to make it easier to go through all the details.

Without further ado, let’s begin!

First thing I noticed was the addition of the Western Isles, Tol Morwen, Tol Fuin, and Tol Himling. Some brief lore discussion:

Tol Morwen: This island marks the grave of Túrin Turambar, Niënor Níniel, and Morwen Edhelwen. The Stone of the Hapless, or the Talbor (in Taliska) was the grave marker made for them by the people of Haleth, and was prophesied by Glirhuin the bard to remain standing even if the waves drowned the land, as indeed after befell.

Tol Fuin: This island is the remains of the pine clad heights of Dorthonion, where the people of Bëor dwelt in their land of Ladros. The most interesting facet of its inclusion on this map is that it only appears in The Unfinished Tales, and is not part of any map published along with Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit. This has some interesting implications, as we will discuss later.

Tol Himling: This island is the height where Maedhros had his city and fortress of Himring in the First Age, which was destroyed by Morgoth during their long war. It remains above the sea after the flooding caused by the War of Wrath.

The rest of this section is nothing too new, but there is one minor feature that caught my eye. The hills next to the names Forlindon and Harlindon were not present on any previous version of the map, nor are they present in any published Tolkien map. As we will see later when we examine the land where Gondor will come to be, he coastline is changed there. Both of these are connected, I think, to the fact that this map is in the Second Age, before the Downfall of Númenor. In this time the world was flat, but after the Cataclysm, the flooding caused by the destruction of the island led to great changes in the coastlines of Middle-earth, and I think these hills reflect the prior state of the coast.

Nenuil is included, which may indicate the possible presence of the native men of Eriador, who first met the Númenóreans in the hills to the north of the lake.

The inclusion of the names Lindon, Harlindon, Forlindon, and Mithlond all point to the inclusion of Gil-galad’s kingdom of Lindon in the series, which was the last and largest High-Elven kingdom in the Second Age.

The Ered Luin, Lhûn and Baranduin (Brandywine) are also named, but this is most likely just an indicator that the general region of Eriador will be a setting for the show.

This is a very exciting portion of the map! A lot of information is conveyed by the names here, so let’s break it down.

Eregion was the Noldorin realm founded by Galadriel and Celebrimbor, where the Rings of Power were eventually forged. Ost-in-Edhil was the capital city. Curiously, on this map, Ost-in-Edhil is moved from it’s canon location and placed where the city of Tharbad is meant to be. This may simply be a choice on the part of the showrunners to give Ost-in-Edhil a more interesting location by placing it next to the marshes of Nîn-in-Eilph, the Swanfleet, but at this point we can’t know for sure. Regardless, the inclusion of these names, including the Glanduin and Gwathló rivers, points very strongly to the setting of the show being during or before the forging of the Rings of Power in SA 1600, as Eregion was destroyed soon afterwards.

The Bruinen and the Mitheithel are named, but pointedly Imladris is absent from the location where it was on the previous iterations of the map. This indicates also that the show takes place during or before the forging of the Rings of Power, since Imladris was founded in the following war.

Khazad-dûm is also named, as well as the three mountains Fanhuidhol, Celebdil, and Caradhras which rise above it. Together with the Celebrant river and the valley of Nanduhirion (Azanulbizar in Khûzdul), these names suggest the inclusion of the Dwarves of Moria, or Hadhodhrond as it was called by the Elves in those days. The name Lórinand is also given, which was the name of the kingdom of Silvan Elves ruled by the Sindarin King Amdír. There are excellent meta-analyses of the source texts in existence that show his friendship with the Dwarves of Hadhodhrond was quite strong, which is strange for a Sindarin Elf.

Ninglor and the Hithaeglir and the Anduin are named, but I cannot see any hints there beyond the simple fact that they were around at that time, although the inclusion of the Ninglor (Gladden) is odd.

The North-South road later called the Greenway is present on this map, which is odd to me. I had always thought the road was built to connect Gondor and Arnor together, but since this is before they were founded, I am unsure why it is included. It ends where Fornost will be one day, but currently it is blank. Will we see a new settlement of Men in this place? Perhaps the center of the native Eriador civilization encountered by the Númenóreans?

Lond Daer is included on this map, which lets us know that the show must take place after SA 750/800 when that haven was created by Aldarion the crown prince of  Númenor as a source of lumber and supplies for the fleets.

Speaking of lumber, this brings us to the last feature in the section we can comment on: the forests!! The entirety of Minhiriath (Land Between the Rivers) and Enedwaith (Middle-Folk) is covered in trees, and we learn from The Unfinished Tales that many Men dwelt there at this time, some of whom were wary of the Númenóreans due to their logging of the forest. In fact, in later years, the logging grew so bad that the Men were driven out of the lands and took refuge in the last remnants of the forests, most prominent of which was Eryn Vorn, the Dark Forest, which is also included on this map. Perhaps we will see a settlement of these Men here in the show?

This section was sadly left very unnamed, but there are still plenty of tidbits here!

Gundabad is named, which functioned as the Awakening Place of Durin I, and was considered a sacred place to the Long-beard Dwarves. However, after the War of Wrath, Orcs came fleeing into the northern mountains, and they took it to the Dwarves dismay. Could we see this in the show?

The Men-i-Naugrim, the Old Dwarf Road, is also marked on its way through Mirkwood. However, they add an extension of the road leading all the way to the Iron Hills, which has never been included on any Tolkien map to date. The Long-beards founded their settlement in the Iron Hills in either the First or Second Ages, so I am unsure why it is not labeled here.

Amon Lanc is named on the map, which implies the inclusion of the Silvan Realm of Mirkwood. In the early Second Age, the Silvan Elves of Mirkwood lived across the river from their kin in Lórinand, dwelling about the slopes of Amon Lanc, the Bald Hill, later site of Dol Guldur. Their king was Oropher the father of Thranduil, a Sindarin Elf, who later died in the Last Alliance.

The terrain in this region is interesting in several respects. Firstly, the East Bight in Mirkwood has been filled in, since it was in fact not in existence until the Third Age when it was felled by the Northmen who lived there. Celduin and Carnen are named, but the significance of this is unclear. The most interesting feature of the terrain, however, is the inclusion of a series of forested hills across the Anduin from Fangorn. These occupy the later area of the Brown Lands, and in we learn from Treebeard that this land was once the Gardens of the Entwives, until the war of the Last Alliance when Sauron burned them brown. He says that Men lived near the Entwives and learned agriculture from them. It is unclear if we will see Entwives in the show, or if they are simply presenting a more accurate terrain map for the Second Age.

This is another relatively empty map section. However, there are some definite points of interest. Ethir Anduin, Belfalas, Tolfalas, Morthond, Ringló,  and Ras Morthil are all geographical areas and features of Gondor, but I am unsure if they have any significance. Ras Morthil is particularly odd, since it is a very obscure place about which we know next to nothing. Drúedain were said to live there, so perhaps we will see them? There is a later unfinished story Tolkien wrote called Tal-Elmar, where the Númenóreans are seen from the perspective of native people living near the mouths of a river in Gondor. Perhaps we will see such a story?

Of particular note is the shape of the coastline. The Anduin does not have a delta, and the coastline is much smaller here than it is on Third Age maps. This is consistent with the lore for the effects of the flooding post-Cataclysm.

Mordor is devoid of names, suggesting that Barad-dûr is not yet built.

The last interesting thing here is the name Côf Belfalas (Bay of Belfalas) which is a name that only occurs in the very very obscure essay by Tolkien titled The Rivers and Beacon Hills of Gondor. It was never published by Christopher Tolkien, and appeared only in the linguistic journal the Vinyar Tengwar. The fact that this name is included here suggests that the rights the show has are far greater than we had previously thought.

This section is the most new, as well as the least informative. Much terrain has been added, but it is faded quite a lot compared to the rest of the map, and I am unsure what this signifies. Khand is still included, which is very interesting to me. Perhaps we will see these empty areas filled out in a later promotion? So far there have been no new names or made-up named locations, so perhaps they are simply saving them for a later date? Regardless, the possibilities here are virtually endless.

Umbar is interesting in that the city is not marked on the map. We do not have a precise canon date for its founding, but it is odd that it would not be in existence at this time. Even more odd, however, is the fact that a heretofore unknown road is shown leading to its very site, and then off east towards Khand. Perhaps this whole area will be expanded upon at a later date?

This part of the map is only worth commenting on because it is entirely new in terms of the established maps for the Second and Third Ages. In some hasty maps of the First Age, Tolkien shows an eastern range, the Orocarni (Red Mountains) in the east, but it seems that they were further east than these. The identity of these mountains remains a mystery, as we have no new names to speculate with. Perhaps they will also gain some depth.

For the East and South there is the possibility that we will see the Blue Wizards. In Tolkien’s latest notes on the Istari, he said that the Blue Wizards came with Glorfindel in the Second Age around the year 1600, and were instrumental in disrupting Sauron’s plans in the East and South. Perhaps we will see this in the show?

And finally, we have arrived at the most exciting portion of the map: Númenor itself! The island is filled in with all the major names from the Unfinished Tales map, and features all the terrain details we expect. However, its inclusion, along with Tol Fuin from earlier, proves that the show has the rights to The Unfinished Tales, and if the elvish for the Bay of Belfalas is to be believed, it means they have the rights to even more.

So what does all of this mean? Well, based on the dates, there is only one significant global event during the time from SA800-SA1600: the forging of the Rings of Power. All the names for all the places we’d expect to see are present, and many different arenas are included on the map for a truly global showcase of the time. This could include the forging itself, the leadup to it including the political tensions between Galadriel and Celebrimbor and the arrival of Sauron disguised as Annatar, and the War of the Elves and Sauron following after. This war saw the death of Celebrimbor, the creation of Imladris, and the full might of the Númenórean navy. 

This will, in my opinion, make for a fun, diverse, and complex show with many different perspectives and characters and races all competing together, as well as the familiar faces and ties to LotR that the show needs to gain popularity with movie fans. Then there’s this: 

The second-to last map the account released. The inclusion of Arnorian cities like Annuminas and Fornost, as well as Gondorian places like Osgiliath and Minas Anor and Minas Ithil, suggest that the map is teasing the Last Alliance. Perhaps, as has been rumored, the show will be an anthology series, spanning the Forging of the Rings to the Last Alliance. If so, that will be an ambitious project, and one I look forward to with excitement and hope.

[wearetakingthehobbitstogallifrey]

MONICA YOU LOVED MANIC TOO??!?!? I'm overjoyed because I've only spoken to one (1) other person who really loved it & I feel so relieved, somehow, that you love it since you're the BEST OF US and what YOU love always gets right to the heart of a thing or a story. ANYWAY. Finally // and I Hate Everybody are my absolute favorites, and don't you think this album is like Ashley's version of Lover??? it's her most honest, and maybe lowest but also sweetest and steadiest album. I'M IN LOVE

YES YES YES YES YES I AM SOOO EXCITED YOU LOVE IT WILL YOU BE MY MANIC BUDDY *SINGS IT’S NICE TO HAVE A FRIEND WHO LOVES HALSEY*

also thank you sincerely and seriously so much for the glowing shoutout

#WONDER WOMAN SPEAKS MY HEART AND ALSO THIS IS SURPRISINGLY (?) RELEVANT TO THE ONCOMING STORM OF AN ESSAY

before I go any further I want to inform you I am drinking hot chocolate and Bailey’s out of my Batman/Catwoman mug and I still have Christmas lights up. This is not relevant to the following essay but I just thought you should know

I should start the essay shouldn’t I

First of all, I LOVE what you say about this being Ashley’s version of Lover. Both are a...finding of self, more or less complete. This isn’t to say that Taylor’s journey is over—she still has a lot of life and song left to fight through and to enjoy—but by the last words of “Daylight,” it seems to me that through all her struggles, she has finally discovered how to be gentle with herself and how to light her world.

I want to be defined by the things I love,

Not the things I hate

Not the things I am afraid of, I’m afraid of,

The things that haunt me in the middle of the

night, I

I just think that you are what you love.

In Lover, through Lover, by Lover, Taylor is whole again in her soul, and being thus whole and free, her future is quietly hopeful—even in the reality of the sorrowful “Soon You’ll Get Better” (which I still cannot listen to because it wounds my heart). I cannot imagine what she will do next, for she has the most expansive possibilities ahead of her.

Going back to Ashley, or Halsey, well, I can say nothing so clear about Manic other than that it aches. It aches because the whole thing is a confession. It is a spilling out of herself, all her hurts and frustrations and failures and most importantly the confusion of it all that lasts till this day and may last many more. Somehow, somewhere, in all this mess, I feel that by the end of the album, Ashley has found a grain of peace. She is still searching, still longing for things she maybe doesn’t even understand, but she understands herself, and, I hope, understands in a small way that it is okay to be in a state of longing and aching and messing up and trying again.

I’m sleepy so I’m not sure I am being coherent or cohesive, forgive me. I’m just going to say a few things about my favorite songs!

“Ashley.” So this wasn’t the first song I listened to, because of the singles released earlier. But how powerful is it that Halsey opens up with her name? There is nothing I like better than an album that tells a story (surprise!) and the instant I saw the track listing, I was shook.

Seems like now it's impossible to work this outI'm so committed to an old ghost townIs it really that strange if I always wanna change?And if only the time and space between us wasn't lonelyI'd disintegrate into a thousand piecesI think I'm making a mistakeBut if I decide to break, who will fill the empty space?

This verse—I don’t know if it is just where I am in my own life, but really, who hasn’t felt this strange rending of desires in some capacity. Cling to the past? Leap toward the unknown? I want to live near my parents forever, and see my mom every Sunday like I have for years now. I want to live in a foreign country, or even out near my old college, or heck even live in a city for year or six months, just because it would be an Experience. (Couldn’t live there indefinitely, not this girl who loves endless trees and hills and warm summer night country roads and rustling corn.)

How do we know what to do? How do we decide? What if we get left alone, with no one to comfort and support us? What if we cannot handle the consequences of our choices?

Apart from my beating heartIt's a muscle but it's still not strong enoughTo carry the weight of the choices I've madeI told you I'd ride this outIt's getting harder every day somehowI'm bursting out of myself

LOOK AT THIS! LOOK AT IT! I DARE YOU TO SAY THIS IS NOT A UNIVERSAL EMOTION. THIS IS WHAT THE ALBUM WILL BE ABOUT SO IF YOU CANNOT OPEN YOUR HEART AND BE PREPARED TO FEEL EMPATHY AND COMPASSION FOR THE YOUNG WOMAN WHO IS ABOUT TO SPILL HER GUTS TO YOU THEN GET OUT OF MY HOUSE

Ahem, I’m sorry, please stay, I don’t actually want you to go. Just sit down and I’ll give you your own hot chocolate. But listen. Ashley is, before anything, a human being. Therefore, she is going to mess up, just the same as any of us, maybe more, maybe less, but that is never going to take away a speck of her intrinsic worth, or the way that God loves her. Her struggles will not obliterate her humanity, but if I ignore her sorrows, her need for something more, her brilliance and strength and longing to love, then I would nigh obliterate my own.

Also, can I just say she has gone through some REALLY hard things in her life, things I couldn’t imagine, and for her to be where she is now—I just want the best for her. Do I agree with everything she does or believes? No. Is my life at all similar to hers? Not really. But I still feel a kinship with her, and it bleeds through in her music.

This is getting away from me isn’t it. I’m just trying to say that Manic struck a chord in my heart that has been reverberating ever since I first perceived it.

Oh gosh it is 12:30, I have to be up at 6. I’m going to fly through a few other songs and then you can message me about the rest or something 😊

“Clementine” has such color, doesn’t it? Also the line about her wondering what it’s like to be the blood in her veins—I love it!

“Graveyard” with the thing you love the most being the detriment—not going to lie, this is a story song for me, it fits into the Gold Rush Silmarillion AU I am co-authoring. Feanor and his own pride, Maedhros and half the people he loves, Fingon and Maedhros—the list could go on.

“You should be sad” and “More” gutted me because I had only just learned she has endometriosis, and has experienced a miscarriage before.

“Forever...(is a long time)”:

It's a nice surprise knowing six feet highWould reach and grab the moon if I should ask

Or just imply that I want you to be more lightSo I could look inside his eyesAnd get the colors just right

And

What am I thinking? What does this mean?How could somebody ever love me?

Self-doubt and questioning one’s ability to be loved ☹

“Without Me” gets stuck in my head and I LOVE IT I SING IT.

Found you when your heart was brokeI filled your cup until it overflowedTook it so far to keep you close (Keep you close)I was afraid to leave you on your own

 Is there anything more painful than giving all of yourself to someone, loving them so much that you do anything to help them heal—and then all they do is hurt you.

“Finally// beautiful stranger” I’m ashamed to say the first time I listened to it I wasn’t paying attention and so I was like eh it’s fine. THEN I LISTENED TO IT AGAIN. WHY IS THIS SONG HALSEY’S “ENCHANTED” (I can probably explain this, but just after I’ve had sleep)

“killing boys” there are a lot of things I could say about this song but the main thing I want to say is if there was a song that is ME regarding the sound of it only, it is this one. When she sings “you don’t need me anymore” and “I don’t need you anymore” OOH IT GETS ME IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL

Also

Told me pick my battles and be picking 'em wiseBut I wanna pick 'em all and I don't want to decideNo more, no more, anymore

THIS IS THAT TUMBLR THING  “MY MOM LIKES TO TELL ME ‘YOU HAVE TO PICK YOUR BATTLES’ WELL I’M FULL OF RAGE AND I’M PICKING ALL OF THEM”

ALSO ALSO GETTING INTO THE LYRICS THIS IS HER MOVING ON, THIS IS HER DECISIVELY SAYING NO THIS NOT RIGHT THIS IS HARMFUL TO ME I AM DONE. AND FOR SOMEONE WHO HAS EXPRESSED UNCERTAINTY AND DIFFICULTY MAKING DECISIONS, IT SO GOOD TO SEE HER MAKE A HEALTHY CHOICE FOR HERSELF

“Suga’s Interlude:” LOOK YOU LOVE BTS TOO SO I’M SURE YOU KNOW THE STORY OF HOW IT CAME TO BE AND YOU KNOW ALL ABOUT BTS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH HALSEY BUT FOR THE SAKE OF THE READERS LET ME SUM UP

Halsey did a collaboration with BTS called “Boy with Luv” and it shook the charts and is wonderful and I love it. Not only did they create that song though, but she flew out to South Korea and learned the dance choreography so that she could sing and dance in the song’s music video. This was the beginning of a beautiful, cross-language, cross-cultural friendship that has involved friendship bracelets, churros, a personalized microphone, and mutual teasing.

Anyway, Halsey had been really impressed with BTS member Suga, saying “Yoongi is really introspective and has this really intelligent perspective on where we are and what we are doing in our unique lifestyles.” She also was moved by the hard work and sacrifices he (and his fellow band members) have made. Anyway, she asked Suga to write and sing a song with her. He was initially surprised, saying that he can’t rap in English. Halsey, gem that she is, was like bro, pls rap in Korean, that would be awesome. Pardon me for copying half the lyrics for this song but to me it is pivotal in Manic as a whole:

I’ve been trying all my lifeTo separate the timeIn between the having it allAnd giving it up, yeah...

Here is the conflict and strife that Halsey has dealt with all her life—there is fear of loss there, and also fear of what one has. The power it has over you. The way things might go wrong.

I believe your faith, efforts, beliefs, and greed,are not hideous...Although the dawn right before the sun rises is the darkest,Never forget that the stars that you wish for,can only rise within the dark...

Suga reminding himself, Halsey, and us to cling to hope, ragged and worn, even in the most difficult of times. Also—in the face of our insecurities and self-recrimination for the goals we set—he tell us that our deepest parts are valid

If I run endlessly towards the end of the tunnel,what will there beIt’s true, it’s honestly differentfrom the future that I had hoped forBut it doesn’t matter, now it’s a matter of living/survivingIt doesn’t matter what happenedYeah yeah it might bedifferent from the things that you expectedYour living and your loving might changeThat’s true That’s true That’s trueYeah so are you gonna moveWe’re still too youthful and young to hesitateLet’s face it (our lives)...

This, this verse is so important. Look back at the song “Ashley”, particularly the lines I already quoted. Indecision because the fear of what might be, of what failure could do, wrecking her worse than ever, with no one to help her. Indecision because of a nostalgia that might be bitter or softly sad, what was past was at least known. It was good perhaps, it was awful more likely. But it was gotten through. There is no guarantee that Halsey will be able to get through whatever the future holds. But Suga comes in here, having faced struggles similar at their core, and he embodies the Nike slogan. Just DO IT. Don’t hold yourself back. Don’t let yourself drown, stuck in sinking mud. Embrace the unknown. If you let fear hold you back, you are as good as dead. There will be no growth, no hope battling through the dark for something better. You have to MOVE! And maybe you were right, things will never be the same, or the way you want it to be, but MAYBE THE DIFFERENT WILL BE BETTER!!!

Anyway, this section really should have been its own essay, because I’m still not done with it. You may have noticed I have been calling them Halsey and Suga, and the song is indeed called “Suga’s Interlude” but this song is so deep and personal to them both, it feels wrong to use their stage names. This is Ashley speaking, this is Yoongi speaking. Halsey posted a cute, stick figure drawing as artwork for the song, and the two singers are pictured there—and named as Ashley and Yoongi. This song is not just a collaboration by two talented artists, this is a look into the souls of a woman and a man who’ve shed blood, sweat, and tears to become the people they are. This intimacy fits the whole theme of the album so well, I LITERALLY CANNOT

I am so sorry I will move on now. It is 2:00 am. I need to go to bed. I am not. I need to talk about 929.

Well first let me say that “Still Learning” is also super important to the theme of the album.

I know that I've done some wrongBut I'm trying to make it rightDid the one I love do me wrong?Give me up right now

I know that I love you but I'm still learningTo love myself (to love my, to love my, to love my)I'm still learning to love myself (to love my, to love my, to love my)

She has made confessions and declarations and sung her frustration, and now she is moving forward. The road may be long and hard, but she is moving forward. I had something else to say but I forgot it sorry.

And NOW

929!!!!

This song miiiiight be my favorite on the album, not sure. My heart trembles and I get chills listening to it, because the music and her voice are so gentle and soothing but the lyrics are essentially a list of moments that have been needles and knives to Ashley, all her fears revealed, that she wasn’t enough then and she isn’t enough now, that the girl with the pink hair lied when she said that everyone needed Ashley. It’s a soft confession, a stream of consciousness, so it was written and so I hear it. And in this moment, how can I not love her? How can I not cry for her, for me, for anyone and everyone who struggles with self-worth, with being wanted, with being loved, with loving, with forgiving self and others?Halsey is flawed, and I just want to give her extra love because of that.

But you know what? I think she is going to be ok.

This is where I want to go back and compare Manic to Lover. There is this knowledge of the self, a kind of peace with who one is. I don’t mean that either Taylor or Ashley have reached their pinnacle of self, but they see themselves a little more clearly, and are not suppressing that knowledge.

929 sounds like water gently pouring out of a pitcher into a basin, and water, properly placed, does not drown but gives life. There is hope by the end of this song, hope despite her difficult life, hope despite the fact that she was never even telling the truth about her time of birth. (That story could be a despairing one, the “I’m a fucking liar” could be the miniscule mistake that breaks her after all the rest of her mistakes, but instead...I don’t know she just sounds kind of amused, like even if she is disappointed or upset about it, there is still this “oh well, whatever, can’t believe that happened lol” to her voice and laughter. She knows who she is now, and there is a better woman she might be, but she is not angry with herself for being who she is, and she will move forward, letting go of her ghost towns and all her fears.

Let me end with a quote about 929: “I just start spilling all of my thoughts about myself and my fans and my family, and I admit so many faults and flaws all in one go. It’s forgiving, however, it ends with the acknowledgment that I am learning and growing, minute by minute.”

Ashley, like Taylor, is making a new start. They have both found a sort of daylight, and though there may always be shadows, I really really hope that they will know mostly sun, and spread it around for others.

ALSO I JUST REALIZED I COULD NOW BE SOMEONE’S MANIC PIXIE DREAMGIRL :D 

*Disclaimer: I AM SO FREAKING TIRED I AM GOING TO BED, THIS WHOLE THING IS ENTIRELY UNEDITED, ALSO I LEFT SOME SONGS OUT OOPS WELL TWO OF THEM I DON’T CARE FOR AS MUCH BUT I THINK I FORGOT 3 AM WHICH I DO  LIKE BUT I AM NOT GOING BACK TO WRITE ABOUT IT NOW. I APOLOGIZE FOR THE RAMBLING MESS AND LACK OF ELOQUENCE BUT HERE WE BE THIS IS WHAT YOU GET HOPE IT MADE YOU SMILE