#beren and luthien are my otp in both this au and in canon

[arlenianchronicles]

Have some more Beren-Lúthien-Finrod from @allthatglittersisnotgoldrush! I decided to finally get my design ideas for Beren and Lúthien down, and I ended up including Finrod too, just to complete the trio of portraits loll XDD

I tried to keep Beren’s clothing simple; it’s very loosely inspired by the Pacific Northwest tribes, and I also looked at a bunch of vintage photo portraits of Indigenous peoples to get a general feel for that time. And I couldn’t help but include Beren’s braids again ^^;; I imagine the first painting is after he’s grown his hair out, so Finrod offers to braid it for him (whereas the second painting is during his time in Doriath)!

For Lúthien’s Spanish-inspired dress, I remembered this line from Tolkien: “He peered between the hemlock leaves / And saw in wonder flowers of gold / Upon her mantle and her sleeves ...” So I figured that either Melian or Lúthien could’ve sewn the flowers on! One of these days I’ll give Lúthien a more Chinese-inspired design with some lovely gold flower patterns <333

Last is Finrod! I actually don’t have much to say about him loll But his vest is from Pharmakós, and his frock coat is just one for travelling that I imagine he wore on the way to Doriath XDD

[an-eldritch-peredhel]

beren

BEREN! My boy!

How I feel about this character:

<3<3<3! Look, I will always be a Luthien stan first, person second, and we have that in common. We are simps for the terrifying eldritch pretty lady. And while he isn't as cool as Luthien (no one is as cool as Luthien) he does get several moment to shine and prove his quality. I haven't given him much development in my head, since he does get some over the course of the story, and I'm not actually extremely invested in him as a character beyond his relationship to Luthien (sorry dude!), but I like him nonetheless. If we were to meet in real life I think that I'd probably get along better with him than his gf.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

...Take a wild guess /lh. But I love he and Luthien's dynamic, it subverts Classic Literary tropes while being perfectly tropey and wonderful for fanfic. I go feral every time it's like "You're too good for me." "Are you kidding? Let me list off all the ways you're wonderful because even if you don't see the value in yourself you're precious to me beyond belief."

The one thing I enjoy even more is where nothing else changes, except Beren's a lady. No sprinkled in sexism that she has to overcome or anything, just the same exact plot but with lesbians. Oh and Luthien is either magic or trans or both, for pregnancy purposes. (which I kind of headcanon already. dysphoria? not with ShapeshiftingTM!)

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

FINROD AND THE GANG. Probably my strongest opinion on him is that while he's hiding out in Mandos waiting for Luthien to grab him, he's hanging out with them and catching them up on his life. I need to think more on them to come up with better headcanons, since I think Edrahil is the only name we get, but I saw the Inspired take that Orodreth's wife was one of them so that's canon now, I don't make the rules.

My unpopular opinion about this character:

Hmm. I don't know if I have one? I guess I don't really think he's the sensible one: neither of them are, Huan carries the braincell. He isn't as feral as Luthien, not being half-raised by a nightmarish shadowy watch of nightingales who doesn't really "get" incarnates, but his base state is still "bog person lurking in the forest" which is why they vibe so well. He sees her grow claws and fangs to hunt and slaughter a rabbit and goes "😍😍That's so convenient! Wish I could do that!"

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

Finrod & Co lived so he and Luthien could visit and bring baby Dior and he could have a big loud group of Noldorin aunts and uncles (need to learn the gender neutral for that) while Daeron hisses that "he was my nephew first!" while trying to steal him back from Finrod. I realize this is an extreme au but I can dream.

[arofili]

For the character ask: all the children of Finarfin

How I feel about this character:

Finrod: charming slutty blond twink with a heart of gold. maybe that’s too much fanon and not enough canon but you can tear that characterization from my cold dead hands tbh. like yes this is King “I Killed A Werewolf With Nothing But My Teeth And The Power Of Love” but he’s also Prince “I Rap Battled With Sauron And Lost” and Lord “I Befriended Men and Dwarves Before It Was Cool”

Angrod: of all his siblings i think he’s the most… Angry Boy. he has a temper, but he’s also married with a kid (I subscribe to the Orodreth Angrodion version of canon). i think he’s the ‘oh my god why can’t any of you be NORMAL’ brother. BOTH his mother name and his father name are derived from the word for ‘iron’ - he’s got an iron personality, very strong-willed and stubborn. i also hc that he’s the only arafinwean who has Earwen’s silver hair.

Aegnor: a hopeless romantic. the dreamiest arafinwion (and that’s including artanis!). very particular about his hair (which is a WILD canon detail that i love sjdfhdk) but also has terrible fashion. his head’s always in the clouds, he’s a daydreamer, but he’s also incredibly loyal and a really good friend. he almost always listens to his heart over his head - and the fact that he and andreth never marry is the One Time he listened to logic over emotion, and that haunts him forever.

Galadriel: almost as much of a genius as Feanor and almost as humble about it, which is to say, not at all. she’s proud and stubborn and full of herself, especially in her youth - she’s also gorgeous and smart and right a lot of the time, which doesn’t help her ego. by the time she’s become Lady of Lothlorien she’s been through a lot and is much more humble and wise, but i think that comes not just from her experiences but also from being married to Celeborn the Wise. i think he balances her out very well tbh. (my favorite Galadriel characterization EVER is from this fic by @nerdanelparmandil, check it out!!)

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Finrod: I ship Finrod with anything that moves tbh….. I see him as super super gay, he and Amarie were mutual beards which is why she didn’t follow him to Endore. i am a Known Slut for Finrod/Turgon in particular, they’re kind of endgame for me, but also @raisingcain-onceagain​ has converted me to Finrod/Edrahil!! And while the Nargothrond Disaster Trio are in no way shape or form HEALTHY, i really really enjoy Celegorm/Curufin/Finrod content, that dynamic is delicious. i can also get down on Maedhros/Fingon/Finrod, though not really in a serious way. PLUS Finrod/Beor is very good, as is Finrod/Barahir and Finrod/Beren(/Luthien if we’re feeling spicy), and you KNOW he got busy with some dwarves! I just think he’s very free with his feelings and desires, especially after coming to Beleriand, and he takes full advantage of his freedom and position of authority to get what he wants. (not necessarily in a weird power dynamics way, though he’s into that kind of kinky shit too probably, i mean more in ‘it’s my kingdom i get to make the rules and i say No Homophobia and No Slutshaming’) - and I’m super happy to multiship with Finrod, there are verses where he’s fucking everyone and verses where he’s pining over Turgon and verses where he never even thinks about anyone other than Edrahil and etc etc etc. there’s probably even verses where he and Sauron get up to some funky shit!

Angrod: I don’t have a lot of headcanons about him and Eldalote. She has a Sindarin name, so maybe she came with him to Middle-earth - or maybe not, and he just missed her so much that he wouldn’t shut up about her and so her name was Sindarized to Edhellos. Either way I think they had a very strong relationship that ended in tragedy one way or another. I’ve also seen some fun Angrod/Caranthir enemies-to-lovers stuff, which I can get into, but I think Caranthir is aro so it’s not really my main hc.

Aegnor: i mean how can you NOT ship him and Andreth??? that relationship is just….so tragic and heartbreaking and beautiful. I like the theory that Gil-galad was their child, and he was given to Orodreth to raise because Andreth couldn’t care for an elfling and Aegnor couldn’t publicly claim a son out of wedlock. But also verses where they are just tragically pining after one another are beautiful in their own way. My headcanon is that the thing keeping them apart was less about the war going on and more about Aegnor fearing to lose her - but then he actually dies before her, and Andreth has to live with that pain. (idk if that works out timeline wise but. yeah)

Galadriel: Meladriel is very good and I enjoy that - I’ve also seen some great Galadriel/Luthien and even a Galadriel/Feanor fic I enjoyed. BUT overall i really love that she chose to marry Celeborn, a wise “dark elf” even when she’s completely out of his league - he balances her very well, and I don’t buy depictions of her walking all over him. she cares about him and he’s really good for her!

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Finrod: I ship Finrod/Turgon but also WHAT a great friendship they have!! I love that they go adventuring together :) And Finrod, Maedhros, and Fingon are so fun to imagine growing up together! Plus there’s his relationship with his nephew Orodreth, who he clearly adores, and also the fact that he’s still buddies with the Feanorians even after the first kinslaying (at Alqualonde! his home! where his mom is from!) and he’s so excited to meet new people from the Sindar to the Edain to the Dwarves. Finrod’s just EVERYONE’S friend and i appreciate that!!

Angrod: ….what if he and Caranthir used to be really close, like they are similar ages and grew up together, but then Something Happened and they started hating each other later on. that would be Very fun. also, he and Aegnor were lords together over the same land and died together, which implies they were very close - close like Celegorm and Curufin!

Aegnor: Again, he and Angrod were Best Bros which is great. I also think he’s probably beloved by Andreth’s people, he’s just this huge elf man they all kind of adopted and he’s so honored that they love him so much!

Galadriel: Melian!! obviously!! she stayed in Doriath specifically to learn from her, which is super neat. and then Gandalf in the later ages, i love whatever they have going on in the movies especially. i also think she and Celebrimbor had a weird rival-friendship i the second age, they’re both geniuses but from opposite sides of the family feud…except the family feud has killed pretty much everyone BUT them, so they come together to mourn that.

My unpopular opinion about this character

(this turned into more of ‘what are their negative personality traits’ than ‘unpopular opinions’ but whatever…)

Finrod: i’m sure he did his best but….when he was king of nargothrond he was still gallivanting all over the place. orodreth was probably More In Charge from before he was officially king…

Angrod: he’s a grade-A asshole. just a dick. mean as shit and holds grudges forever. really annoying to be around.

Aegnor: a dumbass. always listens to his heart and gets in trouble for it, until the one time he listens to his head and regrets it forever.

Galadriel: would make an EXCELLENT villain. ‘all shall love me and despair’ ? come on yall. if it had been HER versus sauron instead of Finrod (and…considering she was probably friends with Luthien, it very well could have been) i think she may have won, and im just imagining Sauron working for her, and the second and third ages going very differently with her being a Queen who everyone loves until they look back and realize she’s been corrupted and turned evil.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

so i think canon did mostly a good job with them SO some of these are some AUs!!!

Finrod: …if he had managed to convince Celegorm and Curufin to help with the Silmaril quest–the war could have ended before the Nirnaeth, maybe. or at least gone very differently.

Angrod: im gonna physically fight tolkien over giving us practically NOTHING on the wives of various characters - tell me more about Eldalote you coward!!!!

Aegnor: JUST MARRY ANDRETH PLEASE. i’m a slut for interspecies relationships and the fact that this one is male elf/female human is SO good and frankly unprecedented in Tolkien’s works. PLEASE i need more!!!

Galadriel: FUCK that evil!Artanis AU would be REALLY cool and sexy, wouldn’t it?

[malkaleh]

F, G, O, and T for that fandom ask meme!

F. What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom: I’ve been into to Star Wars since I was a tiny five/six year old who watched Return of the Jedi on VHS so I reckon it might be that (or Tolkien - from reading the Hobbit as a Small Person) but in terms of fandoms I’ve written fic and still write in it’s probably Harry Potter (I haven’t really written a whole Star Wars fic). 

G. Do you remember your first OTP, if so who was it? I think it’s probably a tie between Arthur/Gwen/Lancelot and Faramir/Eowyn. Both of them are extremely formative in that for the former I started writing a lot of AU fix it fic before I even knew what OT3s and fic was and the latter because well, TOLKIEN EVERYONE. 

O. Choose a song at random, which ship or character does it remind you of? I will maintain that ‘Ballad of Mona Lisa’ by Panic!At The Disco is the perfect song for a H8 from The Tudors character study vid - the last shot of the series with the horseman with the sword over ‘just a taste of what you paid for’ playing. 

T. Do you have any hard and fast headcanons? Jedistormpilot is canon and Anne Boleyn did not die I will not be accepting criticism at this time. No honestly, I think I’m pretty flexible about these sort of things - for Tolkien though, I don’t write or read fic but I’m pretty definite in my head that Luthien looks like Lupita, Beren looks like Oscar and the Gondorians are Indo-Iranian/Moroccan in terms of how I imagine them.   

[vardasvapors]

the 'give me a character' one for finrod!

003 | Give me a character & I will tell you

How I feel about this character: I LOVE HIM SO MUCH. He is my favorite Silm character (not my favorite Tolkien character who also appears in the Silm, but favorite character for the Silm story, if that makes sense). Also the first one I managed to actually track and synthesize all the way through the storyline, and the one I used as central scaffolding while trying to get the silm to hang together straight in my head. I think he has the best and most lyrically well-turned and satisfying while still intriguingly incomplete arc in the Silm of any of the Finweans (even Maedhros!) He also is right smack on the intersection that makes up my biggest and longest-running legendarium fascinations, mortal-immortal relationships, from more of a first-contact-between-aliens direction than one focused on differing perspectives, and it’s

All the people I ship romantically with this character: idk man i’m down with a lot. not with Team Rocket uh Curufin and/or Celegorm, tho

My non-romantic OTP for this character: BEOR….Galadriel……

My unpopular opinion about this character: uh I guess mostly that I don’t think his early interaction with humans was like, anthropological curiosity or some shit. There was a war and a long watchful siege on, I think on both sides the intention in their interactions was mostly practical, trying to become allies and organize their population for protection and service stuff under a regional king, and the anthropological alien-contact stuff kind of spilled in around the edges as a byproduct, more and more strongly the longer they knew each other as individuals, especially in trying to communicate/explain v different lifestyles.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I WISH HE AND GALADRIEL HAD MORE SCENES TOGETHER/i wish galadriel had discussed him more…somewhere….in LOTR, where he would have been v thematically significant.

my het ship: ~Andreth!~

my fem/slash ship: Barahir maybe

my OTP: idk man what’s the distinction between this and just ‘one of the above two’?

my OT3: Finrod/Beren/Luthien in the AU where he survives

my cross over ship: IVAN KARAMAZOV

my kink: Xeno at all times

a head cannon fact: THESE TAGS no wait uh, helped his super-traumatized niece in her recovery a lot, bc Oh No :| Can Sympathize and also asking her one trillion questions about Beren’s descendants

my gender bend: exactly the same but even gayer for Andreth