#clothonono

[arofili]

I'm not totally sure this counts for @tolkienekphrasisweek, as it doesn't really fit any of the prompts, but that event is what inspired me to (belatedly) share my little figurines inspired by @clothonono's wonderful fic The One With All The Birds. I actually made these about a year ago when my little sister was messing around with some modeling clay, but I never got around to sharing them. Thanks to Ekphrasis Week for reminding me about these little guys!

(spoilers for the fic under the cut...not much more than what's in the image, but, y'know)

These figurines represent, in order:

The Ambarussa (robins)

Curufin (crow)

Caranthir (peacock)

Celegorm (snowy owl)

Maglor (seagull)

Maedhros (rooster)

With the exception of Maedhros, they are made entirely from modeling clay and paint. Maedhros' claws are made of cut-up paperclips. (Also, ignore his missing right eye...I kept messing up and repainting it, and then I never quite put on the finishing touches.) ETA: I think I also used paperclips for the thingies on top of Caranthir's head!

These certainly aren't the quality of Nerdanel's sculptures, and don't match the descriptions in the fic exactly, but I had a lot of fun making them! Thank you @clothonono for a moving story, and for inspiring this little project of mine :)

[actual-bill-potts]

So obviously I don’t condone kinslaying

However if I had had transcendent sex with Fingon and then he got beaten into a pulp by Balrogs I can’t say I wouldn’t have committed some minor genocide

[sunnyshinesunshine]

A Tolkien Fic Rec

let the gods look down on this and wonder by @dialux & rainforezt - Aredhel-centric, 22.5k, rated T (complete)

This post canon Valinor fic has everything. Aredhel being a flawed badass. Nolofinwean drama. Complex mother-daughter relationships. Come for female-focused Silm Fics, stay for Aredhel breaking Valinor while dealing with her family. Cannot recommend enough.

A Boy, A Girl, And a Dog: The Leithian Script posted to Ao3 by GammaCavy (originally by Philosopher At Large) - Lúthien/Beren, 593k, rated G (complete)

A retelling of the Lúthien and Beren in script form based vaguely on Ol’ Will Shakes. I rarely read true canon compliant works, but this is worth every heart wrenching second. It’s funny, poignant, and deserves to be produced as an actual production. I would pay money to see it.

Aurë entuluva - series by @theheirofashandfire - multi pairing mainly Fingon/Maedhros, 589.5k over 17 installments, rated G-M (ongoing)

THIS. This is The Silm Fix-It. Begins with A Thread Unraveled, a Nirnaeth Arnoediad Ground-Hog day style fix-it centered on Maedhros, then expands. The author does a great job with the politics and the fallout of the Nirnaeth being a success and how that changes the rest of the events of the Silm. I especially love her characterizations of Melian, Finduilas, Turgon, and all the Brothers Fëanor.

The Last Spring by clothonono on ao3 - Finwëan fam + background Fingon/Maedhros, 26.2k, rated G (complete)

This right here is how I imagine the Family Finwë pre-canon. Fëanor brings his children to visit Tirion for the first time. The tension between the children of Finwë is delicious. The characterization of Fëanor is delicious. The foreboding ending, also delicious. This could be an entire six course meal if it was edible. Also baby Galadriel is amazing and terrifying.

As a Star Upon a Hill by @mynameisjessejk - Lúthien/Beren & Fingon/Maedhros, 11.9k, rated T (complete)

A fix-it au where Celegorm and Curufin decide to not be assholes, Beren and Lúthien steal all three Silmarils, and everyone agrees that dads kinda suck. Borderline crack, but such a feel good fic ugh it makes me happy.

Light Touched by whovianhiddlestoner on ao3 - kidnap + peredhel fams, 48.9k, rated T (complete)

Another (relatively) lighthearted fic where everyone who touches the Silmarils get to be Eldritch and Elrond has a lot of family reunions. Mainly set in the third age, ending in Valinor. Beautiful language all around, and also Maedhros’ hair is on fire. Which is awesome.

The Iron Ring by lulumiche on ao3 - Glorfindel/Maeglin, 39.2k, rated M (ongoing)

Post-canon in Valinor. Maeglin was actually in love with Glorfindel, which no one but Idril knows. Come for the discussions of homophobie in elf society, stay for some of the realest feeling characterizations I have ever read. Seriously, I don’t really like Maglor as Lindir but I ate it up here. Also lots of interesting magic.

The Silver Rule by SpaceWall on ao3 - Celebrían/Elrond/Gil-galad, 70.4k, rated T (complete)

More post-canon Valinor shenanigans. This time, Celebrían argues law, makes friends, and wants her husband back. I love breaking Valinor, and I especially love when Tolkien women do it. And let’s be honest, the Statute of Finwë and Míriel is utter balogney.

I Do; I Will by @littlewhitemouseagain - Fingon/Maedhros, 22.8k, rated M (complete)

The one in which everyone is on their worst behavior and the sons of Fëanor challenge Fingon to duels over his crown. I cannot emphasize enough how this is The Fingon Fic. His flaws are exposed and addressed in such a way that I’ve never seen before. The insights into the Fëanorians, especially Mae, are also really super poignant. This deserves so much attention.

Across The Table by Tuginda on ao3 - Gimli/Legolas & Glorfindel/Erestor, 9.5k, rated G (complete)

A conversation between two couples at Aragorn and Arwen’s wedding. Beautiful, sweet, and containing one of my favorite things: crotchety old Fëanorian Erestor. Somehow feels like both a conversation about dwarves and elves, and a lovely tribute to the Noldor.

+ 1

of drowning men by bimmyou on ao3 - Isildur/Valandil, 26.5k, rated E (complete)

The best Rings of Power fic I’ve read so far. Nails all of Isildur’s character flaws and gives such an incredible depth to Valandil.

[elwinged]

to love what is mortal—

unknown / @theblob1958 - the longevity of life and love / @birthmarkmike - A SELECTION FROM THE PRIVATE WORKS OF THE SEAFARER. / Dove Cameron on Instagram / Ellen Bass - The Thing Is / @deheerkonijn & @roselightfairy - rebuild your seawall (brick by brick) / Herbert Mason - Gilgamesh / @hhimringsideblog - The House That Fingon Built / The Haunting of Hill House (2018) / @clothonono - The Diver / @judas-redeemed / Anne Michaels - I Dreamed Again / Julia Gorst / Louise Glück - The Triumph of Achilles / unknown / Fred Chappell - Narcissus and Echo

happiest of happy birthdays, darling xiaohai! i love you a lot❤️

[thelordofgifs]

End of Year Fic Recs

Thank you @sallysavestheday for the tag and the kind rec 💕

Recommend up to 5 series or multi-chapter fics from 2023 that everyone should read (multi-year WIPs count, if the last update was in 2023).

Recommend up to 5 single chapter fics/one-shots (long or short) from 2023 that everyone should read.

Recommend up to 5 fics NOT from 2023 that everyone should read (oldies but goodies).

Recommend up to 5 of your own fics (completed or WIP) from 2023 that everyone should read.

Five WIPS from 2023:

we will make this place our home by @leucisticpuffin. 200k, AU, kidnap fam. The loveliest softest 1970s AU! It feels like reading all my favourite cozy childhood books and the characterisation is impeccable (Maglor my DARLING). Cannot recommend enough.

seabird by @welcomingdisaster. 24k, AU, russingon. "Give me a quick russingon prompt for smut week," Lena said. I obliged. This happened. Anyway the dynamics are so so good and the characterisation is so so good (Maedhros you little IDIOT) and the suspense!! is so good!! Everyone go and read it immediately.

ashes, ashes, dust to dust — the devil's after both of us by @that-angry-noldo. 9k, AU, Finarfin and Maedhros and Maglor. Maedhros and Maglor come up with a plan to capture the High King of the Noldor in return for the Silmaril. SUCH good m&m (I am a single-issue voter ok!) and incredible Finarfin/Eonwe dynamics as well, I cannot wait to see where this fic goes next.

Atandil by @eilinelsghost. 105k, canon compliant, Finrod/Bëor. The best worldbuilding, THE most gorgeous flowing heartrending prose, absolutely incredible characterisation... I am so so obsessed with this series you can't imagine. Still weeping over part 14 a month later.

And Love Grew by @polutrope. 8k, canon compliant, kidnap fam. A newer WIP, but I'm already so hooked! So far the characterisations of all the Fëanorians have been delicious and there are SO many compelling OCs as well.

Five one-shots from 2023:

Sea-Bells and Sunlight by @actual-bill-potts. 4.5k, canon compliant, Finrod and Lúthien and Beren. Lúthien finds both Finrod and Beren in the Halls of Mandos. LOVE the shifting dreamlike nature of Mandos here, and my darling Lúthien is so so perfect. Also all the Finrod feels... aahhh.

Somewhere To Return To by @searchingforserendipity25. 4k, canon compliant, Maedhros and Maglor, russingon. Just the softest loveliest most heartbreaking post-Thangorodrim fic. LetMaedhrosNap2k23.

the world to come by @arrivisting. 4k, AU, Fëanor/Nerdanel. A chilling imagining of Arda Remade, featuring some incredible Fëanor characterisation and the most gorgeous beautiful prose.

Quicksilver by @clothonono. 26k, AU, Indis/Míriel. Beautiful beautiful writing and wonderful characterisation. One of the fics that made me adore Indis.

What Will the Kinslayer Lord Do Next? by @tanoraqui. 3k, canon compliant, Maedhros and Maglor. Ok this is a spin-off of The Minstrel and the Star which you should also read because it's excellent but. again. SINGLE-ISSUE VOTER. and this is a top-tier m&m fic, all that tenderness and grief and bitterness and some delicious musings on the Oath and Silmarils.

Five older fics:

and one man, in his time, plays many parts by @lintamande. Canon compliant, Maglor and his younger brothers. One of my favourite Mithrim-era fics.

seven years of holidays by @jouissants. 10k, AU, kidnap fam. Elrond and Elros find a strange elf in the woods. Excellent kidnap fam dynamics and absolutely beautiful prose.

A reason to live (a reason it is not permissible to die) by Chestnut_pod. 27k, canon compliant, Eärendil/Elwing. Absolutely incredible Sirion worldbuilding and a wonderful depiction of Elwing.

elves, once by @ceescedasticity. 43k, canon compliant. THE most horrifyingly plausible theory of how orcs came to be. Both heartbreaking and fascinating.

It's the New World, Darling by @avantegarda. 107k, AU. A truly delightful 19th-20th century AU of the silm. Nothing makes me laugh as much as Victorian!Fëanorians.

Five self-recs:

The hard bit!

Ilimbë. 15k, canon compliant, Fëanor/Nerdanel. I still think this is the best thing I've ever written! Check it out if you're interested in Greek mythology, or in baby Fëanor making an idiot of himself.

the fairest stars. 78k, AU, Maedhros & Maglor, russingon, Beren/Lúthien and more. Probably my favourite of my fics, if not objectively my best. I know I love to hate on tfs for being completely insane, but I'm also pretty proud of it. It's got some of my best m&m, a rather in-depth exploration of the nuances of the Oath of Fëanor, and SO SO MANY cliffhangers. A silly bullet point fic that is also somehow the one I've put the most thought and effort into over the year.

in the breaking. 2k, canon compliant, Maedhros & Maglor. Still very fond of this one.

Inflection. 9k, canon compliant, kidnap fam. A very difficult one to write, but I'm proud of the result.

The Stranger. 928 words, canon compliant, Maedhros and Maglor. A very tiny little ficlet, but I like how I captured the post-Thangorodrim dynamics here.

Going to tag everyone I mentioned here, if you'd like to share!

[elronds-library]

Things To Do In Valinor When You're Dead

by clothonono (@clothonono)

Maedhros had never thought very hard about what leaving the Halls of Mandos would be like, because he had never expected to do it.

Mature, No Archive Warnings

Words: 14,368

[elithilanor]

Sapphic Tolkien Creator List

A collection of creators and their Sapphic works for the Tolkien fandom. This list was born out of the frustration of a lack of sapphic and wlw content (trans and non-binary inclusive) preferably created by sapphics and how, when created, it doesn't get any traction.

If you know of any creators that aren't on this list, please tag me at either @elithilanor or @creativity-of-death on their work so I can add them to the list below! If you’re on the list but I missed some of your creations that are sapphic, please tag me on them so I can add them!

Support your queer and fandom communities, so let's start here!

Artworks:

@thelien-art

@runawaymun

SFW Arwen x Eowyn Lesbian Pride

SFW Galadriel/Artanis x Lúthien

@welcomingdisaster

SFW Nerdanel x Indis

@simkaye

SFW Arwen x Fem! Aragorn

Fanfiction:

@elithilanor

NSFW Delayed Gratification: Arwen x Fem! Reader

NSFW Sapphic Arwen Alphabet

SFW Fem!Elrond x GN! Reader

@outofangband

SFW Morwen x Aerin Ficlet

Morwen x Aerin Ficlets

Sad Morwen x Aerin Fic

Morwen x Aerin: With Slander for a Blade

@starlady66

NSFW Dove: RoP! Galadriel x Fem! Numenorean HCs

NSFW Dress: RoP! Galadriel x GN! Reader

SFW Arwen x Fem! Aragorn

@wareagleofthemountain

SFW Opposites Attract: Tauriel x Fem! Reader

@sanisse

NSFW Silm/LotR Galadriel x Fem! Reader

NSFW Sapphic Tauriel HCs

@melestasflight

SFW Mothers: Nerdanel x Indis

@imakemywings

What the Water Gave Me: Finduilas x Nienor mentions of suicidal ideation

@clothonono

SFW Quicksilver: Indis x Míriel

Will edit as I’m tagged or discover new stuff!

[statuesquueart]

end of term art dump! (technically a mid-exam week art dump, HOWEVER when i initially posted this on instagram it was the end of term, sue me)

characters under the cut! (please click for better resolution! tumblr eats the quality apparently)

elwing the white, the silmarillion (specifically, i think, from the one with all the birds by @clothonono)

tabitha minci (mother of lisa minci), genshin impact (an oc from the wind rises by @sword-dad-fukuzawa)

the base sketch of my silmariën and isilmë piece

dress ideas based on aredhel, eärwen and finduilas, the silmarillion

my genshin impact oc, viveka kaldr (5 star cryo sword, the 12th fatui harbinger)

the honourable miduchi tané, from the priory of the orange tree by @sshannonauthor

four of the ladies of the valar (nienna, varda, nessa, vairë), the silmarillion

my star wars the old republic oc, isaalis amavane (sith inquisitor assassin)

padmé motherfreaking amidala, star wars (my beloved!)

[annafdd]

I can’t find the post with all the emoji for the ask game, but I think there is no better day to give my favourite authors some joy. So I will do it in freeform.

@thearrogantemu, you were the first writer that hooked me in the Silmarillion fandom and you are still the best. Even if These Gifts broke my heart, set it on fire and jumped up and down on the pieces, it remains the best fiction I have ever read. And the best Second Age story. And Though All still lives rent free in my head.

@hhimring, I have spent many hours reading your Gloom, Doom and Maedhros, laying on my bed in my childhood home with tears streaming down my cheek and ending up in my ears in a very uncomfortable way.

@clothonono , what can I say? reading your story sometimes makes me want to hang my writing apron on a nail and walk away, but finding them is still worth it. I keep reading and re-reading them, and some of them make me laugh and some of them break my heart and I love them all so much that the intensity of my admiration would be enough to burn up the world. Which frankly today kind of deserves it.

@curuwen , your yanassenesse is the most dense, intricate, emotionally real, deeply thought out First Age Russignon I have read, and I have read a lot. Than you for it. I would be glad for more chapters but the ones I have are still an incredible gift.

This is a continuing series…

[polutrope]

Hi! For the positivity asks, 8, 12, and 16, if they haven't been asked yet? — @emyn-arnens

8. Best thing about canon

Answered here.

12. Recommend some fanart of an uncommon character, place, or event

Answered here but I will add this lovely Galadriel/Melian art I came across yesterday. A very underappreciated ship.

16. One of your favourite tropes 

Answered here. But! I am going to use this opportunity to enthuse about a genre I love, which is humour and comedy. Making fun of the Very Serious legendarium is so entertaining and needed for me. I also think comedy is a great way to explore character and make commentary on themes.

So here are some funny Silmfic recs (all of these made me laugh out loud, sometimes to the point of tears):

The Importance of Peer Review series by @sallysavestheday, following Anthropologist Finrod through the ages.

Desperation and Defeat by @elentarial (rated M), in which Annatar discovers why he will never measure up to Narvi.

personal communications regarding the incident in Minas Tirith University on the eve of July 24th by @welcomingdisaster, in which a very strange visitor tries to reclaim some elf remains discovered in drowned Beleriand.

Namo's Hotline by @i-did-not-mean-to, in which some teenage girls inadvertently connect with the Halls of Mandos.

Know thyself by LiveOakWithMoss, in which modern day Feanorians meet their epic fantasy counterparts.

Better a Holy Discord by @clothonono, in which the Valar bicker and do nothing.

The Peredhil Look by @i-am-a-lonely-visitor (rated E), in which the similarities of the peredhel create confusion through the ages.

A contest by @ettelene (rated M), in which Daeron and Maglor have everyone believing that they hate each other.

Everlasting Darkness (rated E), in which Maedhros and Maglor are given to Earendil and Elwing as war prizes, and The Magic Flute (rated M), in which a pissed-off Daeron hooks up with his ex-lover's pissed-off brother, both by me (yes, my own fics make me laugh out loud)

There are so many more but I must cease. I just love laughing so much.

[Spread Love Asks]

[warrioreowynofrohan]

I will be honest with you, I've been stalling a lot on your fic The Ashes at Thy Feet every time I go to the Elwing tag, not bothering to read it and just bookmarking it (even though it's your work and I love love your work), because if there's one thing I learned from this fandom is that most fics with Elwing, alongside a Maglor tag in it, are either shitting on her, bad characterization, Elrond and Elros cussing her out and humiliating her or just a massive 'she's a bad mother' content (though I found some fics that do her justice!!!). So I never like bothered to try and read it until last week when I thought fuck it and WOW I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO WRONG IN MY WHOLE LIFE, I AM SO FUCKING BLOWN AWAY, I LOVE IT. The way you wrote Elwing and her trauma and never shamed her for it, how Elrond understands it (BECAUSE HE IS A HEALER!!) and is actually protective of her, never letting Maglor near her or his father and umm this actually made me pity and love Maglor too so AMAZING!! HOLY SHIT!! OH and the way you showed Earendil being cold and distant to anyone because he spent so much of his life as a star that he probably never saw himself as a person, just a property of the Valar, only his wife is his companion so he's like emotionally not there and umm the angst, the love, and aldhakshdkas. I cannot, I LOVE IT!! (P.s Will you also be writing a fic about Indis? 😊)

Hahahaha, we are completely on the same page, I wrote this fic precisely because I was so aggravated by the type of fics you describe! I really wanted to write a fic that did justice to her and to the harm that Maglor has done to her and the emotional fallout from it, and I can’t stand it when she is blamed either for having been driven to suicide by the Fëanoreans or for being angry at Maglor when he arrives in Valinor. And I find Maglor far more sympathetic when a story grapples honestly with what he’s done, and he grapples honestly with it, than when the narrative tries to justify or minimize his deeds!

I am very attached to my Eärendil headcanons! he has so much love and he’s been torn away from everything for so long that he’s got so little to hold on to and can’t connect with the world! At the start of this fic he really reminds of Frodo at the end of LOTR - he set out to save the world, and he did save it, but not for him.

I am SO glad you read this and so glad you sent me this wonderful ask! it’s so kind and making me so happy! :D

I don’t have any strong Indis headcanons or fic ideas, but she is certainly another character that fanfic often does dirty! The best thing I’ve read with her in it is @clothonono’s Quicksilver (Míriel/Indis AU where Finwë chooses to die in order to let Míriel return, and his two wives hit it off; Míriel characterization is also unexpected and fabulous!).

[arrivisting]

fic meme

@theghostinthemargins tagged me; anyone who’d like to pick up can consider themselves tagged by me. (@gofuckinggentle? @clothonono?)

Rules: share the first lines of ten of your most recent fanfics and tag ten people. If you have written fewer than ten, don’t be shy and share anyway.

1. Amon Darthir without Gil-galad was a place with its heart torn out. It had been foolish of Fingon to begin building his days around him. Or was that only his old way of thinking, that flinched away from feeling as if from hot coals?

2. “Marriage?” asks her father. He doesn’t often show emotion, so the slight flicker of surprise betrayed by his raised brow is something of a prize.

3. So much has been written about the sons of Finwë. Their quarrels reshaped the history of Arda. On both sides of the Sea they are the subjects of intense scholarly interest and lengthy monographs, of long and salt-stained ballads, of swelling opera, of history paintings that run from floor to lofty ceiling.

4. Finrod Felagund came visiting in Brethil, trailing clouds of glory and blue silk and flashing like a kingfisher’s breast. “Huh,” said Haleth, when she came out of the longhouse, squinting into the sun. 

5. “It’s unbearable,” Curufin said. There had been no conversation before that remark. Curufin had simply come to stand beside him, leaning back with exaggerated casualness against the same window-frame that Maedhros had selected, sighed, and thus begun.

6. Their last-born had a red mark on his cheek where it had pressed against his mother’s hipbone while he was still inside her.

7. Nerdanel drops the bowl she’s holding. It breaks on contact with the floor in a sudden, complete shattering into shards. There is a boy sitting in her kitchen, with his knees drawn up to his chest and his arms wrapped around them. He turns his head at the sound.

8. They had sailed into the sunset, into the green forever beyond the World. It seemed like they were sailing towards the horizon, into endless blue, with no shore in sight. The Straight Way was a gift, and a promise, and never quite certain. It offered itself, unexpectedly; so Círdan’s sailors had said. It was never quite in the same place twice, that border of mist that was also a threshold, a veil between the sacred and the world.

9. They had been singing. Always there was singing still; and if it was less perfect, less glorious, than the music Arwen had once heard in her father’s house, it was not less loved. “Only,” said her daughter, frowning over the lyrics, “I can’t see how his helmet can have been made of adamant. Did they mean steel, but set with diamonds?”

10. “You have brought a stranger unasked-for into the hidden kingdom of Nargothrond, without word or leave,” Finrod says, trying to sound stern. It’s difficult. The crime is a capital one, but the criminal is very small, and tugging on his earring.

+ a meme I saw on tumblr today:

Rules: Post the last sentence/line from your WIP or wherever you left off in your art.

Have three:

1. The longing in his voice when speaking of the days before Arda had had a tenor Celebrimbor had recognised in the voices of Elves when they spoke of Tirion’s bells, or of the golden wheat-fields of Yavanna ruffling in the wind under the hallowed light of Laurelin. He had heard it too when his people spoke wistfully of the green beauty of Ard-galen before the flame, or of Ivrin’s clear waters before Glaurung fouled them, or of the flower-meads of Nan-tathren before Morgoth poisoned the rivers.

2. “Hmph,” said Bilbo. “Personally, I feel better than I have in years.”

3. “Such is war,” said the first, mournfully. “Cruel! Endless! Strong-smelling! And that last the worst!”

[actual-bill-potts]

WIP Wednesday

It's Monday but it could be wednesday. in beleriand. anyway i was tagged by @thelordofgifs to share an excerpt from an upcoming WIP - thank you! It was really hard to choose which WIP to excerpt from, but I ended up going with the Athrabeth Script, because that is a monster that isn't going to be published particularly soon lol

Finrod: Yes! There are many things we Elves love in Middle-earth: horses and hounds, the fish in the rivers, the birds in the trees; the fair flowers, and the long grasses of the plains of Estolad. But they none of them are as close to us as you. Your spirits, as well as your bodies, cry out our kinship!

Andreth (aside): It is a relief to know we are worth more than horses and birds! 

Finrod (passionately): Please, do not mistake my meaning! 

Beat.

Finrod (more quietly): I am sorry for the comparison. I - I - when Men pass, I regret it, far more than the passing of any beast or flower. More even than the deaths of my Elven kindred, for I will one day see them again in the Halls, while the spirits of Men fly beyond my sight. I only meant to say - so many things in Middle-earth die, and all have been created by Eru. If we believe a short life is the natural state of things - except for Elves - it is not…unreasonable, surely, to believe that you, too, were created for a brief life here.

Andreth (sarcastic): Elves! The great exception!

Finrod: So you disagree?

Andreth: Yes.

tyvm!! <3 no-pressure tagging @curuwen, @clothonono, @sallysavestheday, and @that-angry-noldo

[thelordofgifs]

Hi! For the spread love asks, 4, 10, and 18! — @emyn-arnens

(spread love asks)

did 18 here!

4. Link to a great meta you’ve read

Here's some incredible meta on the textual evolution of Fingon's character by @clothonono - absolutely fascinating side-by-side comparisons of drafts and some really great thoughts on how Fingon grows less unambiguously heroic between drafts! The recontextualisation of Fingon's famed elegy as a legacy of an earlier draft when he was rather less morally grey is both very interesting and also has been very reassuring to me when I worry about how I characterise Fingon myself.

10. A popular character you actually really like and why

My favourite character in the legendarium is Maglor, who is very popular and for very good reasons! He's so defined by regret - writing the Noldolante, lamenting forever by the seashore - and yet he still does every single terrible thing he does. I love his complex codependent loving relationship with Maedhros. I love that he kidnaps Elrond and Elros and yet "love grew after between them". I love the missing space that is his time as Maedhros' regent. I love that he's so obviously right in his final debate with Maedhros, and yet he still goes after the Silmarils - the way all his loyalty is twisted and perverted into his fatal flaw. I love that after it all, he doesn't die; he lives and he regrets and he remembers. He's all grey spaces and complexity and he is so so so fascinating and I adore him.

[elronds-library]

Wedding Dance

by clothonono (@clothonono)

"When will you marry?" said Curufin, abrupt. "I shall not," said Maedhros. He said it peaceably enough. Twice already he had endured this conversation: at Maglor's wedding, and at Caranthir's.

General, No Archive Warnings

Words: 2,698

[valacirya]

i saw your comparison of the jedi and the valar and i just wanna say you are 100% right on that one. ive been screaming that shit to the void because there are those loud fuckers who kept insisting that the valars are tyrants and i was like where? *Adjusts my big glassses* fucking hell where? i mean you do you but like to say the valars are tyrannical or stupid is fucking funny, because they're more like confused and had misunderstood the eldar which makes sense becuase they're different, they're gods or whatever. if anyone should be called a tyrant it should only be melkor and sauron, yet they get leeway because they're more popular. ive seen more takes and post give justice to melkor and sauron yet that energy was never there for manwe because apparently he was more tyrannical than melkor? fucking melkor? sorry i probably shouldnt be this pissed but i just saw something that had me reeling like y'all are you serious.

We need a Valar defense tag like the Star Wars fandom has a Jedi defense one! Look, everyone's entitled to have and share their own opinions but I'm as frustrated as you are because the anti-Valar stuff is pretty much all I ever see. And a lot of it treats the text as if it portrays the Valar as perfect when that is very much not the case. They make big mistakes and the text acknowledges that; Eru himself criticizes the Valar. But I don't know how you can read the Silmarillion and HoME and conclude that the Valar were malicious tyrants. Besides, isn't it more interesting to think about the consequences and implications of well-meaning and loving but incredibly overpowered demigods living among mortals (yes, elves are mortal compared to the Ainur)? Dismissing them as "oppressors" is just so boring. And I don't like to judge but I can't help it, because of some of the meta/fics I've read had Manwe and Namo sounding like Judge Frollo. Also, obligatory fic rec: go read Better a Holy Discord by clothonono on Ao3 if you haven't already. It is brilliant.