#eru does art

[forerussake]

How about we make a bet?

For the final @guardianbingo bonus prompt: answer.

[melkors-big-tits]

@maironsgreatdepression sent me an ask about the

"COVER THEM UP SLUT" meme

..but Tumblr is being a bitch, so instead of answering normally, I'll do a lil' post about it!

I have actually done this meme before, but that was like a whole Year ago, but I thought that it'd be fun to do again and kinda compare what one year of obsessively drawing the dork lord does to ones skills, so let's jump right in 😘

This is the one year ago one and as you can see Melkors tits ain't as Glorious as they Should be and the hair's a mess, and I'm not yet 100% sure how to draw him so Melkor looks kinda --stiff.😬

But These two! (two so y'all can appreciate the shiny paint that sadly isn't visible in the first picture)

Whoo Boy have I grown as an artist! 🎉🎉

The perspective!👁️👁️

The background!✍️

The face!💖💖

THE TITS!!! 💖💖🍈🍈

Now THAT'S Melkor in his full chested Glory!! 😈😘💖💖💖

[asnowperson]

An essay on the theme of children-parent relationships in Hagio Moto's works by Murakami Tomohiko

For years, I avoided reading the essays that were included at the end of bunkoban volumes. Reading Japanese prose felt like a chore to me, to be honest. A too high of a hurdle. And most of the time, the contents went over my head.

That being said, since I started reading them, I've come across some pretty interesting ones. The analysis written by Murakami Tomohiko, manga critic, at the end of Mesh's vol. 3 (Hakusensha Bunko, 1994) was particularly interesting for me. So, I tried my hand at translating butchering it. The author compares the boys in Hagio's manga and their family issues. You can find it below the cut.

If anyone wants to read the original, I can send pics/scans!

Province of children 

Murakami Tomohiko  (Manga critic) 

For a child, what does it feel like to be neglected by their parents? 

Mesh is the protagonist of this story. His mother, elopes with a man when he was young. His father, doubting whether he’s Mesh’s real father or not, drives him away from himself, and places him in a boarding school in the faraway Switzerland. For 12 years of his life, he believes that his mother abandoned him, and his father hates him. It’s not hard to imagine how deep the scars such feelings left in Mesh’s heart are.  

Mesh’s mother gave him a girl’s name, “Françoise-Marie.” We do not know if she wanted to have a daughter that bad, but as Mesh was separated from his mother when he was 2, he never knew the truth. But how much of a deciding factor that name became for him, and how it kept bearing heavy on him in his later years, are beyond any doubt.

When Mesh was 12, silver locks started to appear on both sides of his blond hair. After seeing a proof of genetics at work, his father finally recognized him as his own son. But that wasn’t the salvation the he was looking for. When his father shifted the blame on Mesh’s mother’s licentious behavior  for doubting his paternity, a new wound was opened on the young boy's heart.  

“I won’t say that my mother was a saint. But for a child who lives in a dormitory... a mother something that he needs.” 

Thus, in chapter 1, "Mesh,” our protagonist runs away from his paternal home. He is picked up from the streets of Paris by Millon, a young art forger. In the final chapter, “Sure Love and  Real Death,” he is reunited with his mother, now living in her homeland of Lorraine. She is mentally instable and still running after the image of her "daughter" who never existed. Mesh is an abandoned child who hates his father so much that he wants to kill him, and who is struggling to break free from her mother’s chains. This manga chronicles his story of breaking free from his parents.  

Children discarded by their parents. Children separated from their parents. Such children fumbling their way in their quest to find their personal salvation had been recurring motif in Hagio Moto’s works before Mesh. It is also is the principal theme of this work.

If we look back, in "Bianca (ビアンカ)," she drew a girl who danced away the stress the divorce of her parents caused in a forest. In “Girl on Porch with Puppy (ポーチで少女が小犬と),” she shows us another girl who sees the world through rose-colored glasses. Grown-ups who lost their dreams point their fingers at her, and shoot her with death rays. Or take Emil Bruckhardt from “Snow Child (雪の子).”  He was taken in by his grandfather after his parents’ death, who anly accepted for taking the child in if it was a "boy." 12 years of Emil's life was spent by his side, pretending to be a boy. Young Tim from “Poor Mama (かわいそうなママ)” pushes his mother out of the window. He could no longer bear witnessing her misery, as she spent her days sitting at the window sill, gazing off in the distance, and sighing. The free-spirited and brave Eru of the Nobe family in “Red-haired Cousin (赤ッ毛のいとこ)" shows no sign that would make you think that she is an orphan.  

They were all children torn apart from their parents.They had to find somewhere to belong, and find it themselves.  

The Poe Clan has two boys who were taken away from their biological human parents and turned into vampires, destined to live until eternity. If we think about under the same light, we can say it's their story of trying their hardest to create a pseudo-family for themselves time and time again on their endless journey. The beautiful Poe instalment, "Birds’ Nest (小鳥の巣)," and works like "Heart of Thoma (トーマの心臓)" that followed it, all take place in worlds that have nothing but boys torn apart from their families. It is no coincidence that dormitories were chosen as their settings.  

Mesh was published in Shogakukan’s Petit Flower magazine between the 1980 summer issue and 1984 June issue. Mesh was preceded by "The Visitor (訪問者)" in the 1980 Spring issue.  

In "The Visitor," we follow a central character from "The Heart of Thomas," Oskar Reiser, during his childhood, before he starts to live at the dormitory. Its main theme is directly connected to that of Mesh. Young Oskar’s parents quarrel over his birth. One day, a single gunshot steals that little boy’s mother from him forever. The one who fired the shot was his father. The boy covers up for his father, and the two set out on journey with no destination. However, Oskar’s father leaves him at the school, of which the principal is an old friend of his and Oskar's real father, and leaves for Southern America alone.  

Oskar kept yearning for his father, the father who stole his mother away from him, without begrudging him. He did so, because he had nothing else in life to cling onto. As his father and mother argued about his paternity, the child lost that household as the place he belonged. Young Oskar’s only wish was to be forgiven by his parents, and to believe that he would be acknowledged as the son of that family. To make his wish come true, to beg for his father’s forgiveness, Oskar covers up for his father, the murderer of his mother, and sticks even closer to him.

Our protagonist Mesh is a direct continuation of the image of boyhood we see in  "The Visitor"s Oskar Reiser. This link continues until Hagio’s current serialization, "A Cruel God Reigns", and shapes the main plot of her stories. “Children abandoned by their parents” has been present as a principal theme since Hagio Moto's early works. The turning point which made this theme even deeper, might be just this period that connects "The Visitor" to "Mesh."

How did Mesh rationalize his mother giving him a girl’s name? He mostly introduces himself using his alias, “Mesh,” to new acquaintances, and he is very adamant about it. Those who are unaware of the circumstances are left perplexed by that name, and mistake Mesh for a girl. He seems to find that amusing deep down. He crossdresses and appears on stage, and he is approached by homosexual men. Both makes him feel uncomfortable. Yet, he doesn’t seem to have a the willpower to resist.

Actually, I have also experienced something similar. So I believe I understand how Mesh feels a little.  

When I was roughly Mesh’s age, I was a child who liked to act like a girl. In high school, I put a tablecloth on my desk in class, made flower arrangements with artificial flowers in an empty wine bottle instead of a proper vase, and listened to lectures while holding a stuffed doll. Mine was quite a free-minded school, and it was an age when all kinds of rebellious acts were "in." But still, when I think back upon it, what I did seems outrageous to me. Maybe I was just too eccentric, which is why my teachers never said anything to me.  

I was jealous of my mother’s colorful outfits. I often borrowed and wore them. Her sleek green trench coat and tank top with pink and white borders from Kamoi Youko’s underwear brand, Tunic, were my favorites. I once even made a dress for myself. I chose the fabric with my girlfriend, did the basting at her place, and she sewed it for me. She tagged along because she found it to be fun, but I’m certain that she was weirded out.  

I am still a sucker for stationary and fancy items girls would like. If I go to Sony Plaza or American Pharmacy, I am confident that I can spend half a day there. There aren’t many fathers who would go to buy picture books and plushies for their kid, but get carried out and just buy whatever they want. 

Putting it like that makes me sound like a man with perverse hobbies, but sadly, I am not such inclined. I have never felt attracted to men, and never have I ever wanted to be a woman. My interest in crossdressing had something different in it. But I am interested in feminine, rather, “girlish” things, but it only means that I am slightly different than your average, common man.  

That being said, my mother’s influence on me cannot be ignored. When I finished my dress, it was her who was the happiest and told me to wear it and take a little tour outside. During my freshman year in university, she was the one who lamented the most when I cut my hair that was reaching my butt, and made a hairpiece with my hair for me. When I was in grade school, I once trimmed my eyelashes with a pair of scissors because they were getting in the way when I was using the microscope. I remember her being frustrated to the point of bursting into tears, and getting so angry with me.  

I believe it was my mother who slowly created my very particular aesthetic sense by praising things like long eyelashes, lustrous, straight hair, a slender physique which becomes female school uniforms. All things that would be the charm points of budding young girls, and she did it at every chance. I am an only child, and have no siblings. When I was a child, my mother once asked me if I wanted to have little brothers or sisters. I told her that I would like to have an older brother, which seemed to perplex her. Maybe my mother wanted to have a daughter. She could be looking for the shadow of the daughter she never had in me.  

I don’t really know the truth of it. Maybe she just said that I looked like a girl just to express how cute her son was, without putting much thought into it. But the words she said, words I have no recollection of, very likely had a huge impact on me and awakened something deep inside my soul. My personal preferences took shape around that idea, and before I knew it, it seeped into my entire being.  

My mother was a beautician, and was often away from home on business. After she opened her own store, she was always busy with work. But that was all there was to it, and it was not like she had left me, or we were separated by death.  And it never became a reason for my parents to hurt or to oppress me. I can say that overall, I grew up in a your rather ordinary, warm household. I still started to shape my very own personality, alongside the one my parents took part in creating. Then how about a child who feels hated, or abandoned by his parents? How would he feel? To heal the wounds he got from his parents and to ail himself, would he acknowledge it all, and accept everything? Or would complete denial be his only choice? 

That's why Mesh wanted to kill his father and break free from his mother’s curse. While he wanted to be freed from his mother’s desire to have a daughter, in some corner of his mind, he was curious about what would happen if he complied. Maybe that’s what made him stand on the stage as a woman, and occasionally enjoy being photographed as one. Maybe that’s why he sometimes shut up and endured it when men treated him like a girl.  

Maybe fulfilling his mother’s wish meant securing a place in her heart for him. It might have been a self-defense mechanism — a feeling that only children abandoned by their parents know. That’s why when he faced her, and saw that his mentally ailing mother would never accept him, a boy, Mesh said: “Just what does Marché want? How can I get close to what she wants? What should I become? Marché’s dreams, and my dreams... If only I knew...” 

“A thousand pairs of scissors. Scissors that cut and mince. I could have become a flower, a bird, a daughter... I could have become anything you wanted. I could have died a thousand deaths if you wished for it.” 

We do not know the reasons why she wanted to have a daughter. No matter what they might be, accepting them as they are, that complete subordination, is an expression of his willingness to bend to his mother's will. What does it feel like to hear “I hate this child” from a mother who can’t even tell his son apart? But Mesh even accepts his mother trying to stab him with shears without saying a single word.  

Where does Mesh’s determination, which is almost commendable, come from? What steeled his resolve so? I think it was something closer to despair, rather than a wish to be delivered. Mesh’s hatred and his murderous thoughts towards his father are the two sides of the same coin. Killing his father, who hated both him and his mother, and accepting death by the hands of the mother who forgot her own son: They are actually one and the same. Thus, the child abandoned by his parents try to erase his ties to them. By resetting everything, he tries to make it as if he never existed.  

There is probably just one thing he’s trying to say with his behavior.  

"I’m sorry.  

"I couldn’t be the child you wanted.  

"I couldn’t meet your expectations.  

"I’m sorry that I was born..." 

In “The Visitor”, in the middle of his endless journey with his father, Oskar says these words time and time again: "I will be a good child. I won’t talk about my mom anymore. I’m sorry." Then he obliges his father by starting to live in a dormitory, and waits for his father to be back from South America. This must have been no different than choosing death for Oskar, a child who wanted to be the son of a warm household. 

When he doesn’t resist his mother’s attempt to kill him, something inside of Mesh shattered to pieces. He arrives at Paris train station with his broken hopes as his baggage, and he catches a glimpse of his father boarding a train. His father, who acknowledged him as “his son who shares the same blood as him” without so much as a thought about how that made Mesh feel. All Mesh can do is to stand there, motionless. Even if that's the only place he can come back to now.

All children need a place they belong. A place where they feel they can just “be.” Children do not belong to their parents, or other adults. No one shall undermine their right to self-determination. Mesh shows us how much hardship children have to endure, and the sacrifices they have to make when grown-ups forget this fact.   

[bugster-o7]

ERU YOUR GORGEOUS THANKK YOUUUUUUUUUUU I LOVE THE GRUBBY BOYS SO MUCH

Freight Hoppers request for @bugster-o7 ! Freight Hoppers is a c!Beeduo au by @meltwithclarity ! This is my favourite scene hehehehehehehehe

[ailendolin]

Live reaction to TRoP 2x04

I am actually so glad Amazon is releasing the episodes weekly now because I love the anticipation beforehand and all the speculation about what happens next. So let's see what episode 4 has in store

Elrond in Mithlond! We're off to a great start here. I've missed my sweet summer child in episode 3

Galadriel, please, you have no right to be even the slightest bit bitchy right now after the Sauron shit you pulled

thank Eru Elrond is having none of it. I love how unapologetically he stands his ground and refuses to engage with her childish passive-aggressiveness

epic camera shots are epic and very LotR-reminiscent

also can I just say that I love how they're including the map to help the viewer get a grasp on where the characters are?

new elves! And they have names! I have a feeling they won't survive this journey but still, hello new elves!

man I just want to give Elrond a hug. He's trying so hard and given everything that's happened it's completely understandable why he won't trust Galadriel and Nenya, and I hate that this sets him up for failure

oooooh is it Tom Bombadil time? I can't believe this show made me feel excited about a character that I couldn't have cared less about when I read the books. I blame Bear McCreary and his beautiful music

lol Tom is like one of those burrowing animals that accidentally throws dirt at someone behind it while digging

Old Man Willow desert equivalent - does Tom Bombadil just naturally attract malevolent trees?

oh I'm so glad Nori and Poppy are okay and landed together wherever they are

those two need to meet Elrond. Given their tendencies to jump off cliffs, I think they'd get along splendidly

omg Nobody! I love you! You are adorable! And your name is Merimac! Gods, I hope they'll keep you around

lol not Nori third-wheeling and being jealous

desert halflings my beloveds! Look at them! They're so different from what we've known and yet them living in holes and the children sitting around listening to stories is so beautifully familiar. I love this so much

oh they're Stoors! And they don't like the Dark Wizard. Got it. I don't like the Dark Wizard either but damn I love watching Ciarán Hinds play him

"You should not be waking." :) I still can't believe how much I love Tom Bombadil already

GOLDBERRY!

that flame trick was neat

omg his little hedgehog teapot! I want one!

oh no this is where we say goodbye to my new elf friends, don't we? The Barrow-downs. I always loved this part in FotR

"Fear not. Dead men are no threat." Famous last words

shit those are the horses from the messenger Gil-galad sent, right?

the Barrow-wights are giving me PotC-vibes and I'm here for it

please let Camnir survive this. Please let Camnir survive this

thank you, Elrond. I knew I could count on you

also yay for him being a bookworm and knowing how to fight the Barrow-wights

and we're back in Pelargir. Have I mentioned that I don't really care about Theo (yet)? I love that Arondir and Isildur are teaming up, though

Estrid, I don't like you. Please go away. Or get trampled by an Ent

or found out by Arondir. That works as well

have I mentioned that I miss Bronwyn?

Arondir, you're a kinder man (elf) than me. I would have let Estrid faceplant right into the dirt

lol Isildur is such an idiot and I love him for it. The way he got sucked into the mud and pulled Arondir along with him was so funny

hello mud worm! I love how many different creatures we're getting in this show

the cave art! Omg it's beautiful and perfect!

"We don't have a home." This is such a sad sentence and reminds me of the dwarves (and especially Bofur) in the Hobbit movies

Galadriel, I'm sorry, but Elrond just told you he is trying his best to save Celebrimbor (and certainly feels overwhelmed by and terrified of such a task) and you're saying all elves carry such burden? Are you serious?

fuck me, not Elrond getting captured in her vision. Is he going to be forced to watch Celebrimbor get tortured / killed?

I will not be okay if / when that happens. Just saying

also I absolutely adore Camnir and you can bet I am already thinking about writing a fic about him and Elrond

not surprised by Estrid's stunt

shoot her, Arondir. Do us all a favour and shoot her

or maybe she actually is stupid enough to get herself trampled by Ents. One can hope

getting smacked is good too

Arondir, please, was it necessary to stop the nice Entwife?

damn those shots of the Ents look pretty

also did anyone ever think we'd get to see an Ent and Entwife together? Because I didn't and my heart is full.

oh that scene between Arondir and Winterbloom was beautiful

the orcs look so good in this series. I'm so glad we went back to prosthetics

I love how calm Elrond is. He is always careful not to rush into anything, always waits and sees and it keeps saving all their asses

NO! Fuck, are you kidding me? Not Camnir. Please, not him

okay, I have forgiven you for everything you've ever done wrong, Galadriel

and I have so many Elrond and Camnir ideas right now, holy shit, that scene was everything

that flaming arrow move was badass

oh this is how she will get captured

yessss hello Adar! I've missed you! Time for Sauron's exes to team up and wreak havoc

his greeting, I can't. Perfect. I love him so much

what a great episode!

[stellavesperis]

I hope your are doing better :)

I found these notes of Tolkien's in Nature of Middle Earth and thought of you :

"Language we must suppose was a specifically Elvish gift, not possessed by the Valar even until they found the Quendi ; a gift of Eru inherent in their nature, so that from their Awakening they immediately began to try to communicate in speech with one another. Men had a similar gift, but less marked and less skilled, as they were less skilled in all artistic matter : language being the primary art ; hence their ruder tongues were much improved by contact, later, with Quendi". (italics are Tolkien's) (Vaguely Chomskian undertones ?)

This from a note on the chronology about the Awakening of the Elves, in which he states : "Also, which is important, time to invent the beginnings of the Primitive Quentin language."

This is how further away he imagines the "discovery of language" (as told in a legend, though) : "Imin, Tata, and Enel awoke before their spouses, and the first thing that they saw was the stars, for they woke in the early twilight before dawn. And the next thing they saw was their destined spouse lying asleep on the green sward beside them. Then they were so enamoured of their beauty that their desire for speech was immediately quickened and they began to "think of words" to speak and sing in."

This one made me think of Rousseau's (as, in the XVIIIth century Swiss philosopher) theory of the origin of language (not supported by modern linguistic theory, I bet !) : he thought that at first, humans were solitary creatures, who lived on their own, and that they just met to mate, which is how language first evolved, in the form of songs : songs to woo and seduce a mate (like birds).

I'm doing a little bit better! Thank you for checking in. And thank you so much for thinking of me!!! :DDDDDD Wait, that's so interesting-- so even the Valar did not know language before the Quendi? That makes sense-- I suppose the Music itself was its own means of communication for the Ainur. But yes, vaguely Chomskian undertones of UG-- clearly, the Elves were born either with the capacity to create language or with innate knowledge of it. I love that music still plays an important role in the creation of language in Tolkien's world, that they needed words to sing, not just speak. (For my part, I do agree that there is a universal capacity and desire for language in all humans, so in that sense, I lightly subscribe to Universal Grammar, but certain theories that get tacked onto it cause me to be a fair bit more skeptical XD). Interesting theory on the origin of language! It seems a bit off on an anthropological perspective, but it definitely does seem similar to how it emerged in Arda. I'm actually not super versed on theories regarding the origins of the first language, but I knew someone who was researching this pretty recently, and I might ask them more about it because it is very fascinating. My understanding is that it's 90% speculation XD; it may be better to explore the origin of languages from a biological, anthropological, or evolutionary psychological perspective. But I do remember music being somehow linked to porto-language, if my memory serves correctly.

[rachelillustrates]

My top 7 Faerie stories/worlds atm 🦋

**Note, I am super dupes aware that I haven't read/watched everything, so please feel free to reblog/comment with recommendations!**

Faerie is the pulse of my heart, and my mind/spirit/etc. spends a LOT of time thinking about it, SO here's the most resonant of depictions of the realm/faeries themselves in my current opinion (and why).

(And not in any particular order:)

Elfhame, @hollyblack 's "Folk of the Air" series and all related books

Arda, Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" and all related adaptations

"Suitor Armor" by @thepurpah

Studio Ghibli's take on spirits in Japanese folklore

Brian and Wendy Froud's take on Faerie

"Fraggle Rock"

"Tock the Gnome," by myself!

Thoughts:

(Art by Rovina Cai, from "How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories")

I feel very much that Holly Black gets the lushness and richness of Faerie, plus the trickery of it, and that level of dangerous beauty - what attracts humanity to it, etc. How everything is in extremes, too, but also how parts of it echo the human experience - both in terms of courts, but also in terms of the heart, and the emotional impact of intense circumstances and intense feelings.

I am, admittedly, not all caught up yet since I haven't read her earlier works, but of course I recommend starting with "The Cruel Prince" and reading forward from there (the more recent "Stolen Heir Duology" having an extra special place in my esteem)!

(Also special shoutout to the fact that there are Nisse - Gnomes! - in the recent books, AND that her take on Redcaps is absolutely Orcish 💚)

(Also also, cw: Changelings. They can be a triggering/upsetting subject, considering how our concept of them as humans seems to have come about. She does make pretty heavy use of them, but not in the ways that one might expect, and always from a very emotionally-centered space - not a humans-abusing-potential-fae space.)

So, Tolkien - yes, I am including the world of his works in this because even though he considered them religious and specifically-denominational, he took SO MUCH inspiration from folklore and faerie tales (do not even get me started on what got edited out of "The Silmarillion" istg) that Arda is not wholly Christian, from my Faerie-worshiping queer-ass faerie perspective thankyouverymuch. Not to mention what is being done in fandom with the faerie-races, especially the Dwarves and the Hobbits, AND what recent adaptations are opening up with the Orcs!! Obviously, his take on Faerie is a much more literally-grounded reality - they exist in the Earth-based world (as if Faerie has bled into what we expect Earth to be), they have magic (at least the Elves and Dwarves do) but it's both somehow super ethereal and super physical at once. And divinely connected, since the biggest magic in Middle-earth (or any part of Arda) comes from the lesser Gods - the Valar, and the Maiar who serve under them as well as from Big Sky Daddy Eru, but we're not talking about him right now. So that, to me, really speaks to the spiritual nature of Faerie too - which is always always always personally interesting to me, and Jrrt's take on the fae was absolutely foundational in my budding concept of them, before I even really thought about who they are in a conscious way.

I don't know where to recommend starting, since I got into the world through the Jackson films, first, and I wouldn't change my experience for anything because it's given me SO much. But in fandom, shoutout to the works of @conkers-thecosy (read her fics here!) as well as "A Long List of Happy Endings" by vicious_summer and "The Mushroom Mine" series by @chrononautintraining for Dwarf Stuff - and "Splint" by HelenaMarkos for Orc Stuff. Plus, as much as I know it's divisive, "Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" is - again - doing wonders about the Orcs AND doing very well by the Dwarves too, in my opinion, showing them as a fully realized and thriving people (though Dwarf women should still have beards, Amazon!! And there seems to be some confusion around how the name of Durin functions...)!! Available to stream on Prime, here.

"Suitor Armor" takes place in a world that appears very similar to medieval Earth, and as such the worldbuilding itself doesn't feel very specifically Faerie - yet. However, with the main character having significant ties to the fae, and with the story still having space to explore their culture once the tale takes the characters there, I have faith that we are gonna see more of this take on Faerie specifically soon. In the meantime, what we have seen so far - how faerie magic works, how they relate to each other, etc. - rings true for me, and is lovely to behold, especially in the face of the tragedy around their circumstances in the Big Plot.

Free to read here (and coming to bookshelves in 2025!!).

As for Studio Ghibli - Miyazaki's take on the spirits of Japanese folklore - which are absolutely Faerie - was SO formative for me growing up. I don't have anything else to say about that except that he's right!!

I recommend "Princess Mononoke," "Spirited Away" and "My Neighbor Totoro," particularly. All available to stream on Max right now (but buying physical media is better, and they're very likely available to rent other places, too).

Brian and Wendy Froud's work has, of course, also been absolutely formative for me - especially when I started getting into Faerie properly. Their work doesn't require much commentary either - they're just correct 💗 Nothing I've experienced has ever contradicted what I've read in their books, and I feel like their work really, really gets the energy of the fae and the liminality of their existence. And that there is kindness, and light, as well as danger.

I recommend "Trolls" and "Faeries' Tales," to start with, and of course the quintessential "Faeries" by Brian Froud and Alan Lee, which started it all.

(Also, considering what's below, special honorary shoutout to their work on "The Dark Crystal." Definite overlap there and absolutely counts.)

Obviously there's some crossover with The Muppets here, considering they come from the same studio, BUT if we're looking at just "Fraggle Rock" on its own - absolutely. Though a very different take than those mentioned above, if you're looking for the whimsy and delight at the heart of the fae, the Fraggles have it.

Both the original series and the reboot are currently available to stream on AppleTV.

Okay, and my own! What I'm doing with the world of "Tock the Gnome" is a little bit different - again, we're looking at a realm that isn't free from some of the physical bounds we find on Earth - but in its vast history there is Faerie at its purest, and the characters are on a Big Quest that will be instrumental in restoring the realm to what one would expect of Faerieland (all wrapped up in a body-positive, sapphic-presenting queer romance, btw). My focus is on Gnomes and Orcs, in particular, since the fact that they're also fae is a big part of my message. Recognizing that, as well as recognizing the importance of connectedness between people and the balance of that and personal sovereignty, and how damage to those things might impact the whole of a magical realm.

All pages available to read for free here, across several platforms (with print issues available here).

🦋💗🦋👏👏

[saurongorthaur9]

Hot take in this Fandom, I think eru loved morgoth/melkor more than manwe.

You can say it's equal but he tolerates whatever evil morgoth does and he didn't want to destroy him because melkor was made first and eru gave him lion's share of gifts- text says that whatever other powers valar had, melkor had a share of it.

Melkor was eru's first and finest creation. Eru was like a painter and melkor was like his 1st finest art even when he became evil.

That seems like a reasonable take to me. There's a lot of Catholic fanon around Lucifer being God's favorite (Paradise Lost etc) and Tolkien being the devout Catholic that he was, it's pretty obvious that Melkor is based heavily on Lucifer. Melkor canonically is given a lion's share of Eru's powers to the point that it takes all fourteen of the other Valar to barely be able to resist him. Which, of course, makes the tragedy of his Fall all that much greater and more bitter.

[riverssongs13]

It's been a few hours since I had to witness Harrowhark lose the love of her life.. I didn't even notice I fell asleep from all the crying. Cliché, I know, but in my defence, I haven't been reading for quite a few years. One could say I dove straight to the deep end. I have you to thank for that, and I say that with so much spite.

But anyway. Know what, I don't even know what to write, really. I've been holding on to what you said, "going back" to those words when I finally finish the book, and finish the book I did. I tried to capture the moment when my heart got pulverised into the white stuff they all spoke of in the book but it felt too... Shallow. Performative. I tried to speak of the feelings that washed over me for the last few chapters but I found myself incapable of saying anything but Fuck. And Fuck is the only apt word in this instance.

Seriously, why am I writing all these? Streams of consciousness? Incessant yapping? For what? To what end? I really don't know. Maybe because I feel so utterly, utterly lonely and there isn't really anybody I could speak with about these things. The other D is no longer in my life and I don't even know if TLT is a book series she'd even care for. She's quite elitist and snobbish when it comes to books, you know. Typical English major/professor (fight me). But I'm going off tangent again. My gods, it's annoying how I NEVER speak but when I do start I never STOP. No wonder that Willow kid is so starstruck. I'm always game with all her queries and now she thinks I'm the best thing to ever happen to her online. Gods damn, M. Stop yapping.

I guess I just. I don't know. Poor Harrowhark. I could talk about the cerebral, intellectual things that are really great about the book, how its written, how the characters are written phenomenally... But I honestly don't have the brain cells willing to do that right now. If I talk about the technical aspects of the book it will feel like I didn't actually appreciate it enough to FEEL about it. It will feel like an insult. It will feel like Gideon threw herself to those iron spikes for nothing. Because after all, isn't the purpose of art to feel?

And feel I am doing, right at this very moment. I'm angry. I'm heartbroken. I'm upset (like, upset isn't even enough). There's so many feelings and the anger is catching up with me and it's making me feel silly for all the little words and my brain is telling me to delete all the yapping I've typed because who the fuck cares? Why should YOU care? I honestly have no answer to that. But I hope you do. Pathetic, right? Eh, I'm used to it. Raise a child to never have friends as a kid and when they grow up, they'd cling on to whatever looks at them with a second glance and worship the very air they breathe and kiss the very ground they tread their feet on. And I honestly do worship you. After all, you are more than Eru Iluvatar, and you have gifted me with your presence.

But worshipping you right now isn't exactly making the hurt go away. It just amplifies everything. Harrow's words have been playing in my mind over and over again and how Gideon ended has been on repeat in my brain it's making me nauseous. And Palamedes... Oh that sweet, gentle man. The very rare times I appreciate and love a male character and they just. Go. Thousands and thousands of words to make you fall in love with these people and they get taken away in the end. So what does it matter then? What's the point of love if it ends anyway? What's the point of all this?

I don't know. I really don't. Maybe there isn't any point. Maybe at the end of the day, you were just sent by the gods to make me fall in love with literature again, the way I was tossed into books when I was a kid. Merely an afterthought. Something to preoccupy a child wholly neglected by the society who was supposed to raise them. Something to obsess about, fall in love with, and be left by at the end of the day. Ha! As if. I'm not even worthy of a footnote in the story of you, yet here I am delusional about being left behind. What a waste of space. Seriously I should just end my entire existence silently and not bother the weird, beautiful person with the huge blue eyes reflecting the light of the Two Trees of Valinor.

I should really stop. Yeah, I should. Besides, what's the point of all this yapping? You'll never get to read all these words anyway! Hahahaha the things we get to say when we're screaming in the voids of our own existence.

I shall be getting the next book, Harrow the Ninth. I hope this one destroys me even worse. Wreck me like I'm the worst person to have ever stained this planet. Make me feel like my heart deserves to be shredded into flimsy ribbons like the pathetic garbage that I am.

Lady Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the House of the Ninth, I see you. I am coming.

[searchingforserendipity25]

Last 10 Lines & Writing Patterns

Thank you @starsuncounted, @eilinelsghost and @meadowlarkx for tagging me!

Third-Born: I will lead not my people into ruin assured, Arafinwë spat.

Whispered Tales: Beren could not help it - he flinched.

Trials By Fire: It had seemed an excellent idea, at the time; and if that was not excuse enough, Makalaurë would invent a better one soon enough.

Music, Too, That Sweet Madness: "There art thou, dear heart."

Where now she wanders none can tell: Mithrellas does not look back.

Beleriand Is Dead: A cold midnight over Hithlum, rain-damp and full of shivering, would have been sweeter than a dozen mild evenings under the stars of Amanyar.

Champion of the Sun: Times happened when Aredhel escaped the confines of Eöl's dominion, moving through the briars and the moss-faced oaks, long enough to find a slant in the high canopy.

The King's Son: "Envy is unbecoming."

The Second Self: Outside the Timeless Halls, and Eru's all-present care, they made for themselves new shapes and forms, as suited their purpose.

pilgrimage for the remaining: It was a very solemn evening, a night of drums and voices raised in thrumming rhythms.

I think at this point I can admit a certain fondness for media rest dialogue or short first lines. I am very fond of reading beginnings that carry a specific tone and stick with it, and it's something that is so much fun to try to achieve too. But the weakness for longer sentences peeks through. These always feel like more of a gamble, since I'm never sure if they work as hooks with the same efficiency, but I love how a semicolon can serve to create a bit of a two-step rhythm for scene-setting too much to abdicate them.

Tagging: @swanmaids, @melestasflight, @hobbitwrangler, @i-am-a-lonely-visitor, @samarqqand and whoever wants to participate!

[splatoonpolls]

SPLATOON OC TOURNEY ROUND 2 BATTLE 6

Talia Yareli by @gingergari vs Dutch by @seffien vs Tami (inkling name), Ruthless And Valiant Creature From Muni Eru Kaiyo (salmonid name) by @wyrm-in-a-closet (art by @lynxz-studios)

OC BACKSTORIES/PROPAGANDA!

TALIA

HERE IS HER WHOLE POST BTW!

from the form

Talia (age 24 (~16 in splat1), pronouns he/her) is from Calamari County! Her family consists of her mother, her older sister Moselle (28, a firefighter) that she looks up to a lot, and her younger sister Ren (18). He originally moved to Inkopolis to make a living as a pro battler, which he did for a few years with his roommate turned girlfriend Peri, maining both Dynamos depending on the kits given. Then Grizzco opened for business, and it turned out that they paid pretty well all things considered, and that they were both *really* good at it. (They also thought it was fun for the most part) Since they were consistently hitting the upper ranks of Profreshional, when Grizzco expanded to the Splatlands the pair were invited to relocate as Eggsecutive VPs to help support the branch and to help train up some new recruits. That's how Victoria (Eggs) and Fiorello (Safety) ended up joining them :] Speaking of nicknames, Talia has the worst name memory in the world and has a lot of trouble remembering the names of people and occasionally objects, so he gives them a nickname she remembers a lot better. (Peri is a nickname! But sometimes Talia falls back on pet names until he remembers either her nickname or actual name) He is very worried that he comes across as rude for it (or anything in general) so tries to be as friendly as possible. He was the one that gave Safety the life preserver gear as a gift! Talia is a huge fan of Big Man (finds that he relates to him the most) and did cry when he lost the leader splatfest :( Also cried when he was homesick and tried to get her favorite dish, clam mochi, at a Splatlands restaurant which turned out as you would expect. His favorite splatband is Sashimori. Talia is friends with my Agent 3, but does not know the truth about Grizzco.

DUTCH

was confined to a literal cabin on the woods with and by her dad. she disliked it (and him), so she left for inkopolis via train.

An inkling born to ordinary parents who worked at Gone Fission power plant. However, a salmonid big run happened in the area, and because Grizzco didn't yet exist, it had to be abandoned, and Tami's parents were killed. Tami herself, who was also there, was badly injured and lost her right arm, was found by some salmonids, but because she was a young inkling the salmonids didn't know what she was and so instead of killing her took her home. She then spent almost her entire life growing up with the salmonids, and became a very skilled fighter, but also starting a band with a couple other salmonids. They make music that's like horrible to listen to and will overestimate you. Once she was 14, she joined the war on salmonids on the side of the salmonids. Over time Grizzco expands and poses a larger and larger threat to the salmonids, so Tami decides that she's going to go try and put a stop to it, because she's the only one who could make it to inkling civilation without being killed, although that doesn't change the fact she didn't know the language, culture, or anything. After spending several nights on the streets of splatsville, Tami is found by Tide, an octoling who's been living there for some time. Tide takes Tami under their wing, despite them knowing nothing about each other. Over the next few months Tide teachers Tami inkling language, has Tami participate in battles (where she fuckin rocks at it bc she's been literally trained for war), all while Tami searches for more info on Grizzco, but unfortunately nobody knows shit about it. Finally she happens across Cuttlefish and eventually falls into Alterna, where she has no idea what's going on until eventually wow Mr. Grizz is there. She fucking kills him and then just kinda leaves without really joining the squidbeak splatoon she just wanted to kill Mr grizz. Anyways then she and Tide probably go back to salmonid or something I haven't really figure this out. Sorry for the text wall

[forerussake]

it starts with a spark.

Guardian Wishlist gift for Velithya

[minubell]

Okay but melkor would of loved painting or at least done it. He rebelled not from Haye but jealousy , he was jealous only his farther eru could create so I cam picture a young melkor being shown how to paint and create pretty pictures but because he was almost perfect he is a natural incredible painter. He's almost perfect everything but making life. And then cut to an older melkor throwing a vile fit and just shredding his vocals at a painting he gave to eru as a gift only for mairon yo be watching

Melkor's incredible jealousy means he often dabbles in areas that are not his. While this absolutely applies to attempting to infringe on Eru's territory, it also applies to his fellow Valar's territory.

While creating orcs was originally an accident, he would pass them off as being similar to dwarves. Aule made his own little freaks, why can't he? It will be far funnier if his brother doesn't know he is actually slaying elves.

Ulmo made the lakes and the streams, why can't he? Tar pits bubble up from the ground, clinging to life, trapping it in the same way Melkor does. Oil stains the rivers. Fish choke and die.

Vaire weaves time into beautiful tapestries, why can't he? He carves time into the bodies of elves with a knife, documenting the end of their lives with a blade. He dives deeper, marring spirits, shredding them to thin pieces so he can try to weave them anew.

Melkor paints, but he paints in blood and mud. He paints with his fingers, in dimly-lit halls, upon the stone and upon the bone. He carves the rock with his nails and teeth and fills the trenches with tar. There is no beauty in his art because it is done in mockery, in jealousy, and most importantly done on purpose.

He could make beautiful things if he wanted.

He just does not want to.

[welcometolotr]

TRSB 23 reveal!! @violecov painted this beautiful art of Saeros and Eru and I treated this crack seriously. enjoy!!

a haunting hunger

5.9k, rated M

Saeros does not die when Turin drives him off of that chasm in the forest. He does not live, either: it is Eru that takes him up and devours him, transforming him into something new. He returns to Beleriand a ghost and goes where he pleases, sometimes visible and sometimes not, and when he tires, he returns to his lord’s domain. It is a land of stardust and silver clouds, a land where there is no death and there is no fear. In the end, he learns to live again.

View the full art here and read the story here!

[eilinelsghost]

Director's Cut: Grief in All Her Guises

Continuing to chip away at the Director's Cut game (still taking asks if you have any you'd like to send in - the more specific the better 😊) and today I'm hopping in with this delightful ask from @mangez-peches-art:

This is such a good question!

I actually went back and forth on this for a long time while I was planning out the series arc, and it was one of the main reasons it took me a really long time to get the first two installments nailed down (I'd been working on both of them for probably four months or so before I finally decided to post part 1 and get the series going). That meeting is such an iconic moment in their whole story and it felt like an oversight to leave it out at the beginning.

However, I ended up deciding to jump in after the relationships had been established for several reasons:

Logistics

First and most simply, there was the logistical difficulty of writing those encounters. I confess I balked at trying to accurately depict the process of two people learning each others' languages from scratch, even with the help of Finrod's ability to just stroll through Balan's brain. I don't have a lot of linguistics in my background and I wanted to be careful that I didn't lead with an installment that would undermine authorial trust if I completely botched how that process would go. Or, to put it more forthrightly, I was just scared of looking like I didn't know what I was talking about 😂

Perception of the Encounter

Another thing that made me hesitate was that the whole nature of that first meeting is laden with dreamlike imagery and I did not want to begin by "demythologizing" it at the start of the series. I wanted it to retain an unsteady and ethereal presence throughout their growing relationship that undergirds how they relate to each other. Each, in their own sense, feels that they have stumbled upon the other in a dream and the unsteadiness that brings to their daily reality shapes how each beholds the other.

For Finrod, dreams are laden with intent. It is through such that he retains any tangible connection to the Valar (or to Ulmo at least), and it is through such that he was given what he understands to be his purpose and duty in Beleriand. Even his moments of foresight hold a dreamlike quality where he seems to be pulled out from the reality about him to experience/witness moments of understanding that structure the subsequent direction of his life. Meeting Balan in a kind of dream, therefore, sets Balan alongside those other moments of import: their meeting is intended, their bond is unquestioned, this encounter was fated and they (Finrod and Balan/Balan's people) immediately belong to each other in a way that other meetings do not engender. In fact, this ends up being a large part of why Finrod is able to deceive himself re his own feelings for the whole of that first year. He does not question that he feels an unusually close bond - this is Balan, sent to him in a dream; Balan's people, brought to him by powers outside himself and each fated towards the other. Thus when he realizes what is actually going on within his own feelings, he panics both at the mortal/immortal divide and also at the fear that he has betrayed what was entrusted to him (entrusted by fate? by Eru? by the Valar?) through desiring that which was committed to his keeping.

For Balan, he and his people have finally crossed through the perils of the mountain passes, they have left behind (as they think) the danger of their former lives, and have come at last to a land of safety - where some even believe they may find the gods' own dwellings. And one of the first things that happens is he wakes in the middle of the night (is he awake? is he dreaming?) and meets Finrod's eye over a dying fire, his own harp held in the hands of a seeming god and images rising through the air about him in ways that defy understanding. Balan remembers this vividly throughout his life, but it is always somewhat fluid, always filled with an uncanny awe, fear, a nagging sense of unreality. This recurs throughout their relationship at various points - see, for example, the confession scene from In These Holy Waters where Balan once again encounters Finrod in a woods and once again doubts the reality about him:

The glade was spinning. Balan forced himself not to look away, for he could see his own passion blazing back from the other’s gaze, ardent and desperate, and his breath fled before the force of it. Did he sleep still? Had he awakened indeed or was he slumbering yet beside the boulder in the sun? He reached out to brush a strand of hair from Nóm’s face, his movements slow and muddled as though caught in the dream he feared

Keeping the mythological feel of that initial meeting was really important to me, especially early in the series to set the tone, and so I concluded that beginning with depicting it in full would likely undermine that strategy.

Memory as a Character

Finally, the third deciding factor for me here was that I wanted memory to function, in some sense, as another character in the series, given how Finrod speaks about the Eldar and memory in the Athrabeth. We begin the series with Finrod's confession to Aegnor and end the series with [redacted for spoiler reasons], which serve together to structure the intervening installments as a cluster of progressing memories, moving between past and present in (what I hope is) a stream of consciousness flow of connections. The lines between Balan's memories and Finrod's memories are deliberately blurred (who is it doing the remembering when both POVs are present throughout?) because their bond leaves them with the lines between each self blurred as well - Balan never fully absent because some part of him is still present in Finrod's own self, Finrod ever with one foot crossing into mortality because Balan too has preserved some part of Finrod within his own departed self.

So as part of this, there are three main memories that the series dances around long before we see them (or hear of them in greater detail): their first meeting, their eventual coming together, and Balan's death. Each of these are such laden moments that memory shies away from recalling them directly until it cannot be avoided. (This doesn't mean that you have to wait till the end of the series for each of these, I promise! Just that they all participate in a similar dance before appearing directly in the narrative.)

------

I think that covers most of the reasoning? That ended up being a lot longer than I thought it would! 😂 Let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to unpack more or if this didn't quite answer what you were wondering. Thanks so much for the question - this was such a fun one to answer!

[ofainur]

( ❀ ) ˙ ˖ ruinë⠀& erulissë⠀ ❜࿔ 

· ⊰ synopsis. ruinë both admires and laments over erulissë ( angst ៸៸ unrequited love )

· ⊰ note. I don't know what possessed me to write this but my heart is now aching so much ;;

♡. — 𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒅𝒂𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒆𝒔

She is so beautiful. 

Magenta hues cut over to steal a glance at the Maia beside her, happily braiding daisies together in an intricate crown. Pink petals of the cherry blossom that they sit beneath flutter around her. The glimmers of the lamps peek through and shine down upon her. Illuminating her signature smile as her delicate fingers work on the yellow and white flowers. 

Ruinë never quite understood the notion of creating flower crowns. Did Yavanna's handmaiden simply enjoy her company or did the end product make it worthwhile?

Nevertheless, she went along with Erulissë's proposal. Her own fingers struggled to perfect the art of fastening stems and maintaining petals. Or perhaps she was simply distracted by her closest companion and the woman who eased her heart into a soar whenever she laid eyes upon her. 

Subtly, Ruinë steals another glance. Erulissë's already fair features were amplified by the scenery of petals and glimmers of light. The smile on her lips almost brings a similar one to Ruinë's - yet she manages to suppress it in favour of her indifferent expression, albeit barely. 

"So,'' she breaks the minutes of silence. "What has you so giddy?"

The giggle that caresses her ears faintly tints Ruinë's pale face pink, but she quickly gains control of herself and turns the entirety of her attention onto her friend. 

"It is nothing, really.'' Erulissë brushes her off with that same smile that put even the heavens to shame. 

A flutter pricks at the fire Maia's heart and she arches a brow. Her own lips tip further upwards into a widening smile and for once, she decides to pry. "That so?'' She chuckles. "Oh come on, surely you can grace me with the reason of your joy? It seems more than usual.'' 

Erulissë spares another giggle and turns to her friend with shimmery violet eyes. "Well,'' she starts. 

I never should have asked. 

"Suppose you could say I have someone on my mind.'' 

The fluttering turns into a sharp plummet into the pit of Ruinë's stomach and despite her trying her utmost hardest, she cannot stop the furrow in her brows. Thankfully, Erulissë had long since turned back to her almost-finished flower crown, obliviously leaving the other Maia to simply gaze at her with a cacophony of emotions. 

There is a stretch of silence. A long, almost uncomfortable one as Ruinë contemplates the ache spreading throughout her chest. 

Is that normal?

Why does it ache? 

She shakes the thought off. She tries to swallow the sudden thickness in her throat. She lowers her gaze back to her half-done, messy flower crown and attempts to bring her mind back to the serenity it was only just recently enjoying. 

Why is it hurting so much?

"Someone on your mind?" She curses herself for the newfound quietness of her voice. Thank Eru that the other Maia seems not to take notice. "Pray tell.'' 

"Ah, curious aren't we?" Erulissë gleams and shakes her head. "Just a Maia I have been getting to know as of late. I think you might have heard of him, actually.'' 

As Erulissë finishes her flower crown and goes on a lovesick ramble, Ruinë listens in silence. Her gaze never leaves the barely completed flower crown between her fingers. It is as though the very daisies mock her. As though the very petals laugh at her. 

It takes everything within her to maintain her usual indifferent expression and stop her ears from drooping. The happiness in Erulissë's voice does nothing but burn her throat. Sting her fëa. 

But she wills herself to listen nevertheless. 

As she raises her head in the slightest and peers at her closest friend, the woman who both made her heart flutter and crushed it into a thousand pieces, she still thinks to herself. 

She is so beautiful. 

Her gaze softens. 

Even when she loves someone else. 

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ ⊱· ❀ ·⊰

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

Violet eyes are as sharp as the ice evident on her face. Smiling lips now curl into a contemptuous frown. 

Be it distaste,

Be it disgust,

Ruinë no longer can distinguish between the two. Her own expression lacks her indifference, despite desperately attempting to maintain it. Her magenta eyes shine with almost as much sorrow as they did all that time ago. On that fateful day. 

"Lissë,'' she risks, her gaze never leaving the face of her once closest friend. A relationship now soured by the ages and her own actions. 

The Maia still withholds the luxury of response from Ruinë and instead continues walking. She brushes past the other without so much a glance and steps on ahead. Leaving the woman dressed in white and sapphire. 

She knows that it will serve as nothing but to break her heart further, yet Ruinë still spares a glance over her shoulder. Solemnly watching the one who once held her heart and trust, leave her behind as those before have. As many will continue to. 

Her gaze lowers to a daisy greeting her from the ground. Mocking her. Taunting her. 

She is so beautiful. 

Leaning down, her fingers pluck at the delicate flower and bring it to her chest. 

Even if she hates me. 

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