#he thought it was a very nice and not at all feanor-ish look on him

[sindar-princeling]

ep 7 thoughts

now THAT is a gorgeous ring

it's kind of sad that elven rings ended up looking underwhelming compared even just to this one of the men's rings

it's harder to care about elrond appearing when we saw him for all of like. 15 minutes in this season so far

celebrimbor confronting sauron is one of the strongest scenes this season, I especially liked the blood fragment

but hhhh I don't like that men's rings are Inherently More Evil because they have sauron's blood in them

mirdania being nearly all clean and her dress being vibrant green in the middle of the siege is annoying me. also....... her character feels so bizarrely unnecessary in context of the amount of time she had on the screen. it feels like she was mostly here to remind us about the sauron and galadriel plotline and for him to be creepy about it, and then die. I think we saw her as much as characters like miriel, elrond and gil-galad, and...... why?

orcs' machinery looks cool, I like it a lot!

where's gil-galad's spear :(

mixed feelings about the charge because one hand the whole army stopping at adar's reveal of galadriel was cool and a very good move by him, but on the other, I hate how little galadriel has to do this season

"melian of the valar" she was not a vala 😭

did NO-ONE see him unattach that???? no?? no-one?? okay

head in my hands crying that's his future mother in law you could have made him give that thing to her in so many different ways than a staged kiss I'm going to kill myself

you heard it here first folks! in rop Elrond and Galadriel kiss 😃🔫

oh that reminds me of the celeborn death bait from last season

durin's speech was so good FUCK yes

oh that was cruel..... like obviously it was a good scene to include if we're talking about humanising orcs but I don't know if elrond was the right character to do it? still a very good and strong choice to show elves killing cruelly for once, finally some good fucking content for this subplot

"you told us you loved us" this subplot is finally getting more meat in this episode, about damn time!!

ohh the choice durin has to make really hits

at least celebrimbor tried to destroy them, you have to give him that

ohhhhhhhhhh the scene with the thumb HITS. nice parallels nice emotional weight, nice juxtaposition of celebrimbor as a craftsman and a stubborn and proud grandson of feanor and the choice he needs to make between the two

the scene between galadriel and celebrimbor would hit harder if they shared any more time before. I still wouldn't like it because it just reminds me of all the plot points that annoy me most about galadriel's plotline, but at least it would have some weight?

besties if you want to humanise orcs then WHY are you showing them fighting with elves and killing them as celebrimbor goes on about how armies may fall but light will defeat darkness

also the elves are too united, these families have HISTORY. and those divisions should get in the way!

oh NOW he has Aeglos

dwarves not being able to come help is great, the scene hits

i don't think arondir is really dead, but if he is, it's the lamest choice possible

adar not killing elrond then and there feels plot armor-ish

this show is so all over the place, whether a subplot will appear in an episode is always uncertain and it makes most plotlines feel uneven and forgettable. episode 8 will have so much to do - showing the stranger's choice, closing the arc for this season for nori (was there even an arc???), closing the season's arc for numenor, closing the arc for the rings, preferably also returning to isildur because the last scene with him didn't do anything (I mean he in general didn't do anything this whole season so.)......... that's a lot of work and I'm not very hopeful ajanssnnssn

rop season 2 episode 1 thoughts

at this point you gotta admire the creators' dedication to absolutely bizarre choices when it comes to sauron. 15 minutes in I'm already going what the hell and fuck. like what was that supposed to be. genuinely

Charlie Vickers has grown on me; he still doesn't have much to work with in terms of the script or the plot though

this whole introductory sequence was there....... I'm not sure why? we could already extrapolate all that, and I mean All That, from the previous season

it still pisses me off that Galadriel is The Main Idiot and Everything Is Her Fault

also, I am reminded by all the plot and worldbuilding choices that annoyed me before. why is mithril important for the elves' survival again?

CIRDAN HIII CIRDAN <33333

I'm so glad they kept his beard

believe me, I AM trying to find things to like about this show, but the plot choices feel like so much unnecessary drama. Galadriel and Elrond fighting feels.... tiring. I feel like all Galadriel does is fight with people

oh are we getting Rhun?? 👀 Nice

this is a personal opinion but the elven women have wayyy too strong and modern-looking make-up

it's a shame galadriel gets the ring because she's power-hungry and reckless, not because she's one of the mightiest elves in middle-earth. she SHOULD be power-hungry, don't get me wrong, it's one of her best traits, but this way you don't put any sort of accent of how very important and mighty she is

sauron having a Badass Walk into mordor at the end of s1, which was a really cool shot to end a season on, only to then get himself in chains and then turn away and come back to Celebrimbor has got to be the most '???' moments of this show. they really have no idea what to do with him

overall I'd say my main gripe, apart from the plot solutions, is that this show doesn't have much to say. it's showy, it's lore-heavy (even if I don't like the lore they came up with), but so far it still has little heart and thought behind it. to me at least it doesn't feel like it really wants to tell you something

[imakemywings]

Happy Thanksgiving sometimes Maglor puts his hair up a certain way and people remember he actually looks quite a bit like a less hot Feanor.

AO3

- - -

            It wasn’t often they were all together anymore, and when they were—as then—it was usually owing to the summons of Nelyo. Forget whatever the so-called high king of the Noldor was demanding—they came because Nelyo called, and for no other reason. Maglor took his time in front of the vanity before traipsing downstairs for breakfast. Celegorm was at the table with coffee and a missive from Himlad, while Maedhros was in the kitchen adjacent and Caranthir picked over an anemic pear a few seats away from Celegorm.

            “Good morning, everyone,” Maglor announced his arrival, unable to enter a room otherwise. Caranthir looked up and, stricken, simply said “NO.” Subsequently Celegorm also glanced up and choked on a sip of coffee.

            “Morgoth’s fucking balls Kano, you have to warn us before you come in looking like that,” he said. Maglor frowned petulently and Maedhros emerged at the usual sound of commotion from a gathering of his brothers. For a moment he only stared and blinked, and then he said:

            “I thought Atarinkë said he would be late.”

            “Ha-ha,” Maglor said, attempting to be dry, but sounding a great deal more like he was on the verge of storming out. “You should all run a family comedy troupe.” He took a seat at the table and helped himself to the coffee.

            “You really should warn us, Kano,” Caranthir said with a troubled frown as the sound of footsteps sounded through the kitchen.

            “Hey, Nelyo, can we—fuck,” said Amrod, coming to a dead halt in the kitchen doorway. “I thought necromancy was frowned upon around here.”

            Amras just laughed, doubling over until he wheezed.

            “Hey, Atya—sorry, Kano—didn’t hear you get in last night,” he choked. Maglor sat primly at the table looking more and more like that might be a kinslaying gleam entering his eye.

            “You’re all so very funny,” he said, and perhaps the razor’s edge in his voice was incidental, or perhaps it was a reminder.

            “Don’t worry, Kano,” said Maedhros, waving a hand as he turned back towards the kitchen. “I’m sure Ammë would find it charming.” For that, Maglor was going to write another song about Maedhros and teach it to his troops. There were plenty of things that rhymed with “ass.”

            As the twins helped themselves to food and drink and Maglor wrapped his hands around a mug of coffee, the sound of familiar familial bickering sounded outside the door.

            “—told you if we had taken the longer route we wouldn’t have had to ford the river—”

            “It was still not as long as taking your route—”

            The door flung open to admit Curufin, his wife, and a deathly-bored looking Celebrimbor, who brightened at once at the sight of his uncles.

            “It’s about time you made it,” Celegorm opined. “Here I began to think you’d decided to take a scenic diversion through Nan Dungortheb on the way.”

            “Don’t be stu—” Curufin looked up from stomping the ice off his boots, caught sight of Maglor, and actually took a step backwards with a sharp intake of breath, white visible all around his dark irises. He exchanged a hasty glance with his wife.

            “Oh!” said Celebrimbor in surprise. “Makalaurë, you look so much like grandfather! I remember he used to wear his hair that way!”

            Maglor exhaled long and slow and reached up, yanking his hair down from the topknot he had carefully arranged it in that morning.

            “You know, I had almost forgotten,” he said. Another thing he had almost forgotten: what a waste of time it was to try anything artistic in this wretched family.

[kendrixtermina]

Further reactions to "The book of lost tales":

I appreciate that Idril canonically wears armor and does swordfighting.

I feel like I can actually imagine adult!Idril much better now like in armor and with open hair, distraught but ready to fight while babby Earendil does not yet realize the danger...

My first thought is that Earendil was probably cute in that baby chainmail. My second thought is OUCH, Idril and Tuor always made sure their growing baby had fitting chainmail cause they felt the apocalypse might get them at any moment. Imagine that, imagine them having the baby armor fitted every year or so :(

Its fun how much of the basic structure already exists but most of what you'd consider the main characters doesn't exist or is scattered across various minor roles The only Prince anywhere in sight is Turgon - Except for Team Doriath, theyre all accounted for. I suppose Maeglin is kinda there in name only with vaguely the same role & motivation, but looks personality and background all did a 180 since. Luthien is still pretty much "princesd classic" at this point, not quite the fearless go-getter from the final version - markedly this version tells Beren that she doesnt want to wander in the wilderness with him whereas the final one says she doesnt care and its Beren still wants to get the shiny so as not to ask this of her and also for his honor.

I mean in the finished version Id consider the 3rd and 4th gen royals to be the main characters (well, alobgside Team Doriath and the varioud human heroes) and theyre hardly here. Imagine the silm with no Finrod!

Feanor had no affiliation with the royal family whatsoever, and is also generally less super. He's just the guy who won the jewelsmithing competition, not the inventor of the whole discipline. Still seems to have been envisionad as a respected member of the community who gets called to the palace for crisis meetings and is listened to when he stsrts giving speeches. From the first he already has the backstory of going off the deep end (or at least growing disillusioned with Valinor) after a family member is killed by Melkor and theyre still the first to die, but its just some other rando unrelated to the royals

The situation regarding the humans is different - instead of Melkor leaking their existence, its Manwe who explains that the other continents were supposed to be for them eventually. So Feanor goes off on a tirade about weak puny mortals comes off as a more of a jerk unlike in the final version where Melkor barely knew about the humans and described them to the Noldor as a threat. On the other hand in this one, also very much unlike in the finished product, Melkor dupes even Manwe into being unfair to the elves as a whole. In this the final version is a definite improvement, both Feanor and the Valar come off as a lot more sympathetic and though still deceived he's partially right in some things at least, so you have more of a genuine tragedy rather than a simple feud

There is something to the idea of Commoner!Feanor tho. I guess some of this survived in his nomadic explorer lifestyle and how both his wife and mother (who arent mentioned here) eventually were the ones to get that background of being not especially pretty ladies who are not from the nobility but got renown, respect and acclaim for their unique talent and contribution to society, with each having invented things and Nerdanel also being renowed for her wisdom. Hes sort of an odysseus-like Figure in that sense. I suppose later developements necesitated that Maedhros & co. have an army not just a band of thieves, which means they needed to be nobles/lords. That said this being a society where artisans are very respected and half the lords have scholarly/artistic pursuits going, the gap was probably not as big to begin with as it might have been in say, medieval England. Esoecially since Nerdanel's father had been given special honor by one of the local deities and that the social order might have been a very recent thing in Miriel's time. One might speculate that the first generation of Lords started out as warriors during the great journey, or perhaps just Finwe's friend group.

Also found that bit intetesting where the Valar have to deal with the remaining political tensions and effects of Melkor's lies on the remaining population in Valinor... - i guess with the change of framing device it was less likely for news of something like this to reach Beleriand. That, or the existence of Finarfin and his repentance made this go smoother this over in later cannon

Turgon's go-down-with-the-ship moment reaaly got to me. Im half tempted to write a fic where his wife, siblings and dad glomp him on arrival in Mandos. I dont care that none of them exists yet in this continuity i want Turgon to get hugs

I love all the additional Detail that got compressed out in the shift from fairytale-ish to pseudohistoric style especially all the various Valinor magic insofofar as it is compatible with the final version - particularly love the idea of the connection between the lamps and the trees that is now integrated into my headcanon forever

Its actually explained what the doors of night are

If I had not already read unfinished tales or volumes X to XII where this is also apparent, this is where I would say: Ah so the Valar were supposed to be flawed characters. Manwe has an actual arc; by the time he sends Gandalf he finally "got" it. I think in the published silm the little arcs of Ulmo and Manwe are mostly just lost in compression/ less apparent when only some of the relevant scenes got in but not all

It occurred to me way too late that the "BG" chars are the most consistent because theyre at the start and most stories are written from beginning to end. Finwe doesnt get a dedicated paragraph of explicit description until HoME X but my takeaway was that he's described pretty much like I always imagined him anyways/ same vibe I always got from him... charismatic, thoughtful, enthusiastic, sanguine temperament, brave in a pinch but at times lets his judgement be clouded by personal sentiment (though that last bit is more apparent/salient as a character flaw once he became the father of a certain Problem Child) ...i guess this would be a result of jrrt having had a consistent idea of him in his head for a long time.

This means Finwe's still alive at the time of the exodus which is just fun to see/interesting to know... Interestingly he sort of gets what later would be Finarfin's part of ineffectually telling everxone to please chill and think it over first while Feanor simply shouts louder (which is consistent with his actions before the sword incident in later canon where he initially spoke out against the suspiciozs regarding the Valar) - but its not exactly the same, he's more active than Finarfin later in that when "chillax" availed nothing he said that then at least they should talk with the other Kings and Manwe to leave with their blessing and get help leaving (This seems like it would have been the clusterfuck preventing million dollar suggestion in the universe where Feanor is related to him and values him) but when even that falls on death ears he decides that he "would not be parted from his people" and went to run the preparations. I find it interesting that the motivation is sentiment/attachment (even phrased as "he would not be parted from [his people]" same words/ expression as is later used for the formenos situation), not explicitly obligation as it later is for Fingolfin (who had promised to follow Feanor and didnt want to leave his subjects at the mercy of Feanor's recklessness )

Speaking of problem children. It seems the sons of Feanor were the Kaworu Nagisa of the Silmarillion in that originally all they do is show up at some point and kill Dior as an episodic villain-of-the-week. And then, it seems their role got bigger in each continuity/rewrite... probably has something to do with the Silmarils ending up in the title later making it in the sense their story that ends and begins with them. They have zero characterization beyond "fierce and wild" at this point, though in what teetsy bits there is we already have the idea that Maedhros is the leader and Curufin is the smart one/shemer/sweet-talker, though not the bit where Maedhros (or Maglor, or anyone really) is "the nice one". Which I guess explains why "Maglor" sounds like such a stereotypical villain name.

"The Ruin of Doriath" was purportedly the patchworkiest bit of the finished product, but I never noticed and it actually left quite an impression of me upon first reading, the visual of Melian sitting there with Thingol's corpse in her arms contemplating everything thinking back to how they met... she had the knowledge to warn him not to doom himself but couldnt get him to understand it because he doesnt see the world as she does.... After reading this though I wish there was a 'dynamic' rendition that combined all the best bits like, youd have to adapt it to the later canon's rendition of the dwarves, have Nargothrond exist etc. But i mean that just makes Finrod another dead/doomed relative of Thingol's whom bling cannot truly replace, like Luthien and Turin. In the Silmarillion you could easily read it as just an "honoured guest treatment" but here and in unfinished tales I get the impression that Thingol actually did see Turin as a son.

Already you see the idea of trying to make the stories all interconnected but there is less than there will be (the human heroes aren't related yet and there is basically no Nargothrond, which is later a common thread for many of the stories - a prototype shows up in the 'Tale of Turambar' tho complete with half baked prototypes of Orodreth and Finduillas

O boi im not even through yet

[aniseandspearmint]

@hamelin-born

YES. Elrond is parent to reincarnated Feanor! It's TERRIBLY ironic.

I think the Oath ended in death, and would have also been gone if he'd re-embodied, Namo is just being SUPER petty.

Actually, they Do Not Notice that Feanor is gone for a while! Like, his reincarnation is like, 20 (10 ish physically bc i like elves and peredhel aging slow), before like, Eonwe gets a good look at the child dutifully running errands for Gil-Galad and Elrond and anyone who needs a hand really, and he grabs the poor kid, and scares the crap out of him. And finds a LOT of weapons suddenly drawn on him because that is baby Elrondion and everyone in camp loves him and WHAT exactly do you think you are doing, bird maia.

Explaining that he's an unlawfully escaped soul does him NO good, and by then Elrond is there shoving his kid behind him and ready to use Song to SHRED Eonwe's fana if he needs to.

"But that is Curufinwe Feanaro." Eonwe says weakly, confused.

"I give less than a single fuck, this is my BABY." Snarls Elrond, baring his teeth threateningly.

Eonwe continues to have a Bad Day.

CROSSOVER;

There might be coffee! Valinor is supposed to have all plants ever! And elvbes figured out wine, and mead and other stuff, coffee and choclate would be right up their alley! FINDING coffee though. That might be tricker. Tirion's probably a big place and has only gotten bigger since all the elves ever started sailing and popping out of Mandos.

Immediately, he has more pressing issues than locating coffee. A problem for tomorrow.

Arafinwe is absolutely one of the elves moaning on the ground with a sprained wrist! He didn't think! He acknowledges that grabbing for the boy was maybe a stupid decision, but walks right into ANOTHER stupid decision by ordering a search.

Finrod was probably not in the room, because he would have known better than to touch the jumpy mortal kid, same as Maedhros.

He's probably thrown his lot in with the Feanorions and is trailing after the search party, leaving bundles of food with a quick sketched out pictorial apology and a map marked with safe places for when the kid calms down and realizes he's in a totally unfamiliar place.

Tim, for his part, quickly figures out that the local... police? Royal guard? He thought one of those people had a crown? Are not up to his standards and loops behind them laughably easily. The really big redhead is there sitting on a bench with several other people, talking. They all seem amused.

He's spotted, but they all just grin at him and then amble on down another street. He finds the first bundle of food and stuff a few buildings later.

The map is nice, maybe he'll head to one of the starred areas in a day or two, if he hasn't figured out a way home or been yoinked back.

*

I have more babbling about the set up Feanor reincarnates in if you're interested, under a cut because the subject matter gets heavy (though bad stuff is not detailed).

Feanaro ABSOLUTELY ends up line of Fingolfin via a (trans) Elrond. This was not a consensual conception, it's very angsty.

Several Doriath survivors cornered what they assumed was a Feanorian, and they fully intended to torment and kill him for the 'crimes' they perceived him as committing, even though he is VISIBLY far too young to have had any participation in ANY of the kinslayings. It's heavily implied they've done this kind of thing before. (I am cannibalizing an older story idea here, where I wanted to explore the fact that elves are as capable of evil deeds as any thinking beings, and that in wanting to punish and make individuals they see as deserving to be hurt, hurt, they can also head down a dark road.)

Which will be an extra layer of angst and turmoil for the reincarnated Feanor when he's old enough to find out. Also I am like 80% sure that Elrond got away from his attackers by killing them when they let down their guard, so like, there's some drama there too, and people decrying Elrond for saving himself. Because people, even elves, are hypocrites.

Elrond thought LONG and HARD and this baby is HIS, he LOVES him, and will fight anyone who implies otherwise, or that he's too young to have a baby, or that he should possibly hate a CHILD for the way they were conceived (*gestures meaningfully to Feanaro and the way he treated his half siblings for daring to be born*)

I'm not sure if Elrond goes back to the Feanorions after escaping, or if he's found by Gil-Galad? There's interesting ways that could go either way. I've got good mental pictures of how it could go either way *dismayed face*

I have an image in my head of Elrond getting back HOME, to the Feanorian camp, and they're SO happy to see him everyone has been searching, Maglor and Elros and more than half their people are out right this moment looking for him- and Elrond has a much deserved breakdown in Maedhros's arms and Maedhros realizes he's very injured. The type of injury comes out later, to everyone's horror. There is talk of abortive herbs, Elrond seriously discusses this with several people. But ultimately decides to keep the baby. Some Dreams might be involved.

I have a scene of Maglor being handed the new baby right after Elros has held him, and doing the very elvish light soul touch with the new baby greeting and recognizing the baby's fea. And he just freezes and then carefully hands him to Maedhros hissing, 'Nelyo please tell me I'm insane. Please.'

And no, no he is not. That is a VERY familiar fea (though it's already more tempered, cooler than it once was having been born of the water and starlight of Elrond)

ON THE OTHER HAND

The drama of Gil-Galad stumbling on some of his border guards torturing and sexually assaulting a terrified adolescent Feanorian.

The POLITICAL NIGHTMARE.

AND HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHO ELROND IS YET.

What does he DO with the offenders? Especially once it becomes clear this is NOT the first 'Feanorian' they've done this to?

Gil-Galad is going to have to send to the Feanorians. He's going to have to explain what happened. (And Extra angst because this is very probably a secretly Russangon version of Gil because that is my FAVORITE version)

And then, AND THEN, they figure out who Elrond is. Maybe when Elros comes in with the Feanorians and it Hits, because TWINS.

idk if his name was always Elrond here or if he picked it after deciding he was a ner? It's probably more dramatic if his name was Elanor or Elawen something when he lived in Sirion...

Anyway, ALL sorts of horror and lessons on harming people you think are the enemy is harming yourself/your own, and how an eye for an eye just ends with everyone blind.

And then looong way down the line, reincarnated Feanaro is going to have to contend with his father marrying Celebrian (not sure if Elrond fully alters his body eventually or if Celebrian is also trans?). Having a stepmother again, but in a very different context. And then more half siblings. Who he is NOT going to be an ass to no matter what.

And I STILL maybe wanna give him a bestie in the form of Erestor's kid. Daughter probably just because there are never enough. He needs someone to be willing to yank him back by his collar and tell him he's being a moron. Him not having that in his first life is one of the things that REALLY messed him up (I've been watching Elementary, so I am imagining a very Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson dynamic).

I’m trying to remember - are you the writer who collaborated with someone else on a ‘verse where Feanor was reincarnated as a woman named Rose who was abruptly yoinked to Valinor? I’ve been trying to find it, and I haven’t been able to locate it yet.

Asdfghjkl, yeah, that was me and @sparklecryptid the main posts are on their blog iirc.