#i drew like 4 maedhros and they all look different

[peasant-player]

This looks really great !!

It's amazing how much effort you put into one drawing!!

I could never have that much dedication to one drawing! Kudos to you!!

And it looks great already.

I do wish for some good pic to see all details ❤️

Good luck with the background.

Backgrounds are the most annoying thing to draw D:

I also really REALLY like the fact that everyone is distinguishable.

Your maedhros as a example always has the same nose etc. That is really impressive for me.

Something I never manage to do!

I'm exiting to see the full complete drawing !!!!

And don't forget to take breaks ❤️

Ok this thing is gonna take my whole day,bc u need to make the background 🥲

[actualmermaid]

Pieces of the Stars blooper reel

As I toil over the last 3 chapters (!!!) of PotS, I can’t help but think about what the drafts have been through over the past few years--specifically, some of the stuff that didn’t make the final edit, and why.

I thought about making this a grand retrospective once I posted the last chapter, but I don’t think the last bits will go through the same kind of shredding-and-reassembling process that the earlier parts did. And I also need to get some stuff out of my head tonight, so hopefully some of you will find this interesting. (PS this list is non-exhaustive.) Thing 1: My original concept for PotS included a prologue and epilogue. I got a few hundred words into the prologue before realizing that having it there was undermining everything I wanted to achieve with PotS, so I abandoned it and started with chapter 1.

The prologue started just after Arwen’s wedding, opening with Elrond having a meal alone in Pelargir and mulling over his sorrow and acceptance of her choice to become mortal when he happens to meet Maglor (still alive and currently a seafaring merchant) for the first time since his youth. Their conversation becomes a framing device for the rest of the story, which from the beginning is implied to be an adult’s understanding of the things he witnessed as a child and came to reconcile as he grew older. The epilogue picks up with them again after the end of the main story, and Elrond invites Maglor back to meet his family for the first and last time, showing that he still loves him even after coming to terms with what Maglor did in the past.

The main reason I got rid of this is that it took away almost all of the ambiguity I was going for regarding Elrond’s powers, Maglor’s eventual fate, the nature of mortality and immortality, and some other stuff. It wrapped it up in too neat a package. At the end of PotS I wanted to leave the reader still grappling with the questions that Elrond himself has as he comes of age—what exactly makes an elf or Man? How does he reconcile his love for Maglor and Maedhros with the knowledge of what they did to his family? What is the origin and extent of his psychic abilities? Will he ever see Maglor again? How about Elros? How about his parents? Why is he so uncomfortable with uncertainty? It’s messy, and giving absolute answers to any of it made that struggle feel cheap.

Thing 2: A “Maglor and/or Maedhros awkwardly explain the birds and the bees to the kids” scene seems semi-mandatory for E&E-come-of-age stories, so I started writing one, but abandoned it pretty early on.

For one, the humor in these types of scenes is almost always meant to come from the awkwardness, and I hate it when I get secondhand embarrassment from stories, so why would I inflict it on other people? Also, Elrond and Elros are farm kids. They know where babies come from. They might have some easily-debunked misconceptions (the early scene where they’re watching the hens with the chicks was funny because they think babies come from eggs and their mom is a bird, please laugh), but the general mechanics of reproduction are not a mystery to them.

The other reason why this scene wouldn’t work here is because I don’t write elvish society as prudish or awkward about sex, so making everyone act weird about it for laughs would be inconsistent with that. I'm much happier with having a couple of different scenes (like the pancake scene or the one where Osgardir explains the differences between elves and mortals) where the kids learn about courtship, gender diversity, and so forth as necessary for their character development instead of forcing an obligatory “birds and the bees” scene.

Thing 3: I planned to have Maedhros seriously attempt suicide at some point during Elrond’s apprenticeship, and Elrond uses his gift to save his life. I tested several different approaches to this and wasn’t satisfied with any of them, so eventually I scrapped that whole arc and several thousand words of prose. There was also an earlier bit when Elrond is experiencing visions and can’t control them yet, and he ends up seeing/experiencing a bunch of Maedhros’ past attempts, culminating in a terrifying vision where the floor was literally lava.

The biggest reason I cut this was that it was a plot tumor that contributed nothing to anyone’s characterization or relationships that I wasn’t able to distribute among other, more important scenes. Additionally, I was increasingly uncomfortable with assigning Elrond the role of Maedhros’ trauma-sponge in that situation. I know it’s really popular in these stories for Elrond to provide some psychological support to the Fëanorians, but IMO if it’s done poorly it’s just super dysfunctional and it’s awkward to see people act like it’s cute.

I’m much happier with the final edit and the implication that Maedhros is voluntarily working to keep it together for the boys’ sake. I also didn’t have to sacrifice the part where Elrond uses his gift to help Maedhros: I just drew on some stuff from my old fic “Reflection” and had Elrond experimenting with his gift to help Maedhros with chronic pain.

Thing 4: A whole character, Dúnith the herbalist, got fired. She was a green-elf and I liked having her around to explore cultural differences with the Noldor, but in the end, I spent too much time trying to explain why she was there and mentioning her in the background and I realized her entire existence was unnecessary. (I killed off Rythredion for the same reason--he served his purpose and I ran out of things for him to do, and keeping track of where he was got annoying.)

I was sad to lose a whole scene where she, Elrond, and Osgardir go foraging for herbs and Elrond gets poison ivy all over his whole body, but it moved nothing forward and was competing for space with more important scenes. She was also Osgardir’s friend-with-benefits, which was fun, but also unnecessary. All of Dúnith the herbalist’s necessary functions were very easily redistributed to other scenes and characters. The dwarf caravan, for example, brought news from the outside world and gave us an opportunity to look at cultural differences. The actual green-elf lore that Dúnith brought to the story went to Amrúnith, a pre-existing character with her own life, i.e. someone I didn’t have to micromanage.

Couple things I learned from all this:

you don’t have to include a scene or dynamic just because other E&E fics do

if you have to fight to explain why a character is there or why something is happening, seriously reconsider whether that thing belongs in the story

[arianaofimladris]

Mistakes

Chapter 1 http://arianaofimladris.tumblr.com/post/177132346092/mistakes

Chapter 2 http://arianaofimladris.tumblr.com/post/177159697417/mistakes

Chapter 3 http://arianaofimladris.tumblr.com/post/177206403712/mistakes

Chapter 4 http://arianaofimladris.tumblr.com/post/177375468317/mistakes

Chapter 5 http://arianaofimladris.tumblr.com/post/177520433452/mistakes

Chapter 6

The next day and a half was one feverish dream. Whatever Alcarino gave him, it sent Amras to sleep for the night and most of the following day. He barely remembered the moments when he woke. Every time there was Celegorm or Caranthir sitting by him and forcing him to answer their questions he did not remember later. But they let him sleep and didn’t touch his leg, so Amras wasn’t about to complain.

The second day he felt well enough to sit up and eat a proper meal. Later Alcarino changed his dressings, but didn’t bother him for long. Before he left, he closed the curtains and Amras was grateful for the dimness. Despite Alcarino’s herbs, his head was still pounding, but it was bearable in peace and darkness. Amras was drifting half asleep, but as the doors opened, he glanced at them, fully awake.

“How’s your head?” asked Maedhros quietly. He was wearing a cloak as if he was about to leave, and he had a map and a leather tube in his arms.

“Usually better,” muttered Amras, but he dragged himself up to sit. “But at least I no longer see you in double,” he sent his brother a crooked smile.

“Good, because I want to show you something before I go to Nolofinwe.” Maedhros sat down on the bed, confirming Amras’s suspicions. He placed the map on his knees, one of those Amras had made the previous Summer when they had gone exploring Eastern lands.

“We divided the lands with Kano,” said Maedhros, pointing at the lines running through the terrains on the East. The uneven line left no doubts who drew it, but Amras swallowed the light remark about ruining his work that way when he noticed his own name.

“What is the meaning of this?”

“You will go south,” stated Maedhros, pointing at the right spot on the map.

Amras blinked and wiped away his hair from his face, then looked at his brother with offense and disbelief.

“You are sending me away,” he said bitterly. “I made a mistake, I wasn’t careful enough and you are sending me away like a child, far from danger.”

“Don’t be silly.” Maedhros shook his head, as if that thought had never crossed his mind. “I was caught because of far more stupid actions. But you said there are good hunting forests on the South, so we thought it a suitable place for you. Besides, we will need supplies,” he added, rolling the map to put it in the tube.

“It’s Morifinwe who enjoys trading, not me,” Amras reminded him. He closed his eyes and winced. Sitting and talking made his head hurt more.

“This the final decision. I am going to present it to the king.” Maedhros tossed the tube over his shoulder. “We’ll talk when I’m back. Now rest,” he smiled warmly and squeezed his brother’s hand, then stood up and left, though Amras was about to object.

The youngest son of Feanor sat upright and tossed the blanket from his knees. He placed his legs carefully on the floor and reached for crutches Alcarino had brought him. The healer said nothing about getting up, but Amras was not going to just let Maedhros leave like that and pass the arrangements to the king.

He pushed himself up on his good leg, but as soon as he leaned on the crutches, he hissed, because his arms hurt more than he anticipated. He made two unsteady steps, but then his arms could no longer support his weight and slipped from the crutches. He fell.

His cheeks burned from humiliation and embarrassment way more than his arms and leg hurt. Amras sat and leaned against the bed. There was no way he could catch up with Maedhros, who was clearly in a hurry and had no time to wait for his youngest brother. Was he really so eager to forget the time of his own weakness that he didn’t even slow his pace? Yes, they began their preparations for travelling East when the Spring came, but those few more days would not make any difference.

Furious, Amras waited a moment, grateful that his brother closed the doors behind him and no one would see him like this from the corridor. He dragged himself back to bed, weak and sore, because moving reminded him about all the cuts and bruises he could ignore as he laid. He left the crutches on the floor and closed his eyes, hoping to sleep through the pounding in his head.

***

Walking quickly proved to be slow, tiring and painful. Though Amras learned to use the crutches quite quickly, his arms were still bothering him and he had to be careful, or else he would risk falling down again. Alcarino warned him to limit walking for a week or two and let his shoulders heal, but Amras had too much to do.

He wasn’t just going to swallow such humiliation. Maedhros could be the eldest and he was the one who took upon himself all the arrangements with Fingolfin, but during their private councils they could all express their opinions. But this time his brothers changed the arrangements at last moment, without even waiting for him to feel well enough to join them.

But firstly, there was a grim responsibility waiting for him – talking to the families of his fallen comrades. Amras had no doubts they already knew, but he felt he owed them to pass the news personally. He knew he survived only because he was mistaken for Maedhros. He was trying not to remember the filthy hands on him and the pain they inflicted, nor his fear when he thought Maedhros would not get him in time and later, when he thought the enemy managed to capture his brother again. He had no doubts nothing would have changed, but he couldn’t help but muse what if he hadn’t fallen off his horse, hadn’t broken his leg, hadn’t...

Amras sighed and got up from his chair, pleased that at least the pounding in his head stopped. He grabbed his crutches and limped to the doors.

***

The camp was buzzing with life. With each Spring day the preparations went forward. The yards were full of wagons that were going to transport their belongings. Caranthir expected the first groups to be ready within a few days. Even though there was no immediate reason to rush, he knew Maedhros wished to go East as soon as possible. It was indeed getting crowded by the lake.

As reluctant as he was, Caranthir had to admit that Maedhros’s decision about giving up the crown was showing positive results. Of course, there were still groups regarding the sons of Feanor and their elves with reluctance, but the majority welcomed the reconciliation with relief. Many families were brought together after long years of separation and they moved to the southern shore of the lake. Additionally, some elves from Finrod’s host liked the lands on the South and as their prince was going to stay in the North, they moved to go with the sons of Feanor.

Caranthir supervised the latest delivery from the Sindar, then went to the forge to pass Curufin their orders. The raw material they brought was of good quality, but it was less than it should have and it would be best for Curufin to decide what to do with it.

“I certainly wasn’t expecting you in here,” he commented at the doorstep as he saw his youngest brother.

Amras was sitting on a chest by the door, watching Curufin with a bored expression he didn’t even bother to conceal. He kept his leg outstretched and looked far from comfortable.

“They tore off the hook from my scabbard,” he replied indifferently. “I can’t repair it myself right now.”

Curufin snorted as if he doubted Amras could ever perform such a task. He didn’t stop working, but he seemed to be displeased with their company.

“Curvo, if you would, we have some stock to organise,” said Caranthir, heading straight to the point.

Curufin nodded and put the scabbard aside. Amras looked impatient and clearly displeased that his brother didn’t finish his work first. Caranthir had seen him earlier, limping around the camp with his hunters and he began to wonder why his brother was in such a hurry.

It took them a while before Curufin decided what to do with all the raw material, as the storages behind his forge were already full and some of it had to be transported elsewhere. When they finally returned to the workshop, Amras was still sitting there. He was so lost in thoughts, busy planning something, that he didn’t even grant his brothers a glance until Caranthir stood over him.

“Are you coming back home with me, or do you intend to sit here?”

Amras jerked and looked up. He kept his arms tightly crossed, resting on his lap.

“Curvo hasn’t finished yet,” he remarked. “I’ll wait.”

“I’ll bring it to you later,” offered Curufin. “It’s not like you need it right now anyway.”

“You overtaxed yourself, didn’t you,” Caranthir summed up, looking at his youngest brother. “Which one hurts more?”

“Left,” admitted Amras reluctantly, clearly not intending to move even for an inch. “I won’t be able to put any weight on it right now.”

Caranthir shook his head in disapproval, then put his arm around his brother and pulled him up from the chest. He took one of his crutches and slowly, step by step, they made their way to the house. He could see Amras’s right arm shaking with effort and once again Caranthir wondered what made him move so much, as it clearly served him ill.

Amras sat down on his bed with relief and pulled up his broken leg, but then he asked his brother to pass him a notebook and a quill. Undisturbed by the fact that he still had company, he started writing something down. He stopped only when his brother sat beside him and glanced at his notes with interest.

“Alright.” Caranthir crossed his arms and his keen eyes rested on Amras. “Care to tell me what are you up to?”

His youngest brother hesitated for a moment, then nodded. And answered.

[papita474]

Oh that was so swett of you,thank you <'3

My camera its not the best,but I tried to take a close up photo so you can see the details :3

I havent keep doing it bc im too lazy to do background and as you said THEYRE ANNOYING,and also started a new drawing BUT i will finish it,in some point...🤨👍

Thanks once againg jjsjs,yes I try to give everyone a personal de desing,although i have change some things,mae mags for example,have the very first desing i made for them. And thanks for pointing out Maes nose,i always loved it :)

Take some more Nelyos noses for ya sjjss

Ok this thing is gonna take my whole day,bc u need to make the background 🥲