#is this anti thingol

[and-the-times-we-had]

Sometimes I see posts on here about how the sons of Feanor should have been trying to get the remaining two silmarils from morgoth instead of attacking doriath/Sirion for luthien's silmaril but like? they did. that was the whole point of the union of maedhros and the nirnaeth arnoediad. it didn't work. like. that's the whole tragedy right there. they tried (or at least maedhros tried) to do the right thing and failed dramatically. I'm not saying it makes the kinslayings the right choice, but I think it's a bit disingenuous to act like attacking morgoth wasn't something they considered. and also? they weren't the only ones making poor silmaril related life choices at that point. like thingol had no reason and no right to be keeping the thing. melian even recommended giving it to the sons of Feanor pre-nirnaeth. thingol had to have known the trouble that the silmaril would bring and he kept it anyways.

[serene-faerie]

What she says: I’m fine.

What she means: The constant woobification of Fëanor and his sons and the constant Noldor bias in the fandom has really made it difficult for me to actually enjoy the Fëanorians and most of the Noldor as characters. It really doesn’t help that a lot of people like to demonize the Sindar for so many reasons. These fans won’t extend the same grace they give to the Fëanorians to Sindarin characters like Thingol, who made mistakes but at least tried to make amends for them, unlike Fëanor and his sons. In addition, their need to demonize Beren and Lúthien is honestly appalling, because it shows a fundamental misunderstanding of their story and the broader themes of the Silmarillion— that there is hope in the world that’s worth fighting for. And furthermore, the constant demonization and victim-blaming of Dior and Elwing is genuinely unsettling, especially when the Fëanorians are pitied for the crimes they committed. Lastly, their obsession with property rights and the Silmarils, and their willingness to justify the Kinslayings shows that these people have not truly read or understood the text, and they probably don’t want to properly understand it.

[eloquentsisyphianturmoil]

[eri-pl]

Thank you!

Also, in a random brain error I missed Elwing there. Maybe let's not discuss her, as our opinions vary much. Anyway Bilbo can talk to her too. And a lot of geese swans as a bonus.

I feel like Bilbo would teach the elves of Rivendell the concept of a mathom with the express purpose of oh so politely asking them over dinner how were the Silmarils not a mathom

[artist-owl]

so I've seen a lot of the "Fëanorian lisping their Sindarin" jokes, but the thing is, Sindarin has the þ sound. They call themselves Thindrim. His name is Thingol.

So I propose a new kind of guy: anti-Fëanorian who sá-sís their Sindarin. Probably a Nolofinwean who crossed the Ice lbr.

"Sose ship-burners will pay! Sey abandoned us just like sat, I cannot believe sey would do sat!"

Galadriel, who changed her dialect to Noldorin Quenya specifically because it was more different than Fëanor's Quenya than her native Telerin was, in Doriath absolutely torn because on the one hand fuck Fëanor but on the other hand she doesn’t want to piss off her host and also her Sinda crush is right there...

It gets funnier the longer it goes on. Some ex-Mithrim soldier living in Rivendell staunchly refusing to ever pronounce the þ despite the fact that Fëanor has been dead half a millennia longer than Elrond has been alive.

[astral-aromance]

Controversial Silmpost time

I don't blame Elwing for not returning the Silmaril. She was really nothing more than a child. I also can't really blame Dior for the same reason (though he is more complicated, because if he was a mannish child and not half-elven because of Luthien's Choice, he was fully grown at 34). But Thingol and Luthien? Oh yes. Yes, I blame them.

They knew damn well what would happen eventually, Luthien even experienced the Fëanorians at their worst 1st hand, almost getting forced into a marriage all for the sake of the Silmarils. She knew that they'd do ANYTHING, even to their own friend and cousin, because she saw it. They even tried to kill her and Beren. They knew the story of Alqualondë. They knew. But they willingly kept that thing around their family, their *children* even knowing full well that it would likely be the death of them. Heck, Luthien, and Beren aged and died prematurely because of the presence of that thing, and she yet still gave it to her young son with small children while knowing that the Girdle was gone.

Of course, the Fëanorians had no right to do what they did, that goes without saying. But Thingol, Luthien, and Beren really should have known better. Anti-Fëanorian or Anti-Sindar, there is simply no denying that the Elders of the royal line of Doriath played a huge role in the decimation of the kingdom and Sirion later.

They are certainly not blameless in the whole thing. It's more like a 75% vs 25% thing rather than 50/50, but certainly not negligible enough to be glossed over or ignored.

In the end, my question is just... If you know that a fire will eventually kill you if you don't turn off the stove, despite it having been very difficult to light it, why would you deliberately leave it on, even if the fire warned you multiple times that you should turn it off?

[stilltrails]

I assume Thingol and Eol were reborn in Valinor, which is quite cruel when you think of it because all they wanted was to remain in their homeland. Eol made an entire anti-colonialist speech when he was brought to Gondolin, Thingol being Thingol explains a lot, but neither of these two actually wanted to leave Middle Earth.

They were about in their actions, and to be killed and reborn in a world that they did not want to be in, where they consider their colonizers to rule?

idk i think about this a lot. same with the other Sindar/Teleri (yes, even Elwing).

[maironsbigboobs]

Eöl lore as mentioned in the notes of this fic:

First of all, for context, I think Thingol's court was very lively and prior to the First Battle, there was generally a lot of coming and going and different factions competing. The establishment of the Girdle made a lot of the factions redundant.

Some of the factions in Menegroth’s court:

Pro-settlement in Doriath (the largest group)

Pro-Nomadic Court (second largest)

‘We should go back over Ered Luin’

‘The King's court should be in Mithrim or Falas’

Fuck You, I don't want a king (but I'm staying here anyway)

What if we made Círdan King? (Círdan said no)

Eöl’s mother was one of the first metal-smiths among the Teleri. She was one of the older members of the group and therefore became very highly respected and was very vocal and firm in her opinions. Her most adamant opinion? They didn't need a maia as queen.

She was very anti-Ainur, after what she perceived as the Valar doing nothing to help find Elwë. They take the guy to Valinor and back, but can't spare a few minutes to use their power to find him in the forest? Disappointing.

She is a prominent and controversial figure in Iathrim politics and amassing a small but vocal following. She believes they should go back across the mountains and find the Avari and join back with them - life was better then, at least as she remembers it. And her opinion - the Iathrim should not be ruled by a maiar, even as a consort. She thinks Thingol should have stepped down on his marriage. This is a fairly unpopular opinion; even if people have their doubts about Melian in the beginning, Thingol is so beloved they gave up Valinor for him.

As soon as Eöl comes of age, she and her followers leave Doriath. They go over the mountains, and none of them are ever seen again. Eöl does not cope well with this.

This is what prompts him to ask Thingol for the stewardship of Nan Elmoth - he can't be around all these people who in his mind didn't support his mother. The lack of action of Thingol and Melian to prevent a portion of their people going missing upsets and angers him. He has his own resentments of Thingol - he dislikes being ruled as a rule (pun unintended) and he takes perceived slights very seriously, so when he didn't enjoy the same status and influence as his mother in Menegroth, he was displeased.

So Eöl goes wandering, and wanders into Nan Elmoth. He's entranced. It's everything he's ever wanted. And that's why he makes a deal with Thingol to have it for himself. Thingol agrees to make the deal out of the respect he had for Eöl's mother, but Eöl doesn't see it that way.

[cycas]

Oropher anon again... *shows license to ramble further*

Thank you for bringing the bits and pieces I collected here and there in a bigger context. There are many new aspects I did not consider. I have yet to sort my thoughts to send you more or less coherent questions.

For some reason, I find him fascinating, the isolationist Elvenking who sacrificed so much, despite not having much to do with the "outside world".

I read the part about moving away from the influence of Galadriel and Celeborn, and I was wondering what it was that drove him off. Like you said, Lórien was not their permanent residence. And even after it became their permanent residence, Galadriel and Celeborn seemed to have lived rather reclusively as well. Also, the Galadhrim were not known for annoying their direct neighbors, were they?

Who do you think Oropher did primarily have issues with, Galadriel, the powerhungry Noldo eco-terrorist who planted Mallorn trees from seeds she brought from Valinor, or Celeborn, her always-forgotten arm candy?

I rambled here about Oropher's strategy at Dagorlad and here about Oropher within (or without) Gil-galad's command.

I don't agree that Celeborn and Galadriel lived reclusively. I think that impression derives from the Fellowship of the Ring, when Lorien really has no close neighbours left, and appears as a wonderful hidden respite from the darkness spreading from Mordor and Isengard. By that time, as you say, Galadriel is sitting in Lorien, defending it from Dol Guldur, and although we hear rather less about his actions, presumably Celeborn was doing something similar. But that's the very end of the story, and long after Oropher had fallen out of it.

Celeborn and Galadriel (along with Celebrimbor) founded Eregion. Galadriel at least was good friends with the House of Durin, and travelled through their halls to visit Amdir in Lorien.

But they also lived in Lindon, the Hills of Evendim, and Belfalas, and when Aldarion came to Middle-earth, he sailed up the river Gwathlo and... met Galadriel and Celeborn there, too. So, I think they have been all over the place, and love to travel! If Oropher thought that they might come visiting him if they were given even the slightest encouragement, he may have had a point.

Personally, I rather like the idea that even though Oropher and Celeborn were both lords of Doriath, what Oropher dislikes about Celeborn is less the ethnicity of his wife, and more his enfuriating Celeborn-ness.

Celeborn is called The Wise, and I rather like the idea that he's perhaps generally rather reasoned and measured in his decision-making. I mean, I know he was somewhat rude to Gimli, but arguably, not as rude as Thranduil was to Gloin.

So, maybe Celeborn is just a bit slow and thoughtful, and Oropher is a bit more excitable and decisive, and they've been riling one another up the wrong way for thousands of years before ever Galadriel came on the scene?

I find that a more interesting kind of conflict than Oropher just being even more anti-Noldor than Thingol. After all, Galadriel did live in Doriath and was apparently welcome there.

[serene-faerie]

Every time a hardcore Fëanorian apologist posts a bad take on Thingol, Elwing, Dior, Beren, Lúthien, and the Sindar in general, a puppy cries and an angel loses their wings.

[imfromthemiddlekingdom]

I’d be the first to admit I can be very biased and stubborn when it comes to characters I relate to, just look at my unapologetic defense of Feanor and his sons, but I’ve never sent anyone death threats and rape threats over them not agreeing with me on my interpretations of a character. Like I don’t exactly like Indis but I’ve never went out of my way to send anon hate to people who love her. I despise Thingol but I can see where he comes from in regard to the Noldor and have never sent any anon hate to people who hate Feanor and his kin.

Most fandoms I’ve been in have had so called “teams” that people root for yet never in my many years in fandom spaces have I seen a fandom as toxic and unwilling to engage in polite discourse as the HoTD fandom. Even the Star Wars fandom with all its media illiteracy doesn’t have the level of hate present in the HoTD fandom.

I’ve made many “controversial” posts about many things in many fandoms yet I’ve never once received death and rape threats over it until I started posting about my opinions regarding HoTD. Even my most controversial Silmarillion posts didn’t warrant any anon hate yet my inbox has been filled to the brink with anon hate regarding my “wrong analysis” within this fandom. Idk if it’s because the demographic of people who are staunchly team black tend to be younger teens and adults who feel like any opinion that attacks their favorites is an attack on them or because the show writers are encouraging the black and white thinking of one side is good and the other side is evil, but it’s quite tiring engaging in this fandom when most people attack anyone who’s opinions don’t align with their own.

Now I’m not saying Team Black Stans are the only one engaging in such uncouth behaviors but the majority of people I’ve seen being bullied off this site have been people who are Team Green or just Alicent Stans.

When did the internet etiquette of don’t like don’t read/block and move on, stop being practiced? It isn’t hard to just scroll down when you see posts you disagree with or just block the account with opinions that you find infuriating. It’s better for everyone’s mental health and internet experience if people just blocked and moved on instead of sending 10 anons in an hour telling me to kill myself or how I should be raped because I happen to enjoy Aegon as a character.

These people aren’t real! Their fictional! I like Feanor because I like him and I find him interesting. It doesn’t mean I want to go out and start killing people to get back stolen property lmao. And just because I enjoy team green far more than team black doesn’t mean I’m going to one day decide that I should start assaulting people. 

And don’t get me started on the people who deliberately go onto correctly tagged posts to start a fight. Why do you want to argue so badly!!!! Join a debate team if you want to argue with people who also want to argue with you! There’s no need for you to scroll through a tag that is going to make you angry just to start a fight. I don’t go into the anti-Jedi tags and start scrolling. I don’t engage in media that upsets me if I can help it. My internet experience is curated to make me happy, and if I know the anti team green tag would make me angry, I don’t go scrolling through it to start arguments with people I’ve never met and will never meet and who’s opinions really don’t mean jack shit to me.

[thelordofgifs]

absolutely loved the new part of tfs!! sorry for not sending the ask earlier <3

maedhros!! beloved!! am i imagining the paralles with one of earlier installments? where thingol had him chained?? with maglor wounded?? but now there's no maglor because maedhros IS what wounded him and aaaahhhhhh WHY are you doing this to me

fingon actively avoiding executing curufin is hilarious. the house of feanor will go lenghts to fulfill their oath and meanwhile fingon is like "if i ignore it it didn't happen"

also love the potential for further fingon and maedhros development - will maedhros be angry with fingon not telling him? will there be "what other secrets are you keeping from me" scene? because wouldn't that be the perfect opportunity to say "i promised thingol to execute your other brother"

curufin... baby... he changed so much over the course of the fic. i hate him a lot but someone please give it a hug. also love how he and maglor are now on a roadtrip. roadtrips are a thing in this fic i see

and also. do it. kill maglor. i'll watch. you've been dragging him half alive for like 10 chapters of the fic. do you really think it would be satisfying to let him die?

and love mandos in this one. he's just. regretting the revival for elves isn't mandatory. regretting all of his life choices actually.

anyways i love this fic a lot, and your writing is amazing as always <3

Ahhh you are the sweetest and I love you to pieces!! You don’t need to apologise for not sending the ask earlier don’t be silly – this is such a lovely ask to see ❤️❤️

You are very much Not imagining the parallels with the chaining! Also of course he was rather famously shackled on Thangorodrim and Fingon is very unhappy about having to chain him up now :(

ok so the thing with Fingon is. he is Fully Convinced that he is the only sensible guy in Himring atm and he’s… he’s so wrong about this?? And he doesn’t even realise?? Now that we’re coming to the end of arc 2 (one more part!!) it’s easier to look back over it and say that the main focus of the last nine parts has been Fëanorian Melodrama, but that doesn’t mean Fingon doesn’t have plenty of character stuff he will need to work out.

and yes Plans coming up for Curufin and Maglor hehe!! Poor Curufin keeps having to go on road trips. He is so sick of road trips.

bestie wdym “ten chapters” Maglor has been badly injured in some way or another since part ONE. I might kill him. I might not. It depends. (It doesn’t actually I already know what I’m going to do.) he’s such a pincushion!! Why does he keep doing that!!

hehe am very glad you liked Mandos here! Between Lúthien and Finrod he’s just kind of like “you can’t… you can’t DO that…” The whole “Finrod refuses to leave Mandos” was something I pondered for a while before I actually decided to go down that route. Firstly I am always very scared of writing Finrod: he’s such a complicated and intimidating character!! And secondly I didn’t want to give him an edgy anti-Valar arc because that’s not what he’s doing exactly. He is (kind of) grateful for the chance to be re-embodied. But I need Celegorm’s death to have continuing ripple effects and once Finrod jumped into the story I realised this might be a good and thematically relevant way of doing it. And at some point I want to start digging into politics in Aman too, which makes the canon divergence important! (Hint hint who do you think might be showing up eventually 👀)

[searchingforserendipity25]

Curufin!

Character Ask Game 💚🤍🖤

Thank you @welcomingdisaster! :)

Give me a character and I will give you my thoughts on

Curufin

one aspect about them i love 

Favourite Daughter Syndrome, and committed to it. 

one aspect i wish more people understood about them

As much Aredhel’s friend as Celegorm or Caranthir. Well-spoken and very compelling; very strongly attuned to everyone's position and presentation in any conversation, and when he talks/acts it's very deliberately a give-take-overcome situation, both in Nargothrond and confronting Beren and Lúthien.

Very reactive, aware of other people's possible reactions. Shows a remarkable talent in slipping in and saying the correct thing at the correct time with fantastic oration skills. These are good qualities and not evil in themselves! It's what he uses them for that's the problem.

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character

Genuinely liked Telchar more than most elves, including his brothers. A true friendship of like minds, soul sisters of the craft, bffs of the forge. Celebrimbor wants what they have (and he gets it with Narvi, but not after pining after a number of cool dwarrows and having his hopes for a partnership dashed.) 

as well as

one character i love seeing them interact with

Finrod. Everything about the bonds of betrayal and gratitude and betrayal again, mutual attraction and mutual (dis)illusionment, a far clearer mutual understanding than either of them wants to admit, both regarding the best and the worst parts of their characters…

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more

Aredhel! Again, I find their friendship fascinating.

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have that involve them and one other character

Felt pretty bad - as in, mind-breaking guilt very badly managed - about telling Eöl where Aredhel and Maeglin were going, in hindsight; but genuinely thought this was a political move on Aredhel’s part at the time.

Marry a Sindarin lord, start thawing Turgon’s anger about her disappearance by presenting her cute kid, and then her husband shows up and boom! diplomacy happens. There’s a half-Noldo with a feet in Nan Elmoth. Not a bad choice, as far as he's concerned; Finrod and his siblings have Thingol’s favour, the Feanorians are all out, where does that leave Fingolfin and his children in terms of footing?  Eöl’s chase seems consistent to what he knows of Aredhel - hardly the first time she got an idea in her head and left others behind in the assumption they’d do what she planned them to do.

He didn’t at all think she did it on purpose for mere political convenience - Aredhel only does her own convenience, mostly, and power plays of the polis kind aren't her thing. But he knows how she chafes at restriction and longs for vastness, control, agency and liberty, and if she fell in love with a treacherous sentient forest, well, it’s not that surprising. 

Curufin’s failure is always in underestimating everyone else. The forest gripped Aredhel not the other way around. 

Quite envious that Turgon got to kill Eöl - but also very glad that he wasn’t the one to do it and deal with the consequences to his network in Himlad and in the dwarrow kingdoms.

Knowing Eöl, he suspected the consequences would be quite terrible; would not have been surprised at the Doom he cast over Gondolin, and indeed counted on it and mentally scrapped Gondolin as any kind of use afterwards (went so far as to be glad that they weren't joining the Union, and lowkey blamed them for the defeat and how it changed their plans/added another Doom).

If Aredhel and Maeglin had stayed in Himlad, Curufin would have done so much for them (derrogatory but mostly well intended). The coup of Nan Elmoth by Maeglin’s regents would be truly a tale for the ages (a horror tale). Strangling vines, poisonous ponds, anti-colonialist spiders, Aredhel vs Mablung in a fight for survival in the wilds when Thingol sends someone to figure out what’s going on, Maeglin running around with a cursed blade - we could have had it all! 

[crownedwithstars]

That's kind of the point of the story of Fëanor, though. If it's unacceptable, it's because tragedies usually are. Fëanor's corruption, the way all his potential goes to waste because he won't let go of the Silmarils, tracks with Tolkien's themes of hubris, the Fall, and how power corrupts, and it's so compelling because he could have chosen to save himself but wouldn't. He chooses/prioritises his property over giving back to the society that nurtured him in its darkest hour, his own sons' lives, his family, and the lives of Teleri. Let him be awful! Let him be greedy! Let him go down in a blaze of infamy! Fëanor is nothing if not extra.

Moreover, I'm not sure where the idea comes that, prior to the Kinslaying, Fëanor's property is treated as public or that his right is undermined. What actually happens is that Yavanna declares the Silmarils are the only thing that could still restore the Trees, Fëanor is asked - asked, not demanded - if he would give them up (the only one forceful in this scene is Tulkas but he is redressed by Aulë), he says no, and the Valar accept his decision. As the one who made the Trees in the beginning and thus making it possible for the Silmarils to be made in the first place, Yavanna does have a right to ask, and indeed she does nothing but state what it would take to restore the Trees. Considering the Trees are not only what sustains life in Valinor but are also such powerful cultural and maybe even spiritual symbols that their images continue to be reproduced and adopted as standards even by people who never saw the actual living Trees, and how their loss is mourned even thousands of years later, the Valar have no choice but to at least ask if Fëanor will permit them to be restored, otherwise they are doing wrong against everyone else who lives in Valinor. Obviously, the question about giving up the Silmarils could have been posed in a much kinder way, but considering Fëanor's state of mind at this point, the tone and wording of the question would not have mattered.

Like I said in a previous post, Thingol and the Dwarves (and of course Morgoth) fall prey to that same spell of lust for the Silmarils, and I think this also proves that possessing even one of them is more than anyone except maybe Eärendil can handle. I'd wager at this point the Valar know this too, because what do they do when a Silmaril comes to Valinor? They set it up in the sky, where it will be forever beyond everyone's reach but can still be seen and appreciated as a memory of the Light that was before. (Also I don't think they ever lost interest in Middle-earth or that it was restored specifically by the Silmaril: their hands were tied by the Oath and the Doom of the Noldor. They can't and won't interfere with free will or its consequences, which the Exile and all following events is. I think they are allowed finally to intervene because Eärendil was built in as a fail-safe by Ilúvatar, as an anti-Fëanor so to speak.)

I also have to disagree with the idea that the narrative associates power with morality. If anything, Tolkien's message is about how power corrupts. Also stuff could be said whether one can ever satisfactorily apply modern day morals or property law to a text supposedly describing difficult moral questions of a very ancient, hierarchical and alien society where divine and satanic powers are not only proven facts but actual active forces and the nature of the world is recognised as fundamentally Marred.

As for what is the payoff for Fëanor giving up the Silmarils, if restoring the Trees is not good enough? Saving his soul.

Not going to lie, I find it weird and off-putting when people characterize Feanor (& sons) desire to reclaim the silmarils as 'greed'. Like.

Is it greedy to want your own shit back? Like is it outrageous to try to reclaim your own property that has been stolen AT MINIMUM once, and in one case twice, and in the ultimate end stolen and then subsequently taken as war booty by a neglegent if not outright hostile force? Is 'greed' the word you really want to use? Is that a word you would use you you translated the situation into something of your own? If someone stole your bike, or your wallet, or a piece of art that you made, and you expected it to be returned to you... would you want to be called 'greedy' for that?

idk there's just something weird about wanting to reclaim objects that are both a) important representations of calaquendi noldor culture and craft and b) a literal embodiment of the divine light that recalls better being described as excessive and unreasonable that rubs me the wrong way.

Just to be clear: I am not endorsing acts of violence to meet the above goals! But 'greed' does not denote excessive force or unjust means! It denotes unjust desire. Characterizing Feanor's drive to reclaim the silmarils as greed means that the desire itself is unjustifiable or unreasonable.

[middle-earth-mythopoeia]

I know it’s probably been said before, but Gimli would be SO popular in Valinor:

- He’s Legolas’ best friend, obviously, and Legolas won’t let you forget it—he’s constantly telling people about Gimli’s accomplishments in the War of the Ring, and how they met, and how they became friends, and their adorable Middle-earth road trip

- He’s Frodo’s and Sam’s friend, and Bilbo went on the quest of Erebor with Gimli’s father, so Bilbo would obviously dote on him—basically all three Ringbearers adore him

- Galadriel absolutely loves him, obviously, and she’d probably take him everywhere with her, and help him feel at ease in an unfamiliar land, and if Gimli ever started feeling homesick, she would talk to him about the starlight on Kheled-zâram; she understands missing Middle-earth

- Aulë would be SO EXCITED TO MEET HIM! He hasn’t seen a Dwarf in who knows how long—let him spend time with his child!!!!!!!!! They would have so much in common, they could go exploring caves in the Pelóri together and talk about how pretty the rocks are

- Celebrimbor also hasn’t seen a Dwarf in ages—they’d have so much to talk about! Gimli would get to hear stories about Narvi and what Khazad-dûm was like at its height! They could compose new verses to Gimli’s song about it

- Finrod would be obsessed with him, like, can you even imagine? Finrod was such close friends with the Dwarves that they gave him a name in Khuzdul, and this Dwarf specifically is friends with his sister AND fought against Sauron in the War of the Ring? He’d be jumping for joy! Plus Finrod also loves caves, so they’d have a great time talking about the ideal cave city 

- Literally everybody would be fighting over who gets to hang out with Gimli

- Legolas is over in the corner like, hello, he’s MY best friend, let ME spend time with him!

[serene-faerie]

This may come as a surprise to some people, but before I fully joined the Silm fandom, I was initially sympathetic to Fëanor and his sons

When I read the Silm for the first time, I actually found the tragedy of the Fëanorians quite compelling. As someone who appreciates Shakespearean tragedies, I was moved by the downfall of Fëanor and his sons. I lamented their tragic choices, and felt sad to see these once-great Elves fall so low

But then I began seeing too much unironic Fëanorian apologia online. Worse, it was always at the detriment to the Sindar characters, who are my actual favorites. I saw how so many people were so harsh on characters like Thingol, Dior, and Elwing, how they hated Beren and Lúthien, yet always had an excuse for the worst of the Fëanorian crimes— like they were trying to justify every horrible thing they did

It didn’t happen immediately, but I gradually stopped appreciating the downfall of Fëanor and his sons. The more Fëanorian apologia and hatred of the Sindar I saw, and the more justifications I saw for the Kinslayings, the more it drove me away from truly liking the Fëanorians. Not even blocking could truly help me avoid some of those takes either

Now? I don’t know if I can say that I truly hate the Fëanorians and the Noldor. I don’t care about the tragedy of the Fëanorians anymore. I don’t even care about any of the Fëanorians now. I guess you could say that I’m just tired of them, though my feelings are certainly bordering on hatred as well

I’m just going to step back from the Silm fandom for a bit, for the sake of my own well-being. I’m just so tired of seeing everything revolve around the Fëanorians, and I don’t want it to start making me hate the book as well