#isildurposting

[aadmelioraa]

i'm being extremely normal about this btw

[insufficient-earth-skills]

@aadmelioraa

Listen I have Thoughts and Feelings about the tunic, not least of all that it is the colour of the beach, of the shore where ships strand -

[ao3feed-tolkien]

Moonrise

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/RIgxS39

by greenwillow

Valandil watches Isildur carry on in the wake of his mother’s loss.

Words: 1908, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 7 of Isildurposting

Fandoms: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (TV 2022)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Isildur (Tolkien), Valandil (The Rings of Power)

Relationships: Isildur (Tolkien)/Valandil (The Rings of Power)

Additional Tags: Character Study, Parent Death, Grief/Mourning, effects of trauma, Family Dynamics, Pre-Canon, Friendship

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/RIgxS39

[aadmelioraa]

him <3

[aadmelioraa]

staring deeply, slack-jawed, into your bro's eyes during yet another heated, physically escalating, definitely not homoerotic semi-private argument in low lighting...just valandur things <3

[aadmelioraa]

LOLOLOLOL

...you are not wrong

me on my way to work thinking about my favorite blorbos giggling and holding hands and being silly and goofy

[aadmelioraa]

spotify wrapped is kinda mean this year, guys :/

[aadmelioraa]

Monday Morning thought - gosh do you ever think of Isildur as a Tolkienesque Prometheus-figure. Like the ring as the fire but also the sapling as the fire and the fucking volcano presence in both narratives.

I'm afraid if I start actually reading these books I'll die a death-induced-by-foaming-at-the-mouth-over-literary-characters.

OOOOH!! I hadn't thought about that exact comparison before but it's interesting because rather than stealing in defiance of divinity, when it comes to the fruit of Nimloth Isildur is sort of stealing…out of devotion to the divine? Or in defiance of a particular demigod, who wanted the tree destroyed? But both his choice and Prometheus' can absolutely be framed as the epitome of human striving, reaching with every bit of strength for better things, providing hope for others at great personal cost...and then when it comes to keeping the ring, 100% is a similar instance of unintended tragic consequences. Also the volcano stuff...yeah, shit.

You got me all worked up about the symbolism angle here, so apologies for what follows. The white tree of Númenor is a direct descendent of Telperion, the elder of two trees of Valinor, whose light is used to create the moon after the tree itself is destroyed by Morgoth…Isildur, servant of the moon, is essentially (as in, by his essence) bound to this living thing, his life and its life are tied up in each other for almost 200 years, and he refuses to let the line of the tree end, it’s like a fucking compulsion for him from the initial instance…there’s something about his unquestioning commitment that makes me insane. Stealing the fruit in the first place is such a batshit crazy thing to do, no one asked him to do it, no one said it had to be done, he just fucking left home in the middle of the night on a suicide mission, he may not have even known why but he knew he had to save a piece of this tree. It's fucking unhinged!! He almost DIES…he should have died!! But then the fruit of the tree takes root, and it lives, and so he lives. And that cycle is repeated, Isildur brings the sapling to Middle-earth and plants it in the city where his family makes their home. Then he saves a sapling of that tree when Sauron attacks them there (I imagine this is nearly as reckless a situation as the first one, but JRRT was short on the details here as with most things from this period). Looking at it from Sauron’s POV, poor little dark lord just can't catch a break, maybe all he really wants is this tree gone and a weird feral king with a very specific gardening fixation refuses to let that happen. Sauron lost his fair form when Númenor went under, but Isildur and his family and this fucking tree make it out, and continue to survive...if I were Sauron I might take that personally too lmao. 

Isildur faces so many defeats and losses between the time he steals the fruit in Númenor and his own death (and the loss of the ring), but he ensures the sapling makes it out every time. The last time he plants it, it's in memory of his brother (I won’t cry about this, I won’t cry about this, I won’t). Then Anárion’s line survives, along with the line of the tree, in Gondor, and they're the stewards who hold off the forces of Mordor for generations while everyone else is off doing their own shit. 

Ultimately, Isildur is someone who is trying to make the right choices all the time, and the worst part is he does make them consistently, even later in his life, based on the information he has access to, only to die alone tragically, knowing most of the people who he loves have died too. He kept the ring as WEREGILD, before anybody comes into my notifications with snark and pj!Elrond memes…I am forever bitter that decision was framed in the movies as anything other than the choice of a broken-hearted man trying to do right by his people and the loved ones he’d lost.

Anyway, I would love to hear if you do read the books, I have been foaming the mouth over these characters for two decades off and on and I'm still going strong...not sure if that's more a recommendation or a warning lol. I got very off topic here, sorry lol. He’s just so [incoherent screaming]

[aadmelioraa]

i just think he's neat

[aadmelioraa]

following up on my recent isildur meta(ish) post, here is a selection of quotes i adore from that interview with actual isildur defense squad captain maxim baldry:

on isildur's relationship with valandil:

on isildur, his mother, and grief:

on the burden of expectations in playing isildur:

on isildur's heroic arc:

and a very honorable mention to the part where he addresses the "isildur's heir" of it all mostly by talking about berek but remembering to mention romance in the same answer:

[aadmelioraa]

i am suffering but at least i am seen @wildwren

[aadmelioraa]

For the fic title game, The End of Death 👀

Third Age Isildur fic featuring an interwoven series of past conversations between Isildur and Anárion that range from their childhood in Númenor to the years of the Last Alliance in Middle-earth. In the present timeline, Isildur plants the seedling of the White Tree in Minas Anor in Anárion's memory as he contemplates loss, mortality, duty, and legacy. 

[aadmelioraa]

Unhinged character bingo: THE BLORBO

THE BLORBO TO END ALL BLORBOS...ISILDUR MY BELOVED

[aadmelioraa]

i am h u r t i n g myself with this fic, my goddddd

[aadmelioraa]

x

i have been called out by @insufficient-earth-skills but in my defense i am trying soooooo hard to be normal about him

[aadmelioraa]

having isildur fic thoughts once more, pray for me