#slime!sauron

[angel-e-v-a]

Presenting the Not so Merry Adventures, starring Sauron as... whatever that thing is.

[stardustandtwilight]

The thing about watching Fellowship of the Ring after Rings of Power is that I can't help but imagine Sauron being like 'shit fuck not again' when Isildur cuts the ring from his hand and his spirit explodes from his body lol

[sauronism]

middle-earth party at my place :

everyone else : FREE DRINKS and SNACKS + all access to the house

sauron : 10000$ entry fees + remain quiet and unspoken. only allowed to observe. + not allowed near the house + a 1$ for one drop of drinks.

[thelegolashairappreciationclub]

Maedhros: *pulls up to barad eithel riding one of these.*

Fingolfin:... I know you gave ours back but... you dont need to resort to stealing beasts from the enemy. I can provide you a horse.

Maedhros: no, it works for The Brand (TM).

Fingolfin: *deadpan* The brand of extremely reckless and dangerous fools?

Fingon: *sprinting from around the corner* I W A N T O N E I M M E D I A T E L Y.

Maedhros: yes, exactly.

I've recently seen a video about hypothetical carnivorous horses, and I was just thinking- What if horses in Angband weren't normal, docile herbivores? What if they were twisted, corrupted things, all too-sharp teeth peeled back in an almost cruel grin? Melkor bent all sorts of creatures to his will, breaking and reshaping them into whatever malicious war ustensils he wanted. That's how Orcs came into being; the aftermath of prolonged torment, mutilation and corruption of Elves. It's implied that's what happened to many other beings. So why wouldn't he do that to horses as well? Surely, having a mount that bites and tears through the flesh of the enemies, a mount that grows thirsty at the sight of blood, is more useful -and admittedly more aesthetically pleasing- to a Dark Lord.

Anyway, here are some amazing works included in the video I saw:

[bamsywrites]

And Comes Dawn.

Pairing: sauron/halbrand x reader, more pairings in the future to be tagged

Summary: In all beings, there exists darkness. when the deciver finds one who seems to defy this, he becomes obsessed with finding it within her. and if he can't find it, he will ruin her himself.

Tags/Warnings: clichés abound, opposites attract, sauron being evil but also hot but also evil, no use of y/n. This is pretty barebones. There's not much to tag, I don't think.

Notes: there was a lot of interest in this when I made a post. This is not super duper long and a Lil choppy but I wanna see what people think. Lemme know if you like it. If I should continue it. I have a lot of ideas. It's all written and edited on my phone so I'm sorry if it looks bad or mistakes were made.

Series Masterlist

The wind from the sea felt nice on his face. After so many years spent as nothing more than mud and slime, it was nice to feel. Feel anything. Freedom, independence, revenge. His plan to create order and heal the world would come to fruition. Being stuck on a ship with these men was worth that price. They were like bugs. If he wanted to, he could squash them and feel nothing. Though there was one who spoke to him kindly as a mentor would, and there was the ever so slight stirring of emotions he presumed were long dead. The old man was enough to make him question what it was he desired. Did he want to be good? Did he want a fresh start? What about his plans? The desire for order was there, the want to heal the world and bring peace, but would he get that through evil, through deceit and violence? Or could that be obtained another way? He continued to stare over the vast ocean as the wheels in his head turned, and he waged a war inside himself.

"It's beautiful, is it not?" A voice broke through the silence of the night.

He turned sharply, greeted by the image of a young woman. You were beautiful. He noticed it right away. Never had he looked at a human and thought they were beautiful. The thought was usually reserved for elves, but you were different. He could tell just by looking. You were soft, gentle, pure. There was a light to you that permeated all of your features.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to intrude. We have more food tonight than expected, and you had been on your own so long before finding us. I supposed you might be hungry." You held up a bowl for him, which he accepted with a nod.

"Thank you. I don't think we've been introduced. I'm Halbrand."

You smiled softly back at him, giving him your name and taking a few small steps towards him. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

He watched you. It was curious. Everyone here was gruff and rude, not wanting to help a stranger, yet you brought him a bowl of soup instead of keeping it for yourself. He watched as you looked up at the stars and how they were reflected back in your eyes. Humans didn't often intrigue him, but you did.

He leaned back against the railing of the boat with his arms crossed, but before he could speak to ask his question, you spoke.

"The stars are beautiful, aren't they? The light against the immense darkness. It reminds us that there is light in all things. Even in the darkest of times, there is hope."

"Your people were just slaughtered by orcs. You're on the run. Hope in the stars seems pretty useless." His eyes watched you with keen interest.

"Hope is never useless. Without it, all is lost." The earnestness in your voice further fueled his curiosity.

"And what do you hope for in times like this?"

"A new start. A place to start fresh..."

"Yes," he interrupted, "That is what all hope for, but what do you hope a new place or fresh start will do? What do you want from it?"

"I want a safe place to lay my head. I want to live without shame. I want fresh air and to grow my food and I want music and I want laughter. I want to drink tea with my friends. I want to love and feel the wind on my face. I want happiness. I want peace." You smiled and closed your eyes as you pictured this serene future.

He watched you, his brows furrowed. You were odd, but he wasn't sure if that was a bad thing as of yet.

"You have a lot of this hope. It's almost oozing out of you. I can almost taste it." He took a step towards you. "As if there is no evil out there."

"There is evil, yes, but there is good. Do we despair because there is evil or have hope because there is good? I do not think there is truly anything that is created evil. Evil is only when the good is taken from someone, and if you're able to take it, then it's able to be taken back." Your eyes had opened, and you looked up at him.

"I doubt you'd believe that if you knew the evil I'd done."

"Thousands of years ago, the people of the southlands sided with Morgoth. Our ancestors fought alongside the most evil being to ever exist. Most would say that the things our people did were deplorable and worthy of the worst shame. But I look upon my home, I look upon the people I have grown with, and I do not see evil. The people here, I am but a stranger to them. I have yet to meet most of them, but they took me in, as they did you. If my ancestors were evil, they could not have created such good."

“Whatever evil you did, it can be forgiven. You can do good, be good.” You moved closer to him, placing a gentle hand on his arm. The feeling brought a sense of warmth that he had not felt since before he joined Morgoth, when he went by a different name. His eyes traveled down to where your hand rested, and you dropped it back to your side. He'd found himself missing the feeling.

"Your ancestors did do evil, though. They did plenty of evil things. Just as I have."

"Did they do evil out of the desire to be evil? Or did they do evil to protect those they loved? Were they born that way, destined to be only evil? Were you made evil? Or was it thrust upon you in a moment of hopelessness? Does every being have the capability to do both good and evil?"

He was left stunned at what you said, it took longer than usual for him to come up with a response. He wet his lips, looking over the ocean for a moment before looking at you once more. Your hair was gently blowing in the breeze of the ocean and he found the sight captivating. His intuition told him you were telling the truth, that you believed the words you were saying with your whole being. How could that be? There had to be some darkness that motivated you, that tainted your soul.

Everyone had darkness.

His mind played over the interaction long after it had happened. He wanted to feel that warmth again. You were a puzzle, a mystery. He would not know peace until he figured out what darkness was inside you because surely there had to be something. It was one of the many things that plagued his mind late at night. He watched as you slept peacefully. You were rows and rows down from him, but he could zoom in on your form. He watched your chest rise and fall, the calm of your features. You were a mystery that he had to solve.

This was what was on his mind when the worm attacked. He needed to know you. Even now, he watched as you attempted to help an elderly woman stuck under a beam instead of rushing to safety yourself. He couldn't bring himself to save the old man, but his fingers wrapped around the relic, and as water rushed the ship, he lept over and shielded your body with his.

He couldn't let you die. He had to understand you, to know you, to find out what motivated you, he would find your inner darkness.

And if he couldn't, he'd ruin you instead.

next

[silmarillisms]

Orcs in Rings of Power

There are no fewer than eight different origin stories for the Uruk in Middle-Earth from the collected writings of Tolkien in stories, letters, and published works. In his various writings, we are told all of the following at one point or another:

Orcs were created out of stone.

Orcs were made of heat and slime.

Orcs were talking beasts.

Orcs were made by Melkor dispersing his power.

Orcs were children of the earth, a race of their own taken by Melkor and twisted, corrupted over time.

Orcs were fallen Maiar.

Orcs were bred from corrupted Men.

Orcs were bred from fallen and corrupted Elves.

Today, we will discuss that final explanation.

Tolkien originally writes in the "Annals of Aman":

"But indeed a darker tale some yet tell in Eressëa, saying that the Orcs were verily in their beginning of the Quendi themselves, a kindred of the Avari unhappy whom Morgoth cozened, and then made captive, and so enslaved them, and so brought them utterly to ruin. For, saith Pengolod, Melkor could never since the Ainulindalë' make of his own aught that had life or the semblance of life, and still less might he do so after his treachery in Valinor and the fullness of his own corruption. But indeed a darker tale some yet tell in Eressëa, saying that the Orcs were verily in their beginning of the Quendi themselves, a kindred of the Avari unhappy whom Morgoth cozened, and then made captive, and so enslaved them, and so brought them utterly to ruin. For, saith Pengolod, Melkor could never since the Ainulindalë' make of his own aught that had life or the semblance of life, and still less might he do so after his treachery in Valinor and the fullness of his own corruption."

Out of all of the available explanations, Christopher Tolkien chose the one given above when he was transcribing his father's work into what would become the published Silmarillion.

In the Silmarillion, Christopher writes:

"Yet this is held true by the wise of Eressëa, that all those of the Quendi who came into the hands of Melkor, ere Utumno was broken, were put there in prison, and by slow arts of cruelty were corrupted and enslaved; and thus did Melkor breed the hideous race of the Orcs in envy and mockery of the Elves, of whom they were afterwards the bitterest foes.

We will set aside for now the fact that Tolkien, after finishing the Annals, scribbled a note to himself stating "Alter this. Orcs are not Elvish." There are also notes in Volume X of The History of Middle-Earth regarding whether or not Melkor could utterly corrupt the work of Eru. Tolkien seems to struggle with himself in those paragraphs regarding the answer.

At some point, an explanation must be chosen and the above explanation is the one that was selected by both Christopher Tolkien for the Silmarillion and the writers for The Rings of Power.

So, let's move forward with some other things we know about the various subtypes of Orcs from the published texts. We do get some interesting snippets of them in the published Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Some people seem to think that orcs are mindless slaves, wholly tied to the will of Sauron and the other forces that have historically enslaved them and that the depiction of them in Rings of Power as willful and conniving, with families and social units of their own, is counter to Tolkien's written canon.

I would argue that nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, the portrayal of Orcs in Rings of Power is far closer to both JRR and Christopher Tolkien's interpretation of canon than any of the Peter Jackson movies. Let's look at some of what we're given by the text:

"For the Orcs had life and multiplied after the manner of the Children of Ilúvatar; and naught that had life of its own, nor the semblance of life, could ever Melkor make since his rebellion in the Ainulindalë before the Beginning: so say the wise. And deep in their dark hearts the Orcs loathed the Master whom they served in fear, the maker only of their misery. This it may be was the vilest deed of Melkor, and the most hateful to Ilúvatar. The Silmarillion, Illustrated by Ted Nasmith Edition, pg. 65

There are a couple key takeaways from this passage:

Orcs breed with themselves to multiply, like Elves and Men.

Orcs might have reveled in their evil deeds, but they also loathed Melkor, who had created them only to serve as slaves.

This, then, begins to make sense of the choices made by the writers of The Rings of Power regarding the orcs already. If they were originally bred of corrupted Quendi, it makes sense that they see Adar, one of the original corrupted Quendi from whom their race would have sprung, as their true Father.

If the Orcs loathed being enslaved by Melkor, who they were terrified of, of course they would initially take a great deal of umbridge with being re-enslaved by Sauron, for whom they had no respect.

We are told directly in "The Nature of Middle-Earth" that when Sauron first attempted to bring the Orcs of the east beneath his command, who had scattered long ago, that they laughed at him and rejected him until he left his fair form and cowed them forcibly into submission.

So then the scene where the Orcs choose to follow Adar instead of Sauron begins to make a great deal of sense as well.

Regarding Orc family units and social structures, we receive the following directly from Tolkien in a letter written to Mrs. Mundy:

"There must have been orc-women."

Again, if Orcs reproduce in the manner of Men and Elves, that is the only thing that makes any sort of sense. It's not like they produce by budding, in the interpretation of canon that both Christopher Tolkien and The Rings of Power are going with. Notably, Peter Jackson seems to eschew this as close to canon as we can get because it follows the published Silmarillion explanation in The Two Towers, where Orcs emerge fully formed from what appear to be slime sacs in the ground.

While reading the published Lord of the Rings trilogy, we can also be certain of the following:

Orcs feel fear. They specifically fear the Nazgul.

Orcs become tired and grouchy on long marches.

War is not the ideal state of the Orcs, just as it is not the ideal state of any of the "more civilized" races.

Orcs are capable of friendship and even have good memories with their friends.

Consider this excerpt from The Two Towers:

‘No, I don’t know,’ said Gorbag’s voice. ‘The messages go through quicker than anything could fly, as a rule. But I don’t enquire how it’s done. Safest not to. Grr! Those Nazgul give me the creeps. And they skin the body off you as soon as look at you, and leave you all cold in the dark on the other side. But He likes ’em; they’re His favourites nowadays, so it’s no use grumbling. I tell you, it’s no game serving down in the city.’ ‘You should try being up here with Shelob for company,’ said Shagrat. ‘I’d like to try somewhere where there’s none of ’em. But the war’s on now, and when that’s over things may be easier.’ ‘It’s going well, they say.’ ‘They would,’ grunted Gorbag. ‘We’ll see. But anyway, if it does go well, there should be a lot more room. What d’you say? – if we get a chance, you and me’ll slip off and set up somewhere on our own with a few trusty lads, somewhere where there’s good loot nice and handy, and no big bosses.’ ‘Ah!’ said Shagrat. ‘Like old times.’ ‘Yes,’ said Gorbag. ‘But don’t count on it. I’m not easy in my mind. As I said, the Big Bosses, ay,’ his voice sank almost to a whisper, ‘ay, even the Biggest, can make mistakes. Something nearly slipped, you say. I say, something has slipped. And we’ve got to look out. Always the poor Uruks to put slips right, and small thanks. But don’t forget: the enemies don’t love us any more than they love Him, and if they get topsides on Him, we’re done too. But see here: when were you ordered out?’ The Two Towers, pg. 444

It seems obvious to me, just in this paragraph penned by JRR himself, that Orcs were not intended to be entirely mindless rabble. Shagrat and Gorbag reminisce about better times when they weren't bound to the will of Sauron or Saruman. They talk about running away, going somewhere quieter and (perhaps) more peaceful (aside from the aforementioned looting) after the war.

They mention that they're afraid. They mention that Elves and Men hate them as much as they hate Sauron and how difficult that will make doing anything of their own accord.

All this to say, the interpretation of Orcs in Rings of Power is absolutely lore-appropriate. I think Glug's point of view will be fascinating. The scene with the female and baby orc are much closer to the version of Orcs laid out by the Silmarillion and the trilogy than PJ's orc sacs in his movie trilogy - which doesn't make his film trilogy bad, it's just using one of the alternative explanations for orc reproduction despite Saruman asserting that orcs were once Elves, which seems... odd, but alright.

The Rings of Power isn't being revisionist. It isn't whitewashing Orcs or going beyond canon to make them seem more relatable or more sympathetic. It's following the Silmarillion in some regards with pretty astounding accuracy.

[wulfhalls]

now why are the writers so scared of sauron/galadriel this season. i'm no better than slime!sauron feeding on crumbs. tony you chose to do that, don't backpedal now

I think edging us the whole season is brilliant like. sure. I'd love for them to be in every scene together like in s1 but realistically that was never going to happen. and yet every scene theyre in is in some way about the absence of the other! sometimes an absence is a presence all in itself. ect. like giving sauron a whole ass galadriel stand in so we can see how affected he is post break up?????? every single character questioning galadriel motives while she looks like she's one more interrogation away from walking into the sea because she doesn't know wtf she's feeling either is delicious!!! again I'd love there to be more more more because ofc i do but it's a consistent thread throughout the episodes and we know it's building towards a big confrontation so. (s3 mind palace arc real tho #notdelusional)

[jaegerxian]

Seeing Sauron in slime version, I can't help but think of him and Celebrimbor in Eddie and Venom mode.

Silvergifting in Symbrock 🤭

[toxooz]

i'm sure you've described them before but i can't find anything on it so, could you describe the skate squad's powers if they have any?

idk if would say powers moreso just abilities BUT

Ponti with his HUGE ARMS can smash rip tear crunch squish impale ect. his bigass tail can put a hurtin too he can easily hold down a body under there, His ears can hear for miles if he really focuses, and finally his infamous death roll which is basically a gator death roll where they latch onto a limb and twirl tf outta their body

Abios eye has a bunch of phycological powers (oops) and can infiltrate the frontal lobe and get into someones head, see memories (spoiler alerttttttt 👀👀), and can manipulate feelings by controlling the brains chemical production, and probably a lot of other cool brain stuff i gotta get back on my neuroscience im rusty 😔 his eyelashes also emit pheromones that aid in all his succubs stuff but its close range

Ollie n his big brute strength ofc the fact that orcs are naturally super buff n strong but also his demon features where he does the thing similar to Gandalf when he makes the room all dark and terrifying when he's not fuckin around (it was heavily inspired by that) Ollie can make a room go cold and dark from his '''aura'' for lack of better word. His presence gives you the same chills as seeing a ghost and makes you hallucinate ect. That why when he does that ppl typically get too caught up in their body's fight or flight overdrive to be able to think clearly. I'd like to think he gives off Large Animal presence like as if u were in front of a horse or lion and that feeling is amplified when hes indoors lmfao AND he can also 'get in the head' as well like he can say some demonic shit that echoes off of the inside of the skull and can shake the very core of the soul (probably sounds like Sauron in tha head)

Kariiii has her dragon fire that's super hot and glittery so she can be a lil master of illusion if she wants. I'm thinking abt giving her gecko hands n feet so maybe she can climb on walls too if not she can still climb with her wing claws. She can lick her eyeballs and shes also got some fairy pizzaz that kinda works like a special 'aura' as well. She does have a hoarding pink things problem but she makes sure its at least presentable for the most part pfft

Remy oh bOI he doesn't have much goin for him but i think hes kinda got what Ollie's got just to a miniscule extent like he can make the room feel uneasy if he's all sulky and angsty but its only enough to mildly scare or irritate not so much 'strike fear into the hearts of men' cause hes also got that everlasting shadow over the eyes

he can climb like a monkey with his tail ( so can Abby) so ig he's rlly good at parkour

Oscar's got his slime that can be a blessing or a curse when it comes to sticky situations and in the water he's kinda a menace he is SUPER agile and uses his ears for fins when he swims. He's got a 2nd jaw in his mouth for grabbing prey and those teeth carry a nasty bite

Vinny may be soft n fluff but he's also got his lil needle claws and teeth and can be really flexible and agile as well cause son cats WILL fuck u up when theyre angry

[marchwardenofmordor]

Marchwarden: Hello and welcome to my slime tutorial, hope you all enjoy!

Sauron: … Wai-

Marchwarden: *slap slap slap* *fold* *squelch* *fold* *plap* *fold* *squish*

[just-trying-to-fangirl-in-peace]

Hey! I just wanted to say that I absolutely adore your work and your writing is just incredible! I was recently re-reading "A True Gift" and I couldn't help but think about this particular part

/though you do admit some forms are more practical than others when it comes to the physical aspect of your relationship, strictly shape-wise (one such as the amorphous black mass to which he had been reduced until recently, for instance, might prove a challenge in that department—yet not an entirely insurmountable one)./

Did they try to do the do in his slime form😭😂 or is she talking about cuddling etc

I mean... you’re free to imagine whatever you like of course...😅

Tbh in my mind, they didn’t. Idk how Sauron canonically felt in his goo state, but the way I described it is that he had some difficulty perceiving the world around him and his mind was kind of muddled (hence why he didn’t recognize reader at first). And he did recover slowly as reader fed him and he grew, enough to seek out her closeness and communicate vaguely through their bond, but he only returned to being 100% conscious and present once he became Halbrand, and that’s why he asks reader to “remind him what it is to feel” before they do get intimate.

So, that parenthesis in A true gift is basically reader thinking ‘you know what, if for whatever reason he ever takes a weird form like that again and we both really want to do it, challenge accepted, we’ll get creative with it.’

[dez-wade]

What happened to the green team? Haven’t been able to see the streams today

So they were great on the first day, not amazing since they didn't win but it was great. However, because Red Team went insane and kept pitying themselves over the team being unbalanced, Green and Blue already started getting a lot of hate from its fans. Especially because they kept accusing Blue and Green of teaming up to pick on the weakest team.

On the second day you could see that the Blue team was less bloodthirsty and held themselves back, Etoiles hold himself back massively just wanting to PvP who wanted to PvP him (so, like almost no one) and the only people on-line on that day was him. He had no teammates to speak with, so he went to the Blue Team Discord, they tried to call Red but they refused. And once again they get hate back "they're teaming up to pick on the Red, the weakest". After he did it all by himself and logged off, getting his team at first, Red found their base stole all, and Quackity logged in in time to being betrayed by Slime and Red team and got killed over repeatedly, making Green lose first place. Which means, Etoiles worked for nothing.

Today of course, Fit and Bagi were online but only them. Negativity was still the same, fandom keeps treating his existence like a walking "unbalance" for this event, and to top it off he got killed in a 2v1 and lost all his items that he worked hard to farm. So we get an event that Green will never manage to do because there's like no one on the team, and they don't have anything, Quackity logs in tries to cheer up the group only to get teleported with the Sauron voice give him a chance to kill someone (and finds out who the cursed team is) or die. When he's back, it's only him and Bagi. They die repeatedly, they have nothing. They can't contact a single soul to join their team. So there's nothing they can't do, and they can't kill someone to find out about the cursed team.

Right now Bagi is by herself doing the castle to protect the egg, but we all know how limited she is being by herself with zero resources.

So that's all.

[cthonicdecembrist]

Just a nightly discussion about your favorite characters. Part 2.

Km… and so, there is a small problem after the release of the teaser trailer for "rings of power season 2" that haunts me.. Fortunately, we will get the storyline of Annatar and Celebrimbor, and this image of Charlie Vickers in the reincarnation of Sauron looks very very good. The first thing I would like to note is that almost at the very beginning of the teaser we see a scene where Halbrand (Sauron) with a very devastated and at the same time menacing look in some dark room, further…. this is a scene where we see a certain black creature (substance) similar to slime that seems to be crawling in some direction and another scene at the end of the teaser, but you won't notice it, it's between shots like Sauron (Annatar) is surrounded by elves and before the cold explosion in the tower at the very end. There you can see a certain room where there are a lot of people, a lot of torches, and everything is slightly in some semi-dark colors (cold). Perhaps many have already guessed that these scenes may be related to what happened to Sauron before he ahah ended up on a raft at sea. Most likely, this may be the backstory of how he had a conflict with Adar and he cut him with a stab in the back (or something like that) and then we can observe Sauron's personal transformation :D

The second. The next point is more likely related to the rumors that could be found about filming on the set. And I was interested in the moment that Sauron should be played by another actor in a different guise, and here lies the most interesting thing. The interesting thing is that we can get the real appearance of Sauron, a dark appearance, with long dark hair and slightly dark skin and the fiery gaze of maiar. After all, most likely his face of Annatar and Halbrand is not real, they do not reflect his true nature. After all, after he fell down the path of the scout, Lieutenant Morgoth, his appearance began to change. He was no longer the shining Maiar he had been at the begining. Of course, this is just a guess, but as for me.. It would be possible to add a slightly more intimidating image for such an iconic character. Although the image of sexy vagrant and unemployed wanderer Halbrand is unlikely to interrupt anything ahah. :D Maybe when the full trailer for the series is released there will be more answers... And yet.. the opportunity to see Sauron in all his glory before he lost his body in the fall of Numenor is possible.

[meri-dawn]

So I am talking to a friend about Slow Horses. She mentions Jack Lowden looks like a “young hot Simon Pegg.” My brain starts turning. That is the same way I described dramatic, pre-slime Sauron in Rings of Power season 2. So anyway, that’s how I realised Jack Lowden is drama/murdered Sauron in Rings of Power.

[wizardheart83]

Rings of Power Analysis #7

After season 1, in parts 1-6 , I detailed the ways that Elrond and Galadriel’s plot lines in that season rhyme, or harmonize, with with some of the same story beats playing out in ways that highlight thematic differences.

Now I want to catch up with the aftermath of our heroes’ interactions with their kingdoms in decline, because it’s occurred to me that Numenor and Khazad-dum are still in conversation with each other.

Spoilers for season 2

Status of our hero:

Both Galadriel and Elrond are away from the people and events they set in motion for most of the season. Neither would be welcomed, though admittedly Galadriel would be disinclined to try.

What influence they have on these plots was set last season. Even Elrond’s appeal to Durin IV couldn’t have happened without their renewed commitment to their friendship and his formation of the ties between eregion and the dwarf kingdom.

Both Elrond and Galadriel got an army out of season 1, from a “friend” , and isn’t it interesting how it went badly (in the short term) both times.

Miriel wasn’t going to return to middle earth with her army without the king of the southlands. Sauron gave Galadriel an army by not telling miriel that he really did take it off a dead guy. The army she gets through layers of deception fails on most counts in the short term but does start things in motion that will bring Numenor into the last alliance

Durin’s army isn’t his when Elrond asks for it. Durin III is still king and it’s not acquired through deception but it would have been wrapped up in the coo and the taking of the throne (admittedly for good and important reasons). The army fails Elrond initially, leaving him clinging to seemingly false hope in a heartbreaking scene, but when Durin is king and it is his army, the coming of the dwarves allows the remaining elves from the battle to flee to safety.

Compare the elves who arrive in proto-Rivendell to the men who arrive in pelargir. Recall that Bronwyn’s actress left the show and if she hadn’t we might have had parallel wounded women leaders arriving at pelargir and Rivendell and Numenor, all ultimately choosing light and faith in the face of darkness. Even with circumstances as they are the music is strong in this writing and I love it.

The loving sacrifice:

Miriel and the elder Durin make similar sacrifices for different reasons, and to to opposing elements.

Miriel chooses faith in the valar and in elendil and faces the trial by sea monster. She knows she could die and that her enemies expected elendil to die but love for the faithful (read as elendil, if you like) and her place as their queen and indeed a queen of the Numenor she tried to create require that she do this thing and willingly.

She walks to the water not because of what she’s done but because of who she is.

King Durin chooses the fate of his people and the only penance he can offer for the dwarves he killed even as his actions led to the waking of the Balrog (or at least his kingdom responding unhelpfully to that development). He delved too deep, he woke the nameless fear and out of love for his son and his kingdom he leaps to the fire.

The aftermath:

Post sacrifice both plots face uncertainty around succession.

Pharazon learns that miriel was unwittingly involved with sauron and brands her and all the faithful as traitors and we get warning they Durin’s throne isn’t as sure a thing as we’d like it to be.

Both have been put in rough positions by their interactions with the elf plots of season 1.

And it’s not directly Elrond or Galadriel’s faults, without the dark that came for both the tree and for khazad Dum, Galadriel doesn’t get forcibly retired or end up in numenor and Durin doesn’t get recruited for what becomes the ring project.

We don’t see slime-ron start either of these things but his involvement seems clear.

The real enemy has always been the Sauron we kind of made along the way.

-/

That’s what I got this morning, please talk to me about it in the comments if you want cause we are back to waiting impatiently y’all.