#the rohirrim are not aligned with elvishness where númenóreanness /is/ tied to elvishness | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

anghraine · 1 year

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I'm hardly uncritical of Aragorn or his hereditary claim to the Gondorian throne, but I do think the occasional focus on how he only has a tiny fraction of Elvish blood or Elendil's/Elros's blood is ill-placed.

I mean, for one, counting generations in a single line of descent with someone as inbred as Aragorn doesn't make sense anyway.

But more importantly, it's one thing to point out how much time has passed between Isildur's time in Gondor and LOTR, or even Fíriel's time and Aragorn's. It has been a very long time, and that's part of what makes the challenge so steep for him (it'd be less interesting if he could just waltz into Gondor and be instantly acclaimed at any moment). But when it gets down to "and how many portions of X blood does he have, anyway," it's just ... ugh. Let's not.

#like ... théoden and éomer not inheriting most elvish qualities isn't bc of how many generations they're removed from mithrellas #or how many fractions of her blood they may or may not have vs imrahil and faramir #it follows from their function as fundamentally rohirren characters rather than the other way around #the rohirrim are not aligned with elvishness where númenóreanness /is/ tied to elvishness #ergo elvish qualities can persist for ages in cultures that are basically resonant with elvishness but can vanish in a generation otherwise #trying to force it into eugenics logic is gross and also doesn't work #anghraine babbles #legendarium blogging #legendarium fanwank #aragorn critical #but also. no.#anghraine rants

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