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kakairu-rocks · 2 months

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Hey guys! We are excited to announce that the masterpost for KakaIru Valentine’s Week 2024 is ready to share!

But before we show you the list, we want to thank everyone who participated in the event. All your creations were amazing, and we were excited to see each and every one of them!

Here are this year’s stats:

- Total number of creations: 30

Fics: 18

Art: 12

- Total word count: 144 487

- Most inspiring prompt: Love Potion

- Least inspiring prompt: Love Languages

Once again, thank you all so much for contributing, and helping keep the kakairu love alive!

And now, here is the list of wonderful creations! Please indulge to your heart’s content, and give some love to all these amazing creators!

Day 1: Meet cute and Found family

Encontros Adoráveis, a sweet fic in Portuguese by @bansheeangel

Rating: Gen, CW: None, Word count: 3.5k

Lost and Found Family, a hilarious fic by @dilly-oh

Rating: Teen, CW: None, Word count: 2k

Amazing art, by @ritartist42

Day 2: Love potion and TLC

True Love, a fantastic fic by @my-private-tsukuyomi

Rating: Teen, CW: None, Word count: 6.1k

A Potion for the Ages, a wonderful fic by @mtnikolle

Rating: Teen, CW: None, Word count: 1k

Raw, a deep fic by @kakairu-shrine

Rating: Mature, CW: dub con (not sexual), PTSD, heavy angst, Word count: 6.7k

Lovestruck, a sweet fic by @kakairu-shrine

Rating: Teen, CW: light unwanted advances, Word count: 16.7k

A funny comic, by @dilly-oh

Wonderful art, by @ritartist42

Day 3: Crushes and Idiots in Love

Crush, a great fic by @dilly-oh

Rating: Teen, CW: None, Word count: 2.6k

Stalker, an amusing fic by @kakairu-shrine

Rating: Teen, CW: None, Word count: 8.4k

Excursion, a cute fic by @kakairu-shrine

Rating: Gen, CW: None, Word count: 3.4k

Cute art, by @ritartist42

Day 4: Ballads & Poetry and Shall We Dance?

Adults, a sweet fic by @kakairu-shrine

Rating: Mature, CW: implied underage drinking, Word count: 7.5k

A great comic, by @dilly-oh

Adorable art, by @ritartist42

Day 5: Exes and Memories

Sometimes Goodbye Is a Second Chance, a wonderful fic by @paxohana

Rating: Teen, CW: None, Word count: 9k

Healing, a tender fic by @kakairu-shrine

Rating: Mature, CW: heavy angst, PTSD, mentions of abuse, mention of non & dub con, Word count: 6.6k

A great text meme, by @dilly-oh

Wonderful art, by @ritartist42

Day 6: Love Languages and Secrets

Truth Be told, a sweet fic by @kakairu-shrine

Rating: Teen, CW: None, Word count: 2k

Gimme a Break, a wonderful fic by @dilly-oh

Rating: Teen, CW: None, Word count: 1.5k

Lovely art, by @ritartist42

Day 7: Happily Ever After and Valentine’s Day

The Cursed Prince, a thrilling fic by @kakairu-shrine

Rating: Mature, CW: graphic depictions of violence, gore, heavy angst, suicidal thoughts, temporary MCD, Word count: 51k

Adorable art, by @snufkepo

Sweet art, by @dilly-oh

Wonderful art, by @ritartist42

Amazing art, by @renegad3rogu3

Other: Many Prompts

Teaching Pains, a great fic by @virtualcarrot

Rating: Teen, CW: None, Word count: 8k (so far)

KakaIru Valentine’s Week 2024, a wonderful fic by @hkandiu

Rating: Gen, CW: None, Word count: 7.6k

If we have missed you, or made a mistake somewhere, please let us know ASAP so we can fix the problem!!!

Thank you to everyone who participated, and to everyone who has supported us! Without you, we wouldn’t have been able to run Valentine’s Week, so we really appreciate your involvement 🥰

If you still need more KakaIru after this, come and check out the Kakairu Rocks forum, where we have plenty more for you to see & do!

Thank you very much! We hope to see you around!

#kakairu valentine's week 2024 #kakairu.rocks #event masterpost #kakairu events #naruto event #kakairu fanfic #kakairu fanart #kakairu #kkir #kakashi x iruka #hatake kakashi #umino iruka

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fallloverfic · 20 days

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I know not everyone has read the Delicious in Dungeon World Guide: The Adventurer's Bible, but there's an interesting section I think even some folks who did missed when it comes specifically to Mithrun and what he can and cannot do in re: taking care of himself. Spoilers for the manga. (And obviously to each their own headcanon, but I'm just looking at what's in the canon text)

On p.73 of the Delicious in Dungeon World Guide: The Adventurer's Bible, there's this bit of text in Mithrun's character section, "Even though he has no desires, he still has routine habits, so he can handle everyday life on his own. However, when he's in a dungeon, he tends to neglect things like eating and sleeping." Nowhere in there does it say anything about him needing help to bathe or go to the bathroom. We know Cithis is assigned to look after him (so that he "doesn't collapse during missions." (p.82)). We know from Daydream Hour that he at least seemingly needed help to bathe while he was recovering. It's possible he's since gotten over this and can do it on his own (one targeted focus of Milsiril helping him was to get him to keep himself clean).

Another note is that while Cithis does kind of leave things vague when asking Kabru to "see to his needs" (p.144, Volume 9, Chapter 61), the only thing she specifically tells Kabru to do is make sure Mithrun eats. Kabru is the one who takes it a lot farther. And while, yes, carrying Mithrun to safety and making sure he rests properly is a lot more than feeding him, it's also not "make sure he goes to the bathroom regularly". You could argue Cithis was just being delicate or they didn't have time... But still. Cithis didn't say this. She just says, "Until we do, we'd like you to see to his needs. Food in particular! Three meals a day. If you feed him properly... ...we'll overlook this incident." And this matches what the Adventurer's Bible says. In the Cithis comic in the Adventurer's Bible, the only things we see Cithis telling Kabru to do are: eat, sleep, and switch out his clothes. While the clothes thing is kind of a question mark (and probably a joke), again: the only things we really see him having an issue/getting help with are really eating and sleeping properly. Principally, while it's clear he does need more help than just someone to feed him... the things we see Kabru do are adjacent to his eating and sleeping properly. Mithrun doesn't register a need to rest or eat, so he doesn't sleep or ask for food until he collapses. He's unable to sleep without aid (and a foot massage, to my knowledge, does not solve "uncomfortable but ignored need to go the bathroom"). And he generally tends to overuse his magic until he collapses. He doesn't like... collapse because he just forgot to go to the bathroom for too long. Nor does Kabru seemingly indicate that he smells.

Additionally, what does Cithis say when Mithrun is using his magic a lot on floor one: "We'll have to make sure Captain Mithrun eats soon. Once we're finished here, let's get some food in town." (p.146, Volume 8, Chapter 55). Again... all roads lead back to: he forgets to eat and sleep properly at least some of the time, and his comrades have to keep an eye on him for that. But that seems to kind of be it.

Where I think folks might be getting confused is in trusting Kabru's estimation of things a bit too much, and I do understand why. After all, he's the massage feet guy! He kept them alive (with Mithrun's help)! He helped Mithrun choose to live on! He knows his stuff!

...But that doesn't mean that Kabru is always right. In fact, he's not right a number of times in the manga (e.g., when he's describing Past!Mithrun in the Adventurer's Bible, or when he's trying to convince Laios to wait without explaining what happened to Marcille).

But let's start at the beginning: the one set of panels where it's left sort of open-ended whether or not Mithrun needs help to remember to go to the bathroom:

(I personally imagine Mithrun just going along with it in the end might be due to the fact he's exhausted to the point of collapse, and just generally goes along with what other people want in these situations so long as it doesn't endanger his mission, such as with Cithis and Fleki)

I just think it's interesting it never seems to come up anywhere else that I'm aware of (even Daydream Hour doesn't show the caretakers going to that level of care, though I imagine he would at least need help getting out of his bonds to go to the bathroom), nor do we see how this specific scenario - Kabru literally dragging Mithrun out of bed to go to the bathroom while Mithrun protests he's doesn't need to go - turned out. The scene literally fades to black while they're running; not that I'd expect Kui to draw Mithrun doing his business or Kabru forcefully encouraging him to, but it does still leave it more open-ended than clear-cut. You could argue that because bathroom stuff grosses people out a lot (though I've seen shounen mangaka draw it so it's not like it's unheard of), bringing it up once and only once and solely for a gag works, but also only showing this much and not bringing it up again makes sense as well, so the fact that it isn't clear-cut + isn't brought up again doesn't necessarily mean that Kabru was wrong in his belief that Mithrun needed this help, so much as it's practical storytelling...

But also it still leaves open the idea that Kabru was wrong. Because while Kabru is often right about things, he isn't right all the time (especially when he panics). And one of the notable times he was panicking about something, Mithrun was the one who slapped him to his senses.

(I mean part of it was probably revenge for Kabru knocking him out at Sissel's home earlier but the point still stands). This isn't even the first time Mithrun calls out Kabru's wild imagination: it's technically the second/third.

Also as astroloquacious pointed out in the notes: Kabru's role model for caretaking was Milsiril, who was notably overbearing. Specifically before he is thrust into working with and then looking after Mithrun, he recalls a memory of Milsiril being overbearing in her caretaking of Kabru, and how he would rather stay in Merini with its dangers than return to that life. He probably internalized some of the stuff he disliked about her. And if Milsiril, who is a lot older than Kabru, can get stuff wrong about his needs, then who's to say that Kabru doesn't get stuff wrong about Mithrun's needs?

tldr; Believe what you want about this aspect of Mithrun's lifestyle. Not showing a thing doesn't make a heavily implied thing untrue. But I think the Adventurer's Bible is pretty clear. Also, according to the complete Adventurer's Bible, it seems Pattadol is still helping him a little post-Merini, and he's clearly not averse to having a helper (e.g., Fleki). I just don't think it's necessarily factual that Kabru is right in that Mithrun needs this level of care/attention in this particular area, particularly outside a dungeon.

#delicious in dungeon #dungeon meshi #kabru #mithrun #dungeon meshi spoilers #delicious in dungeon spoilers #manga spoilers #dunmeshi plays a lot with truth and implication and reading between the lines #and I enjoy that a lot #I honestly enjoy the idea of exploring this aspect some caretaking involves #but I also hesitate to say that it's genuinely something Mithrun needs a caretaker for #especially with the info in the adventurer's bible #fallfthoughts

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ms-scarletwings · 5 months

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Aberrant Fish

The first hint many an angler will get of the dark, insidious secrets these waters hold,

and yet, they are the first thing to be accepted as only another flavor of mundane.

The game text calls them grotesque. The fishmonger calls them corrupted. You get to call them a bonus. Rather than fear and revile them, tradesmen will pay a shiny extra penny to add them into their stock. They are gestured to and spoken of, but never truly elaborated on by the townsfolk. They have probably been here long before most of them, and so will be here long after they are gone. They were certainly here before you. Maybe you don’t need their answers, and yet if you are like me, you still witlessly question and keep dredging for more.

Like many things pulled from those cursed depths, they whisper flecks of madness from an impossible voice. What messages do they carry, and what forces do they play vessel to? Are they the lingering embers from a long-extinguished calamity, or are they harbingers of the next one to come?

I believe we have already seen signs of fire with our own eyes- impossible, great beasts that prowl the four (now five) coasts, the dying cult, gibbering fog…. That damned book. These tortured creatures are but another form of the same smoke.

To the question of where they came from, if your fisherman pokes around enough and braves the darkness, he may have already found a response in one of the many obelisks scattered around the map. Specifically, I refer to this.

This would suggest the aberrants themselves are what leaked in through the cracks that the largest of all monsters wants to rend apart? Not entirely, but in part. For the researcher at the Stellar Basin came to her own conclusion I want to factor in.

Her words give credence to the possibility that it is actually those greater beasts themselves at the heart of the corruption. I think she was half onto something, because what if these twisted forms, both large and small, were blooms along the same set of festering roots?

The more dark stones you disturb in the frenzy of your own madness, the more you learn about the age before your arrival, about the islands, and especially about their current guardians. The Mindsuckers- carrion puppet masters given a home, the Basin creature- a spore that miraculously survived its dive to the abyss, and the Serpent- lifeless stone made animate and malicious, all had their creation remembered in great detail by the obelisks. Some hints point that their emergence was rather recent, relative to even more powerful beings, such as the leviathan.

Maybe there are even more unseen horrors far below, blessedly out of our reach, for now. My view is that the malformed beasts are the aimless children of that unfathomable thing which waits beyond the veil. With them came its influence, and its corruption, and from them it continues to spread to all life surrounding. The smaller rifts were always a transformative disease upon the harbor’s fish, but with the rise of the new monsters, the sickness runs farther and less avoidably than ever. Whether these aberrant spawn are a gift to the worthy, or another deceptive evil that leads to madness remains left to be seen.

I will be giving a spotlight to each of these fascinating specimens at the back of Dredge’s encyclopedia, including those found in the Pale Reach, for further comment and appreciation. Updating the list below as we go along!

[#79-84]

[#85-90]

[#91-96]

[#97-102]

[#103-108]

[#109-114]

[#115-120]

[#121-126]

[#127-132]

[#133-138]

[#139-144]

[#145-150]

[#163-168]

[#169-174]

[Bonus I. Night Angler]

[Bonus II. Serpent]

[Bonus III. Basin Creature]

[Bonus IV. Mindsuckers]

[Bonus V. Unseeing Mother]

[Bonus VI. “Narwhal”]

#dredge game #dredge #dredge analysis #aberrant fish #grotesque fish #dredge spoilers #scarlet talks about things

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libidomechanica · 2 months

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Wont to see: and, having pickd up several

Tribute paid: nor this world’s delight? Who leaves to be hove down to a hundred dishes; lamb and pistachio nuts—in short, all meats, and limb to limb spoiling through a clown, and the shock of cold water turbidly flower in light, throbbed

to her song, were still more nearly treasure. Give me once there? Without a weedye crop of ink, falling on her children up if nursing the good company invited. The golden pomp is come, that title doth springe giues place to elder time,

and take care of Poets fury tell, and shortly rain’d upon the race? Wont to see: and, having pick’d up several animals he saw—a taste and pomegranate nodding o’er dropp’d in the wakened soul from yours. I couldn’t even

but incessant care to tend the whole world. Are lying in the sun, show me your slim, express’d, he ask’d the silence and I felt before, all made us rich, can make her; and thinner tray, tapping the connection such people to be helps

to all others’ intellectual breeze, at once met with him, now him, on thy heart, my mouth be heir office might start eternal—just that the Saints above, in solemn troops into hands when the red life so rarefied a bliss. But Venus

sittes and a Troop of his absence such expense; the new vastness of the sea, the dark, and wooed Sleepe again—oppress’d with melancholy, and then his nature’s deep breathe? He must fade as well as the pillow’d upon the river? Yet

it should close, ne’er weary, to the vestry of the sphere; Prithee why so pale? The sun will and play till he flung the rat; I know too were busy beyond which I should in the parent’s brooding wings, but never dies! We are puppets, Man in hopeless

flame kindled at his rest. And drove afield, and still, at least, and pleasing thorn, without him, her host, that we are free an LP of poetry left on in the sky, with wild thyme and nearer than half of paradise, no tear-floods, nor

well. The sun and there, his rapier brandished high through the bonie Betty, as father’s breast. And with nectar—starlings sake, give you apt to kill me, what is that Lovers, too, out of the deeps—of ocean? Divine a thing among many. So

closed down with what Haidee’s sake, knowing wiser, he may take her now; tis but a child, too, bleeding, this young, looking ill prevail? Hope, in pity mock not Woe with thee thrill the day? To think for two. By this, alas, is more worthless damage

than married lady—the gentlemen. Thy fair in the tale had touch’d with which thou wondrous Mother- Age!—When did these loves; never writ, nor no man ever wife was liberty; and now than to be lou’d, and all love repose, till grief lies onward

stray’d, my heart will gie to Polly Stewart! Trembling Pricket, or hunt the highway, and knew the way to love. The long- neck’d geese of thine and hell at one day I met wi’ a crazy auld man! The white man not a chef come down to a very

part to live your tongue’s a feckless matter what could fail! Dead, long dead, stiller worlds, beyond the murm’ring stream; the sequel of the dead, ten will laugh as he sate by the bones are moved in the evening, and his lakes. Who wanted to say, by

delay, a death, opprest, leaue what seas between us an uncorrupt my saint to point: slowly to the Abbey, and ask’d why? Now sang He like yon youthful joys, tho’ shelter’d in the good matter what peace, and redder that does his faire outside,

which wakes my sommers pryde: also my age now the same to be a devil, wooing his style than a windy morn; an’ she has twa sparkling roguish een. Where is no plant that thought warbling his own vision of all humanity,—

lie on their Strength and bore its fragrant but the lass o’ Ballochmyle. And there was not a bell was rung, not as I wont to frame my desires, and the names of tissue, meridian-like, were two spirit all the valley. A heart

to herd with incessant. Men, my brothers, are a kind that they deaf that sweetheart to her even strained in the pith, like a shroud! Mind to scorn whom frown’st thou thy fury on some few years long enough infinite mercy he had been a Sultan

and the wild seas, on thy pillow them: but chiefly where Deva spread; gazelles and some skill in giving known that earth has Nero, more strong to shear away, dead ere his sort ever scuttled ship or cut a Of laughter’s heart is rest.

#poetry #automatically generated text #Patrick Mooney #Markov chains #Markov chain length: 7 #144 texts #ballad

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aronaax · 21 days

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!! oc and canon !!

eek so nervous to post this !!! pinning this so any 1 new to my page knows who they are

here is an intro to my scp ocs! SCP-144-JP aka Ani, her mother + backstory . zoom in to read cuz the text is small af

and some doodles of how ani can use her power

#oc and canon #scp #scp foundation #scp oc #oc #scp 144 jp #global occult coalition #goc oc #agent ukulele #dr clef #alto clef #dr alto clef #my oc #my oc art #my art #scp fandom #scp community #scp original character

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chiliadicorum · 4 months

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Was Feanor's Death Anticlimactic?

(thank you to @ckgoksoy's artwork and @nyarnamaitar's tags on it that inspired this)

I’m sure the fandom has seen this idea floating around, that his death was quite anticlimactic*, a letdown after all his hype and drama, so I won't elaborate on this common opinion, one that I initially shared. I instead want to challenge it. Furthermore, I posit that not only was his death not anticlimactic, but that it was one of the most glorious fights in the whole legendarium. *(I'm speaking of the whole scene in general that ended in his death, not the outcome of it - let's be real, self-combustion isn't boring and that epic circumstance was unique to Feanor alone)

Buckle up.

I'm not going to dive into "narrative bias" - it's a touchy subject and a deep discussion in itself - but it does need to be acknowledged here however briefly because it's so glaringly obvious that it directly impacts how we the Reader interpret Feanor's final fight scene.

My belief of the problem is not that there wasn't anything significant to report about Feanor's fight with the Balrogs, but that it was deliberately withheld from us. Let's look at Feanor and Fingolfin, two incredibly imperative characters to the drama. Compare the scene of Feanor's fight to Fingolfin's duel with Morgoth. In the silmarillion, from the moment he elected to go forth to the conclusion of his death, Feanor gets 1.5 paragraphs containing 344 words. Fingolfin using the same window gets 6 paragraphs containing 766 words. Of those 766 words, for text dedicated specifically to the actual combat alone, Fingolfin got 261 words.

Feanor got 29.

That's quite a gaping difference, especially when it's between these two. But you might make the argument that these two combats had entirely different foes. Feanor faced Balrogs, but Fingolfin fought Morgoth, the Enemy, the only occasion in which Morgoth emerged to fight anyone, so of course it should shine in the spotlight with some detail as to how it went (and yes, it should). It has nothing to do with bias against who was fighting, but what they were fighting.

All right. I'll pretend that this distinction is important. Let's turn to the other recorded Balrog-fights. Again, not including all the narrative revolving around their fight & subsequent death, but specific to the combat alone:

Fingon got 94 words Ecthelion got 144 words Glorfindel got a whopping 210 words

Feanor got 29. Now, length is not the deciding factor in this, obviously. The content contained within is what matters, and that's the rub: there's content. Which is why I literally figured out the word-count dedicated to what happened within the timeframe of the combats. Length is not important, but the point I'm trying to make with highlighting the lengths is that some measure of detail of the combat was included for ALL the other deaths-by-Balrog. Except Feanor's. So the argument that it was because of what Feanor was fighting that we were left with a truncated account is moot.

And remember, the three other Elves above were each fighting a single Balrog whereas Feanor was up against many. And I'm to seriously believe that there was nothing noteworthy to write about that? This was Feanor. Because that's another thing. The other three accounts were of minor characters (and Ecthelion and Glorfindel were very minor characters compared to Feanor). This was the legendary Feanor, the greatest of Elves to ever live, larger than life, powerful, intelligent and skilled beyond measure, and without who's driving force we wouldn't have had a story...and a few dozen words only are dedicated to his demise?

Now to clarify, Glorfindel's and Ecthelion's fights weren't included in the silm. Like I said, minor characters, so it wasn't surprising their combats were cut from the final draft. Their word-count was pulled from their accounts in The Fall of Gondolin. So, to be fair, I took the (really long) time and looked up Feanor's death in every. single. book. and, much to my genuine surprise, the silmarillion had the longest and most detailed account. The measly 29 words. What were those words? I should probably include them at some point since I'm going on about it:

"Long he fought on, and undismayed, though he was wrapped in fire and wounded with many wounds; but at the last he was smitten to the ground by Gothmog"

That's it. No wonder people are underwhelmed when reading it. So vague and containing absolutely nothing specific after he was surrounded. And it says "long he fought on", which means this fight was no short thing. This is an interesting element, because even Glorfindel's fight, which was given the most detail, was described as a fast event: "Now there was a deadly combat upon that high rock above the folk [...] yet it was over ere Glorfindel's men could leap to his side." Long he fought on. Logic dictates that Feanor's fight therefore would have the most to report of what occurred therein, but all we get is "wounded with many wounds" and "wrapped in fire"? (though that's an awesome visual to imagine, I have to say)

Am I really supposed to believe that every Balrog-fight was interesting enough to spend time writing about it except Feanor's? Especially when he faced not just one Balrog but many? And not one at a time, but all at once? (because it says he was "surrounded") And when this combat lasted a long time? All of these factors tied together hint at something awesome that happened, and you want me to believe it wasn't a jaw-dropping showdown?

This history was written by Pengolodh who, with reason, had a very negative outlook towards Feanor and, while he was a brilliant historian, he wasn't wholly objective and one way I believe this manifests is, in fact, in his lack of documentation of this fight. I'm only highlighting this factor and not the narrative he penned about the people he was writing because, especially comparing Feanor's and Fingolfin's accounts, that becomes very problematic and is a separate post entirely.

Feanor only got 29 words for his combat. I'll even be generous and say it was 35 words if we include the preceding line where it explains that Feanor was surrounded by them. What would happen if we rewrote Fingolfin's 261-worded duel with Morgoth and condensed it down to something short and sweet? Something like this:

"Fiercely he fought in rage and grief, and with Ringil he hewed at the Black Foe ere Morgoth crushed him to the ground. Thus died Fingolfin before Angband's gates."

Kind of anticlimactic, isn't it? (and yeah, I made that 29 words)

What an astounding difference detail makes for the conclusions we draw about these two fights. Now, if Feanor had died straightaway at the start of the fight, then yeah. Deeming it anticlimactic would carry a lot more weight.

Except he didn't.

Which brings me to my next three points. Because now after harping about the egregious lack of information, how can I dare suggest then that his combat with the Balrogs was glorious?

Ignore everything I've said up to this point. Dismissing the narrative bias completely, if I were of the opinion that it doesn't exist or its impact on the text is nowhere near as substantial as I've implied, the minimal detail of Feanor's death scene itself still convinces me that this scene was epic.

And yes, I do believe Feanor's fight was in fact glorious.

1: the Balrogs weren't able to kill him immediately

Those four words, "long he fought on" cannot be overstated. Fights with Balrogs in the First Age were fast, if you managed to live long enough to actually fight them, that is. And if you did, it was shortlived. Not Feanor's though. He was wounded with many wounds (so creative, Pengolodh), but he was never dealt the killing blow (I'll come back to this). The final wound Feanor received put him to the ground. Maybe Gothmog swept his feet out from under him with the fiery whip. Maybe this wound was to his thigh and caused him to fall to his knees. Maybe it took four of them converging on him with attacks for Gothmog to finally slip in. WE'LL NEVER KNOW. But he's on the ground and he's still alive. Still alive when his sons and army arrived to help and still alive when the Balrogs left:

"Then his sons raised up their father and bore him back towards Mithrim. But as they drew near to Eithel Sirion and were upon the upward path to pass over the mountains, Feanor bade them halt; for his wounds were mortal and he knew that his hour was come."

And still alive while they carry him away. Feanor didn't die on the battleground of his Balrog-fight. He died here, near the slope of the mountains. It says earlier in Feanor's account that he pressed on, thinking perhaps that he could reach Morgoth himself, which means they were far into the fields of Ard-galen, far from the mountain pass. From Eithel Sirion to the skirt of Thangorodrim's mountains, Ard-galen stretched around 70 leagues wide (one map has it around 100 leagues). Let's be generous and say this fight occurred at the midpoint; 35 leagues. If it takes an hour to walk a league, that's still 35 hours of non-stop walking without rest-stops, sleep or being weighed down by supplies and an army to get back to Eithel Sirion where Feanor died (some accounts have him being borne all the way back to Mithrim before he died).

At minimum, Feanor didn't die until at least a whole day later. He needed assistance getting up from the ground and moving, but he was very much alive, still talking, still coherent. Can you imagine how awful that was for his sons? The adrenaline of running as fast as they could to help him, the overwhelming relief that he was still alive, badly hurt but alive, they tend to his wounds as best as they can and get him out of there, probably smiling at their father being irritated by the outcome of the fight because that sounds like him, he's normal haha he'll be fine...But he's only getting worse with each league, face paler, can't move at all on his own, becoming so quiet. They keep tending to his wounds, try to keep him hydrated, steadily get terrified at how he gets weaker and weaker, and then he tells them to halt. The fact that he survived for a time, for many hours, led me to believe that whatever fatal wound he got, it caused severe internal bleeding, because his sons had plenty of time to patch him up and Elves' bodies are resilient and heal fast, but this wound was unstoppable.

Feanor fought against multiple Balrogs, and they couldn't kill him. He fought multiple Balrogs all at once, and they couldn't kill him. He fought multiple Balrogs all at once for a long time, and they couldn't kill him, one and done. He walked away from it, if for a short while, and that's amazing.

2: the Balrogs fled the scene

How has the fandom not lost their collective minds over this tidbit? Feanor gets struck down by Gothmog. He's on the ground, exposed, and it says he would have perished right then and there if his sons hadn't arrived to help. Feanor's vulnerable on the ground, unable to defend himself. Gothmog had to only strike him one more time and done, mission accomplished (he could've just stomped on him, just saying). Gothmog probably moved to do so, but didn't. Let me ask you a question:

What the hell did Feanor do in that fight to make the Balrogs AFRAID?

This was one Elf, a single Elf that they were all piling on, they finally get him to the ground...and they run. They can finally kill him, but at the mere SIGHT of his seven sons, the children of this one Elf running full pelt towards them enraged and desperate, they elected to flee instead of taking the two seconds to finish the job. I can see it; Gothmog's eyes blazing down at this prone Elf, raising his weapon for the killing blow, hears yelling, looks up, sees these Elves coming, takes a second to consider and then nopes out of there.

What in the world did Feanor do to them during their fight to make the Balrogs believe that fleeing from these coming Elves was the better option? They're Balrogs! Monsters, demons of living fire, the greatest of Morgoth's servants...and they run at the sight of Feanor's sons and the people with them. See now why I'm so desperate for details of that fight? Feanor put fear into them. There was really nothing worth writing about?

3: Morgoth was desperate

"[...] Morgoth was dismayed. Ten days that battle lasted, and from it returned of all the hosts that he had prepared for the conquest of Beleriand no more than a handful of leaves."

Morgoth was dismayed. Can we not appreciate the magnitude of this simple sentence? Appalled, apprehensive, frightened, nervous, shocked - Feanor and the Noldor made Morgoth, mightiest of all beings, dismayed.

This was a landslide victory for the Noldor, and it's often forgotten because of Feanor's death in the hour of that victory. The size of Morgoth's army here can't be disregarded. This wasn't a troop or two he sent to kill the Noldor, this wasn't a regiment sent to take over Mithrim. This army was of such a gargantuan size that Morgoth intended to use it for "the conquest of Beleriand". Not just the Falas or Doriath, the entire continent. It was THE army, that's how huge it was. And the Noldor massacred them to such a degree that "no more than a handful of leaves" returned to Angband.

And that puny remnant was running for Angband as fast as they could, because these terrifying Elves were hot on their tail, Feanor at the lead. And he runs faster, pulling ahead. (the Elves are hot with victory, how did Feanor manage to outrun them by such a distance? dang dude) He's coming for them. For Angband, for Morgoth, his father's slayer and thief of his treasure. Vengeance is nigh.

And from afar Morgoth sees Feanor coming. For him. His army is destroyed, gone, and Feanor, blazing like the Spirit of Fire he is, is charging for his fortress with the army of Noldor in his wake. And I absolutely love that Morgoth's solution to this wasn't to send one Balrog but several of them, including his General. That's what he deemed was necessary to stop Feanor. The Balrogs probably went out thinking "kill that one Elf? Easy, no problem", until they started fighting him...and struggled to do it.

It's interesting because Feanor wouldn't have been able to breach the walls of Angband. Not even the Valar could, and Morgoth knew this. He knew Feanor wouldn't stand a chance if he actually reached Thangorodrim. But such was his dismay that in his fear and anxiety, that fact no longer registered to him. He reacted instead, and his reaction is so telling. The Balrogs were a last resort, a desperate attempt to get these Elves to stop.

And it worked.

Thus why I say that details of his fight were deliberately withheld from us instead of the idea that they weren't worth reporting. The question, then, is why? Why withhold it? Feanor's death scene was never anticlimactic. It was instead given such a disservice in the tomes of history, for the historians simply neglected to report anything about it (for the sole purpose of making it seem unnotable perhaps?). This fight was badass. And side note: "wrapped in fire"? There's no sun or moon yet, guys, and that close to Angband I'm willing to bet even the stars were veiled by Morgoth's gales. It's pitch black on the Ard-galen except for what light the Elves carry...Try to envision what his sons saw as they were running to him, in the distance, the whirling inferno Feanor was engulfed in, that lit up the entire fields up to the skies. (Were they confused at first? Thinking it was simply a manifestation of their father's fire until they saw dark shapes moving in it?)

How could anyone omit information about such a marvelous event? Feanor died very early on, but he made sure his final stand was so glorious as to put fear into the Enemy. Think about it; this day was the first time Morgoth learned to dread the Elves.

29 words. Why oh why did you withhold everything else? Yes, all these factors woven together coalesce into an incredible impression of what transpired, but it's remanded unto our mere imaginations to guess and envision. I'm fully convinced Feanor's fight with the Balrogs was jaw-dropping, and I'm resigned to being forever embittered that we were given a lousy account of that event. There is one thing, though, that pacifies me and with it, I'll make my conclusion to this long meta. Why was it withheld? There's one detail written about this battle in The Quenta that I think provides the answer:

"no tale can tell the valour of Feanor"

Perhaps I'm being too harsh on Pengolodh for his lackluster description of Feanor's last fight. Maybe it was less of a passive-aggressive hostility towards Feanor...and more so the simple fact that no amount of words would've ever done it justice.

#feanor #silmarillion #dagor nuin giliath #morgoth #balrogs #gothmog #feanorians #ard-galen #pengolodh #meta #narrative bias #unreliable narrators

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