Tumgik
#also elrond (and his children) and elros
polutrope · 8 months
Text
Nolofinwëan caffeine habits
Fingolfin: freshly ground quality beans in an ornate french press every morning with homemade cashew milk, no sugar. Only buys coffee out when someone else invites him, then usually orders a cappuccino because it’s what Finwë drank. Pays for the other person, tips well. 
Fingon: six cans of cola every day. Laughs every time Maedhros tries to suggest this is a bad habit. When he goes out for coffee, he orders fresh-squeezed orange juice or something that no one even realised was on the menu. Always orders a couple snacks and insists on sharing. Tips a normal amount but brings the staff random gifts like boxes of chocolate. 
Turgon: Four shots of espresso from the same place every morning at 7:10am. The staff have it waiting for him, he breezes in, says “good morning”, pays and tips, leaves. If he’s had a really long night he’ll add sugar, otherwise none. Often buys a few treats to go (they’re for Elenwë, Aredhel, and/or Idril; after Eärendil is born he buys a cake pop every single day). 
Aredhel: depends on the day, but enjoys treating herself to a large mocha with whipped cream. Seems to “deserve a treat” most days. Continuously drinks yerba mate on journeys (from a thermos in cold climates, iced when not). 
Argon: Monster energy drinks. 
Idril: Oat milk latte (thanks @swanmaids). No dietary reason, just likes the flavour. Rarely gets it to stay, but takes about 15-20 minutes to leave because she’s making the rounds catching up with staff and customers. Keeps saying, “I better get going!” and doesn’t. Enjoys a cup of tea with milk and the pastry Turgon brought her in the afternoons. 
Maeglin: says he doesn’t consume caffeine but eats chocolate covered coffee beans like popcorn when he’s trying to get a project done. When forced to go out he orders mint tea and lets it go cold. Pays for the other person but does not tip. 
Eärendil: at sea he drinks super sweet instant coffee that is somehow foamy despite being from a packet. When in Sirion, orders authentic chai from a stand in the town square mostly because Elwing likes it and the guy who makes it laughs at his jokes. When shipbuilding, drinks from the barely-functional coffee maker Círdan has had since the Great Journey. 
Fëanorians | Arafinwëans
222 notes · View notes
xiphoid-processing · 1 year
Text
Tumblr media
The Sacking of Sirion -- The Third Kinslaying
I didn't really know what else to do with this so im posting it lmao, also you might wanna turn un brightness a bit
139 notes · View notes
Text
Do we know who named the Peredhel twins Elrond and Elros? Because I read somewhere that the Fëanorians named them? In that case, did they actually name them Elrond and Elros, or did Elwing name them Elrond and Elros and they had other names given to them by the Fëanorians (maybe even finwë names) because like. If the Fëanorians had named them Elrond and Elros that would actually be pretty respectful to them and their family heritage
Any ideas or headcanons about this, because I literally can't stop thinking about it?
146 notes · View notes
thesummerestsolstice · 2 months
Text
I think it would be very funny if half-elves were just all short. Even the ones who are descended from really tall elves or mortals. By mannish standards, mind you, they’re fairly average, if built a little lighter. But compared to elves? Consider:
Earendil, descended from Turgon AND Tuor, great dragon-slaying warrior, and he comes up to like, the average elf’s shoulders
Erestor son of Caranthir looks almost exactly like his father but he’s about a foot shorter and much nicer
M&M fully think something’s horribly wrong with E&E as children because of how small they are (is this because of the cold they got two years ago?? Are they not eating enough???) but turns out no, half-elves are just like that
Elros was shocked when he first met humans and realized he was taller than most of them
Elros would also love to use Maedhros's sword but he's way too short to wield it so he ends up using a an elvish knife instead
The main way people tell Luthien and Elrond apart is that Luthien was really tall and Elrond is really not
Elrond also uses his shapeshifting specifically to be tall enough to reach books on the higher shelves of the library (Erestor is very jealous)
Glorfindel appreciates this because it makes it easier to physically drag Elrond into bed after he refuses to sleep for a week
407 notes · View notes
camille-lachenille · 2 months
Text
I was thinking about how, in fanfictions and in the fandom in general, Elrond is often depicted as a pure Noldorin lord, if not a die hard Fëanorian. And while I do enjoy Fëanorian!Elrond, the more I think about it the more I am convinced Elrond is not the fëanorian one of the twins. Elros is. Elros who adopted seven eight pointed stars as the heraldic device of his whole dynasty, a symbol still used 6000 years after his death. Elros who had Quenya be the official language of Númenor. Elros who decided to leave Arda for an unknown fate after his death; not Everlasting Darkness but not the rebirth in the bliss of Valinor either. He choose to go to a place Elves aren’t supposed to go, just like Fëanor and his sons went back to Beleriand. Elros, the mortal man, who decided to forge his own path in the world.
And I am not saying Elrond didn’t, because Eru knows how much strength, patience and stubbornness Elrond must have to become who he is in LotR. But when I first re-read LotR after reading the Silm, he did not strike me as Fëanorian at all (except for the no oath swearing rule that seems to apply in Rvendell). In fact, Elrond, and all three of his children, are defined by being half-Elven. Elrond is so much at the same time they had to creat a whole new category for him. He is described as kind as summer in The Hobbit, but also old and wise, and his friendly banter with Bilbo in FotR show he is also merry and full of humour. Elrond is both Elf and Man despite his immortality, and this is made quite clear in the text.
But. If I had to link him to an Elven clan, I’d say Elrond is more Sinda than Noldor, and even that is up to debate. Rivendell, this enchanting valley hidden from evil thanks to his power, is like a kinder version of Doriath. Yet, the name of Last Homely House and Elrond’s boundless hospitality make me think of Sirion: Rivendell is a place where lost souls can find s home, where multiple cultures live along each other in friendship and peace.
In FotR, Elrond introduces himself as the son of Eärendil and Elwing, claiming both his lineages instead of giving only his father’s name as is tradition amongst the Elves. It may be a political move, or it may be a genuine wish to claim his duality, his otherness, or even both at the same time. But from what is shown of Elrond in LotR, he seems to lean heavily in the symbols and heritage from the Sindar side of his family, rather than the Noldor one. I already gave the comparison with Doriath, but it seems history repeats itself as Arwen, said to be Lúthien reborn, chooses a mortal life. Yet Elrond doesn’t make the same mistake as Thingol by locking his daughter in a tower and sending her suitor to a deathly quest. Yes, he asks Aragorn to first reclaim the throne of Gondor before marrying Arwen, but this isn’t a whim on his part or an impossible challenge. Aragorn becoming king means that Middle-Earth is free from the shadow if Sauron and Arwen will live in peace and happiness. Which sounds like a reasonable wish for a parent to me.
Anyways, I went on a tangent, what strikes me with Elrond is his multiple identity. Elrond certainly has habits or traits coming from his upbringing amongst the Fëanorians, and he loved Maglor despite everything. The fact he is a skilled Minstrel shows he did learn and cultivate skills taught by a Fëanorion, that he is not rejecting them. There is a passage at the end of RotK, in the Grey Havens chapter, where Elrond is described carrying a silver harp. Is this a last relic from Maglor? Possible.
But while Elros choose the path of mortality and showed clear Noldorin influences in the kingdom he built, Elrond is happy in his undefined zone he lives in. He is an Elf, he is a Man, he is Sinda and Noldo and heir to half a dozen lost cultures and two crowns. He is the warrior and the healer, the only one of his kind in Middle-Earth. And that is why I will never tire of this character and I love so much fanworks depicting him as nuanced and multiple yet always recognisable as Elrond.
410 notes · View notes
Text
One aspect of the House of Feanor I’d like to talk about is the idea that they all really love children. Like Feanor has seven sons more than any other elf we’ve ever heard mentioned. You’re telling me this guy doesn’t really love kids? So I like to believe that all the Feanorians are all inherently great with kids and just melt every time they see a child.
Feanor hates his half brothers for the whole Indis thing but he’s the only one who gets away with hating them. Anyone else tries it and they are hit with the full force of an angry Feanor. Yes he hates them but he will also be tutoring them because how else will he make sure it’s done right and they won’t disgrace Atar? And no he was not just bouncing Arafinwe on his lap what are you talking about?
Curufin is an excellent father which he inherited from his own father. Tyelpe also has six uncles who never tire of spending hours playing with him. They all fight for the title of best uncle and Tyelko very firmly believes it is him.
At family gatherings it is understood that no matter your reservations about Feanor’s side of the family if there is an upset child a Feanorian will know how to deal with it. Feanor himself will rarely object to being handed a crying baby regardless of it’s parentage. Maedhros has been the assigned babysitter for what feels like an eternity and his abilities are regarded as near magic.
This does not go away once they get to Middle Earth. The Feanorians all go to great lengths to provide adequate parental leave in their armies and frequently stop round to check in with any new parents to meet the child. They know all the names of most of their followers children and ask about them regularly.
One of the first things that endeared Caranthir to Haleth was how kind he was with some of her younger relatives. The children of the Haladin all love him because he plays with them sometimes and brings them little sweets. His good with children instincts are activated with any child regardless of race and it helps him build relations with other races more easily.
When Maglor brings Elrond and Elros back Maedhros is a lost cause within a month. He knows this s unhealthy on so many levels but children. They’re so innocent and tiny and he’s going to protect them. They are both referring to them as their children within a week.
Elrond inherits this. Erestor and Glorfindel see his adoption problem and immediately think oh shit our lord is definitely a Feanorian.
1K notes · View notes
anna-dreamer · 2 months
Text
Finwean generational trauma is so real. I imagine, after Maglor and Maedhros kidnapped the twins, there was a clear and brutal understanding that that was not them giving those children a good life; but also, also, with Maglor and Maedhros being prone to the Oath, with their lives and souls tainted and fractured by bloodshed and murder and violence and loss and despair, they'd think there was no chance in the void for them to make something good out of it. Not with the Oath, not with the Doom, not with the way their father was. Their grandfather, due to whatever eldritch horror haunted his childhood in Endorë, felt that he had to have as many children as possible, so that his family would not fail and he wouldn't be left alone and scared in the dark. As a result, their father, abandoned and traumatised and angry, felt that he had to have as many children as possible, so that he would never be abandoned again, alone and scared in the dark. And he made sure of that. He had seven children, and he tied them up with an unbreakable Oath that would sooner destroy all of them than let them give up on him. So many hurts in this family were attempted to be healed with the use of children. And now here are Maglor and Maedhros. Alone and scared in the dark. True, there are two little boys on their hands, yet they have already wronged these boys so deeply. If there is a small chance of salvation or even redemption through them, Maglor and Maedhros would not take it. Besides, it would not work anyway. Refusing to repeat the old pattern is a first step in the right direction, and on itself it wouldn't be enough, but...
But then Eärendil appears in the sky. This is Elrond and Elros' father up there - and at the same time there is Fëanor too, because it's the silmaril that shines, the unobtainable, unreachable, illusory silmaril, like a father Maglor and Maedhros still desperately long for. Oh, but he will not come back. He is as far away as any star in the sky. The twins can't have their father back, and neither can the last two Fëanorians.
And then it hits Maglor. True, his brother and him are Doomed. True, there is probably no happy ending for them two. But it doesn't have to be this way for Elrond and Elros. With whatever strength and will to live and hope that he has left, he will try to do better by them. Maedhros would try to argue, but Maglor would tell him, They did not have Fëanor for a father! And they will not.
He can only hope that his genuine love and care he will give to the twins is just enough for them to turn out better than Maglor and Maedhros did. Maglor and Maedhros took them in. Now they are responsible. They will try. If redemption comes, it's not through acquiring someone to love you, but through loving them as sincerely and selflessly as your broken heart can. And if redemption doesn't come at all, so be it. It was not about redemption anyway. The second step, to consciously break the chain, is made.
Alas, it does not work as well on Maedhros. He doesn't feel this bittersweet bliss. He has fallen too deep into despair. And as soon as Elrond and Elros are gone, it becomes not enough for Maglor to heal either. He has just enough hope left to argue with his brother whether or not to go for silmarils. But all those last years spent alone with Maedhros sucked a lot out of Maglor, and nothing is left, apart from the feverish devotion, Nelyo knows better, Nelyo always knew better, like a dark shadow of Father always knows better, we will follow him and we will die for him if needed... No matter that Maedhros is not in his right mind. Neither was Fëanor. Their father's Oath is intertwined with their love for each other, and it binds them together ever stronger. Maglor would not leave Maedhros. But Maedhros loves his brother too. He might have not been healed by a star, but he is still Nelyo. The big brother. And while he could not break any vicious circles with his life, but with his death, for his last surviving brother, he would try.
It was not enough for Maedhros or Maglor. But it was enough for Elrond and Elros. With them, Finwean generational trauma was healed. The chain was broken. And i firmly believe that, despite their own trauma, both ultimately had healthy and happy families.
And if Maglor is still out there, Elrond will find him. He will finish what Maglor - his father - has started.
191 notes · View notes
meluiloth · 9 days
Text
For @silmarillionepistolary day 7, Remembrance and New Beginnings! Artwork at the bottom.
Night has fallen. The lamps have been turned low, the house cleaned, the bedtime routine completed; all Maglor and Maedhros have left to do is tuck the twins and read them their customary story.
They look so small wrapped in the red wool blankets, like two little birds in a crimson nest. They are quiet, too, waiting patiently for Maglor to ask his routine question: “Now, what story would you like tonight? Or would you rather hear a song?”
“I want the one about the Sun and the Moon!” Elros pipes up, scrunching the blanket in his hands eagerly.
Maglor smiles. “Is that what you want as well, Elrond?”
Elrond, the quieter twin, looks bashfully down before murmuring, “I’d like to see the picture book…”
Maglor shares a confused look with Maedhros. They did not own any picture books. “What do you mean?” Maedhros asks.
Elrond tips his head. “The one in your study,” he says. “It’s got gold string around it and lots of pictures on every page.”
Maedhros frowns. “You know you are forbidden from entering my study,” he reproaches.
Elrond bites his lip. “Yes, I know … I just saw the pictures and thought they were pretty.”
Maglor sees the telltale signs of a lecture in Maedhros’s expression, so he swiftly says, “Perhaps we can excuse it this once, if you promise to ask before you touch our things.”
Both Elrond and Elros nod emphatically, and Maglor leaves the room to search for the ‘picture book’ in his brother’s study, which is packed with volumes, scrolls, and papers. Maglor thinks it will take him forever to find the book Elrond described, if it exists at all, but surprisingly he easily locates it in the first bookshelf: a worn book of red leather, tied with a fading gold ribbon. It is familiar to him, but he cannot recollect why until he brings it back into the twins’ room. Maedhros’s eyes widen when he sees it. “Grandfather’s sketchbook? I thought that was lost ages ago!”
“It was in a box in the back,” Elrond supplies.
Maglor looks down at it, a stab of nostalgia and old grief passing through him. “I thought we never even brought it,” he murmurs.
“Can we read it?” Elros asks, leaning forward curiously.
Maedhros frowns, his reluctance clear. There are many memories neither of them want to relive, the life and death of their grandfather among the most heartbreaking. But many of the memories Finwë recorded in his beloved sketchbook were his happiest, from both his life and the rest of his family’s. And the two young children looking up at Maglor are also Finwë’s family … and he wants to share something of his life that is not just the blood on his hands.
The spine of the book cracks softly as he opens it, and the yellowed paper releases a small puff of dust, but the artwork on the inside is still as lovely and life-filled as the day he penned them.
Maglor explains each piece as he showed it to the twins, and lets them look as long as they like. Even Maedhros sometimes asks him to wait a little longer on certain pages, the heavy, dark look in his eyes brightening when he remembers his childhood in Valinor.
It is well past midnight by the time they reach the last pages, and all of them are surprised to see that they are all in full color, when all the previous pages have been only graphite sketches.
“Who are they?” Elros breathes, tracing his finger delicately over the meticulously painted faces.
Maglor swallows, his throat and his eyes clogged with tears. His brother, too, is at a loss for words.
“It’s them,” Elrond says, looking up at the Fëanorians and then back down at thd drawings. “Maglor and Maedhros are right there … but Maedhros looks different …”
It was true. Maglor and Maedhros, along with all of their brothers - still alive and smiling radiantly - and their parents. On the other pages, their cousins and uncles and aunts, before any of them had suffered the horrors of Morgoth.
“That is us,” Maedhros murmurs. “That was us then. We were so happy..."
“What was it like … then?” Elros ventures.
Maglor smiles. “I will tell you.”
“Tomorrow night,” Maedhros interrupts. “It is very late, and if you are to understand a word we say, you must be well-rested.”
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
103 notes · View notes
Text
Look, I love Maglor.
Maglor makes me feel things.
I am firmly in the camp that Maglor is the Most Gentle Feanorian, he hates violence, he sees the wrong in all they do, he has an immense amount of empathy.
And don’t you see… this does not make him The Best Feanorian, morally superior to his brothers, pure and good.
This interpretation… kinda makes him the WORST of his brothers?
Maedhros stands aside when the ships burn. He believes abandoning their cousins and people is wrong and takes a stand no matter how futile. Maglor doesn’t. Maglor burns the ships.
We don’t know that Maglor thought that was wrong, we don’t get his perspective in that part of the story. But once we start getting his perspective we get him arguing against the final acts of murder that would retrieve the Silmarils, with full knowledge that it is a bad thing to do… and then doing it anyways. I think Maglor knew burning the ships was wrong.
If you interpret Maglor this way… he doesn’t come out looking good. At least Curufin and Celegorm had conviction that attacking Doriath was right. Going along with it knowing it’s wrong is WORSE. It’s FUCKED UP.
Maglor, in many ways, is a coward. Not when facing the enemy, but when facing his brothers, or his father. He may have had the most of Nerdanel in him of his brothers, but he didn’t get her spine, her ability to say “no this is wrong” to someone she loves, and step away. I even think Maglor’s “no this is wrong” was internal until the very end, when he only had his closest brother left.
There is a period where Maglor is in charge, after Maedhros’s capture. And a lot of people headcanon Maglor having a lot of guilt over his inaction in this time. I agree he has a lot of guilt over it (I think guilt and conflicted emotions drive almost everything Maglor does) but I also think this is the BRAVEST AND MOST CORRECT MAGLOR ACTS IN THE ENTIRE FIRST AGE. The Noldor should absolutely just be seeking to survive at this point, trying to rescue Maedhros would get them all killed. Inaction is the correct call here, despite pressure to do otherwise.
And also, I can’t remember if I made this up, but I have a memory of Curufin and Celegorm both clamoring for Maglor to give up the throne in favor of Celegorm, who is absolutely a more decisive leader in line with what their father would have wanted. Fending this off would be the only recorded time when Maglor stood firm against his brothers.
Some people portray Maglor taking in Elrond and Elros as an act of defiance against Maedhros, to which I say… why? Maedhros frantically searched for Elured and Elurin to save them, he clearly was very against the murder of children, and Maglor has exactly zero instances of putting his foot down against Maedhros.
Tl.dr. Maglor having the most developed moral compass of the feanorians, far from making him a perfect angel, actually mixes with his actions and inactions to make him INCREDIBLY flawed in a completely unflattering way, and I think that’s fascinating.
761 notes · View notes
lendmyboyfriendahand · 2 months
Text
AU where the Third Kinslaying takes place a decade later
It doesn't truly change anything, not as far as the history books record things. Some of the Feanorian soldiers turncoat and defend the city, but not enough to save Sirion. The youngest sons of Feanor die in battle. Elwing is cornered in her tower, and jumps with a Silmaril. The remaining sons of Feanor take custody of her sons. Ulmo rescues Elwing and guides her bird-self to Earendil; Earendil and Elwing got to Valinor; Earendil pleads with the Valar. The arc of Fate continues unabated.
In other ways, it changes everything. Elrond and Elros are not children when the attack comes, to hide in a closet or cave in hopes their mother will return. Instead they are youths, not yet as wise or strong as some but nearly grown.
The princes take part in the battle to defend their city.
It's both of their first fight outside the practice yards. Elrond has gone hunting before and shot a deer, but Elros has never spilled the blood of another living being, not orc or elf or man.
He does so today, his sword travelling smoothly in the motion he's drilled a hundred times.
Elrond fights on horseback at first, riding down the street and firing arrows at anyone wearing Feanor's star, trampling down the invaders and moving on before he can see what's left behind and vomit in horror. But when the battle progresses into the palace he abandons his stallion at the gates, rushing to try and save his family.
Elros watches his mother jump from across a room crowded with combatants. Elrond is still four floors down, but he sees the gull emerge from the spray with a loud cry, far larger and brighter than any natural bird.
They do find each other in the battle, and fight side by side. But slowly the twins are driven back, before an army both more experienced and more numerous.
Elrond and Elros manage to retreat to the buttery and block the door, the thick stone walls that keep the beer cool also preventing anyone from reaching them. It's a very defensible room, with only one entrance to guard.
They are trapped. They know it.
Neither says it aloud.
They simply sit and wait, and hope the invaders will leave once they realize the prize they came to the city for is no longer achievable.
(Maedhros is not about to leave two young princes behind whose city was destroyed, will want revenge, would be a wonderful rallying point for the people of Sirion, and are two young to know the wisdom of not starting fights without a tactical benefit. Better to deal with it now, while the city is in chaos, than to wait and have an army come after the Feanorians in a year or a decade.)
(The only question is if the door can be breached, or if the Feanorians will need to starve the twins out. By which time reinforcements will likely have arrived to Sirion, so it becomes a matter of either defending the ransacked city or burning the palace with the boys inside it.)
After an hour or two, someone does think of negotiating, offering to spare the princes lives and leave the city not any further destroyed, and taking the boys captive.
(Tell me, what prince of the Noldor is infamous for going to a parlay under false pretenses? How much history and diplomacy do you think twins raised to rule a kingdom know?)
65 notes · View notes
bralesscommie · 9 months
Text
Elwing and Eärendil were both wrong for leaving their children, and that in itself can be traumatic, but Elrond (and Elros, but this post is about Elrond) are also traumatized by the third kinslaying. He was litteraly six (6) years old when he watched an entire town slaughtered, and then his mother jump into the sea (because of one glowing rock. I repeat one fucking glowing rock). Though Elwing and Eärendil were definitely not ideal parents, there is nothing (in my opinion) that points to them being abusive. Elrond and Elros would miss both of them after being kidnaped.
As we all know, it is stated in the Silm that there grew a great love between Maglor and the twins (Maedhros' involvement is of course questionable, but I chose to believe he was around). There being love between them does not mean their relationship wasn't complicated as hell. First of all, the twins are (as I've said) traumatized by the third kinslaying, which means they are (at least initially) terrified of Maglor and Maedhros, and even later on may suddenly be frightened of them sometimes. Not to mention that they first left them in a cave, and Maglor only went back for them later.
Then, when the last hunt for the two remaining Silmarils started, that was one more abandoning, once again for some fucking shiny rocks (in this case far more excusable than with Elwing, the oath was threatening).
We also know that both Maglor and Maedhros, but especially Maedhros, were traumatized, which doesn't lead to the most stable parenting. This is a good time to note that Eärendil also escaped Gondolin at the ripe old age of seven, and Elwing escaped Beleriand with the Silmaril, so neither of them were the picture of mental health either, most likely.
Whatever mistakes/abuse/abandonment which the twins original or kidnap parents committed are not excused by their trauma of course, just explain them.
In conclusion, Elrond is fucking amazing for being 'kind as summer', because after everything in just his childhood alone, he turned it all around. Yes I am normal about him, no I am not tearfully writing this in the middle of the night
184 notes · View notes
symphonyofsilence · 2 years
Text
So, now, according to TROP, Finrod, in Valinor calls Galadriel 'Galadriel', which is a name given to her by her husband after she goes to Middle-earth and sees him there. the aforementioned husband has not been mentioned in the show so far. instead, Galadriel flirts with an original character and to a lesser extent, with her future son-in-law who is generations younger than her and is apparently her bestie now. (But they don't even mention that Galadriel is Gil-Galad's aunt cuz God forbid she actually has some of the caliber that she canonically had. Nobody listens to her, nobody looks up to her, nobody even calls her "lady".) She doesn't even inform her husband and says goodbye to him when she decides to go to Valinor. She doesn't go to see him when she apparently comes back from years of expedition.
(And Galadriel and Halbrand accidentally hold hands in their sleep in the concept art so make of that what you will.)
Also, Galadriel is the Sindrin form of "Alarariel". The Noldor of Valinor, including Finrod, didn't know Sindarin, a language spoken by the elves of Middle-earth.
Then how should have they shown that this child is Galadriel you might ask? Well, they didn't have any problem showing her with the same shift she was wearing in her childhood flashback when she was grown up! But actually, I say, change that whole scene! The point of the scene was probably Finrod's dialogue about the buoyancy of the stone and holly shit! Was that bad! The dialogues are so trying to be philosophical and epic and end up so cringe!
And apparently, Finrod had sworn to find Sauron?? And Sauron found him first?? And killed him?? After the first age??
And look, there is "breaking lore" and then there is "eliminating the whole Akallabeth" which the show is about.
Finrod dies saving Beren. If Finrod wasn't with Beren in the quest for Silmarils, Beren would have died. (Since Beren managed to get that close to Sauron because of Finrod's shapeshifting arts, he might have died sooner.)
And had Beren died, there would have been no Dior. No Dior, no Elwing. No Elwing, no Elrond and Elros.
Elrond is now in the series, and Elros is the first king of Nomenor, which is the subject of a large part of the series.
And it may seem that this will just eliminate the first king of Numenor. But no. There will be no Numenor at all.
Had Beren died, the Silmaril would not have been taken from Melkor's crown and gone to Doriath. The sons of Fëanor wouldn't attack Doriath. Elwing, who would not exist in this scenario, even if she did, wouldn't have gone to Sirion and would not meet Eärendil, and once again, Elrond and Elros wouldn't exist. But more importantly, the sons of Fëanor wouldn't attack Sirion, and therefore Elving wouldn't throw herself into the sea with the Silmaril, so Earendil wouldn't know that his land was gone and that his children had probably died, and reached his last straw and gone to Valinor to ask for help, and because the Silmaril wasn't with him he wouldn't have managed to reach Valinor.
So Eärendil wouldn't have reached Valinor to ask for help, the War of Wrath wouldn't have happened, Beleriand would still be in Melkor's grasp, and the men wouldn't have helped the Valar during the War of Wrath so the Valar wouldn't create Numenor as a reward for them.
Therefore, a huge part of the series should not exist.
But no, apparently the showrunners thought it was more important to change Finrod's death to motivate Galadriel's absurd plotline, in which the wisest of the Eldar throws herself into the ocean and sidestrokes her way from Valinor to Middle-earth. (Valinor that Galadriel was not allowed to go to in the first place... so the whole point of the scene where Galadriel passes her test by rejecting the ring and succeeds in going to Valinor is lost. After removing the story of Galadriel's ambition and that she had come to Middle-earth to rule a land of her own and spent the Second Age looking for that land, and replacing it with this pointless plotline, removing both Galadriel's arc and the weight of the scene that she rejects the power of the ring.)
Also, apparently, Finrod took the oath of Fëanor. Yes, technically, that wasn't the oath of Fëanor. That causes its own problems but I understand that they didn't have the rights to some things but then THEY SHOULD HAVE LEFT IT ALONE! But a bunch of elves holding their swords out while the narrator is talking about how the Noldor swore to defeat the enemy and went to Middle-earth is alluding to the oath! They knew what they were doing when they added it!
And they could have just added a bunch of elves crossing ice with Galadriel, Finrod, and a dark-haired man in blue leading them?! Show the Noldor coming to Middle-earth, strong Galadriel being a leader, Finrod coming to Middle-earth, and a little cameo of Fingolfin without basically showing Fingolfin if they hadn't had the rights (just like how they showed little ginger children in Valinor probably with Amrod and Amras in mind) and stay true to the lore!
Also, with that hairstyle, show! Finrod looks like a popular but bullying captain of a high school's basketball team who would bully book! Finrod for being a theater nerd.
Oh, and, Celebrimbor apparently doesn't have any relationship with the dwarves before Elrond's arrival.
And Elrond, the heir to the Sindarin throne via Thingol, Noldrin (Gil-Galad's heir) via Turgon, and all the houses of the Edain is not an "elf lord" enough!
And yes! That was important! Cuz Elrond, the heir to any thone that there is, CHOSE instead become a healer, minstrel, linguist, loremaster and basically hotel manager. (I like what Robert Aramayo did with the role though. Elrond, Durin, and Disa were the only characters I liked.)
They keep needlessly going against canon! Not having the rights to this book and that book is not an excuse to willfully go against anything the books say!
And you might say that these go against the books, but are not bad writing.
Well, there is bad writing, too.
Show! Galadriel is SUCH a one-dimensional, unlikable, unrelatable character. All she was during the whole thing was angry and in posession of a dagger. With a single purpose and one thing to do. Making bad decisions while pretending to be wise. And the acting doesn't help it at all.
And jumping from the edge of a sword?! Listen, either your world has rules different from ours, or it's the same and you can't break physical rules in such a world! When you establish swords and people's wrists in your world as something that can be deflected with other swords, you can't say that they can endure (the weight of a person+ their armor)×(the acceleration of that person+ g) AND navigate a distance (r×teta) while enduring this weight to give that person an acceleration!
And you can't make people care about your characters and thus their plotlines with 5 minutes at most for each of them in every episode! There's not enough time for anyone to get invested. They don't have any filler scenes to show their characters and their relationship and make us care about them.
And that going to Valinor scene?!
We KNOW Galadriel wouldn't go to Valinor. So if you're choosing that bold plotline (going against the canon and logic along the way) the focus shouldn't be on whether or not she would go, but HOW she wouldn't go! I guess it was supposed to have the emotional weight of someone rejecting heaven for a cause or a person or something but it didn't work. Cuz we didn't know this show's Galadriel. We didn't know much about her adventures in Middle-earth and her relationship to the land, how she fought for it, who she had there (like...you'd think adding Celeborn and Celebrian would have helped), and her cause, keeping Finrod's oath did not work cause FINROD DIDN'T HAVE SUCH AN OATH!
And there is a LOT OF telling and not showing.
So yeah, to answer the showrunners question "can we make the novel that Tolkien never wrote?", yes, you can. You just did. Tolkien never wrote any of these. And would never.
969 notes · View notes
Text
I didn't include Elrond & Elros since they basically have their own houses
For everyone asking, for me Gil-Galad is the son of Orodreth since that is the "newest" version of him. It's what tolkien decided for last (though we don't know if he would have changed his mind again), and he also almost certainly decided that Fingon never had any children at all. (Look up The Peoples of Middle-earth, there are some notes on the parentage of Gil-Galad in that, which I base my assumtion on) -> it is obviously up to interpretation, but that is how I see what Tolkien wrote, so to me Gil-Galad is an Arafinwëan.
75 notes · View notes
imakemywings · 11 months
Text
Lowkey obsessed with the naming tradition of the line of Elwe/Thingol.
It just fascinates me how Thingol did not create the “El-” prefix naming tradition despite being the origin of it. Luthien’s given name bears no resemblance to either of her parents’ and neither does the name of her son, Dior. Yet Dior named himself Eluchil and took up the lordship of Doriath (something Luthien impliedly rejected when she and Beren chose to make their home elsewhere) and called his children Elured, Elurin, Elwing, and in their refugee’s home, cut off from her family and her heritage, Elwing named her own sons Elrond and Elros. 
And then, that thousands of years later, as lord of his own realm, in the safety of Rivendell, lifetimes since he last saw either of his parents or lived among the Doriathrim, Elrond names his sons Elrohir and Elladan.
It feels especially important as a claim on Iathrim heritage considering Doriath’s destruction. It was in the wake of the ruinous war with Nogrod, when Dior stepped in to try to rebuild, that he chose to name his children after a grandfather he never met, the legendary Elu Thingol, once called Elwe. It’s after the total obliteration of Doriath as a kingdom at the hands of fellow Elves that Elwing claims this tradition in naming her own children. And for Elrond, who never saw Doriath, who was deprived of the chance to know his mother or be raised among the Iathrim in Sirion (or the Gondolindrim, but that’s another issue), when he names his firstborn children, he reaches for that heritage in Doriath, that connection and in doing so declares himself of the line of Thingol and of Elwing, and his children also. He marks them as the next generation of this bloodline, he recollects the life and death of Doriath and its people, keeping alive that memory, faint as it might be.
168 notes · View notes
Text
There were quite a few people who absolutely refused to believe Elrond and Elros were who they claimed to be when they first came to Gil-Galad's camp. This led to the rise of several extremely questionable theories on who they really were, from the more mundane– they're just two half-elves the Feanorians found somewhere– to the more... esoteric, like that Maglor had "sung them into existence" to fool the armies of Valinor into letting them steal the Silmarils.
The most popular theory was that Elrond and Elros were actually the children of Maglor and Daeron of Doriath, and that they'd been kept secret for... some reason– look I never said the conspiracy theories made sense. E&E look a lot like Luthien (Luthien and Daeron are siblings with pretty similar features) and a bit like Fingolfin (who looks like Feanor who looks like Maglor), so it's not totally implausible. It would also explain how E&E had Maia powers without being Elwing's kids. And that was just enough information for it to become a completely unkillable rumor. Most of it dies down after E&E show some clearly human traits, like getting sick, but there are still die-hard believers out there. Some genealogies from the early Third Age list Elrond as Daeron and Maglor's child.
Elrond, who's been confronted about his "real parents" several times, is very over it. Gil-Galad thinks it's extremely funny.
233 notes · View notes
aregebidan · 1 year
Text
Always thinking about a genre aware Maglor kidnapping the twins as a particularly self-destructive way of escaping the story he’s trapped in. I think he’d absolutely be the type of person to appreciate the supposed “poetic justice” of his “foster sons” eventually killing him—it would strike a nice balance between satisfying the “audience,” aka whatever part of him that believes it would be appropriate for him to have such a cruel end, and establishing that he wasn’t pure evil despite everything (the children he raised destroyed him = he had enough decency to raise them to be capable of striking him down).
Even if the twins’ own ideas about the concept of kinslaying would inhibit them from giving him a “clean end,” an absolute exit from the story, he spends his days during and after the War of Wrath secretly hoping for some kind of recompense from them. A singer views the world in terms of linear stories, requiring endings to give it meaning. He orphaned the twins and raised them to stand up for themselves, he taught them everything he knew, surely they will repay him by making him into a defeated villain and thus finally introducing some degree of fairness into his life-narrative? 
(But Elros could never confine himself to rules and conventions, and Elrond hasn’t spent years teaching himself to be a healer only to be trapped in the avenging-angel role that his captor/mentor has ascribed to him. The next time they meet, a sizeable part of his initial kindness stems from spite. Maglor took the twins because he was looking for a sufficiently poetic end. Elrond feels sorry for him, but he also adamantly refuses to give him any of the satisfaction.)
337 notes · View notes