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absynthe--minded · 4 years

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on Fëanáro and Fate

based on this post by @finelythreadedsky who is wonderful and you all should follow her like right now

okay so I’m going to make a brief way too long aside to say: this is specifically about fate in the Silmarillion. fate in The Lord of the Rings is actually a fairly positive thing, way moreso than in the Silm - this is perhaps best demonstrated in a series of choices and interactions that Frodo has over the course of the books. Gandalf, in Fellowship, tells him essentially that since he has the Ring, he was meant to have it, and this is an encouraging thought because all their actions are foreordained by a presumably benevolent power acting in their best interest. Frodo is at first not comforted, but does find himself feeling better in the next book when Sam basically says “hey, we’re in a story, and look at these heroic legendary figures who were ALSO in stories who did way more dangerous shit than we’re doing and who made it out okay!” he takes comfort in the idea that Beren and Lúthien snuck into Angband and stole a Silmaril, because that means that by virtue of still being in the same story as they were, things might work out okay. (”Do the great tales ever really end?” no, they don’t, they just echo back on themselves) you could read Frodo's rejection of arms and armor in Mordor as his ultimate acceptance of the fact that he’s a creature of fate now - he has no real agency, he’s driven on by dooms beyond his control, and he rejects things that give him the illusion of being able to change that. but. like I said, fate in LotR is a good thing, and so Frodo is rewarded for his acceptance with rest and restoration and healing.

anyway. fate in the most famous fantasy trilogy of all time, and being part of a greater narrative with limited agency and little control over one’s actions and ending? this is a good thing, probably because JRRT was a Catholic and God being in control is a good thing.

I tell you that so we can talk about everybody’s favorite walking dumpster fire, Fëanáro “Fëanor” Finwion. this is supposed to have a cut, so if it doesn’t, I’m So Sorry Mobile Users. this was also written in a fatigued haze so I’m Sorry In Advance For That. no sources we die like the Eldar.

I’m actually gonna open with something that @yavieriel brought up in a series of DMs, which is the opening to the 2000s anime Princess Tutu and its arc words of “Those who accept their fate find happiness; those who defy it, glory.”

I do that because glory in Tolkien is a double-edged sword - glorious people go on to die in glorious ways. they usually don’t have long and happy lives. the wisest members of the cast are crotchety old souls who want Zero Adventures Thank You and who get dragged along on greater stories because that’s what must be done to make the world a better place. but this is a good contrasting point between Frodo and Fëanor (I’m going to call him that bc that’s what he’s called in the Silm, hopefully we all know my feelings on Sindarinized names by now) because Frodo does accept his fate and find happiness, and Fëanor... well.

I’m making this post at all because the Great Fate Post (called the GFP going forward) pulls a lot of examples from Western literature of characters being aware they’re in a story but being unable to do anything about it, or being guided to an inevitable end. and it’s a great post! it talks about Hadestown and Hermes and it’s a good post. I agree with everything in it. except for the fact that the quote from the Silmarillion that was used to showcase this sense of greater acceptance of one’s limited agency (even through terror/being driven on to a bad end) was an excerpt from this line: 'We have sworn, and not lightly. This oath we will keep. We are threatened with many evils, and treason not least; but one thing is not said: that we shall suffer from cowardice, from cravens or the fear of cravens. Therefore I say that we will go on, and this doom I add: the deeds that we shall do shall be the matter of song until the last days of Arda.'

Now. The guy saying that is Fëanor. Currently, he and all his people are in deep shit with the gods because they committed kinslaying. Like, serious kinslaying. we never get an in-universe body count but it’s severe enough that everyone even tangentially involved gets cursed by the resident god of death. this is called the Doom of the Noldor, which is the ethnic group whose members committed the atrocity. it’s a big fucking deal. it essentially says that you’re doomed, you will die, and all your works will come to nothing, and the gods will not look on you with pity, and thanks to your stupid choice to do the murder thing you’re all going to come to sorrows so great that the tears you shed will be unnumbered due to their ubiquity. and for a race with no natural death, being told outright “you’re going to die” is terrifying! elves are so immortal that the halls of the dead aren’t actually an underworld you stay in they’re a respawn point - you go, you heal from the pains of life, and then you get a new body and you get to go forth into the world again. the only way you opt out of this is either by opting out of the summons to the halls of the dead or by opting out of leaving entirely, both of which you can totally do. and being immortal and knowing that all your works and efforts will ultimately be destroyed and meaningless? well fuck.

Fëanor’s response is the above quote. He says this immediately after his people have been told by a literal god who can see the future “hey, assholes, you’re fucked.” He’s staring down the barrel of the gun marked “fate” and he says “actually, you know what? no. you’re wrong. even if you’re right about some aspects of this, I still have control, I still have agency. We will not be forgotten, our works will not come to nothing. History will remember us, and only history can judge us.” And it’s interesting to examine this in the greater context of the GFP because unlike other characters that are cited there, and even unlike his own sons, Fëanor doesn’t feel the weight of doom upon him. He assumes he’s the protagonist of this story, and as a result anything and everything he does will turn out okay. He’s perhaps the smartest incarnate being to ever have lived. He’ll think his way out, or demand his way out. It’s worked before and it will work again.

And the signs are there that he’s wrong, even as they’re subtle. It’s a bit like playing on long-abandoned train tracks. Someday, there will be a train, even if you’ve never seen one yet.

Fëanor dies in a spectacularly disastrous fashion almost immediately after this. Like. It can’t be more than a year later, and for immortal elves, that’s a blink of the eye. he’s the only elf, really, to have this defiant “fuck you” approach to doom. everybody else who comes under the weight of it either accepts it without causing a fuss or tries to resist it before ultimately failing and giving in. elves are bound to the world, to its circles and its story. they cannot jump the track of fate, they must ride the train to the station, regardless of whether or not the bridge is out.

and ultimately, despite his defiance and his frustration, Fëanor is no different from any of them.

#tolkien #absynthe's meta #finelythreadedsky #silmarillion #silmarillion meta

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therem-harth · 3 years

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h h hewwo owoo 22 / 23 / 29 / 31 / 34 / 50 / 58 / 61 / 88 in any order, and u can also just. pick only those that u want :3

hhhh-ewwwo? I did say I wanted to chat and I desperately do not want to do work or studies so buckle in for a long post (derogatory). 22. role model? Oh man, I don’t think I have any, like, specific ones for entire things, though I do fall in my hero-worship phaes and then fall out of them like everyone else. I think that taking an entire person and being like I wanna be like them is... not for me though. But I do look up to some people for specific things - I look up to, weirdly enough, Abigail Phylosohpytube who I didn’t watch before her coming out for her graceful coming out video though she admits that the experience wasn’t obviously as smooth. I look up to lots and lots of people for their ability to create and their art (not gonna tag my fav artists bc am tiny and do not want people to look at me, but i do be reblogging). I look up to people like ConcernedApe Stardewvalley and Supergiantgames Hades for their ability to put so much soul in their work, smth I aspire to do. I look up to @not-poignant for, among other things, their idk how to say it best, wisdom in understanding and communicating with others and with myself? I’ve learned a lot by just sort of being in their periphery and seeing how they articulate their thoughts and choose to be kind and witness other’s pain. Hell, I look up to twitch streamers and youtubers sometimes (the recent nice trait I’d like to have if I ever went into bigger content production is how ibxtoycat deals with parasocial relationship realities). 23. strange habits? Hm. I don’t think drinking tea whenever I need a pick-me-up is strange, that’s just probably forcefully assigning a British nationality to me. I think my insistence on misspelling words in a way I think is lowkey funny might be one, I say thamks bc it feels softer, or thank bc it’s funny, I say sleeb, I say finkers or tryink or otherwise replace g with k for lulz. I also don’t know if it counts as a habit but I have a small leather band around my wrist that’s been there for a year soon. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm I probs have like, stranger habits but I can’t recall rn. 29. best way to bond with you? Hmm. Well, if you show initiative and are explicit about wanting to spend time with me, that’s already a big chance of me spending time with you. And then if our interests match and I don’t think that you’re like, young in a way that automatically puts me in a position where I don’t feel comfortable really being myself around you bc in my head I have to look out for you (it has happened with two of my friends, sigh), and we regularly spend time together, voila, friend acquired. It simultaneously doesn’t take much and takes a bit to be my friend and bond with me - it’s easy af to become a casual friend cuz I’m always open to new people, but there has to be a level of trust to become like, a close friend. Respecting my boundaries, talking shit with me, being explicitly committal about wanting to bond with me are big steps that way. 31. what outfit do you wear to kick ass and take names? Uh, I don’t do neither, but a current fave that is reasonably badass is my black tshirt with like, a ritual circle and a deer skull. V edgy, 10/10. I also used to have like a real edgy tshirt with a jester and some dice that said the game of life, but I threw it out bc dysphoria. or maybe I put it at the back of my closet along with one other shirt In Case I Get Top Surgery so I can wear them then. 34. advertisements you have stuck in your head? Many, such is the nature of advertising, alas. I have managed to avoid most of it tbh though, so the only place I am forced to sit through ads so they stick is my scrabble capitalist nightmare app where I play and always beat haha my coursemate. And they have adds for those shitty apps where you have to solve a puzzle that ends up failing in the add and like, drenching a man in green goo. I find those kinda fascinating tbh. Who plays these games? Who plays these shitty shitty games whose ad has to be “prove your IQ“ to make you want to prove yourself to play them? Oh and also, the insidious nature of ads in media I consume - the mcelroys have gotten me informed about many many things bc they do it in a funny way. Have you heard about squarespace? What about meundies? I also literally installed honey yesterday that I knew abt bc of the relentless adds and I wanted to save, uh, 2.50 from my minecraft server purchase (and then spent some time googling how they make money before giving up. just say u sell my data, that’s easier than not knowing what part of this makes you money). I was tired and in a weird mood, ok. 50. what made you laugh the hardest you ever have? It’s always the stupidest jokes, what matters more is laughing together with someone and getting caught in a laughing loop. I still remember laughing with my siblings until our stomachs really really hurt bc I think one of us said a rug was vomit-colored and it was funny in the moment. How many times have I laughed like that with you too, vit. I know that Laura’s one is nostrilatu, right? :D :D It’s just something that catches you off guard, I think.

58. four talents you’re proud of having? Oh shid. Hm. 1) My ability to analyze data and understand the basic building blocks of something. Makes me cool at studying and sexy at explaining things to my course-mates. 2) Not a talent more like a skill that I’ve worked hard on through therapy - but my inner positive voice/healthy parent is very strong and automatic (something I was sure would never happen). A good example is me going out for a walk, my phone dying so I can’t listen to music, when I went in my head “well I can always make music in my head. do-do-do *drum sound*“ and I could feel the wave of self-reprimand cresting but before I could actually hear any negative comments the positive voice said with a light of a thousand suns NO THAT IS ACTUALLY CUTE AND SEXY and just haaaaaaah. 3) I sing good. Need to sing more. 4) I think I’m good at making conversation. Even with people I don’t necessarily like or want to talk to. More of a skill again but whatever. 61. favorite line you heard from a book/movie/tv show/etc.? Do not come to me and ask for favorites, witch. Uh, I have some quotes in my notes app, like 7 from Pia’s writing :D. But imma go with “It’s a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning in the broken world“ by Mary Oliver. It counts, ok. Or, wait, something I will for real one day either crosstitch of commission shitpostcalligrapher: “t’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something. “What are we holding onto Sam?” “There’s good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.“” 88. your greatest wish? Hrm. Right now? To have like a couple days with no responsibilities and without the outside world bearing on me as heavily, to be tiny tiny tiny so I’m invisible and can drink tiny tea on a tiny leaf. Uh, in general? My recently formulated wish or a goal is stability/peace. Then everything else becomes ok because you can bounce back to stable ground between feeling shit or everything happening so much. And I’ve sort of reached that. Also like, half a million euros would be nice too so I can get a house and a car and go on a few trips abroad. :D // there’s two ask memes in my blog recently, go wild

#long post #derogatory #personal #i think the wish to be tiny was there more last week #now i just wanna have nice things and fun and a bit of rest but am otherwise less overwhelmed #also hey. talks #chats

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mothric · 5 years

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I’ve never seen or read Lord of the Rings*. Here’s what I’ve learned through cultural osmosis:

*my sister forced me to sit through Two Towers when I was 10 and would’ve rather been playing Pokemon, so I hardly have any memory of it and therefore it doesn’t count

basic plot:

a Hobbit named Frodo is tasked with throwing an evil ring into an evil volcano and he tries very hard to not also become evil along the way

he succeeds at the first thing and only sorta succeeds at the second thing

also a bunch of friends tag along like an RPG

also there’s a war? I haven’t figured out where that’s supposed to fit in

or the giant sentient trees. I know they’re in there but why and also how

everything is set in alternate New Zealand (Old Zealand?)

there is an awful lot of wandering through forests, especially in the second movie, which according to my memory is at least 90% trees (not the talking kind) and some horses (I don’t think they can talk either)

Dumbledore dies?? unknown

it’s all a metaphor for Jesus somehow

there’s also a prequel starring Martin Freeman and Bendydick but we don’t talk about those

characters:

Frodo and Sam are ride-or-die. I’m assuming Frodo would’ve gone full evil if Sam wasn’t there

Frodo & Sam are the Serious Hobbits and Merry & Pippin are the Comedy Relief Hobbits

there’s a Good Gandalf and a Bad Gandalf one of them is grey one of them is white one tells the truth the other only speaks in lies

Good Gandalf carries a big stick and dispenses fatherly wisdom. Bad Gandalf probably fronted for a metal band and encourages kids to do Satanism

there’s a dwarf (Grimly?) who’s like,,, short Hagrid

Boromir is ‘one does not simply’ guy. he has a brother (?) named Faramir and every time I see that name I think “but where’s Nearamir?” and snicker to myself. I don’t know anything about these characters except that Boromir seems like a real downer

Legolas is a pretty-boy elf who either gets on people’s nerves or everyone else gets on his nerves, I can’t remember which

”Legolas Legolas what do your elf eyes see” “they can see you’re being a lil bitch” is probably a real exchange that really happened

Arwyn is also an elf. at some point she glows and sings and it’s Very important

Gollum used to be an adventurer like you, but then he took an evil ring to the psyche. it turned him into a horrible little gremlin man with a penchant for riddles. he has a second name that sounds like a Pokemon but I can’t remember it

Big Evil Eye ... dunno what he does. don’t think I want to know

in the books there is a C. S. Lewis easter egg in the form of Tree

races / classes:

Hobbits (known for being hardcore introverts who like beer and potatoes but they can party hard also don’t try to take their land they’ll shank you)

humans (boring)

orcs (bad)

dwarves (good)

elves (20/20 vision, live forever, can’t tell lies?)

dragons (probably evil but very cool)

wizards (Extremely cool regardless of alignment)

Trevenants (I don’t know their actual name)

if there’s more than these I haven’t heard about them so they are probably not that important

books vs. films:

either I’m not privy to the debate on which is better or the books and films are equally good in their own right

I’ve also heard the soundtracks are good but personally I only know the two motifs that got memed to death in the hit classic “Taking the Hobbits to Isengard” (2006)

I have heard it said that Tolkien was the kind of person who’d stop and contemplate a blade of grass for half an hour and it shows in his writing

reading the books allows you to unlock Hidden Ability: Elvish

people will literally murder you if you do not watch the extended editions of the movies so tread lightly and keep your bladder empty bc there are no pee breaks where we’re going

important quotes:

one does not simply walk into mordor

they’re taking the hobbits to isengard

my precious

you shall not pass

boil em mash em stick em in a stew

and something about second breakfast which,, isn’t that just brunch? brunch is what that is

as you can see I know just enough to fool people (for like 5 minutes) into thinking I might have seen the movies once while half asleep and this might be why I have gone so long without actually seeing them.

please do not murder me

#lord of the rings #lotr #may 2019

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agirlunderarock · 4 years

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How I accidentally wrote 20 page paper on Boromir for one of my Final Ever University Papers PART 2

So this took me 5ever because I had to go through my actual paper again to find the sources and the citations I had, and then throw out the academic fluffer I had to speak with. But anyway just be prepared for a long ass read because we gotta touch on nearly every source I argued with in this post before getting to the good stuff. If you haven’t read Part 1 well here it is

Okay Okay where was I?

I said that academics were wrong with how they were judging Boromir right? Is that where I left off? Well thats where I’m starting

So before I go further I need to explain that the main premise for my paper is an argument to characterize Boromir with loyalty and fear, instead of power hungry and whatever the hell used, and then throw out this good vs. evil binary that’s often used to describe the lord of the rings- because lets be real, it looks like that on the surface but everyone has their ups and downs at least once or twice, and if not within the Lord of the Rings, it comes from books that are set in previous ages.

ANYWAY

Keep the fear and loyalty things in mind alright?

Fear sounds like an odd choice for a character I’m supposed to be defending right? I know.

We’ll get to that just bear with me.

So in order to say that academics were wrong, I first had to look at where they were coming from and try to see what textual evidence they had. Because if you’ve done academic research, you know how important textual evidence is.

So while finding literally nothing that focused specifically on Boromir, I found J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia : Scholarship and Critical Assessment by Michael D. C. Drout, which I still have questions about but hey it was a good starting point. You would think that a whole Encyclopedia dedicated to Tolkien would have more than a handful of entries dedicated to Boromir. I mean mentioning him in Gondorian politics or relations with Rohan or even Boromir I instead of just Boromir II but heres the thing, IN THE WHOLE IN ENCYCLOPEDIA HE WAS ONLY MENTIONED 8 TIMES.

THE NAME BOROMIR (which in this document only refers to Boromir II) ONLY APPEARS IN EIGHT ENTRIES.

You know what those entries are?

‘double of,’ - okay what the fuck does that mean?

I honestly don’t remember what it means I think it had to do with character foils, you know like how Neville is a foil for Harry in Harry Potter? If I remember correctly, it identified the common foils, Gandalf v. Saruman, Frodo v. Gollum and Aragorn v. Boromir. I could be totally wrong about this, its been exactly a year and I didn’t focus on this entry.

‘Faramir and,’- yes we know Boromir is Faramir’s older brother. What else ya got?

‘herosim of,’- Ah yes sounds promising

And you think it would shed some positive light on our boy right? RIGHT? Heres what the entry said per the quote in paper “It is in fact Boromir’s desire for the victory of Minas Tirith and his own glory there in that motivates his own grasp for the ring: the heroic motivations of fame, reward, and revenge (in this case on Sauron)” ( Drout 270 ).

LIKE EXCUSE ME WHAT THE FUCK- sorry wait, let me show you how I rephrased that for academic purposes: This description does not actually describe Boromir as being heroic, but later explains why these descriptions of heroism are actually evil compared to characters like Aragorn, Frodo, Gimli and the rest of the Fellowship.

‘penance of,’- Yet another character who achieves redemption through death. Great. I hate it. Shut up. Kill this trope.

and finally, ‘tyranny of.’- yes because Boromir was obviously a tyrant, but I say again SHOW ME TEXTUAL EVIDENCE

AND I’M TALKING ONLY ABOUT THE BOOKS HERE REMEMBER ALL OF THIS IS INFORMATION ON THE BOOKS. like there were entries on things from the movies, and even fanfiction, but THESE ENTRIES WERE BUILT ON RESOURCES THAT BUILT ARGUMENTS ABOUT THE BOOKS

I’m getting off track here

ANYWAYS

At the end of each of those entries were list of sources that the author used to create those entries. So guess what that meant- Ya girl was hand delivered sources to search for and hopefully they had some specific pages references for me to look up within the actual book series. At least you would think thats what I found, but NOOOOOOOOO, what I actually found is that EVERY SINGLE REFERENCED SOURCE CHARACTERIZED BOROMIR ONLY BY HIS ATTEMPT TO TAKE THE RING FROM FRODO.

Thats like living your whole life and having people who say they know you intimately (not in the romantic sense in the knows you to your core sense) BUT the only thing they really know about you is that one time in pre-school you tried to draw a rocket on the wall but actually it looked like a penis thats the only thing anyone will remember you for. I didn’t do this by the way, nor know anyone who did this but some kid somewhere probably did

But you know me at this point I had to check the sources and see what they were saying. So I took up Patrick Grant’s “Tolkien: Archetype and Word,” where he talks mostly about Frodo. I know its a stretch BUT he talks about loyalty specifically Sam’s loyalty to Frodo, and remember we want to establish that Boromir is incredibly loyal, so we have to see what he’s actually up against according to the critics

“…Sam Gamgee, whose part is least publicly acclaimed of all, but who in the sense in which we are now using the word, is especially heroic. His unfailing devotion to Frodo is exemplary, and here again Sam is a key link in bring the meaning of the book to the reader, the everyman who admires great deeds but wonders what his own part might be in important events which seem well enough wrought without him” ( 180 ).

Okay that seems fair from how Tolkien himself has talked about Sam right. And you’re probably like okay, but what the fuck does that have to do with Boromir? Literally just further down the page he says:

“…. The fellowship breaks only when the bond of obedience is broken, as it is by Boromir, whose pride and lust for personal power are evidence of false heroism” (180).

LUST FOR PERSONAL POWER???? PRIDE?????

SHOW ME THE PAGES SIR

GIVE THEM TO ME

I know you’re probably thinking, ‘but wait he’s actually kinda right-”

WRONG

Its anxiety, I’m telling you

I counted

its fear and anxiety

but again I’m getting a head of myself. Basically Grant just took a shat on Boromir to make Sam look good.

EXCUSE ME SIR SAM IS A GODDAMN MASTERPIECE ON HIS OWN THANKS. DON’T TRASH BOROMIR TO COMPLIMENT SAM. Also be wary of people who do this in general, if they put someone else down instead of just out right complimenting you take it as a warning

Oh and did I mention that because Grant says Boromir is technically being selfish, another critics analysis makes Boromir Evil, because acts done out of selfish pursuits are seen as evil and a “perversion of human will.” But you know, thats just how it be sometimes when you’re putting literature in conversation with one another.

Just know I pick on Grant a lot, mostly because he says shit like this: “…the most blinding love derives directly from such obedience,” (180). when it comes to Sam, and then takes a shit on Boromir. Like we’re going to come back to the obedience thing in a little bit, but just know that Merry, Pippin, Faramir, Eowyn, Even Sam at one point, and I mean I guess by some extension movie!Arwen take a big ‘ol shit on the idea that the only way to be heroic is to be OBEDIENT.

I get it, its another Catholic thing. I’m Catholic, I know what its getting at. But consider- no

Basically I boil this shit down to one thing

Sam Only Owes Loyalty To Frodo.

Literally his main concern throughout the book is Frodo and then the Shire and what that encompasses. So yeah its easy to be loyal and obedient to someone who shares all the same ideas and values as you and has a pretty similar lived experience right??? ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY And before anyone says Sam was loyal to the fellowship, Sam would literally cut a bitch for Frodo. He woulda fought Aragorn in the Prancing Pony if he thought he had to. He gave a second thought to Merry and Pippin when they left the Fellowship, but it wasn’t a “we should go back for them all or wait for them” It was “i’m gonna support mr. Frodo, even if Idon’t much like the gollum creature he decided to drag around but fair i guess cuz none of us know the fucking way into Mordor.”

So I made a chart to demonstrate why comparing Boromir and Sam is a big no no, and what kinda things Boromir was working with the whole time he was part of the fellowship.

Did I forget to mention that this was supposed to be a visual research paper?

So Sam and Frodo had a lot of the same Fears and values.

Our Boy Boromir over here has to deal with being a political/military figure, meet the demands of his father, he’s gotta try to be a good brother, he’s gotta learn to get along with the fellowship, and then each of those new or old loyalties has different responsibility and expectations he’s supposed to meet. And because I had to include Aristotelian ideas as part of the class, to quote myself: Despite the Aristotelian concept that it is impossible to be a virtuous friend to many, Boromir’s actions throughout The Fellowship of the Ring show him attempting to do this ( Aristotle 9 ). Like thats literally why he ends up a member of the Fellowship, he’s a little unsure of this plan, but hey its the best one he’s heard and if everyone thinks its going to work then by golly he’ll see it done. But again Aristotle (just in your head pronounce it like chipotle for me please) wants to try to establish a structure that I think is stoopid, he’s got a thing that says “it is a more terrible thing to defraud a comrade than a fellow-citizen, more terrible not to help a brother than a stranger, and more terrible to wound a father than any one else” (15).

So remember those loyalties in the little blue squiggles up in the picture, we already know that Denethor, and Faramir bump heads a little, and then the soldiers serving with Boromir probably have their own ideas about how Gondor should be defended, and then he goes to the Council of Elrong and they’re saying something completely different from what he’s heard- theres a lot of threads pulling the Captain in different directions. He’s got a lot hats to wear and demands to fulfill and living under the shadow of Mordor with all of those responsibilities is bound to give anyone anxiety.

But don’t just take my word for it

The movie actually reinforces this. I know the book says Boromir was “...pierced with many black feathered arrows” But the movie specifically makes it 3

Now I’m sure Mr. Peter Jackson didn’t intend for what I’m about to say, but I think its a pretty cool notion to think about. Because you can summarize Boromir’s conflicting loyalties into “family’ ‘country’ and “Fellowship’. Like his father would have him bring the ring to Gondor, his role as a military/political figure for Gondor means he should be doing whatever he has to in order to protect his country, and the Fellowship is like nah man we destroy this thing and everything else will fall into place, and Boromir is left having to decide whih of these things to act upon. Family, Country, and the Fellowship are the competing signs that make up is character arc, and his grapple with these three things is ultimately what leads to his death.

Now if your thinking family and country should be lumped together- theres a reason for it, just trust me, bare with me please

But basically what I’m trying to get at is given all these factors, you can’t compare a character like Boromir with all these responsibilities hanging off him to be comparable to Sam whose only responsibility is Frodo.

But you know who does share all these same demands

Faramir

Like take a look at their character arcs- if you can the text on this next pic is super teeny

If thats too small for you don’t worry about it because we’re gonna get into why Faramir is a better foil for Boromir, and how this should affect the way we as the reader come to understand his character. So fun stuff in the next part! Sorry for dragging this out, but just like my original paper, this turned out to be WAY longer than I expected.

#The Lord of the Rings #Boromir #me talking about Boromir #the fellowship of the ring #character analysis #character development

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fatalism-and-villainy · 4 years

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Thoughts on the second half of TTT:

The descriptions of Mordor and the lands surrounding it are all just wonderful? I know a lot of people complain about Tolkien’s long descriptions of the scenery, but that’s one of my favourite parts of the experience of actually reading this book.

“...so remote now that it was like a chapter in a story of the world’s youth, when the Trees of Silver and Gold were still in bloom” - woooo Silm reference!

Going into “Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit,” I couldn’t remember if the iconic “po-ta-toes” line was just in the movie or not, so I was delighted to discover that it is, in fact, in the book.

One of Faramir’s men is named Mablung, so more examples of Third Age Gondorians having a thing for naming their kids after famous Elves.

When they’re first getting questioned by Faramir and Sam starts telling Faramir off on behalf of Frodo, there’s a bit about how some of Faramir’s men are incredibly amused by the scene, and I love it.

Faramir says that Calenardhon was given to Eorl’s people by Gondor because it was “sparsely populated,” which is... a nice euphemism for the whole “driving people out of it” thing.

I haven’t said much about the “wild Easterlings and cruel Haradrim” editorializing, because there’s not really much I could say that hasn’t been said before, but this bit: “For so we reckon Men in our lore, calling them the High, or Men of the West, which were Númenórians; and the Middle Peoples, Men of the Twilight, such as are the Rohirrim and their kind that dwell still far in the North; and the Wild, the Men of Darkness.” Like, damn, the fact that there’s an actual explicit hierarchy spelled out in the text?? This is the Gondorians’ POV, and I don’t actually mind it as a summation of in-universe beliefs, but I also don’t get the vibe that Tolkien actually disagreed with any of it, given how often the level of virtue and sophistication in Men in the text is linked to their association with Elves (i.e. the Rohirrim are a step down for not being descended from Númenórians, but are still okay due to being descended from the House of Hador).

Faramir goes on to say that the Gondorians are losing the designation of “high” and becoming more like the Rohirrim due to the necessary emphasis they’ve put on war, and the way warriors are valorized above all else in Gondor. Which feels like it’s meant to be an extension of Tolkien’s anti-war bent, but given the proximity to the “ranking” of Mannish cultures also feels it’s playing into a set of narratives that uses a “warlike” designation as a means of further marginalizing certain cultures, or portraying them as less “cultured” or sophisticated in their own right? idk.

There’s a part where Gollum wakes the hobbits up and asks, “Are we rested? Have we had beautiful sleep?” and Sam says, “We aren’t, and we haven’t,” and it never fails to make me cackle.

That “the king has got a crown again” part, where they discover the decapitated head of the statue of the ancient king, with the plants grown around the head like a crown, is also super well-written (though admittedly I took Frodo’s “they cannot conquer forever” as some sort of “no kings, no masters” message initially, before I realized that he was referring to Mordor)

That scene with Gollum discovering Sam and Frodo asleep and, for a moment, resembling an old hobbit, is so heartbreaking and makes me mourn the fact that Tolkien was intending initially to have Gollum do a straight-up Heel-Face Turn and knowingly sacrifice himself for Frodo. Ah, what could have been...

There’s a quote about how Sauron thought of Shelob as his “cat” (even though she served no master), and it’s just?? delightful?? Is this is a callback to Tevildo Prince of Cats? Does Sauron think of all creatures in his proximity as cats?? Does he have an actual pet cat? Amazing.

#lotr reread 2020

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kittykatknits · 7 years

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"I do have thoughts on the potential baby and how it could play into the story along with what it would mean to Jon/Sansa as characters." I'd love it if you'd expand on this.

Anonymous said:Do you think Sansa will end up raising Jon and Dany’s child?

Anonymous said:I know you said you’ll do a write up and it’ll take a few days but can you please just answer this question: Will Sansa raise Jon’s and Dany’s kid?

The original plan was to do a longer write up after the season was over but I’m going to do this summary instead. It’s still ridiculously long. It seems like there are a number of frustrations, to put it mildly, with this season. I’m going to dispense with this whole Jon bending the knee nonsense, because it isn’t happening in the books. Then, we can go into the potential baby.

First, and this is a big surprise to me, is how much impact dropping f!Aegon from the storyline is causing. Honestly, I thought it was a good idea when first learning of it and am still pretty sympathetic to the decision. However, D&D are still trying to create, with varying degrees of success, the dance of dragons we are going to see in the books. It’s this change in the source material that is leading to the stand off between Jon and Dany. To put it bluntly, Jon kneeling to Dany is going to be a complete non-issue.

I think it is extremely unlikely Jon will be crowned the KitN, that’s a show-only invention, given to him for a variety of reasons. Right now, I’m playing with the theory of Jon as a King of Winter since it better matches with his story. Jon isn’t going to be king, he is not going to be in a position to negotiate or offer up the north.

Now, let’s talk about the wight hunt which led to Jon’’s offer to bend the knee. Sure, the specifics of how it happened are stupid, but the entire damn concept makes no sense at all. The WW are an intelligent race, they communicate, they have weapons, they have a purpose, even if we don’t know everything yet. But, wights can not go south of the wall. It’s enchanted, it’s got spells. Remember the rotting hand with Aliser Thorne? Realistically, if this happened, the only thing Jon would have to show for his efforts is a rotting corpse. He could dig up a random grave and get the same results, with a lot less danger.

So, about the big meeting at the dragon pit. Again, that won’t happen either. In the books, it isn’t going to be some gathering of nobles in KL (it will be all blown up by then) that alerts the Seven Kingdoms to the danger in the north. It’s going to be Sam at the Citadel. He’s perfectly positioned to know when the wall goes down and happens to be where the single largest collection of ravens is located in all of Westeros. Honestly, this is one of the scenes I am looking forward to the most, I expect to be crying over it.

Back to Dany, as I said, the show seems to want to keep some version of the Dance. This is why Jaime’s character is all over the place, because in the books he’s already filed for divorce. It’s one of the reasons Euron’s story has been changed as well because he sure doesn’t want the IT. As for Tyrion, he’s not Team Dany and is not going to be interested in forging some sort of truce between her and Jon. He’s actually going to play Dany and Aegon:

“Dragons,“ Moqorro said in the Common Tongue of Westeros. He spoke it very well, with hardly a trace of accent. No doubt that was one reason the high priest Benerro had chosen him to bring the faith of R'hllor to Daenerys Targaryen. “Dragons old and young, true and false, bright and dark. And you. A small man with a big shadow, snarling in the midst of all."

- Tyrion VIII, aDwD

In the books, I do believe Dany will land at Dragonstone, ready to conquer and take the throne. She’s going to be battling against Jon C. who will use Tywin-like methods in his efforts to secure the IT for Aegon. It’s going to be bloody, a lot of innocent civilians are going to be killed. There is a quote in the first (I think) Arianne gift chapter with a dragon dream that describes just how bad it will be. Dany’s conquest will come to an end after she blows up KL, killing an entire city’s worth of people. It’s only after this happens that Dany will finally turn her attention north to fight the WW.

In the meantime, Jon will have no crown, no houses sworn to him, and he won’t have the Vale. Kneelgate ain’t gonna happen, at least in the books. There’s a ton more regarding Northern Independence, the GNC, the “Dance of Wolves”, and other stuff that plays into this too, but they all reinforce the same conclusion. They aren’t going to marry to join the north and south, they aren’t going to mary for some grand political union.

Ok, let’s talk about the Magical Targ Baby. As I said earlier, Dany is not barren and she never was. At least in the books, if Jon has a child with her, it will be a bastard. It’s just like Martin to give Jon what he most wants, a child and family in Winterfell, and what he wants least, the child to be born as a bastard like him.

Now, will, the two of them have a child together? Maybe. Possibly. We don’t really have enough information to know for certain. Whether this happens or not, I do believe Dany will not survive the series. She’s going to go out saving humanity from the ultimate form of enslavement, fulfilling the messianic role as the breaker of chains.

As for Jon, he’s a rather straight-forward monomyth hero. He’s interesting and well-done (at least to me) but not particularly unique as far as characters go. In the show, Jon has reached the final stage of his journey, freedom to live, and is singularly focused on defeating the WW. The truly fascinating part, is that it was Sansa who came along on his journey towards the end. Like, that blows my mind every time I think about it. Sansa was the one at his side while he finished his journey. How awesome is that? In the books, we don’t yet know how Jon’s return home will play out, he’s still in the underworld.

We also don’t know what will come after. Will Jon go out like Neo, saving the world? Or will he be closer to Rand and Frodo, still alive but no longer able to be part of the world. Or perhaps he is Odysseus, longing for nothing more than going home again?

Before I go any further, I want to state, that I am a Jonsa shipper. I hope/want (like desperately so) them to be endgame but I will not say that is the case because I just don’t know. None of us do right now. I’ve also been reading these books for years and have learned to keep expectations low when it comes to my personal wish list. So, to get to a point here, I am not advocating for or wanting a Magical Targ Baby.

Frankly, this season has left me kinda depressed with aSoIaF, forcing me to think about the potential endgame for the first time in awhile and I’m not enjoying it.

If Dany does get pregnant, there are two options I foresee, neither of which I like. Dany is either going to die in battle and her child meeting the same fate. Or, she’s going to give birth and still die. If that does come to pass, I do believe the child will be raised in Winterfell by Sansa. As I said, I don’t like these options. Martin loves his dead mothers (“Lady Stark. She’s dead.”) and the idea that he would do this to Dany really turns me off.

Now, if Dany dies while pregnant, it flies really close to the idea of a Magic Targ Baby as sacrifice and the theme of death paying for life. The other option is that Dany gives birth and then dies saving the world. I can’t figure out how to make this work (that wall is on the verge of falling) in the middle of the war for the dawn. If this happens, Sansa will be raising Jon’s bastard in WF, a repeat of what came the generation before. I find this problematic too. There are a number of implications here I find deeply uncomfortable. But, it fits with Sansa’s story and the mother theme that keeps appearing in her arc.

Now, as to how this relates to Jon and Sansa. I’m going to assume, for this post, that Jon lives through the end of the series. If this is the case, Sansa will still be raising the child and be the only mother it knows. If the two of them get married, or end up together, it will be based upon a relationship of respect and affectation that will grow to something more. I am not convinced we will see all or even most of that take place on the screen/page. We will get a dream of spring.

I could go on and on but hopefully this answers some of the questions sent my way today. I will also say that I play around with and mull over theories constantly and tend to be very slow to make a final decision on what will happen. Like my “Jon will be remembered as a villain” theory or my ever-favorite “Sansa will never marry but give birth to a bunch of bastards” theory. My tendency to do this is what has kept the books fun for me so long, the idea of possibility. So, these are my thoughts, as they are today, in this moment. Ask me again in a month and you may get a different answer.

ETA: I’m not trying to depress anyone, sorry if this did. I’m trying to answer the questions as honestly as I can while also keeping my expectations low. I will also happily remove tags if they are upsetting anyone.

#anon ask #jon x sansa #jonsa #endgame maybe #feel free to ask #feel free to ignore

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garden-ghoul · 7 years

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two blogs, part 8

“feeling pleased with myself because I own multiple vegetables AND a jam right now”

Just like me, the hobbits are thinking of their next meal:

OF HERBS AND STEWED RABBIT

I’m jazzed because I think my boy Faramir is gonna be in this one. The Shigeo to Boromir’s Ritsu. Anyway, there is supposed to be food and water for the scavenging in the place where our heroes are going! They have to go through Ithilien to get to Cirith Ungol, which we all must agree has a much more pleasant and scavenge-able sound than blasted hell-plains of ultra-despair. So they set off on their way! It says "a single red light burned high up in the Towers of the Teeth,” which is kind of ominous considering I don’t remember those being mentioned, ever. Maybe it’s because I was practically asleep last chapter.

Our heroes find their hearts much lightened to see trees again, and they realize that they’ve come so far south that it’s already spring here. Mm I want to figure out what the actual latitude difference is between the Shire and Cirith Ungol. Hold on a sec. It’s a north-south distance of about 800 miles (nice going guys!!), which is about the same as Boston to Charleston, SC, or from London to Madrid. In ANY case, it’s spring in Ithilien, and “Ithilien, the garden of Gondor now desolate kept still a dishevelled dryad loveliness.” What a great phrase! really good aesthetic. Tolkien goes in an amazing amount of detail about exactly which kinds of plants there are--one assumes this is Sam POV again, because Frodo probably knows the names of about 12 kinds of plants. Gollum breathes in the strong perfume of the flowers and chokes, which is another relateable Gollum feeling.

We also observe that even in this beautiful land there are signs of the Enemy; apparently orcs just go around carving random shit on trees, which is kinda endearing. The text describes it as “evil runes,” but come on it’s probably mostly “Yalbakh is a wanker.” “7th company rulez.”

Sam had been giving earnest thought to food as they marched. Now that the despair of the impassable Gate was behind him, he did not feel so inclined as his master to take no thought for their livelihood beyond the end of their errand; and anyway it seemed wiser to him to save the waybread of the Elves for worse times ahead.

My logistics son. He asks Gollum very politely to catch something hobbits can eat; while Gollum is out hunting, Sam just stares at Frodo’s Beautiful Chiselled Sleeping Face and mutters “I love him.” Gaaaaayyyy. Then he starts thinking of how to cook the rabbits Gollum has brought back. Hobbits learn to cook before they learn to read! This delights me greatly. I want to live in a culture that prioritizes having everyone able to cook! Gollum comes back with water and realizes Sam is going to cook the rabbits. Horror of horrors!! This is one of the cute... ish.... Sam and Smeagol interactions, because there’s barely any threats of maiming at all! Just good old fashioned cultural misunderstandings. Sam tries to get Smeagol to find him some herbs or root vegetables, by which Smeagol is Bewildered. What the fuck is taters, precious?? He huffs himself away into the forest somewhere, indignant.

Sam and his master sat just within the fern-brake and ate their stew from the pans, sharing the old fork and spoon. They allowed themselves half a piece of the Elvish waybread each. It seemed a feast.

::3

A little later Sam realizes his fire is smoking, and that someone in the forest is sloppily imitating bird calls. He hurries to Frodo’s side, and they hear some people who sound like they’re discussing Gollum. You’d think Gollum would be the stealthiest, the least likely to be spotted, but I’m guessing the Gondorians (Gondorrim?) have seen him before.

‘Nay! Not Elves,' said the fourth, the tallest, and as it appeared the chief among them. 'Elves do not walk in Ithilien in these days. And Elves are wondrous fair to look upon, or so 'tis said.'

'Meaning we're not, I take you,' said Sam. 'Thank you kindly. And when you've finished discussing us, perhaps you'll say who you are, and why you can't let two tired travellers rest.'

At least we still have Sam to be passive-aggressive to gently bewildered humans who may or may not be about to kill him. But Captain Faramir has no choice to believe that they’re from his brother’s company when they share his own prophetic dream with him. Faramir goes, I guess, somewhere, leaving two men to guard the hobbits. The guards turn out to know some kind of elven language! How exciting! Frodo realizes they must be Dunedain. Awww haha and one of them is named Mablung. Faramir’s men are here to harass a company of Haradrim who apparently serve Sauron. It’s a good thing Faramir is captain, Mablung intimates; he leads a charmed life! Nothing unlucky can possibly happen to him! ...well, depending on whether you count his brother dying unlucky. But I guess Frodo and Sam don’t actually know Boromir is dead. Faramir... might, actually? Just now, Faramir is coming back in pursuit of some guy, and--yep--he’s shot him dead full of arrows.

It was Sam's first view of a battle of Men against Men, and he did not like it much. He was glad that he could not see the dead face. He wondered what the man's name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his home; and if he would not really rather have stayed there in peace.

::( Same. Nobody wonders whether orcs are really evil at heart, though. Wonder, damn you! The battle ends and Sam goes to sleep immediately. Okay.

THE WINDOW ON THE WEST

When Sam wakes up, everyone is sitting in a circle for story time, I mean, watching Faramir interrogate Frodo. Faramir is like, trying to trick Frodo into... admitting he killed Boromir? Maybe? Frodo is just shocked to find out that Boromir is dead, but Sam is having none of this rudeness.

'See here, Captain! ' He planted himself squarely in front of Faramir his hands on his hips, and a look on his face as if he was addressing a young hobbit who had offered him what he called ‘sauce' when questioned about visits to the orchard.

SAUCE. FARAMIR, YOUNG HOBBIT. No I’ll bet Sam is actually a good bit older than Faramir. Also Faramir’s men are kind of delighted to see him being told off by this 3-foot-tall super indignant guy. But Faramir tells Sam off right back and then goes right on, though he’s marginally more polite to Frodo. He tells about finding Boromir’s body in the funeral boat. Frodo fears that this means everyone else is dead too ::( ::( “Will you not put aside your doubt of me and let me go?” says Frodo. “I am weary, and full of grief, and afraid. But I have a deed to do, or to attempt, before I too am slain.” TFW honestly. Our heroes walk with Faramir to a safehouse nearby (actually ten miles away, a long distance for short legs!) and he makes an incredibly good guess at why it sounds like Frodo and Boromir weren’t BFFs. He totally understands that Frodo can’t say any more:

'Alas! it is a crooked fate that seals your lips who saw him last, and holds from me that which I long to know: what was in his heart and thought in his latest hours.’

I love that thing where... there is something someone Absolutely Cannot Say, and everyone knows they’re talking in code and they’re in trouble over that thing. It’s not that common? Right now I can only remember it happening in Full Metal “hostage situations everywhere” Alchemist. Anyway it’s my jam. Faramir talks wistfully about how warlike Boromir always was, and how Faramir just wants to see the White Tree bloom and to see Minas Tirith at peace. I am just CONSTANTLY thinking to myself “Faramir is going to die!” and then I remember he actually survives and is happy and I’m just, utterly astonished. This happens like 3 times a minute. It’s incredibly stupid.

They get to the safehouse, which is Very Beautiful. Faramir’s men prepare some food. “Sam, not used to being waited on, looked with some surprise at the tall man who bowed, holding a basin of water before him.” [begins chanting] Wait on Sam! Wait on Sam! After eating Faramir comes to question Frodo some more, but, like, friendly. Frodo wants to please him so he talks about how Valiant Boromir was. For some reason this is kind of heartbreaking to me. That feel when you are trying hard to remind yourself that you are not safe and never will be again, that you cannot trust anyone... Also when Faramir is talking there’s this sense that Gondor is slowly dying. Maybe that’s why I absolutely can’t believe Faramir survives this trilogy. Rohan is still young and strong though, so that’s good! Gondor’s history is just too long. It’s tired. The civilization is too old and is overdue to crumble.

‘As the Rohirrim do, we now love war and valour as things good in themselves, both a sport and an end; and though we still hold that a warrior should have more skills and knowledge than only the craft of weapons and slaying, we esteem a warrior, nonetheless, above men of other crafts.’

Faramir does not love war, and he doesn’t want to be a warrior. He’s a good man and I like him. These harsh days make everyone wary and sharp. Sam accidentally gets going on the subject of Galadriel and reveals that Isildur’s Bane is the Ring, and Faramir gets a Weird Look on his face. “A chance for Faramir, Captain of Gondor, to show his quality! Ha!” But don’t worry, my dears, he’s only quoting some nasty thing his father said to him, I think. He doesn’t want to even see the Ring. He’s a stronger man than his brother. Go to sleep, my good friends, and have no fear he’ll try to take it from you. Frodo suddenly blurts out exactly what their errand is... and then faints. Faramir carries him gently to bed.

#hey gogol I wrote approximately 16 entire lines in cantos 2-4 today #I'm Winning #the game of... attempt to do something #blog of the rings

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janeykath318 · 7 years

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Loyalty 1

Loyalty, 1

“Bones! I thought I told you to stay out! I was trying to save your life!!”

Jim yelled at his best friend, who’d somehow managed to follow him into the one place he didn’t want him to–the radioactive Warp core.

He’d been so dead set on his mission to stop the Enterprise from plummeting to earth that he hadn’t noticed Bones had followed him in until he was halfway up the core, panting for breath, and heard a noise behind him. Looking down, he stopped in horror at the sight of Bones determinedly coming up behind him.

“Why would you do this?” Jim pleaded, furious at his friend for throwing the life away he was intending to save.

“I was trying to keep you from dying, not dragging you down with me. Bones, they need you!!”

“Like you’re somehow Mr. Expendable, Jim?” Bones snapped back, undeterred in his ascent.

Already, he could feel the radiation burning through him. He could see Bones didn’t look right, either and his heart broke at the thought of Bones suffering a miserable death alongside him. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to work. Jim was going to go in, fix the reactor, and worry about the consequences later.

“Did you possibly think I would ever let you do something so stupid by yourself?” Bones panted, climbing steadily.

He was making better time than Jim, who was still feeling the effects of his fight with Khan and had to stop every few feet to keep from passing out from pain.

“Thought you could at least…..obey …a direct order…..” Jim gasped, grabbing a section of tubing and hoisting himself up.

“That’s rich, coming from you,” retorted Bones, suddenly appearing right below him. “Mr. Rules Are For Others.”

Jim would have laughed if it wasn’t such a dreadful situation. They were both sweating and pale, bodies feeling the poison working through them, but they couldn’t stop now. They had a ship to save.

“Well, if you’re so determined to die,” Jim gasped out, “might as well help me kick the housings back into place. We don’t have much time before the whole ship is a goner.”

There wasn’t much point in staying angry at him. Bones couldn’t turn back now and it would be foolish to spend their last hours (more like minutes) in a fight. Goodness knows, they’d had plenty of those recently. Guilt burned inside him at the thought of how he’d treated Bones during the hunt for Khan.

Oblivious to his inner turmoil, Bones just nodded to Jim and they helped each other the rest of the way up. At the top they could see the badly misaligned parts and that it would definitively take some strength to get them back in place. Jim wasn’t sure if he could have done it himself.

“Looks like we’ll have to grab that bar up there and kick for all we’re worth,” he pointed out. “No more time to waste.”

So they teamed up, two best friends saving the day together one last time. Kick, Kick, kick went Jim. Kick, KICK, KICK went Bones and back and forth they went. Finally, after a couple minutes of hard effort, the housings sprang back in place, the resulting burst of energy knocking both of them down hard.

Jim blacked out.

When he woke up, he was back in the chamber, leaning against something warm, his whole body on fire.

He opened his eyes sluggishly to see he was propped up against Bones’s chest, Bones was looking down at him with that worried look in his eyes, though he looked like a wreck himself. He must have dragged Jim out of the main chamber while he’d been out.

Outside the door, Spock’s horrified face appeared staring at them.

“The hobgoblin’s not too happy with you, Jim,” came the doctor’s raspy voice. “Dang it, this hurts like hell. I might throw up on you.”

Smiling weakly at the memory of how he’d first met Bones, Jim was suddenly selfishly glad of his friend’s presence. Dying this way was torture, and having someone there was comforting, even though said someone was also dying.

“Spock,” he asked the first officer who was still looking on, “How’s the ship?”

“Out of danger. You saved the crew.” There was a decided quiver in the Vulcan’s voice.

“Most of them anyway,” Jim mumbled,“ looking back up at Bones. “But some doctors are too stubborn for their own good.”

“You really thought I could live without you, Jim? You’re the reason I’ve lasted so long on this flying tin can.”

Bones was earnest with ragged emotion. They had so much to say, so little time. Jim squeezed his friend’s hand in silent support before turning back to Spock.

“I want you to know why I went back for you, why I couldn’t let you die.”

“Because you are my friend.” Spock whispered, lips quivering. Jim smiled at him to confirm his guess. He didn’t have much energy left for talking.

Their moment was interrupted by Bones’s violent retching as he leaned over and threw up, taking care to avoid Jim.

Jim was struggling to breathe now, but he clutched his friend until the spasms subsided, battling against the fear that gripped him.

“I’m scared, Bones,” he whispered. “This would be much easier if I couldn’t feel.”

“I know, Jim,” Bones said tightly. “Believe me, I’m scared too. But we made our decision. I don’t regret it. I don’t regret you, Jim.”

For several more minutes, they lay there together silently, waiting for the end.

Then Jim spoke up faintly.

“Remember when we watched those Lord Of The Rings movies together, Bones?”

“Yeah. Those were actually really good, except you wouldn’t shut up about the horse lord looking like me.”

“He did,” Jim stated. “But I was thinking…… how Sam followed Frodo everywhere, even up to the top of Mt. Doom. Even after Frodo was a jerk to him as the Ring took power, Sam stayed with him. It’s just like us.” He paused for breath.

“Not only……did you follow me into space, but you chased me into certain death. Your friendship means a lot to me, Bones. ‘I’m glad you’re here with me, here at the end of all things’” he quoted.

Bones swallowed around the emotion clogging his throat.

“That’s a good analogy, Jim. I’m the Sam to your Frodo. No matter how hard I swore I wouldn’t put up with you any more, I couldn’t leave you, no matter what. You’ve been the best friend I ever had.”

Tears were glimmering in their eyes as they shook hands in a silent pact, Jim letting out a choked moan as the pain became too much.

“Easy, Jim, easy. It’s almost over,” Bones whispered, choking back his own pain. It felt like his insides were liquified and boiling over.

All too soon his words proved true as the Captain felt coldness creeping over him and knew his time was up.

Jim couldn’t speak, only mouthing “G'Bye, Bones” as he looked at his best friend fondly one last time and smiled his Kirk smirk as he drifted away into the darkness.

Bones felt Jim go slack in his arms as the life left him and he buried his throbbing head in the captain’s shoulder, a few tears leaking out from eyes that could barely see. Out of habit, he felt Jim’s neck to confirm the lack of pulse.

He knew he couldn’t last much longer either and it was a relief at this point, since he knew exactly what was going on inside him and it was extremely unpleasant.

“Jim, I’m coming after you,” Bones muttered. “You can’t escape me even in the afterlife, you little brat.”

He couldn’t stand the sight of Jim’s empty blue eyes looking at him, but his hands didn’t have the strength to reach up and close them.

He turned to Spock again, who was still holding silent vigil, fists clenched against the glass and wonder of wonders, tears running down his cheeks.

“Sorry ‘bout this, Spock,” he slurred, breathing becoming more and more labored. “You’ll be a…..great captain, I know it. I’ve just got one…..request.”

“What is it, Leonard?” Spock asked.

“Make sure they bury me next to Jim. I don’t need to be shipped back to Georgia. Home is where…..he is.”

Spock nodded solemnly. “I will see to it, Leonard.”

Having been thus assured, Leonard relaxed, the sound of his own faltering breaths loud in the deadly silence of the chamber. The painful minutes seemed to crawl by interminably before he too was seized with the final torrent of agony which quickly turned to complete numbness. He closed his eyes and held on to Jim’s body tightly as his own body finally gave up the fight. “I couldn’t just leave you there….” was his final thought to his best friend.

Outside the door, Spock, Uhura, and Scotty wept silently as all sound from the chamber ceased with the doctor’s last breath. He was still holding tightly to Jim, once again refusing to let the captain leave him behind. Death itself wouldn’t separate them, mused Scotty painfully as he slowly moved to call for a medical team. Spock let out a scream of rage and tore off for the bridge, Nyota following numbly. What in the world where they going to do now? *******

#McKirk #Warp core scene #angst #bones followed Jim #star trek into darkness

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breakfastatcheyennes · 5 years

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Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

***SPOILER ALERT***

For an entire year, we had all been waiting and anticipating the sequel to Fantastic Beasts, the continuation in the Harry Potter world.

With this film you finally got the answers you were looking for, the background of Newt Scamander and then some. Well sort of…. Plus we got to see Jude Law portraying, some people’s all time fave, Dumbledore. I said “some people’s” because he was not my fave, frankly, he doesn’t even make the list of my favorite characters from the Harry Potter world.

(I won’t get into that on this one, but believe me I will shortly in the future.)

Anyways, you finally get to meet his highly regarded older brother Thesus. First of all, I would like to say that they did the casting right with him. He certainly looked liked he could be Newt’s brother. I would also like to point out how handsome he was. I didn’t think he was that bad of a character, obviously, they wanted us to slightly dislike him with the shocking fact that he was Leta’s Fiance. Which I might say was a low blow for Thesus. Newt was pretty easy to read about how he felt about Leta, Theaus must’ve known how his brother felt too. Unless, he was that stupid, but considering, his high up role in the Ministry, you know that he is a smart fellow.

The last movie, I would have to say was kind of quirky and light hearted. This one took a step into a small puddle of darkness and a slither of sadness. There was one scene around the beginning of the movie, where I didn’t think the movie would actually go so dark. I’ve seen a lot of people get killed in the Harry Potter world, however, you never see this certain scene. I frankly didn’t think they had it in them, but they did. I actually liked them more for it. It meant that they were trying to break away from being seen as another children’s movie.

The fact that wizards and witches are not allowed to be friends or even marry a muggle, became a big factor in this movie. You would just have to see how this one plays out in the movie, I can’t really say anything about it without giving away a main ending.

There were two women, who I believe stole the spotlight whenever they were on screen, Leta Lestrange, portrayed by Zoe Kravitz and Vinda Rosier, portrayed by Poppy Corby-Tuech. Vinda Rosier, Grindelwald’s right hand woman, was an amazing character. A lot of my favorite scenes, were when she was in it. I liked her dark character, but she exuded elegance and charm. Vinda Rosier, may have some relation to Evan Rosier, who was mention in the Goblet of Fire. He was said to had been working alongside Voldemort, but died fighting off Mad eye Moody. It should had been a sight to see. Get it? Cause Evan was the one who took out Mad eye Moody’s real eye. I had read somewhere, I don’t really remember where, but they were speculating that Vinda Rosier, might have a larger role to play in the later movies to come.

Leta Lestrange’s character was hauntingly beautiful, I honestly felt sorry for the poor girl. I also wonder why she was with Thesus when it was clear that the Scamander, she truly loved was Newt. He definitely knew her better than his older brother. Her storyline was probably one of the most tragic storylines that have yet to come in the series. She said one of my favorite quotes out of the series, “Newt, you never met a monster you couldn’t love.” It’s a good thing that they quickly severed any thoughts that Leta and Newt should end up together. They had more chemistry than any of the characters, that are supposed to be in love in the movie. However, I thought that Tina and Newt’s chemistry was there too. Tina was just a bit more cold in this one, her having a boyfriend could be the reason for it. I would like to see, who will be playing this boyfriend in the third movie.

This movie covered a lot more about Credence and his backstory. I thought that this movie should had been called Fantastic Beasts: The Search for who Credence is. 50 percent of this movie was about how Credence was trying to figure out where his mother was and what family he belonged to. The scenes were okay, not quite that entertaining though. It was kind of like watching Lord of the Rings, and having to watch the boring but informational scenes with Frodo and Sam. Besides that, I really enjoyed the fact that Credence’s love interest in this film was the notorious, Nagini, Voldemort’s most trusted companion. It raised a lot of interesting questions. Like how did she end up permanently staying in snake form and what made her go bad? Those are questions that I am going to love getting the answers to.

Last, but not least, I wish we had more scene time with Grindelwald. As I stated above, 50 percent was all about Credence, so that left the other 50 percent. 30 percent of that 50, I would have to say went to Newt Scamander’s past. 10 percent went to some of Dumbledore’s past and the last 10 went to Grindelwald. Although he had limited screen time, you were able to get some good information about his reasonings. His cause was almost similar to Voldemort. He wanted to get rid of the muggle-borns, saying that he wanted to make everything pure. Meaning that he wanted a world with only pure bloods. He used fear in order to manipulate a lot of people onto his side. He also used other ploys but the fear of another war caused by the muggles was soon to come. In the end, he recruited a couple surprising people, ones that were very vulnerable at the time. Due to who ended up on which side, I would like to see how these two sides play against each other.

There was a really huge twist at the end, but if you were paying attention throughout the movie, then you probably could’ve figured out what it was. It does not disappoint. It got me excited for what’s to come.

#harry potter #fantastic beasts #Newt scamander #crimes of grindelwald #crimes of grindlewald spoilers #albus dumbledore

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