#anyways one more day. ONE DAY MORE and smeagol is FREE

[queenofmoons67]

Sméagol, Gollum, and Intrusive Thoughts

So Lord of the Rings: Two Towers has been on tv again. About a week ago I watched the end, when Sméagol gives in to Gollum, so tonight, I was paying special attention to the beginning and how Gollum and Sméagol are depicted when it was on tv again.

To preface this discussion: I'm approaching this with my own experiences as someone with depression, anxiety, and OCD.

In that ending scene I mentioned, the filmmakers designed it so that when Sméagol talks, the camera is on Sméagol. When Gollum talks, the camera is on a reflection of Sméagol in water. (Drowning as a theme in the Lord of the Rings is a whole other meta discussion I might need to indulge in, because I have thoughts. But that's a different post).

Anyway, I found it really interesting how the filmmakers portrayed Sméagol and Gollum as two different people, one in Sméagol's body, and the other outside it.

The scene I really want to talk about, though, is this scene just a little ways into the movie, about two hours before the reflection scene, when Frodo and Sam are both asleep and Sméagol is still awake and talking to Gollum.

Despite the vast personality difference between Sméagol and Gollum, it could have been hard for people to tell who is talking. To rectify this, the filmmakers pulled another neat trick--albeit subtler than the water reflection. When Gollum talks, the camera is on his right side. When Sméagol talks, the camera is on his left. And to make it even clearer who is talking when, the camera does a hard cut when the speaker switches, instead of just panning from side to side.

The conversation is as follows:

GOLLUM: We wants it. We needs it. Must have the precious. They stole it from us. Sneaky little Hobbitses. Wicked. Tricksy. False. SMEAGOL: No. Not master. GOLLUM: Yes, precious. False. They will cheat you, hurt you, lie! SMEAGOL: Master's my friend. GOLLUM: You don't have any friends. Nobody likes you. SMEAGOL (with his hands over his ears): Not listening. I'm not listening. GOLLUM: You're a liar and a thief. SMEAGOL: No. GOLLUM: Murderer. SMEAGOL: Go away. GOLLUM: Go away? (laughs) SMEAGOL: I hate you. I hate you. GOLLUM: Where would you be without me? Gollum. Gollum. I saved us. It was me. We survived because of me. SMEAGOL: Not anymore. GOLLUM: What did you say? SMEAGOL: Master looks after us now. We don't need you. GOLLUM: What? SMEAGOL: Leave now... and never come back. GOLLUM: No. SMEAGOL: Leave now and never come back.  Gollum growls. SMEAGOL: Leave now and never come back! Gollum doesn't respond. SMEAGOL: We told him to go away. And away he goes, precious. Gone! Gone! Gone! Smeagol is free!

Believe it or not, but I have had this exact same conversation--minus the One Ring and fate of Middle Earth--in my own head. In fact, it reads like a script taken directly from the period of time when my OCD first started getting better.

Instead of Sméagol, it's me. And instead of Gollum, it's my intrusive thoughts.

For people unfamiliar with intrusive thoughts, or OCD in general, a quick tutorial is essentially:

OCD stands for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Obsessions happen when someone focuses so much on something--the health of their family, germs, etc--that they can't stop thinking about it

Obsessions are often accompanied by intrusive thoughts, which usually describe or depict the person they affect hurting someone or themself, even though they don't actually want to. As my therapist put it: The intrusive thought is there because you want the opposite, but are afraid it will happen anyway

From obsessions and intrusive thoughts come compulsions, which people with OCD use to control the obsessions. For example, someone worried about germs might wash their hands a lot

People with OCD might seek help when everything affects their quality of life. Continuing the germ example, 'washing their hands a lot' could turn into spending hours of the day in the bathroom

It's essentially a form of addiction. The more a person has an obsession, the more they will want to ease it with a compulsion, but with each compulsion filled, the more it will take next time to ease the obsession. (Example: Washing hands once after going to the bathroom turns into twice, turns into fifteen minutes, turns into thirty, and continues)

Bringing Sméagol and Gollum back into this, as I said before, Sméagol is me. The One Ring--his "precious"--is his obsession. He has to have it, he covets it, he cannot rest without it. His compulsion is to do whatever it takes to get it, from driving Sam away to biting Frodo's finger off. And Gollum is his intrusive thoughts, the constant reminder of both obsession and compulsion.

But then Sméagol meets Frodo, everything changes, and this happens:

GOLLUM: Where would you be without me? Gollum. Gollum. I saved us. It was me. We survived because of me. SMEAGOL: Not anymore. GOLLUM: What did you say? SMEAGOL: Master looks after us now. We don't need you.

The intrusive thoughts remind Sméagol that they saved him; without the lengths his compulsions drive him to, he has lost the One Ring, his obsession, and he will never get it back. But Sméagol retorts that he has Frodo now: He no longer needs his intrusive thoughts and compulsions, because he no longer covets his obsession.

In essense, Sméagol no longer washes his hands for thirty minutes because he no longer fears the germs, because he has found another solution in the reassurance water and soap will wash everything away.

He no longer needs to kill Frodo and Sam because he no longer needs the One Ring, because he has found another solution in the safety, company, and security that Frodo--his "Master"--offers him. Sméagol banishes Gollum from his mind, happy without him until the day Gondor's laws force Frodo to betray him, Sméagol no longer has that other solution, and he turns back to the reflection of Gollum in the water.

This is by no means a perfect metaphor. Typically, people with violent intrusive thoughts don't follow through on them due to the very nature of intrusive thoughts, and compulsions harm only the person who has them. This is a very important distinction, since people with intrusive thoughts often face stigma from those who think intrusive thoughts equal desire to act.

But in listening to that conversation between Sméagol and Gollum, I found myself. Perhaps not so much in the definitions of obsessions, compulsions, and intrusive thoughts, but in the struggle with mental health and finding yourself within the fog of disability. I am sure other people with mental disabilities, both the same and different than mine, have done so over the years, and will continue to do so.

#lord of the rings #lotr #smeagol #gollum #obsessive compulsive disorder #mental health #mental disability #fandom meta #lotr movies #two towers #intrusive thoughts

[thebirdandhersong]

will return shortly*

*shortly: tomorrow evening, after I have finished this abominable exam, berated myself for ever signing up for this particular science course, and settled down with Sir Orfeo (long awaited. LONG awaited. SIGH), perhaps even Chapter 6 if I can muster the energy to edit after being tested on rocks and minerals

#i'm going to be so glad when this course is over. how do science students DO this???? #i guess they enjoy it as much as i enjoy English courses.......... this is just not my area of interest at all #anyways one more day. ONE DAY MORE and smeagol is FREE #i am so sorry for not answering messages/asks by the way...... there quite a number i have only glanced at #i shall return shortly with many exclamation marks and flower pictures and will answer properly!!!! #songbird again #i am horrendously behind on the typing part too. in the notebook i am 13.5 chapters into the story sk;j skl;fjls ;k #BUT i am using that to motivate myself #that and sir orfeo and sewing for muffin time and the stack of library books eyeing me from the bench

[saphira-approves]

Don’t Compare My Boy To K*l* R*n: In This Essay I Will—

okAY I’m talking about it

So I can’t find the post right now, but a few days ago I saw a post on my dash comparing Murtagh of the Inheritance Cycle to Kylo Ren of Star Wars, citing parallels for their similarities.

Since we all know this blog is really just a poorly-disguised Murtagh stan blog, I decided I’d share my thoughts on this comparison. I’ll be discussing character backgrounds, character roles, character motives, and character actions.

Part One: Character Backgrounds

Murtagh and Kylo Ren are both descendants of the “previous generation.” Their mothers were both prominent rebels, their fathers were both considered handsome and rogueish, and both sets of parents eventually separated. But that’s about where the similarities end.

Kylo Ren’s—or rather, Ben Solo’s—parents loved each other and loved their son. They may have been flawed in the way they showed it, but then again, the only account we hear of Ben’s childhood (as I recall, anyway, and I’m not rewatching those movies just for a tumblr post) is Ben’s, after he’d been groomed and manipulated by Snoke for many, many years. Han Solo died believing he was helping his son; Leia Organa died saving her son; at the very least, they both loved him enough, even while he was serving the Dark Side, to give up their lives for him. 

Murtagh’s parents, on the other hand, were a mess. From Murtagh’s account of their relationship, Morzan didn’t care much about Selena except for her usefulness as a weapon; he was happy to manipulate her and her emotions, but I highly doubt he actually loved her. He certainly didn’t give a damn about Murtagh, throwing a sword at his own three-year-old son. Selena, meanwhile, although she obviously loved Morzan at first, loved Murtagh even more, and clearly recognized that Morzan didn’t care for her the way she had once cared for him—when she recognized an opportunity to work against him, she took it. 

Kylo Ren despised both of his parents, but that hatred seemed hollow, shallow—it had no real reason. They led busy lives, perhaps didn’t make enough time for him, but their actions revealed that they did, truly, love him despite his mistakes, and Kylo’s loathing reveals itself to truly be the manifestation of a spoiled child’s anger, magnified tenfold. Murtagh, conversely, had very good reasons for his complicated view of his parents: he loved his mother, but she was kept from him (and him from her), and she died—possibly in front of him, though he never says, and, unbeknownst to him until much later, having just hidden his brother in Carvahall. There was no love lost between him and Morzan, who was in the best case just an angry drunk, worst case—and more likely—an abusive father, and the only thing Murtagh ever expected to receive from him as inheritance was his sword (which is by itself another whole post in the making). 

Part Two: Character Roles

Both Murtagh and Kylo Ren played the role of foil to the protagonists of their stories. 

Murtagh and Eragon were very similar in many ways; I’ve mentioned before the many “subtle” hints Paolini gives to their true relationship (”a pair of matched blades” and “brothers in arms” come to mind off the top of my head). Their differences clearly highlight their different upbringings: Eragon thinks in the moment, with his heart and his compassion, while Murtagh thinks ahead, makes plans and contingencies—this difference is most clearly seen when Murtagh kills Torkenbrand and Eragon's strong moral code makes him protest, even though killing the slaver was, objectively, the best course of action they could take. Yet Murtagh is not only Eragon’s foil in action, but also his foil symbolically: they are both sons of Selena, which binds them, and yet the sons of opposing fathers, which others unwittingly use to pit them against each other (yes, this is also a whole other post in the making. like i said, poorly-disguised murtagh stan blog). Murtagh’s foilness to Eragon is deeply interwoven into their friendship and their parallels, showing up in many subtle and unsubtle moments throughout the series.

Kylo Ren’s foil status, on the other hand, is… complicated in a different way. For one thing, he’s not just a foil to Rey, he’s also a foil to Finn—in fact, I’d argue he’s more foil to Finn, and more just a complete opposite to Rey. He’s the experience to Rey’s raw talent, he shifts toward the Light while Rey shifts toward the Dark, but with Finn, their stories of pulling away from the Empire could have been fantastic foil stories. Wasted opportunity. And I’m so mad about it but this isn’t a star wars blog so—

Part Three: Character Motives

Of course, both Murtagh and Kylo Ren’s motives change over the course of their own stories, so we’ll be looking at what they are and how they change.

Kylo Ren starts his story in TFA as a ruthless, power-hungry fanboy who cherry-picked his history lessons and simply ignored the fact that his oh-so-esteemed Darth Grandvader was actually redeemed in the end because Luke refused to give up on whatever scrap of good was left in him and I hate hate hate hate hate Luke’s sequel characterization UGH and so Kylo is “emulating” a false image of what he thinks Vader was: the power, the presence, the mask and modulator aesthetic, the “I’m on the Dark Side because it’s fun, and I get to do whatever I want consequence-free.” Which… no! So, at first, what does Kylo want? Power! Sure, he’s serving Palpatine’s Smeagol puppet Snoke, but eventually he’s gonna be the most powerful person in the galaxy. …well, but then eventually starts getting a little boring, so in TLJ Kylo ups his timetable, tries to get Rey on his side after torturing her for information (OF HIS OWN VOLITION! BECAUSE HE’S A JERK! He did not CARE about even trying to convince her at first, he asked the few questions necessary to justify meeting her resistance with a Force mind-rape), and then when she doesn’t join him on the Dark Side he fights her, again and again and again until he nearly DIES, and then HIS MOTHER DIES TO SAVE HIS UNGRATEFUL ASS, so now Kylo’s priorities switch from “power” to… uh… what, again? Redemption? By… how? Sacrificing his life for Rey?

Oh, now he remembers how his Darth Grandvader history lesson ended.

he’s still a copycat though

Murtagh’s motives, conversely, actually make sense for his situation. When we meet him, he has in the last few months run away from Urû’baen and lost his mentor and father-figure. His two priorities: keep himself and his horse alive, and see what the deal is with the new Dragon Rider he’s heard so much about. He meets Eragon and Saphira by saving their lives from the Ra’zac, and he’s there when Brom dies, and Eragon loses his own mentor. Having just recently gone through that pain himself, Murtagh gets attached, and joins Eragon on his adventure/vengeance quest against the Ra’zac. Murtagh doesn’t reveal his parentage, but he and Eragon find that they have a lot of similarities and get very close, sparring and bantering and becoming “a set of matched blades” and “brothers-in-arms” and other such friendly roles that are not-so-subtle hints at their true relationship, and even when they fight—notably when Murtagh doesn’t want to go to the Varden, because they might kill him, which would be actively violating his first priority of staying alive—Murtagh still agrees to help Eragon because he’s a nice f*cking person okay. And then, through shenanigans, Murtagh ends up getting kidnapped, assumed dead by his few new friends, and then 

TORTURED AND MIND-RAPED FOR AT LEAST THREE OR FOUR MONTHS.

And Murtagh’s will never broke! Not until Galbatorix gave him a dragon egg, and that dragon egg hatched into Thorn, and Thorn bonded with Murtagh, and Galbatorix threatened Thorn.

Murtagh fought Galbatorix until Thorn’s well-being was put into danger. 

After that, Murtagh’s priorities are skewed; he’s forcibly sworn to Galbatorix’s will, which sucks, but he’s also given fantastic power, which is great; but he and Thorn still get tortured as punishment for messing up, which also sucks. And then Nasuada, someone Murtagh actually likes, is captured and brought to Urû’baen, and Murtagh tries to hide his face behind the silver mask when Galbatorix forces him to torture Nasuada (physically, because Galbatorix never forces Murtagh to attack Nasuada’s mind) because he doesn’t want to torture his friend. In fact, he does everything in his ability to help her. And in the end, he cares about her so much that he realizes hang on a minute, I would actually put SOMEONE ELSE’S health and well-being over my own, which means something in me has fundamentally changed, WHICH MEANS I CAN DEFY GALBATORIX, and so what does he do? He gets rid of Galbatorix’s wards and lets Eragon finish him off. He gives up the Eldunarí to Eragon and Saphira, which were a huge source of his power, because in the end, he’s not a power-hungry maniac, he’s a nice person that shitty things happened to.

(And if Murtagh is a nice person that shitty things happened to, then Kylo Ren is a shitty person that nice things happened to)

Part Four: Character Actions

If you don’t believe me, then perhaps we’ll let actions speak louder than words.

Kylo Ren: In his first appearance, he orders his troops to kill an entire settlement. From there, he tortures Poe for information, obsessively pursues the protagonists who have the key to Luke’s location, becomes obsessed with Rey, who seems Force-sensitive, attempts to torture Rey the same way he tortured Poe, kills his own father even as his father apologizes and tries to help him, chases Finn and Rey (again) into a snowstorm on a planet that’s imploding in on itself because of a lightsaber; and then he’s chasing the Resistance—including his own mother—across the galaxy, killing Snoke and calling himself Supreme Leader (yeah, totally something a secret good guy would do), cornering the Resistance on Crait with the threat of DEATH. STAR. TECH. (miniaturized, but like. what’s the miniature of a planet-killer???? half a planet killer??????), and then ALLYING HIMSELF with PALPATINE (the stupid crusty meatsack didn’t even have to groom this one, he got a new apprentice for FREE), while also PLANNING TO DOUBLECROSS… PALPATINE… and continuing to chase Rey across the galaxy, trying to get her to join the Dark Side, and he only stops when his mother gives up her life to save his. 

His mother… who, just recently, he THREATENED WITH DEATH STAR TECH. 

All this to say, his “redemption” arc is hollow and stupid. Dying while doing “good” is not redemption, it’s a cop-out. Vader was ruthless not because he took pleasure from killing, but because it was efficient; he was redeemed because he found out he had been lied to, manipulated, used, and abused. Kylo Ren was fully aware of his situation, an abuser himself who took pleasure in his power and in killing people; and he was not redeemed by a kumbayah force-life-transfer BS or for turning on Palpatine, WHICH HE WAS PLANNING TO DO ANYWAY. 

Murtagh: Helps Eragon, helps Eragon even when he could get captured or tortured or killed, helps Eragon even though he’s surrounded by people who would suffer no regret over killing him, helps Eragon even though he will get tortured for it later, helps Nasuada because he doesn’t want to torture his friend (let me repeat, he DOESN’T. WANT. to TORTURE. his FRIEND. And he even ends up sneaking into her cell, AT RISK OF PUNISHMENT WHICH WOULD INVOLVE TORTURE, to talk to her and heal at least some of her wounds, and give her a way to tell reality from illusion when Galbatorix does try to force his way into her head), helps Eragon kill Galbatorix in the final battle, helps a little girl he’s only just met and gives her an enchanted fork, because why not, and only waits to rejoin Eragon and Saphira because he recognizes his own need to heal, to take time for himself and Thorn, and later, if FWW is anything to go by, probably to redeem himself by helping people, and fighting whatever threat he’s hearing rumors about in the north. Murtagh doesn’t take pleasure in hurting people, and he goes out of his way to do good things, even at risk to himself, as much as he’d hate to admit it.

Murtagh is hardly perfect; on the one hand, I fully agree with his decision to kill Torkenbrand because what else were you gonna do with him, Eragon, but on the other, yes, he’s flawed. Notably, there’s the moment of him killing Hrothgar, which I’ve discussed, his anger issues, his potential alcohol issues, and his general tendency to put himself first (which… yes, but also, he really doesn’t). Best thing about this, though, his his enormous potential for change, because we’ve already seen him change! And it saved the whole war! One tiny thing, one small moment of self reflection and realization—he changed himself, without any outside influence except for finding someone to care about. 

TL;DR Don’t insult my boy Murtagh. Come back when Kylo Ren gets some actual character development.

#started this post #had to look something up in Eragon #got sidetracked #placed a hot topic order #came back #got so fucking tired #please just. just don't compare my son to kyle #i really really hate k*l* r*n #what a dipshit. what a wasted opportunity. #everything after force awakens was a waste of brilliant character development opportunity #murtagh tornacsson #murtagh (inheritance cycle) #inheritance cycle #star wars #cw kylo ren #saph rambles #saph scribbles

[neuxue]

Wheel of Time liveblogging: Towers of Midnight prologue (part 3)

Levelling up and last stands

Graendal to Galad, and now Galad to Padan Fain. It’s like alignment whiplash.

The sky was black. A tempest. He liked that, though he hated the one who caused it.

This is great because there’s just a hint of ambiguity to who that actually may be. Rand? Or the Dark One? And when you have to ask, even for a second…well, that’s sort of the point, isn’t it.

Hatred. It was the proof that he still lived, the one emotion left.

Well, that’s one more than Rand at any rate.

(Pre-Dragonmount, I mean).

Padan Fain exists to chew scenery and you know what buddy? Chew away. Live your dreams.

Did his hatred cause that storm? It must be so. Yes.

Sorry Fain; pretty sure Rand has first claim on I am the storm. He just carries it better, you see. It’s a good look on him and we don’t mess with that.

I typo-ed that as ‘it’s a god look on him’ and really… either way.

When you accepted madness into yourself – embraced it and drank it in as if it were sunlight or water or the air itself – it became another part of you.

I’m mostly amused by how similar this sounds to the wording of Egwene thinking of how the Aiel handle pain. In this case I don’t think it’s particularly intentional or meaningful or anything, but it amuses me.

Another part of you. Like a hand or an eye.

Not sure those are the best examples, given Rand and also very likely at some point Mat, but sure.

He was finally free.

Has something changed? Oh, wait. Is this the first we’ve seen of him since saidin was cleansed? And Shadar Logoth destroyed? I think it is, in which case�� interesting. Particularly interesting since it doesn’t seem to have affected the dagger’s power – Fain’s still obsessed with his precious, at any rate – and last we heard Rand’s wound(s) hadn’t healed. But Shadar Logoth was destroyed, and its power seemingly with it, more or less, and so now Fain or Mordeth or Smeagol or whoever he is these days is free, in a manner of speaking. That’ll end well for everyone involved, I’m sure.

Oh he killed a worm. And he’s in the Blight so that’s a Worm. Im…pressive?

Mist had begun to trail him, creeping up from the ground. Was that mist his madness, or was it his hatred? It was so familiar. It twisted around his ankles and liked at his heels.

Like a yellow fog, that rubs its back upon the window panes, a yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window panes, licks its tongue into the corners of the evening…

No? Or perhaps like, say, Mashadar? I mean, maybe it’s nothing, but if it’s not nothing, that’s… concerning. Were more things freed than Fain, in the ruination of Shadar Logoth? Open to give the world hope but did it also release some element of despair?

The mist struck.

And unless we’ve transported into one of Sanderson’s original works, that means I’m right and the cleansing of saidin did indeed have some… unintended consequences. Which is fitting, in a grander sense of balance, but still kind of… well, sad.

So Fain has levelled up again, it would seem, which is the outcome absolutely no one needed.

That said, he played enough of a part early on, and enough has been made of him from time to time afterwards, that it would be kind of weird to leave him out of the ending. Personally I wouldn’t particularly mind; watching him chew scenery is fun enough from time to time but the rest of the time I sort of tend to forget about him, and I’m not particularly invested in anything to do with him, and the slightly more critical side of me wonders if he was ever truly necessary as a character… but at this point in a series, once you have a character like that, dropping them now would feel untidy. It would feel like an oversight, or like lazy plotting.

Which is hard, when everything about him suggests that his entire purpose is to be a wildcard character. He doesn’t have a clear fated role to play in all of this, unless it’s something to do with his link to the dagger and, via that, to Mat somehow.

Instead, he’s a powerful entity on a third side in a two-sided war. Yes, there are far more factions than that within each of those sides, and so much of the point of the last several books has been that lack of unity, and the tragedy but perhaps inevitability of fighting against those who should be your allies, of losing sight of the larger conflict in favour of the smaller and more immediate ones, and of trying to forge some kind of alliance despite that, and the ways in which that can succeed or fail.

But Fain is less a part of that and more a completely outside element. Not, in a way, unlike Aridhol itself was, as it became Shadar Logoth. A darkness and an evil that came from a form of the Light and its hatred of the Shadow and, over time, twisted. And therefore was an evil that was not truly of the Shadow, but was no longer an ally of the Light. Instead it was its own poison.

That’s kind of what Fain is. Which certainly has potential, as a story element, but I am curious to see how that’s played, and how well it’s played, given the sheer volume of characters we’re dealing with, and the size of this conflict, and the many other themes already at play. Can his role, whatever it is, end up feeling satisfying? I guess we’ll read and find out on that one.

Anyway, that was a bit of a tangent, but the point of it was: yes, he’s levelled up, because I think he has to in order to have a hope of having his part in the ending being interesting or satisfying.

Red below, black above. Red and black, red and black, so much red and black.

See, the thing is, I know for a fact that Brandon Sanderson is a fan of Les Miserables, so I am fully justified in humming ‘red, the blood of angry men; black, the dark of ages past….’

Also, Moridin would approve. Of the colour scheme, if nothing else.

And also of the chaos. Some say the world will end in (bale)fire, some say in ice, and Padan Fain says fuck it why not evil killer mist. Less poetic but sure.

(Let’s play a little game called: over the course of the liveblog, how much of an English Literature syllabus do we think I’ve referenced? …on second thought let’s not play that game)

Oh, the Trollocs didn’t die, they just got a Mashadar Makeover and now they’re competing for Malkier’s Blight’s Next Top Abomination.

He left the Myrddraal. It would not rise, as rumours said they did. His touch now brought instant death to one of its kind. Pity. He had a few nails he might have otherwise put to good use.

Perhaps he should get some gloves. But if he did, he couldn’t cut his hand. What a problem.

The thing is, while the style here is very Sanderson, for a character like Fain it actually works pretty well. Which is mainly, I think, because I have long suspected Sanderson has a soft spot for writing characters who are utterly batshit and having the time of their lives with it. Pass the scenery, and the salt. Yum.

Like an old friend. A dear, beloved old friend that you were going to stab through the eye, open up at the gut and consume by handfuls while drinking his blood. That was the proper way to treat friends.

Sure, it lacks the undertone of beautiful horror, and the poetry of Machin Shin whispering about braiding flayed skin, which is in a way a shame. But it conveys the essential message and character, and at least for me, this works well as an example of Sanderson’s approach of not trying to imitate style because that could go so badly, but instead emulating the feel of the story itself. Sometimes it doesn’t work, but here, at least for me, it does.

It's ironic in a way that it’s a similar thing to what he’s done with Mat, but it has the opposite effect. With Mat – I’ve written about this elsewhere, but tl;dr is that I think he read Mat as funny and so tried to write Mat as funny, using his own methods rather than Jordan’s because imitating style exactly is a lost cause, but something very essential was lost in the translation (like the fact that Mat himself isn’t really humorous; it more comes from the contrast of his thoughts with his actions, and his character against the world around him, but I digress again). So he went for ‘convey the same idea through my own methods rather than trying to imitate Jordan’s’ – consciously or subconsciously – and it backfired. But with Fain, he’s taken the same approach – ‘convey a scenery-chewing wildcard who has lost every mind he’s possessed, which is several’ – and this time the same-idea-different-style still gets that across in a way that feels true to character.

Obviously mileage can and will vary on whether or not this works, but for me it’s just an interesting study in how a certain approach or method can succeed or fail depending on exactly how and where it’s applied, and what the cause of that success or failure may be – why it works in one place but not another, and what went right or wrong.

It is, I think, something of a writing exercise if you want to turn it into one. A bit like reverse-engineering an outline from a book you’ve read (I do this often; I realised at some point that I was doing it and then I made a point of doing it deliberately, and it’s super interesting, and for me at least it’s helped me think more deliberately about the structure of a story, and how that can be leveraged for different effects). But thinking about the specifics of what does or doesn’t work for you about the authorship switch – a particular character, or a scene, or the pacing, or the handling of a certain theme, or anything else – and then digging into the specifics of why it works, or doesn’t.

That, for me, has been more interesting than just picking out the differences. Sure, I’ll nitpick, but I prefer not to focus on it, because ‘this is different’ feels… kind of pointless. Of course it’s different. Figuring out exactly what is different, or why it’s different is interesting sometimes. But also figuring out where and how that difference matters or doesn’t is more what I’m trying to get at here. Because some of the differences, I don’t mind. Some, I do. And trying to understand why I mind some and not others has been helpful at least for me in, again, understanding all of those elements of a story or piece of writing better, and thinking about how they could be used or changed or recombined.

But then, I’m the kind of person who likes to take things apart to figure out how they work. And also to overthink every goddamn text I consume.

Still, it’s a fun one if you’re in the market for writing exercises to try whilst in quarantine.

*

Malenarin Rai. Bold of you to introduce a new POV character in the penultimate book of a series that already has dozens if not hundreds, but that’s WoT for you.

Also it’s a prologue so the rules are different.

Heeth Tower is a weird name. Heeth. But then, I don’t think Sanderson has ever been quite as good with names as Jordan was. And that’s the sort of change I’m not going to get too worked up over. (Also, it was Jordan who gave us Mountains of Dhoom, so I rest my case).

The whistling wind rattled the wooden shutter.

It’s not time for the wind yet; we’re still in the prologue! Wait your turn, wind; chapter one should be here any day now.

Using a Trolloc horn as a paperweight is pretty badass, Malenarin, but Furyk Karede and his human skull wineglass might offer some competition.

I don’t think we’ve spent much – any, depending on where exactly the scene in TPoD’s prologue takes place – time in Kandor outside of New Spring. I guess we’ve got to finish filling in the map now; we’ve only got one book left!

Malenarin’s son is turning fourteen soon, so he might just be lucky enough to get Tarmon Gai’don as a birthday party.

He smiled, setting the Trolloc horn on the note, in case that shutter broke open again. He’d slain the Trolloc who had borne that horn himself. Then he walked over to the side of his office and opened his battered oak trunk. Among the other effects inside was a cloth-wrapped sword, the brown scabbard kept well oiled and maintained, but faded with time.

Typing it out, it’s not even that similar, but reading this my first thought was of Tam al’Thor, pulling out his old trunk and his old sword at the beginning of The Eye of the World, before giving it to Rand as he sets off on his coming-of-age story.

To have a duty was to have pride – just as to bear a burden was to gain strength.

In moderation, though. *Looks pointedly at Rand al’Thor*

I still don’t understand how turning their backs on the Blight to go find the Dragon Reborn to tell him to pay attention to the Blight is a good idea for the Borderland rulers. I must be missing something here and I hope it is eventually revealed to me, because otherwise that is terrible strategy on so many counts.

The only way to go to the fourth level was to climb a narrow, collapsible ramp on the outside of the tower

What could possibly go wrong? I mean, last time we were in Kandor a kid was thrown off a balcony, so…

[Jargen] wore a cord looped around the shoulder of his brown uniform; it bore a knot for each Trolloc he’d killed. There had to be approaching fifty knots in the thing by now.

That’s cute, Rand says, flicking dust off his shoulder Luke-Skywalker-in-The-Last-Jedi style, and flicking some Arrows of Fire off with it to torch another thousand or so Trollocs without breaking a sweat.

But okay, yes, for an ordinary non-protagonist non-Lan in a random guard tower in Kandor, I suppose that qualifies as pretty badass.

The beacons have been lit! Gondor Rena Tower calls for aid!

Pretty sure that’s your cue, Lan.

Or not; Malenarin seems to think it’s his cue to confirm the SOS and start preparing the tower for… bad things, probably.

Seriously, wind, wait your turn.

Of course his son is next on the list of messenger boys to be sent out. Well, it’s a better fate than being thrown off a balcony at least. Maybe.

‘No, we need to send several messengers. Double up. Just in case the towers fall.’

Do you have any uncrowned infant kings you want to send as well? Just checking.

Malenarin let himself feel a hint of relief that his son was one of those riding to safety. There was no dishonour in that; the messages needed to be delivered, and Keemlin was next on the roster.

There is a kind of parallel here – less a parallel, perhaps, than an echo – to Lan. A son sent to safety as a Borderland hold prepares to fall, the sense of a last stand. Because in the Borderlands perhaps that is not so unusual a story, in its way. The Wheel of Time turns.

It was time for Tarmon Gai’don. And looking out into the storm, Malenarin thought he could see to the very edge of time itself. An edge that was not so far distant.

Maybe you should have a dream-chat with Moridin, Malenarin. Maybe it’s just the air in the Blight: gives you nihilist thoughts.

Oh oops, his son wasn’t one of the messengers to go. Because he decided to be all noble and let another boy go in his place, whose mother had already lost four sons. That’s sweet, kid, and it’ll probably get you killed.

Tian, Sanderson? Named after another ill-fated messenger boy in your own works, perhaps?

‘Run down to my office,’ Malenarin said. ‘There is a sword in my oaken trunk. Fetch it for me.’

Aw. Because his son has proven himself a man, three whole days early. Because we’re approaching the end now, and it’s time for everyone to take their last steps into their roles, become who they must be to face that end – whether they’re a protagonist or just some poor doomed kid in a tower in the Blight.

It's something these kinds of snapshot one-off scenes are good for: to show the scope of the story, that it touches everyone, no matter that they’ve never even met Rand or any of the others. And to give this sense of those final steps happening in snapshots like this across the land. The sense of an entire world taking a last deep breath. And so we pause for brief close-ups on the faces of some of the extras stepping onto the battlefield, to illustrate that.

Keemlin’s swearing his version of the ‘kill the bad things until we die or they do’ that every Borderland (and Aiel) nation seems to have, each with its own slight semantic variations.

‘Rise as a man, my son!’

This is no place, or time, for children. Ergo, he can no longer be a child, by simple virtue of being here. Which makes this a rather bittersweet moment; Malenarin’s proud of his son but there’s also this sense that far too many children are having to grow up far too fast in these last moments (and others will never grow up at all – in today’s theme of referencing poetry I like, go check out The Lads in their Hundreds).

They yelled defiance of the Shadow. For a moment, their voices rang louder than the thunder.

I don’t have a lot to say about this except that it’s a lovely image.

Together they turned to face the oncoming Shadow.

Nice knowing you.

Draghkar overhead and Trollocs oncoming, and they’re just a lonely tower waiting to die. I do love a doomed last stand, even if it’s characters I’ve never met before and likely will never see again.

Malenarin was a man of the Borderlands, same as his father, same as his son beside him. They knew their task. You held until you were relieved.

THAT’S YOUR CUE, LAN.

Next (ToM ch 1) Previous (ToM prologue pt.2)

#i definitely did not split up this prologue correctly #oh well it's done now #Wheel of Time #neuxue liveblogs WoT #Towers of Midnight

[garden-ghoul]

fellowship of the bloggening, part 1

I’m reading it here. I look at the table of contents and go “oh for fuck’s sake” because the prologue is “concerning hobbits... concerning pipeweed.” I’m. not reading the prologue. No I’m reading “concerning hobbits” because I really want to know how and when they happened.

This is really cute, hobbits are basically like... brownies, according to Johnald. And some of them are only two feet tall??? LITTLE

The beginning of Hobbits lies far back in the Elder Days that are now lost and forgotten. Only the Elves still preserve any records of that vanished time, and their traditions are concerned almost entirely with their own history, in which Men appear seldom and Hobbits are not mentioned at all. Yet it is clear that Hobbits had, in fact, lived quietly in Middle-earth for many long years before other folk became even aware of them.

nooooooo why must elves be so

like that

Anyway, we also learn that there are still Dunedain settlements in Eriador, including one notable one that’s actually at Bree! I love the. weird mismatch of naming seriousness here. You have your very olde Numenorean and elvish names like Eriador, and then most of the settlements in Eriador have names like Hobbiton and Bree and Brandywine. It’s very charming, like a hermit crab that has moved into an extremely fancy looking conch shell. An adorable transplant. It is here mentioned that the first hobbits appearing in historical record politely asked the high king of Arnor if they could move in, in exchange for road maintenance. Too cute!

To the last battle at Fornost with the Witch-lord of Angmar they sent some bowmen to the aid of the king, or so they maintained, though no tales of Men record it.

::3

And with that it’s time for

A LONG-EXPECTED PARTY

We begin with an accounting of what everyone thinks about Bilbo Baggins! Everyone is kind of dubious about him because of his eternal youth thing, but he’s very free with his riches and consequently the less well-off hobbits love him. It says he didn’t have many friends until some of his young cousins grew up. He and Frodo share a birthday, so on Frodo’s coming of age birthday Bilbo will be 111 and they’re having a huge party! 

Holy shit. Sam’s dad is named Ham Gamgee. I’m so tickled. This next bit is a bunch of gossip and baseless speculation on Frodo’s family history by Gaffer & co. They keep calling everything and everyone queer, which is great, because it confirms Frodo is 100% not straight. I think he might be a bit old for Sam but I suppose we shall see.

Dwarves and a fire wizard have showed up a bit early for the party, and Hobbiton is getting stoked. Bilbo mails out invitations to everybody individually instead of just saying “everyone can come to the party,” and with that plus their replies (also by post) the post office is completely swamped for a week. He’s having fun with everyone. I do have to wonder how he got word to the dwarves, though. What kind of mail is there between Eriador and Erebor?

Oh here’s a cute tidbit about hobbit culture: at a party, both the hosts and guests give gifts, and so:

Actually in Hobbiton and Bywater every day in the year it was somebody’s birthday, so that every hobbit in those parts had a fair chance of at least one present at least once a week. But they never got tired of them.

I also like to imagine that Gandalf had a lot of fun designing firecrackers. Like, he does have serious wizard business to do. But also he has the firegays from his ring, and so. Anyway there is a Special Dinner that only 144 people are invited to. Good grief, how can Bilbo possibly still be rich enough to put on a party for like 1000 people? Bilbo makes a speech, with which everyone quickly gets very bored because they are all drunk, but the real point was to be an asshole and vanish mysteriously to make a point (Gandalf adds some pyrotechnics for effect, bless him). Frodo appreciates his joke, but is sad that he’s going to be leaving, and just can’t party any more.

Bilbo and Gandalf argue over leaving the ring to Frodo, Bilbo runs off with some dwarves (we never find out who!) and then people show up at Bag End to get presents Bilbo has left them with passive-aggressive notes on. Then everyone thinks it’s just a free-for-all take-Bilbo’s-stuff party and they swarm the house and poor Frodo has to lie down, leaving Merry in charge. The Sackville-Bagginses come to insult him by saying he’s a Brandybuck, not a Baggins!!

‘Did you hear that, Merry? That was an insult, if you like,’ said Frodo as he shut the door on her.

‘It was a compliment,’ said Merry Brandybuck, ‘and so, of course, not true.’

Cute. I like Merry’s sass. Frodo kicks out a bunch of people who are trying to dig up his cellar and collapses, just in time for Gandalf to come and say he is fleeing like a 

SHADOW OF THE PAST

Do you like my transitions? I’m polishing them.

Frodo continues to throw Bilbo a birthday party every year, instead of mourning as would be proper. I think he’s too embarrassed to throw a birthday party for himself but still wants to have a party, bless his heart.

he was sometimes seen far from home walking in the hills and woods under the starlight. Merry and Pippin suspected that he visited the Elves at times, as Bilbo had done.

Where are these elves? There are elves in the Shire? What?

WELL. Around Frodo’s 50th birthday, a lot of elves start passing through on the way to the Gray Havens, as well as the usual dwarves going to and from the Blue Mountains. Elves are leaving Middle Earth in rapidly increasing numbers because of some very troubling rumors about Sauron. Gandalf turns up to discuss this with Frodo, and during an awkward silence they hear “the sound of Sam Gamgee cutting the lawn.” Sorry, what?? This poor boy is cutting Frodo’s lawn by hand?? With like, a scythe?? WHY? Does Frodo really seem like the type of person who cares how well-shorn his lawn is? I fucking hate lawn culture.

Leaving that aside there’s some ring history I guess. Here’s a very interesting thing, though: Gandalf says the inscription on the ring is in “the language of Mordor.” Why does Sauron have his own language? ...what language did they speak before, in Angband? I can’t believe Mr Jolkien has been SO REMISS as to let us stay ignorant of an entire language and its cultural origins!! Anyway if I had to guess I would say the old language of Morgoth’s holdings would end up being some kind of odd Sindarin-Beorian-Quenya creole, given who lived and worked (in slavery) there. But the higher-ups would surely speak whatever language they were already speaking... Quenya? Is Quenya a language invented by the Ainur and then handed down to the Eldar? No it’s not, it has common roots with Sindarin. I have to assume there’s an Ainur language that Morgoth and Sauron knew, but they probably wouldn’t use it with their orc lieutenants and such... and thus I feel better saying that Angband Creole is the historical basis for the language of Mordor, although obviously it will have evolved a lot and mixed with the languages of goblins and such that Sauron ended up recruiting.

Listen. If there’s not an actual note in the appendix about this I’m going to be pisséd. Oh, I’m sure someone’s written a paper on it, though.

Oh! We also get to know about the seven rings--he managed to recover three of them, but the other four were eaten by dragons. Just the way they would have wanted to go. Gandalf also gives a... troublingly detailed account of how Smeagol came to possess the one ring? He adds that Smeagol’s friend came up from the river with weeds and mud in his hair. Which like, I guess you can extrapolate that from him being in a river but why add it?? He even comes up with specific terms of endearment... Smeagol calls Deagol ‘my love,’ which I can ONLY take to mean they were dating. This makes Smeagol’s imminent murder of Deagol all the more tragic.

Also we learn that Gandalf hunted down Smeagol and questioned him to find a lot of this out! Smeagol had been sneaking around basically everywhere, eating people’s children and the like (!!), and only failed to actually get into the shire because wood-elves were protecting the borders. Eventually years later when Aragon helped find him again, they realized he had been to Mordor and been tortured for information there.

Frodo is very frightened at this point, and almost makes himself try to destroy the ring, but instead realizes he has put it back in his pocket. This is terrifying!! Holy shit I would lose my mind with fear if this happened to me. Also I enjoy the ridiculously high specific heat of magic rings. So Frodo decides to keep the ring safe for now, and to go away from the Shire:

‘I should like to save the Shire, if I could - though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them. But I don’t feel like that now. I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again.’

It’s That Feel, back once again. This was something I was thinking a lot about wrt to the Lay of Leithian and Children of Hurin; how different Beren and Luthien’s outlooks are based on “feeling that you have a homeland” or not; how profoundly affected Turin is by feeling he has no place to go back to. I wonder if this is something Johnald thought a lot about during the war. It’s terrible here, so terrible, but there is somewhere peaceful to come home to. I haven’t felt that in so long, and I very much wish to again some day.

#I'm already getting a case of the feels from this book. RUDE Mr Jolkien #blog of the rings