#this is why I avoid the majority of the silm fandom on tumblr and other platforms

[squirrelwrangler]

Feanor’s Most Popular Line: We’re Going To Male the Noldor Great Again.

sigh... Back in 2015, during the primaries, when I was watching and waiting for the point where the way-too-crowded Republican field would winnow down and winnow out Trump, because of course they would, why aren’t they (*cries*) and keeping an eye on the Democratic field hoping it’d be Warren or Sanders or anyone but Clinton because I knew how much she was hated -both of my parents are retired military hardcore republicans and while I’m not one anymore I was raised in that/Rush was playing on the radio for every long roadtrip and one learns how to start tuning that crap out out of necessity, I cannot underscore how much my mother hated interacting with the Clinton administration when she worked at the USN academy and the amount of eyerolling I had to suppress as my own views shifted from center-right to center-left and no I’m not going to talk personal political beliefs at the moment because they haven’t finished settling for one (except oh please, Hegar beat Cornyn too, I beg y’all). 

So, Repub primaries back when the other Rs would trash-talk Trump, and Jindal of LA calls Trump out on his paranoia and egomania and all, I forget the exact quote, but I do remember texting @yavieriel in Skype laughing because the wording of the statement was almost exactly how I described Fëanor. 

His controlling paranoia, his overwhelming ego. That his speech at Tirion even back in 2004 scared the heebie-jeebies out of me because I saw the parallels to how fascist strongmen worked - the minority fringe group that had been exiled for an illegal act of violence returning during a moment of crisis to stoke the already volatile feelings of panic, using rhetoric and speeches (and torches in a dark night) to whip up the crowd into a ‘wine-drunk’ mob. Seizes control of the mob by weaponized grievance and giving them scapegoats - not only blaming the legitimate government as weak and ineffectual but then a scapegoat and actual xenophobia by creating fear of the Other, in this case the mortals men that will replace them. Holy fuck if that isn’t the perfect fascist play of ‘here’s this “Other” that is inferior to us and yet will insidiously replace us and our land and oust us’. Sorry, I’m still puking years later. Fëanor who hinges his authority on his status as the first-born of the king instead of the majority of the Noldor wanting him (he’s not winning popular votes) and this ubermench persona (and like other “strongmen” his actual leadership decisions only are a series of moves that cripple his end goals, betray allies, sow more discord, more acts of horrific violence, he mistrusts even his innermost circle, and then he dies overwhelmed and swiftly and rather pathetically compared to his rival. His political pitch is a ‘return to a “purer” past’ be it in language or in general. Go back to Cuiviénen is no different than the other fascist-like rhetoric of idealized false past. It is exactly as you said, “Make the Noldor Great Again”. He looks down upon the Teleri as a inferior culture. He hoards resources and makes his regain the Silmarils pitch statement about hoarding that light that is supposed to be freely shared the exclusive property of just the Noldor and that the Noldor alone will be greater than anyone, even the Ainur (and that Noldor means pure Noldor and Noldor loyal to him). I really don’t see how people can look at the actual character in the Silmarillion, read his quotes, and not come away with the strong sense that if not outright, this is Fëanor’s vibe. I saw it the very first time that I read the book, and it has only been re-enforced every time I ere-read not just it but read counterarguments from his sympathetic fans- the ones that forced me to reexamine him and thus come away with an even stronger negative view.

Heck, Fëanor’s stockpiling of illegal dangerous lethal weapons, his mistrust of the government and moving away from the city even before exile, plus that his invention of the Silmarils was motivated out of a vague uneasy worry that something might happen to the Treelight and thus preserve it -plus the controlling nature is personal and familial relations enough so that his wife leaves him and is upset that she can’t take at least some of the children with her to escape that toxic controlling environment- Fëanor is TEXTBOOK right-wing doomsday prepper, and the Valar were trying to avoid Waco or Ruby Ridge.

#replies #engage girdle #fëanor the village idiot #this is almost the long meta post I promised to write seven years ago #for my mutuals and followers this is nothing new from me #this is why I avoid the majority of the silm fandom on tumblr and other platforms #because we read different books for them to see fëanor and his sons in another light than this #and i won't waste my time on them and they shouldn't waste theirs with me #i tried and it was triggery years later dealing with the doublespeak and illogic #Anonymous