I Feel Like There Are Two Extremes When It Comes To The Fëanorians: Woobification Or Demonization, And

i feel like there are two extremes when it comes to the fëanorians: woobification or demonization, and i think both of them suck the life out of the characters.

“fëanor/his sons did nothing wrong!” is a weird hill to die on considering how much the text itself disagrees, but i’ve seen people make memes and short posts echoing the sentiment. they usually side with them bc they’ve grown attached to the characters and can’t bear the thought of liking morally gray war criminals, so they rationalize this discrepancy by absolving the characters of any guilt and mentally categorizing them and their actions as always good and just, thereby avoiding having to ask themselves “why do i like these garbage elves?”. it’s a very boring way to go about viewing media - to always have to agree morally with a character to enjoy them.

“fëanor/his sons are absolute monsters who fucked everything up and deserve their fate” is the next extreme i see, and in some ways i actually don’t mind this as much as the other one, despite being a fëanorian fan myself. it’s more rooted in the text imho and understandable if you just look at the result of fëanor’s actions. that said, i feel like it isn’t a fair reading of the text and this viewpoint completely ignores the several times we are told about the good and noble deeds and intentions of fëanor and his sons. i also see this same sentiment in posts bashing on the kidnap dads. that does piss me off tbh, because i see people trying to claim that maglor and/or maedhros were abusive, something we have zero textual basis for. all we are told of their relationship is that “…(maglor) cherished them, and love grew after between them, as little might be thought…”. that’s it, and i take it at face value. as a survivor of familial abuse, i find it bizarre that people want the relationship to be toxic. maybe it’s because they can’t conceptualize terrible people making good guardians, i don’t know. all i know is that viewing maglor and maedhros as inherently evil and bad is glossing over one of the most interesting and compelling dynamics in the whole book to me - that of the brothers and elrond and elros. the idea that these arguably awful dudes find some semblance of family again with these twins who are survivors of the very kinslaying they committed? it’s strange and touching and the one of the last bits of good in the entire rest of the quenta silmarillion. if you write off all the fëanorians as assholes, you’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater and losing out on enjoying the best written morally gray characters in all of tolkien’s works.

tl;dr: viewing the fëanorians as either wholly good or wholly evil is incredibly boring! gray morality is fascinating!

【ギルエリ】

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energence2

7 years ago

Yeah... it is

Hi from Poland ! I just want you to know that we ALL love you and snk here :* *hug*

And I love all of you! Poland is very beautiful!

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energence2

3 years ago

the tale of Aragorn and Arwen is a horror story, or a cautionary tale at least.

Every time I reread the Tale of Arwen and Aragorn I think…whether Tolkien intended it or not, this is a horror story about people casting Arwen into the role of Lúthien, a tragedy about someone being compared to a heroic ancestress because of her looks so many times that she might start to believe it– but in the end finds out that she is nothing like her. And she finds out too late.

The first meeting of Aragorn and Arwen is not about Arwen at all, but her ability to look like a figure out of song, which allows Aragorn to cast himself as a heroic Beren figure (and people love those who allow them to imagine being something more than they are);

For a moment Aragorn gazed in silence, but fearing that she would pass away and never be seen again, he called to her crying, Tinúviel, Tinúviel! even as Beren had done in the Elder Days long ago. Then the maiden tured to him and smiled, and she said: ‘Who are you? And why do you call me by that name?” And he answered: “Because I believe you to be indeed Lúthien Tinúviel of whom I was singing. But if you are not she, then you walk in her likeness.” “So many have said,” she answered gravely. “Yet her name is not mine.”

And Arwen has grown up with the story of Beren and Lúthien. As long as she can remember people have seen Lúthien in her.

Aragorn falls in love at first sight; but not in love with Arwen, not really, because he doesn’t know her. He falls in love with the image of Lúthien while singing of her; he falls in love with the idea of himself as heroic as Beren, too. Nothing is mentioned of Arwen having feelings for him at this point. It is not at all love at first sight as it was for B&L. In fact, Elrond says she likely thinks he is below her, not just in age or experience but in lineage. I don’t think he would lie, despite his lack of enthusiasm;

But as for Arwen the Fair, Lady of Imladris and of Lórien, Evenstar of her people, she is of lineage greater than yours, and she has lived in the world already so long that to her you are but as a yearling shoot beside a young birch of many summers. She is too far above you. And so, I think, it may well seem to her. But even if it were not so, and her heart turned towards you, I should still be grieved because of the doom that is laid on us.”

Luthien did most certainly did not care about Beren’s ‘great lineage’– which was not really much of one yet at the time, at least not one to impress the half-Ainu daughter of Thingol, who claimed to be King of all Beleriand. If there is any reason for their love at all (other than high doom)– it is maybe Beren’s personality. He kills no animal. He tries to be good in a very harsh world. He was about 32 years old, and unlikely to ever be King of anything.

Czytaj dalej

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energence2

4 years ago

Some gorgeous person a while back made a post about if various other famous elves had been part of the fellowship instead of legolas, one of them being Maglor, and now I can’t stop thinking about that au

Elrond: Hi Frodo. This is my dad. He’ll be coming with you on your impossible quest.

Frodo: Wait, I thought your dad was Earendil? Bilbo did a whole musical number about it.

Elrond: Yes, that was awkward for all of us. Have fun!

(more hilarious outtakes beneath cut)

Czytaj dalej

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energence2

5 years ago

Continuing The B99 References Because I’m Unoriginal Lol. Also The End Times Have Got Me Unemployed

continuing the b99 references because i’m unoriginal lol. also the End Times have got me unemployed and in need of a little lighthearted humor. (if you have anything to spare, i would appreciate a donation to my kofi)

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energence2

3 years ago