Some images from my mood board of This Bitter Earth
Keni
will byers stan first human second
Misplaced Lens Cap
dirt enthusiast

oozey mess
🪼
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
RMH
One Nice Bug Per Day
AnasAbdin
almost home
art blog(derogatory)

blake kathryn
taylor price
noise dept.

Kiana Khansmith
No title available
Jules of Nature
Acquired Stardust
Peter Solarz

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@ikorous
Some images from my mood board of This Bitter Earth
I was standing in quicksand
Sinking
Staring
Up at the sky
And only seeing the sun,
You know?
Swan, Rush, and Iris (design for a dado wallpaper), Walter Crane, 1875
"Be free of it."
SAURON AND GALADRIEL AT THE END OF TIME / DAGOR DAGORATH
If you're struggling to write sex, write food. if you're struggling to write food, write gore. if you're struggling to write gore, write sex. They're all variations on the same themes.
it's all sensation and consumption and intimacy. it's all violence and beauty and taste. it's all wild and animalistic and elevated by our humanity. it's all deeply cultural and symbolic. it's all enjoyed by every sense the body has to offer.
Blood Oath
Tolkien: “Sauron was a victim of Morgoth’s corruption who, then, got high on power trips. When his master was defeated, he truly regretted everything that he has done, but was too proudful to return to Aman in humiliation and face the judgement of the Valar. He wanted to heal Middle-earth and create perfect order and harmony between its people but his bounds to Morgoth were too strong, and he fall back into evil (= became a tyrannical dictator). BTW, Gandalf with the One ring would have been far worse than Sauron himself.”
Dudebros: “Sauron is the Satan of Tolkien lore!”
Tolkien: “Galadriel is a proudful and power-hungry elf princess with a “Amazonian disposition” who wanted her own kingdom on Middle-earth. She rebelled against the Valar, and got banished from Valinor for it. Her character arc in “Lord of the Rings” is that of a “repentant sinner”. She’s only pardoned and allowed to return to Valinor after she resists Frodo’s offering her the One ring on the Third Age.”
Dudebros: “Galadriel is the Virgin Mary of Tolkien lore!”
“You are shipping Satan with the Virgin Mary, you blasphemous heretics!” No, we are not.
You really should stop calling these idiots “lorebros” because the “lore” isn’t in the room with us.
Putting barbed wire around my heart is the kindest thing I can do for you.
Dracula and Jonathan’s Tango - from The Polish National Opera production of ‘Dracula’.
With Choreography by Krzysztof Pastor and Music by Wojciech Kilar.
That does it.
I am keeping an eye on the local Opera & Ballet houses, and if they do DRACULA again this fall, I am GETTING TICKETS!
I already posted this separately but I’m going to reblog it again because it is fabulous.
26 September, 1880 Leo Tolstoy in his letter to Nikolai Strakhov
Mean Girls (2004) || The Rings of Power (2024)
#let me tell you something about Adar #we were best friends. I know so embarrassing right? #so then I was chief lieutenant to Morgoth who was totally gorgeous but then he was exiled to the void #and Adar was weirdly jealous of him #like anytime I would blow him off to commit dark deeds with Morgoth he’d be like ‘why didn’t you call me back?’ #and I’d be like ‘why are you so obsessed with me?’ #and then at my coronation he murdered me and now I guess he’s on crack (via @aethelredism)
sauron doesn't just covet galadriel's light, he worships it. and his sole greatest mission would have became to bring all middle-earth to its knees to worship the light of its queen, like it's worshiped by sauron himself.
galadriel is sauron's god.
the god that he violently pierces with his crown and binds to himself by guilt when she rejects him, as his worship is selfish and cruel.
the only god who could replace the other - morgoth. it was not adar alone who saw galadriel as morgoth's successor. sauron sees that the only way for him to be free of morgoth's darkness is to bind himself to galadriel's light.
he doesn't want her as a trophy, he doesn't want to tame her, deep down, he doesn't even want her to simply be his equal.
he wants her to willingly become his master, his god. yet, when she resists, he pins her and pierces her with the crown (=the proposal/power), leaving her no choice as he penetrates her flesh with his offering, keeps pushing in as he tells her he wants her as his queen to worship, a soft expression turning into the desire to devour. if she doesn't hold his leash, he will eat her whole. if she doesn't accept his submission, he will ravage her as a means of binding in his desperation. if she doesn't bind him to her light, he will bind her to his darkness by marking her with morgoth's crown. his yearning knows no boundaries.
and he won't ever stop holding onto their connection, groping for a taste of her light, the light that will always overshadow all of his creations, the creations that won't ever quench his thirst for her light.
my thoughts on haladriel in ep8:
they chickened out a bit bc they 100% wanted to convey that sauron loves galadriel and she is the only light in his life, the light that he in fact worships, but it was maybe too subtle, too subtextual. and if this ending meant that galadriel suddenly fully overcame her darkness, well, that'd be a very rushed, weak development.
let me explain why i believe they wanted to show sauron's feelings for galadriel bordering love and obsession:
during the fight, sauron says that not all of it was an illusion. the expression on his face as he says it is genuine and melancholic. his longing is clear. and right after he says it, we see him as halbrand repeating that he felt connection with her, meaning that it was the truth.
he looks hopeful when he says that her door is still open to him and loses it when she tells him it's shut. now i don't think that it's actually shut yet as he talks to her through their mind connection as he asks for the ring (whether her fall meant shutting the door is going to be answered in s3).
"the door is still open" also suggests that his proposal is still active, and the hopeful, almost desperate look on his face as he says it, tells us a lot. it also recontextualizes what "the door" means in their relationship.
he plays with her, showing her illusions of her dark self, reminding her how alike they are. illusion!celebrimbor's line "are they not the seeds you've planted" proves that it was him who sent her those visions in the beginning. again, guilt-bonding her to himself.
"i would have placed a crown upon your head. i would never have rested until all middle-earth had been brought to its knees, to worship the light of its queen." he is earnest when he says it, and then there is this feral predatory look of want. it shows how he covets whatever he sees in her. i really loved the wording of "worship the light of its queen" as the shippers have been describing his coveting as the "worship of the light".
AGAIN, HE WANTS TO BRING ALL MIDDLE-EARTH TO ITS KNEES TO WORSHIP GALADRIEL, THEIR QUEEN EQUAL TO SAURON, AS HE WORSHIPS HER LIGHT HIMSELF. this part is essential in understanding sauron's feelings for galadriel and it's straight out of our fanons.
after she jumps, he loses it again and takes it out on his poor subordinate orc. rip. we can see him standing there and looking down while breathing heavily for longer than necessary.
yeah, he wounds her with the crown. but we don't know what he would have done with her had she given him the ring. honestly, if it was anyone else, they'd be dead the moment he saw nenya + the nine. the chickening out element plays in the way his intentions are vague, as he clearly doesn't want to hurt her and wants her to willingly give in, but ofc the evil sauron can't be too gray, he has to be dark dark.
subtextually, nenya is galadriel, him being transfixed with nenya tells us of his obsession with galadriel's light. i love when the stories employ subtext to say what the text can't eloquently, but in this case, they're employing it bc they got no guts.
his whole demeanor with her is completely different from how he presents himself with others. he plays with her as a predator with its pray, but he is being honest and raw. his anger is personal and the hints of delight when he greets her for the fist time - sincere.
the fight itself was as hot as it was violent. sorry not sorry. true dead dove enemies enjoyers still won. i stand by my opinion that this fight scene is the hottest thing in this show. when he pins her and pierces her with that crown, penetrating her flesh, and keeps pushing in as he tells her he wanted her as his queen to worship with a soft expression painted over his face, and then he looks at her as if he wants to violently devour her, eat her whole? yeah. that was er0tic.
i honestly am not sure where they will go with this. will the audience demand for more haladriel influence s3? it depends on whether the door is still open, and i think it is, and maybe sauron is going to get even more obsessed with possessing nenya(=galadriel)? i'm more worried that they will give in to the incelbro demand of watering galadriel down and simplifying her. so i hope her struggle with the darkness is not over yet. it felt like it was but if sauron starts to break into her mind more frequently, then it might not be the case. the fact that galadriel stops attacking him when he transforms into halbrand also indicates that she loves halbrand, and maybe will always love him no matter how she feels about sauron.
Dark Lords need love too.