starling

I reached out my hand; thought and memory flew out of my enemies' heads like a flock of starlings

[kenobiwanx]

Joel and Sarah 🦋

[funnytwittertweets]

[middle-earth-mythopoeia]

The latest bad take on Amazon's Rings of Power is, "Rings of Power doesn't contradict Tolkien's canon, because there is no such thing as canon."

I've seen more and more Rings of Power fans claiming that the show doesn't go against canon because there are different versions of canon anyway, between The Silmarillion and the History of Middle-earth, and The Silmarillion wasn't published by Tolkien, but by his son. They're basically saying, "Canon? What canon?" And I just... No. The idea that "the show doesn't go against canon because canon is so wishy-washy anyway" is SUCH a false argument to make.

Yes, Christopher Tolkien edited and published The Silmarillion after his father's death. And yes, there are multiple conflicting versions of stories in The Silmarillion and HoMe. But that doesn't mean there's no such thing as being faithful to Tolkien's stories. A lot of the choices Amazon has made in the show are completely wrong and would be wrong in any Tolkien adaptation.

The characterizations are totally off base. For heaven's sake, Hobbits wouldn't abandon their own people on a journey. Elrond wouldn't swear an oath like that. And the Númenoreans don't hate Elves because Elves are stealing their jobs, they envy them for their immortality—it's kind of the main theme of the Akallabêth. And, in the show, Galadriel—whose people were literally victims of the First Kinslaying—tries to steal a boat??? I mean, hello??????? Amazon hasn't even tried to stay faithful Tolkien's characterizations. Yes, adaptations usually take liberties with the source material, but holy shit.

And the very framing of fundamental issues is completely wrong. In the show, going to Valinor is portrayed as some sort of reward for valor in battle, which is not how it works in Tolkien's books. The show also compressed the entire Second Age into a much shorter span of time, which is absurd and completely goes against what Tolkien wrote. The show glosses over the First Kinslaying, of course (I know it's because they don't have the rights, but it's still their fault for mangling the story and themes), which makes it seem like the return of the Noldor to Middle-earth was some sort of righteous war, and it wasn't. The list goes on and on.

And they can't get basic details right, either. Obviously, the short-haired Elves are one example of this; so is the emblem that resembles a Fëanorian star on Galadriel's armor. And it's astounding how poorly the showrunners seem to understand the nuances of Tolkien's names and constructed languages.

Tolkien was a linguist, and the languages he invented were extremely important to him and to his stories. So what did Amazon do? They completely ignored the internal logic of Tolkien's secondary world. In The Silmarillion, Ar-Pharazôn banned Quenya in Númenor—but Amazon's version of the character names his son a Quenya name. In the show, characters call Galadriel "Galadriel" even in Valinor, despite it being a Sindarin name given to her by her husband, Celeborn. It is anachronistic and inaccurate to refer to her by that name before Celeborn gives it to her, especially during the Years of the Trees when she didn't even speak Sindarin. The show also gave one of the hobbits a Dwarven name, Nori, for no apparent reason. There are many more examples like this.

Amazon has also invented some things out of thin air that have no basis in Tolkien's works at all. I understand that they had to invent original characters and storylines for this show. Inventing original characters could, in theory, work alongside canon instead of contradicting it, even though those characters aren't found in Tolkien's books. But mithril containing the light of a silmaril? What? And what's with that weird bit where Amazon Elrond and Amazon Celebrimbor are talking about the silmarils and they say Morgoth cried when he looked at them and almost repented??? What the hell??? It makes no sense.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. The people who created this show have many many, many choices that completely fly in the face of Tolkien's characterizations, worldbuilding, languages, and themes. (I haven't watched Rings of Power and I don't intend to, but this information is widely available if you read reviews and episode synopses.)

The show is also poorly written and ugly to look at, but that's beside the point. The point of this post is just to say that no, just because there are multiple, conflicting versions of canon in The Silmarillion and HoMe doesn't mean Amazon gets free reign to trample all over Tolkien's stories. There is such a thing as making a faithful Tolkien adaptation, and this isn't it.

[thenookienostradamus]

I'm all for condemnation of Amazon for horrific human rights practices, unchecked predatory capitalism, and whatnot. But I gotta shake my head and chuckle at a bunch of huffy, foot-stomping (purported) defenders of transformative fanworks pouting and whining, "it's not caaaaanon!!"

[st4rlings]

It’s absolutely not beside the point that the show is poorly written, OP. That’s a big part of what you criticize—that the writers/show runners didn’t bother to do their research before they made their narrative choices and as a consequence RoP is like fanfic someone wrote with only second hand knowledge of the source material. It’s like watching the JJ Abrams Star Trek movies as a fan of Star Trek. It’s all surface and no substance.

I don’t think it’s entitled to criticize that. I don’t think it’s entitled to expect people involved in the production of an adaptation to have a certain affection for or at least decent knowledge of the material they’re adapting. Amazon expects fans to pay for this content, so it’s not surprising fans expect to be catered to. This is not like someone writing fanfic for free and doing whatever they want.

That said, adaptations are always transformative. Elements will be sacrificed to streamline the story (Tom Bombadil), characters will replaced/merged so the uninitiated aren’t confused (Glorfindel), characters will be fleshed out (all the dwarves in the Hobbit movies) or added for reasons ranging from story-telling to world-building to representation. 

If you’re looking for something that’s 100% canon, you’ll have to stick with canon.

So the question, when it comes to adaptations, is really just where we draw our line in the sand.

I for one appreciate attempts to make a story more inclusive through colourblind casting and adding more female characters or maybe even LGBTQ+ representation (gasp!), and I’m pretty appalled by how much backlash that has caused.

In my opinion, you don’t have to get all the details right or even only adhere to the “spirit of Tolkien” or whatever you wanna call it for a story to recognizable as a work of love. Like, I don’t care about long or short hair for elves, or whether names are anachronistic. Or rather, I care, but not that strongly. I read a ton of fanfic that didn’t give a fuck about major elements of canon—and yet it felt so much truer to characters and universe because it was so obvious the author cared about their story and they cared about the source material. They choose an aspect, a character, an event, because it spoke to them and they interpreted it. Spelled out unspoken implications. Filled the many gaps (and blind spots!) Tolkien’s works tend to have.  Whatever you think of the Jackson movies, I don’t think you can deny that Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson wrote them from a fannish perspective. 

RoP, judging by the four episodes I’ve seen, doesn’t care about established characters and their traits, or previous events, or the world, or anything really and I have a hard time believing that can be explained solely by what rights to which parts of the story they acquired. RoP is not fan fiction by any stretch of the imagination. The writers don’t interpret or reimagine. They prefer to make up things from scratch. And boy are they not up to the task.

You don’t have to know anything about Galadriel, just being aware of their age should be sufficient to realize it’d be a strange choice to write her like the moody, impulsive teenaged heroine in a YA book.

You don’t have to know anything about elvish love for trees and nature to realize that if you write them planning to catch a glimpse over the edge of the trench so they can eventually escape and raise an alarm about the situation (which is their top priority) and cutting down a tree would give them that opportunity, having them refuse to cut down that tree on principle is somewhat silly in the context of your own damn story.

That’s my main gripe with the show (aside from, of course, it being an image project for Amazon, which is literally the worst)---it’s just hilariously bad.

[dilke-deactivated20111221-deact]

[terrypratchettparadise]

"In the Ramtops village where they dance the real Morris dance, for example, they believe that no-one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away – until the clock he wound up winds down, until the wine she made has finished its ferment, until the crop they planted is harvested.  The span of someone’s life, they say, is only the core of their actual existence."

- Terry Pratchett - Reaper Man

[spiritofsalt]

[publicschooltraitor-blog]

[explosionshark]

Tbh if you're a teenager who is marginalized and feels rejected by society the coolest thing you can do for yourself is get really into metal bc it's a subculture that's proud of being outside of the mainstream, it's got a HUGE breadth of diversity in style, the uniform is black t-shirts with gross designs which look good on everyone AND the experience of going to your first show (or just sitting in your room w the music up loud) and headbanging til your neck is sore is SO life affirming

[explosionshark]

[vexed-n-hexed]

Just giving Eddie a beard for fun :)

[lydiamarsin]

Just wanted these pics of Eddie’s trailer together in one post tbh.

[deathbyotpin123]

It is done. Inspired by the Harringrove week prompt "fantasy". Steve as a paladin. Billy as a barbarian. Both classes were suggested by my followers.

[clementine-starling]

I’m genuinely losing my mind over it, it’s so good!! Are you planning on writing more? (Don’t want to seem like I’m pushing u to or anything!! Just wondering and hoping hahahah)

Oh, don't worry, it's not pushy. I appreciate the interest. 💕 I'm about 12k into a follow up, but it's some weird m/f/m-shit that my brain insisted we (in this case Eddie, Billy, the OFC, possibly Vicki Carmichael, and I as the author, obviously) have to work through before the boys can get some proper 1:1 action again—even though I expect the audience for this to be pretty much one person (me). But I created a series, so if you're interested you can subscribe to it & get a notification when I upload part 2 and hopefully, eventually, part 3 which will be 100% m/m again. 🤞

[clementine-starling]

Hello hi just dropping by to scream about your mungrove fic. My god. It was so fucking good. The characterisation is so on point hhhhhh anyway that is all ! Thank you for sharing your writing!! It’s absolutely incredible

My actual expression right now. 😉 So, um, thank you! I'm so glad you liked it. 😊😊😊

[hardestgrove]

billy sucking his dick while eddie valiantly keeps trying to fucking practice

[st4rlings]

this plot porn bunny was fucking persistent. i couldn’t get rid of it, so i, um, did a thing---

stairways to heaven on ao3 

[hardestgrove]

people in the tags were asking for this flag burning lesbians meme but mungrove so i decided to deliver because mungrove is my nation and i cannot ignore their plights

[mothric]

ever have a blorbo live in your brain for so long they become their own blorbo variant that’s no longer fully attached to their source material and your original blorbo is still beloved and dear to you but now you also have a mutant blorbo clone who is dear to you in a different way? 

[st4rlings]

I suppose we should have seen that one coming. :( They built him up just enough as a character so we’d care, just like they did with Chrissy. If we’re being honest, his development after episode 1 was pretty much nil. I guess all of us who were hungry for more content watched the rest of season 4 in denial that the show never made him out to be more than a side character. 

So here we are. Still disappointing. (Also given how much plot armour Nancy, Robin and Steve got. And how unnecessary his foolish heroics seemed for the rest of the plot; this whole “distraction” thing was rather poorly executed on all fronts in that we got told it was the plan, but it wasn’t *shown* at all imo, like there was no scene when Vecna was distracted or were demobats were visibly drawn away from the others, but ok.)

I was prepared. I’m still sad. But Max came as an actual shock and about that I’m still mad. Like WTF.