Do you hate Nolofinwe? I love your fanfics, but in several of them Nolofinwe is so dark and a terrible father, which confuses me, since he's so good and kind in The Silmarils and a much better person and father than Fëanor, but in your fanfics it's the opposite, which I admit makes me curious.
Hello! That's a fair question.
No, I don't hate Ñolofinwë at all. I really enjoy him as a character, and think there are boundless interpretations, both in more canon compliant works and in AUs/fics that take more liberties with the source material. Most of my character opinions are not at all set in stone. I like coming at a lot of characters from varying angles, and experimenting. It's one of the most fun things about the Silm fandom and the Tolkien legendarium in general--that there's so much obscure lore to kick off interesting and fun ideas, or to leverage into completely different stories.
Ultimately, what characterization I choose for a certain character for a certain fic/au has to fit the story. If I'm going to be leaning heavily into Fingon angst (as happens in both Gilded Silks and Linens and What Lies Against You, which are the fics I assume you're referring to), Ñolofinwë being a dark or terrible father can make for very good whump or angst. That doesn't mean I subscribe to these as far as canon interpretation goes, or that I'm only attached to writing him that way. And while it isn't always a deep interpretation (see above, some characters unfortunately do get villainized mostly or solely for whump or angst), I do generally think about why I'm doing it and what their motivations are.
Especially for the Ñolofinwë in What Lies Against You, that comes from a very specific interpretation of Ñolofinwë's history, and how the Ñoldor as a people and a culture might have treated the children of Indis and Finwë. As that remarriage subverted norms and sociocultural factors surrounding elvish marriage, their children could have faced the consequences of that. A Ñolofinwë concerned with keeping to tradition as a result of those consequences and out of a desire to retain support and approval from more traditional subjects could easily have a regressive or conservative outlook on marriage as a general rule that leads to him not listening to or helping Fingon. It isn't an excuse for Ñolofinwë as a character within that particular fic--his actions are reprehensible--but it is a motivation for why he acts the way he does that I chose to use (for the purposes of whump and angst).
(It's also worth stating that, in that particular fic, Fëanor is not guaranteed to be an excellent father himself. He could be, or he could be a terrible one--but he's long-dead, so it isn't apparent what Fëanor would have done or thought in the situation that presents itself. All that is seen is Maedhros's interpretation of what his dead father might have thought as he tries to grapple with Fingon's father acting in such a way that gravely hurt his son, whom Maedhros loves dearly.)
I'm sure I'll write a good Ñolofinwë in the near future. I very much hope to, in fact--I have WIPs where Ñolofinwë is a good father and Fëanáro is a bad one, and WIPs where neither of them are particularly sympathetic, and WIPs where both of them are. All that's really consistent is a) I love playing with these characters and their wild, expansive, fun families, and b) I love playing with different ideas and concepts.
Thank you for this ask! Sorry for going on for so long about this.
