#oropher headcanon

[growingingreenwood]

Pardon the wording of my question, English isn't my first language and i'm not sure a better way to ask this. How does the ruling family work in Valinor after theyve all sailed west/came out of the halls? King Oropher, King Thranduil, Queen Mereneth, Queen Avaleina..... King Legolas?? (since he is married to Avaleina, an elected queen) How does it work? Did they have some sort of competiton to see who had the right to rule? Hope this make sense!

It makes total sense, and is a super valid question! Thanks for asking!

The short, simple answer: In my little Headcanon-Land its Thranduil and Avaleina that are the ‘King and Queen’ of the Greenwood elves in Valinor.

The longer, more complicated answer: In my little headcanon-land, Oropher and Thingol were the original Ride Or Die Besties and so Oropher goes to live in whatever new city Thingol & Melian create in Valinor. So he’s out of the picture. (Even if he had stayed to live in the same city, I don’t think that he would ever even consider taking the crown back from Thranduil anyways.)

Legolas was never given the title of King, since he had already long since sailed west when Avaleina was crowned Queen in Arda and so never got the title by association. Which is exactly how he wants it. The closest that he ever gets to being ‘King’ is right after Mereneth (his mother) is released from the Halls of Mandos and is reunited with them and Legolas briefly banishes his father from anything considered ‘work’ for several years so that they can finally spend time together, uninterrupted. Even then, though, a case could be made that Galion was the one who ruled while Thranduil was on ‘vacation.’  

Mereneth was called the ‘Queen’ until Avaleina finally arrived in Valinor a few centuries after Thranduil did. When she did arrive, it was with a not insignificant amount of Avari that had come to live under her rule while still in Arda. They trusted her, not Thranduil, and they were so, so, so scared. The rest of Greenwood already knew and trusted Avaleina wholeheartedly, and it was quickly decided by the people that until everybody got settled in, Thranduil and Ava would rule together to make all parties feel more supported, understood, and comfortable. 

And it just worked out… pretty damn good for everybody involved.  

After a while they settled into a pattern of switching back and forth between who was the more ‘active’ ruler of their people at any given time, although Thranduil tended to lead for longer periods of time. Avaleina was (almost always) the one to visit other elves or go to group meetings outside of their realm, much to the relief of… many. 

In The end, it's King Thranduil & Princess Mereneth and Queen Avaleina & Prince Legolas. 

(And Oropher in the distance with whatever title Thingol decides to gives him)

[growingingreenwood]

Does Celeborn know that Thranduil is friends with the Avari?

Is Celeborn 100% certain that Thranduil is friends with the Avari? No, he isn't. Nobody outside of Greenwood and the Avari Tribes they speak to are 100% certain of their relationship.

However, while Celeborn might not be renowned across the lands for excessive wisdom like his wife is, he’s also not an idiot. He knows that on occasion both Oropher and Thranduil have received support of some kind from outside their kingdom, (usually in the form of Supplies, Advice, or Shared Knowledge) and never from anybody that Celeborn is aware of. He also knows that pretty much the only time one of Thranduil’s elves will stray any distance from the borders of the forest is when they're going to visit somebody, and if no Wood Elves turn up at Imladris, Lothlorien, or Lindon…… that doesn’t really leave many other options other than an Avari tribe for them to have gone too. 

Celeborn doesn't get any form of confirmation on whether he’s correct that Greenwood has a friendly relationship with at least one of the Avari tribes until he shows up at Dol Guldur at the end of the War of the Ring and discovers that several tribes have already been fighting alongside the Greenwood Elves for several weeks.

[growingingreenwood]

Why does Oropher care about Galion so much less than he does Ferdan? jw

I don't think that he cares about one significantly more than the other one, he just cares about them in significantly different ways. When Oropher and Ferdan met, Ferdan was barely considered to be an adult by elvish standards. He still lived at home with his Aunt, father, and small horde of younger siblings and cousins and was working himself to the bone to try and support them all (as his father was too depressed to work.) Ferdan and his father had a pretty toxic relationship, and so Oropher became an extremally important father figure for Ferdan fairly quickly after Ferdan and Thranduil became friends. Ferdan even ended up moving out of his family home and into Thranduil's bedroom within Thingol's household while they were all still in Menegroth.

When Oropher and Galion met, it was after Thranduil had already hired Galion to work for him as his personal attendant. Galion was an adult, that had an important job to do, and Oropher expected him to do it well and wouldn't accept anything less. That doesn't mean that Oropher didn't come to care about Galion after he had been around for a while, because he absolutely did, it just started out as a: 'I care about this person and their wellbeing because my son loves them very much and would be devastated if anything bad happened to them' type of way, and grew to be a much more personal type of fondness.

Generally speaking, I dont that there's much of anything Orohper would do for one of them but not the other, he just has a much richer personal relationship with Ferdan than he does Galion.

[growingingreenwood]

Hii!! I was reading your stories and the thought came to me: did thranduil, ferdan, galion and oropher took part in the war of wrath in your stories? if they did, I would love to hear what part each of them took in it!

Hello!! Thank you for reading and for reaching out!   Tolkien never tells us if any of the surviving Sindar from Doriath take part in the War of Wrath (at least not that I could find) but in my little headcanons they absolutely 100000% took part in the War of Wrath, I just have never written anything about it tbh. (Although, Galion would not have ‘fought’ in the War of Wrath at all. He’s adamant that he is not, and will never be a soldier. But I’m sure he found a plethora of other helpful duties to keep himself occupied with.)

Thingol dies and Melian flee’s to Valinor in F.A 503, the Second Kinslaying and Fall of Menegroth happens in F.A 506, the bulk of the survivors escaped to Sirion. Which is the site of the Third Kinslaying in 538. By the time the War of Wrath is ready to start in F.A 545, Oropher and his boys had just gone through such relentless loss that: 

Revenge in any capacity probably seemed mighty attractive. 

What else did they have to lose at this point?  

If they survived thus far, they might as well die trying to actually make some sort of difference. And if by some miracle they happened to survive the War of Wrath too, well, then that was the world's problem. 

I also think that Oropher & thus Thranduil, Ferdan, and Galion would have felt compelled to join the fight among Círdan’s host out of remaining love, friendship, and loyalty to him. As Círdan was one of the awakened elves alongside Thingol (Elwe) and in my personal headcanons, Oropher. Even though Círdan developed a fairly close relationship with the Noldor, he remained loyal to Thingol until his death in F.A 503, even going so far as to warn Thingol about the dishonesty surrounding the reason why the Noldor had arrived back to Middle Earth. It’s likely that especially Oropher and Thranduil (but perhaps to a lesser extent those that followed them) would have seen supporting Círdan in the War of Wrath as one final way to serve and honor King Thingol. 

Lastly, all of those reasons aside, sitting by in leisure and letting everybody else try and do something about the evil threatening to destroy the entire world simply is not their style.

I hope this answered your question! :)

[growingingreenwood]

Thranduil: Sometimes when I'm trying to discipline Legolas, I can hear my Adar's voice so clearly within my mind that it's almost like he's with me again, even though I know it cannot be true.

Celeborn: Laughing at you?

Thranduil, nodding: Hysterically

[growingingreenwood]

Orophers reaction and thoughts when mereneth arrived at the halls?

Well I hope you wanted angst because you're getting angst

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He felt the words before he even heard a faint echo of them, he felt the desperation and the raw need that were contained in those words. A parent frantically searching for their child among the halls of the dead. Oropher was painfully aware of exactly what this parent was going through as they continued to cry. 

As he walked closer to the feeling, he could tell that even more desperate people were being carried over the threshold of the halls. Tell more people were searching for their loved ones, both hoping to find them and not. 

Something very bad must have happened in Arda. 

Finally he was near the cluster, overwhelmed by the volume of elves and emotions for Oropher had not seen such a rapid intake of souls since he himself had been brought here. As he drew closer and the soul began to take healed form once more. Oropher was dismayed to see that there were young elfling among the grown elves, and clearly unarmed mothers searching for broken families.  

Oropher was heartbroken when he identified the garb of his people. Of King Thranduil’s people. 

Oropher was devastated when he recognized the newly awoken soul that Lady Yavanna carried through the gates, whispering something kindly into her ear as the Valar placed the elleth on the ground. 

Mereneth. Thranduil's love.

No. 

The world couldn't do this to him, his poor son. Had he not survived enough already for doing no wrong to deserve it? It seemed that Elu himself seemed to have decided that Thranduil would be cursed to live with all of his family and loved one ripped away one by one. 

His poor Thranduil. Poor Mereneth. 

Oropher hadn’t thought that you could feel pain such as this in the halls of Mandos, nor be burning with so much anger. Resentment. Frustration. 

None of them deserved this. But then, they never had. 

He forced himself forward when Yavanna left Merenths side, and the young Elleth began to weep over a small and torn piece of cloth. 

Oropher fell down next to her, taking her hand that did not hold the cloth with both of his, only managing to drag out, “Oh child…” before his mind went blank. 

She held the scrap of fabric against her forehead, rocking back and forth a little bit with the force of her silent sobbing, “My poor greenleaf. I left him to burn. I left my baby to burn. My son, my beautiful son.” 

Oropher had to pull on her hand but once before Merenth collapsed into his arm and chest, he held her securely in his arms and cried along with her for what might have actually been many years in the living world. 

The only thing that brought them comfort was even as the years passed on, it became clear that neither surviving Greenwood Royal had any intentions of joining the rest of them in the Halls. 

[growingingreenwood]

Oropher dying and the first face he sees after reaching the halls is thingols

Poor Oropher 😭😭 He must have been so confused at first, maybe he even thought he passed out in the battlefield and he was having some sort of dream about Thingol but he's super excited to see him nonetheless. Even if it IS only a dream.

But then it set in that it isn't a dream, it's real. At least, his version of reality now. And he' still so, so happy to be with his best friend again. The one he's known and loved since the literal dawn of time for the elves.

But he's still so sad. Heartbroken and devastated because he left his boys. He left his people. He left his body as Thranduil held him close screaming and begging for him not to go.

At least Thingol is there to hold him tightly as he experiences a different kind of grief that he never expected

[growingingreenwood]

Ferdan is one of the only elves in known history that Oropher hasn't shouted at. Or at least really really wanted to shout at

He'd heard nothing but awful things about Ferdans father since basically the day Thranduil met him. But the only thing he heard from Ferdan himself was: "He yells at me a lot."

And Oroher silently swore that he wouldn't ever yell at this child. Wouldn't even raise his voice, because he deserved that comfort from at least one person in the world.

Oropher would shout NEAR Ferdan. But never AT Ferdan.

Usually he'd get him to stand right next to Thranduil while he addressed his entire tirade at his son only, even though they had been equal accomplices.

No matter W H A T Ferdan did, Oropher never once shouted at him.

(Yall remeber that scene in Chamber of Secrets when Ron and the twins rescue Harry and Molly screams at all if them except for Harry whom she showers in affection?? Oropher is Molly & Ferdan is Harry.)