So I love all the various HCs of pre-seduction Mairon running around like a BAMF but CONSIDER: what if he started out as a relatively low-powered Maia?
Stick with me: the name “Admirable” always struck me as kinda strange -- other Maiar have names that translate to specific things; Olorin is associated with Dreams, early Tolkien drafts imply Eonwe’s name might mean He of the Sun, Melian is A Gift of Love, Osse is Foaming (seas)/dread, Ilmare is “Starlight”. By contrast, “Admirable” always seemed to me like a generic ‘good work keep it up’ -- or even like, ‘well, we don’t really have anything specifically nice to say about you so, uh, lets just go with you’re admirable’.
CONSIDER: In the beginning, Mairon was a lesser Maia -- but he was SMART AS HELL and worked harder than everyone else, and THAT’S how he came to be the best of Aule’s Maiar. Like, the other’s are all throwing their power around and enjoying getting up to hijinks in creation but this bitch just keeps his head down and WORKS. Like, other Maiar can just blast shit but if Mairon wants to do the same thing, he gotta go and invent a fucking fulcrum so he has the leverage to make it happen. So he became ‘admirable’ because he tries so hard and gets so good -- but there’s a bit of ‘otherness’ that comes along with that too that’s a little condescending. Like, awww its so ADMIRABLE that you could accomplish such great/beautiful works when you’re such a little bean. Oh Mairon, you’re so ADMIRABLE, if only we could all be workaholics like you (but not really c’mon guys lets have some FUNNNN).
So I just love the idea of him getting “only kid that takes the group project seriously” syndrome early on, and feeling adrift. The idea that it wakes bitterness in him because he looks around at the people he’s earned a place amongst and none of them seem to be TRYING, and he knows if he had half their power he could make more amazing things than they could ever DREAM of.
What if Melkor saught him out FOR that reason like -- it’s the new hot gossip. Man, have you heard of that weenie little Maia who just works and studies and learns every second of the day and can hold his own with the likes of Curumo and has become the best in Aule’s workshop? He’d be a curiosity, at the very least. But Melkor, seeing how SMART and CREATIVE and HARD WORKING Mairon is becomes intrigued with Mairon for that reason and is the first person outside of Mairon who’s like “holy shit, you should’ve been a Vala/had a ton of power cuz you’d be so much better at it than the rest of these fuckers”.
And that would be the first time anyone ACKNOWLEDGED Mairon’s deepest want/hurt in his LIFE and of COURSE he’d be weak to it. And I just love the idea of Melkor giving him a power-up (since he’s always putting his own power into his various followers/creations/things) and so now Mairon can live his dream and OF COURSE he’s gonna be loyal to him for all of time: Melkor was the only one who saw how hard he worked and how special he was and instead of being like ‘lol admirable keep it up’ was like ‘nah here have some real power -- it’s what you deserve’.
