Hi I’m Emily I like mushrooms. I live in Alaska. Some of my favorite fandoms include Tolkien and Harry Potter. May be others. Who knows what you’ll see here
elrond sipping his tea: how nice of you to join me for breakfast, thranduil. it’s certainly been a while hasn’t it. you remember bilbo, the hobbit from like seventy years ago? he has a kid now. i know you would just love frodo
I misread someone’s “I don’t own the Silmarillion” disclaimer as “I don’t own the Silmarils” and legit my only thought was a heartfelt “good” as though the Silmarils are a real thing and all of us are in constant danger of being murdered by the Sons of Fëanor if we don’t tell everyone on the internet we don’t own them
“By being in this fandom, you confirm that you are not hoarding the Silmarils, you are in no way affiliated to people who have hidden Silmarils, you are not following the fandom on behalf of someone who hath in hand taken a Silmaril or an associate of someone who afar has casteth a Silmaril. To the best of your knowledge, information and belief the Silmarils will not make their way into the hands of Morgoth or Anish Kapoor.”
I suppose even a brief stay in Mandos is supposed to heal elves from the PTSD of dying, but for the sake of angst: imagining Glorfindel who never again can be chill about anyone touching his hair in any context, which is quite a big deal for a Noldo
Among the ranks of the knights you are considered unstoppable. Unbeatable. The greatest warrior to have ever lived. Your secret is that you a unique weapon, one forged to send hails of burning lead at your foes… its a shotgun. You carry a shotgun.
we make fun of thorin getting lost in the shire but you know the nazgul also had to keep asking for directions to find bag end so maybe hobbits’ city planning is just wack
The creators of The Rings of Power seem to have forgotten (or never understood) Tolkien's one absolute core message:
WAR BAD
It's not something you should aspire to, it's not something to glory in. It's horrible and violent and all-around shit. But sometimes, you have no choice.
He was a veteran of WW1 ffs.
He saw it all, the blood, the dying, the dogged determination of his comrades and the women fighting to save lives, plugging bullet holes as best as they can. Holding the hands of the dying while being shelled.
But US culture is so rife with war glorification. In US media, depicting war as something horrid, something awful, something that should be avoided if at all possible - that started and stopped in the 80s.
"Saving Private Ryan" was the last hurrah of that line of works a decade later.
If you view, like, Eowyn through that lens? Her character arc isn't "strong war maiden turns into docile wifey". It's "Clinically depressed woman yearning for one last act of glory and then death gets confronted with the realities of battle, does what she strove for, but realizes that she wants to live. And do something with her life that doesn't involve bloodshed and killing."
Because Tolkien doesn't see glory in war.
Or, to bring in a quote from another franchise: "Wars make no one great."
And if you lose that message? You lose everything.
You mentioned Maedhros being unable to drop certain habits formed in asngband. What kind of habits are those?
Angband World Building and Aftermath of Captivity Masterlist
This is just a small collection! There are definitely more and I’m honestly considering doing a long post for both Maedhros and Húrin if there’s interest!
Angband lives in the bones and blood
It never lets you go
There is a reason Maedhros was one who had returned from the dead and why, upon sight of Túrin in the garb of a warrior, the possibility that his father had returned from death seemed as likely a possibility as his escaping the pits of Hell
a lot of these have appeared in various stories of mine and headcanon posts but I had too much fun writing this! I linked some relevant ones as I went or just mentioned them, feel free to ignore those, it’s partly just for my own references
as always the physical and psychological aftermath of Angband is an area of huge interest to me so always feel free to ask more!
Hoarding of food, anxiety over food (talked about in more detail here)
Maedhros never truly recovers from the physical or psychological effects of long term starvation.
He hoards food casually throughout his life, strongly dislikes and mistrusts depending on others for food and avoids group meals
His mistrust and anxiety over resources extends to non food as well
Obsession with repaying even small favors, not being in one’s debt (even if they wouldn’t demand it) or refusing favors or gifts
This is typical among escapees of Angband as I talk about here
Angband thrives on controlling resources, enforcing cruelty and humiliation in exchange for goods or safety and lopsided systems of debt and bargaining
Language and speech is another thing I’ve spoken about before. It’s hard to overstate how profoundly demoralizing the effects of captivity are on how one views interpersonal relationships, language and conversation, self advocacy and more.
Maedhros certainly acts as an eloquent diplomat and orator post Angband but he never fully regains his confidence or security in his words and never fully returns to his previous love of conversation and rhetoric
Fealty and power (too many posts to link)
Maedhros learns relatively quickly that the required demonstration of submission and debasement in Angband only horrify those on the outside and he is mortified the few times he replicates them or nearly does
Nevertheless his stomach still clenches, his body hurts as it fights the urge to bow, to curl in on itself, to prevent the pain of the wrath of a mad god.
The concept that he had power or authority also takes time to become used to
Guilt over privacy
Undressing behind closed doors was extremely welcome and near panic inducing
Touch, closeness and intimacy
His relationship with touch and intimacy was hugely impacted. I won’t go into too much detail here because it more specifically addresses torture but my the hidden hours tag has a lot as does the masterlist!
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