Mel's reblogs

main account is figbythistle, this is where I reblog art and other cool stuff:D

[rosemary-andtime]

Fic Complete: At the Heart of the Tower

So approximately a year ago this glorious art of Ring-wielding-dark-Boromir by @emilybeemartin came across my dash and ehhh ruined my life, a little bit, recreationally. 👀 turned into HMM turned into well I'll poke at it turned into 96k. Didn't think I'd finish it, but HERE WE ARE I guess!

As of today: she done.

Thank you so much to everybody who cheered me on, listened to me raving in front of a corkboard full of push-pins and red yarn, gave me feedback, did art?? and just generally propped me up out of my writer's block schlumps! Thank you mostly to @figbythistle, whose despairing draft-related fuck youuuus from across the house are sweet sweet music to my ears. luh yew. 😌

now I got some fluff to write to apologize to both of my boys. Fic blurb under the cut. ✌️

Boromir was holding the Ring on its chain in his hand. Gold shone red under the weak sunlight, and his thumb swept over it with an odd tenderness. There was a strange light in his eyes. “What are you going to do?” Pippin heard himself ask. There was silence for a moment. Then Boromir laughed, sudden and loud and defiant in the still air. He turned and knelt down, and Pippin fought the urge to step back from the wild, angry joy in his face. He kept very still and did not flinch when Boromir took him by the shoulders. “My friend,” Boromir said, the light red on his face and his eyes gleaming fey. “We are going to bring back the sun.”

[hs-tolkien]

“Túrin and Beleg: Their Days in Doriath”

I wanted to capture their gentle moment, but once it was finished, remembering how their story ends made the whole scene ache a little.

[thistlefig]

Hey OP that was my heart you just smashed into pieces 😭

[weirdlandtv]

Illustrations by Krystyna Turska (Polish, 1933) for her TAMARA AND THE SEA WITCH (1971).

[nathanielthecurious]

i wish more ancient texts had survived as much as the next guy but can this website cool it with the myth that the destruction of the library of alexandria is the reason for ancient texts not surviving

[nathanielthecurious]

i mean first of all, we don't know exactly how long it stuck around, but it wasnt destroyed in one fell swoop. caesar's soldiers accidentally set it on fire in the civil war but it survived, it gradually declined in importance during late antiquity, ammianus marcellinus says it had been destroyed at some point before the 4th century, there's a story that some iteration of it was destroyed by caliph omar in the 7th century...

but it also just. wasnt the only place that any of those texts existed. there were lots of other libraries in antiquity. they didnt survive forever either, because most buildings and cities and institutions die. the texts that survived were the ones that people continuously decided to keep copying, even across shifts of institutions and book formats.

the fable youre repeating is popular because edward gibbon and carl sagan and some other people wanted a symbol of the loss of cultural memory (and specifically people liked a story about the destruction of scientific secular knowledge by medieval christian and/or muslim theocracy)

[kyleesarthell]

Never trust a cool rock

[orpheuslament]

Introduction to The Iliad, Emily Wilson

[julijbee]

song of staying

[mirkwoodest]

Obsessed with the fact that this really happened😳

[wan-shailu]

When I was a student at Oxford, both C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien were lecturing there, Lewis magnificently and Tolkien badly and inaudibly, and the climate of opinion was such that people explained Lewis’s children’s books by saying ‘It’s his Christianity, you know,’ as if the books were the symptom of some disease, while of Tolkien they said he was wasting his time on hobbits when he should have been writing learned articles…

I imagine I caused Tolkien much grief by turning up to hear him lecture week after week, while he was trying to wrap his lectures up after a fortnight and get on with The Lord of the Rings (you could do that in those days, if you lacked an audience, and still get paid). I sat there obdurately despite all his mumbling and talking with his face pressed up to the blackboard, forcing him to go on expounding every week how you could start with a simple quest-narrative and, by gradually twitching elements as it went along, arrive at the complex and entirely different story of Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Tale – a story that still contains the excitement of the quest-narrative that seeded it. What little I heard of all this was wholly fascinating.

– Diana Wynne Jones

[elodieunderglass]

I think about this a lot, often in the context of "the remarkable amount of resources that Tolkien was able to funnel into LotR" but often because I just really like Diana Wynne Jones

[epiphany-jones]

Evenstar - a short comic (2012) Also on ao3

[k4enobi]

don’t call lotr gay i am big on gay but lotr is botherhood man dont ruin that

[thistlefig]

My own personal preference: why not both. As in, both at the same time, but also different interpretations existing at the same time - I am happy with Sam and Frodo being friends without romance, I am happy to see people thinking they are romantic together. Gimli and Legolas are friends! I also vibe with them being erotically involved. Because even ancient brotherhood and companionship was often a safe haven for queerness that was inseparable from brotherhood and friendship, and sometimes the lines are blurry and sometimes they're not, and idk. I am not arguing against the brotherhood perspective!!!! But it absolutely isn't ruined or reduced by queer readings.

Edit: Also, textually, there are so many queer readings of different natures you can find in the stories. Highly recommend "Queer Lodgings" by David M Craig!

https://www.jstor.org/stable/45321703

[thistlefig]

I think maybe one of the reasons I really don't enjoy movie!Elrond is because movie!Elrond is basically Thingol.

[sapphire-deity]

So sorry for jumping on your post op but I read this and felt like the Two Trees just shone on the darkest corners of my mind. I was literally JUST complaining to my father that in rewatching the Two Towers recently I have the most beef with that movie out of the three BECAUSE OF WHAT THEY DID TO ELROND. You're telling me Elrond Peredhel, brother of Elros Tar-Minyatur, descendant of Beren, is going to try and keep his daughter from choosing her own happiness in mortality? HE WOULD NEVER. And you are SO CORRECT in saying they characterized him like Thingol and I am now even more mad about it.

[thistlefig]

OH MY GOD NO JUMP RIGHT ABOARD I was feeling Some Kind of Way about this and had to scream into the void and I feel sooooo validated now 😂

It's also the way he manipulates Arwen - it isn't just worry or pressure to leave Middle Earth and be with him or see her mother again, which would be bad enough. It's the deceptiveness, the conniving, the way he heaps this awful sense of blame on Aragorn and crushes Arwen so that he can rip away her choice. A CHOICE GIVEN TO HER, AND TO HIM, BY THE FUCKING VALAR. JESUS CHRIST.

And speaking of Celebrian (my queen): he has lost his most beloved one! He has been separated from his person! He has seen people in his life decide to leave or stay as they need to, the idea that he would use deceit on Arwen over something like this is so vile.

Also there is no softness between him and his baby boy, his Estel!!! Aragorn hasn't been his child for as long as Arwen, but in reality Elrond is already leaving behind a child of his to mortality, and he's been doing so for centuries every time another mortal descendant of his brother dies. Like. He would be one of the few people to truly understand the validity of mortality in Middle Earth and the fact that it fits into the plan of the creators. Not even in a "god is good" Christianity kind of way, but in the sense that...he has seen how complex the world is and how deeply personal and complicated this choice is. He wouldn't just be stealing that through lies and cruelty and emotional manipulation??? That is Sauron-type bullshit!!!

Less-bad scenario could be him talking to Arwen about her choice, trying to hammer home "hey, idk if or when you'll see your mom again" or "is this man going to be worth it once you're alone and he has died?" I don't like it, but I could forgive an Elrond who tells himself "I'm just making sure she makes an informed choice" and doesn't want to admit to himself that he's trying to sway her. Tbh it would be WAY more heartbreaking and angsty and delicious and we could see more of Hugo Weaving pulling that kicked-puppy face that he does of the end. It could be SO JUICY. But they had to put him into some quasi-villainous role so that Aragorn had a conquest of love and Arwen got to be a Real Love interest? I guess? There are so many more interesting ways to add her into the story. Shit, give HER some agency in the agony of decision! Make Arwen scared and uncertain because the love is real but her decision is forever. It just weakened her into a Little Mermaid "but daddy I love him" character who stays because she wants to have Aragorn's baby, and it makes Elrond into the WORST kind of villain. Like. In Tolkien's world, the shit he pulls in the movies is of the most egregious type.

Also, I'm sorry, this man does NOT run a place called the Last Homely House.

(I also love the PJ movies but holy shit I have so much beef with them, and this is the biggest problem I have overall because Elrond is such an important character to me and to Tolkien's universe and it's SO BAD and SO WRONG. UGH.)

[epiphany-jones]

Whoops you've activated my trap card (talking about Arwen's choice)

In the books, Arwen—despite showing up on the page twice across the entire trilogy—is a a living embodiment of faith. She believes when no one else can do more than hope. She makes her choice long before the Ring made it to Imladris, before there was a Fellowship or a Quest.

It is in Aragorn's darkest hour of crushing doubt that her banner reaches him, and that's when he finds it in himself to step into his power and birthright.

And the movies! instead of celebrating this, digging into the lonely, tragic path that this faith puts her on! have her go "yeh okay I'll leave sorry daddy ):" and she only turns around when there's a vision of her son!!!!!!!!! "You didn't tell me there was a child" or something, meaning that if she'd had that information that would have tipped the scales she was weighing her choice against, instead of it being the pure! unmoving! belief! as puissant as that of Lúthien her foremother that made her decision!

I don't have a conclusion here I'm literally hiding in the bathroom at work to type this out but I'm hollering.

[thistlefig]

OH MY GOD I AM SCREAMING THANK YOU YES I am so glad this trap card was activated. There are so many comments to be made about how little time we spend with female characters in the original books, but it isn't better to add more screen time with that character AND THEN STRIP AWAY ALL HER CHARACTERISATION AND AGENCY.

Like. Even when I jokingly compare Elrond to Thingol, it doesn't get across how incredibly bad this storytelling is for Arwen's character (and for his). Thingol literally trapped Lúthien in a prison, and it is clear she has made her choice and she gets to have even more agency and time in the story because she BREAKS FREE and uses her arts of enchantment because she knows her own mind and she is gonna go GET HER MAN because he's her man and that's enough!

Whereas, like you say, after Elrond straight-up bullies her, Arwen cries and decides to stay and says "okay daddy" 🥺 like she hasn't already made up her mind. Like she hasn't once thought about the consequences of her life expectancy vs Aragorn's. Like she wasn't a grown-ass woman when he was conceived, someone who has already lost a mother in the most horrific way possible, who has spent her entire life watching her father mourning people she never met. Her grandmother is Galadriel, who saw the first kinslaying and was mentored by Melian. Elrond is well acquainted with grief, and so are his fucking children. This is the consequence of being a peredhel in the third age and she already knows it.

But this scene turns her into this very weepy, girlish character instead of an elvish woman who has been grown for decades before Aragorn was even born. Which is extra weird because she's played by someone so young and Viggo Mortenson is so much older and they don't even try to make her seem like she's older than she looks? Aragorn gets to be the man who loves her and is going to give up their love for her sake, but she is on the fence and weirdly isn't swayed by her love for Aragorn, but the potential child? Which is weird because. Idk. Did you not plan on having kids with him and this shocks you into realising that might happen? Or is it just seeing a specific child and putting a face to it that changes your mind? Can be read weirdly kinda "pro life" lmao.

IT IS JUST SO FUCKING STUPID ARGHHH

[thistlefig]

I think maybe one of the reasons I really don't enjoy movie!Elrond is because movie!Elrond is basically Thingol.

[sapphire-deity]

So sorry for jumping on your post op but I read this and felt like the Two Trees just shone on the darkest corners of my mind. I was literally JUST complaining to my father that in rewatching the Two Towers recently I have the most beef with that movie out of the three BECAUSE OF WHAT THEY DID TO ELROND. You're telling me Elrond Peredhel, brother of Elros Tar-Minyatur, descendant of Beren, is going to try and keep his daughter from choosing her own happiness in mortality? HE WOULD NEVER. And you are SO CORRECT in saying they characterized him like Thingol and I am now even more mad about it.

[thistlefig]

OH MY GOD NO JUMP RIGHT ABOARD I was feeling Some Kind of Way about this and had to scream into the void and I feel sooooo validated now 😂

It's also the way he manipulates Arwen - it isn't just worry or pressure to leave Middle Earth and be with him or see her mother again, which would be bad enough. It's the deceptiveness, the conniving, the way he heaps this awful sense of blame on Aragorn and crushes Arwen so that he can rip away her choice. A CHOICE GIVEN TO HER, AND TO HIM, BY THE FUCKING VALAR. JESUS CHRIST.

And speaking of Celebrian (my queen): he has lost his most beloved one! He has been separated from his person! He has seen people in his life decide to leave or stay as they need to, the idea that he would use deceit on Arwen over something like this is so vile.

Also there is no softness between him and his baby boy, his Estel!!! Aragorn hasn't been his child for as long as Arwen, but in reality Elrond is already leaving behind a child of his to mortality, and he's been doing so for centuries every time another mortal descendant of his brother dies. Like. He would be one of the few people to truly understand the validity of mortality in Middle Earth and the fact that it fits into the plan of the creators. Not even in a "god is good" Christianity kind of way, but in the sense that...he has seen how complex the world is and how deeply personal and complicated this choice is. He wouldn't just be stealing that through lies and cruelty and emotional manipulation??? That is Sauron-type bullshit!!!

Less-bad scenario could be him talking to Arwen about her choice, trying to hammer home "hey, idk if or when you'll see your mom again" or "is this man going to be worth it once you're alone and he has died?" I don't like it, but I could forgive an Elrond who tells himself "I'm just making sure she makes an informed choice" and doesn't want to admit to himself that he's trying to sway her. Tbh it would be WAY more heartbreaking and angsty and delicious and we could see more of Hugo Weaving pulling that kicked-puppy face that he does of the end. It could be SO JUICY. But they had to put him into some quasi-villainous role so that Aragorn had a conquest of love and Arwen got to be a Real Love interest? I guess? There are so many more interesting ways to add her into the story. Shit, give HER some agency in the agony of decision! Make Arwen scared and uncertain because the love is real but her decision is forever. It just weakened her into a Little Mermaid "but daddy I love him" character who stays because she wants to have Aragorn's baby, and it makes Elrond into the WORST kind of villain. Like. In Tolkien's world, the shit he pulls in the movies is of the most egregious type.

Also, I'm sorry, this man does NOT run a place called the Last Homely House.

(I also love the PJ movies but holy shit I have so much beef with them, and this is the biggest problem I have overall because Elrond is such an important character to me and to Tolkien's universe and it's SO BAD and SO WRONG. UGH.)

[thistlefig]

I think maybe one of the reasons I really don't enjoy movie!Elrond is because movie!Elrond is basically Thingol.

[blended-ice]

On a stroll

[taylornprice]

backyard dandelions in the sketchbook

[thistlefig]

Howl's Moving Castle AU where Howl is a butch lesbian who melts down when she gets her monthly trim and the stylist turns her super masc fade into a pixie cut.

[cparti-mkiki]

"hephaistion made this" in a beautiful trompe-l'oeil piece of paper half unstuck by the wind still some of the rawest stuff ever put in a mosaic (2nd century bc, pergamon)