Wdym Zahard is 'problematic'

Mainly Tower of God (Great Warriors focus) & Silmarillion (Fëanorian-centric)

[waitingforsecretsouls]

"The note above the name Díriel reads: ‘Here is a wide forest where many fugitive gnomes wander. Orcs come seldom.’ Cf. Q §14: ‘the woods about the River [Flend/Gelion], where aforetime were the hunting grounds of Damrod and Díriel.’"

HoME, The Shaping of Middle-Earth, Chapter IV: THE FIRST 'SILMARILLION' MAP

So Amrod and Amras definitely pulled some Vlad the Impaler stuff on the Orc bands that made it to their territory to instill such lasting fear, right.

[valley-of-the-lily-art]

Portrait of Míriel, wife of Finwë and mother of Fëanor. She was the first elf to die.

Working on Indis and Faënor portriats.

[kudriaken]

Feanor sketch.

[lemonomelette]

[g-m-kaye]

[harnatano-deactivated20160508]

g-m-kaye:

small update/preview of a much larger sketch sheet that’s coming soon!

[raccoonattack]

Feanor/Maedhros

[dwight2333]

[reizen-art]

Feanor. after Battle under Stars.

[angamaite-der-ritter]

Maedhros got some of Nerdanel's character traits, but incidentally not the ones that would make him a 'good' person -- patience and stubbornness, yes, but in addition to Fëanor's pride, commitment to sunk cost fallacies and willingness to live by political rhetoric and manipulation. Arguably this makes him more dangerous rather than less.

[angamaite-der-ritter]

The 2nd kinslaying is not a reasonable redirection of force to assuage the Oath because it was never meant to be; the 2nd kinslaying is a punitive military action aimed against a polity that has previously refused military cooperation, alliance & aid to the Fëanárioni and then proceeded to lay claim upon the Silmaril (whether Dior has a right to it or not is beside the question here). It affords no attention to self-preservation because it is not supposed to -- the Fëanárioni do not have the military power and resources to stage another attack upon Morgoth. Mutual self-destruction with the Sindar is preferable to an obviously doomed military action against Morgoth, because it is achievable, and results in successful punitive action against at least one acteur that transgressed their claim on the Silmaril and as such the Oath.

[angamaite-der-ritter]

And it makes perfect sense that such military action would be staged by someone fatalistic yet worn down by the continuous dwindling and carving-away of what he perceives as his to have, keep and conquer, by a slew of progressively more dramatic defeats despite expending their resources -- while the Iathrim, in the eyes of the Noldor, sat upon theirs idly. At this point, Celegorm has lost both Himlad and Nargothrond, and the Noldor as a whole have lost the majority of the lands they initially conquered by winning them from Morgoth, their entire civilisation-building project, the establishment of their militaries and courts reduced to one stronghold and a force of stragglers. To a fatalist in service to his father's ideology and oath, would not mutual annihilation that simultaneously punishes an enemy polity be a more acceptable end than a slow dwindling away into nothingness in a war that is doomed to failure?

The Oath, after all, also only says to deal death to whoever takes or covets a Silmaril. Not to who stole it first or who stole more.

[waitingforsecretsouls]

The only Arafinwë that actually has the moral fibre fanon often so generously grants him, and is, incidentaly, the most compelling to me -especially when combined with both very *early and very *late* drafts concerning his children, that have Angrod and Aegnor as Fëanorian supporters and presumably fighting with them here, but Finrod and Galadriel fighting in defense of the Teleri *against* them (and the Ñolofinwëan reinforcements, presumably), with Galadriel even noted to have "quarreled" against the sons of Fëanor in particular!-is the short-lived footnote Arafinwë who is killed at Alqualondë trying to stay the fighting.

It takes someone who is going to be absent from the rest of the narrative for literal centuries anyway and adds so much additional weight to not only Alqualondë itself but also the subsequent actions and divisions of his children (and their relationships! Turgon and Finrod are textually friends, for example. Now this obviously doesn't require the Arafinwë factor, but I think it's juicier if instead of just having it be Finrod aghast of Turgon as a potential kinslayer, we can add Finrod and him having technically fought on opposing sides here, a point of estrangement between Finrod and Turgon and Turgon and Fingon both (Turgon is *not* having a good time), something that would nevertheless be still magnified by the loss of Finrod's very father to the batte.

(Equally unrelated to Arafinwë but I need to ramble about my personal conception here, this also gives you a plausible break for the Fingon and Angrod and Aegnor friendship that is pretty irrelevant in the published silm, the literall one time it could have been emphasized (Fingolfin's suggested offensive) Fingon seemingly sides with the Fëanorians *against* A&A and his own father instead. Fingon having fought at the Fëanorians side just as much and yet being left to march across the ice while A&A and Company get ferried across ? That would do it imo).

NOT TO MENTION the way it also makes what happens to the remaining Ñoldor in Valinor so much more interesting than simply plopping the succession down a son. Now you either acknowledge that the daughters of Finwë exist or you're back in Book of Lost Tales territory where the house of Finwë and the very Ñoldor themselves collapse as a social unit.

[waitingforsecretsouls]

Thinking about them again, and that seems like an accurate enough description of the scene to me✌

[the-messenger-hawk]

Gustang Edits, some of my favorite works

[yonemurishiroku]

Hi fellas is it gay to softy pat your beautiful male friend’s hand and reassure him about your shared path that only you two decided to take?

[endless-wisteria-sight]

I want to clarify one thing.

When Enkidu told Amizu the “truth”, he didn’t say a single word about what drove Traumerei into that path. He twisted the truth to make everything play into his favor.

Traumerei feels lonely, he has gone down a crazy and immoral path because he wants to fix everything that makes his friends gone apart. He believe because of the differences and variables between people make the friend used to be so close become enemies or have conflicts, etc. He doesn’t want that to happen but his way is so unethical. But Enkidu never concern about that anyway.

Enkidu is pitied that loneliness in Traumerei but what he did is not right. The right thing to do is to tell Amizu the truth without twisting it to keep your “friend” for you alone. The right thing to do is not to try to break the relationship of your “friend” and that is not any relationship, they’re lover and Traumerei intends to propose her for marriage. What a “good friend”.

So please, don’t say Enkidu did the right thing with bad intentions. No, he didn’t. He is bad at both.

Enkidu has a chance to help Traumerei and whether Traumerei changes or not depends on Traumerei. But Enkidu really has a chance to help if he tells Amizu the real truths or actually tries to stop him. But he didn’t and what he did made him worse.

Like their relationship is f*cked up.

Traumerei never sees Enkidu as an equal but someone he can boss around whenever he wants. Traumerei never trusts someone he can’t control. And Enkidu has a twisted obsession with Traumerei that makes him want to break Amizu and Traumerei relationship or makes him want to possess one of Traumerei’s friends.

Traumerei controls Enkidu to kill Amizu and frame V as the mastermind behind all of that. After that, he just left Enkidu behind like nothing.

The one who did nothing wrong is Amizu and she is the true victim of this f*ck-up relationship.

They never friends in the first place.

[redreyenotarget]

Finished the sons of Feanor portraits!!

[zishiyao]

Average Otome Game Experience Somehow you always pick the one option that leads to a Bad End.