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tathrin · 9 months

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✏ 🐺 ⚠ 📚 please! :D

Answers for this LotR ask-game.

✏ rewrites: here's a pencil, which ONE thing in the novels/films are you changing?

Oh gods, just one? Ughhh that's hard. Okay, even stretching the definition of "one thing" to the utmost limit to be an entire character subplot...I'm still torn between Give Arwen An Actual Coherent Plotline (which I think would do the best thing to fix for the movies) and Show Legolas And Gimli's Friendship Arc (because that's at least something that just gets largely overlooked-and-glossed-over with the occasional flicker of lip-service paid to it at random rather than being an absolute cluster-fuck of incoherent half-assed thoughts that stumble all over themselves without any actual fucking resolution/explanation like the Arwen Stuff). Much as I would personally like to see the latter, I think if I were actually given the chance to change one thing, then it would be the Arwen Situation just because that's such a fucking MESS and it really needs fixed.

If we're going with literally just one single thing, then: Denethor burns to death on the pyre instead of running like three fucking miles to the end of the city what the fuck.

🐺 GROND GROND GROND: which of the battles is your favourite to watch? is there a combat scene in particular that you enjoy?

The Battle of Helm's Deep. As much as it bothers me that the elves are there without any plausible explanation, and especially that they just fucking disappear from the entire plot as soon as it's over, it also looks so damn good to watch! And my irritation is mitigated by the GRIN that I absolutely cannot stop from breaking out over my features every single time I hear "that is no orc-horn!" and see the look on Théoden's face when Haldir walks in (and the smug little grin on Legolas's face too because let's face it, he doesn't get to be a little shit in the movies the way he is in the books and that is a crime) as well as by the absolute fucking BEAUTY of that battle itself, not least of all the heart-wrenching scene where Haldir dies. THAT MUSIC OH MY FUCKING GODS AM I RIGHT!? Gods, even when you're watching it as critically as possible and picking-out the bits where cause/effect break-down and narrative order was shuffled in ways that don't make logistical sense and picking up on the minute little errors and inconsistencies...it's still so damn fucking good.

(btw I know I cannot be the only one who noticed, but since it seems that many of the little details that the early movie-fandom used to talk over obsessively in the 2000s have fallen out of common knowledge in more recent years...who else desperately wants to see the footage of the cut where it's Legolas who hauls Gimli out of the water after the wall is breached, rather than Aragorn? Because it's Legolas's hand that actually pulls him up, but then the footage cuts to Aragorn helping Gimli away...but it was Legolas whose hand pulls him out of the water, Legolas who yeeted himself down the stairs on an orc-shield to get to Gimli, so why don't we get to see the rest of that!?)

PJ, the Extended Editions are godsends don't get me wrong...but could we have ALL the deleted footage sometime? Pretty pretty please with elevensies on top?

⚠ fucking buckleberry ferry: from the clip of Dom and Billy discussing the one swear word they could theoretically get by censors, which line would you change?

I honestly don't know, because I don't know that that would actually do anything to add to the weight of things? But a very soft, "oh fuck" when Théoden sees the Nazgûl flying towards him, perhaps!

📚 boxset: how were you first introduced to Middle Earth?

My little brother actually read them first, and he made me read them. I think I was in eighth grade? Give or take a year or two.

Our mom had a collection of "classic novels" that she'd gotten from some kind of book-club some years back, so we had copies of all four books on the "fancy shelves" in the living room next to all the "real literature" and boring biographies and stuff, so I read nice pretty leatherbound editions first, with lovely maps and illustrations, and I think that added to the "weight" of the story in a way, because none of my other fantasy/sci-fi books ever merited such treatment so it made them feel special.

But it also made me leery of reading them tbh, because I'd spent my whole youth being told that the books I liked were crappy books that just Could Not Compare to the Worthwhile Literature that real readers liked (and which were, imo, usually shit). So I'd actually ignored LotR my whole life because it was on the Fancy Book Shelf so I assumed they were also crap. But my brother insisted that I suck-it-up and read them anyway, and that I had to read all of them and not just The Hobbit and call it a day (he knows what a stubborn, contrary person I am, and that it was A: going to take several thousand words for me to give them a fair chance and also B: the Hobbit alone wasn't going to blow me away) and I was reluctant, but he persisted and I did and oh boy was he right. Then like one or two years later, we found out they were making movies so of course we had to re-read them so we'd be ready and I think we both read them at least a dozen times between then and the release of Fellowship, to the point where mom eventually bought us each our own paperback copies so keep us from pestering each other lmao.

(The Silm took a while. I had to literally trap myself on a train freshman year of college with nothing else to do in order to get through that one the first time shhhh.)

#lotr movies #middle earth asks #lord of the rings #me #arwen #legolas #gimli

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ageless-aislynn · 7 months

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VOLUME WARNING

Picture it, friends. Way back in 2005, there I was, just a humble fangirl with 3 things I never should've had: a bunch of Lord of the Rings audio clips, a suuuuuper basic audio editing program and a bunch of silly sound effects. Add in one of my favorite Britney Spears songs and a serious helping of, um, ✨something✨ and you end up with this thing that I'd pretty much forgotten about until I discovered it today saved on a good ol' CD-ROM (no, not even a DVD, this was prior to me having a writable DVD drive 😲😉).

It was already rendered together so there wasn't much I could do to clean it up. Consider the pops and distortion to be seasoning, hm? Just givin' it all some flavor! 😂 Though I did attempt to balance some parts out so this wouldn't absolutely blow out anybody's eardrums. That said, yet again VOLUME WARNING because it comes right out of the gate way too loud. 😬 I really wish Tumblr's audio player had volume controls. 😒

Featuring, in no particular order:

Unrepentant misuse and mishearing of Elvish (Arwen's "Aragorn. Ú or le" turning into "Aragorn, who are they?" The Fellowship of the Ring.")

Gandalf cannonballing into a body of water

Sam, Merry and Pippin cheering Frodo on while he outruns the Nazgûl...in a high performance sports car. There is also a gun battle or two

Legolas annoyed at being stuck in a traffic jam

Aragorn with a typewriter

Silliness

Just sooooo much silliness

And enough lo-fi goodness that it kinda hurts 😑😉

If you listen, I hope it gives you a chuckle here and there. 😉💖

#lord of the rings #toxic #mashup #silliness #this was meant all in good fun with no disrespect to either source #what do i even tag this as?#i dunno 🤷‍♀️#ageless aislynn #i share because i care #😉#so sorry #sometimes inspiration is indistinguishable from madness #🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

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is-it-mungojerry-or-rumpelteazer · 1 year

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The realization that other people took things from the LOTR films that i didn't was quite surprising! Here's some of my Gimli thoughts.

I have seen a couple of people criticize the fact that Gimli is used as comic relief and . . . i never got that? To me Film Gimli is loud and boisterous and has a strong sense of humor and very little filter. He's a powerful warrior and a loyal friend. One of the things i love about the LOTR films is not just showing Legolas and Gimli come to respect each other as warriors but to enjoy each other's different senses of humor. Legolas in the film has a rather understated and dry sense of humor that is delightfully scathing at times. Gimli is a very funny character in the films and has a lot of comedic moments but, at least in the Extended Editions, he's a very well rounded character overall in my opinion. Tho i can understand why people would be critical of how he's portrayed. If need be i will proudly declare myself a Film Gimli Stan, tbh.

The thing about Arwen being connected to the ring . . . i never picked up on that? Is it some symbolism i didn't pick up on or interpreted differently? @roxycake I would love if you could expand on this a bit more! I am very curious!

This ask is already very long so I'll leave this here for now. But i have so many other thoughts I'd love to share if you're willing to listen?

Thank you so much for adding to this conversation! I would definitely be willing to listen to more opinions from you. I appreciate you and your taste a lot, and as I said, it's people disagreeing with us that makes us grow. So feel free to add more stuff!

I don't know much about the Arwen situation, so I will let Roxy get this one.

As for Gimli, again it's not one of my strong points, most of the information I have about this character in the movies comes from @carlandrea. So if you want to butt in, carla, (politely and civilly, of course), I will be listening in and learning from your discussion.

As for me, my point was less that Gimli was a bad character, and more that it was a bad adaptation. You say that "Film Gimli is loud and boisterous and has a strong sense of humor and very little filter", and my answer is, that sounds like a great character. But does that remind you of Book Gimli at all? For me, at least, Book Gimli is prideful, dignified, well-spoken, and kind of quiet. He does put his foot in his mouth sometimes, but it's usually when someone offends something he's very fond of, like his friends, or his beloved Galadriel. Apart from Aragorn, he's probably the best in the Company with his words.

In my probably not super based opinion, the treatment of Gimli and Legolas in the LotR movies... kind of reminds me more of D&D than Tolkien? Legolas is understated and dry, and Gimli is loud and has very little filter. Elegant, classy and a little uptight elves and loud, boisterous, Scottish dwarves are a staple of D&D. And they are fun! They give you great character dynamics, and I've played them all. And they look like they did a good job with them in the movies. But... they're not Legolas and Gimli. Not the book versions of them, at least. Can you imagine movie!Legolas going "I will go find the sun/she didn't want to come" or movie!Gimli stunning Celeborn to silence by being more elegant and polite than anyone expected a dwarf to be?

#answer time #lord of the rings #text posts #My Opinions #adaptations #movie adaptations #gimli #legolas #lord of the rings movies #d&d #long posts #is-it-mungojerry hates on the LotR movies #not really but it's the closest tag I have #lotr spoilers

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joels6string · 1 year

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tagged by @queenofthefaceless-main 💜 thank you my dear!

NP tags: @allfoolsinluv @haylzcyon @burstanddecay @valhallaas

three ships: Ooo, I don't ship much... Din x Cobb is my biggest one, does Arwen x Aragorn count lol, Hannigram. Editing to add Lokius how could I forget them.

first ship: Cloud x Tifa from FF7 probably?

last movie/TV show: TLOU Ep 1

last song: "Unholy" by Sam Smith I think

currently reading: My own fucking fic so I can get the last update out and it's been awhile.

currently watching: TLOU Ep 1 lmao

currently consuming: At this moment? Nothing. Chili is on the menu for the day though.

currently craving: The strength to continue being the bigger person

#dash games

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thenicestthingiveseen · 1 year

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getting to know you (me)

Three ships: Harry/Ginny (HP). Pezberry (Glee) [ducks tomatoes i am who i am]. I’m not investedin the fandom enough but probably should be Aragorn/Arwen (LoTR)

First ever ship: idk if it was just one: These all happened around the same time? Hinny, I didn’t like Emma as a person in Degrassi but I thought her and Sean were perfect. And that show South of Nowhere I liked the two girls together. And then also maybe Zak/Francesca from the movie Clockstoppers AND Aragorn/Arwen EDITING TO ADD RORY/LOGAN in Gilmore Girls. I know most of the world likes Jess but I stand in my truth.

Last song listened to: Queen of the Night - Whitney Houston

Last movie I watched: probably The First Wives Club

Currently reading: The Gilded Ones x Namina Forna

Currently watching: quite literally? opening day for the White Sox @ Houston

Currently consuming: a Becks and I’ll probably start dinner

Currently craving: i could go for some sushi or some sleep

Hello!

#getting to know me #I feel like I can start sharing real bits of me now

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miss-spooky-eyes · 4 years

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Fanfiction meme

Thank you @verbose-vespertine for the tag!

I have to level, I’ve been around so inconsistently recently that I have absolutely no idea who’s done this or not or who’s around at the moment, so please forgive me for not tagging anybody ...

1. When did you start writing fanfiction?

Well, when I was about 9 I wrote my own version of A New Hope where Luke was a girl. I did shit like that for years and years as a child/teenager before I knew ‘fanfiction’ existed. Just for me, scribbling in my notebooks at the back of my class, making everybody girls.

I’ve toyed with writing different bits and pieces of fic over the years, but if we’re talking posting it online for other people’s consumption, well, I posted my first Ellezhi/Lana fic on 31 January 2020 ...

2. Of the 6 works I have on AO3:

5 finished 1 on hiatus (I haven’t announced it’s on hiatus, I just wrote Chapter 1 in a frenzy and Chapters 2-to-a-million are [white noise]) 0 abandoned 2 one shots (as I understand one-shots, that is, fics in one scene?) 0 haiku 1 series or collections 6 are ship fics (why fic if you don’t ship) 0 are general 0 is sibling 0 is friend 0 misc (I mean, in a sense, they’re all misc)

3. I have written:

Everything I’ve ever posted online is SWTOR

4. My longest completed/unfinished fic is:

That would be (at least at times) you knew me, my robot-fucking magnificent octopus magnum opus.

23,343 words of SCORPIO porn/torture/torture porn, which to date has prompted one entire person to enquire, in tones of horrified disdain, why anyone would write something like this

My Devinahl backstory fic Riddle was probably about the same length if not longer, but I only posted it on tumblr, so I can’t check.

5. My most popular work (by kudos) is:

My very first fic Literary Appreciation with 51 entire kudos! It ruthlessly mocked Tharan Cedrax and was told from the POV of Lana Beniko, so it’s probably the least off-putting thing I’ve written.

6. My most common additional tag is:

I’m not sure if this counts as an additional tag, but I’ve used ‘Dubious Consent’ twice and I don’t feel good about it.

7. My AO3 user name is:

MissSpookyEyes, what else?

8. Bonus fact to get to lucky number 8:

As a child, I also wrote a partially-gender-flipped version of Lord of the Rings (BOOK, because this was before the films came out, I’m old) in which Aragorn, Frodo, Merry and Pippin were all female. Queen!Aragorn married Legolas, Pippin married Faramir; Arwen, who was a man in only the most technical sense, married Eowyn because somebody had to, and Merry married Eomer. I’m so sorry, I was, I think, around 12 but definitely old enough to know better.

#memes #fanfiction #swtor #fic #embarrassing admissions #look I'll defend some of these pairings though #if you overlook the height thing #Pippin and Faramir are great together all that Gondorian trauma #Faramir came back to the Shire and sort of became the king of it and was just super happy all the time being a farmer #Merry was always spiritually a Rohirrim and Eomer was really into his sassy tiny wife #none of this crap with Eowyn hanging up her sword and becoming a healer #she and man!Arwen went into the wild northlands to battle orcs and goblins and trolls and clear the way for the reestablishment of Anarion #not sure what happened to Gimli think he served Queen Aragorn and King Legolas humbly and chastely all his days #girl Frodo was sort of in love with Bilbo #well he was #read the books #I never found Sam cool enough to make him a girl #no appreciation for solid worth #edited to add Bilbo was ALSO a girl #if you don't think I did my own version of The Hobbit where Bilbo was a girl #well then you're sadly mistaken my friend

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fedonciadale · 4 years

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Master meta post

*** Edit: Please check the pinned post on this blog! This post will not be updated anymore as the original owner of the blog, my mother, has passed away.***

Master meta post

So I decided to put together some of my metas/ask posts (that tend to become metas occasionally) for convenience and pin this post.

I have not yet linked all (obviously), but I will revisit this post once in a while and add links...

Also for my numerous ask - evolved into metas I usually added some that I think are representative.

ASOIAF - Bookwise

Meta series on “Singers singing songs and their impact on character in ASOIAF”: part 1: Jon

part 2: Sansa

part 3: Daenerys

part 4: Starks and Lannisters

An ask about Florian and Jonquil (note the excellent additions!)

What is a bittersweet ending? (x, x, x, x)

Meaning of Ice and Fire

GRRM is not a Nihilist

First men and Children of the Forest

Politics in ASOIAF/GoT

Legitimacy of Kings in Westeros

Claim to the throne, right to the throne and the making of Kings

Daenerys and her understanding of history

Marriage annulment

Northern Independence asks (x, x, x)

Food sharing in Westeros

Parallels to Wars of the Roses

Starks

Sibling dynamics: Everyone was the odd one out once in a while

Sansa and Arya (mostly answers to Did Sansa bully Arya? (x, x)

Succession in the North: Was Sansa disinherited (x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x)

Septa Mordane

Dragons vs. direwolves

Targaryens

Would Jon on the throne mean a Targ restoration?

Why did the Targs practice incest and what are the political repercussions?

Jon Snow’s Targ name

Shipping:

Jonsa, Jon€rys and the logic of shipping

Shipping and canon shipping

Why is Jonsa hated?

Bulverism

Show rants:

Catfight at Winterhell: rant, asks (x)

Annulment of marriages in the Middle Ages

Daenerys and her understanding of history

Doubts prior to season 8

Circular storytelling

The full cirlce of Westeros

Why the endgame doesn’t make sense: 1 (Bran) , 2 (Tyrion), 3 (Arya), 4 (Sansa), 5 (Jon)

Women:

Women in Westeros and misogyny - Cersei

Women in Westeros and misogyny - Brienne

Sansa and Feminism

Arya and her feminitiy

Catelyn the advisor

Comparison of Jonsa with other ships

Jonsa and Jon€rys (my oldest post, Nov 2016)

In General: Incest, Endogamy, Exogamy, Genetic attraction phenomenon

Cousin marriage in the Middle Ages

In-world opinions on Cousin marriage, Targ incest

Does a Jonerys marriage solve any problems?

Foreshadowing for Jonsa, Jon€rys and J0nrya

Jonerys foreshadowing

Why Jonerys is incompatible

Comparison of Jonsa and Jonerys foreshadowing

What was GRRM’s original idea?

J0nrya and the original outline

So called J0nrya foreshadowing (= Jonsa foreshadowing in disguise)

Will there be a Jon€rys baby? (x, x, x, x, x)

Arya and Jonsa, J0nrya reunion

Political J0nrya marriage after Sansa’s death?

J0nrya as a possibility in books and show

Anti Dany/Jon/Sansa threesome for Targ restoration

Anti Sansan

Anti Sanrion

Does Jon have a crush on Alys?

Alys Karstark as possible marriage candidate

Sansa Stark

The Trident incident (x, x)

The ‘Horseface’ question

Precanon crush?

Sansa is Jon’s type

Arguments against Sansa and “Rickard Forrester” as a rando last minute love interest

The Broken Tower in Winterfell

Sansa’s ‘betrayal’

Sansa won’t be disfigured

Sansa’s wishes

Sansa and the Northerners

Sansa and Alysanne Parallels

Sansa and Lady

Dany and Sansa as foils

Sansa as the ‘original villain‘

Does Sansa trust Littlefinger?

Is Sweetrobin getting poisoned?

Sansa and Sweetrobin

Ned and Cat

The man who passes the sentence

Was Ned in love with Ashara and did he have sex with her?

Ned and Cat as parents

The Starks value life

Literal tropes:

Relationship tropes in GoT and ASOIAF

Accidental incest and secret parentage and their outcoming

The function of secret parentage in fiction

What even is incest?

Jonsa and Beauty and the Beast

Fairy tales:

The trickster cat

The Bear and the Maiden fair

The Pig boy

Allerleirauh

Comparisons with Tolkien:

Beren and Luthien: part 1, part 2, part 3

Aragorn and Arwen

The Girl in Grey:

Various asks on the Girl in Grey (x, x, x, x, x)

DarkDany stuff

Why conquer Westeros at all?

A Storm that hits

Conquerors landing on the shore

Will Dany die as a saviour?

Questioning sharply (Dany’s descent into darkness)

Dany and politics

Dany’s ‘hero’s journey’

Dany and Galadriel

Setting up Dany as a villain: the Leni Riefenstahl connection (mostly @une-nuit-pour-se-souvenir but it started with my ask

Dany is not an abolutionist

Fire and Blood:

Methods of foreshadowing

Alysanne

Jaime

Succession in Fire and Blood

Fire and Blood tidbits

Will Arya kill Dany?

Archmaester Glydaen and his bias

Political Jon

Jon the Player, Jon the Deceiver?

Cersei and Aurane Waters as a parallel to Jon and Da€nerys

Deceiving and Lying Starks

Jon the Negotiator

Jon’s political skill on the show

Starks and their political skills

Asks about Political Jon (x, x, x)

Other:

Jaime Lannister as Hand of the King

Jaime as Hand - Hints in F&B (1, 2)

Tully mud, blood, death and sudden change

Rains of Castamere and the futility of revenge

Stark words and Stark obligations

Parallels to Outlaw King

Crack:

Why we should ship Tormund and Dany

HP Verse:

Everything wrong with the HP verse

Good Slytherins

Internalized misogyny in HP and the girly girl

Is S.P.E.W fake woke?

Grey characters in HP

Classism in the HP verse

Is Draco smart?

Hogwarts sorting: How it should go

JKR’s writing

Arthur Weasley and muggles or classism in HP

On redemption arcs: Draco,

On ships in HP: Fremione and Harmony; Anti Romione

My thoughts on : Ginny, Ron

#Jonsa #ASOIAF meta #Masterlist #Mastermetalist #Meta list

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lovely-v · 3 years

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LOTR (films) Review

So I finally watched the LOTR films (20 years later). I’m super excited to review these because I read the books very recently so I feel at least a little prepared to voice some opinions. Overall I loved the films, here’s a very long (but by no means exhaustive) compilation of my thoughts, which are of course, totally subjective:

(Warning: a lot of me saying “well, actually, in the book...”)

THINGS I LIKED

- Casting! not much to say here, I thought the casting was great. One of my favorite actors that I didn’t think i’d have a huge opinion on was David Wenham as Faramir. I was kinda ambivalent on him when I saw pictures but i thought he did a great job. he showed his quality.

- Music. so much has been said about the films on the music front. I can’t offer too much original insight but when a bit of the Shire theme started to play as Frodo tries to make his way up Mount Doom I cried a little.

- Boromir and Aragorn. I liked the scene where they interact a little in Rivendell. I also like how Aragorn saves Boromir in the Moria battle and gives him this little nod of friendship. I think the films did a great job portraying the dynamic they have where Aragorn is clearly suspicious of Boromir’s motivations but grows to respect him to the point where he doesn’t even blame Boromir for being corrupted by the ring because he understands that, at heart, Boromir is a good person.

- Sam and Frodo in Osgiliath. I expected to be kind of annoyed with the way this plot point played out (I knew ahead of time that it strayed from the book), but I actually liked it a lot. As I’ll say later, there’s some gripes I have with the way the films extremely play up the disagreements between Frodo and Sam, but I loved the scene where Frodo pulls the sword on Sam and then seems so defeated when he realizes what he’s done. I was pleasantly surprised by how emotional this scene made me. It’s admittedly A Lot, but it was done nicely, especially in conjunction with Sam’s “there’s good in this world” speech.

- Treatment of the ending. I almost think I should dislike the ending as it is in the movies, but my heart is soft and I like that they sugarcoated it a bit. I know the whole point of the Scouring of the Shire and Frodo’s depression conveys a lot about war and trauma and I think that is important, but after watching these things for twelve hours I just wanted Frodo & co. to be happy and I was kinda relieved that they cut the Scouring. Does that make me weak and perhaps bad at film analysis? yes. do I care? no. I was also very glad that the movies didn’t portray how depressed Sam was about losing Frodo in the end. Yes, he cries, but when he walks home to his family he seems happy and in the books that scene came off so much bleaker. I definitely liked the lighter tone.

THINGS I WAS NEUTRAL ON/DIDN’T LIKE

- Arwen. (Neutral) I don’t hate her, I don’t love her. I think the story she and Aragorn have is compelling and I 100% get why the filmmakers decided to add it to give her character more depth, but it felt misplaced at times. maybe it’s just because it was the only storyline I didn’t know in depth, but the scenes with the Arwen/Aragorn flashbacks felt a bit confusing and disorienting. Don’t have anything against Arwen as a character though, I think she’s pretty alright.

- Gimli. (Complicated thoughts) I want to start off by saying I don’t dislike Gimli. I like him a lot! I just think the movies did him a bit dirty. He had some good movie-exclusive moments, but I think his character really fell into this place of being the butt of too many jokes. Would have liked to see some more serious Gimli development, especially with his relationship to Legolas. Their friendship felt too much like subtext here, whereas it’s explored far more in the books.

- Two Towers Pacing. (Didn’t really like). The pacing of TTT was...weird. maybe I’m going into this with a closed mind because of the books, but it was odd to have the movie begin with Frodo and Sam and then have them only appear for a few rapid scenes after that. I think the fact that a WHOLE LOT of what happens to Frodo and Sam in TTT is moved to RotK is what makes it feel that way? In the books, Two Towers ends with Sam discovering that Frodo isn’t dead from Shelob’s sting, and I was surprised by how long it took the movies to get to that part. However, I will give the films a little leeway because I think they needed Frodo & Sam content for RotK, since most of what happens in that book is them walking through Mordor basically starving and dying. Doesn’t make for great cinema I guess, so they had to put the whole Shelob/Cirith Ungol saga into the final film. Still, I think there’s a weird lack of Frodo and Sam’s presence in TTT.

- The go home/missing bread arc. (Full of rage abt this one) yeah. so. my criticism of this is gonna sound pretty tired because people complain and complain about this part of RotK. but I’m gonna complain some more!! I don’t think the split between Frodo and Sam does anything for the plot. I really don’t. I guess it emphasizes the fact that Sam doesn’t understand how much Frodo is projecting onto Gollum, but it’s just. unnecessary angst? They had enough angst in the Osgiliath scene! Which I actually liked! And it simply doesn’t make a lot of sense for Frodo to suspect Sam of eating the bread when Sam had already offered Frodo his own food and made it clear that he would very much starve if it meant making sure Frodo could eat. But what I hate most about this scene is not that Frodo gets mad and tells Sam to go home. No. It’s that Sam actually... thinks about doing that? he actually? goes down the staircase? emotionally this is bad because Sam clearly cared enough about Frodo to follow him this far, to nearly drown for him, so why would he leave now. Practically this is bad because 1. how would Sam get out of Mordor alone and 2. where would he go. He turns around almost immediately, yes, but what was his plan. where was he going. why.

THINGS I LOVED

- For Frodo! This line, and every other shoutout to Frodo. In the books, they didn’t really actively talk about/worry about Frodo (and Sam) as much as they do in the movies. I like that they talk about Frodo more in the movies! I like that they’re thinking about him! I know it was implied that they were in the books, but I really like how it’s shown here. I think it gave a more complete picture of how much they all care about him on a personal level in addition to just needing him to succeed from a pragmatic standpoint.

- Merry and Pippin! I feel like Merry and Pippin were so well rounded in the films. I’ve heard criticism about them being turned into comic relief characters (which they always were a little bit) but it honestly didn’t feel that way to me. They had a bit of a rough start because the films didn’t make their motives for going with Frodo as deep as the books did, but I think that by TTT they were absolutely amazing characters in every scene. In RotK their respective arcs hit really well and the scene where Pippin is singing to Denethor? *chef’s kiss* poetic. beautiful. sad. idk man I just feel like I have such a newfound appreciation for Merry and Pippin.

- Parallels! people have pointed out the parallel of Frodo and Sam’s hands before (drowning scene/mount doom scene) and I love how the movie did that. Just stunning. Also! The moving of the Smeagol & Deagol scene to RotK surprised me because in the books it was like,,,at the beginning of Fellowship, but I think the placement of it in the movies really helped emphasize the similarities between Smeagol & Deagol and Frodo & Sam (and how much Frodo fears this similarity.) There were a lot of other well done parallels between storylines and a few bits of dialogue that were repeated with great timing, but I can’t remember all of them at the moment.

Edit: here’s one I remembered! when Frodo wakes up after being rescued and sees Gandalf, he says Gandalf’s name in a very similar tone to the one he used at the very beginning of Fellowship. It was a nice little subtle connection.

- I can’t carry it for you...alright this is self-indulgent. everyone knows I love this line. I’m just so glad it made it into the movie intact. Sean Astin’s delivery was amazing. I cheered. My mom cheered. It’s a raw line and it makes me feel secret emotions...like if shrimp colors were feelings. that line makes me feel shrimp feelings. idk i’m so tired i just watched twelve hours of movies this review is decreasing in quality by the minute but i’m about done for now anyway

Various silly afterthoughts

- I would have liked to see Sam kiss Frodo’s hands at least once. This happens 50 thousand times in the books, they could have given me one scene. one little extended edition scene. Please Peter Jackson I’m dyin’ out here

- They literally made Gollum so hateable. kinda the point yes, but I was so on board with Sam’s murderous rage. I know why Gollum’s a profoundly complex character, I know why Frodo pities him, I know why murder is bad, but I too would throw hands with that creature. also he literally body shamed Sam so much what was that skdjksdjksd. Sam is lovely. let him commit a small homicide.

- the scene where merry and pippin drink the tall boy juice (as someone once referred to it in the tags of one of my posts)... not accurate to the books (since they don’t ever drink it with the end goal of getting tall) but so accurate to life. if I found some water that made me taller than my friends? let me at it

- Frodo panicking when he falls into the spider webs. so real bestie. i felt just as panicked watching that. i am terrified of spiders and Elijah Wood did an amazing job doing exactly what i’d do in the situation. yelping a lot and falling down.

- I feel like it’s never stated that Sam’s a gardener (or at least that he’s specifically Frodo’s gardener) until he tells Faramir he is. Did I miss this. Or do they really never say. are you just meant to know. are you just meant to pick up gardener vibes from him.

This has been a very chaotic lotr movie review. Thanks for reading.

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tidalcreek · 3 years

Text

tumblr user @tashimione i would love to.

IN MY ARWEN UNIVERSE aragorn and arwen are lesbians and arwen is much more involved with aragorn’s plot because they are a dream team. tolkien knew arwen was an underdeveloped character so he literally cant blame me for this! for simplicity im going on what i would change about the movies so im also bound by that format and i am actively trying not to think about how long this post is gonna be. BUT what that au would look like is:

we still meet arwen for the first time in the 'ranger caught off (her) guard' scene, and arwen still takes frodo to rivendell because i think that's cool of her. this sets up a very collaborative and equal relationship between aragorn and arwen that will continue throughout the movies (i saw a post recently about how the scene where they discuss getting frodo to rivendell changes everything you thought you knew about aragorn from the beginning of fotr, and shows you she's Not actually a mysterious loner and she does rely on arwen as much as arwen does on her. which is a VERY sexy take)

arwen is at the council of elrond-- she doesn't join the fellowship but she's involved! she has a stake in this. also i think that she and legolas should have a silly little friendship

elrond gives anduril to aragorn in rivendell. i love the rotk scene as much as the next person but im changing this bc a) ive never liked that it makes aragorn's worthiness hinge on whether or not she has anduril, instead of her being given it at the beginning of the journey and having to grow into the kingship as she carries the symbol of it at her side. and b) the movie scene messes things up for this au so to rivendell it goes

we still have the scene where arwen gives aragorn the evenstar but with different dialogue-- we're gonna b spending more screentime on this dynamic so we are NOT going to knock out all their backstory with one scene. in fact we are not even going to let them talk about arwen choosing a mortal life-- elrond can allude to that in a side conversation with arwen before aragorn leaves rivendell, but it's not a choice that she's actually made yet

moving on from rivendell through the end of fotr, we have a flashback or two w material from the tale of aragorn and arwen so we know whats going on there (love story of all time). this is where we get actual setup of arwen's Choice that's going to drive her plot, and also more emotional setup of aragorn's kingship and her reluctance about it (we fit 'all that is gold does not glitter' in here perhaps?)

in the first half of two towers we have a couple more flashbacks or scenes to set up arwen's plotline in tt/rotk. we move the arwen/elrond tension from rotk to tt, but stop short of arwen Making Her Choice; instead she and elrond fight and she takes the army to helm's deep without his permission (knowing that she's only postponing her decision)

like i just think it would be neat if arwen came to helm's deep like pj was going to have her do. she can fight! if they were gonna add elves to that anyway she could at least have caught a ride from rivendell with them. she shows up leading the army and we have an aragorn arwen reunion and she makes friends with eowyn and she kicks some ass. she has a thranduil botfa moment of seeing all the death around her and contemplating Mortality, which sets up her rotk arc

rotk: in place of elrond bringing anduril to aragorn, we have an aragorn arwen scene where arwen decides she has to go back to rivendell and take the ship to valinor. it is heartwrenchingly sad and we all cry but we don't blame arwen for fearing death and we love aragorn for letting her go. aragorn takes the dimholt road and arwen sets off back to rivendell

now we have parallel scenes-- aragorn in the paths of the dead and arwen riding alone across the westfold. this is where arwen has her vision of old aragorn with their son (they can have lesbian biological kids fuck you). it's all extremely dramatic and a big moment on 2 fronts: aragorn claiming her title and kingship for the first time to summon the dead, and arwen realizing she's making the wrong choice and turning back around. both of them making choices that they can't unmake!

on the way back to the rohirrim arwen runs into ghan buri ghan (hi king) and secures the army's passage through the druadan forest (and to justify taking up screentime with this, the druedain probably join the rohirrim and go to gondor even though that's not really the point of them)

anyway arwen rides to gondor with the rohirrim and fights on the pelennor fields; aragorn gets there with the army of the dead; they reunite on the battlefield after the fighting ends and it is the most justified high romantic drama youve ever seen. this is where we finally get i would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone. and we parallel this with merry and pippin's reunion bc gay rights

i havent seen the extended editions in a while so i dont remember exactly what happens between pelennor and the march to the black gate. i think it's mostly houses of healing + aragorn looking in the palantir? anyway arwen is there

arwen rides to the black gate with everyone else and flies her own standard of evenstar thank you very much :) i think it would also be fun if she fired a warning arrow at the mouth of sauron instead of aragorn killing him (since thats like. a war crime?). in my mind arwen is the fiery one in the arawen dynamic and she's more likely to react impulsively to the mouth taunting them with the mithril shirt

anyway arwen charges the black gate with the others and the rest of the movie wraps up as it normally does except for arwen appearing at the coronation (instead she just finally gets to see elrond again which is great). and you get to be happy for aragorn and arwen with some EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT behind it because youve had THREE MOVIES of their backstory and intertwining arcs instead of the bare minimum scenes! this is so much and im deeply sorry i have lesbian arawen disorder!!

#THIS IS TOO MANY DETAILS!#there’s also versions of this where reforging anduril happens at a different time and arwen is more involved in that #this one is just my personal taste #lotr

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arofili · 3 years

Text

Line of Elros Edit Series: Appendix E

Continued from Appendix D. This section will contain information on the the Stewards of Gondor.

~~~

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Appendix A: Royalty of Númenor Appendix B: House of Andúnië, Royalty of Arnor Appendix C: Royalty of Gondor Appendix D: Princes of Dol Amroth, Chieftains of the Dúnedain Appendix E: Stewards of Gondor (you are here!)

~~~

STEWARDS OF GONDOR

Are you ready for a bajillion names reused from the First Age?! The Stewards loooved to name their kids after First Age heroes - and I decided that the ladies shouldn’t get left out of that tradition either, so I scoured the family trees of the Three Houses of the Edain for some names to give their wives and daughters :)

Astorion ft. Astorion (OC), Húrin of Emyn Arnen, Idril of Emyn Arnen (OC) Though Astorion himself is an OC, everything about the appointment of the first Steward is canon or strongly implied by canon. The rules surrounding who could be Steward are also canon, though the exact circumstances of how they came about are my headcanon. Húrin of Emyn Arnen was indeed Minardil’s steward, and the stewards were chosen from his House after this, but the details about his role in these two succession crises are all headcanon. The House of Húrin was related to Anárion, though this relation being through one of his daughters is speculation on my part. See the linked Kings for details about the canonicity of their stories.

Pelendur ft. Pelendur, Meleth of Gondor (OC), Vorondil, Anwariel (OC), Mardil Voronwë The details of Pelendur’s friendship with Eärnil, and Eärnil’s ambitions toward royalty, are my headcanon; check out Eärnil’s edit for more on that. The conflict between Eärnil and Arvedui is canon, as is Pelendur’s influence in choosing which would become King. Vorondil’s hunting of the Kine of Araw and making of the Horn of Gondor is canon, though I made up the bit about it being part of a matched pair.

Mardil Voronwë ft. Mardil Voronwë, Anoriel (OC), Eradan, Gilwen of Gondor (OC), Herion, Cadwareth (OC), Belegorn, Lossendil (OC) Mardil’s ascension to power is canon, but the details of Eärnur’s demise, while canon, have been embellished (see his edit for more info on that). Mardil’s work on the calendar is canon, but his wife’s influence on its creation is headcanon. Everything about Eradan, Herion, and Belegorn is headcanon.

Húrin I ft. Húrin I, Beril of Gondor (OC), Niënor of Gondor (OC), Urwen of Gondor (OC), Túrin I All of this is headcanon; we have practically no information about Húrin I save that he had two daughters before Túrin I.

Túrin I ft. Túrin I, Andreth of Gondor (OC), Lalaith of Gondor (OC), Nellas of Gondor (OC), Níniel of Gondor (OC), Meldis of Gondor (OC), Hador of Gondor All we know about Túrin I is that he had “several daughters” with his first wife, and was the first (and only) leader of Gondor to take a second wife, with whom he had a son. Since Hador was born a year after Túrin became Steward, I think it’s reasonable to assume he had to wait ’til he was in charge to change the law to allow him to remarry, but that’s not canon. All other details are headcanon. Sorry for making him a massive dick. Túrin Turambar deserves better than being remembered like this; I’ll try to make up for it when I get to Túrin II.

Hador ft. Hador of Gondor, Maerion (OC), Barahir of Gondor, Taweneth (OC), Dior of Gondor, Rían of Gondor, Bellmund (OC), Denethor I Hador did canonically add a leap day to the calendar, and he was also the last Steward to have the “lifespan of a full Dúnadan.” Dior canonically had no children and was succeeded by his nephew. I made up literally everything else here. I’m baffled by the decision of Rían to name her son after an Avarin king when all the other names in her family that were taken from the First Age are from the Edain and the occasional Noldor or Sindar royal; there’s no reason why she would have picked that name, so I tried to give her one here.

Denethor I ft. Denethor I, Felucaliel (OC), Lalwen of Gondor (OC), Emeldir of Gondor (OC), Steward Boromir Denethor canonically had two daughters before Boromir; I changed one to be nonbinary. It was also during his rule that the Watchful Peace ended. Everything else is headcanon.

Steward Boromir ft. Steward Boromir, Amathael (OC), Círion, Hirwen of Gondor (OC), Hallas, Thalieth (OC), Húrin II, Beldis of Gondor (OC) Boromir did canonically do all that fighting, though we know nothing about his wife and sibling fighting with him; his decline after receiving a Morgul wound is also canon. Almost all of Círion’s story is canon. Hallas did indeed come up with the names “Rohan” and “Rohirrim.” Everything else is headcanon.

Belecthor I ft. Belecthor I, Glóredhel of Gondor (OC), Orodreth of Gondor, Morwen of Gondor It’s canon that the Corsairs reared their heads again in this time, but we don’t know of any major battles so I decided a stalemate made sense here. Everything else is headcanon.

Orodreth ft. Orodreth of Gondor, Beleth of Gondor (OC), Ecthelion I The only canon thing here is that Ecthelion did rebuild the White Tower. Also, you know I’m gonna make all the childless Stewards gay and/or aspec :p

Morwen ft. Morwen of Gondor, Dammoron (OC), Adanel of Gondor (OC), Faeleth (OC), Egalmoth of Gondor All of this is headcanon, except that Morwen was canonically the grandmother of Egalmoth.

Egalmoth ft. Eglamoth of Gondor, Hareth of Gondor (OC), Beren of Gondor, Gildis of Gondor (OC), Steward Beregond, Bregil of Gondor (OC), Belecthor II, Thúliel (OC), Thorondir, Helheth (OC), Túrin II, Eregil (OC), Turgon of Gondor, Mírdholen (OC) As usual, everything with the women in this edit is headcanon. The wars with the Dunlendings, Corsairs, orcs, etc. are all canon, as is Saruman’s appearance in the narrative. The recovery period after the war has been greatly embellished; everything about Belecthor II and Thorondir is headcanon except for their lifespans and the death of the White Tree (and Belecthor being an only child, weirdly enough that’s specifically noted in canon lol), though I made up the reasoning behind Thorondir’s declaration. Túrin I’s deeds are all canon, though with the exception of the Rohirrim the supporting cast’s involvement is mostly my headcanon. Nothing significant happened during Turgon’s rule except for Sauron’s declaration; his reaction to that event is headcanon.

Ecthelion II ft. Ecthelion II, Narwiel (OC), Denethor II, Taeneth (OC), Beniloth (OC) Everything about Ecthelion and Thorongil/Aragorn is canon (and leaves me wondering if they fucked...) Ecthelion canonically had two unnamed daughters. Taeneth and Beniloth are Sindarin names I adapted from the Quenya “Terenis” and “Vanyalos” given to them in LOTRO; I also poached their backstories from LOTRO. (Disclaimer that I haven’t played the game, I’m getting this all from Tolkien Gateway.)

Denethor II ft. Denethor II, Finduilas of Dol Amroth, Boromir, Faramir This is pretty much all canon, though details have been embellished here and there.

Faramir ft. Faramir, Éowyn, Elboron, Rohiril (OC), Silevegil (OC), Barahir of Ithlien All of this is canon, though it’s been slightly condensed, up until the details about Faramir and Éowyn’s descendants. It is canon that Barahir wrote the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen, but we don’t know if he was the son of Elboron or of some unknown sibling of Elboron. I ship Elboron and Eldarion, so I chose to go with the latter possibility :)

~~~

My Peoples of Arda Edit Series continues with the Three Houses of the Edain Edit Series!

#line of elros #headcanons #gondor #my meta #tefain nin #loe appendices #stewards of gondor #peoples of arda

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thestuffedalligator · 4 years

Text

The Scholar of Gondor

There was a day’s travel between Undertowers and Hobbiton.

This was less a consequence of the actual distance between the two and more the fault of the state of the road. Namely, there wasn’t one. Thirty-five years of carts had carved two long furrows through the hilly lowlands, and these looped and turned around the hills like a very bored giant had spent an afternoon trailing its fingers through the dirt to make interesting designs. It was generally understood that a road was going to be built eventually, and in the meantime the Westmarch-hobbits and the Old-Shire-hobbits came to enjoy the distance from each other.

But gossip in the Shire never seemed to actually follow the roads. It soared on the open wind, travelling as the crow flies, so what was news in Undertowers somehow became known in Hobbiton in a matter of hours. If it was particularly scandalous gossip, it made the trip in minutes. When Fíriel Fairbairn was caught snogging Donnamira Brandybuck two Yules ago, it had spread across the Shire so quickly that it had reached back to Donnamira a full two minutes before it had actually happened. By that point the two decided that, what the hell, best not to tempt a paradox, and ducked into a parlor closet.

News about the Scholar of Gondor reached Hobbiton a full thirty minutes after the Scholar’s horse clattered to a stop in Undertowers.

This was news because it had been a full sixty years since King Elessar had declared Men as forbidden from entering the Shire. And what was worse, this human had been permitted entry into the Shire upon the orders of King Elessar himself. Worse still, the Fairbairns were apparently allowing it to stay in their home.

This was just too much for the Old-Shire-hobbits. Why couldn’t the Big Folk keep to their own and leave us in peace? And on Elessar’s orders, no less. What did Elessar think he was? King? As for staying with the Fairbairns, well -

Most hobbits stopped at that. Well. You just didn’t talk about that sort of thing.

***

Fíriel “Sharkey” Fairbairn - a nickname she had picked up by general acclaim somewhere in her tweens - was doing her own research in her family’s library. This mainly consisted of pretending to read Herblore of the Shire while trying to inconspicuously stare at the Scholar of Gondor.

She was, Sharkey decided, rather pretty in a tall sort of way, all dark, wavy hair and brown face. If she was wearing a leather tunic and hunting spiders in the forest, she’d probably be the spitting image of an elf. Instead she was wearing a grey dress and robe that was somehow fashionable in Gondor despite it making her look a bit like a grounded thundercloud, and she was currently hunched over a massive pile of hobbit books, one hand pressing open The Red Book of Westmarch, and the other scrawling notes down in a small, leather notebook.

Sharkey considered herself to be rather attractive - she had to have been, to wind up snogging Donnamira Brandybuck two Yules ago - but even in her sharpest jacket and brightest trousers, a base animal instinct warned her that the Scholar was out of her league.

Sharkey closed Herblore with a snap, pulled her pipe out of her jacket pocket, and made an obvious show of nonchalantly cleaning it. “How’s it coming?” she asked.

The Scholar nodded. “A bit slow, I’m afraid,” she said. “I’ve only just finished There and Back Again.”

Sharkey had experimentally puffed on the pipe to test it for blockages and suddenly inhaled a glob of charcoal that lodged itself in her throat. “Al-ready?” she managed between coughs. “You - just - got here - two days ago!”

The Scholar hummed. “It’s a very short book,” she said. She looked up. Sharkey noticed that her eyes were a stunning shade of grey and, just then, full of curious worry. “Are you all right?”

“Never better!” Sharkey said in a strangled tone. She made one more hard, wheezing hack, and the glob came out into the crook of her elbow.

“What I don’t get,” Sharkey said, changing the subject after a sufficiently embarrassing pause, “is - you’re here to study The Red Book. I get that. But we gave Gondor a copy of The Red Book just three years ago, right?”

The Scholar tapped her quill on the notebook. “Well, yes, and we’re very grateful for it. But the academics of Gondor believed that it deserved some… clarification.”

Sharkey quirked an eyebrow. “Clarification?”

The Scholar nodded and flipped through some pages of notes. “Bilbo seemed to have something of a fanciful imagination, and inserted some creatures from hobbit folklore into his writing.” She got to a page almost black with Sindarin. “There and Back Again has stone-giants, skin-changers, were-worms - were-worms!” She looked back up at Sharkey. “What the hell is a were-worm?”

Sharkey allowed the image to form in her mind. “Something like a werewolf, I reckon,” she said after a moment. “Only it turns into a worm, not a wolf. Stands to reason, right?”

There was a pause as the Scholar thought up the image as well. “No,” she said.

Sharkey grinned. “Oh, what, you’ll accept eagles, trolls, goblins, and dragons, but-”

“They’re history,” the Scholar said. “Giants and mewlips and gorcrows and Tom Bombadil - those are mythology.”

There was a thoughtful pause. “I admit it’s a fine line,” the Scholar said. “But I can see it from where I stand-”

“Tom Bombadil’s mythology?”

“Er - yes,” the Scholar said. She held up The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and gave it an accusatory wobble. “I suspect your Frodo inserted him into the story to add some levity to his travels. He’s a folklore figure. A hobbit fairy tale. He’s not actually real.”

Sharkey frowned. “Isn’t he?”

There was another thoughtful pause. “I… thought so,” the Scholar muttered. “Up until just now, anyways.”

***

It turned into something like a pattern - Sharkey pretending to read some new book in the library, catching up on how the Scholar was doing. Sometimes this turned into the Scholar asking for clarification. Sometimes this was, “A later edition of this could really do with more mentions of Arwen,” or, “Look, just because Aragorn mentions the Beornings doesn’t mean that they can turn into bears.”

Then, somewhere in the middle of Blotmath:

“You’re - you’re asking me if my grandfather ever fucked Frodo.”

The Scholar shrugged. “I’m not necessarily suggesting that the two consumated the relationship, but if you look at the subtext-”

“My dear, sweet granddad, who loved my grandmother very much, and decided to leave for the Undying Lands the moment she died-”

“Well, who’s to say what happened before he got married? I’m just saying, it’s very convenient that Rosie only gets mentioned towards the end of the-”

“My lovely, gentle Grandpa Gamgee-”

The Scholar slapped a hand onto the table. “Your Grandpa Gamgee had a legendary virility among hobbits, and was considered for his time to be the most attractive hobbit in the Shire, Frodo would be insane not to get on that.”

“This is hell,” Sharkey said. “I’m in hell and you’re the devil. Everything makes sense now.”

The Scholar laughed, a clear, beautiful noise that set certain parts of Sharkey’s brain on fire. “I suppose hobbits don’t talk about that sort of thing, do they?”

“In the Old-Shire, definitely. But Undertowers is different.”

“How so?”

Sharkey shrugged. “It’s a new town,” she said. “When hobbits heard that there was a new place, a place away from the gossip, a lot of the ones who were disgraced in their old towns migrated over. A lot of that was for-” She made a vague gesture. “Travelling by ship with Gimli and Legolas, if you catch my meaning.”

The Scholar raised her eyebrows. “I had no idea.”

Sharkey puffed herself up, and pulled on the lapels of her jacket. “I pride myself as being the foremost authority on the subject.”

The Scholar leaned across the desk to her. Sharkey could suddenly see the little droplets of dried ink on her cheek, the shape of her lips, the thunderstorm in her grey eyes. “It’s a theory I’m… less experienced in, but certainly willing to study.”

The library was the biggest room in all of the Fairbairn Hallow, with ceilings that stretched up to a full ten feet. It was suddenly entirely too small and cramped to breathe in.

Sharkey licked her lips. “D’you - what do you say we get out of here and get a drink?”

***

The door to Elfstan’s study banged against the bookshelf built into the wall, dislodging a butterfly collection and Herblore of the Shire.

In the round doorway, significantly ruffled, gently swaying, and, an observer would have to be very close and deal with the very strong smell of hobbit-brewed whiskey to spot it, with dark lipstick smeared across one side of her mouth, was Sharkey.

“I AM,” she declared, “THE GREATEST HOBBIT WHO EVER LIVED.”

Elfstan apparently ignored her. “Write it down for posterity,” Sharkey continued. “On this, the sixteenth of Blotmath in the year 1487 (by Shire Reckoning), I, Fíriel Fairbairn, achieved the unachievable, and okay we just made out a little before she passed out, but that’s pretty good for me, and hey, why aren’t you paying attention?”

Her brother handed her a sheet with some scrawls across it. She read it, closing one eye to shut out the three other images swirling in her vision. “Sindarin,” she said flatly. “Oo-ee.” She looked closer.

“Are you sure?” she said, the dread chill of sobriety reaching its fingers into her hindbrain.

“I think so.”

Sharkey looked back at the sheet. “Damn,” she muttered.

***

The Scholar was up in the tower of Elostirion, apparently to see where the palantír had once been until it was put on the ship that carried Frodo and Gandalf off into the Undying Lands.

Hobbits said that they could see all the way to the Sea from the top of Elostirion. Sharkey was firmly of the opinion that they were full of crap, mostly because by the time she’d managed to get to the top of the tower, her mind was mostly preoccupied with not dying.

“Stairs,” she wheezed once she’d made it to the top of the tower.

The Scholar was looking out over the railing. She made a sound, not really laughing, more a puff of humour without any of the effort behind it. “The hangover’s probably not helping, is it?”

“Definitely not.” She walked towards the opposite railing. “Don’t mind me, I’m going to throw up over the side.”

“I would’ve thought you’d inherited your grandfather’s constitution,” said the Scholar behind her. It sounded like she was smiling.

Sharkey wheezed over the railing until her mouth stopped tasting like she’d gargled pennies. “Granddad never had to deal with stairs while hungover,” she said. “Confusticate and bebother, I don’t know how you did it.”

The Scholar made another sound like laughter. Sharkey wiped her mouth, looked out over the railing, and said, “But I reckon it must be different for half-elves.”

There was silence. A breeze drifted through the tower, Sea-borne warmth now chilling into proper wintery discomfort.

The Scholar sighed. “How did you find out?”

Sharkey nodded and turned. The Scholar was still looking out over the opposite railing. “Elfstan’s been studying Sindarin. ‘Unglittering Gold’ - ‘All that is gold does not glitter’ - it wasn’t really a subtle pseudonym.” She added, “Er - I mean, your high-”

“Don’t,” the Scholar said. “Please don’t. I’m not that, not here.”

Sharkey took the point. “I’d like to know your name, though,” she muttered. “Your real one.”

The Scholar of Gondor turned her head and gave Sharkey a sad little smile.

“Eldariel,” Eldariel said.

Sharkey nodded. “The princess-”

“No, Sharkey, I’m not. Not here.”

“But you are.” Sharkey suddenly felt like throwing up over the rail again. “Oh ye heavens, you’re the prin-”

Eldariel whipped around, grey and black cloak and dress swirling like a woolen thunderstorm. “No, I’m not. Not here, Sharkey, do you understand? Here, I’m a scholar. I can do what I want, study what I wish. That-” she waved a hand vaguely, “-person, that girl, she’s back in Gondor.”

She raked her fingers through her hair and took a deep, dramatic breath. ��I am the daughter of King Elessar, the first daughter of the House of Telcontar. Do you know what that makes me?”

Sharkey considered this. “A pri-”

“Nothing, Sharkey. I’m nothing.” She made another noise like laughing, only this time there was no humour behind it. “Worse than that - I’m a token. An asset. Do you know what the name Fíriel is from? It’s from a princess of Gondor who was married off to Arvedui of Arnor and disappeared from history all together. That’s what the princess of Gondor is meant to do, just exist and be happy until you continue the family line.”

She turned back to the railing. When she spoke again, it sounded as though her voice was coming from very far away. “My brother will be the one who takes the throne, and he’ll be the one who’ll stay in history. Stories will be told about the great deeds he’ll do once Father passes and Mother fades away. He’ll go on great quests with Elboron and Elfwine, I have no doubt, and they’ll probably find the Entwives and the Beornings and maybe even the two Blue Wizards. And what will people what remember about me?”

Sharkey looked out over the railing. She didn’t know how far half-elf eyes could see, but for the first time in her life, she thought she could just spot the Sea.

She almost said: The tip of your nose wiggles when you talk.

You hold your forehead in your palm when you read.

You are personally offended by the concept of were-worms.

When you get frustrated, you run your fingers through your hair to try and make it as messy as you can. It never works.

When we got drunk together, we walked out on a snowy night and you started crying. Snowflakes were glittering gold in the lamplight, and you’d decided that it was the prettiest thing you’d ever seen.

Your first kiss felt like revenge against your parents, and I’m terrified to ask for a second kiss because it might taste like you falling in love with me.

At the same time she thought: But people won’t remember that. People don’t deserve to have those moments remembered, written down, because that version of you belongs to me.

But for now - and tomorrow - and forever - that’s what I’ll remember about you.

She said: “To hell with what other people remember about you.”

Eldariel looked over at her.

“To hell with what other people remember about you,” Sharkey said again, a bit more certainly this time. “Maybe centuries later, somewhere, someone’ll read ‘And Old Samwise had a granddaughter named Fíriel Fairbairn,’ and they’ll say, ‘Fíriel Fairbairn? I wonder who she was,’ and they’ll read, ‘And King Elessar had a daughter,’ and they’ll say, ‘I wonder what she did.’

“But by then it’s all a story, and people will forget the truth, or they’ll remember it accidentally, but in some way it’ll carry on. What’ll be important,” she reached up and took Eldariel’s hand in hers, “is what we do today.”

What happened next - who’s to say?

***

And maybe it happened And maybe it didn’t. Oh! Who is a hobbit to say Of those dirty codgers, Those damn gossip-dodgers, Who packed up and all went away.

- Chorus of a traditional Undertowers drinking song

#lord of the rings #lotr #tolkien #jrr tolkien #tolkien legendarium #the hobbit #lotr fanfic #lotr fanfiction #fanfiction #writing #technically no original characters #in that eldariel is a nameless character in the appendices #and firiel is mentioned once in a footnote in the forward of the adventures of tom bombadil #so #technically #wlw fanfic #narrativia

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warrioreowynofrohan · 4 years

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@anduniela Continuation of character thoughts post.

Elrond

My opinions on this character: I have far too many to fit into one post, so I’ll just focus on a couple aspects. (EDIT: This still got so long!)

One of the things that stands out about Elrond is that, whereas Galadriel’s character arc is about learning from her own mistakes, Elrond’s is about learning from everyone else’s mistakes.

In terms of learning from the Fëanorians’ mistakes, I’ve already done a post discussing his comments in LOTR about oaths. He also holds very lightly to family heirlooms, not even bringing up the fact that Glamdring belonged to his great-grandfather.

On top of that, there’s a very strong thread of learning from Thingol’s mistakes, to the point where Elrond’s role in Middle-earth is a mirror of what Thingol’s could and perhaps should have been. Where Doriath in the First Age was isolationist and xenophobic[1], Rivendell welcomes everyone - from Men to Dwarves to Hobbits. Elrond fosters the heirs of Isildur (fosterage that turns out much better than Thingol’s, perhaps partly because they aren’t surrounded by a social environment that is broadly hostile to Men - in addition to the obvious contibuting factor of not being cursed!). He’s widely trusted in a way that other Elves of the Third Age aren’t - Boromir, who regards Galadriel as a dangerous sorceress, is willing to just show up at Imladris uninvited and ask for advice. Thorin & Company likewise just show up, whereas Lórien won’t less dwarves past the borders and Thranduil straught-up arrests them. The colloquial named of Rivendell as the Last Homely House really says it all. Beyond that, Elrond respects Arwen’s right to make her own decisions about who she loves, and recognize the importance of her choice for Middle-earth as a whole, despite the grief it brings him. (His charge to Aragorn isn’t a way of ´earning’ anyone so much as saying “You can’t neglect your responsibilities just because you’re in love”; and probably additionally motivated by the Eldarin ethos of not marrying in wartime.)

One of the other things I find striking about him is that he’s related pretty much all lineages/houses/cultures of the Eldar and Edain alike. On Elwing’s side he’s descended from the Sindar (and thus related to the Teleri) and the House of Beor, as well as from the Maiar; on Eärendil’s side he’s descended from the Noldor of Fingolfin’s house and from the House of Hador (and more distantly from the Haladin); he’s also related to the Vanyar through Fingolfin’s line; and he’s related to the Fëanorians by adoption/fosterage.

By descent he’s the rightful king of the Sindar and, after Gil-galad’s death, of the Noldor as well, thoygh he never claims either of these kingships. In the case of the Sindar, I don’t think he could have been accepted as king, given his upbringing, though they have no dislike for him personally. It’s a kind of cultural theft from the Sindar, that the heir of Lúthien and of Dior was raised by their enemies, and another thing for them to resent the Fëanorians for.

In the case of the Noldor, there are many possible reasons why he didn’t claim the High Kingship. Perhaps he thought that the remaining Noldor were too few, and too geographically dispersed, for it to be a useful or necessary position. Perhaps it seemed presumptuous, given that Galadriel had much greater age and experience. Perhaps he regarded him as in some degree Fëanorian and regarded Maedhros’ renunciation of the throne as applicable to himself as well.

Romantic relationship: Elrond/Celebrian.

Favourite non-romantic relationship: Well, his relationship to Maedhros and Maglor is certainly fascinating. My view is that he loves them and grieves for them, but he doesn’t expect others, especially those who have been harmed by the House of Fëanor, to share his views or his sentiments, or to forgive them.

With one exception. At sone point after his arrival in Valinor (after Galadriel’s success in getting Gimli admitted to Valinor tips him off that the Ringbearers have some serious sway with the Valar), he intercedes with the Valar for Maglor to be permitted to return to Valinor, and his request is granted. This leads to a great deal of emotional complications for a great many people, but is ultimately beneficial. (I have a rather extensive fic in my head surrounding this that I’ve never managed to actually write down any of.)

Unpopular opinion: I don’t regard Elros’ death as being emotionally devastating for him. He misses his brother, certainly. But he also recognizes that Elros made the choice that suited him, and had exactly the life he wanted - a life of activity, achievement, and meaning, where he had work that he loved and governed a people that he loved in a land that he loved, and died at a good old age surrounded by his family and friends. And that’s an achievement to be celebrated.

The loss of Arwen is much more painful, both because the relationship between parents and children is different from the one betwwen siblings, and because Arwen didn’t choose mortality for its own sake the way Elros did. She chose it for love of Aragorn, but the choice was a sacrifice, and for that reason mortality was hard for her, as we see in the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen.

Something I wish had/did happen with them in canon: See above, about Maglor. And I do think that Elladan and Elrohir came to Valinor eventually, after they’d seen all they wanted of Middle-earth; it’s just too hard on Elrond to think of him losing all three of his children.

[1] I will add some qualifiers: Thingol did have valid reasons for anger at those who participated in the Kinslaying; and even before that, some cause for resentment at people carelessly divvying up his thousands-of-years-old kingdom without reference to him, even if Maedhros was in practical terms correct that everything outside Doriath would have been under Morgoth’s control if the Noldor hadn’t showed up. But when you combine not just his hostility to the Noldor (and virtual non-participation in Mereth Aderthad, when Fingolfin was actively trying to reach out) but also his early hostility to Men, and Saeros’ bigotry, and the later interactions with the dwarves, it all paints a picture of a deeply insular kingsom with little respect for other cultures or desire to interact with them.

#tolkien #the lord of the rings #the silmarillion #elrond #character asks #thingol #elros tar minyatur #maglor #galadriel #character thoughts

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nerdismyhobby · 3 years

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Dan I'm new to LOTR should I read the books now that I've seen the movies and been blown away

Hoo boy. Ok. One, you’re welcome to come off anon and message me if you want, I’ll keep the conversation between us.

Two, i was going to do some creative writing and work on a play tonight but I have a feeling this is going to replace it.

Here we go- I will say, right off the bat, my love for Lord of the Rings comes from the movies first and foremost. I experienced them before reading the books and I latched onto the epic story of it, the acting, the music, the visuals.... It was such a complete package that it formed my identity and still is into my late 20s. It will continue to be for a while I’m sure.

That being said, I’ve read the books probably I wanna say three full times. I firmly believe that everyone should read the books at least once in their life. I don’t care if you do it all at once, read just one a year, read just one of them every five years, whatever. Read the Hobbit. Read all of Lord of the Rings. Even if it’s only to say you did it. Do it anyway.

However.... Be prepared for a slog at times. There, I said it.

The books can be A LOT at times. Almost too much.

One- There are a lot of differences. The films did a very good job distilling as MUCH as they could into three movies. But they still couldn’t get everything. There’s the obvious Tom Bombadil omission and everything contained therein (the Old Forest, the barrows, etc) . There’s the hill people between Rohan and Gondor that help out. Who the fuck is Glorfindel. Saruman with his gay rainbow/many colors robe. Who the fuck is Erkenbrand. The Scouring of the Shire. Where is Arwen? On the one hand, it’s exciting to read and see the differences. On the other hand, the movies are already twelve hours total as the extended editions and you STILL had to omit stuff? Do you know how bonkers that is? There’s already so many details in the movies and now you want to add MORE?? Are you goddamn nuts?????

Two- I don’t have a lot of evidence for this, but I’m not sure if Tolkien expected to ever actually have his other notes and books published, such as the Silmarillion, book of Lost tales, etc. Yes, I know he wrote and composed the Silmarillion before Lord of the Rings, but i’m not sure if publication was ever expected. So all of a sudden, you have this epic three part book series (or six books, or one book split into three volumes with two books each, as Tolkien prefers) with a rich history that no one knows ANYTHING about, apart from the Hobbit, which was a bed time story Tolkien made up to get his kids to finally go the fuck to sleep and then he happened to publish. Because of this, you get a lot of tangential history woven in. Which is fascinating at times, but also REALLY slows the story down. So often you get stuff like this (paraphrasing here): “Off to the side of the road there was a copse of trees. Strong sturdy trees, like the ones sung about in the songs, that Earendil used to carve his magical flying boat out of and used to strike down the terrible dragon known as Ancalagon the Black, whose ruin he smote upon the earth and destroyed a mountain range, before Earendil himself perished only to be lifted up to the stars”. Seriously. You get history tangents like that at least once a chapter. Which back in the day was helpful. But now? it’s not as necessary when you can literally just look all this stuff up on a tolkien wikipedia. It puffs up your word count sure, but this isn’t your dissertation. This is an epic fantasy novel. You’re here for the action and the fights and the character development and the twists and turns and stunning reveals and the gay bromance between Legolas and Gimli (seriously, I don’t necessarily “ship” them, but in no universe are those two straight). I don’t care as much about the trees and the terrain when there are orcs that Aragorn could be cleaving in two and Legolas and Gimli could be flirting/not flirting.

Now, I know this makes it seem like I don’t like the books. Which isn’t necessarily true. It’s just the way that books are written just aren’t necessarily for me. I’m a very modern minded person, in that a lot of the media I tend to enjoy (be it plays or movies or books) are all more modern or contemporary (think like, post 1990. Yes, I’m serious). With the way my brain works in consuming media, things written and released in the 40s don’t necessarily appeal as much to me. I’m not a big fan of classic novels in general due to the writing style. I can think of maybe two or three I like, when I have all of the classics we read to high school to choose from. The style just isn’t for me. Reading any of them can be a chore for me, or like it takes a lot more effort for me to get through them.

That being said- the books are still magical. It gets bogged down by history at times, but that’s only because Tolkien did such a fantastic job of world building that you can’t help but be taken in by it. Some of the omissions from the movies are actually very exciting parts of the books, and it’s fascinating to see the differences. And if nothing else, the movies did such an A+ job of casting that honestly? I don’t feel bad visualizing the actors as the actual characters when reading the book. I know some people try not to. But I genuinely find it difficult to differentiate. It’s so much fun to read along and follow along with the plot of such an epic movie series and see the inspiration for it.

So yes. Read the books. But don’t be surprised if it’s difficult. If it’s frustrating. If it takes a while. If you kinda roll your eyes and go “yes yes, get on with it” at times. Cause I did. But the world building. The characters. The friendships. The action. The battles. The hobbit people and how they are living the ideal life. It’s all worth it at least once.

Pace yourself.

You got this.

But most importantly, have fun with it and appreciate it for what it is. For its messages of friendship and finding the good in the world, even when so much bad has happened. It is still Lord of the Rings, after all.

Enjoy :)

And thanks for the question! I really appreciate getting to talk at length about my favorite thing in the world.

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aurora-nova-fic · 5 years

Text

Deleted Scenes: Bittersweet Symphonies

I doubt I’ll be on this much all the time, but I realized this is a great way to share some deleted scenes from Bittersweet Symphonies, the conclusion to my Private Universe series. This series grabbed me and wouldn’t let go for 106k words. I adore the series, even though I now associate one of my favorite writing songs so strongly with Chapter 2 of Bittersweet Symphonies that I struggle to write anything else to it.

So, for my “yay I’m on tumblr” celebration, I present some of the scenes which didn’t make the final edit.

First up, this was originally written as the second-to-last Private Universe Snapshot:

The Interrogation

Garak left the basement to get food and was promptly accosted by Mila. “Tell me about him,” she said.

“Damar is Cardassia’s best chance, notwithstanding his past sins.” Garak would never forgive him for killing Ziyal, but he understood Damar had done so out of his sense of duty to the state. Presently, he saw no point in dredging up the past when they had a future to secure. He also knew that was unlikely to be what Mila meant, but a man could hope.

“Don’t play ignorant with me. You know perfectly well I’m not asking about Damar, and yes, I have a dampening field on. This is a private conversation.”

Really, one would have thought she’d realize now was not the time to pry into his personal affairs. The glare she fixed on him clearly conveyed otherwise. Garak had learned how to break people with his eyes from her, after all.

He gave in to the inevitable. “Julian Bashir, Chief Medical Officer of Deep Space Nine.”

“Human?” She wasn’t disgusted, merely curious.

Garak nodded.

“I’m waiting for details, Elim. I have been for years, so your dinner can wait a few more minutes.”

“It’s not my dinner I’m worried about,” he said. There was the rebellion to consider, foremost, and of course his ongoing quest to not be killed by the Dominion.

“You learned to control the malon anbar, I trust.”

Garak did not appreciate her saying the words aloud, dampening field or not. “Perfectly. And since you’re apparently willing to hold up our activities against the Dominion to satisfy your curiosity…”

“There are no activities to hold up, at the moment.”

“I was hoping to change that, but instead I’m being interrogated about my personal life.”

“I take my opportunities where I can get them.”

“Very well. If you must know, he is an exhilarating conversationalist.”

“That goes without saying, if he held your interest for any length of time.”

“He is in equal measure delightful and impossible. Would you believe he finds The Never Ending Sacrifice dull?”

Mila appeared to believe it. “I’ve always found it overrated myself. I think I like this man, Elim. Keep going.”

Garak hadn’t known she held this shocking opinion. “How can you possibly think it’s overrated?”

“There’s nothing wrong with it, but you have to admit it’s predictable.”

Aghast, Garak could only wonder from where he had gotten his refined taste in literature. Tain never had time for fiction, and now Mila didn’t appreciate The Never Ending Sacrifice. Appalling. “Presuming we survive, I’ll have to give you Shakespeare. Perhaps it will be more to your liking.”

“You’re stalling again.”

Garak grew weary of her insistence. “He is so generous it can hardly be believed. He is clever and mesmerizing and from a race which glorifies tales of people from separate worlds who overcome all obstacles to be together, but I am a realist, so I know better. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a rebellion leader to motivate.” He spun around, deciding he wasn’t hungry after all.

“Elim.”

He paused and looked over his shoulder.

“I’m sorry.”

“So am I,” he said, and went back down to the basement. If they didn’t defeat the Dominion, nothing else would matter anyway.

Why I cut it: I decided three snapshots in a row on the “they belong to different worlds” theme was a bit much, for one thing. I was also unsure if Garak was quite in character enough, though I was going for him being more open with his mother than he would be with anyone else. This was briefly the prologue for Bittersweet Symphonies, but I liked revisiting the Arwen & Aragorn bit from A Chasm in Perspective much better. Some of the dialogue made it into Garak’s flashback in the wedding scene.

Next up, a short bit from the subspace conversation where Julian tells Miles he’s an Augment.

“I hadn’t known it was possible to intimidate my father into silence. Garak is very impressive when he’s in full protective mode.” That he was protecting Julian had charmed his mother even more than it irritated his father.

“Scary as hell, is more like it. He stares at you like he’s thinking of twenty different ways to kill you and dispose of your body.”

This sounds like it’s coming from personal experience. “Something you’d like to share, Miles?”

“You remember right after your parents left, I thought I’d tease you by calling you Jules?”

“That was my name before,” Julian explains quietly. “I couldn’t tell you why it bothers me so much.”

“Sorry about that.”

“You couldn’t have known.”

“But Garak did, and it answers a mystery.”

“What mystery?” asks Julian.

“He came to our quarters and told me I was never to call you Jules again. There was no ‘or else.’ There didn’t need to be. Twenty might be too low an estimate.”

Julian is touched to learn about this unexpected display of concern. “I didn’t know he’d done that.”

“He ‘suggested’ it would be better if you didn’t. I wasn’t about to argue. Anyway, that’s when I knew he really does care about you.”

Why I cut it: Too out of character for Garak.

Here we have a little bit from the beginning of the ka’tur-routzx, the blade ritual.

Garak removes the knife he keeps strapped to his ankle and throws it Julian’s way. The toss is an easy one, spinning lazily through the air, though judging by Dax’s gasp the whole situation looks very bad from a Federation perspective. Julian grabs the hilt of the knife as it tumbles over end toward him. He can manage harder catches – the enhanced hand-eye coordination is useful – but isn’t likely to appreciate an ostentatious display of his abilities. Garak is still working on that.

“You throw knives when you love the person you just married?” O’Brien asks, incredulous.

“That’s not the ritual, it’s Elim showing off the hard work he put into my self-defense lessons.”

Julian finally agreed to the instruction after Interment Camp 371. Starfleet Medical sends its doctors out into the galaxy woefully untrained to face attackers, and Garak has long held a deep interest in keeping Julian alive. Besides, the augmentations did him little to no good when he didn’t know how to best use them to his advantage.

“I hope you practiced in the holosuites first,” says Dax.

“Fake knife, actually,” says Julian as he stands. “Are we going to perform parlor tricks, or are we going to do this?”

Oh, he is glorious. The remark is just forward and inviting enough for the situation without being too blatantly seductive in front of their guests. Garak couldn’t have come up with better himself.

Why I cut it: This one was a real kill your darlings moment, because I love, love “Are we going to perform parlor tricks, or are we going to do this?” But the scene served the line, not the other way around, and I think the final product flows better without this part.

Here’s a bit from Ezri’s POV as she and Kira leave Cardassia after the wedding.

“You and Garak really came to an understanding, didn’t you?” asks Ezri while she starts the runabout’s preflight.

“Yes,” says Nerys. “He’s done terrible things, things I could never condone. But he did them for Cardassia.”

Ezri doesn’t know why that makes Garak’s misdeeds acceptable until Nerys adds quietly, “I’ve done terrible things for Bajor.”

That… actually explains a lot.

In any event, while Ezri could never marry someone like Garak, she appreciates what Julian has with him. “They’re happy,” she says. “I’m glad something good has come of Julian leaving Starfleet. I really think he’s going to be okay. And you know, I don’t think Garak is worried about me anymore.”

“Worried?”

Ezri weighs how much she can say. “Keeping Jadzia’s secrets.”

“So she did know about the two of them.”

“Oh, yes.”

“I figured,” says Nerys. “It seemed like the kind of thing Julian would have told her.”

He had, of course, and then he and Garak developed the private universe and Jadzia was utterly fascinated by the scientific implications. When she was dying, she thought mostly about the people she was leaving behind and the child she’d never have, but she had briefly regretted that she’d never unravel the mysteries of the malon anbar. It was the only science project she thought about, at least before Julian had to remove Dax.

Ezri shakes her head. “Sorry. Memories.” She doesn’t get lost in them very often now, but it does happen, and they’re usually Jadzia’s. “Jadzia was protective of Julian’s relationship with Garak. She thought it was good for him, but she knew most people wouldn’t approve.”

“I wouldn’t have,” agrees Nerys.

Why I cut it: It didn’t fit or add much on its own, and I quickly abandoned the chapter it was going to be part of (which involved Kira collapsing and needing treatment, Julian performing another medical feat, and Garak fretting Starfleet would realize what a good doctor they’d let get away and offer Julian his commission back).

And finally, part of the epilogue which got the axe:

There’s a crate in the middle of their living room. “Is that from Mother?”

“Yes. She seems very concerned about you,” says Elim. “And after I wrote her a respectful letter promising not to let you starve, no less.”

In Cardassian terms, his mother’s habit of sending food expresses deep concern over Elim’s ability to keep him fed. “You know it’s not an insult by human standards, and I may have mentioned that you liked the marmalade she sent two care packages ago.”

Elim’s sweet tooth wins out. “I suppose there are worse problems than a spouse-mother looking to add variety to our diet,” he says, trying for more grudging than he actually manages.

The tentative rapprochement between Julian and his mother, begun on the station before the war intervened and he only rarely remembered to tell her he was still alive, is growing less tenuous. Part of this, he suspects, is that he’s no longer hiding in shame. The rest is due to her unconditional acceptance of everything: choosing to reveal his augmentations, moving to Cardassia, marrying Elim. She’s undemanding and supportive from a distance of light-years, and for the first time since he was a teenager, Julian is willing to give her a role in his life. He’s gotten in the habit of writing monthly.

They don’t speak of Father. As far as Julian is concerned, there’s no paternal relationship left to repair. Not in years, really, but the last straw was the letter he’d received after his wedding expressing Richard Bashir’s selfishness over Julian saving Kira’s life: Your mother and I could go to prison, did you even stop to think about that? As though it’s Julian’s job to protect his parents from the consequences of their actions.

The return address on the care package is Aunt Aya’s for the second box in a row. Mother has been visiting her sister for quite some time now, but Julian isn’t about to pry for details. He opens the box and sure enough, finds three jars of marmalade. Underneath them is his real prize. “Here it is. She said she was sending something to celebrate getting my license, and it arrived just in time.”

“What is that?”

“Her homemade lamb stew. She canned it for us.”

Elim is more interested in the marmalade, but he’s not about to refuse a break from ration bars.

They are better off than many people on Cardassia. Miles, Ezri, and Kira are evidently on a joint mission to ensure Julian, and by extension Elim, escape the worst of the current deprivations.

Why I cut it: This tried to cram way too much into the epilogue. If you’ve read The Tune Without the Words, you’ll see some ideas morphed into that piece.

Well, this is long and, now that I think about it, more than a bit self-indulgent, but blogs are self-indulgent by their very nature, so here it is, internet. ;)

#fanfic #garak/bashir #ds9 #deleted scene

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