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make-me-imagine · 4 years

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Hi there! Could I ask for ship with male from CM and LOTR (except Hobbits, please)? Im 5’8’’ female with pale skin and dark curls, which I struggle to accept as its my biggest insecurity when it comes to physical traits. Im INFP, stubborn, sarcastic and creative. Love making handmade gifts for people I care for and collecting books. Addicted to listening to music, chocolate and coffee. I’m afraid of spiders and ladybugs. Could you do 10 for LOTR and 2 for CM? Thank you!

Special 5k Ship Event (Read post if your going to request)

Enjoy! I hope they came out alright for you :)

Criminal Minds:

I ship you with Reid. He would find you absolutely beautiful, and would tell you everything he loves about you anytime you are feeling insecure. Sometimes you are afraid that your stubbornness might push him away, but he finds it a bit endearing and would never let anything like that affect him, as he knows that he can be a bit of a handful himself from time to time. He also collects books, so anytime he buys one for himself he buys you at least one that he knows you would love to have. Also, his desk is lined with smaller gifts you’ve made him and he loves every single one so much.

Prompt 2: First Kiss

You walked side by side as you left the restaurant, having just parted from Derek and Garcia. Looking up towards the sky you let out a small yawn.

“I’m kind of surprised you came” Reid began “I know you’ve been a bit overworked lately”

“Well I needed a break, and you know I love going out with you guys, especially you” you smiled, nudging him with your arm.

He smiled bashfully as he stuck his hands in his pockets “I’m glad you came”

You and Reid had gone out on a few dates, but had yet to make your relationship official. Both of you were just a bit too shy to do so.

“I saw that there’s gonna be a chocolate festival down town in a week or two, I thought you might wanna go with me”

“A chocolate festival?” you asked excitedly “That sounds awesome, I’d love to go!” you smiled happily at him.

His own smile widened at your reaction, his gaze fell to your lips as he admired you. Suddenly he reached out and grabbed your hand, stopping you from walking. You turned and eyes him quizzically.

“What’s wrong?” you asked.

“Oh, no, nothing, I just” he paused before smiling lightly “You’re beautiful when you’re excited”

You smiled sheepishly, looking down at your feet “Thanks Spencer”

“Uh, can I-” he stopped as you looked up at him “Can I kiss you?”

You paused, shocked yet excited by his question. You smiled at him before taking a small step closer “Yes. You can kiss me”

He smiled shyly as he pulled you closer to him. His nose brushed yours as he paused to look into your eyes. His eyes glanced down at your lips before he leaned slowly forward, connecting his lips with yours.

The kiss lasted a few second before he pulled away, making eye contact with you again. You two shared a smile before he pulled you into another kiss.

Lord of the Rings:

I ship you with Legolas. He would find your appearance somewhat ethereal, and if you’re not an elf in this world, you should be. He finds that you have a somewhat calming effect on him, and he often seeks your council when he is frustrated. He dislikes that you are insecure, and though he doesn’t quite understand why you have insecurities, he never tries to talk down to you or make you seem stupid for them.

Prompt 10: Secret Admirer

[[We’re going to pretend chocolate exists in middle-earth for this]]

It wasn’t long after your visit to Mirkwood that you suddenly found gifts placed at on the balcony of your room. First it was a single golden bloom, then a notebook with a cover etched with elvish poetry, after that it was a set of elvish books. Each one of these gifts was wrapped in a delicate golden ribbon.

The gifts were amazing, but you wondered who would admire you so much as to leave them for you. What if it was someone whose feelings you could not return? You’d hate to break someones heart.

Or maybe, it was just an elvish custom? Probably not honestly.

These were the thoughts running through your mind as you wandered down the path outside of the forest. Maybe it was a courting ritual? But then why the secrecy?

“Y/n”

Your name was spoken so softly that you almost didn’t hear it over your own thoughts. Turning, you see your new friend Legolas smiling at you.

“Oh, hello Legolas”

He walked toward you “Are you alright? You seem distracted”

You thought about telling him of the gifts, but quickly changed your mind. You had quickly grown fond of the blonde elf, very fond indeed. And if he were to think someone else was courting you, maybe that would stop whatever chance you had with him. If there as any at all. Unless...no. It wouldn’t be him.

“I’m alright” you smiled “Just thinking of home”

“You miss it?”

“Some of if” you looked toward the forest “My family, friends, and the food, especially the chocolate”

“Chocolate?”

“Yes, it’s a sweet, desert like food, you can’t find it near here” you explained.

“I see” you and Legolas began walking side by side “Tell me more of your home”

~~[Time skip]~~

You had been in Mirkwood for over a month, and Legolas had been away for the last two weeks. He went off on some quest, not too far from your homeland.

And surprisingly enough, you hadn’t received a gift from your secret admirer in that same amount of time. So, you deduced that either, it was one of the men who went with Legolas, or it was Legolas himself.

You wanted it to be Legolas, was that wrong? You weren’t sure. Instead of focusing on that thought, you tried to focus on the fact that maybe it was one of the men that left with him. The more you hoped it was Legolas, the more disappointed you’d be if it wasn’t.

After another day of these thoughts drifting around your mind, you returned to your room one late evening, not long after hearing the news of Legolas’s return. You wondered when you’d get to see him. As soon as you entered your room, a package on your balcony caught your eye.

As you walked out onto the balcony, you saw it was a small satchel, tied shut with the familiar golden ribbon that had been left behind on each previous gift. Carefully picking it up, you untied it. As the fabric fell open you were surprised to see several delicately wrapped pieces of chocolate.

Your conversation with Legolas from a few weeks prior flashed through your mind. Did this mean that it was really him?

As soon as you thought this, a voice startled you from behind “I hope they are the ones you enjoy”

Your head snapped in the direction of the voice. Your eyes met the familiar blue ones of the blonde elf. “Legolas” you breathed out. He smiled as he stood from his previous seated position on the side of your balcony. “It was you then. Leaving me these gifts”

“Yes” he responded, stopping in front of you “I was not sure how you would respond to my affections, so, I thought I would express them from afar. Until tonight that is” he spoke smoothly, though, he did so avoiding your gaze. It seems that even he got shy.

“I hoped it was you, but I thought myself foolish to think so”

He locked his eyes with yours “Why? Every elf in mirkwood would seek your affection if-”

“If?”

“If they had not known how I felt” he finished, glancing at the landscape “I made sure no one else would try” he chuckled at himself.

You looked down at the chocolates, before looking up again only to meet Legolas’s intense gaze as he took another step closer to you.

“Since you said you hoped it would be me, leaving you these gifts, then I hope that means you return my affections?”

You smiled shyly at him “It does”

His own smile widened at your answer. Taking your hand in his he pressed a gentle kiss to your knuckles “Then I will take that as meaning I can begin to court you” he let go of your hand before walking to the edge of your balcony.

“Court me?” you asked following to the edge as he began to climb over.

He looked up at you “Of course” he smiled “I intend to win you over completely” he finished, before quickly descending and disappearing into the night.

#ship #ship request #5k ships #5k ship event #special ships #ask #lotr #lord of the rings #legolas #drabble #criminal minds #spencer reid #legolas x reader #legolas drabble #Anon #spencer reid x reader

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yourwakingnightmares · 4 years

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I know I’ve been doing a lot of LotR posts, so I figured time to equalize my love, and show some appreciation for the Hobbit films as well.

Now, I will admit that, as a generality, they are weaker movies than Lord Of The Rings. But, it must be said, in Peter Jackson’s defense... The Hobbit was a book made for children.

For those who haven’t read the Hobbit... Firstly, I recommend you do. It’s a quick read, easy enough and simple enough. But when you do, or if you already have, you’ll notice a few things that will make you appreciate Peter Jackson a bit more.

Firstly, in the book, the Dwarves are merely ‘9 Names, Bombur, FiliAndKili, and Thorin’.

By this I mean that nine of the dwarves are given no more personality than their cloak color, and the occasional line of dialogue.

Bombur has more lines, and more involvement in the story than the other nine, but most of this revolves around ‘Fat Bombur’ being ‘fat’ and screwing up. We’re never given anything more about him than ‘he fat’.

Fili and Kili are a single entity; you never read about just Kili or just Fili doing things. It’s always Fili-and-Kili, or Kili-and-Fili. Much like the other nine, they have few voices lines, although there are a few, most usually something revolving around them being the youngest, or Thorin’s nephews.

Thorin is the only Dwarf in the Hobbit that is given any real sort of personality or character. Again, I’m not criticizing Tolkien for this; the Hobbit was meant to be a simplistic read for children. But we must appreciate the fact that Jackson gave the other 12 dwarves characters, and personalities.

Did he add some things that I think were, perhaps, a bit over the top? Of course. While I love cheeky Kili, and sarcastic Bard, these aren’t true to the story. But for those of you who have read the book... can you imagine what an utterly boring movie it would have made for, if Jackson had just copied it over directly?

Now, I shall say that I do dislike the amount screen time Legolas received in the movies. But, I do understand why he did it, from a marketing viewpoint.

I was 10 or 11 when I first saw the Fellowship of the Ring. And that movie made a huge impact on me. While I won’t delve too far into it here, suffice to say, my love of reading and fantasy bloomed from those movies. They were an integral part of our culture at that time period; fans waited for the next movie like folks waited for the new Star Wars movie, or Game of Thrones episode. The internet -which hadn’t yet exploded to what it is today -was filled with fan sites dedicated to LotR. Message boards debated the movies and books, comparing the two, large parts of it were dissected in high school and college classes, and it set new box office records.

And Peter Jackson... He wanted to bring some of that nostalgia back. He wanted to bring back the magic of those first movies, and recreate the magic and wonder that people had felt. Viggo Mortensen refused, citing the integrity of the books, that Aragorn wasn’t in the Hobbit, and he saw no reason to change that. Gimli, while alive, was still a very young Dwarfling, and to be honest, wouldn’t have stood out amongst a party of 13 other Dwarves. Boromir, Sam, Frodo, Merry, and Pippin hadn’t even been born yet, and wouldn’t have made sense in the story.

But Legolas... well, it made sense. He was (approximately) three thousand years old. His father was King of the Woodland realms. There’s no doubt that he would’ve been there, and most likely interacted with the Dwarven prisoners at some point.

(Also, while I was a huge Aragorn fan, even as a kid, it can’t be denied that most girls watching the movies absolutely fell in love with Legolas. He was ‘first movie crush’ for many young girls).

So while I disliked, and I could see it for what it was -a blatant marketing technique, a way to draw in that same fan base -I can’t entirely fault Jackson for it either.

#The Hobbit #Middle Earth #lord of the rings #LotR #Peter Jackson #Legolas

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saurons-pr-department · 4 years

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I can understand why people who are familiar with LOTR but haven't read the Silm would be squicked out. The fandom is in large part 1) incest and 2) Sauron erotica. It's definitely not nice to insult the fandom, but I try to smile indulgently when I see those posts. They just lack the context to understand. Before I read the Silm, the idea of shipping Sauron with anybody was absolutely horrifying, and I could not imagine ANYTHING that could possibly change my mind. Boy was I wrong about that!

To be fair, my attitude as to how to conduct myself in fandom spaces is usually to do just what you say. Have a little giggle and think “Oh, if only you knew!” Like, I usually get a kick out of seeing posts like “There are Sauron ships??!” They’re funny. Oh, those sweet summer children... Surprise can be funny and pretty much everyone has a squick or two. That’s fine! I scroll past.

These posts...were different. One was from someone who genuinely was annoyed that people don’t discuss the prevalence of incest ships enough and that posts that bring up the point get too little interaction. Another post called the fandom ‘unsafe’. There’s a big difference between saying “I dislike X” or “X makes me uncomfortable” and saying something that implies (or outright states) that everyone else is doing something wrong.

I will also say that my making a post was mostly prompted by the fact that it was more than one post that happened to centre around my biggest fandom pet peeve (policing/judging what kind of content is okay to like) and by another post that also touched on something that annoys me in fandom (for anyone that also follows my main, that was where the complaining about mspec erasure came from). I was feeling a bit cranky and needed to say something.

You’re right though, it’s perfectly understandable that someone who’s unfamiliar with The Silmarillion or is only just coming into contact with the fandom through LotR or The Hobbit would find it very different or a little surprising. And of course, people are fully entitled to decide that they don’t particularly like the kind of content you find in this part of Tolkiendom and that they would prefer to avoid it! It’s just seeing the same complaints in quick succession appear on my dash rubbed me up the wrong way. So, I made a separate post instead of actually interacting with the originals, because they are very much allowed to decide that they don’t want to interact with Silm fandom content. I’m not perfect and need a little rant from time to time. I’ve actually dealt with direct hate in my DMs better than this XD

#anonymous #answered asks

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izzy-b-hands · 4 years

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I *need* to know the history of your fandoms, dear 2012 Tumblr OG 😆

alkfdjsa

Well

Gonna put this under a cut because there’s always a full story with me lol

I originally started a blog because I was lonely while my mum was away from home recovering from a very bad broken ankle (multiple surgeries, metal in her leg, she’s since recovered but it still gives her issues.) Due to her not being able to get up and down stairs, she was staying at my grandparents, and I was on my own in the condo for the very first time, essentially living completely on my own like the college student I would become, since I graduated HS in 2012.

2012 was my last year of high school, and I had either drifted away from or actively pushed away my friends irl (untreated depression, anxiety, PTSD, undiagnosed ASD, and dealing with it all by huffing and cutting meant I was a real asshole lmao, putting it mildly.) But with my mum gone, that meant I was going days without talking to anyone aside from a teacher or two, and even my introverted ass needs to talk on occasion.

I knew nothing of Tumblr, but I had recently started watching Dr. Who at that point, and reading the chapter books written for the series, so I blogged about that at first. When Sherlock came around, I got into it briefly, then got pissed about the shitty writing and have an intense dislike for Steven Moffat to this day (stay off my lawn, Steven. I’ll fight you via script writing.)

I was also dipping my toes into the LOTR and Hobbit fandom at that time (I even briefly rp’d as Elrond w/someone on here. All gen rp, don’t hold it against me lol. But I dipped out of that fast, there was a shit ton of drama I didn’t want to deal with.) Made some great friends there that unfortunately either aren’t on here anymore or rarely post, but I hope they’re all well!

Those were my ‘big three’ for the longest time. Way back at the start I also dipped a bit into Supernatural, but again...shit writing made me fall out of love w/it pretty fast. Funny enough, I did watch it long enough to get my mum into it, and she’s still a fan. It got her through a painful part of her life, so even if I don’t like it anymore, I give it props for helping her like that. I also mingled in the Star Trek fandom some, but just a bit.

Before I got into the Pacific and everything I blog about now, I had a period of just...like nothing. I reblogged random shit on my dash, had like no tags or decent organization, and considered deleting but realized I liked having access to a community where I could meet new people, since that’s not really a thing in my home town or anywhere else irl. Tumblr has its shit, but what community doesn’t? I’m happy to still be here, and grateful that I was able to build any readership for my writing here. I don’t think I could have done that on any other site for sure. it also essentially gave me a place to vent and work on myself where no one except the ppl on here could see it, which was a gift too.

I didn’t envision having this blog by this age, but I also thought I’d be dead by now (tbh still kind of shocked I’m not lmao. That doesn’t feel real all the time, but that’s for another post.) Despite everything, it’s nice to still be going, still be on here, and to have found the fandoms I have (like Queen-I was always a fan since I was young, but I had no idea there was an extension of the fandom on here, and I’m so glad I found it!!)

My first fandoms are def what the kids call ‘cringe’ (or not, maybe, idk I’m 25 w/no kids and I live like I’m fifty, I fully admit I have only the barest idea of what ‘the kids’ do now. As long as they’re safe and having fun and not getting traumatized by shit like rotten.com like I was when I was younger lmao) but overall? They gave me an outlet to do something other than hate myself and fear for my future, and I give them kudos for that.

That’s p much it though, my Tumblr/fandom history lol.

#text post #ask box things #tw self harm #xmxisxforxmaybe

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thegreatdivorce · 5 years

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There and back again...

This post is about a lot of things, but it’s mainly about my love for Faramir and Eowyn… and about how the book is always better than the movie. But we have to go back a lil before we can start.

I read Lord of the Rings for the first time when I was 14 years old. It took me a long time to get through it. I think a whole year, maybe more. I had trouble for a few reasons: one, it’s a big story for a young reader, and two, my motivation was probably in the wrong place. I grew up on a healthy diet of C. S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, my dad read the Chronicles of Narnia series to me as a kid and I read The Hobbit (on my dad’s special collectors edition) not long after that, but I never made it to Lord of the Rings until the films came out. And I only really read the books then because I loved the films so much. Let me repeat that with more emphasis, I loved. these films. so. much. I could recite lines from the movies, yes, but I could also recite lines from the commentary the cast created for each extended edition. I can still recall the jokes, pranks, and memories the cast hold dear almost as if I had lived through them myself as the 10th member of the fellowship. I still call David Wenham ‘Daisy Wenham,’ and if the word ‘wig’ appears in conversation my brain immediately goes to, “your hair changes dramatically from short to long… do you wear wigs?” If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you are not a true fan of the film series. It meant so much to me when I was younger that I think I started the books as a way to stay in that world a lil longer. And I guess constantly comparing the books to a beloved film series is not the best way to read because I didn’t enjoy them as much as I thought I would. To be clear, I didn’t dislike the books, Return of the Kings marks one of the few books to make me cry (Theoden’s death got to me), but the books didn’t impact me in the same way the films did.

Fast forward some 13 years later and something, I’m not exactly sure what, convinced me to read the books again. I have a long book list, one that I am sorely behind on, so choosing a 1000+ page saga (one that I’ve already read before) while other books are waiting to be cracked open for the first time was probably not the most productive decision I’ve made, but I regret nothing. I still own the same copy of LOTR I owned when I first read the series and man, there’s something about the smell of a book that can bring you right back to where you were when you first opened it because that’s exactly what happened when I started re-reading it. There is something nice about feeling like you’re 14 again… feeling like your whole life is ahead of you, but the only thing you have to worry about is reading this one book.

Although the smell of the book felt the same, other things felt different. Aragorn does not struggle at all with the idea of his kingship like Viggo does in the film, Sam feels a bit more of a simpleton in the books, and Frodo seems older and wiser than the 19-year-old Elijah Wood feels in the movies. All of these things are small differences and as I was reading book one and book two, I found I still liked the movies for what they are and tried to be (although that scene where Frodo tells Sam to leave just before Shelob’s lair, that he doesn’t need him anymore, will never make sense to me), but for the most part I liked both film and book fairly evenly. But entering into book three, I realized how certain characters got the short end of the movie stick. Particularly Eowyn and Faramir. I’ll be frank, I don’t know how you would have written more of them into the story without bogging down the pacing of the rest of the movie, but that’s kind of my point, Eowyn’s story is so good she needs her own dang movie so everyone can discuss how amazing and complex she is. And Faramir too, but we’ll get to him in a moment.

Eowyn in the movie is played wonderfully by Miranda Otto. Seriously, the casting of this series is pretty near perfect. Her part is relatively small, but they touch on all the main points of her character. She’s a fierce warrior, but she feels stuck in a cage staying at home having to care for her people and the man she considers a father all by herself, she falls for Aragorn, he doesn’t return her love, she wants to ride to war, she does so secretly, she kills the Witch-King, she receives the honor and valor she has always wanted, she marries Faramir, bada bing, bada boom, done. It’s a nice lil package, but it’s the highlight reel because there is so much more to Eowyn than that...

So to know Eowyn, we have to know the people of Rohan. Faramir does a nice job summing them up when he refers to them while talking to Sam and Frodo in The Window on the West, “If the Rohirrim are grown in some ways more like to us (the people of Gondor), enhanced in arts and gentleness, we too have become more like to them. For as the Rohirrim do, we now love war and valor as things good in themselves, both as a sport and an end. We esteem a warrior, nonetheless, above other crafts.” Faramir continues to talk of war “as is the need of their day,” a necessary evil, but you can tell... he’s really not into it. This is shown in a few different ways throughout the books (his relationship in contrast with his brother/father as one example), but the place it really hits home happens earlier in the same chapter when he states this zinger, “War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.” (Side note, Faramir is the best and I know everybody loves fawning over King Viggo Aragorn, but y'all are sleeping on the best man in the whole series! Faramir is where it is at. He’s far more complex than Aragorn and I will fangirl over him more later on, but we’re still on Eowyn, so I’ll continue.) So the people of Rohan are a proud, fierce, war-loving crowd. They actually sing songs as they are killing people in battle. Think “whistle while you work,” but fiercer and more insane. But Faramir is not dissing them; he is not implying they are war-hungry, or war-mongers, simply the Rohirrim believe proving themselves in battle is a right they deserve.

Enter Eowyn. In contrast to Faramir, who seems to have a sober understanding of war and battle, Eowyn finds her worth in it. We can see this most obviously in her attraction to Aragorn. In the movie, their attraction seems to develop in a natural, innocent way. I vaguely remember Miranda Otto mentioning in some interview for the DVD special features that part of the reason why it’s so tragic that Aragorn turns Eowyn down is that he knows they would make a good match. Essentially if Aragorn hadn’t met Arwen first, Aragorn and Eowyn could be together. Honestly, with how the movie presented their relationship, yah, I get it. Except that’s not how it is in the books. Aragorn, in The Houses of Healing, looks to Eomer and says, “I say to you that she loves you more truly than me; for you she loves and knows; but in me she loves only a shadow and a thought: a hope of glory and great deeds, and lands far from the fields of Rohan.” Eowyn desires the great deeds of war, not like Faramir does: as a means to protect a people, but as a way to prove herself. Faramir seems to find an honor in all crafts and positions, but Eowyn, although protective of them, talks lowly of her own people, consistently stating she is not a “dry-nurse” or a “serving-woman” but higher above them as a member of the House of Eorl. Eowyn speaks of a hierarchy within Rohan, consistently placing herself above the other women who are care-takers or mothers. What makes this even more tragic is that it’s not entirely her fault that she has come to this thinking. Gandalf, again in The House of Healing, explains to Eomer, “Think you that Wormtongue had poison only for Theoden’s ears? ‘What is the house of Eorl but a thatched barn where brigands drink in the reek, and their brats roll on the floor among dogs?’ Have you not heard these words before? My lord, if your sister’s love for you, and her will still bent her duty, had not restrained her lips, you might have heard even such things as these escape them. But who knows what she spoke in the darkness, alone, in the bitter watches of the night, when all her life seemed shrinking, and the walls of her bower closing in on her, a hutch to trammel some wild thing in?” It’s tragic. And what’s worse is Eomer’s shock in thinking about his sister in this light. He never really knew her. No one did. Eowyn has always been fighting alone. Which is what makes her conclusion so satisfying...

Eowyn rides into the Battle of Pelennor and kills the Witch-king (with the help of Merry). As I mentioned before, this is covered very well in the film, there is the great “I am no man” line which is taken from the book and although Eowyn is injured it seems she finally got her chance to defend herself in battle, like the other able-bodied men, so we’re meant to rejoice at her triumph, which I did when I saw the film. Except, again, that’s not the point in the book. Obviously, it’s great that the Witch-king is dead, but that event is the rising action leading into Eowyn’s healing, not her resolution… because Eowyn still wants to die in battle. She survived the Witch-king, she is being forced to heal her wounds in the House of Healing, but all she wants to do is die. Die as King Theoden has just done in battle (crushed by the body of his own horse) because this is the only way she can achieve the honor she feels she deserves. Because, again, Aragorn won’t give her that honor. And Faramir challenges this notion directly to Eowyn when they meet each other in the House of Healing, “You desired to have the love of the Lord Aragorn. Because he was high and puissant, and you wanted to have renown and glory and to be lifted far above the mean things of that crawled on the earth. But when he gave you only understanding and pity, then you desired to have nothing, unless a brave death in battle.” And it is only here, with Faramir, the first person to really see Eowyn and challenge her openly, does she acknowledge the truth, and her darkness (her desire for death) passes. It’s so beautiful. Eowyn exclaims, “Behold, the shadow has departed! I will be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.” And if you find a sadness or a disappointment in Eowyn’s proclamation of a life of peace than you are not paying attention to what Tolkien is putting down.

This is important because I’ve heard this complaint before… Tolkien is not saying that it is wrong for Eowyn to participate in battle, to be a shieldmaiden, because she is a woman, (there are multiple instances in the book where Eowyn is described as a worthy warrior alongside her male companions. Hamma, may he rests in peace, nominates Eowyn as the person to manage the. whole. kingdom in place of the king when Theoden and Eomer leave for Helms Deep. So there’s that.) Tolkien is saying it is wrong to glorify battle, death, and destruction. full stop. No matter who you are. It is a point that is continually being made time and time again throughout the whole series by almost every character. And it should be no surprise coming from a man who fought in the first world war and then lived through the second. “I will not take joy only in the songs of slaying,” is really what Tolkien is trying to drive home here. Eowyn is still a warrior. Right after she accepts Faramir’s proposal and Aragorn is crowned king, Eowyn is like, “Faramir, I love you. I’m gonna marry you. But I have some important business to take care of back in Rohan with my brother, so I’m gonna leave… I’ll be back in like a month probably. Bye.” Yes, girl! That is the moment we should be applauding. Not the moment where Eowyn kills the Witch-king, but the moment where Eowyn realizes herself as a warrior but also a healer and there being a time and honor in both of those crafts if they have a proper foundation. It’s the moment when Eowyn finally sees and knows herself. And you know what Faramir says in response to Eowyn’s leaving? Nothing. He lets her go to do her thing because he is the best and I love him.

On to Faramir!

Ok. So. I’ll be brief here. Or I’ll try to be. One, because I think I’ve already shown a fair amount of Faramir’s great qualities, but also because I think his character in the film shows a stronger resemblance to the book than Eowyn’s. If we can all ignore that scene where Faramir drags Frodo and Sam to Osgiliath (because that never happens *eye roll*), and focus on the dialogue dealing with his dad, we’re getting pretty faithful Faramir content as pretty much all of the Faramir - Denethor dialogue is taken directly from the book, and it’s all golden. And when I say golden, I mean deadly. The, “‘Since you were robbed of Boromir, I will do what I can in his stead. If I should return, think better of me, Father.’ - ‘That will depend on the manner of your return.’” exchange between Faramir and Denethor is brutal. To say that Faramir has daddy issues is an understatement. But that brings us up to an important point. Faramir is just as broken as Eowyn is and their meeting is not so much so Faramir can save Eowyn but for them to find healing in each other.

Faramir’s dad is insane. Literally. By the end of the book, Denethor loses his mind and tries to kill both him and his son by burning them alive. Faramir is not fully aware his dad is trying to kill him because by the time Denethor is building a funeral pyre, Faramir is slipping in and out of consciousness due to his battle wounds (to clarify, Denethor thinks his son is already dead, which is why he wants to share the funeral pyre with him. It doesn’t make it better, but it’s the facts). So the last thing Faramir hears, in full conscience, is that his dad wishes that he had died in his brother’s place and the only way he can prove his worth is sustaining victory in battle. Which he knows he cannot do. So Faramir goes to battle, is injured, and ultimately wants to die. Sound familiar? But he doesn’t. Aragorn calls him back to health in the House of Healing and he meets Eowyn.

Faramir likes Eowyn from the moment they meet but can see she is struggling and doesn’t know the exact cause of her pain. So he talks to the best wingman in Middle Earth, Merry, and puts all the details together that Eowyn is still pretty hung up on Aragorn, and for all the wrong reasons. Faramir decides to gently pursue Eowyn which, if you think about it, is quite the courageous thing to do considering Faramir’s past. Faramir’s whole life consists of being left behind, the man that is not chosen. As we established above, his own father chose and loved his brother, Boromir, over him. Boromir was chosen to join the Fellowship of the Ring, not Faramir. It’s even in his job description to be picked over. Faramir is a Steward of Gondor, he’s to hold court until the proper king appears and then literally step out of the way. Here is another area where potentially someone is going to choose someone else in place of him. Faramir questions Eowyn about her love for Aragorn asking, “[I’m assuming] you cannot choose between us. Eowyn, do you not love me, or will you not?” Ugh, tragic. She admits, “I wished to be loved by another, but I desire no man’s pity.” Faramir clarifies, “I do not offer you my pity. For you are a lady high and valiant and you yourself won renown that shall not be forgotten; and you are a lady beautiful, I deem, beyond even the words of the Elven-tongue to tell. And I love you. Once I pitied your sorrow. But now, were you sorrowless, without fear, or any lack, were you the blissful Queen of Gondor, still I would love you. Eowyn, do you not love me?”

It’s actually nerve-wracking when you leave out Eowyn’s response to this question; to know Faramir is asking someone he loves dearly for love in return, something he was rarely afforded in his life, especially in the beautiful way in which he asked it. He sees Eowyn for who she truly is, someone even she doesn’t fully recognize yet, and who she can be: a valiant queen. And not just any queen, Faramir says the Queen of Gondor, Aragorn’s wife. Faramir basically admits, “I know there’s a chance you could still be with Aragorn, but even if you did, I would still love you regardless.” It’s so courageous and beautiful, and in a lot of ways, the ultimate test to see if Faramir has really healed over the wounds his father has left. The wounds of being left unchosen. But Eowyn does choose, she chooses to be with him, and they ultimately provide healing and understanding to each other.

And that’s all left unsaid in the films. None of it is really in there which is such a bummer because it’s so good. And this whole story has been waiting for me to re-discover it on my shelf for the past 13 years and I’ve finally made my way back. Can’t believe I almost missed it.

Anyhow, thank you for coming to my TED Talk on why Faramir and Eowyn are the best and why reading books is cool.

I probably could write more, but I’ve taken a brief break in reading the dang book to write this essay and I still have a few more chapters to go to finish the whole thing.

Good day.

#lord of the rings #faramir #eowyn #rohan #gondor #JRR Tolkien #aragorn #reading is cool #return of the king

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mittensmorgul · 6 years

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Hi oh my gosh I love your harry potter dean meta thing that was absolutely wonderful!!!!!! I was wondering if you could point me towards the meta you mentioned about how Sam needed Harry Potter while Dean needed Lord Of The Rings? Thank you!!!

Oh gosh, this is seemingly right out of the blue... :P (I think I know which post you’re talking about, but it’s... a really old post... and I only got a heads up that HP stuff seemed to be up for discussion today via the chattybubbles with several folks... I’m still behind on my dash :P)

(after checking, I think this is the post you’re referring to? A post I wrote after 12.05, when we were discussing Dean’s ongoing eye-rolling at all the Harry Potter references, which go all the way back to 7.20, and really even further back than that... 6.12 had Bobby and Dean collectively eye rolling about a Dumbledore reference to their dragon situation)

I went looking for the meta I was referring to in that post, but I don’t seem to have reblogged it... and it wasn’t written by me... and it was more than a year ago so I’m sorry I don’t remember who wrote it or where to find it now :(

But just think about it.. Sam was the “misfit” child in his family. He was the one cursed with strange powers that were kept hidden from him, only learning about them when they popped out at inconvenient times. He didn’t feel like he fit in with his own family, and he didn’t want anything to do with the life they seemed to fall into naturally. Then he ran away to find himself at a special school (Stanford, in Sam’s case), and found people he really got along with well but who still lacked an understanding of Sam’s previous life because it was completely outside their own sphere of experience.

Sounds an awful lot like Harry Potter. I mean, it’s not a perfect match, but then when Jess dies and Sam disappears into hunting with Dean again, and his psychic powers become seemingly stronger, he’s confronted with the fact that he’s not just a normal muggle, even in relation to his true family legacy. He’s literally a “chosen one” just like Harry, who had an unwanted destiny thrust upon him when he was just a baby-- one that cost his mother her life, and set up cosmic forces against him. It’s just... when he was a kid, before he learned about all this destiny crap, escaping into Harry’s fictional world of magic and monsters would’ve probably felt like a huge comfort to him. That was the story he NEEDED as a kid.

But Dean... we know he’s always had a bit of the wanderer in him. When he was old enough to read The Hobbit and LotR, I’m betting he could see himself as Bilbo, as Frodo, and eventually as Aragorn. Heck, maybe even as someone like Faramir. On his worst days, as Gollum, and when he was feeling particularly helpless, maybe as Gandalf. Hell, maybe even Eowyn.

(not even going into how many of Led Zeppelin’s songs are influenced by imagery and characters in LotR, and I’m sure his favorite band wouldn’t have pushed him to have an interest in the books just because of that-- which is another reason I refuse to believe that Dean had never heard of Cthulhu because he is a Metallica fan and would’ve at LEAST known the reference to the song Call of Ktulu. Don’t tell me he wouldn’t have looked up that reference, being a huge nerd for Metallica, even if he didn’t end up being a huge Lovecraft nerd because of it. Okay, moving on...)

Point is, there is A LOT of what I think of as the best of Dean in the various characters of LotR (but probably especially Aragorn...). I mean, I wrote an entire fic about it. Hurry Up And Wait. But I think I started really thinking about this while writing Project Beyonce, and really that entire Tumblr Anonymous ‘verse. I play his dislike of HP off in the first story for laughs, but it escalates in Just Like A Honeymoon (because really that entire installment of the series escalates into something a lil bit dark).

But when he was a kid, Dean NEEDED to hear stories like Bilbo’s, where a regular little hobbit could make his mark on the world and help slay the dragon. He needed to hear stories like Frodo’s and Sam’s where an ordinary person could do extraordinary things, even if the world never knew about any of it. He needed to read about Aragorn having this responsibility put on his shoulder from the time he was little to wander the world unappreciated and even reviled, because the world had been allowed to forget that evil still lurked out in the wilderness even if people like Aragorn had been keeping it at bay while they lived out their peaceful lives unknowing and uncaring of his existence.

And he needed to read about someone like Aragorn finally earning his birthright as king, but only by proving to himself that he was worthy of it. His forefathers had not been able to resist temptation time and again, and it had led to the downfall of his people over and over again, and yet Aragorn was able to defy that destiny and finally defeat the great lurking evil that had quietly crept across the land once again.

I mean... that’s “I’m a hero!” Dean from 4.13 right there.

That’s why LotR was the story Dean NEEDED at that age.

It’s not just a “well Dean’s a nerd so of course he would’ve loved both!” It’s part of who Dean is as a person (but more importantly it’s part of his characterization as a fictional character himself) that lends itself to this division.

#oh DEAN #i need a tag for dean's particular brand of nerdery #sam sympathizes and dean empathizes #they're just different people with different experiences and different journeys and needs #Anonymous

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the-seas-song · 6 years

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Tolkien Gen Week Day 5

DAY FIVE: diversity How does diversity affect Tolkien’s characters and your interpretations of them? Does a disability or orientation affect relationships with other characters? Have you lost sleep thinking about hobbit race relations? This is the day to consider all the other factors that go into a character’s life.

Work has been insane lately, so unfortunately I wasn't able to write everything I wanted to for this amazing week, but I really wanted to make sure I got this one done.

This is mainly a thank you post. First, I want to give a big thank you to @starlightwalking for creating and running this week. A lot of time must have gone into it, and I've had a great time.

I love all forms of love, and one of my favorite things about Tolkien's works is that he highlights a large variety of emotionally intimate platonic relationships. Thank you Tolkien. And also thank you to everyone who worked on the films, for not only portraying those in the texts, but actually adding and expanding the amount of deep platonic relationships.

As someone who is gray aro/ace, another one of my favorite things about Tolkien's works is the diversity in racial sexualities.

Elves only fall in love once in their life (technically it is possible for them to fall in love a second time, but we are only given two cases in all of Tolkien’s works, and both times there was a greater power at work). The foundation of elven-kind is memory and emotion. Their souls control their bodies. Elvish memories remain crystal clear, no matter how many decades or centuries pass. They never fade, even the slightest bit. Connected to memory is emotion. Elves feel things in a clearer way. They are ruled by emotion. They can literally just lie down and kill themselves with their mind, if they wish. Also, because of this clarity, they know from the beginning if they are feeling romantic-love or friendship-love for someone. There is nothing more important to an elf than their relationships, of any kind. Their anti-possessiveness goes so far that they will not even say 'I have two children’.

Tolkien says in LACE that almost all elves marry, and marry young. However, the entire legendarium contradicts that. Over half the elves we meet very marry/are never said to be married, and almost all of those that do marry do so well into their centuries and millenniums. Feanor and Nerdanel are literally the only elven couple that we are told married young.

Also, who could ever forget the tragedy of Beleg's death? “Thus ended Beleg Strongbow, truest of friends, greatest in skill of all that harboured in the woods of Beleriand in the Elder Days, at the hand of him whom he most loved; and that grief was graven on the face of Túrin and never faded.” - The Silmarillion

We are also given a tantalizing hint of one deep female friendship: “Fingolfin’s wife Anaire refused to leave Aman, largely because of her friendship with Earwen wife of Arafinwe (though she was a Noldo and not one of the Teleri). But all her children went with their father.” - The Shibboleth of Feanor

Another thing I rarely see people mention is Tolkien explicitly separating sex and gender:

According to the Eldar, the only 'character' of any person that was not subject to change was the difference of sex. For this they held to belong not only to the body but also to the mind equally: that is, to the person as a whole. [cut] Those who returned from Mandos, therefore, after the death of their first body, returned always to the same name and to the same sex as formerly.

[cut]

For the [souls] of the Elves are of their nature male and female, and not their [bodies] only. - LACE

Because their souls control their bodies, there are no trans elves. However, the fact that Tolkien took pains to explicitly say this for elves, throws the door wide open for all of the other races!

We're also told that about two thirds of dwarves are naturally aromantic, and those who aren’t only fall in love once. So, another gray aro/ace race!

There are so many amazing fanworks out there that diversify Tolkien's works even more.

Throughout my years of being a fan I've met a fair amount of purists, and there's nothing wrong with being a purist. Most of them are lovely people. I am, however, a firm believer in Roland Barthes's The Death of the Author (found here) theory. The great thing is Tolkien was too:

The Lord of the Rings has been read by many people since it finally appeared in print; and I should like to say something here with reference to the many opinions or guesses that I have received or have read concerning the motives and meaning of the tale. The prime motive was the desire of a tale-teller to try his hand at a really long story that would hold the attention of readers, amuse them, delight them, and at times maybe excite them or deeply move them. As a guide I had only my own feelings for what is appealing or moving, and for many the guide was inevitably often at fault. Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer. But even from the points of view of many who have enjoyed my story there is much that fails to please. It is perhaps not possible in a long tale to please everybody at all points, nor to displease everybody at the same points; for I find from the letters that I have received that the passages or chapters that are to some a blemish are all by others specially approved. The most critical reader of all, myself, now finds many defects, minor and major, but being fortunately under no obligation either to review the book or to write it again, he will pass over these in silence, except one that has been noted by others: the book is too short.

As for any inner meaning or 'message', it has in the intention of the author none. It is neither allegorical nor topical. As the story grew it put down roots (into the past) and threw out unexpected branches: but its main theme was settled from the outset by the inevitable choice of the Ring as the link between it and The Hobbit.

[cut]

Other arrangements could be devised according to the tastes or views of those who like allegory or topical reference. But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.

An author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by his experience, but the ways in which a story-germ uses the soil of experience are extremely complex, and attempts to define the process are at best guesses from evidence that is inadequate and ambiguous. It is also false, though naturally attractive, when the lives of an author and critic have overlapped, to suppose that the movements of thought or the events of times common to both were necessarily the most powerful influences. One has indeed personally to come under the shadow of war to feel fully its oppression; but as the years go by it seems now often forgotten that to be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than to be involved in 1939 and the following years. By 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead. Or to take a less grievous matter: it has been supposed by some that 'The Scouring of the Shire' reflects the situation in England at the time when I was finishing my tale. It does not. It is an essential part of the plot, foreseen from the outset, though in the event modified by the character of Saruman as developed in the story without, need I say, any allegorical significance or contemporary political reference whatsoever. It has indeed some basis in experience, though slender (for the economic situation was entirely different), and much further back. The country in which I lived in childhood was being shabbily destroyed before I was ten, in days when motor-cars were rare objects (I had never seen one) and men were still building suburban railways. Recently I saw in a paper a picture of the last decrepitude of the once thriving corn-mill beside its pool that long ago seemed to me so important. I never liked the looks of the Young miller, but his father, the Old miller, had a black beard, and he was not named Sandyman. - LotR Foreward

And:

The Lord of the Rings as a story was finished so long ago now that I can take a largely impersonal view of it, and find 'interpretations' quite amusing; even those that I might make myself, which are mostly post scriptum: I had very little particular, conscious, intellectual, intention in mind at any point.* Except for a few deliberately disparaging reviews – such as that of Vol. II in the New Statesman,3 in which you and I were both scourged with such terms as 'pubescent' and 'infantilism' – what appreciative readers have got out of the work or seen in it has seemed fair enough, even when I do not agree with it. Always excepting, of course, any 'interpretations' in the mode of simple allegory: that is, the particular and topical. In a larger sense, it is I suppose impossible to write any 'story' that is not allegorical in proportion as it 'comes to life'; since each of us is an allegory, embodying in a particular tale and clothed in the garments of time and place, universal truth and everlasting life. Anyway most people that have enjoyed The Lord of the Rings have been affected primarily by it as an exciting story; and that is how it was written. Though one does not, of course, escape from the question 'what is it about?' by that back door. That would be like answering an aesthetic question by talking of a point of technique. I suppose that if one makes a good choice in what is 'good narrative' (or 'good theatre') at a given point, it will also be found to be the case that the event described will be the most 'significant'.

* Take the Ents, for instance. I did not consciously invent them at all. The chapter called 'Treebeard', from Treebeard's first remark on p. 66, was written off more or less as it stands, with an effect on my self (except for labour pains) almost like reading some one else's work. And I like Ents now because they do not seem to have anything to do with me. I daresay something had been going on in the 'unconscious' for some time, and that accounts for my feeling throughout, especially when stuck, that I was not inventing but reporting (imperfectly) and had at times to wait till 'what really happened' came through. But looking back analytically I should say that Ents are composed of philology, literature, and life.

[cut]

That of course does not mean that the main idea of the story was a war-product. That was arrived at in one of the earliest chapters still surviving (Book I, 2). It is really given, and present in germ, from the beginning, though I had no conscious notion of what the Necromancer stood for (except ever-recurrent evil) in The Hobbit, nor of his connexion with the Ring. But if you wanted to go on from the end of The Hobbit I think the ring would be your inevitable choice as the link. If then you wanted a large tale, the Ring would at once acquire a capital letter; and the Dark Lord would immediately appear. As he did, unasked, on the hearth at Bag End as soon as I came to that point. So the essential Quest started at once. But I met a lot of things on the way that astonished me. Tom Bombadil I knew already; but I had never been to Bree. Strider sitting in the comer at the inn was a shock, and I had no more idea who he was than had Frodo. The Mines of Moria had been a mere name; and of Lothlórien no word had reached my mortal ears till I came there. Far away I knew there were the Horse-lords on the confines of an ancient Kingdom of Men, but Fangorn Forest was an unforeseen adventure. I had never heard of the House of Eorl nor of the Stewards of Gondor. Most disquieting of all, Saruman had never been revealed to me, and I was as mystified as Frodo at Gandalf's failure to appear on September 22.1 knew nothing of the Palantíri, though the moment the Orthanc-stone was cast from the window, I recognized it, and knew the meaning of the 'rhyme of lore' that had been running in my mind: seven stars and seven stones and one white tree. These rhymes and names will crop up; but they do not always explain themselves. I have yet to discover anything about the cats of Queen Berúthiel.8 But I did know more or less all about Gollum and his pan, and Sam, and I knew that the way was guarded by a Spider. And if that has anything to do with my being stung by a tarantula when a small child,9 people are welcome to the notion (supposing the improbable, that any one is interested). I can only say that I remember nothing about it, should not know it if I had not been told; and I do not dislike spiders particularly, and have no urge to kill them. I usually rescue those whom I find in the bath! - Letter 163

Tolkien's loathing of allegory is well known. However, most don't talk about the fact that his fundamental reason for loathing it is because it enforces the domination of the author over the freedom of the reader - “I think that many confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.”

So, as we continue to love these works and create our own, let's never forget that Tolkien himself believed in our agency.

P.S. I have to share this quote from Letter 66. It's too funny!

A new character has come on the scene (I am sure I did not invent him, I did not even want him, though I like him, but there he came walking into the woods of Ithilien): Faramir, the brother of Boromir – and he is holding up the 'catastrophe' by a lot of stuff about the history of Gondor and Rohan (with some very sound reflections no doubt on martial glory and true glory): but if he goes on much more a lot of him will have to be removed to the appendices — where already some fascinating material on the hobbit Tobacco industry and the Languages of the West have gone.

#Faramir #Tolkien #tolkiengenweek #Mine

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avelera · 7 years

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Avelera’s epic “Why I Love Boromir” post aka

Boromir. So much more than a meme.

Agarlandoffreshlycuttears asked me to talk about my love of Boromir since I have a few Aragorn hate posts out there and boy does this topic of discussion take me back.

(For the record, a lot of my earliest opinions of Boromir was formed as an impressionable 14 year old experiencing her first head-over-heels male crush (I mean seriously, look at this guy:

) but people aware of my love of Thorin have probably noticed I tend to have a thing for complicated characters who experience a fall from grace. I find them much more interesting than characters who never need to struggle with morality or see a serious risk to their soul. I don’t hate Aragorn as such, but I have a lot of issues with the way his character was handled, so I hope the negative stuff comes across as more tongue-in-cheek and critique-oriented rather than bashing.)

So let’s begin from the beginning with some very Nuanced and Intellectual™ reasons to love Boromir.

- In Rivendell, Boromir first shows us how awesome he is by riding in on a horse like a goddamn Disney prince *swoon*

(damn-you-why-can’t-i-find-a-gif-of-this.jpeg)

With that out of the way, let’s list his many virtues:

Boromir is practical.

During the Council he proceeds to bring up some rather valid points about the risk of the whole “the Hobbits are bringing the One Ring to Mordor” thing. We, as viewers, know they’re the main characters so the hobbits will probably succeed. But from an objective viewer within the Middle Earth universe, this plan to destroy the Ring is batshit crazy from the outset and it only gets worse when we decide hobbits are the ones to do it. We’re literally going to take some of the weakest, smallest, least experienced creatures no one has ever heard of in the world, give them a super weapon, then have them go with an honor guard of 5 effective fighters (including Gandalf who has been known to fuck off at random intervals when escorting hobbits on dangerous quests) to the only place in the world where, if the Ring goes there, Sauron wins. Game over. He gets his lich-y phylactery back and gets super powered like it’s goddamn Mario Star Power. Everyone dies. Boromir’s people in Gondor (and Aragorn’s people, if he ever gets around to it) will die first. Horribly.

But, y’know, the power of love and friendship will somehow win the day so once literally 4 guys decide that this admittedly horrendous plan is the only one they’ve got, Boromir gamely comes along. He can’t even pledge his sword because Aragorn took that line already, thanks Aragorn.

Why not just take my kingdom I’ve been training to rule my whole life while you’re at it. OH WAIT.

Boromir is kind.

As the Fellowship cross Middle Earth, climb the mountain, the shots of Beautiful New Zealand are endless, we get the freakin adorable scene of Boromir training Merry and Pippin to fight (thanks for nothing Aragorn, I guess giving them swords was as far as you thought out how helpless these guys are). If this smile doesn’t melt your heart I’m not sure we can be friends anymore.

But seriously, everything about the friendship of Boromir with Merry and Pippin gives me happy smiley tears.

Boromir is human.

They climb some more mountains, Boromir has one of the most freaking amazing scenes in the whole movie where he picks up the Ring and is clearly hypnotized by it, illustrating its danger and the danger he poses to the Quest as a result.

I’m going to leap ahead here and say why I love this scene, and that’s because Boromir actually faces the threat of the Ring, unlike Aragorn. We do have a moment between Aragorn and the Ring later when Frodo (recently traumatized by Boromir’s freak out) asks Aragorn if he can protect Frodo from himself. The fear of being like his 2,000-years-dead ancestor flashing in his eyes, Aragorn sends Frodo along (to almost certain death).

But the thing is, the Ring was never really a threat to Aragorn, we never really got a scene of him struggling with it at all. It’s what makes his “fear of being like Isildur” so baffling and annoying. At no point does Aragorn actually struggle with that risk. Unlike Thorin (and I’m gonna have to Thorin-stan here for a moment because my love of Thorin is intimately tied into my love of Boromir) who fears the hereditary madness of his family for good reason because he does succumb to it and then break free, Aragorn’s fear comes across as whiney (and even carrying borderline internalized hatred of Men given to him by movie Elrond) given its lack of justification within the films. Told to us as Aragorn’s main emotional motivation and fear, besides that of annihilation if the Ring isn’t destroyed, it ends up being extremely weak that he supposedly fears this ancestral corruption which never has any tangible impact or risk to him. Frankly, the only time it really comes up that Aragorn is related to Isildur are both times pretty freakin’ awesome for him because they involve raising a ghost army to Deus Ex Pulverize Sauron’s forces and becoming king of a frickin’ wedding cake of a multi-tiered beautiful city that Boromir had to talk him into liking in the first place.

*Ahem*

But anyway, that scene on the mountain is super creepy and gorgeous and I love it.

Boromir is hilarious.

Boromir is empathetic.

Boromir is the one who spots the trauma that the Fellowship has just gone through by losing Gandalf (and Gimili is no doubt still reeling from the revelation of his family members’ deaths in Moria) and calls for a quick rest now that they’re out of the mines. If I hadn’t already been in love him from the training scene with Merry and Pippin, I probably would have fallen even harder at that scene. He’s empathetic in a way a good leader should be. While Aragorn’s point is valid about the arrival of the orcs and their lack of time, he comes across as kind of a dick about it and I can’t help but be uncharitable in my view of him as a result. It feels like the threat of the orc’s pursuit is set up just to make Aragorn right and Boromir wrong, since without that threat Aragorn would very clearly be the bad guy in that scene. Would 5 minutes have really made that much of a difference?

Boromir loves his people.

Probably THE moment that won me over about Boromir was the moment in Lothlorien when he gives his worshipful account of Gondor to Aragorn. In the extended edition the scene continues to one where he chastises Aragorn for not showing more interest in Gondor.

(Also, look at him in that scene, GAWD)

I think this pinged me at a young age for several reasons.

- First, a love of the wider “off screen” world. LotR is a sprawling book, but a film can’t always show what’s going on outside the narrator’s view. Through Boromir in this scene and several others, we get a sense of what our characters are fighting for. It would have been easy for the stakes of LotR to remain the lives of the Fellowship members, certainly they are the ones in the most immediate peril. But Boromir’s speech reminds us of the wider world and the threat it faces, the nations that will fall and the lives that will be ruined if Sauron wins. It re-frames his reasons for wanting to use the Ring - he feared the argument against using it was just a matter of moral purity, at the risk of Gondor falling and with it that everyone he knows and loves will die.

Can Boromir truly be blamed for not understanding the threat of the Ring? I think even the most ardent fans are sometimes puzzled over exactly what the Ring does, and what it would do should it fall into the wrong hands. Throughout a story based around the threat of the Ring, the Ring itself and its powers remain strangely abstract. So I don’t think Boromir’s view of the debate as an unconvincing one between the very tangible threat of lives lost vs. the more abstract risk of moral corruption that even Elrond and Gandalf never clearly express is understandable. We as the audience have greater perspective on the threat of the Ring, and by the end Boromir understands that threat too, how at the very least the Ring will turn friend against friend in the pursuit of its power, and he fully repents.

- Second, Boromir’s love for his people highlighted Aragorn’s failing, which lead me to the heart of much of my dislike of Aragorn’s character. As someone who read the books before seeing the movie, I was rather annoyed by the whole “reluctant king” trope that was shoved onto Aragorn for a modern audience. It is a rather cliche moral imposed by PJ that we see throughout his Tolkien works, that those who want to be king will be necessity be bad kings, and that tropes annoys the fuck out of me throughout fantasy in general.

(Certainly there is the risk of the power-mad, but I think that puts us at risk of one of our current issues, the paradox that those who want power in order to good are therefore under suspicion and those with greater experience at governing are seen as a threat so we should only allow the incompetent BUT ANYWAY)

Aragorn in the books wanted to be king. He worked hard to be worthy of the people of Gondor by serving in various militaries such as Rohan’s throughout his younger days. He wanted to be king in part to be worthy of Arwen, but also because he loved the people of Gondor. His avoidance of the throne was about building up the necessary skills to be worthy of it. By throwing out that aspect of his character, and replacing it with a nebulous fear of being like Isildur, an ancestor that died two thousand years ago (which is like someone fearing they’ll be just like their ancestor, Julius Caesar, or Elizabeth II fearing she’ll be just like Henry VIII if we want to take Numenorean life spans into account by which I mean completely batshit crazy example of a fear BUT ANYWAY). This alteration to Aragorn wreaked quite a number of consequences.

For example, it kinda makes his attitude towards Arwen seem kinda shitty because instead of working hard to be worthy of her he’s kinda just a smelly ranger who is actively avoiding his responsibilities in order to traipse around the wild and serve in random militaries like Rohan for funsies and while I respect Arwen’s choice to love whoever she wishes, it kinda makes Aragorn the deadbeat in that relationship.

But the major consequence of reluctant king Aragorn is that, yeah, I kinda gotta agree with Boromir - his lack of interest in the people of Gondor is really troubling. It wouldn’t be hard to see Aragorn as someone who prefers the elves (who raised him) and generally from his actions and his words sees Men as a lesser people. That’s not someone I would want as my king, quite frankly, if I were a Gondorian.

In addition, we have the fact that Boromir’s family the Stewards have been ruling Gondor for centuries. It would literally be like the aforementioned descendant of Julius Caesar showing up in Rome today and saying they have an ancestral right to rule there, ie it’s batshit crazy but we’re living in a fantasy world SO ANYWAY. Boromir (and Faramir) have more experience and arguably a better claim that Aragorn in the films. Denethor was a good ruler until he got his hands on a Palantir, but even if Denethor is now a poor ruler, I still have a lot of sympathy for him because this was done to him by evil forces beyond his control (in parallel to what happened to Gollum and to Bilbo and Frodo through the One Ring. Literally. The Palantir and the One Ring are both connected to Sauron who is actively corrupting them. So anyway, all the Denethor hate makes me sad and I’m probably the only person in the whole fandom who actually has a soft spot for him.)

So to recap, that conversation in Lothlorien to me showed that Boromir 1) cares about a wider world than the Fellowship, and that the Fellowship isn’t the only thing going on. 2) That he’s a pretty damn good leader who cares about his people, in contrast with Aragorn. Even if we accept that “Learning to love the people of Gondor” was part of Aragorn’s character arc, and Boromir’s fridging death demonstrably pushed him in the direction of “learning to love the people that he’s “destined” to rule” can I just point out Holy SHIT Aragorn why do you need your friend DYING to figure out why maybe you should care about the people you’re supposed to rule????

But back to Lothlorien: Boromir feels the increasing presence of the Ring. He is shamed by Galadriel’s scrutiny, she scares the shit out of everyone, particularly him but the reason she so quickly identifies the threat Boromir poses is because she feels that threat as well. Both Galadriel and Boromir share the quality of protectors of their people who have a Ring freakout in front of Frodo (though Boromir gets a lot more flak for it than Galadriel).

I don’t think that point can be overstated. Boromir’s vulnerability to the Ring comes from his love of his people, not from personal ambition or love of power, except in how that power can protect others. It’s one of the evils of the Ring that it takes that which is good in people and twists it to evil purposes. (One could even argue that the Ring did this to Frodo as well, using his love and protectiveness of the Shire to make inroads into his mind and heart, when as a result of agreeing to carry it to Rivendell to get it out of the Shire he ended up being that much more exposed to it.)

Boromir is remorseful.

To be honest, the scene of Boromir succumbing to the Ring’s call is one of the greatest emotional beats in the films. I don’t feel any need to defend Boromir’s actions, they’re obviously terrible there, but godDAMN do they drive home the threat of the Ring. And here’s the thing, that threat wouldn’t be nearly so scary if it didn’t happen to such a demonstrably good person who clearly cared so much about the hobbits that he was willing to die for them. Even without his guilt over his attack on Frodo, you know he still would have gladly died saving Merry and Pippin’s lives.

Let’s not even go into how fucking heartbreaking everything about his death is because I might burst into tears right here. Suffice to say, Boromir’s death was heroic. He didn’t need to die to redeem himself, he deserved to live, that argument in general is stupid. His death is tragic because of what a great person he was, and the Ring is terrible because of what it did to such a great person.

Boromir was a hero.

We do get that one shining, gorgeous moment in The Two Towers EE with the retrospective on Boromir. Standing by his brother, surrounded by his men, we get a glimpse of the leader he was before he faced the corruption and deprivation of the quest. For all that Boromir is often used as an example of the corruptibility of Men in the narrative, it is clear that he was always a hero, and that the reason the threat is so fearsome is because of the heights he fell from in his moment of doubt, and how brief that fall was speaks to the strength of his will.

Boromir for me into the category of fascinating Tolkien characters who truly struggle with evil. Frodo, Bilbo, Thorin, Galadriel, Theoden, Denethor, and Boromir all go head to head with the corrupting powers of Sauron (and Sauron-like forces) and risk losing their soul to them. Some fail. Some do terrible things while they’re fighting off that influence. But for them the risk is real, what will happen if they don’t throw the influence off is clear, and the avenue into their hearts is often their love of their people and those dear to them in life. That makes them complex, interesting characters. It’s the reason I find Aragorn’s flirtation with corruption to be unconvincing, because he never seems truly at risk and there was never a real moment where it seemed he might give in or what the consequences would be if he did. By contrast Boromir did show us the risks. He was complex, he showed us the world beyond the narrow scope of the nine members of the Fellowship, he showed us what was at stake both on a global scale and on a personal one. As a result, he was one of the most fascinating characters in the film trilogy and I love him to this day.

Some Boromir fic recs, if you made it this far

(Both are non-shippy/Gen because the only person I ever wanted to ship Boromir with was me, and goddamn the LotR fandom had some great gen fics)

Boromir’s Return, by Osheen Nevoy - in which Boromir returns to life and must struggle with his own redemption, and the strange creature that resurrected him (not a Mary Sue), one of the most complex and well-written fanfics I’ve ever read.

Veiling of the Sun, by @thegraytigress - Boromir succumbs to the Ring for more than a few moments, joining forces with the orcs sent to collect Frodo, and everything that can go wrong does go wrong. He eventually wakes from the haze to see with horror what he has done, and must set out on the road of his own redemption while the Fellowship tries to put back together the broken pieces of a quest gone horribly wrong. Heart-wrenching, one of the greatest LotR angst fics I ever read.

And the greatest gif ever made:

#boromir #lotr #fellowship of the ring #my meta #boromir meta #aragorn hate tag #i mean it's pretty mild I just think Boromir is better

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countingnothings · 6 years

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If Hobbit asks are unwelcome, feel free to ignore this, but I have enjoyed your Tolkein literary analyses and would greatly appreciate your insight on something. You might've heard of Saphroneth's "Saruman of Many Devices" fic; I'm fiddling around with a similar conceit that puts modern-armed Uruks in the Hobbit. How would Smaug react to new things? For that matter, how is Smaug written?

This is such a delightful question! It makes me feel like pulling out my notes from the rest of my LotR re-read and finish up at least Books III and IV in some kind of public way. Caveat here: I haven’t read The Hobbit in full in several years, so I may edit this post in a bit to abridge my thoughts.

OKAY SO. I had to do a bit of digging and thinking before I came around to the idea of modern-armed orcs of any kind, but gun-toting Uruks finally kind of makes sense to me. I wonder, though, to what extent Saruman’s creations are truly new, or if everything he does is just kind of a rip-off of Sauron+Morgoth’s best work. If that’s the case, I think we’d end up with a Smaug who was able to associate Uruks with Guns to some other thing he’d come across. But, because that’s less interesting (and because we already have an example of that in his treatment of Bilbo as something-almost-but-not-quite-a-dwarf), let’s assume that Saruman has actually hit the jackpot on a truly devious and new thing, and Smaug has no point of reference.

The Smaug we get in “Inside Information” is frightening because of how clever he is, but because our narrator knows the end of the story and is easing us along to it, we know, as Bilbo does not, that “there was a lot [in Bilbo’s self-description] which Smaug did not understand at all [...] but he thought he understood enough, and he chuckled in his wicked inside” (208 in the edition in front of me). Here we have the image of someone who is used to being the cleverest person in the room, who has endless patience for riddling, and who enjoys the thrill of figuring out a puzzle, especially when the puzzle-poser thinks themselves cleverer than he. As it turns out, he does understand a fair deal, both about the situation (fourteen dwarves are back; Lake-town is involved) and about the nature of its players (Bilbo is unsure whether he can really trust Thorin & Co., or the Lake-men, or himself).

Smaug has “rather an overwhelming personality,” and he knows how to use it to his advantage one-on-one, as well as, well, when he’s wreaking all sorts of fun and fiery mayhem. But he is also susceptible to flattery, as are most people who fancy themselves the smartest person in the room, and who are used to their devastating personalities rather crushing their interlocutors into quivering reverence.

He’s quick to take offense, and quick to lash out, all characteristics of particularly, shall we say, choleric dispositions. But he doesn’t often let his temper get in the way of his ability to plan and plot; he is cunning not simply because he intuits the answers to problems and sees connections without having to be told, but because he is able to allow the chill of rationality to temper his fire. He sneaks up on the dwarves at the end of the chapter in question, and only Bilbo’s quite rational caution saves them from a rather chaotic barbecue. When he doesn’t manage to catch them, foiled by the fear he too-readily instilled, his anger gets the better of him; “revenge is a dish that is best served cold” is the kind of maxim he just wouldn’t get.

In many respects, Tolkien writes him like a fire: swift, controlled only to a point, indiscriminate in destruction. He is much more clever than a fire, but he does trust his own judgement rather too well. Like all clever people, he dislikes being wrong, and when he finds himself wrong about where Thorin & Co. have made their egress, he needs to smash something. Also like clever people, when he finds the people of Esgaroth, led by the inimitable Bard, fighting against him, he gets even angrier. Don’t these people know that I’m right?! I must confess to thinking the same myself; the idea that someone would give me battle (on an intellectual, not a town-burning front, to clarify) is an affront.

So, how would a clever person, used to being the cleverest, with a short fuse and more than a bit of an ego, respond to something completely outside of their wheelhouse?

I think, for starters, with questions. Not the kind that would make him seem ignorant! No, he would carefully observe, and ask the kind of leading questions that get Bilbo to reveal far more than he means to. If you read “Inside Information,” you’ll see just how little Smaug actually says, and just how much he is able to cobble together from what little Bilbo tells him. He’d start with the obvious, get the Uruks/Saruman (although let’s be real, Saruman on the front lines? Ha!) talking about themselves with questions directed toward things he can already guess; numbers, for instance, species, the materials of these new-fangled weapons, etc. Then he’d apply just enough pressure to turn the conversation toward his areas of ignorance, give them just enough rope to hang themselves, as the saying goes.

He’d probably come to a conclusion that was about 80% right within a few minutes, and from there he’d probably start to perform the party trick of telling the unknown guests what he has guessed about them, because his pride couldn’t allow it to go unsaid. He would do this whether they came with an offer of alliance or an attempt to, y’know, oust him from the mountain.

Now, what if Smaug’s first encounter with Fighting Uruk GIs was in a battlefield? Then, we’d have something a little different. I suspect we’d have a Smaug full of rage at the NERVE of people using fire against him, on top of his utter disgust at the idea of people coming against him at all. We’d get a physical attempt to overpower rather than a mental one, but with the same motivation: Smaug knows he’s the best (well, the best that’s left, and the fact that he’s the one that’s left says something about how clever he is, or at least it does to him), and he wants other people to know it, too. Like many clever/far too ripped people, he is plagued with the worry that is he is clever/far too ripped in a forest and there is no one there to hear it, was he really clever/far too ripped?

Finally, even though Saruman on the front lines is about as likely as...anyway, a very unlikely thing, it would be utterly delightful to have two people who are used to being the cleverest person in the room in a room together, each getting increasingly irritated as the other refuses steadfastly to acknowledge their intellectual superiority. One of them would have to turn to a physical attack. I think this is likely to be the case even if your narrative demands that they be allies, perhaps even more so.

#tolkien #lit #dragons #awkward when you identify with a genocidal jewellery-obsessed worm #now think about what JRRT wants to accomplish with this too-clever person!#blastfarmer

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