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Am I the only one who finds this extremely funny

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The main character of the last TV show you watched is now your therapist. How’s it working for you?

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as a pink lover. The ""universal""" hatred of the color pink by young girls is due to the heavy expectation of femininity forced on them. It is an expression of frustration at gender roles. It is not internalized misogyny. No you will not inevitably start liking pink as an adult and if you do that is not healing your inner divine feminine or whatever we're saying now. Its a color. 😁👍

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By the way, I think it's important to know (for context, if nothing else) that most people LIKE their gender. Most people generally LIKE the experience of being their gender much more than they dislike it.

This is part of why gender, like, persists as a concept.

A lot of people (particularly people who don't realize they're trans, and also TERFs) think that most people (especially women) HATE their genders and HATE their experience with gender.

That's really far from true. Most women like being women (cis or trans). They hate sexism for sure (unless they're a tradwife or antifeminist and don't believe it exists ig), they may have suffered tremendously due to sexism, but like. They generally do like being women.

Similarly, most men, like. Generally like being men and enjoy that they are men and enjoy being a man.

So if you hate your gender, if you hate being a woman or being a man and assume everyone secretly lowkey feels that way on the inside, I really do want to let you know that that is not actually how most people feel and you should probably do some thinking about whether you might be trans

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the more i think about the 5x01 arrest the worse it gets. Because Rayla's only 'crime,' really, that made Opeli and/or the guards had was... her lingering by her sort-of-boyfriend's quarters. They had no real reason to think she couldn't be waiting for Callum or didn't have a reason to be there, even inside the office without him (because again, they're very obviously A Thing, Callum spends a ton of time in his office, and they're sharing quarters anyway). She's a close friend of the king and the high prince. It is not beyond reason for her to Be There.

Except that she's an elf who's lived there for maybe 3 weeks in 2 years, and so the guards follow her in or Opeli directs them to. The only reason they uncover her actual crime (the key, bow, and going into the dungeons) is because they were already suspicious. They arrest her in the home she's been invited into, despite being a close personal friend of the royal family. Neither the guards nor Opeli even notify Callum right away, either, and while Opeli clearly expects an emotional reaction (the key lead-in question + reveal), it's also evident she does/did not understand Rayla's bond with either boy, especially with Callum, or respect her as a person ("The elf stole it" "She's not 'the elf'"). Did Rayla even try to defend herself before Callum showed up, and was she listened to at all if she did?

That doesn't mean that Opeli and the guards can't change, they inevitably will have to, and Rayla is more comfortable in Katolis in S6, but the whole situation in 5x01 reaffirmed to me back then that Callum and the Silvergrove was Rayla's home ("It's time to go back to the Silvergrove, home to Ethari"), not Katolis, and I'm very glad S7 confirmed both of those interpretations, tbh, especially now that she has both of them Back.

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Focusing on how "the Jedi made mistakes/were flawed" is not actually as nuanced of a take as you think it is since it WILDLY misses the point of the destruction of the Jedi.

It doesn't matter if the Jedi made mistakes or were flawed. It truly truly doesn't, it's SO beyond the point of this narrative it's not even funny.

The POINT of the death of the Jedi is that you can do everything right and still lose. And even more so, you can be the most moral, compassionate, selfless person in the galaxy and it won't matter if everyone around you has decided to be selfless and greedy.

The point of the death of the Jedi is that they seem like this group that should be nearly impossible to take down, they're full of powerful people who can do powerful things, they've got laser swords and magic powers and can jump really far and run really fast, and they use all of this to do nothing but HELP PEOPLE all the time, and in the end they all die because no one around them wanted to do the same. Fascism is a group effort, it's not the work of one dude or even two. Yes, Palpatine comes in and abuses the system to do bad things, but his entire plan relies on THOUSANDS of people choosing to do bad things with him. Anakin, yes, but also the corporate alliance and Dooku and Jango and Grievous and Maul and the Geonosians and the Kaminoans and Tarkin and so so so many Senators (enough that a Delegation of 2000 feels like their efforts are likely a shot in the dark). The Jedi are doing EVERYTHING RIGHT, they're heroes who give their lives to save others, but they're surrounded by people who wouldn't do the same, and that's what kills them.

THAT'S the point. The Jedi being flawed completely bypasses that point entirely. Focusing on "mistakes" the Jedi might have made, or flaws they might have, means that you're now completely ignoring the entire message about how fighting BACK against fascism and evil is ALSO a group effort. The Jedi cannot do it alone, and if enough people are not standing up to darkness with them, IT IS GUARANTEED TO WIN. Even the most powerful, most selfless people in the world can't stand up against a galaxy full of people prepared to submit to their own fears.

Too many people gave in to darkness and by doing so, they lost the one thing truly standing between them and tyranny. The loss of the Jedi is SYMBOLIC of the consequences of giving into your fears. That's why the triumph OVER evil is represented by the RETURN OF THE JEDI. There is no real nuance to "but they were flawed, but the made mistakes, but they could have done this, but they could have NOT done that." Truly, there is not. Focusing on the Jedi's "flaws" or "mistakes" just means you're missing the actual point of the story and the Jedi's role in it.

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Reblog and put in the tags the reason why you cut contact with a friend.

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Sometimes, it’s certainly playing the long game! It’s really quite something too given that by all accounts Stonemover hasn’t run off yet at that time either, so they also have an animus which… well if dragons didn’t lack fundamental creativity of more human approaches culturally and didn’t disdain collaboration so much then they could just copy the Icewing’s gift of an enchantment to always provide food at a specific location etc (or an egg strengthening a protection over the nursery, given the declining numbers of viable eggs which make it to the point there’s a relatively healthy hatchling emerging).

… given this is the first time that this post/your blog has crossed my recommendations (to my recall) the random fanfiction link that presumably relates in some way to the Nightwings or the prophecy yet it’s not quite discernible how at a glance they’re related enough to attach together is pretty funny for the disconnect.

Y’all ever think about what an absolutely insane crackpot idea it was for Morrowseer to go to Battlewinner and say “Hey, I think if we kidnap a bunch of kids in 5 years or so we can eventually commit a genocide that would be very beneficial to our dying tribe”

Anyway new fic chapter out

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On a scale from Turgon to Elrond, how well did “raising your sibling’s offspring/descendant in your hidden valley and having them fall in love with your daughter�� turn out

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A Completely Objective Rating of Gil-galad Origin Theories

So! My Research(tm) has informed me that Tolkien conceived of at least four potential parentages for Gil-galad, last High King of the Noldor, at various points. This plothole/controversy/mystery is deeply, deeply funny to me, so I decided to make a post arbitrarily rating various Gil-galad theories and providing examples of fics where they appear.

Some disclaimers:

I am very very new to the silm fandom and also tumblr and don't actually know anything! so there is a very high chance something will go wrong here

in compiling this I was very much indebted to this post by @sweetteaanddragons and this one by @tanoraqui

your headcanons, of course, are extremely valid! no shade at all to anyone who likes one of the theories I’ve rated a bit lower, and thank you for doing your bit to deepen the controversy. the more Gil-galad theories the better

Unsurprisingly, this turned out LONG. I split the parentages into four sections: Part 1 covers supposedly canon/canon-adjacent Gil-galad theories; Part 2, popular fanon theories that I've seen in a variety of places; Part 3 will cover rare fanon theories that I've only seen basically once, and ideas I literally just made up myself.

Baseline assumptions I'm using:

The "historical record", in-universe, is primarily the Quenta Silmarillion which states that Ereinion Gil-galad was the son of Fingon; and other documents variously suggesting that he was the son of Orodreth or Finrod, or a descendant of Fëanor. Sources give him the additional names Finellach and Artanáro/Rodnor.

It's fairly widely agreed-upon that Gil-galad was an adult and the High King by the time of the Third Kinslaying, when he was based on Balar and came too late to Elwing's aid.

(This means I won't further consider some rather fun, cracky theories that are based on the argument that Gil-galad only became the High King after the War of Wrath. That seems like a slightly excessive amount of historical revisionism for my taste, when he's named as the High King well before the WoW.)

So, with those established, what makes for a good Gil-galad parentage theory?

It has to make the confusion in the historical record, in-universe, make some sort of sense. Would someone with this parentage have a claim to the crown? If not, do they have a solid motivation to lie about it? Providing a neat explanation for other aspects of Gil-galad's characterisation and the way he rules would also be a bonus.

A storytelling concept I call weird questions must have weird answers. Neat origin theories that "make sense" tend to score low on this metric. The Gil-galad controversy is funny and needs to be kept that way.

How narratively satisfying is the theory? Does it ruin anyone else's arc, or fanon I personally like? Then it's scoring low.

This is already so long-

Time for looking at the four canon-ish Gil-galad parentages!

Gil-galad son of Fingon and, presumably, some unnamed wife. This is rubbish. Makes no sense. Not a fan. No. Primarily, it is boring, the death knell to any Gil-galad theory. Also, Fingon is never actually mentioned to have a wife because he's married to Maedhros and, while textual ghosts are obviously common in the Silm, I find it slightly harder to believe that a High Queen of the Noldor managed to escape being named anywhere. You could, I suppose, argue that she died before Fingon became King, but I don't want to. The confusion in the historical record also seems unnecessary here, because Fingon's son would presumably have a pretty ironclad claim to the crown after his death and certainly after Turgon's. No fic recs here, I don't like this theory. 2/10.

Gil-galad son of Orodreth and brother of Finduilas. Even more boring, and also makes less sense. Was Gil-galad in Nargothrond during Leithian and up to its fall? In that case, why wasn't he mentioned at any point, and if he survived the fall of Nargothrond and escaped, why didn't he go after Finduilas? If he wasn't in Nargothrond by the time of Turin, we can at least forgive his failure to rescue his sister, but why was he sent away from Nargothrond when, prior to the building of the bridge, everyone believed it was safe - and why wasn't Finduilas sent away with him? Again, there's no particular reason for obfuscating this parentage, so it fails on that metric too. At least Artanáro/Rodnor is a good Finarfinion name. Fics which use this theory: What is Wrought Between Us by @nikosheba, which voids all these objections of mine quite nicely - Gil-galad son of Orodreth, adopted by Fingon and Maedhros! Also it's one of the most heart-breaking, beautiful, canon-compliant Russingon series around, go and read it. That excellent example aside, 3/10.

Gil-galad son of Finrod and (iirc) a wife called Meril. An earlier version of the legendarium discarded when Finrod was made childless. This is potentially my least favourite of the four canon-esque theories, because Finrod's childlessness is imo a fairly important part of his arc, and Meril was replaced by Amarië, to whom Finrod was very much not married at the time of his death. Pretty much the only positive is that, again, Artanáro/Rodnor suits well as a name for Finrod's son. I don't think many people like this theory - we need not consider it further here. No fic recs. 2/10.

Gil-galad descendant of Fëanor. By far the most intriguing and also most implausible canon-esque theory, and as I understand only from one early draft of the legendarium. But there is so much to play with here. If Gil-galad's father is one of the sons of Fëanor, he has a rock-solid reason to lie about his parentage. His claim to the throne is also dubious, because Maedhros abdicated on behalf of the entire house. This gives excellent con-artist Gil-galad flavours to play with. On the narrative/emotional arc metric, this one falls a little short, though. We don't need another descendant of Fëanor in the Second Age struggling with the dark and messy legacy of their family - we have Celebrimbor! And Celebrimbor's status as the last scion of his house, and how his eventual tragedy owes so much to his heritage, is very important to me. Besides, the house of Fëanor going from 7 sons in the first generation to literally just one grandchild is so haunting. On a more practical level, I also don't think Gil-galad reads as particularly close to Celebrimbor? They seem more "distant relations" than first cousins. On the other hand, if Gil-galad simply doesn't know who his parents are, a lot of these problems disappear. We can also double up a few textual ghosts by making his mother one of the unnamed wives - preferably Maglor's or Caranthir's, because Gil-galad son of Curufin feels. doubtful. Fics which use this theory: A Gift from Father to Son by @amethysttribble explores every single potential Fëanorian parentage which is very fun, for a value of "fun" involving "sobbing on the floor about how terrible all these people are". Check it out! Theory as a whole gets 5/10.

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god willing someday I will write a fic where Feanor gets to groundhog day the swearing of the oath. except instead of unswearing it he keeps thinking that if he just adjusts the wording a little bit it’ll all work out perfectly

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*clears throat* Hey my friends, I attended a bee wedding this past weekend. I bet you would like to know how was it.

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Just 74.000 signatures to go on the EU petition (and we gained 2000 in just 4 minutes) as of this moment (12:53 PM CEST) Go sign it if you haven't done it yet, we're so close!

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@p0tat0-g0ddess I can give it a shot? I don't quite see it necessarily resulting in certain death but it's not likely to be the most fun either really from those three?

Maeglin is the elf who betrayed late Gondolin (aka where Sting and Glamdring are from and a key part in why their owners died), it was under some possible degree of duress but Maeglin was the king's nephew and didn't tell the kind to start preparing after giving away the location so. He also attempted to co-erce his cousin into marrying him. He seemingly competently ruled a Gondolin house for a bit and was a miner(?). He does, per canon, have a friend (Salgant)! So he's a mixed bag to draw, if leagues superior to, say: Melkor or Sauron (the dark lords), Thuringwethil (a vampire), Ungoliant or Shelob (giant spiders) and Glaurang or Saruman (both have mind affecting powers they can activate mid conversation). He's able the same level or worse than getting Grima Wormtongue, probably.

Yavanna is an ainur, one of the valar (aka major rather than minor angel-ish equivalents). She's married to Aule, the valar involved in technological progress/innovation etc and maker of dwarves. Their marriage is tumultuous given she made ents because of the fact dwarves, particularly, cut down trees and she's very pro-plants and nature left untouched. So she's not murderously evil but, say, fossil fuels in a car causing pollution and it being a human invention isn't likely to go down well with her.

Smeagol you already know, you've said.

The good news is that the three of them have no existing personal grudges or feuds between them: the bad news is one is a hobbit, one is valar and one is an elf and they have very little in common between them all. There lies potential for unpleasantness on a scale of stilted and awkward interactions to full on vehicular sabotage.

Which Tolkien characters will you go on a road trip with?

Spin the wheel up to three times and determine who is going in your car for a multi-day road trip. How is the road trip going? Will you make it to your destination successfully (or alive)?

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Gondolin, I just couldn't live underground it'd be hellish for I need the sky visible at all times with few exceptions and outside easily accessible for peace of mind. They both have survivors so that doesn't narrow it down and also Glorfindel lives in Gondolin and he seems like a blast so there's elves of a cheery disposition in both places.

Live in Nargothrond or in Gondolin?