#i dont have the appendices

[threecoffeesnolunch]

[through tears] i will graduate i will graduate i will graduate i will graduate i will graduate i will graduate i will graduate i will graduate i will graduate i will graduate i will graduate i will graduate i will graduate i will graduate i will graduate i will graduate i will graduate i will graduate i will graduate i will graduate

[a-sleepy-ginger]

28/4/24

✿❈✿❈✿

Got most of my psychology report done

Ice cream

My cat just tried eat my foot cus it moved under the covers

Also picked up my cat and wiggled him gently cus he was scratching at my cupboard doors and strangely enough it worked and he stopped

Felt cute cus my hair looked nice (which is rare my hair is usually a sad looking mess)

[keeperschampt4t]

i need to download the hobbit (an unexpected adventure) onto my ipad so i can watch it whenever i want the urges are hitting again

[sesamenom]

i like to think that sometime when they were younger, after elrond first told them why they couldn't meet uncle elros, they agreed to make the same decision so they could stay together.

also its interesting if out of all the peredhel El-twins (elured & elurin, elrond & elros, elladan & elrohir) one is more mannish and the other is more elvish

Please reblog once you vote! (Sorry, but. Please do.)

[sickokiller]

re listening to the portland polycule recap and it get s funnier every time i hear about it how did anyone ever believe it was real . they say their dog died of appendicitis but dogs dont have appendices

[twoheadstones]

I DONT HAVE TO READ THE APPENDICES

[novagrippia]

what makes me angry is I do everything completely right but because it wasn't what they meant it's wrong

[endwalkr]

weee

[archmotif]

Mark Z. Danielewski was like “sometimes the consumption of art, futile though it may seem, is an act of survival and the only thing standing between you and an infinite and unknowable darkness” and we were all like ok king!

[hopeless-eccentric]

ok so now i actually have the energy to address this! let’s talk about boromir

i think my biggest issue with the way boromir gets characterized is that you see a lot of 1) prideful, near-spoiled cautionary tale characterization or 2) least “moral” member of the fellowship characterization, and i really just dont see either of them. if anything, i find him to be a very moving character with complex motivations that unfortunately get missed a lot because theyre not incredibly blatant and a bit hidden in the appendices

so boromir was raised to be an heir of what we know denethor sees as their kingdom, and faramir even mentions a young boromir asking why the stewards weren’t just considered kings after 1000ish years. a lot of what comes off as “pride” isnt just this guy being a dick, it’s directly what he’s been raised to think. he’s spent years learning how to be a good leader of a country he sees no reason not to lead. i wont deny he’s a proud character, but his reaction makes sense from someone raised to see this country as his responsibility. he’s not just gonna leave it the hands of some guy

to dig into that more, we know from the appendices that as a kid, boromir was his brother’s “protector” (the placement of this passage suggests that this may have been from their father, though it’s possible that faramir was just an incredibly bullyable child), but assuming either, he’s spent most of his life singlehandedly keeping what he loves safe. for faramir, he wouldve been his only supportive family after the death of his mother, and with the whole “best man in gondor” title going on, it doesnt seem like he’s in a place to get a whole lot of support or help when he needs it. im not saying boromir’s got older sister syndrome, but--

another thing along that line that pisses me off. especially when two children are close, favoritism towards one kid and maltreatment of another is going to fuck BOTH of them up. for one thing, if one child is constantly praised for successes and the other is constantly berated for failures, how supported or able to ask for help do you think kid A is gonna be? that is not a way to raise a kid if you want them to be able to handle pressure or failure normally 

as for the ring, this is a guy who’s got the weight of a nation on his shoulders. if this is the weapon that could singlehandedly save his home and his people and he just passes up on it? if the world ends and he couldve stopped it? that’s horrifying, on top of the fact that boromir’s probably got some nasty ingrained issues with failure from his childhood

and what REALLY gets me is the attitude that boromir was somehow “more evil” than the other party members for being taken over by the ring. resisting the ring is treated as one of the best markers of heroism throughout the text (galadriel, gandalf, faramir, etc), and boromir cant pull it off immediately, but he DOES IT. even in his last words, he tells aragorn he failed, but aragorn replies “no, you have conquered.” he’s talking about the ring man! boromir’s not necessarily naturally the most susceptible to the ring, he’s just more psychologically worn down than the other party members and the least supported. but he MAKES IT. he doesnt get gollumed, he doesnt waste away, he doesnt lose himself. he dies as boromir, as he was in life, protecting the people he cares about

and what really breaks my heart is that in the silmarillion, there’s an insinuation that because humans fear the Valar but love the ocean, most “miracles” are done through water. when faramir talks about finding boromir’s body, frodo points out that it wouldve taken a miracle to get him over the waterfalls safely, but faramir says it couldnt have been a dream because it left his shoes wet. so putting two and two together, the Valar step in to perform a rare miracle to bring boromir home

so at the end of the day, boromir was a man, and he was so much more than proud, and so often, his “proudest” decisions are motivated by fear. he wasnt the least good of the Fellowship, just the most troubled and the least supported. he was a protector, a man of his people, and a hero

anyway next time someone reduces him to just the “least moral member of the Fellowship” im gonna blow a gasket

[maxknightley]

i didn't click through to the prev tags on the working appendix post so when i read your tags i thot for a hot second you meant you had four tonsils or four appendices or something. anyway no wisdom teeth extraction gang forever (i just dont have em)

hmmm. very unwise

[electrificata]

I just read the secret place by tana french (con: she writes abt cops, pro: literally everything else) and she does such a good job of establishing setting a character with deft, specific detail that doesnt get bogged down. Im also reading this is how you lose the time war and that does such a good job of telling a time travel story that doesnt need you to keep a flow chart to understand whats going on because setting happens with a good balance of broad strokes and specific detail. When i was younger i really thought i needed to be tolkien with like, 10 constructed languages and an entire history of a world, but i dont think you can do that unless you have really really strong narrative to back it up. A lot of writers dont have the taste to edit their precious appendices so they compliment a story rather than bog it down.

I think that sometimes if youre an anxious young writer you can really be a maximalist with minutely detailed character background and elaborate worldbuilding and that absolutely will compromise a story. Its perfectly fine to do those things but youre not really telling a story, youre making character sketches or doing a worldbuilding project. Youre going to have to be careful abt how that interacts with your narrative. Been thinking abt this since a conversation w @mechanicalriddle abt hard scifi people who are trying to write a narrative when they clearly are more interested in like, writing a really involved work of speculative biology

[erosofthepen]

WAIT I FIGURED OUT WHY WE DONT KNOW WHO FILI OR KILIS DAD IS

BECAUSE THEY DONT HAVE ONE

the appendices mention that Dís is the only female record in their lineage right? they don’t seem to have a problem including all the men in the family tree, so why omit their father?

Well, the only logical answer is that Dís never married a man, rather, she wed a female dwarrow or an enby dwarrow.

Fili and Kili either had 2 Amads, or an Amad and a Anad!!!! Not an Adad.

Ive accepted this as cannon, you can’t change my mind.

[lesbiansforboromir]

I'm aware that this argumentation is generally lacking but my personal feelings towards this issue is 'better no representation than bad representation'. Like I can deal with little to no women in an old-ish work when I compare it to some downright awful portrayals which often claim to be progressive when they're decidely not in recent publications. That being said the fact that I and other people aren't bothered by it doesn't change that saying 'women are just normal people' is kind of a reach.

Yeah! I mean this could also contribute. The fact is that #1 there are rarely if ever women in the story so you don’t have to confront misogyny much and #2 the male characters that are in the story are all very different and quite compelling so you just kind of go along with it!

Although I would also say that we dont entirely escape bad portrayal. Like, I said Arwen has no speaking lines, and that’s true in the story, but she speaks in the appendices! In an utterly characterless way. The most emotion she shows is when she’s begging Aragorn not to die and leave her alone. Which is certainly something, but it implies a level of reliance on Aragorn that is mirrored with every single other female character there is. I cant think of one woman who canonically outlives her husband beyond a few weeks before dying of grief. 

And this was talked about at the time! Tolkien is on record reacting to feminist criticisms of his work in entirely dismissive and insulting manners. 

[foodisjoy]

5 Aralas Fic Recs + 3 bonus stories

So, maybe I rewatched The Lord of the Rings over the holidays, and since then maybe I have proceeded to re-read the novels, all the appendices, and re-watch all the making ofs. Maybe I’ve also taken The Silmarillion out from the library. Who knows.

And maybe I’ve also become Aralas-fanfic-trash, with some Vigorli sprinkled in for good measure. Here are five of my favourite fics. If you find any more amazing fics, please send them my way! Or if you are an Aralas fan as well, I’d love to hear from you!

Aragorn x Legolas

0. A general recommendation: everything by eyebrowofdoom. They are the best! Just go and read, you literally cannot go wrong!

1. This Mortal Joy

by lightsgetin

The ring calls to Aragorn, but not for the reasons he had expected. 

This is, hands down, the best story I have read this year, published novels included. Read it. I don’t care how or why, just go and read it. It is the most moving account of human mortality that I can think of, thrown in all the sharper relief against Legolas’s immortality. “Why would you measure happiness by time, not by happiness itself?” Legolas asks Aragorn. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the shit I am here for with this pairing.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/5024

2. Night and Day

by ELD

A meeting with Éomer and the apparent death of Aragorn make both Aragorn and Legolas re-examine their feelings for one another.

While I am not happy with the depiction of Éomer in this, the rest of the fic more than makes up for it. A thoughtful treatment of the relationship between Aragorn and Arwen, a beautiful story about two lovers who finally work up the courage to admit their feelings for each other, jealousy, mortality, as well as some steaming hot sex. What more could you want? I can recommend all fics by this wonderful author!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/727679

3. Healing Hands

by ashgemini

After the battle of Helm's Deep, Legolas searches for Aragorn 

This could also be considered gen. It beautifully illuminates the friendship shared by Aragorn and Legolas, which I cannot get enough of.  For me, these two are the perfect example of lovers who were and still are friends first and foremost (which is why I would be confident that their love could last a lifetime). Besides, I adore stories which offer us a glimpse into the aftermath of the traumatising battles the novels and films sometimes gloss over, and this is a gorgeous short piece set after the Battle of Helm’s Deep and Aragorn’s fraught state of mind.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/14898080

4. The Lady’s Wisdom

by FloatingLeaf

Lady Galadriel's good advice brings much needed peace upon two troubled hearts.

This is an incredibly sweet fic -- it may be too sweet for some, but I could re-read this practically every day because of how it deals with the Aragorn x Arwen situation. It is such a thoughtful, beautiful, gorgeous, simply makes-sense solution that I am very jealous that I did not think of it myself. For me, this is how love is: not possessive, but generous.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/3267029

5. A Little Touch of Aragorn in the Night

by SylvanWitch

Five companions.  Five kinds of comfort.  One man to offer and to accept it.

This may be cheating a little, as it has multiple pairings, but a) Aralas seems to me to be at the heart of it and b) Aragorn has a lot of love to give. For me, this story captures the essence of what Aragorn is. Funny, beautiful, hot, sad, with a happy end -- go and read! Read now!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/16795978

Bonus:

Viggo Mortensen x Orlando Bloom

Flash

by zarah5

Taking pictures totally counts as a courtship ritual.

I thought my days of RPS were over, but then I found this fic. Turns out I had to think again: This is so atmospheric, so cleverly characterised, so carefully written, and so wonderfully based in anecdotes from the set that we know about, that it is simply impossible to resist!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/398232

Natural Progression

by zarah5 

Wherein you'll find prissy elves and filthy humans. Or, alternatively: Wherein no one cries, dies, takes drugs, attempts suicide, is raped or injured in a bad car accident.

This is more than a fanfiction. It is an incredibly clever narrative consisting of beautifully interwoven timelines and episodes, again, many inspired from anecdotes from the set. The feelings in it are true, and the way the characters deal with one another is so honestly human it is both elating and heart-breaking. Good thing that there is a happy end!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/398195

The Boy and the Box

by eyebrowofdoom

Viggo is a box that Orlando is not sure if he wants to open, but by God the locked clasp craps him off.

If it were true, this is how it would have been. It also contains the best line in any RPS fic I have ever read of these two, containing the word “punk.” Everything in this feels real and complex, like life is. I love it.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/278810

[malyen0retsev]

So apparently, I'm back on my bullshit here so watch out, THEY FILMED A SCENE FOR SEASON 7 WHERE CERSEI HAD A MISCARRIAGE AND DIDNT EVEN THINK ABOUT MENTIONING IT BESIDES THE LITTLE 'OH I DONT DRINK WHILE IM PREGNANT' NOD IN THE BEGINNING OF THE FUCKING FINAL SEASON are you fucking serioussssss FUCK wtf what the actual fuck so jaime really did die for fucking nothing because if she was pregnant in the end it really fucking was eurons I'm so fucking pissed wtf no WTF I stg 😤😤😤😤😤

OH YEP I SAW THIS!!

I mean, I’m not going to lie, I was sort of always Team ‘Cersei isn’t pregnant’/ Team ‘Cersei long since lost the baby’ anyway, so I can’t fully say it shocked me that she apparently wasn’t pregnant anymore at the end of S8. BUT.

The fact their way of ‘showing’ the audience she was no longer pregnant was her drinking wine after sleeping with Euron is lazy lazy writing, and frankly summarises all of S8 to be honest. So so many things the audience was left to decipher - we were given hints of things, instead of actual information. Major scenes were left out and the audience was made to fill in the gaps. (Jon telling Arya and Sansa his parentage?! That should not have been off screen, and this is the hill I will die on)

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - if you have to explain what’s going on in ‘Behind the Scenes’ videos because it isn’t clear in the actual writing, you haven’t done your job as a writer. There’s a place you put important information retaining to characters and storyline, and that place is IN THE SCRIPT/WRITING ITSELF. Approximately none of it belongs in ‘Appendices’. D&D catastrophically failed as writers in S8 and the more information that comes out, the more obvious this becomes.