seventhwall7

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The ocean is NOT a soup, a soup doesnt have ingredients that are still alive

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If you have time or feel like answering, I’d like to hear your thoughts on how much of Turin’s tragic life issues are the result from the curse, versus how much from the consequences of his actions, and how much does his belief that he is cursed play a part?

a very good question that I don’t really have a solid answer for. ultimately I think that the curse was deliberately written to be somewhat ambiguous.

looking at Túrin’s mistakes, some of the awful things he did were definitely more accidental than others. Túrin had never actually met Niënor before finding an amnesiac Níniel. how was he supposed to know that this was his long-lost sister, who was supposed to be in Doriath?

Túrin stabbed Beleg because it was dark and stormy outside and he was suddenly awoken by a blade cutting his foot. when you’re stabbed in your sleep while you’re imprisoned at a torture camp, I don’t think your first thought is going to be “oh good my friend is here to save me. by stabbing me.”

these sorts of events can easily be chalked up to the curse or the actions of Glaurung. Glaurung wiped Niënor’s memories and sent her in Túrin’s direction. and killing Beleg definitely wasn’t Túrin’s intention. in the latter case, the narrator supports the reading that this was the fault of the curse; see the wording of “but fate was that day more strong”, implying that the curse caused Beleg’s knife to slip and cut Túrin

(side note: I question if Túrin and Niënor fell in love naturally and it was all just a really unfortunate and unintentional coincidence, or if their marriage was designed as part of Morgoth’s plan. we already know that Glaurung can influence minds psychically, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that his skill set includes love spells. Glaurung is cancelled for shipping incest.)

yet there are other events that feel much less ambiguous. Túrin killed Brandir. this wasn’t self defense, nor was it a case of mistaken identity. just straight up murder. Túrin also disregarded Aerin’s claims that killing Brodda would only bring about more trouble—basically claiming that he knew more about his aunt’s abuse than she did—and this results in her suicide. Túrin was told by elves who had received direct messages from the gods that Nargothrond would only stand if it were to remain hidden, and he still stubbornly insisted that Nargothrond must reveal itself.

this is where the “Túrin’s fault vs the curse’s fault” argument gets murky. did Morgoth force Túrin to kill Brandir? if he did, does that mean Túrin ever actually had free will? let’s look at how Morgoth himself describes the curse:

But upon all whom you love my thought shall weigh as a cloud of Doom, and it shall bring them down into darkness and despair. Wherever they go, evil shall arise. Whenever they speak, their words shall bring ill counsel. Whatsoever they do shall turn against them. They shall die without hope, cursing both life and death.

Morgoth actually does influence Túrin’s actions. I disagree with the idea that Túrin has no free will since everything was actually Morgoth’s doing, and that none of his actions could be considered his fault, yet Tolkien does outright tell us that Túrin really wasn’t the only person influencing Túrin’s worst mistakes. and we know that Glaurung too can directly influence Túrin’s mind, seeing how Glaurung made Túrin run away from the battle of Nargothrond by overpowering his mind and convincing him that his mother and sister needed his help more than Finduilas.

the “Túrin’s fault vs the curse’s fault” argument can lead to two very different opinions. on one side, you can argue that Brandir’s death wasn’t Túrin’s fault because Morgoth forced him to do it. on the other side, you can argue that Túrin is a cruel man who uses the idea of a curse as an excuse for his selfish actions.

both sides have their poor-pissing pitfalls. if nothing was ever really Túrin’s fault, then that honestly makes Túrin a rather boring character, more of a puppet being pulled along Morgoth’s string than a multi-dimensional character capable of thinking for himself. he wouldn’t be a character who does things, he’d just be a character that things happen to. and if you think the curse isn’t real and just an excuse, then, well that’s just stupid because we the readers are literally present in the scene where Morgoth lays his curse on him. like this is a fantasy world where a dinosaur can factory reset a woman, but you draw the line at the idea that curses exist in this story.

I think the influence of the curse was more of an urge than a compelling force upon Túrin. Morgoth was a force in Túrin’s mind, a sort of anti-conscience or a gut feeling. Túrin was never forced against his will to do anything awful, but his immediate gut reaction to certain situations came from Morgoth’s malice. Túrin doesn’t have to do anything Morgoth wants him to do, it’s just very hard to resist. I’m imagining it being kind of like the dark urge in bg3, or the cartoon trope of the devil on your shoulder.

the answer lies somewhere in the middle of the fate vs free will question. but what does “the middle” mean? how much does the curse really influence Túrin’s mind? can Túrin be blamed for some actions more than others? did the curse affect Túrin’s personality? was the curse a mental illness? it’s up to the reader to decide.

(having read some takes in this fandom, I could just take the cheap route and say that everything that my blorbo supposedly did wrong was actually just that dastardly Pengolodh slandering my precious pookie bear. um akshually we don’t know if Túrin really killed Saeros or if it’s just in-universe propaganda☝️🤓)

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I wanted to write a quick update:

First I finally made a tag for my art: "seventhwall7's art", so now navigating my page should be easier. Also I forgot to mention that I reread "The Silmarillion" and enjoyed it, though as it turned out, I misremembered some things. The reread was slow, because I also started to read "Tales from the Flat Earth" by Tanith Lee at the same (btw, if you like a bit of a fairy tale like story and non linear narrative in rich, original setting; I recommend this series wholeheartedly).

Next I planned to reread "Unfinished Tales", but it have to wait, because I have some new books, which I want to read first, like the new Witcher book "Rozdroże Kruków" (Crossroads of Ravens). Besides, I try to improve my art and currently I'm going through the Andrew Loomis' book "Figure Drawing for All Its Worth". Overall I didn't have much time for art and social media due to some important things I had to do, but I will try to catch up.

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"Summer Flower"

Since I need to practice my art, I decided to draw a flower. I picked one bloom from the flower bush that grows on my backyard. These particular flowers are quite troublesome, because they're expansive and grow really fast, but I can't deny that they're pretty. Their bright orange petals, remind me of summer that's coming (still once they'll stop blooming I'll need to cull them a bit, but not too much, because my cat likes to hide in them). It was supposed to be a simple doodle, but it came out better than I thought it would.

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! Blood warning !

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religious imagery tied into characters with religious trauma save me…save me…

anyways, here is some art of one of my ocs :P ill get back on my yj fanart dedication soon, but this was fun

[seventhwall7]

Sir Bredbeddle, the Greene Knight

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So, I don't quite get how this tagging game works, but thanks for tagging me nonetheless.

Favourite colour: green and violet, I like trees and violets are my favourite flowers

Last song: The Illusive Man from Mass Effect 2 soundtrack

Currently reading: I'm not reading anything right now

Currently watching: recently I've watched a couple episodes of Charmed

Currently craving: peaches and hazelnuts I never have enough of them

Coffee or tea: tea, though I'm not enthusiastic about it, I prefer water or orange juice

@alma-amentet @drdragon39 @locksnek @guccibeltbandit @thewolflingofnoldor

Thank you all! I hope you don't mind.

get to know your mutuals

thank u for the tag my darling @ricochetyears

favorite color: prob green but I find it so hard to choose just one?😭

last song: alien blues by vundabar (I'm reading not another band au and OBSESSED w them)

currently reading: sunrise on the reaping (book) + not another band au & pathological people pleaser (fics). I can never read just one thing at a time lol it's a problem

currently watching: buffy + (re) watching grey's anatomy (also watched overcompensating last weekend and it was so GOOD)

currently craving: always smth sweet for my bad sweet tooth, but also maybe some pizza? Idk just anything with lots of melted cheese in it

coffee or tea: coffee forever. any time. any day.

no pressure tags!: @queermoons @dutifullynervouscreation @littlejumpingjoan @stellaskeketon @cryingoverdeadgaywizzards @meremythos @deswhomst

[seventhwall7]

"Dance With Me then"

"The Other slid forward on silent feet. In its hand was a longsword like none that Will had ever seen. No human metal had gone into the forging of that blade. It was alive with moonlight, translucent, a shard of crystal so thin that it seemed almost to vanish when seen edge-on. There was a faint blue shimmer to the thing, a ghost-light that played around its edges, and somehow Will knew it was sharper than any razor.

Ser Waymar met him bravely. “Dance with me then.” He lifted his sword high over his head, defiant. His hands trembled from the weight of it, or perhaps from the cold. Yet in that moment, Will thought, he was a boy no longer, but a man of the Night’s Watch."

G.R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones: Prologue

Another fanart of a scene from AGOT: Prologue. I was working on this since February. The first version was discarded, because the composition looked off. This piece also has ith issues, but I still like it.

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trees trees trees

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Squirrel

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When I think about how unkempt Beren must’ve looked when Lúthien first saw him, after all he’d been through, it amazes me even more that Lúthien wasn’t really scared off by him, but - as it’s written explicitly - fell in love with him at first sight. (I think she fled the first moment they held hands because her parents were expecting her and she couldn’t arouse suspicion, but she clearly returned to Beren as soon as she could.)

I honestly think his disheveled look was part of why she loved him. She was surrounded by “perfection” all her life. Tall and dashing father, beautiful mother with the light of Aman in her face, nightingales following her wherever she went, flowers springing to life from her voice. It sounds amazing to us, but to her it must’ve been boring, considering it was all that she knew up till then. Singing and dancing in the woods was just a hobby to her, nothing extraordinary. It especially must’ve been hard for her because literally everyone was putting her on a pedestal and constantly praising her for being “the most beautiful maiden in the world,” blah blah blah. It must’ve been so annoying to her to constantly hear that and wonder if anyone actually cared about her for her rather than just her looks.

But then came this guy who was not perfect-looking at all. He was dirty and messy and sloppy. He looked nothing like anyone she’d ever met. Not only that, he called her “nightingale.” Which is not a beautiful bird, physically. Its beauty is in its song, not its looks. Suddenly here’s a guy who called her beautiful because of what she was doing, not because of her looks. Because he appreciated her deepest passion: singing and making her own music.

No wonder it was love at first sight for her. Not only was he new and intriguing, but he also was seeing her as a person and showing incredible respect for what she loved to do.

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the suffering never ends

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Ser Nerio Acciaioli, from Christian (Miles) Cameron's Chivalry series

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Aredhel Ar-Fieniel

Er… yes. I tried watercolour. Also, I incorporated a little Native American designs, just because I feel like it really suits her. Also no, she does not have a lip freckle, that was a rubber erasing that I realised too late I didn’t brush it away before I took the photos. 💀

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I’m not trying to be needlessly provocative, but when Elrond says this to Frodo:

"If you take [the ring to Mordor] freely I will say that your choice is right; and though all the mighty elf-friends of old, Hador, and Húrin, and Túrin, and Beren himself were assembled together, your seat should be among them."

What is Túrin doing on that list?? Yes, ok, he killed a dragon. But only after he killed his best elf friend; got in between his next best elf friend and his fiancée and then abandoned that fiancée to death; and brought down the entire kingdom of Nargothrond and nearly every elf in it. And that’s to say nothing of the havoc and death he wrought among the petty dwarves and the humans of Brethil and Dor-lómin.

I’m not without pity for Túrin and some of the situations he faced, but the man inarguably contributed directly to a LOT of unnecessary elvish deaths. So if you’re making a list of non-elves who have done something significant on behalf of elf-kind, Túrin hardly seems like the most compelling choice to me. Especially since his cousin somehow missed the list despite the fact that Tuor saved countless elves from the destruction of Gondolin, and he brought Eärendil into the world to eventually save all of Middle Earth! (I’ve got this same beef with the decision to make Túrin the hero of the Dagorath. I understand that it needs to be someone for whom the striking down of Morgoth is both cathartic and redemptive, but Húrin is the much more deserving candidate for that in my mind. All the catharsis and redemption without so much of Túrin’s self-pitying avoidance of responsibility for his own actions!)

Maybe Elrond felt weird about putting his own grandpa up there with the GOATs, but I just can’t see an argument for Túrin over Tuor! And Elrond’s already related to most of the list anyway!

So I guess what I’m saying is—petition to replace Túrin with Tuor on the elf-friend list!

[seventhwall7]

"what's Sauron's fucking problem" is not a question that I've ever heard answered in a way that satisfied me