#I do think Earendil is not free to move about Valinor

[aragornsrockcollection]

So Luthien’s genes are STRONG right? Like basically everyone down to Arwen in her line is described as looking just like her.

When he arrives in Valinor I mostly see Elrond depicted as making the first move in reaching out to Elwing, which is smart because Elwing doesn’t know how she’ll be received after all those years, so giving him control of the situation is respectful.

But also she is a mother who hasn’t seen her child since he was six, (six thousand years ago), and she must be desperate to see him, the smartest approach might not be relevant to her emotional state.

So Elrond might be visited immediately upon arrival by a woman who looks quite a bit like Luthien.

And he’s never met Luthien. So really what he sees is someone who looks

JUST LIKE ARWEN.

Imagine the shock. The tears. Both of them crying for the children they lost to mortality. To the relationships they lost to war and terrible circumstances. The chaos, the drama. Bonding as grieving parents before bonding as mother and son.

I just think about this a lot.

[rivalsforlife]

I managed to grab one of those free tickets to the first two episodes of lotrop in theaters....... which barring any sudden changes in health or something I’m going to tonight. which I am so nervous about. and then once the episodes officially release I’ll probably break down my thoughts on them in more detail. unless it’s so bad I never want to see it again... but who can say.

anyways I’m going to have my general pre-show thoughts/opinions/things I’m looking forward to/things that will make the show irredeemable for me if they do it stuff under the cut, obviously spoilers for the canonical material and also stuff that’s been in rumors for the show.

I guess the thing I keep telling myself is that even if it’s bad it’s not like it’s going to ruin tolkien. tolkien has survived worse. it will survive this.

but also if it’s good that’s going to be awesome because I never thought there’d be any adaptations of anything beyond the hobbit and lotr in my lifetime!! and we know there’s going to be silm things. which is so crazy. it’ll be interesting to see what their vision for how things went was and to actually have an officially endorsed version of how the second age could have gone is fascinating.

If the tolkien estate likes it I think it might open them up to the idea of allowing silm adaptations, which, again, crazy. Could be very good. Could be very bad. basically, either way:

I guess I’ll break down stuff. that I’m thinking about. honestly my brain isn’t fully working right now I’m too nervous.

Things That I Think Could Be Good And If They’re Good It Will Be Amazing:

- Silm Prologue in general. I don’t know how much they’re going to say about the Rebellion, but they’ve got to get into it and the First Age at least a little bit if they’re trying to base a season off of “people dealing with the effects of the first age”, which is definitely the impression I was getting. If they can nail the important stuff, even if they can’t get into detail? I’ll be sobbing. Or otherwise acting extremely embarrassing. My dad is going to regret coming with me.

- Seeing Numenor will be cool. Seeing Khazad-Dum will be cool. I have no reason right now to doubt their locations are so far nice. Love that Earendil statute in Numenor that’s just such a good move. Seeing Valinor will make me start crying like a baby.

- Strangely enough I’ve been won over on Elrond through interviews. I think it would be interesting if they can get into his complicated past stuff. If there’s enough thought in the writing in the show as there was that the actor was saying then I’ll really look forward to that, even if I still don’t love his hairstyle. Whatever. Things change.

Things That I Think Could Go Either Way:

- Galadriel is the main one. I love the idea of her being much closer to her Silmarillion-rebellious self. I want her to be prideful. I also saw some interviews with the actress where she talked about something like “for elves, naivety manifests as arrogance, because they don’t know yet that they can get things wrong” which I think works very well for Noldor in general and Galadriel too. She’s got to be someone who would accept the One Ring at this point. Doing otherwise defeats the whole purpose. But there still needs to be traces of her third-age self in there too, so it’s a difficult balance to walk with how much character development she needs to go through, and we won’t see that pay off until like the fifth season probably. 

- I’m really not a fan of Celebrimbor’s appearance. But hopefully the actor will sell it. He’s got to be different from Feanor and Curufin but still have that ambition in him to kind of surpass Feanor and also stand apart from all the Stuff That Happened With The Feanorians, which is again a tricky part of how much they’re allowed to go into it. And I don’t know if Celebrimbor has a huge role in this part yet. I hope we get to see the Doors of Durin at some point, whether he actively makes them or he just comments on them, and him working with the dwarves, but that might not be until later. I want to be very sad when he gets turned into a banner. eventually.

- Harfoots... it’ll be fine if they don’t get involved in any of the big stories. I definitely don’t want them to kill Sauron in the Last Alliance or anything. I think it’ll be fine as long as their story is relatively self-contained? 

- Actually I think we could apply the same thing to all the original characters and plotlines. I think they could add a lot to the world as long as they’re fairly... distinct? I guess? Like they add flavoring for what people who Aren’t The Elves Or Numenoreans are doing around this time. But I don’t want them to end up taking over the main story eventually. Like, final battle should be Gil-galad and Elendil up against Sauron. I love Galadriel but I don’t want her there. (And I think that’s a good character arc moment for her too, to give up her moment of glory and vengeance because she needs to defend somewhere else.)

- The Cult of Melkor (presumably) we barely saw anything on. Hopefully they can pull it off sufficiently... like they need to be Creepy but they also need to be a bit persuasive. Especially among humans. You can’t have them just be Plain Evil For No Reason. Eternal life is a tempting thing. And you could construe some of what Morgoth did as positive for humans (like destroying the trees so they get the sun and moon.) It needs to kind of set up that the Numenoreans are going to fall to this later.

Things That I Am Worried About Right Now:

- Finrod’s death. The trailers have Galadriel say things like “My brother gave his life hunting the enemy” or whatever. And the only scenes we’ve seen of him (living) are him in the middle of a massive battle. I think it’s important that he sacrifices his life to save Beren, and cutting that out I think would be a disservice not only to his character but also to the fact that the Numenoreans are only around right now because Galadriel’s brother gave his life to save Beren. That’s important stuff!! Pretty Significant!! It’s not a dealbreaker for me but it would be a disappointment if they change his death.

- Where In The World Is Sauron.............. pretty much all the theories of Sauron being one of the characters in disguise is. I don’t like it. I want him to show up as Annatar. I think it would be funny if in the last episode all this conflict that was in the first season is resolved Galadriel’s like “time to check in on my friend Celebrimbor” and he’s like “oh have you met my new friend Annatar he’s been working with me this whole time.” which would be against canon I think but it would be funny. I don’t want him to be the human guy, or the Stranger/Meteor Man, or any of that. I feel like trying to make it a Big Reveal And Twist isn’t very good but I think that’s the way they’re going. I want Annatar and I want him to be very good at what he does so that even if the audience knows from the start, it makes sense that Celebrimbor wouldn’t.

- The Stranger in general. I think the most persistent rumor right now is that he’s Gandalf. I don’t want him to be Gandalf, that just seems like a callback for no reason. Blue Wizard would be fine since there’s apparently some versions that have them show up in the second age, and they’re unexplored territory so far. I really don’t know enough about him to be able to say either way what way I think they’re going to go with him, which is always nervewracking.

- Celeborn...... I was hoping this would be a situation of “he and Galadriel are already married and maybe Celebrian is around, but they’re living apart for now, because elves do that.” And it might be. But it might also be they’re taking the backstory where he’s one of the Nandor, and Galadriel hasn’t even met him yet. This annoys me because I don’t want there to be a lot of Romance in there, it gets a liiiittle too close to Eowyn’s story of “Faramir helped her realize there was more to life than dying in glorious battle”, and also it means we’re not going to get Elrond/Celebrian which I think would make much more sense. Because with the time compression Celebrian will probably be quite young. And obviously I know how elves work but it would be Extremely Weird for Elrond and Celebrian to meet while she’s still a child. I also like the idea of Galadriel being married and a mother and still being able to do cool stuff? idk.

- I forgot what I was going to say but. right. I don’t know why Galadriel is on that boat before the shipwreck. I’m worried she’s trying to go to Valinor. I will be SO disappointed if that’s the case. I feel like you can’t take prideful Galadriel who wants to rule realms of her own but then have her willingly try to go back. Her refusing the pardon of the Valar is I think more compelling and more in line with the character that they seem to be going with. I definitely do not want, like, Gil-galad to be commanding her to leave, because I see no reason why he would want to direct her anywhere. He may be the King, but she is older than him. She’s his aunt/great-aunt/cousin once removed, he should be respecting her. Either way I hope that’s not what she’s doing it’s just bad all around but I can’t come up with any other explanation.

- That one guy who’s apparently a corrupted elf leading the orcs. I don’t want it to be “Galadriel’s brother” like that one rumor. But I have no idea who he could be. I think the joke idea of him being Maglor is hilarious but would not work at all in the show. If he’s not an original character unrelated to all the canonical characters I’ll probably be quite upset. But I have no idea when that reveal will be!

Anyways I think that’s the basics of it. I’m probably going to at least hear the show out for season 1, unless it does something really egregious, which isn’t a super long list for me (though they may surprise me.) The main thing is that I would drop the show if they do a non-canonical romance with a canonical character, like that Galadriel/Halbrand thing one teaser teased that I’m desperately believing is trailer editing. I think if he has a crush on her I’ll be disappointed but whatever it’s Galadriel, who wouldn’t. But if she expresses romantic interest in anyone but Celeborn it’s an automatic out for me. (Also though it is technically in one version of canon, I hope they don’t do the one-sided Celebrimbor/Galadriel thing. With Celebrimbor looking so old. And also I think them being related in this version, assuming they’re going with the infinitely superior “Celebrimbor is the grandson of Feanor” version.) 

I tend to skew pessimistic in general. But I’m going to try to go in with an open mind and hear them out. The stuff I’m really excited for probably won’t be until later... but if they can pull it off it will be fantastic. I’m hoping this first season does all the setup of why people are tempted by the rings of power, how Numenor is before the fall and make it seem like you can understand the fall, why Celebrimbor gets tricked by Sauron, and of course lasting impacts of the first age on everyone. that would be so fun. (I want to know what version they’re doing for gil-galad’s dad. that would be hilarious.) 

So I think that’s it for now. I’ll reference back to these when I’m writing up my opinions on the first two episodes. Which I hope are good. I really hope they are. We’ll see.

[lendmyboyfriendahand]

hey i love your Elros and Elrond's No Good Very Bad Day fic! do you have any headcanons about what happens after the twins make their choice in that one? how do people react to them being around? love your writing :)

(in reference to this post)

Thank you! To answer, I’m just going to continue the fic a bit. Eonwe had just demanded the twins decide their fate/nature.

Elrond is surprised (and exhausted) enough to say what’s on his mind. “I thought we were already elves? We haven’t aged like men, and frankly I’m glad of it.”

Eonwe declares, “So be it. Elrond son of Earendil shall be counted as an elf, and from this day forward his nature shall be as one of the Firstborn. What of Elros son of Earendil?”

Gil-Galad claps his hand over Elros’s mouth. He’s feeling kind of bad about dragging these kids into the center of camp with everyone watching, now that he knows they’re who they claim to be and not Feanorian spies. And he didn’t mean for them to make life-altering decisions at 2 am with no time to think.

Gil-Galad: “Lord Eonwe, you have me deepest thanks for confirming their identity. But must they decide now which fate will shape the rest of their lives?”

Eonwe: “Their parents did.”

Gil-Galad: “Earendil and Elwing violated the ban of the Valar. These two are innocent.”

Eonwe: “Elrond son of Earendil has chosen, and I have witnessed it; his path is set. His brother Elros has not yet chosen, but cannot continue forever as half one thing and half another. The fates of Elves and Men are linked, but distinct. And I must tell Lord Manwe what they have resolved.”

Gil-Galad: “He will tell you before you leave, but they have been through a shock. Both the gift of Men and the life of the Eldar should be sources of joy, not regret.”

Eonwe: “I do not know when I will leave, and may not bother with a ship. The peredhel must decide in a week.”

Gil-Galad: “They will.”

Eonwe leaves in a small whirlwind.

Elrond: “Can you please take your hand off Elros’s mouth? We won’t be loud.” Elrond and Elros grew up as children of fugitives. Capture was a real risk. They were taught that if ever captured, it was better to be polite to your captor, no matter what.

Gil-Galad: “Of course. My apologies Elros, I was worried that Eonwe would interpret it anything you said as a decision, like he did with Elrond.”

Elros: “There’s no harm done. What were you saying about Elwing and Earendil?”

Gil-Galad: “You hadn’t heard? When they reached Valinor, Lord Manwe declared they must choose to be counted as either elves or men. Elwing chose elves, and Earendil chose to follow her.”

Elrond: “So they both made it then.”

Gil-Galad: “Yes, decades ago.” He gestures to the guards. “Untie them, they’re obviously not a threat.” To Elros and Elrond, “Catching you up on recent history is going to take a while. Would you mind coming along to my tent?”

Elrond: “Of course not.” Gil-Galad is the one with an army, after all.

Elros: “We do know history up to the fall of Sirion. Maedhros rarely risked talking to any other elves since then, though.”

Gil-Galad: “For fear of being brought to justice, of course. Don’t worry, I don’t blame you two for what they did to you.”

So Gil-Galad tells Elrond and Elros what has been happening with the elves for the last fifty years, including Maedhros and Maglor’s final attack. Word spreads quickly in the camp that Elros and Elrond are alive - and have been raised by the Feanorians.

During that week, Elros gets entirely fed up with how suspicious every single elf is of them because of the Feanorians. He realizes that it will take centuries before elves stop flinching every time he walks past carrying a sword, or jokes about violence, or mentions his life from six to fifty-eight years old at all.

Men though, they move past things in a matter of years. Sure, there are some people who still remember Sirion, but none who feel /betrayed/ by the Feanorians over it. ‘Someone murdered people, but then went fifty years without doing it again’ does not sound like the worst possible person to raise children to Men, many of whom have done terrible things to survive before the Host of Valinor reached them. (The whole thing about Silmarils is generally regarded as 'elves are weird and stupid about jewelry.’)

If he chooses men, he can be truly part of a community for the first time in his life. If he chooses elves, he’s choosing centuries more of isolation.

Elrond is going to miss his brother, but there’s no point in both of them being sad. He’ll join Gil-Galad’s people, and eventually they’ll admit that he’s not a risk.

Or they won’t. But either way, Elros is better off free of it.