#Melkor vibes

[junk-whunk-punk]

my sister: i saw on titkok that-

me: where you saw

she: i just misspoke i meant tiktok

me: titkok

she:

me:

she:

me: tit cock😳😳

[nuin-giliath]

[morphym37]

guess it's "my lord" 🤔

also imagine he open mouth and inside is black like snake :3

edit: clean stuff up and add the earlier ver. under the cut

[psstwantsomecheese]

Silmarillion as stuff I have on my phone

[chaos-of-the-abyss]

Who knows now the counsels of Morgoth? Who can measure the reach of his thought, who had been Melkor, mighty among the Ainur of the Great Song, and sat now, a dark lord upon a dark throne in the North, weighing in his malice all the tidings that came to him, and perceiving more of the deeds and purposes of his enemies than even the wisest of them feared, save only Melian the Queen? To her often the thought of Morgoth reached out, and there was foiled.

hm i think i tend to see lots of characterization of melkor as a destroyer first and foremost who's good for nothing other than raw power and breaking things left and right, but that's really a severe disservice to him imo. in the silm here it is stated point-blank that he can be good at reading his enemies. he's good at predicting the ways that they think, and he's good at using that to his advantage. and it's not just a case of show-don't-tell either, because he has pulled off manipulation and deception spectacularly before. before the darkening, he's able to fool most of the valar into trusting the sincerity of his repentance, enough so that he's clearly given, if not free roam, something pretty close to it, in valinor. he successfully makes feanor distrust the valar and does it so well that even after feanor realizes how malicious he really is, he's still believing and repeating the lies melkor told him in the past. and it's not just feanor either -- melkor spreads his propaganda against the valar to other elves, and he does it with enough tact and finesse that nobody traces it back to him until it's much too late. i do think that his subtlety and people skills degenerated quite a bit over time throughout the first age, but he still knows very well how to read people. on top of the excerpt from above, wherein he is stated to be thoroughly aware of his enemies' actions and motivations, this passage comes to mind:

But Morgoth thought that his triumph was fulfilled, recking little of the sons of Fëanor, and of their oath, which had harmed him never and turned always to his mightiest aid; and in his black thought he laughed, regretting not the one Silmaril that he had lost, for by it as he deemed the last shred of the people of the Eldar should vanish from Middle-earth and trouble it no more. If he knew of the dwelling by the waters of Sirion, he gave no sign, biding his time, and waiting upon the working of oath and lie.

he knows the sons of feanor will attack sirion. he knows they will once again cave to their oath and commit more violence against other elves, despite having come to beleriand as his enemies. this is right after the fall of gondolin -- almost thirty years before the third kinslaying occurs -- and he's already aware of what the sons of feanor will choose to do when even they themselves likely aren't sure. it's an impressive display of astuteness and insight and i don't think it gets discussed in the specific context of what it means for melkor's character. yes, he is deeply arrogant, self-centered, and spiteful, and that blindsides him a lot of the time. (look no further than the lay of leithian, where he massively underestimates luthien.) but he can also be extremely shrewd when he wants to be.

also! i like the fact that he is explicitly noted to have laughed at the notion of the feanorians attacking other elves. they've already caused the fall of doriath, and now he's correctly predicted that they'll sack sirion in the future. melkor has a sense of humor, people! a very dark sense of humor that probably always comes at others' expense, but it is a sense of humor. and it's a good one at that, because the feanorians' actions are deeply ironic. i can't blame him for giggling tbh, i would too.

another thing i find significant is that melkor does not regret losing the silmaril to luthien because he knows it will ultimately lead to another kinslaying. he of course miscalculates in thinking that that will spell the irreversible end for the eldar in beleriand, and he couldn't have known that earendil would actually try to sail to aman to plead for the valar's help, nor could he have known that elwing would bring the silmaril to vingilot and enable the success of earendil's voyage. but in my experience at least, melkor is perceived and portrayed as somewhat silmaril-obsessed, and he's really... not? he's capable of being outright fine about losing one since its loss contributes to his overall aims. imo, he's actually quite rational about the whole thing. he cares more about the usefulness of the situation -- and the black humor in it -- than he cares about the silmaril. and compared to what i've seen him get credit for, he has several instances across the silm where he's pretty smart.

p.s. the last sentence on that first passage is funny as hell to me. "often the thought of morgoth reached out" to melian, "and there was foiled." melkor stretching telepathically out across beleriand like "psst hey melian--" only to be stonewalled every time with

[lime-bucket]

its lowkey fascinating to me how despite melkor embodying the most basic of fantasy villains archetypes (dark lord whos evil fr evil sake) he never comes off as boring or stagnant in such a complex story like the Silm.

The first thing we see of melkor is how utterly powerfull he in terms of cunning & strength & yet he gets weakened, but not to a degree it feels the vala was nerfed fr narrative convinience,& throughout the book melkor is aware of his deminishing powers as he keeps creating ways to work around it in order to spread destruction & bloodshed

And things r kept interesting as with almost each L the legions of morgoth take,next chapter they lock in & secure a terrible victory against howvr angband sets its terrible eyes on.not only its brilliant to keep readers engaged but also it feels the story remind us even when melkor faces multi humilating defeats,he is not a joke & theres a reason he is feared & loathed.

Hell even at the end where melkors loses in the most typical villain way of being too pridefull the story doesnt go and everyone lived happily ever after! instead it solemnly acknowledge that even if he lost,melkor had prevailed for hatred & pain were sowed in middle earth staying fr ages to come (not to mention the loyal disciple sauron gonna continue his master work).thus his goals were all along accomplished.

melkor might not be 3 dimensional in the sense most modern fictional antagonists r,but it doesnt make him less of a well thought out villain cuz tolkien understood what makes the nature of evil a terrible blight on the world is its continuous changing

[cilil]

Never mind me, I'm just lying in bed and dreaming about two certain dark lords snuggling during Almaren times.

Mairon has graciously planted himself on Melkor's lap, pleased that his new favorite Vala is giving him all the attention he rightfully deserves, and Melkor has happily wrapped every available limb around him, being all "mine :3"

[aureentuluva70]

This poem by Tolkien right here feels particularly Melkor x Nienna-coded to me

[saintstars]

Yeah so I saw the zendaya photos

[persephonaae]

Broke: we should adapt the Silmarillion into a show or movie

Woke: we should adapt the Silmarillion into a Soulsborne style game

[winds-of-zephyr416]

Well look who showed up to the party.

[mirkwood]

They don't make characters like nuada or adar anymore

[burgeronus]

What would you do if Melkor in sneakers approached you at an anime convention with a water bottle in hand

[misaligncd]

@exsanguinatc

[winds-of-zephyr416]

Uuhuhhhhhh sooooo there's this thing I do when I'm writing and.... uhhhh......

Technically these bullet points are there to keep me on track between writing sessions. Technically. But you know what else they're really good for? MEMES. Memes and dumbassery.

Observe:

(The top one is from a doc of self-indulgent Angbang oneshots, the bottom is for another very self-indulgent au where Sauron becomes Smol. What can I say, I'm a simple man).

[gauntletgirlie]

Adding my two pence in to the Sauron shipping and sexuality discourse since I am a fan of Tolkien’s written works and The Rings of Power show whereas quite a few people debating this seem to fall into one camp or the other (not all, I will clarify, just from what I’ve personally seen).

Before I start, I’m not out here trying to cause strife, I’m trying to advocate for people to be nicer to one another about their conflicting views.

I love The Silmarillion. When I first read it, and in subsequent readings, I did not interpret either Melkor or Sauron sexually at all. I just didn’t. Not that I thought they were asexual or aromantic, I just didn’t think of them in terms of sexuality. It’s not what I was focussed on when I was reading and it’s not the vibe that I personally got, even when looking deeper at subtext and in between the lines.

I heckin love Angbang though. The art, the headcanons, the crack, the writing, the goofy stuff, the sexy stuff, and everything in between. I arrived on tumblr, stumbled upon Angbang and that was me seduced! I have space for my original interpretation of Melkor and Mairon and then the Angbang interpretation. I enjoy both.

I had fun watching The Rings of Power. Admittedly, Season 1 was a bit “eh” for me, but Season 2 slapped in my opinion. I think Charlie Vickers is doing a fantastic job of portraying Sauron. I was, and am, excited to see one of my favourite characters given more exploration on screen.

Charlie Vickers’ depiction, along with the writers’ and directors’, is just one interpretation. One based on limited and often vague literature (the appendices of The Lord of the Rings). The same way that Peter Jackson’s all-seeing, fiery eye atop Barad-hûr was an interpretation.

Peter Jackson’s LOTR films, TROP, Haladriel, Saurondriel, Angbang… they’re all interpretations based on Tolkien’s works, people’s own worldviews, people’s own preferences, and how people view Tolkien as an author. None of them are wholly “correct” and none of them are wholly “incorrect”.

So please for the love of Eru and the sanity of Tolkien lovers everywhere, stop acting as though your definitions, your ships, your perceived ideologies of a character, are the only correct ones. Let people enjoy what and how they may, without attacking one another.

Also as an added aside, when I make TROP memes, crack, and headcanons, they are solely for the characters as portrayed in TROP. I have my own headcanons and crack for written work Tolkien characters. I enjoy both. I love hearing other’s ideas and analysis, even if I end up not seeing it the same way. I appreciate not everyone can compartmentalise like that, but for me it allows me to enjoy more of Tolkien’s works. Heck, if I didn’t, I would not enjoy Angbang and what a sad world that would be for me because Angbang is ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥.

So go forth and ship and let ship!