#how maeglin gets tossed from gondolin's walls the same way eol did

[chaos-of-the-abyss]

love how the narrative flat-out has zero sympathy for celegorm and maeglin after their attempted assault of luthien and idril respectively. they deserve only humiliation and death after committing such a repulsive violation of these women's autonomy, and that's what they were given. why it works so well is that they're both well-written characters with ample space for fleshed-out emotions, motivations, and thoughts; neither of them are simple caricatures of rapists whose sole purpose is to be icky and disgusting. they've both been through loss, trauma, grief, and pain. yet the narrative asserts that none of that matters. the moment they stooped so low, they became undeserving of understanding or mercy, and it was a good riddance that they died the way they did

[kenobiwaned]

Yeah. There are a lot of horrible deaths in the Silmarillion. Most of them have to do with twists of irony (see: Maeglin getting tossed off the walls of Gondolin the same way that Eol was) or psychological torment (see: everything that happened to Hurin and his family or Finrod and his followers being picked off one by one in the dark).

But Fingon's death was, at least in my recollection, the most viscerally brutal.

The juxtaposition from his incredible moment of hope "The night is passing, the day has come!" to his death is just horrific.

"At last Fingon stood alone with his guard dead about him; and he fought with Gothmog, until another Balrog came behind and cast a thong of fire about him. Then Gothmog hewed him with his black axe, and a white flame sprang up from the helm of Fingon as it was cloven. Thus fell the High King of the Noldor; and they beat him into the dust with their maces; and his banner, blue and silver, they trod into the mire of his blood."

Fingolfin died achieving the impossible, giving Morgoth permanent wounds, and as much as I adore Maedhros, his self-immolation at least ended his pain. Same with Finrod. He saved Beren and came close to outsinging an Ainur!

In contrast Fingon's death was so cruelly pointless and that feels like it was by design. Like Morgoth (and probably Sauron) had planned for it to go down like that. I know that the whole of the Battle of Unnumbered Tears was a trap, but Fingon's death feels extremely targeted. You know?

Fingon was so incredibly good! He risked death (or worse- capture and torment) trying to save Maedhros. Even though the last time that Fingon saw him, he and his family were being betrayed and left to the Helcaraxë (he had no way of knowing that Maedhros refused to participate in the burning of the ships). And he did it because he STILL loved Maedhros and believed in second chances!

You can't tell me that Cousin Fingon wasn't little Celebrimbor's absolute hero growing up. Especially not when he wanted Eregion to stand as a symbol of second chances. He probably heard about the Thangorodrim rescue with stars in his eyes.

I'm ranting again.

Anyway, applying this to gold cages!Sauron. The highest of ironies is that Fingon is exactly the kind of person who he would have wanted to keep with him. He's kind, brave, and selfless.

I hope the memory of both of Fingon and Maedhros keeps him up at night. That he wakes up in a sweat at least every few days thinking about how the two of them are probably cuddled up together somewhere in Mandos (or Aman). And that gold cages!Celebrimbor thinks of Fingon's love for Maedhros and remembers that sometimes second chances can be a beautiful thing. (I imagine Celebrimbor berates himself a lot for extending a hand out to Halbrand/Sauron.)

Just realised a Gold Cages thing I need expanded on. Someone (maybe several someones) go to Gil-Galad/Elendil/Miriel ‘listen we get Sauron to swear a binding oath on pain of Void that he’ll keep to certain lands, we + Aman + Gondor/what will become Rohan get peace and yes it’s sad the Gold Cages crew have to go back to him but it’s a necessary sacrifice’

(Probably also Saruman to Gandalf in FOTR Gold Cages)

@themalhambird @kenobiwaned @plotdesigner @nocompromise-noregrets