#s'all good in rintown now

[sakasakiii]

I like your melkor and mairon! Is there a headcanon?

HELLOOOO thank you so much for the lovely words!! 💓 and the question too! to be honest, I sat down and thought long and hard for this one, bc I tend to always always fluctuate between how I see the Melkor-Mairon dynamic tbh…… 🤔🤔

On one hand, the one I tend to draw and lean towards is a more lighthearted version of them, in which Melkor is basically a nutjob boss who runs his kingdom like a manchild and Mairon is the exasperated manager cleaning after his messes lmao!!! So here, I see them as having a relationship of mutual benefit and (mostly) mutual respect:

Melkor gives Mairon the power to do as he pleases (experiment, harass elves, kill Finrods, etc etc) so Mairon in turn serves him loyally and take care of things relating to Mind that Melkor, who specialises in Might, may miss or overlook. While I don't hc Melkor as someone capable of ""loving"" in the sense we may be familiar with, I think they do care for each other in the weird, detached way you might become fond of a stray dog you see everyday on ur commute to work 🤭

On another hand, I have considered a darker version of their dynamic before that I’ll put under the cut 🤔 content warning for gaslighting(?), implied workplace abuse so if those possible things make you uncomfy please feel free to click off!

if you’ve read my writing, you’d know i believe Melkor is a nasty bugger who treats everyone horribly (even his own ppl!!! what a surprise 🤷🏻‍♀️) so in this version, I see Mairon from a POV in which his servitude to Melkor is less out of genuine loyalty and more out of…. survival? Fear? Not that I’m excusing his actions lmao but we'll get to that in a sec

Here I tend to see Mairon as someone who’s trapped in an inescapable situation: allured to Melkor’s side for the promise of power and order that Aulë may not necessary have given him, but who quickly learnt that Melkor may not have been as benevolent a master as he may have made them all believe. Melkor here is someone who takes out his temper on even those who serve him, with Mairon (+ Gothmog Thuri n co) being the forefront; he rules through fear, and his servants know that most of all.

(But it's not to say Mairon can find comfort in his fellow Maiar during this, bc Angband is a toxic hazbin that banks on the survival of the fittest/dog-eat-dog mentality, so any perceived weakness will get you shunned-- and besides, Lord Melkor only loses his temper if you fail his expectations... right?)

Here, I don’t think Melkor is behind manipulating Mairon to stay by his side; and Mairon himself is torn between wanting to believe that his lord's increasing frequency of violent tempers are just the Silmaril-paranoia taking hold of his mind. But Mairon is proud as well, and instead of allowing this treatment to force him into a shell of subservience and fear, he maintains his image of perfection and takes out his resentment onto the other closest outlets (the children of iluvatar rip), which I think is a good segway into his oppresive role as Sauron in the 2nd and 3rd ages even after Melkor is gone...

eh!!!! this got a little long-winded, and it ended up less 'headcanony' than it did 'rambly'... my apologies!!! 🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️ if this isn't the answer you wanted, feel freeeee to let me know and i can probably whip up some more lighthearted content hehehe... but til then, if youve made it this far into my ramblings then thank you for reading!!! 💓💓