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The Silmarillion recontextualizes Sauron in much the same way the Star Wars prequel trilogy recontextualizes Darth Vader. Annatar and Anakin are gonna meet up to build machines and go to the podraces together but Anakin is mad cuz Annatar won't not be wearing a fursuit.

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Re: the previous post, I have an AO3 account and I literally never log out. There is no reason I would post guest comments signed with either my tumblr or AO3 handles. If you receive a weird guest comment from “me” - it’s not me.

In the grand scheme of the millions of AO3 accounts it’s highly unlikely someone will steal my username to send bot generated AI-promo hate mail. However I think this is a good time for my seasonal reminder that there is nothing stopping dedicated assholes from employing the same tactics in a real harassment effort.

I don’t send guest comments. Shoot me a dm here or on discord if something seems off.

#sometimes fandom is like playing telephone but everyone hates each other

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So today I got a rather unkind comment on AO3 (one could call it hate), but I believe it to be a bot for several reasons:

Guest account, but username attached

Said username exists but person is unlikely to be reading Tolkien fic (according to their Tumblr and AO3, they are in other fandoms)

Two grammatically correct sentences

Super generic text that could apply to any fic:

"I've seen better fanfiction written by a toddler. Get it together!"

I'm curious, did anyone else get comments like this? Let me know.

And to those who have gotten rude comments and are now worried/upset: Maybe it was just a bot too. Either way: You're awesome for putting your writing out there for others to enjoy and you don't deserve to get rude comments for it. If you want feel free to message me to compare cases and discuss details :)

#what a nightmare #things like this make me so paranoid about someone sending hate signed with my name

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Shut the fuck up about dwarves challenge

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Hi, trying the “send asks to foster community” thing! How did you come up with your awesome username?

hey! I'm the anion gap guy around these parts now lol, everyone seems to be getting a sensible chuckle out of my acid base balance jokes.

I started thinking about it because I like a good pun and wanted to make a change from tol-himling. Maglor's lands in beleriand are labeled on the map as Maglor's Gap. I'm in nursing school right now and I'm a total nerd. End result maglors-anion-gap (anion gap is the measure of positive and negative ions in the blood, assessed with regard to metabolic imbalances). I have maglors-thigh-gap saved as a placeholder for my dream nsft sideblog that will not get off the ground for some time. In all likelihood, I'll be tired of medical puns by the time I graduate and just rotate it in to replace maglors-anion-gap.

How did you settle on your username?

Also before I forget: you sent me an ask a while ago asking if you could read my silvergifting vivisection fic. I have not forgotten about it, or you, but nursing school has turned me into a shadow of myself for the time being and progress is incredibly slow. When it's done I'll post it on tumblr and on my ao3 (Lorinand_Lost). I have your original ask saved in my inbox to remind me to tag you at that time :) I'm excited that folks are interested in it!

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Russingon Week 2024: Prompts!

Russingon week will run June 10th to June 16th, 2024.

Day 1: Light

Valinor

Princes and exiles

Joy in the past 

Family

First time 

Childhood friends to lovers

Day 2: Darkness  

Doom of the Noldor

Angband and the Helcaraxë worldbuilding

Kinslayings

Grief and bereavement 

Despair and hope

Angry sex/hate sex

Day 3: Song

Rescue from Thangorodrim

Religious faith and worship headcanons 

Unchaining 

Trust and pity

Betrayal and reconciliation 

Hurt/comfort

Reunion sex 

Day 4: Peace 

Long Peace

Himring and Barad Eithel

Politics and diplomacy

Fealty and devotion

Noldorin traditions

Fluff

Tender sex 

Day 5: War 

Archery, sparring and battle

Battlefield traditions

Fire

Union of Maedhros

Horror in the past

Unhappy ending

BDSM/kink

Day 6: AU 

Canon divergence and fix-its

Time travel/time bending

Unusual headcanons

Different setting

Roleswap

Sexual experimentation

Day 7: The Future  

Weddings and oaths

Re-embodiment

Laws and Customs of the Eldar

Transformation

Parenthood, children, lineages 

Ósanwë

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(I'm being joking but also I'm being serious) tolkien emphasizes the feanorians being friends with turgon's siblings and with some of finarfin's kids, but tolkien either excludes turgon from this or states he dislikes them. It's tempting to hold up his principled character as the reason for this but I would propose that this is a very clear example of positively charged magnets repelling each other. This is a man who is strictly principled because he knows exactly what he's like when he's not principled. Caution, he bites.

#turgon #to be clear i'm not criticizing his dislike of them im just not writing or defending a thesis #freeing myself from the false dichotomy of *turgon is straightlaced and boring* vs *turgon is a model character compared to X* #i'm choosing a third option: there's not a normal grandchild among the lot of them

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turgon is the most feanorian nolofinwean

eol killed his sister (a loved one) so he threw him off a cliff (in revenge)

morgoth destroyed his city (his magnum opus, the like of which would never again be created) so he stood on a tower screaming victory for the noldor (went out in the most dramatic wrathful way possible)

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Every bit in the Silmarillion is like "And then Frenulum who was the son of Weenus committed a dozen war crimes and died of sadness" and it's fucking great

#i would be upset if someone stole my stones #my family jewels if you will

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some advice I got a long time ago about making your characters more realistic:

If you can’t imagine your character in silly or embarrassing situations without feeling very personally offended; take a step back, kick your character off their pedestal and let them breathe.

Let them feel and react in the same way you and others do. Let them laugh at dumb things, let them trip and fall on their face a few times. Let them experience life.

Don’t take your characters so seriously that all the fun qualities are removed in the process.

#prev is so right

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I have a lot of feelings about the rise of he would not fucking say that attitudes in fandom spaces and the paralysing effect it can have on creators. As a writer i think it’s important to just write what feels true to you and not what you think others will “approve” of. Like even as a reader i have enjoyed a variety of different characterisations that all work because the writer makes them work for a particular story. And a fic that’s written out of character to some will be in character to others. Writing fic is not your job you’re not being paid it’s your hobby please. Make them as close to canon as possible. Make them completely different. Who cares! Have fun! Have so much fun! There is an audience for every kind of fic and every kind of character interpretation i promise

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does the Oath of Feanor work as a magical compulsion, or does it have magical properties, and its consequences real?

yes, because the magic of Arda is also based on words of power, and it would be dissatisfying and limiting to assume that somehow that power doesn't work in this specific instance. no, because even if Feanor is the one speaking, not even his power could bend the fate of elves to that extent. yes, because the fate of any one people can be bent, delayed, or weirdly modified until an oath is fulfilled; in LOTR, the ghosts of the path of the dead prove it. no, because Manwe and Varda would not feel bound to enforce an oath of death with them as witnesses, and it goes against the rules of oathing. yes, because the enforcer is Eru, they just stand as witnesses and do not have the power to release the swearers as Eru would. no, because we don't even know if Eru accepted that oath. yes, because if the oath was invalid from the start, it would be beyond callous of Manwe and Varda not to inform the swearers and allow the consequences of the oath to happen. no, because a magical compulsion would remove or to an extent at least lessen responsibility of actions taken in its pursuit. yes, because the author of the story acknowledges a certain "will" of the oath by making it wake or sleep with active verbs. no, because even swearing without additional magic on top can feel like a compulsion to do things or to keep going that otherwise would not exist or not be felt by a given swearer. yes, because no matter what the everlasting darkness is or does, it can be real independently from any other prior compulsion to act; in other words, there may not be a magical property to the oath, but its called consequences for the swearers are very real. no, because there's several slightly different versions of the oath across the texts, and it's impossible to do a literal, word for word reading of its lines if it's possible to recite it slightly differently at a given time. yes, because the only valid version is the original pronounced by Feanor in Tirion, you can't wiggle out of that one. no, because who's to say that was recorded correctly, it's far too poetic for a sudden decision. yes, because who's to say that Feanor couldn't whip out all that via improvisation, I bet he could. yes, because other characters beyond the sons of Feanor treat the oath as something absolutely serious and real, and that includes Finrod in speaking to Andreth, when he says that Eru's name is not called upon even in jest, as well as Melian, when pointing out the strong forces awakened by involving that power. no, because neither of them can talk to Eru anyway. yes, because it's narratively more satisfying to imagine characters morally struggle against something that is eventually unbreakable and unavoidable like in any good tragedy. no, because it's narratively more satisfying to imagine characters do it to themselves and compromise with who they are out of family loyalty. yes, because the curse of Mandos actively turns it against the swearers into a betraying force, a consequence that wouldn't otherwise be a given, that is, nothing says that everything they start well would have finished badly and that the oath would have led them to defeat, and if it weren't magical before Mandos' addition, it is now. no, because Amrod's death in a draft would prove it breakable through his (admittedly only guessed) desire to turn back. yes, because he still died in the process, aka the everlasting darkness claimed him for being an oathbreaker. no, because how is it possible that it's simultaneously unbreakable and broken. yes, because the fate of arda and that of elves is inscribed within the eternal paradox of everything being predicted and everything being free will, and that will never be solved, neither regarding the fate of the elves nor the oath of Feanor. no, because the oath is a narrative device. yes, because the oath is a narrative device. three hundred more lines.

hope this helps. hope it doesn't. your pick.

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Hi, totally random person here. I stumbled across your url and I have to ask:

is the 'anion gap' in maglors-anion-gap an intentional reference to blood chemistry and acid-base balance? I'm just so delighted to see it that I have to ask!

Thanks :)

Hi! Yes it is! I’m glad everyone else in healthcare or adjacent fields is getting a chuckle out of it!

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Feeling grateful for the communal creativity of fandom and transformative works today. I love how collaborative fic writing and fanart is, how we're inspired not just by the source text but by each other. How we build on each other, both consciously and unconsciously. How sharing ideas, being generous with ideas, is foundational to our creativity, in contrast to the individualistic and proprietary attitudes you so often encounter in other creative and intellectual domains.

No, we're not always perfect, and we're not always supportive (we're only human), but in my experience the positive interactions, whether they be conversations or silent currents of inspiration travelling between minds, far outnumber the negative ones.

#thank you for this truly #you had no way of knowing but I really needed to hear this today #not so much the praise (though that was very sweet and I’m always stunned to be told I’ve left an impact) #but rather that yes there are people joyfully engaging with new ideas rather than just testing their tensile strength #(to shreds you say)

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Their roles are interchangeable tho

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Is that what I think it is? If you were thinking “wait, Archi’s using their art because they don’t know how to find fancy graphics” then you’re correct! if you were thinking “those are the prompts!” then you’re also correct! In this event, everyone’s a winner (unless you break The Rules).

MAR. 17th - 18th: VALINOR

Childhood

Apprenticeships

Family & friendship

Dark omens

MAR. 19th - 20th: OATHS

Fëanorian Oath

Promises made

Loyalty & betrayal

Oaths broken

MAR. 21st - 22nd: CONTRASTS

Light/darkness

Laurelin/Telperion

Heroism/villainy

Adored/unseen

MAR. 23rd: SECRECY

Words unspoken

Lies by omission

Taboos

Late night rendezvous

Of course, you don’t have to use these prompts. They’re just for inspiration! I only ask that you keep to the theme of each day(s) somewhat. Please use the tag #c+c week 2024 (with spaces) or tag this account so I can see your lovely entries!

Thank you so much to @thecoolblackwaves for helping me with these prompts <3

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not to be dramatic but i just wanna say that i hate this whole kind of thing with all my being and think it makes fandoms worse and aggressively uninteresting

no gods or masters in fandom please and thanks.