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vibesandwonders · 3 years

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“The what?”

“The Lord of the Rings,” Sam stops dead, and jogs back to him, “You serious? You said you read the Hobbit?”

“Yeah?”

“JRR Tolkien?”

“Yes.” Bucky runs a hand through his hair and sighs.

“But you don’t know The Lord of the Rings?”

“If you keep repeating it, maybe it’ll catch this time.”

Sam’s mouth falls open, “Mother of— they froze you before Lord of the friggin Rings?”

Bucky blows out a blast of annoyed air and moves to run, Sam grabs his forearm, “Stop that, we’re talkin—“

“—We are running.”

“Not anymore,” Sam leans his weight on Bucky and laughs, “Shit. I always forget that they popsicled you,” He shakes his head, “Tolkien, he wrote the Hobbit yeah, but like… ten years later he wrote a Trilogy, the Trilogy, like, the one to rule them all.”

“Are they any good?”

Sam practically squeals with laughter, his arm still looped inside Bucky’s, “Yes.” He says, emphatically, grinning so much that Bucky is tempted to smile back, almost, “The movies are good too.”

“Movies?”

“Moving pictures?” Sam grins wider, “Talkies?”

Bucky tilts his head, rolls his eyes, already ready to run again, Sam’s having none of it, he starts pulling Buck back the way they came,

“What about the run?”

“This,” Sam insists, “Is more important, we gotta head back,”

“It’s 7am.”

“Exactly, which means we’ve got time to hit the store on the way home,”

“Why?”

“Provisions, we’re gonna be busy all day, we need to have snacks and keep hydrated.”

“What?”

“Extended editions baby, this is a 12-hour Lord of the Rings lockdown,” He grins at Bucky, “Consider yourself absolutely blessed that I was nerdy as hell in high school. I gotta text Torres, tell him we are taking the day off.”

“You’re taking a day off, from being Captain America?”

“He’ll understand.”

~ Hours later~

“Bucky,” He sighs, and plants his palms on the kitchen countertop, “James Buchanan Barnes,” Nothing.

He takes his phone out and pauses the damn TV,

The man in question rotates very slightly, his eyes wide, red, in shock, also as pissed as Sam had quite possibly ever seen him, including the time he was kicked off a domestic flight home because of his ‘metal arm’.

“You good?” Sam asks,

“So they just left him? After he sacrificed himself to get them out and across the bridge of Khazad-dûm and away from the Balrog?”

Oh Jesus,

“The bridge of Khaza—" He stops himself, chuckles, can't help it, he shouldn't surprised by this and yet, "Yeah man, they couldn’t—“

“What? Walk out there and grab his hands? There were eight men,” He shakes his head incredulously, “Bilbo’s nephew, wouldn’t walk twenty feet to save Gandalf?”

“Wait wait, Are you crying man?” He smirks, teasing, “There are two and a half more movies to go Buck, and you’re already out here cryin’ your ass off, you gotta chill—“

Bucky regards him sourly, “Have you even read the Hobbit?”

“Not even gonna dignify that kinda hostility with an answer James.”

He unpauses the tv and digs through the fridge, a moment later, the TV pauses again,

“Sorry.” Bucky mutters, “I uh, I’m enjoying them.”

“I can tell.” Sam says, and again, a grown-ass man getting way too sucked in to a High Fantasy trilogy 60 years late shouldn’t be damn adorable, but it is, “You hungry, oh member of the fellowship?”

Bucky rolls his eyes, turns back around,

“Is there coffee?”

Sam grins, and starts filling the water kettle.

“We, are gonna take a break.”

Bucky spins, finger already on the remote to jump to the next movie, Sam shakes his head.

“You haven’t eaten yet, and this is our…shit, third pot of coffee.”

“But they’re taking the hobbits to Isengard.”

Sam cackles, “Yeah, you are indeed correct, that is happening, but, we got 8 more hours of cinematic masterpiece, and you— are gonna eat somethin’”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Would Aragorn not sustain himself while trying to rescue Merry and Pippin?” He asks dramatically,

Another eyeroll, but he stands and stretches, folding one of the new blankets that had somehow started appearing randomly inside his apartment.

“How do you feel about cookies?”

He watches the top of his head twist, but Bucky’s eyes don’t leave the screen, “Thought we were eating lunch?”

Sam laughs, “Thai?”

He texts Sarah, attaches a picture of Bucky swathed in a blanket, staring in fascination at the TV.

“He’s never seen Lord of the Rings.” And then a bunch of laughing emojis.

“So where’s Rohan in relation to Mordor?” Bucky asks over the top of the couch, “They keep talking about the Gap of Rohan, but then…”

“Google it.”

“You’ve got your phone.” Bucky argues, “Do library books still have the maps in the back nowadays?”

Sam’s already got his app open, Complete Works of JRR Tolkien, Hardback

He swipes and makes sure they have maps— New York freakin City, it’ll be delivered before they finish the second one.

“Sam needs to kill Gollum.”

He looks up at the mention of his name, grinning at the screen, then back at the microwave: he lost rock, paper, scissors, so popcorn’s on him.

“Smeagol?”

Bucky purses his lips, unimpressed, “He is clearly untrustworthy, “

“Sam’s also a little jealous of Frodo’s attention, they’ve been one-on-one for a while now,”

“I guess,”

“Frodo also sees a lot of himself in Smeagol, what he could have become…”

Bucky pauses the movie, “they’ve still got those elf-blades.” He mutters, “He’s talking to himself, and creeping off in the night, Sam should kill him, and tell Frodo he found him that way.”

“He was Aragorn’s best friend,” Bucky murmurs, his voice is a little choked up, “He came to defend the men of Rohan.”

“Mmmhmm.”

Sarah’s texted him back:

“Oh god, you found another geek.” She says, “Are ya’ll gonna like have a Star Trek themed wedding?”

Bucky’s got the second book open across his knees, his fingers holding it open so he can occasionally frown down at the maps.

“He died protecting him.”

“They had a bond.” Sam agrees, “Read the appendices, there’s loads more about the elves. Just wait until you get deep in the Silmarillion.”

“Yeah.” Bucky says, only half-listening, “Starting to think his ‘heir of Gondor’ schtick is getting old, man can’t even protect his friends— and where is Gandalf?”

“Are you shitting on Aragorn? Son of Arathorn?”

Bucky shrugs, “Just seems like he’s avoiding his calling, what he’s good at, born to do… running from it, cause he’s scared.”

“It’s a lot of responsibility he didn’t ask for.” Sam replies mildly,

“Tough shit. Sometimes you just gotta use the cards you’re dealt.” Bucky stands, “I gotta pee.”

“You think I should grow my hair out?”

Sam hides his grin, making an effort not to stare at Aragorn on screen, who is currently smoldering with the best of them,

“I think you should do whatever makes you happy, Buck.” He takes a sip of his coffee (decaf this time) and stares fondly (not really) at the side of Bucky’s face. Sure, he’s distracted, but at least this time it’s not damn mission files.

Buck grunts, they’re sprawled next to each other on the couch, knees touching, blankets shared and spread between them. Between bathroom breaks and Sam occasionally poking Bucky to make sure he was still breathing, personal space had become even less of an issue than usual. Not that Sam was terribly bothered by it. They’re roommates, sorta? Partners?

A couple of guys.

“So, Arwen or Eowyn?” Bucky asks, still unblinking, Sam is pretty sure he unleashed a monster, cause this boy is a nerd. He’s already googled other trilogies, on Sam’s phone. Sam is pretty sure movie night might become a thing.

Buck’s still waiting on his answer, it’s a timeless question to be sure, Sam pretends to ponder it.

“Eomer actually.” He says, keeping his eyes on the screen, “Loyal, strong, and the man knows how to ride.”

actual fic here plus others, leave some love, say hi,

#tfatws #caatws #the falcon and the winter soldier #sam wilson #bucky barnes #sambucky #winterfalcon #sam x bucky #could be read as platonic #but why #lotr #movie night

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idjitlili · 4 years

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Hey that’s Hela!Shut up Thorin

Loki x reader

Summary:Tony started the point break references to Thor,but you take it to the next wave. Thor and Loki were the definition off Bodhi and Utah. Thor decides to interrupt you watching Lord of the rings with Loki.

Word count:2804 y/c=your country or somewhere you wish to live ,as not everyone is from america,yeah I'm from England.

A/n:Loki ,and stark live au,captain dies instead of tony.Sorry not sorry

You were no Avenger,simply Tony starks apprentice all the way from y/c ,so what Tony had done is moved you into the stark tower for the year. You did have to pay for anything ,and in honesty you it was scary being so far away from your parents for so long,only seeing them on facetime. But hey you were learning a lot from the billionaire playboy,Tony Stark,he became rather protective over you in just a week.

He had warned you to stay away from the God of mischief,Loki,you had agreed to,you couldn't go against the man that was feeding,housing,and educating you. You had no idea that Loki was even staying at the Stark tower,aswell as Thor. Something to do with Korg and Valkyrie as temporary management while Thor was away with his brother.

Basically Thor needed to get back into shape using Tony's gym,yep user indeed. Tony had trainer, the trainer being thing guy called Logan. Turn's out his trainer is bloody Wolverine,how he got this to happen I don't know,but it happened. Pretty epic if you ask the scribe, since a child you have admired him. So basically you had begged Tony to introduce him,you were more than nervous ,stuttering and such. Hence the picture you now how next to your bed of you and him. Loki had watched from next to his brother in disgust at your affections to the mutant.

You had understood why Tony called Thor point break;that movie was a classic ,Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves what more could you ask for in a movie.

This one particular day you had no work to do with Tony,from not feeling too great. Scrambled eggs,yeah,Tony knew hence why you were sat on the sofa watching movies,all day eating whatever you wanted. Well that was until Thor decided to interrupt you,sitting down,eating your favourite food,just helping himself. Anger had bubbled in you ,"HEY,that's my food!" It was no surprise that you had became more loud around Thor since this wasn't the first time he had stolen your food. You were mostly quiet,but some things got you rilled up.

Thor had shrugged carrying on eating your food, you were not spolit,but this time in a womans cycle this was uncool ,to say the least. "Tony! Patrick Swayze is eating my food! TONY,HELP" yet you recieved no answer, Loki however had sneaked into the room eyeing the situation ,you had scowled at Thor,still munching on the food ,with a smirk.

You had brought your socked foot up quickly before kicking him in the face knocking the food out of his mouth you had grinned, but the victory was short lived,he had grabbed your foot pulling you onto the floor ,before laying where you were placing his axe thing on your back. "TONY! BOdhi has put his axe on me!TONY! " you could barely take in any oxygen,turning your head you had saw Loki just watching from a far. "Oi, Utah,please,you are the better God,please your brother is a huge ass." you had pleaded with the God of mischief,he had turned away to leave. "I am dying,at least tell Tony,come on stab him I'll take the blame,he ate my food."

Loki had looked back you smirking before leaving ;it wasn't long until Tony came in. At this point Thor had eaten all your food,while you had passed out,he had thought you had fallen sleep. "THOR,what in hell is this?!" He had demanded ,"Oh shit." he had whsipered ,lifting the axe off you,turning it into an unbrella,acting like nothing had happened,but of course Tony had seen it all. Rushing over to your,and turning you over to check your heartbeat. "She's barely breathing!" before anything else could be said your eyes shot open , you had rushed to your feet ,grabbing the candle stick.

"TOny,he ate all my food!" you had cried out before running at Thor whacking him harshly with the candle stick as if it was a bat. "You are supposed to be here to lose weight not gain it ,pointbreak." Tony had a smirk inlaced with his tone ,not making any attempt to stop you. " Y/n go order some food, Thor you idiot." and that was it,for that day,you had brutally attacked a God.

Over the next two months,Loki word speak to you more than two words,asking what you watching or what were you reading.Thus breaking your oath with Tony. He had borrowed your hobbit and Lord of the rings ,even the silmarillon book. Therefore you had convinved Tony to let you have the next day watching the movies,he had agreed as he had to go out for a meeting or something. You knew he would have dragged you along if he knew you were planning to spend time with your new God friend. Tony had left mid afternoon to travel to Europe for his meeting,he would not be back for at least 24 hours.

You were not sure if Loki would even agree to watch the movies ,let alone watch them with you,but you thought just to ask. Plus he was very handsome,yeah maybe you would end up staring at him instead of the movie.

You had stood infront of his door for a minute ,as thoughts flung around your head,deciding to ignore them all and just to knock on the pine door. Knock ,Knock,knock. It wasn't long until the door was pulled open to see Loki standing before you ,with the same greaed back hair ,but instead of his Asgarding clothes or black suit,he wore jogging bottoms? Still with the button up shirt however,he looked at you questioningly as you held a tower of the extended editions of the hobbit and Lord of the rings.

"uh..I was wondering s-since you borrowed my Tolkien books..mayybe you would want to watch the movie..w-with me?" you had spoken quietly ,trying to not anger the God,his reaction was much different to what you had expected,he smiled,his blue eyes shining back into your e/c ones. "Of course,darling,when?" Your cheeks pinken,Loki's grin widening ,you had picked up the name not long ago. "oh..well I thought If we started the hobbit now we could finish them tonight ,and then start Lord of the rings tomorrow."

"well now it is! We shall find snacks first ,but we must hid them from my brother." that is exactly what you both did,soon you were sat on the sofa together the snacks surrounded you both on there. Loki seemed to enjoy the hobbit ,what you didn't know was that he liked seeing your face as you watched it for the 349494 time,as your face lit up when you saw Bilbo. You had both intensely watched the movies ,well except Loki's swift short glances at you.

Before you knew it you were almost to the second appearance of lady Galadriel,when your stomach growled loudly,so loud that Loki heard it, "hungry?" he had asked with his face soft ,you had nodded ,pausing the movie gathering your rubbish to throw away ,looking for the takeaway menus. Soon enough you had ordered waiting for it to arrive you and Loki continued with your film,well not for even a minute before Thor came bonoucing in.

Thor had lost a lot of weight since he ate all your food,he had eyed you and Loki,before turning his gaze to the telly gasping. "OH MY GOD BROTHER,it's Hela! She's still alive." Loki had sighed,you mute expressionquickly turned sour. "It's not Hela,it's Lady Galadriel," you had grumbled,Thor had smirked,walking closer. "Brother leave us." Loki had tried to get his brother to leave ,but no Thor went to sit down. "Awwe , you are courting Lady Y/n." he had teased,you had shot up grabbing the candlestick again,making your way to Thor.

"OI Swayze! We are trying to watch,but you are trying to disturb that.." Thor's eyes went wide ,you pass quickening as you chased him out of the room with the candletick,before returning to the sofa,Loki had chuckled as you had thrown yourself down. "I can see why you stabbed him so often." You didn't realise at the time but Loki had gotten closer to you,before more could be said the door had went ,food was here you had grumbled about not wanting to get up again,efore going to stand. "I've got it." With that Loki had made it to the door,leaving a gently touch on your shoulder before hand.

By the end of the night, you both had became incredibly close,and you had just finished the last movie ,turns out Loki really liked them considering he hates mortals. Loki had apparently had already finished reading the silmarillion and the hobbit and you two just talked about them for a good hour. In which it didn't take long for you to grow tired, you were knee was touching Loki's,yet your faces both facing eachother,as you talked. Soon you had sat back,and drifted into sleep head resting on Loki's shoulder.

He did not have the heart to wake you ,bro he was supposed to be evil,so much for that,and he certainly did not want to intrude your personal space by taking you to your room. He didn't even have time to make a decision as he had turned to lay in the corner of the sofa,you had fallen to lay on top of him. Thus all he could do was wrap his arms around you,whilst he fell into sleep too,hoping to keep you warm.

Once you had awoken you had quickly realised what happened ,blushing,you had pulled yourself up,heading to your room to go get ready to start lord of the rings.

As you returned to Loki he had all the food the food set out,waiting for you,you had smiled back to him practically jumping into your set on the sofa. Today you had felt more comfortable than the day before not knowing what to except from the God ,but he was a chill God in honesty,thus you began watching ,not stopping until Thor had interrupted you again.

"OH my god!That's that guy skarge? I don't know ,I can't remember his name." He had pointed out in shock,you had sighed,he mant Eomer. "no it's not! It's Karl Urban,now get out!" you had thown a pilllow at the God 'hey' he had grumbled ,you reached for the candle stick,but he ran for it already. Yet again Loki had smirkedat you,you had not seen this though.

Roughly when Pippin is taken to Gondor by Gandalf ,you had a thought. No its a stick insect no it isn't. "hey..Loki..uh.. what's the chances of you saying yes to someone.. braiding your hair." you had spoken carefully ,gaining the Gods attention he had looked at you with the same smirk as ever. "Depends who is asking. I would not allow anyone touch my hair ,but for you I shall make an exception." his words smooth as ice,well he is a frost giant ,so what do you expect. You had smiled widely ,running to your room,to retrieve your hair brus, some hair bands and clips,before returning.

You had stood behind Loki ,his eyes on the tv ,as you brought your brush to his hair gently brushing it. Well not that it needed it ,his hair was very well kept,maintained. Using your fingers to section of pieces and cliping them into place,before you weaved your fingers throw is jet black silky hair. You couldn't deny you weren't used to being this forward with guys you liked, well you had no luck with guys you liked dickheads. You end up like the god of mischief and he is so much nicer to you then them all combinded. You hadn't been in a proper relationship.

Securing the three plaits with the bands ,you had finished ,you had recreated...Legolas' hair on a God. You had rushed away to get a mirror before returning and passing it to Loki,who took it to admire your work. "Lovely,darling ,now I am Elven Prince." he had stuck his head up with fake pride you had laughed,as he turned into bloody Legolas. "You look much better with that hairstyle than Legolas," he had simply smiled before making a stoll appear at his feet,gestering for you to sit.

"what?"

"It's my turn now,now come on."

Thus you moved to sit in front of Loki as he began to brush your hair ,still watching the movie. HIs long fingers were soon braiding through your hair with ease,and yet again it wasn't long until he was done. You hoped he didn't make your hair look like Lord Elrond,oh god. BUt instead he held the mirror for you presenting you with the Legolas hair style too. You had thanked him touching the braids,smiling ,and you both went back to watching.

It wasn't long until you both finished the trilogy ,Loki liked it so much more than the hobbit and you had agreed.

In the next hour you had put the soundtrack of Lord of the rings on,and yoou some how convinced Loki to recreate some of the scenes together,in fact you didn't even have to convince him. You had duct taped a pillow to your middle ,then helping Loki do the same,he had magically got some wooden swords and thats all you needed. Okay so you had no combat training,so you were like a rubbish Merry and Pippin,while Loki was Boromir. Basically he was teaching you how to defend yourself whilst you were re acting the scene.

It was all going well until bloody Thor came in. "Oh hey guys,OH that looks like fun,OH you have matching hair ,why did you not invite me? I am the bravest warrior in Agard!"he had spoken ,resting his hands on his hips, head high, typical superhero pose. You and Loki had just stood staring at Thor. "we didn't invite you THORin ,because you ate all my food and pinned me to the floor ,"

"you aren't going to let that down are you?" you had shook your head ,nothing else was said from the three over you,as Tony and walked into the room with Peter. Ton'y face was unreadable ,as he stopped walking but Peter continued with excitement on his face. "Mister Stark! They have been watching Lord of the rings! Without me!"his face read betrayal "I got called a nerd for liking it ,and now I find out Mister Loki,likes it.Mister Stark!"

Peter was buzing with excitement ,as you and Loki now were trying to remove the duct tape from yourselves.Well he had no trouble you were the one struggling well until Loki had appeared behind you ,as he cut the duct take ,pulling the cushion off of you. You had smiled up at him,in which he smiled back in return ,staying like that for a moment ,until Tony coughed.

"Hey kid,why don't you take Y/n to the icecream shop round the corner ,heres my card." he had pushed the card into Peter's hands ,his eyes still on Loki,Peter's eyes had lit up,as Tony pushed you to Peter forcing you out.You had looked back at Loki who watched you leave,it was obvious Tony was going to have a go at the Gods.

"Hey Y/n ,can We watch that when we get back with the icecream?" Peter had questioned ,whilst you both stood in the lift. "Yeah,spiderman." he had gasped,"you know too?!"

"yeah Tony told me."

"Uncool,mister Stark."

To say the least Stark did not stop you talking to Loki, come on he is a God he does whatever. Maybe just to say the least you didn't just stay as friends...

#marvel x reader #marvel imagine #marvel imagines #marvel x you #marvel x y/n #loki x you #loki x y/n #loki x reader #loki imagine #loki layfeyson x reader #loki laufeyson x reader #loki imagines #lord of the rings #lord of the rings crossover #marvel crossover #loki odinson x reader

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saurons-pr-department · 4 years

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How did you become a Sauron fan?

Honestly, I’m not quite sure... It kind of snowballed quickly XD Maybe a year or so ago, I started to really get back into LotR and The Hobbit and, as happens with these things, I wanted to know more and more about Middle Earth and whatnot. Then I remembered that I had been to a panel at a local convention a few years before this where two lads explained The Silmarillion and I was like, “ah yes, this is what I need!” But I didn’t get a chance to get the book for another while after that, so I spent a lot of time looking up fan art and reading about The Silm and stuff. I found myself particularly drawn to all things Sauron.

When it comes to people’s favourite characters, you’ll often hear people talk about how they either identify with the character in some way, or that the character has some kind of traits that the person wishes they had themselves. And while no, I don’t want to rule the entire world with an iron fist XD there are things about him that I can’t help but think “I kind of wish I was a little like that”. Mostly his organisational skills and his full confidence in himself and the things he does. Like, at no point does this man ever seem to question himself! I once spent about ten minutes practicing how I was going to ask for a stamp at the post office, while this man saunters into Númenor and converts everyone to a religion he’s making up as he goes along and convinces them to go fight the gods and then has a good ole giggle to himself because he thinks he so damned clever! Okay, it backfired on him, but you have to admire the ballsiness of it XD In terms of identifying...it’s more fanon Mairon/Sauron. In a lot of fics, he comes across to me as neurodivergent, even if the writer probably isn’t intending it. I’m neurodivergent (ADHD) so sometimes I’m reading something and the writer is trying to make him seem really ‘other’ because he’s an Ainu and I’m just like “hehe, no, that’s just life with a funky brain”. But yeah, I kind of ‘get’ him in those situations.

And then we have the fact that much of what we know about him lands him right in the middle of the type of story that I love: angsty fall stories. I looooove fall stories and I loooooove angst stories and he just delivers on both. And he has multiple falls! He went from The Admirable to The Abhorrent. He rose to power as Melkor’s second in command but that was whipped out from underneath him in the War of Wrath. He rose to power as a Dark Lord in his own right but was defeated more than once. He’s just rise and fall, rise and fall. It’s the kind of drama that I love! Then there’s the angst. Like, there are multiple points in his story where I feel that he was happy, or could have been happy, but something came along to ruin it (sometimes that ‘something’ was himself *cough*Eregion*cough*). What’s even better, is that much of his story is a mystery. How did he go from serving Aulë to Melkor? Why is he specifically singled out as a shapeshifter even though all the Ainur are technically able to change their form like we’d change clothes? Did he genuinely want to repent after the War of Wrath? What was he doing before he “fell back into evil”? What were those “bonds that Morgoth had laid upon him”? How did he go from ‘Melkor should be in charge of everything’ to ‘I am literally the only person in existence who knows what’s good for the world’? What exactly did he do in Barad-dûr all day?? Not only is the canon information on him really interesting, but there’s so much space to make things up too that just make him such a fun character to play with, especially his motivations.

#answered asks #anonymous #mairon #sauron #silmarillion #the hobbit #lotr #tolkien #i'm also a lover of complex villains #a well written or interesting villain is such a joy to read

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theartofbeinganeldar · 4 years

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The Art of Being an Eldar: Legolas x Reader Chapter 6

Summary: After discovering that you were stuck in Middle-Earth, Thranduil summoned a council of powerful Elves and wizards to see what should be done with you, expressing his wishes of wanting you out of his kingdom. The council decides to send you with Legolas on an orc-hunting mission, and if the Elves of the company that he deems trustworthy-- one of them being his own wife-- say that you've proven yourself worthy of staying among the Mirkwood Elves, then you can stay. The problem is actually managing to succeed...

Chapter No.: Chapter 6

Key: [Y/N]=Your Name [F/N]= Friend's Name [B/N]= Bro's Name [S/N]= Sis's Name [M/N]= Mom's Name [e/c]= eye color [h/c]= hair color [s/c]= skin color [lad/lass/y-o]= lad/laddie, lass/lassie, young one

Notes: So, I have finished the Silmarillion, and may I just say, wow. I have a whole new understanding of Middle-Earth. It's amazing and inspiring. I do miss Maedhros and Maglor already though... Now, I've finished Beren and Luthien and started The Children of Hurin next in my quest to read every book on Middle-Earth that there is, written, of course, by the Tolkiens.

Warnings: Fluff, angst, graphic depictions of gore and violence (Cuz of orc battles y'know?), more angst, slow burn, some light depression in the first few chapters, some amnesia about Middle-Earth because the Valar say you're not supposed to have foresight, hard-core language, feels, lots and lots of feels, mentions of NSFW content, maybe some eventual NSFW content, LGTBQ+ characters, Thranduil being a jackass at first because he's fabulous, Legolas being a hot edgy prince that nobody can handle, Kili being an innocent bean, Hobbits being smol innocent beans, except for Bilbo 'cause he's been through some tough shit, Bard being dad of the year, Thorin being one dumbass boi, awesome dragons, awesome Nazgul, awesome scenery, awesome stuff in general, Elrond isn't listened to by anybody, confused Aragorn is confused, Denethor's a bitch as always, brace yourself for creepy as fuck Cream of Wormtongue Grima Wormtongue, Boromir LIVES, au to where some of the Feanorians lived, Gandalf. (yes these are all legit warnings don't judge me.)

Pairings/Ships: Legolas x Reader, Legolas x you, Aragorn x Arwen, Faramir x Eowyn, Thranduil x Elvenqueen, Galadriel x Celery Celeborn, Boromir x OC, Maedhros x Fingon, Maglor x OC, Thorin x OC maybe Bilbo you won't know for awhile, Fili x OC, etc. general LoTR standard shippings plus some of my own cuz I can't stand my boys being lonely

Word Count: I try to keep my chapters short, under 2000 words.

Rating: Teen (14+) for now

Instead of Blue-Eyes meeting you by Starlight, it was Erestor, instead. Aside from the one time you'd spoken to him with Haldir, asking him about other continents (Which, it turned out, you'd misunderstood. Beleriand had sunk, and so had Numenor and Tol Eressea, and no one but the Eldar could reach Aman anymore.), you hadn't spoken to him.

He was an older Elf, kind of intimidating, with a bird-like demeanor and an expression that said Don't fuck with me.

So yeah, you were kinda surprised.

Still, you bowed in the Elvish fashion. "Len Suilon, Erestor. Ci maer?"

"Suilad. Ni maer, [Y/N]," He assured nonchalantly. "A gin?"

"Ni maer eithro." You looked around nervously, hoping Blue-Eyes would pop out of nowhere and save you from a further conversation in what would probably be your poor Sindarin with an age-old Elf. "So, her majesty chose me for this scouting mission, eh?"

"Indeed," Erestor inclined his head. "Your Elvish improves, if slowly. You do not hesitate in your greetings anymore."

"Thank you, sir."

"Come, and lead Starlight along," Said Erestor unfairly regally, and sailed majestically away. "Have you been practicing your swordplay diligently? You may need it."

You nodded as you followed him. "Yes sir. Legolas, Elros, and Lindir have made sure that they split my day into learning Sindarin, weaponry, and even the general Elvish way of being Elvish." You tried not to sound irritated about that. They literally never gave you any free time. Not that you'd brought any books to read, and not that you could read any Elvish, but that wasn't the point.

"Good," Erestor nodded. "What are your strong suits?"

Ah, shit. "Uhm... I can throw a dagger pretty hard? I can probably shoot somebody dead if I'm point blank, but other than that, my aim sucks. I'm somewhat okay with a sword, though, and I prefer two. Why?"

"Curious," Erestor replied all mysteriously, and that was all he said on the matter.

The Elves chosen for the scouting mission-- the Elvenqueen herself, with Blue-Eyes, Haldir, and Elros-- were gathered and speaking amongst themselves, while Thorin and Dwalin next to their very dignified ponies glowered at them. Balin was feeding his own pony an apple, muttering to it kindly. Compared to the Elves, who were naturally tall and lithe, the short and stocky dwarves looked outrageously tiny.

"Ah," The Elvenqueen's attention was on you faster than a supersonic jet's. "You have arrived."

You bowed deeply. "Your majesty." To Haldir, and even to Legolas just to be safe from potential Elvenqueen-wrath-2.0, you added, "My Lords." You turned to Erestor. "I'm sorry I didn't greet you with the title, I forgot what ‘my lord’ is in Elvish."

To your surprise, the Elves chuckled. Except for the Elvenqueen, of course. "You need not worry yourself, mellonenin," Elros assured you. "You are still learning."

The Elvenqueen inclined her head. "We leave at once, if all are ready."

There were positive responses throughout, and everyone present mounted up. You caught sight of Lindir coming out of his tent for the morning, and waved; he looked confused, but awkwardly repeated your gesture. "What on Arda are you doing?" Blue-Eyes asked under his breath, like you were embarrassing him.

You snickered. "It's like a 'hi' and 'bye' gesture for when you're out of earshot of someone you know. It's called ‘waving’. Everyone does it where I come from."

"This is not your world, [Y/N]," The Elvenqueen reprimanded firmly. You fought the urge to shrink in on yourself. "If you are going to be a part of it and learn our ways, then you must do so faithfully, leaving everything you know of your world behind you. Your land is nothing but a poison, and I do not want it infecting Middle-Earth. Am I understood?"

"Y-yes ma'am-- your majesty, yes your majesty."

"Good," Said the Elvenqueen, and then she continued giving orders in Elvish, while Thorin purposefully repeated them in dwarvish for Balin and Dwalin, though everyone present spoke fluent English-- Common. For you, Blue-Eyes translated what he could before he was called up to ride beside his mother, so then Elros and Haldir took turns explaining. The whole event left you feeling like a fish out of water.

***

It was around noon when the company halted, which Thorin and Dwalin had been leading on foot, while Balin kept their ponies tied to his own. At first, you assumed, lunch, finally, I'm starving, but instead, you'd stopped because Thorin had found a trail. "Orcs," He said.

Duh, you felt like saying, what else would it be? Bigfoot?

But after the Elvenqueen's earlier lecture, you kept that to yourself.

"Which way do they lead, master dwarf?" The Elvenqueen demanded.

Thorin huffed as he stood. "They go north, but they are heavy from travel. Wherever they came from, it is not from anywhere near the northern borders of Mirkwood or Erebor."

"Where else would they come from?" You blurted out before you could stop yourself. "Are there like orcish towns in the north or something? Maybe we could--”

"There is no such thing," The Elvenqueen snapped.

"The wargs that I had tracked were from Gundabad," Blue-Eyes said calmly, as if that hadn't ever been important information before. "The ones that attacked us on the river, however, were from Mordor."

You leaned over to Haldir as Blue-Eyes continued to speculate. "I'm confused. What's the difference?"

"Gundabad wargs are darker, lithe, and more agile," Haldir told you quietly. "They are more viscous, as well. A Mordor warg is more... Stout, I suppose you could say, and slightly lighter in color."

There was a flash of color before your eyes. Suddenly, you felt as if you were in a clearing of trees, surrounded by people in dark colors, while the sound of howls filled the air, unlike the ones you'd heard before.

These are Gundabad wargs! They will outrun you!

These are Rusteveld rabbits! I'd like to see them try.

You shook your head as you resituated yourself in the saddle. Well, that was sudden... It had been quite a few days since any of the strangely-familiar visions had come to you. You came back to your senses as Dwalin laughed uproarously. "Well, that settles it, then! To Gundabad!"

"Wait just a moment," The Elvenqueen said. "We are not all brash, Master Dwalin. We will go back and retrieve more forces before even thinking of going near Gundabad." With that, she turned her silver mare around and began trotting back, Haldir and Erestor on either side of her. Thorin, Balin, and Dwalin hung back, taking their time getting on their ponies and following after.

"Where's Gundabad?" You asked Legolas quietly; not that it did any good. Elves could hear grass growing on the other side of the continent if they wanted to. "And what is it?"

"It is northwest of here, in a cleft between the mountains," He answered. "It is an old fortress, from the time when the Dunedain first came to Middle-Earth from Numenor, if you remember." You nodded; he'd told you the entire story of the Silmarils and anything that went with it or after. "It was the gate that lead to the Witch-Kingdom of Angmar."

"Lead by the Witch-King..." You finished for him automatically. An eerie echo of a voice filled your mind: No man can kill me. At his impressed look, you scrunched up your face. "And what are you, French? How'd you make that 'h' sound in the middle of the damn word?!" You realized what you said only after you'd said it, and quickly looked to the Elvenqueen to see if she'd heard. If she had, she made no sign of it. "Sorry."

Blue-Eyes patted your back. "It is fine, Sairen, you can speak to me of your world, don't worry." With a cocky smile, he looked down at you smugly. "As for the pronunciation... You will learn to do it soon."

Back at camp, a group of Elves was already up and waiting to move out, and at the Elvenqueen's ringing voice, they followed after, and you all retraced your steps back to where Thorin, Dwalin, and Balin had found the orc tracks. You considered it pointless-- they could've just taken the host of a couple dozen Elves with them that way they didn't have to retrace their steps.

Partway there, you decided that goddamn song that'd been going through your head needed a damn good explanation. Unfortunately, Blue-Eyes was now up by his mother, leaving you between two totally random Elves. You'd never been good at starting up a conversation, but you decided to give it a try anyway. "...Hey, do either of you speak Common?"

Both Elves busted out laughing as if you'd made a hilarious joke about dwarves.

"Most Eldar can speak Common," The one on the right said, removing his helmet to look at you more clearly. Whoa. You practically fell off Starlight. He was beautiful. He had long, purely golden hair that fell down his back in unfairly glorious waves. He had soft blue eyes (Not as gorgeous as Blue-Eyes', but still.) and a fair face. "It would be considered quite odd, in our long lives, if one did not learn the tongues of others."

You just stared at him. "Dude. Are you like, made of gold?"

He laughed, which sounded a lot like something naturelike and unfairly beautiful. You'd never heard any of the Elves outright laugh, so this was a weird, new experience for you. "I have been asked many things, but that is new. No, I am just as flesh and bone as you are."

"Yeah, but yours are like, plated in gold, so, you're... Wow."

He laughed again. "What is your name, mellon?"

"[Y/N.]," You replied, in a daze, then leaned over quick to the Elf on your left, who tensed and tried to lead his horse away. "Do you even see this guy?!"

You turned back to Goldie. "A gin?"

As best as he could in the saddle, the Elf placed his right arm over his chest and bowed at the waist. "I am called Glorfindel. Gellon len covad!"

"Mae l'ovannen!" You said in response.

Glorfindel smiled at you. "What was your question, mellonenin?"

"Well thanks to you and your blinding gold-ness, I forgot. Give me a minute." You thought for a second, trying to ignore the literally glowing Elf beside you. "Ah! That's it. I asked if you could speak Common so you'd understand my question. You guys have songs, right?"

Glorfindel gave you a look like you'd just told him his hair looked like an orc's. "Of course we have songs! Many, many songs! They are as timeless as we are, and we, all of us, are taught these songs from a very young age. Did you wish to learn them?"

You shook your head. "Nah. I've never been good at singing." If I sang all you Elves would shatter like a glass in an opera-room. "When I got puffed here, a song started going through my head. I can never remember all of it. Just bits and pieces here and there. But it's really bugging me. So if I told you all I could remember, think you could remember one from your Elvish past?"

Glorfindel inclined his head. "I shall answer to the best of my ability."

"Okay," You wracked your brain for the lyrics. "Okay, uh... Something about leaving home, and fading... Lots of fading. The one sentence I can always clearly remember is 'all shall fade.'" You looked at him curiously. "That ringin’ any bells?"

Glorfindel thought hard. "If by that you mean if I can remember anything similar, I cannot. If it is a song of Arda, it is not one I know, and I can remember most Eldar songs."

That caused a lightbulb to appear above your head. You gasped, wide-eyed.

"Wait! You're Glorfindel?! As in, the Glorfindel?! The guy in Gondolin who tried to protect Turgon by fighting the Balrog?!"

"Ah, Turgon... He was a good friend."

"And when it fell it grabbed your hair?!"

Glorfindel flinched. "Can we not mention that...?"

"And then you came back to life to fight Sauron?!"

"Yes--"

"The guy who was in love with Ecthelion of the Fountain?!"

Glorfindel flushed, his face going a deep shade of un-Elvish red-- on him, though, it was more of a rose-gold... "Yes, I am that Glorfindel, and I would advise you hush before you draw the attention of the Elvenqueen."

Nervously, you glanced ahead, to where the Elvenqueen sat regally upon her horse. If she or Leggy had heard you, neither of them made any indication of it. With a giddy smile, you looked back to Glory. "This is so cool. Where I'm from, you rarely ever meet anybody so important. Now I've met some of the most important people of Middle-Earth! Ooh, am I also gonna get to meet the king of Gondor?!"

Glorfindel looked confused, but amused. "Gondor has no king, and has not for many, many years. Not since the death of Isildur. Now, the stewards of Gondor keep watch over the city and uphold its laws, and await for the heir to the Gondorian royalty to show himself."

"Or herself," You specified, fighting a wince as you heard a voice echo, Gondor has no king. Gondor needs no king.

Glorfindel raised an eyebrow. "Hardly ever is a mortal woman given any sort of royal duties alone. She would have to marry someone of high standing to be considered queen."

You scoffed. "Great. So the humans of Middle-Earth are assholes, too. Figured I'd escape from that."

"The race of Man is a fickle one," Glorfindel agreed. "More often than not, they are the cause of most grief in the world." He smiled. "But worry not! You are of the Eldar now, and are not subject to their torments."

You shrugged. "Good point..." You beamed excitedly at him. "Tell me about your adventures!"

He did, until the Elvenqueen gave the signal to dismount and to keep silent. You'd been so into Glorfindel's stories that you hadn't noticed that the trees had thinned out, giving way to loose, rusty-brown soil and rocky slopes. All of the Elves sailed silently over the rocks, while the dwarves trampled noisily.

For days (Which passed like extremely-long hours, and you weren't even hungry or thirsty or tired.), the procession trekked through the hills without any audible communication, until the huge hills rose up to your left and in the north into jagged mountains. You kept going, and going, and really wondered how any of the Elves that'd been left could possibly reach any of you for backup if needed in time.

On what was about noon of the week and a half mark, you came to an overlook that spread down beneath you into a huge, rocky valley, dry and desolate. There was no sign of life, and further still, about a couple days away by foot, was another tall, jagged outcropping overlooking a massive structure of bronze. Small black dots which you were going to assume were birds flitted about the top of it, and it stretched what looked like hundreds of feet into the air. You were astonished.

"We came all this way for rocky dirt and an old tower. I don't see any signs of life there." You kept your voice at a whisper, like some of the other Elves who'd began talking amongst themselves.

Blue-Eyes eyed the tower warily. "You're not supposed to."

You turned to watch him walk away. "Then what?" Blue-Eyes gave the Elves some order in Elvish, and you continued. "So we came all this way to see that it really doesn't look like there's orcs there but really, there are, so, what do we do? They've obviously got a shit ton of more orcs behind there. We're probably way outnumbered. So what do we do?"

"We," He replied, "Are going to do just what we came here to do. We're going to scout, by getting as close as we can and seeing what we can. Then we leave. It's as simple as that. If, however, we're ambushed, the rest of the procession has been following us slowly. They're only a couple of hours behind."

You frowned. You must not've gotten that memo because everybody felt the need to speak highly advanced Elvish when you only knew a couple ways to say "hi." "So what do we do if we see something we don't like? Attack?"

"If we can," Blue-Eyes told you, "But it most likely will not come to that. We simply came to see if they have larger numbers than those few who attacked us at the river."

You gave him an incredulous look with an eyebrow raised nearly to your hairline. "...Few?"

He scoffed, and walked off, giving orders in Sindarin that you only caught a word or two of. You were watching him with a glower, when you noticed Lindir sidling up on your right smugly. "...Do you not wish that you know what he is saying?"

You playfully rolled your eyes. "Ugh, Lindy, geez, can you read my goddamn mind?" You turned to mock-glare at him; he was preening. "Well? What was he saying?"

Lindir laughed and wagged a finger at you-- so Elvish. "No no no no no, mellon, I will not make it that easy for you. If you wish to know exactly what he said, then you will have to continue learning from your current point."

Your shoulders slumped. "Really? Damn. Fine, I guess, since it looks like we're camping here." And it did. Practically everyone was going around setting up bedrolls, but you seen no sign of a fire. "Glad it's warm-ish. What, we just supposed to freeze?"

Lindir gestured to Gundabad. "If we light a fire, they will see us, and our stealth will be for naught."

You gave him an odd look. "...What?"

Lindir blinked. "If they see us, our stealth will be for naught."

You stared at him blankly. "...Naught?"

Lindir suddenly looked panicked. "Do they not have that word on your world? It means the same as nothing, in this context."

You scoffed with a cocky smirk. "I know what it means. You Elves are just so damn fancy." You reached over and ruffled his strangely-perfect brown hair, to which he yelped and yanked away from you as if you'd tried to stab him. You left your hand in the air where his head had been, wide-eyed, as Lindir stared at you in shock. "Uhh... Got a sensitive spot on your head there?"

Lindir narrowed his eyes at you. "I should teach you Eldar custom as well. No Elf touches another's hair, for whatever reason, unless it is necessary, which is more than likely never to happen. Braiding and touching another's hair is considered something only for the wedded to do."

You yanked your hand away from where his head had been. "Sorry. I didn't know. Where I come from, that whole hair-ruffle thing is used between siblings or friends."

Lindir smiled softly, straightening his hair. "It is fine, [Y/N.]. You had no way of knowing. But, now I realize I must teach you language and customs-- or perhaps Elros can do that..."

You snickered to yourself, earning an odd look from the Elf. You shrugged. "Nothin', just, I've got specific Elvish teachers now. You're my language teacher, Elros is now customs, Legolas is history, and Glorfindel is music. I'm gonna be a true Elf before I know it."

"Maybe never a true Elf," Lindir laughed, "But close enough!"

You laughed with him, but on the inside, winced. You doubted if he meant it as an insult, but it hit you like one. No, you'd never been considered good enough to be a true anything, especially an Elf of all creatures, who were naturally shiny and glowy and perfect and shit. But still, for someone to confirm it, even in a joking manner, that you'd never be good enough to be a true Elf...

It really hurt.

You acted all casual on the outside throughout the rest of the evening, laughing and joking when needed, but internally, you were fighting a dull ache in your chest. You'd gotten it a few times before-- rarely, but still-- and you knew exactly what it was. The desire to fit in. You'd never had a chance on Earth. But here, you'd hoped to at least be considered a part of their realm.

Dammit, why am I so sensitive?! He didn't mean anything by it!

But what were you really doing here? Struggling to prove yourself to a race that would never accept you. To all Elves, you'd be considered an imposter, like Thorin had said. You knew for a fact you'd never be good around "the race of Man," as they put it, and even in this world, you knew you'd never fit in with them, either. At best, the Men would see you only as a rebel Elf trying to fit into the society of Man. Dwarves? Hell no. What about the Hobbit-folk? Maybe you'd at least be considered a friend to them? No, you were an Elf here. They'd be wary of you, maybe even fearful.

Maybe you should just settle for traveling like a vagabond, like Gandalf does. When everyone else was resting, you stayed by Starlight. You scratched underneath of his chin, and he rested his snout on your inner elbow, allowing you to rest your head on his, staring into his eyes and putting off a feeling of calm. "You accept me for who I am, right?"

Starlight's ears were pricked toward you, so at least he was listening. His only response was a blink. You sighed, closing your eyes. You didn't even have the security of him. One day, he'd grow old and pass away, while you lived on for eons. Carefully, so as not to spook him, you reached up and scratched behind his ears.

"Mellonenin?" Said a voice behind you. You turned to see Legolas, looking concerned. He glanced back over his shoulder, to where the rest of the Elves talked amongst themselves, even conversating a little with the dwarves. "What are you doing out here?"

You gave him a smug look. "What's this I hear, Blue-Eyes? Showing concern for me?"

He rolled his eyes playfully. "Hardly. Just curious."

You shrugged, going back to loving on Starlight. "Everybody seemed to be doing good without me. Lindir and Elros said my lessons on custom and language were done for the day, so I figured I'd spend some time with Star."

Blue-Eyes shook his head in exasperation. "I will never understand your shortening of names..." He fixed you with an expression that you couldn't quite read. "...Are you nervous about a potential battle, Sairen?"

You shrugged. "Hack'n'slash. Can't be that hard. I have played video games, y'know, and I did get here through a LARP event." You shot him a cocky grin. "I think I can handle myself. Always have."

Blue-Eyes smiled softly. "Well... I am certain you will surpass my father's standards. I have no doubt of it."

A warm feeling blossomed in your chest. Your cheeks flushed. "Thanks. That really... That really means a lot, for you to be sure of me."

Blue-Eyes hummed thoughtfully, smoothing down Starlight's pitch mane. "Your world did not appreciate you as it should have. You are a kind person, Sairen, and while at times you are eccentric, that only adds to your persona. I know that I can put my full trust in you anytime, and not be disappointed." He smiled at you. "I am glad to know you, mellon. I feel as if you were meant to be here."

For a minute, you both just stared at each other with smiles on your faces, while you felt all warm and fuzzy inside. Any upset feelings from earlier completely burned away. His pale gold hair looked white in the moonlight. Fuck, I will not cry. I will not. Not at all. Definitely not even having to try... You finally blushed and looked away, busying yourself with straightening Starlight's forelock, though the smile remained on your face.

"Damn, Blue-Eyes. You're making me blush." He laughed, and you added, "But... I'm really glad I know you too, Leggy. You've been nice to me, and actually believe in me..." You smirked at him. "That's rare for me. Thank you."

He looked almost appalled. "You do not need to thank me for taking a liking to you, Sairen. It is not as if it is a chore." Suddenly making up his mind about something, he drew his shoulders back. "Would you like to go for a ride together?"

You beamed at him. "Duh! It's a horse, of course I wanna go for a ride!"

Blue-Eyes laughed. "Come on, then, let's go. Stay close to me; we will be going in the opposite direction of Gundabad, but orcs could still roam these wilds."

You nodded as you mounted Starlight, grinning stupidly down at the stupidly perfect Elf who smiled at you. "Got it. Let's go!"

Your heart was pounding dangerously as the two of you trotted off away from camp, talking about the history of Middle-Earth, as you tried to keep from staring outright at Legolas. As your heart faltered, looking at him smiling at you as the moonlight hit his hair, you realized something...

Shit.

Tag List:

@hauntedsiriel @tesserphantom @taurlel @liviaolivia @brushwood-souls @dumbladores @littlefrenchfryesblog @hibernatingmadhatter @reclusive-chicken-nugget @naryamirie @legolasdeserveslove @escapingthoughtsandsecrets @sagabriar

If anyone wants to be added or if I missed anyone, please let me know!

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demigodsanswer · 5 years

Note

You mentioned in another post that you have a bunch of Clarisse headcanons sitting around. I’d love to hear some of them!

Yeah! So here are some general ones about her childhood before camp and around the time of the first series, but I have more specific ones (about her when she’s older, with her mom, and with Chris, ect), and I’m happy to share those as well! Some of these might be repeats because I don’t remember what I have and haven’t shared.

Her mom is 29 when she’s born. Ares told her mother (Madeline) that he was a god, but she didn’t believe him and he didn’t do a lot of work to convince her. So Madeline was not expecting Clarisse to be a demigod. This made Clarisse a bit of a challenge to raise, because she not only inherited her mother’s temper, but she was also more violent, ADHD, and all the other Ares perks.

She was born in France where her mom was a ballet dancer. Soon after Clarisse was born, her mom started dating one of the other dancers in the company. Jean (the man) and Madeline dated for three years before getting engaged. But when Madeline was getting ready to retire at 36, she got news that her mother had lung cancer, and she made the choice to move back to Arizona with Clarisse. She broke off her engagement with Jean. Still, Clarisse believed (until Coach Hedge showed up at camp) that Jean was her biological father.

Clarisse did ballet between 3 and 6 years old and hated every day of it. When she moved to Arizona, her mom let her play soccer instead of doing dance. Clarisse’s coach noticed that Clarisse had more coordinated footwork than anyone else on the team. Madeline told the coach it was probably the dance lessons. After that, parents started sending their kids to Madeline’s dance classes for athletic training. Over the two decades that Madeline lived in Arizona, her dance studio became known for it’s specialty athletic training.

Clarisse actually really loves soccer. She was kicking a ball around by herself on the beach when she got to camp. Chris saw her and asked if he could play, and they started playing one-on-one. That’s how they met, became, and stayed friends.

Even before she was cabin counselor, she had a lot of trouble with her brothers not taking her seriously because she was a girl. She got into fights a lot with them. Finally Chiron decided that she needed some time where should could just be by herself and not worry about her brothers. He let her use a room in the Big House that had a TV, some books, and some DVDs to relax in whenever she needed some space from her brothers.

Two of the DVDs in there were The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. She watched both and became obsessed. Then she read all of the books, and The Hobbit, and the Silmarillion in one year. She and Chris snuck out to see The Return of the King in theaters the day it came out.

Her first kiss was with Chris the night before he left for Luke’s army. He kissed her and she pushed him away. She thought he was just using her to either get her to go with him to beg him to stay, neither of which she was going to do. So she just told him to make up his mind on his own.

When Chris healed from insanity, Chiron told him “Mr. D healed you, but you owe Miss. La Rue your life.” Once Chiron left, Clarisse came to visit him. Chris said: “I guess I owe you my life.” She just said “Keep it. I’ve seen it, and I’m not impressed.” Then she left and didn’t talk to him for three days. This is what prompted Silena to try and help her, because Silena could tell that nothing would happen between those two if someone didn’t intervene.

#clarisse la rue #chris Rodriguez #percy jackson and the olympians #silena beulregaurd #Anonymous

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lawyernovelist · 6 years

Text

Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master: A Legend

I'm not dead! Sorry for the long break, and sorry in advance for the fact that this post isn't quite up to my usual wordy standard; I've spent the last several months suffering from massive writer's block on almost every project I have on the go, including a novel, the next chapter of My Tauriel, and several blog posts.

Anyway, to get on with the show, I thought what The Last Jedi did with Luke Skywalker was one of the coolest and gutsiest things in it.

Bring it.

Spoilers for Star Wars through The Last Jedi and Lord of the Rings.

Now, I opened in that unnecessarily confrontational way because I've seen criticism of how this movie handled Luke from all over the place and all directions. And to an extent I get that, like I kind of get a lot of the criticism of this movie. I would, however, just like to get one small thing out of the way, and that's the comment I've seen all over the place that "they made Luke evil to make Kylo Ren good." And... no?

I think where this comes from is a feeling that because we see Luke do - or start to do - something unequivocally morally wrong, namely murder his student and nephew in his sleep, that must mean that the movie is telling us that Luke turned evil after we last saw him in the original trilogy. The main narrative beneficiary of such a change would be Ren, since this means that not only is the person telling us how he went bad unreliable, but he himself pushed Ren over the edge. It's not Ren's fault; his mentor betrayed him and so he fell from grace as a reaction to that. Luke is actually evil - the sort of man who would murder a helpless boy who trusted him - and Ren is his innocent victim.

Well, that only really holds up if you subscribe to the belief that if someone does or thinks one wrong thing they're irredeemably evil and that anyone who's been victimised is automatically good. And to be honest, I shouldn't be surprised this is a thing; it seems to be a really common belief on the internet.

But this was part of why I admired this story beat so much: it goes square against that narrative. What Luke did was wrong. Nobody denies that, even him. Right then in the moment he realised that he should not murder a defenceless boy just because of his own fears of what that boy might grow to do, and he accepts that what happened next was a consequence of his actions. Meanwhile, while Ren was right to be frightened and defend himself in the moment, and it's entirely reasonable that he drew his own lightsaber, force-pulled the roof down on Luke, left him for dead, and fled into the night, you know what wasn't a reasonable thing to do? Burn down the school and massacre the other students.

Luke did a bad thing, acknowledged it as bad, and accepted the personal consequences, including the lasting guilt. That doesn't make him evil, it makes him human. Ren reacted in an entirely understandable way up to the point where he went way too far and continued his trend of, when presented with multiple choices, always taking the evil one.

Ren: Gee, I've captured a teenage scavenger who has information I need. Shall I put her in a secure but comfy cell, apologise for scaring her, and offer her money and a ride home to Jakku in exchange for the information, or shall I tie her up, threaten her and her friends, and mind-rape her?

Also, while I'm defending Luke, you get points for realising that what you're about to do is awful before you do it. They say that the first thought you have is what you've been conditioned to think and the second is what you actually think.

Anyway, that probably would have been a nice segue over from the last post where I talked about the presentation of good and evil in these movies, but I did want to explicitly call out that one piece of criticism because it actually irritates me more than is rational. They did something complex and interesting! Stop discouraging them!

OK, so I mentioned that I can see why people are upset about this, and the next one I'm going to address is one that I actually kind of sympathise with, as well as being the reason I chose this specific quote as the title of this blog post: the presentation of Luke as a disillusioned old man who has failed to live up to his own legend.

I thought long and hard to come up with a hypothetical Tolkien example so I could empathise on this one, because Star Wars wasn't a big part of my childhood or anything, so maybe that's why I find it easy to say "Oh, neat, they're doing a cool new twist on an archetypical character" when everyone else in the cinema is saying "WTF have you done to Luke?" Eventually I came up with the option of "What if some asshole came along and made a sequel to Lord of the Rings in which we see that power corrupts and all the bad aspects of medieval kingship (and there are a lot of those) have started manifesting in Aragorn?" and concluded that yeah, I'd be pissed and that would actually be less upsetting than this must be because at least I'd have the comfort that such a sequel would be terrible fanfic, not actual canon. This is Star Wars canon now.

So yeah, I get why people are upset, but hear me and my outsider's perspective out.

For one thing, this is another difference between that hypothetical Lord of the Rings example and The Last Jedi: the problem isn't with Luke except that he couldn't live up to the legend that had grown up around his name and his position as the last of the Jedi and founder of a new Jedi order. And that's an awesome take.

A couple of things about me: first, I'm actually really interested in the question of what happens after these classic stories end. Now, that doesn't always mean that I want to find out - I don't feel the need to actually see Cinderella struggle to adjust to her new life as a princess in combination with the potential political awkwardness caused by the fact that the heir to the throne clearly suffers from face-blindness, and that's why I cannot believe Disney made two sequels (though I hear Cinderella 3 is way better than it has any right to be) - but it's always an interesting question. That's especially true of bigger and more complicated stories with world-shaking consequences like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings: it is kind of interesting to wonder how, after the happy/bittersweet ending, things fell apart. Because that's what things do.

To continue down this rabbit-hole - I promise I'll surface with a point in a moment - this was something Tolkien really got and which you can only really appreciate if you read all his Middle-Earth work: The Silmarillion, The Hobbit (supplemented by The Unfinished Tales), and The Lord of the Rings, in that order: things fall apart. Every time there's a victory, something is lost and it's only a temporary reprieve because evil always rises again. It may be smaller, but so are the forces of Good. Tolkien actually did start work on a sequel to Lord of the Rings in which we see evil returning during the reign of Aragorn's son Eldarion, not really because Eldarion was a crappy king or anything but just because that's what evil does.

The Last Jedi hits a similar note: Just because the Empire was defeated, evil isn't banished from the galaxy. And just as in that unfinished sequel, it's not because the heroes of the previous stories did anything wrong, it's just that this isn't as simple as it looks and winning one big battle and killing one guy doesn't solve all the problems. Eventually the situation will deteriorate again.

That's even more true where the heroes involved don't necessarily know how to pick up the pieces of the evil empire they destroyed, by the way. The galaxy was pretty lucky to have Leia on hand.

The second relevant thing I find interesting is myth-making: how people tell themselves stories about what's happening around them, and how that affects their behaviour and expectations. This is something that happens all the time, sometimes because someone is deliberately creating a myth around an event, group, or person, sometimes because a story has been heard, mis-remembered, and repeated so many times that it's lost some details and gained others, sometimes because people desperately want to believe in something. And it's honestly pretty fascinating. It's been great fun watching the discussion around Hamilton, for example, and how it seems to have changed views of the founding fathers because it presents a new myth in the form of a history play with awesome music.

Watching modern myth-making in the form of polemic and conspiracy theory is also a little bit terrifying, but that's a whole other topic.

Humans love to tell themselves and each other stories, and you can bet stories spread far and wide about Luke after the Empire fell. Even Rey, having grown up in this crappy backwater town on Jakku, seems to have knowledge and expectations of Luke and the Jedi. Doesn't it make all kinds of sense that those stories became myths and that they grew and changed in the years between the fall of the Empire and Luke taking some students and setting up a Jedi school, painting Luke as a larger-than-life hero who could do anything?

Personal anecdote time: when Obama was elected in 2008, I was at university in the States (now you can all guess my age :P). I watched the results coming in on the TV in our dorm lounge, and when the election was called for Obama the place went wild. We spilled out into the road, I could hear the celebrations from other dorms half a mile away, even I went running down the length of the building screaming and wearing an American flag as a cape. But once I'd calmed down a bit I looked around at the Bacchic levels of celebration and said to one of my friends "He'll be remembered as a failure." Naturally, she looked at me like I'd grown at least five heads, so I elaborated, "Everyone's built him up to be the Second Coming. He can't live up to this. Nobody can." I bring this up because that's what I remember when I look at Luke in The Last Jedi: everyone had such high hopes and expectations of him, a legend had built up around his name, he'd become a figure of myth, but at the end of the day he was just a man. He couldn't live up to that. Nobody could.

That acknowledgment of the effects of myth-making around great people and events isn't something I see very often in film, and it ties into what I was saying about seeing what happens after the words "The End". What stories do the people in the world tell themselves about the hero? How does that affect everyone's view of him? How does it affect his view of himself?

That last is also why I find Luke's characterisation in Last Jedi very believable. It makes total sense to me that after this massive failure, which also cost the lives of his students and might have driven his nephew to the dark side, he has withdrawn and become embittered. Again, I come back to the line I used to title this post; the way Hamill delivers it really sums that up.

By the way, good grief did my estimation for all the actors in this film go up.

Anyway, that also feels like a subversion of tropes, which was something this movie did in spades and I love it. I'm having trouble thinking of another of these epic fantasy stories where the hero tracks down the mentor who will turn them into a great warrior or whatever and finds someone so disillusioned. Rey's not having to persuade Luke she's worthy or anything (side-note: I especially enjoy that he never gets weird about the fact that a girl is so strong with the force. It wouldn't make a lot of sense - I mean, he knows Leia - but it was still nice not to have a a subplot where she has to prove she's worthy despite the ~*~terrible handicap~*~ of a second X chromosome), she's having to persuade him that just coming back into the fight at all is worth doing. She's not having to persuade him to train her but to train anyone, and his refusal actually does make sense. I mean, look what happened last time he got himself a crazy-powerful young student. Clearly he can't do this and it might not even be a good idea for anyone to do this.

Now, again, not very familiar with the original movies, this might actually be the exact route they took with Obi-wan and/or Yoda, but I don't remember ever seeing it before and something that distinctive is something I'm sure I would have noticed seeing for a second time. If I'm way off the mark here, though, I can only apologise.

One more comment, and then I'll close. I also really enjoyed Luke's relationship with Ren. This is kind of bringing me back to where I started, but it was still interesting to see how the break with Ren has affected Luke as well as how it's affected Ren. I like watching the emotional consequences play out, as well as how his previous failures have affected Luke's later relationship with Rey and view of himself. Also, that last fight was amazing. It did a great job of developing Ren's character in how he reacted to the sight of Luke and also the emptiness he seemed to feel when after all that Luke wasn't really there. For me, the way Ren reacted after that fight really did cement my view that this is not about Ren defending himself any more, no matter what his initial reaction might have been when he woke up to find Luke standing over him with a lightsaber; it's now about revenge. It kind of shone a new light on Ren, which was in itself interesting to me.

Anyway, I liked Luke in the original trilogy. I liked his enthusiasm, his intelligence, his determination, and his compassion (why did nobody tell me about him redeeming Darth Vader with the power of love?). However, that just meant that I enjoyed all the more seeing how he's been developed here. That Luke was still there, minus some enthusiasm and plus some world-weary cynicism that makes perfect sense given what's happened in the interim. I liked him as a character, I liked what he added to the story, and overall I think his presentation was one of the gutsiest things in this movie.

In summary: Luke good. Film good. Don't @ me.

If you enjoy my blog, you might also enjoy my novel: Bladedancer's Heirs. You can also find me on Goodreads!

#Characterisation #film #Star Wars: The Last Jedi #the last jedi review #Star Wars

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samiraheaven93 · 6 years

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The idea to this came from me rereading both Whispers Underground and the Silmarillion Charlie is reading the Silmarillion and had promised to show Peter what she can do with glamour Peter came in while she was at the scene of the Oath and she decided to just show him some illusion of it (it's easier for her to let the things appear that she is currently reading … while reading) The glamour doesn't last long because Peter isn't the best victim for this kind of magic… he is just to curious ^^' "Who were those people?", Peter knew they were elves but he had never heard of a ginger one. Charlie looked at him confused. "Those were Maedhros and Maglor, or more precisely how I imagine them." The young man looked at her, now even more confused. "I thought you know Professor Tolkiens work?" "Of course I do! I know The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. But I never heard of those two…" Charlie couldn't resist to giggle "that's because they aren't from those books. They are from the Silmarillion! The two oldest sons of Feanor and the stepfathers of Elrond and Elros." "Wait! Elrond like the Elrond from Imladris?" "Yeah. You really don't know what happened before the third age?" Now that she mentioned it, why hadn't he thought about what happened before? There must have been so many things! "Peter, so you tell me you don't know how Middle Earth was created?" This leaded to Charlie explaining the important parts of it "Wait…it was created with music?" Charlie nodded, she knew what he was thinking. "That's just like when I use magic! Does this mean TOLKIEN was a practitioner?!" "No, but Professor Tolkien knew some things about how it is done." "How?" "Peter…" she looked like she remembered something nice and smiled at him. "He was a Professor in Oxford and friends with our~ librarian. The met for tea sometimes and talked a bit about… basically anything. At some point Professor Tolkien told him that he wanted music as the medium of starting it all and our librarian explained to him that that's how you could describe doing magic" "They talked freely about all this?!" "With each other, but they both kept their secrets of course. Remember, Peter, it was a different time." "Yes, but how do YOU know about that?" "He told me of course " "Who?" "Professor Tolkien"

#my art #charlie #maedhros #maglor #just a little scene that came to my mind #because I love the description of magic as being like music #and it reminds me so much of the Silmarillion!#of course Tolkien came up with it himself! and his friend was quite shocked to see the similarities to 'real' magic #and yes charlie met tolkien while she was in Oxford… she is around the age of his youngest children (if I remember correctly)

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barduil · 7 years

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B’S FIC LIST

It’s been a while since my last multi-fandom fic list, so I thought I’d remake one. I didn’t include anything from before 2016 except one fic since they’re all… pretty bad, I mean it was my first year of writing, so yeah… but anyway!

This list includes all the stories of mine I think are worth sharing, in chronological order, as well as the fanarts and/or aesthetics that go with them :) There’s quite a wide variety of settings and tropes, so if you’re new to my writing, you should hopefully find something that pleases you! Here we go!

** are personal favourites

THE HOBBIT

Petrichor (Bard/Thranduil) 14.5k, General Audiences, reincarnation, modern world, bookstore, books and cats • aesthetic, fanart 1, fanart 2, fanart 3, fanart 4

It's been six thousand years since Thranduil last laid eyes on his husband - Bard. The world has changed and the great Elvenking with it, lingering in the shadows of Men; as hope for a miracle festers within his heart that grows weaker with every passing day, the only thing keeping him going is a promise he made, many moons ago.

Those Colours We Share (Bard/Thranduil) 84.7k, Mature, soulmates, slow burn, 50s, post-war, animal shelter, sexual content • aesthetic (links to fanarts included in the caption)

Had anyone told them, Thranduil Oropherion and Bard Bowman would never have believed they would see the world painted in colours again. Until that fateful day of December 1956, when one little boy entered a former soldier's animal shelter.

Forgotten Roads (Bard/Thranduil) 61.8k, Teen and Up Audiences, fantasy, roadtrip, creatures, shapeshifting, slow burn, asexual characters • aesthetic, fanart

When Bard's secret was revealed, he had no choice but to accept exile. Sent away with no hopes of ever being trusted or seeing his children again, Bard wandered across the country without purpose. Now comes a man with the promise of a new life at the end of a long journey, should he accept the stranger's request: to lead him through lands and dangers long forgotten, in quest of hope long lost.

Somewhere Only We Know** (Bard/Thranduil) 10.6k, General Audiences, Middle-earth, past major character death, fix-it • aesthetic 1, fanart 1, fanart 2, fanart 3

When the eighteenth month since Bard's death comes, Thranduil wakes on a strange feeling. He follows a mysterious blue orb through the ill trees of his forest, where he is shown precious memories of his ephemeral time with Bard. But is it a trick of his mind, a dream, or reality?

Crimson Water (Bard/Thranduil) 30.8k, Teen and Up Audiences, merpeople, merman Bard, childhood friends, forbidden friendship, forbidden love • aesthetic, fanart

“You're different,” it added, tilting its head slightly to the side. Thranduil meant to answer, but in one swift movement it turned, and disappeared under the water.

Bright Eyes (Bard/Thranduil) 2.7k, General Audiences, soulmates, tooth-rotting fluff, sequel to Those Colours We Share • aesthetic

Tilda bakes cake, Thranduil sings Disney songs, and Bard slow dances with an unusual partner.

hope, lost and found again, by the forgotten lake (Bard/Thranduil) 9.1k, General Audiences, fairy tales elements, centaur Thranduil

“Are you real?” Bard eventually asked, eyes wide. He held up his hand, and from the tip of his finger, poked at the centaur’s flank.

what was found and lost behind** (Bard/Thranduil) 11.3k, Teen and Up Audiences, post-war, 30s, reunions, father-daughter relationship, happy ending • aesthetic, fanart 1, fanart 2

Bard's been followed by ghosts all his life. When he and his family move to London, he doesn't expect one of those ghosts to come back from the dead—nor to be faced with his past, long concealed in a forgotten, old journal.

Warm, Cracked Hearts (Bard & his kids) 2.1k, General Audiences, character study, family, asexual character, angst, anxiety

One cold evening of winter, Bard faces the worries of his children.

What We Want (Bard/Thranduil) 4.7k, General Audiences, university, asexual characters, slice of life, fluff, angst? I don’t know her, slow burn

Bard couldn’t be seriously annoyed with the project—he was glad something had allowed them the possibility of becoming friends. Even if it was something as frustrating as a huge assignment.

THE SILMARILLION

Under the Moonlight (Maedhros & Elrond) 2.4k, General Audiences, angst, adoptive father-son relationship • aesthetic

Elrond was no fool; such tears were not of a pain any medicine could heal. There was something else to them, too: they weren't just tears one spends in grief of kin or family. Elrond couldn't quite explain it, and so he asked, “Who is it, that you cry for?”

Home, by the Fireplace (Maedhros & Elrond) 1.6k, General Audiences, bonding, adoptive father-son relationship

“Elrond will come and find you soon enough,” Maglor said. He was back to working on his instrument. “Be kind, when he does—he only means the best.”

or Winter is harsh on Maedhros, and Elrond tries to help.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

The Way He Looks** (Gaston/LeFou) 2.4k, General Audiences, early days, pre-war, first kiss • aesthetic, fanart

Tentatively, LeFou risked looking up at him again. Gaston was looking out the window now, certainly dreaming of his next, successful hunt in the vast plains of the land. These were perhaps LeFou’s favourite moments; when they stopped to make camp in the forest or under the stars—and when they found peace here, at home, and he could watch Gaston bathe in the sunlight.

Blood on his Hands (Gaston/LeFou) 3.8k, Teen and Up Audiences, pre-movie, wartime, protective Gaston

"Was the man even still alive?

Gaston didn't know, and didn't care.

Hell, if anything Gaston hoped he was; he could suffer some more and die later."

or Wartime Gafou drabbles

He Loves Me (Gaston/LeFou) 3.5k, General Audiences, pre-war, first kiss, pre-movie relationship

LeFou glanced at Gaston, and watched his chest rise and fall to the steady rhythm of his breath. He thought back to the day when they’d been lying on top of the hill, and he’d asked Gaston, “Why are we friends?”

The answer had been simple, and easy back then; today, though, LeFou thought that it might have meant something different, for they were now older, and perhaps, a lot more wiser, too.

Reflection** (Gaston/LeFou) 7.7k, General Audiences, post-movie, Gaston lives, healing, scars • aesthetic

While Gaston heals from the fall that almost claimed his life, LeFou, hurt by Gaston's betrayal, struggles to come to terms with the aftermath of the battle.

OTHER

Not the End (Emmett Fields/John Cantrell, The Raven) 823 words, General Audiences, post-movie, fix-it

She stops by the door, fingers around the doorknob when she hears it. As the nurse had said, there's someone in the room already, and Emily can hear his voice, hushed and almost trembling. She's heard that voice before, but not like this—she's heard it strong, and confident, and commanding.

Today, it’s none of those things.

Old Friends and Broken Promises** (John Moore & Laszlo Kreizler, The Alienist) 2.1k, General Audiences, post-books, character study, angst

Months have passed since the Beecham and Hatch cases—but their shadows still linger over John's life.

Oh, if the Dead Could Weep (Héctor Rivera, Coco) 1.8k, General Audiences, pre-movie, angst

Héctor thought that being dead was already bad enough—until the first time he tried crossing the Marigold Bridge.

Sooo that’s it! There are other stories on my account that I didn’t include, either because they’re not any good or because something bothers me about them, but if you wanna give them a read, no one can stop you! but please don’t

Kudos are much appreciated, and comments mean the world to me. Even a few words would make my day!! It's never too late and even a tiny one would be wonderful. ;w;

I’ll also take this opportunity to thank @piyo-13 and @johnsmoore, who beta’ed most of those stories. Thank you so so much my friends, my fics and I would be nothing without you <3

#barduil #gafou #the hobbit #beauty and the beast #the silmarillion #fics #mine #writing #bard the bowman #thranduil #maedhros #elrond #gaston #lefou #I hope I didn't forget anything?

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tolkientolkientolkien · 7 years

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The Lord of the Rings Pre-Reread Review and Thoughts

I haven’t read this book through in like a year and a half due to college and stuff. This is entirely unacceptable, so I’m posting my thoughts on this book series (as well as The Hobbit and Silmarillion) now, rereading it as quickly as I can (guessing 1200 pages will take me a week cause I need snack breaks tolkien i have failed u) and then updating/commenting on my review to express how my views have changed. My memory can randomly be uncannily good… although it also makes its fair share of mistakes - fair warning

To begin, General Impression of Book: This is literally my favorite book. I-… I don’t know what else to say other than that I cannot wait to read it again. I am most fond of Tolkien’s descriptions of battles and villains… as you will probably be able to tell from the characters that follow. I hate giving a book such blatant praise because there will be other people with different interests than me who will be sorely disappointed if they take me whole at my word. make up your own minds, AND DON’T READ THIS CAUSE SPOILERS

Notable Characters:

Amazing: The (Lord of the) Nazgûl I first read this book in 7th grade, and Tolkien’s description of the Nazgûl was the moment I thought “wow. this is the best thing I have ever read.” The Witch King deserves his own special catergory, but I fear to drown you all in my love of Tolkien’s villains, so I’ll have to just quickly say that the descriptions-… putting them on my wall just isn’t enough for how much I adore this writing. This is from the girl who attempted to memorize the entirety of The Battle of the Pellenor Fields RotK chapter… before realizing it was useless because I couldn’t recite it to anyone without giving them the worst spoilers imaginable AND HIS BACKSTORY DON’T GET ME STARTED ON HIS BACKSTORY HELP I NEED TO STOP NOW OR I NEVER WILL The Barrow Wights, Shelob, the unnamed statues at Minas Morgul, Old Man Willow, SAURON, etc. - Ya know, I’m just going to list all the awesome villains in one lump and get it over with. Same reasons as the Nazgûl - creepy, awesome backstory, beautiful descriptions, need I say more? Faramir - the first of my collection of cinnamon rolls who did not deserve all the things (greatly expanded by Silmarillion characters). Faramir is just a fantastic character. I honestly first liked him because of his preemptive choice not to take the ring, even if it lay by the roadside, even if Gondor were failing and he alone could save it. He just-… he defied Sauron’s expectations of humans so beautifully and the contradt between him and his brother-… HE DID NOT DESERVE THE MOVIE’S ADAPTION OF HIS CHARACTER OKAY Eowyn - This lady is completely awesome??? I mean. Just read The Battle of the Pellenor Fields. Compare that picture of Eowyn versus The Lord of the Nazgûl to the movie version and cry in confusion at its movie rendition with me. Eowyn had her flaws, but she was there for her family, and her family-… was mostly dead BUT THAT’S NOT THE POINT *SOBS*. I will never get over the beauty of the tone change when Eomer sees her dead and the joyful “Yay we’re coming to save Gondor and everything’s amazing!” (not an exact quote) changes to “Death! Death! Ride to ruin and the world’s ending!” and it just-… it gives me chills writing this even now. (yeah. I know the movie put the battle cry of death at the beginning of the battle… *stifled sounds of anger* ) Merry - Merry was my first favorite character when I first read this book series. He was the smart one who got them out of all their problems… until he got eaten by a tree BUT DETAILS. anyways, his care for others and okay, stabbing The Witch King was absolutely 100% awesome. I have to stop now or else I’ll never stop

Meh: Boromir - I dunno if this will stick but I really disliked Boromir. His pride, the whole thing with Frodo and the ring, etc. like my comments with The Hobbit, I was quite a vengeful child so those impressions are the ones that stuck. Denethor - Denethor was just not a nice person. Cool character, not a nice person. *squints at all the 100% not nice people on my favorites list* u also hurt faramir but u are a nazgûl and u are awesome so u get a free pass

FAVORITE CONSPIRACY THEORY: Well I’ve got three. 1) References to Melkor coming back to destroy Arda are the best, and they’re fun to look for, (he’d better bring Sauron back though because reasons) as well as parallels and the like… there’s just a lot of really deep history which I love. 2) SAURON ISN’T A GIANT EYE COME ON PEOPLE. Off the top of my head (can get exact quotes later if anyone’s interested): 1. Gollum knows that Sauron is missing a finger - “there are but four fingers on the black hand” - after being tortured, would not be possible if Sauron was stuck as a giant eye 100% of the time. 2. The Eye of Sauron is described in… I believe it’s The Two Towers… to look out of a window (which conjures funny Rapunzel references for me XD). 3. The Appendicies… or the Silmarillion, describes the eye of… oh, I think it was “Sauron the Terrible”… as terrifying/life-ending/some delightful thing like that. This was while Sauron was in his “bad” form after the fall of Numenor but before the Last Alliance. 3) THE WITCH KING OF ANGMAR’S SUPERPOWERS ARE THE BEST OKAY

Thanks for reading! There are so many awesome characters that did not get on this list - Aragorn, for one, I loved his intelligence, leadership, and the whole sword thing was awesome in the book. Oh, and if you haven’t noticed, these movies bother me too. Not all books are better than movies, but movie plot alterations should at worst remain neutral and at best improve on the tightness and continuity of an adaption. If changes make it worse (and by worse I mean more convoluted or less thematically/emotionally resonant) i be mad.

#the lord of the rings #tolkien #my thoughts #ahahahaha let's see if i can actually read this in a week

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swipestream · 5 years

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Sensor Sweep: Skullsplitter Dice, Fantasy divisions, Future Firearms, Samson Pollen

Fiction (DMR Books): I have a real attachment to the supernatural tales that appeared in what is often called the golden age of the English ghost story. Ranging from around 1880 to somewhere in the 1920s its boundaries are as vague as its achievements are remarkable. For a time, in that difficult to imagine world in which fiction had yet to solidify into specific genres, any author might try his or her hand at a tale of the supernatural, writing primarily motivated by the desire, as M.R. James put it, to make the reader feel “pleasantly uncomfortable.” While dozens of authors who would later distinguish themselves

Genre (Perilous Worlds): Sometimes it seems like the myriad sub-divisions of the fantasy genre cause more confusion than clarity. Terms like Epic and High Fantasy are often used interchangeably, labels like Sword-and-Sorcery and Dark Fantasy are commonly applied indiscriminately, and books with seemingly nothing in common can be found right next to one another in the fantasy section. A novel set in modern times featuring a heroic, magic-wielding protagonist and one set in a medieval-flavored secondary world devoid of the supernatural and concerned with the selfish adventures of an amoral rogue are both works of fantasy – but if only one of those sounds like a book you’d want to read, it helps to be familiar with the broad categories of contemporary fantasy.

Weapons (Future War Stories): Any leap forward in design, fashion, and/or technology can be greeted as the harbinger of the future or a laughing stock by the masses. While this can be applied to personal electronics, clothing, and architecture; it can also be applied to firearms. During the 1980’s, the western nations invested heavily in advancing weapons technology to overcome the numerical superior of the Warsaw Pact. This was the time of cutting edge weapon system like the Apache attack helicopter, the M1 Abrams, the Steyr AUG, night vision, laser sights, and the H&K G11.

Weapons (DMR Books): Hank Reinhardt would have turned eighty-five today. Though I never knew him personally, Hank affected my life in some unique ways and he shall receive due honor from me for that. If you don’t know who Hank Reinhardt was, check out the hyperlink above or read on.

I first learned of Mr. Reinhardt when I bought the DAW sword and sorcery anthology–quite possibly the greatest ever published–Heroic Fantasy. Hank was co-editor of that book along with Gerald W. Page.

Art (CBC News): Semi-nude women, sadistic soldiers, and animal attacks aren’t exactly high art.

Yet those were themes that appealed to the millions of men who read “sweat magazines” — adventure digests sold across North America from the 1940s to the 1970s.

Publications like Man’s Story, World of Men, and Man’s Epic weren’t exactly pornographic — but were the opposite of politically correct.

Authors (Socialist Jazz): Theodore Sturgeon was by all accounts a confounding personality, genial, personally irresponsible, questioning many of the more basic matters of human relations, perception and emotion, and a man who could certainly write a sentence…and then be hung up by how badly he’d done so for years-long writer’s blocks. And yet managed to be very prolific over a long if troubled career.

Art (Mens Pulp Mags): Simply put, Samson Pollen was one of the greatest of the many artists who provided illustrations for the men’s adventure magazines (MAMs) that flourished from the early 1950s to the late 1970s.

My publishing partner Wyatt Doyle and I had the good fortune and the honor of working with Sam on two books featuring his artwork before he passed away in December of 2018.

The first, POLLEN’S WOMEN: THE ART OF SAMSON POLLENwas published last year. It quickly became one of the best-selling books in our Men’s Adventure Library series, which features classic MAM stories and artwork.

Fiction (Perilous Worlds): If you love The Hobbit and The Lord of the Ringsand want to follow the third road of the J. R. R. Tolkien fantasy triad, these first words of The Silmarillion might trick you into putting the book back on the “May Read … Someday” shelf, right beside War and Peace and Les Misérables.

I’m making a plea for you not to shelve it. Or for you to reach up to the shelf and take down Professor Tolkien’s 1977 volume of the Elder Days of Middle-Earth and try again. Too many people have let The Silmarillion’s reputation for difficulty—and its actual difficulty—keep them away from discovering what may be one of their favorite works of fantasy.

Fiction (Tellers of Weird Tales): A month ago I wrote about Vikings and other medieval subjects on the cover ofWeird Tales, and out of that I received a couple of comments from readers about Viking fantasy stories. That got me thinking that there may be a missed sub-sub-genre of fantasy and science fiction dealing with those men and women of the north, with their winged and horned helmets, long, braided hair, conical breastplates, and raiments of hide and fur. So here is a first shot at stories of Vikings and Norsemen, with some also of Saxons, Geats, Goths, and other early northern Europeans thrown into the mix.

History (Men of the West): The Turk has long been known as the “sick man of Europe,” and the story of the Ottoman Empire for a hundred years has been a tale of gradual dismemberment. Thus it is no easy matter for us to realize that for centuries the Ottoman power was the terror of the civilized world.

It was in 1358 that the Ottomans seized Gallipoli, on the Dardanelles, and thus obtained their first footing in Europe. They soon made themselves masters of Philippopolis and Adrianople. A crusading army, gathered to drive the Asiatic horde from Europe, was cut to pieces by the Sultan Bajazet at Nicopolis in 1396. On the day after the battle ten thousand Christian prisoners were massacred before the Sultan, the slaughter going on from daybreak till late in the afternoon. The Turk had become the terror of Europe.

Authors (A Shiver in the Archives): The legend* has altered in the retelling, from a slip found in Robert E. Howard’s wallet after his suicide in June 1936, to it being the last thing Howard typed on his typewriter before going out to his car where he shot himself in the head. The couplet is now legendary:

All fled, all done, so lift me on the pyre; The feast is over and the lamps expire.

Rusty Burke published an article “All Fled, All Done” in The Dark Man: The Journal of Robert E. Howard Studies (Winter 2001), in which he identified Howard’s source for the final line of the couplet, a poem titled “The House of Cæsar” by Viola Garvin, which appeared in a poetry anthology Songs of Adventure (1926), edited by Robert Frothingham. Each of the five stanzas of the poem ends with the line “The Feast is over and the lamps expire!”

Gaming (Table Top Gaming News): These little gems are one of my favorite things, and so when Skullsplitter Dice asked if I’d like to review one of their sets, and not only that, their first-ever limited edition set, I was like, “(censored) YEAH!!” So, they sent me some dice. I rolled them around a bit, and I’m here to let you know about it.

It’s time for another TGN Review. This time, it’s the Huntress Limited Edition Dice from Skullsplitter Dice.

Cinema (Kairos): In my work as a freelance editor, I’ve noticed a common tendency among the current crop of science fiction authors to write books as if they’re writing movies. That practice is understandable since most science fiction and fantasy novels published after 1980 suck, and therefore today’s authors are disproportionately influenced by film.

However, writing a novel by playing a little movie in your head and transcribing what you see in your mind’s eye hobbles the final product. Because this generation of authors don’t read as much as their forebears did, few of them realize the storytelling advantages that books have over movies.

Fiction (Cirsova): Per Michael Tierney, the original fragment that Burroughs wrote was just found this morning.

Apparently, Danton Burroughs had sent it to be transcribed by Bill Hillman of ERBzine.com, who has announced today in a thread on the ERBzine facebook group that it is still in his possession!

Danton sent me this ERB handwritten script. I typed it out and returned the typed copy to him. He offered it to a few writers to see if they would be interested in finishing it. I still have the handwritten copy plus my transcription.

We have updated the copy in the original piece.

Cirsova’s spring issue featuring Young Tarzan and the Mysterious She is available for digital pre-order now and physical pre-order in February.

Fiction (Glorious Trash): I had a tough time with this third volume of Conan. In fact I read it over a year ago, but at the time I found myself skimming the collected stories, to the point that when I “finished” the book I didn’t have any idea how to review it! So I waited a while until getting back to the series, only to find my interest again sagging at times.

Sensor Sweep: Skullsplitter Dice, Fantasy divisions, Future Firearms, Samson Pollen published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

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