Anghraine

An anon responded to the headcanon meme:

♥ faramir

I replied:

♥ = family headcanon

Normally I would go for either the holy quartet of Denethor, Finduilas, Boromir, and Faramir or something to do with Lothíriel, but I’ve actually been thinking about something else—not really to do with blood.

So, one of the responsibilities of the Steward is representing the king when he’s away (rather than this falling to another member of the royal family). This is why Mardil was running things after Eärnur rode off. So when Aragorn is off at war, Faramir would generally be the one ruling Gondor. And apparently there are a lot of wars in the earlier decades of Aragorn’s reign that send Aragorn and Éomer abroad pretty often.

Meanwhile, Arwen is … you know, right there. So my basic headcanon is that Faramir and Arwen at first have a tentative respect that leads Faramir and Arwen to consult with each other about the management of Gondor even though Faramir is technically in charge. And that the initial tentative respect deepens into real friendship, all the more as they have certain common interests and priorities (I imagine Arwen is also a lover of music and lore, say).

(And, more unhappily, they have common fates; in some ways they’re the last gasps of fading peoples, ‘springless autumn,’ and they’re each going to watch the one they love die before them.)

I imagine that Eldarion and his sisters are born in the midst of all this (as are Elfwinë and his siblings in Rohan, but that’s a different story). Arwen, I think, wants her children with her as much as possible, while Faramir is also frequently with her for administrative/friendship reasons, so he’s around the children a lot. I think he’d be good with children, and—anyway, this is a lot of words to say that my headcanon is that he’s not only good with these ones, but quickly becomes an affectionate uncle in all but name to the prince and princesses, and they love him in turn. :’)

Aragorn: *does literally anything*

me:

[A screenshot of Facebook's drop-down list for relationship status, with "It's Complicated" highlighted out of a list of "Single," "In a Relationship," "Engaged," "Married," "It's Complicated," "In an Open Relationship," and "Widowed."]

Tagged: #i would not ship him with my precious fave if i ultimately disliked him #and there's a lot that i find fascinating about him #but there is a lot of ...... complication

cosmonauthill responded to this post:

Dilf Aragorn rights!

I replied:

lmaooo

I don’t swing that way, but someone’s got to stand up for what’s right and true!!

Hills I will die on:

Fíriel’s claim to the throne of Gondor and Arvedui’s claim to the throne of Gondor are not the same!

Arvedui tries to claim the throne for himself through Fíriel, under the pretense argument that that’s how it worked in Númenor. But in Númenor, Fíriel would be Ruling Queen, and Arvedui her consort, not the other way around. The only men who claimed to be king through their wives’ birthrights were usurpers. And Fíriel never claimed the Gondorian throne in her own right.

Arvedui also claims the throne as heir of Isildur (sort of—iirc his father was actually alive at the time?). This is the sole claim that Arvedui and Fíriel’s descendant Aragorn makes later, which perhaps suggests that he sees it as more legitimate or at least more persuasive. Regardless, it’s a separate matter from Fíriel’s rights, and I think the lines between the two distinct claims that Arvedui makes get blurred a lot.

Tagged:

#'fíriel should have been ruling queen' is fair (i wrote fic about it in my youth!) but also never under discussion in the story #and aragorn himself gives no indication of thinking he should be king as /fíriel's/ heir—only isildur's #and we know vanishingly little about fíriel's life much less her opinions #my headcanon is that she went back to minas anor with her daughters and lived in state as a princess of gondor #but #we don't know what she felt or did or anything #so it's always kind of weird when people defend arvedui's false representation of númenórean law bc fíriel got treated unfairly #jka;dfad it's not exactly everything that makes me defensive on aldarion's behalf #but like #arvedui: my wife being daughter of the king means i should be king actually #aldarion and ancalimë: *spinning in their watery graves* #yes i've talked about this before and yes i will talk about it forever

I reblogged a post about responding with your most controversial Tolkien opinions. The OP (gay-pippin) had said they didn't think Aragorn is sexy.

I replied:

#pretty much all my opinions about aragorn are deeply unpopular lol #but tbh my most unpopular tolkien opinion generally #is that the fandom makes the canon out to be very much more incoherent and confusing than it is

I am not uncritical of some of the new MTG LOTR art (Faramir :\\\), but a lot of the criticisms of Aragorn that are allegedly not about him being Black still seem pretty weird to me. It's like, oh, he shouldn't be taller than Arwen, he could actually be short (??? he's called Longshanks for a reason and according to Tolkien is at least 6'6"), oh he shouldn't be greying (??????? it's canon that he is), Andúril is too big (..............), the color scheme is wrong, blah blah.

I mean, obviously complaining about these sorts of things seems just obvious nitpicking, but in the context of racist assholes having meltdowns, it also strikes me as pretty suspicious, and at the very least, a poor choice.

The fic is three pages long and has taken yeaaaars to write. Anyway: some cheerful Eldarion fic!



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I’m thinking about the moment when Pippin first sees Faramir in person and is struck by his raw charisma, thinking that it’s less “high” than Aragorn’s can be at odd moments, but also more immediate.

It’s such an odd moment—charming! but kind of odd. And I was thinking about a Faramir-at-Rivendell AU, and how Pippin would first react to Faramir there. It’d be without the context of Faramir’s extraordinary heroism vs the Ringwraiths, and also without the context of Aragorn’s moments of high but (by comparison) incalculably remote Presence, which iirc Pippin wouldn’t have really seen yet.

And, in canon, however their relationship develops after, it results in Pippin naming his son for Faramir. This is a big deal!!! But I’m wondering how it would register and develop in a scenario where he initially doesn’t even know who Faramir is and doesn’t have an easy metric for comparison.

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An anon said:

"But I must admit," he added with a queer laugh, "that I hoped you would take to me for my own sake. A hunted man sometimes wearies of distrust and longs for friendship" // Suddenly Faramir stirred, and he opened his eyes, and he looked on Aragorn who bent over him; and a light of knowledge and love was kindled in his eyes

Bless you, anon! I totally had not put those together and ahhhh

…you know, I had never thought of a ‘Faramir goes to Rivendell as intended’ scenario with Aragorn/Faramir, but now I’m imagining how it would go if—I mean, without the healing it’s not so LO THE KING, but still, I can’t think that Faramir’s radar wouldn’t go off to some extent (+maybe not love at first sight, but at least liking at first sight) and, thinking of the first quote, it’d just be such a nice thing for them??

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