anghraine

My icon has grey eyes and black hair just for Tolkien :P

So. I generally dislike Tolkien fandom's "canonicity discourse" (yes, I'm doing it anyway) and the idea of imposing a specific ranking of texts. That said, it's occurred to me that one of the reasons I feel deeply out of step with Tolkien fandom is that The Silmarillion (as in, the published book, not the in-story accounts) is on a drastically different level of canonicity for me than basically everything else with JRR Tolkien's name on it.

I don't dislike The Silmarillion or anything. I quite enjoy it! But for me, it shows its age—not in ~a man of his time~ sense, but in an editorial sense. Christopher Tolkien did an enormous amount of spectacular editorial work over the course of his life and we are deeply indebted to him. But I think he did pretty clearly get better at it over time, and particularly at presenting his father's mass of notes and documents and so on in a way that makes the texts as accessible as possible. At the same time, in later texts, he clearly differentiates between actual words JRRT wrote (whether in the main body or in notes) and his (CT's) own understanding and explanations as JRRT's confidant and literary heir. I do give a lot of credence to Christopher Tolkien's understanding of his father's work, actually, and I deeply respect (and am grateful for) CT's efforts to carefully and clearly explain things like dates of composition (and how this can be determined), direct context, how a given point relates to his father's broader work, etc, throughout these texts.

(Tangent: Facebook keeps recommending defensive Jackson stans griping about how Christopher Tolkien just didn't get his father's work like Jackson did and was so horribly ungrateful to the filmmakers and such an inferior scholar blahblah for the crime of disliking the films. FLAMES ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE!! I am not uncritical of Christopher Tolkien, and neither was Christopher Tolkien, but I think we owe an immeasurable debt of gratitude to him. Also, even to me, his response to the films seemed harsh at the time, but at this point, I think he was pretty much right, anyway, and correctly judged the films' impact and reflection of pop culture understanding of JRRT's work.)

So what is my issue with the published Silmarillion?

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An anon on Tumblr said:

First of all congrats on nearing the end of your PhD program!!! Woohoo!!!

Second of all, I’m muy late to the party here (been off tumblr for a bit) but WRT these tags ( https://www.tumblr.com/anghraine/749212904253947904/khazzman-tolkien-elendil-was-called-the ) what do you mean the pregnancies were strange lol how strange can they be…?

[The tags in question: #and that's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how distinct and peculiar númenóreans are #fandom has slept on it for decades but they are reallyyyyyy unusual #they have weird pregnancies (and few of them) and horse telepathy and can rarely even get injured much less sick #there's this part where tolkien is trying to mathematically figure out elvish aging (hilarious tbh) and pencils in 'and númenóreans' #that's not even getting into the uncanny valley of númenórean kids...]

My reply:

As for the first point: Thank you! I'm really looking forwards to being done, lol.

As for the second point: anon, I delight in your innocence.

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I'm taking a brief break from my dissertation to ... uh, amuse myself by figuring out my readers' ranking of my genderbending fics on AO3.

Rules I'm applying: 1) I'm only including fic verses that are collectively at least 2000 words long because, well, I do have to go back to the diss, 2) verses comprised of multiple fics are ranked according to either the popularity of the series as a whole or the most popular individual fic (depending on which is higher; not combining them because there's a lot of overlap), 3) I'm considering both bookmarks and kudos in my judgment—we'll see if it makes a difference, and 4) I'm ignoring everything with less than 30 kudos and 5 bookmarks.

1. First Impressions | 215 bookmarks | 876 kudos | genderbent characters: Elizabeth Bennet (-> Henry Bennet) and Fitzwilliam Darcy (-> Catherine Darcy)

This is a genderswapped retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in its original period (not really a true "what if"). All stats are specifically for the original (completed) 36k fic. It individually beats out every possible stat for every other fic in the series as well as the series as a whole. (Note: The overall series is 44k words long.)

2. Lucy Skywalker series | 163 bookmarks | 406 kudos (The Jedi and the Sith Lord) | genderbent characters: Luke Skywalker (-> Lucy Skywalker)

This is a genderbent AU that mostly, but not completely, sticks to the rails of canon until the end of the ESB timeline, at which point it swerves into the "real" AU. The Jedi and the Sith Lord is the sequel to The Imperial Menace/the ESB plot, and the third fic in the main series, focusing on the consequences of Vader capturing Lucy. It's technically completed at 70k, but only in the sense that it explores what happens to/with Lucy and Vader until the nature of her captivity fundamentally changes, and everything after that will be a separate fic but hasn't been written yet. Although none of the individual fics have as many bookmarks as the series as a whole, my #2, #3, and #4 most bookmarked genderbent fics are all for the Lucyverse. (Note: the overall series is 129k words long.)

3. Love, Pride & Delicacy | 25 bookmarks | 163 kudos | genderbent characters: Fitzwilliam Darcy (-> Catherine Darcy, for convenience)

This is an actual Elizabeth/f!Darcy "what if" femslash AU rather than a retelling, though a slow one—it's still early in the overall story at 25k. It's also placed in the original P&P setting. There is no wider series.

4. The Lady of Gondor | 25 bookmarks | 119 kudos (we also are daughters of the great) | genderbent characters: Faramir (-> Fíriel)

This is a deeply self-indulgent Aragorn/f!Faramir/Éowyn AU, though it's not only a WIP but split into different vaguely related fics (some of which are also WIPs!) about some aspect of the verse in relation to Fíriel. I think the norms of Gondor and Middle-earth make the gender change particularly significant (in some ways more than any other verse), so actual plot and relationship changes tend to be the focus. The kudos are for the specific linked fic, which is a WIP at nearly 5k and the most Éowyn-centric of them. (Note: the overall series is about 9.5k words long.)

5. The Edge of Darkness | 17 bookmarks | 106 kudos | genderbent characters: Tarrlok (-> Taraka)

This is a genderbent f!Tarrlok AU, though told entirely from Noatak/Amon's perspective, and to some extent more about the impact on him than on Taraka herself (though she's extremely important to the fic). Even more than that, the linked fic is focused on the effect of the change on their family dynamics as children, until teenage Noatak leaves her behind per canon. The fic can look like a retelling à la First Impressions, since the basic plot points don't change, but the larger series is on course to swerve into full "what if" territory as well. However, like First Impressions, these stats are all for the completed opening fic (18k) and not the longer WIP series (32k), which is temporarily paused at the point where 37-year-old Taraka openly identifies Amon as Noatak. CW: child abuse.

6. Blood and Fire | 16 bookmarks | 67 kudos | genderbent characters: Tarrlok (-> Taraka) and Noatak (-> Nataka)

This is a dark(er) AU of The Edge of Darkness in which Noatak/Amon is also genderbent, and the bloodbending siblings never separated. Taraka fled home with Nataka back in the day, they only grew closer (...too close), and although Taraka still ended up on the Republic City council, her true loyalty is to Amon. She promptly turns Korra over when Amon shows up, which is where the fic begins; it's told entirely through Korra's attempts to navigate her circumstances as a prisoner of the Equalists. CW: incest, complicated F/F/F dubcon??? emotional bonding kink with occasional violence yet little overt romance and no sex. I am what I am. The stats are for the completed (though deliberately ambiguous) main fic, which is 10k, and not the side fics or the series as a whole (13k).

7. The Queer Rogue One AU | 12 bookmarks | 57 kudos (the words we've both fallen under) | genderbent characters: Cassian Andor (-> Cassia Andor)

This is, on one level, a relatively straightforward genderbent!Cassian AU that is more or less complete at 13k. The underlying concepts are: a) what if my male fave was a hot lesbian and my ship was f/f and b) what if we headcanon every single member of the main team as queer in some capacity :D and c) the SW universe is so blatantly patriarchal in the films that it's a particularly interesting setting for exploring the effects of the gender change on someone like Cassia, a female revolutionary and spy :D :D. It's a little challenging to properly evaluate where it sits wrt stats because I revised the scattered, vaguely connected scraps of the universe into a single fic through both sentence-level revisions and significant additions, but that revision is only on Tumblr (where the link currently goes to, sorry) and my GoogleDrive, not AO3. It's not even a series in my heart! But it is on AO3. Evaluate as you will, but when I finally get around to converting the AO3 version to the correct format this may or may not change. For now this is where it goes by AO3 stats.

8. Daughters of Númenor series | 5 bookmarks | 33 kudos (the voices of the sea) | genderbent characters: all Númenórean throwbacks in LOTR, but specifically Aragorn (-> Aranor), Faramir (-> Míriel), Denethor (-> Andreth), and Imrahil (-> Imraphel)

As might be guessed, this is an AU where every Númenórean throwback mentioned in LOTR is genderbent (in the backstory, this also includes Ivriniel and Finduilas of Dol Amroth, who become Túrin, Prince of Dol Amroth, and Gwindor of Dol Amroth). It's Aranor/Míriel and definitely focused on them despite the broader change (where Arwen is a non-factor for the OT3 in The Lady of Gondor because she went to Valinor with Celebrían, she actually is present in Middle-earth in this series, though unfortunately very straight). While Fíriel in The Lady of Gondor was never expected to be a warrior and gets on reasonably well with Denethor, this AU is more about the broader effects—so even though we rarely see f!Denethor/Andreth, it's significant that she was a trailblazer as a female warrior, loremaster, and ultimately the first female ruler of Gondor, inadvertently laying a foundation that Aranor could build on later (which would have horrified Andreth herself!). The specific fic with the most kudos in the series, linked above, is a nearly 2k fic about the effect of Faramir's canonical visions on Míriel. (Note: the overall series is currently 3k words long.)

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An anon asked:

forgive me if you've answered this, but why do you think faramir was able to go from the way we saw him in ttt & early rotk (including seemingly having some prejudices against the rohirrim) to him suddenly being softer (& falling in love w/ a rohir) once in the houses of healing? it always seemed a bit of a jump to me & occurred so fast (although i guess having a near death experience is as good a catalyst as any) & id love to hear your thoughts on it (if you have any & want to of course!)

I replied:

Hmm, it’s an interesting question!

I will say that while I’ve seen the “Faramir is wrong and unfair about the Rohirrim in TTT” thing going around, I think that take pretty actively rejects Tolkien’s values and themes. I don’t think Tolkien remotely intended Faramir’s arc to involve coming around to respect the valorization of war and glory in Rohan, and increasingly in Gondor. He never does and he never will. If anything, it’s the reverse; Faramir’s reservations about the prioritization of martial prowess in the modern societies around him are Tolkien’s reservations, and Éowyn’s adoption of his ethos / at least partial rejection of Rohan’s is a conversion to a more mature and right way of thinking about these things in Tolkien’s treatment of it.

I mean, it’s fine for people to be uncomfortable with that (there’s a degree to which I am myself). But I think that people sometimes ignore that Faramir is the character most like Tolkien, and part of his function is to deliver Tolkien’s views within the story and influence other characters towards the values that Tolkien held. So that’s part of what’s going on.

Jumping back in-story, though:

I think the main issue is that in TTT, Faramir is acting as a commander among his men in a very tense situation, dealing with people he believes might have betrayed his brother to his death, and who certainly know more than they’re saying in any case (brief detour to the meta level: the ambiguity over what Faramir’s really like and what he’ll do in TTT also helps maintain tension in some very talky scenes).

Meanwhile, in early ROTK, he’s still acting as a commander, but with his own leader, whom he disagrees with about both his previous actions and their current tactics. Denethor is also his father, of course, and Faramir’s conduct there is influenced by their messy and painful mixture of love and opposition, but Tolkien notes in the letters that another major factor in how Faramir relates to Denethor is that Faramir views himself as a Númenórean before the last Númenórean head of state. This is a big deal for him.

And then he falls in battle, and when he wakes up, Denethor is dead and Faramir is the Steward of Gondor. Even though he still has someone he’s going to relate to in that Númenórean-to-Númenórean-lord way (Aragorn), it’s not the complex, concentrated thing it was with Denethor, nor the high-octane intensity of his situation in TTT. There’s no Ring, no soldiers, no dubious captives, no authority to answer to. He can simply act as he sees fit. Faramir with Éowyn is, I think, Faramir at his most natural, without these incredible pressures on him. He can afford to be softer, gentle, and compassionate, vulnerable in some ways, confident in others.

It’s more headcanon, but I also think that … yes, losing his family is freeing in some ways, but it’s also horrible, obviously. And I think part of what’s going on with him is that he’s dealing with loss, first with Boromir and then Denethor, and with the latter, that loss happened with everything unresolved, and he’s got to know there are things people aren’t telling him about it. I’ve talked about it before, but I do think there’s a lot going on in his head at that point, and he’s the sort of person whose grief makes him more sympathetic to other people’s. So I think that’s part of what’s going on, too.

And then after all of that, he just falls like a ton of bricks for this incredible woman. I don’t think he’d ever have minded that Éowyn is Rohirren—IMO his TTT remark that “we love them” is foreshadowing for this—but if he did at some point, he’s well beyond giving a single fuck about it by then. As we see with the very public kiss, of course.

So that’s pretty much where I stand on it all!

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Still thinking about the Faramir AU, and:

I think the Moria section would wind out in basically the same way, though Gandalf’s death would hit Faramir harder than Boromir.

Faramir canonically has reservations about Lothlórien and Galadriel, so how does that go down? Especially the mental examination bit, which I think would be quite odd for him as someone who is more accustomed to being the person who sees part of what’s going on in the hearts and thoughts of others, and less often the person who is seen. (Though he would certainly have some experience of the latter w/ Denethor.)

What about, you know, the Ring? IIRC it gets stronger the closer it gets to Mount Doom, so the temptation he faced in canon would actually be considerably stronger than what he faces here, but a one-time experience where this is an ongoing, grinding thing. I’ve seen it suggested that he’d still be the weakest link, but I think he could resist it as much as any of the non-hobbits, but that’s still only so far, and his canon response in TTT suggests that he’d understand that.

What ultimately separates the Fellowship? Faramir wouldn’t be going off to take the Ring, so that whole set piece would work differently. I don’t think there’s reason to assume he’d die; him going would make very little overall difference in that case, except to possibly make things worse, and part of the point of him being meant to go is that it would make a significant difference, for the better. I think my idea in the original Faramir-goes-to-Rivendell fic I wrote as a teenager was that he perceives more clearly than the others that the Fellowship can’t hold out indefinitely, and privately tells Frodo so. Frodo then decides to go alone. These days … hmm.

Does Faramir join the hunt for Merry and Pippin, assuming that that pretty much follows canon? He’d want to get back to Gondor, but I think he’d always do what he considers the ethical thing, so it’s not hard to imagine him joining them. He’s also a Ranger and very tall; I don’t think he’d hold them back speed-wise. So that would go pretty similarly.

And then, Rohan!

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I talked a few days ago, under f-lock, about some painful RL experiences around being perceived as deeply boring and incapable of feeling pain (or feeling most emotions, really). And I wanted to make an addendum to that, one that I don’t think really needs the f-lock.

I’ve made many complaints about various fandoms + multifandom spaces and trends over the years, and I still consider most of those complaints valid. Nevertheless, fandom has typically been a much less bleak environment for me.

If someone in fandom finds me boring, they usually do not tell me so, or treat me in a way that makes this apparent. They simply don’t interact with me. And people who do follow me or interact with me don’t do it because of my family’s involvement, or because I’m a package deal with more interesting/attractive/charismatic friends, or because of some other figure in my meatspace life at all. In fandom, none of that matters. At least, it hasn't for me.

Even the followers who don’t particularly care about me as a person are following me for my own sake in some capacity, rather than for the sake of someone else. Sure, some of these will leave if I get super into something they find dull, or stop posting or whatnot, but their interest in my opinions about the thing they’re into is still about my opinions of that thing, or how I express my opinions, or something about my online persona.

And there are also people who don’t share my preoccupation with a current fixation, or don’t find my take on it interesting, and are thus kind of bored, but they like me personally enough to stick around, anyway. This doesn’t usually trigger my “oh no I’m being boring” issues, because if they’re invested enough to stay, despite disinterest in my current thing, they’re evidently still engaged at some level with me.

Beyond that, people in fandom don’t typically lecture me on my general demeanor. It’s happened, but not often. In fact, while fellow fans sometimes express respect for my—let’s say, often rather severe manner of presenting myself and my opinions, they don’t generally act like it is required of me to be that way or that it somehow precludes a capacity to feel. We’re all in fandom because we feel things!

And that’s been very powerful for me. I wasn’t diagnosed as autistic until I was well into my 20s, while I’ve been directly or indirectly excluded or distanced from many RL social circles ever since I was a child. I’ve certainly been treated as if I and the things I care about are objectively dull and emotionally unengaging.

But throughout my entire adult life, there has always been one glaring exception to this. There really was a social sphere in which my experience of others and of myself could be different. There was fandom.

For all of online fandom’s many, many flaws, this has been part of my experience of it from even before I was an adult—in fact, from the time that I made my first post. At the time, I was extremely shy and anxious, so I lurked a lot, and was very worried about breaking some rule somewhere if I actually said anything on the big scary Internet. But I had feelings. I was in high school and I had such feelings.

Many of these were Pride and Prejudice feelings. In high school, I started collecting copies of P&P just so I could read the introductions/editorial content and see what other people thought about it, since nobody I knew IRL cared about it the way I did. This was both my first step into academia proper and a sort of proto-fannish activity. But my Austen feelings were not actually the ones that propelled me into breaking my self-imposed Internet silence and detachment from online communities. A lot of Austen fandom didn’t really seem like my people. I was also into Harry Potter, but HP fandom similarly did not seem like my people.

Actually, speaking of boring other people, I’m going to be really self-indulgent and rewind even further for THE FULL SAGA of what brought me into fandom.

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Feeling this again—

Denethor to Pippin:

'And why should such songs be unfit for my halls, or for such hours as these? We who have long lived under the Shadow may surely listen to echoes from a land untroubled by it? Then we may feel that our vigil was not fruitless, though it may have been thankless.'

And, at last, the Eagles sing to the people of Minas Tirith:

Sing now, ye people of the Tower of Anor,
for the Realm of Sauron is ended for ever,
and the Dark Tower is thrown down.
Sing and rejoice, ye people of the Tower of Guard,
for your watch hath not been in vain

Tagged: #:') :') :') #he didn't live to hear it and would have had problems with royalist eagles if he had but also... RESPECT FOR MY PEOPLE

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Still thinking of how Denethor and Faramir are explicitly compared with Gandalf … and even Gandalf describes himself and Denethor as ‘two … terrible old men’ … and in Faramir’s case, his wizardliness is by contrast to Frodo’s Elvishness …

I just. They.

Tagged: #adkjf sam doesn't even know he's saying 'frodo is elvish but you have a maia vibe' but HE IS and it's just ????!!! #look. gandalf's powers may be dialed down from olórin's but he is still a freaking maia #and gandalf lumping himself in with denethor??? i am compromised

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I reblogged a gifset/fancast for book Denethor by nenuials and added:

#whoa op #this is amazing and i'm so glad to see it #adjkf; this is just so refreshing #:))))

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dragoness_e responded to this post:

I think that Faramir knew the whole time: he was delirious with fever when Denethor laid him on the pyre, not unconscious. The knowledge filtered through fever delirium that his father tried to kill him probably worsened the Nazgul-induced despair that Aragorn had to pull him out of. Remember one of the things Aragorn said contributed to his critical condition? “Grief over his father’s mood”. I think Faramir just gave up after Denethor tried to kill him, and that’s why his condition was so bad that only Aragorn of the line of Luthien could heal him. By the time he’s up and meeting Eowyn, he’s already dealt with this, or he wouldn’t be up and about.

I replied:

Hmm, I tend to disagree. I don’t think we really have much of an idea of what Faramir was aware of while he was delirious or what he remembered later. I’ve always taken the reference to grief for Denethor’s mood to refer to the causes of Faramir’s sickness generally, not the final phase of it (the direct context is explaining how Faramir became so sick in the first place, IIRC?).

And unless I’m misremembering, Gandalf is the one who says—after Aragorn’s healing—that Faramir shouldn’t be told the full story of what happened until after he’s fully recovered, even though he’ll have to find out that Denethor is dead. So Gandalf at least thinks that Faramir missed or isn’t going to retain the details.

Éowyn is also up and about while plainly not having dealt with her issues, so I don’t think we can assume that Faramir is A-OK about nearly being murdered by his father just because he’s moving around and personable. I mean, maybe he completely got over it in a few days, but I don’t think we have anything like certain evidence of it.

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I genuinely hadn't remembered that I'd already talked about the peculiar subordination of Faramir's arc to other characters' once Denethor is dead—I made a post about it not long ago, with no memory of saying in the previous crosspost:

it does seem like the Denethor-Faramir tension just dies with Denethor and that Faramir’s role as a character is thereafter subordinated to Aragorn’s and Éowyn’s, in different ways.

Something that's both intriguing and frustrating about Tolkien's treatment of Faramir in the book is the extent to which the narrative structure around him is very "woobie" in some ways while also utterly denying his ... um, woobiedom in others.

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An anon said:

Ok I need to understand when Faramir has time to process his emotions after his healing...what are your head canons on this? I get why narratively we need to move through the stuff with Eowyn, Aragorn becoming king, etc, and actually in general it seems we rarely get a deep look at Faramir's innermost life but like...how can he not be seriously depressed after everything that happened?

I replied:

I do honestly wonder about this. We know that the full story of the pyre etc was supposed to be kept secret from him until he’s completely healed, which is … I mean, it’s understandable that that would be the order given, but it’s going to be incredibly difficult to keep things from him, even things in which he personally is not concerned.

So my first question is whether he’s actually accepting what he’s being told at that point and not asking further questions. He seems to have his shit together emotionally/intellectually when he meets Éowyn, at which point the secrecy would still be ongoing. Is Faramir, of all people, really not noticing that something significant is being kept from him? If he has noticed (which seems overwhelmingly probable), is he not curious/concerned about what it is? Does he have no idea what it is, or has he some educated guesses that he’s either processing or purposefully not thinking about? Or does he pretty much know already? And how does this interact with his behavior around Éowyn at this time?

It’s—at the absolute least, he would know that Denethor suddenly died and that he’s now the Steward of Gondor. We have no idea what he thinks or feels about this, you’re right. Things were so painfully unresolved between them and then just … ended. Perhaps he’ll hear about how upset Denethor was and know that he cared, at least, but we don’t know if that would help. Boromir is dead and Denethor is dead and Imrahil is off to Mordor and his own future is completely up in the air, and it just seems like this kind of awful situation before he finds out that his father tried to burn them both alive. And he doesn’t give a whisper of a hint of that!

My second question is when, exactly, does he hear the full story of what happened? It seems like it would be before his engagement to Éowyn, but there’s no sign of any kind of reaction. The book is preoccupied with other things at that point, so it’s not a major flaw, but it does seem like the Denethor-Faramir tension just dies with Denethor and that Faramir’s role as a character is thereafter subordinated to Aragorn’s and Éowyn’s, in different ways.

But I’m curious what he felt when he did hear, whether it affirmed what he already thought or was worse than he’d imagined or was a total shock. And I’m especially curious if he ever betrayed any vulnerability about it to Éowyn, or if it’s easier to be sympathetic to others’ vulnerabilities than his own, or if he didn’t want to make her sorrow and suffering about him, or if he just … couldn’t deal, and buried it for the time being. Or maybe it did come up, or he at least said something, and we just don’t see it—which would be odd, but it’s possible.

This has more questions than answers, sorry! But while I’ve thought about it a lot, and way back in the day read various scenarios for it a lot, I’ve never quite settled it in my own mind. At the moment, though, I’m inclined to think that his awareness of what happened would became clearer and clearer over time through both deduction and his natural abilities, and he’d have put together at least a basic idea of what happened before anyone guessed he had, and that he revealed little if any of this to anyone.

I don’t want to downplay his real sympathy and love for Éowyn, but I do think his personal sorrow probably reinforced them. Likely it was in some ways easier for him to focus on her and her troubles than on himself, particularly as I think he’s someone very used to self-denial.

The text definitely focuses on Faramir’s impact on Éowyn much more than the reverse, but I do like to think that she had one. It seems possible to me that her friendship in that time might have gone a really long way, even if he couldn’t yet bring himself to explain why.

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I was looking for a post and instead ran over a really old one where I pointed out that when Éowyn is 75, Faramir will be the same age that Aragorn is in LOTR, and live 33 more years.

Thanks, past self.

Tagged: #don't think it's likely that she has éomer's lifespan either #:\ #also just thinking about it ... everyone thought denethor was prematurely aged bc his people and family don't age like that #faramir will probably neither look nor feel old until he's at least 100 #idk i'm kind of thinking back to andreth and aegnor and like - obvs he's not literally immortal #(he == faramir) #but there's that concern with /aging/ and not just with literal death #in the athrabeth that the fourth age couples shrug off #when éowyn asks if faramir would have his people ask if he couldn't have chosen a númenórean i do kind of wonder if any of this is in her head #in any case his answer is 'fuck it i don't care' #which is such a nice contrast with aegnor lol #honestly ... i loved him from ttt but also #this is part of it too! #he's got to know what's going to happen #but some things matter more than borrowing grief!!! #also #him being so númenórean and yet turning his back on the blood purity shit without a moment's reservation is just ... #<3 #okay this ended up at a more optimistic note than it started on

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Unsurprisingly … there’s an AU that lives rent-free in my head where Faramir remains Ruling Steward in Gondor, and Aragorn wholly dedicates himself to rebuilding Arnor (assisted by Gondor after the war).

Sometimes it’s in a Denethor lives scenario; it’s not like Denethor was ever going to concede the Ruling Stewardship, healing hands or no healing hands, but his gratitude(!) to Aragorn for saving Faramir might lead to him being much more accommodating as an ally than he would otherwise be.

But also, sometimes it’s not out of strict necessity—perhaps Elrond “only” requires the restoration of Arnor for Arwen’s hand and so that’s the overriding goal that Aragorn focuses on, (rightly) trusting Faramir to have his back in Gondor. (And/or he himself wants to prioritize Arnor; he could, of course, become King of Gondor but largely leave it in Faramir’s hands while dealing with Arnor, and I sort of wrote a fic where this is the case, but ehhh.)

Or there’s some vague idea where Elrond’s conditions are the same and Aragorn has to make a very hard choice, but makes it nevertheless, and it’s Elrond who ultimately concedes, accepting a future for Arwen as “only” Queen of Arnor. This works most easily with alive!Denethor, but idk, part of me prefers the idea of it as an independent choice even though I’m really into scenarios where Denethor survives.

The thing is, of course, that Aragorn in the book is so focused on becoming King of Gondor and feels so strongly that it is his right to do so that it takes a lot of finagling to make it work. It’s just not probable for his character.

…and yet.

Tagged: #legendarium fanwank #putting that one there to be safe since it's kind of intrinsically wanky #éowyn: no longer do i wish to be a queen #faramir: well technically you wouldn't be... #aww but éowyn as the ranking lady of gondor is also really charming to me #i know that at the end of the day it's no less monarchist but ... i like and want it

Current Location: Washington
Current Music: Wheel in the Sky (Journey)

It’s occurred to me that two of my least favorite scenes in two very different adaptations are … basically the same.

(Predictably, ranting negativity re: Jackson’s LOTR and Davies’s P&P under the cut)

( Read more... )

Current Location: Washington
Current Music: Heaven's Light/Hellfire (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

I reblogged this graphic for Fíriel (f!Faramir), which I originally posted on 25 October 2015:

I too am a healer, and I say to you: it may be that you were born for this hour, Fíriel daughter of Denethor.

Rule 63!Faramir, from the young daughter of the Steward, to the fey princess of Minas Tirith, to the regent of Gondor.

2020 addition:

I made this five years ago and I still have a) a ton of feelings about this verse and b) yet to write most of it.

Tagged: #it's definitely become a ot3 in my head though #i was re-reading some of my scraps and drafts and just. consumed with emotions #one scrap is just entirely about fíriel and denethor's relationship #i wanna write more about fíriel and éowyn's #there's 'a hard matter' with fíriel and aragorn figuring out What Now #there's théoden surviving as an outcome of denethor stuff and returning in honor and glory to rohan with éomer and éowyn at his side #there's pippin's love for faramir becoming a sort of scaled-down version of gimli and galadriel with fíriel #gandalf telling young fíriel his true maia name #AND WHAT ABOUT ELROND #esp if i go with my headcanon that the stewards' 'royal origin' is tindómiel...? #there's just #so much #...fíriel's nose is a bit different in my head but otherwise the second picture is especially super close to how i picture her #anyway

Current Location: Washington
Current Music: Fields of Gold (Sting)

I reblogged this post, and added:

f a v e s

Tagged: #i'm not reblogging my entire tag but i was just beset by húrinionath feelings #nbd they just give off maiar vibes #(!!!)

Current Location: Washington
Current Music: Livin' On A Prayer (Bon Jovi)

I reblogged a meme about Faramir (not movie Faramir, for once!) and added:

#having feelings about my other fave too :')

[ETA 2/28/2024: There is a very special fannish pain to being a hardline stan of both Denethor and Faramir!]

Current Location: Washington
Current Music: Wheel in the Sky (Journey)

I reblogged this quote about Denethor, and added:

#i really appreciate that this essay exists #so i can just therapeutically reblog this every time someone goes after him

Current Location: Washington
Current Music: Take It All (Adele)

Boromir is a Dúnadan 2k20

Tagged: #look. just bc he didn't inherit the superpowers doesn't mean he's just some guy #tolkien himself attributed boromir's size to him being númenórean #it's not that he isn't in any way; it's that he's not the nearly full-throttle númenórean /type/ that denethor and faramir are #but i think he sometimes gets treated as this kind of generic stand-in for normal people and ehhhhh #it's definitely not how he thinks of himself #and tbh there's a really uncomfortable component (in canon also but unnecessarily carried into fandom imo) #with the whole ... well the stewards and modern gondorians are mixed race so only kinda sorta count as members of their own culture #...thing #nah bro

Current Location: Washington
Current Music: Don't Stop Me Now (Queen)

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Entries tagged with ch: denethor

LOTR, the Silmarillion, other stuff & canonicity

Everything you never wanted to know about Númenórean pregnancy

Genderbending AO3 stats

Tumblr crosspost (18 January 2021)

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A fandom retrospective (1/3)

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More on Faramir!

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