DilettanteFeminist

The Unwilling Visitors End of the Third Age "Is that the Dark Lord?" Sam whispers. Frodo knows at once that it is not. But then… whose face is this?

Unusually on time for @silvergiftingweek

If you'd like to step further into Sauron’s private art gallery, the full series is collected here: Paintings | Sculpture | Mirror | Portrait

Details under the cut

Now that the cat's out the bag (aka the evidence of what you and the Aveng-elves have been up to has dropped),

How do we feel about Ar-Pharazôn?

Do we like her?

How do we rate her fashion sense?

Do you need paracetamol and weed gummies for your next meetings and conversations with her?

Just blink twice real fast we will help you you King ❤️

Dearest friend, 👑✨

I appreciate your concern. I assure you, I am approaching our new diplomatic circumstances with all the enthusiasm they deserve. 🙂📜

How do we feel about Ar-Pharazôn? Diplomatically. We feel diplomatically. Very, veeeery diplomatically. 🙂🤝📜

Do we like him? We have a common enemy. ⚔️🤝 Please do not confuse this with friendship. 🙂 One can profoundly dislike a man and still say: Shall we discuss troop movements? 🙂🗺️⚔️

How do we rate his fashion sense? I can see the man approaching before the Númenórean fleet. 😑🔭✨ The tailoring is excellent. Unfortunately, restraint appears to have been usurped as well. 👑💀

Do I need paracetamol and weed gummies for our next meeting? How fast can you get here? 💊🏃‍♀️💨

And bring Círdan. ☕ Actually, bring two Círdans. ☕☕

I know there is only one. Improvise. 😑

Oh... and bring Elrond. 📋 And Elendil. ⚔️

Excerpt from the article. ⤵️

"The tattoo thing."

"-really? Not the extra ten percent of-"

"No. The tattoo thing."

"-could equate to at least a million dollars of-"

Battles of Love Requited - chapter 3

Between rumination on trees and shrubs, Éomer finally meets his beloved after a two month separation.

hi! thank you!!

snippet from my éowyn character study:

Later she will thank Bema that the scent of death had not scarred her nose in childhood, for in truth it is a smell that does not leave one alone. In the heat of battle it is everywhere, the air marred with it. Every breath she takes thereafter tastes of someone’s last.

Did Boromir just die? Just like that? The orcs swept past and just so happened to slay him?

It sort of just feels like Tolkien didn't care about him. The funeral scene was nice I guess--but I do picture a Disney style musical segment whenever the characters break into song, and that messed up the mood for me.

I did a lot of extra-materials delving last year when I was writing my longfic for research purposes and when you go to the letters like. there's nothing. almost nothing. There's one letter where Tolkien, butthurt that somebody accused his writing of being morally uncomplicated, holds him up to be like COULD A MORALLY UNCOMPLICATED AUTHOR MAKE THIS??

and that's. that's about it.

I have a theory about this.

As a guy living contemporary to WWI and WWII Tolkien was exposed to allllll flavors of people doing horrible things for the Right Reasons™, from the everyday to the international, and I think he was literally just... bored of it. I think Boromir is the antagonist most real to Tolkien's lived experience and I think he found him tiresome. You can't really romanticize The Moral Quandry when you've seen the bleak grey wreck it makes of the world up close. There's nothing compelling about the mental exercise of the trolley problem when you already know that when you put somebody in that bargaining position for long enough they stop seeing the people on the tracks as human and start betting on the splatter patterns.

The main thing with Gandalf though would have been just the straight up wielding power he'd bring to it. The Ring gives power according to the wielder's stature, which is why it mostly only ever made the hobbits invisible, and presumably why Isildur didn't end up taking over the world in the three years or so he carried it. I maintain that Boromir would have been a terrifying dark lord and that he didn't have much farther to fall before that became reality (a situation I have thought about a Normal amount) (95k), but at the end of the day he's a mortal man and Gandalf is a Maia. Gandalf, unlike Bilbo or Frodo or Isildur or Boromir, could have actually used that thing as it was meant to be used. Dark Lord Boromir vs Dark Lord Gandalf would be like an artillery shell vs Tsar Bomba.

thank you @inkedmoth & @ffigwit for the tag!

Locking in in an attempt to finish my OC Week fic before I have to start my new job so here's a snippet from me re-writing the scene where she and Duinhir meet (please can this be the final version). In which Duinhir chooses the most avoidant way of asking a woman out on a date that he can manage.

Turning back to her, Lord Duinhir folded his hands behind his back and said, “I have had enough of rattling around grand houses for today and have no desire to return to my own, so I will be dining at the Squewered Boar tonight. Have you heard of it?” Miryeman quickly swallowed an urge to laugh. The servant’s face went through a rapid series of emotions, ranging from confusion to annoyance to realisation. This is ridiculous. To make so bald a statement and pretend it is all in casual conversation. She wondered if he was attempting to give her a means to turn down the blatant invitation without appearing to do so or whether he sought to protect his own pride from her refusal. Or maybe this is the way all noblemen of Gondor ask a woman to become their mistress. How would you know? She realised that she needed to make some response. “I have not,” she said. “Is the food good?” “Probably not what you are used to,” said Duinhir, again with that false nonchalance. “But by our standards it is wonderful. I am rather fond of it, unlike some of the taverns in the upper rings it affords a little privacy.” Miryeman almost did laugh then. As if they would go unnoticed, with his hair and her accent. Oh, the illusions of the wealthy and titled. “Do you mean to dine alone?” Miryeman asked, partly just to keep the servant waiting. It would also be good to know if she would be outnumbered. As if he alone does not already outnumber you. “Unless you count an empty chair then yes,” said Duinhir cheerily. Realising that it was her move, Miryeman experienced a brief mental tug of war between acceptance and refusal before deciding to take advantage of the ambiguity offered her and saying, “Maybe someone will take pity on you and fill it.”

I show up and am given a list of cognitively engaging but achievable tasks

I complete the list

Reunion in Valinor