Miles

I'm gonna preface this with the fact that I headcanon Thranduil as ftm (all of this is heavily based on @tathrin 's fic on the far side of the sundering sea and some of their other writing). But i'm not gonna use a deadname or anything, so I'm just gonna mark the point in time where thranduil transitions.

also forgive the fact that theres almost no actual dates on the supposed timeline. its mostly an amalgamation of abstract thoughts furiously typed at 2 am. I tried to make this as short and succinct as possible, i obviously failed.

-Finrod and Thranduil met when Finrod first started his visits to Doriath after arriving in beleriand

-thranduil was born in Doriath and lived there with his parents

-only saw eachother on Finrod's visits to Doriath and had a cute slowburn elven courtship, which obviously included a substantial amount of long walks along rivers and exchanging poetry

-very quietly got married (elven equivalent to elopement) and had a sort of long distance relationship

-after some initial awkwardness from Thranduil's parents (how do you talk to your daughter's finwean husband who is kind of a prince?) Finrod is very happily welcomed into the family and basically adopted by them.

-When Finrod founded Nargothrond, Thranduil went with him.

-their marriage was an open secret in Nargothrond. Thranduil had no interest in the throne or the things that came with it and Finrod wanted to keep Thranduil as far away from the doom of the noldor as he could

-thranduil isn't as immediately accepted into Finrod's family. She gets on pretty well with angrod and aegnor and end up getting pretty close with them. Orodreth just kind of distantly is fine with the marriage but doesn't talk to thranduil much. Thranduil and Galadriel have a few nice moments but they were never close.

-they had the twins around F.A. 430ish and things were chill for a while, they raised their babies. The firstborn was named Amdirhael and his name means "wise hope" and the secondborn was named Amdirvuin, and her name means "dear hope".

- And Finrod had just started to convince himself that hey maybe everything is gonna be okay and I managed to avoid that doom I was so afraid of. So they decided to have another baby and Thranduil got pregnant again. But then. The horrors (dagor bragollach).

-we all know what happened next. Finrod rides out to help and then gets surrounded and ends up being saved by no other than Barahir. Finrod is so overcome with gratitude for being able to return to his wife and children that he swears an oath to protect Barahir and all of his line. It's not until he got home and everything was settled down that he had a moment of "oh shit. That was it, that was the oath. I'm gonna die"

-after the horror and grief (angrod AND aegnor died?!?!) they decide to wait to have the baby*

-Finrod tries to ignore his impending death and maybe even manages to hide behind his denial right up until the moment that Beren is standing before his throne and Finrod knows. He knows.

-later, after he has packed for a trip that he knows is one way, and after he has said goodbye to his children, when he's standing in front of his wife and trying to say goodbye, she begs him to please come back to her. All he can say is "i love you".

-And so Finrod left. And within a week Thranduil is sneaking out of nargothrond with the twins and trying to make it to Doriath without drawing attention to herself. Even though they were never close, orodreth helped her leave and was basically like, if you need help call me

-She and Finrod had made a plan years ago, back when his death seemed far off and unlikely

-and so thranduil returns to her parents and she and the twins live in Doriath for a while and try to deal with their grief. and then. More horrors (battle in the thousand caves)

-You're never gonna guess what happened next... more horrors (the ransacking of doriath)

-So Thranduil and family make the journey east to Greenwood the Great, and they are welcomed with open arms by the Silvan Elves

-This is where Thranduil decides to transition. He and Oropher and the twins integrate pretty well into silvan culture and contribute to the community and everything is wonderful for a little bit and thranduil starts to maybe heal a little bit but still refuses to have the baby. Something something avoiding confronting his trauma about his husband dying a horrible death.

-And! So begins Amdirvuin and Tathrenes' courtship. They are very cute and sweet etc etc. They have a big traditional Silvan wedding (which is basically just a hand fastening ceremony followed by like a three day party). Tathrenes was immediately welcomed into the family and thranduil is just as protective of her as he is of his other kids.

-um yea everything is great until the horrors pt4 (the war of the last alliance). So the silvan elves ask oropher to lead them to war, and he does. Thranduil also goes. But he begs the twins to stay in the forest and protect those who couldn't go to battle. it took a while to convince them (especially amdirvuin), but eventually they agreed to stay home.

-And possible one of the worst things that could have happened did happen and Thranduil led home a third of the army he left with, his father not among them.

-And now Thranduil is king. Something that he never wanted. But its okay! His people love him and his kids are helping him. And honestly he's less like an absolute king and more like everybodies dad or weird uncle

-he tries his best and he does pretty well, only sometimes overcome with the grief of losing almost his entire family.

-Then the shadow falls on Greenwood, turning it into mirkwood. And you know what? everythings fine nothings wrong its fine. This is fine.

-And Thranduil rules as the last elven king of middle earth. Without a ring of power btw. And he's pretty good at it. His kids help him a lot. Amdirvuin is head of the guard (um or whatever a high ranking postion is) and tathrenes is a captain (is it clear that i don't know anything about militaries) and Amdirhael is his father's chief advisor who also is very involved in spider-silk textiles . They're all super cool and beloved by their people etc etc.

-On a random day, not really spurred on by anything in specific, Thranduil decides to have the baby. And boom! Beautiful baby boy!

-Thranduil takes one look at this baby, his bright eyes and joyful smile and names him Legolas. He's the last green leaf of Greenwood the Great.

-and literally the entire forest helps raise legolas and makes sure that he has a good childhood. He is universally loved. A communal upbringing is common and pretty traditional in silvan culture

-The twins and thranduil are definitely the primary caretakers though. The twins love him so much. Amdirvuin teaches him how to fight and amdirhael teaches him how to read and attempts to teach him history but unfortunately, legolas keeps running away and hiding in trees.

-So legolas is loved and raised in a happy home and is actually pretty sheltered. As much as you can be in MurderForest TM. He's just raised knowing how to kill spiders thinking its a totally normal thing lol.

-um and at some point the mirkwood royal family acquires tauriel who is also raised by thranduil and the twins. I'm not super solid on this yet but shes like 10 years older than legolas and is "adopted" when shes the human equivalent of like 13?

-Tauriel and legolas are bffs. (i don't like her as a love interest you guyssss).

-sometime after legolas is considered an adult, he starts going on patrols. being young and dumb he makes a mistake and ends up getting that big scar on his face. Probably from orcs? Maybe big spider. This makes thranduil become even more protective of legolas to the point that it's a little suffocating. What? No no he's fine. This is fine. Everything is fine.

-then boom! A troupe of dwarves enters the forest! Thranduil tells his kids to stay of of this. He can handle it. Yes he even says this to the twins. Who are like 4000 ish at this point lol.

-Tauriel (who never bought into the dwarf hate as much as the rest of her family who lived through the ransacking of doriath) finds herself talking to one of these dwarves more and more. And legolas ends up watching his sister fall in love with a dwarf, who he already has this pre-ingrained hatred towards. He is very confused and doesn’t know what to do. Because he’s pulled between supporting someone he loves and the belief system that he’s been raised with. Tauriel wants to help the dwarves and goes against the king and convinces legolas to come with her. He does because he loves her (and is feeling a tad bit suffocated by his father) but is reluctant and ends up being very rude to the dwarves. Then. Kili dies. And tauriel is devastated and legolas sees the same grief in his best friend, his sister, that he does in his father. The same grief that has turned thranduil into the cold and calculating ruler he is today. He is distraught and childishly ends up hating all dwarves (even more than he already did), because one dwarf died.

-Tauriel ends up kind of devoting her life to killing orcs and cleaning the scourge of Sauron's evil in middle earth, similar to elladan and elrohir

-After years of asking, thranduil finally lets legolas go on a mission out of the forest. To deliver a message and come right back. then we all know what happens next, insert lotr here

-yadda yadda yadda, legolas brings home his dwarven husband, yadda yadda, meet the family, but daddy i love him, eventual acceptance and beautiful family moment, yadda yadda yadda

-at this point Tauriel has basically only stayed in middle earth to take care of legolas and make sure that he does okay. And he's doing okay. He's restoring ithilien and living his peak domestic life with his amazing husband. He doesn't need his older sister to protect him anymore. So she decides that she's gonna put herself first for once and she sails. Queue awkward first meeting with finrod because she's the first of the family to arrive in valinor.

-Legolas and gimli probably sail next, after the last of the fellowship dies and gimli is growing weary. Theres another awkward meeting that ultimately ends in finrod crying and hugging a very stiff and confused legolas. Hey this is the first time he's meeting his absent father, give him a break.

-Then Amdirvuin and Tathrenes sail. Theres a very beautiful reunion of father and daughter and lots of crying.

-I think Amdirhael would sail next, with a large portion of the remaining silvan elves. Very beautiful reunion pt 2.

-Then! Finally! one of the very last elves to leave middle earth, thranduil finally sails. this is where @tathrin 's fic comes in, i love it and it's what sparked all of this so. That's essentially what happens

-yay! everyones reunited an every thing is great. thank you for reading this dumpster fire