Currently a little obsessed with the Silmarillion. Otherwise, mostly Discworld/Good Omens. Occasionally spurts of Doctor Who coughMoffatcough and Game of Thrones rage when I just can't take it. Some Star Trek/ Classic Who appreciation as well.
One day he shows up at your door and refuses to leave. Your home is his home now.
On another day he disappears only to come back unannounced 1 month later.
He bothers the other house cats with no reason besides the fact that he loves to piss them off.
He picks up a fight with someone who's twice his size and he's positive he'll win it (spoiler: he has a total of 0 chances of winning it)
His personal space is HIS personal space, and don't you dare to invade it.
On the other hand YOUR personal space is HIS personal space. And if you think you'll be able to do something while he's touchy... don't. He isn't going to leave your shoulder/lap anytime soon.
You wanna stay tucked in bed? This is not an option. He'll meow to your ear until you get up.
Do you wanna change your bed sheets? Good luck with that pal.
He sits in funny poses that make sense to him and him only.
Dad hates him (No sweetie you can't keep him. Put him back in the trash where he belongs)
Leaves dead bodies in random places around the house.
Lurks in the shadows. His eyes are the only thing you can clearly see.
Can and will cry for help when his claws get stuck. While you try to free him he will treat you like you're a serial killer ready to skin him.
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Don't You Forget vs. the Reprise: What True Control Sounds Like
"Don't You Forget" and "Don't You Forget Reprise" are songs that share an aim: the singer wishes to make Alastor acknowledge their control over him. Rosie's success in "Don't You Forget" lays bare Vox's failure to do so in the Reprise.
It is notable how easily Alastor musically capitulates in "Don't You Forget." He has a single verse of resistance, but it ends in a plea rather than a challenge - the least you could do is fix my staff.
After that, he goes along with the song, willingly following Rosie's lead in the dance and completing her lyrics. His only further push-back comes when Rosie says "The coop can't be flown" and he answers, "At least not yet." But even this push-back is acknowledgment: Rosie's current control is total, and the only hope for Alastor lies in the future.
By the end of the song, Rosie has got Alastor fully singing her tune. The final line of the song is even a shared one.
In every way -- visually, lyrically, and musically -- Alastor concedes that Rosie is the one in control.
Now let's take the Reprise. Facially, the two share similarities beyond just the refrain lyrics. Like Rosie, Vox uses the imagery of puppet strings to make his point and dips Alastor in a dance.
But the similarities only underscore the contrasts in how Alastor responds to the proposition that the singer is in control of him. While Alastor responds to Rosie with "At least not yet," he answers Vox, "You ain't won yet." Where Alastor's response to Rosie was a concession, he concedes nothing to Vox. In fact, in that same verse he attempts to flip the refrain back on him: "Don't you forget, you ain't won yet."
This is the start of a comeback verse. But it is a comeback verse that never finishes. Instead, Vox responds with a laugh, a spoken line, and a melodic switch up. He abandons the melody of Don't You Forget for Once We Get Up There (with a final reference to Stayed Gone).
On first listen, this shift sounds triumphant: Vox gets the last word and does so with flare. But Vox's literal change of tune is a defeat parading as a victory.
The musical switch-up is a veiled admission that Vox cannot win within the melodic or lyrical bounds of "Don't You Forget." (And perhaps that's unsurprising. Lyrically, "Don't you forget" is a fraught foundation for Vox. His past with Alastor has more in it to hurt him than help him.) So he switches out of a duet into a solo melody. Vox has given up on trying to convince and has resorted instead to a show of dominance.
Fittingly, we see this reflected in his actions, as Vox inflicts the first actual violence on Alastor we have seen from him since Alastor's capture, electrifying Alastor into a silence that allows Vox to complete the song unhindered. Vox cannot extract Alastor's capitulation through persuasion so he resorts to physical intimidation.
Vox's revisiting of "Once We Get Up There" also has interesting implications for his psychology at this point. Alastor's refrain before the Reprise and during it is that Vox is still too dependent on others. It's a repeated dare to Vox to act on his own without the other Vees.
At the start of the Reprise, Vox rejects Alastor's premise: he emphasizes that he's got a "team."
But actions speak louder than words. By the end of the song, Vox is singing "Once We Get Up There" as a solo number. This suggests that at a subconscious level, Alastor's needling has gotten to him. He has turned a "We" song into an "I" song.
Vox wins the sing-off. But psychologically, he may have lost the war.
do you think that Sauron ever attempted to recreate the Silmarils.
Generally I don't imagine he would ever bother with the techniques and worries of the Eldar because he doesn't regard them as having made anything of worth. But after 3000 years waiting, Melkor returns from Valinor and ONLY has eyes for these jewels-- made by an elven smith, someone of his own profession who is now seemingly having done something better than he ever could.
Despite the fact that Feanor never gave Melkor anything but cold hatred it appears Melkor has a higher opinion of this inconsequential elf's expertise in a profession Sauron basically INVENTED-- he HAS to see what all the fuss is about right? What if he was able to do what Feanor did, and throw away those burning things that are bringing nothing but trouble to them? Imagine how loved he would be-- and imagine how utterly ruined if he tried and could not succeed.
and he can't succeed. no matter what he does no matter what incredibly powerful and beautiful jewelry and metalwork he can bring into being, he, a spirit of the forge who has honed his skill since the beginning of creation, will never ever come close to imitating the work of a petty short-lived elf. I think that would haunt him until the end of fucking time
oh yes, yes. My hc is that Sauron h a t e s Feanor which much more intensity than melkor ever did. Because Feanor is competition meanwhile Melkor sees Feanor as enemy-to-impress. An elf who bests a maiar in the forge! Who best Sauron in the forge!
(the one ring is COMPLETELY inspired by Feanor's work and I will die on this hill. This is why he is working on it with Telperinquar)
Throwing out a somewhat different take. I think Sauron is contemptuous of the Silmarils. Beauty does not move him to awe or inspiration, because it is his nature. He admires instead power, efficiency, function, and views the Silmarils as the ultimate in non-functional craft. The fact that Melkor is so taken with them only deepens his scorn.
From Sauron's perspective, the rings are far greater works because they are intended to act on the world and shape it. Their beauty is incidental. (Personally, I don't think Sauron intended the one ring to be beautiful. He designed it as plainly as he could. That others perceive beauty in it is a consequence of his own nature that he is not yet able to escape. After Numenor, he begins to make ugly works, and this is not something he takes as a punishment, because he has never equated the perfection he seeks with beauty.)
Why Alastor wins the dad sing-off from Charlie's perspective
Simply put, Alastor wins the sing-off for Hell's Greatest Dad because unlike Lucifer, he understands what Charlie wants and gives it to her. Lucifer's failure to understand Charlie — and Alastor's success at doing so — is apparent throughout the song, in the lyrics, but more importantly, in the visuals.
Let's begin with Lucifer's portion of the song — his pitch to Charlie.
Lucifer begins by throwing Charlie alone onto a stage, with a spotlight and fingers pointing at her. Charlie looks nervous at this treatment.
Lucifer then pulls her into a hug and it is clear from Charlie's facial expressions that she is not comfortable:
Lucifer transitions immediately to sitting on a throne while Charlie looks up at him somewhat apprehensively. By sitting on a throne above Charlie, Lucifer sets up a uneven dynamic that continues throughout his portion of the song. From his perspective, he is showing that he is powerful and in charge (and helpful to Charlie). But from Charlie's perspective, he is showing that he is not willing to meet her at her level.
Still on his throne, Lucifer leans down and brags about glowing reviews on Yelp. Notably, these reviews are entirely generic: 5-stars, flawless, greater than great. None of them reflect any actual knowledge of the hotel or its inhabitants, because Lucifer does not know enough to say anything specific (and has already shown that he doesn't have anything good to say.) Charlie's strained expression shows that she realizes this:
Charlie's expression remains strained as Lucifer continues to show off his power:
It's notable that Lucifer frames his services as typically costly, but then tells Charlie she gets the "family rate," framing their relationship as something transactional: she gets a "discount" for being family. At no point does he say here that he is helping her because he cares about her or supports her dream.
Rather than allowing Charlie a response, Lucifer immediately puts words in her mouth: "Thanks, Dad!"
Lucifer and Charlie are both patently ill at ease during this little exchange:
In the next cut, we see Lucifer and Charlie sitting in a restaurant, with the previous image framed on the back wall. The fact that Lucifer frames this picture implies that this may be the best interaction he's had with Charlie in quite some time, despite the fact that her smile is clearly forced. Or worse, it shows he can't tell.
Lucifer's next move is to visually cook and serve up Alastor as dinner to Charlie (which is quite ironic, considering that between the two wannabe dads, Lucifer is not the card-carrying cannibal!)
Somehow, the visual of her friend's dead head on a plate does not inspire an enthused reaction from Charlie.
The next few lyrics are an extended power trip from Lucifer. He's the chef, he's the ref, he can give her caviar mountains and champagne fountains — none of this is in anyway relevant to Charlie's hotel or her desires. From Charlie's perspective, her father has basically forgotten about her in favor of boasting about his powers. And, indeed, she drops visually out of his song at this point.
Which is, of course, when Alastor strikes.
But before moving to Alastor's portion of the song, let's review Lucifer's pitch. With his words, he expresses that he is powerful and can do all sorts of costly and extravagant things — none of which Charlie has asked for, and none of which are in anyway responsive to her needs. Visually, he has shown that he is not interested at meeting her on her level and that his only interest in her friends is hostile.
Was this pitch effective? Clearly not. At no point during Lucifer's initial portion of the song does Charlie look anything other than uncomfortable.
Time for Alastor's go. He opens with the question, "Who's been here since day one? Who's been faithful as a nun?"
Charlie's initial reaction is surprise (whether at the interruption, the words, or the visual of Alastor in a habit):
Alastor then repeats the stage imagery that Lucifer started his song with but with a critical difference. This time, Alastor is down on the stage, and Charlie is up in the audience. Rather than leaving Charlie alone to face the spotlight, Alastor has put himself in the spotlight to entertain her ("with an old-timey pun").
What's Charlie's reaction to this? Well, for the first time in the whole song, she wears a genuine smile:
And when Alastor pulls her into the same one-armed hug that Lucifer tried previously, Charlie's reaction is day and night. She grins and says, "That's true."
Alastor brings back the stage, this time with he and Charlie on stage together. Again, he is supporting her on stage, rather than leaving her alone in the spotlight.
Having made a point of his loyalty and his willingness to offer Charlie moral support, Alastor begins to list his tangible contributions. He's her "day-to-day," "steadfast hotlier," who "fixed that clog today."
Where Lucifer offered imagery of glamor and luxury, Alastor responds with visuals of the mundane day-to-day of running a hotel (caviar vs a clogged toilet!)— that is, Charlie's actual life, and demonstrates that he is concretely helping her.
Alastor transitions back to the stage and begins to dance with Charlie. He talks about the bond they've built.
Charlie is now smiling extremely brightly and is obviously touched by Alastor's words.
As Alastor begins to lay it on increasingly thickly, saying that she's like the child he wished he had, Charlie's expression, for the first time in Alastor's portion of the song, grows slightly strained. This is most likely because this comment is out-of-character for Alastor and she's not sure what to do with it.
Interestingly, in the next frame, the strain is gone and her smile seems genuine again. She seems to have gotten over her surprise and accepted his words at face value.
As Alastor continues of lay it on, Charlie continues to be receptive (though we don't get to see her expression during Alastor's "you could almost call me Dad" line).
There's a short interlude for Lucifer and Alastor's musical fight. Alastor picks back up the competition with the pitch, "They say, when you're looking for assistance, it's smart to pick the path of least resistance." Again, he chooses the imagery of Hazbin Hotel, Charlie's actual project, and the burdens he shows Charlie struggling with are accurate — leadership, stress and responsibility. He depicts himself as taking those loads off of her.
Lucifer shoots back with "pure angelic power," once again discarding everyone from the frame but himself and putting himself above Charlie. He doesn't show what his pure angelic power would be used for because he has no idea.
Charlie is legitimately awed by Lucifer's display:
But this expression quickly falls away in favor of her earlier discomfort when Lucifer stalks forward and adds, "who happens to also be your blood." Lucifer's unhinged expression is probably not helping here.
Charlie has an ambivalent reaction to Alastor's most aggressive attack so far — "Sadly there are time a birth parent is a dud." She doesn't indicate agreement — but unlike when Lucifer threw up images of Alastor's decapitated head, she doesn't show outright disapproval to Alastor's sending Lucifer off-stage through a trap door (which is notably much less violent than the visuals Lucifer offered earlier with Alastor.)
We don't see Charlie's reaction to the remainder of the song, though it is worth pointing out that when Alastor sings that the family you choose is better, he depicts the other inhabitants of the hotel, making this their first appearance in the song.
So where does this leave us? Charlie's facial expressions tell a pretty clear story about whose pitch was more persuasive between Lucifer and Alastor. She is visibly uncomfortable throughout everything Lucifer offers (except for a single moment of awe when he goes all-out angel), while she smiles and participates eagerly during all of Alastor's portions of the song.
This is because in his portion of the song, Lucifer consistently demonstrates that he is out-of-touch with Charlie's desires and has no interest in her actual life or what she is currently struggling with. He comes off as narcissistic, boastful, and overly aggressive (again, Alastor's decapitated head probably did not do him any favors).
In contrast, Alastor centers Charlie in his song. He never puts her beneath him visually and he allows her to actively participate (Charlie twice reacts during his song with "That's true" and "oh you!" whereas Lucifer doesn't give her the opportunity to respond, putting his own "thanks Dad" in her mouth). Alastor is aware of what Charlie truly cares about — personal bonds and making the hotel a success. He spends his song directly and indirectly demonstrating that he is aware of and willing to meet those needs.
Alastor's sincerity in any of this is highly suspect, of course. But he wins the song not because he is sincere, but because he's the one who knows Charlie well enough to make her happy — and Charlie's dad does not.
You know, it's kinda funny how much of high fantasy centers around kings and nobility and courtly intrigue considering that the archetypal high fantasy, Lord of the Rings, had the rather explicit moral of "saving the world is up to this backwater hick and his gardener because no politician, least of all inherited nobility, would have the ability to see past their own ambition and throw away a weapon". Oh sure, Aragorn is a great king and all, but there's a reason he's over there running a distraction ring while the hobbits do the real work. Sauron loses because he gets distracted by kings and armies and great battles (i.e. typical high fantasy stuff) letting Frodo and Sam sneak through his back door and blow it all to hell.
Just saying, maybe old Jirt knew what he was saying when he said that the small folk doing their best and holding to each other was more powerful than a dozen alliances and superweapons and we should respect him for it.
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everyone saying rogue is like jack is just saying this because white man kisses doctor. rogue is like if river song was a boyfailure and a bit more awkward.
Reading Going Postal and at first the biggest question I had was “what sort of wretched creature do you have to be to deserve Ventinari as a guardian angel?” and the rest of the book is basically a very long way of answering that question with: “You have to be Moist Von Lipwig.”
OMG I feel like I have nothing but hot takes, if I listed them all we'd be here for years 🤣 I will give as many as the number of flames you sent!
Under a cut, because (unsurprisingly) it got long XD
There is ✧･ﾟ:* nothing *:･ﾟ✧ in the published text of The Silmarillion to indicate that Eol was chronically abusive/violent towards Aredhel or Maeglin during all their years together. One single snippet of dialogue of one single exchange of heated words does not constitute an abusive environment, as neither do arguments/disagreements or the experiencing of anger. If anything, instead of being present and violent, it seems as though distance grew between them and he made himself scarce more often than not. His relationships with both his wife and his son are clearly shown to be cases of mutual deterioration over time -- people who are fundamentally at cross purposes with each other, as far as wants and beliefs and desires go, and the text quite solidly implies that Aredhel had her share of the blame, given as she was to recklessness, impulse, changeable mood and mind, etc. -- and this decline was almost exclusively exacerbated by the effect of outside forces on their lives (Sindar vs. Noldor, the ban on quenya, Feanor's sons and Aredhel's connection with them specifically, etc.), rather than any more domestic issues between them. Was it unhealthy? Sure, but certainly nowhere near the picture general fandom paints "canon" out to be, and I wish more people would engage in the wonderful nuance the text provides us with. Also, as far as published Silm goes, Eol wove enchantments to draw Aredhel to his dwelling, but it doesn't say he forced or coerced or enchanted her to enter; she entered and stayed willingly. And it drives me crazy to see people flay Eol as a rapist in one breath, while going 'YAS QUEEN' for Melian with another*, when it's the same scenario in, incredibly, the same place -- it smacks of double-standards, and a couple of other words that I will refrain from using, as some people on this website think I'm nice and I'd hate to shatter that illusion XD
*I have absolutely no issue with Melian; I really enjoy her as a character. It's the hypocrisy that I can't stand :)
I've ranted about this before in the tags of some post somewhere, but: Celebrimbor. It's been my experience that, fairly frequently, there's a tendency to portray him in a manner that tends to make him very... bland. Wonderbread™, if you will. Idk if it's to contrast Annatar or to contrast Feanor and Curufin, but it ends up making Celebrimbor far too soft and pliable and people-pleasing, distastefully so, taking away all of the interesting hard surfaces and edges. Yes, he distances himself from his family and rejects them; yes, he can want to build a new reputation of his own, untainted by the First Age; yes, Ost-in-Edhil can be a place of open doors and second chances; yes, he can be hyper-aware of his legacy as Feanor's grandson and seek to present an opposite image through his words and actions -- all of this is beautiful. But it's even more beautiful if he's allowed to have traits that are callbacks to his father and grandfather; let him be angry (in private or in public, in short isolated spurts that come out of nowhere or as a simmering undercurrent), let him be shrewd and sharp and opinionated (let Annatar cut himself on him a little). This doesn't mean he can't also be kind and earnest and honest and trying his best. Most of all, let him be greedy -- not only for knowledge or power in and of themselves, not necessarily, but for what those things can afford him: the ability to make that which he loves (i.e. Middle Earth) a better, grander place. We're all greedy for the things we want, and I would argue most of those things aren't negative -- stability, acceptance, a better tomorrow, etc. Greed isn't limited to physical things or luxuries and it isn't inherently a bad thing! [/troy baker voice]. There's just so much there to play with, even completely aside from his dynamic with Annatar, and it just makes me equal parts sad and upset to see a character with such ambition and potential and fire frequently so babied and made naive, that he is reduced to the written equivalent of a soggy waffle.
Okay, now for something that is a bit more lighthearted and personal, but no less hot -- and perhaps? may contradict your own Mairon interpretation (in which case, I'm always happy to agree to disagree ^^) -- I can totally see why fandom makes Sauron into this super sexy/sexual creature but... it's a hard nope from me. He's certainly alluring and attractive to others, and knows how to use it to great effect, but I just can't see him genuinely vibing with it, relishing in it for himself ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I know I keep harping on the Luthien incident, but it's just such a stark contrast to literally everyone else who comes across her -- including Melkor -- that it's really difficult to interpret his utter non-reaction to her as anything but a personal disinterest in matters of the flesh, at least in and of themselves without some kind of connection/relationship there. Everyone likes to joke about him being the whore/slut of the Silm, and sure it can be funny at times, but that concept is just so alien to how he reads to me.
The Celebrimbor one is interesting to me, because while writing a character as blandly naive is just not very fun, I do think there’s some strong textual support for Celebrimbor’s flaw not being greed specifically. There’s a pretty clear parallel between Melkor seeking out Feanor to try and instruct him and Mairon doing the same with Celebrimbor. Feanor sees through Melkor and throws him out, while Celebrimbor takes Mairon in. But Tolkien makes very explicit in the Melkor and Feanor case that Feanor is able to realize Melkor is false because he recognizes in Melkor the greed that exists in himself. Feanor knows how to recognize what he’s seen looking back from him in the mirror. In contrast, Tolkien tells us that Manwe buys Melkor’s false repentance not out of naivety per se, but because he truly has no framework for understanding evil. For me, those two examples make it a little hard to read the story of Celebrimbor and Annatar as one about Celebrimbor’s temptation by greed. If anything, it seems to be Celebrimbor’s lack of capacity for greed and possession that leaves him so blind to Annatar’s true nature. Obviously this can all be true and Celebrimbor can still have plenty of sharpness and ambition (and he should!), but I do think there’s a reason he’s so often simplified into being naive.
Y’all are lying to urselves if u think mod AU Mairon wouldn’t be a cop.
I’m sorry but someone had to say it.
Also to clarify: he’d be a parking violation cop, like he’d be sitting in his little car watching the meters and the moment they expire, he leaps out, ticket book in hand.
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Aragorn thinking he had a relatively normal elvish upbringing. Like all the rangers think it was weird as fuck but they put that down to normal elf weirdness. And then he starts talking to Legolas as part of the fellowship. He talks about the stuff people used to do in Rivendell and Legolas is just like. What. Lord Elrond did what now?
Apparently the rain storms that occurred whenever Elrond or one of his kids got mad are not an elvish thing. Neither is the random stuff combusting into flame. Or the flowers just growing out of nowhere. Or the- ‘I’m sorry, he just held that guy at sword point? And it had no diplomatic repercussions?’ Legolas was sounding more and more concerned.
Aragorn tried to come up with a response. No one in Rivendell would react like this. ‘I mean it’s the expected reaction when someone tries to sneak up on him? Something about First Age Beleriand?’ Legolas paused for a second and then admitted ‘ok that actually sort of makes sense.’ The hobbits have no idea what’s going on. Neither do Gimli or Boromir.
Aragorn, being raised by famous healer part-maia adopted-feanorian Elrond, in a house full of elves, not realizing that his uncanny tracking abilities or "hands of a king" athelas thing are in any way weird.
he travels to gondor as thorongil and has no idea why everyone freaked out about his casually mentioning hearing riders five miles away, because wait doesn't everyone hear it? what do you mean you can't hear it??
later, after the council of elrond, he meets legolas and strikes up a conversation- what do you mean you don't speak quenya? uncle bilbo speaks quenya?? ok, no problem, we can talk in þindarin- why are you looking at me like that.
after the war of the ring, him and arwen live happily in minas tirith, singing maglor's songs in feanorian quenya. the gondorians are used to it by now.
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