#misc elves

You definitely should! It's feeling very lonely in this fandom rn haha.

I think that you may be thinking of when Farran first met Cronan. But Rosalyn def has some Earth powers I think, like when she opened the vines to enter her home in the forest and her hand glowed green. But almost every other time she used an elemental power her hand was blue and she was manipulating water.

So I think @elevendoodles was correct in saying that she is a water elf that developed some earth powers as well. (perhaps that's how she ended up queen of the forest)

That introduces interesting lore. Although Rosalyn might just be a special case and I'm reading too much into this, this could imply any one of the following:

Elves have the innate ability to do any type of magic but have to develop the power, specifically in one area. Such as how humans have the ability to speak any human language, but usually only develop one or two to speaking proficiency (usually the one our parents and the society around us speak).

The elves genetically inherit their powers from their parents. In this, most elves naturally become involved with elves that have the same powers as them, meaning their children will have the same elemental powers as the parents. For example, if two fire elves have a child, it's almost guaranteed their children will be fire elves. If parents have different powers, children develop one power or the other .... or any combination of both. So if an air elf has a child with a water elf, their child will be one of three things: an air elf, a water elf, or an air/water elf. Rosalyn would have to be in the dual power parents category. In this, elemental powers are like hair color or eye color.

Elemental powers in elves are similar to biological sex. In this, Rosalyn would be like an intersex person, in that she fits into more than one elemental power category.

Balrog Adventures: Closets are not Caves

Sorry it took so long. In my defense, this is long.

Aaaand in my defense about that… yeah, I’ve got nothing, I’m just like this.

Sorry about the lack of Tolkien ranting, it’s mostly meh-ing instead. There’s some ranting in the Grindelwald section, though. XD

Dumbledore

What I like about them

Okay, I love red hair, and Dumbledore in his younger years (like middle age) with his loooong auburn hair and his loooong auburn beard just does it for me a purely aesthetic way. Like I would sit and stare at him for hours.

What I dislike about them

There’s the ordinary list, manipulation and self-righteousness and the Grindelwald debacle, but honestly the biggest thing is Snape. I don’t care honestly what bullshit excuse there was, YOU DON’T EMPLOY ABUSIVE TEACHERS, like if he really has to be at Hogwarts give him some administrative position or some shit.

Favourite moment

The bit after Umbridge fires Trelawney and is trying to kick her out, and Dumbledore tells her that she can fire whoever she wants but she can’t make them leave the castle.

Least favourite moment

His opening line when he meets Harry in the nebulous train station afterlife place makes me cringe a little bit. It’s probably 100% me, but it feels… trite, and uncomfortable, and honestly like something my mom would say, which is probably the real reason why I hate it.

A situation with this character that I want to see explored more

I’d really love to see his relationship and/or interactions with Aberforth explored more. (Not by JKR. She needs to drop HP like a hot potato and MOVE BACK.)

An interesting AU for this character

Somewhere on my computer I have half a rantfic about the premise where Regulus became Dumbledore’s spy instead of Snape, and while it’s 500% about my Regulus feels, there’s some interesting stuff in there about Dumbledore, specifically how the dynamic changes when his spy is someone who has

actually renounced

Voldemort and isn’t just out for personal gain/revenge.

A crossover

I’m really not a huge crossover person, honestly, but I guess it would be interesting to see how he’d fare in Discworld?

OTP (or OT3+ etc…. just… favourite ship)

The only person I really ship him with is Grindelwald, and I’m often ambivalent about that.

Other ships?

Nah.

BROTP

With McGonagall, probably.

NOTP

Dumbledore/Harry. Gag me.

An assortment of headcanons!

-He liked Elphias Doge, but never really considered him the kind of friend that Elphias considered him. Elphias was convenient and pleasant and somewhat in awe of him, but he never really considered them to be on the same level.

Grindelwald

What I like about them

I imagine he was incredibly attractive.

What I dislike about them

Well, there was the part where he thought people like me were second-class citizens who needed to be ruled over by people like him for our own good, so.

Also, Johnny Depp. Ugh.

Favourite moment

When he told Voldemort off. That was epic and really poignant.

Least favourite moment

Ariana Dumbledore’s death is painful to think about.

A situation with this character that I want to see explored more

What did he do in Nuremburg? What exactly led to his… I don’t know, change of heart? Greater self-knowledge? Changed perspective? that he demonstrates when he’s talking to Voldemort? I want to know what kind of introspection happened there.

An interesting AU for this character

Here’s an idea, what if he was played by literally anyone other than Johnny Depp?

A crossover

Yeah, I got nothing.

OTP (or OT3+ etc…. just… favourite ship)

I ship him with Dumbledore sometimes.

Other ships?

Not really.

BROTP

Erm. He doesn’t really interact with anyone in canon aside from the Dumbledores, Bathilda, and Voldemort, so I guess Dmbledore again? Only not. I’m interested in it; I don’t support it.

NOTP

With Voldemort? I’ve never seen it, but I just generally assume everyone gets shipped with Voldemort. Fandom is strange.

No, wait! Grindelwald/Johnny Depp.

An assortment of headcanons!

-He’s blond.

-When he was younger he had a small trim beard.

Percival Graves

I have not actually seen FBaWtFT. I was already kind of done with the extra material by then and I’m still not at a point where I can watch movies with Johnny Depp in them without feeling sick to my stomach (although it’s improved). I will watch it at some point, though.

Hengist of Woodcroft

What I like about them

There’s a lot of room for fanon interpretations.

What I dislike about them

Even before she started This Shit ™, I was always… dubious about Rowling’s extracanonical material - fourteen-year-old Riley was firmly of the opinion that if you didn’t put it in the books, you couldn’t call it canon. (Although obviously it was optional for fans to use.) I still pretty much think that, and sometimes I feel boxed in by interview/extra material canon, which results in a… complicated relationship with characters who are optionally canon. (Full disclosure, I know who he is and that he found Hogsmeade, and I basically ignore everything else.)

Favourite moment

The founding of Hogsmeade is obviously a highlight.

Least favourite moment

???? Did he… do anything else, canonically?

A situation with this character that I want to see explored more

So, how did the founding of Hogwarts and the founding of Hogsmeade coincide? (No, ignore whatever Rowling said.) Did one come first? Was Hogwarts taking advantage of an all-magical town, or did Hogsmeade originate as a sort of wizarding college town? Does one predate the other by a few generations, and how did the development of the latter influence the older institution? If they were at roughly the same time, what were his relationships like with the founders, as a group and individually? If they were more spaced out, how did the founders interact with his legacy, or vice versa?

An interesting AU for this character

Depending on your definition of canon, a bunch of what I mentioned above could be considered an AU. Off the top of my head, erm - oh, I think @iceberg-hootenanny said something about an outer space AU, I could actually go for that. Maybe he’s setting up the first real settlement on Mars or Genesis or Xenon 5 or something.

A crossover

Yeah, I dunno.

OTP (or OT3+ etc…. just… favourite ship)

I have no ships for him until just now, but totally off-the-wall, what if he’s Rowena’s husband?

Other ships?

I usually ship primarily intra-founders pairings, but what the hell, let’s throw Hengist in the mix.

BROTP

Idk, I feel like he could have a particularly jocular commitment to Creating New Things! and Achieving Your Goals! that I also ascribe to certain versions of Godric, so that might go over well.

NOTP

I think my standard NOTP with HP characters who I’ve never heard of ships for is going to be That Person/Voldemort. :) It’s a good catch-all answer.

An assortment of headcanons!

-He had brown hair and a beard.

-Usually carried a staff or walking stick.

Celeborn

What I like about them

Okay, so I generally focus on the fact that he was kind of snippy to Gimli, but let’s be fair here - he apologizes. Especially given the depths of Elf-Dwarf racism (and don’t get me wrong here, in their long and complicated history it is my firm opinion that the Dwarves got the worst of it and the Elves are more at fault) and his personal unpleasant experiences, that’s not a small thing.

What I dislike about them

Honestly - and I’m fully prepared, if not resigned, to be crucified for this - I almost exclusively find the Sindar really boring.

Favourite moment

Again, probably that apology.

Least favourite moment

I’ve always found the extended goodbye scene with the swan boat kind of unnecessary and boring, tbh. *wince*

A situation with this character that I want to see explored more

What the fuck was he doing during the whole Fourth Age after Galadriel left? When did he eventually go to Eressea? He did eventually go to Eressea, right?

An interesting AU for this character

It’s not an AU, per se, but it would be interesting to see his reactions to whatever was going to happen in Return of the Shadow.

A crossover

With Sesame Street. :)

OTP (or OT3+ etc…. just… favourite ship)

I’m boring and like canon pairings, insofar as I’m invested.

Other ships?

Are there other ships with Celeborn? I’ve actually never seen any.

BROTP

I’m tempted to say Mablung, but that’s essentially because I will shoehorn Mablung into any fucking content I can manage. I guess Gandalf is the obvious choice? (Can I say Galadriel? I think the non-romantic aspects of their relationship might be interesting, insofar as I’m interested.)

NOTP

Someone inform me what the non-canon Celeborn ships are; I don’t know any.

An assortment of headcanons!

Celeborn: hate them | don’t really care | like them | LOVE them | THEY ARE MY PRECIOUS

ship with: Galadriel I guess. I’m not really invested.

friendship them with: Idk. A friendship with Luthien would be interesting? I mean, you see lots of fic and headcanon and meta about Galadriel knowing/being friendly with Luthien, but Celeborn would have known her longer and no one ever talks about that. One of my Sindar-friends should talk about it.

general opinions: He’s kind of racist and doesn’t really seem interesting to me, but he still doesn’t deserve Stoned Celeborn from the movies. Also props on copping to and apologizing for his anti-Khazad sentiments in LotR, that’s rare and admirable.

Tom Bombadil: hate them | don’t really care | like them | LOVE them | THEY ARE MY PRECIOUS

ship with: I wouldn’t inflict him on anyone other than Goldberry, who doesn’t seem to mind.

friendship them with: I mean, Frodo likes him for some reason.

general opinions: THAT PART OF THE BOOK IS SO BORING AND FRUSTRATING, OKAY????? The only time I ever enjoyed it was when I was reading FotR out loud to @postergirlanachronism, and that was because she’s so well-versed in Celtic mythology that she was convinced he and Goldberry were going to turn out to be both fae and fey, and the hobbits would leave the forest and find out a hundred years had passed.

YAY AN ANON, I LOVE YOU ANON!

Er, sorry. Getting anons makes me feel like I have a Well-Known Blog. You’re totally one of my friends in disguise and you’re laughing at me right now, aren’t you.

1-3 things I enjoy about them

-Vegetarian Beren doesn’t want to eat his friends. Awwwww!

-He’s really not anything special. Like, he’s a fantastic fighter, but that’s down to determination and grit and sheer bloody-mindedness. He’s just a kid, basically, like 21 or something, but they killed his father and they killed his family and fuck them. And a few years later the bounty on his head IS THE SAME AS THE ONE FOR FUCKING FINGON.

FINGON.

THE KING OF THE NOLDOR.

THE SON OF THE GUY WHO STABBED MORGOTH IN THE FOOT.

Yeah.

-He’s, like… he’s really not anything special. He belongs to the House of Beor, but that’s nothing; it’s not like the Edain have heritable skills the way the Eldar do and there’s no people of Beor anymore, and Dorthonion’s blasted and corrupted and overtaken. And he’s a fantastic fighter, but he’s also hurt and tired and traumatized and he’s been doing nothing but running and fighting and hiding for years - he very probably has PTSD and he is definitely messed up. And outwardly he’s this scruffy beardy hobo with dirty torn clothes and like… no shoes probably.

But Luthien loves him.

And there’s no question in my mind that he was worthy of it, I just… it makes me really happy, on an unarticulated meta level and a story level and on a slightly trashy shippy level.

Something interesting about them based on tenuous circumstantial evidence

-Well, before I read the Silmarillion, I thought that all the canon evidence in LotR pointed to Beren and Luthien having had a child before they got married because, well… it did.

A question I have about them

Why didn’t he try to find Emeldir? I get it at first - busy fighting Sauron - and then later the whole Quest thing was in the way… but surely he could have taken a few months after they were resurrected to go see if his mother was still alive? I mean, with ages and whatnot taken into account, it was pretty likely that she was. Didn’t she at least deserve to know that she hadn’t left him to die with his father in the wastes of their former home?

And, like, meet his wife?

A random relevant line I like

-‘For little price do Elf-kings sell their daughters’ OMG, it’s got everything, doesn’t it?

*unmitigated levels of sass

*calling Thingol out on the fact that way he’s acting is shitty to his daughter and not just Beren

*implying he’d do a hell of a lot more just to marry Luthien, haha sucker

*insinuating that Thingol undervalued Luthien which has got to make him so angry, but what can he say? ‘No, she’s totally not worth more than a Silmaril’? There’s no possible retort.

*And it’s a pretty epic burn for Feanor XD

My preferred version, if there is more than one version of their story (or part of their story)

I’m gonna be boring and say I like the Silm version.

Favorite relationship(s)

-With Emeldir (and Barahir), with Luthien :).

How would they react to Tom Bombadil

-Freeze and refuse to move until the bizarre thing goes away.

Optional: Something about them that I think people forget

I don’t know if I consider Miriel’s death a suicide, exactly... because she’s an Elf, mostly and Elves are different and Jesus, idek. Elves. Dammit. Although it being in Valinor, before violent deaths and tragedy and so on, is probably relevant.

But I guess it’s always seemed more to me like super heavy duty rest for her? She wasn’t going to recover any other way, after all.

(But then the whole reason I started thinking of it that way - illness, symptoms, her death being a sort of inevitable result and/or a treatment - is because I kept catching myself thinking of her sometimes as selfish or more often weak and then being really super appalled with myself, like wow Riley really what the fuck and I wanted to cut that the fuck out because it was Not Okay. It did work, so that’s something, but it may have influenced my interpretation.)

I mean, it’s still a reason for the Ainur to be kind of shaky on what to do, I guess, especially being hardcore immortal themselves, but I’ll keep my resentment anyway, because I still think he should have done it. Can you imagine if she flew to Gondolin and found Tuor there??? That would be great.

Of course, further muddying the waters is the fact that suicide isn’t nearly as clear-cut culturally. Like, Nienor’s suicide is 100%, well, a suicide, lining up with how we think about the concept now (so is Turin’s, and Maedhros’s), but, like, in Arda you have that, you have a death wish kind of deal where there’s no active suicidal intent but there is the wish to die in battle (Hurin’s eventual death, depending on the version, and Eowyn), there’s a sort of noble/defiant suicide that doesn’t really match up at all, usually in battle but Elwing is a good example.

And even then it doesn’t fit in all neatly, like, what about Aerin? We don’t know for sure if she died in the fire, but she set it, so if she did die was it an accident or did she intend to? If she did mean to die was it an act of defiance, or of desperation, knowing what was probably in store for her? If she set the fire and didn’t burn to death, it could still be in the death wish category, because Brodda’s people are not going to happy with her.

Er. Suicide is complicated in Arda, I am overly fascinated by cultural constructs and dividing things into categories, I feel better, and the Valar have every reason to be confused about suicide but I’m going to blame Ulmo anyway because I love Nienor and that is the only bad thing in that whole story that I can’t blame on Turin so I need another scapegoat. And I love Aerin but who doesn’t?

Today is a character you would hate in real life but love reading about.

See, most of those I don’t like reading about. I’ve had so much trouble with this one, you don’t even know.

It’s why I have a love/hate relationship with the Narn: fifty pages of someone I hate doing things that make me seethe and press all my rage buttons in exchange forrr… the only four pages in the entire book where my favourite character appears. Before being murdered by the person I hate.

And my second favourite has four lines and then dies.

But finally I have settled on… Finwe!

…Yeah, I dunno, that’s weird probably.