#silm fandom

No FS tag, because I will be saying some negative things too.

Aredhel 2.0

OK first: this musical should have a trigger warning. I don't think it has. And there is a scene that (I think) can for some people be very triggering in the context.

Now as I said this: The musical is great. The before mentioned scene too. It was a great artistic choice and personally I loved it. The shadow theater. It was beautiful. Very much unlike what I would expect in an FS musical, but very, very well done.

Very good acting, especially Turgon and Aredhel.

Negatives: lack of a warning; definitely not for everyone; no English subs. Also, Idril isn't in the musical. I can see why (not enough actors and/or time) but I missed her.

Positives: The portrayal of Aredhel and of their ummm, "marriage". Also, Turgon, while different from how I see him (I see him as very stiff), was very well acted.

Fëanor and his sons

The first musical I saw, but it's quite old and it shows. I think that now more scenes would be included. It's good, but I don't recommend it as the first to watch, because the others are even better.

Negatives: Skipping some scenes due to time and logistic constraints. It's hard to tell which Son of Feanor is which, especially in the later part it would be great if they had some identification. Lack of "Not the first" line. Sometimes the camera gets blurry (on the tapestries).

Positives: Feanor, the Oath of Feanor, the other songs where he explains his motivations; Ms Daniela as Miriel Therinde (I think she enjoys narrator-character roles like this).

Ungoliant is funny. Killing of the Trees is appropriately creepy.

Many of the songs are very good.

The Children of Hurin

Also very good. It has this peculiar element (iirc think Betrayal! Death!Love! has it too?) where we regularly pause for a headcanon infodump. And I respect this, I do HC infodumps in my fics too, this is a normal fandom thing. And Galadriel is a great Watson character, and it works.

The problem (for me) is that some of the headcanons are things I really disagree with. And while I can see how this came from Morgoth's Ring and the round Arda cosmology, no, the Flame Imperishable was not, like, enclosed in the Silmarils, no way.

But the musical is generally great, and has one of the best 2 and a half FS Morgoths, and a great Turin death scene, very innovative. A lot of emotion...

Really good musical, I would recommend it as your intro to FS. It has the FS-typical amount of mood whiplash, it has a translation, it's good.

Negatives: I disagree with many of the headcanons and I think Tolkien would disagree with many of them too. One joke is unfunny (but tbh Tolkien was very much asking for it). Turin sings blues, and I don't really like blues. (The actor is good at it, I just don't like this style). Also he doesn't have such intense facial expression as some other actors. These are all very small flaws. Overall it's good.

Positives: Morgoth is very funny AND creepy (as he should) at the same time, and has a great character design. Glaurung is very classy and creepy and has a great character design, and awesome acting. Anglachel is wonderful.

Lot of good acting, especially Morwen and Mim are both great. And Glaurung. Nienor, Mablung and Beleg are also very good.

All the other jokes are funny, and there are surprisingly many of them considering how tragic the story is.

Many good songs, especially Glaurung's but not only.

War of Wrath

MY FAVORITE <3

It is great and long, and skips less of the story than the earlier musicals. I love it.

Negatives: A few of the character design choices are odd. Not exactly unfitting, just... I was like "huh?". (Example: Elros becoming mortal. Yes, this visual fits very well. But also it's weird to me, especially in a half-comedic musical. It feels liek a tonal dissonance, more than typical FS whiplash. Again, this is a very personal issue.) Also, Elrond and Elros have reversed jewelry (Elrond has gold and Elros silver) --- it was for practical reasons, and I can see them wearing jewelry like that anyway, but it was confusing in the beginning.

Lack of a "throwing Morgoth to the void" scene; maybe because they didn't want to have to decide whether to go with "the Valar executed him" or not? Anyway I missed it.

Again: the list seems long, but it's not much.

Positives: another of the best Morgoths! He is so petty here and pathetic and sad and wet ;) Seriously, he is very well portrayed, but here he is more of a tragic character.

"Mercy" --- my favorite of all the FS songs.

The Oath of Elros. It's not exactly aligned with how I see the Oath of Feanor, but it fits Elros sooooo much! and my HCs about him. And it is a great scene, and, in my opinion, the best non-canon element in the whole FS-verse. It is such a great addition that I accepted it as my HC.

And the Elros-becomes-a-king song. Generally, their portrayal of Elros seems very close to how I see this character and his role.

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I will probably do more musicals after I rewatch them, because now I don't remember them as well as these.

Take it friends, arm yourselves with knowledge.

This was supposed to be yesterday's tengwar transcription, yet another spongebob quote 🤣

Last night's tengwar:

"Art thou feeling it now Mr. Krabs?"

Feedback:

Thank you @isilme-among-the-stars and @justdrowthings for the feedback 😊