#whirlposting

His life actually starts pretty well, and then the system catches up to him and crushes him like everyone else. He turns rancid. He does terrible things because they make him feel powerful when he doesn't even have bodily autonomy, because it makes him feel in control. Since his life is going down, he might as well be the one crashing the plane.

He gets the consequences of his actions, time and time and time again, yet it doesn't feel like he's moving. He's stewed in violence for a long time already when Optimus Prime comes in and gives him an outlet : "forgiveness as a weapon of war". Whirl is the weapon of war - he's back to square one, just a tool for another agenda he doesn't believe in, yet another cog in the machine. He witnesses and commits atrocity after atrocity, and the judgement never really catches up to him, because the Autobots can't afford to.

Then the war ends and like everyone else, he struggles to adjust - but it runs deeper than that. He's lost, because his identity has been built on violence for much longer than the war. Then he meets people people who have never known violence, people who have done war and still renounced it, people who are not like him and are patient enough to show him that there's another way. The circumstances push him to change, but at the end of the day it's Whirl who chooses the pace, who decides how to become someone else. He doesn't destroy himself to build himself all over again, no, he finds peace in knowing that this is who he is, this is who he was, this is what happened. He accepts everything that he is, but instead of embracing it like a forfeiture, he uses it as a foundation to build a better future for himself, one where he chooses the good that happens for him.

Scaled to an assumed height of 7’8”, even the shortest sword that Turgon reasonably could have wielded would have been nearly as tall as Thorin — which isn’t completely implausible. There are historical examples of swords that are as tall as their wielders (claymores, etc), but crucially, those swords had to be wielded in two hands. That isn’t impossible here either, but I tend to think that Thorin Oakenshield probably fought with a shield, and therefore used a much shorter one-handed sword, probably much like the “short broad sword […] and a roundshield” setup of his dwarven allies from the Iron Hills at the Battle of the Five Armies. In that case, Orcrist would have to be very short indeed for Thorin to have picked it out of the troll-hoard, probably much shorter than would be reasonable for someone of Turgon’s stature.

The Falathrim, under Cirdan, are nominally Thingol's vassals, but notably act independently to build friendships with the Noldor. Cirdan swore friendship to the Noldor at the Mereth Aderthad; gave military aid to Fingon during the 2nd attack on Hithlum; is very close to Finrod, who also built him a watchtower; and by the end of the 1st age, when he is on Balar, is notably not Elwing's vassal. From then through the end of the 2nd Age is primarily associated with Gil-Galad, a Noldorin king.

The green-elves, per Tolkien's notes and IMO a lot of in-text evidence, are not Thingol's vassals but a separate but allied kingdom and people with what appears to be complex internal politics. After the death of Denethor, they refuse to name another king and pull back from the war against Morgoth, but some green-elves live within Thingol's realm (Saeros; the guest-elves). Beren and Luthien live in Ossiriand after the Silmaril quest, and Dior (in some continuities) marries a green-elf; additionally, Beren and Dior rally an army of green-elves to defeat the dwarvish army that sacked Menegroth. However, the green-elves are not noted as participating in the defense of Doriath during the 2nd Kinslaying (the precise date of which may have taken Dior by surprise, but considering his ongoing correspondence with the Sons of Fëanor regarding the Silmaril was not exactly unforseeable). The sons of Feanor are strongly implied to also have a consistently decent relationship with the green-elves, including after the 2nd Kinslaying. Strong factionalism or politically independent clans seem likely.

[…] Finwë was grieved, for the Noldor were in the youth of their days, and he desired to bring forth many children into the bliss of Aman […]

Emphasis mine. It’s only after “Miriel languished still” for an unspecified period of time, failing to heal, that Finwë goes to Manwë for council (not Irmo or Estë!!) and it’s Manwë who “delivered her to the care of Irmo in Lorien.”

Considering that “many” of the Eldar seemingly saw his remarriage to Indis as a selfish action,

judging that if Finwë had endured his loss and been content with the fathering of his mighty son, the courses of Fëanor would have been otherwise, and great evil might have been prevented […]

(emphasis mine), I don’t think it’s a stretch to apply the same lens of selfishness to Finwë’s earlier decisions regarding Miriel. And then there’s a very obvious reason why Finwë’s first appeal was to Manwë rather than to Estë and Irmo directly: because Finwë’s primary concern was having more children, not having a healthy wife. And while Estë and Irmo might have been able to deliver him the latter— a wife who could bear more children— Miriel has free will, and they can’t give him back a wife who’ll agree to do so.

But Manwë, as the highest authority of Valinor, might be able to do something about the fact that Miriel’s obstinance is preventing him from having the children that he wants— and considering that Finwë’s eventual petition to remarry probably needed Manwë’s assent to go before the Valar, it seems likely that he was correct!

Now, it’s likely that Manwë’s initial judgement — within a context that seems to consider Miriel’s refusal of further childbearing an infringement upon Finwë’s rights as husband and King— was something like “If your wife is healed in body and soul, she might also be healed of her refusal to bear more children. Let’s try that first.”