the lack of compassion that a good portion of lotr fans show for frodo ("why can't he fight or do simple tasks" "why is he so weak" "why does he always need help / to be rescued") mirrors the lack of compassion of people for those who bear the burden of invisible disabilities. he's struggling against an immense weight at every step! something that actively tries to destroy him, worsening at every moment! his heroism is in just continuing to walk his path, step by step. his bravery is in just existing as himself under the debilitating weight of the ring. but because the influence of the ring is invisible, it is forgotten, and frodo is written off as a weak, cowardly, and/or useless character, much like disabled people irl. in this household we do not stand for frodo slander!!!
actually i am still thinking about this. in the movies especially the frodo & sam scenes are hard to watch, especially when contrasted to the quippy, active, external heroism of the three hunters. the road to mordor feels like a heavy, depressing slog; even the colours reflect this. frodo's feebleness setting in the longer we spend with the ring hurts to watch; it makes us cringe away from it. we don't want to look because frodo's sort of internal heroism is not glamorous. we don't like to fantasize ourselves as the protagonists of it. and it can hit quite close to home. but that's precisely why they are such good scenes! and why we must not look away, or shrink from the discomfort, or misunderstand frodo as a character. that would be a disservice to the narrative.
Yes. YES. YES!!!!!!!!! I will scream this from the housetops. Frodo is not glamorous! He is not meant to be glamorous!!
Every day I take the Ring (Invisible Disabilities, Chronic Pain, Mental Illness) to Mordor (School, Work, Daily Life)
So curious what folks think about this!!
At what point would the Silmarils have burned the hands of the Fëanorions?
After the first kinslaying
After the burning of the ships (everyone except Maedhros)
After the burning of the ships (including Maedhros)
After the nirnaeth arnoediad
At some other point between the first and second kinslayings
After the second kinslaying
After the third kinslaying
Only after Maedhros and Maglor had killed the guards
Different for each Fëanorion depending on their own internal moral event horizon
Other (please elaborate!!)
See Results
I love how people keep asking about Celeborn and forgetting about Oropher and Thranduil or the wood elves in general, I just assumed Celebrian and Celeborn are just chilling in Mirkwood with their distance family
How I imagine the Dagor Dagorlad went:
Oropher: I'll fucking charge
Gil-Galad: No you fucking won't. I am high king and I forbid it, your idea is stupid.
O: DO I LOOK LIKE A FUCKING NOLDOR TO YOU? charges into battle and gets 2/3 of his army as well as himself killed.
Obscure Tolkien Blorbo: Round 1
Elros vs Oropher
Elros:
Twin brother of Elrond, son of Elwing and Eärendil, and the first King of Númenor.
- He's always overshadowed by his brother but Elros is EVERYTHING actually. The only person to ever choose mortality for its own sake and not because of love, the first and greatest king of Númenor, the wise leader of men, the open-hearted adventurer!!
Oropher:
One of the Elves of Doriath, he established the Woodland Realm. The father of Thranduil.
- So, a few points here. As far as we know Oropher wasn't related to any notable Kings (unless you make the assumption that the word 'kin' in LOTR always means 'blood relation' instead of 'fellow wood elf', which is a reach given the context imo), and so he likely became King through ability and charisma, which makes is more interesting to me than rulership through a Powerful and Pure Bloodline. In addition, Oropher didn't just go to the Silvan elves to rule over them - he admired them, integratinb into their society, taking on Silvan names and adopting their language. It seems that Oropher came away from witnessing the kinslaying at Doriath and decided the elves were better off 'rude and rustic' as long as they weren't killing each other. Which is a pretty decent political stance, if you ask me. On the other hand, he and his peoples' independence in the Last Alliance led to his demise (and that of 2/3rds of his subjects). I also imagine that him charging forward ahead of everyone else recklessly was part of the self-confidence that let him go off into Greenwood the Great and become King of a bunch of complete strangers in the first place. I love a character whose flaws and virtues are inextricably linked. Also, I'm a big fan of the fact that whenever Galadriel & Celeborn got too close to him he would move his entire fortress because he just resented them that much. I wonder if they were offended.
- He traveled to the greenwood, and the Silvans took him, an outsider, as their king, which means they likely saw great qualities in him, and he refused to be under Gil-Galads command in the last alliance likely because he was either trying to protect his people, because what right did Gil Galad have to command him anyway, (or because he took one look at Gil galad son of Sauron and Morgoth for all he knew and said “nope, I don’t trust him,”). All in all he likely always had his people’s best interests at heart, and he tried his hardest to protect them as well as he could.
Obsessed with the fact that in the two towers when they're hunting the orcs that took Merry and Pippin, Legolas is like "the smell of trees...better than any sleep! Let's keep going!" And Gimli is like "please I'm begging, I would like a rest, just five minutes"
i have seen and appreciated the theory that legolas is just very good at pretending to be sober during his drinking competition with gimli because the woodland elves in the hobbit get absolutely plastered off a few cups of that wine, but what if the elvish metabolism processes fermented grapes differently from how it processes fermented grains and legolas 100% knew he'd be immune to intoxication by ale when he accepted gimli's challenge.
blessed be the elven archers who are granted infinite arrows bc of movie/animation logic
