Half Of Reading Silmarillion Fanfiction Is Getting Annoyed That Your Favourite Elf Is Being Characterised

[I. D.: a tweet by KeithPille.bsky.social on July 16, 2024 reading, “Worth thinking about how long Tolkien goes on in Return of the King about despair being a weapon, and presenting defeat as a forgone conclusion being a deliberate and effective tactic”]

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ATLA Gen Fic Recs!

this took a while but here it is! this is just going to be the fics that i've been reading recently, because otherwise this list would go on forever. if you want the full atla list of fics i read, check out my ao3 bookmarks.

How to Disappear Completely by aeoleus @ta1k-less : zuko unexpectedly gains custody of both kiyi and azula after his mom dies in a car crash. i love this one... zuko loves both of his sisters so much and he would do anything for them T_T

The [insert title here] and the Fire Lord by azenki: this one is technically gen but literally everyone thinks zuko is dating around. this is just such a silly and hilarious fic, really made my day after reading it.

Kintsugi by @discordiansamba : this is a series where zuko is just dumped in the earth kingdom after his agni kai and somehow becomes toph's bodyguard. i love the bonding between zuko and toph, and i abosolutely adore the oc's in this fic

Dragon Moon by Satirrian: technically so far this is gen but the author did mention there might be shipping later. THIS FIC!! It literally has so many different things going on but it works. Dragon!Zuko. that should already be enough to get you reading. June teaches Zuko how to be a bounty hunter and their bickering is hilarious. Zuko is such a sassy little shit in this one. Katara has a Mulan moment and it’s absolutely badass.

There Is No Fire Lord by OccasionalStorytelling: this one is inspired by Towards the Sun by @muffinlance. So zuko gets caught while escaping during the eclipse, he gets thrown in prison, and then when ozai is defeated zuko technically becomes fire lord but stays in prison. also his leg gets broken like 3 times lol

A Hundred Golden Suns by aeoleus (@ta1k-less): zuko dies at the agni kai but agni says fuck that and he is basically resurrected in the southern water tribe, where hakoda adopts him. this fic will hurt your heart but in a good way

In The Garden Light At Dawn by Rosemary_and_Geraniums: this one is Very Angsty and has a major character death so warning on that. I just had to include it because it's soooo good and i love angst fics, but if that's not your thing then skip this. This is a soulmate au, but not in a good way lol. zuko never got away after confronting his father during the eclipse. again this is Very Sad so skip if you get upset with unhappy endings

Consider Chaos series by @awesomeavocadolove : ChaosAvatar!zuko. How can you say no to that???

Pride Is Not The Word by @sword-and-stars : iroh gets a call from his long-lost nephew asking him to pick him up. then he discovers that his nephew has been homeless for a year after ozai kicked him out. iroh is having none of that and takes zuko in while quietly think of the best way to murder an abusive piece of shit

The Heat That Drives The Light (the fire it ignites) by isamagicdragon and thegracious: im obsessed with this one. azulon asks ozai to kill azula instead of zuko, who both say "fuck that" and run away to the earth kingdom. years later they hear about the avatar, who was captured by admiral zhao and kept prisoner in pohai stronghold. they decide to break him out

The Family You Choose by TunaFishChris: another soulmate one because i am a slut for them. some people are born with soulmarks. zuko's were burned off by azulon when he was born, because they make you weak.

Doe-eyed by anonymous: a gift fic for @muffinlance. azula is the firstborn, and she is eleven when zuko is born. bigsister!azula is everything you didn't know you needed

East and West by @d-naggeluide : zuko, toph, and earth king kuei go on a field trip together. sarcastic toph, resigned zuko, and kuei who had no idea what he had gotten himself into

jedi hopscotch. jedi padawans drawing hopscotch squares on floors, using jedi knights’ shoulders to chalk hopscotch onto the walls, having their masters force lift them to put them on the ceilings. every single jedi who sets foot on a square, intentionally or not, must stop what they are doing and complete the sequence. your ridiculously billowing sleeve brushed one of the squares on the wall? hope you have good control of the force bc every padawan in the hallway will start chanting at you until you wall-run through the hopscotch. sometimes there’s just a big chalk circle at the end where everyone has to do a cool flip if they step inside. eventually there’s an official hopscotch lane in every hallway in the temple. jedi hopscotch.

You can't go back and change the beginning but you can start where you are and change the ending.

— C.S. Lewis

@helimir brought up such a great point in her tags on this post

The topic of the glory of failure in Tolkien's work is a very interesting one.

In fact, most endeavors end up in failure.

Whether it's Frodo failing to complete his mission, Smeagol failing to free himself of the ring & Gollum, Boromir failing to save the hobbits (or Gondor), the Noldor failing to defeat Melkor, Fëanor & the Fëanorians failing to take their revenge and (for most of them) their Silmarils, Maedhros failing to escape his doom, Fingolfin failing to defeat Melkor, the whole Nirnaeth, etc...

They all fail. But the failure is so epic. So spectacular, there is such a grandeur, such valor & prowess, such tragic beauty, such tales, dare I say, such grace to their failure that could never be found in victory.

They're all still hailed as heroes. (Or at worst, tragic fallen heroes or anti-heroes.)

Whether it's Frodo managing to keep his soul if not his peace & happiness & old life for the mercy & pity & kindness he once showed, whether it's Smeagol unintentionally destroying what destroyed him & saving Frodo's soul, Boromir regaining his honor, Fingolfin leaving a lasting scar on Melkor, Maedhros' true nature finally showing itself after so long in his last moment & expressing such deep shame & regret by killing himself when the Silmarils judged him evil, Maglor's good nature shining through even in his worst moments when he decided to raise the half-elven twins & passed down the best of himself still remained to him to them & them growing up to become such great people, & eventually his good nature showing shame & regret by condemning himself to be forever separated from people & singing songs of regret...as @helimir beautifully expressed, if it's not outright a redemption arc, it at least feels like it. Their struggles mattered, but even more than that, their struggles were what mattered.

Even in things like Nirnaeth that were nothing but catastrophes, they're such beautiful, epic, spectacular catastrophes.

Really, how many endeavors truly result in success?

They made an effort, & therefore, they left an impact. & for that, they went down in history. If not as heroes then at least as tragic figures.

They dreamed, they hoped, they willed, they fought, they tried, they were here.

& that mattered.

the hobbits organizing a blindfolded taste test with the fellowship except every single food is potatoes

[ID: a digital painting of Finduilas, princess of Nargothrond. She is facing towards the viewer, standing by a floor to ceiling window through which golden light is flowing into the room. Finduilas's head is tilted down and to her left, as she looks away from the window at something below her eye level in the interior of the room. Her left hand rests below her jaw and her right at her waist; her expression is pensive. She is dressed in a floor-length, light yellow dress with light blue embroidery at the neckline, bottom hem, and ends of the short sleeves. The dress is belted about her waist with a thin, tassled ribbon of the same light blue. She also wears a purple shawl draped over her right shoulder and arm, a golden or bronze bracelet on her left wrist, and white gemstone earrings. Her golden hair is pulled back from her face but left loose and curling down past her waist. End ID.]

Finduilas for moynal ⭐

Please consider: If Tolkien wasn't a coward Feanor would have been female and it would have been way cooler. a) Gives some real weight to the idea that Feanor was worried the crown would go to one of Finwe's other kids. b) More ladies in Tolkien, always a plus. c) You'd better believe Feanor's the greatest craftsperson of the Noldor- she made 7 of them! (Also the sheer drama of newly single mum Feanor and her 7 boys in Middle Earth) d) Silmarils as kids2.0 e) Blacksmith lady hot

Lady Feanor would indeed be awesome. The historical part of my brain can't help but think that critics of the time would have unfortunately interpreted ambitious kick butt single mom Feanor as a prime example of the "monstrous woman" type, ala Medea or something, who "got what was coming to her" in the end, so in a way I'm glad that the Prof. decided to write Feanor as a man so that we didn't have to deal with that nonsense.

I can't help but wonder if he'd lived at a later date if he might have considered female Feanor, I mean, this is a man who took one look at one is Shakespeare's most famous plays and said, "the answer to the prophesy is a C-section?? Booooo! Macbeth should have been killed by a woman! (And also the trees should have actually come alive)" and "its bogus that Orpheus turned around after all that and Eurydice had to die! Rip to them but if i were trapped in the underworld my wife would be different!"

And then proceeded to write his own genderbent fix it fic of both of those perennial works x)

So yeah, I think if the character had come into his head as female then Tolkien would have 100% been down with it

Shoutout to all the kind strangers who make things more accessible for people like me

I showed up for my covid vaccination appointment at my pharmacy, and where to check-in was very unclear. I joined the back of one of the lines and stood there trying to figure it out for a bit, before asking a Latino family standing nearby, "Hi, could you tell me where the vaccination check-in is? I'm very confused."

They showed me to the right window and afterwards, when I was confused again about where I needed to go, explained each of the subsequent steps and what I needed to do for each one.

I appreciate them more than they know. Being autistic, I need clear directions and freeze when I don't know what to do, which made the appointment very frustrating at first. I asked for help, and that family helped me. It might have taken only a few minutes of their time, but they made my week.

I'm so grateful to them and everyone else who makes life accessible for me.

To all the kind strangers, thank you.