He Was Right To Fear The Helmet: It Makes It Impossible To Tell Father From Foe.

Sauron actually did try to repent, according to Tolkien.

According to Tolkien, there was a time that Sauron genuinely repented and turned away from evil. He even confessed his deeds to the herald of Manwë.

In RoP the reason he was on that boat in the beginning is because he was on his way to Valinor to confess and repent before the Valar and be judged. I'm convinced he booked passage on that boat, then possibly summoned the Worm to destroy most of the ship once he drew closer to Valinor since no mortals would be permitted to accompany him to Aman. He was likely planning to float that raft, alone, to Valinor's gates.

Then he met Galadriel and ended up in Númenor, and decided to start a new life instead. Galadriel was the one who really pushed and pushed him back toward evil because the darkness (vengeance) inside her was that tantalizing.

Sauron totally "fell" for her. He started manipulating her after he abandoned his smithing post and agreed to return to Middle-earth. Everything before that was genuine, especially his desire to start anew.

Sauron genuinely wanted her to rule with him.

Fortunately, Galadriel said no. And that's a good thing, because Celeborn (her husband) is likely not dead. He needs to return to her, so that Aragorn, himself, may one day have an heir. (Because it's important to the entire lotr story... not because it's important for a woman to breed. Come on.)

i’ve seen some chatter regarding pro-war sentiment in rings of power. lotr was so clearly anti war, and people are claiming that is lost in rop. are we watching the same show?

when finrod goes to war, galadriel loses her best friend and brother.

when the southlanders go to war against the orcs, they end up slaughtering their own townsfolk.

when elendil sails to middle earth with miriel, he is sailing to the loss of his son and she her eyes. when she returned, her father was dead and her kingdom at a precipice.

when galadriel takes ups arms with halbrand, she ends up bringing the destruction of the southlands and advances sauron’s own plans.

war touches even the harfoots, who come to arrive to their haven to find the stones of eruption have destroyed their grove and all their food and hope for the next season.

there is no glory in war here. there is only ruin, black orc-blood, and the ashes of mount doom. when the characters in rings of power go to war, they end up killing their own kin and causing a chain of events that cannot be undone.

penelope didn't have to turn the tree bed into a riddle. she could have asked odysseus to prove his identity, to tell her something only he would know — which she actually did a few books earlier, when she asked the beggar to describe odysseus, and odysseus told her about a purple cloak with a particular golden brooch that she fastened herself twenty years ago. when penelope tells telemachus they have signs by which they'll know each other, you sort of expect more of the same. and instead, she decides to trap him. like a bug in a cup.

and it's delightful to me, idk, how odysseus has been trapped and cornered in various way throughout the odyssey, but arguably never so that he has to tell the truth to get out. (with the phaeacians, maybe? the omniscient narrator corroborates some of what he tells them, but do we really know everything?) and in fact he is not trying to get free of penelope. he wants something from her, wants to convince her, wants to be welcomed home, but until this point he's lied to her, revealed himself to other people before her, and been distant with her (though also patient! he doesn't try to strongarm or rush her into accepting him; it's his idea to sleep elsewhere).

except penelope isn't looking for him to be distant and patient. penelope lies in a way that requires odysseus to stop playing along — not only to prove that he knows what odysseus knows, but that he's willing to tell the truth about himself.

Pelops and his ivory shoulder

Blasphemous II + concept art by Juan Miguel López Barea

Rose O'Neill knew what was up

When I saw this picture, I knew I had to draw it with Hektor and Andromache, it's perfect for them~

?????

“Penelope Unravelling the Web,” by Willy Pogany

Illustration for “The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy” (aka “The Children’s Homer”), by Padraic Colum