Memes! Characters and Questions

[dawn_felagund]

After all, mimicry is part of the point of memes. ;)

And I'm rewarding myself for a job well done on the Green Knight story tonight. I'm about a third through Part Four. Woohoo!

For the record, I'm doing The Silmarillion fandom here. I could do LotR as well, but since I've never been immersed in LotR to nearly the degree as The Silmarillion, this makes better sense.

01. The first character I first fell in love with.
Maedhros, actually. This was before I knew he was (canonically) hot and an amazingly complex character to ponder. I liked him at first because I loved the look of his name. Maedhros. Savor it ... I looked up in the pronunciation guide how to say the dh and loved seeing it and saying it. Of course, now, most of the time, I call him Nelyo or Maitimo, but he's become special now for different reasons.

02. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now.
Finarfin. I don't even remember him from my first reading except maybe as, " 'Finarfin'?! What a stupid-sounding name!" I suppose that I am a bit hypersensitive to the sounds of words. Sometimes, I'll repeat ordinary words over and over until they start to sound really silly and laugh uproariously over how silly they sound. But this is not a Weird Things meme, so I digress.

It wasn't until I did a bit more reading, research, and writing about The Silmarillion that I realized what a deceptively strong character Finarfin is. Well, I've blathered about this at length before, so I'll spare the speech now. As far as a character to write, Finarfin is one of my favorites. He can be frivolous and fun, but this is mostly put on as a distraction for his brothers' benefit to keep them off each others' throats. This makes him a challenge to write and a lot of fun too, kind of the best of both worlds: typical Finwion angst with a touch of frivolity.

03. The character everyone else loves that I don't.
Hmmm. I've yet to really get into Maeglin yet. And I feel as though I should! He has all of the hallmark traits of a Character that Dawn Felagund Would Like to Write. He's a bad guy in the history, but he has a tortured past and plenty of motivation, and there's the chance to yammer about historical bias ... I feel like I should try writing him, but then, I don't need more muses pestering me. So I leave him to others to pick apart and vindicate.

04. The character I love that everyone else hates.
Namo Mandos. And I have no idea why. Well, okay, I do. I love to ponder the burden of preternatural sight: the ability to see into the future or into the thoughts of others, for example. Hence my fascination with my own bizarre incarnation of Caranthir. But I digress ... again. Canonically, Namo knows a good deal about the future and yet there is little that he can do to intervene. What kind of mind or spirit is required to deal with such knowledge? It's fun to consider. Also, I am a horror writer at heart, and the ideas of the halls of Mandos and Elven re-embodiment is just too good for me to pass up.

05. The character I used to love but don't any longer.
Well, my favorite LotR character used to be Sam, and as the races of Middle-earth went, my favorites were the Hobbits. This seems kind of odd to consider, in retrospect. I don't really think much about the Hobbits at all anymore, even Sam, and I can't imagine writing Hobbit-centric fanfic. Not that I have a problem with Hobbit-centric fanfic, of course, but it just doesn't intrigue me.

06. The character I would shag anytime.
Maedhros. My first Elven love, yes, who is really to blame credit for my love of fantasy literature. Oh, and he's (canonically) hot.

After that, Feanor ... though I think it's wise to use twice the birth control with him. :^P

He's also (canonically) hot.

07. The character I'd want to be like.
Hmm. It's tempting to say Nerdanel or Finarfin, but I don't think I'd want to stay in Aman. I agree more with the Elves who went to Beleriand than those who stayed behind, although I admire their strength in overcoming social influence to do so.

Probably Finrod, which makes sense given my pseudonym. (I know, I know ... "What?! Your real name is not Dawn Felagund?!?!" I get that more than you'd think ... and my real first name is Dawn, for the record. My last name is not Felagund.) Finrod has good grace and good cheer in even the face of ... well, typical Finwion angst. He's brave and wise and artistically gifted. He likes to look at men sleeping in the woods. He's open and accepting of a variety of people and cultures, which is something that I have always admired and aspired to in my own life.

08. The character I'd slap.
Oh, but there's so many! Can I give a collective thwack to the Valar? They're very good at screwing things up. They meddle long enough to make a huge mess, then they're disinterested. "Oh. We just screwed over all of Aman! Let's ignore Middle-earth!" WTF.

There are good among the Valar, but collectively--like so many people I know--once they get in a group, they stick their brains up their butts and all run together off a cliff. Taking a few Elves with them.

09. A pairing that I love.
Nerdanel and Feanor. OTP. I do not protest canon interpretations other than mine, of course, but one that I'll never particularly care for is the idea that Nerdanel and Feanor married only because he needed an heir and she had big hips. No, I think their love was deep and obsessive and that she was a major reason why--despite the havoc wreaked by the Feanorians--that their deeds did lead to good in the end. She shaped him but, more importantly, she shaped their children. The dynamics of their relationship is one I can't imagine ever growing tired of pondering or exploring.

10. A pairing that I despise.
tarion_anarore and I were just talking about her version of this meme, about how Beren/Luthien has never inspired us. And I've tried. I swear, I've tried. When I read that chapter for last year's Silmarillion reading, I read it while constantly telling myself, "See the awe-inspiring magic, Dawn? See the pretty language? You love this!" And I did enjoy it ... while I was reading it. But it never lasts; it never inspires me. And as I was telling Tarion, I kind of feel bad about this because I know that Beren/Luthien was Tolkien's OTP and that he wanted their story to form the center of his entire mythology. He even had his and his wife's headstones marked as Beren and Luthien. And I feel bad that something he obviously loved and treasured so much does so little to move me while I'm squeeing over characters who appear maybe five times in the book. That might be silly, but I can imagine how it feels to have a character or idea I've spent so much time on ignored or rejected in favor of something silly and throwaway. But the story's too perfect--the characters too perfect--and the magic too overt. This story always feels AU in the context of the rest of The Silmarillion.

Also, from telperion1, if you want to ask me a question, no matter how silly or embarrassing or serious or incendiary, ask away! This is an Ask Dawn Felagund free-for-all! The only things I won't answer are obvious intrusions on my or someone else's privacy in a way that might be dangerous. So no, I won't hand over my credit card number or Bobby's SSN or anything like that. But I'm open-minded and shameless, so nearly anything else is fair game.

(telperion1, I'm still trying to think of a question for you!)