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emberkeelty:

So I think it’s pretty clear that Belos was never actually “cursed” in the way that Eda was, and his physical issues were all side effects of what he did to his own body to give himself magic and extend his lifespan. He basically admitted as much with the way he talked about the palismen in Hollow Mind, and then there’s the fact that he carved glyphs into his body with a knife, and also, you know, the fact that you would kind of expect a human who is several hundred years old to be made entirely of necrotic ooze. You just wouldn’t expect him to still be moving around.

So what’s Evelyn doing here?

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For a long time people assumed that this was Belos getting cursed, but… Well, even aside from the evidence that he did it to himself, we already see him with glowy blue eyes in portraits that seem to depict scenes before this one. So I don’t think Evelyn cursed him.

I think… she maybe kind of killed him?

I mean, when you think about it, that seems like way more of a normal reaction to watching someone murder your husband and possibly also try to murder you than sticking the murderer with a lingering curse that will hurt and inconvenience him in some ways but also make him more dangerous, and also leave him at large to maybe come after you and the rest of your family again! Obviously he survived because he was already a horrible puppy-eating roachman, but maybe Evelyn never found out, and got to live out the rest of her life with some measure of peace. Maybe this was when Philip first realized he’d gotten himself into way too much shit and needed to change his identity, and used his apparent death to do so. We know he didn’t become Belos until much later, but he could have had other, disposable identities in between.

And when Belos talks about being cursed… Maybe he’s convinced himself that it’s sort of true, because all of his health problems suddenly got a lot worse from the strain that resurrection put on his stolen magic. So Evelyn basically did curse him with her evil wild magic! That makes perfect sense in Belos logic!

nohomo-mrfrodo:

golwenlothlindel:

maironsmaid:

nohomo-mrfrodo:

Gandalf in The Hobbit: You are Took and that makes you absolutely suited for adventure!

Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring: Who the FUCK let the Took come on this adventure?

He learned his lesson

Nah you guys don’t get it. For all that Gandalf complained about Pippin, he better than anyone else knew that Pippin was absolutely crucial. Pippin accomplishes a very impressive feat: not only does he manage to see something in the palantír (most hobbits would perceive nothing, as these stones were designed for use by high elves), but he manages to close his mind against Sauron. That is a seriously impressive feat of ósanwë given Pippin’s youth and almost total inexperience. The only clue Sauron manages to glean from the meeting with Pippin is that he is in Meduseld: which Pippin probably did not even directly give to him. Pippin did not tell Sauron his name, so Sauron is led to believe that Pippin is Frodo. I remind you, in the books, the Good Guys manage to trick Sauron, by making him believe that Aragorn has claimed the One Ring. They can only do that because of Pippin’s ridiculous feat of ósanwë. Far from sabotaging the mission, he is the one who allows it to succeed (albeit, not on purpose). This is why Sauron doesn’t think anything is fishy when Aragorn wins the Battle of the Pelennor Fields by controlling ghosts: that would be consistent with the idea that he is using the One Ring. Which Sauron believes that Pippin brought to him. This is why Sauron pulls out his old “play nice and weak” card from his Númenor days. He first of all believes that Aragorn is a lot more powerful than he actually is, and secondly thinks that the Ring is beginning to affect him.

He should perhaps have remembered that Aragorn is named for Fingolfin. Fingolfin’s mother-name, Arakáno, would properly be translated to Sindarin as “Aragorn”. Most people would not show up to an enemy fortress with an army they knew was far too small, and start a battle they knew they would lose. But Fingolfin famously did exactly that.

When you read the line “fool of a Took!” It is important to understand that in the context of Gandalf calling himself a fool on several occasions. Galadriel too sees beyond the veneer of foolish naivety in Pippin. She gives him and Merry belts that almost definitely were once her brothers’. A golden flower on a gift from Galadriel can only be a golden lily, the sigil of the House of Finarfin. Galadriel, while all hell was breaking loose in Tirion, raided her brothers’ rooms and took their belts from when they were little kiddos, hauled them across the Helcaraxë, and then held onto them for three Ages before giving them to two hobbits she just met. Merry, of course, is comparable to Angrod and Aegnor: his great deed is done in a moment of beserk rage, and it is a feat of strength. This then implies that she is comparing Pippin to Finrod. That’s one hell of a complement coming from Galadriel: but as I just pointed out, entirely warranted. Pippin manages to reproduce Finrod’s feat of radio silence, in the face of torture by Sauron. Which again, is extremely impressive given that Pippin is far younger and less experienced than Finrod was.

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