Or, come to think of it, do you have to make absurdi-tea in a sieve?

Benny: But I still want to know what happens!

Buffy: Everyone gets horribly killed except the blonde girl in the nightie who finally kills the monster with a machete but it's not really dead.

Jennifer: Oh my God. Is that true?

Buffy: Probably. What movie is this?

— Cut dialogue from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

It's also interesting to note how the Final Girl can be interpreted in film theory. On one hand, the character seems to be the living embodiment of stereotypical conservative attitudes of what women "should be". On the other, feminists have noticed that through this device, the males in the audience are forced to identify with a woman in the climax of the movie. In practical terms, the makers of a horror film want the victim to experience abject terror in the climax, and feel that viewers would reject a film that showed a man experiencing such abject terror.

Fëanor was a master of words, and his tongue had great power over hearts when he would use it; and that night he made a speech before the Noldor which they ever remembered. Fierce and fell were his words, and filled with anger and pride; and hearing them the Noldor were stirred to madness. His wrath and his hate were given most to Morgoth, and yet well nigh all that he said came from the very lies of Morgoth himself; but he was distraught with grief for the slaying of his father, and with anguish for the rape of the Silmarils. He claimed now the kingship of all the Noldor, since Finwë was dead, and he scorned the decrees of the Valar.

Long he spoke, and ever he urged the Noldor to follow him and by their own prowess to win freedom and great realms in the lands of the East, before it was too late; for he echoed the lies of Melkor, that the Valar had cozened them and would hold them captive so that Men might rule in Middle-earth. Many of the Eldar heard then for the first time of the Aftercomers. ‘Fair shall the end be,’ he cried, ‘though long and hard shall be the road! Say farewell to bondage! But say farewell also to ease! Say farewell to the weak! Say farewell to your treasures! More still shall we make. Journey light: but bring with you your swords! For we will go further than Oromë, endure longer than Tulkas: we will never turn back from pursuit. After Morgoth to the ends of the Earth! War shall he have and hatred undying. But when we have conquered and have regained the Silmarils, then we and we alone shall be lords of the unsullied Light, and masters of the bliss and beauty of Arda. No other race shall oust us!

re rebellion:

i'm also not quite understanding the label of "rebellion." it seems to me, that would only apply to some of the noldor: feanor, for coming to tirion; anyone involved in the kinslaying. but plenty of noldor had no part in either of those activities. why wouldn't they be free to depart for middle earth? what laws had they broken?

although i think that the elves should never have been called to live in valinor permanently, at the same time i think it's a sort of madness to go to middle earth at this time, with morgoth on the loose. especially with the valar saying "no take-backs" and that they're not going to help.

rather a wretched scenario. they're going back to middle earth, where they were +supposed+ to be in the first place (and i invoke, as supporting evidence, lines from lotr to the effect "a land of middle earth enriched by the elves remembers them long after their departure"), but in a no-win situation. yes, feanor bears a lot of responsibility -- but i think the greater authors in this mess are the valar, who could have kept morgoth at bay in the first place, and who should never have called the eldar to live in aman permanently in the first place.

which leads me too....


what's driving the noldor?

yes, feanor is quite the orator. but that's perhaps not the main thing that drives them.

i think what drives them is that their fear and hoar are being called back to middle earth, where they belong.

why do the vanyar and teleri not feel this calling? well, they're not stirred up as the noldor are. perhaps if they had their own feanors, they'd also be packing up their poetry books and unfurling their sails.
maciliel-thoughts, 2013

Thus it may be seen that those who in latter days hold the Elves as dangerous to Men and that it is folly to seek converse with them do not speak without reason. For how, it may be asked, shall a mortal distinguish the kinds? On the one hand, the Houseless, rebels at least against the Rulers [the Valar], and maybe even deeper under the Shadow; on the other, the Lingerers, whose bodily forms may no longer be seen by us mortals, or seen only dimly and fitfully. Yet the answer is not in truth difficult. Evil is not one thing among Elves and another among Men. Those who give evil counsel, or speak against the Rulers (or if they dare, against the One), are evil, and should be shunned whether bodied or unbodied… So spoke Aelfwine.

Asked whether I agreed with statements "Sauron is evil" or "Morgoth is evil" I'd say I agreed. What I'd mean would be that the behaviour of these characters is set into such a predictable pattern that it's a handy shorthand to phrase it that they've become their characteristic. And their characteristic is that everything must serve or be destroyed (or possibly, if the whim strikes, serve by being destroyed).

I always think the birth of Feanor is disturbing, like a big nasty cosmic coughing fit where things just plain went wrong. I don't blame anyone for it, and I don't see how you can blame a child for "stealing" energy that would have otherwise gone to his siblings, but Miriel's assessment is chilling all the same. Maybe it makes me think of the Damien/Devil child movies of the 1970s, and that isn't fair of me:

Quote

So do normal rules of good and evil still apply? They should, do we stretch them a little since Feanor was in a class of his own? And why is the parallel to Melkor always popping up, as if fate made them turn to evil, or made it more likely they would choose that path?

Feanor: "He became of all the Noldor, then or after, the most subtle in mind and the most skilled in hand."

Melkor: "To Melkor among the Ainur had been given the greatest gifts of power and knowledge, and he had a share in all the gifts of his brethren."

>>> If you're just plain born superior to everyone else, are you destined to be a narcissist? Will you always be frustrated by the limited ambitions and abilities of others and see yourself as entitled to play by your own rules because you're playing on a higher dimension than everyone else?

‘I wish I had known all this before,’ said Pippin. ‘I had no notion of what I was doing.’

‘Oh yes, you had,’ said Gandalf. ‘You knew you were behaving wrongly and foolishly; and you told yourself so, though you did not listen. I did not tell you all this before, because it is only by musing on all that has happened that I have at last understood, even as we ride together. But if I had spoken sooner, it would not have lessened your desire, or made it easier to resist. On the contrary! No, the burned hand teaches best. After that advice about fire goes to the heart.’

‘You idiotic fool!’ Pippin muttered to himself. ‘You’re going to get yourself into frightful trouble. Put it back quick!’ But he found now that his knees quaked, and he did not dare to go near enough to the wizard to reach the bundle. ‘I’ll never get it back now without waking him,’ he thought, ‘not till I’m a bit calmer. So I may as well have a look first.'