rocky41_7

Despite being at the forefront of the kinslayings, If I had to pick the "nicest feanorian", the character that comes to my mind isn't Maglor. I think that title should be given to two feanorians who deserve it best. One who actually regrets, who has been written and headcanon many times as someone who actually reaches out to apologize for his actions even though words can't undo many wrongs. One who has such good relations with the other houses, one who's probably the sanest among the brothers, and that's Maedhros.

The other is Celebrimbor, and I don't think I have to explain why. He's the bestest boy who doesn't give me a headache every time I read fics about him.

I want to know who you think should be given that title.

I would disagree, tbh. Truthfully I don’t think there’s much sense in arguing about who “the nicest one” was because none of them was nice enough to not do the things they did. Maedhros led three unprovoked mass slaughters and twisted Maglor’s arm into doing the last one, and there’s no evidence I recall that he ever apologized for anything, except maybe while trying to sweet-talk Dior or Elwing into handing over the Silmaril. As the leader of the Feanorians, Maedhros also bears some responsibility for the actions of his brothers while they were under his command–that is, for Celegorm’s men taking two children and dragging them out into the woods to abandon them–because he created an atmosphere where this behavior was permitted, or at least not prevented.

What the fandom sees as Maglor’s great redeeming act–raising his hostages–Maedhros took no part in that we’re told of by canon. He usually gets lumped into Kidnap Fam by default, but the actual text only describes Maglor as having a relationship with the twins.

Of course, given how little we’re told about their personalities, we can headcanon quite a lot–I just personally don’t see Maedhros as a particularly nice person. Practical, yes. Nice? Not so much.

Celebrimbor on the other hand…TT_TT The arc I love for Celebrimbor is of someone who tried so hard to rise above his family legacy, to do better, to BE better, and ended up causing MORE damage than anyone in his family had done. The worst thing for Celebrimbor I think wasn’t being tortured by Sauron–it was being in the Halls and seeing or hearing of Sauron’s conquest across Middle-earth unfolding, knowing that HE had enabled it.

As with the rest, we don’t get much on Celebrimbor’s personality so there’s a lot of room for interpretation, but I’m always attached to the idea that he was suspicious of Annatar–but he remembered what his father and his uncles’ suspicions had driven them to, and decided to believe he had an excess of suspicion from the Feanorian side, and ignored it. And then :’).

Celebrimbor’s story is also a tragedy, but for different reasons, and it always gets me.