Collaborative Silm Fanon BINGO Card!

[dawn_felagund]

For those of you who are participating in B2MeM this year but are not members of that community, swing on by b2mem or the B2MeM page on the SWG site; there have been two sizable releases of new BINGO cards this weekend!

With my BINGO card backlog cleared (for the moment, anyway!), I am back to working on my own cards. One I'd like to do is a Silmarillion Fanon card where the goal is to create a piece that thwarts that particular fanon. I *heart* fanon just as much as the next fanperson, but it's also cool to see an author brilliantly turn fanon on its head and smack it around a little bit. So what say you, fellow Silmfolk, to a collaborative BINGO card? What are your favorite fanons, the ones you couldn't live without? Which are the ones you can't stand? Let me know in a comment and I'll put them together into a card!

Comments

[lanyon.livejournal.com]

All I know is that I want to do that card. :D

[burning-night.livejournal.com]

Same here ;)

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

Me too! I am passionate about fanon.

I love red-haired Nerdanel.
I loath reddish-blond haired Faramir. That is just so wrong.

I can't think of any more at the moment.

Thank you for doing such a lovely job on the cards I submitted!

What is your logic on the cards? Do you have enough or want more or simply welcome more because you think that it's only fair to give more people a chance to create one?

[dawn_felagund]

I generally try to limit myself to 10 minutes prettifying a single card but I went way over that for Geography of the Silm! It was an excuse to use my set of pirate map PS shapes and my Bamboo tablet, and I couldn't resist! :D

What is your logic on the cards? Do you have enough or want more or simply welcome more because you think that it's only fair to give more people a chance to create one?

I honestly didn't have a "right" number of cards in mind when planning the event. I think we could have a great event with the cards we have ... but more cards are always welcome too because it opens the challenge up to more participants who might not feel much enthusiasm for what we have so far. I know certain segments of the fandom are less represented by the current selection than others. So I'd gladly accept more from anyone who wanted to create them. I'm working on like three or four myself, so I definitely don't think we've hit a ceiling or anything like that.

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

That geography one is super spectacular--but the other is very nice also with the Valentine Day feel. Can I pimp them on my LJ? Who knows who might see them there who doesn't follow the SWG regularly. Thanks again.

[dawn_felagund]

Yes, that would be awesome! Please pimp away and feel free to use the image URLs on the SWG, if you want:

http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/b2mem2012/images/cards/canon-couples1.png

http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/b2mem2012/images/cards/silmarillion-geography1.png

(Any others you may want are here. :)

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

WooHoo! Thank you!

[moetushie]

I think my most favorite bit of fanon is Maedhros having freckles.

[dawn_felagund]

That's a new one to me, but I suppose it makes sense, with the canonical red hair and all!

[engarian.livejournal.com]

I love the Maedhros/Fingon pairing (if DH interrupts me one more time while I'm trying to write all of three sentences to you I might scream.....).

I love a slightly manic Feanaro who chases after a rather uninterested Nerdanel.

I'm not much of a fan of Maglor leaving a wife behind when he leaves Valinor, but some of those stories are actually rather nice.

I'm probably not much help here, because it's the rare story that I read that doesn't have something in it that I love. But if I can help in any way....

- Erulisse (one L)

[dawn_felagund]

I have Maedhros/Fingon on there! :D That is definitely one of the Silm fanons, imo. Thanks for the other ideas--those are all new to me. :)

[elfscribe5.livejournal.com]

I just went and looked at all the cards. These are brilliant! You guys are so clever. I'm rather overwhelmed by all of them and tempted to try even though I have no time these days.

[dawn_felagund]

There have been some amazing cards made! I have held off for the most part on deciding which ones I'm going to claim. It's going to be a hard decision. I know I'm going to claim more than is reasonable for a person of my schedule.

There is a group of us who are rabidly overclaiming cards even though we know we'll never have time for them all. You'd be most welcome among us ... ;)

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is a fantastic idea!

Some favourite fanons:
Nerdanel as a redhead (though this one has become so pervasive not many people recognize it as fanon)
Maedhros/Fingon
Nellas/Beleg
Maglor and Daeron as friends or lovers
Maglor-in-history

I can't actually think of too many fanons that I don't like, but Feanor the abusive father and husband, Maglor the wimpy artist, Celegorm/Aredhel, and Caranthir the dumb brute do come to mind. And not sure whether this counts as fanon or simply a fannish phenomenon (not restricted to the Silm fandom, in fact it's far more frequent elsewhere), the everyone-is-a-gay-horndog interpretation. As in, having the entire male population of Valinor/Gondolin/the Shire/Imladris/Lothlórien/Gondor at like rabbits all day long. Er. And I'd list the het equivalent, but haven't seen that one around very often.

[dawn_felagund]

Wimpy!Maglor! How could I have forgotten this particular bugaboo?!? :D

These are all good--thank you, Elleth! The card just got much more populated!

[rhapsody11.livejournal.com]

Teheeeeee

Fanon's:
Maglor witnessed Maedhros jump
Celegorm's hair colour (or just Feänorian hair colours LOL)
Fingolfin the stoic and coldhearted leader
Finarfin the coward
Maedhros/Fingon
A fanon I cannot stop reading about: Caranthir/Haleth

That's it for now. *grin*

[dawn_felagund]

Oh, these are good! I think I'm going to have a square for character appearances: Nerdanel-the-redhead, Celegorm-the-blond, Maedhros-the-freckled. :)

A fanon I cannot stop reading about: Caranthir/Haleth

I think that may be one of the ones I have on there already ... :D

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

I'm not the best person to ask as I don't read many Simarillion stories. I know I don't like super Feanor and scruffy uncouth Beren Melkor not being evil, or characters having to be in love before they will help one another.. I love Luthien and Huan.

[dawn_felagund]

Oh, these are good, Linda! Thank you! I like that you've included some outside the Feanorians ... at the rate I'm going, half the card will be Feanorian-related.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

It's funny - all the time I have all these fanons in my head, and now that I could pour them out I can't think of any. :P

Oh wait! How about
- Amrod & Amras as pranksters
- Amrod & Amras as essentially one person in two bodies
- Elves don't have pubic hair
- Elves don't get sick
- only Maglor being kind to Elros&Elrond, Maedhros being indifferent or outright cruel
- the bloody elleth/ellith/ellon/ellyn/[other random Sindarin term] convention, ARGH ARGH ARGH

Hm. That's all I can think of right now that hasn't been named yet, I think.

EDIT: Oh right! Of course there is my other favourite (NOT!):
- The LaCE apply to all Elves anywhere >:D

[dawn_felagund]

Amrod & Amras as pranksters

OMG, how could I have forgotten this one! Probably because it's been so long since I've seen this done in a story.

These are brilliant! I think fanons related to the L&C will take up their own column ... :D

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

I think it went out of fashion as the Harry Potter books grew more serious, with less Fred & George prank time. ;)

Yes, I am convinced the two are connected!

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

Yes!!!! All of it! (but specially pubic hair and the elleth thing)

[grey_gazania]

All of these please! Because they drive me bats. XD

[havamahal.livejournal.com]

- only Maglor being kind to Elros&Elrond, Maedhros being indifferent or outright cruel

Oh, I hate that one - passionately. Especially when they make him want to kill the boys. Another one I dislike is Maglor as the best of Fëanor's sons. Er... no?

As for the favourites... Maedhros/Fingon. No question about it. :)

[dawn_felagund]

The Maedhros-tried-to-kill-E&E fanon is one of the few that I'll admit I am biased against from the outset when I know it's in a story. I won't say that it's impossible for me to enjoy a story where this is used, but the author has to really convince me why I should believe a character like Maedhros would be inclined to slay out of hand two small children.

The other one--kind of in line with yours--is the Maglor-as-a-wimp trope. There is absolutely nothing in the texts to support that; quite the opposite. It makes me grit my teeth, that one.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

You're more tolerant than I am. Once I notice that fanon being part of the story, I won't read on long enough to find out if the author actually manages to make it work... >_>

[grey_gazania]

Definitely claiming this when it's finished! A few more ideas:

Erestor the bookish snarker
Maedhros never smiles ever again at anything or is in any way happy after Thangorodrim
Angband as Morgoth's secret S&M dungeon
Gil-galad/Elrond (I do ship it, but it is pretty ubiquitous)
Glorfindel of Gondolin and Glorfindel of Rivendell are the same person
Wussy Finarfin
Curufin-the-brains and Celegorm-the-brawn
Virago!Galadriel and whipped!Celeborn


We might need more than one card to cover all these. XD

[dawn_felagund]

I think we might! I probably have enough for a Feanorian fanon alone, plus a general Silm fanon card.

All of these are brilliant--thanks so much! :D

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Glorfindel of Gondolin and Glorfindel of Rivendell are the same person

This one's not exactly a fanon; JRRT wrote it in one of his letters (where he wrestled with the contradiction he'd created by giving two characters the same name). Of course, it's not exactly canon, either, since Tolkien's statement was made in a supplementary document rather than one of the primary stories. (Which is one of the things which makes the whole "canon or fanon?" question tricky when it comes to Middle earth; Tolkien canon's a rather fluid concept!)

[grey_gazania]

I keep the 1-Glorfindel-or-2 question filed with the who's-Gil-galad's-daddy question, with the difference being that I can think of only one fic author who writes two Glorfindels. So at least in my opinion, that bumps the question over into fanon-that-could-use-some-playing-with territory. :)

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Good point!

Am I the only one out there who thinks life in this fandom would be much simpler if only the dear Professor had been able to make up his mind once and for all? :D

[hhimring]

Oloriel seems to have forgotten: "children were playing on the docks of Alqualonde" (aka Feanor was trying to commit Teleri genocide), although she wrote a whole fic about it.

And you yourself wrote an essay about Maglor and Maedhros at Sirion, but I don't suppose you've forgotten that.

[dawn_felagund]

I certainly didn't! :) It's on the list of prompts I came up with prior to posting here.

Thank you for the ideas!

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Because I wrote a whole fic about it. ;) I've purged that one out of my system!

Mind you, if it does show up on the card, I can always write that AU where the Teleri win and get cursed for their trouble. ARRRRRRR!

[independence1776]

Here's another I just thought about: Elves can't use contractions when speaking. (Which drives me bonkers.)

[dawn_felagund]

Which is probably a subset of the fanon that Elves must perpetually behave as though they have a stick lodged in their butts. ;)

I'm wondering if I have enough for a whole separate Elf-fanon card ...

[grey_gazania]

...dear god, why would anyone make that a thing? o_O

[independence1776]

Probably because Elves don't use contractions while speaking in LotR, and use entirely more formal language. Therefore, all fanfic must do the same. It makes no sense with even a modicum of thought. (Though I haven't seen this much recently; it was more prevalent in the years immediately after the movies came out.)

[burning-night.livejournal.com]

Just thought of a big one: Maedhros hates his mother-name after Thangorodrim because he lost a hand and/or got mentally/physically scarred during his captivity.

[dawn_felagund]

Oh, good one! I think I know the story that started that one too, which is kinda cool but also makes me feel a little long in the tooth ... :E

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Also, Erestor/Glorfindel!

And, possibly a bit more difficult: "Tolkien wouldn't have *~approved~* of that!"

[dawn_felagund]

When I first started playing around with the design of the BINGO cards, I made (and mostly finished) a "Canatic's Bingo" to use when reading one's reviews, particularly on ff.net. That one, of course, was on it ... ;)

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Darn! All the good ones have been mentioned!

Oh, wait: How about "All the Sindar are rustic simpletons"? And "Elves are vegetarians"? I don't think anyone's mentioned those two yet.

[dawn_felagund]

Good ones! :) This definitely could be two cards ...