Chapter Text
[5/26/2022]:
Hello, new and old readers alike! Just leaving this here to tell you that the fic is undergoing quite a bit of re-writing at the moment and to apologize profusely for how long it'll be before the next new chapter is up. Life for me lately has been a bit rough personally on top of going into my last year of college, not to mention the state of the world right now, and I'm so very sorry I haven't updated in so long (and that the last few chapters to go up weren’t great either). This fic is my baby. I'm determined to make it as well written and amazing as possible, and what's up right now just doesn't feel like that to me.
To my returning readers:
I'm very grateful to all of you for sticking with me for as long as you have with Fine Line. Thank you so much for all the kudos, bookmarks, and insightful comments and wonderful discussions over the years. I don't think I've ever enjoyed writing for a fic as much as I have for this one, and having a fantastic community of fellow readers and writers who give feedback and constructive criticism has been amazing. I'm not the best at sitting down and planning things out, checking for plot holes and inconsistencies and things that haven't been clearly explained or expressed. I plan to take my time and rectify that with these re-writes. The re-writes will probably consist of adding content, some structural changes, and some subplot tweaking, but it should still be recognizable to what you read previously when I'm finished with it. I'll make a note of all the changes at the beginning of each chapter as I go [10/15/22: There are actually quite a few, so... Maybe not? XD], and I have a copy of the original (what’s posted rn) if anyone ever still wants to read that later on. When everything is finished and I’ve gotten back to writing chapter seventeen, I’ll take this message down.
Again, I’m so sorry for the 6 month absence. I hope all of you are staying safe and doing as well as you can be. See you in a little while. <3 *hugs*
~Angel
[10/15/22]:
Hiii! Popping in to say that I'm about a third of the way through chapter re-writes as of now. I definitely think the story flows a bit better, and there are quite a few tweaks and new things in the earlier chapters that I think will add a lot of goodness and meaning (but much of the other content remains the same; it's nothing too crazy). I was hoping to have much more done by now, but life has been... rough, to say the least. July was a really tragic and heartbreaking month, and then with school starting back up just a few weeks later, I haven't really had much time to breathe and recover from it. I'm EXHAUSTED on so many levels, but at least we're past midterm now. It's been a busy semester. Also, it's crazy that I started this fic during my senior year of high school, and now it's my senior year of college. Where did the time go???
I hope everyone has been doing okay and life has treated you well. <3 *hugs* I'll continue to keep you posted on the story's progress.
~Angel
[11/13/22]:
Current Struggles:
Eltariel Characterization
This by far is probably the thing I disliked the most about the original 16 chapters. I don't feel like a did a good job at all of giving Eltariel a natural character progression. I gave her a backstory, yeah, but reading back over her shifts in personality and mindset were giving me whiplash. XD I want to give her a growth arc of sorts. Like, being defeated by Sauron humbles her in some ways or shakes her enough that she's not quite the Eltariel we see in the main game. She remembers who she was and how she was like before becoming a Blade of Galadriel, and it's a slow, steady struggle to remember how to think of herself as a person and not a tool of war. I want us to get to see the more vulnerable sides to her character, and that's a difficult place to get to in a way that makes sense atm, I guess? And having the BoG DLC now and being able to play it means more opportunities to study her skillset, character, journey, etc., and I've learned quite a bit about her in the first few missions alone that I'd like to include.
Passage of Time
Shadow of Mordor begins about one year before Bilbo, Thorin, and co. depart the Shire for Erebor. That's a lot of years (78, I believe) to stretch between two games, and I guess I'm a bit afraid that giving a more specific timeline won't make as much sense as when the passage of time was more ambiguous? I want to be able to connect things with canon (this universe's version of canon) as much as I can without having large gaps of time. I have the chapter where the years between games and events is made clear done. It's just been making me feel a bit anxious.
Storytelling Through Flashbacks
Something I've been experimenting with quite a bit is covering more POVs and scenes that didn't get fully expanded on last time around through flashbacks. Some work really well, and others I'm not sure should be there, or are maybe in the wrong place(s). I think these help expand on relationships between the members of the Fellowship as well as how Talion and Celebrimbor come to care about each other on deeper levels. A lot of them have been really fun to write, and they've made me think deeper on what certain words and actions really mean(t) and how they can contribute to the stories being told at hand.
I figured it might help to leave little updates of where I'm at in the re-writing process. I've gone back through all the comment threads thus far for reminders of things that weren't properly explained, plot holes, points of confusion, etc. One of the things I love about being an author on here is being able to have conversations with people about what a work means to them and their POV on things. (And sometimes, being able to reread the comments talking about how much a reader loved something is what gets me through a tough night of writing, or a day where my brain tries to tell me I suck at this and should quit while I'm ahead. <3) If you have any insights on the things mentioned above, the original chapters posted rn, or anything else that comes to mind, it would be greatly appreciated.
As always, thank you so much for your patience in all of this. When winter break starts in a few weeks, I'll hopefully be able to get a lot more done. The end of this semester is super packed, and I'm just trying to hang on until December. I hope you all are well and that life has been kind to you these last few months. Much love. *hugs*
~Angel
[12/7/22]
Hello, all!
I hope you're doing well. <3 A brief update on what I'm currently working on:
I'm making a lot of good progress on flashbacks and some subplot stuff that I didn't really touch on the first go round. The flashbacks are for our boys as well as Eltariel and some of our other allies in and out of the fellowship, and I think they're doing a good job of filling in gaps when it comes to relationships, and some scenes that won't get explicitly explained and focused on in the fic. I liked the idea that Baranor, Idril, and all of our friends in Mordor are continuing the fight in their own way while Talion is gone. I had plans to tie all of that in with the Battle at the Black Gate in the Return of the King arc, and there were so many little things I wanted to do with it that I just... didn't. I didn't know how to fit it into the story without it feeling forced or just kind of there, but I think I'm making it fit in a way that feels natural and purposeful rn.
There's also a bit of characterization tweaking going on, particularly with Eltariel and Boromir. I want to explore the complexity of Talion and Boromir's friendship more, especially since they end up separating at Osgiliath and won't see each other for a while. I'm trying to make sure that the Boromir that we saw in the deleted scene with Faramir in Gondor gets a chance to shine through more. And Eltariel is... difficult to write. XD But I think I'm starting to figure her out a bit more, at least my version of her. There is this careful balance of headstrong, goal-oriented, confident canon Eltariel and the vulnerable, lighthearted, sillier side of her that I'm trying to keep. It's hard. It's really hard. Scenes with her in it are the ones I've reworked the most these past few weeks. I think her self-awareness and the courage to admit her wrongdoings will slowly help her find herself again. It's just a matter of dong a good job of writing that. No pressure, right? :')
And to jump back to flashback discussion really quick. Y'all. I cannot wait for you to read some of the new Cel/Talion flashbacks and scenes. I have loved crafting these and being to better express the emotion and impact of everything, and help shape and explain how Talion and Cel end up together. Aaahhh the new version of the first dream sequence in chapter three especially has brought me so much joy! Big, big thank you to Foxi06 for their input on everything I posted about last. It's been such a huge help. <3
December is... not the kindest month for me. The weeks surrounding Christmas wreak havoc on me emotionally. Winter is the season of loss for my family, and I've had a few close loved ones leave me in December. So I'm sending love to anyone else who struggles in December or winter time in general. *hugs* I'll try to have more progress done on chapters by the time the new year rolls around so I can share that with you all. Take care of yourselves, and enjoy the holiday season if you celebrate things!
~Angel
[12/14/22]
A quick message to say oh my gosh some of these new scenes are sooooo good (to me, at least) and add so much. I'm trying very hard not to fall into the trap of adding too much new stuff and bloating the fic (had to stop myself from adding an entire new chapter at one point because I was getting a bit carried away XD). Also, I write music! I'm graduating with my degree in Music Theory/Composition in May 2023. :) So of course I've been working on songs for this fic as well. Most are incomplete and scattered in pieces throughout a lot of files, but there are a couple that I feel comfortable enough to share. They're midi recordings since I write in music notation software rather than DAWs, and I have very little knowledge of how to mix properly, so they're not great, but I'm happy with where they are rn.
The first is a song called "Afterlife," which is essentially Talion's theme. The mental image I had while writing it was of Talion plummeting towards the ground after the One Ring is destroyed (that scene where Mount Doom spits out giant lava rocks that kills the Nazgul), life flashing before his eyes, Celebrimbor reaching down for him after he's released from the flaming eye. As the last chord rings out, the two's hands finally grasp, and Talion's vision fades in a burst of light. That probably sounds really dramatic. XD I don't have live musicians to sing the lyrics for this one, but if I did they would be: "There is a fine line between darkness and light. Through fires of war, I endure."
The second, shorter song is called "Departure From Nurn." Nurn is my personal favorite region of Mordor, and Talion's as well. It's a place of light and light and hope in a land that's often bleak and dark and colorless, and the idea behind this piece was to capture the magic of that, as well as the feeling and idea that more good and hope and light will result from embarking on their journey, even if things are a little uncertain at the moment.
Okay, back to writing now. :)
~Angel
[1/16/23]
Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season if you celebrate things, a good end to last year, and a great start to this one. An update on where things are right now:
Eltariel's character and backstory gets expanded quite a bit before the Fellowship arrive at Lothlorien. (And hopefully after. I'm still mainly in the Fellowship of the Ring arc of the fic as of now.) As I mentioned before, this quest is also a bit of a journey of self-(re)discovery for her. She has a few flashbacks of her own, and some conversations with others that give us a look into not only her past, but the internal struggle she's currently facing. She and Talion have a really good (I think so, at least) heart to heart conversation at one point that really helps both of them on their own paths. (I admit that I may be projecting some of my own struggles through her on occasion, haha. I didn't intend for things to be that way, but a part of her journey became personal to me along the way, and that has really helped me in writing some of her new stuff and improving her character arc as a whole. The things you learn about trauma, coping mechanisms, and defensiveness/hypervigilance when you go to therapy.)
I've done quite a bit with trying to set the scene better in chapters. More descriptions of things with the five senses and an attempt to paint a picture of where things are happening in a way that makes it easy to imagine being there. That's my hope, anyway. The magical thing about the LotR, particularly in regards to the movies, is how the visuals and the soundtracks truly make you feel like you're in another world. I'm no artist, and writing music (especially anything Howard Shore-esque) is complex and takes a lot of time, so I'll just have to try to capture some of that magic via words for now. I hope it helps you see and feel the scenes better.
Celebrimbor stuff! Something I failed spectacularly at in the original version of this fic is highlighting the differences between wraith Cel and actual Cel. Canon Celebrimbor was described (from what I've found) as a benevolent leader of his people, kind, selfless, caring, a lover of knowledge and crafting. My mindset when I first made the decision that Talion falls in love with Celebrimbor was that Talion could see all of those things in wraith Cel, even if it didn't happen often. He caught glimpses of the wonderful person that Celebrimbor was in his lifetime. But not only that, a part of him resonated with vengeful wraith Cel as well. Even if they didn't always agree on things when it came to morality or how to treat people. Through the shared pain of watching their families being murdered, that anger and the questions of what's next/what's left, they found kindred spirits of sorts in each other in that way. Bonding over similar trauma, I suppose is another way to put it? And with them being bound, sharing thoughts and emotions with one another, he got to know Cel on a deeply personal level--the good, the bad, the ugly and painful. Again, I really failed to articulate or show much of that at all before, so I've tried very hard in these re-writes to rectify that.
The tie-ins of our allies in Mordor (Idril, Baranor, Shelob, our war chiefs, etc.) to some LotR plot things, as well as just fleshing out those things throughout the story rather than throwing a rather badly condensed version into an interlude chapter, are coming along great! I hate the idea that the wonderful characters and personalities in Mordor kind of disappear for a while since Talion and co don't get to Mordor until late in the fic. I think the tie-ins are a good way to break up what can be dialogue or action heavy sections, or just really angsty, emotional ones. I think they bring a bit of humor and lightheartedness, as well as a change of scenery, and they show the effect of the LotR events on the Mordor Talion built during his time in the games. I like the friends he made, the orcs he fought alongside, the people and creatures he helped: all the good he did and changes he helped make a reality shouldn't be completely lost in the shuffle of the plot (which they absolutely were).
Tomorrow is the first day of my last semester of college! I'm excited! Also a bit terrified. XD But mostly excited! I will do my best to look ahead and get some more work done on this fic when I can. (Re)writing this has been so amazing. Hard and frustrating at times, but very much worthwhile and a lot of fun. Again, thank you so much to everyone for your patience and encouragement and suggestions. Much love and many good vibes, prayers, etc. to you. See you in a bit. <3
~Angel
[3/17/23]
It's spring break, and I've gotten so much good work done on this over the last few days. :)
My biggest thing was finally getting all of my Eltariel backstory and character arc stuff in order. I'm really happy with how things have turned out regarding that, and while it's a definite departure from canon-her, I like it. She's definitely more vulnerable towards the end of the Fellowship arc, and we'll see her start to become more comfortable with that when they're back to traveling. She deserves a happy ending too, not just the boys, and I'd like that happy ending to be with a full heart, not a cold and/or broken one. The Lothlorien chapters are good about setting her on that path of learning how to open up again, I think. <3
I've done a lot of book rereading, comparing book and movie scenes and, in that vein, book and movie character adaptations. Boromir, Denethor, and Gollum have been sticking out to me the most.
I love that Boromir is given the chance to grow and become a better person (if we compare Council of Elrond him to Amon Hen him), that we see him struggle under the weight of trying to be the perfect son, wanting to protect his people, wanting to truly do something and make a big and obvious impact in the quest and the war against Mordor. I wonder how much of that is lost if he doesn't try to take the Ring from Frodo. If Talion gets through to him, does Boromir lose that growth--is it less significant or impactful--or does that just make it different, especially since there's two more books/movies worth of opportunities to grow and change? I know different is not always bad, but I'm much more accustomed to writing character insert fics where it's like the inserted characters had always been a part of the plot: seamless integration into the story. It wasn't my intention to stray from that, but the deeper into rewriting I go, the more I want to shift some things away from canon. (This is a bigger dilemma for another day.)
The way I forgot how drastically different book Denethor is from movie Denethor. OOF. XD While movie Denethor lashes out in anger and hysteria, book Denethor is just done. Book him has given up hope, and events then on result from his inaction rather than movie him's frantic or non-sensical action. He still treats Faramir and Boromir how he does, but his overall temperament is different (I think, at least), and I kind of want to see what I can do with tweaking it. Namely, for my sanity more than anything, not sending Faramir to his death after telling him he wishes he was dead.
Ah, Gollum. Poor soul. I. Want to save him? Which. I know he dies how he does because Eru deems it so. But what if he helps destroy the One Ring in a different way? Idk, maybe I'm trying to do too much, but a redeemed Gollum doing the most to help Frodo and Sam is an interesting train of thought. I'm a "see the good in everyone" kind of person, even the awful and worst evil scum of the world. No one starts life as a horrible person. There's got to be good in them somewhere, even if it's just half of a microscopic shred of good. Gollum's not the worst of all evils or anything as dramatic, of course, so it's possible to make that idea work if I do it right. Right? I'll come back to that. XD
There are other scenes and character interactions I'm looking at revisiting soon as well, but those three in particular have been at the forefront of my mind.
Also, things really start to go downhill after chapter ten, huh? :') I--Oof. Yikes. Ow. I cringed a bit reading back through the second half of this fic. Why did I ever think the last few chapters were publish worthy? I am so sorry. XD Seriously, oh my gosh. The Two Towers arc will be better. Much better. It will not suck as much as it does now. Not to say that parts of it aren't good! But a whole lot can be much improved. Good gosh. Okay, end of mini-rant about that.
Writing the little glimpses into Mordor in Talion's absence has made me quite happy. It's just a handful of scenes scattered every other chapter or so, but it just makes me so happy to continue the tale of all our Mordor based friends. And writing for orcs is so much fun. XD
Found an elvish grammar guide (for Quenya specifically) that has been extremely helpful for fixing what I've butchered thus far, which is to say a lot of the Quenya. Most of it. But I'm working on it. XD
Last major change to what I've gotten done is that, while the Fellowship arc still finishes out at 10 chapters, I made what's currently chapter one the beginning of current chapter two. That combined is the new chapter one (at least for now). I added a chapter between Lothlorien and Amon Hen; I basically expanded on their time spent in Lothlorien by having one chapter be mainly Eltariel backstory and development and the other be the fallout from Moria and the interactions that happen between then and their departure.
I don't know when I'll have this much free time to write again until maybe the last few weeks of school? Maybe post-graduation? College is hard and gets very busy, so I honestly have no clue. XD Thank you again for being willing to stick with me this far. It's been so wonderful to fall in love with this story all over again, and I'm really excited to share the new and improved version of this fic with you. See you again soon.
~Angel
[3/29/23]
The rewrites are finally complete. Oh my gosh. I'm crying tears of happiness right now. :') Aaaaahhhhh I'm so nervous. XD But also really excited. I'm so happy I get to share this work with everyone. It's come such a long way from where it was. Thank you so much for sticking with me on this. <3
I don't know when the next chapter will be up. (I've neglected a bit of homework and practice time in the last week to finally get this all together. Not a drastic amount, so it's fine. XD) It'll be new material from here on out, so I'll have to sit down and start outlining and drafting again. It won't be another 16 months, I promise. XD And it will be of great quality and not rushed. :)
I'm keeping this "chapter" page as a place to post if I'm going to be away for a while, if I'm stuck and need to bounce ideas around, and things like that. April is concert/recital month and I have quite a few performances. And May is graduation month. So if I don't post anything new between now and mid-May, it's because I'm attempting to get the last few months of college together. XD Shoot me a comment if you need anything or have questions/thoughts, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. <3
See y'all in a bit. <3
~Angel
[5/10/23]:
Hiii!
Dropping by to say that I'm hoping to get back to working more on the next chapter this weekend/the beginning of next week! I'm graduating from college at the end of the week, so I've been really wrapped up in end of the semester work (I'm taking a break from writing my last school academic paper EVER rn). I've got a rough outline of next chapter started, so we're going to pick up where we left off and start Return of the King content. We'll also get back to Talion and Celebrimbor flashbacks and dream sequences, and maybe see him reunite with some of his Mordor friends.
I've got an ending in the works, which is pretty similar to the one I settled on a few years ago, but a bit different to account for some lore I ran across during hiatus. I think it gives Talion a bit more closure and peace while still letting him be happily in love with Cel.
I've been writing a lot of music as well! I had two pieces based on this fic performed on my senior composition recital. The three piece character suite that I wrote and conducted had three sections (one for Cel, Talion, and Eltariel), and I've expanded each from a small chamber ensemble to an orchestra! The other piece was a quintet I played in centered around the Barad-dur scene in A Promise and the eventual reunion of the boys and their trip to Valinor. I'll upload those somewhere at some point.
Beyond that, I've been performing and writing papers/music non-stop lately, but I'm almost done! Then I can sleep in and chill for a while. I can't wait for Friday. :') I hope everyone is well, and I'll talk to you more soon! <3
~Angel
[6/22/23]
Hi, all.
It's been a little over a month since school let out (it's so nice to finally have time to just breathe again!), and I've been slowly but surely working on the next chapter. Everything being mostly new material means triple checking the timeline of events--the ones focused on in the books and movies and the ones happening in the background at the same time as well--and a very long Google Doc of notes and things to keep in mind. It's not coming together quite as smoothly as I'd like, but it's a start. I'd say it's at least halfway done. When chapter bits haven't been very cooperative, I've been planning out the rest of the Two Towers arc and extending my original RotK arc a bit. There are some rough drafts of later scenes towards the end of the fic that I can't wait for us to get to. When I said Talion and Cel would get their happy ending, I meant it, and the journey to Valinor and what lies beyond that will be a part of the fic. <3
I do apologize that updates may be slow going for a while. It's been... a year. Describing it as "the worst year of my life" probably sounds overly dramatic, especially because a lot of good and wonderful things happened throughout. But the bad and the awful? Losing six family members (including my sister) in eleven months, on top of barely making it through my last year of college, dealing with some health scares, financial problems, and a whole host of other mental health struggles has been rough, to say the least. The depression and the anxiety were absolutely horrific, and while I've come a long way in dealing with and working through it all, I'm still not feeling the best. Every day is a battle of trying to be healthy and finding what my new "normal" is, but each day is also a bit brighter as well, which is good. Rewriting this fic was one of the few things that kept me sane during the year, and I'm very happy and proud of the new version of the work, and so very grateful for everyone's patience during that time. But now that it's summer and I have so much more time now, I'm also trying to prioritize my mental health and my family, among other life things I've been putting off because of how busy school has kept me the last four years. I hate to ask for everyone's patience again after such a long wait last time. :'( I said I wouldn't post anything that was rushed and of subpar quality, and I intend to stick by that.
Beyond that, I hope everyone is doing well and that the start of the summer has been kind to you. Shoot me a comment on here or a message on Twitter if you need anything from me. Much love, and tty in a little while. *hugs*
~Angel
[11/7/23]
Hey, everyone. <3
So, life's been a bit of a mess lately. I've lost two more family members since the last note I left here, and the side of my family that lives overseas is just an absolute disaster. There's just... so much. There's so much going on, and I was in such a not great place for the latter half of October. Learned a lot of really heavy, life changing stuff that put me in a not great headspace, but I'm doing a lot better now. I'm happy to say that the worst of the anxiety-depression spiral I was stuck in for the better part of a year lifted around mid-September, and it has been really wonderful to remember what hope and optimism feel like. After that, I fell down the Good Omens and Doctor Who (I'm about halfway through season 10 rn) rabbit holes, so I've been bouncing between new fandom hyper fixations for a month or so rather than writing a whole bunch. And I've been looking after my parents at home since graduation: my mom, who had a near death experience at the start of the summer (and has recovered quite well, thankfully) and my dad, who's carried the weight of everything that has happened since last summer without a single complaint (but I can see all the strain it's put on him). I've basically put life outside my family and close friends on hold for at least the rest of the year. Been working through a lot of personal stuff via therapy and things I've learned in therapy and seeing the difference(s) each day as well. <3
I have been brainstorming in that time though!
Chapter 16 came together in two days of sudden inspiration and heavy researching. It had been fighting me for a little while. I kept all of my old notes from before I rewrote everything so that I could look back and see what direction I was taking things once I was all caught up again. But after all the things I added and changed, it wasn't much help and not really compatible with what's posted now, so I had to start the RotK arc basically from scratch. Then there were the things I wanted to do and scenes I wanted to include, but there was no way to get to them that made sense. Like, there was a dream sequence type thing between Talion, Eltariel, Cel, and Sauron, but the way I got there was so far-fetched and stretching the universe rules I'd established that I just got rid of it altogether. Even the scene just between Talion and Sauron that I reimagined it to be wouldn't cooperate. Dream scenes in general for this arc have been fighting me quite hard, actually. To the point where I'm not sure if we'll have any more unless it's an Eltariel nightmare maybe. Idk yet, though. Anyway! I decided to put that off for another day and just focus on what came after how we left Two Towers.
I deeply enjoyed writing for Faramir and Boromir. I love how much they care for each other, and how nothing could break the brotherly bond they had: not Denethor and his cruelty, a death dreamed ahead of time, a war against Sauron and his orcs. I am so happy I get to write them seeing out the War of the Ring and the beginning of the Fourth Age together. There are fun adventures ahead for them, I'm sure. I love being able to give people happy endings. <3 It'll be quite nice to write Talion returning to one of his strongholds and being around his orc friends again, and eventually reuniting with Idril, Baranor, etc.! I've had fun writing the Allied Mordor Forces subplot and keeping up with our in-game friends a bit. Coordinating the Battle of the Black Gate is going to be a doozy though. I'm not the best fight scene writer. XD And that leaves Haldir and Eltariel, who I'm not too sure what to do with atm. I don't really see what value would be added if she were to join the trio along the Paths of the Dead. I can see some nice scenes with Merry and Eowyn though {It's 2 AM (the peak thinking hour!), and as I type this, there are a few different scenes with them playing out in my head that I really want to go draft. XD}. I guess I just really wish there were more scenarios where her skills could be put to better use. She's an assassin after all: a tracker, a thinker, a planner, a hunter. Aragorn and Legolas had tracking Merry and Pippin covered, and there's not really much planning and hunting to be done on a large open battlefield. There'll be opportunities after the fall of Sauron, of course, but I guess I just feel bad that she's kind of just been a bit of a tag along for a while. A character development while, of course, which is good! But I just want more for her.
Beyond the planning for the near future, I've also been working backwards from the (current) very end. I have an early epilogue scene draft from all the way back in early 2019, with some minor edits in 2021! I had a very clear idea of where I was going when I started this, and it hasn't changed too much! I've expanded upon it a bit and shifted some things around, but it's pretty much the same as it's been. The best part has been the last leg of the journey to get to the Undying Lands and the things that happen between setting sail from Middle-earth and arriving. Talion and Celebrimbor have never really sat down and talked about all that's happened since they met. They've just been soul bound open books to each other, and even though they're so connected and familiar with everything about one another, they've never had a proper conversation about it all. Wraith Cel and Vengeful Talion were not nice people, and they weren't nice to each other more often than not. Both of them did a lot of unspeakable and not good things, and, of course, no one escapes from the trauma that comes with war, coupled with the inability to die. They have a lot to unpack, and it's a long journey. It will still absolutely be a happy ending for them though, and don't think I've forgotten about Ioreth and Dirhael and Cel's wife and daughter either! They'll show up too!
And to top all of that off, in between writing scenes, I've done a bit of composing as well. Short tunes that have helped me visualize and flesh out different sections I'm working on at the time. Some have helped set the tone and mood for things and others are what I would imagine playing in the background of a cutscene, bringing together all the scattered bits of dialogue and setting description. I'm trying to put together something longer and more substantial. I had vague notions of writing a sort of soundtrack to accompany the fic back in 2021 when I wrote the first draft of what I consider Talion's theme (and it gave me the most vivid imagery of a scene in the RotK arc when I first listened to it all the way through that has been seared into my brain ever since), and I'd still like to do that. Writing for large ensembles is hard, though. I've had, and still have, a steep learning curve as a flute player. Having so much experience in most every kind of ensemble (instrumental and vocal) has helped immensely though. I'll throw together and share an official playlist when I've got enough songs done.
Ooh, this is a lot, looking back over it. So sorry. XD As always, feel free to leave some comments here or come chat with me on socials (Twitter and Bluesky @Tgaret990) if you have any questions or things you'd like to discuss. Or even if you just want to say hi! I love hearing people's thoughts on things. Those conversations have been the most rewarding and wonderful part about working on this fic, and I really cherish them. I hope you all are doing well and that the rest of the year treats you kindly. Thank you for continuing to stick with me on this nearly five(!) year journey. See you in a little while. <3
~Angel
[1/21/24]
Hi, everyone! :)
Aaahhh we're in the home stretch, y'all! There's a final chapter count! The happy end is in sight! I've got a basic outline of everything from ch 17 up through the epilogue done. Now it's just getting words to cooperate. XD
Uuugh, if I can just get chapter 17 to work with me! I have spent so much time writing and rewriting and banging my head against my desk trying to make things come together. I've gotten a lot more progress on it done this week, but it's just been a frustrating time. I think I've found ways around what I was struggling with before, but now it's just a matter of getting everything that's happening with each character group to flow smoothly. There's also the matter of balancing and weaving together book and movie material. Fine Line has mostly followed the structure of the extended editions of the movies with bits of the books substituted in where I've felt like it fits best. This arc will have the most changes, and I hope you don't mind too much that the reason for some of them will simply be "just because". Many of them will be things I've had on my mind since I started writing this way back when, and I'm very excited to finally bring those things to life! <3
Beyond that, the only other major changes you might see to the rest of the work will be some basic grammar edits (so that wordier sections and section transitions read smoother) and the addition of footnotes for translations of everything not in Common Tongue (Sindarin, Quenya, Black Speech, Khuzdul, etc.), assuming I can get said footnotes to work. XD Still a bit new to it, so it might take some trial and error. (I blame the Good Omens fandom for sparking my intrigue. XD)
Thank you all again for your continued patience and support over these last few years. It means the world to me. As always, please don't hesitate to pop down into the comments or over to my socials with any questions or thoughts. I'd love to hear from you. I hope everyone has had a great start to 2024, and the next time you see me should be when chapter 17 goes up. Much love and see you in a bit! <3 *hugs*
~Angel
[3/15/24]
Well... I did say should. :')
I really did plan to finish chapter 17 and keep moving forward. I got a lot of great work on that done today! As for other things, haha... Well.
I've been double and triple checking my timeline in regards to the events of Return, specifically everything from the Battle of Helm's Deep up to the Battle of the Black Gate. Realized I'd missed a few things and gotten some timings wrong. Little things with simple fixes. Then I went back a bit further. And rechecked the timeline of everything written thus far. Found I'm missing a lot of minor things that have influence over bigger events. I'm doing my best to adhere closely to the timeline of events as its marked in the Appendices of Return of the King, with a bit of tweaking as is needed. What it's all come down to now is that I haven't read the LotR books since before I originally started writing this. XD And now that I own the books and I've been going back through them, I've realized that there's so much that I've forgotten. The same can be said for the games, though more on the artifacts, collectibles, and world building side of things (which have provided me with a lot of game lore answers to questions I've had for ages). Basically, my brain kicked into overdrive about lore and timelines and continuity and so many other things when I got to the RotK arc, and now that I'm focusing a bit more on that, I feel like I need to go back and fix. :')
I'd only ever meant to, when the epilogue was around the corner, do a final big read through and fix any weird grammar and formatting stuff. That's all I was going to do! Then there was taking the Allied Mordor subplot(s) and all the flashbacks (Talion and Cel's specifically) and looking at them altogether in one doc instead of scattered throughout chapters: making sure I covered all things mentioned, that character interactions made sense, that everything written had a purpose. Realized there were some things that needed to be altered, added, tweaked, etc. There's just so much world building involved in this fic, and I didn't realize how much until I read back through some things and tried to poke holes. Like the concept of producing orcs via vats in the games! There's an artifact in Shadow of Mordor that talks about underground vats that create orcs by the hundreds in Udun. And then there are bits of idle conversation you can hear in Shadow of War where Uruks and Ologs talk about Vat-Keepers, what it's like coming out of vats, their understanding of "dying" and being put back into a body. Stuff I never would have thought about before, but just is in the games! Then that prompts the question of what happens to orc souls when their bodies perish. And then that prompts the question of the origin of orcs in the first place and how we got here in the Third Age. I think you get the idea. And I've come up with answers to those questions, even with all the ambiguity and uncertainty surrounding those sorts of lore questions, among other things, in the wider fandom. Point is, I've come across quite a few of these sorts of dilemmas (regarding game, book, and movie canon), and I've been spending a lot of time sorting them out. Started a separate section in one of my Google docs about lore specifics that's been getting longer by the day.
And there's other things, too, like deciding the path of book vs movie choices in the trilogy. Opting for a more book-like Faramir and a more movie-like Aragorn. Choosing to include Haldir and the Galadhrim (and all the weird logistics and explanations that entails) rather than Elladan, Elrohir, and the Rangers for Helm's Deep. Theoden's handling of everything post-Wormtongue and pre-Pelannor Fields. I went back and picked those kinds of choices apart to see if I'd explained them in such a way that it makes sense that events happened how they did, that characters reacted who they did. And when I found that the answer was no at times, I endeavoured to rewrite things in such a way that the answer would be yes. That's when I'm asking the questions like, "When would the Galadhrim have left Lothlorien to travel to Helm's Deep, how long would it have taken given the terrain and them going on foot (taking into account elven constitution--the need for less rest and the ability to travel faster than Men), how many could be spared for Haldir given the impending attacks from Dol Guldur, did they stay with the Rohirrim for the Muster and how would that have affected the BotPF (if at all), etc.?"
And then, on top of that, I also started examining thematic things, how I was using the setting to set the tone/mood of scenes, if I was showing character growth and the passage of time through body language, dialogue, and physical descriptions. And that whole bit has to do with the fact that so much has happened in my personal life since I posted the rewritten version of this, and I see a lot of things in a completely different light then I did then. I'm such a different person now to the college gal who was working through an ocean of grief and stress of a year-ish ago. I see and feel that in how I read and watch things, how I feel about myself and the world, and how a lot of my newer writing in general, for this fic and others, has shaped up. One of the beautiful struggles of writing a work over a long stretch of time (years) is that as life goes on, you grow as a person and writer, so the story shifts and grows and changes as you go along as well. And once you get so far, you have to decide if how that growth and changes should reflect through the entire work or stay as you currently have it. I had a really nice conversation about this sort of thing the other day with another author on one of their longer works when they had voiced their own struggles with that.
This is a very long, rambling, anxious way of saying this fic is my baby and it'll never be perfect, but I just want to get it right. I have never been so invested in a work before, and I want to get it as close to how I've imagined and wanted as I can. No stone unturned and no plot hole or confusion remaining when I post the epilogue and officially declare this fic completed. So I'm replaying the games, rewatching the movies, rereading the books. I'm triple checking that everything makes sense and serves a purpose. I've got a million tabs open while I'm researching things about characters, events, how long it takes to travel places, the syntax of Quenya, how the Halls of Mandos works, etc. And I want to do this fantastic world and these wonderful stories that Tolkien and others built justice within my own. I'm sorry. I'm sure it sounds like I'm just overthinking it all and fretting over nothing. If 17 1/2 year old me only knew what she was getting into when she posted the original first chapter... XD
If you've read this far on this latest little update note (and I honestly wouldn't blame anyone who doesn't XD), thank you. <3 For listening to me worry and rant. For sticking with me on this. For letting me know that you're invested and that you're in it for the long haul. It really means a lot. If nothing else, I just really wanted to explain A) why I've gone a bit silent, B) where my head is currently at, and C) some of what to expect the next time an actual chapter goes up. *hides face in hands* Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh. *takes deep breath* I will finish this fic. I will. And it'll be great, and the boys will have their happy ending, and my hyper fixating can ping freely between Good Omens, Doctor Who, and Broadchurch. Until then, back to writing and adulting I go. Much love, and see you in a little while. *hugs*
~Angel
[4/20/24]
Hi, all! I hope you've been well. Back with a much less anxious update of where I'm at on things. Sorry for being all panicky last time. <3
So, general things! There's quite a bit of book influence in some of the newer drafts. It helps when you actually own all the books now and don't have to rely strictly on SparkNotes and memory. XD But there is history and worldbuilding and character development stuff in the books that the movies don't touch upon that I thought improved things. Also using the LOTRO a bit to help with travel and landscape descriptions. Just arrived in Eregion the other week and geeked out so much getting to quest and explore there. :D There are also a lot of references to some minor lore bits from the Shadow games. I have a growing YouTube playlist of all the game bits I'm referencing that I'd quite forgotten, and I'm wondering if it would be helpful to link those vids in the notes just in case? And I've got a few footnotes I'm excited to add! Some are explanations of lore things that I've altered for the fic (like the origin of Orcs I mentioned last time), and some are references or tiny anecdotes of things that have happened within the AU but aren't explicitly covered in the fic (like Eltariel's friendship with Legolas). Umm... Only other maybe noticeable things are the added descriptions of character appearances and some settings? I feel like it better shows the passage of time so that it's not just "several days later," "a month passed," etc., and highlights the state of the characters at varying points of the fic. There's the obvious stuff, like Talion's eyes and voice and things like that when he's dealing with Isildur's Ring. But there's also things like Idril starting off the fic with her usual short hair, and then hitting the Two Towers arc and it being down her back, uneven from where a sword or axe has caught bits of it in battle, covered in and darkened by soot. I think those sorts of little things add a lot, you know?
Progress wise, I'm about halfway through the Moria chapter on fixes and such. I've got chunks written of where I left off in Gondor and Mordor and Rohan as well. They're more block paragraphs of all the stuff that needs to be covered and how XD, but that means it should be easier to properly write things out when I get back up to that point. There is, as of now, an extra chapter after the Council of Elrond, so the two chapters that follow now also focus a bit on the non-Fellowship characters like Elrond, Bilbo, etc. and their outside perspectives of the quest and everyone going, and give us a bit more insight of where Eltariel's mind is at where before things were very Talion-centric. Also, on the Moria chapter, I cannot tell you how hard I facepalmed when I was reading back through the book and was so very loudly reminded that the Fellowship passed through Eregion on their way past the Misty Mountains. Like. I can't believe I just forgot that! And beyond that, it's been really interesting and cool to see some things cut from the original version of the fic make a reappearance: tiny scenes, some dialogue, things like that. I have about a hundred pages of cut content and ideas that went nowhere that I've been able to look back through and go, "Oh, that actually works now! That would make total sense to have!" Ideas I've had from the beginning that I just couldn't figure out how to properly implement years ago finally getting to be included? Such a great feeling.
Only other major thing to talk about would be my approach to writing Eltariel. So, when I started this fic several years ago, I simply wanted her to be more likeable. XD Wasn't overly fond of her in-game and wanted to craft a version of her that people wanted to root for and looked forward to seeing. That has very much morphed into something so much bigger for me personally. The more I read back over what I had so far and picked things apart, the more I realized that the shape of her character arc was kind of like my own personal life from the past few years? Girl who feels like an outsider, even amongst her own people, puts pressure on herself to excel and be the best at ~something~ so that she can find self-worth. Girl doesn't quite know who she is anymore because she's equated self-identity with the expectations of others. Emotional, wears her heart on her sleeve gal tries to appear indifferent and unaffected because she was often met with ridicule and disdain when trying to be herself. Stubborn, hardheaded gal has to relearn how to ask for help and let others help her when she doesn't know how/when to. Among many other things! I had no idea this was the direction things would go when I started on v3 of this fic, but the words came so naturally when a lot of other stuff wouldn't, and it took on a life of its own. So if she seems a bit different in the next big official update, that's why! Writing her has been one of the biggest challenges of this fic, especially because her character is very much a certain way in-game and pivots a lot here. Which, you know, she goes through a lot and is carrying new trauma and struggles coming out of chapter one, so character changes are to be expected. I guess it's just a bit scary and strange for something that contains so much personal stuff on a characterization level to become a part of this huge and important thing I'm crafting. <3
I think that's it for now? Thank you again for your patience in all this. I can't wait for you all to see the finished product and how it all comes together. Much love and tty in a little while! <3
~Angel
[6/29/24]
Hello, all! I hope you're doing well. Dropping in to let you know what I've been working on these last few months.
I'm just about through with the Fellowship of the Ring arc. It became a lot longer than I originally intended, but I think what I added addresses a lot of the things I've been looking to improve on and adds to the world I'm trying to build with all the conflicting and overlapping lore between books, games, and movies. We see more glimpses of Cel and Talion during their time in Mordor and how they grew closer despite the cold, vengeful, Ring obsessed-ness, and get some more insight into how their connection works within the New Ring (and how that might be affected by Isildur's Ring and the One Ring). We get to know Eltariel more: who she is, how being the Blade of Galadriel changed her, what she's like when she's vulnerable and afraid and unsure (which we don't get much of in the game), the way she grows as she learns to trust and rely on others instead of trying to do everything herself. She is, basically, the character I'm projecting a lot of my own stuff onto, which makes her quite easy, but quite nerve-wracking to write (see last updates big paragraph about that for more). But I'm glad I've been able to give her some more development and build her character and backstory more. Looots of book stuff pops up throughout. More than I thought there'd be, tbh. XD I've done a thing where I've melded bits of the books' scenes with bits of the extended editions' scenes in a way that I think makes sense and works well. Some expanded setting and character descriptions, footnotes (which I'm greatly enjoying adding!), and some minor changes things that stem from Talion and Eltariel's involvement in the quest. Also, not forgetting about Luinil and the caragors after the Fellowship leaves Rivendell. It didn't feel right to just have the caragors chilling in Rivendell for the rest of the fic, and while Luinil can't exactly just fly them to Mordor, that doesn't mean she can't keep an eye on them from above as they travel--point out any potential dangers heading towards them, terrain warnings, aerial attack support if needed: that kind of thing. Cut some scenes down or out completely that could either be summarized without unnecessarily taking up a full scene to make room for other things or easily footnoted or mentioned by the characters within dialogue or a thought stream.
As far as where I'm at now, plot-wise, I'm in the Lothlorien section! A whole lot of changes are happening right now with all the character work I've done on Eltariel leading up to it. It altered her reunion with Haldir, her attitude on the way there from Moria, how she feels about the sacrifices she had to made to become the Blade of Galadriel and the woman in question, her outlook on the Fellowship's journey on this side of the mountains as they get closer to Mordor, how she views herself. The first Lothlorien chapter is very Eltariel-centric. The second will focus more on Talion and everyone else. The changes to "The Breaking of the Fellowship" will probably be more cleaning and polishing than anything (at least as of today). I've got some Sindarin grammar to check and some planning to do as far as the Mordor interludes (namely, trying to check in with all the regions more evenly and infusing more game lore). Once that's done, we should be onto the Two Towers arc! Which I will try not to speed run through this time. XD
The plan (as of now) is to get back to posting chapters when the fic is officially finished. My initial goal was by the end of the year, and I'd like to think that's still in the cards. I'm cautiously optimistic about that. You never know what life's going to throw at you, but hopefully nothing too awful this fall and winter? Fingers crossed. Happy belated Juneteenth to those who celebrate, and a happy upcoming 4th of July to peeps here in the US! There's a lot of messed up stuff in and about this country, but I'm grateful for all of the good that's here as well, as hard as it can be to see and find some days. <3 Lots of love, good vibes, prayers, etc. to you and yours, and I'll tty again soon. *hugs*
~Angel
[8/27/24]
Hallo! Dropping by really quick to leave you all an update on what I've been up to as of late. :)
First of all, I've just about reached "The Breaking of the Fellowship"! {Only just now??? Yes, I know it's been, like, two months, haha. Doctor Who is my current hyper fixation, and it's a fandom that's become very near and dear to my heart, so I've been doing quite a bit of writing for it. I've really enjoyed it and learning about that universe, and it's a welcome break from Fine Line when I feel like I've hit a wall with things. <3} Just need to clean up the last few Lorien scenes and we'll be in the home stretch of book one territory! Leading up to that, I've written quite a bit. I went back through and re-examined some Mordor interlude stuff, things I felt weren't being addressed or included when and where they should be. So that'll be things like Shelob's alliance with our Mordor friends and the specific ways in which she's involved with the ongoing conflicts (outside of just having visions when the main plot demands it), the settlements that were mentioned by Baranor in chapter two that shows the make-up of Mordor beyond just what we see in-game, a better look at how the remnants of the men of Minas Ithil and the Vanishing Sons get along with the orc forces and how the war has affected the various groups, fleshing out the country wide tunnel system idea a bit more, etc. I've also added lots of details about Talion's struggle against Isildur's Ring: how the Witch-king uses what Talion perceives as his strengths to guilt trip and manipulate him, the ways in which his Nazgulification begins to affect his waking thoughts, the increasing hopeless feeling self-deprecation and almost acceptance of the idea that he might lose himself to the Ring before the war is over, the shift in his attitude regarding the ethics of using the darker powers of Isildur's Ring and if the ends justify the means, etc.
And this Eltariel backstory/character arc. <3 One of the biggest reasons this pair of chapters has taken so very long to finish rewriting is because it's taken me this long to have a complete vision of who she is and what's led her to be the person we see in the game and then at the start of this fic. The biggest hurdle to essentially rewriting her in a lot of ways (and I use that term kind of loosely, just to highlight that game Eltariel and fic-Eltariel are so drastically different) was finding a way to connect with her, relate to her on some level, see something in her that would make me go, "Ah. That's why you see the world like this. That's why you think this way. I can understand." That's when some of my own personal experiences became a part of who and how she is, and combined with a little bit of inferring and adding little twists on the bits of game lore around her, the Blade/Light of Galadriel, etc. created the version of her that currently exists in this newest draft. That also means her conversation with Galadriel--that conversation--is expanded and very different this time. I wanted to explore a side of Galadriel that was contrary to her overall portrayal in the movies and books, but not so contrary as to not make sense with popular canon interpretation and this AU I've built. (I made the mistake of trying to sift through all the versions of her and Celeborn's lore I could find and quickly realized my mistake when it just kept going. Sometimes, research leads to a big info overload headache. XD) The main driving force behind how I'm writing Galadriel to be in the chapter "Hiraeth" is: in this AU, what would make her treat Eltariel the way she did in the vision scene at the start of the Blade of Galadriel DLC? That cold and distant tone, the anger at Eltariel's request of returning to Lothlorien after realizing the gravity of her never-ending assignment, the almost lack of concern(?) for her as well? I've made their relationship a lot more personal as well, mother-daughter rather than assassin-employer, so that adds extra layers and stakes to their interactions while giving Eltariel a backstory that feels more within reach. Something less fantastical/over the top and more grounded. It also lets me draw some parallels with some other character pairs as well, like Legolas and Thranduil (death of a loved one driving a wedge between parent and child that becomes quite hard to remove) and Denethor and Faramir (death/injury of a loved one spawning resentment in the parent; youngest child just wants to earn parent's approval, but most likely never will unless certain dire circumstances occur). Also, I know one of the popular theories at one time was that she's a high elf from the First Age who's been reincarnated in Glorfindel-like fashion, or one who's stuck around Middle-earth for a long time as a healer/warrior and is once again joining the fight. You won't find that interpretation here, but I think those are cool and interesting ideas to ponder. <3
There will be much less heavy, in-depth, rambly Eltariel talk after we hit the the Two Towers arc, I promise. XD Once this Fellowship arc of her character development is the way I want it, it should be smooth sailing on her stuff from there.
Once I do some clean up on the Breaking chapter, then we're onto Two Towers! I would like to extend this arc just a little, given how short it is (4 chapters! :') ) in comparison to the giant that is the Fellowship arc (11 chapters) and the not quite as long but still decently long planned RotK arc (7-8 chapters). At the very least, its chapters will become longer if the chapter count doesn't go up (probably with a lot of footnotes as well?). I'm excited though! I think enough smaller changes have been made in these first 10 chapters to have a noticeable effect on a few upcoming things, so I'm looking forward to seeing that unfold. What else have I done? Ah, speaking of footnotes! How I have them laid out rn, they're a mix of non-Common Tongue translations, little combined-lore snippets I'm expanding on, and brief descriptions of anecdotes regarding our characters and scenes left out of the main work that happen but aren't necessarily focused on (Ex: When Bilbo mentions knowing Eltariel from the Battle of the Five Armies, there's a little footnote about how they met and her minor involvement in events during that time as she's tracking the Nazgul westward, following the rumors of a necromancer and their allies at Dol Guldur. I think that's a neat way to weave her into the larger LotR plot, seeing as how Talion would have been in Udun at the time, newly bound to Cel). And on the subject of anecdotes and such, Talion and Ioreth! Talion still very much loves his wife in this fic. His love for Cel doesn't erase or lessen his feelings for her, and there are more mentions of her, the kind of life they had together, the kind of love they shared, etc. and how those memories not only affect Talion's journey with the Fellowship but also how he approaches things with Cel and the ways in which their love differs. Young whirlwind romance, raising a child together, choosing each other time and again despite not quite having the lifestyle they want but being happy together nonetheless, being at peace with one another. You have all that versus: bonded (literally and metaphorically) by trauma, reluctant comrades in arms turned friends turned something more, coming to love each other despite deceit and treachery and all manner of not great things, finding common ground with all of the cultural and time period differences between them, etc. The light and dark themes run strongly through them too when compared (which I will not sit here and talk your ear off about because Lord knows we will be here for ages if I do. Longer than we already have been, anyway. XD).
All this to say, I've gotten a lot done since my last update note! Even if, timeline wise, we aren't super far ahead of where we were. Lots of love, good vibes, prayers, well wishes, etc. to you. I hope you've been well, and if things are rough in life rn, it's going to be okay and you're going to make it through. <3 Tty soon.
~Angel
[11/26/24]
Just realized I haven't posted an update here since AUGUST. I'm so sorry. :')
Besides having a lot of stuff going on in my personal life (family things, taking on some new roles in my church, flute performance and some composition work for income and networking, etc.), I just really needed a break from writing in general. I've been working non-stop on one project or another since the start of the year, so when mid-September rolled around, I just really had to step away from my keyboard and all of my ongoing projects for a bit. Creative burnout. Took the rest of September, all of October, and the first bit of November to just not write, and my brain is much better for it, I think. <3
As far as what I've been up to since I've gotten back to it, it's been a lot of breaking down where we're at and where we're going as far as character motivations and the ripple effects of Talion and Eltariel's inclusion in the quest. What small moments or snippets of conversations have really stuck with some characters, and how do they affect the ways in which they view the world, other situations and people, etc.? Do they reach certain conclusions faster because of those interactions? Are some events avoided altogether? Do some events still happen but have a different conclusion and/or aftermath? How are their personalities different because of those things? Lots of scribbling in my binder and mapping out all of that.
I guess my biggest challenge now is figuring out when doubt starts to creep into Talion's mind about Isildur's Ring and his strength of will to resist it. He's very determined and encouraging to the rest of the Fellowship, and I wonder what canonical event(s) would create the first real crack in is armor, so to speak. I'm considering Moria at the moment, but I wonder if that feels too soon, or if it would leave too long of a period of time to have to stretch the will-he-won't-he succumb to the Ring(s) dilemma? I'm finding it difficult to balance Talion gradually losing faith in himself while so many others around him are finding their courage and hope because of his words and actions. Maybe I need to come back to that later.
I've got a list of changes and tweaks for the next two arcs in the works, some of which I'm quite excited to implement, as well as a whole host of stuff for the ending/last few chapters in the three(?) year period after the end of the War of the Ring and before some of our heroes set sail. Lots of lovely worldbuilding and me geeking out about game lore will happen. XD Some days, I have to remind myself that all the struggles I'm having are building to a happy ending for so many characters (especially our boys) because I get too caught up in how things just aren't flowing together how they need to. But they will eventually. One word at a time.
I'll try not to disappear for as long between updates next time, haha. An early Happy Thanksgiving to others in the US, and I hope you all are doing well. Much love and tty again soon.
~Angel
[1/30/25]
Aaaaahhhhh it's Fine Line's sixth year anniversary today!!! Oh my gosh, you have no idea how happy that makes me. <3
To the people who are still here despite my lack of new chapters being published lately and all of my rewrite rambling, thank you. Thank you so much for sticking with me while I continue working on this, especially if you're someone who's reminded me to take my time and do what I need to do. The last two-ish years of my life have been chaotic, heartbreaking, and terrifying at times, but also really full of goodness and healing. It's been a lot, and your patience, encouragement, and kindness mean the world to me. I've never been the fastest writer in any capacity, and I try to remind myself I don't have to be, especially if the quality of the work suffers as a result. So I'm still slowly chipping away at this fic, but I've got lots to tell you about!
I have probably needed to have someone read through a lot of the stuff I've been editing and adding for at least six months. I think that's when the biggest of my roadblocks showed up, when I first reached the end of the Fellowship arc. The amazing pretzelduck, a dear friend of mine and fantastic fellow author of a different fandom we both share, was kind enough to talk through and look over a few things for me, and her feedback was extremely helpful and insightful. One of my main takeaways from our conversations was, "Has the character earned this moment?" Has enough happened in way of development (character and/or plot wise) for this moment to feel like it's happening in the right way and at the right time? The amount of pacing and tone/balance issues that simple question fixed was astounding. That's another way to say that the answer to that was "no" far more often than it was yes on things. XD And I'm glad for that as well. There's only so much you can do and see without another brain and pair of eyes to give other perspectives. That's helped with the last of my big Eltariel backstory development things, Talion's crises of faith/self-confidence, the flashbacks and dream sequences between Talion and Cel, the development of relationships in the second and third arcs between characters who started out not liking each other much (if at all), the forks in the road when it comes to diverging from canon (in big and small ways) and how and why it happens. Among other things. Many, many thank yous to her for her time, input, and constant support of this fic, even though she's never played the games and was coming into this a bit blind when I talked to her. <3
So, beyond the few scenes I'm rearranging and cleaning up in the Fellowship arc, keeping the above paragraph in mind, I've been doing lots of work on Two Towers stuff! There are a few more scenes to accommodate changes and additions that have been made in earlier chapters, which should make it feel less like Eltariel is just there and more like her being with that chunk of the Fellowship has a purpose. Talion and Boromir's scenes are getting revamped as well. Which brings me to my newest dilemma! So. I'm very much a book Faramir person. Movie Faramir is... Well. Not for me. :) I was not fond of the changes made to his character (though I understand why they happened for movie purposes), and without those character changes (and other Peter Jackson decisions), the whole thing about him taking Frodo and Sam to Osgiliath is both non-sensical and pointless? I can give Boromir a valid reason to head there, seeing as how the men who fought under him are trying to hold the city, but I don't really see why a more book-like Faramir would ever consider taking the hobbits or the One Ring that way. Unless he thought taking the passage out of the city and the wooded paths that followed would be a safer route than continuing to travel through Ithilien (where the Haradrim and other Sauron supporting groups were traveling through, if memory serves correctly)? And the background SoW happenings could influence things on that front as well, I suppose? Might have to sit with that for a few more days.
RotK wise, I'm trying to figure out where some characters fall within the dynamics established in this fic. People like Imrahil, for example. How does his role in things change with Boromir alive and new factors introduced once the Battle of the Pelennor Fields is over? How does that, in turn, affect Denethor's decision making before said battle (as a Denethor who currently falls somewhere in the middle of his book and movie interpretations while I'm trying to find his voice)? I'm pretty confident of everything that happens once we get to the Battle of the Black Gate, barring the specifics of the scene where Frodo needs to destroy the One Ring. What I want to happen absolutely fits with the themes of the fic and the journey these characters have taken, I feel. Is it a bit tropey and cliche, perhaps? Yeah, absolutely. XD The scene itself didn't fully come together until recently, but it kind of feels like we were always heading in that direction. This is a journey of growth, healing, and, above all, the power of love and friendship, after all. I hope you all feel that that moment is earned when we get to it, even if it may not be the most practical or realistic of narrative choices to some.
And, as a more general thing, I keep having to remind myself that I'm meshing the lore of several different types of media, both canon and non-canon, in the wider Tolkien-verse, that I'm allowed to tweak things where needed for the purposes of making fic events make sense, and I shouldn't beat myself up about it when that's more of a struggle in some places than others. So if you see some weird lore things going on when all the final chapter drafts finally go up, I'm trying my best to find the best compromise for things. It's really hard sometimes, and I'll happily discuss the whys and hows behind the decisions I made if you'd like. :)
I believe that's all I have to share on my progress atm. Wherever in the world you are, I hope you're doing well and that life is treating you kindly. Much love, and I'll tty again in the next progress update. <3
~Angel
[10/30/25]
*heavy sigh* It has been... quite some time. Hi. <3
So many of you have been kind and reminded me to take my time and take care of myself, and I appreciate you all so much. I have struggled so much to write anything at all this year. I've struggled on all creative avenues. Any musical composition, Google Doc, piece I've needed to practice, etc. It has been a really heavy and difficult year. It wasn't until a few days ago when I was sat in front of one of my Broadchurch fics (which was started to help deal with and vent about said difficult year) I've been stuck on that any massive amount of writing started to happen again. But! Recent minor health issues, US-typical turmoil, and deaths and near deaths in the family aside, I have been thinking about and working on this! So much thinking. @~@
The first thing I did when I realized that I was getting nowhere (stuck in a cycle of editing and re-editing the same handful of chapters because there was something not right about them) was restart the game. Re-immerse myself in the world and the story and relearn the characters and their abilities. It has helped a ton! (Also, have the regions always been that huge??? I got so lost trying to navigate Seregost the other day.) The next thing on my to-do list is to sit down with the books and movies again and take note of the big differences between them. It has been far too long since I've read the books all the way through, and comparing where big events and characters change will probably help with a few persisting writing roadblocks (*cough cough Osgiliath cough*) and other underlying things.
As far as things to be written, I've been adjusting a lot of the Mordor ally stuff (especially since it's supposed to play into a lot of things in RotK) and general game-Mordor worldbuilding. There are little communities and non-Orc inhabitants, after all. They have just as much at stake in this war as everyone else. I know ally check-in sections are in the background, but I did feel bad about planting seeds for further exploration of things in the early chapters and then... not really following up that great outside of a fort being attacked and "Oh, a thing happened here." I do wonder if pacing works better when they're their own chapters separate from the main plot, or if having them breaking up main plot happenings is best. Separating them feels like a better way to have them be fleshed out without overcrowding chapters, and to emphasize the importance of certain things. Keeping them interspersed within the main plot makes it easier to tell when they happen and how LotR events are affecting them (and vice versa), makes it feel more like it's all closely tied together. I just worry that they're sometimes a rather jarring departure from what you usually read. An, "Oh, that's still something that's happening?" kind of thing. I've got a lot of characters to juggle. It's hard sometimes. :')
As far as things that are written that I'm still not happy with, I've been really fixated on early Talion and Eltariel interactions. I don't want to run the risk of spending too much time on the travel from Mordor to Rivendell, but I do want to spend a bit more time on establishing how they feel about what's happened since the end of the game. The apology scene during the Rivendell stay doesn't feel like it's been built to properly, and part of that, I think, is because I'm not 100% sure what those two think about what's happened and where they're going. Is Talion bitter towards Eltariel for the betrayal? Has the last year given him enough time to consider her POV and circumstances and come to terms with how things played out? What really happened during Eltariel's year of imprisonment? How has her unexpected rescue changed how she views Talion and herself? How deep does her guilt extend and how does it play into her crisis of self? What prompts her proper, full apology? How do the surrounding characters influence any of those things, if at all?
There are so many things that I never really nailed down at the start of all this that are glaringly obvious to me now, and it's been aggravating me so much because how their friendship develops up until the split at the end of Fellowship greatly influences how Eltariel navigates everything in Two Towers and beyond. How she bonds with the original trio on the journey to Edoras, her interactions with Theoden and Eowyn, the handling of Helm's Deep, her actions on the way to Minas Tirith, etc. It's not the only thing that does, of course, but it's one of the bigger factors. As for how it affects Talion, Eltariel ends up being one of the few people firmly in his corner from the get-go once they reach civilization outside of Mordor. Not everyone in the Fellowship is high on him, and the Council made it clear that just his appearance alone was enough to make people decide he's a monster. She, as his friend, reminds him that a being of evil wouldn't worry about certain things, that he wouldn't fight so hard for certain things and people if he wasn't still himself at the heart of it all. She, as someone who has seen him during some of the darkest years of his life, shows him that it is possible to recognize the good man underneath the transformation and many years of pain and struggle. She's one of the bigger reasons he doesn't give up on himself so easily, why he, in turn, doesn't stop seeing the good in others who struggle against the powers of darkness, like Boromir and Frodo.
I believe that's all I've got about the fic. Still working on it. Still overthinking it. XD Still fighting for the happy ending I envisioned almost seven(!) years ago now. Thank you for taking the time to stop by and read this if you have. Happy Halloween to those who celebrate, many hugs and prayers and good vibes to those who struggle with the season, and I'll hopefully have some good work done on this by the time the new year rolls around. Happy other holidays in advance if I don't post again until then. Be safe and look after each other. Lots of love, and tty soon. <3
~Angel