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chaos-of-the-abyss: I hate how most people only know Luthien as this chaste, innocent, ethereally...
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chaos-of-the-abyss:
I hate how most people only know Luthien as this chaste, innocent, ethereally beautiful elf-woman who got everything done through her otherworldly beauty. I won’t deny that her beauty was one of her greatest assets. But in my opinion, this is not a case of a Mary Sue, because it actually makes sense. Luthien is the daughter of a powerful elf king and a Maia - basically Tolkien’s version of an angel. And not just any Maia, one of the most beautiful. It makes sense for her to be a genetic jackpot. She’s already an elf, far more beautiful than a human can be.
But one of my favorite things about Luthien is that she basically told Sauron to sit the fuck down or she was going to send him crying back to daddy (Morgoth/Melkor).
“Lúthien came to him, and said that he should be stripped (of his body)… and his ghost be sent quaking back to Morgoth; and she said: “There everlastingly thy naked self shall endure the torment of his scorn, pierced by his eyes, unless thou yield to me the mastery of thy tower.“”
And guess what? Sauron yielded that tower and kept his tail between his legs for the rest of the First Age.
This was not a move made because, “Oh my lord, she’s drop-dead gorgeous, I’ve been enchanted by her hotness”. This is a moment of, “This girl means business, I’d better listen to her if I don’t want my ass to be kicked any more”.
And this was Sauron.
Luthien definitely isn’t your sword-wielding, armor-wearing, tomboyish deconstruction of classic feminism, but she was still a badass and she still knew how to frighten the hell out of people.
chaos-of-the-abyss:
I hate how most people only know Luthien as this chaste, innocent, ethereally beautiful elf-woman who got everything done through her otherworldly beauty. I won’t deny that her beauty was one of her greatest assets. But in my opinion, this is not a case of a Mary Sue, because it actually makes sense. Luthien is the daughter of a powerful elf king and a Maia - basically Tolkien’s version of an angel. And not just any Maia, one of the most beautiful. It makes sense for her to be a genetic jackpot. She’s already an elf, far more beautiful than a human can be.
But one of my favorite things about Luthien is that she basically told Sauron to sit the fuck down or she was going to send him crying back to daddy (Morgoth/Melkor).
“Lúthien came to him, and said that he should be stripped (of his body)… and his ghost be sent quaking back to Morgoth; and she said: “There everlastingly thy naked self shall endure the torment of his scorn, pierced by his eyes, unless thou yield to me the mastery of thy tower.“”
And guess what? Sauron yielded that tower and kept his tail between his legs for the rest of the First Age.
This was not a move made because, “Oh my lord, she’s drop-dead gorgeous, I’ve been enchanted by her hotness”. This is a moment of, “This girl means business, I’d better listen to her if I don’t want my ass to be kicked any more”.
And this was Sauron.
Luthien definitely isn’t your sword-wielding, armor-wearing, tomboyish deconstruction of classic feminism, but she was still a badass and she still knew how to frighten the hell out of people.