[ SECRET POST #3654 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3654 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 25 secrets from Secret Submission Post #522.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Re: bad fandom opinions

[philstar22]

abusive!Melkor and victim!Mairon. I can get why some people interpret them that way, but it is just so antithetical to how I interpret Mairon. Melkor, too, in the sense that I see Mairon as the only person he'd never abuse. But mostly I think Mairon is arrogant and thinks he's perfect and wouldn't stand for abuse. As loyal as he is, the minute Melkor hit him he'd be out of there. But not before telling Melkor exactly what Mairon thought of the abuse and why Melkor was going to miss him. And honestly, Mairon is a big part of the brains in terms of strategy, so Melkor I don't think is stupid enough to try anything like that even if he wanted to. He needs Mairon.


The idea that Hermione was wrong to fight for house elf rights at all, that house elves are meant to be enslaved and that Hermione just should accept it. Really? Not only is this wrong based on canon, it is rather offensive to suggest that slavery is ever a good thing.

Re: bad fandom opinions

[ketita]

I think in general fandom tends to tack a lot of abuse-of-underlings type tropes, without considering that often, abuse is not the best way to win loyalty... especially if you need the person's skills. And especially if the person has the option of leaving.

Re: bad fandom opinions

[philstar22]

And it is kind of flat characterization of Melkor too? I mean we know that the orcs serve him more out of fear than love. So he's probably not the greatest of lords towards them and almost certainly punishes failure rather severely. But to suggest that he treats everyone that way is a bit odd to me. It is clear in canon that Sauron is different. He's his second, his protege, and even if you don't ship them romantically, I just don't see how Melkor abusing Sauron can fit with Sauron's character at it is in canon or how canon portrays their relationship.

Re: bad fandom opinions

[ketita]

Nuance? What is nuance? -_-
I mean there's obviously a huge power and importance difference between Sauron and your random orc.

As for Hermione (I didn't see the edited comment at first), I think at least a small part of that is on Rowling, for dealing with the issue kind of weirdly and inconsistently. I know that the whole thing made me a bit uncomfortable when I first read it, especially since the whole thing got dropped.

Re: bad fandom opinions

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

I generally agree on Melkor and Sauron, partly due to the way my RP partner characterised the way Melkor worked - he persuades, shows people something "better", treats them well unless they misbehave and defy him.

I like the House Elf thing treated as a crossing of two different cultures. I do agree with Ketita's comment that the portrayal of the issue was very inconsistent, so I think there is room for different interpretations on how much they need to work for someone. The point that I think is unequivocal is that mistreating them is a bad thing, but canon never got Hermione that far and she only ever wanted to completely free them from their positions without thinking how she was also destroying their support systems in the process.
Now that I think about it, it's a little bit like animal rights activists who go and break animals out of captivity... and the animal die because they have no idea how to live in the wild. House Elves can be seen as being like that - they don't know how to live outside service, so just getting them summarily fired is not the way to help them.