Leepacejustawesome3 What About A Very Shy Maitimo /)//-//(

Fingolfin

anyone hurt him we're gonna have a problem

It was a rough season for Elrond.

perfection

“I don’t know what to say” The words came out with sobs as the High King looked at them sternly. Just moments before he had been mad enough to yell, but the anger was turning into regret as the person in front of them was uncharacteristically bursting into tears. He had never seen them cry before and the shame that was starting to grow inside of him from knowing he was the reason for the tears streaming down their face was becoming uncomfortable.

“I am sorry” his words came out more softly than the angry words he had spoken just moments before, and for a moment he was unsure if they had heard him, but as soon as they looked up with tears still clearly in their eyes he knew that they had, “It’s not actually your fault, this is just how I react whenever someone raises their voice at me” their sobs seem to grow stronger. He started to become angry again, but at himself for not knowing better. “But it is,” he said “It is my fault and I am sorry”, they looked at him in disbelief, they truly couldn't believe that the High King was actually apologizing “What?” Was all that came out, and Gil-Galad thought to himself that hugging them seemed like the best solution to comfort them but he didn't wish to do so without asking, just in case he triggered something in them that would make them even more upset than they already were, “Do you need a hug? Or do you want me to leave?” He expected to be told the latter, he expected to be told to leave and never to speak to them ever again. But they did not, because they pulled him into a tight hug. He had no idea how long they stood there, tightly embracing each other, all he knew was that he never wanted to let them go.

Absolutely love Mirdania!

JUSTICE FOR MIRDANIA !!!

(I am in love with her and delulu so I drew her with my design of Celebrimbor)

that was so kind of him to do, god knows Prokofiev needed it

Dmitri Shostakovich at Sergei Prokofiev's funeral, 1953.

For context, Prokofiev and Stalin died on the same day- March 5, 1953. Because Stalin's funeral was such a major event in the Soviet Union, Prokofiev's was largely overlooked, despite the fact he was one of the leading Soviet composers of his day. Relatively few people attended his funeral, Shostakovich among them.

Shostakovich and Prokofiev were not particularly close, and had a thorny professional relationship- much of the correspondence between them that I've been able to find appears to be formal criticism of each other's works. As Prokofiev was from an older generation- he was born in 1891, while Shostakovich was born in 1906- they did not always see eye-to-eye musically; Shostakovich experimented with the avant-garde when possible, perhaps in part due to his musical maturation during the socially-liberal NEP era, while Prokofiev's style tended to be more conservative and neoclassical- picking up more influence from Imperial-age composers and fellow emigres to the west (he lived in France and the United States before returning to the Soviet Union in 1936). Their generational difference also partially accounted for how they responded to harsh government criticism- Shostakovich was impacted by the consequences of his 1936 denunciation all his life and, while he suffered greatly during his second denunciation in 1948, was able to develop public and private personas, in both the musical and ideological spheres, to preserve himself and his artistry. However devastating as it was for Shostakovich, the 1948 denunciations took a greater toll on many other composers, Prokofiev included. As Prokofiev did not believe he would be harshly denounced as Shostakovich had been in 1936, he was far less prepared for the censorship and attacks he faced in 1948. As a result of the denunciations, combined with his declining health, his artistic productivity decreased, and he largely regulated himself to writing basic ideological works towards the end of his life.

This is a letter Shostakovich wrote to Prokofiev on the subject of his Seventh (and last) Symphony:

There's speculation as to whether or not Shostakovich was actually impressed by Prokofiev's Seventh Symphony. As Prokofiev was in decline at the time of writing it, the symphony has been criticized for being banal and not being particularly innovative; Rostropovich even claimed that Prokofiev added in its final flourish not for artistic purposes, but to have the piece nominated for a Stalin Prize, which would have meant money and a boost to his reputation after it suffered in 1948. (The Stalin Prize has its own complicated history in its role in Soviet music, and although it was the highest award a Soviet composer could earn, it could sometimes be awarded as a sort of backhanded punishment- an encouragement for composers to write the "right" sort of music, especially after they had been criticized for "formalism." Nonetheless, winning it after suffering a denunciation could mean financial and political security.) Did Shostakovich- who had often traded criticisms with Prokofiev over music- actually like this piece, or was this an effort to encourage a fellow artist to keep composing after suffering mental and physical ailments? This was a private letter and not a public statement, and Shostakovich was typically very straightforward about critiques, so if the entirely positive sentiment for the piece wasn't genuine (the only critique here is that Shostakovich says he wishes the entire symphony was encored!), the letter may have come from a place of concern.

Perhaps the most striking thing about this letter is the line, "I wish you another hundred years to live and create. Listening to such works as your Seventh Symphony makes it much easier and more joyful to live." Maybe by telling Prokofiev that he wished him another hundred years to live and create, Shostakovich was not simply praising the symphony, but encouraging Prokofiev- a composer whom he was often on icy terms with- that he needed to keep living and creating, during a time when it was becoming more and more difficult for him to do so.

Would you consider making any Mirdania icons?

Hi! Absolutely!

I've added them (tumblr sized 128x128) to my @luzriels rings of power icons page here ~ hopefully adding the rest of the cast very soon. Requests are welcomed. (As always, for Sauron and Galadriel icons check out martanis icons)

And below the cut! Hope you like them :)

A new clip of Elrond fighting

Please a thousand times over

Please

Please

Please

PLEASE

oh high king please scream

A new poster for episode 8

I'm still so mad about the adar death but I gotta say Celebrimbor-after just being shot with a frick ton of arrows-telling Sauron that soon he will "go to the shores of morning, borne hence by a wind that you can never follow", calling Sauron the shadow of Morgoth and telling him that he's just a prisoner to the rings is peak feanorian defiance and just peak in general