@plotweaver also helped with the liveblogs campaign and asked me to draw some married cuteness 😉 I actually got this idea from my flatmate and a scene from Azhâr ♥
and he has never quite managed baby-fine, super-curly Hobbit hair either, and so he is irritated with the unevenness of the braids, reaching out several times with a muttered, “now, hold still a while longer and just allow me to redo that last one…”… but to every Hobbit child they are beautiful and amazing and they won’t let him take them out.
And while he is concentrating so hard on the fauntlings’ hair, Bilbo is watching from the seat before Bag End, his forgotten pipe dangling in his hand, a fond smile on his lips and a massive swell of love pushing his heart against his ribs. Because here is his dignified Dwarven King, these days, and oh, it is so good to see him happy.
(and, too, some scamp has threaded daisies into Thorin’s own hair, and he hasn’t noticed yet.)
Hi there, welcome and thank you for asking about my fic!! 😀
The one that was commented on was the behemoth,
Sansûkh. I am SO glad you like long fics, because it is currently at 39 chapters and 405K words! *sheepish look*
It’s Bagginshield, Gigolas, Aragorn/Arwen, Eowyn/Faramir, Bifur/Ori and many other ships. Rated Teen. I am currently working on chapter 40, which is the big climactic sequence (and it is kicking MY BUTT)
There’s also Sansûkh: The Appendices – a collection of associated side-fics for the story, written by myself and others! These have assorted ratings, from Gen to Explicit.
There is SO much associated artwork, music, writing, podfic and much more that has grown around and with this fic. All links are collated at the top of my blog, or at my Sansukh tumblr. It’s a constant source of astonishment and joy to me, and it’s such a pleasure to recommend it all to you. I hope you enjoy, and thank you again!
wow, can you be any more neurotypical. Lo and behold, I have been blessed by the presence of the Thorin-Is-Scum anon once again, this time poorly disguised as another ‘Guest’. I am lowkey impressed at your dedication – did you really wade through nearly 400K just to tell me how much you despise and hate people with depression and MI, and how unworthy they are of anyone’s esteem or admiration? How tiresome you find their struggles?
Go away. You are unwelcome in any part of my life, and that includes FFN. GO. AWAY.
(for those who cannot read the very small pic, transcript under the cut. Though I honestly wouldn’t bother. I’m only posting it here bc I am angry and need to yell at them to FUCK THE FUCK OFF, and I can’t do that on FFN.)
Far as I’ve honestly picked up, Thorin is the type of character who cannot see much of a reason to love himself – never has, and maybe never will. He doesn’t like himself as a person, and the more he looks at his past, the more he sees failure after failure after failure. His family, however, do not. They see the son who picked up the pieces and kept a broken people going. They see the brother who had to live for everyone else but himself. They see the uncle who struggled to keep the family alive. They see the cousin who had to keep thinking ten steps ahead just to keep his people alive.
And then there is Bilbo. Bilbo who saw everything that Thorin never could. Bilbo who saw someone honest and genuinely kind, someone who had been hurt by the world and so desperately wanted to punch back for a change that he decided to go up against a dragon. Bilbo who saw someone who so desperately loved his family that he would fight anyone and anything that threatened them. Bilbo who saw someone who wasn’t a king, but who was just Thorin – a dwarf who, as it seemed to Thorin himself, had nothing left in the world to lose.
The important part? Bilbo loved him, loved that dwarf that Thorin couldn’t see in himself. Even as Thorin seemed to lose himself, Bilbo didn’t give up on him. When even Thorin’s cousins and nephews didn’t speak up against him or try to stop him, Bilbo did, because he knew that the Thorin he fell in love with would hate himself for what he was doing.
Thorin is that person who was only kept going by the needs of others – if he didn’t have any family left, if his sisters and nephews and cousins were all dead, he would probably have given up. He didn’t live for himself, he didn’t think of his own wants and needs. It was always about others.
The way I’ve read Sansûkh, Thorin is slowly learning to love himself, and to live for himself as well as for others. He listens to his family. He lets himself be his mother’s little stormcloud, he lets himself be his father’s son. He lets himself be a big brother and an uncle. He relaxes more. And once he learns that Bilbo loves him, he starts to look for whatever it was that drew the hobbit to him in the first place. And he ends up learning to love himself a little more, because Bilbo does. There has to be something, right?
Thorin is and forever will be my favourite character in the Tolkien Legendarium. For his deeds, as well as for his personality. I love the pompous noble Thorin in the book, and I love the withdrawn and anxious and mentally ill Thorin in the movies. And I absolutely adore the mix of all this that appears in Sansûkh.
And just to add something. No, Gimli did not “get over” his issues. He learned, and is still learning. He is working on it, he is working on everything. And he has help to do so, help that he was willing to accept. The difference between Gimli and Thorin is that Thorin had to process everything alone before he was ready to actually accept that help. Gimli is what Thorin is not – open, more willing to change. Ever heard the saying that you can’t teach old dogs new tricks? Thorin is that old dog, and he is still having difficulties understanding and learning, whereas Gimli is the pup who is more open to trying something new.
thank you, tehri. you put this better than i ever could have dreamed.
wow, can you be any more neurotypical. Lo and behold, I have been blessed by the presence of the Thorin-Is-Scum anon once again, this time poorly disguised as another ‘Guest’. I am lowkey impressed at your dedication – did you really wade through nearly 400K just to tell me how much you despise and hate people with depression and MI, and how unworthy they are of anyone’s esteem or admiration? How tiresome you find their struggles?
Go away. You are unwelcome in any part of my life, and that includes FFN. GO. AWAY.
(for those who cannot read the very small pic, transcript under the cut. Though I honestly wouldn’t bother. I’m only posting it here bc I am angry and need to yell at them to FUCK THE FUCK OFF, and I can’t do that on FFN.)
[Yo, I’m sorry but I’m really not buying whatever you think you’re doing with Thorin’s character here. His speech to Dain is pretty much “I suck and am more bad than good but slightly maybe more good?” which, to me, still says nothing. It’s been 37 chapters. This character has barely changed. And this is supposed to be Thorin as “better?” he best he can be is not as fucked up, while you have so many good, PURE characters? Gimli, who got over his issues (which weren’t even that bad) in like 3 chapters.
And the more you highlight this, the more I don’t get how Thorin functioned with anyone else before. How did his family stand him? Why did anyone even follow him to begin with? You’re telling me these things but I don’t see any reasons why. Thorin said it himself, his only good trait was “courage”. But so what? Every character here is. Why did anyone care about him before he died, if he’s still super flawed now? I know families can love members just because of blood, Boromir loves his dad even though Denethor was a bad father, but just because they love them doesn’t mean the person is deserving of it. What did Thorin do for his family, or anyone who followed him? Why does Bilbo even love him? It just doesn’t make sense to me when you have one character who is more flawed than everyone else. If he’s supposed to be only “better” because he died, what was there to like when he was alive? There hasn’t been a single talk he’s had with anyone “close” that wasn’t just a compliment after a string of flaws. It just looks like everyone has to pick up after him, and there’s nothing selling me, the reader, on why I should think he deserves it. “Just because” is not an adequate answer. Quite honestly, as tiresome as it is to read chapters of a character constantly self-flagellating, in his case I can see why. He’s saying objective fact. I don’t see where he’s being too harsh on himself. It would be much better without marinating in a character’s shitty flaws for 40 chapters.]
Hey there – I am THRILLED you enjoyed it! I was very apprehensive about combining two of my most favourite worlds in the entirety of fiction, and it’s so good to hear that you feel I succeeded! Sir Pterry’s tone is especially difficult to match, he has such a recognisable style!!
Ah yeah, this definitely takes place AFTER Raising Steam. And as I have only just finished The Shepherd’s Crown, it will probably incorporate new concepts from that book too.
(The afterword of The Shepherd’s Crown made me cry like a fountain, ngl.)
Heheheheheh, I’m glad you liked that phrase! Sooooo proper – and so chilly. 😀