I already did elrond here, but thank u very much! ❤ legolas/gimli below! u really know my tastes well anon >_o

when or if I started shipping it: I always loved their friendship but it didn’t really click in a fannish shipping manner until I started doing fannish stuff with LOTR generally – for a long time despite loving LOTR and re-reading it every year, I had not the faintest inclination to do anything fandom-related with it. but after I did, I shipped them from my very next re-read 🙂

my thoughts: GOD. THEY ARE. OTP TO END ALL OTPs…..i love everything. i love the progression of their relationship. i love every single interaction they have. i love how MUCH they interact. i love the greek-chorus-y role their interactions play in the larger plot. i love how their relationship kind of winds through LOTR like a river of gold, something unfailingly joyous and deep and bright and flourishing and funny, parallel to and brushing shoulders with all the other complicated plot threads, and not ignoring them or diminishing them, but kind of sucking sustenance from them to make their own subplot even sweeter and richer. i love their fucking cave/forest double dates. i love their endinnnnggggg.

What makes me happy about them: THEY LITERALLY SAIL OFF INTO THE SUNSET TOGETHER FOR SPACE PARADISE WHILE WINGING IT.

What makes me sad about them: Legolas is immortal and Gimli is very very much not 😦

things done in fanfic that annoys me: movie characterizations that are nonetheless tagged in the LOTR book category, or characterizations that purport to be book characterizations but are so tainted by movie characterizations and/or pop-cultural impressions of “how dwarves/elves ‘are’” that they bear not the faintest resemblance to the actual characters. sludge-projection etc. Gimli thinking of himself as an inferior ugly lil dwarf not Worthy of Legolas. Cliched (and see above for movie/pop-culture-tainted) plots about srs bsns proud rigid elf learning that uncouth rude rough dwarf is Better Than Him. Stupid demonization or snide treatment of various other characters (especially but not limited to Thranduil).

things I look for in fanfic: srs bsns proud dwarf learning that uncouth rude featherbrained elf is sorta cute, actually. culture clash/exchange/worldbuilding. Deep Passion. lots of dialogue. …..cliched mutual pining /)_o

My kinks: HAAAAAIIIIIRRRRRRR. body hair and lack thereof. both of them being either Kinky and Weird or pleasantly unconcerned with hotness from their own povs because each one falls well outside the other’s cultural beauty standards. height and body type differences. previous sexual experiences differences. and…….EMBARRASSINGLY ENOUGH……goofy LACE-as-natural-biologically-rooted-instinct stuff (which i actually don’t care for much in other pairings).

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: NO ONE.

My happily ever after for them: They get a good span of time in Valinor and Legolas recovers from Gimli‘s death in a deep-rooted sincere constructive way and they meet again at the end of the world in the Dagor Dagorath where they resume their bodycount competition. <33333 Most romantic Y/Y?