Silm thoughts - “Of the Darkening of Valinor”
I already said I don’t see why Finwë was chosen as king of the Noldor. In this chapter, is even more obvious why I doubt Finwë’s aptitude as king. What I find objectionable is not just his obvious favour of Fëanor over the rest of his family, but also over the rest of the Noldor he’s supposed to be ruling. He leaves everything to go with Fëanor on exile. Anyone else thinks he’s overreacting? 12 years is nothing to an elf, and what the Valar asked of Fëanor wasn’t unreasonable, considering Fëanor threatened his half-brother. If anything, I think the punishment was pretty mild. I wonder what the reaction of the other Noldor was to being abandoned by their king. That’d make an interesting fic, I think.
Someone else I see as a bad leader is Fëanor. Unlike Finwë, I do understand why people would follow him. I think under other circumstances, he’d be a great leader. However, he’s too self-involved for that. I don’t think he cares about it at all... he won’t accept anyone but Finwë as his king, true, but I don’t see him as someone who cares about being king. I think all he cares about is having the freedom to do what he wants. So I think his real problem with Fingolfin being considered the heir of Finwë isn’t that Fëanor wants to lead the Noldor, but the implication that Finwë considers Fingolfin a better choice. It’d mean Fingolfin is better than Fëanor in Finwë’s eyes.