I quite like this, and very much agree with it. :D
The fact that the Fëanorions are willing to risk their lives (and I'll lump Fingon and Fingolfin in with them, as neither seems to have had a real hidden city) is an important distinction between them and the Valar for me that shows up in my fanfic over and over again. It's a line that I know much of fandom wouldn't agree with me on, but for say, *my* Nimloth, she blames the Fëanorions for her sons' deaths, but she blames the Valar for the entire mess in the first place and because they were willing to abandon her entire people to death because they stayed for Elu. We blame bystanders for deaths all the times, fairly and unfairly. We don't charge them criminally, but we certainly ask why nobody tried to step in.
The Valar, to me, are the ultimate bystander at fault. They think they know best, so everyone should have to suffer the consequences if they don't do what the Valar say to do. And that's a very, very dangerous line to take, imo. There's a difference between say, not letting everybody keep arsenic they bought at Walmart in their kitchen cabinets, and somebody trying to keep all the water in one area where you have to go to a specific place and ask for it in the right way to have water. The Valar and the light seems far more like the water situation to me...
Especially since the Valar have one primary difference with the elves who stay in hidden cities: the Valar are much harder to kill, so they can't even really claim self-protection as a reason for staying hidden.
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The fact that the Fëanorions are willing to risk their lives (and I'll lump Fingon and Fingolfin in with them, as neither seems to have had a real hidden city) is an important distinction between them and the Valar for me that shows up in my fanfic over and over again. It's a line that I know much of fandom wouldn't agree with me on, but for say, *my* Nimloth, she blames the Fëanorions for her sons' deaths, but she blames the Valar for the entire mess in the first place and because they were willing to abandon her entire people to death because they stayed for Elu. We blame bystanders for deaths all the times, fairly and unfairly. We don't charge them criminally, but we certainly ask why nobody tried to step in.
The Valar, to me, are the ultimate bystander at fault. They think they know best, so everyone should have to suffer the consequences if they don't do what the Valar say to do. And that's a very, very dangerous line to take, imo. There's a difference between say, not letting everybody keep arsenic they bought at Walmart in their kitchen cabinets, and somebody trying to keep all the water in one area where you have to go to a specific place and ask for it in the right way to have water. The Valar and the light seems far more like the water situation to me...
Especially since the Valar have one primary difference with the elves who stay in hidden cities: the Valar are much harder to kill, so they can't even really claim self-protection as a reason for staying hidden.