Quenta Smugarillion
The Silmarillion is The Lord of the Rings' scary older brother, the one which breaks many a prospective Tolkien nerd's dreams of expertise by being a . . . rather difficult read, to put it lightly. Plus, no Orlando Bloom. Its fandom is thus considerably smaller than LOTR’s, but, as the following demonstrates, they can wank with the best of them. Kudos to a mousey on Wank Report for compiling these links ♥

Tragically the initial part of this wank has been baleeted, but mousey informs us that it went like this: "Dawn is a very serious writer and seems to be trying to be the BNF/mother of the fandom. TheBattlingBard is more of a reviewer/flamer who has published a few stories that tend to be on the parody/humor side. They've sniped at one another, but things really came to a head last month when TheBattlingBard announced that she was fed up with the "smug MEFAs," the awards for Tolkien fanfic, and was creating her own to dishonor the worst in the whole Tolkien fandom. Aside from the usual "worst characterization," "worst OC," etc. characters, she included a category for "most smug fanfic writer." On the message board created for her awards (The Pushuruk Awards) on ff.net, much discussion was had over who was the smuggest of them all. The main nominees came out to be DawnFelegund, JunoMagic, and Jael Beruthiel. Sadly, these posts were deleted before I had a chance to save them."

What do the lovely nominees think of all this?

JunoMagic starts us off, with the fourth post down here. Two parts of her response are particularly golden, so I'll quote them here because I love you. Firstly, her acronym for "smug", which I think may give some insight into why she was nominated for the award in the first place:

S for "stories":
I will always try to remember that fan fiction is meant to be about stories, about sharing and enjoying stories based on the works of an author we love and that it is not about humiliating and threatening others. I believe that there is no such thing as a story that can "defile" fandom. And if I don't like a certain kind of story, I'll simply not read it.

M for "mature":
I will always try to behave in a mature way. I will not flame, threaten, belittle or humiliate others. Even if I am involved in a heated discussion, I will remember that sentences like " What I wouldn't do to have 5 minutes alone with that author in a closet with a semi automatic" are absolutely inacceptable. I will always try to behave like a reasonably rational mature person.

U for "understanding":
I will try to understand my fellow fanfic writers. I will respect them no matter what kind of stories they write or read. I will endeavour to give critiques only when they are asked for and I will always try to give polite, thoughtful and constructive criticism.

G for "good time":
I will always try to remember that fan fiction is meant to be fun, a hobby, and that we do it because we want to have a good time together. I will not stand by and watch when fellow fan fiction writers are flamed, threatened or humiliated, because that is no fun and not funny. Not even once.

And then she provides quotations from her posse. Because, after all, it's the first sign of maturity to try to show that you're right because other people say you are.

* "We alll wants that award!" (Rhapsodythebard)

* "(...) smug (...) Smart Multitalented Unconventional Gals" (Appogiato)

* "Darn, I didn't get any nominations!! *tear*" (Tarion Anarore)

* "All hail the High & Mighty Queen of the Junoverse. Eat your hearts out losers, she is and you ain't." (Mike Kellner)

* "Smug (...) means having the wits and guts to stand up to those who trash and threaten others. Thanks for bringing this issue and their nastiness to light. Light always burns away the mildewy types who like to spread the negativity. Let there be light!" (Appogiato)

But where things REALLY take off is when Dawn responds. It's . . . well, it's this post here. It's just . . . seriously, just go read it, you'll see what I'm talking about. She brings up the Milgram experiment (which one, is my question) and bees. There's pretty pictures, too! Here's a choice excerpt to whet your appetites:

I posted a few weeks ago about a real-life example of the Milgram experiment. I don't pretend to be so noble as one willing to interfere in the actual harm or abuse of another person, but having studied Milgram in detail, I do know that having the courage to stand up even when the issue is as "small" as a threat of harm over fan fiction is good practice for standing up when it truly matters. Social conformity is a sad reality for humanity. Without going into great, rambling detail, in one study, people were willing to change their perception of the length of lines--even when their perception was obviously correct--in order to avoid going against the incorrect but prevailing opinion (Asch 1951). Do we see the same thing in online forums? You betcha! You get "cults of personality" centered around individuals like The Battling Bard where her fanminions chirp cheerfully in reply to everything that she says. Do you think that one or two of them might have gotten a slight misgiving at death threats being used in fan fiction. Sure...but when the group says it is okay, then it must be okay, right?

She brings up rape, abuse, etc. etc., too. To wit: it is evil to flame someone else because they may have other issues going on in their lives.

Because they are very mature, someone (a "bored housewife", TheBattlingBard suggests), presumably connected goes and anonflames TheBattlingBard here. Short summary: if you give a bad review, you are a horrible human being.

The stirring conclusion! TheBattlingBard caves in and scraps the award, because "the bickering was getting out of control." Claudi007 says what is probably the single most insightful thing anyone has said in the entire affair: But isn't that what smug people do? Bicker about their relative awesomeness?

Probably dead now, but it's so totally Mean Girls that it had to be shared.

ETA: I missed this part the first time around, but have fun with TheBattlingBard's call for her own minions to go mock Juno.

Plus, multiple abuse reports have been filed against a BattlingBard parody story, apparently. It's one of the last comments down - the main link is the discussion thread for the Pushuruk Awards.

Also, I have just realized this isn't so much Silmarillion fandom as "literary Tolkien" fandom, but I'm lazy so I'm not changing it.