Fanfic / Ring-Maker

Annatar, Lord of Gifts ^note  Image by Phinnia. Verified Cat

"Three Rings for the Sentinels, honest and true.
Seven for the Wards, in their city of sin.
Nine for the Penitent, forged anew.
One for the Ring-Maker, to find light within,
On the shores where the rising Sun shines through.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to guide them;
One Ring to bring them all from out the Dark which hides them
On the shores where the rising Sun shines through."

Ring Maker is a Worm/The Lord of the Rings crossover fanfic by Lithos Maitreya.

Taylor Hebert had a bad day, and came out of it changed. Some parahumans can control bugs. Some can build advanced technology. Some can do unspeakable things to space and time. Taylor can make magic rings, wondrous metals, mysterious weapons, and may not be a parahuman—or, indeed, human—at all.

Complete. Can be found on Sufficient Velocity, SpaceBattles, FF.net, and AO3.

---

This work contains examples of the following:

• Abusive Parents: Sophia's stepfather Steven is the reason she triggered. Word of God is that it's because he's a Control Freak, though he thankfully never physically hurt her, or tried to.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Being a Maia means this comes naturally to Taylor.
  • Emma Barnes Triggers as a Thinker early in the fic, and eventually plays a key role in Gold Morning, personally finishing off Scion.
• Adaptational Species Change: Shaper, the Echidna clone of Panacea's shard, outright states that the Entities are descendants of Ungoliant.
• Addictive Magic: Minor with the Seven, Taylor tells the Wards that the power and burden will be hard to give up afterward.
  • When Armsmaster asks to borrow a Ring during the Leviathan fight, Taylor refuses, since he has seriously underestimated the addictiveness, especially if it isn't given freely.
  • Krouse suffers this after trying on the ring of Fire after using his powers to steal it for Coil. A later look reveals that he's feeling constantly cold and shivering even when it's eighty degrees.
  • Coil, by the time Annatar tracks him down with Cauldron's help, is so hopelessly addicted to Narya that he begs Annatar, on his knees to be allowed to keep it, even swearing to serve her no matter what. After he's stripped of it and caught by the PRT, he completely breaks down to the point that he's almost non-responsive. More than one reviewer compared him to Gollum.
• All There in the Manual: There's a lot of information at the start of the thread.
• Amplifier Artifact: The Seven draw their abilities from their Bearer's own uniqueness, hence why they boost the abilities of the Wards instead of granting entirely separate abilities like the Three do.
• Anticlimax: the Slaughterhouse Nine fight ends like this. Considering it was in the buildup to Gold Morning, this was inevitable.
• Appeal to Obscurity: Annatar asks Bakuda who Grendel is, and when she can't answer, says that while no one really remembers him, everybody remembers Beowulf, the hero that slew him, and like what happened with Grendel, Annatar would reduce Bakuda to a mere footnote in her legend, right before killing her.
• Artifact of Attraction: The Rings of Power.
• Artifact of Doom: The One Ring, which is mentioned several times but as of yet appeared only in cameos. it doesn't make its first on-screen appearance until Dawn 14.5.
  • One of the original Rings of Power- the Witch-King's ring, left abandoned in a field outside Minas Tirith for centuries- briefly cameos in Dawn 14.6.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Auxiliary's Tinker power lets him make Tinkertech modifications to existing devices and machines, allow them to basically do whatever he can think of. However, all he makes is centralised, meaning that anything he's tinkered with has a single central core that, if taken out, makes the device inoperable. And this can have lethal results.
• Aura Vision: The Rings allow one to see an Endbringer's Core.
• Beware the Nice Ones: As Bakuda found out, you shouldn't push Annatar too far. The lesson was a fatal one.
• Big Good: Eru Iluvatar, heavily implied to be behind the events of the plot and mentioned by Annatar in dialogue.
• Bow and Sword in Accord: Sophia used Narsil for a brief time, and finds that she misses having a sword. Taylor offers to make her a new one.
• Came Back Strong: Taylor during Gold Morning, riding in from Valinor with Gandalf and the Eagles of the West.
• The Cameo: The Witch-King of Angmar makes one in arc 14.
• The Cavalry:
  • Taylor and the Wards during the Leviathan fight.
  • in true Tolkien tradition, the army of the West sallies forth during Gold Morning, for the opening battle of Dagor Dagorath.
• Celebrity Paradox: The author has remained deliberately ambiguous on whether J. R. R. Tolkien, LotR, or his other works exist on Bet at all or in some manner on Aleph.
• Character Development: Sophia actually starts becoming a decent human being here.
• Christmas Episode: One Omake is this, with Annatar in a sexy santa outfit asking the Wards what they desire. Sophia blushes as she tries to avoid explaining how Taylor is what she desires.
• Clone Degeneration: A staple with Noelle's clones, but her attempts to clone Annatar are dead on arrival, and in the form of her previous incarnation's different personas.
• Co-Dragons: After Annatar starts taking on her predecessor's Evil Overlord tendencies, she gets these in the form of Dragon, Panacea, and Coil, who are the Bearers for the Three Rings.
• Combo Platter Powers: Narya gives Protection from mastery, hope, an aura of presence and Super-Strength. Nenya gives Super-Speed, Super-Senses, Barriers and concealment. Vilya gives precognition, Mastery, a Healing Hands ability and Elemental Powers.
• Cool vs. Awesome: Any fight involving Ainur fighting Capes or Endbringers is this.
• Crossover: Between Worm and The Lord of the Rings.
• Darkest Hour: Gold Morning. Taylor and Sophia are dead, and Dragon is left to coordinate the Scion fight.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • Glory Girl survives the events of Worm and is the narrator of Ward. In this fic she doesn't survive the Leviathan fight.
  • Nilbog pulled a Heel–Face Turn during Gold Morning and teamed up with Bonesaw and Glaistig Uaine. In this fic Taylor kills him.
  • Sophia is killed in the opening salvo of Gold Morning.
• Death by Irony: Bakuda wanted to become immortalized through the memories of others, Taylor killed her in a way that would reduce her to a footnote in the legend of Annatar.
• Death Seeker: Little by little, Emma develops suicidal tendencies due to hating herself but feeling unable to change for the better. By the thirteenth arc she wants nothing more than to betray the Empire and then kill herself, but Taylor and Sophia talk her into seeking atonement instead.
• Defector from Decadence: When Annatar starts becoming more ruthless, Sophia and Armsmaster leave, the latter looking for the former.
• Deus ex Machina: Gold Morning ends in a Tolkienesque Eucatastrophe, with the hosts of Valinor as The Cavalry for the Protectorate, and to prepare for Dagor Dagorath.
  • the Eagles even arrive to fight in the final battle.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Played With.
  • When Annatar second-triggers, she decides to fight off the Queen Administrator Shard rather than accept it. The trope is Zig-Zagged because Maiar could be the 'Cthulhu' in relation to the Shard.
  • Sophia plays it straight when she stands up to Sauron in single combat, a feat matched in canon only by Luthien, Huan, Gil-Galad, and Elendil.
  • Again played straight by Emma Barnes, who deals the coup-de-grace to finnish of Scion at the end of Gold Morning.
• Distant Finale: the entire fic is one for the Witch-King of Angmar.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Taylor can only use one of her rings at once.
• Dying as Yourself: Noelle. Even though severing her Shard killed her, she was glad to die as a human, not a monster.
• The Dreaded:
  • Annatar eventually becomes this to basically every criminal in the Bay. She scares Emma Barnes so much that the latter allies with Empire 88 against her.
  • The One Ring is this to Taylor, who goes as far to avoid making it that she will do a Verbal Backspace when explaining her ring-making powers to Piggot and Armsmaster.
  • It turns out there is still one who remembers Taylor's original identity: the Witch-King of Angmar, who recoils when he realizes who she is.
• Eldritch Abomination: The Entities, as per Worm canon, but here they're stated by Shaper to be the spawn of Ungoliant.
• Empathic Weapon: Narsil is implied to be this when it leaves Taylor/Annatar after she starts descending into darkness after her second trigger, ending up in Sophia's locker. Sophia realizes that it isn't just a sword any more than the Rings are rings when Armsmaster brings it to her and resolves to use it to help save Taylor from herself and repay her for giving her a second chance. It's destruction ends up fully reawakening Annatar's memories and turning her back from the brink.
• Empty Shell: Heartbreaker's fate after provoking Annatar.
• Enemy Mine: Emma, after triggering, is so desperate to take Taylor down that she joins up with the Empire. She tries to get Shadow Stalker to help her as well, but Sophia wasn't having it.
• Evil Costume Switch:
  • Panacea, of all people, switches out her robes for a Mini Dress Of Power, and a Naughty Nurse Hat after becoming Annatar's Co-Dragon.
  • Annatar, after becoming more of a Knight Templar, switchers her previous weapons for the mace Burzashdurb, and her armor turns completely black (it's just soot, but it apparently remains for several weeks, and has basically the same effect). It washes off when she has her Heel Realization.
• Evil Counterpart: The new Empire Tinker Auxilary is described as a villainous version of Armsmaster.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Before handing out her trinkets, Taylor warns Power Rings are dangerous and additive and the bearer's fate is bound to theirs.
  "The Rings of Power are dangerous and powerful. They will give you strength, but they will also bind you to them. If you accept the burden of their bearing, your fates will be forever tied to theirs. These are not mere trinkets, tools and weapons like other tinkertech; these will tie themselves to your very soul, and their essence will become inextricable from yours, save by death."
  • Coil and Trickster end up learning this the hard way after stealing a ring, with the latter feeling cold even when it's hot out and the former winding up in a state that readers explicitly compared to Gollum.
• Evil Overlord:
  • Kaiser is a Big Bad Wannabe with ambitions to be this, strong enough for Emma Barnes to ally with him against Annatar, and outlasts the ABB, the Merchants, the Fallen, and the Heartbroken, only going down in the most recent arc.
  • Taylor, being the reincarnation of the Trope Codifier, begins acting like this until Sophia snaps her out of it.
  • Morgoth cameos in several Omakes, including one where he duels the Simurgh during the fall of Gondolin.
• Exact Words: Taylor saying that she can't Master the wearers of the Rings comes across as this to Armsmaster's lie detector.
• Failed a Spot Check: Emma, even with her powers, missed that her sister was a cape.
• The Fog of Ages: Happened to the Witch-King of Angmar. Only when he meets Taylor does he remember everything.
• For the Evulz: Glory Girl is flabbergasted that Bakuda would create an EMP bomb that would kill thousands partially for a power trip.
• From Bad to Worse:
  • Hearth ends with the Endbringer attack.
  • After Leviathan, Valefor shows up, having taken offense to Annatar standing up to the monster.
  • Emma Barnes allies with Empire 88 out of fear of Annatar, going as far as to unmask Annatar and Shadow Stalker in public.
  • Then, right after Coil of all people has stolen the Ring of Fire via Trickster, Heartbreaker shows up, looking for Regent.
  • And then the Heartbroken provoke Annatar to a Second Trigger, inadvertently setting the reborn Sauron loose on Earth Bet, provoking Armsmaster and Shadow Stalker to form an alliance against her.
  • Echidna creating an Eidolon clone.
  • Jack Slash recruits the Eidolon echidna clone and kickstarts Gold Morning.
  • Gold Morning is this rather than the final battle in and of itself, as Dagor Dagorath looms over Earth Bet due to Morgoth being a Greater-Scope Villain.
• Gone Horribly Right:
  • Taylor gives a particularly strong "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Emma. Emma Triggers as a Thinker and then allies for convenience with the Empire 88.
  • Heartbreaker sends his son to get Taylor out of the way. He is left an Empty Shell when a pissed-off Sauron is done with him.
  • Bonesaw's tinkering with Jack's brain gets him possessed by his own Shard. Bonesaw breaks down when she realizes she accidentally killed him.
• Good Is Not Soft: As convincing Dragon that trying to take over would be an appallingly bad idea, Annatar warns that her Family (ie. Eru and the Valar) is in charge of reinforcing Justice, and ticking them off results in sunken continents.
  "Dragon…" I swooped downward, looking up at her from just below her feet. The wind rustled around us, and the sea sparkled below. "I… I have been here before. The last time I tried to rule through fear and control my enemies, I was destroyed just in the moment of my victory. The same thing the time before. It doesn't work, Dragon—and it leaves you with nothing, not even yourself."
  "How?" Dragon yelled. "Who would have been left to fight against us?"
  "That's what I thought," I said, my voice closer than ever to Ancalagon's low rumble. I rose once more, my eyes level with hers. "But there is justice in this world, and… and there are beings greater than us, too. My family. My… my Father. And even if you cannot see them, cannot know them… they are here. And they will act." I imagined the earth crumbling beneath the Bay, the sea rushing up to reclaim the tainted earth. The image made me shudder. Leviathan could not compare to the wrath of the One.
• Götterdämmerung: Dagor Dagorath from Middle-Earth canon. Gold Morning is the opening salvo, and the epilogue ends with the forces of the West preparing for Morgoth to escape the Doors of Night.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Morgoth Bauglir, who has been this since his banishment after the War of Wrath at the end of the First Age, is mentioned in passing several times.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • Grue joins the Wards post-Leviathan.
  • Emma Barnes during the downfall of Empire 88.
  • Bonesaw after Jack Slash's death, as in canon.
• Heel Realization: Taylor, after fully regaining Mairon/Sauron's memories, and realizing she was going down the same path.
  Taylor: I was wrong. I was always wrong.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Taylor starts slipping into this after fully reconnecting to her past self.
• Hope Bringer: During the Endbringer fight, Gallant uses his ring to reinvigorate the heroes.
• Humanoid Abomination:
  • Shaper, Amy's Shard becomes one after Noelle's cloning ability gives it a body.
  • Taylor/Annatar/Mairon is really an older-than-time-itself fallen angel reincarnated as an human girl.
• I Die Free: the Witch-King has his Ring broken, and is freed to go on to the Halls of Mandos, in 14.6.
• I Have Many Names: Taylor goes through several-
  • She starts out as Taylor Hebert.
  • She adopts the Cape Name of Annatar, briefly adopting it as a full-time identity after Second-Triggering.
  • After her Second Trigger, she realizes she is a Maia and her past life was Sauron.
  • After her Heel Realization, she starts going by the full-time identity of Mairë.
• Invisible to Normals: Taylor's Rings when worn. Her hammer and anvil as well; Danny actually walked through it once without even noticing.
• Instant Expert: Taylor has instinctive skill with the weapons she makes.
• It's All About Me: Bakuda wanted, above all else, to be remembered, even if it meant killing thousands.
• It's Personal: When Danny almost gets killed during Bakuda's bombing spree, Taylor decides Bakuda is living on borrowed time.
  Sophia: (coldly) "Bitch. Hasn’t she caused enough trouble for one night?"
  Taylor: She's caused enough trouble for one lifetime. Hers."
• Killed Off for Real:
  • Bakuda.
  • Glory Girl.
  • Trickster and Noelle.
  • Sophia during Gold Morning.
• La Résistance: After Annatar slips into a more Sauron-esque mindset, Shadow Stalker and Armsmaster break off, and eventually form one of these with Chevalier, Narwhal, and Shielder, to stand against (and hopefully redeem) Taylor.
• Last of Its Kind:
  • Taylor is the last remaining Maia actively involved in Arda until the hosts of Valinor show up for Gold Morning.
  • Arc 14 reveals that there is still one remaining Nazgul and one remaining Ring from the Second Age; that Ring was the last known surviving artifact from before the Downfall of Numenor.
• Last-Second Chance: After talking with her privately, Taylor decides to try and work with Sophia, but makes it clear that she'll be on the tight leash that she should have been on while on probation before and that she will get shipped off to juvie if she screws up again.
• Legend Fades to Myth: Nearly said word-for-word by Taylor when she explains her true nature to Sophia.
• Loyal Phlebotinum: The Rings work for Taylor because she made them, even if she can’t compliment them like a true bearer chosen by the ring could.
• Made of Indestructium: Mithril is nearly indestructible when properly forged.
• Magically-Binding Contract: If a Ring-Bearer swears an oath on their Ring, they have to follow it.
• Magnetic Hero: Annatar has an uncanny knack for getting people to follow her, and getting those followers to work together as a team. A lot of heroes and villains find this to be the most dangerous thing about her, even more than the Rings of Power. It's the reason Cauldron recruits her.
• Meaningful Rename: Taylor renames Aeglos Iphannis after Leviathan.
• Mind Rape: Heartbreaker learns the hard way that pissing off Sauron is a really bad idea, by being on the receiving end of this.
• Mithril: Taylor uses this in her weapons and armor. It's a fanfic of the Trope Namer after all.
• Morality Chain: Sophia eventually becomes this to Taylor after the latter's Heel Realization.
• Mugging the Monster: One does not simply antagonize the reincarnation of Sauron.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Bonesaw's reaction after her tinkering on Jack Slash's brain gets him possessed by his own Shard.
• My Greatest Failure: Taylor feels that her recklessness with Bakuda, which nearly got the other Wards killed, is this, and resolves to be better.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Taylor's reaction to seeing Hookwolf is "I could show him what a real werewolf is capable of".
  • Ancalagon the Black is mentioned at least twice in the fic, his fall onto Thangorodrim being remembered as one of Sauron's failures.
  • Several the Omakes:
    • Maglor is in Russia when he hears of a Cape calling herself Annatar, and rushes to intervene.
    • The three Silmarils canonically wound up in a chasm of fire (fire), thrown into the sea (water), and carried through the sky on a flying ship (air), leading at least one Omake to suggest that the first three Endbringers- Behemoth (fire), Leviathan (water), and the Simurgh (air)- are corrupted silmarils, one Omake with Earendil also implying that the Simurgh is also a corrupted Elwing.
    • Some Omakes recreate scenes from the Peter Jackson movies.
    • One Omake with the Valar commending on the events of the fic has them noticing that Mairë has finally gotten the point of Iluvatar's plan.
  • Meta-example: this fic's version of Gold Morning ends in a Tolkien-style Eucatastrophe, the hosts of Valinor sallying forth like in the end of the First Age and the Big Bad being done in by a secondary character like the end of the Third Age. The fic also mentions the impending Book Ends regarding Morgoth.
• Named Weapons: Taylor has a tendency to name her weapons.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Taylor keeps finding new things the Three can do, which is lampshaded.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Echidna Arc almost ended early when Krouse and Noelle decide to flee Brockton instead of fighting Annatar. Then Dragon, who'd become something of a Knight Templar from Annatar's influence, kills Krouse. Cue a very angry Noelle.
• Not Quite Dead: the Witch-King of Angmar may have been killed by Eowyn in the Battle of Pelennor Field, but his Ring wasn't destroyed, instead being left abandoned for eons. It isn't until 14.6 that the Witch-King is finally sent to the Halls of Mandos.
• Oblivious to Love: It's hinted that Genesis likes Regent, but Alec's so emotionally damaged by his father using his powers on him he can't really recognize it.
  • It's hinted throughout the story that Sophia's loyalty to Taylor is something more, and in Wildfire 9.2 Taylor finally realises that Sophia just wants Taylor to love her.
• Oh, Crap!: numerous examples.
  • Circus after finding out Annatar was almost killed in the bank robbery.
  • The Protectorate after Valefor crashes their publicity meeting for Grue joining the Wards.
  • Taylor and Sophia after Oracle unmasks them in public.
  • Heartbreaker when finding himself in Sauron's crosshairs.
  • Everyone in at least one Omake where the One Ring is forged.
  • Taylor and Sophia when the Slaughterhouse Nine attack San Francisco... and recruited an Eidolon clone known as Carte Blanche.
  • Everyone present when Jack gets possessed by the Broadcast Shard. Bonesaw in particular has a breakdown after the fact.
• Omake: Dozens, each with at least one Mythology Gag to either Worm canon or Middle-Earth canon.
• Omniglot: Taylor knows all the Lord of the Rings languages. The PRT chalks it up to a quirk of her powers, since those languages don't exist here.
• Our Angels Are Different: Danny explicitly calls Taylor/Annatar an angel when she explains her origins to him.
• Out-of-Character Moment: Early on, Taylor's speech and body language suddenly became hammiest or even disturbing, freaking out everybody and hinting at her true nature.
  Taylor: "And then Emma seemed to have a weak spot for me. So you cauterized it. And she learned to love the hot iron. Like a slave begging for the whip."
  Sophia: (blanching) "The fuck? Where did you come up with that shit?"
  Taylor: "Oh, don't mind me."
• Poke in the Third Eye: Attempting to use Thinker powers on Taylor/Sauron results in this; when Emma/Oracle attempts to get a Thinker reading on Annatar, what she sees is an image of Mordor and Barad-Dur, which frightens her into allying with Empire88 against Annatar.
• Properly Paranoid: Taylor gives Narya to Armsmaster because he'll not trust her unreservedly, and she need someone who will keep watch her over. Armsmaster accepts the Ring but he doesn't want to wear it unless he has to, proving Taylor chose well.
• Psychic Block Defense: Narya makes Taylor immune to Mastery while she wears it.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Emma is on the receiving end of one in "Twinkle 2.3" when she tries to bully Taylor after the latter's trigger event, which results in Emma Triggering with a Thinker power.
  Taylor: "Tread carefully, little Icarus. You're flying a little too close to the sun."
  Emma: "You think I—"
  Taylor: (coldly) "I knew a little girl who loved her friends, and valued the truth, and knew right from wrong. That girl suffered, as we all do. You want to know the difference between her and me?" (brief pause) "I survived my trial. She broke."
• Redemption Equals Death: Noelle. In this version, she stops her Roaring Rampage of Revenge, and allows Taylor to sever her Shard. The trauma is lethal, but she's glad she gets to Die As Herself.
• Redemption in the Rain: Taylor's Heel Realization comes just in time for a sudden downpour, which has the added benefit of washing the soot from her armor, turning it from black back to its original silver.
• Reincarnation: There are a number of hints that Taylor is Mairon/Sauron reborn, which are eventually confirmed later, by both Taylor's recovered memories and by Noelle's failed clones of Taylor being Mairon, Sauron, and the original Annatar.
• Reforged Blade: Taylor reforged the shards of Narsil into Amauril, "The Flame Of The East" as a gift for Sophia.
• Ring of Power: Naturally. Taylor starts with the Three, and later gifts the Seven to the Wards.
  • The One Ring cameos in several Omakes, is mentioned several times beforehand, and readers anticipated Taylor would forge it for real after a high-profile Master like Valefor or Heartbreaker is in town.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After the Bank job goes south and Regent and Grue are captured, Tattletale and Circus leave Coil's employ, especially after they learn about Dinah's kidnapping and Coil's plans for her, joining up with Faultline for protection.
• Seers:
  • Taylor, of course.
  • Emma has seer-like powers and takes the name Oracle. Specifically, she can see a person's real motivations when she looks at their face. When she looks at Annatar, all she sees is Sauron.
• Sequel Hook: In the epilogue, Taylor and company share a vision of Curumo, aka Saruman, who has likewise been reincarnated... on Roshar. They all resolve to undergo a quest to find him.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Emma Barnes. She appears as a Bully in the beginning, then as an Empire cape, then pulls a Heel–Face Turn, then shows up during Gold Morning and even deals the coup-de-grace to Scion. All in less than a dozen Chapters of screentime.
• The Social Expert: Taylor, after triggering, displays such an aptness for talking people into things that it's an ongoing debate, in-universe and out, whether she should be classified as a Master. Word of God is that, had she not gone to the Protectorate right off the bat, they likely would've classified her as a Master because, even if she doesn't actually have the power to control people, she's so good at getting them to do what she wants anyway that it's practically a moot point.
• Spider People: Panacea, after being convinced to use her powers in more...direct ways, has apparently taken to creating giant spider legs from her back. Naturally, reviewers have made to connection Shelob.
• Straw Nihilist: Bakuda, who came to the conclusion that the world and the people in it are shit, that one can't change that with what little time they have and decided that she would do all that she could simply to be remembered.
• Super-Empowering: The Rings Taylor gives the Wards enhance their existing powers, Clockblocker can now slow down time around him, but his allies still think at the normal rate, Vista can affect direction, allowing her to say that "down" is, say, a spot 5 feet in the air and cause things in an affected area to fall up and remain floating in that spot, Aegis gets a Healing Factor, Gallant's Emotion Bomb powers get stronger and he has better control that lets him do more than simple blasts, Browbeat gets increased self-control (leading him to be banned from poker with the others), Kid Win's Tinkering and focus are boosted, and Sophia can teleport through shadows.
  • She later gives a minor ring to her father that does this to a more minor degree.
  • After Victoria is killed by Leviathan, Taylor gives Nenya to Panacea.
• Super-Reflexes: When Clockblocker uses his new power, times slows down but his allies think at a normal rate, allowing them to fake this.
• Talking Down the Suicidal: Taylor does this when giving Nenya to Panacea, keeping her from jumping off of the Medhall building after Vicky's death.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted, Taylor has to see a counselor after killing Bakuda.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: Narrowly Averted. After Noelle's Redemption Equals Death, Taylor worries that pursuing her own redemption will result in the same; if her options are limited to dying for her atonement, or becoming a Dark Lord again, than she will choose the latter. Thankfully, Sophia is on hand to talk her down by promising that they can find redemption together.
• Together in Death: Taylor tells a dying Noelle that she'll see Krouse again in the Halls of Mandos. Noelle says it's a nice thought, but she doesn't believe it.
• Tomato in the Mirror: As of 9.1, Taylor has realized that she isn't really human.
• Ultimate Blacksmith: Taylor/Annatar, naturally.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Taylor develops this ability after Heartbreaker's son Shutdown attacks her at her house.
• Webcomic Time: Minor, but Taylor muses how it seems like she's been doing this longer than she really has.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist
• Wrecked Weapon: Narsil. Again. And just like last time, it was while being used against Annatar/Sauron.
  • Burzashdurb is deliberately destroyed by Taylor to symbolize her moving past her darkness. She later reforges it, but with a mithril finish, and renames it "Sunrise".
• Written by the Winners: After Bakuda apparently kills the Wards and the kids of New Wave, Annatar tells her that, like how almost nobody remembers Grendel but everyone remembers Beowulf, no one will remember her as more than a footnote in Annatar's own story in the end. The trope name is even dropped in an Omake where she does know who Grendel is.
• Wrong Context Magic: Taylor/Annatar's powers are hinted to not be the result of a normal trigger, especially since Panacea notes that her Corona seems dead.
• Verbal Backspace: Taylor explains to Piggot that she can forge the Rings of Power, but corrects the number from twenty to nineteen because she didn't plan on forging the One Ring.

---