Daughters of Celebrian
is a crossover series of fanfics between Tolkien's Legendarium and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, written on Archive of Our Own by Grundy.
It's mostly focused on Elrond's family, since Celebrian actually got stranded in California with her newborn daughter when chased by orcs and spent several years believing herself to be Joyce Summers. With Dawn's unexpected presence shaking the amnesia loose, Celebrian decides she made her husband and older children wait long enough for a family reunion.
It causes some ripples, and sometimes it doesn't change anything but mostly? It annoys Morgoth a lot.
Contains the following tropes
- Adaptational Heroism:
- In the Silmarilion, Eöl and his son Maeglin were quite the jerkasses at the very best. Here, Eöl is victim of his brother-in-law slandering him to Mando and back, while Maeglin suffered And I Must Scream at the hands of Sauron pulling a Demonic Possession.
- Carnistir also argues that his brother Curufin never meant to hurt Dior's twin sons, merely to ransom them against the Silmaril.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: The Valar struggle a lot to understand people. Exhibit A, Namo who really wants for the dead in his Halls to stop plaguing him with their troubles and reincarnate, and not the slightest idea of how to play the therapist.
- Celestial Theme Naming: In line with the House of Elrond's conventions, there is Anariel for the sun and Tindomiel for the dawn.
- Chosen Conception Partner: Tara and Willow wanted children, so they asked Glorfindel — who is gay — to help them with that. Following their respective demises, he gets much more involved in their daughters' raising as their lone surviving parent.
- Composite Character:
- The very crux of the series is that Joyce Summers is actually an amnesiac Celebrian.
- Morgoth is also the First Evil, leading Buffy to get nervous at the prospect of a multiversal foe.
- Crossover Relatives: Buffy Summers is related to Elrond. Nuff said.
- Evil Is Petty:
- Morgoth's bread and butter. Killing Celebrian and the infant Anarial wasn't enough, turning them into orcs wasn't enough because they ultimately would depart for Mando's Halls and reincarnate in Valinor, so he cast them away in another dimension entirely, infecting Buffy with Slayer essence to ensure she would die young and leave her mother bereft of family, while their loved ones back in Arda would forever wonder why they couldn't be reunited with them.
- Sauron's last spiteful act right as Maeglin was dying was to tell his meatsuit that it wouldn't be enough to free the elf from the fallen Maia, causing Maeglin to assume Mando's Halls are Angband for two Ages.
- Girl of My Dreams: Aredhel had a vision when her son was born, about a descendant of Galadriel whom Maeglin would meet someday. It drove him to forge a sword for her.
- Half-Human Hybrid: There is a great deal of focus upon Elrond's bloodline and what does it mean to have a foot in both worlds. Also, Erestor in the series was born of Carnistir and the human chieftainess Haleth, and Glorfindel agrees to sire children on Willow and Tara.
- Happily Adopted: Elrond's children will insist until they lose their voices that Maglor is their grandpa. It causes tension courtesy of the many sins committed by the House of Fëanor.
- Mayfly–December Friendship: Since Buffy rejected the Gift of Men in California when she faced the Master, her friendships with Xander, Anya, Willow and Tara were fated to end in tears, and they are only the first people to leave her behind — after a century watching her mortal acquaintances to slowly decline and perish, Anariel grows so weary that she cannot stand the prospect of staying in Middle Earth following the loss of Arwen.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Played for Drama with Turgon as his determination to antagonize people in a relationship with his siblings has unleashed a great deal of tragedy — him sending Maedhros a report gruesomely and fully detailing how Finrod perished wound up in the hands of Turgon's own descendants and gave them nightmares, and of course there's the whole deal with Eöl...
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Elrond hypothesizes growing up in California and being saddled with the Slayer spirit has prevented Anariel from gaining the full stature of Galadriel. Elves routinely assume she's much younger than she truly is because of that, but she nonetheless goes to hunt dragons, orcs and balrogs.
- Prophecy Twist: Aredhel had foreseen her newborn son would marry Galadriel's descendant, and everything points at Anariel being the one — but he ultimately picks Tindomiel for his bride. Anariel points Tindomiel is basically made of her, so as far as she's concerned the prophecy wasn't wrong.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Courtesy of Buffy rescuing him from orcs, Kili survives to become King Under the Mountain.
- Stress Vomit: Averted but not by lack of motivation, since that's only because Fëanor is a disembodied spirit he doesn't puke in utter horror as he realises his decision to burn the swan-ships caused his pursuers to attempt the Helcaraxë.
- Strong Family Resemblance: All over the place — Fëanor confuses Tindomiel with her grandmother Anairë when she visits him, Erestor is identified as Carnistir's lost child when he lays eyes upon a statue of him by Nerdanel, and Anariel strongly takes after Êarendil, who himself takes after the human side of his ancestry, making him look like Turin.
- Take a Third Option: See, Luthien's descendants don't have to pick between Man or Elf only — Maia is a possibility too.
- There Are No Therapists: Tindomiel and Anariel complain a lot about that.
