He has had a lot of opportunities.

And if we tried to be paranoid about every possible thing the Enemy could theoretically be trying to do to fuck us over we'd never have time to actually oppose him.

Indeed. And the Valar sent me divine aid. They probably wouldn't have done that if it were a mistake to free him.

That...actually doesn't reassure me, in and of itself, although my previous reasons for not worrying still apply. Didn't we already consider the idea that that was supposed to end disastrously? More likely for him than us, and my sister would kill with fire anyone who tried to make him regret it?

Disastrously for him, yes, maybe.

Maybe we'll get lucky and the prospect of disaster will by scared off by my sister, or something.

Men have free will. I don't actually know what that implies for any of this.

Free will?

Your paths aren't fated, you can't make oaths, your marriages don't endure for the lifetime of Arda, it's all the same thing.

I'm not sure free will means the same thing here as it does back home, but okay.

What does it mean back home?

Being capable of meaningfully making decisions.

Ah. Well, I suppose you can say decision is not meaningful if the consequences are preordained, but that does seem like different usage.

Even if the world is railroading you towards a particular ending, you can still decide how to get there, right?

Yes. And it matters. For example, the Valar asked Fëanor for the Silmarils to fix the Trees. He refused. The Silmarils had already been stolen by that time, even if he'd agreed it wouldn't have saved the Trees. But it's said that it might have prevented the griefs that came after nonetheless.

I understand that it's probably not helpful to say that I like the sun and moon better than a perpetually-glowing pair of trees anyway, but I do in fact miss out on a lot of the emotional impact of the death of the Trees.

It's not really something I would expect one who didn't see them to understand, no.

Can you show me?

So he sends a memory. A lot of his, from that time, are either bitter or private. Riding with his brother, that's safe enough. Telperion glazing the whole world, the sky alive in ultraviolet...

That's beautiful. ...I'm not sure I'd want to live under that all the time, it seems like it would be an awful distraction, but.

We did have houses and so forth. And went about awfully distracted; Valinor was a restful place, not necessarily a productive one.

I'd be alternately utterly delighted and driven mad with frustration.

Some people were.

Congratulations on getting out and condolences on the circumstances.

We didn't come here to escape, we came here to stop the Enemy. But thank you.