"...how'd that go over?"

"Finwë's matured. Too late, but. He apologized to Fëanáro for remarrying, apologized to him for failing to be there for him, said he was honored to meet his daughter-by-marriage and grandson. Fëanáro wanted a public essecarmë - the naming ceremony, at six weeks - four days out. He said it was fine if Indis and his half-siblings attended. The whole city did.

And he announced that the child's name was Nelyafinwë."

Sigh.

"And Finwë welcomed Nelyafinwë, his first grandson, and Fëanáro's half-brother burst into tears and ran off crying, and Fëanáro and Nerdanel bought themselves a nice place on the outskirts of the city and gradually Fëanáro repaired his relationship with his father but he never even tried for a relationship with his two half-brothers and two half-sisters. The youngest of whom, Arafinwë, himself ran away underage to Alqualondë, married there very young, and rarely returned to Tirion."

"Hasty relationship decisions run in the family, huh."

"Fëanáro and Nerdanel'd known each other well for fifteen Years at that point. Getting out of a bad home environment by marrying into a different one runs in the family, and is just as unhealthy."

Nod.

"Anyway. Fëanáro and Nerdanel have six more; Nolofinwë marries and has four of his own, Arafinwë does as well, the cousins all get along well enough that there were high hopes Fëanáro and Nolofinwë'd eventually be forced to get along just by the cheerful pressure of eleven highly energetic young people. And then the Valar pardon Melkor."

"Who proceeds to ruin everything, of course."

"Yes. Very subtly. All of those relationships fell apart, bit by bit, and once everyone'd been maneuvered into not trusting each other he arranges for Fëanáro to hear that his brother's going to try to get him disowned and arrested, and that if that fails he should expect to die in a convenient accident. And he arranges for Nolofinwë to hear that Fëanáro's trying to get his family exiled from Valinor, and that if that fails he should expect an attempt on his life. And so Nolofinwë does go to Finwe and try to get Fëanáro arrested, and Fëanáro walks in on their conversation and pulls out a gun -"

"...sorry, gap in my education -"

"Phaser but it throws small metal objects instead of beams."

"- okay, go on?"

"And Fëanáro tells Nolofinwë not to speak out against him again, and Nolofinwë ignores him and walks out - which was the correct way to handle it, incidentally - 

- Finwë bans everyone from carrying weapons, tells both his children that no one is getting arrested or disowned or exiled and to cut it out, and seems content to leave it at that, Indis appeals to the Valar and they sentence Fëanáro to a hundred twenty years in exile."

"- did she, like, consult anyone before she did that...?"

"She and Finwë had a lot of fights over whether he was handling it too leniently. Which he was, obviously -"

"There is nothing so lenient that it can't be tilted the other direction by involving panicky Valar."

"Indeed. Anyway, Finwë thinks exiling Fëanáro is a really bad idea, and he solves it by going into exile with him and appointing Nolofinwë the regent in Tirion. About a third of the Noldor follow Fëanáro and Finwë as an act of protest, the rest stay. I stayed, Nolofinwë needed some support to take over gracefully and Fëanáro still hadn't apologized -"

"Apologies seem to be fairly complicated for him."

"Yes. The whole thing was complicated. In hindsight I would have gone with them, though I think by then it was too late to make a difference. While they are in exile Melkor sacks the city, steals the Silmarils, burns down the library, kills Finwë. The Valar'd summoned Fëanáro to a festival of reconciliation. He learned of what had happened only when the Suns went out."

Nod.

"He has something of a breakdown, which his children help him through - swears to get the Silmarils back - it wasn't until after the war that anyone was told why that was important, of course -"

"I mean, I can appreciate the logic of keeping that a bit quiet..."

"Yes, absolutely, but it divided the Noldor further. The people who knew Fëanáro and his children well enough mostly said 'there is a good reason for doing it and a good reason for not telling us', the people who didn't mostly said 'that's insane, irresponsible, and unforgivable, let's make someone else the ruler of the Noldor -"

Nod.