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As the Gentle Rain by Lindelea	6 Review(s)
Beruthiel	Reviewed Chapter: 52 on 6/13/2004
Maybe I'm a sick and twisted person, but I would have liked it if Merry had found the precedent and arrived too late. That would have been very angsty and ironic indeed. Nell impressed me greatly. Almost all of your hobbit ladies are remarkably strong and intelligent women. (I say almost because I do remember a few snobs and gossips from other stories of yours.) Love how they take no crap from the men, even though all of Middle-Earth seems to be male-dominated. Brant was the executioner's uncle?! That was quite a surprise. Does he have any living relatives who remember him from before the War? What would they say when they found out he was the Pilgrim? So sad the story's almost over, but at least there will be others to look forward to. Muse: Get to work on that Paladin-becomes-Thain story! Author Reply: You know, there was an alternate ending where Merry arrived too late, but I could not craft it to my liking and scrapped it. It is one of the reasons I fear being labelled "predictable". I'm a sucker for a satisfying (read that: "happy") ending. Since fanfic is relaxation for me, I tend to stay away from "downers". Sure there may be plenty of angst in the middle, but the ending had better make me feel better or I rue reading the story. (Would hate to rue writing such!) The Paladin story is coming along, nearly all outlined now. Hope to post the first chapter soon after finishing this story. In the meantime, "StarFire" is once more in production, and Ferdi is about to live up to the epithet "Fool of a Took", and all for your reading pleasure... (and mine, for I do enjoy reading reviews, as many as I can get)

Meldewen Ilce	Reviewed Chapter: 52 on 6/13/2004
You know I thought about what happened to Pilgrim/Brant, how Nell told them to hang him - and now that I think of it I can see she said it out of mercy more than anything else as the man living out his long years in complete madness was no mercy at all. I do hope time his neck was broken and he died the man was able to find some sort of peace because in a way you had to pity him - even with having said that I am also relieved that he is dead as I fear had he lived he would have found some way to hurt others. Again this has been a wonderful story and I hate to see it come to a close but then I anxiously await your next project(s)!

Connie	Reviewed Chapter: 52 on 6/13/2004
YES! Merry found the precedent, and the jurors saw reason. Yay! Nell certainly showed that mercy comes in all shapes. I think she impressed a lot of people, Ferdi and Merry not the least. Looks like all our heros are going to live. I knew you'd bring them through. Connie.

FantasyFan	Reviewed Chapter: 52 on 6/13/2004
Well, it seems Merry has saved the day with his bookishness. I wonder what it was exactly that he remembered about the story, that put him on this track? It is a comfort to know that sometimes justice can be served even when the strictest interpretation of the law is not. Somewhere is a very famous book it says that the law was made to serve man, and not man made to serve the law. At least in Gondor today, that proved true. I wonder how Ulrich would have fared in our courts. And though technically it is true that the jurors bent the truth to save Ulrich, in reality he is not the same person who tortured the hobbits. His story and Brant's are woven together. In each case a young man was placed in a situation that was too much for him, but Ulrich's choices marked him as different from Brant many times. Ulrich kept his honor at the end - he helped to defend the hobbits against the Pilgrim at the handfasting, he refused the opportunity to escape (though I doubt he really would have gotten far) and he would not take the life of a hobbit on the gallows, even though it was offered for the succor of his children. How many condenmed men would care so much for honor? I grieved for him, thinking as did all but Merry, that he was lost: but I didn't feel sorry for him, as he had made his peace. The one I felt sorry for was Brant. Even though I judge him guilty for his choices, I feel sympathy for the youth who was broken by the torture and horrors of war. It was chilling to watch his madness grow, and saddening for the Pilgrim to take everything from him at the end, though maybe Brant chose to go away to escape. The mercy that Elessar could offer him, of a dungeon for long years, was really no mercy at all. Nell again shows her wisdom and strength in accepting the responsibility of asking for the kinder but harder mercy. You really need to write a story focusing on the wonderful strong ladies of these hobbit families - they are as remarkable as their menfolk, though in a less showy and obvious way. You could do them justice, I think. So the next is the final chapter? I am looking forward to seeing Farry and Goldi again, and seeing how each group reacts to the other's adventures.

Meldewen Ilce	Reviewed Chapter: 52 on 6/13/2004
First of all you had me crying for nearly the entirity of the previous chapter as I did not want to see Ulrich die - I could help but feel sorry for the executioner as I know he did not want to have to hang a friend - and I cried when Fredegar went to offer his life for Ulrich's, and it was tears all around when they reached the gallows. I am so glad Merry and Elfwine found that thing in the law that allowed for Ulrich to be saved and I must admit I was a bit surprised when Nell told them to hang the Pilgrim as I know it is not the hobbit way to take a life. Still once the man was dead it was a way of knowing for sure that he would never harm her or her own ever again. And it seems it is a bit ironic that the executioner hung his own uncle... LOL - I could help but laugh at the part in the Houses of Healing when the healer scolded Faramir for yelling for quiet. And Ulrich's retrial - I am glad they decided that the man who was the Lockholes guard died years ago and that Ulrich is not that man. I am glad that he is now free to return home to his family! Oh this story has been wonderful, so angsty - I almost regret seeing it come to a close! Brava!

Bodkin	Reviewed Chapter: 52 on 6/13/2004
Oh, very devious. It's amazing what you can get away with when everyone is colluding. I hope poor Nell doesn't suffer dreadfully from having been the one to 'free' Brant through asking for his death. He would have found release from the Pilgrim at last. Plus, a lifetime in a dungeon really is not preferable. Good old Ulrich, turning down Freddy's offer to save him - very honourable. And I thought it would take Merry until the last millisecond. Though it seems a bit nit-picking to demand a precedent and then fix the re-trial. (Who creates the first precedent? If you can't do something without a precedent then how do you ever start doing anything?) Brilliant. I don't want it to end. The hobbits are great, but the non-hobbits are great too. More.

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