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| Dreamflower's Mathoms I by Dreamflower | 12 Review(s) |
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| Bodkin | Reviewed Chapter: 40 on 4/21/2005 |
| Not a casual passing promise then - meant at the time, but not a life-long, binding commitment. I like to think of these two hobbits having that depth of bond. And Merry is just the right hobbit for upholding it - which is a jolly good thing for Pippin. (I wonder if Pippin would take it so seriously if Merry didn't?) I love the 25th birthday treat. Probably a good thing the last pitcher ended up being applied externally, though. And what a twist of the knife at the end! Not only a life-long commitment of the pair of them, but carrying on beyond the death of one partner. Author Reply: I don't think that a promise was ever a casual thing to Merry. After all, he learned his earliest lessons in honor from Frodo. And yes, you are right about the depth of the bond as well. And Pippin would take it seriously because Merry did, because he learned about keeping promises *from* Merry. *grin* Yes, probably just as well. That kind of scene is always hard for me to figure out how to bring to an end. It's funny, but when I started the story, I was going to have some kind of cute ending where Pippin comes in at the end. But somewhere about halfway through, I got to thinking: if Pippin had died, Merry would not have been able to just drown his sorrow. I believe a lot of that comes from playing in JRRT's sandbox--he certainly felt that death did not bring an end to promises: look at how he felt about marriage, or about the broken oaths of the Dead, or the ill-advised oath of Feanor. It's a very old-fashioned and not very popular view of honor, but it carries with it a high sense of Purpose. | |
| Grey Wonderer | Reviewed Chapter: 40 on 4/20/2005 |
| I love how this fits so very well with all of your others. I admire the way that you do that very much. This was very cute. Author Reply: Thanks, GW! I started doing it, because I noticed some other writers tend to do that, and found that it helps a lot to keep them connected. For one thing each story often contains the seeds of a plot bunny for another. | |