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| What's left behind by perelleth | 77 Review(s) |
|---|---|
| daw the minstrel | Reviewed Chapter: 8 on 7/2/2006 |
| Loved Mallereg and Legolas playing good cop/bad cop with the leader of the men. And I also loved the cleverness of the elves. The man is sadly right though. The elves will be gone and the men will still be there, more's the pity. But I think my favorite part was the exchange at the end after Mallereg was hurt. He's so broken down that he finally admits his pain over his failure to protect his little brother, who thought he could do anything. Thalaur is a hoot, by the way. Author Reply: Since Legolas wasn't in charge in this mission I wanted to see things from his perspective...as a second, so having a supporting, advisory role.. and making good use of his talents at "public relations" I found it amusing that after all the pains the men had put into deceiving the elves, the elves had known all along and had followed their own agenda, reaching their goals and putting the men into good use. But they are all too different to share the same world, and that must hve been so difficult for the elves to admit that they were the ones who had to depart, despite them being the ones who took better care of Arda... MAllereg is thankfully reaching the end of his tunnel, it seems... and THalaur will find his job a bit easier, i suspect! :-) Thank-you, Daw! | |
| French Pony | Reviewed Chapter: 8 on 7/1/2006 |
| Once again, another tribe of Elves learns the immortal lesson: no plan is ever fully idiot-proof. The trouble with dealing with a species known to have divided loyalties is that the divided loyalties tend to show up at the worst possible moments. There's no real way to know ahead of time which Men are the good guys and which are the bad guys. I have a feeling that this sort of lingering distrust between Men and Elves is probably a major factor in the Elves' eventual abandonment of Middle-earth. I loved hearing about Mallereg and his mysterious ways of convincing Galion to keep him well supplied with wine. I like him more and more as this story goes on. He seems like a real stand-up sort of a guy, doing his best for his people and being a mensch to his family. He must miss his little brother terribly. Author Reply: I have a feeling that this sort of lingering distrust between Men and Elves is probably a major factor in the Elves' eventual abandonment of Middle-earth. I think so, too. The gap was wider each passing year, one race doomed to dwindle, the other to bloom and both to meet even more rarely as time passed by. I'm glad that you like Mallereg. HE grew on me too, as the tale progressed. I see him as filling in what LEgolas' role must have been in his forest and in his father's court, and showing that no one is indispensable. They will all miss Legolas but his departure will not threaten the stability of the realm... | |
| French Pony | Reviewed Chapter: 7 on 6/10/2006 |
| Well, that little announcement went over like a lead balloon. Legolas is certainly under a great deal of stress to just blurt something like that out into an already tense situation. This is definitely a family in need of some release. All the time and blood they spent surviving till the end of the war, and now they have to march away to yet another battle. They may lose more soldiers to broken hearts than to battle wounds. At least the ladies still have their heads on straight. Mom and Wife remain steadfast and loving. The ladies will have a tough time ahead of them soothing the men and healing their wounds. One can only hope that the men realize this and return the favor. Author Reply: OY! Apologies for the delay in answering!! Thankfully the ladies did keep the pespective, and they may be much released that the boys are out there doing what they do best and releasing whatever it is they need to get out of their system against the orcs, since they seem unable to do it in a more civilised way... Thabk-you, FP! | |
| Nilmandra | Reviewed Chapter: 7 on 6/10/2006 |
| Oh my, that was painful. Yet I think the king has given his answer, though Legolas might not yet see it. His demotion is not punishment, but reprieve. As second, the sea longing can do less harm than if he were captain. And Mallerg is indeed being groomed to take over, for Thranduil knows he will lose his son regardless if he settles first in Ithilien or not. His motehr is wise, and his wife loves him. Thank goodness for their love. Author Reply: Yet I think the king has given his answer, though Legolas might not yet see it. Yes, that's it. I think that Thranduil's position could not be easy by any means, either in the personal or in the political side of it. And he surely loves his children, and my! one of his wanting to go to Aman! But he is a wise king and a loving father, and he knows that, no matter how much he dreads it, he has already lost his son, so he's trying to do things in the best way for *all* involved (once that he was confronted with it, :-)them, keeping the needs of the realm in sight. This must has been a great challenge for the king of Lasgalen! Many thanks, Nilmandra! | |
| elliska | Reviewed Chapter: 7 on 6/10/2006 |
| Wow! This is really sad! I knew when they started talking about the lands to the south that Legolas was going to come out with his promise to bring some elves there if allowed and I knew, of course, that pronouncement would go over very badly under the circumstances. And it certainly did. Poor Legolas. The Sea Longing is so difficult for him and he does have experiences the others in his family just can't understand. This really shows why it was best for him to go to Ithilien. I only hope he can completely mend fences before he does. Author Reply: Yes, he was definitely changed..."in absentia." I suppose he could have chosen another time and circumstance to explain himself, but as I see it, it must have been too confusing for him, the sea-longing interferring with his ability to feel at home, the losses and the grieving, and duty, and it finally exploded when they less expected. Thankfully Naneth knew, and she kind of saved the day. Thank-you, elliska! | |
| Bodkin | Reviewed Chapter: 7 on 6/10/2006 |
| I have to go out shortly, so I can't do this justice at the moment, but - oh, perelleth, that was painful. Poor Legolas - but equally poor Laerîniel. And Thranduil. And Borgalas and Mallereg and everyone else. Thank goodness for Naneth - who is clear-sighted enough to see the problem and understand what it means. Author Reply: Thank-you, Bodkin. It was painful indeed, such a mess! But thankfully someone kept *her* head clear during the conflict. This is one of those situations economists call "the tragedy of change", which more or less means that it is impossible to maximize *all* variables at the same time. There *has* to be some loss of value somewhere, always, for some other variables to *gain*. (first law of thermodynamics, actually, :-) It was this ridiculous formulation which inspired the story, now that I come to think of it. I was very bored in a conference about a year ago, and the speaker mentioned this "tragedy of change" thing very pompously, so I began to toy with the idea... | |
| daw the minstrel | Reviewed Chapter: 7 on 6/9/2006 |
| What a pity they still have to fight, despite the victory and the cost of that victory that they're all still paying. At least Legolas's sea longing is no longer a secret, if it ever was. Author Reply: Cleaning up takes some time, doesn't it? Much like when you have workers at home, and they do the big tasks and then let you to deal with the mess! ;-) | |
| elliska | Reviewed Chapter: 6 on 6/7/2006 |
| Catching up. So glad to see you continue this! Poor Legolas. I think you did a great job in this showing just how difficult it is for Legolas and for those around him to find some sense of normalcy after such huge things have happened to them. The conflicts between Bôrgalas and Legolas, both in his office and later when discussing the real issue were so well done. How horrible for both of them. And very realistic because there had to be feelings like this. I suppose… that I can get to grant you that…eventually I was relieved to see this concession in the end. Very tense and emotional chapter, perelleth! Author Reply: Thank-you, elliska! You know how RL is... this has been stuck for quite long, but it is all there, so it will be going out drop by drop! Tolkien tells us so little about what happened in Lasgalen! Coming home is always a changing expereince. There are many things that you've missed, things they have learnt to go through without you, and I wondered how must have felt to LEgoas and his family, when so *much* had happened. Allowing the grudges to go out is a gift, the only way to forgiveness and undesrtanding. I find Borglas pov too easy to undesrtand. And now that he's let go off his grief, he knows he's been relieved of its hold. That first year cannot have been happy by any means, but there will be better times! :-) | |
| Bodkin | Reviewed Chapter: 6 on 6/6/2006 |
| I can understand Bôrgalas's resentment. He can see the absence and the fulfilling of prophecy and the legend surrounding his brother - but at the same time he is deep into the grief of the forest and the trials of the elves who sacrificed themselves to defend it. Legolas's wounds aren't visible. Yet. He's a grieving father, too - and one who knows how horribly his son died. He can't see the events through a veil of patriotic sentiment - he knows the reality of it. The image of the burnt forest is horrible and very evocative. It will be centuries before it is healed - but elves can take the long view here (or at least they will be eventually) - this forest will regrow and possibly more easily than the twisted trees around Dol Guldur will heal. I think Bôrgalas might find it easier to accept Legolas's actions once he sees what his brother has lost. Maybe. The suffering beyond the activities of the trilogy receive so little mention - and yet were clearly catastrophic. You show that so well. Author Reply: Thank-you, Bodkin. "...and there was long battle under the trees and great ruin of fire." That's all that we get to know about how things went in Lasgalen, and that in an Appendix. Poor Wood elves, indeed, always so secluded that they are almost forgotten! Coming home and finding out that life also kept its pace there, and that there are many things that you have missed, and occasions when you were missed and needed can be quite shocking at times... But they will heal, as well as the forest, of course. But it was a widespread war, and the aftermaths and recoveries are long. Somewhere in one of the letters Tolkien says that Legolas is the one who achieved less of the Company. He also sates that the role of the ELves in this war was passive, their strenght in resistance. Author Reply: Uh! it ate the ending of the reply... I was saying that those words from Tolkien make me think that *even* to him, the Wood elves' preference for low-profile made them disappear from the chronicles more than what they deserved, perhaps. He also says that the elves of Lorien disappeared soon, while in Lasglaen they continued to live on happily. I find that very telling and worth exploring... | |
| Redheredh | Reviewed Chapter: 6 on 6/5/2006 |
| I was so glad to see you posted this chapter! It came out very well, indeed. But, he will have to be telling everyone his future plans soon enough... Author Reply: Well, thanks for your insistent nudging! Glad it seemed to work a bit better. Yes, he will have to tell them, won't he? | |