Stories of Arda - Lord of the Rings Fan-Fiction Archive


	About Us News Resources Login Become a member Help Search

Your Heart Will Be True by Write Sisters	5 Review(s)
Raksha The Demon	Reviewed Chapter: 20 on 4/1/2006
I love seeing stories where Faramir goes into warrior-mode and shows how good he is at it, despite his preference for peace. Excellent depiction of action and battle! And more Faramir, whether in war or peace, is always good to read. Author Reply: We share your love of Faramir! It made writing him a real joy. grin And thank you very much for the compliment on our battles! We try very hard with those.

RS	Reviewed Chapter: 20 on 3/13/2006
AAAARRRGGGHHH!!!! CAN THEY NOT GET A BREAK??? I am sooo frustrated for Faramir, the Gondorion soldiers, and the Dunadain!!! Can they not get a reprieve from this madness?...not even a small victory?? All I see is "retreat, "retreat", "retreat"!!! In the words of Dr. Evil "throw me a frickin' bone" ...I mean Faramir and his men!!! Sigh.. I feel better..had to let that out!! I know, I know..it gets worse before it gets better! You guys are killing me. Talk about angst..I got it. Excellent chapter! Author Reply: Ummmmmmmmmmmmm..... no. Sorry, but we're very much afraid they can't get a break, at least not for a fair few more chapters. Where would be the fun in a break, really? I mean, they sit, they drink coffee, they yak about football-- why bother when they could be running for their lives? looks around expectantly... gets no answer Er, never mind. grin So yes, there'll be more retreating yet to come. But we weren't really thinking of letting the land of Gondor fall into the hands of the Haradrim, so we're fairly certain the ending will please you! You know all that! grin And here comes more! We should at least be able to fix your cliffie problem. Thanks for the review!

Imbecamiel	Reviewed Chapter: 20 on 3/11/2006
Hey, one post every five days isn’t as bad as all that! Most people I’ve read don’t even have a posting schedule, and those who do are usually at least a week or more apart - some a month or more apart. So believe me, you’re definitely ahead of the game when it comes to frequent updates! //"An Ent could list our findings in less than three sentences,"// LOL! Love it! Heh, always beware, though, when things start looking too good. If things seem too good to be true, they probably are… Man, now I sound like Bartho. I think he‘s contagious. g But at least Faramir’s got the good sense and experience not to take things at their face value, and to keep on looking for trouble, even when everything‘s “fine“! //Faramir looked upward along the ravine's edges high above him, his keen eyes picking out the firm stone and guessing at how much of this maze such an outpost would be able to watch.// I love this line! Something about the way it hints at the vast experience Faramir’s had, arranging sentries and guards, and planning battles to his best advantage… //"What?" Erynbenn asked calmly. His long friendship with Bartho had rendered all talk of disaster commonplace.// LOL, this review’s turning into a regular “Book of quotations from Your Heart Will Be True”… But I just love this line! Hehe, I guess Bartho’s done him good in a lot of ways. Not only teaching him how to fight and lead men, but making doom and disaster such a frequent subject for conversation that it doesn’t faze him in the slightest. g //The sea-gray in Faramir's gaze transformed to molten steel.// Ah well, while I’m at it, I may as well just go ahead and quote your entire story back to you :-P I do like this description so much! So often lines like these just don’t work, or don’t quite seem to “click”, but this one just felt perfect. Simple and short enough not to feel clumsy or contrived, but so descriptive and easy to visualize! Ack, and unfortunately, all of Faramir’s all-too-accurate premonitions weren’t quite early enough to do them much good… gulp Good thing for them they’ve got so many wonderful, experienced solders leading them! You do descriptions of battles so well! Very quick-moving, interesting, and easy to visualize. I've read so many descriptions of battles that I end up just scanning through, trying to get the general gist of what's going on, because it's just so confusing, or boring, or just doesn't seem to work, but I enjoy yours! Hmm, just out of curiosity, have either of you ever done any fencing? LOL, and Bartho’s using Erynbenn’s “hedgehog maneuver”! Hehe, and he's still quite determined to make the worst of everything… Ah, but is that the beginnings of a breakthrough I hear? //It was a familiar conclusion. What was unfamiliar was the rush of relief — that he wasn't actually dead yet — and the hope his life would not end here. So far from Minas Tirith.// Haha, there is hope for him yet! If he survives, that is. Speaking of which… You do realize that just because this may be your last fanfic it DOES NOT give you the right to kill anyone off, don’t you? Because… IT DOESN’T! DON’T YOU DARE KILL ANYONE! sniffs I LIKE all of them! Of course, villains are always fair game… but NO heroes! Ahem. Anyways, moving on… Have I mentioned that you two write battle really well? Oh yeah. I have… Um, well, consider it mentioned again. g AAAH! slams into end of chapter Ow… pokes cliffy This isn’t real… panics This ISN’T real. THAT CAN’T BE THE END! What happens to Faramir, and Bartho, and Erynbenn, and Beregond… Not to mention ARAGORN AND LEGOLAS?!?!?! wails ACK! keels over Imbecamiel-who-is-quickly-going-to-lose-her-reputation-as-the-”sane”-sister… P.S. sighs Yeah… It’s too bad our poor puppy has to be the one to test out the fascinating Strider Principle. But then, at least along with the bad luck, it seems there are other things that go along with the name. Such as the tendency for everyone who meets him to love him and want to adopt him… Honestly, this dog is so sweet that everyone loves him, from my mom (who does not like dogs, and is particularly frightened of big ones) to my Grandpa (who is not a big dog person, and didn’t think we should get one in the first place) to total strangers, who pet him for two minutes and offer to buy him right then and there, to even cats that normally can‘t stand dogs, but are so won over by his sweetness that they‘ll let him lie down with their kittens! Oh, and he’s definitely got the nickname-attracting quality as well. “Estel-puppy”, “Aragorn Elessar” (when he’s very bad), our big “Mirkwood Spider” (hehe, because our mom could never remember his name when we first got him, and kept calling him Spider instead), “Spider-man“, “Prince Charming“… LOL, and then there is the very interesting discovery that Elvish does indeed work very well with animals, even hyper puppies who are so excited they can’t comprehend the meaning of “sit” but will respond to “Havo dad”… Very interesting indeed. Though it does get quite interesting watching LOTR with him. He’s got some pretty decided opinions about those movies. g P.P.S. Oh yes, I do remember that part from the scene with Merry and Eomir! That’s cool that you came up with more of a back story for Theodran! LOL, and it certainly would give him lots of reason to be veeery suspicious of anyone wandering around where they’re not expected. Thanks for telling me more about him! Hehe, now I like him even more :-) P.P.P.S. That’s so cool that you’ve mostly taught yourself sewing! Hehe, maybe Nef and I will have to give it a try… Yes, with my mom’s help, we did make some really neat capes for the midnight showing of ROTK. We went as far as we could with it, with long, flowy dresses, capes, Lorien leaf broaches, some pretty elven-style jewelry my sweet brother bought us, and even prosthetic ear tips from a costume shop. Hehe, and of course, our long hair went along very nicely. Only problem being people kept asking us if it was real… g It was really great, though, dressing up like that! LOL, and one of the highlights of the evening for us was when Nef and I actually managed to convince one little boy there that we were, in fact, real elves. Hehe, he spent the rest of the time before the movie started gaping at us over the back of his seat… :-) LOL! Oh that’s so funny, though, that you dressed up to go several days later! I imagine you must have gotten some rather strange looks… giggles Nef and I thought about dressing up for Narnia, but considering we were going with a group of people from our new church… Our mom “convinced” us it wasn’t a good idea ;-) P.P.P.P.S. Oh, btw… I’m going to be leaving next Friday for Arizona to visit my Grandparents for a couple of weeks. I’ll be bringing my laptop along, but I’m not sure how much internet connectivity or time I’ll have… So, if I suddenly drop off the edge of the earth for a while, believe me, it’s NOT because I’ve abandoned the story or don’t like something! I shall return! And yeah, that is a threat… eg Author Reply: You always make me feel better! I'd go ahead and announce an official change in posting schedule, but if I say 'every five days' I'm afraid I won't update except on every eighth day, and that would stink. As it is, I think I'm on day six— but I am NOT going to count! Haha! I feel happy. Now then, your wonderful review! We shall miss you while you're gone, you know, but we couldn't begrudge you a moment of your visit! Here's hoping you have a wonderful time!! You are absolutely right about things looking too good. And while I personally feel it wouldn't be a good idea to go through life with a Bartho attitude, you have to admit he is frequently right; at the very least, he is never surprised by anything negative. Happily, as you so aptly pointed out, Faramir was endowed with the same caution, without the rampant pessimism. I am SO glad you liked Faramir; we wanted so much to show that, while Aragorn was the king and definitely the best man for the job, Faramir would have made a thumping good steward! Oftentimes I think people who love one character will tear down a great many others in the attempt to make their favorite look all the better. It was a pitfall we really wanted to avoid! Especially when there was a cool character like Faramir ready and waiting to be used! Erynbenn was an odd choice for Bartho's shadow, and for the record that was another one of those things that just sort of 'happened'. I think we did intend for Bartho and Erynbenn to hang out for the sake of contrast (old grump, young rookie) at the beginning, but them becoming friends on an equal footing was a fun side-effect I don't know if we can take credit for. While it was fun seeing Bartho loosen up a bit through Erynbenn's influence, it was even funnier seeing the way the street ran both ways… definitely not something we planned. laughs By the by, we really love quotations! Maybe it's because it pinpoints for us the exact moment of your reaction… grin hugs Imbecamiel I keep doing that, don't I? But seriously! Battle scenes are a real effort for us — lots of time, lots of planning, lots of brain work trying to visualize every single move before we describe it, and then editing the whole mess. Unfortunately for us, neither of us has had any fencing experience beyond one stage combat class that Hannah took at drama camp once… grins Pickings are slim, as you can see! Our tactics we glean from modern war movies (remove bazooka, insert bow and arrows) and our own imaginations, and our individual combat comes from the LOTR movies and… well, our own imaginations again. All that to say: compliments on are battle scenes are high compliments indeed!! We are very glad you liked it! Ah, yes, the 'flying hedgehog' maneuver! grins That falls under 'imagination' too, subcategory 'whimsy'. And yes, there is hope for Bartho yet! Nothing like a little battle pressure. makes indeterminate pained noise in throat Meh… Ah, dear, the dreaded 'character death' talk… Well, ultimately we stick to a 'ask us no questions, we'll tell you no lies' policy. We've killed major and minor characters before, and we've had fics where we didn't kill almost anybody. We DO have a character death warning on this story, I guess I should mention, but only one (other than villains, of course). fidgets nervously and takes cover beneath the desk In advance: sorry! We really don't go in for mindless butchering of characters, just so you know! Cliffie relief is on the way, never fear! laughs I think we can consider yours and Nef's Strider theory a definite runner. Prone to injury AND instantly likable?! Good grief! And the nicknames!! The good news is, if he survives, he'll probably be king someday. It's the middle bit that could prove tricky… Ah, the cost of advanced science! 'Tis a dreadful thing indeed. grins It's pretty funny too! laughs Theodran's got fans! Oh, my. That's like what happened to that friend of Legolas' in 'Thorongil'! We only invented him to follow Legolas for a little bit and then get killed off, and to our horror half our readers got these huge crushes on him! It was kind of a nightmare, 'cause then they all chewed us out when we did what we'd always planned to do and had him die. Whoops. For the record: Theodran doesn't die. Glad you liked his backstory! It was nice getting to tell it to somebody. WOW. You guys went totally all out on your costumes! You even did EARS?! Dedication indeed! People asked you if your hair was real? falls over giggling Oh, man! Well, gorgeous hair like that I guess just looks too perfect to be the genuine article; I don't suppose I blame them. grin And, oh my goodness, that story about the little boy was hilarious!! Your mom probably had the right idea; better to aim for the middle of the road at least at first, and dressing up for movies (we have discovered) is not something everyone understands. grin It's funny, actually, we've had odd things happen because of our middle-of-the-road aims! We generally wear jeans at home and about, but whenever we go attend some new activity, our mom generally suggests that we wear skirts. It's a way of dressing for every possibility — if everyone else is in jeans, then jeans are okay for the next time, and if not, then we won't be underdressed. Well, we joined a small choir for a while, turned up for the first rehearsal in skirts, and later one of the friends that we made in choir confided to us that after our first day she went home and told her mom that we were 'really nice, but they all wear skirts…!' She thought maybe we were Amish, or something. grin Thanks so much for the fantastic review! Again: bon voyage, and we'll miss ya! See you when you get back!

Lady Saruman	Reviewed Chapter: 20 on 3/11/2006
Hey there. It's been a really busy time for me so far...that's why I didn't get to review for more than two sentences in the last chapter. Right now I am still really busy, because I have a lot of homework going on and five projects at the same time, all due at the end of the month. Actually, one of them is due next week. Ah well, I liked your neat little trick with Bartho having to draw his knees up in order to avoid the two Southrons' blades. That was clearly an act by instinct and his experience as a Ranger in the past years. It is suprising how Bartho and his men couldn't spot the Southrons even if they were hidden, because, after all, they still wore red and refused to change their clothing even for camouflage, as you said. There must really be something wrong with them if they like the color red so much that they won't even wear a different color just for the protection of their lives. I feel sorry for Faramir, Bartho, Erynbenn, and all the other men's suffering. After all, they were sneaked up on, and since the attack came stealthily and unexpectedly, they had no way to dodge it, and so somebody must get hurt. In the case of Bartho, half of his men were slaughtered trying to fall back and the ones that weren't were in temporary safety. That just leaves Bartho to face danger himself, unless some of his men come out to help him fight the heinous red-clothing attired brutes. Faramir may be hurt in the face which caused the blood to flow over his eyes and block all his sight, but he kept persisting and never gave up for the sake of his people and his life. That is what I like about Faramir: his nobleness. He could have just fallen back and let his other men fight for him so that he could tend his wound(s) and lay down to recover and rest, be he wasn't that kind of a person to let other people do the work when he could just do it as well. Though he should have tended to that wound, he still stayed behind to defend everybody. Is that noble or what? Like you said, this is the beginning of a war, and I am not sure that they could win either--seeing as they are hopelessly outnumbered and most, if not all, of them are injured. Please update soon! I really want to know what happens then, but probably you're going to make the switchback to Legolas, Aragorn, Tantur, and THEIR enemy. It seems as if all the good people are being pursued by enemies all simultaneously and some of them have suffered from fatal or serious wounds. Bye! Hershey's kisses/hugs, Lady Saruman ^_~ Author Reply: Hey there! Business, like death and taxes, seems to be inevitable... grin We speak from experience! Glad you liked Bartho's trick! The Southrons were kept hidden mostly by the nature of the gorges themselves -- it wound too sharply to see very far ahead, and there were a lot of trees, rock outcroppings, and other hazards to visibility. Suffice it to say, the Southrons probably could have been wearing psychedelic pink and green and the poor Gondorians would still have been caught unawares. grins Yeah, they do seem pretty stupid that way, don't they? When pride in one's turban takes the place of life-saving camouflage, you know they've got to be a little addled. Hopefully that addle-ment will pay off! We based a lot of our battle maneuvers and such off of the many war movies we've watched with our dad, and things we learned from doing history. The biggest lesson all those stories seem to teach is that the best laid plans will break up instantly on the battle field; what seems like a good idea on the drawing board can turn into a massacre very fast, and with nobody to blame for it except the sheer contrariness of the circumstances. So poor Faramir's retreat is at least historically accurate! grin Luckily for him, battles don't always determine which way the war will swing. Unluckily for him, Gondor's not looking good for a fair many pages yet… ominous music Faramir sure is one amazing character, isn't he? One of the coolest parts of fan fiction is getting to borrow such people. grin And more is on the way! Thank you so much for reviewing!! And, as ever, for the chocolate. wink

Vilwarin	Reviewed Chapter: 20 on 3/10/2006
Uh, oh, a full battle-chapter. And it does notlook good at all for our side...ahm, the Gondorian side, I mean. This was the beginning of a war — one he was not sure they could win. Oh my, there they have it, it seems as if all turns out in the Queens favour gr What a clever place for an attack that lady has. He couldn't actually see them, but that was the fault of the Southrons and their obsession with the distracting color red. It seemed even camouflage was not a good enough reason to change their wardrobe… Granted, they'd snuck up on him masterfully, regardless of their garish turbans. You gave a funny mental image there, hehe. I see that Bartho has not yet lost his humour completely... That little portion of his brain that was freed for frivolous and optimistic thought mused wryly, I wonder what Erynbenn will say when I tell him his trick was well-used… He'll laugh, I don't doubt. Yes, there he is right, everything is good for something, even when this particular 'everything' happened to be originally used in such a way. Ah, well, likely I won't live to tell him anyway. I do not believe that, I am pretty sure that he is going to live, surely he will not leave such a nice lady to her own fate, will he...? ~Vil Author Reply: Ah... looks nervous Unfortunately the Gondorians haven't even seen the worst of it yet. Call it clever planning, or good fortune, or what have you, but Mavranor's got it and Gondor's king is unavoidably detained by-- claps hand over mouth Eeek! Open mouth, out come spoilers! laughs Glad you liked Bartho's odd sense of humor! Being pessimistic has its advantages. Regarding Bartho's Survival (or Anyone Else's): Ask us no questions, we'll tell you no lies! Suffice it to say we have killed of minor characters, important characters, or no characters at all in previous fics, so it's anybody's guess at this juncture. It would sure stink for Arien, though... wanders off thoughtfully Thanks for the fantastic review! We always love it when people specifically quote the bits they liked; it's very encouraging!

Return to Chapter List