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| Bridges by Bodkin | 24 Review(s) |
|---|---|
| SurgicalSteel | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 8/30/2006 |
| Still catching up on reading after the summer - this is a great start, it seems that Taryatur's more uncomfortable with his own memories than with the idea of talking to the children about certain concepts, and that he's seen plenty of horrors of his own. Author Reply: Taryatur has never really come to terms with his experiences in the War of Wrath. He went as an innocent, I think, and then returned to the Blessed Realm and didn't want those round him to understand the full horror. He suppressed it all - and it has haunted him ever since. Perhaps he almost envies Legolas the understanding of those round him. (I do think he confuses ignorance and innocence. Easy to do.) | |
| elliska | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 8/20/2006 |
| Oh this will be great! Just what Taryatur and Legolas need. And I love seeing these two interact. It is almost as good as Thranduil and Galadriel. Glad to see you start another one with these characters. Author Reply: Thank you, elliska. This is only going to be a short tale - and I doubt all problems will be cured. That would be too easy! But hopefully they will develop a slightly better understanding and abandon the automatic bristling reflex they have at the thought of each other. | |
| Larner | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 8/17/2006 |
| What a way in which to realize his son-in-law has been trying to protect him! And then the fall of the tree and the slide, and the need to search for Legolas. Not exactly the manner in which Thranduil expected the two ellyn to patch up differences, I think. So beautiful in the descriptions! Author Reply: No - but I think Taryatur and Legolas have got themselves in the groove of disapproving of each other and their hackles rise automatically as soon as the other opens his mouth. It will take something to jolt them out of that! And you never know, they might actually discover they have something other than Elerrina in common! Thank you! | |
| Kitori | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 8/6/2006 |
| Yay! Another story. Here's hoping for a resolution between the in-laws. I also hope the Oropher vs Taryatur conflict gets some resolution, or at least attention, if not in this story then in another ^^ Thranduil and Oropher are my favorites, particularly as you've written them. This chapter drove me to actually have some sympathy for Taryatur, who generally I consider a jerk. Good work :) Author Reply: Thank you Kitori - I hope you like how it's going to turn out. (Not that I know - it's not finished yet!) Oropher isn't going to appear in it, though - that I do know! He and Taryatur will just have to wait a while to sort out their difficulties. I have my fingers crossed that Legolas and his wife's father will get a chance to understand each other a bit better. They're stuck in a groove of mutual disapproval at the moment - and I'm hoping their shared experience will jolt them out of it! Taryatur can be a pain - but he is an honest elf underneath it, so I hope he will learn to bend! We'll see. | |
| Ellie | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 8/5/2006 |
| This was sooo excellent. I feel sorry for dad-in-law in light of his trauma. He really does have post traumatic stress disorder -- elvish style. The friction between these two is palpable. They really do need to work out their differences, especially now that soemone appears to have gotten hurt. Take care of Leggy and I hope dad-in-law shows his true nobility and love int eh end. Okay. This makes review number 20 for this chapter, so you can go ahead and update now :-) Author Reply: Thank you! I can't update yet .... I'm only halfway through the next chapter! (I'm being distracted - other stories keep dictating parts. That's the trouble with going away - it happened last year, too.) Taryatur has been hanging on to these injuries for a long time now - I think he's going to find it har to let them go. And, being properly stubborn, the less he has to hold against his son-in-law, the more determinedly he is doing it! Legolas is fed up with the situation - and aware that however conciliatory he is, it's not going to make any difference. Fingers crossed that this crisis is enough to jolt the pair of them into understanding each other. | |
| Agape4Gondor | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 8/4/2006 |
| Chilling tale! I hope there is more. Author Reply: Thank you! There will be more. I'm about halfway through the next chapter at the moment. | |
| Redheredh | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 8/4/2006 |
| Ah, Taryatur! You poor elf, so courageous and so misunderstood... But, your family (and I) love you. You'll get through this. Your demons can be put to rest. Right, Bodkin? :] Thranduil - very pleasingly - shows his wisdom and just why his son respects him so much. Treat him as an ally... leave him disconcerted... You would fight dragons for her... Making friends with one surely cannot be any more difficult. ;) Though Legolas is doubtful, he does make an attempt. But, like his father-in-law, I suspect dramatic circumstances are going to force a better outcome than he thinks to achieve on his own. I am glad you are postponing Taryatur and Oropher's meeting again until they are on equal (neutral?) ground. Both should be more recovered from their reformation experience before they confront each other again. Yes, I suspect Taryatur is going to go through a transformation process in this story. He will not be the same elf after this adventure, I think. His sympathy with the tree seemed to me a reflection of his's impending collapse, not just a bad episode. It was almost like T's fear was suddenly transferred to the tree and the poor thing sadly played out the elf's personal destruction for him. But of course, L suffers the impact of it. All very exciting! Author Reply: Poor Taryatur! I think he needs someone who understands - and who better than his war veteran of a son-in-law? If only they can get past scowling at each other and demanding that Elerrina listens to him first. Thranduil is a star. Legolas and Taryatur are stuck on rails - one (or both) need to break away from them before they can approach any understanding. Legolas is the younger and the less hidebound - he is definitely the more likely one to attempt rapprochement. However, I think that success is more likely if the bending is done by Taryatur. Oropher isn't ready for anything stressful. He rushed his return, I think. Too obstinate to admit that he needed space and silence and time to think - until he was in the middle of a horde of welcoming Wood-elves. And Taryatur wouldn't, I think, have come west if he had known that Oropher would be there. I'm hoping Taryatur's experiences here will be ... meaningful. But you know what pig-headed characters are like when it comes to twisting a story to their own ends. We'll see what will happen with these two! | |
| Armariel | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 8/3/2006 |
| Ohhh nasssstyyy cliffiesssss!!! But good to see that family again...goodness, poor Leggy and his dad-in-law! Still not resigned to each other! But we must have some conflict, what? Lovely insights about youngsters wanting to know about war and their elders not wanting them to know the reality of it. Such ideas have long been intriguing to me. A bit like a book I read called In Country in which a young girl wants to help understand her uncle who is a Vietnam vet but there is no way she can really ever know what he has been through. And he seems torn between wanting to tell her and not really wanting her to know. ~~~{~@ Author Reply: Evil laughter and hand-rubbing! Taryatur is far too obstinate to give in - and knowing he should just makes him worse! Legolas's hackles rise every time he sees his father-in-law, too. Elerrina should just lock them in a cupboard until they get over it! Children always want to know about war, it seems to me. And play at it, too. And their elders always tell them the bits most suitable for their ears - the friendship, the comic moments, the escapes and so on - while never mentioning the parts that would truly help them to understand its horror. And yet, to minimise it and make it some Hollywood movie is to glamorise it and make it seem a more reasonable solution to problems. I don't think there is an answer, really. Except to say that it is necessary to understand the past in order not to make the same mistakes. | |
| Nilmandra | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 8/3/2006 |
| These characters have really come alive (to me). I'm sure they have always been so to you! Taryatur is himself so innocent of nature that he endangers himself, and now he endangers Legolas too. I liked the childrens' desires to know more of war, to understand the events of their world. At at time when they can understand the answers, it is important for them to learn. It is those who fail to learn history who are doomed to repeat it. Author Reply: I'm so pleased that you feel the characters have come alive - Taryatur, particularly seems to have taken on a determined life of his own. He would. Pig-headed elf that he is! Taryatur blunders through parts of his life with blinkers on - and now Legolas has followed him into this particular danger. I'm only hoping it will prove worthwhile and lead to the two of them developing a better understanding of each other. Children and war make a very difficult combination. Parents of course want to retain their innocence - but there is a horrible attraction to glamorising war. And, when all the memories that those who have been there will share are those of camaraderie and excitement, it's hardly surprising that children get a very strange view of what it is all about. It is important for them to understand the past - to absorb lessons that will affect their own conduct. One of the things that must have seemed terrible to the elves would have been the number of times they watched men committing the same errors and repeating tragedies of the past. | |
| utfrog98 | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 8/3/2006 |
| Hooray! A new story from Bodkin. I really enjoy your universe. You are writing a really interesting tale of clashing cultures. Author Reply: Thank you. I hope you continue to enjoy Legolas's struggle to get on with his father-in-law. Although letting a tree fall on him is a pretty dramatic way to try to get a better understanding! More soon. Ish. | |