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| Okay, NOW Panic! by Boz4PM | 15 Review(s) |
|---|---|
| Eilenach | Reviewed Chapter: 38 on 12/8/2006 |
| A heartbreaking chapter with great dialogue. I can feel the tension as Penny attempts to get through to Halladan without causing him to blow up and leave. As with all the other chapters, I appreciate your cold, clear look at what the trip with Theoden's bier might REALLY have been like. Author Reply: Thank you - I'm so glad the dialogue seemed real to you. It's something I do try to get right as best I can. | |
| Abra Ahab | Reviewed Chapter: 38 on 9/25/2006 |
| Okay ... Okay ... Just. Wow. In the past two weeks, I've read the entire installment of "Don't Panic" and "Okay, NOW Panic!" up until this point. I am just so impressed. And so excited to read a fic that is true to canon, and that is a real reflection of what it would be like to have a 21st century woman in Middle Earth. All of your characters have flaws, which is so critical to a successful fiction. Not only that, but you've chosen characters we know little about and expanded on them until I feel they could be my dearest friends. Thanks so much for the fic! I can't wait to read more. Author Reply: Thank you: both for taking time out to read the entire thing from start to where we are now, and for stopping to let me know that you have enjoyed it all so far. :) I've just updated (at long last) if you are interested. | |
| Lianne | Reviewed Chapter: 38 on 9/10/2006 |
Dear Boz4PM, I have been following Okay, NOW Panic! chapter by chapter for quite some time now, and I want to apologize for not leaving a review for the earlier chapters or for Don't Panic!. I would like to let you know that I really, really love Don't Panic! and its sequel. I check almost daily for updates, because when I finish one chapter, I can hardly wait to know what happens next, it's just so intriguing! I really like Penny, to me, she's real, not too perfect, just an ordinary person, with imperfections and flaws, feelings and emotions. I practically cried all the way through Chapter 35, I was so upset over Penny's 'trouble' with Elrond! I've always liked Elrond, he's one of my favourite elves, and I didn't want him to be angry with Penny. I also really, really like Halladan! He's just amazing! He's ever so good to Penny, when he isn't irritated with her. I an very much hoping that he and Penny will end up together, because it seems to me as if they're just right for each other, and I will be a little disappointed if they don't. I'm glad Halladan has spoken to Arvain. Arvain must have been so worried about him. I hope Halladan recovers soon, if that is the right word to use. I can't wait to know what Penny's decision will be, to return to Imladris, or to Gondor. I hope she won't go back to Gondor, she realy doesn't fit in there in the least, and she'd be miserable there, won't she? Anyway, I hope to find out soon. I apologize for the long review, hope you don't mind. I just wanted to let you know that I think you're a really wonderful writer, and whenever a chapter of Okay, NOW Panic! is posted, it really brightens the day for me! Hope you update soon! Author Reply: Never apologise for a long review (or for not reviewing before) - it's wonderful to get any review, let alone one this length! :D Thank you for reading and I'm glad that you have enjoyed it enough so far to still be looking forward to updates. I am not sure when the next chapter will be done - at least another week, I suspect. Thanks also for your comments on Halladan and Penny, especially that Penny comes across as absolutely ordinary and believable - which is what I have strived to achieve throughout both fics. Have no fear, Penny will have to make her decision in the next chapter I suspect, or the one after that maximum, since it has to come before the elves leave Edoras. :) | |
| Mopsy | Reviewed Chapter: 38 on 9/8/2006 |
| I haven't reviewed the past few chapters but I've been reading as devotedly as ever. You've portrayed an intensely difficult situation in which I'd just give up (Penny's choice/angst over Elrond/angst over Halladan) so well. She's really developing/discovering her own strength and wisdom beautifully. Like a little rose. :) I love the way she's changed so subtly...I remember first really noticing it back in Minas Tirith when, at (I think) the wedding she bridles at the tacit understanding between Erestor and Aragorn that she's there for good, but decides not to make a fuss. And I'm SO glad we finally get a moment of fluffy-feeling-acknowledgement re:Halladan from Penny. Author Reply: Glad to know you've been reading and enjoying it all still. And thank you for the description of Penny as an unfurling rose (or for seeing my portrayal of her change and growth as such) - it's a wonderful image, exactly right and matching what I have been trying to build towards in this whole fic, and it's great that you not only think I managed it but found such an ideal metaphor for it. | |
| Pearl Took | Reviewed Chapter: 38 on 9/7/2006 |
| *sigh* This is soooooo good! Arvain and Aragorn both agreeing with what Penny has been saying - that had to be tough on Halladan. As you say, he could nearly ignore it from her, but not from them. Wonderful, Boz, Wonderful! Author Reply: Thank you! So glad you liked it. Yeah, poor Halladan was much put upon by all and sundry in this chapter, but he needed it. | |
| Dreamflower | Reviewed Chapter: 38 on 9/6/2006 |
| Lovely lovely chapter! Penny's making some headway with Halladan in helping him to see--as she put it, "the oliphaunt in the tent", LOL! I really love when she uses modern idioms, and then has to explain them. And I had to snort at her thought on men and multitasking! I think I am beginning to see what I've been hoping to see wtih Penny and Halladan from the first chapter. I suppose it won't be long until I know one way or the other. And so will Penny. Author Reply: Thanks, dreamflower. :D I glad you enjoy the moments of modern or English idioms. It's something that never goes away when you learn a foreign language - either you come up against ones in the language that you don't know or make no sense until explained or else you find it difficult to find an alternative way of expressing something that you would usually use an idiom for in your own language. It's where code-switching comes in so useful when two or more people who both speak the same languages are talking with each other - they can switch from one language to another according to how to best express more accurately whatever it is they are trying to say. Of course Penny doesn't have that luxury - even Erestor's knowledge of English that he's picked up from her is limited - and so ends up having to use English idioms in Sindarin and hope people know what she is trying to say. :D And as for the last comment: I will neither confirm nor deny anything. ;P | |
| Bodkin | Reviewed Chapter: 38 on 9/5/2006 |
| Well, I'm glad Halladan talked. Even if he did it at Aragorn's suggestion rather than Penny's! Finding he's not alone will help both brothers. Penny still knows quite a lot about what's going to happen, doesn't she! That's quite a burden, too - but not one she can share. Except, perhaps, with Elrond or Gandalf, in a vague sort of way, since they both know more than they let on. She is spending a lot of time in Halladan's company ... Author Reply: Oh, I don't know that Halladan finally acted only at Aragorn's prompting alone. Far from it. I would like to think that even if Aragorn had not spoken to him that night that he would have spoken to Arvain as a consequence of Penny's conversation with him. He might not have done it that very night, admittedly, but it would have happened relatively soon. I think the conversation with Aragorn simply showed him that people close to him knew, cared, understood, laid no blame on his shoulders, still held him in high regard and could help him if he wanted them too. It must have been something of a shock for Halladan to have Aragorn to basically tell hiim to his face 'I know what you are going through', let alone been some comfort too given the manner we can assume Aragorn would have had with him - sympathetic, wise and comforting. All Aragorn did was nudge Halladan to take the plunge and take it sooner. He would have got there under his own steam, indeed his entire manner with Penny in the conversation prior to Aragorn showing up was meant to show he was trying to make an effort to take on board what she was saying. Towards the end he realises that what she is saying is right - he even admits as much even if he also says he cannot promise he will act on it. However what he actually says is not 'I will not do it' but 'what you are suggesting is contrary to my nature': i.e. 'I know I need to do this but don't know if I can.' The implication is 'I will try if I feel I am able to, but don't force me to make a promise I might not be able to keep'. The burden of her future knowledge is something touched on earlier back in Minas Tirith but there's been little opportunity to address it further as yet. Her main concern at the moment is the decision she must make in a little over a week's time re. where she will stay. However her knowledge of the Scouring of the Shire will be discussed further in the near future. She is spending a lot of time in Halladan's company, but not exclusively by any means. She is spending nearly as much time in everyone else's company if not more, but since that is not salient to the plot it's difficult to describe it in too much detail, though the last chapter covered some aspects of it. :) That said, she and Halladan do like each other's company: they both have heavy burdens (if utterly different ones) and that gives them a level of mutual understanding and connection. They are also friends and as guardian/ward it's probably only right and understandable they spend a lot of time in each other's presence, even in larger company. Thanks for reading and commenting, Bodkin! :D | |
| Kitty | Reviewed Chapter: 38 on 9/4/2006 |
| Poor Halladan, to have to suffer so much! But it was good to know there are so many who were concerned for him. I think Penny did a great job in this chapter. Though she knew the dark mood Halladan was in, she risked to make him angry in order to finally help him. She may not have enough medical knowledge to try some sort of therapy or something like that, but she knows enough to realise that to bottle all of it up makes it worse and seems to act instinctively right. And her earlier words, even if he hadn't wanted to hear them, seem to have had their effect on him, considering he finally listened. Penny's argument how he would feel if it were Arvain who shut up to him and refused to talk was clever, I'd say. It forced Halladan to switch his POV a bit and think of how he affected all the others who loved him. I think that helped a bit, too. And then Aragorn turned up with the same intent as Penny. It confirmed what she said, didn't it? Still, I was glad Penny was the first. Btw, 'The Unmentionable Subject' was a very nice word for the problem. I was so *very* glad that Halladan in the end opened up enough to talk with his brother, and I hope so much it was his first step to healing. And the moments when he touched Penny's cheek and later when she held his hand were so sweet - and telling. You gave me again a bit hope about the outcome ;) Again in all this grave mood there are some amusing parts. I loved particularly the bit with the oliphaunt. Didn't know the saying myself, but it fitted quite well here. And Halladan complaining because she acted as a mother to him ... well, maybe that is exactly what he needs? Oh, and that: A man? Multitasking? Well, wasn’t he the novelty! *rofl* Can it be I am not the only one to being cynical in these things? Elladan and Elrohir were with seated Arwen Oh, shouldn't this be 'seated with'? Great chapter, Boz, and I am looking forward to the next, as usual. Author Reply: Poor Halladan indeed, but he is not the only one, as I tried to show in this chapter. We are seeing his story in detail, but he is only one of several. I'm glad you approve of Penny's actions in this chapter. I have been trying to build towards this: towards her finally doing something, if unconsciously and instinctively, that is correct for once. She is so unskilled, so out of kilter with the societies she is surrounded by, it's rare she finds something she can actually do without making a hash of it (decorating pottery was one rare example), but with Halladan she can actually do something useful and positive. And as for the moments of humour... Yeah, well, it's hard to not put stuff like into a chapter. They just leak out of me without me meaning too. The vaguely humourous stuff just itches to get out. *lol* Author Reply: Oh, and I forgot to say: thanks for pointing out the error. SHould be corrected now. :) | |
| Miss | Reviewed Chapter: 38 on 9/4/2006 |
| First of all: thank you for answering my question! It seems that this chapter has to come around: the healing process... The advice she gives Halladan - “I think that it is only to be expected that you should feel that way. It does not mean it is true, but it is entirely understandable that you think it is. But then just to voice it, if only to a few who know you well, who already know what you cannot express, that may help"- is the one she can take upon herself....But Penny is Penny. Good chapter!!!! Author Reply: You're welcome! I hope my answer made sense since it was rather long and rambling. :) Ah, it's so much easier to see the splinter in someone else's eye and forget the log in your own. ;) Penny has a lot to do herself, it is true, but Halladan's words of advice in the last chapter may yet work their charm, you never know. :D Thanks for reading and reviewing. :) | |
| Fondy | Reviewed Chapter: 38 on 9/4/2006 |
| Poor Halladan. I find I admire him more with every chapter. I know how hard grief is. It's such a wretched thing to realise we have limitations in mind and spirit as well as the ones we know so well in our bodies. And the ability to admit those limitations, often the very thing that will heal us over time, is the hardest thing to grasp. His experiences are very accurate to my own experiences with depression. I want to hug him, too. =D And I liked how you mentioned the 'old Penny.' She really has changed! It made me pause and think about the beginning of her journey. Humour me for a moment while I talk about myself. ^^; I have two baby meat goats, and one of them is Delphinium and one is Penelope. Penny is the shy one. It's less she who reminds me of her namesake, and more her sister, who will nibble out of my hand. Author Reply: I find I admire him more with every chapter. Wow, well thank you for that. I'm so very glad that you can feel such a strong positive sentiment for him - that's great! And yes, what you describe, about how hard it is to admit your failings, and yet how that is exactly what you need to do to start healing, is so very true. Again, I am pleased that you feel I have captured that realistically. You keep goats? I never knew! | |