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When the King Comes Back ( Brandy Hall ) by Dreamflower	2 Review(s)
Gryffinjack	Reviewed Chapter: 15 on 12/26/2005
What a lovely, light little exchange: "Merry had to help him into his armor. “For goodness’ sake, Pip, you’ve been in front of kings and princes and Elven lords and wizards and Ents. You’ve slain Orcs and a troll. What is there to be frightened of from a bunch of Tooks?” “Because they are Tooks.” “You have a point there. Ah, see, I made you smile.” Pippin made an effort to put the corners of his mouth down. “Did not.” “Did so.” “Did not.” Frodo stood at the door with his arms folded. “Well, I must have come to the wrong place. I was looking for a couple of warriors from the South, and see I found the nursery instead.” He was glad to see them in good spirits. No dreams for Merry the night before." I so enjoy seeing the three of them play together! All three of them share that same wonderful sense of humour. "Necessity made him a warrior, destiny made him a King, and his heart made him a healer. When the healer is needed, he puts warrior and king behind him in an instant." What a powerful statement you have written, Dreamflower! and how perfect for it to come from Frodo - so elegant and insightful. A masterful piece of writing that had the desired effect on the Thain and the Master, as they are now ready to discuss ideas with Frodo about Aragorn's letter. Although Frodo is divesting himself of some of his property by offerring it to Merry and Pippin, this time it is out of love for them rather than out of preparing for leaving the Shire, as he does later on. Can you imagine how difficult that must have been for Paladine and Eglantine to allow their underage son to move so far from home after they have just got him back from a year's absence during which Paladin thought him dead? At least for Saradoc and Esmeralda, Merry will not be far away at all. But for Paladin and Eglantine - the burdens and sacrifices demanded of many by the Ring still continue. The way Pippin takes right to the idea, I do wonder if he had any regret at all about leaving his parents and sisters so soon after just having come home. Now that he and his father had worked out their differences, and still being a tweenager who does love his family, I should think that some part of him would want to remain at the Great Smails with his family, even though he knew that he and Merry both needed to do this. "“It’s Merry. Ever since before I can remember, Merry has always taken care of me, protected me, watched out for me. While we were gone, Frodo had all three of us watching out for him, and then he had Sam; I had Frodo and Merry the first part of the trip, and then I had just Merry. But Merry--well, I didn’t take very good care of him.” Pippin hung his head. One of the things of which he was most heartily ashamed was that it had been his foolishness in the matter of the palantir that had allowed him to become separated from Merry. “I know that it all worked out for the best, but I should have thought more of him." Oh, Pippin! (((((hugs))))) I never thought of it that way! How right you are that Pippin would have felt awfully guilty and horribly miserable about having to leave Merry. He would have felt as though he had abandoned Merry when Merry needed him most and would have hated himself for it and beaten himself up over it. Oh, Pippin! As sensitive as he is and as much as he loves Merry, Pippin's heart must have broken over what he had done to his Merry in his foolishness - and he would have been right. His pain must have been unbearable. That three day ride to Minas Tirith must have been worse than I had imagined. Thank you so much for bringing this forward - your writing is so insightful! Author Reply: I'm glad you liked the bit of play. I don't really care how much trauma they have been through, seeing one another well just has to lift all their spirits--and it's especially going to do Frodo good to see the two of them playing about like children again. I am glad that you liked the part about Aragorn. I get so tired of the debate about "movie" Aragorn and "book" Aragorn, and how only movie Aragorn was reluctant to take power, and how book Aragorn was eager to embrace his destiny. I think that JRRT makes it clear that in his world-view of M-e, an eagerness to be in power is a flaw--and this was not a flaw Aragorn had. No, he was not as conflicted or doubtful as in the movie, but nor in the book was he jumping at the chance to take over. Look at how he refused to come into the City for fear that there would be a conflict with Denethor. He only agreed to come for one reason: he was needed as a healer. This showed more than anything his true priorities. He did not doubt his destiny was to be King, and he did want to be able to marry Arwen, but the main reason he wanted to be King is because it was part of putting an end to the Enemy. His true calling as I see it was as Healer, and one of his many names as King was "Renewer". puffpuffrant oversorryread something earlier that pushed my buttons It does have to be very hard on Paladin and Eglantine. They've only just gotten their baby back, and now they must give him up again for his own good. I don't think it's that hard on Pippin at this point, because, really for years he has spent much time in Buckland, and he's never really been all that comfortable at Great Smials. He will miss his parents, sisters, and the aunties, but he's not really going to miss all the other Tooks very much. In fact, he may feel relieved to be away from them. Oh, I think that was a good deal of his guilt and suffering over the palantir incident--not only betraying Gandalf's trust, and perhaps endangering Frodo and Sam, but allowing something to happen that would tear him and Merry apart. It had to be agonizing for him to realize that the seperation was entirely his own fault. And it's a bit of guilt and shame he would not get over easily, for it was far more a deliberate act than impulsively throwing a stone down a well.

PIppinfan1988	Reviewed Chapter: 15 on 3/26/2004
Necessity made him a warrior, destiny made him a King, and his heart made him a healer. - Dreamflower Nicely done! And I love the bit where Pippin seeks his mother as an advocate--I think she was always butter in his hands (to an extent, of course). Pippinfan Author Reply: Thank you. I felt that Aragorn's true calling is as a healer, and that, of course is part of his being King. And yes, I thought Pippin would get a bit further with Eglantine this time. He's fixed things up with his father, but I see it as still being just a little delicate.

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