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Number Two Son  by French Pony 3 Review(s)
BodkinReviewed Chapter: 7 on 6/9/2004
Strange, but true - I can like almost every character in LOTR, even Gollum, but Denethor is just TOO HORRIBLE FOR WORDS. Not because of the Palantir, not because he fell into despair, but because he was so nasty to his poor son. I think I would dislike him less if he had been unpleasant to both of them - but to adore Boromir and be so mean to Faramir makes him contemptible.

Just a little rant!

daw the minstrelReviewed Chapter: 7 on 6/9/2004
How tragic. Denethor has slid further into the grip of the evil emanating from the palantir, even as he tries to use it for good. It's actually fortunate that Faramir is an adult and away from home by now, or things would have been worse. I liked seeing all of Faramir's friends, up to and including Mithradir. It comforted me if not him to know he was not alone.

Raksha The DemonReviewed Chapter: 7 on 6/8/2004
A wonderful chapter! You've brought the father and his sons almost to the point where they are in LOTR - all shouldering terrible burdens. Denethor is burdened by the knowledge of Gondor's great danger, as well as the palantir's visions, and foolishly determined, in the terrible pride that will kill him, to go it alone, with no help from allies. Faramir is burdened by his father's callous rejection, by the knowledge that he has no place in the City he called home. And Boromir is burdened by the weight of trying to be brother AND father to Faramir, and captain-general, as well as the heavy weight of all Denethor's hopes and the certainty that his father is slipping farther and farther away. It looks like Boromir might have deliberately picked the Rangers as an ideal unit for Faramir in part to distance him from their father's scorn, knowing how it would hurt Faramir to be made aware of Denethor's rejection every day in Minas Tirith.

And a lovely moment of Gandalf acting as Faramir's surrogate father, just when Faramir needed his comfort the most.

I don't want this story to end. Will you take it to the Pyre, or do a separate story? (can't remember)

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