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A Place for Gandalf  by Dreamflower 4 Review(s)
LarnerReviewed Chapter: 9 on 8/9/2008
The S-B's do make quite the detestable family! Not that it will matter that much in the end--Lotho stays that way all his life, unfortunately.

Author Reply: Well, nasty people do tend for the most part, to stay nasty, sadly enough. Fortunately, it's not universal, and some find grace, as Lobelia eventually did--though very nearly too late.

GryffinjackReviewed Chapter: 9 on 10/13/2005
You know, I like the way the box for leaving a review opens in a separate window as opposed to ezboard - it makes it much easier to refer back to a chapter or to copy a line for inclusion in a review, such as my two favourite lines from this chapter:

“Well,” said Saradoc, “I am Merry’s father, and I am not at all averse to a little pot stirring.”

Esmeralda stood up, Merry in her arms. “Frodo, just how ‘splendid’ was that bloody nose? I should like to have seen that.”

It's so good to see the way Saradoc will stand up for his son and the way Esmerelda has a Tookish sense of humour! Merry is quite fortunate to have such splendid parents.

It is interesting to note that although Frodo did not exhibit signs of melancholy while at Bag End before Bilbo gave him the ring, he did exhibit them after he was in possession of it when the ring was trying to gain possession of him and afterward. The ring must have tapped into his deep-seeded sense of melancholy and made him feel as alone as when he had first lost his parents and to such an extent that his one refuge, Bag End, no longer worked as a place to escape his sadness enough to continue living in the Shire, especially now that Sam, Merry, and Pippin now had their own nightmares to deal with and might even be a reminder of what had happened (not that he needed any such reminder).

Lotho really is a git, thinking he would be able to get away with lying to his parents about what really happened. And Otho is quite shrewd in his assessments and handling of matters.

I am glad the frequent long visits are being set up between Frodo and Merry. They are closer than many brothers and need each other.

Author Reply: You know, it took me the *longest* time to figure out I could do that. I'd hit the wrong button, my review would vanish, and I did not realize it had simply shrunk and I could get it back. I got quite frustrated until I figured it out quite by accident one day. I used to be amazed at people quoting--from memory I thought, LOL!

My Merry does have splendid parents.

Yes, the Ring did use that melancholy against him; during the Quest, while he still had his task before him, and people to protect, and no sense of "failure", it could gain no purchase--because his love was stronger than his sorrow. But afterwards, even though destroyed, it ate away at those defences he had built. And Bag End at that point provided another reminder of his so-called failure--it was where Lotho had ruled as "Chief" and Sharkey had made his headquarters.

Well, yes, Lotho *is* a git, and a twit, and a bully and a jerk and a wretch and a villain and erm...I'm running out of polite words here. Otho was shrewd, and had more patience and ability to dissemble than his wife and son. Lobelia was too single-minded. Her obsession with Bag End overcame her intelligence. And Lotho had inherited only the worst characteristics of both his parents.

I can't imagine they would not have visited frequently, and it's all there between the lines in canon. How else would he have known those so much younger than he so well otherwise? But also, I set the frequent visits up for my own convenience. Buckland and Tookland, in spite of what some fics would have one believe, are not just a hop,skip and a jump away. If I wanted to have Merry, and later Pippin, in my pre-Quest stories, then there had to be a *reason* for their presence in Bag End. By the time Bilbo leaves the rhythm is well established: Spring in Bag End for all of them. Then Pippin visits Merry at Brandy Hall until the Lithedays, and Merry finishes the Summer with Pippin in Tookland, before they go to Bag End for the Birthday, then Frodo visits Merry at Brandy Hall in the Fall for a few weeks, and then both he and Bilbo visit again at Yule. After Bilbo leaves there are occasional changes in this schedule, but it still holds in its general outline. It's why almost all my pre-Quest fluff is set in the Spring. Of course, there are the occasional exceptions for special events, but that's the general outline of things.

Grey WondererReviewed Chapter: 9 on 6/20/2004
Your Otho is the first one I have read that does not let Lobelia do all of his talking for him. LOL A new experience for me and I think I like it. Gives it more of a twist and makes it more interesting. Lotho and Lobelia were always the ones to do the dirty work in most stories, so I enjoyed hearing Otho have his say too.

Author Reply: Most stories have Otho being very hen-pecked or ineffectual. I don't know, I think he was probably just as nasty as Lobelia, and I'll bet he held his own with her. Here's my take on the S.-B.s: Lobelia, rude and self-centered; Lotho, a bully who wants to dominate others; Otho, slick and hypocritical; all three of them, greedy as all get out.

GamgeeFestReviewed Chapter: 9 on 6/16/2004
Bilbo? Do something drastic? No, not Bilbo. :)

I wouldn't want to be anywhere near the S-Bs when they find out that Bilbo adopted Frodo. Then again, from a safe enough distance, it would be quite an entertaining scene.

Oh, about Frodo's parents: is it written anywhere exactly when they died, or it this one of those things that we get to make up? Reason I ask it because I'm working on a fic and this is going to come up. I've never come across an actual date (other than SR 1380 as stated in the family trees) so have been under the assumption that it's up to the reader to guess the date.

Author Reply: You mean something drastic like disinherit them? Naww... 8-)

I have a feeling that after trashing Bilbo and Frodo up one side and down the other, they will start the "blame game" as to who is responsible for ticking Bilbo off enough to act--guess we know which member of the family will get that nomination. Lotho really should have kept his hands to himself. Of course *we* know it was really *Lobelia's* fault.

I have never come across anything except the year; we know that Frodo was twelve at the time. But I have always assumed the springtime, for various reasons. (Spring or summer seem like logical times for boating, and if it were in the spring, then the weather might make the water a bit more unpredictable.) I chose the last day of Rethe to fit my story. But I have read fics that put it in the summer or fall. Unless the info should crop up in one of the volumes of HoME, I should say you are safe choosing your own date for it.

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