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| All's Fair by Inkling | 67 Review(s) |
|---|---|
| Leaward | Reviewed Chapter: 12 on 9/2/2005 |
| I'd started reading this a while back and got distracted by real life. I love the author's notes at the bottom, I'll have to remember them when I'm writing my own tales -- if it's good enough for the professor to ignore potatoes and pipeweed, then we can have a little licence too. Anyway, I wanted to say I'm really enjoying this story, and I think you've made a lovely tale of Frodo and Hyacinth along the lines of Cyrano de Bergerac but you've brought it alive with incredible detail based on the 'canon' of real life. Wonderfully done, Inkling. Author Reply: Thanks Lea! I'm glad you rediscovered this and enjoyed the rest of it, and appreciate your letting me know. I remember the note you sent me way back when I first starting posting it...ever since I can't think about Clive without thinking of your dad! *snicker!* | |
| estelnalissi | Reviewed Chapter: Epilogue 2 on 6/17/2005 |
| What a deeply moving, bitter sweet ending you have written for Frodo and Hyacinth.It must go beyond bitter sweet because my throat is still constricted and my eyes wet. While writing the final epilogue, were you feeling emotional? There were lighter moments as when Buttercup so obviously and uselessly cast her net for Frodo and when little Pippen streaked through begging to be saved. How naughty of you to describe Frodo so ravishingly through Hyacinth's eyes, dark curls framing his face, gentle sensitivity, filled out nicely...You were toying with us! I was sitting down while I read it but I declare I went weak in the knees! Gentle sensitivity aptly describes more than the look in Frodo's eyes. It describes your delicate and meaningful scripting of this chance meeting. Frodo is still stirred by hyacinth and she appreciates more fully the honor he paid her with his regard. Her husband is a trial, but then, she has 4 treasures. Frodo is reasured his poetry wasn't the deciding factor in her choice of her spouse. Their waltze softens the finality of this last parting and perhaps her husband may even be more appreciative of her at least for a while.Inevitably, Frodo, who lost his parents, and is about to lose Bilbo, has lost in love and those little treasures won't be his. Alas we know Frodo's future and his innocent, exilerating, whirl wind of first love was all too brief. You were the perfect custodian of this tale of Frodo's first love and his hard won attainment of maturity. Author Reply: Estelnalissi, thank you so much for your lovely and perceptive appreciation of this final chapter. I think there’s no better feeling as an author than to know that someone has picked up on the nuances… Was I feeling emotional while writing it? It’s hard to say, because when I’m writing, I’m so focused on finding the right words to express the story I can see in my mind that I’m not sure I’m even aware of how I’m feeling. But once it was finished, I got emotional reading it, strange though it may seem to be affected by one’s own writing. For me the saddest moment is when Frodo says, “May I have the honor of this dance, Mrs. Took?” There’s something about hobbit restraint that gets to me every time! I’m glad you liked the description of Frodo! ;) And the waltz…since I know you like verse, you will appreciate these lyrics that Endymion sent me in a review over at ff.net: Not all that long ago You went your separate way; I rallied from the blow So here we are today. A world for you and me Was never meant to be I am extremely chagrined to confess that until she told me, I didn’t know these were the words to the Merry Widow Waltz! And yet isn’t that amazing, that they fit the scene so perfectly? Anyway, thanks again for your kind words and please do keep in touch…and you will certainly be hearing my cries for help with Elvish one of these days! | |
| lovethosehobbits | Reviewed Chapter: Epilogue 2 on 6/15/2005 |
| Lovely, just wonderful, yet so sad and bittersweet. I have read along without reviewing and am so sorry for that. I feel for our Fro' and his long journey that still awaits him tree Author Reply: Thanks tree, but no need to apologize...plus, didn't you review it over at ff.net? (unless there are TWO lovethosehobbits running around!) Anyway, I'm so glad you liked it, bittersweet though it was. | |
| good_one_pip | Reviewed Chapter: Epilogue 2 on 6/11/2005 |
| That was a perfect ending for this story. Painful, yes, but Frodo's life was full of pain wasn't it? In the attitude and spirit of Frodo that you've captured, I can see the ringbearer he will become at the end of Bilbo's speech. You grasped the emotions of the stories, both All's Fair and Terror of Buckland, perfectly and drew them into a perfect conclusion. Thank you for this story! I've certainly enjoyed it. Author Reply: Thanks Pip, I’m so glad you liked the ending and thought it fit the story…sad endings can be difficult, both to write and to accept. And since I know you read the two stories back to back, it’s interesting hearing that the conclusion seemed to work for both of them. I certainly see them as closely connected myself. Your comments are greatly appreciated! | |
| Andrea | Reviewed Chapter: Epilogue 2 on 6/11/2005 |
| "Perhaps, after all, this was what it truly meant to grow up: you carry on, do what you must—happy ending or no." That's what life teaches us all. And Frodo lived according to it: Happy ending or no, you always have to carry on! A perfect ending to a wonderful story. Thank you, Inkling :) Author Reply: And thank you, Andrea, for all your kind and detailed reviews…I really looked forward to them! The life lesson you mention is one of many that struck me in LOTR, and I wanted to express it in this fic. I’m glad it resonated with you, too. | |
| Larner | Reviewed Chapter: Epilogue 2 on 6/10/2005 |
| Ah, I knew the names were familiar, and now I know why! Once on a Time used to be one of my favorites, with the decision to be very bad, and then very good. Heh! And bless you for quoting the cockroach and the cat! Mom named her first car mehitibel, by the way. But, poor Frodo, coming to this realization on that night, of all nights. Sweet Hobbit that he was. Author Reply: Yes, too bad I couldn’t find a way to fit Belgrane in somewhere! And LOL about your mom’s car! Thanks, Larner. | |
| Nina the powerwriter | Reviewed Chapter: Epilogue 2 on 6/10/2005 |
| I read this entire story (save for the epilogues) about a week ago. Talk about a way of putting things! I enjoyed your approach to Frodo's life at Brandy Hall. It was very interesting and different, and the story twisted in some clever ways. I can see why frodo would of been turn off by the fact of having a relationship after what happen with Hyacinth! She just sort of left him hanging and never came back. This first epilogue is quite sad (and creepy, lol), but also has that feeling of satifaction too. I have really enjoyed reading this story. Good job on it :) Author Reply: Nina, I’m glad you’ve enjoyed my somewhat different take on this period of Frodo’s life…thanks so much for letting me know! Hope you felt the conclusion brought some resolution to things…that was my goal, anyway! | |
| Ariel | Reviewed Chapter: Epilogue 2 on 6/10/2005 |
| If he tousles my hair, I’ll kill him, thought Frodo. ROTFLMAO!!! Lovely, lovely tale, my friend! I enjoyed it thouroughly! Encore! Encore! Author Reply: Thank you, my dear! I’m glad you enjoyed it and appreciate so much all your support for this story. And now to get to work on that encore…! | |
| Andrea | Reviewed Chapter: Epilogue 2 on 6/5/2005 |
| "I don’t think it’s possible for every character in a story to have a happy ending." Frodo is right here! He doesn't know yet, that this will be his own fate, but maybe this experience will help him later, to understand "the pattern" and hopefully, it will ease his heart a bit. Tolkien said, that the name "Frodo" means "Wise by experience". I think, this is one of the experiences that made him wiser. There is not always a happy ending, but sometimes I wish, Frodo would have married. He would have lived a happy life with his wife and children and would never have been appointed ringbearer. But this story would never have been told! Author Reply: Yes, there is definitely some foreshadowing intended in Frodo’s words. And the meaning of his name has been very much in my mind as I wrote this story. Hopefully this will come across in the final chapter. There is not always a happy ending, but sometimes I wish, Frodo would have married. He would have lived a happy life with his wife and children and would never have been appointed ringbearer. But this story would never have been told! True, and what of the Ring? If Frodo had not been Ringbearer and Sauron had recovered it somehow, no one, including Frodo and his family, would have had a happy ending. So either way, happiness was not to be Frodo’s fate…sigh. Thanks Andrea! | |
| Larner | Reviewed Chapter: Epilogue 2 on 6/3/2005 |
| Aha--at last we know the bitter truth--he dropped a blob of paint on the picture and fixed it by making it into boots! Lovely thinking! I wonder if there was a need to rush things between Hyacinth and Coronel, and grieve at this foreshadowing of Frodo's own fate. No, not all ends happily here in the mortal lands. He had too much the right of it, I grieve to say. Author Reply: A need to rush things? Well, let’s just say that if not for Sam’s presence Bilbo would have been making jokes about crossbow weddings! ;) Yes, poor Frodo is starting to understand how the world is…if deserving had “much to do with it,” how different the ending of LOTR would have been! Thanks Larner. Ps—next week mehitabel will finally have her say…can you guess what that might be? | |