Comments on I Won't Bite

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Repeating my not very eloquent words from the Slashy Santa site here, because I want to encourage people who may not read there to read it here.

This is a wonderful story. I loved it beginning to end. You did so much with it. I love Maedhros and I adore cheeky, brave Oropher. I am stuttering for things to say about it. I loved every single chapter. You kept me riveted. I had no idea what would happen next, despite the fact your stick very close to canon in its broader outlines. This is not AU everything happens between the lines of the presumed history.

I love young Oropher's admissions of his feelings to himself and his running commentary about Maedhros. I love the description in the the love scenes.

You should be very pleased with what you have accomplished in this story. I definitely will read it again. Forgot to say before that it has a lovely ending.

Thank you again! I grew fond of cheeky, brave Oropher too, and I hope his characterization here makes the later portion of his story more explicable. I really appreciate that this story made me actually write about him -- which I would have otherwise not done! I was nervous about the love scenes, the request wanted up to NC-17, but I think I probably skirted that rating. Ah, well. Thank you! I like the ending the best. :)

I've already told you I like it and  think you've done extremely well with a difficult set of prompts! There are so many good things in this. Your Oropher is very likable and engages the sympathy of the reader. (I did feel so sorry for him, in that scene alone in the forest!)  Your Carcharoth is unusual and  scary. Oropher's first meeting with Maedhros is a really striking scene and all their dialogues are well handled, with plenty of effective twists and turns.

And I love the epilogue from Maedhros's POV!



It wouldn't have been possible without you! You get all the credit, Himring, thank you so much! I feel like there was, ultimately, probably not enough of the talking wolf in it, but Carcharoth was fun to write about. (Of course, now I want something from his POV. It couldn't have been easy to be raised at the throne of Morgoth, knowing that your destiny lay in killing The Greatest Dog Ever. Think of the pressure!) 

Thank you for making me see that Maedhros could be tragically funny -- I think it was your story, "Of Cabbages and the Embarrassment of Being Maedhros" that made me realize it. And somehow his character-arc felt even sadder that Maedhros was capable of humor, and I took it and ran with it. I hope it worked? (Even without naked Fingon fantasies.)  It's a little homage to your story, when Maedhros briefly considers raising cabbages in the epilogue. :D

I don't like Oropher. For a lot of reasons, involving Dagorlad and the idiocy there, as well as a general preference for Fëanorians over Doriathrim.

Usually, anyway.

You did an amazing job here, Zeen - Oshun and Himring already pointed out how likeable Oropher was in your fic, and how it worked extremely well in context. The encounter with Carcharoth was quite fun to read because scary and surreal as should be, and I loved the description of Maedhros after Angband.

Good solution with Oropher's wife as well - I liked that touch! And Síriel is someone my Idhlinn would quite like to meet, although I have a feeling they might be a little too alike to get along. ;)

All in all, an excellent read!



Thank you, Elleth! I'm so glad you liked. I've never seriously thought of Oropher before -- except to think that he was suicidially stubborn, which, actually, makes him just Maedhros' type!

Carcharoth was a surreal creature, even by Middle-earthly standards, I had fun with him. If only I was better at coming up with werewolf dialogue!

I tried to be respectful of Oropher's wife -- I hate it when canonical wives/love interests are villified or outright ignored to make way for the delicious slaaaash. (I mean, I love the delicious slash, obviously, but it never seemed to be fair to me. Ladies get a raw deal from the narrative anyway, I don't want to add to it.) Personally, I think Oropher and his wife never really connected -- but that was because of *his* lingering guilt and trauma, not through any fault of hers. (It also, in this story, poisoned his relationship with his son, Thranduil isn't taking a grey ship any time soon to see dear old dad.)

I wanted Oropher's wife would be an interesting person in her own right, and if Thranduil was still very young (or underaged) when Oropher was killed in battle, she could have been the dowager queen. Possibly, I overthought this.

I definitely borrowed the notion of a nonsense Feanorian-healer from you, thanks to your B2MEM entries this year. Possibly, Siriel doesn't quite have the spirit of scientific curiosity needed to dissect an dead orc, but there are probably times when she'd be tempted to dissect a live elf or two. Especially ones that think complete bed rest are things that happen to other people...

Thank you again for the review!