Comments on The Staff Dancer

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This is very well done- so many fascinating ideas about the Finwëan family, plus the Noldor and Vanyar in Valinor in general! I especially love your characterizations and the way you depict the varying relationships Lalwen has with everyone, that comes through extremely well. Through a bunch of little scenes you have brought out a very full feeling of, so many complicated relationships, especially between Lalwen and Fëanor. I especially love your Fëanor, he fits very well with some of my thoughts/headcanons on him while also expanding them. But really I love the way you’re portrayed everyone, from the protagonists to the background characters like Capindë. They all feel extremely real, not to mention well written and in character (if they have a canon character) and interesting! And the Noldor totally would have made ridiculously impractical fashions pre-Darkening! I love the foreshadowing and bittersweetness and the way things come full circle. It makes the ending very satisfying in a way that is also heartbreaking!

 

I did not get a notification for this!!! This is such a great review, thank you very much <3

 

First, I am very happy you like my take on over-the-top Noldorin fashion! They are people who lived in paradise and would not die, so I think they truly had a lot of time to lose with trains so longs you can't walk with them...

Capindë! She's one of my fav OCs, and it seems like people like her! Which is always great to hear for an author, because people read fanfics for canon characters, so OCs are always harder to sell... and my heart swells a little when I hear they are loved <3

Fëanor <3 I am writing him far too much, he's this weird brillant ball of nerves that is a little bit of a self insert sometimes with his anxiety problems ah ah.

 

Also this: "I love the foreshadowing and bittersweetness and the way things come full circle. It makes the ending very satisfying in a way that is also heartbreaking!"

The art I was to work with was Lalwen with a spear, charging into battle, so somehow I knew I had to work toward this. Other things came along as I wrote (like the Lembas situation), and I was lucky that the Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang is a long exchange, with a lot of time to developpe a story. That allowed me to go back and forth until I could get the foreshadowing and the "full circle" right. That and my beta was very ambitious with my story and did not let me settle for a "that's working right?" when she felt I could do better!