Comments on Upon the Branching Years

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Re-reading this in order to give it comments worthy of the accomplisment! Also. for me at least, it is very different to read a story for pleasure than to nitpick a work-in-progress. 

First my apologies, I am still scatter-brained. One chapter at a time!

This is a bold concept. I love the way you introduce it. One of the reasons you are such a good writer is you understand the concept of suspense and laying the ground work.



Yes! The scene setting and descriptive elements are flawless! And account of the encounter here is excellent.

I adore this interaction between Legolas and Galdor:

“You are wise, my lord. I shall strive to be worthy of your faith in me.”
“You had better,” he said shortly. “My life depends on it.”

 



You're so sweet. It was a challenge to write the descriptions of Gondolin and its environs because I can visualize it so clearly but struggle to put it all into words. The cast of Gondolin is huge but I had to include the usual suspects. It was fun writing Galdor too and giving him a little personality. I might revisit him someday.

Ha! Legolas and the tree!! Galdor has no clue--he does not know sh*t about trees compared to Legolas.

Love Gondolin putting Legolas through his paces. Thank god he is up to it or he might have gotten through off the city wall! 

He is finding his way into the fabric of the city. Doing the hard stuff that will enable him to become close of Glorfindel again. Great plotting and pacing.



I'm glad you like that bit about the trees. I thought it was cute. ????

"Thank god he is up to it or he might have gotten through off the city wall!"

That made me laugh so hard! One of the challenges of this was keeping Legolas from being thrown off a wall. They were really into that. lol

You know my insecurities about plotting and pacing with this. I whined enough. Thanks so much!

There is something just so deeply hilarious about Legolas having to sit out an archery contest!

I know how hard it is to write a tournament scene because I took that on myself (at great length) in a story once. Very nice work spelling it out but not making it ridiculously too long and overly detailed like G.R.R. Martin does! 



You don't know how much I wanted to have him do the shooting, but he is still the best because he helped Erestor win over one of the best archers in that Age. So I still kept his honor. 

I dont think I could have even written the tournament without your story for inspiration. It was so clearly described, with such colorful and natural actions. I do like writing stuff like that but I really only know what I've seen in movies, which is what most everyone knows about it anyway, so I think I get by.

“Oh, you really must one day. The cry of the gulls, the breaking of the waves upon the shore. It is a very spiritual place. Ulmo is very present there.”

“I find the forest to be that for me. The tall, sturdy trees, the ferns and mossy streams. It is so much a part of me I don’t think I could ever truly be happy anywhere else.”

“If you love the forests and I the sea, where then shall we live?” Glorfindel said with a grin.

“Why here, of course,” Legolas said readily. And he meant it. He would have lived here with Glorfindel forever if not for the burden of destiny.


Very nicely done. You include a truck load to references in this simple bit of dialog. And end it with a kick in chest! Poor Legolas!



This ending is absolutely lovely--so filled with wistfulness and longing. Congrats on this truly epic response to a fic swap. I enjoyed reading every part of it. It is masterfully done--so many things going throughout the story and so much detail in the description of canon events. I particularly loved getting to know Galdor, who I have to admit I had not given a thought to before I read your story. As you know, the story and working with you on it--so much fun--was what inspired me to write a character bio on him. 

Thank you so much for all your help and suggestions with this one. I feel like you did as much work on this as I did. I’m happy you like what I did with Galdor and that it inspired you to write the masterful bio of him that is on this very site! He’s an overlooked character that deserves more love.

 

This is one I literally don’t think I could have done without you so your review means a lot to me. I appreciate you always being there to help me through the swaps.

It was a pleasure. In fact, it was a laugh riot--racing toward the finish-line simultaneously while Beta-reading one another's stories. I know we've done that a lot over the years, but it had been a while.

You really did take on a challenging concept--time-travel stories are hard, especially while tying oneself to so many restrictions and requiring one end up at an unchanged set point in canon after a whole bunch of potentially plot-changing elements. It gives me a headache just thinking about the amount of work. I'm a seat-of-the-pants writer. You succeeded big time! Again. it was a pleasure to be involved.

Good times! It felt great to do it again this year.

I really had to streamline the time travel element in this, changing only one element, which would have had larger repercussions all around to be honest. It would have ended up like Inception if I’d gone too crazy with it and then I’d have confused myself. 

You know I never plot anything so this just played out as I went along but I’m happy with the result. More importantly my recipient really likes it and I always strive for that above everything.

Your swap story was actually more complex than this, with larger implications for the canon events, so I must also give you props for that. I love watching your stories come together in real time.