You have a gift for writing compelling and smooth-flowing dialogue! The debate was fascinating to read from a philosophical standpoint, and as usual you wrote the character dynamics between Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn beautifully. Thank you so much for sharing!

love

Truly a complex and dare I say perfectly constructed debate! I felt like I was reading the debate often discussed in Philosophy classes between Socrates and Euthyphro! Your take on the characters and on crafting a debate is brilliant. Also, since living things are no inherently evil or good (in my opinion, though that could in itself be a debate ;) ) and a sense of foreboding does not always come with dark people or things as in Middle Earth, I imagine an argument of this nature would be incredibly difficult to grasp and construct due to little evidence grounded in reality. I myself tried to analyze the arguments of the characters (because I enjoy debate and analysis) as I read this and kept drawing blanks. I have no idea how you managed to construct such a complex and thought-provoking story, but truly, your mind has few bounds! Your logic, handle on the characters, and planning (whether based in reality or a fantasy world) is immaculate! Many kudos to you!

My brain hurts... I love it ;)

"Ai Varda, they have joined together against me! Aragorn suddenly realized."

That was by far my favorite line. I love stories featuring these three, especially when there is good banter between Legolas and Gimli: they most definitely do go at it just for the sake of doing so. Well done, as always!

OK...I love your story because I love having these types of debates with my son. You got me so into this that I now have to say that you ended the debate too early. Aragorn argued himself back into the very corner that Gimli stated. If he indeed found little value in continuing to speak of something they could not hope to understand...why did he restart the conversation? :)

I am amazed and greatly entertained by your wealth of knowledge of things Tolkien in nature and in your well honed skill at writing tales to entertain and broaden the enjoyment of such.

Thank you for writing and sharing such an excellent tale. I love your stories concerning "arguments" most of all and this one makes me think of your story "Stray But A Little" even more.

And control passes to the dwarf...

lol too funny! Great job!

What a story! I could barely keep track of everything, it was so confusing. And pointless. But fun. : )

"Now it comes. Elrohir could have set the changing of the guard by this. Five… Four… Three… Two… One…"

That was probably the funniest part for me, for whatever reason. Thanks!

Well, of course Aragorn is successful! He makes Gimli and Legolas fight on one side AND he wins this vocal battle.

But you also were successful in "telling an argument between Legolas and Gimli convincingly from an outside perspective"!

Maybe that is even better than the perspective of one of the opponents.

Very funny, how Aragorn can predict his friend's actions in debate. *lol*

I'd like to add something in this discussion, but I rather won't since it will never come to an end.

It was well written though

I have heard alot about your excellent writing so I thought I'd take a stab at reading something (while goofing off at work lol) I wasn't disappointed. This was a well written piece. Its also obvious that you know canon very well without shoving it down the reader's throats how well you know it. It was also a gapfiller without being too fluffy. I prefer these three non-fluffy, thank you :) Good job!

Well. I'm glad i popped in to have a look at this fic. Fantastic work. I love the way you mould words, not many writers can write a scene as long as this with nothing but contemplative conversation to keep it flowing. And you did it so well, too.

And i must say, the insults you had Legolas and Gimli throw at each other were extremely inventive, even though they came down to the simplest of analogies. Really, they well and truly had my giggling up a storm. How you even thought of them, i will never know.

Thanks for writing and posting this. Its certainly made my evening. *grin*

That was definately for the better. I could never get tired of reading this fic. I hope to see some new stuff from you soon!

~Flame

This was really deep. I enjoyed it, even if Gimli's question might as well have been 'which was first, the chicken or the egg?' I had fun reading this and plan on reading other stories of yours. Don't expect reviews, however. My computer hates ff.n.