Too late to go in peace by mangacrack

This is great. I feel like I cannot give it the review that it deserves. It feels very convincing to me and that's my bottom line for fanfiction. I've never been able to work out what Dior was thinking myself and/or how he made his choices. I know people like me enjoy reading The Silmarillion and fiddiling around with assigning its characters motivations one understands and can relate to. Assigning motives one understands today to characters in LotR often works pretty well. But those work less well in The Silmarillion.

Of course, that is not the only way to do it--one can go the route of textual examination and blah, blah, on and on about northern epic sagas, etc. and different sensibilities and ways of thinking. I'm always looking for a marriage of the two. But Dior has always been a problem for me. You resolve his process in this story by choosing to mix the epic/fantasy elements and modern psychological motivations. It reads really well for me and makes Dior more understandable. It's beautifully written also!

I love how you're building up Dior's time in Doriath, from the arrival in an essentially alien place that he suddenly has to govern, to the routines that he follows (both to indulge his people and to make things easier for himself!). The dreams are enigmatic enough to pass for actual dreams, even though we as readers understand them better than Dior does! I also loved the glimpses of "normal" family life - it makes the ruin of Doriath even more sad, but it also makes the characters feel more real. Well done!

I should have reviewed sooner, but this was lovely. It gives us insight into Dior and Doriath, and both together. Having foresight that he fails to interpret correctly makes the Second Kinslaying all the more tragic... 

You've truly made me feel for Dior here. I've never been able to really understand why he acted as he did, but you wrote something that does explain it. I'm tempted to adopt some of it as my own. And his foresight! Oh that he could have interpreted it correctly. I really enjoyed this story.