Thanks so much, Elleth. I know that this is not an easy read, and that because of this, many readers (particularly as part of B2MeM) will avoid it. That said, it had to be written, or at least I felt I needed to write it. I constantly fret that Pandë!Sauron will be perceived as "too nice" because of the humanity he harbors within himself, so I'm hoping I have exorcized that concern.
I must admit that I held myself back from writing an even more unflinching look at Celebrimbor's corpse and his torture. I've seen fan art of Celebrimbor-as-banner, and similar to the imagery of St. Sebastian's martyrdom, these drawings and paintings invariably show a pretty corpse. But death is not pretty. I can't depict it any other way but grim, having something of a penchant for "magical realism" (OK, with plenty of scientifictitiousness thrown in ;^)) rather than full-on fantasy. I'm hoping the effectiveness (and the true horror of it all - that someone who is capable of regret and who still has seeds of "good" in him can commit these acts) comes from the POV of Mairon.
At any rate, it looks like I achieved what I set out to do, which is to show that not only do the betrayed pay a terrible price, but so does the betrayer.
Thanks again!
On Huin's art: you absolutely hit the nail on the head. When she showed the draft illustration of "Examining His Work," that is precisely what I thought. She captured the cold calculation leavened by regret and sorrow.
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I must admit that I held myself back from writing an even more unflinching look at Celebrimbor's corpse and his torture. I've seen fan art of Celebrimbor-as-banner, and similar to the imagery of St. Sebastian's martyrdom, these drawings and paintings invariably show a pretty corpse. But death is not pretty. I can't depict it any other way but grim, having something of a penchant for "magical realism" (OK, with plenty of scientifictitiousness thrown in ;^)) rather than full-on fantasy. I'm hoping the effectiveness (and the true horror of it all - that someone who is capable of regret and who still has seeds of "good" in him can commit these acts) comes from the POV of Mairon.
At any rate, it looks like I achieved what I set out to do, which is to show that not only do the betrayed pay a terrible price, but so does the betrayer.
Thanks again!
On Huin's art: you absolutely hit the nail on the head. When she showed the draft illustration of "Examining His Work," that is precisely what I thought. She captured the cold calculation leavened by regret and sorrow.