Wow. I really loved this. First of all, I always like reading your Sauron – there's something about him that makes him so much fun to read! I loved him being such a competent military commander here. And your side characters never seemed flat, even if they only showed up for a few lines. The Orc especially, I liked him.

The description in this was absolutely brutal at times, which is hardly a surprise, considering the narrator! (And I mean that in the best of ways, of course. The description was excellently vivid.) And everything that I might've said has been said much more eloquently already, but I'm still going to note that I love the complexity in Sauron that you convey here so well (by showing rather than telling, to quote that oft-repeated phrase). How he cares for Tyelpo, and yet still tortures him. And everything relating to his family – I'm going to have to go read all those fics now, of course.

And the ending was great. I loved the flashback, and those last few lines really hit me hard. Actually, this whole fic kinda did that to me.

The pictures included also fit very well! I especially liked the feeling of the last one, it was absolutely perfect for the ending of this fic. *applauds the artist*