I really love your character development! People change in messy and ugly ways and you don’t sugar-coat it. Thorin throws a fit when he is finally confronted with overwhelming evidence, Thranduil is having his nose rubbed in his mistakes until he sees his wrongs. People often don’t just /change/ … you are so good at showing the impetus for people’s growth and development.

*SCREAMS* OH MY GOD THANK YOU, this is absolutely absolutely something I have been striving for, the whole fic long!!! CHANGE CAN BE HARD, it is different and weird for everyone, and people are messy!!! IT IS NEVER THE SAME, and god, it can be wonderful, and terrible, and quiet and noisy and soft and agonising, and dreadful – and WONDERFUL. LIKE

– Baris (stepping outside her comfort zone, fucking up in a horrifying way, and still getting up and steeling herself and trying again)
– Bilbo (learning to TRUST!!! TRUST, this secretive hobbit who mutters to himself and distrusts everything, who is full of suspicion and bluster and old pain!! HE IS SO UNWILLING TO TRUST – himself, Thorin, ANYONE – but he will, he does eventually)
– Gimli (gets the arrogance knocked out of him, learns to listen and not just decide he knows what is best, learns to see beyond his suspicion and his ingrained ideas, LIKE – HE ROARS AND SHOUTS AND ACTS LIKE A TWIT ABOUT ACCEPTING COMFORT FROM AN ELF, but in the end he does)
– Stonehelm (it takes a war and his dad’s DEATH and the shouldering of the responsibility for his entire people for him to finally see that he is no poor successor to his famous forebears, that he needn’t style himself after his heroes, he’s drowning in grief but he’s standing up and leading anyway, he DOES IT ANYWAY and god it hurts)
– Thranduil (BOOM-TISH HAHAHAHAHA)
– Laerophen (MORE BOOM-TISH)
– Thorin (THE WHOLE POINT. HE IS THE WHOLE DAMN POINT.)
– Bomfris (figuring out that she can be soft and loving and it doesn’t mean she is any less strong, making friends despite herself, refusing to become a ‘proper princess’ but still becoming a war-leader all while pregnant)
– Fili (letting go of anger and resentment and hero-worship, maturing under a terrible responsibility, watching people he cares for suffer and hating it but enduring it nevertheless, finding new ways to protect that don’t involve bristling with weapons lmao)
– Frerin (he is full of jealousy and fear, tbh, but he masters it over and over again, learns to be appreciative of his OWN skills instead of constantly comparing himself to his brother, learns not to hate his youthfulness but to find pride in it, begins to find joy in others, admits his fears at last when he finally explodes, learns to accept care as well as give it)
– Kili (secrecy SECRECY SECRECY ONLY MEANS YOU CARRY THINGS ALONE, you’re cared for little prince, you little TWIT, it is hard but you must open up the way you expect others to)
– Legolas (WAY MORE BOOM-TISH THAN CAN BE FITTED IN A SINGLE SUMMARY. WAY MORE.)
– so many more, gah – Aragorn, Eowyn, Eomer, Pippin, Bofur, Gandalf, SO MANY AHHH

I AM SO FULL OF JOY AT THIS, I am SO happy, I really am, your ask has given me golden wings, I am GONNA YODEL TO THE HEAVENS FOR AT LEAST AN HOUR. Thank you SO SO MUCH