Lovely essay. No defence necessary as far as I'm concerned, but a delightful read anyway. I'm always happy to put aside my disbelief in F/S pre quest in the pursuit of a good story, but in the past I've written about exactly why I don't think there was any relationship between Frodo and Sam prequest (including Frodo's steep learning curve about Sam *during* the quest). If my personal preference is taken into account - the way the story "speaks" to me - it's that Frodo and Merry had a very close cousinly friendship that was not sexual, but if pressed, all I can say is that the idea of the quest being undertaken by a virgin appeals to my romantic soul. :D Again, I'm always happy to put that personal preference aside to read a well written F/M story. If we're talking recs, then an important one is missing:
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Date: 2006-01-03 01:00 pm (UTC)http://www.lightindarkplaces.net/DaffodilBolger/CounterpointIndex.html