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Oct. 30th, 2003 02:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bktheirregularHow odd. Fanfic thoughts in a livejournal established as an offshoot of fanfic writing.
Anyhoo, I got a review tonight for "The Scarab" that brought up a concern the reader had - and that cut into the one part of the fic that I'd had real concerns over:
Larry.
The reviewer had misgivings about Larry dying because "too many gay people die in fiction." (I did a count - not counting villains and redshirts in the Buffyverse, straight victims still outnumber gay ones by a fair margin. Jenny Calendar, Doyle, Forrest, Jonathan, and a lot more I probably missed. I would mention Kendra except we knew hardly anything about her aside from being a Slayer...)
Also, the ending didn't sit well with the reviewer - that the Big Bad survived Larry's last act only to be dispatched by Buffy "in a way we've seen before somewhat more than seventeen times cheapens Larry's sacrifice."
That worried me too - though the sexuality of characters hadn't even entered my head - but the concern that the last act would be futile, that it was doing wrong by one of Joss's characters, never really went away even when I finished writing it all. I knew how the story was going to end - it had been one of the first scenes I'd visualized, actually, Buffy and Kheper and the ribbon and the stake, and that stayed pretty consistent throughout. And somewhere in the back of my head, the defeat of the Big Bad wasn't something to leave to a secondary character ... not to mention that a huge smoking hole in the ground leaves too many possibilities for the survival of the villain, and that was one loose end I wanted tied up, definitively, no-doubt-about-it grind-the-dead-bones-into-flour.
One thing I should point out: the review wasn't a flame. It just brought up a concern, and it hit a nerve because I'd been concerned about it myself, once upon a time.
Close entry.
Anyhoo, I got a review tonight for "The Scarab" that brought up a concern the reader had - and that cut into the one part of the fic that I'd had real concerns over:
Larry.
The reviewer had misgivings about Larry dying because "too many gay people die in fiction." (I did a count - not counting villains and redshirts in the Buffyverse, straight victims still outnumber gay ones by a fair margin. Jenny Calendar, Doyle, Forrest, Jonathan, and a lot more I probably missed. I would mention Kendra except we knew hardly anything about her aside from being a Slayer...)
Also, the ending didn't sit well with the reviewer - that the Big Bad survived Larry's last act only to be dispatched by Buffy "in a way we've seen before somewhat more than seventeen times cheapens Larry's sacrifice."
That worried me too - though the sexuality of characters hadn't even entered my head - but the concern that the last act would be futile, that it was doing wrong by one of Joss's characters, never really went away even when I finished writing it all. I knew how the story was going to end - it had been one of the first scenes I'd visualized, actually, Buffy and Kheper and the ribbon and the stake, and that stayed pretty consistent throughout. And somewhere in the back of my head, the defeat of the Big Bad wasn't something to leave to a secondary character ... not to mention that a huge smoking hole in the ground leaves too many possibilities for the survival of the villain, and that was one loose end I wanted tied up, definitively, no-doubt-about-it grind-the-dead-bones-into-flour.
One thing I should point out: the review wasn't a flame. It just brought up a concern, and it hit a nerve because I'd been concerned about it myself, once upon a time.
Close entry.
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Hmmm...
Date: 2003-10-30 12:55 pm (UTC)But if that was it, then you know you'd have people saying that he could have escaped from that smoking hole in the ground - it's not certain confirmation that he's dead - and more people going, "Yes! Left it open for a sequel for sure!" and making you bang your head against things for entirely different reasons.
And if that bomb hadn't gone off, and there was still Kheper's whole freaking army to contend with, Buffy probably wouldn't have gotten the opportunity to stake Kheper. (Or you would have had to make that fight scene much, much, much longer.)
And if you'd written it so that Giles hadn't taken out the bomb as well as shot at Buffy while he was under the influence of the nish'ta, you'd have two more problems: 1) why Giles wouldn't have thought of that and 2) if he'd shot at Buffy right off the bat with no warning, how Anya would have had time to jump him so he'd miss (and how Willow would manage to cast the lightning spell in time).
And so on and so on and so on.
I think it's also saying something that this occurred to you before they pointed it out... I usually realize what's wrong after I get feedback like this. Sometimes, you can't address everything that COULD be wrong with a story.
Given everything else that went RIGHT with "The Scarab," I wouldn't worry too much. :)