Subject: Oh man.
Author:
Posted on: 2012-10-28 10:53:00 UTC
Two words: MY. IMMORTAL.
And as far as I know, a lot of sues do end up getting brutally slaughtered before the end.
But, that saga thing does seem intriguing...
You wouldn't catch me writing it, but still.
I was wondering: Say there's a Sue-fic out there that is really bad, but is also really really long. Like all the pleas for the author to stop writing merely land on deaf ears. Could a PPC mission be written in installments? I was thinking it could be kinda funny to write a saga about having to deal with one really bad story that just wouldn't end.
If not, could the agents just lose their minds and attack the Sue before reaching the end?
We don't actually expect people to stop writing when we do missions to their work. Most of you probably know this, but between the talk of multi-part missions and going back to spork later chapters, I thought a reminder wouldn't hurt. We are not actual fandom police. People are still allowed to write their stories, whether we spork them or not. {= P
~Neshomeh, trying to head off misconceptions that lead to ugliness when they occur.
P.S. As one of the parties involved, I don't recommend the "Subjugation" approach. It was too big and there were too many people involved. It really failed pretty hard, and Tungsten and I STILL haven't gotten around to taking revenge yet. Just... don't bite off more than you can chew, is what I'm saying here.
Granted, the fic itself has decent prose but it just keeps going and going and bloody going and even though Eledhwen and Christianne killed her way back at the pool which was like thirty chapters back from where the story is now, she just keeps racking up charges.
So I intend on writing a follow-up mission to deal with the new things (and to watch Eledhwen foam at the mouth now that I know she can).
Generally my rule of thumb is to kill the Sue at the first major break in Canon, which in this case was the pool in GAME where the Sue got kidnapped instead of John. But others do it differently, I'm sure.
Part of me wants to say 'poor Eledhwen', but a larger part of me is cackling at her impending rage.
And looking for a nearby bomb shelter.
I think that you have to kill a Sue when there are enough charges. Usually that means waiting until the end of a fic, but in really long fics there might be enough charges a few chapters in. Takes Specs's example of My Immortal. It's a Legendary Badfic, so there might be enough charges in the first chapter alone.
Of course, for the sake of story, agents should stay in a fic long enough to go crazy or partially crazy.
I'd like to clarify just a teensy bit - I'm feeling teacherly today~
First of all, I don't think it's the quantity of the charges as it is the severity - the second an OC causes a major canon rapture (like, say, usurping the role of Ringbearer from Frodo), it becomes killable. Of course, other charges almost always pop up before the major one(s), and sometimes the agents also have to kill Cute Animal Friends or destroy Sue artifacts that pop up after the major rupture, and have to leave the main Sue(s) alive until they can get to those, too. Not only that, but most agents typically have to pick a time and place to do the Duty safely - it wouldn't be very wise to try killing a Sue when it's surrounded by the army of mooks it's leading, after all. Yet more charges can pop up while the agents are waiting for an opening.
Also, while it helps if your agents are a bit off their rockers (and tends to be really fun to torment them pit them against the horrors of badfic, at the end of the day, the purpose of any mission is to protect the canon(s) involved in the badfic getting sporked - not to drive your agents batty. That's just the proverbial shrapnel in the explosion. :D
Hopefully my information is relatively sound - I'm still new myself, just significantly less shiny than y'all.
That's kind of what I meant, you just explained it better--basically, if you can justify kiling a Sue before the fic's end, you can kill them and end the mission there. Which would mean that you don't necessarily have to go through the entire badfic.
I agree that the main point is to protect the canon (we are the Protectors, after all), but another point of writing these missions is for entertainment. Say a Sue messes with your agent's Lust Object. Even if you could kill the Sue before, you might want to show that agent's reaction because it'd be fun to read about.
And here's a lackluster answer: yes.
Hee, nah, I wouldn't do that.
I've read a number of two-part missions before, and I know of at least one mission that had to be split into numerous parts due to the writer of the badfic continuing to update post-sporkage.
Although if it's REALLY long, you could always seek help from other agents, and split the badfic up by giving certain chapters to each team of agents. I'm fairly certain the same thing was attempted with 'S*bj*g*t**n' (title censored due to its status as a Legendary Badfic that scared its would-be sporkers away).
Two words: MY. IMMORTAL.
And as far as I know, a lot of sues do end up getting brutally slaughtered before the end.
But, that saga thing does seem intriguing...
You wouldn't catch me writing it, but still.