Subject: Re: "paper doll kindergarten"
Author:
Posted on: 2010-04-16 02:24:00 UTC
You know there actually are people who like Twilight in the capacity of a) Mind candy, b) Guilty pleasures, or c) Snark bait, right? And who aren't psycho.
However, defense of strangers aside, thank you very much.
...if this author is a 'Suethor or not:
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1451137/Salamence_Rider
Mainly, I'm more focused on the fandom of Code Geass than anything else. I really don't like some of her writing, so I need some confirmation please.
~Xani B.
Now, I've only just joined the board, but I've read quite a few badfics, so I suppose I can offer some rudimentary advice :P and I have to agree it's very difficult to decide. I started with the pokemon one, since I know quite a bit about that. While there's not too much character development available in the two chapters to make her seem perfect, the story starts by talking about her HAIR (oh god, my immortal flashbacks) and lines like "When you were a baby, a gypsy was passing through Blackthorn and walked by your father holding you." Eevee told her through thought. "She stopped and told him, 'Your daughter will be blessed with a great gift, a gift no one will understand, and she will be able to calm even the most menacing beast." are VERY sue-like. She's also written 3 stories about Twilight, which is suvian from beginning to end.
I think that if she is a sue, it's very borderline. The twilight stories are, of course, suefics, but then again Twilight is a series which encourages sue writing and everyone and their mother has written a suefic on ff.net about twilight. I can't offer any opinion on her code geass fanfic because I've never watched it and frankly don't like the sound of it because I'm british.
I can actually link you to some very non-Sueish Twilight fics, amazingly enough. They tend to be detailed explanations of some of the darker possibilities canon could lead to, though, so... do not read late at night and alone.
I would very much like to see these fanfics which you speak of. Having read the series (know your enemy) and plenty of fanfiction about it I am convinced that nothing good can ever come of twilight.
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4942443/1/Eighteen
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4516602/1/ThePaperDoll_Kindergarten
Both deal with a certain very controversial issue in Breaking Dawn, both are well-written, the latter gave me nightmares. Both those authors have a lot; if I've convinced you, Google "Tv Tropes Twilight Fanfic Recs" or something to that effect; the site, tvtropes.org, has a full page of various recs, a number of which are pretty subversive.
I've just decided, if I ever have a vampire OC, I'm going to name her Chagrin.
now, this is actually pretty good. Proper vampire stories, in my opinion, should always treat vampires as monsters or, if they're done well, dizzt do'urden type chaotic good characters. Except there are hundred of drizzt knockoffs now. This story represents the way a person would end up if they had from childhood a desire to kill people. Also, I like the way in which she killed that peice of shit character in a cavalcade of terrible characters. Stabbing scissors through his throat, hell yes I'd love to do that, I'd watch him suffocate to death and when he started to heal I'd do it again, and again, and again, dear god I don't think I'd ever get tired I could gut every character in twilight over and over, rip them to pieces and burn them in the good old fashioned way I would ruin them all and oh let's not forget bella that vapid waste of air Bella jesus I would give her special treatment there would be no end to the pain I would inflict on her Seriously if I spent one day in the twilight universe I would find a nuke and launch it on all of forks I would end everything EVERYTHING MAYBE EVEN ALL LIFE ON THE PLANET BECAUSE THEY SHARE THE SAME AIR AS THOSE RIDICULOUS FAILURES OF CHARACTER DESIGN DO YOU HEAR ME WORLD YOU ARE NOT SAFE YOU ARE NOT SAFE FROM MEEEEEEE
But I digress. If I had to complain about one thing, it's that the character annoys me in the same way that starcraft's kerrigan annoys me, the whole "OH HAY GUYS BTW IM EVIL NOW" face heel turn. Otherwise it was okay.
I'm amazed. You have presented something that may actually redeem the twilight fandom in some small way. Kudos to you. Not to the twilight fandom, of course. They are crazy and I still don't like THEM.
You know there actually are people who like Twilight in the capacity of a) Mind candy, b) Guilty pleasures, or c) Snark bait, right? And who aren't psycho.
However, defense of strangers aside, thank you very much.
Ehh... this was... okay, I guess? It wasn't a very meaty story. Maybe that's part of its charm or something? I don't know. There's quite a bit of "seventeen/eighteen" self-banter that eats up a lot of room. All in all, the message was quite good: werewolves are sick f*cks.
Sick, yep, and also the whole age-rate was sick; hence the seven(not teen, but I'm sure that was a typo)/eighteen thing. What I liked was the voice.
The vast majority of Twilight goodfics I've seen, though, are the ones that focus on characters other than the leads - usually the vampire family. I read the books a while ago just to keep everyone from nagging me about whether I loved or hated them, and the honest answer is that I wouldn't read any of them again, but I will read the good fanfic. Odd.
Anyway, I can link you to some good ones too, if you like.
I really loved "Eighteen" and have to agree with most of the points about Twilight goodfics -- they are usually about character development, and not focused on that ultra-shimmery main couple. "Eighteen" actually gave me the jitters a bit. I'm moving on to "The Paper Doll Kindergarten" next.
I read Twilight because my friends told me to read it so I could bash it better, and honestly I'd never read it again (though I did skim Breaking Dawn several times as a twisted black-comedy *think of the MST possibilities* guilty pleasure), and I actually dismissed the whole Twilight fanbase as inane. This is the first time I've noticed, actually, that though the main Twilight plot is actually super-saccharine, the characters and setting make for millions of dark little subplots that could lead to good writing.
*wants to know all those subplots*
The whole Renesmee/Jacob idea has been entirely changed for me now.
I'd be delighted! I wonder if any of ours overlap?
I seem to have a different taste than you do. Anyway, here are the Twilight fanfics I read that I found worthwhile - either because they made the existing (not-so-good) canon better or just because they appealed to my sense of humour:
Rosalie's Revenge - Probably the best story I've seen, very long and very well-written, set almost entirely in the 1930s. I love it - much, much, much more than any of the canon novels.
The Souvenir - Short but good, for a "meet a historical figure" challenge.
Climate Change and its sequal, A Climate I Enjoy are fairly good pieces focusing on the characters of Jasper and Alice - if you're something of a romantic (like me, I admit), it's quite good.
Losing Your Way - A Halloween ghost story that's nicely done (not a thriller or action, I'm afraid, but still good).
Now the funny ones:
Brotherhood - This is, without a doubt, the funniest story I've ever read, perhaps in any fandom. It's great but, to get the full impact of the humour, you need to know the films The Princess Bride, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and the works of Shakespeare fairly well (though Shakespeare less so, because the humour involving his work doesn't need context to be understood). If you know them, you'll cry laughing, really.
Notes - Much less intelligent than Brotherhood, and not exceedingly well-written (and also rather out-of-character, though in the case of this fandom I suspect you don't much care), but pretty funny nonetheless.
That Darn Emmett - Also funny, but also not in overly sophisticated way.
Most things by the author Eowyn77 are good. I particularly like a series of three stories in which she fleshed out the very background characters of the Denali vampires, starting with Fair Game (the follow-up stories are more written for humour than character expansion, but I still laughed.)
She's also written Pilgrim, which was for that same "meet a historical figure" challenge, and Priority Client, which I highly recommend, as it's a clever (and slightly nerve-wracking) point-of-view piece from the perspective of the Mr Jenks who forges false passports for the family.
There's also the author whitereflections12, who writes fairly good family fluff pieces.
And... now I look like a Twilight fan. Hmph. Oh, well.