Subject: My reaction. (Spoilers)
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Posted on: 2013-12-24 20:47:00 UTC

One of the primary things that bothered me about this mission is that it felt like you were overly focused on your own message. There's nothing wrong with using a story to convey a moral or lesson, but the way it was done here felt very obvious: "A group of agents, one of them openly gay, is assigned a homophobic trainee right before they undertake a mission involving homophobia as a major plot point." It's a scenario that, at least to me, seems artificial. It took me out of the story in a way I don't like.

There was very little action taken by your agents throughout most of the story beyond dialogue. As doctorlit mentioned, a lot of what they did was just comment on fic quotes. This read like a fleshed-out MST in places, which is not what I want out of missions.

The presence of Wave Crest felt entirely unnecessary. He added nothing to the story apart from a few less-than-stellar jokes and a few bits where he yelled at de Chagny. What's more, I didn't really like him. What little I saw of his character I found to be unpleasant and grating.

I was also not a fan of the ending. Logically speaking, there's no way those final confrontations should have gone as they did. The agents identified the types of Sue-specters very specifically earlier on in the mission. This suggested to me that they knew what they were getting into, that they would be prepared to counter whatever tactics the specters would try. And yet, all four agents were mesmerized in very short order. It felt like a cheat intended to force a final confrontation between de Chagny and Eusabius.

There were some parts I liked, to be certain. I'm very glad that you didn't take the easy way out with de Chagny's beliefs and have him completely abandon his preconceptions at the end. As doctorlit said, it's (sadly) realistic.

Finally, let me apologize if any of my comments seemed overly confrontational or harsh. My intention was not to insult or attack. I am just trying to relay my thoughts on your piece as best as I can.

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