Subject: Ho-hum, ho-hum.
Author:
Posted on: 2015-06-01 10:35:00 UTC
A few comments:
-Do we really need huge blocks of the badfic quoted in there? Parts of this verge on MSTing, which is a wonderful art, but not what PPC missions are about.
-Your agents have a nasty habit of not speaking like people (of any species). A random example:
“Voldemort never once transformed into an animal,” he said angrily. “The whole deal about the snake he has on him is because he has a pet snake. And as for proper Animagi, it takes at least a month to prepare for such a transformation! You can’t just get magical powers and a new form in an instant!”
That's an infodump right there. And your mission is fairly liberally littered with them. You don't have to demonstrate that you know every little thing that's wrong with the story, y'know. And... people don't talk like that.
-Talking heads. No, your agents aren't quite literally talking heads - but they really don't feel like they're in the same room as the characters. Go check out a Jay and Acacia mission or two - they spend all their time hiding behind things, straining to hear, etc etc. Your agents are facing basilisks, but seem to be wandering around in the open.
-And... you know how there are some missions you want to reread, because you love the way the agents interact? This just... doesn't do that. Other than canon knowledge, I didn't see anything to really distinguish the agents from each other, let alone from other agents. They were just... two snarky infodumpers hanging around in plain sight.
That's the criticism, I guess. Here's the constructive:
-Go write out what defines your agents. Pick out the things that make them different from each other. Work out ways to integrate those into your missions.
-Give yourself a tight limit for badfic line-usage. One sentence per page? Ten sentences total? It's up to you, but it would be a serious improvement. I'm here to read your writing, not some which you've acknowledged is bad.
-Assume that everyone will notice your agents if they get in their line of sight or make a loud noise. Figure out where your team needs to hide. Give the canons and badfic characters reactions when your agents inevitable start yelling. Dumbledore isn't going to ignore someone ranting in the corner of his office!
Okay, that's enough of that. I think your agents are excellent in concept (though I do have a weakness for maniraptorans, so y'know); I think there's a lot you could explore with them. I also think it's great that you're actually writing missions, which is more than I can say for most people (eg, me!). But I also think that your missions could be much tighter, cleaner, and more engaging.
hS