Okay, now i've gone off on a snarky tangent, allow me to stop being a jackass for a minute and actually unpack this. None of this-- NONE OF IT--is bad in and of itself. Not at all. A story can take me any place it damn well pleases---if it's told well. And for me, well = with nuance and subtlety. I need the conflict to feel organic and not contrived and the same thing goes with the emotional response of the protagonist. I want it to feel earned. What i dont' want is fixing for the sake of fixing or worse... some kind of normative fixing that doesn't feel appropriate to this character we're talking about.
For natasha, she no doubt has issues. She no doubt has demons she needs to fight. No doubt at all. So it's not a matter of if they come up but how they are handled. I guess what i'm trying to say is that she needs to be able to heal herself on her terms. It may not look normal or even healthy but it really doesn't matter if it works for her. And it doesn't mean that she has to be less complex or even less dark.
Okay now i'm just a rambling jackass. Is any of this making sense?
You're not a jackass, hon. :) And I see (or at least I'm pretty sure I see) where you're going with that. For me, whether or not a story is in character (or at the very least, whether or not the OOCness has a believable path to get there - show me *why* they're different now!) is of paramount importance.
In a way, it's some of the same kind of thing that happened with Kara Thrace - the baby thing in particular, because I'll admit right now to being a complete sucker for well done (read: in character) babyfic in numerous fandoms... but it's that "in character" part and dealing with how they are or are not dealing with it, in a manner that's true for them, and that's what appeals to me about it (which may or may not make any kind of sense, idek.) It was figuring out how she would react to this - and it often did the opposite of fixing her, god knows... I'm not sure where I was going with that. But yeah. And I might have a seriously angsty C/N fic almost done that deals with pregnancy but most certainly *doesn't* involve "fixing"... quite possibly the opposite, yikes
---also, this who exchange was me just shooting off my mouth in the most general way possible. It certainly wasn't meant to cause doubt for anyone, least of all you my dear. :)
I think most of my concern (which I was already having because I've gotten to "that point" in things where you look at what you've written so far and just go "what is this even?") is wanting to do her justice, and not make things pat or easy for her, and she's so hard to pin down sometimes (in part because I'm playing pretty close to movie canon and there's just not so much of it.) So I was at the point of going to the flist and being all "please tell me this isn't crap!" in any case. This just brought up a particular point I needed some clarity on. :D
Re: Fic: my skin is not my own (rated PG-13 for implications of sexin')
For natasha, she no doubt has issues. She no doubt has demons she needs to fight. No doubt at all. So it's not a matter of if they come up but how they are handled. I guess what i'm trying to say is that she needs to be able to heal herself on her terms. It may not look normal or even healthy but it really doesn't matter if it works for her. And it doesn't mean that she has to be less complex or even less dark.
Okay now i'm just a rambling jackass. Is any of this making sense?
You're not a jackass, hon. :) And I see (or at least I'm pretty sure I see) where you're going with that. For me, whether or not a story is in character (or at the very least, whether or not the OOCness has a believable path to get there - show me *why* they're different now!) is of paramount importance.
In a way, it's some of the same kind of thing that happened with Kara Thrace - the baby thing in particular, because I'll admit right now to being a complete sucker for well done (read: in character) babyfic in numerous fandoms... but it's that "in character" part and dealing with how they are or are not dealing with it, in a manner that's true for them, and that's what appeals to me about it (which may or may not make any kind of sense, idek.) It was figuring out how she would react to this - and it often did the opposite of fixing her, god knows... I'm not sure where I was going with that. But yeah. And I might have a seriously angsty C/N fic almost done that deals with pregnancy but most certainly *doesn't* involve "fixing"... quite possibly the opposite, yikes
---also, this who exchange was me just shooting off my mouth in the most general way possible. It certainly wasn't meant to cause doubt for anyone, least of all you my dear. :)
I think most of my concern (which I was already having because I've gotten to "that point" in things where you look at what you've written so far and just go "what is this even?") is wanting to do her justice, and not make things pat or easy for her, and she's so hard to pin down sometimes (in part because I'm playing pretty close to movie canon and there's just not so much of it.) So I was at the point of going to the flist and being all "please tell me this isn't crap!" in any case. This just brought up a particular point I needed some clarity on. :D
(now i just need that "let me love you" gif...)
Ask and ye shall receive. :D