soph (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophia_sol) wrote2013-05-19 01:01 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2013-05-19 01:01 pm
Entry tags:
Rock Happy, by ArwenLune
ALDKLFHSDFLKJ so Rock Happy by ArwenLune! I have a lot of thoughts/feels! I KNOW I USUALLY RESERVE THIS SORT OF POST FOR PUBLISHED BOOKS BUT wowwwww a couple sentences in my pinboard bookmark just WON'T CUT IT FOR THIS FIC.
So. Rock Happy is a crossover fic between Generation Kill (strictly the tv show, fictional version of these characters) and Stargate: Atlantis, which the author summarizes thusly:
And okay so you know that thing where you and the author have different ideas of what the emotional arc of the story is? And so the ending they write is not the correct ending for the emotional arc as you were reading it? AND IT'S REALLY FRUSTRATING, ESPECIALLY WHEN THE STORY WAS SO SO SO GOOD?
Yeah. That.
But the thing is I was SURE I was reading it the way the author wanted me to, because it was RIGHT THERE IN THE AUTHOR'S FIC SUMMARY. "This is not a story about falling in love. This is a story about falling in team."
LOOK AT THAT SUMMARY. LOOK AT THAT MOTHERFUCKING SUMMARY. That is like my FAVOURITE KIND OF STORY EVER???? And the vast majority of the fic was JUST LIKE THAT. Brad trying to find his place in his new team, AR4 -- figuring out the relationship dynamics and learning to fit together, etc. It was beautiful.
And the other stuff happening in the fic was gold too! All sorts of A+ stuff fleshing out Atlantis and how that expedition would ACTUALLY WORK when you're focusing on the everyday stuff and not just the amazing heroics of Sheppard et al. SO GOOD. Especially the stuff about the challenges of being a woman in a hypermasculine male-dominated culture like the military culture -- SO GOOD, I loved how one of the subthemes of the fic was about cluebatting Brad over the head with that!
And I loved the team and the team dynamics the author created, between Avery and Fournier and Brittner and Cadman, and the missing Warszawski and new-guy Brad. I loved that it was basically a five-person platonic arranged marriage type thing where Brad and these other people are stuck with each other and have to learn how to be ~team together!!!!!! LIKE SERIOUSLY HOW HARD CAN YOU MASH ON MY BUTTONS, FIC *_____*
BUT THEN. Like. A couple chapters from the end, the seven other GK characters finally show up in Atlantis and the story is TOTALLY DERAILED by their presence. And there's like a throwaway bit attempting to wrap up the MAKING AR4 BE TEAM arc but largely it's ignored because the fic is suddenly all about Brad and his GK buddies and I'm just like WHAT NO YOU JUST SPENT WELL OVER 100K WORDS GIVING ME LOTS AND LOTS OF CONTEXT TO HAVE FEELS OVER AR4, AND NOW THE EMOTIONAL CLIMAX IS ALL ABOUT THESE DUDES YOU'VE MAYBE SPENT A FEW HUNDRED WORDS ON.
And I felt so betrayed! Because IT SAID RIGHT THERE IN THE SUMMARY that this fic was about falling in team! And I got to see all the hard work of AR4 trying to move in that direction and DID NOT GET TO PROPERLY SEE AND FEEL THE EMOTIONAL RESOLUTION.
SO FRUSTRATING.
The reason I've got so many feels about this is because up until the end this was legit ONE OF THE BEST FICS EVER. It does so many amazing and beautiful and wonderful things! I love SO MANY THINGS ABOUT IT! I wouldn't have felt so betrayed by the ending if I hadn't had so much love for everything that came before.
I guess maybe I was supposed to come to the fic with pre-established feels over the GK dudes and their relationship with Brad? Which, I mean, it IS GK fic and most fans of stuff tend to have, like, ACTUALLY SEEN THE ENTIRETY OF CANON before reading fic so I can understand why an author might assume something like that. But I still have trouble seeing why the author thought that this was the correct climax/resolution to the story that was being told. It kind of felt to me like those final few chapters belonged to an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT GK/Atlantis crossover than the one I'd been reading up to that point! And I probably would have enjoyed that other crossover too if it were IN ITS OWN STORY but..... *SIGH*
Annnnnyways I feel super weird for posting this because PUBLICALLY SAYING ANYTHING AT ALL NEGATIVE ABOUT A FANNISH WORK is kind of Not The Done Thing? But idk, it feels dishonest of me NOT to post something like this, because my blog is pretty much my place for recording my fannish feels, and THIS IS ONE OF THEM. So I will console myself by saying, ArwenLune, if you somehow find your way here and are reading this, please know that I don't mean it personally! I think you're an ABSOLUTELY AMAZING writer and Rock Happy was brilliant in many many ways!
So. Rock Happy is a crossover fic between Generation Kill (strictly the tv show, fictional version of these characters) and Stargate: Atlantis, which the author summarizes thusly:
"You want to recruit me for what? You want me to go where?"
Sgt. Brad Colbert has been on a lot of strange missions, but this promises to be his most out there yet: Atlantis.
This is not a story about falling in love. This is a story about falling in team.
And okay so you know that thing where you and the author have different ideas of what the emotional arc of the story is? And so the ending they write is not the correct ending for the emotional arc as you were reading it? AND IT'S REALLY FRUSTRATING, ESPECIALLY WHEN THE STORY WAS SO SO SO GOOD?
Yeah. That.
But the thing is I was SURE I was reading it the way the author wanted me to, because it was RIGHT THERE IN THE AUTHOR'S FIC SUMMARY. "This is not a story about falling in love. This is a story about falling in team."
LOOK AT THAT SUMMARY. LOOK AT THAT MOTHERFUCKING SUMMARY. That is like my FAVOURITE KIND OF STORY EVER???? And the vast majority of the fic was JUST LIKE THAT. Brad trying to find his place in his new team, AR4 -- figuring out the relationship dynamics and learning to fit together, etc. It was beautiful.
And the other stuff happening in the fic was gold too! All sorts of A+ stuff fleshing out Atlantis and how that expedition would ACTUALLY WORK when you're focusing on the everyday stuff and not just the amazing heroics of Sheppard et al. SO GOOD. Especially the stuff about the challenges of being a woman in a hypermasculine male-dominated culture like the military culture -- SO GOOD, I loved how one of the subthemes of the fic was about cluebatting Brad over the head with that!
And I loved the team and the team dynamics the author created, between Avery and Fournier and Brittner and Cadman, and the missing Warszawski and new-guy Brad. I loved that it was basically a five-person platonic arranged marriage type thing where Brad and these other people are stuck with each other and have to learn how to be ~team together!!!!!! LIKE SERIOUSLY HOW HARD CAN YOU MASH ON MY BUTTONS, FIC *_____*
BUT THEN. Like. A couple chapters from the end, the seven other GK characters finally show up in Atlantis and the story is TOTALLY DERAILED by their presence. And there's like a throwaway bit attempting to wrap up the MAKING AR4 BE TEAM arc but largely it's ignored because the fic is suddenly all about Brad and his GK buddies and I'm just like WHAT NO YOU JUST SPENT WELL OVER 100K WORDS GIVING ME LOTS AND LOTS OF CONTEXT TO HAVE FEELS OVER AR4, AND NOW THE EMOTIONAL CLIMAX IS ALL ABOUT THESE DUDES YOU'VE MAYBE SPENT A FEW HUNDRED WORDS ON.
And I felt so betrayed! Because IT SAID RIGHT THERE IN THE SUMMARY that this fic was about falling in team! And I got to see all the hard work of AR4 trying to move in that direction and DID NOT GET TO PROPERLY SEE AND FEEL THE EMOTIONAL RESOLUTION.
SO FRUSTRATING.
The reason I've got so many feels about this is because up until the end this was legit ONE OF THE BEST FICS EVER. It does so many amazing and beautiful and wonderful things! I love SO MANY THINGS ABOUT IT! I wouldn't have felt so betrayed by the ending if I hadn't had so much love for everything that came before.
I guess maybe I was supposed to come to the fic with pre-established feels over the GK dudes and their relationship with Brad? Which, I mean, it IS GK fic and most fans of stuff tend to have, like, ACTUALLY SEEN THE ENTIRETY OF CANON before reading fic so I can understand why an author might assume something like that. But I still have trouble seeing why the author thought that this was the correct climax/resolution to the story that was being told. It kind of felt to me like those final few chapters belonged to an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT GK/Atlantis crossover than the one I'd been reading up to that point! And I probably would have enjoyed that other crossover too if it were IN ITS OWN STORY but..... *SIGH*
Annnnnyways I feel super weird for posting this because PUBLICALLY SAYING ANYTHING AT ALL NEGATIVE ABOUT A FANNISH WORK is kind of Not The Done Thing? But idk, it feels dishonest of me NOT to post something like this, because my blog is pretty much my place for recording my fannish feels, and THIS IS ONE OF THEM. So I will console myself by saying, ArwenLune, if you somehow find your way here and are reading this, please know that I don't mean it personally! I think you're an ABSOLUTELY AMAZING writer and Rock Happy was brilliant in many many ways!