Davies on Fanfic, Fourth Edition
Recently, my review of "Thy Kingdom Come" came under attack by
Frank Barr, alias (Sailor Sodium) Warthog, a member of the Sailor Moon
Expanded Project. It was suggested that I had been unfairly harsh in my
review, and that I had made misleading statements.
I will clarify: I do *not* dislike the SME authors as people.
While some of them have done things to irritate me, and I am not impressed
by their story, it is not personal. My quarrel with Mr. Latus is a
philosophical one, but I may have let it overwhelm my judgement in this
case.
That said, I will not retract my review. My opinion of the story
remains as it was.
And that is what this is about, ladies and gentlemen. These are
*my* opinions about the stories. They are not a divine writ. I freely
admit that I am a flawed, falible mortal, and my emotions *will* influence
my opinions at times. My opinion is "better" than a would-be reader of
the stories in question in that I have already done so, and can speak
knowledgably about what lies in store.
I welcome and ENCOURAGE other fanfiction reviewers to start doing
this, to provide contrasting opinions. In this spirit, I'd like to give a
warm "Hello" to Helen Szeto, who has begun to review the bodies of work of
a number of Sailor Moon authors. Her reviews are posted, like mine, on
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/9897/ This week, she should be looking at
the SME authors ... perhaps she'll be able to give them a more balanced
examination than I could.
BEST
Sailor Moon Character Sketches - Innocence in A Minor
by LeVar Bouyer <lbouyer@geocities.com>
This is the darkest, grimmest, saddest Sailor Moon fanfic I have
ever read.
I love it.
My one problem with it is even acknowledged in the story itself --
the reasons why things go so horribly, horribly wrong are completely
beyond our understanding, and go without explanation. A bad thing happens
to a good person, and suffering results. Do the reasons why truly matter?
Would knowing why it happened change things? Knowing that a serial killer
was horribly sexually molested as a child doesn't bring back his victims.
As with all great stories, there is little one can say about this
that will not spoil it. Bear in mind, before you choose to read this, the
author's own words of condolence, given at the end.
"Well. I certainly hope you weren't planning anything fun today."
Struggle of Life - chapter 1
by Aneena <tcosgrove@ndti.net>
This story is intended to act as a prelude to the author's already
released story "The Life Beyond Death". It recounts a number of events in
the Sailor Moon timeline, mostly having to deal with the second generation
-- as H. Torrance Griffin called them, the Senshidottir, although that's
not really appropriate here, since several of the children of the Senshi
in this story are male. We also get caught up with what happened to the
Four Weird Sisters of the Black Moon -- well, one of them, at least --
after the events of Sailor Moon R, and are given further examples of the
villainy of the mysterious -- or maybe not so mysterious -- antagonist of
"The Life Beyond Death".
There are some very intriguing ideas at play both in this
"prelude" and the story that follows it. The author shows a lot of
imagination and potential -- although if the fathers of Mina and Lita's
children turn out to be who I think they are, I'll be disappointed.
Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to more from this storyline.
Crimson Sailor Mercury
by Richard Hatch Jr. <AlphSailor@aol.com>
The possibility that Mizuno Ami, Sailor Mercury, may well be the
most potentially dangerous and powerful of the Sailor Senshi has been
dealt with elsewhere -- most amazingly in Laura Hudson's "Liberating the
Waters". But this comes close to that seminal work, even if the author
lies a bit in his author's notes when he says that everything will be
explained at the end ... while the actions of the plot up until the final
scene all play out marvelously, and it all makes sense, the final moment
of the story is a confusing one ... it's almost like something out of
David Lynch.
Unfortunately, however, the version of this story that was
included in Luna and Artemis' zipfile was HIDEOUSLY formatted. With over
250 characters on a single line, it was impossible to read. The version
in their archives is a bit better, but the formatting is still rather
lousy. The best version was posted earlier this week in three sections to
alt.fan.sailor-moon, and may be available using DejaNews.
While some of the writing is a little awkward initially, and I
think the author makes Ami a little overly-hysterical early on in the
story, this shows a lot of potential, and I look forward to the next story
from him.
Secondary Characters: Boredom
by Jon Carp <jcarp@med.unc.edu>
You know, you can only say the same thing in so many ways before
you start having to repeat yourself. This continues the ironic, bitter
storyline that began when Pluto found out that her entire life had been a
lie, and decided to get even by being evil. It's great. My one problem
with it is that it comes out TOO SLOWLY, and THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING ME.
I have NEVER felt this way about any Sailor Moon story ... even
when things looked bleakest in Carp's previous masterpiece of darkness,
"Pain: The Story", I knew that the characters were going to come out the
other end alive, if not necessarily intact. With this, I don't know. I
honestly do not know if Pluto can be saved, or if good (read: the Senshi,
I hope) will prevail.
WORST
The Trouble With Cats
by Lawrence Lee <ar066@torfree.net> or <LHLee2@hotmail.com>
You know, when I saw the name of the author on the first chapter
of this fic that I read, I was actually pleased. All right, I thought,
this is the same fellow who wrote that incredibly bad Sailor Moon on the
Price is Right story, the one that compelled you to start writing reviews.
Maybe he's cleaned up his act.
Then I noticed that the first chapter of this story wasn't
included in either of the zips. I puzzled over this for a moment, and
then came to the simple, inescapable conclusion: "SAILOR MOON GOES ON THE
PRICE IS RIGHT" was *not* Lawrence Lee's first fanfic. That means that
the quality of his writing dropped, deliberately -- although, as I
discovered while reading "The Trouble with Cats", not much.
There is a limit to what I can say about author insertion fanfics
without sounding like a complete hypocrite, since I *have* written one --
"Chris 1/2", the continuing story of my friendship with Saotome Ranma --
and contemplated writing another -- "Principia Megamisama, or, How Keiichi
Found Goddess and What I Did To Keep Him From Getting Beaten Up By Her
Little Sister" -- but I think that the following passage, from the first
chapter, illustrates what's wrong with this story:
------
Makoto : Hey, Lawrence. So how's my old boyfriend doing?
Lawrence : Fine, Makoto. I was wondering when I am going to meet your
friends.
Ami : Hey, Mako-chan. Who's your friend?
Makoto : This is Lawrence Lee. He's my old boyfriend before I became a Sailor
Scout.
<Ami, Rei and Minako dip their heads and blow a sigh.>
------
Okay. So, not only is he her old boyfriend -- read, romantic
ideal with whom she invariably compares every borderline-attractive male
in the series, and who apparently treated her terribly, at least in the
single scene of them together that we have -- he also turns out to be,
yes, a SUPERHERO (with a convenient past from the Silver Millenium) who is
the new leader of the Sailor Scouts -- yes, Sailor Scouts, even though
this fic is using the original names -- since Usagi was turned into a cat.
Art weeps, ladies and gentlemen.
While this story *is* demonstrably better than "Sailor Price Is
Right", in that there is a plot and action, it still lacks many of the
other vital elements of good storytelling. Like, say, characterization.
And *emotion* ... this is actually a beef that I have with a lot of
writers, not just Lawrence -- their style of writing doesn't give any
indication as to how the character feels, and in the case of a story based
on Sailor Moon, where the lead character's one constant is that she is
ALWAYS very emotional, that's deadly.
-----
Chris Davies, when he's not being an irascible commentator on Sailor Moon
fanfic, has actually written some himself. You may have heard of them.
http://www.ualberta.ca/~cdavies/hmpage.html