Bert Van Vliet wrote:

Greetings folks.

	Hiya, long time, no hear from!

The reason I remember these particular fanfics is because this had to be the
first fanfic that used SkyKnight as one of the background characters.  At
the time I was flattered that my alter-ego was popular enough to warrant
such an inclusion, however...things change.

	Heh, I remember the trouble Jim Nutley got in for including Hitomi's
character into an Otaku War we were fighting.
 

I can't fault Mr. Pool for wanting to write fanfic. However, I *do* fault
him for including my alter-ego in his fanfic without my permission. I admit,
I am partly to blame for not saying anything about it at that time.

	I'm afraid that is so. Chances are this was one of the guys first fics.
When your new and you want to impress the "big boys" utilizing them in
your stories seems a good way to score some points, later on you learn
better.
 

Bingo. Following the logic, that means that the 'red-haired man' is SkyKnight. 
And here, I draw the line. I do not condone, in any way shape or form, any
inclusion of my SkyKnight persona or related characters in this fanfic. I
suggest to the author that they remove that reference, and rewrite that
section of the story.

 
	But the thing is, from what you've said he was using someone else's
story and some of the character there in. He might not know you Skynight
was someone else's character. Was he given permission to do this side
fic from the original author? Then the original author should have said
something.

That being said, I must rather reluctantly comment on the *rest* of the
story. I realize that in parts I'm probably going to sound like a
pretentious literary snob, and I apologize in advance...but I have to say
*something*.

<snip Sylia OOCisms>

	Definately something that needs reworking, I agree.

Now, my final gripe with this story centers around the final scenes. Set
initially in Hot Legs, Priss is giving a concert. Then she's shot by some
crazed nut with a gun, who apparently has been stalking her.

Excuse me? Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the central plot device for
Jeanne Hedge's "True Love" fanfic:  Priss has been shadowed by an obsessed
fan for weeks, and then he shoots her at a performance so that she can't
'leave him'.

This has to be the worst ripoff of someone else's story I've seen....the
fact that the author in this case actually kills Priss doesn't alter that
fact. It's very flimsy camouflage on a poor copy of someone else's story.
Coupled with the fact that the author has based their story on Rob Pool's
fanfic, this particular fic is almost as painful to read as Mr. Pool's
original story.

	Whoa, wait a sec here. Obsessed fans shooting their objects of
affection are not only part of Fanfiction, but real life as well. In
fact, I seem to remember some rather recent incident of this occuring.
The fact that Priss dies seems to point more to that Real Life tradgedy
being the inspiration rather then someone's fic. It's easy to
accidentally "steal" someone's idea. Until I wrote Suicide Blast, I had
no idea just how many Ryouga Suicide stories there were. 
 

At any rate, there it is. In my opinion, the author of this fanfic had
better scrap their original premise, ditch the plagiarism, and start re-writing.

	I don't think it's so much plagerism as ignorance in a few neccisary
areas. Sylia's actual characterization, the fic he based this ons ACTUAL
past, etc. Give the guy a break, we were all hacks once. Heck, I still
am ^_-

Any replies/comments/rebuttals to my commentary will have to be emailed
directly to me.

	I'm also sending this to the FFML because the author needs to know how
others feel about his work.
 

Bert Van Vliet, Skyknght@sentex.net
[Http://www.jurai.net/~skyknght/index.html]
Die-hard BGC Fan, and aspiring Hi-tech Knight-in-Shining-Armour
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and good with
ketchup.

	Heh, did you steal this from Magic Knight Kiyone? Come on, fess up ^_^