Yeah, and I find they tend to deal with it in a fairly limited number of ways, too. I'll be honest, I'm kind of missing the post-S1 fic landscape right now. Even the insubstantial fic tended to be insubstantial in ways that were a lot more varied and fun. Me too! What happened?? (I guess that now it's substantially harder to write straight fluff, now the writers have to Deal With All The Issues. And it's complicated.)
Yeah, agreed. Speaking as someone who's written at least a tiny bit of angel!Crowley fic and probably wouldn't have even dreamed of attempting it before S2. Obviously we had angel!Crowley in The Fic, and I'm v pleased that (unlike a lot of other things) that part wasn't jossed.
So I sort of adore the not-very-ficcy-feeling subtlety of this one. Interesting. I shall be lazy and just quote what Promethia said, since she voiced my thoughts perfectly:
" I think my major problem is that this is not A Fic, as in fanfiction is a genre of writing whose purpose is emotional revelation, merely a work of fiction that builds off somebody else's work. It is quite good at being what it is. But I rather felt the frankly pretty flawless Raphael characterization was wasted on a fic that wasn't, at the end of the day, about Crowley and didn't give Crowley any real growth of resolution around his past self."
And in the show itself, flashbacks aside (which I realize is a very big aside), the emotional and shippy beats do, I think, tend to be a bit more subtle and more scattered, more interrupted by plot stuff ("sorry to break up an intimate moment!"), and more sparing with the actual Big Dramatic Moments than fic usually is. To me this did feel kind of like that. No disagreement, but there was so much plot. Like, if the fic was filmed it'd be 10 episodes long. Which isn't a criticism as such, but imho if the author had edited it a bit, it would have improved the overall flow.
And, importantly, the emotional and character stuff is still there in the story, it's just very, well, "big feelings getting expressed in small or quiet ways." There are so very many little lines, even just little half-sentences from Aziraphale that make it so clear to me what he's feeling (and how incredibly complex his feelings are) without the author belaboring it or Raphael, as the viewpoint character, quite understanding it. It's like, somehow they've managed to capture the equivalent of how much Michael Sheen's subtle acting choices bring to the show and add huge emotional overtones to lines that might not seem all that significant out of context. Not disagreeing, but I wanted more Aziraphale POV. He has lost Crowley. He might never get him back. And the whole fic through he's stoic and bottling things up and going through all KINDS of hugely tasking endeavours and I wanted... hm... (Italics mine)
"He hasn't met me yet. I sent him a message, but it went wrong. It arrived too early. This is the Doctor in the days before he knew me. And he looks at me, he looks right through me and it shouldn't kill me, but it does."
Seeing it secondhand through Raphael isn't enough. I wanted insight into Aziraphale, the walking wounded. (And nothing to do with the duel.)
Because he thought that Crowley, the demon, was in fact exactly who he wanted to become. That's huge, and I don't feel like I needed the author to hand-hold me through the psychological implications of that in order for me to appreciate it. Not hand-holding. But just... something. We had a lovely journey through the ages, but... nothing. (see Promethia's point above.) However I am v happy that it worked for you, since that is much preferable to it not *quite* working, and being annoyed.
In conclusion: pardon me while I go draw sparkly hearts around this fic, apparently. ;) Pink sparkly hearts are always welcome! I love it when people love things, and I hate being negative. It was just... really close, but not quite there. Which was more disappointing than if it'd just been mediocre.
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Me too! What happened?? (I guess that now it's substantially harder to write straight fluff, now the writers have to Deal With All The Issues. And it's complicated.)
Yeah, agreed. Speaking as someone who's written at least a tiny bit of angel!Crowley fic and probably wouldn't have even dreamed of attempting it before S2.
Obviously we had angel!Crowley in The Fic, and I'm v pleased that (unlike a lot of other things) that part wasn't jossed.
So I sort of adore the not-very-ficcy-feeling subtlety of this one.
Interesting. I shall be lazy and just quote what Promethia said, since she voiced my thoughts perfectly:
" I think my major problem is that this is not A Fic, as in fanfiction is a genre of writing whose purpose is emotional revelation, merely a work of fiction that builds off somebody else's work. It is quite good at being what it is. But I rather felt the frankly pretty flawless Raphael characterization was wasted on a fic that wasn't, at the end of the day, about Crowley and didn't give Crowley any real growth of resolution around his past self."
And in the show itself, flashbacks aside (which I realize is a very big aside), the emotional and shippy beats do, I think, tend to be a bit more subtle and more scattered, more interrupted by plot stuff ("sorry to break up an intimate moment!"), and more sparing with the actual Big Dramatic Moments than fic usually is. To me this did feel kind of like that.
No disagreement, but there was so much plot. Like, if the fic was filmed it'd be 10 episodes long. Which isn't a criticism as such, but imho if the author had edited it a bit, it would have improved the overall flow.
And, importantly, the emotional and character stuff is still there in the story, it's just very, well, "big feelings getting expressed in small or quiet ways." There are so very many little lines, even just little half-sentences from Aziraphale that make it so clear to me what he's feeling (and how incredibly complex his feelings are) without the author belaboring it or Raphael, as the viewpoint character, quite understanding it. It's like, somehow they've managed to capture the equivalent of how much Michael Sheen's subtle acting choices bring to the show and add huge emotional overtones to lines that might not seem all that significant out of context.
Not disagreeing, but I wanted more Aziraphale POV. He has lost Crowley. He might never get him back. And the whole fic through he's stoic and bottling things up and going through all KINDS of hugely tasking endeavours and I wanted... hm... (Italics mine)
"He hasn't met me yet. I sent him a message, but it went wrong. It arrived too early. This is the Doctor in the days before he knew me. And he looks at me, he looks right through me and it shouldn't kill me, but it does."
Seeing it secondhand through Raphael isn't enough. I wanted insight into Aziraphale, the walking wounded. (And nothing to do with the duel.)
Because he thought that Crowley, the demon, was in fact exactly who he wanted to become. That's huge, and I don't feel like I needed the author to hand-hold me through the psychological implications of that in order for me to appreciate it.
Not hand-holding. But just... something. We had a lovely journey through the ages, but... nothing. (see Promethia's point above.) However I am v happy that it worked for you, since that is much preferable to it not *quite* working, and being annoyed.
In conclusion: pardon me while I go draw sparkly hearts around this fic, apparently. ;)
Pink sparkly hearts are always welcome! I love it when people love things, and I hate being negative. It was just... really close, but not quite there. Which was more disappointing than if it'd just been mediocre.