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.)
It's not even entirely that it's harder to write straight fluff, I think, although that's a big part of it (and I never thought I'd say this, but, man, I am missing all that fluff right now). It's that you have to deal with this very specific set of both emotional and plot issues, or else you have to figure out a way to write around it, which is awkward, or ignore it, which feels weird to do. I know it's really daunting me! I've written some little post-S2 snippets, but mostly I feel like my ficcy hands are sort of tied until I see how the current situation comes out and I know what I actually have to work with when I'm imagining what comes next.
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.
Yes, you dared what I wouldn't have, and I'm glad to know it worked out for you, canoon and all! :)
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
LOL, I think the fact that it doesn't feel so much like A Fic in terms of how it handles the emotional stuff is exactly what I looooooooove about it! Because I don't think the emotional revelation is absent, exactly, but it's not prototypically ficcy emotional revelation, and I find that such a breath of fresh air.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against diving into a character's brain and (metaphorically) rolling around naked in their emotions. I've written enough of that, myself. But, man, give me a choice between a story where characters are spewing big dramatic, absolutely unambiguous emotions all over the place and one that quietly punches you in the feels from between the lines, and I'll take the latter every time, yes, please, gimme gimme gimme! I love that shit. I love it like pie. It captures so much of what I enjoy about my experience of watching the canon itself, it keeps me actively engaged as a reader extracting emotion from the text rather than just having it handed to me on a plate, and for most of the characters I love, it feels more in-character to me, too. And this one absolutely did that for me. Just because I wasn't out-and-out told what Aziraphale was feeling didn't mean I didn't feel it and understand it. I so, so did, even if I had to reach out for his emotions a little instead of having all of them coming to me, and it was painful and wonderful. And, yes, Crowley's POV could maybe have been brought out more, but I'd rather the changes in him be left to me to understand and feel on my own than that they be shoehorned in somewhere they didn't really fit, or spelled out in a This Is The Moral of the Story sort of way.
I am genuinely feeling kind of "awww, that's really too bad" about the fact that you guys found the story lacking in the thing that would have made it completely satisfying for you, but, man, for me, it pared away all the stuff that would have made it less satisfying and left all the stuff I actually wanted and needed! With some extra bonus stuff thrown in for good measure, too, because I don't actually need (or even always enjoy) plot in my fic, but if you're going to do it, yes, please, do it like that!
Honestly, for me, this sort of thing feels like a hearty but perfectly seasoned meal in a massive buffet of stuff that's just overly drenched with salt, or sugar, or spice. I mean, I like salt, sugar, and spice, but boy is it nice to find something that actually proportions them to my taste.
So, selfishly, I am very glad it is what it is, even if the ideal audience for it is precisely me. (Well, that thing with the dialog tags aside. :))
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It's not even entirely that it's harder to write straight fluff, I think, although that's a big part of it (and I never thought I'd say this, but, man, I am missing all that fluff right now). It's that you have to deal with this very specific set of both emotional and plot issues, or else you have to figure out a way to write around it, which is awkward, or ignore it, which feels weird to do. I know it's really daunting me! I've written some little post-S2 snippets, but mostly I feel like my ficcy hands are sort of tied until I see how the current situation comes out and I know what I actually have to work with when I'm imagining what comes next.
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.
Yes, you dared what I wouldn't have, and I'm glad to know it worked out for you, canoon and all! :)
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
LOL, I think the fact that it doesn't feel so much like A Fic in terms of how it handles the emotional stuff is exactly what I looooooooove about it! Because I don't think the emotional revelation is absent, exactly, but it's not prototypically ficcy emotional revelation, and I find that such a breath of fresh air.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against diving into a character's brain and (metaphorically) rolling around naked in their emotions. I've written enough of that, myself. But, man, give me a choice between a story where characters are spewing big dramatic, absolutely unambiguous emotions all over the place and one that quietly punches you in the feels from between the lines, and I'll take the latter every time, yes, please, gimme gimme gimme! I love that shit. I love it like pie. It captures so much of what I enjoy about my experience of watching the canon itself, it keeps me actively engaged as a reader extracting emotion from the text rather than just having it handed to me on a plate, and for most of the characters I love, it feels more in-character to me, too. And this one absolutely did that for me. Just because I wasn't out-and-out told what Aziraphale was feeling didn't mean I didn't feel it and understand it. I so, so did, even if I had to reach out for his emotions a little instead of having all of them coming to me, and it was painful and wonderful. And, yes, Crowley's POV could maybe have been brought out more, but I'd rather the changes in him be left to me to understand and feel on my own than that they be shoehorned in somewhere they didn't really fit, or spelled out in a This Is The Moral of the Story sort of way.
I am genuinely feeling kind of "awww, that's really too bad" about the fact that you guys found the story lacking in the thing that would have made it completely satisfying for you, but, man, for me, it pared away all the stuff that would have made it less satisfying and left all the stuff I actually wanted and needed! With some extra bonus stuff thrown in for good measure, too, because I don't actually need (or even always enjoy) plot in my fic, but if you're going to do it, yes, please, do it like that!
Honestly, for me, this sort of thing feels like a hearty but perfectly seasoned meal in a massive buffet of stuff that's just overly drenched with salt, or sugar, or spice. I mean, I like salt, sugar, and spice, but boy is it nice to find something that actually proportions them to my taste.
So, selfishly, I am very glad it is what it is, even if the ideal audience for it is precisely me. (Well, that thing with the dialog tags aside. :))