Reactions to Reactions to The Small Dark Movie Of Your Life

[Edmund Schweppe]

OTOH, maybe we'll get another episode with Daphne in it?

Are you sad and missing Daphne, and thinking that another episode with her would help you with that?

Sad, yes.

Missing Daphne, yes.

Thinking that another episode with her would help me with that? Not really. There are six Sundays between now and the August 7 air date of "Walking Back to Houston". Based on Bear's comment above, we can look forward to somewhere between one and six DVD extras in that time frame. I'm going to go waaaaay out on a limb and predict that at least some of those extras will deal with the aftermath of "Small Dark Movie".

I do want Daphne to return, and I do think our beloved and tricksy PTB left themselves room to bring her back - if the story demands it. Which, for all we non-PTB know, the story might well demand.

[txanne]

Huh. I don't have a problem rereading episodes with Daphne in them. There's sadness there, but not the same as the idea of reading something new with her in it. I wonder what that response comes from.

For me, it's because that would be all there is. There is no more. I had the same problem when Patrick O'Brian died; I hadn't finished all of the Aubrey/Maturin books, and I left the last one on my shelf for a while, because it would be the last new-to-me O'Brian. (And then I broke down and read them all in about three days. I should do that again soon.)

[Joe Sherry]

I do want Daphne to return, and I do think our beloved and tricksy PTB left themselves room to bring her back - if the story demands it. Which, for all we non-PTB know, the story might well demand.

Ooh, no thank you.  I can handle Daphne flashback episodes, but I have a real Reader-Brain issue with bringing back characters who've been killed.  It feels like cheating and jerking with my emotions for no good reason.

Now, I trust our erstwhile PTB and if they did it, I suspect there would be a very good reason for it and it would work in-story, but even thinking about it makes me uneasy.

[MadGastronomer]

I do want Daphne to return, and I do think our beloved and tricksy PTB left themselves room to bring her back - if the story demands it. Which, for all we non-PTB know, the story might well demand.

I, on the other hand, am going to be really mad. Because, emotionally, to me, that is cheating. Tell us she's dead, get all the reactions, all the grief, and then, just like doesn't happen in real life, *poof*, she's back. The idea upsets me badly.

I'm actually really mad at an author right now for doing exactly this. She made me cry over a character I never thought I could care about in a novel I never thought could affect me that much . . . and then she brought the character back in the sequel. (She spent the whole damned second book setting that up, and I have a good idea of what she plans to do with it in the third, and how she plans to justify it, and if I trusted her one whit less, I would not read that third book, because I'm just that mad.) (No, I won't say who. It would be a spoiler. Some people here will likely recognize who I'm talking about.) (Also, I'm told by a mutual friend that the author was going for exactly this reaction, and is really pleased to be getting it. Which, ECR.)

Now, this is just my reaction, and it's the PTB's story to do what they like with, and they get to do that if that's what the story calls for to them. But I feel ill-used when it happens.

[jennygadget]

I am not engaging with the sentence "I thought we were past this," because that sentence is not my friend and it does not get any cake.

First of all (I hope this comes across right, and I don't mean to pick on miminnehaha, because I'm pretty sure I know what she meant, but), that response made me smile.  A lot.  Because: YES.

And if I'm inimical to somebody's enjoyment of this place, and this place really really matters to them, you bet I'd rather that I go than that they go.

Secondly, in the hopes that this will help (and praying that it will not do the opposite) I cannot count the number of times over the last week that I wished I had never said anything at all rather than give you any reason to want to leave.  So, again: YES.

This was actually exactly the reason why I was afraid to post in the first place.  I was very much not thinking “OMG! how dare they do/don’t do such and such! Don’t they know they should be like me?”  In fact, I think the part that had my friends so worried was that I pretty quickly devolved into “Why am I not like everyone else?  Why do I never fit in?  What the fuck is wrong with me?”  I don’t think Jeffy was trying to say that everyone else was doing it wrong and I was doing it right, I think he was trying to tell me that there wasn’t anything wrong with me, and that I wasn’t really as different from everyone else, and that I wasn’t going to make people hate me if I did say something that was different from everyone else.

Again, I’m just hoping this helps and I do not meant in any way to diminish your right to how all this has made you feel I and most definitely do NOT mean to suggest that you should stop talking about it.

*******

oh, and regarding the bit about writers and moats....

It should perhaps be explained that there is a newbie writer in my extended family who has been after my opinion of his writing for a while now (because I am the Reader in the family, and work in a library to boot), and while he is not without talent, let’s just say that I haven’t been entirely certain that engaging with him in that way is healthy for either of us...but that there is also the extra family dynamic of having to explain any refusals to the entire family.  There was a bit of a kerfluffle that happened recently - like, less than a month ago - having to do with all this, and so I am a bit extra cautious about crossing that moat myself at the moment.  Which would be the thing I was talking about earlier that was making my reactions to all this especially confusing.  Because I can't take back having crossed that moat when it comes to SU, even if I wanted to.

I know the PTB are not being cavalier with my feelings, but that other experience is still rather fresh and not completely resolved (and was even less so before my mom and I talked it over tonight) so it’s unfortunately affecting how I’m reacting to all this.

And I really am sorry that I seem to be flailing all over the place and knocking into other people because of it.  *facepalm*

[jennygadget]

I do want Daphne to return, and I do think our beloved and tricksy PTB left themselves room to bring her back - if the story demands it. Which, for all we non-PTB know, the story might well demand.

I, on the other hand, am going to be really mad. Because, emotionally, to me, that is cheating. Tell us she's dead, get all the reactions, all the grief, and then, just like doesn't happen in real life, *poof*, she's back. The idea upsets me badly.

*ahem*

Once my brain stopped screaming NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! TAKE IT BACK!!!!! for a long enough period of time that I could think, I did have one really bad thought.  It's not fully formed exactly, because it is a Bad Thought and I do not want to explore it too closely right now, but...I keep flashing back to this bit in Refining Fire:

"Oh, Willy," said Addy's voice, with her son's mouth. The mirror of what she would have said, God willing. "But by God I'm done with you."

Now I'm going to go pretend that I did not say that, and that my mind hasn't been (against my will) coming up with reasons why it might be useful, plotwise, for Chaz to be able to mirror Daphne even though she is dead.

Also, what txanne said.  (er, the sentiment, not the specific story :p)

[MadGastronomer]

Jennygadget, I really, really, really wish you had not said that. Really.

The question is, was Chaz mirroring Addy, the Addy in his head, or the Addy in The Relative's head? And which Daphne might he mirror?

[Elizabeth Bear]

Jennygadget is getting a gold star, and won't find out why until 2014.

[Korvar]

Jennygadget is getting a gold star, and won't find out why until 2014.

Nah, we can just ask Sol, he writes from the future...

[Elizabeth Bear]

Jennygadget is getting a gold star, and won't find out why until 2014.

Nah, we can just ask Sol, he writes from the future...

There's an assumption there.

***

For anyone who is experiencing conflicted emotions regarding "Walking Back to Houston:"

An episode shot before Cam left the show is likely to have her character in it. We believe that our fans are responsible adults, and capable of negotiating and mediating their own media consumption.

We provide this data point for their use in making informed decisions.

--the mgmt

[jennygadget]

   Sorry, MG.  Trust me, I wish I hadn't thought of it.  I really wasn't trying to.

It rather came to me much like this: "No! Why did they do that?!?! What does that get them other than Chaz - and the team - more broken?!?!  I hate it when stories kill characters I like just to make other characters sad - even when I still like the other characters.  I mean, really, what changes now other than everyone being sad?  And Chaz losing yet another person?  What can happen now that couldn't happen by making the team sad another way? Wh-...oh...wait......if she....if he.......oh...fuck."

But, having thought of it...I really couldn't help but share.  I mean, that's what we are doing here, sharing our pain, yes?  :p

To answer your question, though, I think that might depend on if Chaz's abilities are based on messing with peoples minds or if he physically alters the space around him, etc.  Speaking of which, I'm pretty sure we had this conversation before...

[jennygadget]

Jennygadget is getting a gold star, and won't find out why until 2014.

I'm not so sure that that is a good thing, considering what I said to prompt it.  But I suppose at least this one won't keep disappearing on me...

[Korvar]

Jennygadget is getting a gold star, and won't find out why until 2014.

Nah, we can just ask Sol, he writes from the future...

There's an assumption there.

Only one?

[MadGastronomer]

For anyone who is experiencing conflicted emotions regarding "Walking Back to Houston:"

An episode shot before Cam left the show is likely to have her character in it. We believe that our fans are responsible adults, and capable of negotiating and mediating their own media consumption.

We provide this data point for their use in making informed decisions.

--the mgmt

Thank you.

...Just tell me you're not going to do maudlin clip shows that include her, please?

[Elizabeth Bear]

For anyone who is experiencing conflicted emotions regarding "Walking Back to Houston:"

An episode shot before Cam left the show is likely to have her character in it. We believe that our fans are responsible adults, and capable of negotiating and mediating their own media consumption.

We provide this data point for their use in making informed decisions.

--the mgmt

Thank you.

...Just tell me you're not going to do maudlin clip shows that include her, please?

She'll probably show up in DVD extras. Clip shows... well, if we blow the budget on the big special effects sequence in "Dark Leader," there's always the [unlikely] possibility.

Sith lords don't come cheap.