v. amused

[effervescible]

A review left for deleria's Double Helix: "Excellently written but a complete waste of time. And the ending sucked."

HAHAHAHAHAHA.  That's just...that's beautiful.  It sums up EXACTLY why I hate that fic.  I wish I'd written that.

Comments

[angstymcgoth.livejournal.com]

Feel like summing it up and why you didn't like it? Because it's sorta everywhere, but long enough that I keep putting off reading it. Should I continue to do so...?

[jaina.livejournal.com]

1) It's Rosemary's Baby done with Trigun characters, minus a good bit of Trigun characterization

2) Vash leaves Meryl for dead (or with Knives and he tells everyone she's dead, not much difference)

3) Meryl willingly stays to raise the baby at Knives' compound thingie and probably be a brood mare some more. There's a "oh, she'll fight Knives' ideals by teaching the baby herself" defense, but it ignores the fact that if Knives suspected it was working, he'd just kill her dead.

4) It starts out well, which makes it that much more disappointing

5) DUDE, Vash LEFT HER FOR DEAD! OMGWTF!

[angstymcgoth.livejournal.com]

Wait. What? I haven't seen Rosemary's Baby, so I'm a little dull no that one--so did Meryl have Vash's baby, or Knives'? And why would that make Vash leave her for dead? Something tells me Vash wouldn't really give a rat's ass who's baby it was, just as long as they both loved it and Meryl considered him the father.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

Something tells me Vash wouldn't really give a rat's ass whose baby it was IF PSYCHO KNIVES WAS TRYING TO CONTROL HER. Dude...nasty.

[zelamenomiko.livejournal.com]

Actually, the baby isn't Vash's or Knives'. One of the Plant Angels gave birth to it prematurely, so Knives decides that Meryl will be a good birth mother for it. So he kidnaps her, and implants this foreign object into her. Lots of bad stuff happens, with it ending the way Casey said above.

Hope that was coherent, I'm exhausted.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

Dude, I know we share a brain, but I'm Angie, not Casey. ;D Just teasing.

[zelamenomiko.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I wrote that at work during one of our short breaks from screaming kids, so I think my brain melted a bit. ^^;;

[jaina.livejournal.com]

It's not a romance at all. Basically, as far as RB goes, Knives is Satan, the baby is the antichrist, and Meryl's the patsy. Wait...that's only going to confuse you.

Okay. Knives kidnaps Meryl and holds her for months because he wants to use her as the surrogate mother for this plant embryo thing he has, because her exposure to Vash (also, Rem's apparently an ancestor) have affected her so she can probably carry it with help. This includes a LOVELY pseudo-rape scene in which the implantation is happening with medical equipment but Meryl thinks she's being raped.

Anyway, Vash, Milly and Wolfwood (the latter two don't even get a real ending) are trying to find Meryl for ages, and Vash is getting more obsessive and un-Vashlike by the day. He's presented as being the bad guy for not helping the plants like Knives does and for violating a plant by forcing it to tell him where Knives is. During all this, Meryl once tries to kill herself but is stitched up and eventually comes to have smooshy feelings for the baby. Gag.

Vash eventually ends up prisoner in the compound thing as well, and Meryl doesn't visit him and try and get him to help her. I think he confronts Knives and barely eevn argues his side of things. At the end, Vash realizes he can't take Meryl out and leaves, telling Milly and Wolfwood that she's dead. Meryl almost dies having the baby but lives and decides to stay there to raise the baby. (Admittedly, she really couldn't even try and escape in her state, but I don't think she should be RESIGNED to it.) It ends with the insinuation that Meryl will use ideology to fight Knives a la teaching the child what is good and not to be a dick like Knives, and that Knives will enjoy the challenge, but it ignores the fact that this Knives is so intent upon victory that he'd absolutely kill Meryl if he thought she was actually winning--and that Meryl would likely die in future pregnancies anyway. Also, let me remind you that Knives is essentially her rapist--deleria defended that one to me by reminding me it wasn't really rape. OMGWTF. And that's all.

DO YOU SEE WHY MY HEAD EXPLODES? Deleria is technically a lovely writer, but this just disgusts me. I understand she's re-edited most of it, but can you blame me for not wanting to go check it out?

[zelamenomiko.livejournal.com]

I don't want to go check it out, either. Gag indeed. *patches together Jaina's exploded head*

[angstymcgoth.livejournal.com]

Oh right, isn't stuff like this generally what passes for darkfic/angst in the Trigun fandom?

Are you sure no one commited suicide by the end of it? Becasue then it would've been like, 10x more deep.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Yup. Less than 25 words. Perfect.

[zelamenomiko.livejournal.com]

*reads review. rereads review. cracks up*

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Wish I"d been the one who left that. *cackle* Perfect!

[uiggu.livejournal.com]

OK, now I've got to read it, y'know, if only so I can agree with the rest of you about the mot-juste-ness of the wonderful review. ::snerk::

[jaina.livejournal.com]

You are a brave soul. Go with God, my friend. Oh yeah, and thanks for the apple.

[lushdesolation.livejournal.com]

Ooh! So if a fic's not fluffy or romantic, or if Vash gets a little angsty and dark, it automatically sucks? Okay, I guess that's your taste. You're entitled to it.

I've been putting off reading this one because of the length (Hey, I'm lazy), because I need to read a bit more of my boyfriend's long (sequel) works before I take on another long fanfic reading, and because of the manga-base, when I'm not completely familiar with everything in the manga (saving myself for English release reading, which I've been doing with what's been released).

Now, I'm definitely interested in reading this fic. I'll probably ADORE it.

I've always loved darkfic, whatever the fandom. ^_^. Give me an angsty drama semi-horror (or all horror) story over a sappy romance any day!

[jaina.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, not at all! It's not the darkness of the fic that bothered me, truly. I mean, I was right with the fic, waiting eagerly for new chapters, up to the end. I thought it was great that there was a plot-driven fic that didn't rely on romance--we don't see enough of those.

I just happened to find the ending characterization to be pretty obscene. Deleria was aware. We had an interesting discussion over e-mail. She's a great writer. I just felt that by the end, she was no longer writing recognizable characters (at least for a couple of them. Others were okay). JMHO. Your mileage may vary.