Oooh! More chapters?! Plural?! Can't wait! I have to say, at the risk of turning this post into another bout of raging-fangirlitude, that the main reason I keep reading (and, I confess, re-reading) Butterfly Effect is because of the truly stellar character development and plot evolution. It is a rarity to find a fic on the net where an actual *story* with honest-to-goodness *plot* counts for more than an apparently obligatory dose of romance/sex between two characters about whom we care only because of canon, rather than due to any effort on the fanfic writer's behalf. Butterfly Effect is an excellent example of story-telling at its best; the characters are three-dimensional, intriguing and flawed, and they are that way because *that's how YOU wrote them* not because that's how they appeared in the game. When I read BE, I care how Seph and Zack react to Cloud discovering their relationship not because I'm pro- or anti- Seph/Zack, but because you've made these characters real for me, and I want things to work out for them. (A little character torture in the interim is, naturally, par for the course.) The quiet abundance of affection, coupled with the lack of gratuity, makes the relationship true to the characters' personalities and hence a delight to read, rather than a chore to slog through before I get to the next 'good bit' of plot development. In a muddled way, I guess what I'm trying to say is that the romance, in this instance, contributes to the plot rather than detracting from it and hence it becomes a 'good bit' of it's own right. By the same token, I'm enjoying watching Cloud and Reno orbit around each other - their banter, through to Reno's pushiness, makes for a really interesting dynamic, and the dialogue between the two is just such an elegantly unintrusive way to add humour to the fic and prevent any staleness to tone or pacing while also demonstrating how the characters have grown and developed over the months to years that this fic takes place.
While commenting on a video game fanfic, I should probably point out that I am not a gamer. At all. (Studying towards an exam with an 80% fail rate while working full-time does not really lend itself towards copious quantities of spare time to spend playing a computer game.) I won't bore you with the details of how I fell over Final Fantasy VII as a fandom genre, but suffice it to say I've never played even a minute of it. For Butterfly Effect, that doesn't matter. The characters are three-dimensional, the magic and fighting and society is either well explained, or equally well elucidated by demonstration (with, might I add, a refreshing lack of anything that could be construed as patronizing to the reader) to the extent that I have no difficulties following the story despite a desperate paucity of background 'assumed knowledge'. To have written a story that works on both the 'newbie' and the 'old hand' level is very difficult, and again kudos to you and your co-author for handling it with such panache. Your fight scenes - most notably the ones in the reactor and under the mansion - are pulse-raising episodes, executed with imagination, elegant descriptions and excellent pacing. They break up longer stretches of absorbing plot very neatly but not choppily, and all of them contribute to the ongoing development of the story. I must have re-read the chapter where Vincent and Sephiroth meet at least four times because of this: While I love a good characterisation, I'm equally enamoured of a decently inventive punch-up! Thanks for fulfilling both of my wants, especially in a manner that progresses the story.
Well, I had best toddle off and do some study. Thanks to your comment about the chapter(s) overhaul (and implied soon-to-be-posted!), I now have a 'carrot' to hang in front of my 'donkey' self while I do battle with some of the finer points of tonight's topics.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: sounds good
Date: 2008-06-12 12:40 pm (UTC)Butterfly Effect is an excellent example of story-telling at its best; the characters are three-dimensional, intriguing and flawed, and they are that way because *that's how YOU wrote them* not because that's how they appeared in the game. When I read BE, I care how Seph and Zack react to Cloud discovering their relationship not because I'm pro- or anti- Seph/Zack, but because you've made these characters real for me, and I want things to work out for them. (A little character torture in the interim is, naturally, par for the course.) The quiet abundance of affection, coupled with the lack of gratuity, makes the relationship true to the characters' personalities and hence a delight to read, rather than a chore to slog through before I get to the next 'good bit' of plot development. In a muddled way, I guess what I'm trying to say is that the romance, in this instance, contributes to the plot rather than detracting from it and hence it becomes a 'good bit' of it's own right.
By the same token, I'm enjoying watching Cloud and Reno orbit around each other - their banter, through to Reno's pushiness, makes for a really interesting dynamic, and the dialogue between the two is just such an elegantly unintrusive way to add humour to the fic and prevent any staleness to tone or pacing while also demonstrating how the characters have grown and developed over the months to years that this fic takes place.
While commenting on a video game fanfic, I should probably point out that I am not a gamer. At all. (Studying towards an exam with an 80% fail rate while working full-time does not really lend itself towards copious quantities of spare time to spend playing a computer game.) I won't bore you with the details of how I fell over Final Fantasy VII as a fandom genre, but suffice it to say I've never played even a minute of it.
For Butterfly Effect, that doesn't matter.
The characters are three-dimensional, the magic and fighting and society is either well explained, or equally well elucidated by demonstration (with, might I add, a refreshing lack of anything that could be construed as patronizing to the reader) to the extent that I have no difficulties following the story despite a desperate paucity of background 'assumed knowledge'. To have written a story that works on both the 'newbie' and the 'old hand' level is very difficult, and again kudos to you and your co-author for handling it with such panache.
Your fight scenes - most notably the ones in the reactor and under the mansion - are pulse-raising episodes, executed with imagination, elegant descriptions and excellent pacing. They break up longer stretches of absorbing plot very neatly but not choppily, and all of them contribute to the ongoing development of the story. I must have re-read the chapter where Vincent and Sephiroth meet at least four times because of this: While I love a good characterisation, I'm equally enamoured of a decently inventive punch-up! Thanks for fulfilling both of my wants, especially in a manner that progresses the story.
Well, I had best toddle off and do some study. Thanks to your comment about the chapter(s) overhaul (and implied soon-to-be-posted!), I now have a 'carrot' to hang in front of my 'donkey' self while I do battle with some of the finer points of tonight's topics.
Nik.