3 things: "Secrets" and two reviews

[edenfalling]

1. I finished the rough draft of "Secrets" chapter 10 last night!

It totally sucks. No really, you have no idea. Melodrama up to here, and with Tom gone (well, for a certain value of 'gone'...) Ginny doesn't have a best friend to talk to, and so there is way too much internalized angsting and not enough dialogue, damnit, despite all the conversations I kept shoving at her.

I swear, next chapter I'm going to make her talk to Xanthe for an entire scene. Just because.

Also! I was nearing the end of the chapter, and I wanted Ginny and Apple to have a thing where Apple kind of apologized, but then Ginny yelled at her and Apple told her off. They both flatly refused to have that conversation. So I looked at them, and it occured to me to ask Apple what the flipping heck she was doing in the infirmary anyway (Percy dragged Ginny there again -- Percy also refused to have the argument I wanted him to have, but in his case I like the resulting conversation much better), and she said to me, "Oh, don't you know I get migraines?" and then! Then she threw me this giant plot point curveball, and now I can't figure out how to write anything else instead.

*fumes*

Tonight I print out the draft. Tomorrow I attack it with the Editing Pen of Death (TM). And trust me, there will be quite a lot of red ink on this sucker.

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2. Gravitation

M. lent me volume 1, and I swear, this is the cutest and dorkiest thing I've read in ages. Shuichi is such a loveable idiot (though he seems to have fairly good stage presence despite that), and there's something weirdly compelling about Eiri, even though he's a massive jerk.

Eiri is totally not kidding when he says that Mika looks just like him, only with makeup. (And boobs and long hair, but that sort of goes without saying.) They even have the same body language.

Toma looks younger than Shuichi. That is just creepy.

Also, Shuichi is an idiot, and he doesn't think before he acts, but I really don't think he's as much of an idiot as he's often made out to be in fanfiction. *sigh* Why do fandoms so often exaggerate certain character traits until they deform the original character past recognition?

...

I want volume 2, yesterday.

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3. Runaways

Volume 2, Teenage Wasteland, is kind of disappointing. It feels like treading water. Yes, that makes sense given revelations in volume 3, but there's still no excuse for bad pacing. And volume 3, The Good Die Young... well, the twist, while an interesting idea, was not properly foreshadowed, nor was it well-explained. Also, the revelation about the Pride's motives? Was just silly. And tacky.

*sigh*

I found myself with a terrible urge to rewrite the damn thing, just so I could make it make sense -- especially the character motivations -- and flow better. It's not a bad idea, and I like the characters, but the way the story was handled is So Damn Clunky.

Typical for Marvel, really. I should've known better.

(Also, Cat? My favorite character turned out to be secretly evil and got messily killed. Please close down that part of the psychic link, thanks!)

Comments

[elfiepike.livejournal.com]

Also, Shuichi is an idiot, and he doesn't think before he acts, but I really don't think he's as much of an idiot as he's often made out to be in fanfiction.

please rethink this after you've read further. XD i love gravitation almost despite myself, but seriously, i think that first volume is almost misleading with the level of normalcy it maintains.

[supplanter.livejournal.com]

I really liked volume 1; I thought Shuuichi was great.  I couldn't stand his character after that, though, at least not in relation to Yuki.  Somehow I managed up to volume 10, but if there was anything after that I almost definitely will never read it. =.=

[elfiepike.livejournal.com]

it's like something happened at the end of volume one to the mangaka, like maybe she got punched in the head or something, and the story veered from almost-believable and capable of growth to being this cracked-out story full of guns and mecha and omgangstypasts. XD i think part of why i still enjoyed it was just that it was so over the top; plus, shuuichi made me feel better about my life. XD

[edenfalling]

Okay -- I will make sure to keep the question of Shuichi's intelligence and common sense levels open as I read further. :-)

*makes premptive warding gestures against the probable impulse to write fanfiction in which Shuichi's general distractibility, gullibility, and lack of common sense are, if not erased, then at least explained and somewhat moderated*

[supplanter.livejournal.com]

*makes premptive warding gestures against the probable impulse to write fanfiction in which Shuichi's general distractibility, gullibility, and lack of common sense are, if not erased, then at least explained and somewhat moderated*

Hey!  But.. but that would be cool. :D?

Dunno if you wanted any, but recs:

backspace (http://glitterati.illuminatedtext.com/fiction/backspace.html) by rageprufrock

stuff (http://www.contrary-perfection.net/gravi/) by eidolontree; do not fear the peculiar spellings of "Shuuici"!  I've never read the ASK stuff, but all the rest is good.

... did you continue to read gravitation after all? :D;;;;

[edenfalling]

I have yet to return a CD M. lent me, so I feel a little weird asking her for the next couple volumes of Gravitation. Once I listen to the CD, though... *rubs hands evilly*

[supplanter.livejournal.com]

I think a large part of why I didn't enjoy it (in spite of my continuing to read it) is that for a long time I still thought it was taking itself seriously.  This assumption may have wavered from time to time, but because I was reading so sporadically by the time I got to the next volume it had always reset itself.  It might not have been till Rage/Reiji and the panda that I went "heyWAIT >.>". orz

It makes me cranky because I feel like Yuki is the mangaka's favorite and she wants him to be bastardly and cool while sort of having a sympathetic past (at some point the bastardliness cancels this out, surely; it goes above and beyond the call of his ANGST) and the only way to make sure he got love was to make Shuuichi as retarded as possible. >.>  And then there's Touma....

[edenfalling]

Aha. *makes note: do not take Gravitation too seriously* Thanks for the recs, btw!