Sanctuary Fic -- Sleeping Beauty

[artaxastra]

I think this may be the best Sanctuary story I've ever done.

Spoilers through The Depths.

For penknife, of course.

Comments

[death_ofme]

Wow, thank you so much for writing this. It was quite beautiful, and it actually makes more sense to me than the canon of the show right now. I wish this entire season was just some dream of Helen's...

"Helen's perfect little world, where everything is happening according to some secret master plan of yours! Where you have absolute control over everything and even when it hurts like hell it's all yours, no risks, no dealing with other people's agency. Nobody can ever hurt you again because you're not even here. You can just check out.

I've been re-watching Season 1 and that part of your fic just really strikes me. It's been bothering me all throughout Season 4. When we first get introduced to Helen she's kickass and a strong character, but she takes her knocks and she isn't perfect at everything. It seems this season the writers have just completely forgotten what made her interesting in the first place and are writing scenes for an excuse to watch her kick someone's ass and throw out one-liners without anything truly affecting her or without her ever having to come to terms with her flaws. We got a hint of that in Tempus with James calling her out on her behaviour, and once more with Acolyte when she looks unsure of herself after her last exchange with Biggie. But now whenever we stumble across some development that could be truly interesting to the characters, it gets Deus Ex Magnus-ed.

Thank god for fic, I'm going to plug my fingers into my ears singing "lalala" and pretend this is what really happened. (then maybe we could have Druitt back)

[artaxastra]

Thank you!

I've been re-watching Season 1 and that part of your fic just really strikes me. It's been bothering me all throughout Season 4. When we first get introduced to Helen she's kickass and a strong character, but she takes her knocks and she isn't perfect at everything. It seems this season the writers have just completely forgotten what made her interesting in the first place and are writing scenes for an excuse to watch her kick someone's ass and throw out one-liners without anything truly affecting her or without her ever having to come to terms with her flaws.

Exactly! What you said!

Being strong isn't the same as being mean. And this season Helen spends a lot of time just being mean. And angry. And high handed for no reason. We haven't seen her give a damn about anybody since Awakening. Seriously? John died and she doesn't even care? She doesn't care about anybody or anything. She's not invested. In order for readers to care about a main character, they have to care about what the character is invested in. And with Helen right now, that's nothing. Which is so much of a change from season one, where there was Ashley and her work and James and John and even Nikola.

[death_ofme]

It almost feels as if the Sanctuary writing team is split into two halves, because Helen's more outrageous actions do get called out (usually by Will, sometimes James) so the show knows what her flaws are...but then the second half takes over and they merrily skip along and it was "Helen was right all along and can do no wrong!". Uh...no - it's great that there are dark parts to Helen and some morally ambiguous aspects of her character, but explore that. Don't just gloss it over.

And if we are to believe that Druitt sacrificed himself to send Helen back in time...the first time she encounters him in Victorian London she beats him bloody and moves on. What? The writers were talking about how they were so excited for that exchange and it completely changed the dynamics of Druitt and Helen's relationship - no, it didn't! If anything it was a complete record scratch to the entire episode, let alone the season. I'm just...I'm done. I know there isn't anything that can save Season 4 right now because the episodes have already been shot months ago. I do hope they get picked up for Season 5, because that is the season where they can finally change shit. Every show drops the ball now and again, I think it really matters on how they pick themselves back up again. And with the huge backlash on Druitt's death I hope they listen.

[artaxastra]

And if we are to believe that Druitt sacrificed himself to send Helen back in time...the first time she encounters him in Victorian London she beats him bloody and moves on. What? The writers were talking about how they were so excited for that exchange and it completely changed the dynamics of Druitt and Helen's relationship - no, it didn't! If anything it was a complete record scratch to the entire episode, let alone the season. I'm just...I'm done

Yeah, me too. She doesn't even care? No regret? Just good riddance?

And with the huge backlash on Druitt's death I hope they listen.

My best hope is that this is like SG-1 season five, which sucked rocks and then they killed Daniel. But they did get over it! Season seven and eight rocked!