"Merits" outline back-up, just ignore...
Story Major Events/scenes (that are left): moderately detailed outline... spoilers
Current Chapter: History between Zuko & Katara;
To add to "Merits" (currently writing chap?):
ZUKO & KATARA’S HISTORY, 150 YEARS AGO:
- “Don’t worry when people fail to recognize your merits, worry when you fail to recognize theirs” (Confucius)
This ( Read more... )
Current Chapter: History between Zuko & Katara;
To add to "Merits" (currently writing chap?):
ZUKO & KATARA’S HISTORY, 150 YEARS AGO:
- “Don’t worry when people fail to recognize your merits, worry when you fail to recognize theirs” (Confucius)
This ( Read more... )
** Katara/Yue is really wishing for/seeking an opportunity to be herself. Not the guardian of the tribe, not the chief's daughter, just herself. She thinks she's found that with Zuko -- he's not relying on her as leader or healer or demi-goddess; he's just there because he wants to spend time with her.
** But oh no, Zuko has sabotaged himself already, because he's not actually there for her, he's there because he has to kill her / because they're soulmates / because she's a piece in a larger game. And by the end of the segment, he does want her just for her sake, but it's too late by then and the relationship has been colored by all those other expectations placed on it.
** Which sets us up for Zuko's promise to next time recognize her for who she is.
And now re: endings. Waaaaaaaaaaaagh. I can see so many possible branches for the story to take, and am glad that you aren't taking the sparkly steam-baby route, at the same time that that's such a happy little resolution. I also can't decide if I want it to be a surprise or not.
I think right now, given what you've laid out as possibilities, I'm hoping for "Zuko has to decide how much he wants Katara, and ends up choosing to become human so he can stay with her on her own terms."
But also the destructionist in me sort of wants the angsty ending of Katara choosing Jet and Zuko having to live through eternity thinking about how he has Fucked Up. But not really -- don't do that one. :(
But, if you take an opening ending (which is one of the most courageous things an author can do, I think), rest assured that I will write a steam-baby-type fanfic ending for it, a la Beneath a Dawn Sky. HA.
I'm also really glad that I'm writing Catching Shadows, which really started as a response of sorts to Under a Sapphire Sky and Merits, because it will, eventually, have a happy ending.
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I've added these in to the sections you mentioned in the outline we worked out earlier. (See posts below). They don't need to figure exactly where I've put them. XD (That's probably awkward.) But they can happen at that point in the story, if that's where you think they'll be most effective.
(And man, this 'chapter' is turning into a fic all on its own... I'm so sorry...)
"But also the destructionist in me sort of wants the angsty ending of Katara choosing Jet and Zuko having to live through eternity thinking about how he has Fucked Up. But not really -- don't do that one. :("
Your destructionist came pretty close to the original ending I had planned: Katara has to choose (again) between who to save (Jet or Zuko), and chooses Jet, not realising Zuko is fatally wounded; so she loses Zuko permanently, and then pulls a Juliet. (I don't think this'll be the ending anymore, though... I'm pretty sure hyperoo WILL cross the border to feed me my own entrails if I do that...)
"I'm also really glad that I'm writing Catching Shadows, which really started as a response of sorts to Under a Sapphire Sky and Merits, because it will, eventually, have a happy ending."
You already know I love "CS", and if "M" helped it in ANY way (even if it was so bad it inspired you to write something better!), so be it, and I'm happy for it. *^_^* Also, I'm appalled (sp?) at how little attention that fic gets. It's superb.
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Following that, I sort of thought about how many vampire stories have a Vampire Secret Society -- but what would it look like if the lead "vampire" doesn't know what she is, because everyone who might have told her/trained her/nurtured her is gone? Sokka being Sokka, he doesn't care what he is, except that he has an advantage in the hunt, but Katara wants to understand, and she can't.
I also wanted to play with the idea that legends have a life of their own completely separate from truth -- all these human "truths" about vampires (light sensitivity, sustained by blood, silver stakes, etc) are really just legends that reflect the truth beneath (which I'm still honestly figuring out). I really like the tension between Katara, who wants so desperately to know what she is, and Zuko, who doesn't know what to think any more.
Zuko being shell-shocked is pretty important to that; I imagine that his back story is pretty similar (more or less) to canon up until the Crossroads of Destiny. In canon, he then had to make a Big Fucking Decision, and he chose wrong. In CS, he was about to make a Big Fucking Decision, then got drafted. Any choice he had was taken away from him, leaving him to think about that choice for a good long time. Then he comes back and can't trust his mind for a while, and spends even more time thinking or trying not to think. So ten years or so after the Crossroads of Destiny non-decision he has to choose again, but he's really already chosen.
It's really a very different story from Merits -- it's not about choices, it's about discovery. They've both already chosen, even if they don't know it yet. The tension is in what the discoveries will lead to, and in what the other characters around them will do.
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And this is a HUGE reason why I like your fics -- the whole aspect of discovery, that recurring theme of learning, of something newfound or offered to the characters/readers.
XD
Now, I must run since it is 1am again and I *need* some sleep. XD
Looking forward to more fics, and will again look over the outline tomorrow. (Sorry, very tired right now and still need to shower after taking the kids to the pool this afternoon!)
ni'night!
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