The Light at the End of the Tunnel? That Is a TRAIN, My Friends

[strina]

You know how you can be reading a series and enjoying it and then you start looking at the summaries or tags for some of the future stories and it feels like the Jaws theme should start playing?

That "ugh, please don't...crap...please?...you're totally going to...no...DO NOT WANT, WHY WOULD YOU, ARGH" thing.

For reals, 2/3 of the way through, more than 800,000 words in, and it's going to go Suddenly, Threesome! And that is legit one of my least favorite Suddenlys (Suddenly, Kidfic! = surprisingly good in a lot of cases) because except in the case of Neal Caffrey and the Burkes, I really don't like poly ships that include an established long-term couple and the Other One. There's a lot of awkwardness and potential inequality built into that configuration and most fic does not really deal with that well/at all.

Also, the author has talked way too much about two of the threesome participants' bond as (step)brothers for me to dig this.

IT IS LIKE CLARK AND LEX AND CORNERS OF THE WORLD ALL OVER AGAIN. EXCEPT THE PSEUDOINCEST IS LESS CREEPY.

Comments

[kopernik]

I think I've liked about two poly fics in my entire life. There aren't even words to describe how pissed I would be about Suddenly Threesome! after 800,000 words.

[strina]

I am going to try and delete it from my mental landscape, so on that note it's better that it happens so late? The tag shows up on story 45 of 75 (so far), but stories 51 - 75 look more like tags and timestamps and such than a continuous storyline. It is entirely possible my version of this 'verse will draw the curtains after story 44, though.

But for real, I'm on story 20 and there has been a LOT of talk about "no one even says the "step" anymore! They've really chosen to BECOME BROTHERS" and "Finn is such a great STRAIGHT ALLY, you guys" that I just can't even.

And I even like poly! Just not Suddenly! poly. BUT IT IS THE BIGGEST THING FOR THIS SHIP ON THE WHOLE AO3. And there's some really cool stuff about politics and the glee club and there was a five-story arc that was actually a pretty good Puck bildungsroman and I REALLY WANT TO BE ABLE TO READ THIS, WHY YOU GOTTA MAKE IT SO HARD, AUTHORS?

[hazel]

Hi, person on my flist who I don't talk to much - I totally know exactly what fic you're talking about and I gave up on it a few months ago for EXACTLY that reason: they'd set up F as a straight ally/best friend/brother, and it just got WEIRD.

[strina]

IT IS SO WEIRD. And I read one of the later parts, because I was hoping it wasn't actually going to be a Thing and it turns out that the authors have F marry R and then she suddenly becomes a whore who makes him unhappy and abandons her children so obviously he hooks back up with P and K for forever this time. WHAT. ARE YOU REALLY. THEY COULD HAVE USED AN OC FOR THAT INSTEAD OF BASHING A CANON CHARACTER WHO'S SO FAR BEEN NOTHING BUT WELL-INTENTIONED IN THIS SHITSHOW.

I just think maybe they needed an alpha reader or something to shake them and go LOOK AT YOUR LIFE, LOOK AT YOUR CHOICES because some of it's good and then some of it is just completely off the rails (liiike, after he gets with Kurt, Puck pretty much stops thinking about Beth unless reminded by Quinn/Shelby/his mom, when that was actually one of the best things about that first five-story arc).

I very much want David and Casey to be in love, though.

[hazel]

Why would they even DO THAT? Like, it's okay for dudes to be super-close without boning or wanting to bone!

klajsdlfkj I agree entirely re needing an alpha reader to sort of pull them back on track, maybe say "you don't need to write 30K per episode", because I think a lot of it is that it got SO LONG that they kept having to find new plot twists. It would've been improved a lot if they'd just timeskipped.

I did like David and Casey, though.

[strina]

They even engaged with that in the beginning! Like, Artie got called out on thinking otherwise for a minute! AND THEN IT ALL WENT WRONG. And looking around, if you knock Finn out as a straight ally, you've got like, Mike and Rick? Who are NOT particularly close to any of the alphabets.

It would have been entire degrees of better if there had been fewer of the (awkward, boring) sex scenes. WHY ARE YOU SO EXHIBITIONIST WHEN YOU ARE IN THE CLOSET, THAT IS A BAD PLAN. I really think you're right about the length, though. 800,000 should not represent LESS THAN A CALENDAR YEAR. I just skipped like five stories? I wanted the Casey-crisis and the auditions, and then I think I'm gonna subscribe for the promised Casey/Dave futurefic, and THEN I'MA TAP OUT. I have been in this place with an author before and it got weird (hilariously, ALSO involved at least one story where for 300+ K of the fic he was totally straight and loved boobs and then BAM! m/m/m FOR LIFE).

For real, I spent the entire drive to dinner the other night critiquing this fic out loud TO MYSELF. I have Feelings.