Just checking in: "I'm ready to listen when you're ready to tell me the rest of the story."

[brightknightie]

It's been just over a week since matches went out. How are you doing? Finding something that clicks? Scouting something new?

Stories come due on the AO3 on June 23. Stories begin releasing on June 25.

———
One of our insightful players suggested that we could get more fun from our community during the game's writing phase with periodic surveys. So, this year, I'll try to buoy these dull reminders with interesting questions. For those who'd enjoy a little engagement...

Question #1: Is your personal favorite FK episode the same as the episode you'd identify as FK's best? Why?

Bonus question: What do you think of this question idea? And what questions (if any) should we ask in the future?

Thanks!

Comments

[senmut]

I can't answer, as My Favorite and The Best are very dependent on both mood and memory. Also, I have a bad habit of latching onto scenes instead of stories. (Age of Aquarius, indeed.)

I do like the concept.

[brightknightie]

My favorite has definitely changed over time, too. :-) There was a time when I would have said that the episode that "brought me across" was my favorite for that reason of its utility. I'm still fond of it, but no longer fondest. :-)

Favorite v. best

[brightknightie]

For me, they're different.

My own personal favorite is "Dying for Fame" (S1E15). Its parallelism, metaphors, identity, hope, creation, and salvation make me incredibly happy. But it's riddled with plot holes and continuity errors. I'd never call it best.

"Last Act" (S1E04) on the other hand, is nearly flawless. Its structure and execution are practically perfect in every way. If there's a false note of any sort hidden in it, I know it only because of how many times I've watched it in awe of its storytelling reach and clean-cut form. It has everything, beautifully. So I do call "Last Act" best, when the subject comes up, though it can't touch favorite for me, personally.

Re: Favorite v. best

[batdina]

The only episode that comes close to "Last Act" in its construction is "False Witness". "False Witness" is very very hard one for me to re-watch, however. Which is often why I pick Last Act as my "best": I can remember it better as I've seen it more often.

Favorite? I'll have to get back to you on that.

[I'm presuming that those of us who are not writing this year get to participate in this question and answer thing on the community. If not, please delete this if you need to.]

Re: Favorite v. best

[brightknightie]

[Everyone is welcome to play with the questions!]

"False Witness" has many reasons to be difficult to rewatch, for sure, and some different reasons for different people. I cringe through some passages every time. But you're right: it's very well made, indeed!

"If Looks Could Kill" is another like "Dying For Fame," in that I revel in it, personally, but it's sadly plagued with gaps and mistakes.

I seem to recall that that you once identified "Feeding the Beast" as a favorite (if not as Your Favorite).

[argentum_ls]

I don't know which episode I'd qualify as "the best." There are a few I could fairly easily identify as "the worst" (though, I might have to look up episode names at this point), but best doesn't identify so easily.

My favorite is probably "Curiouser & Curiouser," though I am also a huge fan of "Close Call." My major issue with both is that neither had any lasting impact on the show.

[brightknightie]

C&C and CC are very good episodes! Is second season your favorite season?

In the '90s, I remember that it was very attention-getting when an episode that wasn't a season premiere or season finale had lasting impact on a show. I believe that's one reason that HL's "The Darkness" (and, more, the continuation into "Eye for an Eye") was so astonishing...

[argentum_ls]

Is second season your favorite season?

It is! I prefer LaCroix when we get to see him on his own terms and not just in Nick's POV. I also think the season has the most good episodes overall, though it's not without its clunkers.

The anthology TV structure of the 90s is one of those things that grates on me as a viewer. Even at the time, I remember being frustrated that it didn't matter what happened in any given episode (with the possible exception of season finales). I want the characters to grow and learn -- which is likely one of the things that drew me to the fanfic.

In retrospect, one can see the struggle as shows tried to move away from the structure and were forced back into it because of studio/producer/contract requirements. FK is an example of a show that hung on well past when it should have (IMO, of course), while HL made a conscious (at the time, radical) shift away from anthology between seasons 1 and 2, and then struggled to figure out how to handle that within the constraints of syndication and producer stubbornness.

I know you like season 1 the best. What's your draw to it?

[brightknightie]

>"I know you like season 1 the best. What's your draw to it?"

Everything about FK's first season satisfies me more than the other two seasons, including, I'm afraid, the very differences from second season that make you prefer second season. :-)

It's not that I don't enjoy the other two seasons! But first season gives me more, from the surface level (like the rich sets resulting from the use of real sites rather than only soundstages) to the deepest heart (like the achieved elimination of Lacroix -- the slave master, the drug pusher, the abusive parent -- freeing Nick from the external demon to fight his war internally, opening new horizons of hope and healing and promise).

It also has the highest percentage of the best episodes, as I personally reckon them, for all their various individual faults.

First season is the closest to the series metaphors, I think.

:-)

[argentum_ls]

You do seem to be drawn to themes of hope and redemption :)

I agree that LaCroix is Nick's external demon. That's why I liked him in real time, because it allowed us to see what Nick was really fighting rather than only what he perceived in his past. But, hope and redemption aren't my themes; I lean more toward found family and the negotiation of that gray area between who you have to be and who you want to be.

[brightknightie]

>"[Lacroix alive and present in the present-day story] allowed us to see what Nick was really fighting rather than only what he perceived in his past."

:-) Continuing the theme, of course I perceive Lacroix alive and present in the present-day story as getting in the way of us seeing what Nick's really fighting, which are the ills of mankind, inside his Everyman-self as they are in all of us. :-)

This nostalgically brings to mind the first time clueless newbie me read a fanfic by an author who turned out to be the founder of the Dark Knighties. I sincerely thought the story was a tragedy, and wrote to compliment her on such a sad story. She replied, baffled, thanking me for the compliment, but sure that the story in question was happily triumphant...

[argentum_ls]

I perceive Lacroix alive and present in the present-day story as getting in the way of us seeing what Nick's really fighting

Interesting.

I appreciate your perspective. It's some good insight should I ever be in the position to write for you again :)

This nostalgically brings to mind...

It's always fascinating how readers and writers can differ in their understanding of what a story is. I have a Teen Wolf ficlet I wrote that was meant to be an exploration of grief, but the comments I got on it are all about how cute and heartwarming it is--which, to me, is the opposite of what the reader is supposed to get. Still, if the reader liked the story and took something away from it, then I have to consider the writing a success.

[brightknightie]

I don't know about Teen Wolf, but in FK, I suspect that the more canon-like a fanfic is -- the more in-character, in-voice, on-screen-ish -- the more it's subject to these wide divergences in interpretation... just like canon. :-)