Big Bang/Exchange Fic Discussion #1

[spnanonhaven]

Post your threads for Big Bangs and exchange fics here.

Format like so:


SUBJECT: Title [Pairing, Rating] by AUTHOR
CONTENT: Art by whoever

http://url of the master post on the BB comm.

Comments

Re: DCBB: Bird of Paradise [Dean/Castiel, R] by trinityofone

[(Anonymous)]

Anyone read this yet? Is it necessary to know anything about Hunger Games in order to appreciate the fic?

Re: DCBB: Bird of Paradise [Dean/Castiel, R] by trinityofone

[(Anonymous)]

I've read them, and I think it helps, but I'm not sure it would be strictly necessary.

Really, really loved the fic. Better than the novels, actually.

Re: DCBB: Bird of Paradise [Dean/Castiel, R] by trinityofone

[(Anonymous)]

I read it without having any idea what the Hunger Games books are even about (beyond the title) and didn't find it at all confusing. I think you should be fine.

I will agree with the nonny below, though, that the epilogue detracted from my overall enjoyment of the story. Then I did wish that I had read the original books, because maybe it would give me a good idea of why the epilogue was included. Other than some Dean/Cas is pasteded on, (not so) yay.

Re: DCBB: Bird of Paradise [Dean/Castiel, R] by trinityofone

[(Anonymous)]

Huh. SPOIL ME, nonnie, what was it about the epilogue that put you off?

Re: DCBB: Bird of Paradise [Dean/Castiel, R] by trinityofone

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT

Hm. Well, I guess what it did was unbalance the story for me? Like, the story proper ends with Dean learning that Jimmy is really Castiel, and the truth about the games, and Zachariah and Michael (wearing John) trying to kill Dean and Castiel and Sam, who get rescued/taken by Kali and Loki/Gabriel, with the clear implication that there's still a lot to do to expose the games to everyone and bring down the angels' regime.

There's some resolution in that they get away, but enough open-endedness that I assumed (and anyone who's actually read the books could clear up whether I'm right or not) that this was the equivalent of where the first book of The Hunger Games ended. If it had ended here, I'd just have hoped trinityofone was planning sequels and maybe poked about her LJ to see if she'd said anything about it. Maybe I'd have picked up the actual books so I could extrapolate what would end up happening to Dean, Cas and Sam from their counterparts in the books.

The epilogue, though, takes place three years in the future and things seem basically in the same spot (they're working to expose the truth but little concrete progress has been made). All the epilogue really does is make it clear that Dean and Castiel are together. I guess it just bothered me because it felt like a tacked on thing to add D/C content when, given that Dean's only 17 in the story and Castiel isn't human and is pretending to be/envesseled in/whatevering another teenage human* I for one would've been content to just leave it with the level of attraction/tension the main story expressed. Since all the epilogue seemed to do was tell the reader that Dean and Castiel get together, it also made me change my mind and assume sequels (in which they could get together *in detail*) aren't planned.

tl;dr: Basically I would've preferred the open-endedness of the main story to the open-endedness + tacked on reassurance that D/C happens of the epilogue. And the very existence of the epilogue made me shift from thinking sequels might be planned to think they weren't. Don't get me wrong, it didn't *ruin* the story. It just made me like it a little bit less. It felt like a misstep from an author I really enjoy.

*I don't think it's really specified how old Jimmy is supposed to be? I might have missed it.