I was right.

Being fully weirded out by this Monkees fic that insists on being written has come. I'm starting chapter 5 and am so weirded out by this bizarre story. By the time I finish it with, say, 6 or 7, I will probably be eager to forget it exists. At any rate, I really don't think I'll consider it part of the normal timeline.

I do hope I'll finish it, though. I want to prove to myself that I can get it done.

And I'm thinking that for a twist in a Kolchak fic, maybe this Yami Marik one I've been toying with, Tony Vincenzo should be attacked. I would like to see how Kolchak would deal with that. I already imagined him downright furious with Yami Marik for the atrocities he's committed; for there to be a personal reason like that would likely intensify his outrage.

Chosen One storylines

I'm very interested in checking out the Moonstone graphic novels and comics about Carl Kolchak. I love that the time period is updated to the present day, like what's done with Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books. And I hear very favorable things about characterization.

But there is one thing that bothers me. I hear that the comics are presented as one overarching mytharc storyline that's leading up to Kolchak being some amazing Chosen One who will save the world. I'll have to see them myself to judge, but if this is what's being done, I'm very disappointed.

Why? Because there's too much of an emphasis on Chosen One storylines in general. Apparently that's what you have to be if you're risking your life to save people. You can't just be a regular person trying to do good.

And frankly, one of the things I love about Kolchak is that he is just an average Joe, trying to live his life. To some extent, he can be related to. He's not famous. In fact, he's usually ridiculed and branded a crackpot. But he's always going after the supernatural beasts to stop their rampages against innocent people. Why does that have to mean he's some all-amazing Chosen One who is destined to save the whole world? Why isn't the way he's presented in the TV series good enough? Honestly, I think him being a relatively normal person trying to protect people without any special world-saving powers in and of himself is more amazing than him being a Chosen One.

I think these deep-seated feelings are probably what's also behind my strong dislike of canon characters without magic being portrayed as gaining superpowers, such as certain wildly popular stories about The Monkees. I have never been interested in those stories. I believe the author(s) portray The Monkees well; I just don't care for them gaining special abilities. I love how they defeat bad guys on the show without needing anything like that.

And as I analyze my feelings further, I wonder if this could also be behind some of my long-standing inability to understand what's so great about magic in general. I feel that so much of an interest in and emphasis on magic powers takes away from really thinking about amazing things people can do without needing magic. And to me, that's really a shame. Magic doesn't always equal the ultimate awesome. People determined to help other people is what equals the ultimate awesome, whether they have powers or not. And if they're doing their best to help without having any magic, more power to them. Let them stay that way and don't feel that giving them magic would make them even better.

I think this is also why I tend to stray away from focusing on magic in Princess Tutu fics. I'm curious and I want to see the characters try saving people without magic. Even though I write fics with magic resolutions here and there, overall I present other solutions.

And here I should probably insert that I realize some people who write canon characters gaining magic powers are curious and just want to see what would happen if they tried to save people with magic. I don't care for it, but I realize that's the goal for at least some of them. And they're free to write whatever pleases them.

It's just that I wish it would be pleasing to more people to explore amazing characters without magic, because there's a treasure trove of largely untapped material there.