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ladybug_archiveSo I participated in an U.N.C.L.E. poll that was an exercise for people to come up with story plots. I may be able to get my Napoleon h/c, if I decide I can really put the story together from my answers. We'll have to see what happens. I jotted down a few ideas and I'll probably give it a try.
One question would be whether to write it totally chronologically or whether I should jump into the action at some point and then brief the readers on what happened to get them to that point. I'm considering starting it on the flight to their mission, instead of showing the briefing first. I might flashback to the briefing, though. Or I could open it even farther ahead, after an abduction occurs and the other is trying to go about with the rescue, and have some level of flashbacks.
I of course am planning that Ecks and Wye will turn up on the mission, having been hired by a mysterious client to solve it. But the only hurt/comfort victim will probably be Napoleon. Well, I imagine there may be some level of Illya h/c too, since it wouldn't be easy to abduct him without harming him first.
It's frustrating when I really kind of want to write U.N.C.L.E. fics but I just can't seem to make them come. The last time I tried to write an U.N.C.L.E. fic and insert hurt/comfort, it was like pulling teeth. It would naturally be so much simpler if I actually, fully crushed on either Napoleon or Illya (or one of the actors). I like h/c best when I'm crushing on one or both of the characters involved. It's just almost impossible for me to write it otherwise. I have the same problem in the WWW fandom. A mild crush, like I have on both Robert Vaughn and Robert Conrad, still brings the desire for some h/c, but doesn't make it easy to write. I do like to write mission fics for U.N.C.L.E., but I need to have a strong desire to write it like I did with The Peaceful Meadows Affair. And overall, I really prefer writing character studies instead of adventure. The main reason why The Peaceful Meadows Affair worked for me was because I loved the conflict between Napoleon and Illya and Ecks and Wye. It clicked and it was so much fun to write. And people loved the plot. There hasn't been a great deal of interest in anything U.N.C.L.E.-related I've done since then. There probably would be if I could write fics along the lines that everyone else does, but I can't do that. I have to write what makes me the happiest. I still wonder and wish I could recapture whatever it was that made people love The Peaceful Meadows Affair, since I loved it too.
I watched a bit more of the Turtles DVDs. Even though 1987 Raph isn't angry/sullen a lot and he doesn't have a rivalry with Leo, there is a lot about him that mirrors the other versions of the character. He's sarcastic, often seems to want to charge into fights, and does seem to think Leo is a bit too optimistic. He's a cynic and sometimes cocky. And he is the most likely to get mad of the group.
And I pondered a bit on why I decided to get the season 2 set since it had several episodes with tropes I don't like. One reason was because it was one of the cheapest options and I needed something cheap to fill the last bit of the gift card. Another was because I wanted to see some of the other episodes. A third is because one does have to have a certain tolerance for mutations to watch any Turtles series at all, so that is slightly easier to tolerate than something like shrinking (ugh). That said, I decided to pass on the episode where April ends up mutated for now. I figured it would be easier watching it happen to Baxter Stockman than April.
It really is terrible seeing all the horrible things happen to Baxter in the various series, though. Of course, the 2003 series seems the absolute worst. The first time or two, it was a "Yikes" moment but felt realistic. The loss of an eye and then a limb. Not cool, Shredder is horrible. After that, it quickly started descending into utter outlandishness and it soon became clear to me that the creators were not taking it seriously. Dismantling him to the point that he's a brain, an eyeball and a spine, floating in fluid? Seriously, that is just utterly sick. In all his states, though, he acts so arrogant and like he's pleased to still have survived. There is an unaired episode held back because they felt it was too disturbing where he goes absolutely bonkers, decides April is responsible for all of his troubles, and tries to kill her. It ends where they think he's been killed, but he somehow still isn't. And he's really upset that he wasn't finally able to be put to rest. Even though he was always an out-and-out villain in the 2003 series, he certainly wasn't the worst villain out there and having such horrifying things happening to him makes it seem like they're saying he is the very worst and deserves all of this crap more than even someone like Shredder does.
Of course, the fly-monster from the 1987 series was not a good fate either. And since the problem was actually being cross-mutated with a fly, over the course of the episodes he loses more and more of his mind each time he's shown, becoming more like a fly and less like a human. The final episode with him, I read, has him try to steal a ray that will finally turn him human again, but it seems he still fails and is unable to use it before it's taken away from him. And in this series, from what I read, he actually started out as a fairly nice person who wanted to create an honest invention. Then he saw the Turtles, got thrown in an asylum for talking about them, and his mental state started to deteriorate from that. He certainly did some bad things when he worked for Shredder, but the fly fate still seems undeserved. And his mind deteriorates so bad after that that he can't even remember why he wanted revenge on the Turtles. One wonders if being free of the fly would give him his mind back or if he would still be in an irreversibly damaged state.
A lot of people felt sorry for him in the 1987 version. Sometimes, even if I don't particularly like a character, I want to give them a better fate if I feel like they got a bum rap. I'm tempted to attempt writing a fic where he finally is able to become human again. I'm guessing it would be a hard road back to complete sanity after that experience, though. Part of me wonders if this version of the character might ally with the Turtles, especially if perhaps they helped him to reverse the transformation. I'll admit I like those types of storylines. But even if I toy with them in my mind, it doesn't mean I'll actually write them. I do know that I would have him finally be able to regain his mind altogether, or at least, as much of it as he had before the fly mess happened.
Ah, if only there was more time to write in the day....
One question would be whether to write it totally chronologically or whether I should jump into the action at some point and then brief the readers on what happened to get them to that point. I'm considering starting it on the flight to their mission, instead of showing the briefing first. I might flashback to the briefing, though. Or I could open it even farther ahead, after an abduction occurs and the other is trying to go about with the rescue, and have some level of flashbacks.
I of course am planning that Ecks and Wye will turn up on the mission, having been hired by a mysterious client to solve it. But the only hurt/comfort victim will probably be Napoleon. Well, I imagine there may be some level of Illya h/c too, since it wouldn't be easy to abduct him without harming him first.
It's frustrating when I really kind of want to write U.N.C.L.E. fics but I just can't seem to make them come. The last time I tried to write an U.N.C.L.E. fic and insert hurt/comfort, it was like pulling teeth. It would naturally be so much simpler if I actually, fully crushed on either Napoleon or Illya (or one of the actors). I like h/c best when I'm crushing on one or both of the characters involved. It's just almost impossible for me to write it otherwise. I have the same problem in the WWW fandom. A mild crush, like I have on both Robert Vaughn and Robert Conrad, still brings the desire for some h/c, but doesn't make it easy to write. I do like to write mission fics for U.N.C.L.E., but I need to have a strong desire to write it like I did with The Peaceful Meadows Affair. And overall, I really prefer writing character studies instead of adventure. The main reason why The Peaceful Meadows Affair worked for me was because I loved the conflict between Napoleon and Illya and Ecks and Wye. It clicked and it was so much fun to write. And people loved the plot. There hasn't been a great deal of interest in anything U.N.C.L.E.-related I've done since then. There probably would be if I could write fics along the lines that everyone else does, but I can't do that. I have to write what makes me the happiest. I still wonder and wish I could recapture whatever it was that made people love The Peaceful Meadows Affair, since I loved it too.
I watched a bit more of the Turtles DVDs. Even though 1987 Raph isn't angry/sullen a lot and he doesn't have a rivalry with Leo, there is a lot about him that mirrors the other versions of the character. He's sarcastic, often seems to want to charge into fights, and does seem to think Leo is a bit too optimistic. He's a cynic and sometimes cocky. And he is the most likely to get mad of the group.
And I pondered a bit on why I decided to get the season 2 set since it had several episodes with tropes I don't like. One reason was because it was one of the cheapest options and I needed something cheap to fill the last bit of the gift card. Another was because I wanted to see some of the other episodes. A third is because one does have to have a certain tolerance for mutations to watch any Turtles series at all, so that is slightly easier to tolerate than something like shrinking (ugh). That said, I decided to pass on the episode where April ends up mutated for now. I figured it would be easier watching it happen to Baxter Stockman than April.
It really is terrible seeing all the horrible things happen to Baxter in the various series, though. Of course, the 2003 series seems the absolute worst. The first time or two, it was a "Yikes" moment but felt realistic. The loss of an eye and then a limb. Not cool, Shredder is horrible. After that, it quickly started descending into utter outlandishness and it soon became clear to me that the creators were not taking it seriously. Dismantling him to the point that he's a brain, an eyeball and a spine, floating in fluid? Seriously, that is just utterly sick. In all his states, though, he acts so arrogant and like he's pleased to still have survived. There is an unaired episode held back because they felt it was too disturbing where he goes absolutely bonkers, decides April is responsible for all of his troubles, and tries to kill her. It ends where they think he's been killed, but he somehow still isn't. And he's really upset that he wasn't finally able to be put to rest. Even though he was always an out-and-out villain in the 2003 series, he certainly wasn't the worst villain out there and having such horrifying things happening to him makes it seem like they're saying he is the very worst and deserves all of this crap more than even someone like Shredder does.
Of course, the fly-monster from the 1987 series was not a good fate either. And since the problem was actually being cross-mutated with a fly, over the course of the episodes he loses more and more of his mind each time he's shown, becoming more like a fly and less like a human. The final episode with him, I read, has him try to steal a ray that will finally turn him human again, but it seems he still fails and is unable to use it before it's taken away from him. And in this series, from what I read, he actually started out as a fairly nice person who wanted to create an honest invention. Then he saw the Turtles, got thrown in an asylum for talking about them, and his mental state started to deteriorate from that. He certainly did some bad things when he worked for Shredder, but the fly fate still seems undeserved. And his mind deteriorates so bad after that that he can't even remember why he wanted revenge on the Turtles. One wonders if being free of the fly would give him his mind back or if he would still be in an irreversibly damaged state.
A lot of people felt sorry for him in the 1987 version. Sometimes, even if I don't particularly like a character, I want to give them a better fate if I feel like they got a bum rap. I'm tempted to attempt writing a fic where he finally is able to become human again. I'm guessing it would be a hard road back to complete sanity after that experience, though. Part of me wonders if this version of the character might ally with the Turtles, especially if perhaps they helped him to reverse the transformation. I'll admit I like those types of storylines. But even if I toy with them in my mind, it doesn't mean I'll actually write them. I do know that I would have him finally be able to regain his mind altogether, or at least, as much of it as he had before the fly mess happened.
Ah, if only there was more time to write in the day....
