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March 6, 2017 3:07 pm  #981


Re: Fan Fiction Addicts General Round Table Discusion - ADULT CONTENT

I have not read any post-S4 fics yet but I'd like to be on the "I'm done with Mary" list too. :-)


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I still believe that love conquers all!

     

"Quick, man, if you love me."
 

March 6, 2017 6:12 pm  #982


Re: Fan Fiction Addicts General Round Table Discusion - ADULT CONTENT

I remember reading The Case of the Green Gown by splix just recently and Mary was truly amazing there - a fleshed out character with her own plot twists but not in annoying way! She contributed to johnlock (and drama) significantly

Come to think of it, I don't remember reading any johnlock story where Mary would annoy me because she's always used just the way Moftiss used her in the show - for dramatic developments between John and Sherlock. And I don't read Mary-focused stories that are, well, about Mary, anyway *shrugs*
 


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"The posh boy loves the dominatrix." Context matters.
 

March 6, 2017 8:58 pm  #983


Re: Fan Fiction Addicts General Round Table Discusion - ADULT CONTENT

I read a lot of fics by silentauror and liked many of them. But after some time even her "Mary is a villain" trope became repetitive. I remember reading one amazing pre-S3 fic - sadly I do not remember the title and author - which had an amazing Mary. A wonderfully written character who was a person in her own right without becoming an supervillain or a Mary Sue or any other cliché. And I think there is a very good Mary in "The Quiet Man" as well. IMHO some fanfic authors had a better hand at dealing with this character than Mofftiss. 


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"To fake the death of one sibling may be regarded as a misfortune; to fake the death of both looks like carelessness." Oscar Wilde about Mycroft Holmes

"It is what it is says love." (Erich Fried)

“Enjoy the journey of life and not just the endgame. I’m also a great believer in treating others as you would like to be treated.” (Benedict Cumberbatch)



 
 

March 6, 2017 9:30 pm  #984


Re: Fan Fiction Addicts General Round Table Discusion - ADULT CONTENT

There are a couple of cringe-worthy Mary moments in the show but where would the boys be without her? A TV couple needs obstacles to overcome In fanfiction, it's often the boys' sexuality (crisis/awakening/whatever) or illness/injury. Both scenarios are very enjoyable but they can hardly carry a TV show. And then it's already cases or villains, and I see Mary here too.

I have theories about my least favorite Mary moments in the show. Like that the whole TST thing being a lovely send-off for the actress, and ff writers don't have to consider such things of course.
The other thing is that Moftiss have to show, they can't simply tell us something like ff writers do in between the dialogs. So if Sherlock loves John so much then he loves and protects Mary by extention, also because caring about her is easier and less awkward than it is with John.

Moftiss as screenplay writers have a different set of tools at their disposal than ff writers. This is why I think the comparison is a little unfair to Moftiss.

Last edited by ewige (March 6, 2017 9:32 pm)


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"The posh boy loves the dominatrix." Context matters.
 

March 7, 2017 5:13 am  #985


Re: Fan Fiction Addicts General Round Table Discusion - ADULT CONTENT

I loved "The Progress of Sherlock Holmes". Pre-S4 (maybe even pre-S2? I can't remember), with an interesting Mary. She appears to be nice at first but is cheating on John and very nasty to Sherlock. You are not forced to like her at all which is great. :-D


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I still believe that love conquers all!

     

"Quick, man, if you love me."
 

March 7, 2017 8:03 am  #986


Re: Fan Fiction Addicts General Round Table Discusion - ADULT CONTENT

@ewige: I beg to differ. They had all the freedom to create a Mary to their liking. They did not have to write her like that. And of all the TV and film Marys I have seen this is the one I like least. Not because she "comes between the boys" but because she is put centre stage in a show that should be - and pretended to be - about Sherlock and John. And because I feel that the writers could not decide where to go with her - she has to be everything: the cold-blooded assassin, the lovely wife, the mother, the crime-solving partner to Sherlock, the villain, the woman who sacrifices herself, the ghost. This is a bit much for one character. She has more sides than Sherlock himself and the trouble (for me) is that they do not fit together. 
 


------------------------------
"To fake the death of one sibling may be regarded as a misfortune; to fake the death of both looks like carelessness." Oscar Wilde about Mycroft Holmes

"It is what it is says love." (Erich Fried)

“Enjoy the journey of life and not just the endgame. I’m also a great believer in treating others as you would like to be treated.” (Benedict Cumberbatch)



 
 

March 7, 2017 2:41 pm  #987


Re: Fan Fiction Addicts General Round Table Discusion - ADULT CONTENT

SusiGo wrote:

Not because she "comes between the boys" but because she is put centre stage in a show that should be - and pretended to be - about Sherlock and John.  

Absolutely.
For me, Mary as a character portrayed in the show seems superfluous. John and Sherlock suffice as main characters - when the authors had to make room for Mary, the whole thing instantly felt unballanced to me, for in order to magnify her, they were force to lessen all the other characters (and so the y made Sherlock and mycroft stupider and John so useless, they realised themselves he could be replaced with a baloon....)

SusiGo wrote:

  And because I feel that the writers could not decide where to go with her - she has to be everything: the cold-blooded assassin, the lovely wife, the mother, the crime-solving partner to Sherlock, the villain, the woman who sacrifices herself, the ghost.
 

Cannot agree more. She changed into an entirely new character with each episode.


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I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window there. Was there ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the dun-coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What is the use of having powers, Doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them?

 

March 30, 2017 12:08 pm  #988


Re: Fan Fiction Addicts General Round Table Discusion - ADULT CONTENT

ukaunz wrote:

Can anyone tell me the titles of some good, canon-compliant fics set in Sherlock's school days (backstory) that don't have John in them? So no AU's where John and Sherlock meet when they're kids, etc. No mention of John at all, if anything like this exists. I'm just wondering how well a story like this would work, as John's POV is such an integral part of understanding Sherlock.

I suppose you have seen Good Show! by Fangs_Fawn http://archiveofourown.org/works/6791203/chapters/15514609 ? For me it worked very well.
 

 

March 30, 2017 12:10 pm  #989


Re: Fan Fiction Addicts General Round Table Discusion - ADULT CONTENT

ewige wrote:

I remember reading The Case of the Green Gown by splix just recently and Mary was truly amazing there - a fleshed out character with her own plot twists but not in annoying way! ...
 

Thanks for the recommendation! I'm enjoying the story...

 

March 30, 2017 5:27 pm  #990


Re: Fan Fiction Addicts General Round Table Discusion - ADULT CONTENT

Kittyhawk wrote:

ewige wrote:

I remember reading The Case of the Green Gown by splix just recently and Mary was truly amazing there - a fleshed out character with her own plot twists but not in annoying way! ...
 

Thanks for the recommendation! I'm enjoying the story...

I'm so glad! I love the emotional dystopia feel this story has.


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"The posh boy loves the dominatrix." Context matters.
 

March 30, 2017 7:05 pm  #991


Re: Fan Fiction Addicts General Round Table Discusion - ADULT CONTENT

Sounds interesting. I will give this one a try, too. 


------------------------------
"To fake the death of one sibling may be regarded as a misfortune; to fake the death of both looks like carelessness." Oscar Wilde about Mycroft Holmes

"It is what it is says love." (Erich Fried)

“Enjoy the journey of life and not just the endgame. I’m also a great believer in treating others as you would like to be treated.” (Benedict Cumberbatch)



 
 

March 30, 2017 7:48 pm  #992


Re: Fan Fiction Addicts General Round Table Discusion - ADULT CONTENT

SusiGo wrote:

Sounds interesting. I will give this one a try, too. 

I hope you'll like it! Splix is the queen of angst, but the storytelling here is a revelation in and of itself. You'll need to read a couple of chapters to see what I am talking about


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"The posh boy loves the dominatrix." Context matters.
 

March 30, 2017 8:39 pm  #993


Re: Fan Fiction Addicts General Round Table Discusion - ADULT CONTENT

Sounds great. I love my angst (as long as there is not major character death at the end). 


------------------------------
"To fake the death of one sibling may be regarded as a misfortune; to fake the death of both looks like carelessness." Oscar Wilde about Mycroft Holmes

"It is what it is says love." (Erich Fried)

“Enjoy the journey of life and not just the endgame. I’m also a great believer in treating others as you would like to be treated.” (Benedict Cumberbatch)



 
 

March 31, 2017 9:37 am  #994


Re: Fan Fiction Addicts General Round Table Discusion - ADULT CONTENT

I've bookmarked the story too, thanks for the rec.


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"We'll live on starlight and crime scenes" - wordstrings


Team Hudders!
 
 

April 4, 2017 6:03 pm  #995


Re: Fan Fiction Addicts General Round Table Discusion - ADULT CONTENT

This is about a problem which really turns me off when reading fics. And here a writer explains with it is absolutely unnecessary to use epithets like "the taller man" or "the doctor" when describing a M/M scene. And what is more, it is really funny to read. 

https://thepurplewombat.tumblr.com/post/159195472866/freeing-your-fic-of-epithets-a-workshop

Last edited by SusiGo (April 4, 2017 6:06 pm)


------------------------------
"To fake the death of one sibling may be regarded as a misfortune; to fake the death of both looks like carelessness." Oscar Wilde about Mycroft Holmes

"It is what it is says love." (Erich Fried)

“Enjoy the journey of life and not just the endgame. I’m also a great believer in treating others as you would like to be treated.” (Benedict Cumberbatch)



 
 

April 4, 2017 7:28 pm  #996


Re: Fan Fiction Addicts General Round Table Discusion - ADULT CONTENT

Oh, yes, I've read that bit before. Well put - and after I had read it, I couldn't NOT notice use of epithets. It makes me fall out of a story immediately. I've only used it once myself, luckily, and never used it again after I read this.

(I remember a funny comment to this where the commenter said she always imagined the epithet use as another person, and it became quite funny when a fic started to become quite crowded with Sherlock, John, "the taller man", "the army doctor", "the brunet", "the shorter man" etc ).  


__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"We'll live on starlight and crime scenes" - wordstrings


Team Hudders!
 
 

April 5, 2017 11:51 am  #997


Re: Fan Fiction Addicts General Round Table Discusion - ADULT CONTENT

I've always wondered whether epithets were another side-effect of primary school "learning to write" rules. Like the too many adjectives in probably half of all stories... When we first learned to use words (at least in Germany) we were told to vary them, to avoid repetition and to show that we know a wide vocabulary. But somehow nobody ever told us that that was just for starting out

 

April 5, 2017 3:26 pm  #998


Re: Fan Fiction Addicts General Round Table Discusion - ADULT CONTENT

I've never realized it was a problem in English language! I mean, that writers feel compulsion to avoid necessary repetition of names and pronouns and squeeze contextual synonyms into every other sentence!

There are times the contextual synonyms are necessary ("The taller man reached the lowest branch with ease.") but more often they are just a sloppy attempt to avoid repetition

I face this problem all the time when translating sex scenes (or basically any scenes with two characters and their movements and without plot). After discussing the issue with fellow translators we agreed that the restructuring of the sentences (mentioned in the article linked above) is the best way to avoid confusion despite the limitations of working with somebody else's writing.


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"The posh boy loves the dominatrix." Context matters.
 

April 5, 2017 6:50 pm  #999


Re: Fan Fiction Addicts General Round Table Discusion - ADULT CONTENT

This has been around as long as I've been reading fan fiction, and it always makes me laugh!  But also tends to put me off reading it.   I wonder if it's a maybe a style point which has been copied within fan fiction, because it's so common. I'm sure I remember writing fanfic years ago and feeling I was supposed to write like that (and was being a bit of rebel by avoiding it!).

The writer says the professional writers don't use it ... I think that's usually true, but funnily enough, just this week I came across it, more than once, in a book that I was reading.  The author kept using people's hair colour, occupation, age, etc., instead of just using their names!   Maybe I noticed it more because it always jumps out to me in fanfic.

Last edited by Liberty (April 5, 2017 6:50 pm)

 

February 3, 2018 10:10 am  #1000


Re: Fan Fiction Addicts General Round Table Discusion - ADULT CONTENT

I have a question for you guys. You know how you sometimes read a fic that you love immediately, think it's absolutely awesome and will gladly recommend. But then at other times, I will read a fic that I greatly enjoy and want to recommend, but... there is a but. I want to recommend it, but not unconditionally. Because the fic has it's flaws, it's not brilliant all over, but it is, despite it's weaknesses, worth a read.

As I understand it, in the world of fanfic (not just in Sherlock fandom), there is an unspoken agreement that you either give praise to a fic or you ignore it. Constructive criticism is in general not welcome. I personally do not necessarily agree with this, but I will respect the rule for what it is. 

So I am wondering if it would be ok to recommend a fic, but to also write about any flaws you want them to be aware of in the story (a bit too long and dragged out, use of epithets, OOC characters, grammar issues etc), but you find it worth reading anyway.


__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"We'll live on starlight and crime scenes" - wordstrings


Team Hudders!
 
 

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