Well, this ought to motivate me...

[auronlu]

Anonymous Review of Love Her and Despair, currently jammed at the "Houses of Healing" phase of the story arc...

"I'm glad this story is over,"

I wonder if the comma is commentary.

I will try and be an optimist and assume they meant, "Good story," but I couldn't help interpreting it at first glance as, "I'm glad you've stopped posting this; I was tired of seeing it show up on the front page of the archive." I have received some hostility to the main pairing, since fandom consensus is, for reasons I will never fathom, dead set on Aurikku as the OTP for Mr. Grouchypants. (Why not Auron/Braska? With all the m/m shipping out there, I am surprised that isn't the favored fandom OTP.)

To Anon: LHAD is not over, dangit. It's stuck. Every time I go to write the link between the Fields of Pelennor and the last leg, my writing is flat, flat, flat.

(Obviously, not really Pelennor, but I'm using that story structure. Final Fantasy games tend to have a Final Boss Battle sequence that turns out NOT to be the finale, because the final confrontation the game's been building towards almost always turns out to be Not the End. So then there's a Really Truly Final Boss. I am finding it surprisingly difficult to transition from the Not the End climax to the Last Battle.)

Very frustrating. And I know at this point, I had better write ALL the final chapters before posting so I can release them weeks apart, making them easier to follow. And this linking chapter has to double as an introduction, or rather a reintroduction, as it's been so long that readers will have forgotten the story.

Comments

[cumuluscastle]

Oh, ugh. I do so hate those sorts of comments. On the bright side, at least it is ambiguous and not outright hostile. I don't understand Auron/Rikku being so popular either. I mean, I usually expect these things to work on the basis of who looks good together or something. You'd think the younger crowd would find a relationship that May-December to be creepy. But I have noticed it doesn't ever seem to go by logic!

I am not going to be happy when the story is over. It is an epic and very enjoyable. I've stopped reading other final fantasy fanfiction and I will still tune in for the end of this no matter when it appears. I can see why this last part is stressing you out though. That's a lot of pressure to put on one chapter.

[heavenscalyx]

What an annoying comment/commenter. I suspect someone was just cruising around looking for trouble to start or something.

Auron and Rikku? Really? Do they ever even TALK during the game? Like, to each other? That makes no sense at ALL.

[auronlu]

There are actually some fun interactions between the two of them: Auron tends to be gruff and annoyed at her for holding them up, but he's also the one who accepts her joining the party knowing full well who and what she is. He seems to find her a useful ally, someone who's operating without the blinkers of Yevon.

To assume any more than that seems strange to me, but I think a fair number of Aurikkus are written by late-teenage writers who self-identify with Rikku.

[melchar]

Auron / Rikku? It is to go 'ewww' over. Watching the byplay in FFX, I -only- thought Auron / Lulu. I found the Lulu / Wakka pairing in FFX-2 to be wrong - forced - and -really- can't get my mind around a preggers Lulu.

As for LHaD ... I am still waiting, patiently. Writing well is difficult ... and you write well.

[sarasa_cat]

Weird comment that seems more like a non-grammatical partial thought. Best to ignore? Every now and then I receive comments that are completely random nonsense -- words that do not parse into any form of a meaningful sentence. Always ignored.

It bothers me when fic authors receive direct or indirect hostility for the pairing they write. If they *only* want to read Auron/Rikku or Cthulhu/Kittens, why do they bother reading a story that is plainly advertised as something else? If they complain, their problem exists inside themselves, in their failure to accept that there are many different stories worth telling. Whenever I receive these complaints I ignore them because I know that the comment isn't really directed at me or at my story, but in their lack of interest in the kinds of stories I am compelled to tell--stories that other people *are* interested in reading. No author can please all audiences.

[lassarina]

I have read a couple Aurikku fics that were amazing (from authors I trusted), but overall it just squicks me out. I think the general logic(?) is that she'll Cheer Him Up!! and just. uh. missing the point.

[auronlu]

(authors I trusted) I miss cupcakemonster.

[cumuluscastle]

I was thinking of her too.