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Forum URL: http://www.eyrie-productions.com/Forum/dcboard.cgi
Forum Name: Undocumented Features General
Topic ID: 102
Message ID: 0
#0, UF is growing up.
Posted by Sofaspud on Sep-07-01 at 04:53 PM
And that's a good thing.

I think it's been remarked on before in the forums -- in fact, I'd not be surprised to find that a full thread has been hashed out, rehashed, left in the fridge for a week, hashed again, and finally left out for the vultures to pick over.

But it's a fresh realization to me.

Reading through the recent Symphony works, I discovered that I like them more -- way more -- than I like the original UF. That's not to say I suddenly dislike the core stories... but the Symphony works, and, to a lesser degree, the whole Twilight arc, really seem to me to be more mature, more well-thought-out, and better-written than their counterparts.

In fact, what I'm noticing (and this is all My Opinion Only, here, obviously) is that, as the characters in the story get younger (Kate and Utena in SoS, Priss and Sylvie in Cybertron Dreams, etc), the story itself seems more mature, deals with more personal details than the original stories.

Or, put another way, the original UF stories -- and bear in mind that I've not yet found a specific place that I can point to and say, "Here. Here is where UF grew up." -- felt like flights of fantasy through the authors' wildest dreams, whereas the later works (especially recently) feel like something real, almost. As if it really happened.

I can't quite describe why I feel this way about the new pieces. Maybe it's because they've come down out of the stars. Instead of focusing on the Grand Scheme Of Things, they focus on a small set of characters, people with their likes, dislikes, feelings, adventures, emotions, the whole nine yards. I can identify with that much better than I can with, say, the Greatest Starfighter Pilot in the Galaxy. (Much as I would, in fact, like to be able to identify with said character... ;)

What this all boils down to, I suppose, is simply this: Thank you.

I've always liked UF. Now, I like it even more.

--sofaspud
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