LAST EDITED ON Dec-19-06 AT 03:05 PM (EST)
 
>Not entirely. They no longer post here, but one, in particular, was a
>much bigger fan than I ever was (he even owns an NXE-themed baseball
>cap had he had custom made), and my own dissatisfaction pales in
>comparison to his.

"Naturally, if you were a U.S. Senator, I wouldn't expect you to name your witness, but since you're not, go climb a tree."

(Paraphrased from memory: Archie Goodwin, The Golden Spiders)

If you're not prepared to name people with a beef and/or what their beef is, why mention them at all? Just to twist the knife? "Ha, ha, I know some people who don't like what you do, but I'm not going to tell you who they are or what their problem is." How very constructive. Grow the hell up.

>I wish I could say this makes it better, but, really, to me, it just
>cheapens it even more. Now it feels like Corwin and Utena are just
>pawns in the game -- I know they're not, really, not in Anthy's heart
>or mind, but this explanation still leaves me feeling like that.

Not just pawns, no, hardly; but in a certain sense they are pieces in a game. That comes with the territory when you find yourself involved in a struggle between two powerful sorcerers.

(shrug) It's not all there is in the picture, to be sure, but since you seem bent on ignoring the fact that all of this comes about as a result of a confluence of many factors, and instead delight in pointing out how each individual factor is inadequate in its own right (which is as inarguable as it is irrelevant), we're not going to get anywhere pursuing that line of inquiry. It's like you're looking at Rasputin's corpse and saying, "Well, the fall couldn't have killed him," while ignoring the fact that he's been poisoned, beaten, stabbed, shot, and drowned. Then, when someone points one of those factors out, you stubbornly insist, "That stab wound can't have been lethal." There's no coping with a viewpoint like that.

>Another thing that bugs me about it is that, underneath it all, is the
>assumption/implication that Corwin and Utena would never do anything
>about this without outside intervention. Corwin, yes, I can buy that
>-- I can relate to it, having been of that kind of foolishly noble
>bent myself once upon a time (before my wife came along, essentially),
>but Utena? No. I think she's too much in touch with what she really
>feels, and while she loves Anthy and wouldn't wish to hurt her, I
>think Utena knows far too well the value of telling people how you
>really feel before it's too late.

Oh, I expect she'd have got round to it eventually, sure. But in how many years? After how much more suffering? Anthy's patience, appearances to the contrary, isn't infinite. All Akio did was push the cart; it would have rolled on its own eventually.

Look, I don't deny that there are other valid ways the story arc could've turned out. What I do deny - what I take considerable exception to - is your apparent contention that the way it did turn out is invalid. I worked hard on that. I sweated blood over it. And for you to come along three years after the fact and announce that it's cheap and a betrayal of the characters is low.

>As for what you can do about it? Why do you think I haven't said much
>outside of this, really, at least in a forum like this?

"Behind your back, shit, yeah, we've covered that already - I'll tar you with the widest brush I can find and you'll be none the wiser. But in your own house? Nah. Veiled snideness is clearly the way to go there."

>I know you're
>not going to go take this stuff down and rewrite it in light of my
>complaint, so, really, if you think you honestly did do the right
>thing by them, then about all we can do is agre to disagree.

Then, essentially, you've wandered in and filled the last 12 hours of my life with retarded Internet drama for no reason at all.

Thanks for that.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/