hello there...i have just read all of 'If'....well up to chap7 anyway. and I absolutely love it. It is brilliant, insightful, the characterisations are amazing and true to who they are...and the fact that Gojyo has even more reasons about him to get under Hakkai's skin ....and I cannot wait to see how you will write the Gojyo and Sanzo interaction when they come to meet up proper...if I have read it correctly Sanzo is not aware that the guy he bumped into the street outside the infirmary is Hakkai's Handyman....(ooh don't you just love the sound of that!!!) sorry will go now..and hope and pray for update soon! ^__~
Heeh. Well, you do have to remember that when Sanzo and Gojyo bumped into each other, the man they were both after was still named Gonou. So there'd be no freakin way they'd recognize one another, at least on Sanzo's part, and no way he's given him the 'handyman' title 'cause so far as Sanzo knows those two people (the handyman and the man he bumped into) are separate. As for Gojyo, well, Sanzo already prompted a rememberance of Genichi but beyond that, they probably wouldn't have a connection. Heh. Really, you shouldn't worry about Gojyo interacting with Sanzo. Hakkai's still the character I want to focus on for now, especially his relations with Terue and Gojyo. If I ever get it written *headdesk*
"Keep looking at the book!" "What?" "Don't panic!" -- Ford and Arthur from Doug Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
Sylvia Guest
Re: If « Reply #5 on Oct 20, 2005, 12:54pm »
Just read all of "If" up to chapter 10 and am in two minds about it. It's excellently written, very compelling, and quite fascinating and realistic characterization... I love it on that score! And I stayed up very late when I had to get up early to finish reading what there was of it, so, definitely a compliment to your writing and world-building.
In a way, it's also a compliment that I am disturbed by the story, I think. ;-) It's not a pleasant disturbance, though... I may have to write a Saiyuki story myself to flush yours from my system!
The thing is: I understand entirely why Hakkai would be repelled and disgusted by Gojyo - and it seems to me that it goes far beyond the youkai thing. Gojyo is evidently someone he'd have looked down on at any time in his life; he doesn't see the intelligence or the warmth and good and giving nature, the willingness to help or the loneliness, any of that. All he sees is a rude and obnoxious, low-minded dirty proletarian *youkai* who tells him things he can't stand to hear (that he'll fall in love again) and seems stupid, uneducated and thoroughly primitive.
That there seems to be a spark of physical attraction only makes it worse.
All of that makes a lot of sense... but still, I don't like your Hakkai. He's the stupid one; I know that his circumstances dictate him and blind him to anything but his own hate and rage and pain and what they make him see, but... while I can definitely see Hakkai as an out-of-control, slaughtering and even cruel berserker in canon, I have a hard time seeing him as blind and stupid, not the way he seems to me here. Particularly not when it comes to this person (talking reincarnation here *g*). He might hate him, yes, but think of him as worthless and stupid? Hm.
So... there's what gets me; the combination of not liking your Hakkai, being disturbed by his stupidity... and aching for the loneliness and the rebuffed, aching and subconscious way your Gojyo (so Goyjo!) reaches out to others, gives as much as he is allowed to and more than he can afford to give without ever thinking about it, because it never even occurs to him to think he has something worth valuing, something others might treasure when he gives it.
As to Hakkai? Please, keep reading. I can't tell you how giddy it makes me that you hate him. This is the Hakkai without the nurture and the penitence, the blind and prejudiced, the hateful and hurtful... Think of it this way: Hakkai -has- to see Gojyo as stupid and worthless to maintain his hatred. He -has- that element of attraction and that spark of omgreincarnation egging him toward connecting with this individual and he really does not want to. This is Hakkai's defense mechanism, beyond the veil of species. Hakkai is never stupid without forcing himself to be so.
And there is so much he is going to go through that I can't even begin to describe. These chapters are some of the hardest to write and it's because they're mostly about the evolution of these characters as they're -shoved- together. ...yes, they're all going to be living in Chang'an for a while. This is just about the right time to add Goku to the dynamic, not to mention Sanzo.
You love Gojyo for the same reasons I love him. Hee. I absolutely adore his soul, even if this take on canon isn't as kind to it as the original. "If" is alllllll about character love. XD
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.
Joined: Aug 2004 Gender: Female Posts: 872 Location: Upstate New York Karma: 13
Re: If « Reply #7 on Jan 5, 2006, 7:26am »
I would be remiss if I didn't ask for an update to this story too, especially since it is at such an important part, and I love how you are developing their characters.
I really do miss your Saiyuki stories. Yours are among the best that I have read and it's been quite a while since we've been graced with one.
Beware, I have not yet had my morning coffee. Speak to me if you wish to die. ^__^ Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday. In the end...only kindness matters. Politeness costs nothing and gains everything.
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