Yo :)

[kanshu]

Welcome.
Just wanted to let you know I'm enjoying "Fear Itself". And I'm going to leave a review as soon as my time allows.
Will you write other fics like it?

[iamzuul]

Hello! ^_^!

Leaving a review isn't necessary, though of course it gives me the warm and fuzzies every time someone drops a note to let me know what they think. I'm just glad that so many people appear to be enjoying it!

I don't know if I'm going to be writing anything quite like this again, although I do enjoy the angst genre. 'A King Reborn', which I plan on starting back in on once I finish the next two chapters of FI, is certainly going to be chock-full of angst and gore, but it's going to be a monster. u.u I'm not going to devote all my time to it, because if I did, I'd never write anything else again. Heh!

But I do have quite a few Saiyuki plot-bunnies in mind, not all of them suited for FF.net, if you know what I mean. ^_~ The only problem is time. TIME! Why isn't there enough of your in the world?! *sobs*

[kanshu]

Uh... I don't think I'm up for any of your 'other stuff' at the moment, sorry. The only shonen-ai I'm currently reading in Saiyuki fandom is Me-Nuriko's story.

And I'm not really interested in PWPs, or romance between the guys, sorry. I'm somewhat... sick and tired of it. It's always the same, because it always focusses on romantic love in the end. Kiss, 'hold hands' and be more or less happily ever after. Maybe it would be different if one wouldn't get avalanched in the stuff, but as it is...

Plus, I hardly do any reading of the genre while I'm writing myself, but that has different reasons.

However, if you ever have a Saiyuki gen plotbunny again (doesn't have to be angst), let me know. You write well, and it's certainly worth checking out.

As for time, yes, I know that particular problem. So many ideas, so little time to write. And when one finds the time to write, one gets invaded by more plot bunnies. *sigh* It's a fight that cannever be won

[iamzuul]

No need to apologize! To each their own, right? And I completely understand your take on the whole 'romantic love' thing - that kind of story has it's place, but there's so freaking many of them out there that it's kinda hard to find any OTHER kind of fiction, or even pairings, if you're interested. Gojyo/Hakkai and Hakkai/Sanzo immediately springs to mind. >.o

I do have a short Gaiden fic I plan on writing once I finish the last chapter of FI. I'll be sure to drop you a line when it's done. ^-^

[Me-Nuriko]

It's nice there are different genres, right? If I like a story or not depends mostly on how well written the story is, no matter the genre, but of course there must be something ín the story that appeals to me, too. Sometimes I really enjoy a story where the writer do both spelling and grammar mistakes (if they are not too many and too big) if the story itself captivates me. I'm glad I've got a great beta, myself.

Time, yes, I know, I know... Never enough. So much to do, and so little time. Oh, well, we all just have to do what we can, right?

[kanshu]

iamzuul: Yes... And I sometimes feel like 80% of them are Mary Sue... if the self-insertion is is an OfC, or called Hakkai, Goku, Gojyo or Sanzo...

A Gaiden fic? That sounds interesting. I like Gaiden very much. The group dynamic there is different, and I'd love to get a bit more background data there.


Me-Nuriko: Yes, the story has to be catching, that much is for sure. But even a catching story can be a turn-off if it rubs the wrong way in other aspects. That's like an episode or movie that even the best actors can't make watchable....

And I vore for Spandex-Time!

[iamzuul]

XD! Spandex-time! I could use me some of that! And Spandex-space, too, to put all the useless things I have lying around the house that I fear to get rid of because ONE DAY I might have use for them.... >.<!

Me-Nuriko: I know what you mean about how the story can be good despite the errors. I beta'd this one story for a girl who was writing for her english class, and despite the fact that the grammer was just shy of atrocious and it seriously needed some fleshing out, it hooked me. I still have it saved in my fiction folder, and I really wish that I had kept her email address. I'd love to see how it looked after she touched it up. ^_^

And yes, even though I love all pairings and genres, sometimes there are just so many that it over-loads the brain. Then you start ignoring them, 'cuz you think "Oh, same-old same-old, want something that doesn't taste like cardboard," and you end up missing great stories... happened to me more than once. u.u


Optimoose: Oh, god, Mary-Sues! *cringes* As a general rule I avoid anything that says 'OC' or 'Original Character' in the summary (although, really, any story that involves a character other than the original cast is going to have an OC in it.). Though I will not lie and say I never committed the sin of self-insertion or Mary-Sue'ing, I at least had the sense to never post any of it online. u.u Probably a good thing, because then I would have been so humiliated I would have never written again. ;D

And you're definately right about how some things even the best actor or writer can't do well. There are a number of episodes I hate in Saiyuki (particularly the first half of RELOAD), and I kinda like to pretend they don't exist....

[Me-Nuriko]

Yeah, it's easy to miss great stories. I almost missed your 'Fear Itself'. I'm glad I found it because I love it. Many people I know read only after recommendations. I had a (short) period when I read everything in Saiyuki! I did it because I wanted to see and compare different genres, different styles and so on. Man, I hadn't realized there were so many Mary-Sues out there. Sigh.

Mary-Sues I read somewhere it's a phase many fangirls goes through. I used self-inserts a long time, but I never wrote any of them down, they were all in my head.

Actually, I didn't even know I was a fangirl. I had never met anyone like me, and I thought I was alone being this weird. ;D It was less than a year ago I found there were many like me around the world. I wasn't alone anymore, wonderful.

The anime of Saiyuki is very uneven (guessing the word here) in quality. Some eps are very good, and some feels like 'no, this never happened, this is not my Sanzo-ikkou'.
The manga is better in my opinion.

[kanshu]

iamzuul: Well, at least you can recognize those OC-Mary Sues. What annoys me more is when the author turns herself/himself into one of the leads, and then you have shonen-ai-Mary-Sues who use the original chars instead of the so-much-hated ladies. Of course, the result is OOC characters.

That type of story pretty much ruined Saiyuki fanfic for me, to the result metioned above. *sigh*

iamzuul, Me-Nuriko: I'm curious... which of the episodes in Reload you hate? Some are just a rehash of Gensoumaden episodes, and are based on the manga.

[Me-Nuriko]

Yes, the so called 'canon-Sues' are even worse than the real ones. At least a proper Mary Sue is immediately recognizable.

It's not eps from Reload that I don't like. I have only seen 8 eps from that. (I've seen 1-7, and 10. 8 and 9 I was told were horrible, but I haven't seen them, so I can't have any opinion about them. )

But one of the first eps in the second season of Gensomaden (maybe 31, I'm not sure) is an episode where the Sanzo-ikkou withou even being sweaty, kill five gods. Somehow they turned Saiyuki into a fight-shounen in this episode. Compare that with the next episode where they are having trouble with a single youkai-child.

[kanshu]

Yes, the Gensoumaden-Kami arc is problematic. I think that they got just basic information about what Minekura was doing with her manga-Kami arc, and pretty much handled the plot on their own devices. If you compare it to the Kami-arc in the manga or the second half or Reload, you will notice where the similarities are and where they took liberties.
IMO, the Gensoumaden arc, while not bad in itself, is not doing just to the characters. It's full of inconsistencies.
And do you seriously believe Sanzo would've let Kougaiji wander off with the Seiten sutra after all the time he spent seraching for that thing? ;D

[iamzuul]

Those two episodes that Me-Nuriko mentioned... I didn't like much. I didn't like the two with the fake Sanzo party, especially the second one. And I really didn't like the one where Lirin recruited those three retarded demons to try and take out the Sanzo party, although the "You didn't even bother to shave," comment had me laughing my ass off.

In RELOAD, I didn't like episode 4 (although I did like the Nii interaction), 7 (what the hell is this? Sanzo/Mei-Mei? >.<!), 8 (good god. where did they come up with demon-banishing FOOD?!), 9 (I simply cannot believe Sanzo would let a strange rip a cigarette out of his mouth without trying to shoot him.), and whatever number that Hakuryuu episode was. I didn't like 10 at first, but it wasn't so bad the second time around. I really did like episodes 5 and 6, even though the ending sucked. I can't remember the others off the top of my head, but they started getting better after that. More in character (IMHO), less fillers. And I saw the raw of episode 22, and mm-mmm. Gotta love the blood. ^_~

Optimoose: I do have minor problems with Sanzo walking off after Homura without looking for the Seiten scripture (dude, he picked up the Maten scripture - wouldn't the other scripture be, like, RIGHT NEXT TO IT?).

[kanshu]

The cosplayer eps... I think, that was a bit of a homage to the original Saiyuki.

Episode 4? the one with the demon artist? I thought that was nice in means of showing that the minus wave raelly has something to do with your mental resistance, and even if you have a strong mind, you can get overwhelmed by it. And Sanzo getting a cold & passing it to Gojyo...

Episode 7 with the cat... funny enough, I could actually see Sanzo do that... at least up to the point where they stand in front of the animal hospital. *That* ws overdoing it. Until then - sorry, but he's just loving someone. I absolutely loved Sanzo's reaction all throughout the episode, how he mellowed down and developed a protective streak despite his allergy.

Episode 8 is canon (apparently, that was Minekura who came up with it...), so is the Hakauryuu episode (Ep 13)

Episode 9 I can understand

And no, he would kill Kou on spot if our dear prince tried to lay a finger on it.