This Savage Land: Feedback

[resplendissante.livejournal.com]

Sooo I just finished This Savage Land (no accusing looks, I spent the weekend industriously failing to understand regime theory, we're all feeling VERY sorry for me right now) and I wanted to take a moment to say how absolutely great it was, from start to finish. Speaking as a non-participant in it, just watching it grow from the first logs to the last was fantastic. Of course I can't do justice to the whole thing (I think I saw the figure 50,000 words tossed around somewhere - holy God), but I thought I'd try. This may be disjointed, but remember that I am tired, and it was very VERY long.

1. Forge and Laurie, and their interaction. These two were really cute, and it was nice to see them make up - and Laurie being awesome the the makeshift weapon was pretty fantastic too.

2. Forge in the medlab. "I've smarted myself out of existence." Way to go, Nute. Forge is hilarious when high. Forge throughout this plot was pretty fantastic, honestly. I liked how he worked the whole thing. And on the topic of Nute, how awesome was he for organizing all this? Pretty awesome. It all flowed together pretty seamlessly, and made sense, and the bad guys were just so classic. This all felt like a hip, updated Claremont New Mutants / X-Men crossover, and that's a big compliment coming from me. :)

3. The kids being awesome. (And then slightly creepy in the Marius/Yvette log - good job, guys.) I'm still giggling at Marius's "I can't help but feel I've missed something", and I liked seeing Crystal in this setting - it showed her off, in a really good way. Not to mention Angel and Sooraya - I don't know why this sticks with me, but Angel grabbing Sooraya's hand in one of the very first logs was great. And Kyle... poor Kyle, and poor Kyle's fingers. These guys all had great moments through the weekend, and like Scott's post said - they all got to be very impressive, which is always nice to see. Mondo ordering the kids about was hilarious. :) Edit: Oh, and Alicia reminded me. Medusa and the dinosaur... so great.

4. The chaperones - I kind of love the picture of Ryan Reynolds defeating dinosaurs. Somehow it just works. And Marie being protective of the kids... aww, guys.

5. Pete in the coffee shop. One of the best vignettes in the whole thing. Oh, that poor, poor barista.

6. Pietro, and particularly his and Crystal's emails after the fact. Is it wrong to want Pietro to have to teach something like fourth-grade gym? Wrong, and yet right.

7. Those in the city: Monet's shoes. Monet in the Mini. Monet, essentially. M and Wanda and Amanda were so fabulous together. So, so fabulous.

I'm afraid to say some of the MA/Doug stuff (I'm assuming it's WoW?) went right over my head, but who cares? It's Angie and Doug, together again, so I'm pretty much thrilled with that scene.

Lorna and Alex. Lorna's shirt. Yuck, but... that's pretty much exactly what my concern would be. ;)

Julio, Scott, and the Hellfire Club. Sorry, I love the safari line. Yes, it's exactly like that! Only, with dinosaurs. In the middle of the city. Well done. ;) And poor Julio. Did he ever get his driving papers?

Bizarre cowboy Angelo! A plot device previously only seen in bad slashfic. (Oh, god, sorry Kate. I mean, I loved it, but I couldn't resist... ;) You know I heart you a lot.)

8. Teehee, Sam and the rescue team. I love the immaturity. Never change, anyone.

9. Special shout-out to Rossi for the Yvette stuff that followed, with Jean and then with Crystal. Wow - understated and yet it just hits you right in the chest.

This is a very VERY long post, appropriate to the plot. Needless to say, it was FABULOUS, and if I've forgotten anyone it's because my brain is like swiss cheese. This was great - and thanks to Nute for organizing it, because I can only imagine the effort and time it took, and he did it creatively and fluidly and yes. I will stop eventually. Well done, all. :)

Comments

[frito-kal.livejournal.com]

I think the thing I liked most in this was that everyone got to be Awesome. Even Kyle got to be Awesome, even if he got his fingers bit off.

Oh, the MA and Doug stuff went over MA's head too. There's a log coming up that should help HER understand so might help make more sense of it. But yes, it's a bunch of lame WoW jokes. Mostly it's showing that Doug, under pressure, resorts to memes and violence.

[x-legion.livejournal.com]

THROW MORE DOTS!

[x-wallflower-.livejournal.com]

Scott to the center!

[technophobia.livejournal.com]

Whatever the **** you do, DON'T STAND NEXT TO ANYONE ELSE!

[x-cable.livejournal.com]

I liked a lot of things about this plot, and if I was more ambitious, I would list them all. But since I'm half-asleep enough to be too lazy to log out and back in as myself, I'll just mention a few... Forge and Laurie's interaction, which I thought showed off both characters beautifully. Crystal's level-headedness throughout. Pete in the coffee shop (I didn't think I was ever going to stop visualizing the scene). Medusa commandeering the dinosaur. Lots more, definitely, but it's too late in the evening to go on forever. ;)

[avariel-wings.livejournal.com]

Bizarre cowboy Angelo was entirely Frito's fault. I said I wanted aurochsen, she wanted bizarre cowboy Angelo, I live to please. ;)

[frito-kal.livejournal.com]

Which reminds me, there is probbly some sort of insanely rich dessert type thing with your name on it when you come out here, I just need to know what.

[x-skin.livejournal.com]

:D! Think chocolate and you're good. Looooots of chocolate.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bounce_/]

I feel I should start this by apologising for the incoherency - I'm utterly exhausted and killing time between the end of uni and a Comedy Festival show I'm seeing tonight and also very out of it right now, mostly because of said exhaustion. Killing time = telling everyone how fantastic they were in dot points.

- My god, Nute. The scope of this and the number of people you wrangled. You deserve a medal. I don't have one, so you're getting a sketch of Forge with most of his leg gone, decked out like Indiana Jones. But, seriously, you did good with this.

- Forge. made a bow out of his leg and is hilarious when he's stoned. And got dragged off by little dinosaurs.

- Kyle and his fingers. I just wanted to give the poor little guy a hug.

- Tap and Rossi: You guys disturb me in all sorts of ways. Also, we got some great Amanda, Marius, Jennie interaction out of it in the end. Also, Yvette got eaten. :)

- I loved getting a chance to see Tommy and the way he cares about Yvette.

- Mondo was great.

- Laurie and Forge are very cute together. Just so you know.

-People playing the kids. You were all awesome. The dinosaur hunt, stitching Forge back together. Angel on Kyle's hand, Sooraya. Face it, the kids were all awesome.

- Rogue and Garrisondid a great job with Garrison and Marie looking after the kids. Just, yeah, great job.

- The rescue team. My god, the bickering. You were all fantastic and Medusa just up and flew off on a thingie. Dinosaur thing.

- Julio and Scott and the Hellfire Club was great. Scott looking after Julio, giving him over to Shaw, the lot.

-Cable and his giant flying wossname, starts with a Q. That was great.

-Logan and Cain on the bridge. That was just funny. Especially the fastball special.

- Me, Jen and Rossi. Not that I'm boasting or anything but we totally rock.

-Ororo and Jean herding the pterodactyls out to sea. I loved that.

- Pietro and the dinosaur evolution guy was great!

- Lorna and Alex got to cover Times Square in dinosaur goo. You don't get cooler than that.

-MA and Douge. My god, guys, WHY did you have to go for giant bugs? It was great but, seriously why the giant bugs?

And again, Matt did real good getting all of this together. I know it must have been like herding a lot of very easily distracted cats on acid half the time and I'm seriously impressed.

I'm almost certain I've missed people and things that I loved when I red it. I'm sorry if I did? But I really did love it all. All of it.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bounce_/]

Cowboy Angelo! I knew I'd forgotten that and Pete and his coffee. And I loved the Shaun of the Dead references, Rossi.

[frito-kal.livejournal.com]

Re: Giant bugs. Really? Because not only does Doug have a bug phobia, but so does his player. That's the only reason. I'm cruel and heartless.

[technophobia.livejournal.com]

It's true. She hates me.

That and WoW references that only a few people probably got. :)

[deathpixie]

*grins* So does Bounce. Hence the "why bugs?"

Thanks, Bounce-Girl, I'm glad you liked. And caught the SotD reference - I just couldn't resist it. The Yvette-Marius-Jennie situation is never going to stop having undertones of Creepy, given the circumstances of their meeting, but I think that's the fun. ;)

And yes, we do rather rock. *grins*

[frito-kal.livejournal.com]

Twiller asked me the same question. "Why BUGS?"

Seriously. I keep saying I'm mean. No one beleives me.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bounce_/]

No, I believe you. You brought in GIANT BUGS. That just creeped me out.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bounce_/]

Thanks. I only got the SotD reference because it was from the first half of the movie. The second half was too scary to watch. :) (yes, I'm very sad. *g*


ANd yeah. Given everything between those three - I've read some of Bleeding now- nothing is ever going to stop them being creeeepy. :)

[x-emplate.livejournal.com]

I taint everything I touch.

Sorry.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bounce_/]

No you're not. You delight in the angst. Delight in it!


(Oh, god, if you weren't joking then I'm so, so sorry.)

[x-emplate.livejournal.com]

Well, okay. Perhaps my icon did not convey the appropriate sense of moral condundrum.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bounce_/]

No, it really didn't. Not at all. :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bounce_/]

*shudders* Ugh. I'm with him on that, since I had to get one of my housemates to deal with the cockroach in dishwasher the other day.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bounce_/]

BTW, thank you. :) I'm glad you liked the Monet bits.

[technophobia.livejournal.com]

This plot has been amazing to read.

I was especially tickled by Monet sticking up out of the mini being careened around Manhattan by Wanda. One of the more cinematic and funny moments of the plot.

Pete and the coffee. So much love.

Logan and Cain keeping score on the bridge felt like it was right out of the pages of Uncanny. Brilliantly done.

Julio and Sebastian attempting to find something to talk about. Also very funny.

Really, the whole thing was fantastic.

[nute.livejournal.com]

Thanks, so very much. This was one of those cases of a plot I'd wanted to run pretty much since around 2004. And yes, trying to get everyone involved in a plot is rewarding in the end, but during the process it is indeed like herding cats. Cats who all speak different languages. And are on fire. But quite rewarding in the end.

Glad you enjoyed it, and believe me, I had as much fun seeing what people threw in there as everyone did reading it. I consider myself very lucky to have had the opportunity to work with so many helpful people.

[resplendissante.livejournal.com]

I think the thing to note here is that cats speak to you in any language, dude. Just how stressful was this?

*DUCKS, grins* No, seriously, good job. It's a fantastic read.