Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Deathfic Debate- love 'em, loathe 'em, and everywhere in between...

I did it. Read all 100 replies before doing so myself, just to make sure that someone else hasn't already said what I've wanted to say. Actually, many people have said what I believe, so I promise not to repeat.

For the record, I am neutral about deathfic. For me, it's all about the story and the quality of the writing; is the death intrinsic to the story, is it handled realistically within characterizations, and does it make me think?

Too, I firmly believe to each his own, and if deathfic is not your thing, more power to you when you actively avoid it. I purposely avoid kidfics and next gen stories because they just don't float my boat, no matter how well they are written.

That being said, what I find more interesting is the comments about *why* people write deathfic and whether or not such reasons are valid. Especially this from Ann intrigued me:

To which I ask, so what's wrong with doing this? What's wrong with killing off Lois and/or Clark in order to explore the reaction and feelings of the other character? It seems to me that this is just as valid of a reason for killing off a character as any.

I would even argue that the writers of LnC the real TV show did this in the episode That Old Gang of Mine. Clark is "killed" by the gangsters and the show's viewers watched as Lois went through her grief over losing a good friend and potential love interest. The writers didn't have to kill off Clark. He could have let the bad guys go in order to keep his secret and caught them later, after he and Lois had left the gambling hall together. His fake death wasn't necessary to solve the A-plot in the end. The story as written took us full-circle, with an alive and well Clark at both beginning and end, with a Lois who never questioned such a miracle as her partner's resurrection.

But for Lois, Clark's death was real. The A-plot - Clark getting "shot" by gangsters - was a contrivance in order for the writers to be able to explore Lois's feelings about losing Clark and force her to face how much he'd come to mean to her, the B-plot. It also was used in order for Clark to face the metaphorical death of "Clark Kent" and grieve accordingly for his lost identity, forcing him to admit who in his life was real and important (Clark) and who was disposable (Superman). No foul in that.

In fact, the premise of this episode was the inspiration of my very first LnC fic. I wanted to explore what Lois's grief might have been like had Clark not been "revived" so quickly but had continued to be "dead". How deeply would she have been affected at that fairly early point in their relationship? Would she have been able to recover or would she have been irrevocably damaged emotionally, having felt she'd lost something so precious before she'd even had a chance to appreciate it? I found that idea fascinating, how it might feel to believe the person you were starting to love was dead, only to learn you might actually have a second chance. Because that "what if" generated a story, for me it's just as valid of a reason as anything else anyone else might come up with.

I don't think there is anything wrong with killing Lois and/or Clark simply because you want to explore the consequences. Granted, the resultant story might not be to some other people's tastes, as clearly demonstrated here. To which I would encourage those folks to run screaming in the opposite direction from such a story. However, others who don't hold such aversions might enjoy a fresh perspective.


Lynn

PS - I just remembered one other thing. I do take a small bit of offense at having the nfic stories I've written blanketly dismissed with the statement that they are "cheap attempts at soft porn." I admit that I have written one or two nFics with sex as a theme. But most of my nFics are nFics simply because of the inclusion of a few borderline words and/or phrases or because the theme is considered adult, and not in the sexual sense. Assuming an nFic story is automatically about sex is like assuming that all rated R films include nudity. Most rated R films are rated R for violence and/or language. Billy Elliot, one of the best movies I've seen, was rated R simply because the group of people in the story used the f word as part of their common speech. The story itself was about an 11 year old boy who wanted to be a ballet dancer. Not a sex scene in the entire film.


L.