Therefore, there may be a need for the opposite side of the coin, i.e. there may be a need for stories about Clark's grief over Lois's death, never mind that these stories deal with Lois's actual death.
Sorry, but you seem to have missed my point entirely.
That's not the way I see that conversation. What I recall is that you raised the question of why there were more Lois deathfics than Clark deathfics, and one of the answers you got was that TOGOM is a way for the author to explore that theme.
Again, not saying that TOGOM = Deathfic. Not saying that there's any comparative value. And explicitly not saying that authors are writing to fill a void or maintain some kind of balance.
There is no "need" for more stories of Type A. There is no comparison that stories of Type A are better than stories of Type B, or that there must be at least n% of Type A stories in relation to Type B stories. That entire approach is completely alien to me, and, I expect, to a good number of authors here.
Saying that TOGOM serves the function and allows the exploration of the theme means exactly that. You can use that existing set-up to explore the theme. It doesn't mean that TOGOM stories need to balance other stories, or that other stories need to be written to balance out TOGOM stories or anything of the sort.
And, if that's what people are doing, then why has no one mentioned the one character who (I believe) has died the most? Lex Luthor. (Only the good die young, but only the evil die often...)
I have a suggestion. Why not create a deathfic folder, just like there is an nfic folder? I promise I won't even go near it. In fact, you administrators could deny me access to it!
Nfic is a special case. Those stories are segregated for being over the PG-13 limit of the general boards.
The problems with a separate deathfic folder:
1. It would mean mandatory labeling of fics. While labels are encouraged in certain cases, the right of the author to forgo those labels is also important. Whether it's because doing so would spoil the story, because the author objects to labels on principle (understandable, since most of us don't like to be labeled ourselves), or for whatever other reason.
2. If we did it for deathfic, we'd have to do it for every type of story. Which would cause clutter and confusion. And mess things up when a story combined multiple genres.
3. We can't always agree on what constitutes a deathfic. Sometimes, it's obvious. Sometimes... not so much. Does TOGOM count, for example?
4. There just aren't that many deathfics to begin with.
Again... If you don't like them, don't read them. All you have to do is ignore them. No one's forcing you to read them, even if they are lumped into the same forum with everything else.
