Personally, I enjoy a good deathfic. It gives a sort of cathartic release at the end of it, gives you a good cry. I've always liked them, whether it comes in the form of a fic or a movie or a book, and I'll continue to enjoy writing/reading them even if nobody else does.
That is why we have so many different types of stories here because not everyone likes the same topics. The problem is that for people like Ultra Woman and Nan who will
NOT read or tolerate deathfics how do we keep them safe from that (and still here reading) without warnings to that effect.
I agree with your assessment of Not the Years which is why I continue to read it. I consider it to be a deathfic but one that I would read anyway. However without a warning which I did not believe Terry accurately conveyed I can see why the folks who will not read deathfics might be angered by the final scene of Part 10 which I consider not a soft WHAM. To me a soft WHAM was what transpired in Part 4 and 5 (the shooting and waiting for outcome). On the other hand I understand Terry's point that the WHAM (whether you consider it hard or soft) was telegraphed for a fairly long time (6 parts). While I did disagree that it was not a soft WHAM, it should not have been a surprise to anyone reading that it was going to occur.
The warning issue remains a problem and one I believe we cannot ignore (
See Lynn's post in the Mid-Length Quiz answer thread ). Sometimes it only takes one bad (to the reader) story encounter to get someone to drop this venue totally. Now I am sure the length of time the series has been off the air and fact that we have nearly 4,000 stories in the archive (and many more here not archived) covering nearly every episode ever show from a variety of different viewpoints have a lot to do with that loss of readership due to the belief that just about every story idea has been explored(I disagree but...). I also have a suspicion that we have lost some of readers over the past few years due to the darker turn of the stories lately.
As Dennis Miller always used to say: "That's just my opinion, I could be wrong...", but it is one of the reasons I have been reading more Castle fanfics lately as the fare over there is much lighter and more my personal style.
Mike
