Okay, I feel I'm really making this veer off topic, but...
I don't think I could ever dislike Wendy's story as such, no matter how it ends. The story has been heartbreakingly lovely and beautiful so far, and not for a second do I doubt Wendy's ability to show us Lois's death in a way that makes it a celebration of life, of the heartbreaking fragility and wonderful, unique preciousness of the life of every person.
And so many of the other stories about the death of a woman are beautiful and lovely too. I really like most of them, considered as individual stories. I love to watch and listen to performances of Carmen and Aida, by the way - it's just that near the end, when we have to sit through the inevitable death of the heroine, I get this urge to get up and leave. The "death of a woman" stories are often beautiful in themselves, but they do get depressing when you start seeing them as a genre.
The most important rule of this genre is that the woman should die a relatively "passive" death - she should be the victim of the circumstances. That's not how fictional men generally die. They go down fighting, performing heroics. There is no doubt that Lois is primarily a victim in Wendy's story, which is why I think it is unlikely that a similar story would have been told about Clark, or for that matter, about Jimmy Olsen.
But Nicole is absolutely right that there are stories in the body of LC fanfiction about Clark dying, too. By far the best I've ever read is Stopquitdont and Jenni Debbage's A Gift For Life. Those of you who haven't read it, make sure you do.
So, Wendy. If indeed you kill Lois in the end, I'm going to think of your story the way I think of Carmen or Aida - it was a most wonderful experience to take it all in, except that I got this urge to get up and leave in the end. But I honestly don't expect you to kill Lois this time, because I don't remember you posting any sort of huge WHAM warning at the start of it. And I do think of you as a woman who likes to honour the rules, including the rules of WHAM warnings!
I'm so looking forward to the rest of your story!!!
Ann
