beatrice_otter: Drawing of a hippo in a red leotard and tutu, holding a rose in its teeth.  At the top it says "Yuletide! Featuring Beatrice_Otter as Rose Hippo" (Yuletide)
Lovely author, here is my theory about letters: how much detail people want in a letter is HIGHLY variable. Some people (such as myself) prefer if their recip gives LOTS of guidance on their wishes. Some prefer as little as possible so they can be free as a bird. Most are somewhere in between. So! Here's everything including the kitchen sink if you find it helpful, but feel free to ignore it if it is not helpful. I would rather get a story you were happy with than "well, she said she liked x, so I guess I have to do x even though I don't like x and/or am just not inspired that way."

I'm fairly easy to please; I've been doing ficathons for over a decade and am very rarely disappointed with my gifts. I write long and detailed Dear Author letters because I find such things helpful when I'm writing for other people; if you are like me, here you go! If your style is different and a detailed letter makes you feel hemmed-in, feel free to do what works for you.

The most important thing for me in a fic is that the characters are well-written and recognizably themselves. Even when I don't like a character, I don't go in for character-bashing. If nothing else, if the rest of this letter is too much or my kinks just don't fit yours, just concentrate on writing a story with everyone in character and good spelling and grammar and I will almost certainly love what you come up with.

One thing: I do have an embarrassment squick, which makes humor kind of hit-or-miss sometimes. The kind of humor where someone does something embarrassing and the audience is laughing at them makes me uncomfortable. On the other hand, the kind of humor where the audience is laughing with the characters I really enjoy.

Please no incest.

Other likes and dislikes )

Formats I'm open to: Traditional prose, narrative poetry, in-universe texts.

Fandoms:

Caprica )

Random Harvest )

Dirty Computer )

Black Lightning )

Rivers of London )

My Fair Lady )
beatrice_otter: Anissa Pierce as Thunder (Black Lightning)
In general, I am not a fan of redemption arcs.

They are often superficial in the extreme, driven by convenience or plot devices or "hot (white) dude can do no wrong."  I am so sick of "but it wasn't really bad because nobody the audience cares about got killed!"  I am so sick of the false equivalence of "but Character X did [very minor bad thing], so they're the real villain, and if you try to hold [huge evil thing] against Character Y you're just a hypocrite!"

Redemption in real life doesn't mean the bad thing never happened.  It doesn't (or shouldn't) mean that hot white dudes get a pass for doing evil.  It doesn't mean that you just chuck all moral judgments out the window.  It's not a plot device, or convenience.  It's about someone recognizing they have done wrong, accepting the just consequences of their actions, and making amends for them.  It's not something that you can do over the course of a single event.  Which means that if you're doing it as part of a TV show, you have to have it as a long arc not just popping up where convenient, but driving the action for that character.  Or you have to have them die.

So, much as I love Black Lightning, when Khalil Payne went bad, I did not want them to do a redemption arc for him, because it is so seldom done well.  Despite how incredibly awesome the show is, I did not trust them to do a redemption arc.  (I was wrong, and I should have known better.  If you're not watching Black Lightning, you should be.)  And then they did a redemption arc for Khalil, and it hit every point I ever wanted in a redemption arc.  Man, was I rooting for him.

And then they killed him.

I am still mad about that.  It works, it was well done, don't get me wrong.  But if every pouty whiny mediocre white villain can have their crimes swept under the rug and then live happy ever after, why can't Khalil make genuine amends for the harm he did, work to undo it, and then get on with his life?  Why did he have to die?

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