Thursday, January 17, 2008

Yet More Unfinished Stories I Have Loved (Part 1)

The heck with it, here are the rest of the Tales That Must Be Told, IMHO. Alphabetical order is followed. Pitchforks will be passed out shortly.

Anger Meets Her Match, by TheEleventy (ri0t, hey): A hard-knocks Andrea/Mack shipper that totally rules. TheEleventy was at the top of his form here. I have the impression the story was almost done when it stopped.

Big Jake’s Harley-Davidson, by Ranger Thorne: One of the most unexpected AUs + weird shippers ever, one that will leave you stunned and smiling. And it has HARLEY HAWGS!!!

Cole Barksdale, by CAP: This intriguing serial had just gotten underway when it stopped. Who is Cole Barksdale, and what is his connection with the Morgendorffers? Much mystery, lots of unanswered questions.

DAR, by Gregor Samsa: This is hysterical. Daria gets a self-aware AI for a personal computer, and the doors into Chaos are opened. I was beside myself waiting for the next chapter, and I still am.

Daria and Jane Go to the Moon, by echopapa: A rarely seen historical AU for Daria, in which America's space race accelerates under the leadership of JFK, who is not killed in Dallas in 1963. The title makes the plot very, very clear. More, please!

Daria Disenfranchised, by Napalm Kracken: One of the best reinventions of the Daria series ever done, this collection of stories turns the Dariaverse on its head and deserves continuation. Lively dialogue, sharp characterizations, excellent use of the script format, lots of fun.

Daria Morgendorffer and the Magic McGuffin, by Ranger Thorne: A really good Daria/Harry Potter crossover that kicks righteous booty from square one, from a phone call from "Uncle Albus" to the train on the way to Hogwarts. Daria and Jane seamlessly replace Harry and Ron, promising a memorable adventure or two (or more). We await a continuation with baited breath.

Death Rowe, by bgryphon: Bizarre as hell. Stacy Rowe commits suicide but is returned to life, or something like it, by a mysterious figure in a hooded cloak with a scythe. This exploration of the borderland between life and death was eerie and wonderful, and the revelation of the cloaked figure's identity is a shocker, but entirely plausible. The implications are mind-boggling. This begs for many more chapters!

(to be continued . . .)

2 comments:

Scissors MacGillicutty said...

I miss Hey's stuff very much. Except for the melodrama of the Jane/Tom/Daria triangle, even the show itself used the characters as cyphers for social types/tendencies. While it's funny to have a teen girl with a barbed tongue who's cynical beyond her years, she's not realistic in that she's not truly young.

Hey's stuff was different. His characters were teens first and foremost, and had the vitality proper to that stage of life. Even a deliberately and self-consciously slothful teen can be roused to amazing feats of stamina for something interesting enough. Look at Daria's obsessive on-line gaming in "PWND", Jane's bicycle antics in "See Jane Ride", or Mack's grueling schedule and Andrea's workouts plus moshing in "Anger Meets Her Match." It wasn't artifice either: Hey himself is an athlete and on-line gamer. He wrote about what he knew best, and it showed.

At the same time, the characters had unexpected depth and vulnerabilities. His writing wasn't just enthusiasm but showed an honest sensitivity to people's inner lives, and it was never the shallow-pate teen angst served up by garbage like DeGrassi.

I say this because all his virtues are completely absent from my writing—and just about eveybody else's I can think of. Other writers have other strengths, but his were unique in this community. I don't know if he'll come back, but I think we're fortunate to have his stuff, even unfinished as it is.

The Angst Guy said...

At the risk of completely killing this thread, I agree with everything you have written here.