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Hot Topic (More than 10 Replies) FDK - Shadows in Darkness (Read 6433 times)
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FDK - Shadows in Darkness
May 29th, 2010 at 3:39pm
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I just posted the link, but if people want, I can post it in its entirety here as well.
  

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Re: FDK - Shadows in Darkness
Reply #1 - May 30th, 2010 at 6:02am
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Deb,

I very quickly scaned through this story, it's big, and interesting! I need to clone myself so I can read and write at the same time!

Matt  Smiley
  

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dragon
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Re: FDK - Shadows in Darkness
Reply #2 - May 30th, 2010 at 6:51pm
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Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings.
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of; wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hovering there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air;
Up, up the long delirious burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace,
Where never lark nor even eagle flew;
And while, with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high, untrespassed sanctity of space
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.*

*Fl. Officer John Gillespie McGee (1922-1941)

You had to include this ... I was being very successful not crying until I hit this. Damn, you write well and wring emotions out of characters that were sometimes two dimensional.  You're actually writing and making a living at it under another name? Right? Straker is scary in this. Foster just lived up to his potential to be a jackass .. LOL. And Alec was always Straker's conscience ... Back to the story.

d
  
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dragon
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Re: FDK - Shadows in Darkness
Reply #3 - May 30th, 2010 at 10:02pm
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much to the annoyance of my family, i read through the the rest of the story. Applause. I sort of hope Straker comes out of it or dies of the brain tumor ... Yeah, Straker applied to the wrong idea is just  ... scary. (hmm, is that sort of the way Denise feels about my vamp Straker? Like a train wreck, you can't look away, no matter how much you'd like to do so ... )

Yeah. Enjoyed greatly.

off to do laundry
  
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Neesierie
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Re: FDK - Shadows in Darkness
Reply #4 - May 31st, 2010 at 12:54am
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Yeah, I myself got annoyed when it just kept going on for forever!  HOW many chapters is it?  Anyway, I got about halfway through and it's pretty grim.  I'm sincerely hoping there is light at the end of this tunnel, because it's a serious downer to continue reading about Straker being that short-sighted.  As well as just plain stupid -- which wasn't how I ever saw him.  (And no, Dragon.  Your vampire Straker was scarier.  Because he was brilliant AND menacing!)

Please, Deb.  Give me the heads-up.  Does it get better?  Or should I just stop now and go read something a little on the lighter side?  Because I don't do grim.  (Life is grim enough.  I read to escape all that.)

Maybe I'll go reread Harvest of the Planters . . .  Wink
Yours,
Denise
  
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Re: FDK - Shadows in Darkness
Reply #5 - May 31st, 2010 at 1:50pm
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Well. I have to admit, for Straker fans it's pretty grim.

But he absolutely demanded to be the villain in this one - he's actually more dangerous that Luthor because he has no compunctions about doing what he believes is necessary to complete his mission - destroying ALL aliens on Earth.

But eventually - not in this story - he will be redeemed. (It may take a while to get to writing that one but I do have a scene in my head where Straker comes to terms with the fact that he and Earth need Kal to handle a nasty alien threat.

"To paraphrase my least favorite journalist," Straker stated grimly. "Western jurisprudence is based on the idea that an individual is innocent until proven guilty. And it appears that simply being an alien from outer space is not considered a crime. That said, the 'people' in those ships have a track record of murder and mayhem and I see no evidence that they've changed. We were barely able to hold our own before. We have no defenses now."

"We're not quite as defenseless as you think, Commander," Superman said.

Straker's expression softened just a little. "I was hoping you would say that."
  

The Administrator.
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Neesierie
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Re: FDK - Shadows in Darkness
Reply #6 - May 31st, 2010 at 1:58pm
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Hey!  That sounds cool!  You don't know when you'll write that one?  Please don't wait too long!  I like to see my favorite Man on the right side of things.  Smiley

So, are you saying that he doesn't get wise in this story?  I was thinking that maybe it wouldn't seem so grim if we read it in parts.  Maybe you should consider putting it up in chapters.  That way we could comment on the story a bit at a time, and it won't seem so overwhelmngly dark.  Just a thought.

BTW, Harvest of the Planters was as wonderful as always.  Thanks!  Wink
Yours,
Denise
  
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dragon
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Re: FDK - Shadows in Darkness
Reply #7 - May 31st, 2010 at 5:48pm
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hooray! I love Supes and Straker. I can see where Straker would go this way. Paranoia becomes a habit after a while. Unfortunately, I keep plugging away at keeping Straker human in spite of the urge for him to become the iceman of logic and paranoia.  I look forward to your next story in this line. However, I really must make a note that I have some things to do before August that realy, really need to be done .. LOL. Keep it coming.

d
  
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Re: FDK - Shadows in Darkness
Reply #8 - Mar 21st, 2011 at 2:54pm
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Deb,

Read your notes on FF.n and I think you nailed it with Richard. I too saw him being portrayed as a hero. Your intuitive thoughts about the kind of man that Lois Lane would be attracted to, in my opinion were spot on. Cool

Can't wait for you to get around to the sequel with Ed coming to the right side. Wink This story was one hell of a ride! Smiley (He did make a good "bad guy". Of course Ed seems to be good at anything he does.)
  

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Re: FDK - Shadows in Darkness
Reply #9 - Mar 21st, 2011 at 5:19pm
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Thank you. Although I have written versions of Richard that were jackasses it really doesn't fit him well.

And Straker - for me it just seemed logical. This version didn't have Kathryn (from my 'usual' UFO universe), or anyone else, to ground him and give him a life outside of SHADO.

Have you noticed how many writers have found that necessary? It seems to go beyond the normal Mary Sues you see in other fandoms. There's almost a subconscious recognition that Straker walks the edge of the Dark Side and that's a place we don't want him to go, so we give him significant others to remind him of his bonds to the rest of humanity.

  

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Re: FDK - Shadows in Darkness
Reply #10 - Mar 21st, 2011 at 8:45pm
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Straker imo so easily goes over into the dark side, he himself might even think he inhabits the dark side. With the episode about him neglecting his ex wife and putting his son's life at risk to find the one alien who might have helped him remove the alien threat, he seems like a callous, cold blooded s.o.b. A closer look shows he isn't. I myself struggled with my feelings a bout what he'd done. I later realized in a sense Straker  not only wanted to protect his own child with that gamble, but all children (and others) from the alien threat. It always irks me when people talk about Straker as being this stern no nonsense callous guy with no feelings. In the episodes themselves, imo this is clearly shown not to  be true. Bishop himself referred to Straker as'the old fart' but he said Straker's heart was in the right place. You see many indications that Straker had heart, feelings, tenderness. If you look at The Long Sleep, you see Straker openly struggling with the demands of his job. He attempts to explain his actions to Catherine, perhaps either consciously or unconsciously trying to atone for what he was forced to do to his own son in the hope of success. He in this new situation still cannot prevent another tragic death. He is not the rational Commander at that point. Alarmingly, Foster had to make the decision for him.
Straker's complex personality, just as rich and mesmerizing as any character in classic literature, never fails to intrigue and inspire me. Plus he's damn cute!
Just my two cents, or true sense Smiley
Amelia
  
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Re: FDK - Shadows in Darkness
Reply #11 - Mar 21st, 2011 at 9:08pm
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In Shadows (an admittedly obvious play on SHADO) time and circumstance had not been kind to him. He had, over time, been betrayed by those who refused to see that Earth was still threatened from outside, forced to do things he would never had considered right or proper before -when he had the support of the IAC - all the while slipping into not-quite-clinical paranoia. He's not a cold man - his hatred of the aliens is white hot.

Mialle put as one pf Alec's thoughts, imagining Straker in the future when the alien threat was gone, walking the empty corridors, alone. (Not an exact paraphrase but the gist of it.)

And that was the Straker I was aiming for. Is he redeemable? Probably.
  

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Re: FDK - Shadows in Darkness
Reply #12 - Mar 21st, 2011 at 9:09pm
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I saw him as a man with very deep feelings, and I agree Deb, he walks a tightrope between the darkness and the light. As I've said before, he walked through ordeals that would have crushed a lesser man.

Amelia, you raise some valid points as well.

I think there is a huge difference between callousness and a devotion to duty. Straker's humanity imo is what drove him. Smiley
  

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Re: FDK - Shadows in Darkness
Reply #13 - Mar 21st, 2011 at 9:12pm
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Quote:
Is he redeemable? Probably.


I would say most certainly. The little tease line you gave us from the sequel proves that, at least to me. Wink
  

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Re: FDK - Shadows in Darkness
Reply #14 - Mar 21st, 2011 at 9:30pm
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Quote:
Mialle put as one pf Alec's thoughts, imagining Straker in the future when the alien threat was gone, walking the empty corridors, alone. (Not an exact paraphrase but the gist of it.)


I remember that. So chilling. So sad. Straker without purpose. Part of the theme of Maelstrom is  change, opening Straker's mind to the possibility that he could accomplish what he needed to, without being distant and without being alone. So when Alec finally demonstrates physically his connection, friendship and loyalty to Straker, Straker is shocked and thrown off kilter and breaks down.
Of course, my pal Yuchtar described that major scene as slash!
Okay so it's my version of it, Yuchy!  Grin
  
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