Fans of Tolkien beware!

legolas by laura has been reviewed.

And next week, I have something special planned for you all

Comments

[Paladin Redflare]

The fork is Legolas by Laura? Some sorta shitty joke?! DON'T PLAY WITH ME!!

[CanterlotGuardian]

I... I literally don't know what to say about that story...

[Sparkfire]

I feel you're gonna come after one of my fics after this. I know I suck at writing, so when you start reviewing pony/dc crossover fics, be gentle with mine (I don't have an editor and/or proofreader like you do).

[spideremblembrony]

Quick poll, how many of you have seen The Room?

Legolas was riding along the woods and one day he found a baby whaped in colth so he got off his horse and went to the baby and then Legolas said"who left you here little one"and then the baby just cryed and then Legolas pick her up and hold her and then the baby stoped crying and then Legolas said"your name is going be Laura"and then Legolas and the baby went onto the horse and went back to the castle where he lived.

Oh, god. It’s like having a 5 year old telling us the story of how they went potty by themselves. Except the 5 year old’s story would be cute. This is just painful.

What, did Legolas keep Laura locked in the basement every time Aragorn or Gandalf happened to be passing through?

Oh, trust me, if you knew what she does in this story, you’d be doing the same thing.

There are few words that can be used to describe my contempt for authors who use rape like this. Rape is a terrible thing, and it has the power to completely destroy a person’s innocence and sense of security, among other things. I don’t mess around with rape in my own works, because I don’t think I’ll be able to do it justice. There are authors out there that can pull it off well, and they have my praise for that.

But I’ve noticed that rape has become something of a gimmick, a lazy method by bad or inexperienced writers to drum up sympathy for their special little snowflake. These people will throw around something horrible and life changing like it’s as inconspicuous as their hair color, and they expect us to immediately gain sympathy for their character.

I’m sorry, but it just doesn’t work. I am not invested in a character if all you say was “they were raped” and continue on from there. This person had sex against their will, a major violation of privacy and trust in my book, and you expect me to just accept it as a fact of life? The same goes for parents being killed or domestic abuse; these are major issues that can severely damage a person’s psyche, and exploring the issues that can arise from such a backstory has the potential for great storytelling and character development. If you present me with that little “factoid” I want to see emotional damage. I want to see how this experience has changed the character, and how the other characters help them rebuild. You can’t just spoon feed me with little bits of information and expect it to make things all better.

One fic that does get it right is Guide Me Home. Qwi-Xux shows us how the pain Ursa is going through after being physically and emotionally abused by Ozai is still affecting her almost seven years after the fact, and it’s only through her love for Hakoda and her children (yes, even Azula) that she’s able to move on and do something better with her life. The story never just wimps out and says “she was abused, but she’s all better now”; it takes almost the entire story for Ursa to recover, and there are many trials and tribulations that she has to overcome before earning her happy ending.

Legolas by laura, though, does none of that. It takes the easy way, the lazy way, the assumption that rape is terrible but not deliberating. The assumption that characters don’t have to suffer to get where the author wants to go. As a reader, I am insulted to think that this… “hack” is too light a word… would exploit one of the worst actions a human can take against another, and then do nothing to develop it further, just to force sympathy from me. I’d go on, but at the risk of repeating myself I’ll end this rant and move on with the review. I will finish with this:

I just don’t care about this character. If I were placed within the universe and given a chainsaw, I wouldn’t even deem it worth my time or the gas to cut Laura into little pieces.

So go do that, and we can forget that this piece of crap ever existed.

Sounds good to me.

Again, I enjoy your reviews. I look forward to next week. Just remember… Keep on Believing

[Celestias Paladin]

God I'm not even that much of a fan of LotR and I find that horrible. I will forgive the underestimating the distance and time for travel, I will forgive the stupidity of the Dark Lord, but I will not forgive anything else. Thou Shall Hold Canon Holy.

And yes Guide Me Home is a good example of that.

[nightcrawlerfan]

It's a good thing I have a case of Bile Fascination, otherwise your increasing interest in reviewing fan fiction that pertains to franchises I actually like would probably be unnerving.
Also, no, I haven't seen the Room. Just clips of it.