Wasted Potential

[quill-shadow.livejournal.com]

There are some really interesting concepts that LKH came up with that she never does anything about, which I think could be used to make a really good story. Here are two off the top of my head:

The werebeast halfway houses that were mentioned for a couple of lines in one Anita Blake book (as far as I'm aware.)

The Nameless from Merry Gentry - a mass of the least human magics of the Courts, suddenly released to find worthy vessels.

I'm fighting two story ideas; one following a member of staff at a halfway house, and one following some part-fae who was close enough for the magic to find him or her a suitable host, and who is suddenly finding that the differences between them and the humans around them go deeper than skin- and hair-colour. How about anyone else? What inspiration can you dig out of the corners of these 'verses?

(Hoping this is acceptable, mods.)

Comments

[quill-shadow.livejournal.com]

You know, I never even thought about that! I didn't know about the usual case in challenges to laws, so I hadn't realised that it shouldn't have been Addison vs. Clarke.

I have this image of the vampire (whoever it was) rolling the entire courtroom except the judge, who goes "Case adjourned. Get me some new jurors!"

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

Not to mention it's weird how they're ONLY legal in America. Why is the USA the most and only liberal state in this regard?

[subtle-shades.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we're a nation founded by religious zealots. While there could be good and compelling reasons for the US at large to overlook the church's views on vampires, LKH gave none of them. She just blithely assumed that we as a country would overlook the church's view when we as a country don't overlook them in regards to homosexuality. (And we really, really should since Church and State are meant to be separate entities in the US.)

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Re-reading the earlier books makes me bemoan that we didn't get a protagonist that was a lawyer. Because all legal fallout that stemmed from that one case seems to have affected the entire world. Hell, it'd still work as a series if she was an investigator working for the law firm that won Addison vs Clarke. At the very least, it might help explain why vampires get an automatic death penalty and remember when Anita used to lobby for better treatment of zombies? It could have been like the lovechild of Good Wife and Supernatural.

[foxfire74.livejournal.com]

I always had mental images of a Stonewall-style "we're here, we're were, get used to it" thing for the lycanthropes during the 60s. Actually, '60s ABverse could be a hell of a lot of fun in general, with vampires on secondhand highs. :D And I had a long-discarded fic about a halfway house, from the shifter's perspective...I hate the "OMG meen humans persecuting the poor furries/weres" trope and was aiming for "yeah, it sucks, but it beats killing people in a moon-induced fugue" instead. But staff would be way cooler.

[quill-shadow.livejournal.com]

Hippy vampires! Hippy vampires who try to 'give peace a chance' with whichever werebeast they can call! Really embarrassed Renfields carrying their vampires back indoors before dawn because the pills their donor had been popping made them forget that they couldn't survive the sun!

[coughs] In case you couldn't tell, I like your suggestion.

And doing the halfway house from the staff's perspective caught my attention because it's a new idea. I mean, there are so many cliches around the 'institution for people who are different' concept that it would be difficult to avoid them, but they tend to be from the point of view of the inmate/s.

[astronauta.livejournal.com]

Vampires and wereanimals are being killed after a few strikes (even for offenses like stealing). That should seriously be explored and talked about. Aren't there protests over this? I feel like minority rights and the injustices are merely mentioned - if at all. It's like there's a huge elephant in the room and everyone is too busy fucking around (literally) to notice.

I'd like to see this as the primary plot in one of her books. LKH can get really clever with this and throw in some real world comparisons, like Arizona's anti-immigration laws or anti-LGBT rhetoric going around with some major corporations.

[quill-shadow.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see this as the primary plot in one of her books. LKH can get really clever with this and throw in some real world comparisons, like Arizona's anti-immigration laws or anti-LGBT rhetoric going around with some major corporations.
I have the feeling that might be expecting too much from her. Aside from anything else, if she explores the injustice, then she has to admit that Anita executing them for these minor strikes is wrong, which means that Anita is not oh-so-perfect.

The minority rights part is interesting. I don't think we've even heard of any groups that might protest for their rights - with the possible exception of the vampire church, if it still exists.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

She addressed in Skin Trade that Anita has some "in" with the higher-ups or something like that so she only has to kill vampires who are murderers, not shoplifters or the like. Because I guess struggling with that kind of moral dilemma would just make Anita too uncomfortable or something.

[nightwalker.livejournal.com]

This. THIS THIS THIS. Oh my God, the weres are treated so horribly in these books and it barely rates a mention. There's so much that could be done with this.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Man, the halfway house thing would have been fantastic. It could be so amazingly creepy with the government trying to regulate/rehabilitate shapeshifters, and maybe recruit them for their own purposes. Shady government goings on is totally a thing, as evidenced by Obsidian Butterfly and Edward's mysterious past with Van Cleef.

I'd kinda add the JC/Anita/Richard triumvirate as a wasted opportunity, because the fourth mark has been left hanging for about the last dozen books. The second triumvirate never should have happened (mostly because WTF wouldn't that cancel out the first one and we're left to reboot Anita again ala Circus of the Damned?) and just...three people stuck together and have to deal with each other's shit forever would have been so interesting! And like, they've fought for all this power and now they have to keep it which brings me to the thing that I'm probably the most bitter about in this entire series: the Council.

Instead of having the Council just beam themselves into Anita's house via psychic satellite, THEY SHOULD HAVE SHOWED UP IN PERSON. And oh god all the politics between different philosophies -- like the whole thing about how vampires should be illegal again -- sure, there are benefits with being able to walk down the street without getting shot in the face on sight, but it also means there's all these rules about eating/mesmerism etc that pretty much goes against what appears to be their very nature. So with vampires illegal, they do what they want and maybe even take over. There's also a PR campaign to be had against the laws that so graciously allow vampires not to be shot, but can still be executed without trial, don't even have a chance to vote etc. and it could all just be a sinister plot to lull humans into accepting vampires as people-with-fangs before they reveal their true plan. They've got forever to play with, they can afford to run a long con. Then there's the interpersonal politics with a throwaway line that Belle Morte was more about seducing the power players and buying people whereas before her bloodline became dominant it was Morte d'Amour who pretty much reigned with fear and brutality - surely he'd want to get some payback on both Belle Morte and her kind and re-establish himself. And like, just because the Council can't attack each other directly doesn't mean that they can't set up other people to do the dirty work for them.

All this would probably be far beyond LKH's skill to write politics and would require her to kill off a whole lot of characters. But damn it, this is my headcanon and I'm going to nurse this grudge like a tiny fluffy kitten. I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT THIS.

[quill-shadow.livejournal.com]

I am drooling over your headcanon about the Council. Long-running complicated politics and plotting, oh yes.

I hadn't even thought about the triumvirate till you mentioned it, but there were so many possibilities in that - and she ignored them all because they would have made AB uncomfortable.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

RIGHT??? This is what I wanted out of the Merry Gentry books, too. But I kinda quit at about book 4-ish because I couldn't take the "everyone let's sit around and talk about everything that's happened and what we're going to do," rather than embracing the spirit of clandestine meetings and secret assassins and subterfuge to out-play the other players and more stabbing people in the spine/face/spleen. All of this can be very sexy! That LKH seems to subscribe to the strongest/most powerful = best in both series is something I vehemently disagree with -- both because it's tiresome to have the heroines get all the constant power-ups and because the villains were dumbed down so much. The whole thing should be about being smarter to survive rather than getting all caveman-smash.

(I also disagree on killing the Mother of All Darkness, but LKH had an interview where she said she wrote herself into a corner with making MOAD "too powerful" because all villians must apparently be defeated or something. But uuuuhhh it's okay if you don't. And you certainly don't deus ex machina the most powerful thing in the universe away with the ~~~power of love~~~ and carry on with life like there suddenly isn't a massive power vacuum in the universe. Actions should always have consequences.)

With the triumvirate, that AB would be uncomfortable would probably be the tip of the iceberg - if the last ten books have taught me anything it's that LKH is a severely limited writer. I don't think she'd be able to figure out how to deal with the triumvirate once the deal was sealed. Mostly because we all know that Richard was based upon her first husband and when the marriage ended, pretty much so did Richard and she's really struggled with the character ever since. Rather than actually deal with that shit -- either with trying to make the triumvirate work or finding a way to break it so everyone can move on with their lives -- Richard's been effectively written out or taken "therapy" off page as a vague hand-wavy dismissal of his sudden change of behaviour because anything else would be toooo harrrrrrd.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

I'm interested in all the species that LKH made canon in the Anitaverse, then never mentioned again--the nagas, the werecobras, wereanacondas, werebears, werefoxes, weredogs, merfolk, fairies, and jinn, not to mention dragons, gargoyles, and trolls. Remember back in the day when Richard was an enthusiast for the study, preserve, and humane treatment of trolls? I'm betting he hasn't mentioned them for at least five books now.

[astronauta.livejournal.com]

Hell yeah! I remember the weresnakes and was fascinated with that. Also that vampire who married that mermaid? Also interested. I'd like to see these others wereanimals come into play. I'm just afraid that we will find out that Anita is also werecobra/bear/foxes/etc... and she'll need to sex it up with them too. :/

[quill-shadow.livejournal.com]

I am now picturing an underground information network among all these creatures to help them avoid the Doomcrotch. "She's going to be in Las Vegas! Look human, people, and don't draw the cops' attention!"

"Okay, she's going back to St. Louis - but I think they mentioned something about it being via New York?"

"What? Why -- Never mind, New York, hide your weres!"

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

Oh man, see that alone would make a great fanfic!

[plastraa.livejournal.com]

"She's going to be in Las Vegas! Look human, people, and don't draw the cops' attention!"

"Okay, she's going back to St. Louis - but I think they mentioned something about it being via New York?"

"What? Why -- Never mind, New York, hide your weres!"

And for God sakes cute your freaking hair, and wear brown contact lenses!

[vinculums.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's just me, but I feel a lot of her fans are reading this for the erotica. This is a good opportunity for LKH to break down some rumors and stereotypes around sexuality and certain fetishes. Instead I feel she's doing the exact opposite sometimes. And sometimes, I don't know where the fuck she's going.

As someone who identifies primarily as a lesbian (and who had a few complex bisexual relationships), I gotta say, her handling on gender and sexuality is either a Hit or a Miss. I don't like how she made a snide remark about "butch women" in one of her books. I don't like how she insists that Richard is the ideal man-man when it comes to looks. I really hate her bisexual character Dev (or Devil or Mephistopheles) solely because it feels like he can't commit to just one, that he needs both sexes at all times. Maybe I would have been fine with it (maybe) if Anita didn't say "You are the most truly bisexual person I've ever met" - like this is what it means to be bisexual.

[plastraa.livejournal.com]

I feel like (maybe subconsciously) she feels as though anything other than straight and monogamous is 'slightly naughty' and she's tittering behind her hand like 'see what a precocious child I am' when she deals with sexuality. I think she is just as middle America as she derides all those 'haters' for being, what she writes doesn't represent me or anyone I know. I am just happy she isn't interested in writing about my sexuality (asexual), or I can imagine she would have me in a nun's habit or picketing with a hater's sign.

She seems to prescribe monogamy as something only straight (and boring prudes) practice. Sorry, it's kind of not.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

I feel like (maybe subconsciously) she feels as though anything other than straight and monogamous is 'slightly naughty' and she's tittering behind her hand like 'see what a precocious child I am' when she deals with sexuality. I think she is just as middle America as she derides all those 'haters' for being

That sounds exactly right. She definitely seems to approach queerness as a kink rather than a valid, perfectly normal orientation that isn't weird or edgy or anything like she seems to think it is.

[quill-shadow.livejournal.com]

This is a good opportunity for LKH to break down some rumors and stereotypes around sexuality and certain fetishes. Instead I feel she's doing the exact opposite sometimes.
I think that those rumours and stereotypes are all the information she has, and she can't be bothered to do research (pretty pictures in a calendar aren't much help with this sort of information).

if Anita didn't say "You are the most truly bisexual person I've ever met" - like this is what it means to be bisexual
In a different author's hands, that could be used as a way of showing that just because the character has this attitude/belief, that doesn't automatically mean it's right. But since Anita is LKH's avatar, we all know that LKH believes exactly what she's written.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

Perhaps she has a spellchecker that substitutes the word "bisexual" for "slutty".