Thanks very much, Dana and Michael!
Yeah, it's hard to believe we've been around so ridiculously long (as I'm sure you can relate, Michael -- FP is even older! and of course has been in continuous production, which is even more admirable). And Michael, I share your disbelief that the site's looked the same way for eight years. Oy! For the first four years of the series I had three looks; then I stopped altogether. I just didn't think it made sense to futz around with the design while the writing was lying fallow.
This new look is
definitely a big change. As I've mentioned the colors are more evocative of the original themes (aquas & greens -- though funnily enough, there's no waterfall in this version). What I especially like about the design is that it's got the moody, cinematic feel I want for the series. Of course now that I've been all cocky and braggy, I've jinxed it and everyone's gonna hate the revamp when they see it.
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Originally Posted by Dana
About the episode... I enjoyed Beth and the way she dealt both with Noah and with Clark. Looks to me as she's beggining to accept (or at least take acceptance into account) what's happening to her. She's trying to become aware of bits of her life that were lived only by the alters until now. It looks like a great start, at least she's not completely in denial anymore.
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Cool, I'm glad she's coming across as (at least marginally) more active a participant. Her non-wimpy stance with Noah and her enthusiasm with Clark are all intended to be natural baby steps in taking some control of her life. That's gotta be a relief for the audience, since I'm sure she can be tiring to watch. It's also a relief for me as a writer, to show Beth-as-Beth, rather than a hollow shell. Kinda difficult to do when I've nearly drawn myself into a corner with her -- after all, she
is very much a shell -- but she's on the right path, or at least edging toward it.
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Originally Posted by Dana
The Noah / Sophie scene seemed a strange one. The dog is welcome to the story, of course (I'm a biiiiig dog lover myself), but I can't figure out Noah's intentions with the gesture. I can't be as paranoic as Clark and suspect a bomb, however the gesture is simply out of the blue.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael
I also have NO idea what Noah's motives with the dog could be. Perhaps it's merely an attempt to insinuate himself into Beth and Clark's lives somehow.
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Hey, maybe he just needed to get rid of the dog? No?
Part of it is that I love animals and they're such a huge part of the lives of me, my family and other people I know that it just seems natural to include pets in the ASF canvas. And yet oddly there aren't many others in the webseries world that I can think of; I vaguely remember one in
Forever and a Day (the old websoap by Matt) and in
Stony Grove but that's it. Actually, I really need to give someone a cat; it's crazy that no one's got one when I'm so head-over-heels crazy for cats!
Er anyway. Noah's motivations are, obviously, not known at this time. But don't necessarily count out the possibiity that he's just being nice. What? It could happen!
Someone on ASF has to be nice! I really enjoy writing Noah's interactions with Beth; they're half-flirty, half-fraternally protective. The guy either knows how to play her like a Stradivarius or he's actually sincere.
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Originally Posted by Dana
Becca's protectiveness towards Ian is also very strange. I wouldn't expect her to have such strong feelings for anybody. She's a twisted one, Becca, resembles her mother.
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Hee yes, she is and she does. In short, Becca is an attention whore. Or to put it more delicately (since she's underage), she's a drama queen. Craves the spotlight. And truthfully she
does care about Ian, as her brother. But she's mostly just loving the chance for some drama and to flex her muscles as head of the school's social pecking order even as a mere sophomore.
I totally understand what both you and Michael are saying about the teen scene. They are almost universally loathed and I've given the kids such short shrift for literally years and years, so why on earth should anyone care? Well, Daphne's received some focus, of course -- she's by far had the most plot attention, and so I've been able to show her mature a little bit from the shallow bitter fifteen-year-old she started out as to the, uh, shallow bitter nearly-eighteen-year-old. (Nah, she's not really as bitter or shallow as she used to be. I hope, anyway.)
I know nobody gives a rat's ass about Tyler (try though I might to redeem him in some way from his many years as a callow jerk), and Becca, Jason and especially Julie (not to mention Simon, Becca's twin) are almost entirely unknown quantities. But that's kind of fun for me. It's a challenge. 15/16 is far away from where I am too -- way farther than anyone else here! -- but I'm trying to remember what it was like. Of course I was their age in 1981(!), not 2010, and things are awfully different. I just hope I don't embarrass myself too much. I really am digging the opportunity to depict the sort of kids I used to know/be: kinda uncool and arty but not in a goth/rebel sort of way. Anyway, all these kids will be gathered into some other storylines pretty soon. You know I likes me some intertwining plots.
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Originally Posted by Michael
Truth be told, I need to refresh myself on the David Reilly mystery, because I feel I'm missing a whole bunch of subtleties. Wasn't there a recap type of thing you posted a while back? I might have to look that up, if I'm not imagining it.
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You're right!
And here it is. What I enjoy about this mystery is that it's connected to at least two other storylines that seem utterly unrelated. What I don't enjoy about it is that it's taken so absurdly long to tie these storylines together. Anyway, now that the kidnapping from hell is finally over with, there'll be more action on the Noah/Clark/Tom et al. front, thank God.
I'm very grateful for your feedback, both of you! This was a pretty frothy episode without too much depth to it, I know, but I'm glad it seemed to keep things moving. The second half is a bit more typically
depressing meaty.
(Really the only thing that connects the two halves is Clark.) Thanks again for reading and sharing your thoughts!
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. Wow, it's been a long time 
. I don't really remember how it felt to be 16, seems sooo far away...
