CC: Forge Series by Mad-Hamlet

["The Watcher" <thewatcherau@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Forge Series
by Mad-Hamlet

http://www3.mb.sympatico.ca/~shadow27/madhamlet.htm

Broken
Pieces
Heat
Strike When the Iron is Hot
Steel
Blade


The universal rule of sequels says that they suck. As in all rules there is
the exception. Forge is it.

So you say to yourself, "Self, I'm gonna write a sequel to my wonderful
series Prisms. How shall I go about it?"

Now we need to gather ingredients first. Ok a good helping of viable
premise, add to that a large scoop of what made the first one so good. Then
you need a generous sprinkling of good characters, well this is a Buffy fic
so that's a given. Next up it probably helps if you have something new and
different from the first one, or else it wouldn't be a sequel it'd be a
remake (and they tend to be even worse than sequels in the suckage stakes)
and finally and possibly most importantly you have to pull it off
convincingly.

So lets look and see how we did...

A viable premise... Check.. got one of those.. it just so happens to use and
pivot around one of my fav characters so that's always a bonus and we
continue on (at a natural pace, nothing overly sped up or time distorted)
from the previous series. Also we have a credible backstory, fits in nicely
with the story and is also feasible within the buffyverse.

Large scoop of previous success.. Yeah I can see that, same characters, same
sitch, same writer, good technically, no "gimmicky" tricks that you see so
often in sequels to try and make them better. Ok that's all good.

Good characters. Well we've got all the main ones from last time haven't we
plus everyone's favourite psuedo-bad slayer. Can't go wrong here.

New and different.. Oh yeah we got two lots of that.. This series gets a
little.. umm naughtier (which is for the most part never a bad thing esp
when it's not gratuitous) and we have a cool new psuedo-bad slayer. We're
certainly cooking now..

And to the final point can we pull it off?

You have the link. Go and see for yourself.


My personal opinion. Yeah absolutely.

In many ways I liked this more than Prisms. Technically and story telling
wise Prisms was great and I really liked it. I liked THE STORY in this one
even moreso.

Without giving the game away too much this one focuses around Buffy, Willow,
Spike and Faith this time around. Think about it for a minute. What's the
one thing they all have in common? Conflict, within themselves and between
one another, yet in a not too small way there's a great deal of respect
between them. The other main aspect of these four's relationships is the
underlying subtext (and not completely in a Xena/Gabby way either) just the
unspoken things that pass betwen them when they interact. The Buffy/Faith
thing and their relationship both in terms of each other and how they affect
Buffy's friends, not to mention the Slaying aspects. Willow and Faith and
the silent vying for Buffy's attention, not to mention the issues stemming
from when Faith grabbed Willow at the end of season 3. Then there is the
Spike/Willow thing, Lover's walk and the "chip" incident. And we all know
about Buffy and Spike. this is great fodder for a writer and Mad-Hamlet
makes great use of it in both a positive and a negative way. It helps and it
hinders and sometimes hinders when it's trying to help. This is the way life
is and it's nice to see it reflected in fanfic.

Ok onto the individual parts. Heat is a winner far and away. Great character
interaction. Intense emotion. Conflict and comfort and sometimes comfort
FROM conflict. It expresses the complexity of human emotions and
relationships without being overbearing and cliched because it tells a story
with loads of realism and a deft hand.

What helps the series as a whole is Hamlet's wonderful handling of what is
essentially the crux of the series. Heat is where it all comes together.
It's like Prisms episode "Red" or the battle scene, except here the only
demons being battled are personal demons (unless you count Spike getting hit
a couple of times) and the sad fact of the matter is everyone can relate
probably more to fighting those demons than trying to deal with a six headed
beast that's just sprung up from the Hellmouth. And just like "Red" in
"Heat" pressure is applied where needed and released just at the right time.
It's a scene that would really stretch actors were it filmed (but the four
featured are all terrific and I'd love to see it) but it's a scene so much
more suited to the written word. It exudes emotion right until you think
you're going to break and you're left with as much of a feeling of
satisfaction as the characters when the battle is finally "won" It's an
aspect of Buffy we see from time to time but not really enough as for the
most part it doesn't translate well on TV.. Joss does better than alot of
people with it but this stuff is the raison d'tre of fic. It really
separates the sheep from the goats.

As far as the remaining "episodes" go. For the most part, other than Steel,
they don't suffer any for the wonderful job done on "Heat". Faith was used
brilliantly.. and I'd say it's one of the best Faith fics I've read that
doesn't feature her as the central character. Spike once again makes his
presence felt and Hamlet handles him without "de-fanging" him. The story
telling scene is truly a winner. The rest of the scoobs don't make too much
of an appearance but in many ways the fic is stronger for it. It focuses on
the job at hand and dispenses with the "niceties" of life some fic writers
love to throw in just to up the word count.

Broken starts off well and deals with each of the characters present
situation using multiple POVs. Pieces, shows a little more of Willow and
Buffy's emotional states and ends very much like Act Two of a TV series
where you see the "mini-cliffhanger" just before the break. Heat is the crux
and is handled brilliantly. It's actually a great read on it's own (not that
I recommend that). Strike while the Iron is Hot is exactly that. Everyone
gets hit over the head with a clue. But it's done in such a way as to not be
gratuitous or insanely cliched. Sure it's a plot device but all stories have
AND NEED them. It's nice to see them done well for a change.

Steel is I'm a little sorry to admit a bit cliched. It may just be becuase
I'm somewhat of a cynic, or possibly becuase I'm a writer but I knew exactly
what was going to happen before I even read the episode (except for a little
bit at the end) Not that that is a bad thing.. If it were I don't think I'd
ever see a Hollywood movie again. It just seemed a little bit too much like
a TV show, yes yes I realise there will be choruses of "but it IS a TV show"
I know that but after the highs of "Heat" maybe I kind of expected a little
more. The "main character realisation scene" yes we all know what I'm
talking about. Where the lead charcter realises what he's done is wrong, or
who the bad guy is, or whatever. It was good but not as good as the rest of
the fic, If you know what I mean (and I'm guessing you probably don't) call
the rest of the fic an 8 out of 10 Steel might be 6. If I were going to say
change anything it'd be this esp the "mcrs". Then again it could possibly be
me and that after Heat I set my aims to high.. You read the two and tell me
what you think... Having said that of course it's a bit like pizza or sex
even when it's bad it's still pretty good :-)

Finishing off is Blade which picks up a bit to finish on a strong note.
Especially the final scene. It rings VERY true.

On the whole it's a delicate subject that's handled very well by Hamlet,
many fics that have dealt with this go too far either way and sink into the
vast pit that is unrealistic fic.. Which seems kind of strange considering
we are talking about vampires and the like. Hamlet has this one sitting
right where it should in terms of emotion, both for the reader and for the
characters.

And so once again we reach the end of another Mad-Hamlet Series, only 3 or 4
to go now :-)

You've heard what I think now go out and read it and let Mad-Hamlet know
what you think.

Until Next Time

-TW



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