Oh, ff.net, why do you treat me so?

[ratherastory]

Don't get me wrong. Fanfiction.net is where I started out as a fledgling fanfic writer, and I have a soft spot for it.

That being said, the people on there constantly flummox me with their inability to grasp what I'm driving at with my fic. It's a small percentage, maybe 10% max, but their reviews eat at me.

So mainly what I was trying to do in that last coda-thing-whatever was to demonstrate that in all the effort to give Dean a happy ending (no matter how stupid the notion is that Dean can possibly be happy while Sam is dead/in hell), no one at all took Lisa's feelings into account. No one asked her if she wanted a psychologically damaged alcoholic with abandonment issues and no valid means of supporting himself to land on her doorstep and basically try to insert himself into her life.

In short, I was trying to convey that she as much as Dean is lost in this situation. Lost and frightened and not a little angry at having this dumped in her lap when she's worked so hard to get her life together and make a good life for her son. It's not that she doesn't care, not that she doesn't want to help. It's just too big for her, and so she's doing what she can with what she's got.

What the ff.net reviewers got out of the story, however, was that Lisa is MEAN and CRUEL. Or, in a complete 180 from that, that OMG how dare I imply that Lisa wouldn't be thrilled and totally awesome and understanding and 100% supportive of Dean no matter what?

Eesh.

I am fine. I have to go answer all the nice comments I got in the last few days (I am SO behind!), and answer the not-so-nice ones. Well, the not-so-nice ones that actually deigned to give me the option to reply. :P

Comments

[alexseanchai]

I must've missed your coda. *goes to read* Okay, I don't think it's quite in character for Lisa. In 3x02 Dean turning up was unexpected and unwanted and though she offered to let him stay it was only because he'd just saved her son and because he was good in bed, and while I'm sure she's still grateful for that, she's also a sensible woman and I can't imagine she'd really want Dean around her son. He was a bad influence from her perspective in 3x02 and he's only gotten worse. She invited him in in 5x17 because he was talking like a suicide risk and she wasn't about to not try to save someone who saved Ben, and she was glad to see him in 5x22 because that meant he wasn't dead and she invited him in because that made it that much less likely he'd get dead in the near future. But talking people off of ledges isn't something she was trained to do, isn't something she wants to spend any significant amount of time doing, and he's not someone she has an emotional connection to (unless he actually is Ben's father, but strangely enough I stopped believing that after 5x17 aired), and since there are actual mental health professionals in town...so I can't imagine her telling him he can stay indefinitely. Why I'm babbling all this at you I don't know, since it doesn't have much to do with your story, but my point is something like your Lisa is going easier on Dean than my Lisa, so I've no idea where anyone is getting the idea that your Lisa is "MEAN and CRUEL".

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

I didn't take the story that far, but I think she was pretty much lying to him and herself when she said "as long as you want." She's trying to be a friend, to be supportive, but I think eventually she's either going to kick him out (gently) or he'll leave of his own accord.

In short, I agree with you. Dean is way too damaged for her, as a responsible mother, to keep him around her son.