1 [Report This]Date: September 02, 2020 03:38 am Title: Andy's Ancestry
Welcome to MTT! I’ve been slow to jump onboard with this fic - mostly because I’m a little scared of anything set in Season 9. I have such a love/hate dynamic with Season 9... I love that it’s so very real and that’s what a marriage is sometimes, but also all the angst drains my soul...
Your writing is really lovely. I think you’re doing characters like Nellie, Erin and Pete a lot of justice with this story.
There’s a nice blend of humor sprinkled throughout too. “ Andy proceeds to make it weird.” This line made me chuckle.
I’m interested to see how you really diverge things from canon.
Author's Response:
Glad you're enjoying it so far!
Trust me, with the canon S9, I get it. There's some plots and a lot of jokes I felt like they did really well, but wow is it a tough watch. I myself love the Halpert conflict *in concept*, because I like that they're not painted as this amazing fantasy love story, it's a real relationship. However, like I've mentioned, their lack of communication is what annoys me. It felt like such a regression from how they were the previous 5 seasons; just because they have trouble communicating doesn't mean they wouldn't make an attempt. And yeah, there will be conflict in this, but nothing that's unresolved.
I actually really like writing those three in particular a lot. Erin is one of my favorites and I like both Nellie and Pete, I just didn't think the show knew what to do with them. I want to do more with Clark, but there aren't a lot of plots dedicated to him yet, though I know that'll change with "The Whale". The biggest canon divergence will begin in "Lice".
And I'm really glad you like my writing style! I'm very not used to prose so this proved to be a bit of a challenge.
Thanks for the welcome, and the review!
Date: September 01, 2020 07:20 pm Title: Andy's Ancestry
Nice to see the mindsets of the everyone. I liked Erin here. With her realization that the relationship with Andy isn't really all it's cracked up to be. I liked Pete still there waiting in the wings.
Nice job on the Pam and Nellie friendship. Same goes for the Jim and Darryl conversations.
Really liked that Jim and Pam have the open discussion about everything. The big problem they faced in the start of their relationship and the problems they faced again in S9 is they wouldn't communicate clearly. Nice to see that changed around a bit here.
Author's Response:
Writing Erin has become one of my favorite parts of this fic. I can tell in S9 she became a more independent thinker, and I loved that aspect, I just didn't like Pete to be such a vital part of that development. He's there for her, and she does like him, but there are conclusions that she needs to make herself before she's ready for a relationship with him. And he understands that.
There'll be more Pam and Nellie friendship, trust me. I love writing Nellie as Pam's friend, gives her both more stuff to do and makes her truly feel a part of the office. And, to be honest, Darryl needed Athlead more than Jim ever did, so I wanted Jim to make that same offer since he has such a strong connection to the company even when he's not working there.
And that's why I wrote that open discussion: communication. It's not the strongest pillar of the relationship - not by a long shot - but S9 felt like S1-3 where they didn't even bother to talk about what they really want and leave it up to blind faith. They will have communication problems in this story as well, but I want to accomplish a balance between getting over their own insecurities and talking them out.
Thanks for the review, as always!