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Ah, let's face it. The Belsnickel is just good comedy, and Jim and Dwight as vitriolic best buds as opposed to sworn enemies is fun. Why mess with perfection?

Pam's speech to the PPC is amazing, and I think you've recognized a real missed and/or lost opportunity with the Clark/Jan storyline - you mined a lot of laughs out of that. (Jan's insanity is a lot funnier with a relationship that's inherently got a skewed power dynamic and is temporary on a surface level than it is with Michael... who I just wanted to rescue.)

Toby is just... SUCH an inconsistently written and poorly-used character. I'm fine losing the frankly forgettable (and on my part almost entirely forgotten) Toby-Nellie relationship, but it might be worth seeing what you can do with him with an eye towards writing him as one guy. (There's some really good Toby fic deep in the archive by Steph which has reshaped my thoughts on how much better he could have been if taken more seriously).

The Jim/Pam distance and tension hurts, but does feel very natural, and reflective of what we've seen of their relationship in past seasons. It's fascinating to see the toll that NOT participating in Athlead ends up taking on them in contrast to what participating did. And as someone who absolutely despised the Brian subplot on about every level (by far the worst writing choice of the season), I'm interested to see where you'll go with Brent.

Author's Response:

Praise Belsnickel.

That speech is from the episode, actually, and Jenna's delivery is great.  And I never thought that Jan and Clark needed a full on storyline, but he comes back to the office like a war veteran; one just HAS to know what happened to him.  Michael truly understands his struggle.

Oof, Toby... "Why are you the way that you are?" indeed.  Again, I'm pretty ambivalent towards his character, but he just switches on a dime!  My take is it's just that he longs for more but goes through irresponsible lengths to try and obtain them because of a MYRIAD of mental issues unaddressed.  No wonder everyone assumes he's the Strangler.  And that whole Toby-Nellie relationship is just him making her uncomfortable like he made Pam uncomfortable but in overdrive.  I'm thinking about giving him a happier ending than the one in the finale, mostly so he can get his damn act together.  Also, I appreciate the fic recommendation!

Jim and Pam's plot, the crux of the fic, will have a much more optimistic run than in-canon, but they're still gonna struggle.  With something so obtainable but so out of reach, he can't help but try to be happy and fulfilled for his family, ironically making her even more concerned.  And yeah, Brian will show up too, but that'll go in a completely different direction, especially with Brent in the picture.

Thanks for the review, as always!