 Digitaldreamer 1/31/12 . chapter 1All right, finally got around to reading this.
First of all, I will fully admit I'm not a huge fan of android Wheatley normally. Like, I like it in the context of "and then Wheatley went from regular Wheatley to "human" Wheatley because I think it makes more sense within the context of the game. Android Wheatley right off the bat kind of bothers me because I feel like it's ignoring a core component of the game and no explanation for why he -is- an android tends to throw me off. I tend to feel ike making him closer to human for the sake of having him emote almost feels like "cheating" in a way- it's fun to see in art but in fanfiction part of the challenge of writing Wheatley is figuring out all that emoting without resorting to standard human motions. Him -learning- to be "human" is compelling in its own way but turning him "human" from the start kind of throws me. To fair, however, I am an incredibly stickler when it comes to things following the canon of this game so that's just my personal preference.
That being said, however, I did enjoy this. Many of the "human" motions Wheatley makes seem to suit him and his desperate grasping for Chell at every jump seems very... well, him. I do think him nearly bursting into tears and the little "help" at the end seemed like a bit much- he never really seemed "teary" to me in the game, but eh. The real emotion for me from this actually comes from your writing of Chell- Wheatley seems a bit overly woobie-ish, but Chell's cold shoulder and the way she reacts when Wheatley -is- crushed (lovely descriptions on that, by the way) are really gutwrenching and nicely done. It's actually the image of Chell reaching for her and Wheatley reaching back that I -adore-, motions like that which actually seem to -humanize- the feel of the game in my mind. It's bits like that where android!Wheatley and giving Chell a personality work, and that's what I enjoy.
Funnily enough, though, my favorite part of this is GLaDOS getting up and fixing her hair. That little detail seems so PERFECTLY her that even though the idea of her fixing her hair should feel alien, in this case it doesn't and I love that. |