Thursday, April 12, 2012

The Most Tragically Unfinished Han and Leia Fanfics

We've all come across them. Stories that suck you in and keep you up way too late at night because you simply can't stop reading. You need to know what happens and you can't rest until you do. Then, you get this sickening feeling deep down in your gut when you reach the final chapter and find things unresolved, only to realize in horror that the story hasn't been updated in five years and the author has been missing for almost just as long. Sometimes there is an excuse listed and sometimes the story is simply abandoned without reason. You've just been duped into reading an unfinished fanfic.

This is one of my biggest pet peeves. One of my pet peeves is also even using the term pet peeves, but it really does apply here. If you are going to post a story, finish it! Now, admittedly there are some unfinished stories out there that I don't really care weren't finished because they weren't that good. But there are some that while incomplete, are so great that I'd read them again even knowing in advance I'm going to be left hanging. I also will hold onto some shred of hope that maybe, somehow the author will come back and finish it for us to finally give us the closure we've been waiting for for years.

Here are a few examples off the top of my head: "While You Were Gone" by Stonedrose. I might even say that this is the most tragic of the tragically unfinished. If you haven't read it, the idea is that they didn't find Han when he was frozen in carbonite. At least not until seven years later when I think it was Lando who finally found him and thawed him out and he has no idea what's been happening or that he was gone for so long. If you haven't read it, I am going to cautiously recommend it because you already know it's not finished, but what is there is just so, so good. So if you plan on reading, skip some of this because here are some spoilers: Han finds out Leia has a son and she's with this other guy named Simon. Han eventually finds out that the boy is his and Leia has been trying to move on but of course it's difficult. Simon turns out to be not such a great guy and he wants to take Han out and Han is stabbed and left bleeding to death... and that is where we are left. This story has been abandoned since something like 2004. It is painful that it hasn't been finished. The author apparently is still around though either not writing fanfic or is off in another genre. The excuse is that the computer died and the files were destroyed and she lost the motivation to finish it. It is, as I said, tragic. Seriously, even just tell someone what you were going to do with it and let someone else write it, but please finish this story!

"The Not Quite Love Letters" by limelight. This is just such a fun story to read. It is mostly told through messages sent between Han and Leia starting from very early on in their relationship up until they are together. Think of it like reading e-mails or instant messages. It's great. And it is unfinished. This one isn't quite as painful to see unfinished only because honestly when I first started reading it I wasn't really under the impression that there was ever supposed to be an "end" of the story, but written just as glimpses of what they might say to each other. And given the timeframe, we already kind of know the end of the story. But it still isn't any fun when someone just leaves a story untouched for a good five years! The author has said once or twice that she will someday finish it, but it's getting a little tough to believe. Regardless of its status, if you haven't read it, please go do so.

"In Name Only" by ladypadme. This one I think you can only read on theforce.net message boards. It starts with a not uncommon scenario where Han and Leia have to pose as a married couple. I think in this case they even have to be legally married. Things progress as you might imagine they would but it is definitely a story that sucks you in and makes you want to know what happened. And then it just stops. The author said something about how she had submitted it to some archive on the forum there and it was turned down and that made her not really feel like finishing it. That's just cruel and spiteful. Seriously, write the story for yourself and don't let anyone stop you from finishing it. Don't string people along and then not finish.

These are just three examples of stories that have been seemingly abandoned indefinitely. I can't stand it when stories are left unfinished. And I always hold out this naive hope that someday the person might come back but I don't think that's actually going to happen. I know there are others out there. What other stories have you read and then just felt your heart fall into your stomach when you realized you weren't going to get to find out how it ended?

21 comments:

  1. I'm relatively new to fan fiction in general, so I haven't come across any unfinished stories yet. But I know what you mean about wanting to have some sort of closure with stories. I hate being left wondering, I do that enough on my own. I generally only read one story at a time and let it mull through my head for awhile.
    I have figured out how to put fan fiction onto my Kindle, so I spent my spring break (got home today) in the sun, by the sea reading JZhanfan's "Finding Time", several times over and over. The sun wasn't the only thing that was hot. Thanks JZ. Hope it's ok to mention that here. I did leave comments at ff.net as well.

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  2. I don't have many unfinished I ran across either. I may not have poked around enough yet. Was very bummed about The Not Quite Love Letters not being finished. That was such a funny story.

    I'm kind of curious if people have found stories were complete, but you felt should be continued. Or that would have been good for a sequel. Just curious.

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  3. The only one that has really stuck with me was The Not Quite Love Letters. I don't believe I've read any of the others, but I know how upset I was finishing TNQLL. Although as you said, it wasn't one of those beginning-end stories, the fact that there was supposed to be more is depressing.

    I feel like if I ever write something that's more than a chapter (which I have been attempting), I'd want it completely done before I go posting it. Although I think that comes more from the fear that I won't make everything tie in the way I want it to. And I'm not very good at planning things.

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  4. I'm not good at remembering titles, or even which fic is which half the time. One I definitely do remember not being finished is Tatooine by Leela Starsky. We all remember the mighty 40 Days to Bespin. Well this was a follow up that chronicled Han's rescue from Jabba and the events afterwards, with one little twist...Leia is pregnant with Han's baby (clearly a result of those 40 Days to Bespin). Think she did about 5 or 6 chapters, and at the point it left off Han hadn't yet found out about the pregnancy, which was what I was dying to read about. It was last updated about 6 years ago, and I don't think it ever will be again.

    Fan fic on a kindle is like the best thing ever. I really must add some more to mine.

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  5. I've been lurking for some time now, but this post got me to crawl out of the woodwork so to speak.
    I'm with Claire in adding Leela Starsky's arc to the mound of frustrating fanfics that never were tied up. While You Were Gone and Tatooine are at the top of my list, followed shortly by Not Quite Love Letters. There were a lot of good fanfics that sort of petered off and died on the TF.N boards the way LadyPadme's did, sadly. Hers was by far not an isolated case on that board. Though it doesn't help that TF.N is so...chaste. Lol

    Leela's unfinished fics keep me up at night, in both the good and bad sense.

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    1. Welcome to the blog! I'm glad you've decided to stop lurking. The more the merrier!

      I knew there was a Leela Starsky story that was left unfinished and I was too lazy to look it up. Thanks for posting that because yes, it is tragically unfinished! She has basically moved on to Harry Potter but hasn't she said that maybe she'll finish it? Not that I believe her.

      I don't make a habit of reading stories on tf.net first because who can navigate through all of that? And they don't allow any constructive criticism or of course stories that cross a certain rating line. But mostly I just don't want to sift through all of that to try and find what I might want to read. But someone had mentioned that story in another board a long time ago so I read it and then I was mad that I did even though what I had already read was really good.

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    2. Yeah I think she said she might finish it about 4 years ago. I'm not holding my breath!

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  6. Oh goodness, I know! I've read all those and it annoys me to end when people don't finish (I'm guilty of that but really they aren't all that popular or good so...) one that really annoys me that isn't finished is one of my favorites "My Once and Constant Savior" by LASOS. She even says that she'll finish it too! Arg.

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  7. You have just described my life! I've learned the hard way to check the date of the last update on unfinished stories before I start reading them. Then at least I know what I'm getting into if it hasn't been updated in five years! I also count TNQLL and the "40 Days" series on my tragic list. One that hasn't been mentioned yet is "Nebula Lullaby" by LASOS. What I had read of it blew me away and when it stopped I think I cursed out loud!
    I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who saves fanfic to her Kindle. I learned that it could be done not long after I bought my Kindle and now I have a huge library saved under a nondescript category (just in case someone steals it and figures out my password). ;-)

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  8. I've encountered this in many many fandoms, so I've become used to it, I suppose. I'm always fond of writers who are committed to finishing what they've started.

    I think my biggest ff heartbreak is the sheer volume of Han and Leia fics just lost when old sites go dark. I've become quite adept at navigating wayback machine, but even then some links are just dead. For example, I'm a huge fan of Cindy Olsen, and she seems to have left the Star Wars fandom. People here have shared some stories they had, and I have a good archived link to The Corellian Embassy, but I'd do almost anything to read A Marriage of Convenience, and have yet to get my hands on a completed copy. I wish more writers would use ff.net for at least an archive of their stories. I don't see that site going dark anytime soon.

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  9. I wanted to add that Ivylore has two stories unfinished that I'd love to see completed.

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  10. I still want to know how "Something Left Undone" ends. I think that was by Green Branches.

    I also want to know how "My Once and Future Savior" ends.

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  11. In name only - anyone have a link?

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  12. I agree with all of you. There are some great stories unfinished. I haven't ran across many of them yet since I am also new to fanfiction. I am planning on looking up some of these (I guess I can take it now that I know to expect them to be unfinished).

    I did read "While You Were Gone". I really want to know how the author intended the story to finish. I can only assume Han lives and they carve Simon out of the picture. Happy ending with Leia, Han and Bailey being a happy family.

    Maybe we can all drop notes to these authors and encourage them to finish them. It is such a shame to leave these stories unfinished.

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  13. Oh by the way. Love the picture. They are so cute.

    They look so happy.

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  14. So, after reading all of these comments, it's nice to know that I wasn't a subconscious masochist, seeing as I've read all of these fics (except for In Name Only, and only because it's impossible to get the full version thanks to dead forums). It kills me to not know what happened, but, at the same time, I wouldn't change not having read them. I loved reading each of these stories.

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  15. I'm a sucker and still read them... hoping against hope that the author will come back and finish. In Name Only and Glimmer Past Twilight were two I keep pushing LP to finish... no dice. Green Branches' Something Left Undone and Stoned Rose's While You were gone are some I go back and re-read occasionally trying to figure out how the author would have finished them. There may be hope for GB... Please?

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  16. Weighing in late and de-lurking: I really want to read the end of Ivylore's Endorian Summit!

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    1. So do I! Was just re-reading it after years of drifting away from the Star Wars fandom and I'd totally forgotten that it was unfinished. Nasty surprise as I was just settling into the fic so nicely...

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  17. OMG, I have a new addiction here; YOUR BLOG! :D But I find your yellow links disturbing, they don't really stand out of the backround so they are hard for me to read... Well, that's a little "error" on your perfect blog!!!! <3 <3

    But back to the topic! I'm such an irregular FF-reader that I don't usually have a problem with unfinished stories. The stories have a problem with me as an unfinished reader! I have alerts on my mailbox telling that there are new chapters to a story I've subscribed but it takes time for me to get back to reading them... I read mostly Han/Leia fanfics and do it at nights when I'm all by self and nobody interrupting me... I really TRY to read only the shortest stories so I wouldn't have to spent the whole night reading because I just can't stop! :D And the shortest have usually been finished.

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  18. Another forum stalker here, when really drove me nuts and made me post here was bastcastle.org. It's full of fanfics, I used to read them until 6 in the morning but only a month ago the account was suspended since the owner did not pay for the site to keep running. ARUGH!

    I was also hooked onto "The Not Quite Love Letters". I loved the way the story was written and really wanted to see how the rest of the story was written. I big pity that it is left hanging at the beginning of ESB.

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