I think you've pretty much hit on everything I wanted this story to be, and I'm so glad it worked so well for you, that you got all those things out of it. Especially the part about how it's about John going through his life, as you put it. There's a huge temptation with "Vegas" to fix the brokenness of that universe for John by "whisking him off to a fairytale world", as another commenter expressed it, having Rodney sweep him off and "carry [him] across Atlantis' threshold" (I'm loving how various people are phrasing these things, so I'm quoting) and make everything okay, but I wanted this to be a story about the reality of the life he's leading, a story about how he takes the inspiration Rodney gives him and uses it to slowly make the small changes that gradually turn his world into a better place. This John will never be a Big Damn Space Hero, but maybe he can do his best to be a hero in the everyday, in the small-scale and ordinary, and maybe that is enough, maybe in the long run it's more than enough. It's a story about doing the best with what you've got, about daring to let yourself live and feel, and it seems I very much needed to tell such a story.
Anyway, it means a lot to me that you enjoyed it so much. :D
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
zvi and
no subject
Date: 2009-03-07 04:23 pm (UTC)I think you've pretty much hit on everything I wanted this story to be, and I'm so glad it worked so well for you, that you got all those things out of it. Especially the part about how it's about John going through his life, as you put it. There's a huge temptation with "Vegas" to fix the brokenness of that universe for John by "whisking him off to a fairytale world", as another commenter expressed it, having Rodney sweep him off and "carry [him] across Atlantis' threshold" (I'm loving how various people are phrasing these things, so I'm quoting) and make everything okay, but I wanted this to be a story about the reality of the life he's leading, a story about how he takes the inspiration Rodney gives him and uses it to slowly make the small changes that gradually turn his world into a better place. This John will never be a Big Damn Space Hero, but maybe he can do his best to be a hero in the everyday, in the small-scale and ordinary, and maybe that is enough, maybe in the long run it's more than enough. It's a story about doing the best with what you've got, about daring to let yourself live and feel, and it seems I very much needed to tell such a story.
Anyway, it means a lot to me that you enjoyed it so much. :D