Fic: Outcomes of War

[thisbluespirit]

I am only linking this here because a) snowflake_challenge, because maybe icons you made ages ago is cheating a bit and b) this is what I did with the future fic square for trope_bingo. Hence I'm skipping it this time. If I'm going to write unnecessarily long and gloomy fic, at least I can do it for hc_bingo where you'd expect this sort of thing.

Outcomes of War (5430 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Enemy at the Door (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Philip Martel & Dieter Richter, Ernst Freidel & Dieter Richter
Characters: Dieter Richter, Ernst Freidel, Philip Martel, Olive Martel
Additional Tags: War, World War II, Suicide, Execution, Starvation, Post-Series, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, 5 Times
Summary: "Whatever may be the abuse of man, that is the use of nature - first survive.” Three things that may have happened to Major Richter and two that definitely didn’t.

(This is what happens when people go and leave a TV show unfinished and I start looking at the history books for answers. I wasn't going to finish this, being far too late for the bingo, but it nagged at me. It's surprisingly unspoilery, but I can't imagine it'd have any appeal to anyone who hasn't seen the series. And limited appeal even then.)

I fear my next fic may only be better by virtue of being shorter, but after that I solemnly vow to try and write things that people might actually want to read. (Or, in short, I have a lot of 500 Prompts left... ;-D)

Comments

[vilakins]

So sad. But it was never going to end well for anyone who lived through that, was it?

Have you read the book "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society"? Some of the things made me cry, more so than the series.

[thisbluespirit]

So sad. But it was never going to end well for anyone who lived through that, was it?

No. I think one of the things I like about EatD is that it doesn't forget the consequences of things, and that what happens is something they're also going to have to live with (or not be able to live with).

Mind, I did intend to make the fifth scenario slightly happier (I was going to have Anna Richter in it - I do like what little we hear of her!) but then... it wouldn't work out, so I had to sacrifice Anna.

And, yes, I have read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society now - I remembered you mentioning it before and picked it up in a charity shop last summer. I did enjoy it quite a lot, even though it had wrong names for the place/period and I get very nitpicky about that, but also it made me realise again how much I liked the TV series and wanted to know about what happened to those characters, even if I can't really.

So that was the point last year when I realised that I needed to get my own copy of EatD as soon as I could, and a history book! It didn't really answer my questions, though, of course, but some of the eye-witness accounts mentioned things that were obviously direct sources for the series, so that was interesting. And the rest made me speculate a lot. And write horribly gloomy fic. obviously. But even my mild research via the one book and Wiki for this kept throwing up interesting things that the EatD writers put in and never spelled out (or never got the chance to put to use later on, of course).

[vilakins]

I haven't made a study of it so I thought the author did pretty well for an American. When I do come across inaccuracies in fiction though, it annoys the hell out of me.

If they'd continued with the series, it would've only got gloomier given the history (though I have to say we both enjoyed it a lot - quality TV!) but I like to think most of them survived.

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, I don't mean the research; I'm sure that was all very thorough and true! (I'm not an expert either - one book doesn't really count!) I'm just stupidly obsessed with names and if people can't get the names right for the setting, it's usually enough to make me stop reading (but not in this case, so yes, I liked it).

I like to think most of them survived.

I'd hope so, too. Going by the historical info, the odds are actually more against the German characters - or at least against all of them surviving - than the Islanders. Provided they could avoid being shot or being sent back to the Cherche Midi, of course! (I do worry about Helen, after the events of the final episode. And Clare, considering.) But, yes. It would not exactly have got any cheerier, would it? Still doesn't stop me wanting to see what they would have done. I'm glad I watched it - it was pure accident, I'd never heard of it before, but someone on my flist had it and wasn't keen and offered to send me it because it had James Maxwell in one episode. I wasn't at all sure I wanted it just for that!! I nearly didn't take her up on it. :-) And as you say, it's quality TV all right.

[vilakins]

Ah, the names. That can bother me too where I know the region and/or language.

I came across it when someone mentioned it on LJ and I thought it sounded interesting - and it was!

Another series I want to get into is a Russian one about a spy among the Germans,
Seventeen Moments of Spring. Several people have recced it and it's one of the most popular and best series ever made in the USSR. We got hold of it but there's a problem with the subtitles in our version at present.

[thisbluespirit]

:-)

That sounds interesting - how annoying, though! I hope you can sort it, or get proper subtitles. Learning Russian might take a bit too long, really... (And, as you can tell from all my recent babbling, I did investigate Public Eye on the strength of it involving a lot of the same people as EatD, and I did like it! An odd show, but definitely intelligent television.)

Now I've just got to remember to watch actual up to date stuff... :loL: