#aughhh god hoffstrahm makes my brain go NUTS

[doomednarrative]

Same anon that wrote that big Hoffstrahm fic thoughts ask yesterday! I just wanted to say thank you to both authors who let comments on that ask and also to you for leaving such an amazing response to everything I had said about those fics. Knowing that Cosmo actually inspired some parts of Dies At The End is so fascinating because of just how different the two of them are! It’s interesting how Remy said that Cosmo was written around arguments, which is a form of communication, and that Adam wrote them as two people who COULD have had a form of communication with each other at some point in there lives, but they just didn’t add up to when they could actually speak to each other, ie how Strahm at the end could have reached Hoffman at the start and vice versa. I also liked how you pointed out that all of these fics seem to be based around choices, and that the tone of these fics really dictates the choices that could be made and the WAY they are made.

No problem anon!! I'll @ the two of them again here so they can see your response as well once I write the rest of my answer here.

It is interesting what ends up inspiring what, I agree! Truth be told it was originally Remy’s fic that made me want to write for Peter once I started gathering ideas for the Jigsquad au with Tibby. But reading Strahm Dies was what really cemented that I felt like I was on the right track with my own meta, and I actually told Adam after I finished the fic that I did save bits of it to reflect on while doing my own writing, which is true! I look back on parts of it while fleshing out my own story because Adam had some really solid insight on Strahm and that’s something I wanted to keep on hand for reference.

Communication as the basis of a narrative is honestly one of my favorite things. Placing two characters in a situation and seeing what’ll make them talk is ultimately always an interesting concept, hell it’s the whole basis for moving the plot forward in the first Saw movie too! Adam and Lawrence would get nowhere without doing so, and so it’s interesting to do the same thing to Strahm and Hoffman and see what makes them tick and what gets them to actually speak to each other. Remy did it with making them bicker, which is always fun to write once you get in the flow of it honestly. And Adam did an amazing job with forcing them to have to talk while Strahm was being held captive considering Hoffman was his literal only option, but even then he couldn't fully open up and accept the hand offered to him! it’s just...I can’t really put it in words, but I love how both of them approached it for their own fics.

I pointed out the thing about choices because tbh!! That’s where I come from with my writing! Oftentimes, as y’all will see with the fic I’m currently working on too, I derive my narratives from having someone make a choice and seeing where it leads them and what consequences it might have down the line! Writing for Hoffstrahm is so compelling for me for Exactly that reason, because it does come down to choices a lot! It comes down to what Strahm can chose to live with if he should actually try to have some sort of relationship with Hoffman, it comes down to what Hoffman decides to do with Strahm and if he actually tries to kill him, it’s all About choices in the end!! The motto after all is “Make Your Choice” for Saw, and that’s something I like to toy with a lot, so I tend to be drawn to those kinds of stories too. Even if we said that Strahm Dies and Cosmos are written about communication, they’re also about choices too in their own right when you examine them. Strahm’s choice to follow the rules of the tape in the beginning of Cosmos, and Hoffman’s snap decision not to kill Strahm in Strahm Dies are ultimately what leads to the rest of those stories happening. Without the choices, the narrative doesn’t even start, and I love that about them both!

Augh just... I could talk about this stuff forever tbh but I’ll leave it here for now. Once again I’ll tag @carouselcometh and @romanromulus in case they have further input, and so they can see your message again as well. (Also this is me letting you both know I did read your replies and I’m thinking about what you both said, it was some very good insight honestly!)

#ask #answered #kief rambles about saw #aughhh god hoffstrahm makes my brain go NUTS