Honestly, this has been one of my concerns all along, so I'm glad you brought it up.
I had the "Stephen and Stephen switch places" idea before I worked out how it would happen. Once I had the mechanism in place, I tried to keep it grounded in the logic of the Reportverse, and I tried to keep it serious, which is why the last chapter went so serious and wrenching after it was revealed.
And here, even with the weirdness of the premise, I'm not playing it for laughs. I'm trying to take Quetzalcoatl as solemnly as any person of strong faith takes their deities. Right now, for the characters -- all of the characters -- he is deadly serious.
This isn't "lol fussy Aztec snake-bird". This is Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". If he were from a certain other belief system, there would be fire and brimstone licking at the corners of the scenes.
The pain, confusion, loss, and suffering throughout the story has been moving readers so far. It shouldn't become less moving for the cause. I suppose if it had all turned out to be a practical joke, that would be a letdown; but it wasn't. For "Stephen", it was a targeted smiting from a vengeful god. For everyone else, it was incidental damage caused by the fact that they mean nothing to said vengeful god. There's even cause for more heartbreak on "Stephen's" behalf, knowing that everything he's been through wasn't just the coincidental result of a random universe swap, but the calculated result of a plan that aimed to tear him down on every level -- and succeeded.
I think that fulfills the "deeper and darker" criterion. Do you?
no subject
I had the "Stephen and Stephen switch places" idea before I worked out how it would happen. Once I had the mechanism in place, I tried to keep it grounded in the logic of the Reportverse, and I tried to keep it serious, which is why the last chapter went so serious and wrenching after it was revealed.
And here, even with the weirdness of the premise, I'm not playing it for laughs. I'm trying to take Quetzalcoatl as solemnly as any person of strong faith takes their deities. Right now, for the characters -- all of the characters -- he is deadly serious.
This isn't "lol fussy Aztec snake-bird". This is Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". If he were from a certain other belief system, there would be fire and brimstone licking at the corners of the scenes.
The pain, confusion, loss, and suffering throughout the story has been moving readers so far. It shouldn't become less moving for the cause. I suppose if it had all turned out to be a practical joke, that would be a letdown; but it wasn't. For "Stephen", it was a targeted smiting from a vengeful god. For everyone else, it was incidental damage caused by the fact that they mean nothing to said vengeful god. There's even cause for more heartbreak on "Stephen's" behalf, knowing that everything he's been through wasn't just the coincidental result of a random universe swap, but the calculated result of a plan that aimed to tear him down on every level -- and succeeded.
I think that fulfills the "deeper and darker" criterion. Do you?