Duuuuuuuuude, Neal-as-Achilles is BRILLIANT. *offers carrot cake for the plotbunnies*
And it works on so many different levels - with the anklet, and being extremely good at what he does, and also not at all inclined to take orders except when he feels like it ...
And I get to poke a lot more at psychological and post-traumatic effects which Neal really should be dealing with, considering things like how he got thrown down when a plane with his beloved on it explode right behind him, and then in the next season finale got staggered by an explosion, tried to run in to save another (differently) precious thing and did get thrown around by a backdraft, and then got a simulated execution from Adler right on top of that. Even for Neal, that has to widen some cracks.
OMG YES. That really should have been explored, more. And I'd love to see what you do with it.
... I have this whole "Five Alternate Endings for S2" epic thing I keep meaning to write, which is turning into more Six or Seven Alternate Endings, basically rewriting that final confrontation with Adler in different ways and how that affects things.
Some of which are short (the one where Neal is killed in the explosion, the one where Alex gets away with the treasure) and some of which are, um, probably going to each be kind of epic length. What if Peter didn't shoot Adler, and Adler went on trial? (My guess - there's no evidence tying him to Kate's death, and he's well-connected enough to get by with some fairly light slap on the wrist for the Ponzi scheme, and how does Neal deal with that? Or fail to deal, more likely?) What if Peter shot one of Adler's minions instead, and Adler went on trial? What if Diana or someone else shot Adler? What if Adler walked in on Mozzie sneaking into the warehouse and took Mozzie hostage to force Neal to help him escape with the treasure?
And then I have at least two different AUs where Neal shoots Adler. Because I also like to break things.
And I love the guardian angel idea - there's so much potential to play around with, there.
no subject
And it works on so many different levels - with the anklet, and being extremely good at what he does, and also not at all inclined to take orders except when he feels like it ...
And I get to poke a lot more at psychological and post-traumatic effects which Neal really should be dealing with, considering things like how he got thrown down when a plane with his beloved on it explode right behind him, and then in the next season finale got staggered by an explosion, tried to run in to save another (differently) precious thing and did get thrown around by a backdraft, and then got a simulated execution from Adler right on top of that. Even for Neal, that has to widen some cracks.
OMG YES. That really should have been explored, more. And I'd love to see what you do with it.
... I have this whole "Five Alternate Endings for S2" epic thing I keep meaning to write, which is turning into more Six or Seven Alternate Endings, basically rewriting that final confrontation with Adler in different ways and how that affects things.
Some of which are short (the one where Neal is killed in the explosion, the one where Alex gets away with the treasure) and some of which are, um, probably going to each be kind of epic length. What if Peter didn't shoot Adler, and Adler went on trial? (My guess - there's no evidence tying him to Kate's death, and he's well-connected enough to get by with some fairly light slap on the wrist for the Ponzi scheme, and how does Neal deal with that? Or fail to deal, more likely?) What if Peter shot one of Adler's minions instead, and Adler went on trial? What if Diana or someone else shot Adler? What if Adler walked in on Mozzie sneaking into the warehouse and took Mozzie hostage to force Neal to help him escape with the treasure?
And then I have at least two different AUs where Neal shoots Adler. Because I also like to break things.
And I love the guardian angel idea - there's so much potential to play around with, there.