The thing with the story is it is, per Goodwin's words, about the men who got back. Having one of them turn into career military would break the theme.
There was one character who is identified as a Corpsman/medic Castle knew in Vietnam who patches him up on one occasion that could have been Capa, though cthat character is from Jason Aaron's run, which Ennis might not be acknowledging.
I think the story would have benefited from a longer run, in part to show more of the marines becoming a platoon. Don't know if that is a YMMV or not.
Could the focus on Castle's positive qualities be counted as author's saving throw for those who regard Ennis' castle as too bleak?
The Author's Saving Throw part makes a lot of sense.
The Marines narrowed focus as an entire platoon could count under They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot (especially for those with mixed feelings about how much time the framing device gets compared to something like Stevie's simple voiceovers in Born).
The soldier Ly Quang captures for Giap to interrogate could be another One-Scene Wonder candidate.
Any thoughts on They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot, One-Scene Wonder, They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character or Ensemble Dark Horse for a YMMV Page?
Ii've been told that a good YMMV entry should have multiple people who agree with the content, and so I'm putting this stuff out there to see if anyone agrees and wants to act on it.
I felt that the focus of the Platoon members was too narrow (I would have liked seeing a lot more of Ortega and having the guy nicknamed Eyeball have a more distinct role, for instance).
Cuong is a character that I find oddly endearing. As far as the main characters go, Dryden and Molland are my favorite but Dryden at least is probably too important to be an Ensemble Dark Horse.
The Green Beret might count as a One-Scene Wonder.
For They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot, I might say that the Lighter and Softer role of the story wastes a bit of potential to really show Frank's Start of Darkness (although then again, Ennis says he's contemplating a third Vietnam miniseries which may have more of that), and also feel like they could have had one of the platoon members be one of military contacts Frank references who he knows from Vietnam at the beginning of Man of Stone (a part of me still wonders if Dryden might be the sergeant who became a colonel who he briefly references).
Edited by Melinda Hide / Show Replies