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Forged in Flames by Mele (PG)
Aug. 7th, 2017 08:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
germankittyFandom: Power Rangers (original TV series, 1993 - 1996)
Title: Forged in Flames (on Fanfiction.net)
Alternate links to fic: at Paladar's World of Fanfic or at Jenga's Library (THE fandom archive to post at back in the day)
Pairing/Character Focus: no pairings, focusses on the first team: Jason Scott, Kimberly Hart, Trini Kwan, Zack Taylor and Billy Cranston
Author: Mele (Ffnet profile)
What makes this a gem: I suppose every fandom with a team of central characters has an "alternate beginning" trope; it wasn't different for the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and this is one of the earliest three. The show gave us a motley crew of five teenagers who ostensibly had very little in common, yet seemed to be close friends when they were made Rangers. "Forged in Flames" is an attempt to explain how this friendship might have come to be.
The main plot -- a group of children up in the mountains on a fun outing -- takes place over just a day, and while all the choreographed fighting the show was (in)famous for is missing, there's plenty of suspense regardless when the kids get caught in a forest fire. What's best, IMO, is that in this fic ten-year-olds truly act as children; the tone is just right. The scenario is plausible as the setting for the original series was somewhere in contemporary California, and the characterization, even though it draws a lot on events in later episodes, is spot-on. The parents in this fic are all OCs; we were only given one brief glimpse of them, but they still seem consistent with what we've seen of the future Power Rangers when they were a few years older. In any case, all characters appear human and real, no matter whether they were canonical or not. If you're looking for warm, true-sounding stories with a lot of heart throughout, you're in good hands here.
IIRC, this was one of Mele's earliest fics, if not the very first, originally written about twenty years ago, in 1996/7. At that time, she had no Beta, but there are few gaffes and her style stayed plain and direct, making her a BNF during MMPR's heyday. It's also the first instalment of what would become the "Before and After" series; please be sure to check out the other two, "That Which Doesn't Kill You" and "Elemental Bonds" on the respective websites.
Final Note: Sadly, Mele lost her battle with cancer in October 2016. Even though she had branched out into other fandoms in later years, she still cared enough to post ALL of her completed work to Fanfiction.net. Fandom not only lost a good writer and great person with a wicked sense of humor, I also lost a close personal friend. Rest in peace, L'il Lady!
Title: Forged in Flames (on Fanfiction.net)
Alternate links to fic: at Paladar's World of Fanfic or at Jenga's Library (THE fandom archive to post at back in the day)
Pairing/Character Focus: no pairings, focusses on the first team: Jason Scott, Kimberly Hart, Trini Kwan, Zack Taylor and Billy Cranston
Author: Mele (Ffnet profile)
What makes this a gem: I suppose every fandom with a team of central characters has an "alternate beginning" trope; it wasn't different for the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and this is one of the earliest three. The show gave us a motley crew of five teenagers who ostensibly had very little in common, yet seemed to be close friends when they were made Rangers. "Forged in Flames" is an attempt to explain how this friendship might have come to be.
The main plot -- a group of children up in the mountains on a fun outing -- takes place over just a day, and while all the choreographed fighting the show was (in)famous for is missing, there's plenty of suspense regardless when the kids get caught in a forest fire. What's best, IMO, is that in this fic ten-year-olds truly act as children; the tone is just right. The scenario is plausible as the setting for the original series was somewhere in contemporary California, and the characterization, even though it draws a lot on events in later episodes, is spot-on. The parents in this fic are all OCs; we were only given one brief glimpse of them, but they still seem consistent with what we've seen of the future Power Rangers when they were a few years older. In any case, all characters appear human and real, no matter whether they were canonical or not. If you're looking for warm, true-sounding stories with a lot of heart throughout, you're in good hands here.
IIRC, this was one of Mele's earliest fics, if not the very first, originally written about twenty years ago, in 1996/7. At that time, she had no Beta, but there are few gaffes and her style stayed plain and direct, making her a BNF during MMPR's heyday. It's also the first instalment of what would become the "Before and After" series; please be sure to check out the other two, "That Which Doesn't Kill You" and "Elemental Bonds" on the respective websites.
Final Note: Sadly, Mele lost her battle with cancer in October 2016. Even though she had branched out into other fandoms in later years, she still cared enough to post ALL of her completed work to Fanfiction.net. Fandom not only lost a good writer and great person with a wicked sense of humor, I also lost a close personal friend. Rest in peace, L'il Lady!
