I think if you do look at all the fics over the years in the archive, you will find that premature Lois deathfics significantly outnumber Clark deathfics (as do "Lois as mere plot device" vs . "Clark as mere plot device" fics.) But regardless, Lois or Clark death-fics are very much a minority in the sum total.

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And as a writer, I frankly don't want to be saddled with saving Lois or preserving the core characters or anything else. I want to write the story my muse and I conjure up. I want to write it well and make some sort of impact on the reader. I want to be creative,
Fair enough. The mbs has "an orginal fic" category to encourage writer's more creative endeavours. Nothing wrong with writing what you want at all, but perhaps it's not unreasonable to hope that a writer might respect the feelings of those who want only to read "Lois and Clark" fic? Isn't it possible to do both?

I'm less comfortable with the suggestion that we not be critical of what we read. Do we want to stifle discussion about style, plot, characterization, etc? The mbs would be a boring place were that to occur, not to mention we'd lose the opportunity to get critiques of our work. smile

With respect to the few stories i've written, I've always wanted to know if readers perceived my characters as "in character" and whether I've done right by them, if the style works, the plot logical, character motivation made sense, etc. If readers only gush (which of course is very wonderful smile ), then how would I ever know? Sometimes the criticsim of my stories has been rough, but I've learned from it and adjusted stories to try to take into account various concerns. (although not always laugh )