What in the world!? Victor and Victoria both die!? what happens to the child? what happens next?

Okay I just checked out your author profile and realized you wrote a sequel to this! I will check it out and hopefully find the answers to all my questions! Great great great work on this wonderful fanfic.

First, I would just like to thank you for posting such a wonderful piece of work. This is one of the best fanfics I have ever read, for sure in my top 5. You are a wonderful writer. I feel sad when I think that this story can never be properly published and sold in a bookstore (because unfortunately Corpse Bride belongs to Tim Burton...sigh), because this story is touching and magnificent and beautiful and AMAZING and I know that there are thousands of people out there who would be glad to read something like this. There are so many quotable lines throughout your story, lines that I can't remember right now because I am so filled with emotion after that powerful ending, and also because the plot was so good that I couldn't stop and think while reading. I just kept on going, reading your fanfic in my classes, before sleeping, instead of doing my homework, etc etc. If you ever do publish or at least write a book, please let me know because I will be the first to buy it. Needless to say, you now have a new fan. You captured the characters so amazingly, and you didn't write the story to please the readers, you wrote the story because you had something to say. I really like that in the end, Mrs. Hall still felt hostile towards Victor despite all he's done, because 1) it's in her personality, and 2) she doesn't know what happened. It was realistic. Like you, Victoria is also my favorite character in Corpse Bride. But I don't think you gave her a terrible ending or made her sad. She gets to die with her beloved, and "end up in a better place" together with Victor, so I guess that can't be that bad, right? I love the way you painted Victor and Victoria's relationship. They are so loving towards one another here, and AGH it's just great.

There are a couple of things, though.. first, I wish there was a scene, even a short one, of Victor holding his daughter. It would make it more personal. To imagine him only putting the flower behind her ear without actually holding her ... is a little lacking. It's like there's something missing. It would have been a more tender and emotional moment if Victor actually carried her for a while. Well, maybe that's just me.

Also, it isn't very clear to me what happens to Victor and Victoria after they die. How can Victor be having dreams of them in the "In Between" place if he can't have dreams because he can't sleep (because he's dead!)? And didn't Victoria say that they would end up in a better place, much nicer and beautiful than Downstairs? Somehow I didn't imagine the In Between. I imagined something like Heaven, or at least a similar place. Is that where they end up? What happens to them? Are they happy after they die?

I also really wish I knew what happened to baby Emily Van Dort after she was orphaned. Where did she end up? Who raised her? Did she have a childhood filled with piano playing and drawing and playing in gardens like her parents always dreamed? Does she ever get to see her parents in her dreams, like how Victor saw Emily? I guess I have a LOT of unanswered questions. Most of them are just products of my curious nature on my part, but there are also a few loose ends at the end of your story.

Nevertheless this is a beautiful story. I am forcing all of my friends to watch the Corpse Bride just so they can read it. This has a special place in my heart. :)

You are an enchanting writer. You pick up on emotions beautifully and transform the story that you make with these characters into something truly poetic and burtonesque. I'm so happy I found this story because it was a great experience to read. I wish you luck in your future endeavors.

Great writing as usual. It was great seeing Barkis again, as creepy and menacing as he is. Although I'm wondering where his mastery of rats came from. You spin an interesting angle on his murderous habits as well. It's rather horrifying to think about what Emily went through before her death.

When Victor comes back, I could imagine Mrs. Hall being furious with him, kind of like how Nell would likely be whenever she'd find him again after the events of the film. Of course, his return can only be cut short of happiness with the news that his baby daughter was stillborn. If he's devastated, one could only picture how Victoria would feel, along with how she'd feel upon seeing Victor back again.

But it seems that their level of happiness can be lifted upon seeing that their daughter is alive! And I'm wondering if the butterfly had anything to do with it...? ;)

Great story here, Cori! Glad I could review it all for you, and happy belated birthday. :)

I may have said this for another chapter, but Victor and Emily's conversation here reminds me of the one that Harry has with Dumbledore in the Deathly Hallows, when in limbo. It seems that Victor is at a crossroads between life and death now, and he has the choice to really pass or return to life. I'd hope like Harry, he would choose to live because it's not his or Victoria, nor their child's time to die just yet.

Like Victor, I know Victoria would feel sorry for what happened to Emily, and would probably want to live her life how Emily never had the chance to. As I've said before, Emily sacrifice was beneficial because she saved Victoria from suffering the exact same fate she did.

I wonder how much closer Victor is to death if his skin is turning blue. Speaking of which, it makes me wonder why that was the color chosen for the dead to have. Although, maybe it's because skin can turn blue when it gets very cold, so maybe it illustrates how the life has been drained from the person...? That would make sense for Victor here since he is getting close to finally dying.

Oh man, I don't think you could have explained Barkis's presence here any better! I know he'd want to have revenge on Victor and Victoria somehow for tricking him into getting killed, and if any one of them came to the Land of the Dead, he would surely want to extract his revenge. Him having those rats as accomplices makes this chapter all the more creepy. Victor would surely feel that he has failed everyone by now, but when a chance comes for him to escape, he'd take it!

I can only imagine that Victoria is going to pieces over Victor's absence, and I think this time, it'd be a little harder for her to not be so concerned, unlike when he vanished the first time, after the wedding rehearsal.

Ah ha, I knew that was Emily! I figured that if she appeared to Victoria in this story, it would be to assure her that Victor does love her and will return. But at the end here...no time to waste since the baby is coming!

You know, seeing and reading Bonejangles and Victor conversing in this chapter made me think how they never did in the film. Heck, he definitely seemed as misunderstood and ignorant as Emily was about her "marriage," though all the other dead believed the two were married as well. However, Emily initiated that belief to the rest of the dead.

Yikes, getting cornered by rats here at the end! I can only wonder what happens next...

Hi again, Cori! Glad my reviews have made you happy, and I think I can spare time to do one more for today. Reading about Guktknecht in this chapter makes me think of how kind and helpful he was in the film, and I'm sure Victor thought he was one of the most caring beings he'd ever known, given how almost everyone he knows up in the world above pretty much isn't. He's only one of two characters, not counting Emily, in the underworld in the film who calls Victor by name. Not that it's a big deal, I guess, but it is always nice to have others call you by name if they remember it. But I can picture Gutknecht regretting his words in the previous chapter, and I'm sure he regrets not being able to be much of a help to his situation now.

At least Victor has some good and familiar company since it appears that his life is finally coming to an end. I'm sure that Scraps was his best and only friend when alive.

So I'll be sure to read and review the rest in the next couple of days. Besides the essays, I've written some Brave stories as well, in case you're interested at all whenever the chance arises. I will tell you that when it comes to reading or even writing stories for a fandom like this one or Brave, I like to do so if the stories sound as close as they could be to the film, with people staying in character and things like that. I never thought I could be on par with that as much, but many reviewers have thought that I have done well. I love Corpse Bride, but I really don't have any new ideas outside of the essay, so I think I will just stick to reading and reviewing stories that I like. I'm primarily sticking to VictorxVictoria stories, and I'll only read VictorxEmily stories if they are very good, or at least decent enough to me.

Despite her demeanor, I think even Victoria couldn't enjoy the physical pains of pregnancy during the nine months of it. But maybe she could still be positive regarding the future that will come from this.

Yes, I know she'd be worried about Victor after so long, especially since it wouldn't be like him not to leave a note, but then when that boy comes by with his coat, well, what can Victoria be thinking then?

I have a hunch that the two children Victor sees are the two skeletal ones? I wonder if by the time he meets Gutknecht again, he is getting tired of being asked if he is dead yet. His response on what is wrong with dying makes me think of "Why go up there when people are dying to get down here?" Bad pun, but hey, it works. And I don't agree that it is her time already...but hopefully Victor will find an answer. I'm sure by now that is thinking about the joys of having children, and he wants to be able to share that with Victoria.