Two fandoms, one experience
Apr. 7th, 2016 10:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakVariation old fandom:
*self* Has a conversation with friend involving Iron Man 3. Rewatches IM3, is filled with great fondness, checks out fanfiction especially knowing what the impending arrival of Civil War will inevitably result in. Reads summaries on pages 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the AO3 Iron Man archive. Stares in disbelief.
Prevailing feeling: Who are these people supposed to be? Definitely not any characters I've seen in the movies...
So, in Iron Man 3, Tony Stark has anxiety problems and PTSD (not much "post" about it.) (Which, btw, is surprising and neat emotional realism in a superhero movie. Usually this stuff happens only if it's the central trauma the hero needs to heroically overcome and never has to deal with again. Not as an ongoing side effect which doesn't define him or stop him from doing his job but is there. It's something of red thread through the movie, which doesn't stop him from participating in the plot. He talks about it to Pepper (because he's learned from IM2, lo and behold), it's briefly brought up in conversation with Rhodey when they mostly talk about something else, and the kid Tony meets mid-movie notices, too. You know what DOESN'T happen in all three instances: utter breakdowns on Tony's part, "OMG poor Tony!" exclamations on the side of the other party leading to "how could I ever pay attention to anything else in my life" type of inner monologues. Not to mentoin the utter disappearance of the verbal wit that makes much of the Tony and Pepper on screen interaction, and indeed the Tony and anyone interaction.
If fanfic had created the kid in the movie, not only would it have been an abused child (*cue endless flashbacks*) but the delightful mutual snark between Tony and the boy (complete with Tony seeing through the attempt at guilt tripping and manipulation - can't pull that one on a pro, after all) and the kid not compelled in the least to feel responsible for Tony's health problems, instead finding the chance at mechanical gizmos far more interesting, would never have existed. As opposed to mutual sob fests and the reveal the kid was really Loki in disguise. Or Peter Parker.
(Oh, and sequences like the rescue of the flight passengers, or Tony, proving he's improved from his younger jerk self with Killian in the teaser in the way he deals with Gary the fanboy: would be non existent.)
Basically: Tony Stark isn't the only MCU character to whom this happens, but he's definitely among the top examples of lots of fanfiction taking anything that makes me like him so much on screen away in favor of a trope list.
Variation new fandom:
*self* is excited the Black Sails fandom finally is getting larger, new stories are being written, and hey, several of them about a pairing I'm very interested in with a fascinating on screen dynamic!
*self* Reads the summaries. In rarer cases, reads the stories despite that.
Prevailing feeling: Who are these people supposed to be? Definitely not the characters I've seen on my tv screen...
Aaaaanyway.I realise that everything is subjective, my interpretation is just that, mine, not obligatory for anyone else, etc., etc., different strokes for different people, and different tropes, etc. And every now and then, I actually find a gem where what appeals to me on screen is included in the fanfiction rendition. As, for instance, this excellent Silver and Flint emotional power play:
If your feelings aren't a story
*self* Has a conversation with friend involving Iron Man 3. Rewatches IM3, is filled with great fondness, checks out fanfiction especially knowing what the impending arrival of Civil War will inevitably result in. Reads summaries on pages 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the AO3 Iron Man archive. Stares in disbelief.
Prevailing feeling: Who are these people supposed to be? Definitely not any characters I've seen in the movies...
So, in Iron Man 3, Tony Stark has anxiety problems and PTSD (not much "post" about it.) (Which, btw, is surprising and neat emotional realism in a superhero movie. Usually this stuff happens only if it's the central trauma the hero needs to heroically overcome and never has to deal with again. Not as an ongoing side effect which doesn't define him or stop him from doing his job but is there. It's something of red thread through the movie, which doesn't stop him from participating in the plot. He talks about it to Pepper (because he's learned from IM2, lo and behold), it's briefly brought up in conversation with Rhodey when they mostly talk about something else, and the kid Tony meets mid-movie notices, too. You know what DOESN'T happen in all three instances: utter breakdowns on Tony's part, "OMG poor Tony!" exclamations on the side of the other party leading to "how could I ever pay attention to anything else in my life" type of inner monologues. Not to mentoin the utter disappearance of the verbal wit that makes much of the Tony and Pepper on screen interaction, and indeed the Tony and anyone interaction.
If fanfic had created the kid in the movie, not only would it have been an abused child (*cue endless flashbacks*) but the delightful mutual snark between Tony and the boy (complete with Tony seeing through the attempt at guilt tripping and manipulation - can't pull that one on a pro, after all) and the kid not compelled in the least to feel responsible for Tony's health problems, instead finding the chance at mechanical gizmos far more interesting, would never have existed. As opposed to mutual sob fests and the reveal the kid was really Loki in disguise. Or Peter Parker.
(Oh, and sequences like the rescue of the flight passengers, or Tony, proving he's improved from his younger jerk self with Killian in the teaser in the way he deals with Gary the fanboy: would be non existent.)
Basically: Tony Stark isn't the only MCU character to whom this happens, but he's definitely among the top examples of lots of fanfiction taking anything that makes me like him so much on screen away in favor of a trope list.
Variation new fandom:
*self* is excited the Black Sails fandom finally is getting larger, new stories are being written, and hey, several of them about a pairing I'm very interested in with a fascinating on screen dynamic!
*self* Reads the summaries. In rarer cases, reads the stories despite that.
Prevailing feeling: Who are these people supposed to be? Definitely not the characters I've seen on my tv screen...
Aaaaanyway.I realise that everything is subjective, my interpretation is just that, mine, not obligatory for anyone else, etc., etc., different strokes for different people, and different tropes, etc. And every now and then, I actually find a gem where what appeals to me on screen is included in the fanfiction rendition. As, for instance, this excellent Silver and Flint emotional power play:
If your feelings aren't a story
no subject
Date: 2016-04-07 10:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-07 12:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-07 04:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-07 05:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-08 06:02 am (UTC)Yeah, most fanfiction renditions of Tony Stark are baffling -- it's not that they feature in badly written stories necessarily; it's that they fail at fanfiction.
Then again, let's be real, so are most Steve or Natasha stories. The MCU in general may be a large fandom, but most of it is dreck. I longingly think back to Fringe fandom, where stories were generally good to great, or to Veronica Mars, where they were smart and sharp and well-written...
no subject
Date: 2016-04-08 07:04 am (UTC)However, every now and then, a gem like the one I just recced shows up in MCU fanfic, and that makes it worth keeping looking and poking.