Legion, and Yuletide
Sep. 27th, 2017 01:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakHaving heard nothing but praise for Legion, a series consisting of eight episodes based on X-Men comics, I watched it during the last week, and lo, this one really lives up to its hype. The hype being that it's completely unlike other superhero based tv and movie versions of recent years and takes a truly original approach to its subject while also being true to its comics origins.
Now, while I've heard via general osmosis of the central character, I have never read any of the X-Men comics in which he's featured, so I have no idea whether the last part is literally true, but it's certainly true in that this series/season (as it's now being greenlit for a second season, though I'm not sure a second will work as well) roughly follows the general superhero pattern of origin story, confrontation with main villain, defeat of main villain (sort of). How it approaches its narrative is where the big difference lies. Starting with the looks (and use of music). I've seen comparisons to David Lynch, and you could also throw in some Cronenberg and Del Torro for good measure. Which is to say: it's visually breathtaking and wildly inventive. It also takes considerable risks with its viewer comfort. Most of the early episodes are scrictly within the main character's pov, and since said main character is possibly schizophrenic and/or a powerful mutant, definitely drugged (he starts out in a mental hospital), and emotionally messed up, this means the viewers get constantly unsettled as to whether anything they see is real. Or just in David's head. David being the main character. Or whether any of the other characters are real, or manifestations within David's subconscious. (Or... something else.)
One possible drawback for this may be it prevents identification with any of the characters (because you don't know whether or not they exist), but to be honest, I usually don't "identify" with characters anyway, and I felt the doubts about the reality of said characters impending on my take on the story just in one case. (Though that one case was a major character: Syd(ney) Barrett, whom David falls in love with early in the pilot. For the longest time, I thought it would turn out he's made her up, not least because the show had them fall in love via montage very early on, but as the series went on, I concluded the reason for this was that they couldn't spend more time on the falling-in-love part given all else the show wanted to explore.)
The later half of the season makes it easier to identify the different layers of reality - i.e. what takes place in anyone's minds and what happens in a physical world -, but is no less unsettling for that. I also like the way it twists what tropes it does use. For example: one of the more (the more you think about it) irritating narrative ticks in stories where a seemingly normal person is identified and supported above and beyond by a group of gifted people above and beyond simply because he, or in rarer cases she, is the chosen one, not for anything that person has done to earn such devotion. Whereas in Legion, Melanie, the leader of the mutants who break out David from government custody, actually has an entirely selfish reason for going to that trouble in the first place: she thinks he's, due to the nature of his powers, the one person who might be able to retrieve her husband Oliver, a mutant missing for 20 something years, from the mindscape he's vanished into. Secondarily, she also hopes to use David's powers to keep the government's forces away, but neither motivation is actually about David. Later on, once it's clear how very dangerous David's powers are, the team is again given a self preserving motivation not to get rid of him as quickly as they can, to wit, they might otherwise end up destroyed by either the Shadow King or the government forces. And speaking of D 3, the government bunch after the mutants, while various uncharacterised red shirts show up, the two people who actually gain a profile are The Eye, who is what Whispers is to Sense8, a mutant getting a kick out of hunting other mutants for the system, i.e. a conventional villain...and Clark, a non-mutant who provides the opening of the season finale when we switch to his pov, see him recover from gruesome third degree burns his last encounter with Melanie's team breaking out David has left him with, find out he's gay, married, and watch his husband and son trying their best to support him while he's recovering, how he tries to his best to continue despite the trauma, etc. - in short, he's suddenly a person, not a plot device, which puts his subsequent re-encounter with Our Heroes in a different emotional light.
I wasn't familiar (at least to my knowledge) with the various actors of the show except for Dan Stevens, who plays David, and used to be Cousin Matthew on Downton Abbey, so this very different role was one of those occasions when you go "oh, actor previously used as bland love interest can actually act!" (He's playing David as an American, though there's a hilarious sequence when he gets to use his own, i.e. English accent.) Of the various ensemble members, Aubrey Plaza and Jemaine Clement have the juiciest roles (and excell in them), but really, there isn't a bad player among them. You can watch the show without familiarity with the X-Men movies (let alone the rest of the Marvelverse), though I will say that after a certain revelation, trying to figure out just when all of this happens in relation to the X-saga is fun, and of course begs for crossovers, fanfiction-wise.
In conclusion: definitely a winner, and proves you can tackle a well-trod genre with verve and lots of inventiveness.
Speaking of creativity, I see the Yuletide 2017 Tag Set is up. Lots of entries there both for fandoms in which I hope someone else will write and for those I marked as possible offers to write in. (Sometimes they overlap, of course.) I'm boggled at the sheer amount of Karl May novels nominated. Also, someone put up "German Literature RPF" with two of the Brentano siblings, Clemens and Bettine, plus Achim von Armin and Goethe, which makes me wonder what they're hoping for - slash, incest or unabashed groupiness? All of the above? Looking forward to find that out.
Meanwhile, here are possible "I could write for this one without having to reread/rewatch the entire canon" fandoms for me:
Books:
Dickens, David Copperfield
Kästner, Das Fliegende Klassenzimmer (long live Erich Kästner)
Barbara Hambly, Bride of the Rat God
Matthew Shardlake Series by C.J. Sansom
Order of the Air series by Jo Graham and Melissa Scott
Plantagent Series by Sharon Penman
Movies:
Logan (this one surprised me, because of the X-movies, but I suppose as its own thing, it's a small enough fandom still. Having rewatched the movie recently, I checked out the fanfic and stumbled across endless reader inserts featuring Pierce, of all the people. So Yuletide to the rescue!)
TV:
Defenders (again, in despite the MCUness because it's recent enough so its own category is not above the limit, I suppose, which I'm grateful for)
Class
The Last Kingdom (definitely one I'll both request and offer for)
Borgia: Faith and Fear (aka the Other Borgias; will request)
Rome (enough characters nominated that I could offer without ending up with Vorenus/Pullo requests - nothing against that pairing, I just can't write it)
Now, while I've heard via general osmosis of the central character, I have never read any of the X-Men comics in which he's featured, so I have no idea whether the last part is literally true, but it's certainly true in that this series/season (as it's now being greenlit for a second season, though I'm not sure a second will work as well) roughly follows the general superhero pattern of origin story, confrontation with main villain, defeat of main villain (sort of). How it approaches its narrative is where the big difference lies. Starting with the looks (and use of music). I've seen comparisons to David Lynch, and you could also throw in some Cronenberg and Del Torro for good measure. Which is to say: it's visually breathtaking and wildly inventive. It also takes considerable risks with its viewer comfort. Most of the early episodes are scrictly within the main character's pov, and since said main character is possibly schizophrenic and/or a powerful mutant, definitely drugged (he starts out in a mental hospital), and emotionally messed up, this means the viewers get constantly unsettled as to whether anything they see is real. Or just in David's head. David being the main character. Or whether any of the other characters are real, or manifestations within David's subconscious. (Or... something else.)
One possible drawback for this may be it prevents identification with any of the characters (because you don't know whether or not they exist), but to be honest, I usually don't "identify" with characters anyway, and I felt the doubts about the reality of said characters impending on my take on the story just in one case. (Though that one case was a major character: Syd(ney) Barrett, whom David falls in love with early in the pilot. For the longest time, I thought it would turn out he's made her up, not least because the show had them fall in love via montage very early on, but as the series went on, I concluded the reason for this was that they couldn't spend more time on the falling-in-love part given all else the show wanted to explore.)
The later half of the season makes it easier to identify the different layers of reality - i.e. what takes place in anyone's minds and what happens in a physical world -, but is no less unsettling for that. I also like the way it twists what tropes it does use. For example: one of the more (the more you think about it) irritating narrative ticks in stories where a seemingly normal person is identified and supported above and beyond by a group of gifted people above and beyond simply because he, or in rarer cases she, is the chosen one, not for anything that person has done to earn such devotion. Whereas in Legion, Melanie, the leader of the mutants who break out David from government custody, actually has an entirely selfish reason for going to that trouble in the first place: she thinks he's, due to the nature of his powers, the one person who might be able to retrieve her husband Oliver, a mutant missing for 20 something years, from the mindscape he's vanished into. Secondarily, she also hopes to use David's powers to keep the government's forces away, but neither motivation is actually about David. Later on, once it's clear how very dangerous David's powers are, the team is again given a self preserving motivation not to get rid of him as quickly as they can, to wit, they might otherwise end up destroyed by either the Shadow King or the government forces. And speaking of D 3, the government bunch after the mutants, while various uncharacterised red shirts show up, the two people who actually gain a profile are The Eye, who is what Whispers is to Sense8, a mutant getting a kick out of hunting other mutants for the system, i.e. a conventional villain...and Clark, a non-mutant who provides the opening of the season finale when we switch to his pov, see him recover from gruesome third degree burns his last encounter with Melanie's team breaking out David has left him with, find out he's gay, married, and watch his husband and son trying their best to support him while he's recovering, how he tries to his best to continue despite the trauma, etc. - in short, he's suddenly a person, not a plot device, which puts his subsequent re-encounter with Our Heroes in a different emotional light.
I wasn't familiar (at least to my knowledge) with the various actors of the show except for Dan Stevens, who plays David, and used to be Cousin Matthew on Downton Abbey, so this very different role was one of those occasions when you go "oh, actor previously used as bland love interest can actually act!" (He's playing David as an American, though there's a hilarious sequence when he gets to use his own, i.e. English accent.) Of the various ensemble members, Aubrey Plaza and Jemaine Clement have the juiciest roles (and excell in them), but really, there isn't a bad player among them. You can watch the show without familiarity with the X-Men movies (let alone the rest of the Marvelverse), though I will say that after a certain revelation, trying to figure out just when all of this happens in relation to the X-saga is fun, and of course begs for crossovers, fanfiction-wise.
In conclusion: definitely a winner, and proves you can tackle a well-trod genre with verve and lots of inventiveness.
Speaking of creativity, I see the Yuletide 2017 Tag Set is up. Lots of entries there both for fandoms in which I hope someone else will write and for those I marked as possible offers to write in. (Sometimes they overlap, of course.) I'm boggled at the sheer amount of Karl May novels nominated. Also, someone put up "German Literature RPF" with two of the Brentano siblings, Clemens and Bettine, plus Achim von Armin and Goethe, which makes me wonder what they're hoping for - slash, incest or unabashed groupiness? All of the above? Looking forward to find that out.
Meanwhile, here are possible "I could write for this one without having to reread/rewatch the entire canon" fandoms for me:
Books:
Dickens, David Copperfield
Kästner, Das Fliegende Klassenzimmer (long live Erich Kästner)
Barbara Hambly, Bride of the Rat God
Matthew Shardlake Series by C.J. Sansom
Order of the Air series by Jo Graham and Melissa Scott
Plantagent Series by Sharon Penman
Movies:
Logan (this one surprised me, because of the X-movies, but I suppose as its own thing, it's a small enough fandom still. Having rewatched the movie recently, I checked out the fanfic and stumbled across endless reader inserts featuring Pierce, of all the people. So Yuletide to the rescue!)
TV:
Defenders (again, in despite the MCUness because it's recent enough so its own category is not above the limit, I suppose, which I'm grateful for)
Class
The Last Kingdom (definitely one I'll both request and offer for)
Borgia: Faith and Fear (aka the Other Borgias; will request)
Rome (enough characters nominated that I could offer without ending up with Vorenus/Pullo requests - nothing against that pairing, I just can't write it)
