thank you so much for creating a story for me! I hope you'll enjoy the experience and appreciate the work you're doing - writing a story in a tiny fandom we share is absolutely lovely, and I'm guaranteed to be pleased by your gift, so don't fret. My prompts are just that, prompts, not absolutes; if you have an idea that doesn't fit with any of them, but features (some of) the characters I asked for, I'll love it with added joyful surprise.

General DNWs:

A/B/O - if you want to write a werewolf AU for any of the canons I nominated, be my guest, but I'm really not into this particular type of story -, infantilisation, golden showers.

General likes:

character exploration, characters helping each other recover from trauma, messed up and/or co-dependent family relationships, witty banter, friendship against the odds, the occasional light moment in a darker story or conversely some serious character stuff thrown into a comedy fic.

On to the fandoms.

( 18th Century Frederician RPF )

( Circle of Voltaire RPF )

( Watchmen (TV) )

( Vincent and Theo )

I am a bad Beatles fan, because I didn't realise the title of this episode was a song quote until the damn song started playing at the end. *facepalm* Anyway, that was a terrific finale, though it makes this another show I loved which I hope won't get a second season, because this was perfect, and told its story well to the finish.

( Spoilers need air to heal )

Anyway: this was one awesome season of tv in its own right and a worthy follow up to a comic book masterpiece. Damon Lindelof, you deserve all the laurels for that one, as does every single scriptwriter and actor involved, as does the sound crew, and whoever was in charge of picking the music. Just - wow.

I managed to watch the two latest Watchmen episodes after all and - wow. Several times.

( Spoilers were the first )

And we're four for four with interesting female leads. Show, seriously, I'm so pleased.

( Thermodynamic Miracle Indeed )

Yuletide sign-ups are open, and among the fandoms one can offer and request is also the one I've spent considerable time in these recent months, to wit, Frederician RPF, by which we mean Frederick II of Prussia and assorted foes, friends and frenemies. We're having a blast; anecdote sharing, chatting and speculating about people in the 18th century, their messed up politics and even more messed up personal lives has proven a lovely distraction from the horrors of the current day. (Will someone in the future want to fictionalise The Dumbest Timeline we're currently living in? Not sure about that...)


Other than this one, the fandoms I've requested and the fandoms I offered were completely different this year. There's been a third group, i.e. fandoms I'm hoping someone else requests and writes, but that's per usual.

I also watched the first two episodes of the new tv Watchmen, and am cautiously intrigued. Damon Lindelof is definitely way more ambitioius with his approach than Zack Snyder, or, for that matter, what little I've seen of the non-Moore Watchmen prequel comics. I do think not doing another straightforward adaption but remaining in the same universe, with (mostly) new characters set several decades later (in 2019, but wthin the Watchmen universe, i.e. with that alternate timeline - all that happened in the original book did happen, including, it seems, the Squid) was a good choice, and while the various nods and homages are there, the tv show graspect something essential, i.e. that if you want to do something with the material like Moore and Gibbons did, you can't make it a nostalgia fest but need to make a point about today. And Regina King as Angela, our new main character, has been great so far. Of course there are also a number of potential storytelling desasters, various points where I mentally went "Really?" but so far the show then did what the original Watchmen also did, i.e. subverted and pointed out that early assumptions can be deceiving. Oh, and I appreciate the mystery aspect. When reading the original Watchmen for the first time, I did want to figure out what was going on and yes, who'd killed the Comedian, after all.

There is one particular scene in Watchmen, the film version, that illustrates the difference between, not just between the book it's based on and the film but director Zack Snyder's appraoch and Alan Moore's, and the way Snyder approaches storytelling, like few others. In both Watchmen the graphic novel and in the film (at that point) retired superheroes Dan and Laurie, after having had dinner, walk a bit, get cornered by thugs, wannabe muggers who think a couple emerging from a diner is easy game, and defeat their attackers. There is an adrenaline high that is part of the arc of these particular two characters and their return to superheroing. However. In the book, there is no reason to assume Dan and Laurie did anything lethal or particularly gruesome to said muggers, who appear to be alive, if on the floor and groaning. And believe me, this is not because Watchmen, the novel, is in any way coy about violence - when elsewhere people get crippled or killed, you're left in no doubt that this is what happens. In the film, Snyder not only heightened the number of attackers, but in the fight sequence that ensues, he has Dan and Laurie snapping necks and crunching bones like no one's business. It makes for a big action scene, to be sure, but it utterly ruins a couple of characterisation points, not just for Dan and Laurie but for Rorschach. (Seeing as it is a big turning point for Rorschach's backstory to go from the Dan style of superheroing to his own take-no-prisoners approach, and that there is a reason why the surviving superheroes, not the most stable bunch of characters themselves, do regard Rorschach as kind of crazy.) Not to mention that people who hadn't read the book probably thought that Dan and Laurie were superstrong (as opposed to be being your avarage human being who is trained in martial arts), whereas it's really important that in the Watchmenverse the only one with superpowers is Jon Osterman, aka Dr. Manhattan. Bear in mind I didn't hate the film, absolutely not. But at that point I thought, Snyder, I don't think you really get it, no.

Which brings me to Man of Steel, in which Zack Snyder as the director and Christopher Nolan as the producer give Superman the operatic treatment. I didn't hate that film, either. It had several elements I really enjoyed, an engaging cast not the least, and also, I can get behind several of the twists, such as ( a Lois Lane related spoiler ). Also this is arguably the first time I was actually interested in the Krypton backstory, which is good since it occupies a sizable portion of the film. And this Zod had a plausible motivation (as opposed to the standard I Wanna Rule The Universe one, that is). Oh, and one of the flashbacks, in which Clark as a child gets overwhelmed by all the sensory input until Martha manages to teach him how to deal with that reminded me in a good way of mutant origin stories. As for Henry Cavill, who was good as Charles Brandon (aka Henry VIII.s best buddy and brother-in-law) in The Tudors but never did anything for me there in terms of attraction, looks-wise (nor did anyone else, I hasten to add, at least among the men), he's suitably gorgeous here and does his valiant best with a script that's, err, well. Um. It could be worse? At least it means well? (BTW, the first trailer had made me afraid we'd get a "Clark is the mask, only Kal-El is real" interpretation, but not so, both sides of him are presented as real. But. The equivalent of The Watchmen's rendition of the Dan-and-Laurie-against-the-muggers sequence would be the endless grand action climax (not a spoiler, this; it's a Superman movie, of course there'll be a grand action climax). In which ( spoilery stuff happens that unfortunately makes the Watchmen thing like a minor nitpick, though it happens for the same reason: Snyder presumably thought it looks cool. )

In conclusion, I'm going back to my Lois & Clark rewatch. Or I would, if I weren't packing and organizing, but more about that in a later post.

When I recently read someone complaining Dylan shouldn't tour anymore because he croaks, I thought: when did he ever anything else? The appeal of Bob Dylan was never his voice. Or the personality. It was the songwriting, at which he was stunning, and deserves all the accolades he ever got from critics and peers alike. So, in tribute of his Bobness' 70th birthday, first a few examples of how the man continues to inspire, people from other media even, and then a song not by but about him, by the glorious Joan Baez.

( Did you know Bob Dylan is a Cylon? )

Recently, a friend of mine wondered in an aside what a Watchmen adaption by Orson Welles would have been like. Clearly, this was an idea of pure genius. Because Welles had both the absolute fearlessness and cheek, and while managing to infuriate half the fanbase before ruthlessly jettisoning some of the main characters along with subplots and plundering other Moore works for dialogue inserts, he'd have created something breathtakingly original in its own right.

(Also the meta of it would have been fun. Because in Watchmen the book, one of the earliest excerpts from Hollis Mason's memoirs mentions listening as a fan to Orson Welles on the radio, playing The Shadow/Lamont Cranston, one of the earliest superheroes.)

This train of thought of course brought me inevitably to contemplating other adaptions of comics classics by legendary directors, or rather, which legendary director would match best to which classic comics. Here are some ideas:

Charlie Chaplin: Mad Love by Paul Dini. Come on, it would have been awesome. Given how Chaplin loved to branch out (see him playing both Hitler in The Great Dictator and a serial killer in Monsieur Verdoux), you know he'd have been utterly unable to resist casting himself as the Joker. And as Harley Quinn? Paulette Godard, of course. However, in my head this adaption is a silent one, because though I do like Chaplin's later sound movies as well, the silent film is his true and most perfect medium. It would have been the best and most unique of all Batmenverse based films.

Alfred Hitchcock: The Dark Phoenix arc, by Chris Claremont. Hitchcock, expert in neurotic heroines and heroes as well as people going mad and trying to hide it, would have excelled at the original Jean Grey tragedy. Mind you, given that as Joseph Cotten put it in his memoirs he didn't understand why actresses didn't dye their hair blonde for the privilege of working for him, he'd have been sorely tempted in switching hair colour between Jean and Emma (if the Hellfire Club would have shown up in his adaption, that is, and knowing Hitchcock, I think it would have), but in the end he might have resisted.

Billy Wilder: Alias by Brian Bendis. Noir look at the underside of the Marvelverse, first person narration that really works instead of coming across as superfluous, sharp dialogue, inner brokenness? So a Wilder thing. He'd have probably ended up having a hate/hate relationship with Bendis as he did with Raymond Chandler on their shared script for Double Indemnity, but the result would so have been worth it. Including Barbara Stanwyck as Jessica Jones.

Name 5 characters who'd be most pleased if they ever got the opportunity to see what fandom is writing about them. (and the 5 characters who'd be most shocked)

Not as easy to answer as it looks, considering fandom has yet to write only one direction of fanfic about any given character. One person's OTP is another person's Ew, Ew, Anti-Kink Pairing, and so forth. However, here's my guess.

Most pleased:

1) Vila Restal (Blake's 7)

Given that most Vila-centric fic is bound to treat him kinder than canon usually does and more often than not makes him the hero of the story, he's bound to be pleased. Also, he gets laid far more often than in canon (that we know of).

2) Jack Harkness (Doctor Who, Torchwood): Jack could probably do without the BDSM and/or torture Year That Wasn't stories, but other than that, I can see him being alternately amused or flattered by all the fannish attention. And very pleased indeed that nobody seems to question that he lives up to his own advertisement. (Are there any stories in which Jack turns out not to be that great in the sack after all? Any?)

3) Emma Frost (X-Men): Emma would find it very satisfying that the fans wo dislike her still write her as an interesting character (or not at all), while her admirers tend to avoid ooc fluffyines or over the top Cruelle de Sue-ness. As for the pairings, she'd agree with Oscar Wilde that the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about, and offer a cryptic smile and a "no comment, darling" at the fact that Emma/Kitty and Emma/Jean stories seems to outnumber Emma/Scott by far.

4) Lucy Saxon (Doctor Who): Poor Lucy is just in two episodes, and in one of them she has barely any lines. She'd love all the fannish attention and revel in it, considering it her due at last. She'd probably take a jaundiced view on stories pairing her darling Harry with certain young women the Doctor hung out with, though. And would stay the hell away from all the Doctor/Master fic; living through it had to be grating enough...

5) Stark (Farscape): much sthe same reason as Vila; fanfic (if it features him at all) tends to be both nicer towards him and put him far more in the center, and the Stark devotees might be not the biggest faction in fandom but feature some of the best writers. So yes, Stark would probably be pleased, and wonder whether in one of his "my side, your side" episodes he wrote some of it himself.


Most shocked:

1) Rorschach (Watchmen): upon discovering his new career as a sex god pursued by original characters as well as Daniel Dreiberg and very occasionally Laurie, he'd either break a lot of fingers to prevent further story writing or conclude some supervillain must have brainwashed the masses in order to ruin Rorschach's reputation. (If he stumbles across stories where the OCs or Dan or Laurie call him "Walter", "Walt" or "Wally", all bets are off.)

2) Claire Bennet (Heroes): finding out you either get paired with every single member of your bio family and/or your adopted father and/or a crazy serial killer who already violated you in a not so metaphorical manner would do that to a girl. Bear in mind I stopped watching Heroes mid s3 and left the fandom, but my guess is this fanfic situation has not changed.

3) Severus Snape (Harry Potter): somehow, I doubt Snape would be able to take his career as a fannish sex god in much better grace than Rorschach. Especially if he first gets hold of the stories that pair him with students, or Sirius Black. (For my justification of that suspicion, I offer Snape's reaction when Gilderoy Lockhart suggests students should ask him for love potions for St. Valentine's day in Chamber of Secrets.) (Incidentally, if you're wondering why I don't think he or Rorschach would have Vila's reaction - neither of them has a sense of humor about himself.)

4) Rupert Giles (Buffy the Vampire Slayer): Giles does have a sense of humor about himself, but he's really not keen on sharing info about his private life. So no matter whether you believe he spent his youth shagging Ethan Rayne, and/or that he spent the years of the show lusting after/ having an actual affair with *insert Scoobie of choice*, I doubt he'd want anyone to write or read about it. Which brings me to:

5) Jack Bristow (Alias): Jack would be mortified. (Which, with him being Jack Bristow, would solely show in a microscecond of a glance. But that glance would be terrible to behold!) Doesn't matter whether he'd consider the stories accurate to the point of catching his every twitch or completely rubbish, the very thought of gazillions of stories out there featuring his life with Irina prominently, speculating on his relationship with Nadia, or his formely best friend Arvin... He'd hope for the earth to open and swallow everyone immediately. Wasn't it enough that Sloane had him playing out Jack/Irina fanfic for the world to see with Sydney as Irina as Laura while Jack was having his delirium period?

This morning I woke up to find one of my earliest stories set in the Jossverse, Her Fault (written in the post season 2 of Angel hiatus, and good lord, as Giles would say, was that long ago), was nominated for "Best Platonic" in the above linked awards. Whoever is responsible, thank you! I'm still rather fond of that story, which was basically about Cordelia and Darla having to team up, and were it not for the fact that I'm going to have a very busy weekend, I would be tempted to rewatch an episode or two in celebration.




***

Meanwhile, in other fandoms:

Battlestar Galactica:

Order of Succession: missing scene between Laura Roslin and Lee Adama set during 4.16. Deadlock; this is Laura the politician in great form, and a much needed conversation in the aftermath of mutiny and alliances alike.

Watchmen:

Smoke and Mirrors: speaking of missing scenes, this is one between the Comedian and Adrian Veidt; capturing Moore's unsparing characterisation just beautifully.

Theatre:

And lastly, if, like me, you find yourself unable to make that trip to London to watch Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in Waiting for Godot:
here's a report to enjoy in envy.