Long, Not Terribly Coherent Fandom Post
Feb. 26th, 2014 12:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightI've been mulling this over for the last few weeks, trying to get my thoughts together. Probably, I won't be able to write down what is perfectly clear in my head, but here goes.
It seems I may not be mono-fandom any more, and it's all Shakespeare's fault.
Musings behind cut, with spoilers for the two Thor movies (should anyone care), and (incomprehensible to many of you) stuff to do with old Marvel comics.
Well, not entirely Shakespeare's fault. Anyone who bothers reading my LJ has probably gathered that I quite like the two Thor movies, even though I'm less than enamoured of Avengers: Assemble and think Agents of SHIELD is dull as ditchwater. Not to mention, as a long-time Marvel comics reader, I've always preferred the X-Men to the Avengers.
However, since seeing the NTLive production of Coriolanus at the cinema back in January, I've found myself re-watching the original Thor movie again - and this time, instead of thinking, boy, this is a really bad film (which I thought the first time I re-watched it), I found myself thinking, actually, it's okay, isn't it. Not to mention I also re-watched the Avengers movie and found that less boring than I thought the first time.
And of course it's an easy leap from there to looking for fanfic and pics of Thor and Loki. In other words, to getting fannish about it all.
'Course, this isn't the first time I've got really, really interested in another show/film etc since the cancellation of AtS. I love Game of Thrones, for instance, and Ripper Street, and there have been other shows too (though some - notably Being Human) haven't stood the test of time. Then there's True Blood, which I was actually beginning to feel really fannish about last summer, until the last episode of season 6 stomped all over that and made me consider not watching the final season at all (in itself proof of true fannishness).
I think this is qualitatively different, though, in the sense that, unlike Game of Thrones (probably the best of the shows I just mentioned), the Thor movie-verse isn't all spelled out beforehand by a creator who keeps a tight rein on his work. Nobody knows what's going to happen in it next, just that there is going to be another Thor film (though not for a couple of years, and a lot can happen in that time, plus it will impacted by what happens in the second Avengers movie). It also contains various elements that I enjoy in the Buffyverse - the warring siblings thing between Thor and Loki, which echoes (or precedes by decades, if you include the Marvel comicsverse) the Spike/Angel relationship, plus the great on screen chemistry between Hemsworth and Hiddleston, and the injection of Jossian humour in the goings on of Jane Foster's gang of wacky sidekicks (I loved that dynamic in both movies, and the fish out of water aspect of Thor's interaction with them). Not to mention that Jane herself has been upgraded from wimpy nurse given to fainting and getting rescued a lot in the early Marvel Thor comics to maverick astrophysicist, who, despite still having to get rescued a lot (see the entire middle section of the second Thor movie) is no pushover, and is in fact a bit of a SFC without having to don a skin tight outfit and hit people.
And yeah, there's Idris Elba, and the fact that the cast is (mostly) made up of some very good actors, despite some of them (I'm looking at you, Sir Anthony Hopkins) phoning it in at times.
So, despite the movies not being great movies (adequate at best), they contain elements that make them for me the perfect storm (that's a pun) where making me fannish is concerned.
Bu-ut of course it's not that simple. The lack of content is problematic. Instead of seven seasons of BtVS and five of AtS, there's three movies (the Avengers only tangentially), and not likely to be any more for at least two years, probably longer. Of course, you could include the comics, but in my (very long) experience of reading Marvel comics, I'm wary of doing that because the rug can be pulled out from under you at any moment, as any Magneto fan could tell you. These stories have been ongoing since the 60s. These days, they reboot themselves every few years, and characters you thought you knew will suddenly change out of all recognition or revert to a past iteration (I'm afraid Magneto's about to do that - yet again). It all depends what stories people want to tell with them. I could invest in a partially redeemed Loki, for instance, as I have in the past invested in a partially redeemed Magneto, only to have my investment thrown back in my face when some comics writer comes along with an idea for that character which necessitates them being wholly evil. Then you wait four/five years or so and the whole thing comes full-circle.
Not that including the comics wouldn't add interest. It would. Especially as the latest officially declared wisdom on Comics!Loki is that not only is his sexuality fluid but also his gender (so I suppose, if Tom Hiddleston wasn't available, they could have Girl!Loki in the third Thor movie, though they'd probably lose half their audience as a result. Girl! or Feminised! Loki seems pretty big in the Thor/Avengers fandom from what little I've seen of its fanfic, btw).
So, anyway, it's a problematic fandom. Either you include comics stuff and find yourself getting whatever that fandom's equivalent of being Jossed is every other year, or you don't and find yourself with very little content to play with.
Anyway, the upshot of all this is I probably won't write any Thor and Loki fanfic any time soon. I didn't start writing BtVS/AtS fanfic until canon was closed because I like to have the whole story in front of me, and this is a story which is going to remain open-ended for years. We'll see. I don't rule it out completely.
Don't be surprised, though, if I occasionally make posts about Thor stuff (along the lines of 'Which Buffyverse Character Does Loki Most Resemble?' etc, etc), or take more interest in Agents of SHIELD than its sheer dullness warrants because a Thor character is making a guest appearance). And if you're currently wondering, what on earth do you see in all this, It's badly written and the characters are cyphers? bear in mind that this is exactly how I feel about SPN and loads of people love that. It's what works for you. The Thor movies contain many elements that make them work for me in a way that all those other shows/movies just...don't.
Think I'll go and have another look at this months'![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
sb_fag_ends prompts now. See if I can write another ficlet before the end of the month. 'Cos I'm not leaving the Buffyverse fandom, just branching out a bit.
And to bring this post back to Shakespeare, where it (perhaps not so inexplicably) started, I re-watched the BBC's Henry IV pt 1 last night (part of their Hollow Crown season). I still think it's very good, though this time had much more of a sense of stuff missing. I dunno. It's a long time since I read the play.
The Buffyverse character I think Loki most resembles, btw, is Ethan Rayne.
ETA: On second thoughts, more like an amalgam of Ethan Rayne and Soulless Spike.
It seems I may not be mono-fandom any more, and it's all Shakespeare's fault.
Musings behind cut, with spoilers for the two Thor movies (should anyone care), and (incomprehensible to many of you) stuff to do with old Marvel comics.
Well, not entirely Shakespeare's fault. Anyone who bothers reading my LJ has probably gathered that I quite like the two Thor movies, even though I'm less than enamoured of Avengers: Assemble and think Agents of SHIELD is dull as ditchwater. Not to mention, as a long-time Marvel comics reader, I've always preferred the X-Men to the Avengers.
However, since seeing the NTLive production of Coriolanus at the cinema back in January, I've found myself re-watching the original Thor movie again - and this time, instead of thinking, boy, this is a really bad film (which I thought the first time I re-watched it), I found myself thinking, actually, it's okay, isn't it. Not to mention I also re-watched the Avengers movie and found that less boring than I thought the first time.
And of course it's an easy leap from there to looking for fanfic and pics of Thor and Loki. In other words, to getting fannish about it all.
'Course, this isn't the first time I've got really, really interested in another show/film etc since the cancellation of AtS. I love Game of Thrones, for instance, and Ripper Street, and there have been other shows too (though some - notably Being Human) haven't stood the test of time. Then there's True Blood, which I was actually beginning to feel really fannish about last summer, until the last episode of season 6 stomped all over that and made me consider not watching the final season at all (in itself proof of true fannishness).
I think this is qualitatively different, though, in the sense that, unlike Game of Thrones (probably the best of the shows I just mentioned), the Thor movie-verse isn't all spelled out beforehand by a creator who keeps a tight rein on his work. Nobody knows what's going to happen in it next, just that there is going to be another Thor film (though not for a couple of years, and a lot can happen in that time, plus it will impacted by what happens in the second Avengers movie). It also contains various elements that I enjoy in the Buffyverse - the warring siblings thing between Thor and Loki, which echoes (or precedes by decades, if you include the Marvel comicsverse) the Spike/Angel relationship, plus the great on screen chemistry between Hemsworth and Hiddleston, and the injection of Jossian humour in the goings on of Jane Foster's gang of wacky sidekicks (I loved that dynamic in both movies, and the fish out of water aspect of Thor's interaction with them). Not to mention that Jane herself has been upgraded from wimpy nurse given to fainting and getting rescued a lot in the early Marvel Thor comics to maverick astrophysicist, who, despite still having to get rescued a lot (see the entire middle section of the second Thor movie) is no pushover, and is in fact a bit of a SFC without having to don a skin tight outfit and hit people.
And yeah, there's Idris Elba, and the fact that the cast is (mostly) made up of some very good actors, despite some of them (I'm looking at you, Sir Anthony Hopkins) phoning it in at times.
So, despite the movies not being great movies (adequate at best), they contain elements that make them for me the perfect storm (that's a pun) where making me fannish is concerned.
Bu-ut of course it's not that simple. The lack of content is problematic. Instead of seven seasons of BtVS and five of AtS, there's three movies (the Avengers only tangentially), and not likely to be any more for at least two years, probably longer. Of course, you could include the comics, but in my (very long) experience of reading Marvel comics, I'm wary of doing that because the rug can be pulled out from under you at any moment, as any Magneto fan could tell you. These stories have been ongoing since the 60s. These days, they reboot themselves every few years, and characters you thought you knew will suddenly change out of all recognition or revert to a past iteration (I'm afraid Magneto's about to do that - yet again). It all depends what stories people want to tell with them. I could invest in a partially redeemed Loki, for instance, as I have in the past invested in a partially redeemed Magneto, only to have my investment thrown back in my face when some comics writer comes along with an idea for that character which necessitates them being wholly evil. Then you wait four/five years or so and the whole thing comes full-circle.
Not that including the comics wouldn't add interest. It would. Especially as the latest officially declared wisdom on Comics!Loki is that not only is his sexuality fluid but also his gender (so I suppose, if Tom Hiddleston wasn't available, they could have Girl!Loki in the third Thor movie, though they'd probably lose half their audience as a result. Girl! or Feminised! Loki seems pretty big in the Thor/Avengers fandom from what little I've seen of its fanfic, btw).
So, anyway, it's a problematic fandom. Either you include comics stuff and find yourself getting whatever that fandom's equivalent of being Jossed is every other year, or you don't and find yourself with very little content to play with.
Anyway, the upshot of all this is I probably won't write any Thor and Loki fanfic any time soon. I didn't start writing BtVS/AtS fanfic until canon was closed because I like to have the whole story in front of me, and this is a story which is going to remain open-ended for years. We'll see. I don't rule it out completely.
Don't be surprised, though, if I occasionally make posts about Thor stuff (along the lines of 'Which Buffyverse Character Does Loki Most Resemble?' etc, etc), or take more interest in Agents of SHIELD than its sheer dullness warrants because a Thor character is making a guest appearance). And if you're currently wondering, what on earth do you see in all this, It's badly written and the characters are cyphers? bear in mind that this is exactly how I feel about SPN and loads of people love that. It's what works for you. The Thor movies contain many elements that make them work for me in a way that all those other shows/movies just...don't.
Think I'll go and have another look at this months'
sb_fag_ends prompts now. See if I can write another ficlet before the end of the month. 'Cos I'm not leaving the Buffyverse fandom, just branching out a bit. And to bring this post back to Shakespeare, where it (perhaps not so inexplicably) started, I re-watched the BBC's Henry IV pt 1 last night (part of their Hollow Crown season). I still think it's very good, though this time had much more of a sense of stuff missing. I dunno. It's a long time since I read the play.
The Buffyverse character I think Loki most resembles, btw, is Ethan Rayne.
ETA: On second thoughts, more like an amalgam of Ethan Rayne and Soulless Spike.