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Jun. 30th, 2015 10:13 pm1. Watched a bit of Kevin Smith/Brad Meltzer Interview on Youtube, which only served to reinforce my belief that the Buffy comics are basically fanfic or crack fanfic, with little connection to the actual series. Apparently when Whedon decided to write the Buffy comics, he sent a bunch of emails to various comic book writers that he admired. They were asked which character they wanted to write for or what spoke to them. Meltzer responded with a plot-outline regarding how he perceived the Buffy verse, and it's mythology and themes, because he's really not much of a character guy, he's a plot guy. Whedon read it, and responded as follows: Cool. I write the beginning and end, you write the middle and we plot it together. Oh and we're going to do an explicit sex scene towards the end, something no one has ever done before, and you are going to write it. [As an aside apparently the explicit sex scene was originally quite graphic, and Meltzer realized it had be toned down or it would cause problems, because hello, porn. But he kept it on his hard-drive so he could wack off to it. Yes, he actually says that.]
Alrighty then. This explains a lot. The creator of the series had lost interest in character driven stories, and was more interested in complicated plot, mythology, and
ahem, porn (because it hasn't been done before? Actually, it has -- he just doesn't read Heavy Metal and Magna comic books. This reminds me of the media's reaction to 50 Shades of Grey --- oh this has never been done before. Yes, it has. Just because you aren't aware of something, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Do your research.).
Sadly, Whedon's strength was never in his plotting or world-building or for that matter the sex scenes. His strength was in his characters and their emotional plot arcs. He was good at writing character driven stories. When he steps away from that - he sucks. I'm sorry, he does. Take Avenges #2 - which is a mess. While Avengers #1 was more character driven. Or Restless, The Body, Innocence, Hush, Who Are You and the last five minutes of Beneath You vs. Chosen, Lessons, the entire plot of S7.
2. Game of Thrones is definitely more violent than the books upon which it is based, which I didn't think was possible. But tighter. They don't wander around as much. Also, I guess they don't really need Lady Stoneheart when they have a million zombies and wight walkers.
Loving the scenes with Tyrion and Danys. Although I'm feeling sorry for Jorah, who I rather liked.
3. In other pop culture news, EL James gets eviscerated by Twitter followers - so much for the whole idea of talking to one's fans. Seriously Twitter can be nasty, people don't have to use their full names and can insult with sound bites.
Apparently, James' insane marketing skills hit a brick wall?
Is it wrong to feel an odd sort of Schaendfreudism reading about this? Possibly. But oh well, some of those tweet made me laugh, and yes, I can't say I disagree with them. Although bashing James and 50 Shades is bit like bashing jello against a wall.
Alrighty then. This explains a lot. The creator of the series had lost interest in character driven stories, and was more interested in complicated plot, mythology, and
ahem, porn (because it hasn't been done before? Actually, it has -- he just doesn't read Heavy Metal and Magna comic books. This reminds me of the media's reaction to 50 Shades of Grey --- oh this has never been done before. Yes, it has. Just because you aren't aware of something, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Do your research.).
Sadly, Whedon's strength was never in his plotting or world-building or for that matter the sex scenes. His strength was in his characters and their emotional plot arcs. He was good at writing character driven stories. When he steps away from that - he sucks. I'm sorry, he does. Take Avenges #2 - which is a mess. While Avengers #1 was more character driven. Or Restless, The Body, Innocence, Hush, Who Are You and the last five minutes of Beneath You vs. Chosen, Lessons, the entire plot of S7.
2. Game of Thrones is definitely more violent than the books upon which it is based, which I didn't think was possible. But tighter. They don't wander around as much. Also, I guess they don't really need Lady Stoneheart when they have a million zombies and wight walkers.
Loving the scenes with Tyrion and Danys. Although I'm feeling sorry for Jorah, who I rather liked.
3. In other pop culture news, EL James gets eviscerated by Twitter followers - so much for the whole idea of talking to one's fans. Seriously Twitter can be nasty, people don't have to use their full names and can insult with sound bites.
Apparently, James' insane marketing skills hit a brick wall?
Is it wrong to feel an odd sort of Schaendfreudism reading about this? Possibly. But oh well, some of those tweet made me laugh, and yes, I can't say I disagree with them. Although bashing James and 50 Shades is bit like bashing jello against a wall.