(no subject)

[shadowkat]

1. "While you could possibly walk in someone's shoes...you can't use their feet." I can't remember the exact quote, but I read it a while back on my flist, courtesy of cakmpls. And it struck me. So much that it hangs in my head. Yes, I think, that's exactly it. And partly the problem. Also such a great metaphor to use - feet. Shoes you can trade, sometimes you have the same size, not an issue. But feet...everyone's feet is uniquely theirs. Also...there's a whole host of ailments that arise from feet.
For some, like myself, if there's a problem with your feet - life is chaos. Others?
So not an issue.

For example? My feet? They are not made for certain types of shoes. I can barely wear heels. Too high an instep and they kill my arch. Have similar problems with sandles and forget about flip-flops. I need the arch support. Plus I walk 30 blocks on hard concrete - support is necessary.

When it comes to my feet, I put fashion last, comfort first. I have to. If I don't,
I'll hurt myself and my feet are my principal means of transportation. If I can't walk? I'm stuck, literally.

Plus? Big feet. Size 11. With a high instep. Difficult to find shoes that fit them.
Long toes, a big hairy, although not abnormally so.

2. "The real danger for “Community,” from a critical standpoint, isn’t that it will go too far into fan-boy arcana but rather that it will overly indulge the sentimentality and neediness at its core — which, as in so many of our real lives, the endless chatter about movies and music and TV is designed to cover up." - this quote taken from :

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/arts/television/community-resumes-its-study-of-friendship.html?_r=2&ref=television

Dang, that's a long link, isn't it?

Anyhow..the bit I'm focusing on is the part in bold or the last part of that sentence.
We discuss tv, comics, books, movies and music to get away from stress, to get away from pain. To escape our own insane crap.

Which is why fandom kerfuffles, while entertaining at times, can be so unproductive and often feel silly. Taking our entertainment media too seriously...can be problematic.

Been in a kerfuffle recently? Feel like the bad guy? Feel ostracized? Well you aren't alone. All of us, to one degree or another have been there done that. But most not as badly as these poor folks. Really heated kerfuffles that jumped across journals for months.

1) RaceFail 2009
*http://fanlore.org/wiki/RaceFail_%2709

*http://wiki.feministsf.net/index.php?title=RaceFail_09

*http://www.fanhistory.com/wiki/Race_Fail_2009

2) RaceFail 2010 aka CultureFail

http://www.fanhistory.com/wiki/Culture!Fail

3) RaceWank

http://www.fanhistory.com/wiki/Race_wank

4) Strikethrough 07

http://wiki.fandomwank.com/index.php/Strikethrough2007

5.)http://fanlore.org/wiki/Kerfuffle
http://wiki.fandomwank.com/index.php/Fandom_Wank_Timeline

And this is hilarious...http://skelkins.livejournal.com/32401.html?page=2 (the lj user does an essay on kerfuffles and a bunch of the commentators launch into a fight about an unrelated topic. To wit, the poster states - while this is an excellent example of what I was describing, please take your fight elsewhere. )

And here is an argument or discussion about the spelling of the word "kerfuffle" on wiki:http://www.fanhistory.com/wiki/Category_talk:Kerfluffles

Historic ones that I can't find - are on Marti Noxon's interview in SFX circa 2002, which may be a good thing. Nor the big war over Spike joining Angel the Series in 2003-2004, also a good thing.


* Got to make dinner. So quickly...now that it's no longer a spoiler and there are multiple reviews, I can comment.

So...I'm scrolling through my reading list the other day, and like most people, I scroll through it backwards.

Post 3: Well we know why Buffy shows no feelings in the comics. Hello. Robot.

Me: Wait, Buffy's a robot in the comics now? (reads comments...okay, sounds like they are joking, but hard to tell, quickly post to ask.)

Scroll some more.

Post 2: Theory - Buffy has pulled an Amy Pond. They've made her pregnant and switched her mind into a Robot.

Me: okay...weird fandom theory...can't be true.

Scroll some more.

Post 1: Review - reveal on last page of issue 7 - Buffy's arm is ripped off by zompire, revealing Buffy to be a Robot.

Me: WHAT??? Wait a minute...this is actually a real storyline? They actually have done the Amy Pond story from S6 Doctor Who?? And I thought the Twilight bit was offensively illogical and looney tunes. Silly me. Then how can she be pregnant? Seriously... talk about weird=ass retcons. Although I've seen quite a few in my lifetime. Also didn't Doctor Who already do this story, but a heck of a lot better and far less offensively? For that matter...wasn't this Caprica? And what is it with Whedon and creepy mind-wipe or transfering intelligence storylines? Someone has been marathoning BSG one too many times. I'm blaming Ron Moore for this particular storyline trope. Either Ron Moore or Issac Asimov.

Reading the reviews of the comics continues to entertain me.

LOL! Reading one's flist backwards can be an amusing experience.

Comments

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Can you do flip flops? I have a friend who has flat feet too and had one foot injury after another...

Also, yes, she's a robot. She never noticed. Go figure.

Nor did anyone else apparently. Which is just odd. I mean how can't she notice? How couldn't they? The Amy Pound storyline made sense. We were told about the Flesh and how it worked. The set-up was there. This story has no set-up, no build, nothing to track, just ...suddenly, plot twist out of nowhere.

Again, methinks somebody has been watching BSG and Caprica one too many times. I'm beginning to think BSG ruined Whedon as a writer. There's Whedon before BSG (Buffy-Firefly and Dr. Horrible) and Whedon after BSG (Dollhouse and the Buffy comics.)

[infinitewhale.livejournal.com]

How couldn't they?

There is at least precedence for the others not knowing. There is really no way to wank not knowing you're a robot unless it's not really Buffy's brain, but most things suggest it is. Unless it's like a xerox copy and thus diminished and unable to function on a higher level...which is comic Buffy to a T, isn't it?

But yeah. From the solicitations it looks like Andrew copied her brain to a robot and this will drastically affect her life. So... S8 Redux? Andrew was visited by a dog and told he had to do it for Buffy's own good and thus prevented her from being able to abort the Starbaby?

10-to-1 it's something like that.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Moffat made it work with Amy Pound...and Ron Moore made it work with BSG and Caprica. But they also built up to it. They didn't just suddenly decide..I know, I'll make Col Tighe a Cylon. Or I know Amy's body is high-jacked while her mind is placed in a Live Flesh.
They built up to it. Explained what Live Flesh and Cylons were. Set the stage, and plot-point by plot-point showed it.

Actually comparing the Buffy comics to BSG/Caprica and Doctor Who is a really good lesson on how to structure and write a sci-fi plot and how not to. You can learn what to do and what not to do, by breaking the two tales down.

Whedon's story falls apart, he doesn't set a good foundation or build up to it well, and just throws things out there. A good plot is like constructing a house. Whedon forgets to lay in the foundation. Moffat laid in the foundation...as did Moore.

[infinitewhale.livejournal.com]

I think the larger difference is those writers had a plot. Joss doesn't really. All these sideturns are really just distractions from a story where nothing is happening. The next issue will mark 1/3 of the season done and there's nothing. Characters spring up and disappear, make strange decisions with no explanation or buildup. They're lumbering along trying to add a WTF moment at the end of every issue to keep them hooks rather than just telling a good story. It's worse than a trashy soap because at least trashy soaps aren't trying to pretend otherwise.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Very true. Also trashy soap operas have the excuse of changing writers and showrunners constantly. They do by the way. The one I'm watching has had three different head writers in the course of one year. The plotting changes like the wind. It does make them fun to watch though - since you can't predict what will happen next. But oddly, they do make more sense...then you'd think.

Comic books are similar to the daytime soap actually, because they also change head-writers in mid-stream and plot arcs in mid-stream. Marvel is notorious for doing that. You'd have one writing/art team then all of a sudden that changed and so did the entire plot and characters, could be quite jarring at times. Magneto would go from being a nasty villain to being a hero to being a nasty villain again.

Whedon is worse...because..a) he's not changed head-writers, he is the head-writer, b)he plotted the whole story out allegedly ahead of time (I personally don't believe that's true. Whedon isn't known for plotting things out ahead of time, and even when he does? He changes the entire plot in mid-stream and rarely sticks to what he originally came up with. To be fair - you can't really in tv, you have to be flexible. TV is annoying that way. You never know what actor/character will have chemistry on screen, which actor will leave or die or jump ship, or when you'll be cancelled. Writing serial television isn't an easy thing. Example: S2 Buffy - Spike was supposed to be staked by Angelus, but the character of Spike took off like gangbusters and ratings spiked when he was on...so Whedon changed the plot. Thank God.
That's a situation in which it worked. The original plot was sort of lame...Angel stakes Spike, takes his place with Dru and is killed by Buffy, the end. Situations where it didn't work? Season 4 Buffy - they had this huge plot arc with Professor Walsh fighting Buffy for Riley's soul, then Lindsey Crouse decided she wanted to take a movie role and jumped ship. They also had an arc with Tara/Willow/OZ/Veruca... Veruca was supposed to be on for at least five-six episodes. But Seth Green wanted to pursue his movie career so jumped ship. The plan was for Willow to experiment with Tara, but Oz/Willow to get back together eventually, and OZ to die which would result in Willow going nuts. Another example: Cordelia - she was supposed to be the Big Bad of S4, but Charisma got pregnant, so they changed the storyline completely, because the Big Bad pregnant lady didn't quite work. Whedon was changing his plots in mid-stream all the time. He had no idea what he was doing with half his characters in S7, he just knew the beginning and the end of the season. The man doesn't plot out a tale ahead of time..he makes it up as he goes, the best you can expect is that he has the first and last worked out. Note, he always wrote the beginning episode and finale, with few exceptions, each season. I'm guessing that's why - he knew how the story began and how it ended. He just couldn't figure out the in-between.

This is hard for me to wrap my head around, since I'm the opposite. I can see the middle. It's the beginning and end that I struggle with.)

Moffat in direct contrast plots his tales way ahead of time. He knows all the twists and turns. You can tell. He had the River Song story plotted from S4. Granted he's not a tight plotter, you can't be in tv, too many unknown variables, but he's a lot tighter than Whedon is.

[infinitewhale.livejournal.com]

To be fair, though, British television is a lot more structured than the US. He knows he has so many episodes and so much money and can film all at once as opposed to the rather roughshod structure of the US.

And I think Whedon benefited from it a lot. You could go in and change a line while filming and tie episodes together. Other people inputting ideas. Comics? Not so much. It goes from him to the subwriter to Allie (a bad editor) to Jeanty. No help at all. And it shows.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I basically live in flip-flops after work. I tend to wear flats usually. But I can do reasonable heels (REASONABLE! Many these days are not reasonable!) but between my arches and my bad ankle (tore the ligament in high school) I can't do heels that strain my ankle.

Re: Buffy... yeah. What's the Joss quote? "Continuity is for wusses."

It sort of reeks of Dollhouse so I'm expecting that it's Buffy... in a bot body. How she never noticed it was a bot? Well, apparently she's stunned to realize that Spike still loves her, so it's not like the woman is particularly observant... or at all observant.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

The writing and plotting of this thing makes the tv series Ringer look like Shakespeare in comparison. And I gave up on Ringer, finally.
For that matter it makes the last two seasons of House (another series I gave up on finally)
look rather brilliant.

People are comparing this to Moffat's Doctor Who, but at least Moffat set it up well. We know when Amy was switched, we know why, we know
when she got pregnant, Amy wasn't surprised by the pregnancy and wanted the child, the story actually tracks. Each block builds on the next.
Also the Live Flesh bit was innovative and horrific at the same time and set up well.
And said some new things about agency.

Whedon/Chambliss/Allie/Jeanty's story...feels like OLTL's Todd twin story, except the Todd twin story made more sense.

(PS: They have brought Todd, Blair, Starr and John McBain over to GH now...it actually worked.
Surprisingly enough.)