The good of fandom

[cornerofmadness]

There is certainly some as most of my flist knows. I mean mostly you're here and I'm there because we met via fandom and thought hey this person is interesting I'm picking them to hang around (which is a strange proposition if you think about it) and I'll get to the header in a minute. But first a day in my cranky life.

1. I might have shot myself in the foot. I managed to browbeat the admin into giving me a bigger room so now I DO have to teach face to face, wasting the last three weeks of my life recording things. That said I suspect we'll have to pivot to fully online maybe even before we start so maybe not.

2. My blood sugar has nose dived 3 nights in a row and I don't know why. I felt odd tonight, thought it was going low. Took my sugar it was 202. Read in the tub for 40 minutes, got out knew it was bad and it was down to 88. WTF

3.I met the physics adjunct who decided to leave med school because the online learning wasn't learning (can you imagine med school without cadaver lab, without shadowing a doctor) and I think she'd rather teach anatomy than physics. hmmm let us see.

So fandom and the goodness. I have made many fandom friends. These days I try to mentor some of the younger fans I run across (I see quite a few on twitter and discord), try to spread the happy (and maybe impart some wisdom as to how to avoid kerfluffles and pairing wars and understanding there is a toxic side). Anyhow one of the fans I've met along with her mom are making geeky masks. You can find them here. and they were very kind to me today with my order and I'm like you have no idea how much that simple gesture meant because it's been hard lately. (and I'm an idiot. I should have ordered the Stargate one for my Mom)

Also in fandom can I talk briefly about prequels. Is it me or is there just something lacking in the suspense department in most prequels? I started watching Endeavour's latest season on Masterpiece (and it's the prequel to Morse) now here's the thing, it can open with Endeavour Morse covered in blood in a police interrogation room all they want but we KNOW he didn't do anything or Morse would never have existed as a cop.

Same thing with the K.W. Jeter Boba Fett story I just finished. It starts in the past with Fett, Bossk and to a lesser degree IG-88 which we know that no matter what happens none of them die because this is before they hunt down Han.

And other things I'm a fan of: Tommy & Tuppence one of Agatha Christie's detective duos. I was SO excited when Ovation aired the Agatha Christie's partners in crime with them. There had been a T&T series back in the 80s I think. I loved that. So off the bat, I'm disappointed in this because they've updated it to the 1950s cold war era. Okay I can understand that. The 1920s is harder and more expensive to shoot (that's why Miss Fisher's Mysteries is such a gem) I could live with that. But each story line is 3 1/12 hour long bite and T&T aren't funny and droll and so in love. They are joyless and bitter and I'm like I'm not even sure I want to see the whole first season which I've recorded. SIGH.

ANd on to the Fandom meme

L: Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. Okay now this one is an interesting challenge. I like it.

Buffyverse - Fred is intelligent and well meaning.

Lucifer - hmmm I like all the main characters

Fullmetal Alchemist - Mei is smart and trying to do a very hard thing at great danger to herself.

Prodigal Son - Ainsley is intelligent and good at her job.

(hmm I guess we know what I value in people)

Comments

[aaronlisa]

I find that most sequels are lazy cash grabs. I find that they tend to put a character (or group of characters) into a situation that they never mention in the main timeline or in a life-death situation where we know that they survive because of the main timeline. I am sure there have been some good ones but I can't think of any off the top of my head.

About the Tommy & Tuppence show, sorry to hear that. I don't know why production companies adapt beloved fandoms into a different era and then rewrite the main character so they aren't recognizable. I can see why sometimes it makes sense to change the timeline for a fandom to make it more relatable to the audience or it's cheaper to film the show/film in a different setting. But characters should remain at their core the same. I mean I can get characters being modernized in certain beliefs and whatnot but the core personality should be there. I mean if you look at the American adaptation and the British adaptation of Sherlock Holmes that are both set in the modern era, characters are still recognizable. I Am not going to get into the quality of either.

[cornerofmadness]

For the most part Endeavour is a good prequel (but yes in general, they're not that great) but this opening for S6 was a bit eyerolling.

Exactly I could live with the 1950s time period but Tommy and Tuppance barging their way into basically MI-6 and making themselves at home? Not so much. Yes both modernized Sherlocks are a good example. I like them both. T&T not so much

[havocthecat]

This is why most prequels are boring to me, and why even the Trek prequels are kind of cheaty. We KNOW Kirk is going on his five year mission, we KNOW what's going to happen to the rest of the timeline, why should I be into these other characters? Give me some meaty post-DS9, post-Voyager stuff? Which we're finally getting with Picard, I guess, but it's all paywall-locked.

[cornerofmadness]

Yeah exactly. Or in my case I'm too rural to stream but yes I'd rather have a sequel than a prequel in m ost cases

[rahirah]

The whole point of Tommy and Tuppence is how much fun they were. If you want to make a series about bitter, joyless Cold War detective, make them original characters, fer crying out loud.

[cornerofmadness]

Exactly this! I loved the 80s Tommy and Tuppance (which I think was set in the 20s). This was a terrible adaption. It wasn't fun. It wasn't even interesting. It took nearly 5 hours to tell a story that could have been done in 2 and maybe wouldn't have been SUCH a drag.