squee + meme extravaganza
Hey, I got rec'd at crack_van again! For Star Wars this time. I didn't think people even read my SW stories, except a few of you on my f-list. And the comment was so nice. My day is totally made! *happy flappy hands of glee*
So, I'm too busy for meta (au_bigbangs all day, every day) or fic or anything, so ... memes! I have a bunch of them piled up.
Interview meme
- Comment and ask to be interviewed
- I'll ask you five burning questions
- Post your answers in an entry of your own
- And so on and so forth
My questions are from hikarific at livejournal.
(1) If I were to admit that I've never read a Jane Austen book (I actually haven't), which would you recommend to start with?
To be very predictable, Pride and Prejudice. It's overwhelmingly the most popular - and, unusually, I think for good reason! It has the most compelling characters (whether it's hilarious one-note caricatures like Mr Collins or complex, ambiguous, multi-layered ones like Darcy and Elizabeth), the snappiest dialogue, the most satisfactory love story, and it's both nuanced and enjoyably frothy. There's also Northanger Abbey, a straight-up satire and even frothier and funner, but P&P is a lot more sophisticated without losing the, er, froth.
(2) If it can be told without spoilers, how did you get the idea for Lucy Skywalker?
Oh, sure! There aren't any spoilers, though it's a bit involved. The universe is so male-dominated that I had the idea of switching everyone's gender for one of the variations in this fic, though I didn't take it any further at the time.
Then I'd been talking with irnan about how the biggest chasm between the OT and the PT isn't the myriad continuity issues, but that the OT is a classic heroic fantasy IN SPACE whereas the prequel trilogy is attempting to be a darker, more realistic, more science-fiction-y type thing. And I'd seen people arguing that the original trilogy wasn't really like a fantasy epic, and I thought, "obscure farmboy with a secret legacy of power? check. snarky sidekick? check. princess imprisoned in a tower? check. wise, elderly mentor? check. dark sorcerer? check. lol they actually call him a sorcerer."
So, I thought it'd be fun to write an alternate vision that takes place in a traditional fantasy setting. But it's so close already that I thought it could use something else to make it a bit more out there, and I had the idea to switch everyone's genders. So Luke became Lucy there, but I put it aside for awhile (though I had a couple other ideas that involved girl!Luke at some level, I didn't go anywhere with them).
Then, I was looking up some of the original ideas for the trilogy for an unrelated story, and it turns out one of them was making Luke a girl. Since Luke's gender makes pretty much no difference whatsoever, I thought it would have been awesome, but there wasn't much point to it fic-wise - but then, when I got to thinking about it (because yay shiny! is my response to all genderswap, pretty much), I could see that there would be further ramifications down the line. And at the very least, it would involve a more detailed view of femininity than we get with Leia as the Token Girl. So I signed up for it with the au_bigbang.
(3) What was the single most disappointing line, moment, or scene from ROTJ for you?
Oh, wow. There are quite a few things to choose from - though there's a lot I love in ROTJ, there's a lot I dislike too. I'm tempted to go with the Leia-as-Skywalker twist, but that's more a matter of context than the scene itself - it makes her much more marginalized than she already is in ROTJ, but the scene and the lines or okay.
You know, I think I'm going to have to go for something that ... it's a powerful scene and it works and part of me loves it to death and what's that sound oh my heart breaking gahhh - but it also bothers me more than Ewoks or incompetent elite troops or surprise siblings or anything. It's when Luke turns himself over to Vader and begs him to leave with him. And Vader says he has to obey his master, and that it's too late for him.
The thing is, Empire set up this incredibly interesting arc for Luke and Vader, where Vader is this idealist gone horribly wrong and he's secretly plotting against the Emperor and wants Luke to help him, and Luke is horrified at the idea but attracted to it, too. And I thought we'd see that storyline continued, and instead it's just dropped and I no longer have any idea what is even going on with Vader, since it's obviously changed since we left him in ESB.
So yeah, this potentially great redemptive arc is compressed into "It is too late for me, son." Which is an amazing line, but doesn't make up for the incredible disappearing plot.
(4) Ditto for the prequels.
Ahahahahahahaha.
Um. Well, there are hundreds of things that annoy me. There are nearly as many that disappointed me - though I came to them late, thank heavens, so I pretty much knew what to expect. Well.
I think it's got to be Anakin's turn, actually. The scene has some of the better acting, but damn it, this is the moment when Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader. This is what everything has been building towards. It's the central tragedy of the entire saga, it should be epic. And instead, it's Palpatine telling Anakin that he might have heard of a way to save his perfectly healthy wife from dying in childbirth, even though their scenes together are so forced and stilted that I'm not sure he even likes her. How - why - A;DSA;JKDA;JKA;KDA;KDFA
And simply kneeling before Palpatine and getting a fancy new title is enough to make a basically decent guy go completely nuts and commit crimes worse than anything he did as Darth Vader. What.
(5) (Assuming you've seen at least a few of them) what's your favorite non-Star Wars Mark Hamill movie (or TV show or whatever)?
Avatar: The Last Airbender! That show is amazing. And he is amazing in it. <3 <3 <3
Star Wars meme (Day 1)
I know I already did one, but this is a different one. Ish. And, and pictures! Also, gacked from estora .
Day 1: What is your favourite movie of the saga?
Unquestionably, indubitably, and very predictably:
<3 <3 <3
Why? Eh, it's pretty self-evident, and lots of critics and fans and people have said it before, but here are my reasons.
Asexuality meme
Gacked from
tree .
Day 1: What is your romantic/sexual orientation?
Aromantic asexual.
Fairly straightforward - only not.
My aesthetic and platonic attractions, mostly for women, are strong enough that sometimes I think I might be greysexual (adding to the list of reasons that I'm not a good gold star asexual - I doubt! Every day), but ... I don't really feel sexually drawn towards anyone, I just want to hang out and talk about Jane Austen or Star Wars or Middle-earth for hours, and maybe hug. I'm definitely aromantic, though - my friendships are powerful and intense and central to my life, and realizing how peripheral I am can be devastating, but I don't want them to be anything other than what they are. Honestly, romance is icky to me - where sexual overtures make me feel uncomfortable, romantic ones make me feel nauseated and panicked. I guess I'm a repulsed aromantic - is that a thing?
Fanfic meme
Gacked from jedibuttercup jedi_buttercup.
Day 1: How did you first get into writing fanfic, and what was the first fandom you wrote for? What do you think it was about that fandom that pulled you in?
Back when I was a baby fangirl, safely holing up at Emyn Arnen, rakshathedemon , nestashouse , and I (and maybe others? I don't remember) got into a discussion about Faramir and Boromir's dreams in Lord of the Rings. To sum up, the clairvoyant dream that brought Boromir to Rivendell was dreamed once by him, and first, and more often, by Faramir - which gave us the idea that whoever sent it (the Valar, presumably?) meant Faramir to act on it. And that gave us the idea that Boromir going was a kind of Plan B, and things might have turned out better if it had been Faramir - rather than the usual gah everything would have been doomed! approach you often get with Faramir At Rivendell fics.
To illustrate the point, I posited a scenario ("I think it would have been something like this: Seated between the Mirkwood Elves and the Dwarves was a tall man who Frodo at first mistook for a strange Elf, although he quickly realised his mistake..."). And then we thought of more scenes. And they wrote some and I wrote some and we had a sort of communal story going on for awhile.
Anyway, it was so fun and amazing that it was basically like the Turkish Delight of fanfic, and I just... kept going. (Literally. I flitted from story to story to story until I started writing for Austen fandom - then did it there, too.)
So, I'm too busy for meta (au_bigbangs all day, every day) or fic or anything, so ... memes! I have a bunch of them piled up.
Interview meme
- Comment and ask to be interviewed
- I'll ask you five burning questions
- Post your answers in an entry of your own
- And so on and so forth
My questions are from hikarific at livejournal.
(1) If I were to admit that I've never read a Jane Austen book (I actually haven't), which would you recommend to start with?
To be very predictable, Pride and Prejudice. It's overwhelmingly the most popular - and, unusually, I think for good reason! It has the most compelling characters (whether it's hilarious one-note caricatures like Mr Collins or complex, ambiguous, multi-layered ones like Darcy and Elizabeth), the snappiest dialogue, the most satisfactory love story, and it's both nuanced and enjoyably frothy. There's also Northanger Abbey, a straight-up satire and even frothier and funner, but P&P is a lot more sophisticated without losing the, er, froth.
(2) If it can be told without spoilers, how did you get the idea for Lucy Skywalker?
Oh, sure! There aren't any spoilers, though it's a bit involved. The universe is so male-dominated that I had the idea of switching everyone's gender for one of the variations in this fic, though I didn't take it any further at the time.
Then I'd been talking with irnan about how the biggest chasm between the OT and the PT isn't the myriad continuity issues, but that the OT is a classic heroic fantasy IN SPACE whereas the prequel trilogy is attempting to be a darker, more realistic, more science-fiction-y type thing. And I'd seen people arguing that the original trilogy wasn't really like a fantasy epic, and I thought, "obscure farmboy with a secret legacy of power? check. snarky sidekick? check. princess imprisoned in a tower? check. wise, elderly mentor? check. dark sorcerer? check. lol they actually call him a sorcerer."
So, I thought it'd be fun to write an alternate vision that takes place in a traditional fantasy setting. But it's so close already that I thought it could use something else to make it a bit more out there, and I had the idea to switch everyone's genders. So Luke became Lucy there, but I put it aside for awhile (though I had a couple other ideas that involved girl!Luke at some level, I didn't go anywhere with them).
Then, I was looking up some of the original ideas for the trilogy for an unrelated story, and it turns out one of them was making Luke a girl. Since Luke's gender makes pretty much no difference whatsoever, I thought it would have been awesome, but there wasn't much point to it fic-wise - but then, when I got to thinking about it (because yay shiny! is my response to all genderswap, pretty much), I could see that there would be further ramifications down the line. And at the very least, it would involve a more detailed view of femininity than we get with Leia as the Token Girl. So I signed up for it with the au_bigbang.
(3) What was the single most disappointing line, moment, or scene from ROTJ for you?
Oh, wow. There are quite a few things to choose from - though there's a lot I love in ROTJ, there's a lot I dislike too. I'm tempted to go with the Leia-as-Skywalker twist, but that's more a matter of context than the scene itself - it makes her much more marginalized than she already is in ROTJ, but the scene and the lines or okay.
You know, I think I'm going to have to go for something that ... it's a powerful scene and it works and part of me loves it to death and what's that sound oh my heart breaking gahhh - but it also bothers me more than Ewoks or incompetent elite troops or surprise siblings or anything. It's when Luke turns himself over to Vader and begs him to leave with him. And Vader says he has to obey his master, and that it's too late for him.
The thing is, Empire set up this incredibly interesting arc for Luke and Vader, where Vader is this idealist gone horribly wrong and he's secretly plotting against the Emperor and wants Luke to help him, and Luke is horrified at the idea but attracted to it, too. And I thought we'd see that storyline continued, and instead it's just dropped and I no longer have any idea what is even going on with Vader, since it's obviously changed since we left him in ESB.
So yeah, this potentially great redemptive arc is compressed into "It is too late for me, son." Which is an amazing line, but doesn't make up for the incredible disappearing plot.
(4) Ditto for the prequels.
Ahahahahahahaha.
Um. Well, there are hundreds of things that annoy me. There are nearly as many that disappointed me - though I came to them late, thank heavens, so I pretty much knew what to expect. Well.
I think it's got to be Anakin's turn, actually. The scene has some of the better acting, but damn it, this is the moment when Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader. This is what everything has been building towards. It's the central tragedy of the entire saga, it should be epic. And instead, it's Palpatine telling Anakin that he might have heard of a way to save his perfectly healthy wife from dying in childbirth, even though their scenes together are so forced and stilted that I'm not sure he even likes her. How - why - A;DSA;JKDA;JKA;KDA;KDFA
And simply kneeling before Palpatine and getting a fancy new title is enough to make a basically decent guy go completely nuts and commit crimes worse than anything he did as Darth Vader. What.
(5) (Assuming you've seen at least a few of them) what's your favorite non-Star Wars Mark Hamill movie (or TV show or whatever)?
Avatar: The Last Airbender! That show is amazing. And he is amazing in it. <3 <3 <3
Star Wars meme (Day 1)
I know I already did one, but this is a different one. Ish. And, and pictures! Also, gacked from estora .
Day 1: What is your favourite movie of the saga?
Unquestionably, indubitably, and very predictably:
<3 <3 <3
Why? Eh, it's pretty self-evident, and lots of critics and fans and people have said it before, but here are my reasons.
Asexuality meme
Gacked from
tree .
Day 1: What is your romantic/sexual orientation?
Aromantic asexual.
Fairly straightforward - only not.
My aesthetic and platonic attractions, mostly for women, are strong enough that sometimes I think I might be greysexual (adding to the list of reasons that I'm not a good gold star asexual - I doubt! Every day), but ... I don't really feel sexually drawn towards anyone, I just want to hang out and talk about Jane Austen or Star Wars or Middle-earth for hours, and maybe hug. I'm definitely aromantic, though - my friendships are powerful and intense and central to my life, and realizing how peripheral I am can be devastating, but I don't want them to be anything other than what they are. Honestly, romance is icky to me - where sexual overtures make me feel uncomfortable, romantic ones make me feel nauseated and panicked. I guess I'm a repulsed aromantic - is that a thing?
Fanfic meme
Gacked from jedibuttercup jedi_buttercup.
Day 1: How did you first get into writing fanfic, and what was the first fandom you wrote for? What do you think it was about that fandom that pulled you in?
Back when I was a baby fangirl, safely holing up at Emyn Arnen, rakshathedemon , nestashouse , and I (and maybe others? I don't remember) got into a discussion about Faramir and Boromir's dreams in Lord of the Rings. To sum up, the clairvoyant dream that brought Boromir to Rivendell was dreamed once by him, and first, and more often, by Faramir - which gave us the idea that whoever sent it (the Valar, presumably?) meant Faramir to act on it. And that gave us the idea that Boromir going was a kind of Plan B, and things might have turned out better if it had been Faramir - rather than the usual gah everything would have been doomed! approach you often get with Faramir At Rivendell fics.
To illustrate the point, I posited a scenario ("I think it would have been something like this: Seated between the Mirkwood Elves and the Dwarves was a tall man who Frodo at first mistook for a strange Elf, although he quickly realised his mistake..."). And then we thought of more scenes. And they wrote some and I wrote some and we had a sort of communal story going on for awhile.
Anyway, it was so fun and amazing that it was basically like the Turkish Delight of fanfic, and I just... kept going. (Literally. I flitted from story to story to story until I started writing for Austen fandom - then did it there, too.)