... Say what?
So I learned a few interesting things today.
I already knew this is YGO's 20th anniversary. I found out now that it shares its anniversary with Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?; the manga was first printed on September 30th. (The anime, which I love much more, celebrates its 16th anniversary on April 18th.)
The 20th anniversary celebration movie releases in April. I thought it wasn't coming until July, for some reason. But it's saying that the movie takes place six months after the end of the original manga. For some reason I had thought it took place in anime-verse, but it kind of sounds like it doesn't. If it takes place in manga-verse, then I probably won't consider it canon unless it's really amazing; the anime is my preferred YGO canon, with only the substitution of Duke's manga introduction instead of the anime one. And the more detailed manga conversations between Atem and Thief King Bakura from the Memory World stuff.
And then this summary that Shounen Jump released has me puzzled to the extreme:
In the past Yūgi Yami and Kaiba have clashed many times!! Yami Yūgi, who resides in Yūgi Mutō's body, and Kaiba will have a duel that bets their prides and accepts each other's mutual experience.
Ummmm.... So it takes place after the end of the manga, when Yami Yugi had gone on to the afterlife, but they're still talking about him like he's there? What?
I know it seems strange to think of a YGO anything in the original verse without Yami Yugi around, but he's kind of not supposed to be there now. The whole point of the finale was to show that Yugi can stand on his own and Yami Yugi's destiny lay in finally being able to rest in peace. So right now I am left seriously scratching my head and wondering if something was mistranslated in that summary.
I look forward to April 23rd with great interest. And a bit of trepidation. I don't mind Yami Yugi being back, if there's a logical explanation for it, but I'm not too thrilled at the thought of the film being manga-based. And I wonder what will happen with Duke and Bakura, who have been my favorite YGO characters and story subjects for several years now. (Ironic, since in the past I used to struggle with writing for both of them....)
Also, I finally finished chapter 5 of my Riptide fic. I am thrilled. I think it may be starting to take better shape now; it's leaning towards a combination of The Hardy Boys and The Saint in plot structure, with a dabbling of old adventure quest movies like Mara Maru. Which makes total sense since the Riptide episode that inspired the fic made me think of The Hardy Boys and since there are some really fun Saint episodes set in tropical areas. And since movies like Mara Maru also have some similar plot elements with what I'm doing: ship settings, smuggling, maybe a crook in a white suit....
I finished that Saint book, too, and thoroughly loved it. The TV adaptation of it was kind of a mess; probably not one of the better episodes. It changed drug smuggling to art smuggling, which just wasn't as intense, and it had a bizarre subplot of an old girlfriend of Simon's being manipulated by a hypnotist who was obsessed with her. She couldn't make herself break free of his control, no matter how Simon pleaded, but at the climax she sees the hypnotist about to shoot him and she runs out to try to save him and gets shot herself. The episode ends with Simon holding her as she apparently dies. It was heartbreaking. Even moreso since the girl really was innocent and hadn't ever willingly participated in the hypnotist's crimes.
I'm torn between writing a fic of Simon at her grave after the funeral or saving her life instead. Apparently Simon didn't break it off with her; she left him three years ago. Simon still cared about her, and she him, although I think Simon had really accepted that it was over between them. If I save her, which I certainly lean towards doing because it was just too sad, I'd still have to have them decide not to renew their romance, at least not at that time. But Simon would say he would always be there for her if she needed him. Only that all opens another can of worms in that she would likely be suffering a lot from trauma after finally breaking free of the hypnotist's control, and the road to recovery would be long and I don't think I'd be able to write that kind of fic; I stalled on more than one about recovery from trauma (including the Detective Conan fic Breakdown). I guess I could still just make it a oneshot and have Simon planning to stick around during her recovery and let it end there. Either that or timeskip to when she's better and they talk then and decide at that point not to renew their romance. They really have to decide that, as the episode aired at the end of the second season and even if she didn't die in canon as she seemed to, she certainly isn't around for any of the remaining four seasons.
Anyway, of The Saint episodes I've seen that were based on stories I've read, I wasn't so keen on this one or on the adaptation of The Gentle Ladies, but I like the book version of The Gentle Ladies even less. By contrast, I absolutely loved the adaptation of The Ever-Loving Spouse, in contrast to my thorough dislike of the book version. I believe I squeed over it here around the time I first saw it. Most episodes I have not read the book version of, and in general I imagine I would prefer the TV episode, if I liked either one. And then there's episodes that have no book counterparts, particularly a lot of the color ones. I kind of really love those, as they get into espionage and other exciting spy things like that. Many of the book-based ones are more about running cons, and while it is delicious to see con artists get some of their own medicine back at them, I love spy episodes the best.
I added another wartime-era Saint novel to my Amazon wishlist. I really wouldn't be surprised in the least if that ends up my favorite Saint era. I just love the idea of The Saint as an undercover government agent, especially if he tends to behave as he did in the novel I just finished. In any case, I'm just thrilled to have read a Saint book I really enjoy and that didn't make me uncomfortable in any way, as several of the short stories in The Saint to the Rescue did. I'm glad I didn't give up completely after being disappointed by the short stories. I was certainly tempted to. But I kept wanting to read that one particular book regardless and now I finally have.
And speaking of writing character death fix-it fics, ugh, I also must write one for a Charlie's Angels episode. I was so bummed by the episode in general, as Dan Tanna from Vega$ was in it and I got it in my head that it was a full-blown crossover. So I immediately sent for the disc, as I like Vega$ and I adore Dan Tanna; it's so intriguing that instead of a Las Vegas private eye being a really wild sort, Dan is very morally upright. (Maybe that was to try to make Las Vegas more appealing to conservative 1970s TV viewers?) But then he only has a tiny cameo appearance at the very end of part 2. It was so lame. I wanted to see him and the Angels solve a case together! I suppose the shows airing on different networks was what prevented a real crossover, even though they were both Aaron Spelling shows, but it was still disappointing.
Making it worse, there was an adorable character in the episode played by Scatman Crothers who had a pet cat that he carried everywhere with him. He was the best friend of a character played by Dean Martin and the villain was trying to take away everything that Dean's character loved. That included running down Scatman's character. Gah, it was heartbreaking. The cat jumped out of the way, thank goodness, but then it ran over to him and got on his chest, so worried. And then he survived the car crash, but the crummy villain came in through the window of the hospital that night and gave him a drug that killed him for real. I just hate when a character survives something horrible and you're so happy and relieved, and then they throw in the twist of them dying anyway. That is also lame. And sadistic.
But so anyway, I must figure out some way to save that character, because him dying is just unacceptable. I hate when one half of a great friendship (or for that matter, an enduring romance) is killed off, and it's so sad thinking about not only Dean's character being so sad, but the cat. Gah.
I already knew this is YGO's 20th anniversary. I found out now that it shares its anniversary with Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?; the manga was first printed on September 30th. (The anime, which I love much more, celebrates its 16th anniversary on April 18th.)
The 20th anniversary celebration movie releases in April. I thought it wasn't coming until July, for some reason. But it's saying that the movie takes place six months after the end of the original manga. For some reason I had thought it took place in anime-verse, but it kind of sounds like it doesn't. If it takes place in manga-verse, then I probably won't consider it canon unless it's really amazing; the anime is my preferred YGO canon, with only the substitution of Duke's manga introduction instead of the anime one. And the more detailed manga conversations between Atem and Thief King Bakura from the Memory World stuff.
And then this summary that Shounen Jump released has me puzzled to the extreme:
In the past Yūgi Yami and Kaiba have clashed many times!! Yami Yūgi, who resides in Yūgi Mutō's body, and Kaiba will have a duel that bets their prides and accepts each other's mutual experience.
Ummmm.... So it takes place after the end of the manga, when Yami Yugi had gone on to the afterlife, but they're still talking about him like he's there? What?
I know it seems strange to think of a YGO anything in the original verse without Yami Yugi around, but he's kind of not supposed to be there now. The whole point of the finale was to show that Yugi can stand on his own and Yami Yugi's destiny lay in finally being able to rest in peace. So right now I am left seriously scratching my head and wondering if something was mistranslated in that summary.
I look forward to April 23rd with great interest. And a bit of trepidation. I don't mind Yami Yugi being back, if there's a logical explanation for it, but I'm not too thrilled at the thought of the film being manga-based. And I wonder what will happen with Duke and Bakura, who have been my favorite YGO characters and story subjects for several years now. (Ironic, since in the past I used to struggle with writing for both of them....)
Also, I finally finished chapter 5 of my Riptide fic. I am thrilled. I think it may be starting to take better shape now; it's leaning towards a combination of The Hardy Boys and The Saint in plot structure, with a dabbling of old adventure quest movies like Mara Maru. Which makes total sense since the Riptide episode that inspired the fic made me think of The Hardy Boys and since there are some really fun Saint episodes set in tropical areas. And since movies like Mara Maru also have some similar plot elements with what I'm doing: ship settings, smuggling, maybe a crook in a white suit....
I finished that Saint book, too, and thoroughly loved it. The TV adaptation of it was kind of a mess; probably not one of the better episodes. It changed drug smuggling to art smuggling, which just wasn't as intense, and it had a bizarre subplot of an old girlfriend of Simon's being manipulated by a hypnotist who was obsessed with her. She couldn't make herself break free of his control, no matter how Simon pleaded, but at the climax she sees the hypnotist about to shoot him and she runs out to try to save him and gets shot herself. The episode ends with Simon holding her as she apparently dies. It was heartbreaking. Even moreso since the girl really was innocent and hadn't ever willingly participated in the hypnotist's crimes.
I'm torn between writing a fic of Simon at her grave after the funeral or saving her life instead. Apparently Simon didn't break it off with her; she left him three years ago. Simon still cared about her, and she him, although I think Simon had really accepted that it was over between them. If I save her, which I certainly lean towards doing because it was just too sad, I'd still have to have them decide not to renew their romance, at least not at that time. But Simon would say he would always be there for her if she needed him. Only that all opens another can of worms in that she would likely be suffering a lot from trauma after finally breaking free of the hypnotist's control, and the road to recovery would be long and I don't think I'd be able to write that kind of fic; I stalled on more than one about recovery from trauma (including the Detective Conan fic Breakdown). I guess I could still just make it a oneshot and have Simon planning to stick around during her recovery and let it end there. Either that or timeskip to when she's better and they talk then and decide at that point not to renew their romance. They really have to decide that, as the episode aired at the end of the second season and even if she didn't die in canon as she seemed to, she certainly isn't around for any of the remaining four seasons.
Anyway, of The Saint episodes I've seen that were based on stories I've read, I wasn't so keen on this one or on the adaptation of The Gentle Ladies, but I like the book version of The Gentle Ladies even less. By contrast, I absolutely loved the adaptation of The Ever-Loving Spouse, in contrast to my thorough dislike of the book version. I believe I squeed over it here around the time I first saw it. Most episodes I have not read the book version of, and in general I imagine I would prefer the TV episode, if I liked either one. And then there's episodes that have no book counterparts, particularly a lot of the color ones. I kind of really love those, as they get into espionage and other exciting spy things like that. Many of the book-based ones are more about running cons, and while it is delicious to see con artists get some of their own medicine back at them, I love spy episodes the best.
I added another wartime-era Saint novel to my Amazon wishlist. I really wouldn't be surprised in the least if that ends up my favorite Saint era. I just love the idea of The Saint as an undercover government agent, especially if he tends to behave as he did in the novel I just finished. In any case, I'm just thrilled to have read a Saint book I really enjoy and that didn't make me uncomfortable in any way, as several of the short stories in The Saint to the Rescue did. I'm glad I didn't give up completely after being disappointed by the short stories. I was certainly tempted to. But I kept wanting to read that one particular book regardless and now I finally have.
And speaking of writing character death fix-it fics, ugh, I also must write one for a Charlie's Angels episode. I was so bummed by the episode in general, as Dan Tanna from Vega$ was in it and I got it in my head that it was a full-blown crossover. So I immediately sent for the disc, as I like Vega$ and I adore Dan Tanna; it's so intriguing that instead of a Las Vegas private eye being a really wild sort, Dan is very morally upright. (Maybe that was to try to make Las Vegas more appealing to conservative 1970s TV viewers?) But then he only has a tiny cameo appearance at the very end of part 2. It was so lame. I wanted to see him and the Angels solve a case together! I suppose the shows airing on different networks was what prevented a real crossover, even though they were both Aaron Spelling shows, but it was still disappointing.
Making it worse, there was an adorable character in the episode played by Scatman Crothers who had a pet cat that he carried everywhere with him. He was the best friend of a character played by Dean Martin and the villain was trying to take away everything that Dean's character loved. That included running down Scatman's character. Gah, it was heartbreaking. The cat jumped out of the way, thank goodness, but then it ran over to him and got on his chest, so worried. And then he survived the car crash, but the crummy villain came in through the window of the hospital that night and gave him a drug that killed him for real. I just hate when a character survives something horrible and you're so happy and relieved, and then they throw in the twist of them dying anyway. That is also lame. And sadistic.
But so anyway, I must figure out some way to save that character, because him dying is just unacceptable. I hate when one half of a great friendship (or for that matter, an enduring romance) is killed off, and it's so sad thinking about not only Dean's character being so sad, but the cat. Gah.