In which I probably insult your fandom(s)
5 Reasons It Sucks Being a Joss Whedon Fan
I don't consider myself a Whedon fan. I love Firefly/Serenity and I really like Dr. Horrible. Beyond that? Meh. Never could stand Buffy. Angel had some good bits but wasn't consistent enough for me to take the time to watch it regularly. The premise of Dollhouse made me throw up in my mouth a little bit so I never watched it. Plus Eliza Dushku is a terrible actor.
But I read that article going, "Yes, exactly." I do have less experience with favorite characters getting killed off on Whedon shows just because I've never watched much of Whedon's stuff and so don't have many favorite Whedon characters, but I've heard/read numerous Whedon fans make those same complaints about character death. And while I'd say Whedon is less fail on the gender issues than a lot of media industry men, I have never understood where his reputation for being the great harbinger of feminism on TV came from.
But the thing that really gets me? #1 on that list. Yeah. It's the same thing with really hardcore BSG fans--talk to one and you'll end up with the impression that all dramatic, dark science fiction begins and ends with BSG, as if its fans have never seen anything else ever. I grew up with fairytales and folklore and myths. Those were the kinds of books my parents bought me, and the kinds of books I liked reading. When I was little I had whole shelves full of Aesop's fables, Hans Christian Anderson, the book versions of Disney movie fairytales alongside their darker, original inspirations. I had a series of books that I read until they fell apart that was full of classical mythology: Greek, Roman, Norse, Irish. I had a book of Cherokee myths that my dad bought me when he was going through his short-lived "reconnecting with my heritage" phase. So that's what I grew up with. And then when I was a little older I got into Shakespeare and Charles Dickens and other well-known classical writers that everyone's probably been forced to read at some point in school.
What I'm saying is, it bugs me to no end when a show pulls out a trope that's among the Oldest Ones in the Book and, inevitably, some Whedon fan starts screaming about how that trope was "stolen" from Whedon because something similar showed up in Buffy or Angel or whatever. Because, no. Because story-telling existed long before Whedon showed up, because almost every genre trope existed before Whedon showed up, and if his hardcore fans had ever watched or read anything other than Joss Whedon's stuff they would know that.
But for me, I've always loved seeing how artists recreate and reinterpret old tropes and elements. When I was a kid I had a set of Bobbsey Twins books from three separate eras: I had four books that had belonged to my great-grandmother and were published in 1904. I had a bunch that had belonged to my mom that were published in the sixties and seventies. And I had a few from the modern re-launch of the series that were published in the late eighties/early nineties. And they were all the same story, but all very different in how they portrayed the elements of that story, because of changing technology and social norms throughout the different eras. When I was eight I didn't have the education or sophistication of thinking to examine how each set of books reflected the times in which they were written, but I did like how they were the same story told in different ways depending on the time period. And I think that at least partly made a big impression on me. I like seeing adaptations and re-inventions. I don't think any element or trope in story-telling is sacred or untouchable. People have been retelling and remixing stories since the beginning of story-telling, and you (general you; I'm not talking about anyone specifically) can't just start shrieking about plagiarism when you are completely ignorant of the actual origins of the tropes you're shrieking about.
That got away from the Whedon thing, but it's not really about the Whedon thing. I've had this rant going on in my head for awhile and the article I linked above reminded me of it, so that's the starting point I used.
(or you could just go read this TV Tropes link that I found just now)
I don't consider myself a Whedon fan. I love Firefly/Serenity and I really like Dr. Horrible. Beyond that? Meh. Never could stand Buffy. Angel had some good bits but wasn't consistent enough for me to take the time to watch it regularly. The premise of Dollhouse made me throw up in my mouth a little bit so I never watched it. Plus Eliza Dushku is a terrible actor.
But I read that article going, "Yes, exactly." I do have less experience with favorite characters getting killed off on Whedon shows just because I've never watched much of Whedon's stuff and so don't have many favorite Whedon characters, but I've heard/read numerous Whedon fans make those same complaints about character death. And while I'd say Whedon is less fail on the gender issues than a lot of media industry men, I have never understood where his reputation for being the great harbinger of feminism on TV came from.
But the thing that really gets me? #1 on that list. Yeah. It's the same thing with really hardcore BSG fans--talk to one and you'll end up with the impression that all dramatic, dark science fiction begins and ends with BSG, as if its fans have never seen anything else ever. I grew up with fairytales and folklore and myths. Those were the kinds of books my parents bought me, and the kinds of books I liked reading. When I was little I had whole shelves full of Aesop's fables, Hans Christian Anderson, the book versions of Disney movie fairytales alongside their darker, original inspirations. I had a series of books that I read until they fell apart that was full of classical mythology: Greek, Roman, Norse, Irish. I had a book of Cherokee myths that my dad bought me when he was going through his short-lived "reconnecting with my heritage" phase. So that's what I grew up with. And then when I was a little older I got into Shakespeare and Charles Dickens and other well-known classical writers that everyone's probably been forced to read at some point in school.
What I'm saying is, it bugs me to no end when a show pulls out a trope that's among the Oldest Ones in the Book and, inevitably, some Whedon fan starts screaming about how that trope was "stolen" from Whedon because something similar showed up in Buffy or Angel or whatever. Because, no. Because story-telling existed long before Whedon showed up, because almost every genre trope existed before Whedon showed up, and if his hardcore fans had ever watched or read anything other than Joss Whedon's stuff they would know that.
But for me, I've always loved seeing how artists recreate and reinterpret old tropes and elements. When I was a kid I had a set of Bobbsey Twins books from three separate eras: I had four books that had belonged to my great-grandmother and were published in 1904. I had a bunch that had belonged to my mom that were published in the sixties and seventies. And I had a few from the modern re-launch of the series that were published in the late eighties/early nineties. And they were all the same story, but all very different in how they portrayed the elements of that story, because of changing technology and social norms throughout the different eras. When I was eight I didn't have the education or sophistication of thinking to examine how each set of books reflected the times in which they were written, but I did like how they were the same story told in different ways depending on the time period. And I think that at least partly made a big impression on me. I like seeing adaptations and re-inventions. I don't think any element or trope in story-telling is sacred or untouchable. People have been retelling and remixing stories since the beginning of story-telling, and you (general you; I'm not talking about anyone specifically) can't just start shrieking about plagiarism when you are completely ignorant of the actual origins of the tropes you're shrieking about.
That got away from the Whedon thing, but it's not really about the Whedon thing. I've had this rant going on in my head for awhile and the article I linked above reminded me of it, so that's the starting point I used.
(or you could just go read this TV Tropes link that I found just now)