Vroom Vroom Kaboom
When I went out today, I didn't expect to get rained on. Well, guess what happened. Can't say I mind all that much, though! We really needed it. It's just, when I stepped out of the cinema, I did not expect to get so... wet.
Speaking of cinema - Yes, I went to see Mad Max: Fury Road again. :D This is the first time I've ever bothered to see the same film twice in theatre. But I'm really glad that I did - it's such a good movie for the big screen, and I really wanted to go, and it was just as enjoyable the second time as it was the first time. After reading about the work that went into the cinematography and editing and just how much of it was practical effects vs CGI, it was nice to take a second look at that. Man, some of those stunts and practical rigging are just so cool (the polecats! Coma and the Doof Wagon! The motorcycles!!). And I am utterly in love with the vehicles in this movie. The War Rig is a character in and of itself; it's like an enormous beast. In some scenes, it practically breathes.
While watching it again, I remembered something that one of the anons in FFA's Mad Max discussions had said, about the car cases being very much like naval battles. I can completely see where they're coming from with that, and it explains in part why I enjoyed them so much. The battle is horizontal, but it's also vertical. There might not be any masts or rigging, but the visual effect is similar. ... I hope that eventually, someone will write an AU in which this apocalypse takes place on the seas rather than in the desert, with a world that relies on ships rather than cars. Because I normally don't care for AUs, but I would read that.
Had a coffee at the A&W prior to the movie, as usual. Started a new fic while I was at it. It's... a Hetalia + Mad Max crossover. Which is probably kind of a ridiculous idea, but I'm writing it anyway, because I like the world in Fury Road, so why not. But as I'm writing it, I'm encountering a few difficulties with figuring out how to make it work out, because it's a straight-up crossover rather than a fusion.
In theory, it's possible enough to match them up, because Mad Max's world is more or less our world, just a post-apocalyptic version of it. But with Hetalia, there's the problem of: the characters are personified countries. Is it possible for the Nation to exist when the nation in the mundane sense no longer exists? ... My general feeling is that, as it's presented in the movie, no. But: rule of cool rules all. So I'm doing it anyway.
In Fury Road, society as it used to be has more or less broken down completely. There are people who remember what it was like before everything disintegrated, and there are groups of people who live/exist together (more or less), but the world as it used to be is gone.
Essentially, Australia doesn't exist any more.
And this means that Australia, as in the personification of Australia, also shouldn't exist any more. There aren't many memories left of life before the collapse, and what is left would not be enough to sustain a Nation, I think. The people in Mad Max's world don't consider themselves Australians, as far as I can tell. They're from the Citadel, or they're part of the group that calls themselves the Vuvalini, or they're any number of other small groups that gathered together, but it all comes down to one thing. There is no Australia. Australia doesn't exist.
If Australia doesn't exist because Australians don't exist, then Australia as a personification should not exist.
So, what this means for crossover purposes is that an actual straight-up crossover between Fury Road and Hetalia is actually technically impossible because the worlds are not actually that compatible. It falls apart if you think about it too much.
But a lot of things about both Mad Max and Hetalia fall apart if you put much thought to them, so fuck it, I'm going to do it anyway.
The general idea I'm going with is that Australia (the personification) is still there, but gradually moving toward something resembling normal human mortality. It's something that I think he would be aware of, both consciously and subconsciously. Without his people to keep him going, there wouldn't be much left. And we know that Nations can die; it happened to Rome and so on. Australia would be aware of that. So, I think he'd also be very aware of how fragile he is now, and aware of his own mortality.
Technically, he isn't Australia. He's the wanderer formerly known as Australia. And he's running on fumes.
The more I think about it, the sadder I get, pf. But the idea interests me a lot - not just in the context of Hetalia + Mad Max, but Hetalia crossed over with apocalyptic canons in general. For stories that take place closer to the world as we know it, that's one thing - in Stephen King's The Stand, for instance, there's enough left that I think the idea of the United States would still exist, so America-the-Nation would still be able to exist. And in something like World War Z, it's obvious that even after the zombie apocalypse, the nations still exist and are rebuilding, so the Nations would still exist and help with the rebuilding, though some of them would have died during the apocalypse (Iceland is the one I'm thinking of, mainly). But what about stories that take place a much longer period of time after the apocalypse? How can we reconcile the idea of Hetalia nations existing in a world like that? Would they exist only as long as there are still people around who remember what the world was like before everything changed?
It would probably depend, in part, on how people structured themselves. If there was some kind of wider unity, then it's possible that a nation could adapt to that and continue to exist under a new name, I think. But in something like the universe given in Fury Road, it seems like everyone is so scattered that there wouldn't be enough basis for a Nation to exist on. There is no Australia, but there's nothing else that appeared in its place, either.
... Anyway. It's pretty neat to think about. But, even though this crossover doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense, I'm going to write it anyway! Because Fury Road seems to operate on a principle of "Why not?". Might as well apply that to myself. :D
This entry was originally posted at http://yuuago.dreamwidth.org/3399547.html. You can comment here or at the original entry.
Speaking of cinema - Yes, I went to see Mad Max: Fury Road again. :D This is the first time I've ever bothered to see the same film twice in theatre. But I'm really glad that I did - it's such a good movie for the big screen, and I really wanted to go, and it was just as enjoyable the second time as it was the first time. After reading about the work that went into the cinematography and editing and just how much of it was practical effects vs CGI, it was nice to take a second look at that. Man, some of those stunts and practical rigging are just so cool (the polecats! Coma and the Doof Wagon! The motorcycles!!). And I am utterly in love with the vehicles in this movie. The War Rig is a character in and of itself; it's like an enormous beast. In some scenes, it practically breathes.
While watching it again, I remembered something that one of the anons in FFA's Mad Max discussions had said, about the car cases being very much like naval battles. I can completely see where they're coming from with that, and it explains in part why I enjoyed them so much. The battle is horizontal, but it's also vertical. There might not be any masts or rigging, but the visual effect is similar. ... I hope that eventually, someone will write an AU in which this apocalypse takes place on the seas rather than in the desert, with a world that relies on ships rather than cars. Because I normally don't care for AUs, but I would read that.
Had a coffee at the A&W prior to the movie, as usual. Started a new fic while I was at it. It's... a Hetalia + Mad Max crossover. Which is probably kind of a ridiculous idea, but I'm writing it anyway, because I like the world in Fury Road, so why not. But as I'm writing it, I'm encountering a few difficulties with figuring out how to make it work out, because it's a straight-up crossover rather than a fusion.
In theory, it's possible enough to match them up, because Mad Max's world is more or less our world, just a post-apocalyptic version of it. But with Hetalia, there's the problem of: the characters are personified countries. Is it possible for the Nation to exist when the nation in the mundane sense no longer exists? ... My general feeling is that, as it's presented in the movie, no. But: rule of cool rules all. So I'm doing it anyway.
In Fury Road, society as it used to be has more or less broken down completely. There are people who remember what it was like before everything disintegrated, and there are groups of people who live/exist together (more or less), but the world as it used to be is gone.
Essentially, Australia doesn't exist any more.
And this means that Australia, as in the personification of Australia, also shouldn't exist any more. There aren't many memories left of life before the collapse, and what is left would not be enough to sustain a Nation, I think. The people in Mad Max's world don't consider themselves Australians, as far as I can tell. They're from the Citadel, or they're part of the group that calls themselves the Vuvalini, or they're any number of other small groups that gathered together, but it all comes down to one thing. There is no Australia. Australia doesn't exist.
If Australia doesn't exist because Australians don't exist, then Australia as a personification should not exist.
So, what this means for crossover purposes is that an actual straight-up crossover between Fury Road and Hetalia is actually technically impossible because the worlds are not actually that compatible. It falls apart if you think about it too much.
But a lot of things about both Mad Max and Hetalia fall apart if you put much thought to them, so fuck it, I'm going to do it anyway.
The general idea I'm going with is that Australia (the personification) is still there, but gradually moving toward something resembling normal human mortality. It's something that I think he would be aware of, both consciously and subconsciously. Without his people to keep him going, there wouldn't be much left. And we know that Nations can die; it happened to Rome and so on. Australia would be aware of that. So, I think he'd also be very aware of how fragile he is now, and aware of his own mortality.
Technically, he isn't Australia. He's the wanderer formerly known as Australia. And he's running on fumes.
The more I think about it, the sadder I get, pf. But the idea interests me a lot - not just in the context of Hetalia + Mad Max, but Hetalia crossed over with apocalyptic canons in general. For stories that take place closer to the world as we know it, that's one thing - in Stephen King's The Stand, for instance, there's enough left that I think the idea of the United States would still exist, so America-the-Nation would still be able to exist. And in something like World War Z, it's obvious that even after the zombie apocalypse, the nations still exist and are rebuilding, so the Nations would still exist and help with the rebuilding, though some of them would have died during the apocalypse (Iceland is the one I'm thinking of, mainly). But what about stories that take place a much longer period of time after the apocalypse? How can we reconcile the idea of Hetalia nations existing in a world like that? Would they exist only as long as there are still people around who remember what the world was like before everything changed?
It would probably depend, in part, on how people structured themselves. If there was some kind of wider unity, then it's possible that a nation could adapt to that and continue to exist under a new name, I think. But in something like the universe given in Fury Road, it seems like everyone is so scattered that there wouldn't be enough basis for a Nation to exist on. There is no Australia, but there's nothing else that appeared in its place, either.
... Anyway. It's pretty neat to think about. But, even though this crossover doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense, I'm going to write it anyway! Because Fury Road seems to operate on a principle of "Why not?". Might as well apply that to myself. :D
This entry was originally posted at http://yuuago.dreamwidth.org/3399547.html. You can comment here or at the original entry.