Weird Fannish Habits

Apr 14, 2011 10:47

So I, uh, found some Merlin icons. I like looking at Uther. I don't know why. I sort of want to pat him and tell him not to worry so much about the whole magic thing. At which point he would probably immediately order my execution ( Read more... )

my brain, merlin, pointless rambling

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Comments 58

catherinebruce April 14 2011, 17:09:10 UTC
I just managed to get caught up with Merlin in December. (We're merely months apart in our mutual squeals of awesome! D:) And I love Uther. xD And the whole things and stuff with bits of there and here and weee! (Not knowing how much you've seen, I need to be rather... limited and obscure with my word choice xD)

And grah, I know the feeling. Usually its one thing for me at a time, but lately I've been everywhere. Old fandoms, new fandoms, watching shows I would never admit to in the light of day. (Is that feeling you're talking about that strange giddyness? o.O)

...Doctor Who comes back next week?? AIEEEE!

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astrogirl2 April 14 2011, 17:15:23 UTC
I've only just seen up through the end of S1. (I should get around to S2 in a few weeks, but then I might need to wait for S3, as Netflix doesn't seem to have it yet.) And I do love Uther. Not so much as a person, but as a character, oh, yes. Heck, he's the one thing that makes me feel less guilty about being so completely charmed by what I can't help thinking of, if I try to be objective, as a terribly lightweight teenybopper fantasy show. That character really does have some... well, some weight to him, you know? Anthony Head is just marvelous in anything he does.

And yes, I think that is the feeling I'm talking about. There's the warm glowiness, and the strange giddiness, yes. :)

And, yep, new Who on the 23rd! Finally!

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jhall1 April 14 2011, 19:13:31 UTC
Yes, it would be pretty hard to love Uther as a person rather than as a character. He's responsible for a reign of terror towards magic users that rather reminds me of Hitler and the Jews. When Merlin has foiled yet another plot against Uther's life, I tend to think: "Why didn't you just let them kill him? Then Arthur would succeed to the throne and, for all his faults, be a fair better king."

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possible S1 spoilers here astrogirl2 April 14 2011, 19:22:52 UTC
Yeah, he's responsible for atrocities, there is no question about it. And yet, I honestly do think he believes he's doing the only right thing and that it's duty to his people to keep right on doing it, even on the occasions when it bothers him personally. I find that fascinating and tragic, in a horrible sort of way, and I can't help kind of feeling for the guy, despite it all. And I really like that the show actually has Merlin (among others) wrestling with this question of whether it might not be better just to let the guy die, knowing that things will be so much better when he's gone. The fact that in the end Merlin just can't quite bring himself to do so is, I think, an indication of the difference between them. Uther, after all, is the guy who's all about sacrificing individuals for the perceived good of the realm.

(Hey, look! There is some depth here, really! :))

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selenak April 14 2011, 17:36:35 UTC
:) May I say I'm absolutely gleefull you succumbed to the Merlin lure? I did last year and wrote a lot of fanfic due to that. As for icons, kathyh has a lot very beautiful ones of all the characters.

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astrogirl2 April 14 2011, 18:15:53 UTC
I'm glad other people are gleeful. I'm sort of facepalming. It just so doesn't seem like my sort of thing. :)

I have been reading fic, but limiting it to stuff written before S2. (Yay for the "sort by date" function on AO3!) I was a little surprised by how easy it was to find some quality stuff. I should check out yours when I'm more caught up.

As for icons, I'm at my limit again, which is possibly a good thing. :)

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jenna_marianne April 14 2011, 18:46:28 UTC
I was totally like a fandom serial monogamist, super focused on one at a time, then moving on (Buffy, SG1, SGA, Star Trek), but now I jump back and forth and follow a bunch of fandoms all at once. Not sure why the change; part of it was following authors that write in different fandoms, finally joining LJ and following various fandom comms (especially fic search comms) and mostly using delicious to search out fandoms.

You're probably right that being a bit into several fandoms may be to make up for the lack of a big obsession fandom. Most of them are producing content anymore; maybe that's why?

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astrogirl2 April 14 2011, 19:28:04 UTC
That probably is at least part of the reason why for me, yeah. Blake's 7 fandom is still going, but at a much more sedate pace than it used to, and for various reasons my fannish enthusiasm for it has simmered down significantly over the last few years. Farscape fandom is certainly a heck of a lot less active than it used to be. And while Doctor Who is still going strong, I have something of a love/hate relationship with the fandom that results in me keeping a lot of it at arm's length.

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astrogirl2 April 14 2011, 19:31:25 UTC
Oh, and I also meant to say that influences from people on LJ do make a difference, too, I think. I mean, I would never have bothered with Merlin if I hadn't kept seeing people on my flist mention it, making me curious. And anything you show the slightest bit of interest in, you know, there are always people on LJ to encourage you. :)

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vilakins April 14 2011, 22:02:52 UTC
I doubt I'll ever watch Merlin, but I've been main-lining Leverage while Greg's away since he didn't seem interested. I really enjoy it, in much the same way as Burn Notice (plus it lacks the headless female bodies, yay) but I still don't have that desire to read all I can lay my hands on, or write for it. B7 was my first experience of that (for a TV show anyway; I often got obsessed with book series and made up sequels in my head). The closest was B5 for which I joined discussion groups online, but I still didn't want to write for it (not that I knew about fanfic then).

I have no idea what it takes for me to get really fannish, but I wish I would about something other than B7 because there's hardly anyone left there. Maybe I'll just enjoy the Sherlock fic.

[Edit] Having read the comments, maybe I should try Merlin. I can't imagine Greg being interested so maybe I could DL it and watch before he comes home. I just wasn't that interested from what people said about it until now.

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astrogirl2 April 14 2011, 22:22:24 UTC
You might actually like Merlin. It sure didn't seem to me like something that was going to be all that great, but, well, it really does have a lot more charm than I expected, somehow.

Leverage is also one I want to check out one of these days. And I'm still waiting (rather impatiently) for S3 -- I think it's S3 -- of Burn Notice on DVD. But, yeah, that and lots of other things are just things that I'm, at most, sort of very casually fannish about, mostly that I enjoy a lot when I'm watching them but don't think about much otherwise.

This whole current thing of repeatedly falling in love, however briefly or unexpectedly, with a whole bunch of things serially or at once isn't new to me, though. It's pretty much exactly how I was in my childhood, with all kinds of terrible shows I blush to think about now. (I really do think I was born a fan; it seems to be the most fundamental orientation I have.) Maybe I'm in my second childhood now or something. :)

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vilakins April 14 2011, 23:05:59 UTC
I never left my first childhood!

Leverage is fun, a sort of US Hustle except that they work for victims. I really like the characters, especially Hardison the Star-Trek-loving geek hacker, and Parker the thief (yes, just the one name) who lacks all social skills.

There are lots of programs I really enjoy but don't think about much otherwise. B5 and Lost I did spend a lot of time thinking about and speculating (and they both ultimately disappointed me). I don't want to write for either though.

Hell, I'm supposed to be writing a B7 charity story and it's there in my head but I lack the drive somehow. I really need to get into gear.

Anyway, I might have a go at Merlin. I don't mind teenager stuff per se; I'm really enjoying Glee.

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astrogirl2 April 15 2011, 00:07:45 UTC
Not leaving your first childhood is the way to go! :)

I haven't seen Hustle, either, although I think that's another one on my never-ending list of Shows I'm Interested In. I do like heist/caper stuff, which is the impression I have of that one. (Yes?)

B5 and Lost were both somewhere in-between the shows I'm casually interested in but not fannish about and the ones I get all crazy with fannish love over. They both really gripped me and made me want to talk about them and stuff, but not really to write fic or become obsessed with specific characters ( ... )

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jaxomsride April 14 2011, 22:55:54 UTC
I enjoyed Merlin and the "New Robin Hood" (Richard Armitage makes a great Guy De Gisbourne and the sheriff is so over the top he's more like a panto villain, only evil!).

Uther is brilliant, bot goody and baddy.

The characters do develop over time, sometimes not for the better!

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astrogirl2 April 14 2011, 23:55:28 UTC
I haven't seen the new Robin Hood thing, although I've heard a lot less good things about it than about Merlin.

And even in S1, there's a bit of (admittedly rather subtle) character development, which is nice.

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jhall1 April 15 2011, 09:22:30 UTC
If you're thinking of who I think you're thinking of, then I thought that wasn't very well handled. It seemed too extreme a change for me to find it convincing.

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jaxomsride April 16 2011, 23:10:32 UTC
I mean the BBC series not the latest "Robin Hood the Hollywood years" movie.

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