in the eye of the beholder

[cupidsbow]

I'm not really 'in' Supernatural fandom, in that I'm just reading a small subset of the fic, and not really reading or thinking about meta. But even so, I keep stumbling across bitter author's notes, so I can't help but be aware of a general fannish feeling, which goes something like: "OMG! My fannish love is dead. Everyone died in Season 5! Woe

Comments

[jenna_marianne]

I will forever resent RTD for the way he handled CoE and Ianto (my *favorite* character). And I agree, what is up with the idea of wonderful Jack turning into a bloated floating head!?! Did RTD watch too much Futurama?

BtVS (well, any Whedon show) made me feel that way too (the changing your perspective on watching TV)...I like the stories Joss Whedon tells, and the interesting characters he comes up with, but I no longer trust him. If a character is in a loving relationship, Joss seems to feel that one of them has got to go. I'm still upset about the character death in Serenity. The horror of the moment of "I'm a leaf on the wind." grr.

[cupidsbow]

That's the conclusion I've come to as well: that satisfying storytelling is about trust, as much as it is about plot and characterisation.

I'm willing to go to just about any dark corner of the human psyche with a storyteller I trust, and like it. But if they aren't up to it, I'll just come out the other side with PTSD triggers, which is not what I want from my stories.

[syllamon]

I loved the last statement, that you are willing to go to dark corners with a storyteller you trust. Can you tell me what earns that trust? Is it character development, a believable arc? consistently good stories? How does someone go about developing trust to take readers into those dark corners.

[cupidsbow]

For me, it's primarily the development of a long-term contract with an author or reccer or show, made up of reading/watching stories that consistently work for me without triggering me