FREE-FOR-ALL META COMMENT-A-THON

[upupa_epops]

Old news: lj is dead. Everyone is crazy busy, or they have other reasons not to be here. No one has time to read those huge meta posts we used to write once upon a time. But maybe we can all find ten minutes to do this:

FREE-FOR-ALL META COMMENT-A-THON!

Comments

[upupa_epops]

Jossverse, Why the fuck not?

As Poco correctly stated, TVD plot solutions can be summed up as "Why the fuck not?". Rewatching BtVS, I realized that Joss Whedon has a very similar attitude to language solutions. I'm talking about things like "I think this line's mostly filler", or:

“It has to be paranormal in origin.”
“How can you tell?”
“Well it’s so shiny!”

I feel like some things got put in scripts just because someone looked at the lines at 4am and said: Hey, why the fuck not? The question is: what effect does it have on the series? How does it shape the mood? What kind of humor does it create? Does it just create humor?

[angearia]

The beauty of this approach to language is how it opens up characters to demonstrate both humor and humility. It's playful self-deprecation which offsets the darker aspects of these characters who can be so incredibly arrogant and self-possessed. It softens them, humanizes them. Not only do these characters laugh in the face of death, but they laugh at themselves, at their ignorance and foibles and invite their loved ones to laugh at them, too. Hell, they even invite strangers to laugh at them

[upupa_epops]

I'd say "why the fuck not" is a good expression, in a sense that they could literally be ANYTHING. It doesn't matter if Giles says "Well it's so shiny", or one of twenty other possible silly sentences. I didn't mean it as anything bad :).

See, I find it difficult to actually find meaning behind the Whedon language, because I love the sound of it so much that every time I try to think thinky thoughts, I get distracted by ALL THE SHINY (also, in case you ever wondered, one SHOULDN'T translate trailers to Disney movies while in the middle of a Buffy rewatch). So thank you so much for the insight <3333.

[angearia]

Oh sure! Just that for me, "why the fuck not" carries this heavy connotation of doing it simply because it can be done, that it lacks purpose, or that it's simply to push and test boundaries. Like, there are some developments in the Buffy comics where it seems like the writers just went with the most outrageous thing they could imagine simply because they could now that they didn't have a budget

[upupa_epops]

TVD, canon Damon vs fanon Damon. What are the differences and why?

[badboy_fangirl]

I don't really have time for this either, but of course I've been thinking about this specific thing lately, so I have to at least say something as quickly as I can type before I have to get on with my day. And here are my conclusions:

Because Damon is a multi-layered character (and played by an actor who while argumentative about Damon's multi-facetedness, actually conveys all of these parts of Damon anyway), he can be seen in a lot of ways that feel right--i.e., let me use the "sexually dominant" vs. "sexually submissive" bit here to illustrate.

I was reading a fic the other day, set in S3, in which Damon and Elena pursue a sexual relationship in the aftermath of Stefan coming home from Ripper Camp. In this story Damon is very dominant, and shows Elena a lot of technique, which makes sense. I mean, he is 170 years old. He's been having sex, minus that 50 year sabbatical, for a century. He ought to be good at the technical stuff. He would, in my opinion, be very eager to blow Elena's mind and give it to her good, because he's Damon

[upupa_epops]

Oooh, I really like this! And I fully agree that he's both. I tend to focus on the submissive side much more simply because I feel overwhelmed by the amount of dominant Damon in D/E fic in general. I don't need to write it, because there's so much of it in what I can read that I get a bit bored. If I were writing D/E without being aware of the existing TVD fanfiction, I'd probably be writing dominant Damon much more often than I do now.

(Have a good day! Thanks for finding the time to do this, despite your busy schedule :).)

[lynnenne]

Just jumping in to tell you that "Stefan coming home from Ripper Camp" is my favourite phrase I've read today. :)

[fluffyfrolicker]

tVD | predictions for Damon's reactions and treatment of Katherine in season 5, once he finds out she's human, especially in light of a) his ~official (I guess) start of a relationship with Elena. Is it still just kiss me or kill me between them?

[ever_neutral]

SMH

[fluffyfrolicker]

tVD | stefan the newest doppelganger and Silas. other than "why the fuck not?" what could all this bring to the show/Stefan's character?

[crowandfog]

Hmm. I want to know to what degree Silas intends to replace Stefan. Is he going to be Stefan or is he just going to wear Stefan's face? Like, does he just need to fly under the radar while he fulfills some master plan or what? Does he intend to live Stefan's life (like Katherine intended to live Elena's)? It could be interesting to see how his powers affect his portrayal of Stefan. I usually think of Stefan as someone who likes to rewrite the world around him (er, live in denial), so I'd be fascinated to see what would come from Silas, this being who seems nearly omniscient, taking on the role of Stefan, this super repressed guy who only sees what he wants to see. Er, I'm tired and don't know if that sentence made any sense, but there we go

[fluffyfrolicker]

doctor who | John Hurt's Doctor. Who might he be? (I know, more prediction than meta, but PLEASE)

[fluffyfrolicker]

Two of the big theories I've seen floating around, are that he's either the version of the Doctor who ended the Time War, wiping out the Daleks and sacrificing the other Time Lords, or that he's the Valeyard

[fluffyfrolicker]

What do you think of the idea that the Doctor now has infinite regenerations as stated by 11 in an episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures? Are we meant to take that statement as a change in canon or an offhand remark that doesn't actually change anything?

[fluffyfrolicker]

Well the Doctor is a lying liar who lies (or is very good at keeping secrets) so I don't think he was necessarily telling the truth. And if I remember right even RTD said it was a throwaway line, as the whole 13 regenerations myth was too entrenched to be overturned by a single line. But we are coming up to that bright line of the original number of regenerations, and as the BBC are unlikely to want to let the show go, somewhere there must be a handwave, or fix coming in