Things associated with me

[doyle]

silly_cleo tagged me in that 'five things I associate with you meme', so...


setting up communities for new fandoms and obscure pairings and such things and being awesome at maintaining them

*squishes silly_cleo* The maintaining them I'm, erm, not so good at; I remember about tags and memories on who_otp, which is probably my most active comm, every few months and them do them in a batch. I can set things up like a trouper, though, so occasionally I'll decide I need a comm to exist, magic it into being and hope it will become populated like my little settlements in Sim City where people inevitably died because I didn't connect up the power. There's a very clear pattern to my fandom interaction, in that I start off in a big popular ship (Doctor/Rose, Buffy/Spike, all the way back to my Kirk/Spock fixation that shifted to a general Uhura-Sulu-Chekhov fangirling) and once I've glutted myself on it I start to drift towards rare pairings and minor characters and while I still think the big popular ships are great and everything I need bits of the sandbox that aren't about them, so I usually end up creating them myself.

There are tons of comms, mine and other people's, that I'd love to see get more action - rose_lives, leftbehind__, empireoftraken, dw_femslash, whoadventures, jackgwenrhys, gingerminx, trap_one, tons of others, especially if said action was in the form of discussion (not that I don't love fic and icons and such) and now I'm pondering some sort of 'poke smaller comms into activity' week...

I have been strongly resisting the urge to make a Rose/Mickey/Jake or general alt-verse comm (because I love me some Handy, too), even though clearly it's a thing that should exist.

Rose/Mickey/Jake and the alt-verse in general

I stand by my manifesto - which has now been Jossed, dammit, since the three of them are no longer in the same universe, and while Rose/Handy/Jake could also be great I love Mickey best and it isn't the same without him there...

Obviously the distinct lack of Jake in The Stolen Earth and Mickey having nothing to stay in the alt universe for are a bit of a blow to my OT3, since the most obvious assumption is that Jake's died (and that Mickey blames Rose, since he doesn't so much as look at her let alone say goodbye, and even if you aren't over your ex it seems a bit extreme to give up your flashy world-saving gig and strand yourself in a different universe from her: dude, you could just move to another city in the alt-verse). But dead Jake and irreparable Rose/Mickey rift is far too angsty for me, so I'm going with 'Jake got stuck in an (extremely nice) alternate alternate universe while he and Rose were testing the dimensional cannon, and Mickey's still in a strop about it. He'll get over it.'

The alt-verse: well, it's mostly the zeppelins. I'll leap all over anything with airships. But I love canon alt-verses in general - I was mad for the Wishverse/Birthdayverse/Asylumverse on Buffy and Angel too, and the Star Trek episodes I've watched the most are the Mirror, Mirror universe ones - because of all the associated tropes with changes in history and politics and meeting alternate versions of characters. Worldbuilding, all of that. This is making me want to relisten to either Jubilee or Auld Mortality.

Looking for my Rose/Mickey/Jake post reminded me how much fun rare ships month was. Maybe we should go again this summer.

Buffyverse1000

buffyverse1000: a heroic, if failed, attempt to write 1000 different pairings (735 is not to be sniffed at). Still one of my favourite projects I've ever run in fandom. There's a Doctor Who version now, whoniverse1000, which I'm constantly meaning to write stuff for. I'm having to restrain myself from working out the number of possible pairings among Doctors and companions, or worse, writing a program to do that for me.

The Avengers

I've seen woefully little Avengers even though it's sitting right there on my hard drive, tempting me with Sixties goodness. The few stories I have seen have been amazing. Clearly Mr Steed and Mrs Peel are at it every second the camera's not on them, and I love Emma Peel and her catsuit and her mad karate skills and the fake-out where it looks like she's breaking down in tears from the stress of it all but lols, it's the tear gas pen in her pocket going off. She's my hero. If anybody's got episode recs...

Merlin

Much has been said about Merlin's historical inaccuracy (potatoes and chocolate in God-knows-what-century-this-is) and there's been some unpleasant whining - not on LJ, thank goodness - about suggesting there were black people in Britain before 1950, which is when half of Doctor Who Forum apparently believes immigration was invented at this nebulous point in history when dragons and Questing Beasts roamed the land, but I could frankly give a stuff. Season 1 of Merlin was like a gigantic bowl of delicious-though-very-silly ice cream that I devoured in about three days while I was off sick from work. I'm completely unironic in my love for this show, I should say. I'm not doing the "oh, I know it's rubbish, but I watch it because it's pretty and entertaining" thing, though that's fine and valid; I accept that it's Smallville Goes Medieval and there are ropey and cracktastic bits of writing but I think it finds its feet by season's end and has a lot of genuinely good moments.

I love Merlin, Arthur, Gwen and Morgana in just about any combination, though best of all with the four of them having adventures and being adorkable, and I'm holding out a very faint hope of canon Uther/Morgana; Uther could have been such a cardboard tyrant, or a knockoff of Alan Rickman's sheriff of Nottingham, but Tony Head's marvellous. I haven't gone looking for Uther/Giles but I'm sure it's out there.

The plethora of modern AUs is annoying, though. I know some of them are excellent but I don't get the attraction, really - are people daunted by the prospect of research? Because, honestly, potatoes and chocolate in canon. I'd kind of thought the fandom would go the way of early-Pirates of the Caribbean fandom, earnestly stripping the crack and supernatural elements from canon and writing lots of meticulously researched historical fic. Which would have been interesting, though admittedly less fun.

Comments

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

"Are people daunted by the prospect of research? Because, honestly, potatoes and chocolate in canon."

It's the Princess Bride version of history: "This takes place after high-speed rail but before germ theory."

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Bwah! And yet on a fairly regular basis someone posts to fanficrants to bemoan a Merlin fic that has sandwiches or the word 'homosexual'. Normally I'd sympathise, but consider the source... I'm fine with it being set in a mythical Britain rather than real, historical Britain. The potatoes were probably brought over by traders on their dragons.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

and now I'm pondering some sort of 'poke smaller comms into activity' week...

As co-mod of hex_rated I think that's a very good idea. I was supposed to be modding a Hexathon but that seems to have fallen by the wayside. erm, halp?

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

More Hex is always a good thing. I'm trying to think now how some kind of comms-activity week would work. How far'd the ficathon get?

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

As far as a poll unanimously in favour. I've had some connection issues and general RL busyness, but now seems as good a time as any to start pulling my socks up and get the thing organized.

[kindkit.livejournal.com]

I was really annoyed by Merlin's historical inaccuracy for the first two or three episodes, and then the penny finally dropped that that wasn't the point. The show wasn't trying to be historical; it's a nice little fantasy 'verse with potatoes, chocolate, magic, and dragons, but without Christianity, and any resemblance to the actual European middle ages is purely coincidental. It's excellent fun (and modern AUs in my opinion take away most of that fun).

At first I liked it ironically, but I agree that the second half of the season was genuinely good in a lot of ways. Especially the depth Tony Head brings to Uther.

I'm holding out a very faint hope of canon Uther/Morgana

They're nearly as nearly-textual as Arthur/Merlin, which is saying something. Somehow I seem to have found myself shipping Uther/Arthur, which will never become canon (thank heavens) but isn't, I think, all that much more twisted than Uther/Morgana, which is incest in all but biology.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

On Uther/Arthur and Uther/Morgana, I did wonder for a (very startled) moment what revelation was about to be made when the Questing Beast turned up, what with it being legendarily summoned by incest...

[kindkit.livejournal.com]

It is? Oh, there's so a story idea in that.

[silly-cleo.livejournal.com]

...That's awesome.

[chicagomel23]

Actually it IS incest in biology now...which just makes it even harder for the people who do ship it. They torpedoed it.

[livii.livejournal.com]

::snugs you for mentioning rose_lives and dw_femslash::

I'm with you on the creating and then, um, not always knowing what to do with them. But it's so nice that they exist, I think! I'd be on board with helping out with some sort of small comm activity project.

[chicagomel23]

And I know you wrote this long before Crystal Cave aired lol. And no, I don't ship them, I don't really ship Uther with anyone, much as I adore him.

[netweight]

You know, this reminded me of how I once wrote a ficlet for Buffyverse1000 that I NEVER got around to link to in the comm. It seems a bit (*sporffle*) late to do so now, but, for the record, make that 736.

[mysticalchild_isis]

But I love canon alt-verses in general

So very much this. Alt-verses are made of awesome. Star Trek (Mirror, Mirros is one of my favorite episodes ever, and Yesterday's Enterprise for TNG is almost as much win), all the Buffy ones, Doctor Who... brilliant.

[silly-cleo.livejournal.com]

Hee! Supposedly at work so better comment forthcoming but heee! I like this meme. :D *squishes back*

[wishfulaces.livejournal.com]

Ha! L.A. Graf managed to completely focus all my original OST interests on Chekov-Uhura-Sulu (though I do still have a certain fondness for Spock-Bones-Kirk too).

[pontisbright.livejournal.com]

I love the idea of a thing which somehow pokes the little comms into life, because it's the quiet little comms that make the quieter people comfy with actually popping up and saying hello, and loveliness ensues. And yes, discussion! (Insert long dull rant about how the dvd release schedule is designed to minimise discussion at gingerminx.)

Ohhh, I am thick and hadn't really thought through the consequences for Jake/Mickey of those episodes. Sadface.

[m-butterfly.livejournal.com]

Considering from whence the bulk of the fic writers came, what's really astounding me that it's just modern AUs, and not AUs where Merlin is a rainbow and Arthur is a unicorn, or the entire cast are Fraggles, or something.

[ionlylurkhere.livejournal.com]

I am convinced that Merlin is taking place in a far future long after the apocalypse that followed the creation of all the technology that they now think of as magic, and it's either some sort of cyclical history malarkey, or all our legends about it come from the future instead of the past (which would make up for their failure to have Merlin age backwards, which is my favourite ever thing about Merlin). This does create a giant never-explained-on-screen superstructure to explain a few minor nitpicks, but Who fandom taught me to do that many years ago.

I have been sat here for five minutes trying to work out Avengers recs, but basically almost all of them are great, so I haven't got any specifics. Ooh, actually, The House That Jack Built is particularly trippy. But all of it is good.

[chelseagirl47.livejournal.com]

The Avengers! Yay.

OK, just an excuse to use the icon, really. I am a bit *cough* older than many LJers, and when I was a kid, Buffy hadn't happened yet, or Xena or Nikita or any of them -- Emma Peel (in syndicated reruns -- I was always so happy when they brought it back) was the only woman on tv who kicked ass. Watch them. Watch them all!

[adroidmortox247.livejournal.com]

Merlin is a wonderfully fun show- I admit I wasn't keen on the first half of the series, but the last few stories were really good. Morgana and Uther are my favourite characters though.

And well, the Avengers, is honestly, next to Doctor Who my big fandom.

If anybody's got episode recs...

Ask and ye shall recieve. Sorry if you've seen any of these ones:

The town of no return- Emma's first story

the cybernauts- perhaps the most famous villians of the show, although their second story was just a cheap rehash only elevated by Peter Cushing's apperance.

death at bargain prices (wonderfully cheesy stuff)

A touch of brimstone (not just for the obvious reasons, it is one of the best stories)

The Murder market

Man eater of surrey green (a very silly episode that reminds me of day of the triffids/little shop of horrors)

Too many christmas trees- my personal favourite- including a Dickens fancy dress party with Mrs Peel done up as Oliver Twist) and a nice reference to Cathy Gale is made.

The girl from Auntie- a Mrs Peel light episode, featuring an imposter Mrs Peel who looks absolutely nothing like Diana Rigg.

I've not seen this one, but I know a lot of fans recommend the house that jack built.

Who's who- a mindswap story where two enemy agents swap brains with Steed and Peel. Bascially an excuse to have Peel and Steed snog.


mission highly improbable- one noteable thing is Nicholas courtney shows up basically playing the Brigadier again

the forget me knot- Emma's last story, and her and Steed's final scene is very poignant