No Canon For You

[sparklebutch]

Fannish Friday 5:
What five things are you afraid will happen in canon? Or, for a closed canon, what five things are you glad never happened in canon?





I had hope going for oh, eight years, was it. I thought, if they didn't say X happened, then X might as well have not happened. It would have made more sense for Y to have happened, anyway. Let's think about Y. Let's only use X in a moderate tiny way when we really want to write angst, and then switch on it and write glorious Y instead.

Because if X happened, that says pretty horrific things about not only character A, but also, even more so, about character B who put him there and character C who helped. Not to mention moved character D from "mildly unpleasant" to "can't even look at you".

...And then X happened. You think canon's closed, but it isn't. You think your guy is safe because he's so minor, but he isn't.

You think hey, it's just fiction, right? And not even very good fiction.

You're wrong.

Because it is just fiction, and not even very good fiction, but it's there, and you can't unsee what you've seen, even if it's full of gigantic holes in plot, continuity, sense-making (let's not even talk about staying in-character for a minute). Even if it's very easily deniable by employing the most basic of logics. Even if you just don't want it to happen.

Cue a sort of projected midlife-crisis and loss of faith.

Cue a need not only to revert and undo X, but also try very hard to redeem some of the one-lettered characters mention above, because, as I may have mentioned, if X had happened, that makes them bad human beings. And we don't want them to be bad human beings. We like them. We very much love some of them.

Also, and this is a sub-rant, say you thought all your friends are going to bitch and rant about X if it ever happened - say you were positive no one would want it to happen. Say you felt you were in a small but secure circle. But X happened and no one cried over it, no one shouted to the skies. And any other spoiler gets paraded all over, and this one is ignored. And slowly you realise, X happened because TPTB knew that no one would give a fuck. They felt it justified because they didn't feel they had to justify themselves on this topic, on this character.

And you realise that TPTB you praised so for having love for their characters, for remembering them to be Real People in some fictional 'verse - have used this one as less than a petty little plot device, and discarded them without much thought.

Cue a very nasty feeling indeed.

Prompt #186 of all_unwritten, today's prompt, is "What if". A simple one, for sure. And there are so many ways to prevent X from ever happening. A million whatifs along the years. A million scenarios more sensible than the one given by canon. A million paths...

Down the road of Chaos.

Comments

[anidada.livejournal.com]

Just to be devil's advocate, here: I think the lack of outrage is because a lot of folks are not treating the comics as canon -- no matter what the official line may be. Also, this character has a small fanbase in an otherwise-closed canon whose fandom has been petering out over the past couple of years. I'm betting a lot of people who used to be prominent in this character's fandom don't even know. Sad, there.

Plus, it's hard to consider this event being a firm, done deal, given the 'verse it's in. Personally, though I was shocked and pissed off, I let it go; part of that was a "lalala, I can't read you" thing, I admit. It surprised me that he was brought back at all in the comics; the only PTB I thought really had any interest in him was a writer who has nothing to do with the comics.

I don't think it's as much a matter of the PTB not feeling they had to justify it as the fact that they've never been shy about doing horrible things to any characters, regardless of their fanbase (plenty of examples in that 'verse). Whatever love they have for their characters is always tempered by the fact that they screw them over time and again. Which is what makes it interesting in some ways; a happy ending is never a guarantee (rather, it's highly unlikely). You always hurt the ones you love, etc.

But in some ways, that's beside the point. Ficcers create worlds in which things happen that did not in canon, in which some things never happen, in which things that are ambiguous in canon become crystal clear. I think, for fandom, the "what if" is what counts; whatever bad or good or questionable stuff comes out of the minds of the canon creators, we can change it. And change it again, and again.

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

I'm betting a lot of people who used to be prominent in this character's fandom don't even know. Sad, there.

*I* didn't know! Nobody told me!

It surprised me that he was brought back at all in the comics

As a cheap plot device by someone who thought he was Spike's uncle, for some reason.

never been shy about doing horrible things to any characters

Yes, but. I have a whole rant about the "but". The summary of it is, other characters were killed for the plot, or the shock value. Wash? People keep bringing up Wash as an example of a senseless death. But it wasn't senseless, was it? It got a mass roar in fandom. It hit a thing. Joss killed Wash because he knew people would rage. This killing was done because they knew no one would rage. And it was done *sloppily*.

that's beside the point

Are you telling me that fandom does not lend any weight to "what Joss said"? Ficcers may write and write, but they are all based around one canon, that's what makes them fanficcers.

[westsidedeli.livejournal.com]

The summary of it is, other characters were killed for the plot, or the shock value. Wash? People keep bringing up Wash as an example of a senseless death. But it wasn't senseless, was it? It got a mass roar in fandom. It hit a thing. Joss killed Wash because he knew people would rage. This killing was done because they knew no one would rage. And it was done *sloppily*.

Noah here. This is exactly what I explained to my mom in the car the other day. Jenny: horrible but dramatically appropriate and heartwrenching. Joyce: uncalled for but handled so beautifully that I forgave Joss anyway. Tara: gratuitous but an important event with major consequences. Our guy: one frame in a comic, and the reaction of the other characters amounts to "oops. ... oh, well." *rails*

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

I do love that you call him "our guy". I really do.

Makes me less alone.

Re other characters' reaction, it might just bring back old Buffybashing vibes in me that I thought were mostly gone. We'll see. I haven't given it much thought yet.

[silvercobwebs.livejournal.com]

I'm so very very far behind on the comics, to the point where this is recent news to me, and the first thoughts I had when I read it were: 'Shit. Adam's not going to be happy.' I then kinda did the 'lalala didn't happen' song (I know, it did - Joss-sanctioned and everything) and assumed Joss would bring him back soon. I guess that hasn't happened then. Sigh.

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

Mmph. At least you thought about me. That's comforting. Just what Ethan would say - it's nice to be remembered.

Anyway.

Seeing how Joss brings people back, I think I'm not sure I'd want him back like this. Things *can* get worse.

Also you get hugs.

[spoonless1]

*hugs*

I still don't know what to say.

But I think I know a little bit of how I'd feel if canon killed one of my chars off. And I think I'd hear about it pretty quick in all 3 cases since they're common favorites.

It's also why I don't read death!fic. And why I'm glad The Source was ambiguous in certain regards, because even though I wouldn't have watched it, I'd have *known*. Anyway, I'm here. Anytime, you know that.

*more hugs*

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

*hugs back*
Thank you.

[babydraco.livejournal.com]

This is the difference between this situation and Snape's death. Snape's death upset Snape fans, but that means half the fandom, in a fandom that hadn't yet seen the amount of drifting away that a canon that's been "closed" for what, four years, sees. So I knew, immediately, that I wasn't going to be the slightest bit alone in being upset about Snape. Yeah, she torpedoed my ship but at least S/D were still S/D- no uncomfortable, OOC behavior that resulted in Draco or Harry somehow being kinda well, *responsible* for it happening and everyone just going around blithely ignoring that.

Because she may not have thought he was an admirable man, but she thought he was *important*.

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

Made sense within the 'verse, is what you're saying.

I have a lot of problems with this lady, but, I suppose they're on other things.