#honestly i was just so damn sick of hearing about that conch

[coffeebanana]

Fanfiction vs English Class

It’s funny the way that society looks down on fanfiction, although I DO think that’s steadily changing. But if you think about it, fanfiction does exactly what our high school English teachers were trying to get us to do. The difference is...it’s catered to what people want to see. To the things than millennials and gen Z have come to expect from fiction. Don’t worry, I’ll elaborate. English class had us deconstruct stories. To look for symbolism, to decipher metaphors, to deconstruct plots and pick out the climax of a story. And to be honest, I always felt like I struggled with that. Funny thing for a kid who walked around with her nose in a book all the time. To be fair, I almost always got an A, but it never came as easily as my other grades. Because a part of me...the writer part I suppose...just never understood the obsession. Why did it matter what a stupid shell symbolized if I just found the book about all the boys running around killing each other to be anticlimactic (you’re perfectly entitled to like Lord of the Flies, I just...didn’t...)? Didn’t my teachers understand that sometimes a red dress is just red dress? Because maybe the writer liked that colour? How could they know for sure what the author meant? (They couldn’t.) Why did I lose marks because I disagreed with my teacher about what the climax of the story was? Is literature not supposed to be subjective? But what does fanfiction do? For the most part, at least the way I see it, instead of taking apart the plot and the literary devices associated with a story, fanfiction analyzes the CHARACTERS in a body of fiction. And that’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from media in our day and age. The fact that TV shows have become so much more popular as a form of media is in part due to their treatment of characters. Remember all those book to movie adaptations that left you disappointed? Consider any book series that has been turned into a movie and then later into a TV series. Didn’t the show have more time to explore these things? Didn’t the show consider options the book hadn’t, and present us characters depicted in new and interesting lights? (I’d also like to point out that in some sense, movies and TV shows based on books ARE fanfiction, although, those have always been a socially acceptable form.)

Maybe I’m biased, because I’ve always been character driven, but I think that what our generations want to see most of all is complex, realistic, often morally grey characters. People we can relate to. My grade 12 literature teacher used to say that the “hero” of the story evolved with the generations. In the time of  Beowulf, people lived harsh lives and they needed their hero to be strong. So he was. The romantic hero, compatible timewise with the Renaissance period, was all about new ideas and introspection and challenging norms. And, as far as I’m concerned, our hero, who we look up to, is FLAWED. They struggle. They make mistakes. They LEARN from them. They keep going when things are hard, and sometimes things are too hard, and they break down, and that’s ok. That’s LIFE. It’s real, it’s raw. It’s imperfect.

That’s not to say that symbolism and all the rest of it doesn’t have its place, because it absolutely does, but I will argue that characters are more important. They’re what make us fall in love with fiction. They’re what help us understand ourselves and the world around us a little better. 

Fanfiction takes characters and makes us figure out their essence. We take pieces of them, different adaptations of them, and throw them into different scenarios to explore what they might do. And in order to do that, we have to understand the characters and their world. We’re doing exactly what we were always supposed to be doing in English class, but we’re doing it with characters. We’re doing it for ourselves. We’re doing it without having anyone tell us we’re wrong, because...we’re not. We never were.

Fanfiction taught me that the beauty of writing is NOT analyzing a piece and having everyone come to the same conclusion. It’s that 10 different people will read the same thing 10 different ways, and still get something out of it. And THAT is beautiful. THAT’s why I love writing and sharing my work: the connection I feel when I see a comment on one of my fics and I know that somebody FELT something. That what I wrote gave something to someone that they didn’t have before.

So to anybody who puts fanfiction down? Screw you. You don’t get it.

Anyways, I’ve been mulling over these feelings for a while, and I just wanted to get them all out in one place.

[black-wolf066]

TUA Season 2 Thoughts

Okay, I know I’m extremely late to the game here, and I’m sure a lot of people have already touched base on the good and bad moments of this season; so I promise that the bad points that I do touch upon, will be short cause I do want to focus on what I loved.

First and foremost, I want to say that I did love season 2 with my whole freaking heart! I was ooooooh so very wrong with a lot of my predictions (and right in others *cough* Lila *cough*) but as I continued watching, I couldn’t bring myself to care (not too much anyway, there were a few things I was mad at, but meh).

 I loved seeing Hazel and I loved that the big oaf at least got 20 years with Agnes before she finally passed on. While I wish we could have seen snippets of that life and love rather then just flash backs to them in season 1; I’m still happy that Hazel got to live his life the way that he wanted to live it. Sure, I wasn’t happy that they killed him off, but for plot purposes it made sense—but on a lighter note, at least he could cross over into the afterlife and be happy with Agnes again. Right?

 Elliott is a hoot and I feel so bad that he died. All that poor man wanted was validation that he wasn’t crazy (which he got) and for someone to eat his damn Jell-O (I love ambrosia btw, but even I wouldn’t eat that ambrosia he made… sorry Elliott).

The sibling interactions between ALL OF THEM!!! JUST AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! It’s everything I could have hoped for and then some!!! The slap fight between Klaus and Ben on the street, Ben’s “You’re so independent, you fight your own damn battles”. Five and Luther reuniting “She’s too young for you” “Dad should have left him on the moon” (I snort laughed at both of these sentences). Then there’s Klaus and Allison reuniting, Allison not even hesitating to jump into the pool to hug her brother. OR THE WHOLE FAMILY REUNION!!! That Vanya and Allison hug! That hug as Klaus joined in and planted a kiss on the top of Vanya’s head!!!! The whole interaction between Allison and Diego “Can’t say Hi to anyone?” just omg, I could go forking on and on with this, because the banter and snappy comments from all of them are just total sibling culture and I relate sooooooooo much to it. (best believe I will jump on someone’s back like a damn spider monkey to protect my siblings, but I’d also sooner shank them too)

RAYMOND AND ALLISON!!!!! I’m ALLLLLLLLL FOOOOOOR THIS RELATIONSHIP!!!!! LIKE OMG!!!!!! WHY DIDN”T SHE TAKE HIM WITH HER!!!!! THEY ALREADY SCREWED THE TIMELINE UP ENOUGH BY JUST EXISTING THERE IN 1963 ANYWAY!!!! Like seriously, I’m actually upset that she didn’t take him with her, and now it looks like her daughter doesn’t even exist either… like omg Allison, sweet heart. Nooooooo.

I LOVE Luther’s development this season, the fact that he goes to apologize to Vanya, and actually takes blame for what happened, just makes me happy to know that the big lug is trying. Yea I know he took the gun with him, but honestly, I can’t blame him either. He was obviously scared and didn’t know what he would walk into, would she try and kill him again? Like we know the gun wouldn’t do sh*t to help him, but Luther wasn’t sure of that. Plus he never actually pulls it, his hand is constantly on it, but he never pulls it out, which shows that hurting her was not the end game. He wanted to actually apologize and he hoped that his sister would hear him out enough to allow him to do it.

I loved sissy and vanya. The friendship that turned to romance was cute, and while I’m still iffy with it because Sissy was married, I also understand to a small degree that Sissy truly felt stuck. Even without Vanya’s interference, I highly doubt Sissy would have been able to get a divorce and manage to keep possession of her son. Carl is an absolute bag of d*cks, and with Carl having a brother in the police force, who’s to say that they couldn’t spin something that would allow them to take Harlan away from her? I honestly can see a divorce between these two getting messy and none of the outcomes working in Sissy’s favor. She would have never been happy inside or outside of her marriage. But Vanya gave her the hope that she might actually find it. (IDK, I’m still really on the fence with it, and the infidelity, but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy Sissy/Vanya’s cute little moments while it lasted…)

Also, can I just say, Sissy blowing the scent of coffee into Vanya’s sleeping face, was truly and utterly adorable and such a dorky thing to do and I loved it.

ALL OF THE KLAUS AND ALLISON INTERACTIONS!!!! ALL OF THEM!!!

THAT SALON SCENE!!!

THAT DANCE AT THE SALON!!!

Also, not going to lie, Odessa was a bad ass b*tch and I love and will protect that woman as much as I will love and protect Raymond Chestnut. I don’t even care that Odessa was only in a few episodes, that woman stole my damn heart and I truly would have loved to see more scenes with her and Allison and the friendship they had.

The elevator ride going up to the light supper, the freaking conch shell, and the siblings’ interactions during the whole thing (Allison rumoring Diego to punch himself, and Vanya’s cheeky “oops” after showing off her powers, just *chefs kiss*).

Ben and Vanya!!! I FORKING CRIED!!! I had to bloody pause the damn episode because my tears were getting in the way of me watching!!!! (trust me, there was a long moment of silence for Ben after that.)

All of them piling into Vanya’s car on her way to save Harlan. That entire scene was a masterpiece “Child get in the back” followed by Klaus just flopping on top of Diego and Allison, like OMG!!! And Luther… poor Luther “If I hear one fat joke, I’m out”

Everything to do with Five and Older Five was hilarious. I’m sorry call me immature, but the fart jokes were funny (even if they did start to get old after a while). Also, poor Luther, once more. We stan one lousy spotter but a brother who tried his forking best anyway.

Luther being a big (little) brother and covering Allison AND Klaus during the hail of bullets.

Klaus being observant and noting things long before anyone else. Like even at the end, when Vanya was taking her power back, everyone else was watching her but not Klaus. He kept glancing around himself while also taking in the scene periodically. There is something there, I can forking feel it. Between that pill scene in season 1, him looking up to the moon with no reason to do so, him spotting The Handler and Lila, him knowing/guessing that Lila can only mirror one power at a time—despite never actually fighting her himself—it all has to add up to something??? RIGHT???

I didn’t think I would like the Swedes… yet here I am putting them in this column. Still mad that they killed Hazel (but as Five told Lila, the job was a job, it was never anything personal). They hardly had any lines at all but their personalities alone and the little things we saw were just… what the hell but I still loved it. haha.

 I CAN”T WAIT TO SEE IF WE LEARN MORE ABOUT THE OTHER CHILDREN MYSTERIOSULY BORN!!!!! Like I wanna see the sparrow academy kids, but I hope we might learn about a few others too. Like how many of those kids didn’t make it? How many of those kids were born with a twin? Were their any triplets??? Like can you imagine that poor woman who had to give birth to not one child, but two that she didn’t have an hour ago??? (and possibly three even though I doubt there were any triplets… but what if there forking was!!!)

SPARROW BEN!!!! WHAT THE HELL!!!! I mean, I’m glad Justin is staying on the show, he’s awesome and I do like Ben, but I’m a bit sad that this won’t be the Ben we’ve seen in the last two seasons (I’ll still eat it up, don’t get me wrong, cause I’m curious to see this alternate Ben, but I’m still sad).

 Also that Vanya and Diego interaction at the end, neither of them having to say anything but still leaning on each other for support, just AHHHHHHHH

The sibling bonds that have begun to form between all of them is what really killed me this season and I loved each and every second of it!!!

 All the one-liners were pretty good too, like the “Ikea mafia” “Think of Batman than aim lower” “Is it too late to be un-adopted?” just efgjoiwengjowegnwrjngwe

Vanya actually using her powers to save someone, and Ben solidifying that fact by telling her she isn’t a monster. 

the music choices!!!! 

 I’m sure I will add more to all of this in another post, I’m still forking reeling over here and can’t get all of my thoughts straight, but goddamn I loved this season! Dysfunctional idiots—the lot of them. But at least they were making dysfunctional decisions together XD

Okay, now for the things I didn’t like…

Again, I’ll be brief cause I know that there are probably plenty of people who have touched on this already and I’m sure you all are sick of seeing or hearing it by now (so feel free to skip over it all together).

Klaus not telling his family SEVERAL TIMES that Ben was there.

Ben possessing Klaus without his consent (and Ben breaking the rules that Klaus had put into place as Ben nearly got frisky with Jill)---like I can’t even say I’m mad that he possessed Klaus at the light supper. I didn’t like it, it made me uncomfortable, but from Ben’s perspective I understood it. to Ben, he felt like he didn’t have a choice, Klaus had constantly taken Ben’s choice away by not telling the family he was there, so if Klaus wasn’t going to tell them on his own, Ben had no choice but to try and do it himself. I get that, I did. But the whole “Burrowed” scene in the elevator made me cringe something fierce.

The fact that we get Klaus looking badass in the first five minutes of the season, and then Klaus basically being useless the rest of the season, pissed me the ever-loving fork off. I mean, come on!!! EVERYONE ELSE FOUGHT LILA!! WHERE THE HELL WAS HE!??? I’m hoping this is all just setting Klaus up to be something greater in the next season, that maybe now that Ben is gone Klaus will have no choice but to relay on himself and tap into that “Potential” that Reginald had hinted at in season 1 (my fingers are soooo crossed that this is the case)

Not getting their reactions to Ben sacrificing himself (I needed more then just seeing Klaus lying forlornly on a bed, I’m sorry, but I definitely needed more than that). Klaus and Vanya’s interaction in the car did not make up for any of it either.

I don’t know where to put my thoughts on Lila and Diego. While I liked them in the beginning, their relationship kinda lost me the moment she spiked him and basically kidnapped him. I like Lila, don’t get me wrong, but that scene made me really uncomfortable too.

The interactions with the Handler and Five. Like okay, I get that the Handler isn’t treating him like a child because basically Five is supposed to be 58, but it’s still forking creepy to see her swaying her hips behind Five who is stuck in his 13-year-old body. Just… no.

The fact that we only see Allison mentioning her daughter 2 times. Like sure, she’s had 2 years to grieve, but I want to see that grief!!!!

How the show tied Sissy and Vanya’s story line up, and how they tied Allison and Raymond’s story line up… like nooooooo. How the hell would Sissy be safe in the past???? Carl’s brother was a forking police officer??? Does she seriously think his brother isn’t going to come after her when he learns his brother is dead????? Also how is Raymond supposed to explain that he suddenly doesn’t have a wife anymore???? These things don’t just fix themselves!!! Like I understand Five saying they couldn’t come, that it could change things beyond repair, but all seven of them existing in 1963 in the first place has already forked everything up enough as it was.

(Ignore me, I’m just salty that we won’t be get any more Raymond/Allison interactions…)

Anyway, negatives pushed aside, I can’t stress enough how i did love the season!!! And I can not wait to see where season 3 goes!!! I HONEST TO GOD CAN NOT WAIT!!! In the mean time, I will be attempting to write several things for season 2… fix-its, in between moments, whatever I can think of. Let’s see where that goes.