#returning to the buffy fandom in 2021 was a choice

[naslaidire]

i was in the tags and just found out that floss peedon didn't want amber to be cast as tara bc she wasn't super thin thus not filling his desired vision of what tara should look like. so, disregard my last post. i'm never changing tara's fc.

[raith-way]

Fic Writer Tag Game

My first AO3 fic was posted back in June, of this year, so some of these answers are going to be embarrassing. Most of my AO3 catalogue is oneshots and drabbles, but let’s do this! Thank you @asirensrage for the tag!!

How many works do you have on AO3?

12

What’s your total AO3 word count?

78,540

How many fandoms have you written for, and what are they?

6 – Bandom (My Chemical Romance, Avenged Sevenfold, Falling In Reverse, Taylor Swift) / Buffy The Vampire Slayer / Fast & Furious / DC Extended Universe (Batman V Superman, Justice League) / (The) Suicide Squad / Marvel (The Avengers)

What are your top five fics by kudos?

Keeping Us Down Is Impossible – The Suicide Squad (2021) / Rick Flag x Reader / Oneshot / Summary: You’re on a mission with a new team, thinking about your original team, only to find out part of that team is here. One thing is clear: You are going to survive this mission, and so is Rick Flag. / Kudos: 42

Things Are Getting A Little Hazy – Buffy The Vampire Slayer / OFC x OMC / WIP / Summary: Grace Blackburn’s great destiny was to give Angel a choice, and his decision sets the future for Sunnydale. With visions of the end and the formation of strange friendships, Grace navigates the new direction her life has taken while trying to convince her new brooding vampire bestie that he can be happy. AU after BTVS Season 3 & ATS doesn’t exist. / Kudos: 5

One Step At A Time – Fast and Furious / Jakob Toretto x OFC / Oneshot / Summary: Everything around them is being destroyed, and all they have is a moment. Just this one moment. / Kudos: 3

Memento Mori – DCEU (Post Justice League) / Bruce Wayne x OFC / WIP / Summary: Ryan Lopez should be six feet under, or at least be reduced to ash along with her former life. Instead she was trapped in the corporate world of Gotham, with nothing but cryptic messages from a grandfather she never knew and a soldier who acted like her butler. Not to mention that there was something very wrong with that Bruce Wayne guy. / Kudos: 2

Mistakes – Suicide Squad / Rick Flag x OFC / Oneshot / Summary: Rev waits at Belle Reve for Rick to return from a meeting, and not just because she wants to see him in his too-tight suit. (But also so she can see the way he looks in his too-tight suit.) / Kudos: 2

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, because I like letting readers know that I read their comments and appreciate that they took the time to leave a comment.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

That would be a oneshot, Washing Away Reality, in the DC (Batman) fandom.

Do you write crossovers? If so, what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Not really? Two of my fics crossover, but they’re both in the same DC Universe so I don’t think that counts.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Nope.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I don’t have any posted, yet, but I do write it. The kind depends on the fic and the character perspective I’m writing in. Sometimes it’s more vague, some scenes focus more on the emotion of the moment, and others are more graphic.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I’m aware of.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

I’m not even sure how to answer that. Out of all the fandoms? I definitely can’t choose. Out of my current fics? My all-time favorite ship is probably Grace Blackburn (OFC) and Eliot Greenwood (OMC), from my BTVS fic Things Are Getting A Little Hazy. Their relationship is practically destined.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish, but don’t think you ever will?

My band fic, Soundtrack Of The Revolution. It’s planned out, all 400 chapters of it, but I’ve been working on it for a decade. I’m not giving up, but we’ll see if it ever gets completed.

What are your writing strengths? What are your writing weaknesses?

Someone who’s read my stories would have to tell me my strengths, because I have no clue. I just ramble sentences onto a word document and hope that it makes sense. My weaknesses would probably be my descriptions. I overly describe things and occasionally go off on tangents, which causes my chapters to be ridiculously long. I consider that to be a weakness.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I try not to do it, because I’m only fluent in English, but I will write dialogue in another language with the help of Google Translate. If I get it too wrong, hopefully someone will correct me. When I can though, I prefer to just mention that the character is speaking in another language without having to actually write the other language because I don’t want to butcher it.

What was the first fandom you’ve written for?

This question hurts my soul. The very first fandom? It would have to be a band fic, probably Avenged Sevenfold, way back in about 2006. Thankfully, all of those fics have been lost to time and will never be read by anyone ever again. Knowing that helps me sleep at night.

What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written?

This is such an unfair question, because how do I pick just one? My favorite fic, that I have personally written, isn’t posted under this name so it’ll have to remain a mystery. My favorite fic that I’ve written under this name, has to be Soundtrack Of The Revolution. Yes, it’s a band fic even though those stopped being popular over a decade ago. I also realize the irony of my favorite fic being the fic that I'm not sure if it'll ever be completed. It’s the most self-indulgent fic that I have ever written, and I’ve been working on it off-and-on since 2009. Seeing how it’s changed and what has remained the same over the years is mind-blowing, and I truly love the story and the characters. So, yeah, it’s my favorite.

Tagging: @wordspin-shares @thecharmedburrowspn-files @lokitrasho @reggiemantleholdmyhand-tle @darknightfrombeyond @stanshollaand @captainrcgers @jinxsflame @jewelswrites-ish @hiddenqveendom

[agentnico]

Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021) Review

It all started with Sonic’s teeth. Ever since fans successfully bullied a studio into reanimating their titular hedgehog character after the abomination shown in the first trailer, fans realised that rallying together (on Twitter) can make a difference. So you’d think it would mean we could all come together to restore world peace and get rid of racism, injustice, poverty, war and negativity of all kind? Nope, nope it does not. But at least we get a better version of a bad DC movie that came out in 2017. I mean, baby steps I guess.

Plot: Fuelled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman's selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists newfound ally Diana Prince to face an even greater threat. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to recruit a team to stand against this newly awakened enemy. Despite the formation of an unprecedented league of heroes -- Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and the Flash -- it may be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.

I recall my younger simpler self in 2017 at the early age of 20 soon to be 21, sitting down and watching the new Justice League film with zero to no expectations, as by that point the DC Extended Universe was a trainwreck and was a franchise that was literally falling apart before out unblinking red hay fever filled eyes. However, after watching Justice League I was baffled at the fact that I still managed to be disappointed after having zero expectations! With zero expectations this film took me into the minuses, and we all know I’m not great at mathematics so boy are we in the danger zone when we hit the minuses! Looking back at my review of the film back then, I used extreme yet fitting comments like “generic”, “predictable” “messy” and plain “dogsh*t”. Which is what it was. 2017′s Justice League is exactly how I’d imagine a dog’s poop would look if it was turned into an abstract film! It was truly abysmal. After that I thought I’d never have to talk about this film again. How wrong I was. But, in a rare turn of tables, I am glad that I was wrong...

A little history lesson first. Alright, settle down kids, settle down.... Rob, put the paper plane down, do not throw it, I said DON’T THROW IT! NO! Stop! Stupid child!! Headteacher’s office right now! Also, say hi to your mother for me, okay? I’m having brunch with her on Saturday and you better not be there as you should be doing your homework watching the 4 hour cut of Justice League and questioning your life choices!! Anyway, now let’s have ourselves a history lesson. The topic is - What In The Flying Fudge Happened Behind-The-Scenes Of Justice League For DUMMIES: Condensed Edition. A really condensed version as honestly none of us have the attention span to read loads and I’m probably losing the vast majority of you due to this overlong rambling session. So anyway, to the last couple of readers left, here we go! Following the success of Man of Steel, Warner Bros. gave Zack Snyder the reigns to oversee and create a DC cinematic universe to rival the success of Marvel. And so came Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, which turned out to be a bit of a hodgepodge, receiving mixed to negative reviews and though was a box office success, earned diminishing results to what Warner Bros. originally anticipated. However, by the time Batman V Superman released, Zack Snyder was already hard at work on the big superhero team up film Justice League (which was meant to set up many characters and future films for the DCEU) with a lot of filming already underway, so Warner Bros. couldn’t particularly pump the breaks on it by that point, even though they evidently lost trust in the Snyder formula. To be honest, at that point I too lost trust in Snyder’s vision and the DCEU as a whole, but my opinion doesn’t class for a single dime, whilst the opinions of Warner Bros. executives make millions, so there aren’t any hard feelings on my behalf for them not enquiring on my thoughts. Anyway, midway through production Zack Snyder was hit with a family tragedy with his daughter committing suicide, so Snyder naturally had to depart the project to be with his family during this grieving time. Warner Bros. had the option to pause production and await for Snyder’s return, or progress at their own accord. Naturally they decided to do their own thing cause they are a business and want that dollar dollar bill baby!! So they hired Joss Whedon who was riding fresh off the success of two Avengers movies and obviously had experience in cinematic universes and such, to rework the Justice League movie by condensing it into a 2 hour film (from the over 4 hour material that Snyder shot) and reshoot scenes to fit the smaller runtime. So you cannot particularly blame Whedon for taking out so many great scenes as he had a contract to fulfil with Warner Bros, but then you look at the many forced jokes and unnecessary reshot scenes and you realise how self-indulgent Joss Whedon was during filming, as he basically was spitting on everything Snyder did and was trying to do his own thing. Low and behold, the mess that is the 2017 movie is created, where its the visions and creative minds of two director with evidently different styles clashing and not really mixing well at all, and as such we have a messy movie that doesn’t really make sense and is a bit of a middle finger to DC fans and honestly everyone and all. Also, there was that little aspect of Henry Cavill’s deformed upper lip due to the fact that during reshoots he had a moustache that he’d grown and was contractually obligated to have for his Mission Impossible role, so the visual effects team had to digitally remove it in post production and the result is, well, see for yourself...

Yes, they made the dashing handsome my-sexuality-questioning Henry Cavill look stupid, and that is UNFORGIVABLE. Funny, yes, very funny but unforgivable!! So for this and many other reasons the 2017 film turned out horribly. Then after that many months later, Zack Snyder and cast and crew members began teasing of this mythical version of the movie that was befit of Snyder’s original vision. You see, apparently before he left the project, Snyder actually filmed everything he wanted and it was only awaiting to be reworked with visual effects and edited properly, but then Whedon came in with his scissors and cut everything mercilessly with a cheeky grin and his ginger beard. Speaking of his ginger beard, is Joss Whedon Irish? Or has Irish roots? Honestly, I would Google it, but wait, I don’t think I really care. So anyway, Snyder still had all of his filmed scenes saved on his ridiculously oversized hard drive just waiting to be looked at again. This is where the fandom did its magic by creating a Twitter hashtag #ReleaseTheSnyderCut and began spam posting for Warner Bros. to let Zack Snyder release what he originally intended to. Honestly, who would have thunk it, but this actually worked!! Warner Bros. allowed this, and not only that, but gave Snyder an additional $70 million to finish up the visual effects as well as to film a couple of additional sequences and gave it the prestigious honour to debut it on HBO Max, so as to boost the subscriber rating on Warner Bros. new streaming service. And here we are.

Honestly, I thought seeing this Director’s Cut of sorts wouldn’t bring much to the table as I didn’t believe that a film that was so broken had originally been in any way good. After finishing this 4 hour Snyder vision I must admit though that I was pleasantly surprised. Completely baffled by the studio and Joss Whedon, but really happy for Zack Snyder. The guy was fighting for it and finally was able to accomplish and bring out his true original vision, and though Zack Snyder’s Justice League has its flaws, its so much better than what we got in 2017, and in fact is a soaring science fiction sci-fi epic that literally feels epic!! It takes time establishing the characters and every single plot point as well as building out this rich mythology of this world of the DC Extended Universe, and so as you move into the second half of the film, there’s a feeling of pay off. You actually care about the characters and understand the plot points and it doesn’t feel rushed. Its truly astounding that there are producers out there who thought it was a good idea to get rid of all of that and instead bring out whatever the heck Joss Whedon did with the 2017 version. Look, I quite enjoy Joss Whedon’s work, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel to Cabin in the Woods and his work on Marvel, the guy obviously has a talent, but also he obviously does not belong to the dark and brooding style of DC. Zack Snyder on the other hand, though makes his mistakes, truly embraces the epic feel of the DC material. And it seems once you give Snyder enough time and space, he can actually bring out something like this:

The main characters are all given so much more to do, or at least those that got side-lined in the 2017 version are given more to do here. One of my complaints with the original was how pointless the League turns out to be. Basically in the theatrical version the main team all end up being useless and only once Superman shows up he saves everyone’s asses and literally does EVERYTHING. Might as well have called the film Man of Steel 2 (feat. Justice League). However in this new version, every main character serves a purpose. Well most of them do at least. Cyborg and Flash are much more compelling characters with more layers and backstory, and in fact are a prime reason to defeating the great evil in the end. You now understand why Cyborg actor Ray Fisher was pissed at Joss Whedon, as the guy literally got rid of his best stuff. Superman strikes a cool black suit and is still powerful, however as the finale shows, he isn’t all-powerful and does need the help of the rest of the team. Wonder Woman gets a lot more to do in this theatrical cut, and in fact this is probably Gal Gadot’s best performance as Wonder Woman and she really shows herself as a powerful female superhero! Aquaman’s role stays largely unchanged, however to be honest Jason Momoa’s character was one of the only ones who didn’t suffer in the theatrical cut. That’s unsurprising seeing as Jason Momoa is such a naturally cool dude! A big panda that is friendly in real life, but when necessary can turn into a roaring bear. To be honest, the only League member that ends up a bit pointless is actually Batman. He still serves a purpose in the film in that he’s the one who assembles the team, but otherwise the rest of the group is so overpowered compared to him that in the end you do kind of think that he doesn’t really belong there. Still, Ben Affleck is great in the role and it’s a shame we won’t see much of him past Flashpoint film that will be released in the next few years.

There are a lot of characters in this film and one can still say the movie is overstuffed, but also seeing as the movie was originally intended to spring board the DCEU properly, all these teases are actually welcome. There are an abundance of cameos, and to be honest so many characters are so well cast that you do end up wishing that Snyder was given the opportunity to make his entire Justice League planned trilogy, but nevertheless at least we have this. There are truly an abundance of cool appearances here, from the menacing villain Darkseid (played by Ray Porter) to Willem Dafoe doing what Dafoe does best, only in this case underwater and I’m certain that’s gonna span many comparison memes with The Lighthouse. Joe Morton as Cyborg’s dad is given a lot more to do here and in fact is pivotal towards building up Cyborg into the important character that he is. There’s also a cameo from Jared Leto’s Joker, who in some ways redeems himself after his appearance in Suicide Squad. Also, we need to talk about Steppenwolf, who’s the main baddie in this film. In the theatrical cut the guy was the most generic one-note villain who also looked like a PS2 character. It was honestly embarrassing the way he was animated. Luckily in this version he’s been put through enough Skyrim mods to looks much more intimidating and is also given a better motivation. As we find out, the reason he does what he does is because he wants to go home. He’s been banished and he simply wants to earn his place back home, so it’s actually kind of sweet. Steppenwolf is a sweetie. I mean, yeah, he wants to destroy half of the world to fulfil his dream, but hey, haven’t we all taken something extreme measures to get what we want?

The film is far from perfect though. At the end of the day, the movie is just about a guy hunting down a bunch of magical boxes. That was the premise of the theatrical cut and its the same here too. Yes, there is more substance and gravitas to the proceedings, but at the end of the day the story doesn’t really surprise much. And with the entire thing running at 4 hours, it is definitely too long and there is the element where there is simply too much in this thing. Also visually, though the movie has plenty of gorgeous shots and Zack Snyder’s signature slow motion sequences are on full display here, there are still many sequences where the CGI and green screen are super obvious and look really fake. That being said there’s still so much visual goodness in this, and also I have to mention Junkie XL’s new music score that does reiterate the epic feel of this movie, in comparison to Danny Elfman’s weak uninspiring notes in the theatrical cut.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is a massive surprise and completely changes the perception of what we saw in the original 2017 theatrical cut. It’s a sprawling massive adventure that’s a dream come true for any comic book fan. It shows how vital film editing is, and how important it is to have a cohesive plan when making a movie. Gone too are the silly forced jokes, and though there is still some humour here, it feels more grounded and fit of the setting and scenario. This is Snyder’s vision through and through, and though at times it is clunky, it overall is incredible to behold, as it’s this one guy’s mind and his love for the DC lore. It’s a credible achievement, and I’m actually sentimentally happy for Snyder that he finally managed to complete this. He even during the credits dedicates this to his daughter Autumn that passed away, and I found that to be truly bittersweet. Justice has indeed been served.

Overall score: 7/10