#while i would happily revisit my older fandoms

[grapestones]

Out of there idea where Jiang Cheng and Undertale/Underfell meets

To be specific, Jin Ling hangs out with his friends and then falls in the hole of Mt Ebott. Said friends frantically reach out to Jiang Cheng, his uncle, and since they all know people gave up on anyone who disappears on Mt Ebott without searching, Jiang Cheng goes to find his nephew alone and proceeds to jump/fall into the same hole as Jin Ling

And he is definitely Not Friendly lmao. How rude he is is also depends on which underverse he is in but I'm inclined to imagine Underfell or an au of that au. And it is also a problem that he's willing to go far for his nephew, meaning that he's not entirely on a pacifist run. Again, depends on his opponents. Even if he would be a pacifist, he would threaten instead of paying mindless compliments. He's on a mission to find his lost nephew, worried out of his mind, is anyone surprised here?

The kicker is that whenever Jin Ling resets, it's not only Sans that remembers but Jiang Cheng, too. And Jiang Cheng has no idea what's going on, he thinks the monster's are messing with him somehow and that just agitates him further, while Sans is pissed at Jiang Cheng (and also a bit intrigued) because he's obviously lying by not knowing about resets and stuff and refusing to answer.

But hey, Sans is smart, he can figure out that Jiang Cheng has really no fucking idea what's going on and may or may not search for Jin Ling to test some things.

[tsarisfanfiction]

29 and Virge for the Sicktember prompt list? 😁💚

Feet on the Ground

Fandom: Thunderbirds Rating: Gen Genres: Family Characters: Virgil, Tracy Brothers

Sometimes it was better not to follow his brothers into the air, but rather wait for them when they landed again. @sicktember prompt 29: Motion Sickness

I saw this prompt and my mind immediately went back to my #irrelief fic Return of the Dragon. Knowledge of that fic shouldn't be necessary to understand this one, but events from that are referenced.

Warning for non-explicit throwing up

Sicktember 2021 Prompts - I only plan on writing prompts if I get a request for them, so request away :D Doesn’t have to be TAG - characters from any fandom can be requested (although I can only guarantee I’ll work with ones I know)

Rollercoasters were impressive feats of engineering. Virgil had spent many hours studying some of the more death-defying ones in awe of how well-constructed they were (and sometimes in desperation at how unsafe they were – those got scathing messages sent with strong suggestions to revisit their designs immediately).

Virgil did not spend many hours actually riding on them. In their family, he was somewhat of the odd one out for that. Scott, of course, adored the adrenaline rush that came with the rides – the bigger and faster the better. Alan could almost be his twin in that regard, near-identical blue eyes lighting up with identical glee at the prospect of going on the nearest fast thing as many times as was humanely possible. John was a dark horse, who didn’t broadcast it like the other two and was just as likely to sit out with his tablet than to join the queue to ride, but Virgil knew his brother well enough to know that he still loved the insane looping of the carriages.

When they were younger, Virgil had half-hoped Gordon would join him in keeping his feet on the ground. Certainly the fish didn’t hold the same love of being in the air, going fast, or being tossed around as their other brothers. However, Gordon also hated being left out, or passing life experiences by – an attitude greatly magnified after his so-called date with death – and had enough reckless adrenaline junkie in his veins that he’d still much rather be on the ‘coaster than on the ground, although it had to be noted that his favourite rides were always the water ones.

That just left Virgil, lumped with bag duty and perched with a sketchbook on a nearby bench as the rest of his brothers hurtled through the air in gravity-defying motions that made him wonder if John loved them so much just because it meant thumbing his nose at his least favourite force.

A fact many people didn’t know about the middle Tracy was that he got motion-sick. Not travel sick, thankfully – planes, cars, trains and the like hadn’t bothered him since before Gordon had been born – but there were some things that got his stomach all twisted up and looped around. Rollercoasters were one of those things.

It wasn’t that Virgil minded being left on the ground. With Scott and John for older brothers, he was well-used to it – and besides, someone had to be there when they came back down, sometimes in need of catching because they’d forgotten how to land. His brothers used to hesitate before leaving, not wanting him to be excluded, but over the years Virgil had managed to bash it into their heads that they shouldn’t miss out on what they enjoyed just because even the thought of getting on one of those engineering marvels was enough for bile to materialise on the back of his tongue. Besides, he would quite happily drag them all around the slower, less adrenaline-packed, attractions in between the rides.

Sometimes John stayed back with him, never out of sympathy because John knew he didn’t want that, but because the queue was too much, or he needed time to recharge from being out amongst crowds of people for so long. They’d sit in silence together, content with each other’s company, while their more extroverted brothers went around and around and around again.

Virgil could still remember his last time on a ‘coaster, when he realised that no matter how much he felt it was his calling to follow Scott wherever he went, there were some times when it was better for everyone involved if he didn’t.

He’d been fifteen, a few months before they lost Dad. The trip to the park had been one last treat for Alan before they left the States for their new home on Tracy Island, and despite the looming change, they’d been excited for it.

Alan had chosen the first rollercoaster of the day. Scott and John had promptly started sniping at each other about something Virgil didn’t have any clear memories of, and Gordon had even delayed the beeline to his beloved long flume after realising their eldest brothers had a potentially embarrassing story to tell. Faced with all of that, there was little Virgil could do but gamely follow Scott and his brothers – barring John, who elected to hang back with Dad – onto the ride he later learnt was the biggest in the State.

Virgil wasn’t prone to dramatics like Gordon was, so he wouldn’t call that the worst mistake of his life, but it was certainly a decision his stomach had made him regret. The ride itself had been awful, Gordon’s terrified shrieks in his ear not helping, but worst of all had been when the world finally slowed back to its normal pace but his stomach didn’t get the memo.

John had been holding his phone patiently out of Gordon’s reach, shamelessly using his height and long limbs to his advantage, Alan had been buzzing with adrenaline it would not doubt take the entire day to burn through, and Scott had been alternating between still sniping with John and shoving Gordon back down to the ground whenever he bounced up high enough to risk actually getting a fingertip to the prized tablet. Dad had been watching all of them in fond amusement, muttering something under his breath to Mom.

None of that had mattered to Virgil’s stomach, which had continued to voice its ever-increasing displeasure at the forces he’d just subjected it to.

His family’s antics had come to a sudden stop the moment its rebellion reached its peak.

Needless to say, Scott and Dad were almost as bad as each other when it came to smothering, Gordon was immature enough to offer ew as his only response, and Alan had burst into worried tears. John had been the one to drag the two youngest away, tablet hurriedly stuffed into his bag.

(It later transpired that Gordon took advantage of the chaos to pickpocket it. Scott was not impressed when the teasing started after the fish saw the photos John had been hoarding and quickly used eldest brother clout to get his own back on both guilty parties.)

As far as Virgil was concerned, that had ruined the day out for all of them. He’d been banned from any more rides by smother hen and smother hen the elder, and forced to sit on the side lines as his older brothers did their best to keep the youngest two still entertained while clearly worried about him.

From that day on, he’d never stepped foot on a rollercoaster again, and had no intentions of ever doing so. His brothers could go as fast and high as they liked, and he’d be waiting for them when they came back down to Earth. It worked best for everyone that way.

[obsessivedilettante]

20 in 10: A Drama Retrospective

Since I’ve been all quiet on the drama front this year because of life reasons, I thought it would be fun to go back and pick out 20 of the most memorable dramas of the last decade. Maybe not necessarily the best dramas or even my favorites (although some are!), but two dramas each year that were somehow notable moments in my drama-watching timeline.

2009: Gateway Drugs

Boys over Flowers (KBS)

This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a good drama. It is not one I think I can ever really rewatch (although I will happily revisit the 2005 Japanese version, and I had a hellava fun time watching the latest Chinese version). But! It was the first kdrama I remember watching, and the first step on the slippery slope of eventually becoming a Drama Addict. I mostly remember it being crazy popular on places like mysoju (RIP), and so I checked it out due to curiosity, and the rest, as they say, is history. Or, should I say, almost paaaaradise!

You’re Beautiful (SBS)

This one I also watched because it became crazy-popular online, and curiosity got the better of me. I really didn’t know much about k-pop prior to dramas, so I had no idea until after this drama that k-pop was more about pretty people in crazy fashion, dancing in syncopation in bizarrely lit rooms, rather than playing instruments. Because it was thanks to this drama that I got my crash-course on k-pop as a phenomenon -- both the fandom side, and the crazy things that artists have to go through to claw their way into the public’s view (nevar 4get the glorious ramen dance). Since Angel was a group that played instruments, and Hongki and Yonghwa were also from groups that played instruments, I assumed that all kpop were groups that played instruments. Oh, sweet summer child...

But it did get me started on my k-pop journey, first falling in love with FT Island and CNBLUE, before falling into the rabbit hole of the other prominent groups of the day. (SNSD! The Wonder Girls! Super Junior! DBSK! SS501! Kara! 2PM! 2AM! Shinee! BEG! Epik High! U-KISS! All the debut groups, like 2NE1, MBLAQ, B2ST, 4Minute, f(x), T-ara, After School... basically 2009 was a magical year in k-pop.)

If I had just watched Boys Over Flowers, I don’t know that I would have become a Drama Addict. But You’re Beautiful pushed me closer to the edge, with the zany humor of the Hong Sisters (and the desire for a pig-bunny of my own!). It would really be Coffee Prince that would push me over the edge, but that aired in 2007 so it doesn’t count for this list. But I had to mention it anyway, because, well, it’s Coffee Prince and where my love for Handsome Oppa began.

2010: More Than Candy

The Woman Who Wants To Marry (MBC)

A lot of the dramas I watched at first had that typical “Candy” character, the poor-but-scrappy girl who would somehow be saved by the guy and become the Cinderella she never knew she wanted to be. So it was a delight when I encountered women who were not only older than high-school-age or early twenties, but in their thirties, with rich full lives! Plus, this was one of my earliest introductions to the concept of the “noona romance” (a concept that I’ve since heartily embraced, of course). I started it primarily because Kim Bum was my favorite of the Flower Boys, but I stuck with it because I fell in love with the women (and I still have a girl-crush on Bu-ki).

Harvest Villa (tvn)

This show is insane. But in the good way, the way that the writer intended, and not in the “are a bunch of monkeys typing this script?” train-wreck way. There was basically no buzz about this show, and I feel like I somehow accidentally stumbled over it, but it was love at first sight. I’ve never forgotten the late hours binging it, being so sucked into the story that I absolutely had to finish it as soon as I could, disappointed that there wasn’t more of it to enjoy when I finally finished, bleary-eyed and sleep-deprived, but satisfied.

I then later gobbled down this writer’s next drama, and her next drama, and the next, until everyone else finally realized thanks to Signal that Kim Eun-hee was as amazing a writer as I kept insisting to anyone who would listen (aka no one).

2011: To Binge or Not To Binge?

White Christmas (KBS)

I did not watch White Christmas in 2011. I actually watched it in 2013. I was always a steadfast binger, preferring to wait until the buzz about a show would sway me into spending my precious free-time watching something that would be worth my while (not that my drama choices were always good, but at least I tried to avoid the duds). I still prefer to binge, since waiting weeks for new episodes is vaguely frustrating when I want to know what happens next, right now! Plus, I’m very good at forgetting that I’m watching a show in the week-long wait for new episodes, and then just... never picking it back up again.

Despite watching White Christmas a couple years after it aired, it remains one of my favorites, and one I love to rewatch, even though I’ve already experienced  whodunnit cliff-hangers and psychological rollercoasters. It became a tradition of sorts here on tumblr for a bunch of us to rewatch it over the holiday season -- alas, I haven’t joined in that tradition for the past couple of years, but I hope that somewhere in this blue hell hole that there are a loyal few keeping the tradition alive.

At least we have this drama to thank for bringing us all the model-actors that were new and clueless in White Christmas, but would later go on to be leading men in their own right. Of course, some of them haven’t exactly made the best drama choices (*cough*SungJoon*cough*), but then there are others (*cough*SooHyuk*cough*) that I’m impatiently waiting for to pick up a new drama so I can see those post-army abs.

Tree With Deep Roots (SBS)

This is the first drama that I recall live-watching. I vaguely remember regretting it at the time, since it was agony waiting for new episodes, but it was also fun to have a week to speculate and ponder the show. And what a beautiful show to ponder! This was also one of the few sageuks I actually watched, being generally intimidated by anything longer than 16-20 episodes, and my historical knowledge was a little shaky (before embracing my inner nerd and diving into mundane historical stuff just so I could better understand whatever drama I was watching at the time).

I don’t think I intended to continue live-watching shows, preferring the ease of binging at my own pace and schedule. But that was when I was still a casual, innocent addict, and not someone who would eventually make dramas a huge part of her life.

2012: The Joy of Overthinking

Gaksital (KBS)

Having had a taste of live-watching, I started to live-watch enough dramas to the point where I began to make notes about the premiere weeks. It was only a couple at a time, and binging was still my preferred way to watch, but now I was delighting in being part of the fandom, sharing in speculation each week, posting my thoughts on dramas and analyzing them to my heart’s content -- even though I knew no one except me would read my ridiculous essays.

But I started to feel more comfortable sharing my opinion with the world, interacting with fandom and not merely content to be a consumer, but gradually becoming a producer as well.

Reply 1997 (tvN)

This is it. This is when I went full-on Drama Addict. This is the tipping point from casual fan who quietly kept to herself, to becoming someone who stood on the mountain top yelling about ALL THE DRAMAS ALL THE TIME. I began to interact with other fans! To swap theories and share squee-worthy moments! I even watched episodes RAW just because of how desperate I was to know what happened, and even though the Busan accent stumped me more than once, it made me realize that my casual study of Korean was something to take seriously since I understood more than I gave myself credit for.

It was also the first time any post I made got more than a handful of notes, since I’d mostly hovered in the “less than 10 notes per post” category at the time. I was so proud of myself back then!

(This drama also notably marks the start of my Hoya obsession, which continues to this day.)

2013: Tumblr Friends (and Foes)

Flower Boy Next Door (tvN)

Having made myself comfortable on tumblr as a Drama Addict, I then discovered some other dedicated fans -- many of which I still follow to this day and who are now just a permanent part of my dash, no matter what their current interests may be -- in the FBND squad.

But I also discovered Kim Seul-gi as the Webtoon Editor (who I still love and adore and continue to use as my avatar), and her adorable romance with Dong-hoon remains one of my forever OTPs. As much as I enjoyed the drama romances, I’d never fallen so deeply for one to be so obsessed by it as I was Webtoon Editor and Dong-hoon. And tbh I still am. They’re just so adorable and pragmatic and she buys him a bag. Ugh. I love her so much, you guys.

Heirs (SBS)

Ah, yes. This hot mess.

I don’t know what possessed me to live-blog each episode. But I did. With snarky commentary and terrible screencaps. And suddenly I went from maybe 200 followers to over a 1000. That was a total shock! I met a lot of people because of that (and made some friends, as well as a few enemies who didn’t appreciate my opinion of certain characters), and ensconced myself as part of the drama-blogging crew.

It was from this that someone suggested I apply to be a minion at Dramabeans. Back then, I had a lot more free time than I do now, and I was watching a lot of dramas that Dramabeans didn’t cover, and wished they did so I could read more opinions about those shows. So I thought, “Eh, why not? It can’t hurt to submit something because the worst that would happen is I’d waste their time making them read my take on episode 10 of Let’s Eat.”

I fully expected them to turn me down. No one was more surprised than I was when I found myself agreeing to dive into the world of recapping.

2014: It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

Trot Lovers (KBS)

Recapping. It seems so easy when you’re reading the recaps. But actually creating them is a bitch. Hours out of my life were spent on this disaster of a trope-laden show with no plot. This was the third show I worked on for Dramabeans, and I hated it to the point where I seriously considered handing in my notice. (Immediately following up this show with the mediocre My Secret Hotel certainly didn’t help matters!)

However, it turns out that what I actually hated was being forced to watch a terrible rom-com and pretend to come up with insightful-or-at-least-neutral thoughts about it (since we were still new and couldn’t go full-on snark yet).

Misaeng (tvN)

This is what saved me. Being given the chance to immerse myself in such a unique, ponderous, thoughtful show restored my faith in dramas and the drama community. I loved spending hours on this show, soaking up all the little details, and then sharing that love with the world.

Misaeng made dramas magical again.

2015: Fight Me

Valid Love (tvN)

Realizing that I only seemed to enjoy rom-coms at arm-length, I discovered that my tastes often ran counter to the general drama-viewing public. Not all the drama-viewing public -- I’m not a “not like other fans” kind of fan -- but enough that I began to realize the whether a drama was popular or had good buzz was not necessarily the primary reason to watch it.

I began to have more faith in my own taste, based on past experiences with various writers and directors. Even if the premise (or first couple of episodes) seemed kind of weird and out-there, I at least wanted to give these artists the benefit of the doubt that I would enjoy their work, like I had previously.

So many people seemed to hate Valid Love, but I adored it. Still do (and still desperately wish Kim Do-woo would come out with a new drama -- it has been too long, writer-nim!). There were a lot of opinions about this show, even among people who seemed to enjoy it, but I vividly recall having to repeatedly insist that it wasn’t about the romance and argue that  the knee-jerk infidelity-is-BAD opinions should make space for something more nuanced.

Ho-gu’s Love (tvN)

DramaFever was a pretty great site. It brought together so many drama fans and gave them a place where they could legally (and without fear of downloading random viruses) watch dramas to their heart’s content. Yes, there may have been some lingering resentment that they were the primary reason that so many amazing other sites were shut down (RIP mysoju and daebaeksubs), but dramas were more accessible than ever!

Eventually, DramaFever started to sub shows themselves and upload them weekly (instead of just using fansubs and uploading older dramas), and while they weren’t the best translations, they were at least better than machine translations from the Chinese subs. As I became more and more familiar with Korean, I found myself more likely to migrate to Viki since I liked the extra detailed translations. I could get the gist of a show without any help -- I wanted to instead delve into the nitty-gritty of the language.

But I never really hated DramaFever or felt they were particularly awful. Until they mistranslated something so terribly that it changed the entire meaning of a scene and ruined people’s perception of a drama, forcing me to continually defend the true translation.

That was the molehill I died on that day, and never again did I touch DramaFever. I feel bad that it eventually got unceremoniously shuttered. But I don’t think I’ll ever forgive them for the “condom” incident.

2016: Free Solo

Dear My Friends (tvN)

For two years I’d been happily working on one episode a week, sharing a show with someone else, until I was asked if I’d like to tackle a show by myself. I wasn’t sure how I could handle it, but I had the time in my schedule so I said, “Sure, why not?”

I was originally going to recap Another Oh Hae-young, but there was a last-minute switcheroo, and I’m so incredibly glad because this is perhaps my favorite recapping experience of all time, even more so than Misaeng. There was something so special about the luxury of having an entire show to myself, especially one with such a fantastic cast of characters and thoughtful themes. I didn’t have to try and figure out if I agreed with another person’s take -- it could all be my opinion.

Is that arrogant? Perhaps. But it was also therapeutic, as it reminded me once again how incredible and amazing dramas could be, and the privilege I had to share such an exquisite and thought-provoking drama with the rest of the world.

The Good Wife (tvN)

Surprisingly, this was what I had really wanted to recap that year, and the true reason I got Dear My Friends, since it aired just prior in the same time-slot as The Good Wife. I was desperate to have this show, willing to do anything to get it because I needed to see Jeon Do-yeon back on the small screen, to see Yoo Ji-tae smolder, to know how Korea would adapt such an ambitious show.

And I wasn’t disappointed! This is, perhaps, my favorite adaption of another work of art that I’ve seen in dramaland. It remained true to Korean sensibilities, but it also properly felt like The Good Wife. The cast was phenomenal. The costumes were exquisite. I wished I could spend more time in that world.

But I was also thankful, because without The Good Wife, I would have never have had Dear My Friends. 

2017: Serial-Killers Are Cool

Voice (OCN)

I can’t remember how I got assigned to this. Maybe it was a scheduling thing. I do know that I really, really wanted it, since it would be Handsome Oppa’s first drama appearance in three years.

But it started me down a road of recapping a lot of serious and serial-killer-centric shows. Except for the times when I’d beg for a break and tackle something lighter, I was generally assigned the darker mystery shows with meaty plots, since apparently I had a knack for condensing complicated shows into something that made sense. (Also literally darker, and I eventually learned to automatically brighten every screencap I posted. You’re welcome.)

Not only did I love working on something with Handsome Oppa, I also had fun recapping the start of what would eventually become OCN’s stock-in-trade -- creepy serial killers. At the time, Voice shattered OCN’s viewer ratings (which would then be shattered again and again as more people would tune in to OCN shows). But Voice really helped put OCN on the viewership map -- as well as catapult Handsome Oppa into the public eye and lead him to a path of getting to choose whatever script he wanted to work on.

(Okay, maybe I made that last bit up, but he did begin to garner a larger following and remind everyone that just because he was gone from dramaland for so long, he hadn’t lost his acting chops -- or charisma -- or cheekbones.)

Black (OCN)

Oh, this show. It was basically my whole life while it was airing (well, the non-day-job part of my life). Each episode was over an hour long and jam-packed full of details that were pertinent to the story, and I had to somehow condense that all into 3000 words or less (I was not always, ah, successful...). It felt like I was back in recapping bootcamp, but the dial had been turned up to 11.

I’m weirdly proud of what I produced (although you’ll never get me to reread my old work). It was one of the most challenging shows to work on, but in the good way, not the Trot Lovers way.

Until the ending, that is. Sigh. That ending will live in infamy. I still, to this day, will get a few comments on the finale from people who watched it on Netflix, went searching online for an explanation of the end, and then discovered that they were not alone in being confused by the utter wtf-ery of the last twenty minutes.

2018: Fighting For My Love

Misty (JTBC)

So, Dramabeans kind of disappeared for a few months. Well, the site was still live. There were a handful of recaps. But... it basically just... stopped. 

Those of us on the other side know about as you do as to why that happened. Minions are kept in the dark just as much as anybody, it seems. All we knew is that we weren’t being assigned anything and we seriously wondered if the site was going under, since adsense has become worthless these days.

But Mary and I kept talking about how much we adored Misty and were sad that we couldn’t talk about it with the world (and convince them to watch it with us), so we pleaded and begged and got the go-ahead to do a kind of chatty “open thread” which has apparently been a spring-board format for other shows. We didn’t get paid for this, and we were totally fine with that. We just wanted to provide some kind of content (while swooning over Kim Nam-joo’s pantsuits!).

Let’s Eat 3 (tvN)

This was my first real assignment after the dead period, and I once again got to do full recaps (with pay!). I started watching, thinking I’d merely tolerate the show (since I loved the first season vastly more than the second season), but it turned out to be my favorite of the three. Plus it felt fortuitous that the series I had submitted my application would be a series I’d work on four years later.

Sometimes it’s nice to spend time with a character you met years ago, to see them grow, to see how they became what they became. Drama trends (and love interests) will come and go, but Goo Dae-young’s love of food (and love of explaining the proper way to eat food) will never change. It was a really comforting drama for me to spend my summer on, and I’ll remember it fondly, even if I’m forever sad that it had to suddenly wrap-up two episodes early.

2019: Ten Years Later

Item (MBC)

This was the Trot Lovers of 2019. It was a nonsensical disaster.

I also had the added chaos of my real-life job -- one very different from the one I had when I was working on Trot Lovers -- as it began to increase exponentially in responsibilities and in stress. I reached a breaking point where I began to hate opening my computer where I’d have to spend hours attempting to explain a show that I wanted nothing to do with. I was miserable and depressed and couldn’t do it anymore. I never before asked to be taken off a show because I hated it so much, but there’s a first for everything.

Her Private Life (tvN)

I actually haven’t finished this show -- I’ve yet to watch the last two episodes. But I’m including it because, well, I didn’t finish any other show in 2019 except for Item.

As some of you may know, this has been a difficult year. It started with the unexpected stress of my job, when we suddenly lost one of our directors who passed away, and another director was let go (in a complicated situation that is ongoing, but the important thing is that it was during our busiest time when we really couldn’t afford to lose anyone), and another director left for a different job and I was basically the one to pick up all the pieces she left behind. It was exhausting and we were all past the breaking point but somehow miraculously holding it together.

I was looking forward to finally getting a much-needed vacation in September, and then, well, you all know how that went: the first night, on our layover in New Zealand before what was supposed to be three weeks in Australia, my father was taken to the hospital, and then, two days later, he passed away. Life has gotten even more chaotic and stressful and bizarre since then.

So no, I haven’t finished this drama, but it was one of the most wonderful moments of the year for me, watching this fizzy rom-com with my favorite actor, where he got to be charming and handsome and charismatic and finally kiss the girl he loves and have her love him back (and not die or be dumped, as he had been in so many dramas that had gone before). Lion Oppa was everything my heart could desire, and living in his world helped me endure the insanity that I wish I’d known would seem so much more tolerable than what would eventually befall.

Her Private Life reminded me of when I first fell in love with dramas ten years ago, when I would giggle and be delighted by the charming nonsense on screen -- of beautiful people falling in love and fighting against the obstacles between them (some more ridiculous than others, perhaps, but there are always obstacles), and ending up happily ever after. Pure escapism, of the frothiest kind.

A Drama-filled Decade

So, after ten years of dramas, what is the takeaway? What have I learned?

I suppose I’ve learned to trust my instincts and put more faith in writers and directors than actors. That analyzing dramas is fun, and it’s even more fun sharing it with others, and sometimes even more fun if you get paid to do it -- but everyone eventually reaches a breaking point. That I’m too earnest and optimistic to embrace a life of snark. That I want every drama to be good but most of them aren’t, except sometimes they are. That I’m not even sure which genres are my favorite; I just know what I don’t like.

That dramas are best as escapism, and not as work.

I don’t know how many dramas I’ll watch in 2020. I haven’t paid any attention to what’s airing, and I’m okay with that. Perhaps I’m entering a new phase in my life, or perhaps I just don’t have the capacity to escape right now.

But I am pleased to have had dramas in my life, and to have eventually made them my hobby. I’ve met a lot of amazing people and made some genuine friends through a shared love of dramas (or, at times, a shared hatred). I’m honored that all of you are still here and following me, even during this period of fandom silence.

May 2020 treat us all better, and may Kim Do-woo finally write another script.

[mirkwoodshewolf]

My Best girl; Jefferson x reader

Well here is my first ever OUAT oneshot that I ever did. I have loved the show and watched it since the beginning and when I started getting into the Marvel fandom and found out that Bucky was Jefferson my mind was literally BLOWN so I had to revisit Jefferson’s story and think ‘what if he had another daughter?’ And in the end this was born. Now this fic again I chose a certain name so if you don’t like it, change it to your own as well as the “Curse” name I chose. I do NOT own OUAT it belongs to Disney’s ABC and NOT me.

____________________________________________

*Enchanted Forest*

         I guess my story would be like any others here in the Enchanted forest, and yet maybe it’s different. My father always told my sister and I to always think outside the box on people and their stories of how they come to be, because after all we are all a bit Mad aren’t we?

         My name is Maya, and if you hadn’t guessed it yet, Jefferson is my father, I am his eldest daughter and older sister of my adorable little sister Grace.  We live in a small cottage barely making ends meat by picking fungus and selling them to the market to hopefully make enough copper pieces for our next meal.  But in no way do I hate that life, nor do I hate my family, I adore them both for they’re the only family I’ve got left.

         Currently I was returning from a hunt in the woods trying to see if I could find any supper to cook tonight for my father and sister.  I had managed to find a large stag and kill it with just one arrow straight inbetween it’s eyes.  I hogged it over my horse Angus towards the cottage when I took notice of my sister Grace searching for something, or someone.  I took Angus by the reigns and walked up to my sister and said.

         “What are you up to my Grace?”

“Papa and I are playing Hide-and-seek, I’m right on his trail too”.  I smiled then said.

“Well, mind if Angus and I help find our dearest Papa?” She smiled sweetly and nodded then we both quietly walked along the trail towards a tree stump and Grace proclaimed.

“Papa we’ve found you!” And soon enough our father came out and stated with pride.

“You certainly did, my dear Grace, and my lovely Maya”.  I grinned at my father as he helped Grace up to where he stood as he continued, “you both must be part bloodhound”.  I rolled my eyes playfully as I stood beside Grace as she said happily ready to have another round of her favorite game.

“Now it’s me and Maya’s time to hide, and you seek”.

“I’m afraid playtime’s over. But you both can use those noses of yours to hunt mushrooms enough to sell at the market tomorrow, do you both think you can do that?” Grace even though she was sad playtime was over, always loved helping father find mushrooms, sometimes even having contests to see who could find the most mushrooms before the end of the day.

Grace and I nodded as our father smiled lovingly at us and kissed our foreheads and said as he took each of our hands.

“Ready or not here we come!”

         At the end of the day, my father, Grace and I were on our way back to the cottage from mushroom picking and my hunting had me exhausted that I just wanted to climb into my cot bed and sleep until supper time.  As father held Grace’s hand and had his other arm wrapped around my shoulder we suddenly stopped and took notice of a black carriage surrounded by guards standing outside our house.  My father and I only knew one person who had those guards and who rode that carriage.

         The Queen.

         “Listen to me now girls, I want you both to stay hidden in the woods, like our game. I’ll see what she’s doing here, okay?” Our father told us.  Grace hesitated but nodded and as our father walked off giving us a reassuring smile before he walked back towards our house. I then turned to Grace before she ran off and told her.

“Grace, my sister; I want you to hide in the woods okay, I’ll be there in just a second, you understand?”

“But Maya, what are you gonna do?”

“Don’t you worry about me, just go on and I’ll be right behind you”.  I kissed her forehead and watched her run off while I turned towards the cottage and snuck around the back way so the guards wouldn’t see me.

Grace may not have known this fact because she was just a babe at the time, but I remember quite well of my father’s ‘work’ he had done for the Queen as well as for the Dark One, and I never trusted them because it was that work that made me and Grace lose our mother, and with the job the Queen wanted my father to do, I had a real funny feeling that this job she wanted would make me and Grace lose the only remaining family we have left.

I listened through the window and heard the Queen’s voice say.

“Do this last favor for me, and you can give them the life they deserve”.  

Yeah right your royal highness.

After hearing my father reject the Queen’s offer, I couldn’t help but hold back my cheers of rejoice then I quickly ran off back into the forest to find Grace and make it so that my father never knew I was listening on his conversation with the Queen.

*Storybrooke, Maine (a/n: following after the curse is broken and Jefferson is debating on finding Grace)*

         Jefferson sat down on a bench at the docks holding a child-like drawing that Grace had drawn of a Missing person paper on her father that read.

HAVE YOU SEEN MY PAPA?

He thought back on now that his Grace and probably his Maya remember everything now that the curse was broken, whether or not he should show himself before his daughters, especially to Maya.

He had betrayed her trust most of all because she had to live through the loss of her mother and the broken promise of her father.  

His best girl no longer forgave him after he had accepted the job.

“Jefferson? Right? The Mad Hatter?” A little boy’s voice said.  He looked up to see Henry, son of the savior and adopted son of the Mayor Regina, aka the Evil Queen.  He took a seat next to Jefferson and he eyed the picture and asked, “what’s that?”  Jefferson folded the picture up and muttered.

“It’s nothing”.

“Your daughter’s looking for you, aren’t they?”

“What do you know of it?” Jefferson snapped as he stood up.  Henry stood up and stood in front of him trying to stop him

“They probably want to see you!”

“Get away from me kid”.

“Why don’t you want to find them?”

“BECAUSE I LEFT THEM!!!!” He cried out as he gripped Henry’s upper arms.  “And they’ll hate me. I know already my oldest one does, now she probably convinced my youngest the same thing”.

“You’re wrong. Maya doesn’t hate you, she hates what she said, I’ve read her story after she ran away from you. She was just angry but she doesn’t hate you. I should know, I’ve been left too, but how can you know what they’ll say if you don’t take that risk and go to them?”  Jefferson listened to the words of the boy and began to think that he was right.

Later that day after school was let out, Paige aka Grace came off the school bus giggling as she talked with some of her friends and began to walk home.  It was then Jefferson slowly stepped out from behind a tree eyeing his daughter with nervous, sorrow-filled eyes. He walked a few steps forward then softly called out nervously,

“Grace”. Paige stopped in her spot and turned around to see who it was that called her name.

Jefferson felt himself shaking nervously that his little Grace would react just like Maya did and hate him for abandoning them.

But what he got was something completely opposite.

Grace ran up to him crying out,

“Papa!” Jefferson fell to his knees as he and Grace embraced each other as tightly as they could.  “You’ve found me I knew you would!” Jefferson had never felt more alive having one of his daughters forgive him but he still felt heartbroken that his oldest, his Best Girl couldn’t say the samething.

But none the less, he was happy to have at least one daughter forgive him.

He picked Grace up and carried her away as tears spilled down his face, unaware of the two of them being watched, by a woman debating the same thing that Jefferson had been debating all these years.

*Enchanted forest*

         I was coming back from gathering water from the well and walked back into the house to see Grace coming out from the house with her cloak on and hood over her head but I could see the sadness in her eyes.

“Grace, what’s wrong my dearest sister?”

“Papa said I needed to go to the neighbors place for the rest of the day, he’s accepted whatever the Queen’s visit was about”.  My heart stopped and I slowly let go of the bucket letting water spill out everywhere. “Maya, are you alright sister?”  I looked at her and pulled my fake happiness face for her and said.

“Of course, you go on ahead and be with them, I’ll join you in just a bit”.  I kissed her cheek lovingly then charged towards the house with anger and rage building up in my chest.  I opened up to see papa just placing his hat box on the floor.  I slammed the door to get his attention and he looked at me surprised.

“Maya—”

“You promised you wouldn’t do this anymore! You swore you’d hang it up and never do this again!”

“Maya, I have to do this, I want you and Grace to have all that you both need”.

“Papa, all we need is you, didn’t Grace tell you that?”

“She did, but I have to do this,” he walked up towards me and reached out to cup my face but I turned my head away as I felt betrayed.  “Maya—”

“It’s because of that that we lost mom. I won’t lose you the same way. What am I to tell Grace if you never come back? What if this is a trap the Queen has planned for you just so you’d do it?” I looked up at him with hurtful eyes and tears that were just dying to be shed but I refused to let them fall before my father.

“I promise Maya, that won’t happen. I’ll be back before you know it, besides I promised a tea party for Grace. For the three of us. And hey, have I ever let my best girl down before?” He reached out again to cup my face to wipe away a tear that I didn’t know that had escaped.  I backed away from him and replied in the coldest, hardest voice that my betrayed soul could muster.

“Yes”.

My father looked at me horrified and betrayed as I had been.

“You promised you wouldn’t do this to me again. A little girl who had always waited for days, week sometimes months on hand on when her papa was coming home alive. A job that made that little girl lose her mother and not allow her little sister to ever feel the same mother’s love that she got. And any father who breaks a promise like that—is no father of mine!” I stormed out of the cottage as my father cried out my name but I ran faster and faster until I reached so deep into the woods I didn’t even care where I ended up at. I finally collapsed and sobbed hysterically against a tree until I was picked up and taken care of by a woman.

A certain bandit exiled princess known as Snow White.

*Storybrooke, Maine*

         Later that night after Jefferson had taken Grace back to his mansion, they were having their well deserved tea party when the doorbell rang.  Jefferson was about to answer it when Grace proclaimed.

“No papa you are a guest, I as hostess shall answer the door”.  Jefferson smiled and allowed his daughter to answer the door.  Grace skipped over to the door and opened it to see someone she never expected to see but was thrilled to see her again.

Jefferson wondering what had taken his youngest daughter so long to come back began to grow worried.  Just as he turned around to call her, his eyes widened in shock to see at who was holding Grace with one arm wrapped around her.

It was Me, Maya.

During the curse I was known as Melissa and I helped down at the police station but was allowed to babysit Grace when she was known as Paige.  I was her surrogate big sister at the time of the curse and I had always made sure to keep a watchful eye over her, even when I had no idea who she was at the time.  But now I have returned to her side and to maybe mend the scar I left on our father just before he left us and was tricked by the Queen.

Grace released me and father and I had a staring contest as he remained shocked and taken back at my appearance, so I just said to him.

“I know what you’re gonna say, papa. How could she be here? After running away like that and why did she say she hated me? Said that I wasn’t her father anymore? Papa I’m not proud of myself for saying those cruel things I said back in the enchanted forest—I……I regret ever saying those things, and when the curse broke I thought that—I thought that you’d never want to see me again, disown me as your daughter……And I was wrong—I see that now but I—”  As I spoke trying to hold back my tears and sobs, papa only slowly walked up towards me while I walked backwards until my back was up against the wall.

“Ohh stop being so stoic Papa, go on! Shout! Scream! Say something I—” I stopped as I felt him gently cup my cheek as I only stared at him in shock, waiting for him to unleash his madness on me.

“How could I ever disown my Best Girl?” He choked sadly.

Everything went into pause for that brief moment that felt like an eternity.  He didn’t hate me? Even after all those things I told him?

My eyes closed as tears fell down my face as my heart broke in two.  I felt papa wipe them away and gently lift my chin up as I felt him kiss my forehead lovingly and was now in his warm embrace that I had always loved so much.

A strong, protective embrace that felt like I was being protected by a steel wall, but at the same time it gave comfort and love as I breathed in my father’s scent of tea and peppermint.

I wrapped my arms around him as he held me tighter as I felt tears slipping down the back of my neck and I’m sure he felt tears on his shirt.  Grace smiled happily as she watched me and father mend our broken bond with each other.

The three of us were now currently on the couch with Grace and I on either side of our father as he held us close and kissed each of our heads as we shed our tears, shared our kisses and took in each other’s comfort.  Soon Grace and I fell asleep cuddled close to our dad’s chest.

He smiled down at us and kissed us both on gingerly on the top of our heads and whispered.

“I’m never letting go again. My Grace, and my Best Girl Maya”.

[aion-rsa]

How Doctor Who Was Quietly Revolutionised By Its Least Popular Season

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In 2014, when Doctor Who Magazine asked its readers to rank the show’s first 50 years, out of 241 options, Season 24 stories ‘Time and the Rani’ came 239th, ‘Paradise Towers’ 230th, ‘Delta and the Bannermen’ 217th, with ‘Dragonfire’ thought best of in 215th place. This was largely a repeat of its 2009 poll, although then readers rated ‘Delta and the Bannermen’ above ‘Dragonfire’. Season 24 was also ranked bottom in a GQ article ranking every series of Doctor Who – a combination of words I never thought I’d write.

Season 24 of Doctor Who went into production just as its 23rd season, the 14-episode ‘The Trial of a Time-Lord’ was finishing up on TV. By late 1986, producer John Nathan-Turner was expecting to be moved onto another show and had lost both his script-editor and the show’s most prolific writer (the former quitting after long-simmering tensions erupted behind the scenes, and the latter passing away during the making of the series). 

A surprised Nathan-Turner was given 13 months to hire a new script editor and produce 14 episodes under a BBC edict that Doctor Who had to become lighter and funnier (not dissimilar to the instructions producer Graham Williams found himself under in the Seventies). He also ended up having to cast a new Doctor, after Colin Baker was sacked and didn’t want to return for one story just to regenerate. Sylvester McCoy was formally cast at the end of February and started filming ‘Time and the Rani’ in April.

‘Time in the Rani’ was written by husband-and-wife duo Pip and Jane Baker (UK readers may remember their early-Nineties CBBC show Watt on Earth), who were given the job because there were no scripts either ready to go or in development. Nathan-Turner knew they could write quickly after they’d completed the final episode of ‘Trial of a Time Lord’ at extremely short notice earlier in the year.

The Bakers’ writing style was to produce frothy and campy nonsense and then act as if they’d just written The Seventh Seal. ‘Time and the Rani’ contains continuity references such as costume shout outs to past Doctors, a returning villain and references to the Lord President of Gallifrey. It’s set on an alien planet and makes no attempt to engage with contemporary life either directly or allegorically, and is happy to be adventure for adventure’s sake. It’s not a last hurrah for that style of story, but is a strong argument for why it had to be stop being the House Style after five years (though, to be fair to it, it has some nice ideas in it and the scene with the Doctor chatting away to the universe’s geniuses is great).

New Script Editor Andrew Cartmel wasn’t a fan of ‘Time and the Rani’ but arrived too late in the day to have much impact on it. He was able to influence writer Stephen Wyatt away from a story steeped in continuity and towards what became ‘Paradise Towers’. This was based on a combination of the novel High Rise by J.G. Ballard, Wyatt’s real-life experience in London’s East End, and Cartmel’s fondness for Alan Moore comics. Not only is it the first story for years to not refer to other Doctor Who stories and doesn’t feature the TARDIS interior but it is, in stark contrast to ‘Time and the Rani’, clearly about something real.

What ‘Paradise Towers’ did, which few Doctor Who stories had done before, was sympathetically reflect a working class setting by depicting people trapped in a block of flats by the whims of an aloof architect. In doing so, it didn’t go for realism. The show has rarely been in a position to, and here the budget and imposed tone meant it couldn’t. What it does have is a coherent approach: everything is big, be it the cleaning robots, the performances or the costuming.

So we have a Doctor Who story that isn’t aiming at its usual audience (Considering it had lost viewers this is clearly sensible) and is trying to overcome its restrictions by putting on a pantomime about social structures featuring cannibals and killer robots. Criticising it for lacking a realism it could never achieve is harsh.   

Read more

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Doctor Who: revisiting Sylvester McCoy’s first season 30 years on

By Jamie Andrew

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Doctor Who: the Historical Places the Show Has Never Visited (But Should)

By Chris Farnell

Season 24 follows ‘Paradise Towers’ with a story set in a holiday camp and then in a shopping centre. Being Doctor Who, the shopping centre is in space and run by an intergalactic criminal, and the holiday camp becomes the battleground for an attempted genocide (“Now, let me try and get this right. Are you telling me that you are not the Happy Hearts Holiday Club from Bolton, but instead are spacemen in fear of an attack from some other spacemen?”) set to the backdrop of the space race and the coming of rock and roll. Again, it seems to be courting an audience other than organised fandom for the first time in five years, using recognisable aspects of contemporary life and mashing them up with fresh takes on Doctor Who staples.

While the tone is cartoonish, the satire of a building, designed by a celebrated architect, that actively harms its residents is clearly pointed. In fact, because the tone is cartoonish, it gets away with more. Over the past few series Doctor Who had been very ‘LOOK how NASTY this is. LOOK. It’s HORRIBLE’, whereas Season 24 knowingly presented things that were both silly and horrible simultaneously, revelling in the dissonance. This is one of the many ways in which the Seventh Doctor era prefigures Russell T. Davies’ approach. The survivors of ‘Paradise Towers’ coming together to fight their attackers feels very RTD.

In fact, given that ‘Survival’ is often heralded as a mirror image of ‘Rose’, it’s worth noting how Season 24 combines the recognisable with the fantastical in the same way we’d see Autons in shopping centres or plumbers and burger vans in space during Series 1. The Doctor was part of this too. McCoy was instructed to play the role like Patrick Troughton, but specifically Troughton’s lighter moments. Ultimately McCoy would gravitate towards how Troughton fully played the Doctor in the Sixties, but here he’s mostly being silly and avuncular. Indeed McCoy was clowning more than the role demanded.

What this allows, though, is for the Doctor to engage more with the people in these stories. In an extremely Troughton-esque move, the Doctor happily mixes and enthuses with the tourists in ‘Delta and the Bannermen’. In one scene he’s following an alien princess but stops to check on the sound of someone crying. He leaves a Doctor Who story to step into the real world, sitting in people’s bedrooms holding a guitar and making wistful observations about love. And he belongs. This Doctor fits in this world, and this version of the Seventh Doctor lingers even amidst the Winging-It-Chess-Playing manipulations of later series. It expands what the character is capable of in a positive way.

I’m not going to claim here that Season 24 as a whole should be thought of amongst the very best of Doctor Who, but it’s important to address how much it achieved in difficult circumstances. Despite the rushed production it managed to take Doctor Who from the lows of cancellation and its flawed return and point it in the direction of Seasons 25 and 26. Beyond this we have the New Adventures and the show’s return in 2005, all going further with ideas brought into the show in the late Eighties. I am going to claim that ‘Paradise Towers’ is great and ‘Delta and the Bannermen’ is charming in a delirious way. ‘Dragonfire’ is the only real dud of the new approach, being somewhat plodding and incoherent. What Season 24’s unpopularity demonstrates is that fans are far more willing to overlook a poverty of ideas over a poverty of appearance.

Once I’ve put my flameproof hat on, I’m going to say ‘Terror of the Zygons’ is a great example of a very well-made story that is ultimately just a fun yarn with some particularly egregious examples of ‘Activate the Unnecessarily Slow Dipping Mechanism’ type monsters. It’s not about anything. It’s just a blast. ‘Paradise Towers’ is furious and inventive, witty and (in Doctor Who terms) novel. It just looks like someone asked CBBC to adapt a 2000AD strip, and this is too much for some fans.

The show’s reach exceeded its grasp, however. Doctor Who had been temporarily cancelled and then returned diminished. It had become harder to disguise the lack of budget. This was a period of recovery and transition, and so the ambitions of the scripts (the caretakers being older men and Pex being a Stallone-esque slab of a man) were beyond Doctor Who in the late Eighties. If ‘Paradise Towers’ had been made in 2007, Richard Briers would certainly have taken it more seriously. Equally, given his influences, Cartmel’s Doctor Who would make a great series of comics.

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You don’t have to enjoy it, but you should acknowledge that without Season 24 Doctor Who would be a much duller place.

The Doctor Who Season 24 Blu-ray box set is released on June 21st.

The post How Doctor Who Was Quietly Revolutionised By Its Least Popular Season appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[davewakeman]

The Chargers Are Moving To LA, But....

We are about 2 weeks into the new area of the Los Angeles Chargers, which brings the number of teams in LA to 2. From the zero about a year ago.

At the same time, the Raiders potential move to Las Vegas is working its way through an approval process as well.

If you are counting, that makes 3 teams potentially moving in about a year.

WHOA!

I don’t think you have to be a sports marketing expert to know that this isn’t a good look for the league and when you add it on top of all of the other challenges the NFL has faced the last few years, a harbinger of potential challenges ahead.

We keep hearing about Commissioner Roger Goodell’s vision for the NFL to reach $25B by 2025, which at the time he set that goal would have meant the league needed to add $1B of revenue every year.

Since he has made this goal public, the NFL has found itself getting larger TV revenues and a lot of bad news: concussions, declining ratings, empty seats, Deflategate, and more.

Which brings us back to the idea that 3 teams could move in 1 year!

Wow!

From a straight revenue standpoint, this is probably a great deal in the short term.

Let’s count the ways, team values will go up for the Rams and Chargers just from benefit of being in LA market as opposed to San Diego or St Louis.

Team revenues may rise due to the initial rush of fans coming out for the novelty of a game in LA or Las Vegas for that matter.

Or, you might have fans that make a rush to buy their new home teams merchandise at the outset, maybe. That’s going to drive some improved revenues immediately.

And, I can go down the list.

New stadiums mean we can justify higher food and beverage costs in the short term. We can drive a tough bargain for higher ticket prices. We can likely wedge people into bad suite lease deals.

But what is the long term play?

As we saw in San Francisco with the Levi Stadium, people will just walk away from the PSLs.

As we have seen in NY/NJ with the new Giants Stadium, hiking the prices in a way that makes a new stadium viable also has the unintended effect of driving out some of your most rabid fans, causing the in-game stadium experience to be beautiful and antiseptic. Which drives down long term demand, unless you are on a Super Bowl run…

Which we have seen in a number of sports doesn’t guarantee success either, during or after the fact.

You also have the challenge of who is your market?

If you are the Rams, you likely have a chance.

Why?

Because you were there before. You are LA’s original football team, though the people that remember that are older now and maybe don’t care. So with your long term demographic, you are starting over from scratch.

If you are the Chargers, there isn’t any logical reason to move.

Sure, you had an old and worn down stadium in San Diego. But you had a fan base that was yours and pretty much yours alone.

In LA, you don’t have any inbound fan base. You are going to be playing second fiddle to the Rams.

Not just second fiddle, but second fiddle and you are the roommate of the landlord.

The ruse to move the Raiders is a little more understandable.

Somehow Mark Davis has the opportunity to milk the city of Las Vegas and a billionaire partner out of a new stadium.

Great deal if you can get it.

But the question becomes, who is your audience in Las Vegas?

Again, you are going to have some lookie loos…the same with the NHL team.

But long term, where is your fan base coming from?

Are they coming in from out of town to see their team play the Raiders?

That’s a tough sell because many potential fans are going to more drawn to the glitz and glamour of the strip.

And, if you’ve ever been to Vegas, you know that once you get sucked into the casinos and hotels…they are tough to leave.

So right away your competition is the Strip. Which conventional wisdom would tell you would be some of your best customers.

But my primary question to you is: “If you’ve invested billions of dollars in creating these mega entertainment centers, why exactly are you going to take them to someone else’s to entertain?”

Sure, for the Raiders…great deal.

For the NFL, another good deal because they now have a footprint in another market without really losing anything because the 49ers are still in the Bay Area.

For the NFL, moving to LA from St Louis is a decent swap on the ratings landscape…second largest market, no brainer.

Even moving up from San Diego isn’t too bad on that front because I am sure that the SD TV market has a lot of overlap with the LA market.

But when you get past these obvious things, that’s where the iceberg gets big and substantial because we’ve talked about a lot of stuff that is great for the teams making the moves and the league itself, but what about the group of people we have left out so far?

THE FANS!

My big concern about all of this moving around of teams, of all this push to rapidly and constantly extract another billion dollars per year out of viewers and fans, is that no one is looking out for the fans.

If we get back up to the issues that the NFL has been dealing with, specifically the ones like declining ratings and empty seats, this is an issue where your fans are sending you a clear message that something isn’t right.

Is it “peak football” as I have heard the term called?

I’m not sold on that because I have seen the NFL’s popularity be down before, where the NFL wasn’t the big dog before.

But I do think that if you don’t pay attention to your fans and to increasing their engagement and connection to the teams and the games in a meaningful way, besides just producing more content…you can have an issue and it can be one that sneaks up on you pretty quickly.

So what do you do, if you are the NFL?

First, I think you might want to put some pressure on the Chargers to reconsider moving to LA. I’ve pretty much seen unanimous consent that the market is apathetic to the team.

What’s the opposite of love?

Apathy…and that is a tough one to overcome.

Sure, winning can help.

But look how long it took the Clippers to ever become relevant in the LA market.

Second, Oakland is a historic market and one that the NFL has already toyed with before.

I’d agree with anyone that said, a replacement stadium in Oakland is probably necessary. There have been multiple occasions when sewage has run into the dugouts or concourses. Its a concern for public safety.

What I don’t think is a good idea is moving the team to Las Vegas.

I mean, Vegas is going from no teams to two teams in a year as well.

We have no idea if the market can bear one team.

If I am the NFL, I don’t want my team to be guinea pig, especially when we know how powerful the site of empty seats is when driving fan and TV viewer perception of the health of the game.

Finally, I’d look at some ways that drive revenue while improving the fan experience.

To this point, every way of improving revenue has been add more game days, build new stadiums that allow us to charge higher prices, raise prices on all licensed merchandise.

That’s going to cause fans to feel gouged.

And, it doesn’t do anything for adding new fans or improving the fan experience so you can drive them to more games.

To keep it simple, I would start with 3 ideas to improve the live experience.

First, I would revisit the fan or customer lifecycle to better help drive fans to the content, merchandise, and interactions I want.

Right now, too many viewers ingest the game passively, through watching it on TV, while more concerned with the health of their fantasy football teams.

We need to create a virtuous cycle that drives fans back into our stadiums and make the in-game experience the center piece of NFL viewing.

This is going to likely mean more and more stadiums will take on a lot of the attributes of the redesigned and rebuilt Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. With experiences for fans at all levels of the stadium. With more local food and beverage options. And, better options for ingress and egress.

Second, I think as an industry live entertainment has gotten infatuated with the idea that if we can get away with charging outrageous prices for crappy F&B and some people will buy it, let’s do it.

I think as much as anything, this has driven a wedge between fans going to live experiences and fans choosing to do something else.

What the Falcons are doing in Atlanta at Mercedes Benz Stadium is a start.

I think if you combine fan friendlier pricing with better options, you can win over a lot of people that are looking to share a night at a game or a concert that might not other wise choose you because they don’t want to mortgage their house to have a date night.

Trust me on this one, after having opened nightclubs, bars, and restaurants all over the country, I know two things. One, if you can get them into the building that’s win number one. Second, if you are smart about pricing, merchandising, and experience, you can drive tons more revenue and they will happily come back.

Finally, you need to focus on building communities around the teams.

Sure, the ultimate brand is football or the NFL.

You know what, I think that does a disservice to the teams at the local level. And, one of the big issues that could throw a wrench into the long term growth of the NFL.

Why?

Because you don’t build a fan base from the top down, you build it from the ground up.

Look at any really successful political campaign, they are built from the ground up…people talking to people, people sharing, people, people people.

The NFL needs to get back to that.

Put the teams at the center of a community in each of the markets and even have teams be the center of fandom in markets without a team.

Because without community, you won’t have a business that is sustainable…and that’s why 3 teams moving in 1 year is a bad sign for the NFL.

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The Chargers Are Moving To LA, But…. was originally published on Wakeman Consulting Group