Fannishly meanderings

[selenay]

So, for a lot of this whole *gestures to the world* THING, I have been burying myself in rewatches and rereads of old friends because that's been all my brain can cope with. But I'm slowly starting to emerge and thus, a slightly fannish state of things is called for.

Currently reading The City of Brass, the first new-to-me book by a new-to-me author since...April? Maybe? And really enjoying it! What a fun book so far. It's going to break my heart, isn't it?

Speaking of things that will break my heart...

The Ancient Chinese Boyfriends vid show at VidUKOn finally got me watching Guardian. hockeybosh has joined me on this descent into beauty, joy, and heartbreaking eventual pain (I don't know specifics about anything, but I've watched vids and I am aware of the tears of other friends who went there before me). We're having a ball. We're loving it. I'm itching to read the fic but I'm being (mostly) good because spoilers. I suspect hockeybosh is also going to hit up the fanfic? I'm definitely passing All The Vids onto her when we're done :D

And then I plan to watch The Untamed because I'm weak-willed in the face of great recruitment vids and ancient chinese boyfriends. hockeybosh has offered to rewatch with me for shared squee and pain which sounds like a great concept :D I have the first week in August booked off work (my first time off since the move in January!) to do approximately nothing. Assuming we've finished Guardian by then (seems likely), I might do a fair bit of Untamed binge that week :D

I'm also doing a group rewatch of Xena which is SO MUCH FUN everyone and yes, my fannish theme seems to be "this will end in pain" right now, but it's stuff that's a fun ride apart from the pain?

The other theme appears to be the subtext is practically text, because Guardian, Untamed, and Xena are all around the same levels of "lol nope obviously not gay (except totally gay)" subtext. Except Xena was over twenty years ago. Oh wow, I am such a fandom old *flops laughing*

Comments

[bookmonster]

I have been very good about not reading any fanfic for Guardian... yet.

I understand not wanting to start new things though when everything is so uncertain it's nice to be able to confidently say you know what will happen /expected emotional reaction to a piece of media. Otherwise too many unknowns!!! Have you found that you see any of your old favs differently? Everytime I reread stuff from when I was younger e.g. The Hobbit I find something new or see it in a new light.

Yay for holiday time!! I can't wait for another Ancient boyfriends show watch with you :)

[selenay]

I might have read one or two fics that were either very AU (there's a great chef one!) or promised no spoilers beyond episodes we've seen :D But that's all, I swear!

it's nice to be able to confidently say you know what will happen /expected emotional reaction to a piece of media

That really is it. At least I know what my reaction will be and I can pick things that I know will help my brain space rather than discover unexpected rape-by-the-hero in my historical romance to take an example that is purely theoretical and did not make me want to throw my Kindle across the room in April.

A lot of my rereads have been historical romances and I found that my opinion on which ones I liked and which relationships I enjoyed reading about have changed since I first read them. I didn't go back into my older childhood book friends, but I have been considering a Malory Towers reread after watching the TV show on iPlayer.

Leverage is a lot cleverer than I realised in the first watch. And I dislike Nate a lot more than I remember *eye roll*

I really, really need my holiday time. REALLY. Don't let me get talked into putting it off, okay?

[writerlibrarian]

I watched both. The Untamed first. I so love it. I dove into fanfic only after I watched it. I recommend doing that strongly for both shows. Guardian took me longer to get hooked because it has more tropes, very classic tropes then The Untamed but it won me over.

I'm watching Joy of life right now which got me 3 minutes in because... it opens inside... Tianjin Binhai Library. I watched 5 episodes in a row. Can’t wait for the week-end to get here to get back to it.

[selenay]

I love tropes, which may be why Guardian is working so well for me. I'm looking forward to The Untamed. And I'm trying to be very good about not hitting fanfic until I've finished (except for the odd one that gets rec'd and doesn't have spoilers past where I'm up to).

Heh, a friend has been watching Joy of Life so I might be adding that to my list.

[umadoshi]

I'm so happy that you're watching Guardian! *^^* (And I also love The Untamed and hope you do too, when you get there. But Guardian is a story of my heart.)

[selenay]

:D I guessed from your icon that you might be a bit adoring Guardian! It's been ages since I felt fannish about something and Guardian has definitely done that to me. Just watched episode 31 so I suspect I'll be watching the final episodes next week.

[umadoshi]

I guessed from your icon that you might be a bit adoring Guardian!

*g* I have soooo many Guardian icons uploaded right now. (Almost fifty, looks like, plus a few of the actors.)

It's been ages since I felt fannish about something and Guardian has definitely done that to me.

That makes me so happy! And the fandom is really lovely. *^^*

[nic]

We are all fandom olds here on DW! ;)

Re: Xena - I was thinking about that the other day and remembered that I never watched the final episode. And given what I know about it, I never intend to either, because it was SUCH A FUN SHOW and that's what I want to remember.

[selenay]

Yeah, I've never seen the final episode and I'm conflicted about whether I want to. But my rewatch group won't be getting there for 2.5 years so I've got time to decide. It's such a fun show, but even in season 1 it goes into some deep and dark places. I'd forgotten that it did that so early. It's really fun, obviously, but the good episodes are so well done!

[nic]

I guess I have blocked out the darker episodes from my memory! (Not surprising, because that's not my favourite thing.)

[katlinel]

I hear you on rereading. I have managed some new reads but there's been a lot more rereads, and I've bounced off some things that I might have given more of a chance in other circumstances.

What did you think of the Malory Towers series?

[selenay]

I really enjoyed it. I felt like they retained the things that were charming and lovely about it, which I appreciated, and added a depth that Blyton couldn't do at that time? And the way the updated certain elements--such as adding a much more diverse cast--was lovely and blended in really well. I'm hoping they do a second series, because watching episodes on bad days was my happy place during some of the harder parts of the lockdown. And I want more!

One of the things I really appreciated was giving characters like Mary Lou more depth and letting her grow. I even felt sympathy for Gwen at times, although I'm glad they didn't try to turn her into a good girl her because it would be too sweetness and light if they did. And the girl playing Darryl was excellent--she seemed to understand that although Darryl is essentially good and trying to do the right thing, that doesn't mean she's always sugary and nice and she didn't try to play her that way.

I have many happy and positive feelings about the Malory Towers series :)