Re: Re: my rant - replies to Dan, Pedder

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Mudrat,

? On the issue of "abusive personal attacks" on the creators:  

Joss made himself an issue. He put his character, his motivations and
his emotions into play when he gave his excuse about how much he hated
killing Tara and how he felt the pain more deeply than all those
lesbians who had made her their hero and had drawn reassurance and
self-worth from the positive role model she was. He had gotten flak, he
made his excuses, and a good number of people on this list were all "oh,
yes, we see the light, you were right all along, Joss." I see nothing
wrong in giving the opposite opinion, namely "that's self-serving drek,
and you should be ashamed of yourself for trying to snow us this way,
Joss." He sought validation of himself, he got it from some people, he
didn't get it from me. Period.

? On why it's okay to "flame" BtVS writers when it isn't okay to do so
to fic writers, I can think of at least four reasons:

1) They get paid. The ficcer's reward is kind words and the
satisfaction of knowing they entertained the audience. Joss, Marti, et
al, take our money (through the advertising costs the sponsors pass onto
us) and are expected to deliver entertainment to us in return. If
hearing that the people who are paying for their Lexii are pissed
displeases them, too bad. If their feelings are hurt, they should do a
better job of pleasing the audience, since that's what they're paid to
do.

2) They're not actually reading this. Where feedback for fics is a way
to communicate your feelings to the author, discussing the series is a
way to communicate your feelings to your fellow fans; to know that you
are not alone in your likes and dislikes. If someone disagrees, that's
fine; I'm sure they've got people whom they communciate with (be it
here or elsewhere) who share their opinion. But to say that because I'm
angry I must be isolated is unfair. After all, listening to people
praise this year's crop of letdowns hurts me as much as reading about my
anger upsets those who think those same episodes gems. Actually, I'm
probably worse off, since I'm starting from an unhappy position to begin
with, and hearing somebody cheering on the thing that pains you is
doubly unpleasant.

3) Only the writing staff actually writes the series. If I write a bad
fic, it's just one of thousands being written. If Marti Noxon perverts
the show and has Willow skinning people alive, it makes Willow a
murderer now and forever. Her mistakes destroy the show; my mistakes
merely destroy my fics.

4) As guardians of canon, only the writing staff can affect the general
discussion. I write an anti-Spike fic, nothing changes. Marti writes
an ep where Buffy moons over the man who raped her (oh, I'm sorry,
"attempted rape", as they make sure to have everybody say. Because the
"attempted" part makes him a much nicer vampire) and all of a sudden all
the forums where the show is discussed are awash with people saying that
this proves she loves him. It's a double-whammy.

Tying into these last two points, only the writers have the ability to
ruin our enjoyment of past moments in the series. I was watching
"Gingerbread" when your post came in. Now that sweet, innocent scene
with Willow trying to get her mom's attention by claiming she worships
Satan isn't quite so enjoyable, is it? Yes, I can tell myself that it's
meant to be innocent, that it's only so funny because it's so patently
untrue and inconceivable that Willow could ever do anything truly evil,
but even if I manage to block Season Sh-er, Six, from my mind, I can
just imagine all the pathetic Willow-haters out there (anyone who is on
this list and hates Willow is violating the rules, so don't get huffy
that I insulted you) going, "See! See! She was evil even then! Man,
Joss is a God! He made Our Heroic Spike! Hail Joss!", and let me
tell you, picturing that doesn't make things **more** enjoyable, that's
for sure.

? On we should just be grateful that they make the series:

Dude, it's their job. If they weren't making this, they'd be making
"Firefly" or something else. I'm grateful when they entertain me, not
grateful when they don't, and pissed off when they, well, piss me off.
That seems to be a proper reaction scale, to my mind.

? On they're not trying to be anti-gay:

I never said they were. But if they're conforming to anti-gay
stereotypes, and unwittingly giving homophobes more fuel for the fire, I
can understand people being upset about that. Particularly if they'd
invested in the series as a source of hope and comfort. (Again, not
specifically about Willow, Tara, or their relationship, but as a place
for positive portrayal of some sort. Not one dead, one
evil-but-soon-to-be-saved-by-a-good-MAN, and let's all laugh at Andrew
the pathetic sissy boy.)

And since Joss and co. have been priding themselves on their promoting
positive gay images, they should be sensitive to their promotion of
negative gay images, too. And Joss really shouldn't be smarming about
how he feels more pain than the lesbian community over Tara, because
that seemed very dismissive of him.

? On gays not wanting to be solely identified as such:

I'm sure that's true, and I'm glad you're out and proud and unoffended
by the arc. But I seem to catch an implication that I can't really know
what it's like because I myself am not gay. Well, I'm not, but I only
wrote the post after much deep consideration of the sentiments expressed
on the Kitten board, which included many women who were both gay and
angry. So I know that this is an issue that some gay people have, and I
sympathize. The fact that you are a gay person with a different
perspective doesn't change things; I'm pretty sure no one presumed or
implied that there was total unanimity on this (or any other) issue in
the gay (or any other) community.

Oy, that's an essay. And people wonder why I don't write fics more
often...

Oh, about that. (And why were you reading it on Lindsay's list, anyway?
Don't you love us? *sniff, sniff, sob* [j/k, I love Lindsay and her
list]) "Straight Through the Heart" fell victim when I stopped ficcing
for a while, and now I'm trying to work my way back to fic by
concentrating on smaller pieces. But I do want to get back to it, one
day; stopping just before I shifted the focus to Faith and Cordy was
convenient, but unfair to the readers on the F/C-centric lists.

I did put clickable links in the archiving section at least once, but
nowadays I don't seem to be able to click on links in HTML, so let me
give you a couple of places where it's archived.

Cordyslash:
http://www.dymphna.net/cordyslash/fanfiction/straightthroughtheheart.html

Disco Inferno:
http://www.femininechaos.co.uk/discoinferno/fics/straightthroughheart.html

Dark Moon Subtext:
http://skiwoofe.tripod.com/straightthroughtheheart.htm

Since I'm actually talking about this fic, let me mention some of the
stupid errors that crept in. Contrary to what I wrote, Watchers DO
have families (Giles is a third-generation Watcher, at least), Willow
DID tell Buffy that Angel was in her room in "Lie to Me" and Buffy took
French, not Spanish. Also the rating in the sex scene is a pretty hard
"R". It's not really an NC-17 fic, but I'm kind of close, which wasn't
quite the original intent.

But the biggest "mea culpa" goes out over the "pinky swear" scene in
chapter 9, which is a blatant steal from Kirayoshi's "On Occasion,
chapter 1". I read it, forgot that was in there, and unconsciously
copied it. Just a godawful mistake, and if I ever have years of time
and a sense of motivation previously unglimpsed, I'll fix all that. As
it is, just tons of apologies all around.

Is that all? It's 5:15 am, that better be all.

Dan

tired now.