I keep banging on about season 8

[xtanitx]

And I'm really not sure why. Because it's a little schadenfreude-y, perhaps. In any case, I saw this bit of advice from sci-fi author A. Lee Martinez (via io9):

Just because you can write something, that doesn't mean you should. The burden of the novelologist is self-control. Not just the self-control to make yourself write at a reasonable pace, either. I'm talking about the ability to take a good idea and not use it. Movies and television have a natural control mechanism. They have budget and time constraints that make some things impractical. The original Star Wars films are infinitely better than the prequels, and it's not because of the writing (which has never been the movies' strong point). It's because the originals were made with a budget, without CGI. Just because someone could imagine it that didn't mean it could appear on screen. And that made the original Star Wars trilogy stronger versus the prequels, which are overindulgent, so crammed with visuals and ideas that none of them really get the time they deserve to get us invested.

Reword this a bit, like, replace "Star Wars" with "Buffy" and "CGI" with "badly drawn comic book 'art'" and I think then it would be great if someone could slip this to Joss. I hate that this comic book debacle has made me seriously question my Joss-love. A year ago I'd have been thrilled he was going to direct a big-budget Avengers movie. Now? Not so much thrilled and more with the trepidation.

I can think of a few instances where fan fic went down this kind of path to wtf-ery, too. Maybe they turned out all right in the end, I don't know. I bailed way before the end of those stories, too. Anyway.

Shorter post: What he said.

Comments

[eilowyn.livejournal.com]

It's definitely an issue of self-control. Just because you can turn Dawn into a centaur, doesn't mean you should. Just because you can have fucking in space doesn't mean you should. There are some tight character moments and relationships in the comics that could have been explored without unnecessary WTF-ery. If they had the limits of the TV medium, Dawn and Xander still could have happened, Buffy and Satsu still could have happened, Giles and Faith still could have happened, hell, Buffy and Angel's saccharine, "predestined" reunion could have happened - they just would have happened organically, without the mindfuck of plot devices that take the story out of the (relative) realism of the show and into the OTT limitless budget of the comic books.

[xtanitx.livejournal.com]

In keeping with the George Lucas parallel, it's been said time and again that he needed someone to just tell him NO while he was making the prequels. Being revered can have some deleterious side effects, and it looks like, for all Joss' aw shucks personality, he's heading down that path. Bummer! (And I desperately hope I'm wrong here.)

And really, you hit the nail on the head. If people willing to suspend disbelief week in and week out for vampires, witches, werewolves, and various other wacky, in-no-way-reality-based adventures are unwilling to choke down what's being served up now, well. . . that's lousy storytelling. I think Dawntaur is where my brain broke. How the rest of you are hanging in there I don't know.

(as an aside -- Wesley+Buttercup=To Blave !!! Love your icon. :D)

[eilowyn.livejournal.com]

Snark and penguins. The vices of people still reading the comics (actually I didn't really start paying much attention to them until the Twangel leak - I found that so poorly done that I had to see what all the outrage was about, but I got downloads because I wasn't necessarily sure I wanted to support Season 8 with my money. Glad I didn't).

(Oh, and thanks! Princess Bride is one of my all-time favorite movies!)

(P.S. - can I rec this to [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com]? She does lots of comics commentary/snarkage posts)

[xtanitx.livejournal.com]

Feel free to rec or link to this wherever. :)

Here's to a retcon season 9 because Joss realized what a horrible disservice he'd done to the characters and his fans. (Today I am in eternal optimist mode. Shouldn't last long. lol)

[infinitewhale.livejournal.com]

I think the retcon will come before S9. At this point, to me anyway, it really looks like they're headed for a reset button, only question is how far back they go. If this is all in Buffy's--or someone's--head, it explains the WTFery. But moreover, it explains the extreme unprofessionalism of them not telling AtS writers what they were doing.

It's also lazy as hell, which is right up their alley.

[xtanitx.livejournal.com]

omg, you mean Pam only dreamt Bobby was dead? (It seems oddly appropriate that that particular retcon invalidated the entire season 8 of that show! haha Seasons 8 are DOOMED.)

The laziness is insulting, and it makes me sad. I want to thank them for completely undervaluing the fan base. :\

[infinitewhale.livejournal.com]

Just my guess. It would explain a heck of a lot.

Whole thing has a big Roseanne final season feel to it.

I want to thank them for completely undervaluing the fan base.

Word. I wouldn't stop at undervaluing, I'd say in many ways S8 is antagonistic to the fanbase--and the attitude of the people at DH seem to back that up.

Ugh.

[aerintine.livejournal.com]

THIS.

[xtanitx.livejournal.com]

Seriously.