TAMNUMBER1'S BLOG

tamnumber1

Virtual Seasons and other common fanfiction related things
Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Well, I'm working on an essay for one of the topics I posted in my first blog (oh, and if anyone asks, no, these are not for school. The last community I joined, I wrote essays and posted them on the forum, then got chewed out because they sounded like assignments. So, just to make it clear, it's just that I'm a boring writer, not that I writer for teachers), but I thought I'd post a shorter piece about my thoughts on fan fiction in general, and the two virtual season projects in specific, and my favorite fanfiction writer in very specific.

First to say, I love the idea of many people collaborating to create extended and lasting additions to the 'verse, canonical or no (and having been part of no less than three fanfiction writing communities, though never having written myself, I know that canon is a tricky issue). As far as I know, there are two attempts to accomplish this: Firefly - The Virtual Seasons, and Virtual Firefly. Both have merit, and both are impressive.

"Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the storm"
Thus reads the tagline for The Virtual Seasons. Though I believe it's the newer of the two efforts, I found it first at Firefly Talk (yay!). It just got a review from The Signal, which is what actually prompted this blog thingy. Though the output is impressive, and their artwork stunning (I especially loved the parallel Simons in the teaser for the first episode, Angel Echoes), I'd have to say that my enthusiasm for this project has waned a bit. The episodes are well planned, and I really appreciated the goal of connecting the series to the film, but I feel the writing quality isn't the highest I've ever read in the fanfic world (which can be seen in their tagline, actually. Though the concept is nice, based on the last lines of the film, "but peace amid the storm" adds unnecessary parallels in a phrase too short to bear the weight of such a structure. It breaks the flow, makeing the line feel clunky and static. Can I write a better one? Not sure, but I think "Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace in its midst" sounds better to me). Also, this is something of a preferance thing, but the directions the producers are taking the sereis is darker and more unpleasent than I enjoy. Not to say that I dislike dark, but there is a limit. Examples of this are found in the second episode, Heart and Sole, which has major "sly" elements for no apparent reason. Other such things are Mal's drugged statement to Inara in the most recent episode "Mixed Nuts" (which has a great premise, by the way, and some wonderful heroic Simon) that he has no problem with her job, just with her having that job. Now, this may be so, but it's strictly speculative, and the way the statement is included in an offhand manner with no reference to the issues involved (see Shindig or Heart of Gold) is frustrating. A minor detail which has added to my problems is the way the writers seem to be a bit fast and loose inventing details - in five episodes, we've met Inara's mother and Kaylee's family (but more on the Kaylee's family thing later) [Oh, and sorry for all the paranthetical comments, I just don't know where to put all these things]{Sorry for using "thing" so much too}.
Firefly - The Virtual Season can be found at http://www.firefly-tvs.com/index.htm

"Here's how it might have been"
The tag for the other virtual project shows some of the differences between the two projects. First and most apparent, this series is written in script format, which is really intriguing, and handled well as far as I can tell. Though I don't like everything this series does either, I think it has a slight edge over TVS because of a few factors. First, it stays out of the morally grey and ambiguous statements which TVS makes relatively frequently. Second, the writing quality seems much better (especially in the area of characterization - see Book's "Here's my other cheek" line in the episode "Hero Complex" - I burst out laughing when I read it, it was so much like Book and the series). Third, it accomplishes a lot in the way of making Mal and the crew's life hard. In the seven episodes which fill out the original 15 to make a complete season, the crew is tortured by (and kill) Niska, meet Kaylee's family (yep, saw that one coming - more below), killed innocent bystanders in a deal which don't go smooth, sold the Lassiter (back to its original owner, no less), been chased by massive fleets, fought an old war demon, been hijacked by insane psychic slaves, and gone through the harrowing events of Those Left Behind. Though the show is far from perfect (I find the whole psychic slave thing kinda silly, and the Kaylee family thing, well, see below), the blackness which Mal is forced into feels very realistic after all that. However, all this darkness makes Virtual Firefly somewhat draining to read (I would finish an episode saying "It's so dark" to myself. Which I don't usually do. Saying things are dark, that is, not talking to myself. Which I do all the time). My favorite episode has to be Hero Complex, which develops Jayne, as well as showing all the crew be really big heros under the torture of our favorite russian-accented villain. Nice touches are Kaylee's struggle with the aftermath of Objects in Space, the use of the comics to make the last episode (with nice creative touches so it's not boring cut and paste), and the introduction of Haven.
Virtual Firefly can be found at http://stillflying.net/episodes.htm

As mentioned before, meeting Kaylee's family is a big theme in many fanfiction, not just the two virtual seasons. The idea is probably spurred on by the fact that Kaylee mentions her family in Objects in Space and Out of Gas and the pilot, so they obviously exist, and the fact that Simon seems the type to want to meet her father. I'm not completely happy with either virtual season's depiction - TVS is a bit too saccharine, and Virtual Firefly is just not terribly imaginitive (to give them credit, the story has many other very inventive and fun plotlines - can't fault it for not having the best Meet the Fryes section). However, my favorite fanfiction author wrote a piece which encompasses this common theme, and adds another - the reappearence of the Tam's. Though we see them in Safe once, they have become recurring characters in the fanfic 'verse, and are usually portrayed quite negatively. Harriet Vane, though, in Ties That Bind, captures a good blend of good and bad. Just what Safe caught, actually (in my opinion).
Ties That Bind can be found at http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1211992/1/
(I know it's also archived on this site, but the ordering is straighter on this link, and reading it all in a row is a bit easier, I think) [Note: the link doesn't work unless there's a "/" at the end, so if you click on it, you'll have to add a "/" to the URL in the Address bar - for some reason the link doesn't have the last "/" thingy when it posts]

Well, there's my long-winded thoughts on fanfic, the Virtual Seasons projects, and meeting parents in the 'verse. Bye for now!

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