Virtual Seasons and other common fanfiction related things

Wednesday, March 15, 2006 4:47 AM

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 accomplis

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