(no subject)

I started reading a long fic and on the first page it has already lost me. It has UNIT doing a review of Torchwood personnel after a security incident. And I just can't see it. UNIT is not the boss of Torchwood. They've got different goals, answer to different people, do different things. Important differences. Not just local vs national like feds and cops. Nationalism vs internationalism, empire vs united nations, was the old divide, when Torchwood One were around. Jack is unlikely to have that problem, but Jack was busy being his own boss. Yeah, he worked with Martha once she was UNIT, and he got Tosh out of UNIT custody, and there were reports for UNIT. That doesn't mean he'd let UNIT be the boss of him. After more than a century of being used I don't think Jack is keen on the whole 'boss of him' concept. And as for letting some outsider pass judgement on his people? No. Just... can't see it. UNIT would try, Jack would stop them, and it would be business as usual on both sides.

Torchwood also don't need UNIT prisons. They've got their own.

And having outsiders do the debrief, aside from being contrary to the whole culture of secrecy, leaves out the tension and awkwardness within the team that was the major fallout of that incident. He should have to explain everything in detail to people he'll face every day, not abstractly to strangers. More dramatic.

Then there's the thing where straw men undermine both sides of the drama. If you want to make the good guys look good - strong, sympathetic, all that - you have to make the bad guys look good too. Have both sides of an argument have an understandable point of view, and have your preferred side either win anyway, or lose with devastating consequences. That's what happened in Cyberwoman, and it made Ianto look great. Invent some sneering villain who can't understand why Ianto did it and you've not really added anything. Haven't made our guys look good. They're stronger than the empty guy; we knew that already.

This is the problem with character bashing too. Making Gwen the hated character look bad by giving them the stupid and mean and wrong and showing only those parts of their character you dislike doesn't prove a whole hell of a lot. Making them look bad by making them look like themselves and then playing out consequences of badness, that works a lot better, and pisses off less of the audience.



I should do more writing.

I should do any fiction writing.

But instead I read the instructions.

Merlin

My recorder box remembered this. I only just watched it. Which is pretty quick, for me.

... what was that about then?

I can't see how it plays with or against or around with the legends it pulls names from. It's like the high school AU of Arthurian legend. Nameless baddies, no proper politics, and the relationships between the teened protagonists being the bulk of what we learn here.

This is not a form of fanfic I've ever sought out.

So it has flattened out age differences and pushed context into the background. Okay. Now why are we supposed to care about these people?

It seems to be relying on the names for that. Poor form.

And what was the conflict here? Merlin wants to use magic, Uther wants nobody to use magic. Okay. But... why? ( Read more... )