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https://www.themarysue.com/watchmen-is-fanfic/
Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen, which will air it’s fourth episode tonight on HBO, is a fascinating, weird and extremely compelling show. It’s also straight up fanfiction. I don’t mean that as a knock. I mean it as a good thing and a great jumping off point to talk about how great fanfic is and how Watchmen is a perfect example of what transformative work can and should do.
Fanfic is a work created by a fan using existing characters. Watchmen unquestionably meets that simple criteria. It’s not just porn, though Watchmen did have us talking about a big, blue dildo days so that works too. It’s just a new work based on an old work, made by fans, often created without the original creator’s blessing.
Damon Lindelof is a fan of the original Watchmen comic. He’s spoken about how he was influenced by the comic in interviews and you can see its echoes in his series Lost and The Leftovers. Lindelof also shared with fans how much Watchmen meant to him growing up in a letter on instagram to fans that he shared when the series was announced.
In that letter, Lindelof acknowledges that he’s taking something revered and sacred and doing a “remix” of it. He acknowledges that true fans will feel that he has no right to do this but that he feels “compelled” to do so. It’s an admittedly wordy letter that echoes the language and themes of Watchmen and incorporates the themes of time, destiny and daddy issues that permeate Lindelof’s own oeuvre. It makes a good case that Lindelof should be “allowed” to make his show but for any fan that’s ever seen a “I don’t own these characters! Don’t like: don’t read!” disclaimer in front of a fic, it’s both familiar and unnecessary.
What Lindelof, along with his co-writers and producers, are doing with Watchmen is something intimately familiar to anyone that’s part of fandom. He was so defined and moved by the original graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, that he had to tell another story about these characters and add his own. The world Alan Moore created was so vast and fascinating he wanted to play in it. As a fanfic author myself, I know that feeling. There’s too much potential in the story to be contained in one work, so we have to make our own.
It’s actually a but funny to me that Lindelof went so out of his way to justify himself to the fans with that letter, and that he claimed: “We are not making a ‘sequel’ either. This story will be set in the world its creators painstakingly built.… But in the tradition of the work that inspired it, this new story must be original.” But the show is a sequel to the original story in the sense it takes place after it and catches up with the fates of most of the characters of that story. It’s canon-compliant fic with new characters. I’ve written things like that myself. And that’s fine. That’s what fans do. When we want more of a story, we simple create it ourselves no matter what other fans or the original authors thinks.
Lindelof is also up against another force that many fanfic authors and readers know all too well: the stinging disapproval of the original creator. Alan Moore notoriously hates adaptations of his work. He also hates the people that still own the rights. Moore has compared DC and Warner Brother’s treatment of his work to rape, and called the comic a “spent and exhausted carcass.” He hates that DC keeps the original in print because it keeps the rights from reverting back to him so he can keep the original pure and untouched.
Well, sorry, Alan, but fans will touch it no matter what and in this case. Once an idea is in the world, you lose control over it. In this case the fans making the fic happened to have the backing of Warner Media – the owners of DC and HBO, and so rather than posting to AO3, we got a big budget series made. Lindelof tired to show some deference to Moore’s attitude by calling himself a hypocrite for making his own Watchmen and even going to far as to call the act ‘unethical.’ But he doesn’t need to do that. There’s nothing unethical about loving a story and letting your own imagination take it to new places, no matter what Anne Rice or Alan Moore says.
Fanfic is about exploring all the different nooks and crannies of a story that a single author just can’t touch. As fanfic authors, we take the themes of a work and add our own experiences, baggage and issues to the original; tease them out, mix them up and create something new. The original Watchmen was about nuclear anxiety, propaganda, truth and much more. It was about state power and the impact of icons. This new version is about racism, police states, faith, time and identity and who knows what else. There are innumerable reference to the original but it charts its own course – just the way the best fanfic does.
One might argue that Watchmen can’t be fanfic because it contains new characters but…there’s a lot of fic that does that too. In fact, the habit of some fanfic writers inserting an extremely skilled, important woman into the existing world, and making the story about her is a well known fanfic trope that’s the namesake for a certain website you’re reading at this very moment. Yes, the good ol’ Mary Sue.
Mary Sues are not in and of themselves. All authors put themselves into stories. In some fic, Mary Sues serve the function of giving marginalized groups a place in an often predominately white and male narrative…exactly as Watchmen does with Angela Abar as played by Regina King. I’m not calling Angela a Mary Sue as an insult (this is THE Mary Sue after all). I’m acknowledging that she fits into a known fanfic pattern, much like most of Watchmen and I actually think that’s so cool and it makes me like the show more.
The series so far also grapples with themes of fandom itself: the power of stories and celebrity, the different ways people can interpret those stories and what the role of the “truth” is in all of this. We see television versions of the stories of the world. We see Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias, as played by Jeremy Irons writing his own fanfic version of past events (and killing off clones to act that fic out) and it’s all very meta and cool: fic about fiction within a fic. And those are themes I fully expect the series to continue to explore.
The next episode of Watchmen is entitled “If You Don’t Like My Story, Write Your Own,” which is exactly the phrase many fans have heard from creators of their favorite works before they did go off and do just that, often to the creators shock and horror. I’m interested to see how that attitude plays out in the series and who it will be who tried to take ownership of a story and who tries to make their own.
But hey, if I don’t like it, or you don’t like it…we can always tell our own story and it will be just as valid as this one.
(image: Mark Hill/HBO)
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—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen, which will air it’s fourth episode tonight on HBO, is a fascinating, weird and extremely compelling show. It’s also straight up fanfiction. I don’t mean that as a knock. I mean it as a good thing and a great jumping off point to talk about how great fanfic is and how Watchmen is a perfect example of what transformative work can and should do.
Fanfic is a work created by a fan using existing characters. Watchmen unquestionably meets that simple criteria. It’s not just porn, though Watchmen did have us talking about a big, blue dildo days so that works too. It’s just a new work based on an old work, made by fans, often created without the original creator’s blessing.
Damon Lindelof is a fan of the original Watchmen comic. He’s spoken about how he was influenced by the comic in interviews and you can see its echoes in his series Lost and The Leftovers. Lindelof also shared with fans how much Watchmen meant to him growing up in a letter on instagram to fans that he shared when the series was announced.
In that letter, Lindelof acknowledges that he’s taking something revered and sacred and doing a “remix” of it. He acknowledges that true fans will feel that he has no right to do this but that he feels “compelled” to do so. It’s an admittedly wordy letter that echoes the language and themes of Watchmen and incorporates the themes of time, destiny and daddy issues that permeate Lindelof’s own oeuvre. It makes a good case that Lindelof should be “allowed” to make his show but for any fan that’s ever seen a “I don’t own these characters! Don’t like: don’t read!” disclaimer in front of a fic, it’s both familiar and unnecessary.
What Lindelof, along with his co-writers and producers, are doing with Watchmen is something intimately familiar to anyone that’s part of fandom. He was so defined and moved by the original graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, that he had to tell another story about these characters and add his own. The world Alan Moore created was so vast and fascinating he wanted to play in it. As a fanfic author myself, I know that feeling. There’s too much potential in the story to be contained in one work, so we have to make our own.
It’s actually a but funny to me that Lindelof went so out of his way to justify himself to the fans with that letter, and that he claimed: “We are not making a ‘sequel’ either. This story will be set in the world its creators painstakingly built.… But in the tradition of the work that inspired it, this new story must be original.” But the show is a sequel to the original story in the sense it takes place after it and catches up with the fates of most of the characters of that story. It’s canon-compliant fic with new characters. I’ve written things like that myself. And that’s fine. That’s what fans do. When we want more of a story, we simple create it ourselves no matter what other fans or the original authors thinks.
Lindelof is also up against another force that many fanfic authors and readers know all too well: the stinging disapproval of the original creator. Alan Moore notoriously hates adaptations of his work. He also hates the people that still own the rights. Moore has compared DC and Warner Brother’s treatment of his work to rape, and called the comic a “spent and exhausted carcass.” He hates that DC keeps the original in print because it keeps the rights from reverting back to him so he can keep the original pure and untouched.
Well, sorry, Alan, but fans will touch it no matter what and in this case. Once an idea is in the world, you lose control over it. In this case the fans making the fic happened to have the backing of Warner Media – the owners of DC and HBO, and so rather than posting to AO3, we got a big budget series made. Lindelof tired to show some deference to Moore’s attitude by calling himself a hypocrite for making his own Watchmen and even going to far as to call the act ‘unethical.’ But he doesn’t need to do that. There’s nothing unethical about loving a story and letting your own imagination take it to new places, no matter what Anne Rice or Alan Moore says.
Fanfic is about exploring all the different nooks and crannies of a story that a single author just can’t touch. As fanfic authors, we take the themes of a work and add our own experiences, baggage and issues to the original; tease them out, mix them up and create something new. The original Watchmen was about nuclear anxiety, propaganda, truth and much more. It was about state power and the impact of icons. This new version is about racism, police states, faith, time and identity and who knows what else. There are innumerable reference to the original but it charts its own course – just the way the best fanfic does.
One might argue that Watchmen can’t be fanfic because it contains new characters but…there’s a lot of fic that does that too. In fact, the habit of some fanfic writers inserting an extremely skilled, important woman into the existing world, and making the story about her is a well known fanfic trope that’s the namesake for a certain website you’re reading at this very moment. Yes, the good ol’ Mary Sue.
Mary Sues are not in and of themselves. All authors put themselves into stories. In some fic, Mary Sues serve the function of giving marginalized groups a place in an often predominately white and male narrative…exactly as Watchmen does with Angela Abar as played by Regina King. I’m not calling Angela a Mary Sue as an insult (this is THE Mary Sue after all). I’m acknowledging that she fits into a known fanfic pattern, much like most of Watchmen and I actually think that’s so cool and it makes me like the show more.
The series so far also grapples with themes of fandom itself: the power of stories and celebrity, the different ways people can interpret those stories and what the role of the “truth” is in all of this. We see television versions of the stories of the world. We see Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias, as played by Jeremy Irons writing his own fanfic version of past events (and killing off clones to act that fic out) and it’s all very meta and cool: fic about fiction within a fic. And those are themes I fully expect the series to continue to explore.
The next episode of Watchmen is entitled “If You Don’t Like My Story, Write Your Own,” which is exactly the phrase many fans have heard from creators of their favorite works before they did go off and do just that, often to the creators shock and horror. I’m interested to see how that attitude plays out in the series and who it will be who tried to take ownership of a story and who tries to make their own.
But hey, if I don’t like it, or you don’t like it…we can always tell our own story and it will be just as valid as this one.
(image: Mark Hill/HBO)
Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!
—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
As the temperature dips and we’re reminded that fall is not just about fierce fashions but also cold weather, we have to make an extra effort to moisturize. Every inch of us, from the hair on our heads to our lips and skin need an additional dose of nourishment to deal with the whipping winds, or at least not another product that strips us of oils. With that in mind, we came up with a list of our favorite products, newer offerings on the market, that will keep you from drying out as we move through fall and get ready for another likely harsh winter.
Source: Gleamin / Gleamin
Gleamin Vitamin C Clay Mask
Any mask that comes with a brush is serious about your skincare experience. And any mask that’s as thick as Gleamin’s Vitamin C clay mask, is serious about helping to draw out your natural glow. The natural ingredients in the product help to do that, including yellow clay, aloe vera, turmeric, desert lime and more. They also help to fade out dark spots and hyperpigmentation and help your skin feel soft and look bright after using it.
Source: Ouidad / Ouidad
Ouidad Stylutions Line
The new Stylutions line is all about keeping you from having to deal with dry and frizzy curls, which is how even the best twist-out can feel on a chilly day. The “Curl Experts” pulled out all the stops for the three new products in the line, including the Going Up! Volumizing Texture Spray, Clean Sweep Moisturizing Dry Shampoo, and my personal favorite, the Revive & Shine Rejuvenating Dry Oil Mist. The latter is perfect for a ‘fro in need of a little shine and life on days two and three.
Source: Nivea / Nivea
Nivea Oil Infused Lotion
Perfect for the person who doesn’t want the greasiness of oils or butters but definitely doesn’t want dry hands (and feet) throughout the day, the new Nivea oil infused lotion line is for you. It comes in a few delicious scents, including vanilla with almond oil, coconut with monoi, and cherry blossom with jojoba. The lotion is fast absorbing while still providing nourishment to the skin.
Source: Urban Hydration / UH
Urban Hydration Acne & Inflammation Tea Tree & Olive Face Cleansing Oil
Makeup wipes are cool, but there is something luxurious about moisturizing your skin while simultaneously removing a fancy face at the end of the day. This particular cleansing oil from Urban Hydration naturally disinfects and is great for acne thanks to the tea tree, while also soothing and cleansing the skin due to the olive.
Source: Verb / Verb
Verb Curl Collection
This young brand has come out with a whole curl line that does everything from nourish to define curls to minimize frizz and repair damage. The Curl Cream is perhaps our favorite product of the line. While it looks simple enough, with its blend of Shea butter, coconut oil and sunflower seed extract, it reactivates curls and packs a surprisingly serious moisture punch.
Source: Dove / Dove
Dove Sensitive Skin Shower Foam
While we all love our body washes and soaps that leave us smelling like fruits and berries, they can sometimes also leave you feeling super ashy once your skin is no longer wet. Sometimes you need to keep it simple and make the priority nourishing your skin, rather than stripping it of what it needs and coating it with fragrances. Dove’s sulfate-free shower foam for sensitive skin cleanses gently while leaving you with smooth skin and a very light scent on the body.
Source: Glamsquad / Glamsquad
Glamsquad Take a Tint Tinted Lip Balm
There are plenty of awesome balms out there, but if you want a little color with your long-lasting moisture, we’re fans of Glamsquad’s Take a Tint lip balm. It comes in everything from a light rose color to a strong, but still sheer berry. Keep it cute and enriched all at the same time.
Source: Chi / Chi
Chi Aloe Vera with Agave Nectar Leave-In Conditioner
While Chi’s new Aloe Vera with Agave Leave-In does its best magic when it comes to dealing with humidity, its overall goal is to banish dryness and frizz. Put it on your hair, whether dry or damp, to prepare it for easier styling and a taming of your tendrils.
In case you aren’t aware, Disney is launching its very own streaming service on November 12 titled Disney+.
It will house all Disney content new and old in one central location. During the latest press launch, BGN got a chance to see a few episodes of the upcoming new short series, Forky Asks a Question. We also got to talk with the hilarious Tony Hale, who voices Forky.
It’s no surprise that Forky is headlining a new show on Disney+. He was a hit with kids and adults alike in his debut performance in Toy Story 4. The little plastic spork with pipe-cleaner arms and popsicle-stick feet is being made by children all over the world. Even Hale said he has made a Forky with some elementary school kids in Toronto. Forky is a fun contrast to the toys we know and love, like Woody and Buzz, and is the perfect character for this new show.
Forky Asks a Question is all about the craft project made from trash and all the questions he has about the world he now finds himself living in. He asks important questions like, “What is love? What is time?” And of course, the deepest question of all, “What is cheese?” (as Disney would have it). The fun thing about it is that kids will listen and learn new things from Forky because he comes with such a childlike personality. The episodes are literally three minutes long, so they are basically equal to a child’s attention span and just long enough for an adult to be distracted for a moment. The show is very charming.
Tony Hale was more than eager to find himself part of the Disney+ line up with Forky. “Pixar in general is such a creative playground,” he says, “but going into the film I saw the character and I was like, ‘Wow, that’s not what I expected.’ He’s so simply made, and he sees the world so simply.” Forky is the perfect character for television right now. Disney is known for producing fantastical positivity amidst the real negative. Hale said it best when he commented on how unbalanced the world is right now and why Forky is just the right person for the job.
“You know, the world is so chaotic,” he starts, “and there’s so much going on that having a character stand up and go, ‘What’s happening? What’s going on?’ — asking very simple questions, bringing it back to basics — it resonates with a lot of people.” The questions asked are done so beautifully; it’s a very funny script, even for adults. Hale talks about the very first episode title, “What Is Money?” “It’s very silly,” he says, “but then it has this sweet moment, in the end, talking about how it’s not about money, it’s about connection and friendship. Pixar is like art unfolding in front of you, and it’s just so beautifully done.”
Forky’s relationships with the other Toy Story characters is so genuine and pure that it is easy to imagine seeing different characters try to help Forky understand the answers to his questions. “They’re always just trying to be rational with him. Like, ‘No, Forky, it’s this, it’s that.’ He’s like, ‘Why?’” It’s very endearing. Forky is that hint of annoying but still cute, and you can see that come across with the rest of the toys. “The surprise is when you think it’s going one direction, and then, in the end, Forky almost has this philosopher in him,” says Hale. “You think it’s just quirky-funny and he’s like, ‘Nope, it’s not about money, it’s about, friends. Isn’t that right?’ and Ham is like, ‘Yeah, that’s right. That’s really smart, Forky.’ So he always gives this philosophical turn in the end.”
Forky Asks a Question is one of those shows that you just can’t help but love. “Forky is kind of a breath of fresh air where it’s nice to have his continued presence,” says Hale. It’s the simplicity we all crave, especially as an adult. “I think we’re missing that in our world today,” says Hale.
This show will no doubt continue the Toy Story legacy that highlights these wonderful characters. These toys are a group that goes through their own adventures and misfortunes, but they find a way to save each other each time. Forky has become family, and in return, they showcase patience and love, no matter how silly they think his questions are. Hale had a similar reflection. “To me it’s that real power of community. We’re not supposed to do this life alone; we’re supposed to do it with each other. They’ve always had each other’s backs, and we need to do that.” Hale continues by stating that we are always searching for independence and how powerful that can be. But what’s on the other side of that? “What’s wrong,” he starts, “with healthy dependence? What’s wrong with a group that really, in a healthy way, cares for each other and takes care of each other? That’s what we want to see. We want to see that journey.”
Forky will be teaching all of us soon — making us consider what it’s like to care and ask questions and not be judgmental about it. Yes, it’s a cartoon, but like all stories, there is an underlying purpose and necessity that needs to be broadcast to people. The first episode, “What Is Money?” will premiere on Disney+ on November 12.
The post Interview: Tony Hale, ‘Forky Asks a Question’ appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.