(no subject)

[avrelia]

There are a lot of things I want to talk about and write about but when I get to the computer and open a word processor, my mind is blank. And then I don’t have time and have to go and do stuff or other stuff…

Anyway. In the news: imperfect creators of beloved stories.

I woke to the news of the big letter against cancel culture and for freedom of speech, signed by JKR among others. And reading that and the news from Russia about another journalist/LGBTQ activist/... arrested on criminal charges for quietly drawing pictures, it’s like… Dear JKR, your freedom of speech is fine. Nobody can stop you from saying things that are harmful and offensive. Nobody is going to persecute you. You’ve lost some fans, which is really a drop in a sea. And people still will love and read your books, watch movies, buy stuffs…

Moving to Joss Whedon. I find it kind of funny that when Ray Fisher posted that tweet about Joss Whedon’s conduct at re-shooting Justice League was gross and unprofessional, nobody was particularly surprised, and nobody of the people who worked with him rushed to defend him (or I haven’t seen any?). I blame hubris. JW started to believe he is the genius and can do no wrong, so instead of moving with the times, he moved backwards.

I still love Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and believe a lot of it still and always be relevant. But as time goes by, I can see more and more flaws. Some were obvious from the beginning, some became more apparent two decades later. It’s kind of funny, since I am living now in California I can see how non-white California really is. When I was watching Buffy for the first time, California was an abstract place I knew by movies only, so it worked. Now – another story.

Moving on to the Avatar the Last Airbender. Because that’s what I do. There is a lot of drama involved. The story is created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko (together known in fandom as “Bryke” for short), but it is widely accepted that Aaron Ehasz was a genius writer who came up with everything good there (spoiler: he is not, but he did come up with a lot of points that made AtLA as good as it is). Bryke are often reviled for a lot of things, some of them are reasonable concerns, some are mindbogglingly weird – like that they needed a lot of creative input from others – writers, crew members, animators, and therefore were nothing by themselves. Whereas, it is exactly that creative freedom that the animation studio and the writers, and the rest enjoyed, and the way the Bryke were happy and excited to receive the input that improved on their story, that made Avatar the Last Airbender so good. And if those voices were more diverse, it could have been even better.

Anyway, now Aaron Ehasz creates his own animated series The Dragon Prince, and there are a lot of reports of him creating a really toxic working environment, harassing employees and generally establishing “my way or highway” type of atmosphere. Which… does not bode well for production.

In better news, I enjoy reading twitter of Lauren S Hissrich, the showrunner of the Witcher (https://twitter.com/Lhissrich). Her thoughts about writing process and diversity on the show are very refreshing.

Comments

[eglantiere]

oh man, nobody annoys me more than well-meaning, well-cushioned western people crying about their ~oppression~ and ~freedom of speech~ when they get pushback. like, i have some thoughts about cancel culture per se, and a lot of it is harmful, and a lot of it is just as reactionary as its opposite, but jkr, oppressed? cry me a goddamn river, oh my god.

[avrelia]

yeah, it's not JKR who can decry "cancel culture" and be taken seriously.