LJ Problems, DW Codes, WonderCon Notes

[rebcake]

Apparently, I have eleven DreamWidth codes for people who'd like to join up, which is looking better by the hour, is it not? Just drop me a comment, and I'll set you up.

I am up to my neck in RL and seasonal_spuffy  prep, so my commenting is way down. Please forgive me. I will catch up. Probably.

I still made time for WonderCon last weekend, which is in my fair city (San Francisco) and which has become McDiva's annual birthday bash, although its date drifts farther away from her actual birthday every year. Here are some highlights:

• McDiva and friends continue to be awesome.

• At the Dark Horse panel, there was some interesting news about what's coming up in the Whedonverse, most of which interested parties have probably already heard. The real news, to me, was that there were very few audience members on hand, and so few questions about what's coming up in Buffy Season 9 that they cut the panel short by 20 minutes. I've never seen a panel go short in 25 years of con-going.

• The Doctor Who panel with Neil Gaiman and Mark Sheppard was...bliss. Something about smart, creative Brits of either gender really does it for me. Tsk. (Last year it was Jane Goldman, remember.) Plus we got neato tee shirts! And it looks like Nixon is going to be getting into a spot of trouble with the Doctor in the next season, and who doesn't like that scenario? Just a couple more weeks, folks. Oh! They showed a clip of the Gaiman episode (#4) and it looks very Gaiman-ish, with twisted-up creepy raggedy out-of-time people. Interesting how a writer can put his stamp on the art direction, eh? He mentioned that his episode was supposed to be in the first season, but they ran out of money and so they did The Lodger instead. I'm very glad they did The Lodger, and I'm sure his ep, The Doctor's Wife, will be worth the wait.

• I wasn't able to formulate a question at the Dark Horse panel on Friday, but by Sunday I had one! I was then able to talk at some length with Sierra Hahn, who will be co-editing S9, and who is a sweetie who has always been an absolute darling when I've been by the DH offices with MiAmor. I'm afraid I took up rather a lot of her time, poor thing. We had various things to talk about, not all Buffy-related, but I did finally ask her if there would be more of an emphasis on what is motivating the characters in the next season. This lead to a rather surprising and detailed unprompted apology for how S8 "failed". (Please do not link this to anybody who would give Sierra a hard time. I am not a journalist and this was a casual conversation.) I was somewhat reassured that the professionals working on the book (at least the Sierra-shaped ones) are keenly aware that there were problems with the narrative, and are taking steps to do things differently. However, the writer's summit for S9 has already taken place at Joss' house, and I get the feeling that it's been "broken" into outlines already. I doubt my yammering about "motivation" will have any real impact, but I feel better knowing that at least one of the editors might think about it for an extra second when a script comes across her desk. Maybe I'll drop her a line, thanking her (again) for taking the time to listen.

• The Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog sing-along closed out the show, and seeing it on the big screen brought me to tears like it hasn't since it was fresh. You'll be happy to hear that instead of people calling out, "Shut up, Dawn!" there were cries of, "Damn you, Joss!" A couple of McDiva's friends hadn't seen it before, and one boy had his face buried in his hands during the sad parts. Awwww.

Fun was had, friends were visited with, loot was collected. A new phrase was bandied about: Nerd p'own, which means to get cool stuff (like the Doctor Who shirts) that other nerds do not have. Booyah, apparently.

Now, to get the much longer Gallifrey One Con report up...

Comments

[zanthinegirl]

That sounds like so much fun! I had a great time at the emerald city comic con last month, I'd forgotten how much fun a con can be. So going to more!

And very, very jealous of the DW panel. Neil Gaimen!

[rebcake]

It was nice, though when I went down there on Saturday with the kids, I pretty much turned right around and went home. Too much...IDEK...humanity, maybe? Friday was fine, and Sunday was great. I guess I just need to pace myself at these things. The Doctor Who panel was pretty much the centerpiece for our crowd, though I also ended up having a great time just admiring Lois Lane comic covers with some nice young women that were digging through the boxes with me. You never know what's going to be a bright spot!

[shapinglight]

Very interesting and glad you had fun. I'm also glad someone managed to get across to one of the DH editors that some fans were, let's say, not that thrilled by aspects of season 8. Whether it'll make any difference (ie. whether they've really grasped what it was the fans didn't like) is another matter.

[rebcake]

Yeah, I think they're keenly aware that fans were unhappy. Of course, different fans are unhappy for different reasons. I was trying to frame my unhappiness as a suggestion, rather than a complaint. I mean, there are so many things that "happened" in the story that were lame and can't be undone (another thing Sierra was a bit hangdog about...it's done, there's nothing we can do to change it). And really, I probably could have accepted any number of them, if I just had a bloody clue about why character X would want to do Y. That's something they can do something about in S9, even if Buffy can't unfrak Angel, and Angel can't unkill Giles. It's the why for things that give them their emotional impact, and we didn't get that in S8.

The f'ed-up thing is that just by having that conversation with Sierra, I now feel invested again. Shoot.

[shapinglight]

The f'ed-up thing is that just by having that conversation with Sierra, I now feel invested again. Shoot.

I know what you mean. I would like so much to become completely indifferent to this comic and remove it from my personal canon, but while Joss is involved I'm finding that impossible.

Now I'm mentally rolling my eyes in advance of whatever lameass excuse they come up with to explain Angel's actions.

[rebcake]

I'm not positive that we'll ever get an explanation for why Angel did the Twilight thing. I'm just hoping that we'll get some sort of idea of his reasons for what he does in the coming season.

Though I'm more interested in why practically every other character does what they do. Angel being a deluded, power-hungry idiot never seemed like much of a stretch to me. I don't understand why he turned his back on Connor, et al, and I don't understand how anybody in government would give him the slightest credence. But other than that...

[beer_good_foamy]

it's done, there's nothing we can do to change it

Can't they just say that Michael the Warlock from "Gingerbread" was watching and had 4 seconds in which to undo the last 20 issues? :)

[rebcake]

Hee! Well, I'm a fan of the "imaginary story" from way back. Remember all those Silver Age DC comics, where the best stuff would happen, but then it was all "imaginary"? (Not canon, I guess.) Why not go that route with a bunch of the crappy stuff? It was Bizarro Buffy & Angel! It's a parallel dimension! It's a wacky Broadway nightmare! Like Spiderman!

Oh, so many ways to undo it! Stab it with its own weapon...as if it were a mystical bear.

[slaymesoftly]

Sounds like great fun and some awesome guests. I'm glad you had a good time.

[rebcake]

I paced myself, and also there seemed to be less "stuff" this time around. I mean, last year we had the actual premiere of S5 Doctor Who, as well as lots of upcoming movie panels. The programming was thinner this year, but that was fine with me, because I have less stamina!