vilakins | 30 Days Of Fan Fiction: Day 13

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30 Days Of Fan Fiction: Day 13

13 – Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write? Has writing fanfic for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material?

I prefer to stay with canon unless I'm writing an AU, but anyway I assume that fanon is merely adding to canon so I can pick and choose what I want to use (like Vila being a vegetarian: yes, Avon loving ice cream: yes, Avon being allergic to half the substances in the universe: no). I do also like to create my own fanon like Vila's mother Jandy and Soolin's sister Ilka.

I'm not sure if writing has ever changed my opinion of a fandom, but I can certainly interpret what's on the screen or page in different ways. I've had a lot of fun in b7friday doing that.

Rest of the questions

14 – Ratings: how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever written higher? If you're comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the story you're writing is G-rated instead?

15 – What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what's the strangest thing you've warned for in a fic?

16 – Summaries: do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?

17 – Titles: are they the bane of your existence, or the easiest part of the fic? Also, if you do chaptered fic, do you give each chapter a title, or not?

18 – Where do you get the most inspiration or ideas for your fics?

19 – When you have plot ideas, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use?

20 – Do you ever get ideas from other people's stories or art in the same fandom?

21 – Have you ever written a sequel to a fic you wrote, and if so, why? If not, how do you feel about sequels?

22 – Have you ever participated in a fest, ficathon, or a Big Bang? If so, write about your favourite experience in relation to one. If not, are there any you've thought about doing? And if not, why not?

23 – When you post, where do you post to? Just your journal? Just an archive? Your own personal site?

24 – How many betas do you like to use to make sure there aren't any major flaws in your fic? Do you have a beta horror story or dream story?

25 – Do you listen to music while you write? Do you make playlists to get into a certain "mood" to write your fic? Do you need noise in general? Or do you need it completely quiet?

26 – What is the oddest (or most fun) thing you've had to research for a fic?

27 – Where is your favourite place to write, and do you write by hand or on the computer?

28 – Have you ever collaborated with anyone else, whether writing together, or having an artist work on a piece about your fic?

29 – What is your current project or projects?

30 – Do you have a favourite fic you've written? What makes it your favourite? And don't forget to give us a link!

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Well, both Vila's vegetarianism and Avon's ice-cream fondness have at least a minimal foundation in canon. To my knowledge, Avon being allergic to stuff does not. ;-)

I find the idea of fanon in a collective sense (rather than multiple personal ones) a little baffling. What's the point to it? Still, some of these non-canonical ideas really seem amazingly pervasive - like the one about Avon being an alpha-grade, to use an example that really stands out to me. I don't think I've read a single (non-AU/AR) fic that has made an alternative interpretation, even though it's definitely not a "canonical" fact in any way.

It's true that I heard someone said that *everything* I ever wrote in B7 was AU, but I wrote quite a few stories dependent on Avon's being a most resentful Grammar School Oik.

...or it may be that I have just missed/not read the ones that do. :-)

In any case, that's great - more diversity in character interpretations, yay!

Mind you, that'd depend on the Federation having some mechanism for educating the more talented of the Lower Orders, and they very possibly would rather leave them in the Lower Orders and shoot them or ship them to Ursa Prime or Cygnus Alpha if they cause too much trouble.

I think that the only main character's grade assignment to be stated specifically is Vila's Delta (...and HE says he bought it...) and the only other one I can remember is Coser's Beta grade. Servalan calls Jenna "a high-grade citizen". However, I have NO trouble believing that Blake is an Alpha even though it's not on the record.

Fans tend to be simply ga-ga about My Former Client--and the multiple allergies are just part of the Glamorous Suffering portfolio. However, if he were a RL dinner guest I can easily imagine him claiming all sorts of allergies just to make you work harder.

And he'd expect gourmet cooking at that.

Ah. So the allergies are a milder version of the Avon-torture I've come across. Kathy Hintze used to do the same to Vila. I admit to some hurt/comfort, nothing irreparable, myself.

he'd expect gourmet cooking

Isn’t that the same fanonical trope, essentially? :-) After all, I don’t think he ever shows a single “canon” inclination for luxury living during the entire series - unless ice-cream is a black-market luxury goods in the future, of course... Buying himself safety, or the notion of being “untouchable”, are the only official reasons he gives for his desire for money, as far as I’m aware.

OK, its one I decided on myself like Vila loving cheesy toast. It started as a joke and I liked it. Avon just likes living--and dressing--well, possibly because he's a Beta and compensating. :-D

Edited 2011-07-15 06:46 (UTC)

The idea that anyone (including himself) could find Avon's dress sense "classy" amuses me greatly. xD

Ah but he thinks it's dressing well! And maybe it is in that future; there are some pretty bad costumes on guest characters. :-)

True, they all dress pretty outrageously at one point or another. I suspect Avon just seems the weirdest since his ridiculous outfits clash so badly with that otherwise reserved personality and attempts at a dignified manner. :-)

Basically, he got into trouble in the first place by trying to nick enough money to support Anna in the style she was accustomed, but I don't think he would puritanically decline to sit on the posh furniture or would insist on eating scarce rations in the servants' quarters himself...and it's possible that he wanted the money from Gambit just for Silas Marner-style miserly gloating, but I really think he wanted to be able to spend it!

I totally agree! Yes, money is power if you have enough of it, but he'd enjoy the finer things in life. Blake OTOH despite growing up with them wouldn't be that interested.

Ah, but the fine thing about spending money is that you can choose what to spend it on, according to what your idea of luxury living is. The guy's a geek. Going by what the "canon" tells us about his interests, there seems to be far more evidence that he'd invest in all those fancy computer components he'd always wanted, rather than suddenly developing a taste for gourmet food that he's never visibly displayed before.

Not saying I think he couldn't or shouldn't be read like that if it makes sense to you. Just challenging the cliché that it is something that necessarily follows when someone expresses an interest (not terribly original at that) in getting rich.

I’ve been thinking quite a bit of these things recently, having got caught up in the background-scenes of a fic of my own (unlikely to be finished, but still), and to me it makes sense that each grade would receive education on a kind of general need to know level, according to the tasks that persons of their class are expected to perform in the Federation society. Assuming that the Alpha grades don’t get to do all the more complex jobs (which seems unlikely), that means that at least the Beta grades would have the chance of a higher (if likely censored) education. In Avon’s case specifically, I suspect that his scientific curiosity in combination with his hacker skills probably could have given him an extensive "education" as well, quite regardless of whether he was meant to have it or not.

Actually, it is on record that Blake is an Alpha grade – or at least that Vila believes that he is:

(From Shadow)

CALLY: Blake has led a sheltered life!?
VILA: Look, he was an Alpha grade on Earth. A highly privileged group, the Alphas. Wouldn't last five minutes among the Delta service grades where I grew up.

...But I agree with you that he would really fit the part, regardless – certainly much more than Avon does.

Thanks, I forgot that one!

*I* think that Avon started wearing leather trousers when he realized that Blake never pulls his trousers up at the knees and Avon can't stop himself from trying to save the crease on his own trousers unless they're leather.

I just think of the Alphas as being aristocrats--they're in charge of everything, but nobody actually thinks they have a brain cell among the pack of them. And they look down on science even if they're smart enough to understand it. And the last thing the Federation is, is a meritocracy. They're perfectly chuffed to have hidebound, ignorant, stupid people in charge of everything.

I could subscribe to that*. But then, all the more reason to (carefully) educate the ones who actually do the real work.

*Well, to the aristocrat part anyway. Not necessarily to the leather trousers bit. ;-)

This *is* an AU, but has a bit to say about the Avon family history:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/219232

Indeed, I had not read that one - but I very much enjoyed reading it now!

Yes, AU or not, I feel that is an a lot more believable childhood scenario than most others that I have read.

And they work well! He does seem as if he's compensating for something like that. My personal fanon is that he's a Beta and that would tie in with grammar school, being well above comprehensives. He's a silver anorak rather than Alpha to me. ;-)

I rather like building up backgrounds for characters even when I only tell a little of them, like Vila's experiences on a penal colony at 14 and Soolin's on the run after her parents died.

True about the foundations like Vila's joke about not wanting an Avon bacon sandwich. There are some ideas hat are really pervasive though like the allergy one and random penguins appearing and I have no idea where they came from. An early and influential fic perhaps?

I had him as a Beta, promoted to Alpha, and man, did I get flamed on a mailing list for the temerity. So it remains in an essay on my site and I included it in the first story in Lynx. There's basis for it too: Avon's comment that everyone had the same chance as him in Space Fall.

Hmm, penguins seem to be a common feature of the Drake's Venture fandom, referring I think to the fact that they might have been present at the Patagonian beach where the historical Thomas Doughty (played by PD in the film) was executed... Perhaps they are a crossover reference?

I remember that essay (you linked me to it when we were discussing it on the rewatch), and I think you make some very good points. I agree it makes the most sense that he might be a Beta, though I don't see any reason why he might not still be, during the series. While I agree that promotion between grades would likely be possible, I doubt Avon would have been chosen for that, given his attitudes with authority.

I really should read your Lynx series. It’s just that I find PGP stories a little difficult to get started on; I tend to get depressed by them. Sorry about that.

Speaking of depressing:

did I get flamed on a mailing list for the temerity

Well! That explains the persistence of a collective fanon then, if alternative ideas are punished like that. Perhaps it's just as well that I can't seem to finish my stories! o_O

...I think I'm actually quite upset now.

Penguins did feature on a beach in DV, but I think their popularity in some corners of B7 influenced DV too. Not that I've read it but I know a lot of b7 people are into it too.

True, if Alphas are management; Avon's not good at that at all. However people who are good at what they do are often promoted into areas of incompetence. I could well believe however that Avon's still a Beta.

But PGP's are optimistic! There's life and hope after all (though I admit I don't always have all of them survive).

And don't be upset. It was one mailing list (and not one of the two main B7 ones) which was divided between Blake and Avon fans who got pretty acrimonious at times. Apart from the Avon faction there, only one certain Avon fan didn't like the idea. No one else has commented. Don't be shy about publishing ever - B7 needs more writers!

And I just sent your story to be betaed. :-)

But would the Federation knowingly promote someone that might be a security risk (as open subordination surely would be in a society like that)?

Partly it has to do with me not wanting S4 to have happened at all, I suppose. (merely the existence of that season is depressing) Also, many of the PGP's I've read seem to focus too much for my taste on punishing Avon, making him "repent" and say he's sorry in one way or another - and somehow that just seems wrong to me. I'm not saying that shooting Blake was right, but Avon really does try very hard to make things right throughout the last seasons; it's not really his fault that everything he touches winds up in disaster, and that by the end he's so damaged by it that I find it hard to hold him responsible for his actions. The act in itself surely is enough punishment enough; continuing to torture him about it just seems unnecessarily cruel. (the events of Orbit is another matter; and of course I believe that Vila could have and deserves a hopeful future.)

*is reassured* All right, I'll try not to let it bother me. :-)

Oooh, STORY!!! :-D

merely the existence of that season is depressing

I totally agree. I don't know why some actually prefer it to earlier ones. I wrote PGPs to make up for it. There are some depressing PGPs out there though, ones in which e.g. only Avon survives only to be executed and similar. I'd rather not read those.

I have to say that PGPs that get Avon to be sorry / apologise are outnumbered (in my experience anyway) by those in which all the other rally round to support him in his trauma. And I can't swallow that. If I'd been through all that and seen Avon gun Blake down, I'd just leave, though frankly I'd have gone long before that.

those in which all the other rally round to support him in his trauma

Ugh, that would be quite as bad, yes. I think if he survived, he'd no longer be leader at least. The only PGP idea for a story that I've had myself was one in which Vila and Avon basically trade roles: Vila becomes the leader while Avon tags along being useful, foregoing all the important decision making.

...But I still think it's kinder to have him put down before that point... :-P

I'd read that!

I've read an AU in which Avon abdicated and left it all to Vila in season 3. Nice idea but I can't see Vila going for it; he likes to avoid responsibility unless there's no choice (like when he took over in Terminal and in Gold). However I could well see Vila taking over PGP if Avon was sufficiently broken.

It'd have to be out of necessity, yes, but he's definitely got it in him.

At the moment I'm being caught up in some background childhood thingy, which is why I'm very much into thinking about the grading system etc right now. But perhaps I'll give it a go if/when that falls flat. (Though if I managed to write that one I suppose I would have to start reading other peoples PGP's again, or feel a complete hypocrite...:-)

You're safe with me: mine always end hopefully, the longer ones anyway. I was more experimental with b7friday.

(Post-Andromedan War) You guys have got me thinking...I spent part of this morning thinking about a really old unfinished story of mine, where after the Andromedan War, Jenna returns to the Liberator with Blake in tow, Aftermath sort of happens but a surviving Hal and Lauren end up on the Liberator (where Vila and Cally have been all along)...and so do Avon and Servalan. But eventually there's such an Atmosphere that Avon and Servalan decamp and start rebuilding their economic and political fortunes, while Blake & Co are cautiously willing to reach an accommodation with what's left of the Federation in return for significant reforms.

Write it! I'd really like to read that. Did Dayna join them as well?

Yes, she did--Freudian slip, because I don't like her much.

Naturally, without Gareth Thomas the BBC was short one Blake, but I honestly think he'd return to the Liberator, it was such an asset to The Cause. However, I also think that the whole experience would have shaken Blake up to the point that he would want to fill *all* the empty rooms with people who'd want to help reconstruct the Federation in the name of Truth, Justice, and Honest Men Being Able to Think and Speak. I'd never be able to keep track of a story with hordes of OCs!

I don't like her much either, though she and Tarrant mellowed a lot in S4. I've seen B7 fandom accused of racism when really it's just her personality. She started well but her bullying and sneering was very unattractive. People dislike Tarrant for much the same reasons.

The Mellanbys would all be assets though. I think that would work really well.

I was thinking of calling the story "Two Cooks in One Kitchen," because I suppose Jenna would like being able to get a full night's sleep occasionally, but she wouldn't want Tarrant bonding with *her* Zen!

She doesn't have to let him know it's an option! We saw Avon and Vila also fly the Liberator separately so I think the purpose was more to let Zen know their good intentions. Which I put into the story I'm about to post. :-) Anyway it seems that merely telling Zen their name and having them speak for voice recognition was enough, as in Power play I think it was?

Besides Tarrant might make Zen change his mind if he let Zen take a close look. He's still fairly Federation.

I bet that his insider knowledge of Space Command operations would protect him against various persons' desire to teleport him without coordinates...

It's been awhile since I saw PowerPlay, but I think the point there was to keep Zen from ordering the ship to attack Tarrant and/or Dayna, not to give them the kind of person-to-ship bond that Jenna has. I mean, there are plenty of people who wouldn't try to shoot you but who wouldn't marry (or shag) you either.

I agree it wasn't the Jenna-Zen bond, but it seems one doesn't need that to fly the ship.

Hmmm, considering that conflict is often thought necessary to story construction...I bet that Tarrant would Create if he didn't get full piloting privileges, not that the ship wouldn't go without them. And Blake would have to find a way to smooth the ruffled feathers.

He certainly would if someone told him about it or let it slip in his hearing. ;-)

I think the Random Penguin factor actually derives from SGA.

I was more likely to write non-GPs to find a fix-it so they never ended up in that mess (or ended up in a different one), but in an everybody survives!PGP I tend to think that Blake would (justifiably) be angry enough at Avon that they would seek their revolutionary destinies in separate Quadrants.

And I do think that losing the man you love so much would be sad, but, well, that'll teach you to shoot first and ask questions later.

more likely to write non-GPs to find a fix-it so they never ended up in that mess

Yup, that's my solution of choice as well. Though I generally have to try to change things before Star One in order to make it possible.

that they would seek their revolutionary destinies in separate Quadrants.

*nods* That outcome seems quite likely - and desirable, I think, for any sort of slightly happier ending. These two are the worst possible thing for each other, if they both live then they should be kept apart.

Don't know about that anger being necessarily justifiable, though. If you blunder right on despite several huge, blinking "BEWARE OF THE DOG" signs, and the dog in question furthermore is one that you used to habitually kick in the past - then are you really justified in being angry at it if it bites?

*shrugs* It's just so much about interpretation, when it comes to this show.

I don't know if it counts as a MarySue when a character in a story shares your opinion, but Deva certainly spoke for me when he said "Fuckwit stunt like that--it's a miracle no one shot him before that."

Certainly in my PGPs and non-GPs, Avon has Words with Blake. But if it's perforated!Blake he has Words with Avon too.

And in some versions he will be more justified, in some less. What I was trying to say, in slightly less cheesy terms, is merely that there are multiple ways of seeing this story, not that one is more true than the others.

Going back to where (I think?) this started, the reason why those "let's punish Avon some more!!!" PGP's depressed me was exactly because they seemed one-sided to me (which I very much doubt would be a problem in your stories). I think we may be arguing for the same thing, merely from opposite directions? :-)

I'm sorry if I misunderstand you. I fear it is something that I'm very good at. :-P

Fandom tends to show its undying love for a character by, f'rex, dragging ze upside-down through a fire swamp heavily infested by scorpions. But only after carefully establishing zir agonizing venom allergy. B7 has always been a very Avon-oriented fandom, so of course he gets to Suffer more than anybody else.

I used to point out to entropy_house that if Avon ever showed up, she was in big trouble and I wasn't, because I was the one who gave him the cashmere sweaters and good times, and *she* was the one who came up with all kinds of dreadful fates for him.

If it's any consolation to you, I've no interest in putting Avon through any gratuitous suffering - though I might have different ideas of what would make him happy. ;-) But since I think that they are all tragic characters to some extent, getting any one of them into a better place than where they are seems likely to have to deal with a little misery along the way, on way or another.

It's funny though...I agree this fandom is Avon-oriented (unsurprisingly, since he and Vila are the only ones to stay throughout, and the show itself likes to focus more on Avon than on Vila) but at least in the small fraction of it that I've explored so far I've noticed no particular preference in who gets the more hero-worship. (I think I may have mostly read newer stuff, so perhaps trends have changed recently?) When it comes to excessive rationalisations to explain someone's actions, I've noticed at least as much when it concerns Blake, and perhaps for Vila too, if compensating for the fact that he gets less fic overall (and presents us with far less upsetting ethics).

Sorting out the mechanisms behind why a character acts in a certain way is, at least for me, one of the reasons behind writing fanfic. But while doing that, particularly for a character that one likes, there is always the risk of getting fuzzy about the difference between reasons and excuses - as much so for the readers as for the authors, I suspect.

There are a lot of Vila-centric Old Skool fics in print zines, although not too many of them are available online.

I agree absolutely with your last paragraph!

I agree. I really can't buy all those easy forgiveness stories, and for that matter it's often harder to be forgiven.

Really? SGA? I'm sure the B7 penguins predated that by years. SGA started in 2004 and I've come across penguins in second-hand zines. I think someone said once it had something to do with Neil Faulkner.

Ah! Definitely an earlier citation.

I've even seen icons with penguins beside the TARDIS thought they may have some basis in canon . I'm not that up on DW.

DW gives you decades to choose from, so it's hard to determine which reference comes from which without knowing who was in the Tardis at the time...

Exactly. I don't know how people keep it straight, including all the books and audios.

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30 Days Of Fan Fiction: Day 13

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PAW

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Shaken Blake

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Shag Marry Shoot Liberator Style?

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