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Details, details
Most of my friends who know me well know that I am canon girl. I prefer to write within the universe of whatever fandom I'm in, and only veer away from it in terms of small what-if scenarios that fanfic provides. A lot of people call any what-if scenario AUs, but I don't, really, since fanfic is primarily about writing around the known universe. I've done a couple of what do seem to be more intensive what-if AUs (Somniloquy and Assumption are probably the two biggest, just in terms of how far I took the essential story and characters); most of the rest of the time, I try to squeeze what I can in between something that's already there, or tweak things around so that it's canon plus.
But the details of the universe? Those are canonical. Buffy is never gonna be called Elizabeth in my fic. Chris wears a black hat and duster, and Vin wears a cavalry hat and carries a sawn-off rifle; no one ever calls Ezra "Ez." Mulder, Scully, and Skinner work for the FBI and solve paranormal cases, not do criminal profiling and catching generic run of the mill serial killers.
So for little miss follow-the-details, F&F is an insane-making fandom. The details are all missing. Or corrupted. Stuff that is making me crazy:
1. No one outside of the main characters and for some reason, the Trans (Nguyens), have full names. Everyone is either known by their last names (Tanner, Bilkins) or first names (all of Dom's team, Hector, Edwin, and so on). Grrrr. Characters in fiction are often helped in definition by names -- it's one of the more important aspects of creating original characters. Yet almost no one has full names here.
2. Brian has a name that apparently can be spelled however we want it to be spelled. In the original's subtitles and end credits, and IMDB listing, it's spelled O'Conner. Apparently, in 2F2F it's spelled O'Connor, the more traditional way. Most of fanfic has O'Connor, and I certainly assumed that was correct in the first two things I wrote. A little consistency -- is it too much to ask for?
3. Even the subtitlers get stuff wrong. Dom clearly says "Got that right" when he tells Jesse to take his make-out session upstairs, but the subtitles have it as "Can't even get that right", and so their ability to spell Brian's name correctly? I'm not so confident of. They have other high-larious goofs in there, too. Subtitles are often helpful in getting good background details, but these are annoying.
4. Why the freaking hell did I have to find out about the Baja tag by accident? This should be required information about the fandom. Better organization and mobilization is needed! I even checked with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
movies_michelle about this -- we always, always stay for end credts in theatres, in fact we were the only people who stayed for the alternate ending at 28 Days Later -- and we remember the five middle-aged guys in the theatre that day, we remember the credits, but we never saw this. The projectionist didn't keep the film running and we never saw this! I feel like I've been cheated all these years! I'm bitter, people.
5. Why aren't there places to go, I wonder, for canonical backround? If the movie became that big of a hit and has such cult status, how come there's no guide for fans? I find this weird. Most of my fandoms have such detailed resources, even poor ol' Mag 7, and yet there's nada for this. At least then we might fin out how to spell Brian's freaking name. ;-)
6. In doing research for ideas that I could rip off for my new fic, I watched some of my favorite old Miami Vice episodes. F&F's director, Rob Cohen, directed one of those eps, which was about... two different sets of guys (one set cops, one set stupid criminals) of unnaturally close status who work on busting a stolen electronics ring (all the high-end stuff at that time). I was deeply amused by this. Apparently he has one good story in him.
But the details of the universe? Those are canonical. Buffy is never gonna be called Elizabeth in my fic. Chris wears a black hat and duster, and Vin wears a cavalry hat and carries a sawn-off rifle; no one ever calls Ezra "Ez." Mulder, Scully, and Skinner work for the FBI and solve paranormal cases, not do criminal profiling and catching generic run of the mill serial killers.
So for little miss follow-the-details, F&F is an insane-making fandom. The details are all missing. Or corrupted. Stuff that is making me crazy:
1. No one outside of the main characters and for some reason, the Trans (Nguyens), have full names. Everyone is either known by their last names (Tanner, Bilkins) or first names (all of Dom's team, Hector, Edwin, and so on). Grrrr. Characters in fiction are often helped in definition by names -- it's one of the more important aspects of creating original characters. Yet almost no one has full names here.
2. Brian has a name that apparently can be spelled however we want it to be spelled. In the original's subtitles and end credits, and IMDB listing, it's spelled O'Conner. Apparently, in 2F2F it's spelled O'Connor, the more traditional way. Most of fanfic has O'Connor, and I certainly assumed that was correct in the first two things I wrote. A little consistency -- is it too much to ask for?
3. Even the subtitlers get stuff wrong. Dom clearly says "Got that right" when he tells Jesse to take his make-out session upstairs, but the subtitles have it as "Can't even get that right", and so their ability to spell Brian's name correctly? I'm not so confident of. They have other high-larious goofs in there, too. Subtitles are often helpful in getting good background details, but these are annoying.
4. Why the freaking hell did I have to find out about the Baja tag by accident? This should be required information about the fandom. Better organization and mobilization is needed! I even checked with
movies_michelle about this -- we always, always stay for end credts in theatres, in fact we were the only people who stayed for the alternate ending at 28 Days Later -- and we remember the five middle-aged guys in the theatre that day, we remember the credits, but we never saw this. The projectionist didn't keep the film running and we never saw this! I feel like I've been cheated all these years! I'm bitter, people.5. Why aren't there places to go, I wonder, for canonical backround? If the movie became that big of a hit and has such cult status, how come there's no guide for fans? I find this weird. Most of my fandoms have such detailed resources, even poor ol' Mag 7, and yet there's nada for this. At least then we might fin out how to spell Brian's freaking name. ;-)
6. In doing research for ideas that I could rip off for my new fic, I watched some of my favorite old Miami Vice episodes. F&F's director, Rob Cohen, directed one of those eps, which was about... two different sets of guys (one set cops, one set stupid criminals) of unnaturally close status who work on busting a stolen electronics ring (all the high-end stuff at that time). I was deeply amused by this. Apparently he has one good story in him.
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The Baja tag. How can this be? Is it on the dvd versions? Ack! I've got one version here, and I scoured it. Either it's not on this dvd or else I'm (typically) blind and should be bit by a snake...
The other crazy-making stuff you mention? So true!
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Haha! Two down, Gwyn.
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The Baja tag should be on all the DVDs -- apparently it was on the damn theatrical release except that they never bloody showed it in our theatre even if they showed it for everyone else in the world. Not that I'm, you know, even a little bitter about this. FF through the whole credits to the end, when you get the copyright date and studio logo. Right after that, there's a tiny little tag.
Also something I never noticed the first time I saw the sequel -- on one of the setups, there's a mini-movie about Brian's run to Miami after letting Dom go in the first movie.
OTOH, Christy pointed out to me that we're getting all these nuggets later in the game, so it's like keeping the new discovery feeling alive for a fandom that is essentially closed. So that's cool. When I'm not, you know, bitter. ;-)
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