Challenge 9
Jan. 17th, 2020 08:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kendiefox
Today's challenge is to promote at least one canon (or cannon :P). I know very little about cannons, so canon it is!
But which do I choose? Decisions are hard.
Flashpoint
How about Flashpoint? A Canadian police drama that ran for 5 seasons about a Strategic Response Unit (kinda like SWAT but cooler). I mean, when Head Honcho says "let's keep the peace" and they use less-lethal methods and try to make connections with people in very stressful situations in order to defuse them, you kind of believe him. Where else the White Dudes are allowed to say to their kids "I was a shit dad and I would like the opportunity to be less shit in the future but I also understand if that's not an opportunity you can give" and mean it? It is still a police drama, so there is a lot of violence. But unlike US-based cop shows, this does not glorify the violence, it's shitty and has consequences for everyone involved.
Dune
While there are many problems with Dune, it came into my life at the moment I needed it. It showed me many things I didn't even know I was craving and gave me characters that have stayed in my heart for many years. I cannot and do not recommend it unreservedly. It's racist, it's misogynistic, it's shitty in ways both major and minor. But for me, the things that happen in the sidelines, the potential stories that never flourished, those are what have stayed with me and grown into story-seeds. The princess forever neglected because she's not male (Irulan); the true heir and successor of the person who was changing the world one seedling at a time (Chani); the unexpected child, the change in many plans (Ghanima). Yes, those stories are weakly written and poorly written. But what is fandom if not the place where those stories can be changed? The visuals from the SciFi miniseries don't hurt.
The Old Kingdom
And I can always talk about The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix. We start with Sabriel in her final year of schooling, which she does not get to officially complete as she gets whisked away to her homeland (that she hadn't lived in since she was 5) to rescue her father, the current Abhorsen. We learn about the Old Kingdom with Sabriel as well as learning about how the magic works, specifically the 'putting the dead to rest' bit that is meant to be the Abhorsen's job. Yeah, there's necromancy both legal and illegal, but it's not explicitly scary.(mileage varies, as always) And after Sabriel completes her quest, we pick up Lirael about 15 years later. Which deals with themes of not fitting in with one's birth family, depression, suicidal ideation, finding one's calling, and the gut-wrenching heartbreaking relief of leaving the only place one has known to do the actual work one needs to do. (I'm not saying these things are always handled well, just that they are significant.) These books came into my life at the precise moments I needed them. I got Sabriel when I was ~11 and Lirael came out when I was in high school and first dealing with depression. I am entirely unreasonable in my love and fully admit it.
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Date: 2020-01-17 07:15 pm (UTC)Also: Old Kingdom! Sabriel! Lirael! (Sameth!) Yes!!!!
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Date: 2020-01-17 07:23 pm (UTC)Sameth!! Oh gosh. He, his parents, and everyone around him fully expected his life to go a certain way. Then it turns out he is wildly unsuited for that and incredibly well suited for something else. That hard left turn from the path he was on to the path that is the better choice for him is both hard to read and so gratifying. (And there is a specific scene with Sameth in Abhorsen that brings me to tears every time and is a brilliant example of the audience knowing something the characters do not.)
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Date: 2020-01-17 07:37 pm (UTC)Yyyy. That 'hard left turn' is both so fucking painful and so validating that I cannot even. (I can think of a couple scenes you might mean, which one makes you cry?)
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Date: 2020-01-17 09:11 pm (UTC)Gur fprar gbjneq gur raq bs Noubefra jura Fnzrgu naq Yvenry unir erprvirq jbeq gung Gbhpufgbar naq Fnoevry unq orra xvyyrq va Naprfgvreer naq ur'f thneqvat Yvenry'f obql juvyr fur qbrf Erzrzoenapre fghss va Qrngu naq ur'f xvaq bs orvat birejuryzrq ohg ur'f qbvat uvf orfg jvgu gur cvcrf naq gura ur urnef Noubefra oryyf ohg Yvenry vf fgvyy sebmra bire naq ur frrf n Cncrejvat ohg qbrfa'g unir nal vqrn jub vg pbhyq or. Because the reader knows but Sameth does not and he's just so determined and then bewildered and then shocked/relieved/overjoyed.
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Date: 2020-01-17 10:09 pm (UTC)That moment. I just... oh, my boy. My baby.