March Meta Matters Challenge, Third Writing Prompt

[yourlibrarian]

Hello everyone! It's time for our last writing prompt:

There have been a lot of significant social changes in the past few years which have affected many people around the world. How might some of those same events change the nature of a favorite canon? This might be:

* Seen on an individual household or group level
* Affected major developments in a society which the canon deals with
* Either disrupted or accelerated certain progress.
* Something else!

Writing new meta this month is optional. If you do write something though, share a link to it in a future check-in post!

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

I have written a third piece of meta this session, and it's sort of tied to the theme (if you squint) but more written in response to someone else's post. I'll post it next week.

I've also now completed my 2019 content review and even caught up until March 2020, the date of our first MMM session! I have a few more things to transfer over from earlier posts which I'll likely do this week.

Go you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

It'll be interesting to see what you come up with.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> How might some of those same events change the nature of a favorite canon? <<

Timely to my project this month, The Addams Family has been around for decades (starting in 1938). It has changed a lot over time, but maintains the mood much better than most reboots. Wednesday is quite contemporary (with terms like "mansplaining") but still holds to the roots well.

I have found that most modern remakes utterly fail to capture what made the originals appealing. Most modern Star Trek iterations lose the sense of wonder that the original had, being made in a much bleaker time. Though Lower Decks does manage to nail the goofy and sometimes outrageous sense of humor; I like that one.

Here is the Wednesday Addams character study that I've been posting:
Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 1: Introduction
Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 2: Ethnicity & Linguistics
Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 3: An Outcast

Re: Thoughts

[yourlibrarian]

Yes, rebooted canon is perfect for this topic!

As it happens, what I came across the other day was a reference to the Journal of the Plague Year collection on AO3. It didn't have the number of works or fit the challenge as well as I'd hoped. I had already written this prompt before I was reminded of it, but it would make for an interesting collection if broadened to more than fic.

[alexseanchai]

the canon status of "Barrier Gestures" is, mm, subject to some debate, let's say? but there's absolutely nothing to tell us it isn't something Ladybug and Chat Noir filmed in 2020 as exactly the public service announcement for MLverse that it is for RLverse; we simply have to assume either that their mentor regained the memories he lost at the end of S3 or that they hired him-or-a-lookalike to portray their lost mentor (could be both tbh), and either that the names and faces of the people under both masks (and possibly of the mentor) are public knowledge or that they quote-unquote hired lookalikes to portray themselves

(also that they don't look any different at 20 than at 15, but this show's budget is still somehow a shoestring and a couple pieces of bubble gum, despite all the merchandise profit, and the glimpse we got of them-at-25ish also used the exact same animation models as the rest of the show, so)

[yourlibrarian]

You made me snort about the lack of age change. There are so many shows that seem to think a few cosmetic hair changes are all that's needed to signify a 20 year age difference! Just this past week we've been watching S5 of Outlander and S3 of For All Mankind, and I just can't suspend my disbelief about it.

[alexseanchai]

helps with confusing people about how long it's been! like, if Origins is start of school year in September and "Dark Cupid" is on Valentine's in February, S1 can't be shorter than six months. could be longer, and if Marinette is a Leo then "Befana" in early S2 is in July or August which does suggest S1 is more than six months long, but can't be shorter, too much of S2 has to follow "Dark Cupid". meanwhile the number of days in Origins stated in 5x10 says it is the first June after Origins. which coheres with they're still in a collège after saying in S1 (French dub) they're in the last year of collège, but with absolutely nothing else. (except the 5x17 promo that just dropped, with English fansubs so I watched half of it before processing which episode it's for—5x16 and 18–20 have aired, but 5x13–15 haven't, so I haven't watched 5x16 or later—and augh.) and since any visible aging would involve altering the animation models, the fact they don't have budget to alter the animation models is real convenient for setting things whenever they feel like.