it's a nice day to start again

[laeria]

Circle o circle!

 

I have a question for you! Which may or may not be born from my vague Balkanic annoyance with the Willian/Kate craze (not the actual people, but the craze, it has infected my television in a way that keeps baffling).

 

What makes a good fictional wedding?

 

I can think of some weddings I've read/watched, but generally they ended with spiders and manslaughter. Sometimes they were embarrassing, sometimes they were dull. I can't think of any single wedding that made me feel - yes, this, this is an awesome moment for this ship, this is something I enjoy and root for and will remember fondly. Or even, yes this is utterly heartbreaking and will stay inprinted on my soul as a moment of immaculate tragedy. Mostly weddings just - leave me utterly cold? I don't know. What weddings did you enjoy? What's your ultimate fictional fantasy wedding? Is elopement preferable?

And, in a vaguely related way, GAME OF THRONES HAPPENED.
WHAT THE SEVEN HELLS WAS THAT ABOUT, WHY DO YOU MAKE A SERIES THAT'S MOSTLY PERFECT (brilliantly cast, beautifully made) and then fuck up a whole very important storyline by having the character omit a crucial "yes" in a crucial moment? WHY HBO WHY.

Please warn for GoT spoilers in comments, thanks.

Comments

Here There Be GoT Spoilers!

[jessalae]

To respond to your points in reverse order:

I KNOW, RIGHT? One, it completely changes the dynamic of that relationship and thus the entire plotline, and two, who the hell looks at A Game of Thrones and says to themselves, "You know what this story needs? MORE RAPE!" Not every show needs to be twice as edgy as its source material, HBO. You can still make your exposed-breasts-and-swearing quota without screwing up major points of character development.

Hm. The only fictional wedding I can even think of right now is the one from The Princess Bride, which is... memorable, but not for deep character-based reasons. Most of my favorite ships don't get married, even the ones that are canon and clearly deserve to be together forever. My fandoms don't really do happily-ever-afters.

The William/Kate wedding craze is going strong in the US, too, and god is it annoying. Why does the media think I should care about this? I have no emotional connection to anyone involved, stop trying to tell me about the awesome new diet Kate is trying!

Re: Here There Be GoT Spoilers!

[laeria]

One, it completely changes the dynamic of that relationship and thus the entire plotline

Yes, it really does. I think the purpose of that scene (and the YOU HAVE GIVEN ME THE WIND MOTHERFUCKERS scene) is to show that Dany is not actually the lump of wood everyone treats her as, and does actually have - needs and desires, and the ability to make choices, even if she doesn't yet have the freedom to do so. Aaaah, the more I think about it, the more the horse thing bothers me - fine, you wanted to show it was rape-rape (you know, just so the audience doens't think HBO approves of 13 year old girls getting married off to horselords, because obviously audiences are very stupid creatures), I can get that. But why cut the riding montage? It's the first, and very significant, of her many Crowning Moments of awesome. WHY cut it? Every reason I can think of is skeevy.

[New icon is definitely relevant.]

and two, who the hell looks at A Game of Thrones and says to themselves, "You know what this story needs? MORE RAPE!"

RIGHT? RIGHT? And also, who looks at Dany's storyline and thinks NOT ENOUGH SUFFERING. And, honestly, I thought it was plenty rape-y in the book, but it also contained additional information (ie. Dany is FINALLY FREE OF VISERYS AND IS GOING TO MAKE THE MOST OF IT). I wonder if they're going to cut the part where Dany's in love with Drogo entirely, or make it into a festering Stockholm Syndrome thing (which it was, but it was ALSO her finally getting to have choices about her life). Eugh. I get the need to simplify characters, but did they really need to make her even more of a victim?

Anyway.

Princess Bride! I never watched or read that (I know, my life is bereft of meaning, and also You Killed My Father Prepare to Die). I definitely know what you mean about non-wedding-prone ships. Most of my ships have some kind of space for a HEA, but it doesn't happen in canon. Also, they tend to be all WE ARE ABOVE AND BEYOND SUCH MEAGRE CONVENTIONS, and honestly I prefer them that way. I'm trying to think about my perfect wedding for my ships and the sentence "And then the aliens landed" keeps popping up, alas. (Or "and then the First Evil arose", I'm not picky).

I really don't get the wedding craze. My British friends are hilariously annoyed by it (imagine the frenzy there), and no amount of emotional connection ought to warrant quite this much sickly curiousity. Also, the whole "IT IS A MODERN FAIRY TALE" thing? Is so artificial and embarrassment-inducing and overall wrong. THEY ARE PEOPLE. VERY RICH PEOPLE. WHO ARE GOING TO MARRY JUST LIKE OTHER PEOPLE TEND TO. It's really - a very sick hunger for Grandiose Romance coupled with celebrity-crushing, I suppose.

Re: Here There Be GoT Spoilers!

[jessalae]

The only reason I can think of to cut the riding scene is if they didn't think it was important, which does not give me a good feeling about how they're going to be dealing with female characters in the series. The women in GoT exist in a world that is hostile and awful to them basically all the time, but they never stop fighting for agency and trying to hold onto whatever control they attain, and I think that's awesome. If they take out that aspect of Dany's storyline... ugh.

That being said, I'm still totally going to watch, because the rest of it was awesome.

See, I would love a wedding with a "And then the aliens landed" ending, especially if the happy couple were badass alien-hunters who would then lead the counterattack in the tattered remains of their gowns/tuxedos. (Oh man this needs to be a Jack/Ianto fic right now.)

There is absolutely no consideration that they're real people. There was this really gross article on Yahoo news (which is only half a step above the tabloids on its best day, but still) that was basically pictures of Kate hanging out with friends, going clubbing, at the mall, etc. with captions going "Well she won't be able to wear THAT when she's queen!" I guess I was supposed to be shocked that the queen has a slightly different dress code than your average twenty-something?