Fannish Friday 5 - Unbelievable Canon Events

[cookiegirl]

 Five canon events that you found unbelievable and wished had not happened:



1. Around 80% of Torchwood: Miracle Day. Including but not limited to: Gwen not knowing basic American terms, Esther being generally useless and dumb for the first half of the season despite having CIA training, Jack seeming to think his own life is more important than Anwen's, Oswald becoming a media icon, Rhys not being able to be safely left alone with Oswald lest he kill him, and oh yes - there being a giant vagina in the centre of the earth.

2. Zack working as an apprentice to Gormogon in Bones. This is a storyline that perhaps could have worked if it was developed over a much larger amount of episodes as originally intended, but as it is, it makes almost zero sense and succeeded only in removing an awesome character from the show and giving us an extremely confusing season 3 finale.

3. Jackie and Hyde not getting back together in season 8 of That 70s Show. They loved each other, they were happiest together, they were both ready to get married at the end of season 7, and yet once Hyde's wife turns up, instead of kicking her out and getting back with Jackie, he lets her hang around until her other husband turns up (I know, I know), and then when she leaves makes no attempt to make things up with Jackie. It's as though the last three seasons are completely ignored. And then Jackie and Fez? Really?!

4. Larry leaving Ally in Ally McBeal. This was never supposed to happen, and it shows. Robert Downey Jr was forced to leave the show due to drug issues, but after the writers had developed Ally and Larry's relationship so brilliantly, it made no sense for the characters to give up on it. The writers attempted to provide reasons for the relationship's collapse, but I didn't buy it. There is no way that these two characters wouldn't have tried to make it work even if Larry did need to be nearer his son.

5. Almost everything that happened with Jesse and Rachel in Glee. Jesse's character was so poorly written, so up and down, that it made no sense. One moment he was genuinely feeling for Rachel, the next he was throwing eggs at her. Thank goodness he's gone.

Comments

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

Where was Whedon?

1. So, we're keeping Anwen and Esther and that's it, right?

[cookiegirl]

Oops - I tagged it with Whedon because I was originally going to include Willow falling for Kennedy at number 5, but then I remembered Jesse and decided to go for him instead. Will have to remove the tag :)

(Oh and now I'm thinking about it, I should have had the whole disturbing Connor/Cordy thing up there too. Ah well, I have ranted about that before!)

And... sorry I don't understand your second line lol *blushes with stupidity*

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

Yep, I totally agree about Cordy/Connor...Willow/Kennedy I was okay with because you had to show her moving on and being able to date other people before ending the show.

Well, I was curious about the 20% of Miracle Day you wanted to keep...

[cookiegirl]

Yeah, I wanted Willow to be able to date again... I just didn't want her dating Kennedy lol!

Hmm, well... can I keep Anwen, and Rhys dressing up as a limo driver, and Jack telling Gwen about the firebird... and all the bits where John Barrowman is naked please? :)

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

I'm also keeping the bits of Jack in this nice green uniform which hugged his backside so nicely ;) And the scene where they fought for his life in the plane. I really like that one and back then I still thought MD would be great. More like the old days, over the top and funny and great.

You can also see it in the online discussions at the time - in the beginning there were lots of excited entries and then as the weeks passed by it became less and less.

I don't even remember Rhys dressing up as a limo driver?!?

[cookiegirl]

Oh yes, I liked the uniform and the plane scene! I remember being insanely excited during the first two episodes, and then they got to America, and things started to go swiftly downhill :( It's such a shame.

I think it was a limo driver! It's when Gwen goes back to Wales for the first time I think, and Rhys has a black outfit and a sign for her fake name at the airport?

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

Ah that scene at the airport! Yeah, that was cool - but then Gwen blew the whole cover and kissed him? Big plot hole there *shakes head* Same when she was in that camp and always talking about her Dad. Why the false name then?

I think a lot of us were excited when it started, I know I was for months before, because we got all those Twitter messages from the set, from the costume department and others, and also the interviews they did to promote it. And everyone said it's the best thing they ever did.

And from the episode discussions in the LJ communities you can also tell how excited the people were just to have TW back on their screens, and from week to week we got less replies and the excitement died down.

Surely for someone who never has seen TW before it might be a great show, but we know it could have been so much better.

And this is the one thing that really puzzles me - as I know that John always speaks his mind, so I wonder, if he really not sees how bad this was? Or whether he was forced to do those interviews and we will hear the real story later somehow?

Seems he really likes it, when I was at the Hub7 con he was talking about the scene with Jack's blood in the end and how this proves that it had nothing to do with the Vortex and there was a bit of muttering among the fans around the table and one even dared to ask whether he doesn't think that is a plot hole but we did not discuss this any further.

I remember saying to a friend that I hope John would leave the sinking TW ship before it ruins his career for good, but then again we know how loyal he is, and it DID change his whole life, so he will be there till the end. Luckily we don't depend on it, he does so many other things that can occupy us, I have pretty much forgotten about it already. I watch the old episodes at the moment, and also read all the novels and listen to the audio books. (Plus, apparently we need to cut RTD some slack here, as an interview surfaced where he said he was not really happy with some of the changes STARZ did - apparently making Rex immortal was one of them he could not fight but if there ever is another series he intends to reverse it)

[cookiegirl]

Haha yes, I wondered why Rhys went to all that trouble and then Gwen just jumps on him! Ridiculous!

The same thing puzzles me, how could they honestly not notice the continuity issues etc? They're the ones who've been playing these characters for so long - I don't really understand how John didn't notice that his timeline made no sense etc. I wonder if it wasn't quite the atmosphere on set that it was in Wales and they didn't want to say anything. I think it will be a long way in the future if they ever admit they weren't pleased with it, and John's so sweet and loyal I can't imagine him ever really saying so.

Ooh I didn't realise RTD had said that? That definitely gives me hope for some Rex-death if we get another series (which i would still love to happen, because I'd watch Jack and Gwen and Rhys in anything!) You don't have a link to the interview do you? x

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

I think John sometimes takes the easy way out in saying he does trust in the writers and play whatever they invent for him, instead of making his own thoughts. I think, as you say, he should indeed give more insight as he should know this character best. That's why I look forward so much to his Torchwood novel, I hope it will be really great. As long as we still can have books and audio books the franchise is not dead yet. They always could start with a new team in a few years, like they did with the new Doctor Who, then again John is not exactly getting any younger...

Personally I'd also like to see Victorian Torchwood ;) There is so much in his past that is not explored yet, would make for great stories.

I am not sure now if it was an interview with RTD. It's possible it was on the audio commentary he did for the DVD box set? I think someone quoted him from there but I don't have the DVDs so I cannot check it. Then again I think a woman also was involved, Julie Gardner maybe? Just have a look around, I'm sure you can find something! I did read it in the Torchwood Facebook group I think and just filed it under "interesting" in my mind.

[cookiegirl]

Victorian Torchwood would be very cool :) And I'm sure John will keep making use of botox and hair dye to look the same age as long as possible ;)

OK I will have a poke around the net for it :)

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

Okay, I agree to all of that...although I wished one of the naked times was with a woman or non-male gender...did we forget he does anything?

I really wanted Jack and Esther to kiss...

[cookiegirl]

I wanted some of that too... it seemed like they completely ignored the omnisexual part of his character and made him gay instead - which is not what Jack is. But then I don't think the writers made much of an effort to really grasp what Jack is :(

[cordy69.livejournal.com]

Your list made sense, and oh yeahhh I'd shove the Cordy/Connor somewhere in there, and the signing away of the shanshu along the way...

I'm bitter maybe... Sorry.

Good list though

[cookiegirl]

Hehe thankyou :-)

Oh yes I forgot about the signing away of the Shanshu, another piece of utter insanity! And ugh, I genuinely find it difficult to watch the Connor and Cordelia scenes, they give me the creeps, I don't know what the writers were thinking! So I share your bitterness!

[semielliptical]

Oh, poor Zack! I was relatively new to watching Bones at the time, and I had planned to go back and catch up on episodes I had missed. The revelation that Zack was working with Gormogon was so bizarre and unbelievable. (I eventually watched more Bones, but it took me a *long* time to recover from that piece of character assassination.)

[cookiegirl]

You were brave to continue with it if that was near the start of your watching, I think I might have given up after that!! I still miss him :-( x

[passionrlsusall.livejournal.com]

That was so incredibly sad and frustrating on Ally McBeal when he left..and then when I read why, I was like, god I've fallen in love with you RDJ, but why oh why did you have to fuck up again then!? (or at all, of course)

[cookiegirl]

My thoughts too :(
Excellent icon use!! x

[jejo763]

1. I actually only watched the first two episodes of TW:MD, I just couldn't continue after that. I also haven't seen COE (and will not either, Ianto is my favourite character and I will not watch him die) so to me Miracle Day was completely different show. It had few same actors as TW, but at the end of episode two it just didn't feel like Torchwood anymore.

3. Thank god then that I did not watch that last season, I wanted Jackie and Hyde to be together forever.

5. I actually sorta like Jesse's character and I ship her with Rachel. Yeah, he was a major asswaffle (and in the next moment very much a woobie) in season 1, but I really liked him in seasons two and three. I do think that St. Berry is sort of cracky pairing most of the time though (and that's why those fics are so amusing to read, because let's face it Jesse is OTT 90% of the time) and those two would clash badly if they lived together for a long time, because they are so similar, but then again them being so similar would also be to their advantage. /my feelings let me tell you them

"I can't figure out how to edit the link text for the cut"

I don't think you can in RTE, but if you go to the html editor, then you can. Just look for <lj-cut text="LJ cut text here"> </lj-cut> and change the text between the quotes.

[cookiegirl]

Haha thankyou, I like to hear your feelings!!

1.Have you thought about watching the first 3 eps of COE? There are some lovely Ianto moments, it's a shame to miss out on them.

2.You didn't miss much!! By far the weakest season.

5.Well... I did like it when they sang Rolling in the Deep :D

Ooh I will go and see if I can edit on html, thankyou x
ETA: It worked! Hooray! :D

[jejo763]

YAY! XD

Re: COE, I don't know if I'm cabable watching only the first three episodes and disregarding the last two. I do know what happens in COE, I've read enough fix-it fics for that, so it's not like I'm blind to the happenstances in that season.

[karaokegal.livejournal.com]

I agree on a LOT of the Miracle Day stuff, but I actually could see Oswald becoming a media celebrity. Hell, these days he'd have his own reality show.

Don't even get me started on Zach. One of the worst cases of character assassination EVER. I wish that more show-runners would learn that you can actually write a character off a show without actual death or metaphorical character assassination.

[cookiegirl]

Exactly! And preferably also without the occasionally-used 'character completely disappears and is never mentioned again' which is just as infuriating.

I'm trying to come up with characters who've left shows without any of these things happening, and I'm coming up with...err...

Andie from Dawson's Creek, arguably Izzie from Grey's Anatomy, and maybe a few people from ER. They're the only ones I can think of!