jmtorres | (no subject)

so I was binging Magicians just as s4 was starting, and I had the incredible experience of surfing a wave of fannish zeitgeist with the peaches and plums thing. And I'd been working on this vid that encapsulated that experience, and then this last week in Magicians fandom happened seemingly negating the slash pairing everyone was so excited about by putting a het pairing back together. and like, I went welp I'm checking out of Magicians fandom this week I don't even want to hear the wails.

except I didn't? Like I basically went to all the fannish social media I normally do, just prepared to be really detached. and the weirdest thing happened, I didn't see anyone being mad or betrayed or heartbroken about the episode, not in a pure sense. I saw a bunch of people reacting like their feeds were full of that, but all I got was the world-weary "I knew this wasn't going to last, and you should've known too."

(I'm not sure that's true? This show has already done several things with fandom's fave slash pairing that wouldn't have happened on TV ten or twenty years ago? Like, no, I didn't know it wasn't going to last, and I'm not being naive to be hopeful about an astonishing trend continuing.)

anyway I'm,,,, kind of meh about working on the vid now. I am Quentin Coldwater ranting at the plant of Fillory love about how it just isn't enough. Like, I don't want to capture the experience of being swept up in the moment and then let down; but I also feel like the time for the vid just about being swept up in the moment has passed.

anyway, I don't know, maybe something will happen in 4x13 to turn things around; my personal experience of this show has been so foreshortened and immediate that if it takes until next season to fix things I might not be here anymore. But i still have my fingers halfway crossed for another barrage of peaches and plums next week. I don't want to know better.

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I'm with you in that I don't really get how we all should've known that Q/Alice is inevitable as the show's endgame, or how it's obviously endgame now because they reconnected. The books are flawed in one set of ways, the show is flawed in a different set of ways, and anyone who's looking for exactly the same stories surely gave up a long way back. If you're interested in further meta about the show, I recommend

greywash's posts.

I think for me, the threat of the books has always loomed over the characters' relationships. And even though everyone else has diverged on their paths, the Q/Alice thing seems to be continually be brought up. Perhaps because Quentin was the main character of the books and people feel that gives his narrative more weight than the rest?

That's why I worry. The writers try to maintain the balance between making their own show and paying homage to the books and I can't be sure where they will land.

I don't want to know better.

♥

Argh, this show is such a mix of good and bad.

I'm ... exactly in the category of disappointed fans. I was happily shipping Q/E without expectations (for 3 years now), then got all excited and dared to hope. And now I feel like it's just going to be the same old thing.

I know that time will tell, and frame how we look back on it, but it's crazy how emotional I have been throughout this whole season/arc. From amazing highs and hopes to...well, kicking myself for expecting more because as you said, we have been given so much. But I still feel like that isn't enough.

I'm still waiting for the show that takes an actual lead character, reveals they are not straight, and lets them have a happy queer relationship that develops organically (instead of bringing on an obvious love interest). We haven't seen that yet (that I know of).

I think I got into the Magicians at around the same time you did -- or maybe even a little later. My Tumblr dash exploded with Q/E things, and that made me check out a show again. I'd tried the first episode when it first aired, but didn't even make it through that, back then. Now I persevered and found a pretty good, if occasionally depressing (it's intentional, but I do occasionally need to look away from the crapsack world being built there).

I'm not that disappointed with the current developments -- on the one hand because I'm not really invested in any of the ships to such an extent (Queliot was a nice change, though), and on the other because I don't think Quentin and Alice will end up being that romantic (although I won't be angry if it is, either). It didn't come across to me as 'we're all true love again now' -- more 'let's have another try at being friends'. And that can happen. With or without Queliot.