Dragaera

The bain of Fandom: Wants vs Needs

Jon_Lincicum at stream.com Jon_Lincicum at stream.com
Mon Dec 19 12:56:44 PST 2005

"Scott Schultz" <scott at cjhunter.com> 
Sent by: dragaera-bounces at dragaera.info
12/19/2005 12:44 PM

To
"'Dragaera'" <dragaera at dragaera.info>
cc

Subject
RE: Sethra as Vlad's mother? (Was Yummy Vlad Speculation)






>Wanting Sethra to be Vlad's mother or some similar relational situation
>between our lead protagonists strikes me to be analgous to wanting the 
two
>lead characters in a situation comedy to finally "get together" after
>several seasons of romantic and/or sexual tension.
>
>The problem is that "getting together" hardly ever adds anything to the 
show
>and nearly always heralds its upcoming death as it turns out that the
>"tension" was what made the show enjoyable.
> 
>I don't see any mileage to be gained by having Vlad be related to or have
>relations with any of his Dragaeran acquaintances, particularly Sethra.
>Being the carrier of Dolivar's reincarnated soul is already close enough 
to
>the bone for such purposes.


I really couldn't agree more. 

One of the problems with fandom in general, and SF fans in particular is 
that what the fans of a series 
*think* they want to see, and what they actually *enjoy* seeing are often 
completely unrelated to one 
another. (This, I believe, has been the utter death of the Star Trek 
franchise--all too often the 
producers are asking themselves "What do the fans want to see?" instead of 
"What makes a good story?")

As Aerich would say, "The question is wrong."

Still, the point, as far as I understand it, of this discussion forum, is 
to 
speculate and ponder the "what-ifs" of the stories in ways that Steve 
(hopefully)
will never feel inclined to answer. Most of what we talk about should 
*never* be 
published or repeated anywhere else. At the same time, you never know when 
a good
idea or two will be able to spring forth from this huge pile of 
speculative bullcrap
fertilizer.

I dunno. That's just the way I see it.

>In light of _Orca_, it might be interesting for Vlad to have a "moment" 
when
>he remembers what it felt like to fantasize about "getting together" with
>Kiera as a teenager, (especially if he discussed this tidbit with Sethra)
>but given his strong feelings at that age about Dragaerans in general 
that
>might never have really happened either.

Interesting idea. I don't really know how likely it is that we will see 
any more stories from the 
"early years" of Vlad (up through Phoenix), since that area seems to be 
pretty well filled in by 
now. Maybe a separate story that runs concurently with one of the others? 
(Say, around the time 
of Yendi? or Dragon?) Still, this kind of thing could also come up in a 
flashback, I suppose.

Majikjon