Young Americans - Young Americans Fanfiction #3: Who said it's over?

wolkenfuehlen · 10-07-2011, 04:30 AM

Transcripts:
YA canon episode transcripts
YA transcripts @ twiztv

Fanfic Archives:
The Stories of Us (stories from 2000 onwards. Thanks Nelle!)
Simply Fanfic (Thanks Patty!)
yafansite (Spanish translations) (maintained by Ivan S & Susana)
YA@ff.net

Individual Authors:
Nicky's YA Episodes
New Beginnings (by Estee and Harmony)
YA Cafe (Giselle's fics)
Fanfic Expressions (by Princess Lollipop)
Roxane's Ramblings
Catlyke's YA Fanfic
Deniable Beauty (fanfic by Anja)

Silver Oar Awards
Silver Oar Awards 2001
Silver Oar Awards 2004

Previous Threads:
Young Americans Fanfiction #2: The stories go on and on...
Young Americans Fanfiction

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So why, in all the fanfic I've read (save my own) doesn't anybody ever do that? I somehow wonder how many viewers even got that YA is about emotional salvation.

Doesn't it happen, to a certain degree, in both continuations with Dexter and Pagan, respectively?

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We've discussed this before, but let me reiterate: I feel so sorry for Dean Fleming. Nearly all the fanfic makes him out to be so horrible.

That's what fandom does, sometimes. Especially since we didn't really see him in the original show. Nevermind that his wife is cheating on him, surely she must have her reasons. Because we've seen her in the show and decided she was nice and thus are taking her side. Fandom can be cruel like that.

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Originally Posted by Finnegan (View Post)

Sheida,

Do you still plan to continue to read "New Beginnings"?

Or has that been dropped?

I think it's still the plan.

Finnegan · 10-07-2011, 06:00 PM

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Originally Posted by wolkenfuehlen (View Post)

I think [rereading "New Beginnings"] is still the plan.

Excellent. I've been looking forward to it.

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Originally Posted by wolkenfuehlen (View Post)

Doesn't [an emotional salvation storyline] happen, to a certain degree, in both continuations with Dexter and Pagan, respectively?

Anja, it's been a year and a half since I read the later episodes of either Nicky's or Estee's sequels. I recall Ryder as being the one Nicky seems to save; and she creates a character from Ryder's childhood to do that. Re Dexter: Jake does need to get busy saving rather than being saved once she's been healed, but she might do it best by doing it together with Hamilton, as a couple.

Part of the problem is that because, in the major Fanfic sequels, Jake continues her gender deception, very few people ever know the JaHammer story. That story is where the emotional salvation potential lies. The problem with most sequels, in my view, is that the characters in the show never get the story that draws the fans.

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Originally Posted by wolkenfuehlen (View Post)

Nevermind that [DeanFleming's] wife is cheating on him, surely she must have her reasons. Because we've seen her in the show and decided she was nice and thus are taking her side. Fandom can be cruel like that.

She does have her reasons -- the Dean's a workaholic who neglects his family. But that doesn't imply that he's unkind (which is how much fanfic depicts him) ... just that he's in love with the school. Given that Rawley is what it is, there are worse faults. But I'm not sure there have to be "sides," that the Dean and Kate have to fight. If the Dean isn't a fool, he knows the risks he's running, and should be prepared to forgive his wife for seeking elsewhere the love he's too busy to give her.

I just make the Dean and Kate fall in love again when they hear the JaHammer story. Seems to me that's what a true love story is for -- to help people love each other better. Again, the problem with YA is that none of the other characters in the show ever hears the JaHammer story -- heaven comes down to earth and nobody notices.

It seems to me that a sequel should have the story that makes fans love this show do to characters in the show what it does to the fans.

Finnegan · 10-17-2011, 06:33 AM

Recently stumbled across a YA fanfic author whose writing style is, truly, brilliant. Below is a sample from her online autobiography. Her fics are equally well written. I'm green with envy.

She gets it, on the emotional level. She correctly pinpoints the real climax of the drama, and writes: "Watching it was like being kissed." And she conveys it so well:

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If you had told me it was possible to fall in love with a TV show, I wouldn’t have believed you. After all, this one shouldn’t have stood out at all. It was at times badly written, badly acted, badly edited, and it whored its product placement so shamelessly that it played like one long commercial for its sponsor, Coca-Cola. ...

But something happened when I saw Jake and Hamilton kiss. It wasn’t the stolen kiss in the pilot, not even the climatic moment in “Cinderbella” when Ham threw caution to the wind. It was the reconciliatory kiss at the end of the episode, when they both stood on tiptoe, followed by the sweet morning kiss at the beginning of episode 5. Lips open, hands on faces – those of you who watched the show know what I’m talking about. Watching it was like being kissed.

I’ve got to hand it to Kate Moennig and Ian Somerhalder. They really gave it everything they had, and I’ve never seen their equal either on TV or at the multiplex. It’s cliché, but I’ll say it anyway – the chemistry was off the charts. It wasn’t just the kissing, it was everything about the couple: cute, funny, fumbling, neurotic, vulnerable, innocent, sexy, and in love. And did I mention sexy? They were two spoiled rich kids living in the ivory tower – no real problems as we would know them. They were androgynously interchangeable; the boy was so pretty he was almost hard to look at sometimes, and the girl dressed like a boy and had a voice so throaty it made Kathleen Turner sound like Shirley Temple. He was artsy; she was into computers. He was a mama’s boy; she rode a motorcycle. They were a post-modern, deconstructionist version of a ‘40s screwball comedy.

-- Depudor - FanFiction.Net

Later: Here's another bio snip from Depudor: depudor: Happy Birthday to Me! She seems to have made it into the scriptwriting industry, as she should have: depudor: Serenity: Incontinence pads run amok in the galaxy.

And she's met, more than once, Robin Antin, Steve Antin's sister, who did the choreography for YA (the cotillion episode):

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Last night I watched The Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll, and it wasn't just out of curiosity about what had replaced VM. The first time I met Robin Antin, I told her all about how her brother's failed WB teen drama Young Americans was my favorite show ever. When I found out that Steven Antin (who not only created YA but also starred as Troy in The Goonies) was exec producing PCD along with Robin's long-time boyfriend McG (exec producer of The O.C. and Supernatural), I had to check it out. -- http://depudor.livejournal.com/

This woman (American, born 1974) used to post here. And Estee mentions her in her thesis on YA fandom. And she won Silver Oar awards. So, anybody wanna make my day and tell me her real name -- the one under which, one hopes, she's now writing way more than fanfic? Please?

wolkenfuehlen · 10-17-2011, 12:24 PM

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Originally Posted by Finnegan (View Post)

This woman (American, born 1974) used to post here. And Estee mentions her in her thesis on YA fandom. And she won Silver Oar awards. So, anybody wanna make my day and tell me her real name -- the one under which, one hopes, she's now writing way more than fanfic? Please?

I don't know her, personally. I don't think she was still posting here when I started posting. Considering she didn't even use her real first name online, I guess it's gonna be really difficult to find out anything at all.

Finnegan · 10-17-2011, 08:30 PM

In some distinctly raunchy (although wittily tongue-in-cheek) Scout/Will slash fanfic, online at Dawson's Creek and Young Americans Page. of a slash fanfic writer, "Aunty Mib," one finds a rarely insightful appreciation of the relationship between Sean McGrail, Will Krudski, and Scout Calhoun on YA's adult/symbolic level.

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Sean represents my history and Scout my potential.

-- Will Krudski, closing narrative voice-over, "History and Potential," by Aunty Mib

I have an enormous crush on [Scout Calhoun]. He's what I want to be so very much. When we're together there is so much sexual tension in the air that nearby animals mate. But ... I can imagine a future together with [Scout Calhoun]. I can't imagine a future without you.

-- Will Krudski to Sean McGrail, "History," by Aunty Mib

That's the same conclusion I've come to in my more heterosexual view of Krudski's character, starting from the question: If Rawley is the mature Krudski's morally rejuvenating dream of a perfect youth, and if the Krudski-as-narrator-and-writer is married to Bella Banks (even if she's partly a symbol for beauty in art), then why does he, in that dream, give Bella romantic affairs with his two closest friends, Sean and Scout?

My answer: because Sean represents what Will has been, and Scout represents what Will hopes to become, although the temporal framework is reversed, Sean being old (a townie "poor" in time) and Scout young (a Rawley kid "rich" in time). Bella must love and by loved by both what Will has been and what Will strives to become in order to truly love and be loved by Will, the imperfect-but-striving writer-in-becoming.

Interestingly, this witty albeit raunchy slash fanfic writer, "Aunty Mib," latched onto the same symbolism -- without, apparently, perceiving that Krudski is narrating YA from a perspective of maturity. The result is a hilariously gay fanfic in which Krudski wantonly loves his past self and his potential future self -- and they make love to each other.

(P.S.: My take on the slash aspect: Sure, Will and Scout are attracted to each other in all sorts of ways, including physically. But they prefer girls. And neither one of them is going to turn their relationship sexual absent some compelling emotional imperative to do that ... like the imperative for Hamilton Fleming to love "Jake" Pratt physically. Neither one of them needs that -- although if either did, the other would give it. Krudski is emotionally needy at the start of YA, but Calhoun gives him everything he needs -- without turning their relationship sexual. Also, for Calhoun to do anything like what Fleming does would cost the country a promising future statesman ... better that someone like Fleming who'll never have to run for office do things like that.)

***L i N d $ @ y*** · 11-12-2011, 06:20 PM

Can anyone point me to the link of the fic "Who Said It's Over"? Thanks.

wolkenfuehlen · 11-13-2011, 05:04 AM

Here you go.

We recently started (re)reading the episodes together, but only got as far as episode 4, I believe? Once Sheida finally catches up, we'll continue, and of course you're welcome to join us

***L i N d $ @ y*** · 11-16-2011, 12:25 AM

Thanks so much!

And thanks to two of my friends for making me like this show quite late.

wolkenfuehlen · 11-16-2011, 05:10 AM

It's never too late to like something!

***L i N d $ @ y*** · 11-17-2011, 03:54 AM

I know! I'll try to read this over the weekend but I have to watch the rest of the eps or watch the eps all over again first.

wolkenfuehlen · 11-17-2011, 01:39 PM

Yes, enjoy the episodes (again) before you start with the fanfic

But once you do start to read, stop by and let us know what you think!

wolkenfuehlen · 12-11-2011, 07:43 AM

Sheida, how's that fanfic reading going?

s e r e n i t y · 12-12-2011, 01:05 AM

I'm supposed to be reading perfect image, right? Ready for my assignment, got the tab opened up, reading it today

wolkenfuehlen · 12-12-2011, 01:54 PM

Is that episode 3? Yes, i think you need to read that one and the following one, at least.

s e r e n i t y · 12-12-2011, 03:31 PM

Reading it now, before I start forgive me if I can't go through your posts from the last thread, FF being stupid as you know and typing and copying is hard on my phones small screen

Ooh sleepover, fun

wouldn't it be weird to explain Jake being there if her dad sees her though, weird

I've read this before

I just realised I've had this image of this scene with hamiltons mum overhearing them talk stuck in my head, which was odd to me cause it's not in the show so yay, mysteries solved for me now

Random pet peeve, I hate when shows show girls sleeping in cute pyjamas, maybe it's just me but does everyone actually sleep in pyjamas?

suppose it's me that's wrong sleeping in my jeans,

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Will: Actually, I heard you.* I was just making sure that you heard yourself.

I like funny Will

Ooh the dad issue is cleared up, kind of weird that I had the same thought as Will

but yeah, Charlie's out of town,it seems!

Ooh Will/Bella shipping scene, The scene might have made me ship them

So, as you all know, I have horrible memory, can someone remind me, did Bella tell Scout they're not related?

Oh god, Hamilton taking pictures of Jake, this can't be good

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Hamilton: Who died and made you ambitious?
Scout: What?* That doesn’t even make sense.

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here it might be good to reflect: some people wanted to know why, in the season finale, did Sean not act surprised that Jake was a girl.* Well, had Sean ever actually met Jake as a boy?* I mean, sure, he knows the story now, but he’s not at all used to Jake in boy clothes.* Even in the last episode—Truth or Dare?—Sean only saw Jake as a girl.* He’s kind of got the same perspective as Jill on it…right

Interesting, I never thought of this

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Will: Will makes it all better, but still has no story line of his own.* Do you ever feel like a supporting character in your own life?

Copying this for you Finnegan

fits in with your narration theory quite well, sonds like something an all knowing narrator would say

Oh wow, the commercial break is about the season premier of Roswell, I never realised how old these fanfics were til now

So that's me done with episode 3, and since it's past 2AM I'm gonna have to postpone episode 4 to tomorrow


Fan Forum > Archived Television Shows > Young Americans > Young Americans Fanfiction #3: Who said it's over?