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Tangled Oaths has officially surpassed everything else I've ever posted on ff.n. Honestly, if you include all of the AO3 reviews and kudos, it probably did that awhile ago, although, interestingly, I've gotten a hell of a lot more reviews on ff.n than on AO3, even without taking into account comment conversations that can happen on the later site. On the other hand, I've a ton more kudos on AO3 than reviews on ff.n so, huh. Oh well. I'm just grateful people like it.
~*~*~*~
Rant time!
Why the hell aren't more people taking advantage of the fact Pitch Black is the Boogieman? A part of me feels like I'm treading new ground with Tangled Oaths just by making Pitch a truly creepy villain but every time I think that, it's kind of a "Wait, what?" moment for me as well because writing the Boogieman as anything other than creepy is what should be treading new ground.
A part of this, I think, is that Pitch is designed to be sympathetic in the movie and, in the books, ultimately redeemable and people have latched on to that. Add in the fact the movie could only make him so scary while keeping in certain thematic elements *coughdeathscenescough* and still keep a rating aimed at kids and, well, for the most part his bark's worse than his bite in the movie. Despite that, he does have some scenes that are rather creepy and there are a few times when you're pretty certain the heroes might not pull through (especially if you were watching the thing in 3D in the theater and got the distinct feeling you were about to get skewered along side the good guys).
Another part is the modern gothic craze, where scary!cute is a real thing to aim for. It's made things like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Tim Burton, and Monster High popular. It also makes it that much harder to find a truly frightening monster amongst the younger set.
Finally, Pitch in the movie is attractive in the same way Alan Rickman is attractive. He's not conventionally handsome or good-looking, but he's got a lovely voice and a confident way of carrying himself that combines with the fact that he's not ugly to make him attractive, if not outright hot, in some people's eyes. In other words, evil isn't ugly, which isn't a bad thing.
I think my main complaint here isn't that Pitch is good-looking or redeemable, but that many writers in the fandom have caught on to that and clung to it even when they shouldn't have. I shouldn't have to look up old stories to find a frightening Boogieman when there's a fandom where he's a main character and the villain.
To be more blunt, I don't mind stories looking to redeem him. I love that they're trying to work out how that would work. I mind stories that use him as the villain straight up and then water him down by clinging to the facts he's attractive and redeemable. They make me want to roll my eyes and best and back out of the story at worst. He's not redeemed! Not yet, not in canon and certainly not in far too many stories. He's a magnificent bastard of the highest order, delighting in manipulating minds and peoples fears as easily as he manipulates the shadows, and intelligent to boot. Even if you're focusing on the redeemable part, he is, at best, described as a Superman who was corrupted by Evil and, at worst, is a Superman who's little more than a meat puppet for something that is Evil. He should be scaring the crap out of you, not making you wonder why the hell he hasn't joined the good guys yet. But far too often, I'm seeing the later and not the former. It's just... just... why?
And then there are the stories that do it all right, except not. Pitch is being used as the villain in the story, and they acknowledge he might be but he's nowhere close to it yet. And then they forget he's the Boogieman. Honestly, that last bit seems based more on a lack of imagination than anything. They see someone who looks vaguely human and assign him human motivations, never mind he's, at best, a humanoid alien and, at worst, an eldritch abomination. Which isn't to say you can't give an eldritch abomination human motivation. Soul Eater spoiled me by not only proving it can be done, but proving such a thing can still be evil while simultaneously proving an eldritch abomination that has no human motivation can be good.
Honestly, I just kind of want to force a few RotG fanfiction writers to read some old-school Boogieman stories and maybe watch some decent anime.
~*~*~*~
Rant time!
Why the hell aren't more people taking advantage of the fact Pitch Black is the Boogieman? A part of me feels like I'm treading new ground with Tangled Oaths just by making Pitch a truly creepy villain but every time I think that, it's kind of a "Wait, what?" moment for me as well because writing the Boogieman as anything other than creepy is what should be treading new ground.
A part of this, I think, is that Pitch is designed to be sympathetic in the movie and, in the books, ultimately redeemable and people have latched on to that. Add in the fact the movie could only make him so scary while keeping in certain thematic elements *coughdeathscenescough* and still keep a rating aimed at kids and, well, for the most part his bark's worse than his bite in the movie. Despite that, he does have some scenes that are rather creepy and there are a few times when you're pretty certain the heroes might not pull through (especially if you were watching the thing in 3D in the theater and got the distinct feeling you were about to get skewered along side the good guys).
Another part is the modern gothic craze, where scary!cute is a real thing to aim for. It's made things like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Tim Burton, and Monster High popular. It also makes it that much harder to find a truly frightening monster amongst the younger set.
Finally, Pitch in the movie is attractive in the same way Alan Rickman is attractive. He's not conventionally handsome or good-looking, but he's got a lovely voice and a confident way of carrying himself that combines with the fact that he's not ugly to make him attractive, if not outright hot, in some people's eyes. In other words, evil isn't ugly, which isn't a bad thing.
I think my main complaint here isn't that Pitch is good-looking or redeemable, but that many writers in the fandom have caught on to that and clung to it even when they shouldn't have. I shouldn't have to look up old stories to find a frightening Boogieman when there's a fandom where he's a main character and the villain.
To be more blunt, I don't mind stories looking to redeem him. I love that they're trying to work out how that would work. I mind stories that use him as the villain straight up and then water him down by clinging to the facts he's attractive and redeemable. They make me want to roll my eyes and best and back out of the story at worst. He's not redeemed! Not yet, not in canon and certainly not in far too many stories. He's a magnificent bastard of the highest order, delighting in manipulating minds and peoples fears as easily as he manipulates the shadows, and intelligent to boot. Even if you're focusing on the redeemable part, he is, at best, described as a Superman who was corrupted by Evil and, at worst, is a Superman who's little more than a meat puppet for something that is Evil. He should be scaring the crap out of you, not making you wonder why the hell he hasn't joined the good guys yet. But far too often, I'm seeing the later and not the former. It's just... just... why?
And then there are the stories that do it all right, except not. Pitch is being used as the villain in the story, and they acknowledge he might be but he's nowhere close to it yet. And then they forget he's the Boogieman. Honestly, that last bit seems based more on a lack of imagination than anything. They see someone who looks vaguely human and assign him human motivations, never mind he's, at best, a humanoid alien and, at worst, an eldritch abomination. Which isn't to say you can't give an eldritch abomination human motivation. Soul Eater spoiled me by not only proving it can be done, but proving such a thing can still be evil while simultaneously proving an eldritch abomination that has no human motivation can be good.
Honestly, I just kind of want to force a few RotG fanfiction writers to read some old-school Boogieman stories and maybe watch some decent anime.
