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Saturday, January 25, 2003
I definitely did not plan to have a fully-developed (or semi-fully developed) Newsieverse on my hands when I got bored and started reading fanfics. I really didn't think that it was going to explode like this... I mean, I thought maybe, because let's face it, I get obsessive. But this is ridiculous.Anyway. Character readings and whatnot. Yay!
Blink and Mush. I love them. They're really pretty minor in the movie, but they're at least named and have some sort of personality, unlike most of the people, who you have to watch in a frame-by-frame to figure out. Basically, I see them as, er...
Well, Blink is well-meaning, kinda dumb, and a bit of a manwhore. ("Blink's type isn't so much girls, or boys, or anything as it is, well, willing. Preferably, willing and pretty, but mostly just willing.") I also peg him as an acidental fight-started ("What? That was your sandwich? Oh, sorry.") who gets really mean in a fight to make up for the fact that he only has one eye and thus a handicap: his depth perception isn't great and he's got a huge blind spot. Furthermore, he's cheerfully oblivious, especially to the fact that he luuuuuuurves Mush. (Which he does.) He's closed-mouthed about his past, but his mom ran out and left him with his father, a fairly violent alcoholic. After losing his job, he came home really drunk one night, got into a fight with Blink (real name, Ryan) grabbed a knife, and ended up doing permanent damage to Blink's eye. He's incredibly sensative about this, and wears the eyepatch because he doesn't want anyone to see the really gross scars. The only one he's told about it was Mush. Because, like I said, they're in luuuuuurve.
And then there's Mush. Mush is not, at all, oblivious to being in love with Blink--sadly. The only thing he's really oblivious to is that Blink is bi; he's convinced that no matter how much he loves his best friend, he'll never be looked at "in that way." And so Mush has issues and is frequently depressed, poor guy, but is pretty much The Nice Guy. He's always willing to share his meal, his bunk, whatever; he looks after most of the littlest kids in the lodging house; he's generally adorable and wonderful. He mothers the other guys too much sometimes, and gets smacked around for his pain (he is totally their bitch...) but he loves making everyone else happy, so it's okay. He's somewhat shy and quiet as well, but willing to stand up and fight when someone he cares about is in trouble. Usually Blink. (Oh, and in my head his real name is Nick.)
So pretty much, there's a whole lot of romantic tension between those two. Not that Blink notices it... They're best friends, ridiculously close, and either would kill for the other. (And yes, in my newsieverse, they do get together. After they get into a huge fight in what I've deemed the Newsie Civil War, Spot gets sick of them and locks them in a room together for 14 hours. When he finally lets them out, they're cheerfully dozing [shirtless] in a bed together, having worked everything out. Awwwww.)
Lessee... Spot Conlon is the Brooklyn leader, duh. I save almost all of my pictures of him as PunkassBrooklyn.jpg, because he is. He's a walking, talking, authority-defying, um... Jerk, kinda. He's got a bit of a Napoleon complex, as he's really short for his age, but don't bring that up, because he'll kick your ass. And he will, too; despite his size, he's probably the best street fighter in the city. He's the leader in Brooklyn because he was the only one would could beat everyone into submission, and his whole reputation is built on the fact. So the fact that he's sometimes nice and surprisingly insightful get lost in the shuffle, but he's actually quite good at reading people and manipulating them... And hey, if that fails, there's always the slingshot. He and Race have this wierd, quasi-relationship thing going, but pretty much, he's just a badass supporting character.
Jack, Les, David and Crutchy, for some reason, are barely present in my newsieverse. Jack, in fact, takes off about a year after the strike. David goes back to school a few months after, too. (As does Les, I suppose.) Jack grows up to be a ranch hand in New Mexico, David a journalist for the Washington Post, and Les is a vaudeville actor (partners with Blink, actually.) Crutchy... Um... Holds no interest for me.
And then there's Racetrack. Ahhhh, Racetrack. He's my favorite, because he's the sarcastic, smug, chard cheat. And anyone who knows me, knows that spells "adorable" in my book. (Yeah, I've got issues.) But in my head, his actual name is Anthony Verdi--yeah, he's Italian. Anyone surprised? No? Okay. He's from a surprisingly wealthy family, and was well educated, but his family was strictly religious, which posed problems... Race met this kid named Jeremy Higgins, who proved to be a terrible influence, what with the teaching him to play cards, taking him to the races, and all... And, because I occasionally get wierd slash obsessions (shut up,) Race kind of realized that he had a thing for Jeremy, which his family, who were already pretty pissed at him, thought was bad and wrong and all. Not that he told them. Instead of waiting around for his heart to be broken, he ran away and ended up a newsie, where he was finally happy. (Eventually--there's a really heartwrenching month or so where Jeremy breaks his heart.) He also took the name Higgins for himself when he first got to the lodging house in case his parents came looking for him.
Racetrack is a cheat at cards. He's really good with math and numbers, so he counts cards as well; he uses fixed dice, he likes to gamble. He always wins, pretty much... But he's also generous with his money, since his gambling means he has more than most of the newsies; he frequently loans money to kids who can't afford to buy papers, or get a meal, or pay rent for the lodging house, and then "forgets," to demand he be paid back. Only a few people have noticed him doing this, though... His poker playing also extends to being pretty good at reading people's faces, he can usually tell when people are lying to him and when he matures a bit will be surprisingly observant. (He totally calls Mush and Blink, but so does everyone else.)
More about various storylines I'm kicking around in my newsieverse later. I have to do my homework. Sadly. But all that said, Stop me before I kill again. Or something.
Becky had too much free time at 10:18 PM
Friday, January 17, 2003
Incidentally, the slashy newsies fanfic I'm not writing? Just hit page thirty. *sigh*Becky had too much free time at 1:12 AM
Monday, January 13, 2003
...And then, sometimes Blogger just eats things. Hrrrrrm.I just posted something very brief about revising my slash opinions in Newsies. For one, I can't believe I've spent this much time thinking about Newsies slash. It can't be healthy, especially since I don't especially want to read about it, unless it's very well done. But then, that's how I feel about slash in general... Fanfic in general, I guess. And yet, Newsies only seems to have two fanfic story lines; either they're slash or they're Mary Sues. I swear, there's nothing else in the whole fandom that I've seen so far... I don't see why people can't just write nice, cannon-based stories. I mean, isn't the point of fanfics that you want to play in someone else's universe? Why go changing things, then? Seems a bit odd to me... I'm addicted to them anyway, but it does strike me as odd.
But about the Slash opinion... I'm not so sure that Spot/Race actually works that well, since we never see them interact in the movie. I could imagine how they'd play off each other, and think they'd make an interesting team in a hero/sidekick situation, given that you'd have The Tough Guy (spot) and The Comic Relief (Race), but I don't know if that would really translate to slash all that well... I think Jack/Spot would work better in a lot of ways, since we actually see them talk to each other.
Incidentally, until I started thinking about this, I never realized how minor a character Spot really is--he's pivitol, but only in a few scenes. He doesn't sing or dance; he sings exactly one line in the whole movie ("porcelain tub with boiling water") and disappears during the dance number. He's still one of my favorite characters, though; possibly only Racetrack surpasses him. (I just don't like David or Jack that much. I mean, I think Christian Bale is adorable, but the character doesn't interest me as much.)
Becky had too much free time at 11:30 AM
Thursday, January 09, 2003
I will not write Newsies fanfics. I will not write Newsies fanfics. I will. Not. Write. Newsies. Fanfics.I finally figured out who I'd slash, though, after I ran across it in a random fic. Spot/Race, definitely. Maaaaaaybe Race/Jack or Jack/Spot, but I doubt the last one. (It's too bad the fic was so badly written. I'm sorry, but Spot and Race are Two Guys. They don't cry. Nope. Not what they do. Mush or Blink, sure; but Spot? Race? No. Oh, and Jack and Davey would both cry, though Jack would pretend he wasn't. Davey's just a big dork. Heh. But Race and Spot wouldn't cry, and thus the fic sucked. I mean, it pretty much sucked anyway, but still.)
Will not write slashy newsies fanfics, will not write slashy newsies fanfic....
Becky had too much free time at 1:29 AM
Monday, January 06, 2003
Just a quick note; I updated the art lists at the side, so they include all of my randomness from the last semester. I also moved some things (maps, comic pages, etc) to another directory.Becky had too much free time at 11:25 PM
Sunday, January 05, 2003
You know what kind of blows my mind? I could probably claim I have three manuscripts done. Very rough first drafts, of course, but done nonetheless... Well, two and a half; the Saga Season One is in the totally wrong format, but it's basically a manuscript. Sort of. But there's that, and my two NaNo novels... Actually, right now, I'd say my 2001 NaNoNovel is the best of the three; then the Saga and then 2002. But that's because I haven't had the heart to go back and reread 2002 yet... Leah says it's not all that bad, but I'm pretty sure it's terrible. (Also, I think the 2001 one has the most salable plot of the three, if I can get it cleaned up someday...)But in terms of Temira (AKA, the novels I *want* to write and publish someday) I have a pretty decent amount to work with... Lots of ideas. The round-up, chronologically:
Jevery's Story (AKA, The Rift)
Islan's Story (The rebellion on Kalatsu)
Arant's Story (Daevan Part One)
Kara's Story (Daevan Part Two)
Kaiya's Story (Well... Backstory)
Kalin's Story (Saga Season One)
Islana's/Cleran's Story (Saga Season Two)
Avrim's Story (AKA Return of the Rift; possibly Saga Season Three)
...and I'm pretty sure there will be more someday.
Oh, and I cleaned the map up. Thoughts and comments are appreciated, if you happen to have any... Oh, and the green squidgy bits are forests. I know it's hard to tell. And somehow, the layers got out of order, so you can't see the label on the city out in the desert. It's Chyronia, Arant's hometown.
Becky had too much free time at 12:03 AM