![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
auronluI was just handwaving a festival scene, but I suddenly asked myself, "Wait, why am I handwaving this?" Then I got to thinking.
It occurs to me that while many video games have festivals, weddings, concerts, celebrations, or the token End of Star Wars Parade scene (often deconstructed, as with the wedding at the beginning of FFXII), fanfiction seldom represents these kinds of scenes.
I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because it's better onscreen than in prose. Maybe it's because we tend to write what canon failed to treat adequately, rather than the things it covered in detail (hence the tendency to ship non-canon). Maybe it's because some of them are painfully cheesy. But I think there could be as many ways to use them as battle sequences or pub/inn scenes.
Or maybe I'm just blanking, and celebration/festival scenes are more common in fanfic than I'm remembering.
The things that stand out in these celebration scenes are: (a) the characters can behave in a public yet private context, because in large groups few people tend to notice you, (b) celebrations tend to involve lowering inhibitions, so characters show a different side of themselves (c) while most narrative tends to focus on personal interactions between individuals, big festival scenes embed the personal experiences of the characters within their community or culture and (d) festivals and celebrations often display elements of a culture including art, symbols, values, music, legends, myths, spiritual beliefs and practices, so they are an excellent set-piece for worldbuilding and context.
It occurs to me that while many video games have festivals, weddings, concerts, celebrations, or the token End of Star Wars Parade scene (often deconstructed, as with the wedding at the beginning of FFXII), fanfiction seldom represents these kinds of scenes.
I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because it's better onscreen than in prose. Maybe it's because we tend to write what canon failed to treat adequately, rather than the things it covered in detail (hence the tendency to ship non-canon). Maybe it's because some of them are painfully cheesy. But I think there could be as many ways to use them as battle sequences or pub/inn scenes.
Or maybe I'm just blanking, and celebration/festival scenes are more common in fanfic than I'm remembering.
The things that stand out in these celebration scenes are: (a) the characters can behave in a public yet private context, because in large groups few people tend to notice you, (b) celebrations tend to involve lowering inhibitions, so characters show a different side of themselves (c) while most narrative tends to focus on personal interactions between individuals, big festival scenes embed the personal experiences of the characters within their community or culture and (d) festivals and celebrations often display elements of a culture including art, symbols, values, music, legends, myths, spiritual beliefs and practices, so they are an excellent set-piece for worldbuilding and context.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-16 07:37 am (UTC)I agree that festivals make for settings for fanfic -- agreement for all the reasons you said. I'm wondering why we don't see much of it. Is it because many of those scenes lack inherent conflict???
If a wedding or similar celebration is happening in a video game, it often signifies a successful conclusion or coming together, which isn't very conflict rich.
The Yuna & Seymour wedding, of course, is ALL about conflict and a quick search brings up a lot of fic covering this.
But, yeah, I think the writer would need to inject conflict into the scene. I have a piece of fic that takes place during the Ashe/Rasler wedding parade that is waiting for me to have more time to finish it. I did need to inject conflict into it (search on this page for "Character-study vignette for NTP prompt (Penelo & Rasler, Autumn leaves all around)" and see the random comments between me and others down below for what I was thinking -- it's more about Penelo wanting to see who this Prince Rasler is because he's the reason Dalmasca might be dragged into a larger war).
no subject
Date: 2011-12-16 03:45 pm (UTC)And mine only works because it's a Calm Festival: Spira is celebrating, but the surviving guardians, the protagonists, are mourning.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-16 03:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-16 03:42 pm (UTC)Apparently the cheesy has it.
Also, crowd control, yes. It is sooooo much easier to write individual character interactions than crowds. In that case, I think the answer may be characterCam, er, character POV in context of crowd, but still.