fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2287 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2287 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

How do you guys handle getting into canons with lots of backstory, like comics or long-running shows?

As someone who's doing the ultimate archive binge (25 years' worth of DCU continuity, and it's taken me a year to even get close to finishing) I find it's easiest to do it in blocks. Don't try and charge through the whole thing at once. Like for example a TV show, maybe finish a season, take a break, do the next season later. (This helps boost the impact of the cliffhangers too!) To use my DCU project as an example, I'll often take breaks after major crossover storylines, like after the Our Worlds At War event I put the whole thing down for a bit to read through Invincible, which is only 100 issues so far (well, #101 just came out.)

tl;dr do it in segments and take your time

I shot through six years of almost-daily Sluggy Freelance strips in two weeks.

My method sucks.

In comics especially, I've found that long running series normally have 'jumping in' points that publishers do so that new readers can start from there and not be so intimidated or start from the beginning.

All Hail Megatron was one from Transformers, as it's considered a 'soft reboot' of sorts. I got into the IDW comics from there and used the TFwiki to fill in the gaps until I could read everything before hand.

So my method is just pick a point to start and read back issues and use the internet to help.

Mostly I just jump in and figure things out from context as I go along.

If it's big enough to have a presence on Wikipedia or it's own devoted wiki (that doesn't suck), I'll use that when I'm confused. If not, I'll ask when things come up that are both important and not clear from context. (Or look like they'd have an interesting backstory.)

I can think of two cases where I didn't do this, both web comics - Guilded Age (a relatively quick archive binge, over the course of a week - would have been faster if my internet hadn't been fucked at the time), and Homestuck (a few weeks of hard binging). I don't regret either of those binges, but I don't think I'll be making that a habit.

I used to be all READ/WATCH EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE until a few years ago but now I like to take my time. It's not like it's going anywhere, and that way I can appreciate more subtleties.
The occasional bingeing still happens though.

Just dive in and what I don't know, I use wiki. Like I went into Supernatural in the sixth season. I had over a hundred episodes to catch up on. It wasn't a problem. If you like a show/movie/book that has a great deal of canon, you aren't going to hate that it has so much in the end, you are going to be grateful because it means you have that much more to enjoy.

I like to start at the beginning, if possible. With SVU I just watched the marathons on USA one summer until I'd seen just about everything, but once I started getting into the whole Law & Order franchise I went back to the beginning and watched the first 8 seasons of the original on Netflix (that's all they had), then moved on to Criminal Intent while I was saving up for the DVD set. Now I've got two seasons left to watch of CI before I go back and watch the rest of the mothership.

In the meantime I've seen enough reruns to know who the main characters were throughout the series, but I like to watch things from start to finish to see how each character and storyline actually progressed. Especially with the original L&O, since character development is so blink-and-you-missed-it. Seriously, I would've missed Jack and Claire's entire relationship had fandom not told me it was there.

Comics are fucking daunting and that's why I haven't read many of them. I was going through Deadpool's stuff and had found a list of all his appearances; I copied and pasted that into word then deleted the names of what I read as I read them. That was easy, but there's SO MUCH STUFF.

With The Authority I used wikipedia to find out what existed and in what order I should read the comics and that was a great help. I read it pretty much all at once (save some singe issue crossovers and the like; I simply couldn't find them) and while I enjoyed it, I felt burnt-out about comics for a while after finishing. (And it wasn't even that long.)

Shows are simpler imo, because usually they're easier to find and the order of the episodes is super easy to keep track of because of IMDB. However...if you decide to start watching something that has at least several seasons under it's belt, that's still many hours of television and a lot of information to retain. (Most shows I watch I've watched from the beginning or started in the first couple of seasons. If it's longer than a couple seasons I rarely get around to it.)

With TV, usually I'll be doing it to get into the fanfic, so I might find out what important plot/character episodes are and watch those to get a feel of things. If I'm just watching/reading it because I like it I'll do just that. But I'll always try to watch/read something in order, otherwise I just get confused or frustrated.

[ SECRET POST #2287 ]

Archive Binge

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