Fandom Snowflake 2025 Challenge #3

[scrubjayspeaks]

Challenge #3

In your own space, talk about a fannish opinion you hold that has changed over time. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I used to be much more snobbish about adaptations. In fairness, some of this was born out of the very bad, ham-fisted dubbing that was done to anime when it first started gaining traction on network tv. To be an anime fan in the '90s was to be contemptuous of American corporate translation and voice acting hack jobs.

This was also an era when movie or (less commonly) tv adaptations were met with sneers of "the book is better." Which was often true! This was a reaction founded on very real experiences of seeing something you loved mangled by people who a) didn't understand it, b) didn't respect it, or c) thought fans of it were idiots (albeit idiots with disposable income), or some combination of the above.

It was still, however, a knee-jerk reaction that had less to do with the actual quality of the thing and more to do with performative high standards. It was a way of proving you Knew Better™.

And y'all, that is so tedious. It is so much more fun to be happy about things. But also, sometimes adaptations are good? Sometimes, even the ones that depart significantly from the source material?

The dub of Yu Yu Hakusho was genuinely good, from a translation/regionalization and performance standpoint. The movie adaptation of The Martian makes changes to the pacing and plot to better fit the medium, and it makes for a better movie. Slavish adherence to the source material, especially when changing mediums, typically makes for a worse end result.

I'd much rather, these days, see an adaptation that understands the heart of the story being told and prioritizes preserving that. Give me the part of the story that made me care, and I don't mind how much window dressing you change. Show me that you, too, understood why this story mattered and that you love it as I do.

This, incidentally, is how you get really good, bonkers adaptations of classics. Go nuts!