rhodrymavelyne

One of the few places I’ve managed to distract myself from this epidemic is in front of the television, playing old favorite series on TV/BluRay, often mingling with new ones. New, however, is relative. I often discover a series years after it’s gone off the air. Somehow I missed both Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls when they were airing. This may have been my fault. I was utterly obsessed with The Keep (a private yaoi fantasy interactive writing/roleplaying game I was involved with) around that time. Or was I? I may have been in the thrall of passion for Yami no Matsuei/Descendants of Darkness or Tokyo Babylon, discoveries at my first YaoiCon. Or I may have been too burnt out on the double-standard on western television, the tendency to always pair up male and female characters if they had the slightest chemistry (or no chemistry) while disregarding or trying to deny powerful chemistry between male or female characters, often with a contrived romantic interest of the opposite gender. I wasn’t feeling very enthusiastic about any new shows on TV out of my growing disillusionment with this. The result was I didn’t catch Dead Like Me or Wonderfalls while they were airing. I discovered Wonderfalls years later when Bryan Fuller mentioned it during the commentary of Hannibal Season 1: Apertíf. I tracked the first episode down on Youtube and watched it with my husband. We decided to buy it. Being intrigued by all things Bryan Fuller, I watched the pilot of Dead Like Me, too. I asked my husband to get it for me for my birthday. Dead Like Me wasn’t like anything I’d ever seen before while Wonderfalls had a certain wacky weirdness that reminded me of Twin Peaks, yet with its own unique characters and mood. (It turns out Todd Holland, the co-creator of Wonderfalls directed some of my favorite episodes of Twin Peaks.) Jaye Tyler was an intriguing lead character, a deliberate anti-social whose life style is challenged by her new ability. As for George Lass, I fell in love with George’s punky snarkiness which hides a surprisingly soft heart and philosophical mind. I enjoyed how both series mingled the supernatural with the everyday or common human themes.

I wanted to write a Wonderfalls/Dead Like Me crossover. I wanted Jaye and George to meet, but none of the ideas I had interested me enough to pour my energy into a fanfic. It wasn’t until lockdown, watching a lot of old favorites to escape from my own frustration and fear, that a plot idea finally grabbed me.

I’ve already started an ongoing fanfic called Sisterhood of the Witchblade, inspired by similaries I saw between Sara Pezzini, the lead character of Witchblade (Yancy Butler’s depiction on the TV show) and Kate Lockley, a very interesting character on Angel who disappeared after the second season. Drawing Kate into this sisterhood seemed like an intriguing direction to take her character, especially after her old life in Los Angeles as a cop came to an end, along with a way to empower her. Giving Sara Pezzini another little sister, one more like herself, seemed like a compelling emotional connection in her life. Most of the others Sara has on the TV show are with men, not that those bonds arent’ compelling, but this might be give her something different. Linking them both to the Witchblade offered an opportunity to write something surreal and dreamlike which really appealed to me. (I wrote a past Flight of Fanciful Fandom about this idea).

I couldn’t get farther from the mood of Witchblade than Jaye Tyler’s life as a retail clerk or even George Lass’s often mundane afterlife as a Grim Reaper and a Happy Time employee. Yet all of these shows; Witchblade, Angel (when Kate was there), Wonderfalls, and Dead Like Me were around the same time period. Ellen Muth, who played George, reminded me a little of Yancy Butler. Jaye Tyler’s concept of hearing voices was inspired by Joan of Arc. Joan of Arc was once a wielder of the Witchblade. What if George, her sister, Reggie, and Jaye were all part of the Sisterhood of the Witchblade, only with different roles to play than the wielder? The Witchblade weaves a web, to quote Dominique Bouchier. What if it’s drawing all of these women together, arranging for them to meet? What if the Witchblade is connected to the same power that allows Jaye to hear the voices of wax lions, metal monkeys, and other animal renditions with a mouth? The way those voices speak to Jaye are vastly different than those Sara hears. The moods of both Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me are vastly different than Witchblade or Angel. Bringing these universes together is going to be quite a challenge. Perhaps the contrast itself is the key, the way Sara and Kate’s existences differ from Jaye and George’s. Besides I doubt either Rube or Death, George’s current employers are going to happy about another higher power drawing her into a web.

No, it’s not going to be easy, but I think it’ll add complexity to Sisterhood of the Witchblade, not to mention giving it focus and direction. I am, after all, writing about a sisterhood. Why shouldn’t it have more than two sisters, even if they’re not literal sisters?

Yes, it’s going to be challenging, but it should be rewarding.

Wish me luck.