 A filmmaker is screwing around with one of my most beloved fandoms and she doesn't like it. Is this really important, you ask? Isn't this the same girl who is attempting a crossover with almost every fandom known to man? Isn't this the same girl who is in the midst of a Star Wars AU where Padme makes a GOOD decision about the men in her life? And, most importantly, isn't this the girl who, by her own admission, has written a large story that is somewhat AU in the very same fandom she is ranting about?
The answer to all these question is yes. But I have a reason for
all of them. The crossovers? I've never said they were canon. So
they don't count. The Star Wars story? Well, if Lucas wouldn't so
thoroughly screw things up, I wouldn't have to fix them, now would I?
As for my 'Anne of Green Gables' story.......I have done some
thinking about this. My story is set AFTER the original books. L.M. Montgomery, while she did mention things here and there in her
numerous short stories that pertained to Anne Shirley's grandchildren,
never really expanded on that. Plus.....I'm not making money off it.
So it's cool.
Out of all the fandoms I have written for, L.M. Montgomery is
probably where I am the most strict. Why is that, you ask? Well,
here's the deal. I like Tolkien. I love Lewis. But LM Montgomery
was the writer that really inspired me to write. She was the one who
showed me how beautifully somone could craft a mental image, a living
character, for a reader.
And Kevin Sullivan, idiot at large, is ruining it.
In canon (in the books), after a long drawn-out process, Anne
Shirley marries Gilbert Blythe around 1885, 1890. They proceed to
have seven children, six of whom live past infancy. Jem, Walter, Nan
and Di (twins), Shirley, and Rilla. The last two books in the series
focus on the children. The very last one specifically on Rilla who
'comes of age' just as WWI breaks out. Jem, Walter, and Shirley all
go off to fight. Walter is killed during the Battle of Courcelette.
Jem and Shirley survive. Rilla is engaged by the end of the book. In
a nutshell.
Kevin Sullivan has done three Anne films already. The first two
were good. He made a few changes here and there. But the overall
spirit of the Anne books remained. The third one was a complete
disaster. He decided he was Gene Roddenberry and so messed with the
space-time continuum. Suddenly, Gilbert and Anne are in their 20's
and still not married when WWI breaks out. Anne, even though she
isn't married to him, goes to NYC with Gilbert to try and be a writer
for a newspaper. Alright, that's wrong. Even though they're not
living in the same apartment, no woman from a tiny little town could
run off with a man she wasn't married to in 1914 and not get her
reputation totally trashed. Sorry. No. And if that wasn't enough,
KS decides to throw a wrench in the Gilbert/Anne story with some new
character that he invented who's an editor and has a crush on Anne.
 Anne's best friend has turned into a total.....well, I can't say
what she's turned into. Her husband is downtrodden. Anne and Gilbert
go back to the Island and finally get married the day before Gilbert
ships out as a doctor in the Army. Later, he goes missing and Anne
winds up going to Europe to find him WITH THE EDITOR FROM NYC!!!! Who
is now a spy for the CIA, of course. The Marty Stu. Anyway, they
wind up reuniting, Marty Stu gets killed (because all spies get killed
unless their name is Bond), Anne and Gilbert adopt Marty Stu's three
year old son, Dominic Stu, and they all head home to happy PEI.
If we were gonna go all AU, I could've written a better storyline
than that. What gets me is that this man MAKES MONEY off this. Which
should be illegal, because he's trashing the entire ideal of LM
Montgomery.
Now he's making ANOTHER movie. Presumably because he doesn't have
anything original to ruin. This will focus on Anne's life as a young
orphan before coming to Green Gables. I'm cool with that. LM
Montgomery gave info here and there, but the details are open to
interpretation. But he's bookending the main plot with Anne in her
60's. And here's the scoop. Gilbert died at the end of WWII. Anne's
all alone. She's almost completely lost touch with her adopted son,
Dominic, who lives in France (because that's where all wimps live).
Her three other children live far way and are pre-occupied with their
families........it's just all insane and stupid and it truly almost
makes me sick. As my sister says, it makes my heart sad. It really
does. Because for some people, this might be their first contact with
Anne of Green Gables. And what they'll get is something twisted and
incorrect.
And I'm probably overreacting, but I just feel very strongly about
this subject. There are a few people in life that you just don't mess
with around me. Michael Crawford, Judy Garland, and L.M. Montgomery
just all rank at the very top of the list.
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