Actually, rather than a sad rant about The Watch, I’m going to try and explain why I think it could have been predicted fans would react badly to the trailer, based on what I’ve learned about fanfiction. (Thread, 1/21)

Adaptations and fanfiction are both transformative works. You take a story, and do something to change it, even if that something is just translation to a different medium. You can’t just transplant book to screen, it has to be changed sensitively, or it will just be bad. (2/21)

You can change an awful lot, and still have something be recognisable as a faithful transformation of the source text, but there’s a point where that stops. What is that point? (3/21)

For example, a well known genre of fanfiction is the ‘alternate universe’, or AU, where the setting is entirely different. But the key thing is that something in there is still recognisable. What is that? (4/21)

Preface this by saying: many scholars study fanfiction. This isn’t my academic area, though I have heard presentations on it at fan studies conferences. So what I’m about to say is influenced by others far more expert than me, and I wish I could remember who they all are. (5/21)

For me, I think there are four axes on which you can change things in a transformative work – the story, the setting, the characters, the themes. And I think for something to be recognisable, you need to keep at least one or two of those identical. (6/21)

For example; you can rewrite Romeo and Juliet so it takes place in modern times, or in Switzerland, or in space. That’s the setting. (7/21)

You can imagine a version where the messenger was just that bit more efficient, and it all ended happily. Or you can write what happened next, after the play ends. That’s changing the story. (8/19)

For theme: What if you do a version of Romeo and Juliet but lose the bit about warring families, or decide the love bit is irrelevant, or that you’re not interested in the aspects around fate or identity? Or turn it into a comedy? (9/21)

Character is trickier, it’s often a case of ‘know it when I see it’ and may be different for different people. What if Romeo and Juliet have different names, or are a different age, or decide to break up because they’re from warring households? (but die anyway). (10/21)

In fanfic, you often find writers will latch onto particular characteristics used as shorthand for identity. This character likes sweets, that one is always kind, that one makes these jokes. But good writers’ characters react in predictable ways, like a real person might. (11/21)

So, you can change any of these. But you need to keep at least one, and preferably two. You can mess with the others as much as you like as long as one is untouched. But tweak them all even just a little bit? You’re in trouble. (12/21)

In 2008, when The Watch was first announced, it was going to be new stories continuing the characters of the City Watch after the books. That’s fine, that’s changing the story, while keeping the characters and setting (and potentially the themes). (13/21)

In 2012 it became apparent plans had changed, and now it was going to be a looser adaptation, telling some of the stories from various books, potentially with some new characters. Also fine. (14/21)

At the 2018 Discworld Convention, we heard a presentation about the current version. This sounded more radical – described as playing with the medium of TV in the same way the books played with novels. (15/21)

It sounded like the setting might be different, but crucially, the themes and intrinsic nature of the characters (Vimes at least) seemed to be retained. (16/21)

When casting was announced, people had doubts. These didn’t seem to be actors who would find it easy to portray the fundamental aspects of the characters; Cheery is a (non-adopted) Dwarf, so should be short. Lady Sybil’s age and weight are the underpinnings of who she is. (17/21)

So now we’ve got story and character changed. And early photos also showed us a very different seeming Ankh Morpork, with aesthetics and technology that don’t match the books (and if you know the books, you know the tech aspect is important). So we’ve changed setting too. (18/21)

Finally, we have the trailer. It shows these characters acting in ways fundamentally against their identity, in a strange setting, telling a story that’s been combined from several books. (19/21)

And crucially, it is also strongly implied from what is portrayed in the trailer that the adaptation has not captured the *themes* of the work. (For what these are, see the thread I retweeted earlier). (20/21)

Every single aspect of the adaptation has moved away, in one way or another, from what makes something recognisably Discworld. But it’s close enough to be uncomfortable, in a textual uncanny valley. No wonder people are disappointed. And that’s why I am, too. (21/21)