So the novel Pride and Prejudice I was not a huge fan of but I definitely enjoyed it more than than the Lizzie Bennett Diaries. The fanfics that I read were pretty good too. I think the reason that I enjoyed the book and the fanfics a little bit more than the vlog was because I could put my own spin on things. What I mean by this is, when I read a book I can picture the characters in my head and see them more how I want to. In the vlog videos, I had no say, Lizzie was who she was and I just had to sit and watch. My main complaint with the diaries was with the characters so I think the fact I could not picture them myself made me dislike them more and it wasn't as open to interpretation. If I had seen the diaries before I had read the book then my opinion would be completely different. I think I am biased towards what I experience first. But that kind of makes sense because in my mind that first version worked well and I enjoyed it so why change a good thing?
Some of the changes that were made in the fanfics were interesting, especially the plots (Prom and Canada?) I never take fanfics to seriously because if I start reading and decide I don't like it then I stop and pick a new one. In the Prom fanfic, Kitty and Lydia were not sisters, Lydia was a cousin and Kitty was some girl that went to the school. Since Kitty is not a very important character she usually gets cut or changed. In the diaries, she was an actual cat. Lydia is a bit more important but still not a "main" character so they made her into a family member, just not direct family.
In the fanfic Duty Calls, Lizzy and Darcy are much closer pretty immediately in the story. Lizzy is running from her mom because she doesn't want to marry Mr. Collins and Darcy helps to hide her from her mother. They seem to hit it off right away instead of having the awkward first encounter.
In the stories I read, it is still a very important plot point for Darcy to try to break up Jane and Bingley and of course the romance between Darcy and Lizzy. The only differences are the setting and reasons why.
I agree with you that the setting of the fanfics like the prom was very interesting! I also believe that the fanfic kept an important part, which was when Lizzy found out that Darcy was the reason why Bingley broke up with Jane. This is my first time reading a fanfic and I always assumed they were going to be about the authors love for a certain character.
ReplyDeleteWait, Kitty was a literal cat in the diaries? I never even noticed that. That's actually really funny. Diminishing her character to a pet just because she matters so little to the story... I love it.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think I liked the diaries a LITTLE more than the fan fiction (at least, the latter half of them) but I can definitely see where you're coming from. I've never been a massive fan of film adaptations of books for similar reasons to why you liked the book and fanfics more- for example, when I was younger I used to hate the Harry Potter movies because they would gloss over or skip scenes, or change certain interactions to have different characters. That always bothered me.