Throwback Thursday, Fandom Edition: "In the name of the Most Supreme Powers of Evil"

[nevanna]

I wrote about the Dark Lord Fred, the subject of my not-quite-fanfiction as a young teenager, which inevitably owed a lot to the Harry Potter books. In the process, I rediscovered a throwaway scene that gave me more Feelings than I expected.

Comments

[flo_nelja]

Now I'm wondering which big bads have the more boring sounding names. :D
Bill from Gravity Falls and Bob from Twin Peaks come to mind.

[nevanna]

I love that Bill has such an ordinary-sounding name! And although I've always known that Twin Peaks was a huge influence on Gravity Falls, it's been on my radar lately because of David Lynch's passing, and I'm very interested in giving it a watch.

[flo_nelja]

Ooh yeah, I'm rewatching it right now (for reasons unrelated to David Lynch's sad passing), so if you want to talk about it, it'll be fresh in my mind!

Bill is my second villain named Bill I have a ship with. I finally convinced myself it didn't sound weird, but for a long time, it was "Bill Cipher", not Bill, to have a bit of coolness in the name.

Maybe it's also the thing, maybe we're rarely in a first name basis with the bad guys :D
I mean, Voldemort was called Tom, he just doesn't ask people to call him this way.

[nightforest]

I suspect you'll enjoy Twin Peaks! Please feel free to talk to me about it if you give it a shot. I haven't seen it recently enough/enough times to remember every minute detail (I'm really due for a rewatch, but I'm not sure it's going to happen anytime soon) but I've seen it enough times to remember a fair amount.

[nightforest]

This was so fun! I really like the trope subversion of a dark lord with an ordinary name ("the ancient sword Steve" also made me grin). The classes at evil prep school are fun, too. And I think "Ludicrous Speed" is a great band name. I was and I think still am very prone to inserting random references to stuff I'm enjoying into my fanfic, because it gives me joy. :)

I never worried that I was too invested in fiction per se, but I had a lot of adjacent fears, which I think you know about or you can definitely guess at.

Thanks for sharing this! I really enjoyed both the snippets and your thoughts.