Joan of Arcadia
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Joan of Arcadia |
| Abbreviation(s): | JoA |
| Creator: | Barbara Hall |
| Date(s): | September 26, 2003- April 22, 2005 |
| Medium: | live-action TV series |
| Country of Origin: | United States |
| External Links: | IMDB epguides.com |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Joan of Arcadia is an American television fantasy/family drama that aired on CBS for two seasons starring Amber Tamblyn as Joan.
Canon
16-year-old Joan Girardi as she settled into life in a new town (Arcadia), made new friends at the local high school, dealt with all the usual trials and tribulations of growing up. What set the show -- and Joan -- apart was that God talked to her. Pretty often, in fact, and in a number of different guises, from Cute Guy God to Goth Guy God to Little Girl God to Substitute Teacher God to Street Musician God.
The show was also different in that the parents were as important as the kids in JoA, with a separate storyline for at least the dad, Will Girardi, every week. He had moved the family to Arcadia because he got a job there as Chief of Police, and most of his storylines revolved around his police work. (Always visually cued by cool blue lighting; Joan's storyline and the overall family storyline always had warm gold lighting.)
Joan's brothers also got their own storylines, to differing degrees. Kevin, the oldest, had been in a car accident pre-series that left him paralyzed from the waist down, and most of his storyline dealt with his adjusting to a very different life than he'd expected. Luke, the youngest of the three, is also the smartest by far, extremely smart, possibly genius-level. His storylines tended to involve his open-minded approach to life, and the girls he was involved with -- first Glynis, a geek like him, and later Grace, a rebel and poet, and also Joan's best friend.
The Ten Commandments of Joan of Arcadia
The show was created by Barbara Hall, who had a show "bible" that included "The Ten Commandments of Joan of Arcadia"[1], which are also crucial to remember for fanfic:
- God cannot directly intervene.
- Good and evil exist.
- God can never identify one religion as being right.
- The job of every human being is to fulfill his or her true nature.
- Everyone is allowed to say "no" to God, including Joan.
- God is not bound by time. This is a human concept.
- God is not a person and does not possess a human personality.
- God talks to everyone all the time in different ways.
- God's plan is what is good for us, not what is good for him.
- God's purpose for talking to Joan, and everyone, is to get her (us) to recognize the interconnectedness of all things - i.e., you cannot hurt a person without hurting yourself; all of your actions have consequences; God can be found in the smallest actions; God expects us to learn and grow from all our experiences. However, the exact nature of God is a mystery, and the mystery can never be solved.[2]
Joan of Arcadia Fandom
Television Without Pity provided a strong base for the fandom while the show was on the air, with very popular recaps and active forums.
(other fannish bases? lists, ljs?)
Fanfiction
The fanfiction was pretty well distributed across gen and het, with some slash and femslash as well. Most of the fanfic is about the younger characters, although Helen and Will aren't ignored completely.
There was no single OTP in the fandom; the canonical relationships of Joan/Adam and Luke/Grace were popular, but Luke/Glynis, Joan/Grace, Adam/Iris, even the incest pairing of Kevin/Luke have fanfic written about them.
JoA fanfic has dropped off to nearly nothing, except on fanfiction.net, where several stories (or at least chapters of stories) seem to be posted each month.
Fanworks
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Fanvids
- Big Red Boat by Seah & Margie, a cheerful, upbeat vid about Joan.
Fanfiction
- Goodnight, Moon by Yahtzee, an entry in The Day After Tomorrow fanfic challenge of May 2004.
- Home Is Where Your Story Begins by FaithDaria God told Joan, “I said your life will be easier. Easier doesn’t mean better." Words: 38,783 Pairing: Joan/Sam. Crossover with Supernatural
- Salt Of The Earth by yaycoffee Sam and Dean have come to stop the something that is killing co-eds in Nebraska, Joan and Grace are right in the line of fire, and God hasn't so much left the building, as he's being a pain in Joan's rear, giving her a mission for her first college spring break that might just save the world. Words: 20,313. Crossover with Supernatural
Archives & Fannish Links
- Tales of Arcadia (gen, het, slash, incest, crossovers) - a defunct archive
- Joan of Arcadia and crossover works at FFN
- Joan of Arcadia at AO3
- Joan-of-Arcadia, a deviantart club
LiveJournal Communities
- joanofarcadia
- arcadian_tales - fanfiction
- joaslashfic - slash fanfiction
- arcadia100 - drabble challenge
- arcadia_icons - icons
- arcadia_awards - awards
References
- ^ COVER STORY; Plots That Work In Mysterious Ways, New York Times, March 28, 2004. Accessed October 28, 2008.
- ^ Notes on pilot episode writeup, tv.com, accessed October 28, 2008.