The curse of the woobie and other fannish ramblings
If there's one thing that guaranteed to make me squirm, it's infantisation of adult characters in fic. Luke and Han friendship fics feature this all too often. If I read one more where Luke cries, whimpers, tells Han he's scared, or otherwise behaves with OOC levels of childlike neediness, I will... probably cringe and hit the back button. (Fear my clicking!) It pops up in 'ship fic, too, and in fact I have a sneaking suspicion it's an old romance trope refitted to new purposes. I know people like their comfort!fic, and I've got to admit I've read and liked a few in my time, but it has to be done in a way that handles the characters with a modicum of dignity. I mean, really, can anyone seriously see Han hanging around to devotedly mop Luke's angst-ridden tears? The mind boggles.
Work today was made more pungent than usual by a dead possum in the ceiling, which was after much consultation eventually located and removed. And there was much rejoicing, because -- pungent. And none of my stories lately seem to want to end properly, which is a touch frustrating.
Flicked through Omen. Mentions of Mara are a good thing, though Golden seems to have an unfortunate tendency to refer to characters' hair and eye colour quite frequently and gratuitously, as in 'Luke quirked a blond eyebrow, blah Ben auburn hair'. That usually sets off alarm bells, but I'll give her the benefit of doubt a little longer. Her Voyager work is mostly a haze, but I didn't dislike it, and at least she didn't kill off any major characters (looking at you, subsequent Voyager writers). I'm also re-reading Invincible for fic-related purposes, apparently because I like inflicting such things on myself. *facepalm* Jaina's POV is much better there than in Revelation, but there's still some oddness in how she views her parents and in Denning's inevitable strange quirks. (Ack, the next FOTJ book is Denning, isn't it?) I'd like to see some of the issues that book raises (Ben's torture and amazingly speedy recovery, Luke's use of power and his parallels with Jacen) properly explored in canon, but whether they will be is anyone's guess.
Work today was made more pungent than usual by a dead possum in the ceiling, which was after much consultation eventually located and removed. And there was much rejoicing, because -- pungent. And none of my stories lately seem to want to end properly, which is a touch frustrating.
Flicked through Omen. Mentions of Mara are a good thing, though Golden seems to have an unfortunate tendency to refer to characters' hair and eye colour quite frequently and gratuitously, as in 'Luke quirked a blond eyebrow, blah Ben auburn hair'. That usually sets off alarm bells, but I'll give her the benefit of doubt a little longer. Her Voyager work is mostly a haze, but I didn't dislike it, and at least she didn't kill off any major characters (looking at you, subsequent Voyager writers). I'm also re-reading Invincible for fic-related purposes, apparently because I like inflicting such things on myself. *facepalm* Jaina's POV is much better there than in Revelation, but there's still some oddness in how she views her parents and in Denning's inevitable strange quirks. (Ack, the next FOTJ book is Denning, isn't it?) I'd like to see some of the issues that book raises (Ben's torture and amazingly speedy recovery, Luke's use of power and his parallels with Jacen) properly explored in canon, but whether they will be is anyone's guess.