(no subject)
I'm not really sure why, but today I had a serious desire to read as much Generation Kill fic as I possibly could. So I did. I read a lot. Tons. I think at one point, I had five different windows each with somewhere between 15-20 tabs open. And I went through them all, because it's Generation Kill fic, and I had absolutely nothing else to do. And during all of this, I realized something: there are a few things that piss me off so much, I almost want to leave the fandom altogether. And since I'm in a foul mood after waking from a rather great dream for no reason what-so-ever, I'm going to bitch about for a while. Seriously, feel free to ignore this shit.
1. The inability of some authors to do their research. Most GK authors are great about getting the facts, and even nitpicking about the tiniest details. But some people out there just don't give a fuck apparently. Normally I can handle people filling in the blank for things in fandom, because there's usually a lot of leeway. In Stargate, you can pretty much hit random numbers following a P or and M and you've got a planet. In Losers you can pick a country (any country!) and stick the guys there. With Doctor Who/Torchwood, toss together a bunch of scary aspects and you've the the alien menace. They're kind of choose your own adventure, and that's fine. There's a lot that's left unexplained, and authors can mess around to their heart's content. But when more than one person has taken the time to note down exactly where the guys in GK were, what they wore, the equipment they had with them, their names and ranks, fuck the BRAND OF BULLETS THEY USED WITH THE EXACT SPECIFICATIONS OF THEIR WEAPONS, there's no excuse to not use that information. I'm sorry, but if you try to tell me that Brad Colbert is using an M-16 rifle and a Desert Eagle .50 Caliber (yes, that is a specific example), I'm gonna decide you're a fucking moron and stop reading right there.
2. Complete and utter disregard of military regulations. When you're writing in a military fandom, it's usually a good idea to know what is and isn't allowed. I'm all for the "what if DADT was repealed while they were serving together" fics and all that, or the "DADT doesn't exist" AUs (which are a little more hit or miss, but there have been some decent ones), but there are issues beyond that. Even if it's suddenly no longer against the UCMJ (that's the Uniform Code of Military Justice) to be openly gay in the military, that does not give the guys of GK free reign to start fucking whoever they want. There's still regs prohibiting fraternization, not to mention the fact that a superior officer hooking up with with someone in their chain of command would be fucked six ways to Sunday without lube if they were ever caught. That doesn't mean that they can't hook up while they're both in or whatever, but that the risks need to be addressed, damn it.
3. Stories about the guys hooking up in theater ignoring the fact that they were running around the desert in rubber suits for weeks on end, unable to wash properly, stewing in their own juices, and unable to change into clothes that were anything but "a little less disgusting than what I have on". These guys did not smell good, they were filthy and nasty and gross. So when Colbert/Hasser/Poke/Who-the-fuck-ever pushes Nate/Ray/Kocher/Marine-Number-Seven against a wall and decides to go down on him? He's not exactly going to be digging the smell, let alone the taste.
Okay. That was my ranting. I'm done now. I'm going back to bed.
1. The inability of some authors to do their research. Most GK authors are great about getting the facts, and even nitpicking about the tiniest details. But some people out there just don't give a fuck apparently. Normally I can handle people filling in the blank for things in fandom, because there's usually a lot of leeway. In Stargate, you can pretty much hit random numbers following a P or and M and you've got a planet. In Losers you can pick a country (any country!) and stick the guys there. With Doctor Who/Torchwood, toss together a bunch of scary aspects and you've the the alien menace. They're kind of choose your own adventure, and that's fine. There's a lot that's left unexplained, and authors can mess around to their heart's content. But when more than one person has taken the time to note down exactly where the guys in GK were, what they wore, the equipment they had with them, their names and ranks, fuck the BRAND OF BULLETS THEY USED WITH THE EXACT SPECIFICATIONS OF THEIR WEAPONS, there's no excuse to not use that information. I'm sorry, but if you try to tell me that Brad Colbert is using an M-16 rifle and a Desert Eagle .50 Caliber (yes, that is a specific example), I'm gonna decide you're a fucking moron and stop reading right there.
2. Complete and utter disregard of military regulations. When you're writing in a military fandom, it's usually a good idea to know what is and isn't allowed. I'm all for the "what if DADT was repealed while they were serving together" fics and all that, or the "DADT doesn't exist" AUs (which are a little more hit or miss, but there have been some decent ones), but there are issues beyond that. Even if it's suddenly no longer against the UCMJ (that's the Uniform Code of Military Justice) to be openly gay in the military, that does not give the guys of GK free reign to start fucking whoever they want. There's still regs prohibiting fraternization, not to mention the fact that a superior officer hooking up with with someone in their chain of command would be fucked six ways to Sunday without lube if they were ever caught. That doesn't mean that they can't hook up while they're both in or whatever, but that the risks need to be addressed, damn it.
3. Stories about the guys hooking up in theater ignoring the fact that they were running around the desert in rubber suits for weeks on end, unable to wash properly, stewing in their own juices, and unable to change into clothes that were anything but "a little less disgusting than what I have on". These guys did not smell good, they were filthy and nasty and gross. So when Colbert/Hasser/Poke/Who-the-fuck-ever pushes Nate/Ray/Kocher/Marine-Number-Seven against a wall and decides to go down on him? He's not exactly going to be digging the smell, let alone the taste.
Okay. That was my ranting. I'm done now. I'm going back to bed.