Fanon characterization

[donutsweeper]

Of late there are several instances where I find myself liking the fanon version of a character, but not the version that's showing up in canon. Anyone else ever had this problem?

Comments

[kaylashay]

That actually happens to me a lot. Mainly because we have some really great writers out there who can explore the character(s) I like more than the show has the time or inclination to do.

That's happened to me with Supernatural, Highlander, Stargate and NCIS. Buffy characters are a little more iffy on that, I'll have to think about it with them. Probably Sentinel too.

[donutsweeper]

I'm glad I'm not the only one! I'm finding it with .. well to be honest it'd probably be shorter to list the shows that actually am happy with, it would be a very short list.

Do you find that there are some authors who see that characters in the way you do and others whose view is so different it's hard to read them?

[kaylashay]

Oh yeah... that happens to me all the time to. I get very set in my ways as to how I like to read the characters, even if I have a very broad scope of how I will read the characters.

Probably the most notable ones right now are Tony and Gibbs. There's been many a Tony/Gibbs story I've backed away from because I just couldn't take the way the characters were represented.

Another character I have to be careful with is Xander. I like what is known as Super!Xander to a certain extent, but it is hard to find the right mix for that. And I have a little secret like for Spike/Xander (yes, Spander!) from a very few select authors.

[donutsweeper]

I've read a little Spander (very little) Gibbs and Tony are written all over the map depending who is doing the writing. And some are very hard to take (Woobie!Gibbs just makes me tear my hair out)

[adafrog]

Yeah. I've done that. Also, a lot of the time when I read fanfic sex scenes, I can't picture the actual TV characters, it's more like the pictures I've made in my mind from the fics.

[donutsweeper]

That makes a lot of sense to me. The rare times I read slash I do pretty much the same thing.

[karaokegal]

Dude? I was reading TW fic before I ever saw the series...and you know what, the way paperclipbitch wrote Ianto? I really liked him. Never has the the actual canon version of a character been such a disappointment.

[donutsweeper]

Oh dear, that must have stung, her Ianto is excellent

[karaokegal]

Excellent, but not anything like we eventually ended up with, especially in the 2nd series and CoE. And it's not like I can be mad at her for being a writing goddess, only at RTD et al. Such a waste. :(

[donutsweeper]

RTD wasted so much potential

[rustydog]

Usually this isn't a problem for me, because I tend to be fairly passive as far as what canon gives me -- I usually like all the characters at least a little, even if it's just for their potential. Or I'll work something out in my mind that explains things. More importantly probably, I just don't read a lot of long fic where the writers have a chance to develop characters, so there's not a lot to compare to.

An exception that comes to mind at the moment is Primeval. NOT a show that's well-known for sense-making character development, and I actually got frustrated with how the female characters, especially, were written. Since I've dipped a toe in the fandom, I've come across a few things that made me go, "OH, now that actually makes the character make sense! I could have liked *that* character!"

[donutsweeper]

I'll work something out in my mind that explains things.

I might have to try that, it's a good idea!

[tejas]

Well, yeah. :-)