The Dork Factor (by sprat)
Lots of people have written lots of essays about why some shows work in a fannish sense while other, perfectly good ones fail to elicit the same kind of fic-producing response. I'm not sure what the reasons for that might be in a larger, more general sense--it is one of the Great Fandom Mysteries.
But lozenger8 made a list of her top five favourite dorky, dorky due South moments for out_of_con_txt ( over here) and that made me realize: throughout my almost two years of ADD-like fannish infidelity, no matter how well-written a show might be, no matter how cool the concept or how fearsome the CGI, I never want to write stories about its main characters unless they have a Dork Factor of at least, say, 7.
Allow me to elucidate. Dork Factor is a thing of many variables. For a person like me (undistinguished in a crime-fighting sense, not super-powered or in any way able to fly a spacecraft), just using the word "elucidate" is enough to put me in that range. (Safely. Solidly. Well within that range.) But the more saving-the-day a character does, the harder it is--and once you bring the Woobie Factor into the equation, things can get really dicey.
Given all that, you'd think that a guy like Benton Fraser ought to have a Dork Factor in the negative.
He's handsome.
(Sexy, even, when he wants to be.)
He has several spiffy uniforms
...and he looks great in a tux, too.
He's smart. He has all kinds of crazy save-the-day skills, and he always gets his man. Plus, what with the dead parents and the stranger-in-a-strange-land thing and all the freaking heartbreak, his Woobie Factor is off the charts.
But Fraser has this ability, this strange and wonderful quality--he is able to give us all of that awesome depth and drama without ever once sacrificing his rightful place as King of All Dorks.
No, really--it's true. This is the guy who thinks dancing...
...looks like that.
Who says "Thank you kindly," when given a parking ticket:
and who is physically incapable of stealing a package of Milk Duds when his own partner's life is at stake:
(eeeee, that scene just makes me want to...get him drunk and take him out to see some strippers, or something. So damn CUTE.)
And the best part is that Fraser knows he's a dork, and most of the time, he just doesn't care. In fact, he's willing to let himself look even dorkier if he thinks it's necessary to get the job done, which kind of turns his dorkiness into yet another advantage:
(And which makes me HEART him in an all-caps, big-assed-font kind of way. ♥)
And it's not just him! Every character on this show has a D.F. well above my personal minimum:
(some of them more than others, sure...)
(I made a few extras of those--in case, you know, you needed more convincing)
Ahem. ANYWAY, if I had to pick just one thing that keeps me here more than everything else, that would be it.
*happysigh*
So, now it's your turn--what are your favourite dorky canon moments? (Or fic moments, even?) What brings you back when the siren song of aliens-made-them-do-it temporarily leads you astray? Come on, this is for posterity! Let's have a good old-fashioned dS love-fest in the comments.
But lozenger8 made a list of her top five favourite dorky, dorky due South moments for out_of_con_txt ( over here) and that made me realize: throughout my almost two years of ADD-like fannish infidelity, no matter how well-written a show might be, no matter how cool the concept or how fearsome the CGI, I never want to write stories about its main characters unless they have a Dork Factor of at least, say, 7.
Allow me to elucidate. Dork Factor is a thing of many variables. For a person like me (undistinguished in a crime-fighting sense, not super-powered or in any way able to fly a spacecraft), just using the word "elucidate" is enough to put me in that range. (Safely. Solidly. Well within that range.) But the more saving-the-day a character does, the harder it is--and once you bring the Woobie Factor into the equation, things can get really dicey.
Given all that, you'd think that a guy like Benton Fraser ought to have a Dork Factor in the negative.
He's handsome.
(Sexy, even, when he wants to be.)
He has several spiffy uniforms
...and he looks great in a tux, too.
He's smart. He has all kinds of crazy save-the-day skills, and he always gets his man. Plus, what with the dead parents and the stranger-in-a-strange-land thing and all the freaking heartbreak, his Woobie Factor is off the charts.
But Fraser has this ability, this strange and wonderful quality--he is able to give us all of that awesome depth and drama without ever once sacrificing his rightful place as King of All Dorks.
No, really--it's true. This is the guy who thinks dancing...
...looks like that.
Who says "Thank you kindly," when given a parking ticket:
and who is physically incapable of stealing a package of Milk Duds when his own partner's life is at stake:
(eeeee, that scene just makes me want to...get him drunk and take him out to see some strippers, or something. So damn CUTE.)
And the best part is that Fraser knows he's a dork, and most of the time, he just doesn't care. In fact, he's willing to let himself look even dorkier if he thinks it's necessary to get the job done, which kind of turns his dorkiness into yet another advantage:
(And which makes me HEART him in an all-caps, big-assed-font kind of way. ♥)
And it's not just him! Every character on this show has a D.F. well above my personal minimum:
(some of them more than others, sure...)
(I made a few extras of those--in case, you know, you needed more convincing)
Ahem. ANYWAY, if I had to pick just one thing that keeps me here more than everything else, that would be it.
*happysigh*
So, now it's your turn--what are your favourite dorky canon moments? (Or fic moments, even?) What brings you back when the siren song of aliens-made-them-do-it temporarily leads you astray? Come on, this is for posterity! Let's have a good old-fashioned dS love-fest in the comments.