My first hated_characters rant!
Yay!
Long time lurker, first time poster, yadda yadda...you guys know the drill. Anyway, I was pretty surprised to find out that these two characters hadn't been featured before. At least, not to my knowledge. So I figured I'd take up the cause because, honestly, I love these guys. The fandom doesn't exactly hate them, but their personality sure gets twisted into knots more times by fanficcers than I care to think about.
Yu Yu Hakusho fans will know who I'm talking about. Jin and Touya, the only two survivors of the infamous Team Masho. Seriously...I love these two. I remember being eight years old and watching the Team Masho fight, and I just loved Jin and Touya on sight. I was nowhere near as much of a ficcer as I am now then, but even then I got a greater sense of...depth from them that I hadn't seen from most villains.
I don't claim to write these two perfectly. I don't. I look back on some of the fics I wrote for the two of them when I was younger and almost cringe inside. They didn't sound like themselves at all. One of these days I might just go back and edit them so these boys actually act like themselves through the twenty-something pages of fic I wrote for them. Maybe not.
But I got better. I rewatched the episodes and read Volume 8 like it was a religious text. I thought and pondered about these characters. Now, when I write them...well, I'm still not perfect, but I like to think I hit the target, if not the bulls-eye.
But enough about me. No, I'm here to talk about other ficcers. Ones who take Jin and Touya's characterization in directions I just can't wrap my head around. I'll attempt to be organized about this...
1. Jin and sugar. Jin and friggin' sugar. I don't know why so many fanficcers portray Jin as a sugar addict. Leaving aside the fact that I hatehatehate the whole "sugar high" trope, do you really need an excuse to make Jin energetic and cheerful when that appears to be his default state? There was never any indication given that he's a sugar nut. I'm not saying he wouldn't like candy if he got his hands on it, but the "Jin and sugar" trope got old about a week after the "Hiei and sweet snow" trope. Let it die.
2. Jin is not stupid. Jin is reckless and hotheaded and acts silly, but there is a difference. He has survived as the only Windmaster for god-knows-how-long in Demon World, fighting for the highest bidder against other demons. Remember his battle with Yusuke? How Yusuke couldn't get near him for an episode and a half? At the very least, his use of his powers in that battle demonstrate a pretty impressive tactical mind and knowledge of physics. Jin knows how best to use his powers to win a fight, and you don't get to be the Windmaster just on sheer dumb luck. His reaction to some of Yusuke's techniques...namely, "outright shock"...imply that Jin actually has a greater tendency towards strategy than Yusuke. Not saying a lot, I know, but...
3. I'm sure Jin has the capacity to be sweet and kind to others. I'm sure he has the capacity to care for others. I myself religiously write friendship with him and Touya. However, one of his main motivations, as portrayed in the show and in the manga, is battle. Violence. Jin is quite a violent person. He's not as brutal about it as Risho or Bakken...no way in hell Jin would have kept beaitng Kurama once it was clear that he wasn't getting back up. Even so, I believe his intro to Yusuke in the manga was "I'm a new foe, and it's a new match. Going in mad just takes the fun outta it. And that's no way to live...or die!" I really do think he fully intended to kill Yusuke. He might have regretted it later, but I think he would have killed Yusuke. And in his very first appearance in the manga, he looks pretty damn threatening to me. The way he's drawn when he reminds Bakken "you know better than that" makes me shudder. Jin, in other words, is perfectly capable of hating someone's guts and being unpleasant to them, or even killing them outright even if he likes them.
4. Quit making Touya a weepy uke, kthxbye! Like Jin, Touya can be extremely violent if he's pushed to it. Take another look at his battle with Kurama. Go on. Much as I love him, even I was rewatching the fight with a friend of mine one day and we're like "Touya, you suck!". He beat the ever loving hell out of Kurama...not only did he intend to kill him, he seemed to want to make it damn painful. He did this all out of revenge for Gamma, and he is driven to escape Demon World, no matter what the sacrifices that have to be made.
5. Every time I see Touya being abused by Risho, I facepalm so hard I give myself a headache. Yes, Risho backhanded him. Once. Touya was barely staying on his feet while arguing with him, and Risho's opportunistic, prideful, and cheap like that. However, Touya is also very deeply invested in the concept of "honor." I highly doubt that this would be the case if he wasn't also the sort of person to recognize his own self worth and defend himself from attack, no matter who was doing the attacking. Plus, see aforementioned point. He is the Icemaster. You don't get to be that way without gratuitous amounts of fighting against dozens of vicious, bloodthirsty opponents.
I love these guys. I spent most of Season Three bemoaning the limited screen time they had. Then Season Four came around and I was happy! But I can barely read fanfiction for my boys, because most of it doesn't do 'em justice! I know their screen time is quite limited compared to the main characters, but is it too much to ask for some thought?
Unfortuantely, it probably is.
Long time lurker, first time poster, yadda yadda...you guys know the drill. Anyway, I was pretty surprised to find out that these two characters hadn't been featured before. At least, not to my knowledge. So I figured I'd take up the cause because, honestly, I love these guys. The fandom doesn't exactly hate them, but their personality sure gets twisted into knots more times by fanficcers than I care to think about.
Yu Yu Hakusho fans will know who I'm talking about. Jin and Touya, the only two survivors of the infamous Team Masho. Seriously...I love these two. I remember being eight years old and watching the Team Masho fight, and I just loved Jin and Touya on sight. I was nowhere near as much of a ficcer as I am now then, but even then I got a greater sense of...depth from them that I hadn't seen from most villains.
I don't claim to write these two perfectly. I don't. I look back on some of the fics I wrote for the two of them when I was younger and almost cringe inside. They didn't sound like themselves at all. One of these days I might just go back and edit them so these boys actually act like themselves through the twenty-something pages of fic I wrote for them. Maybe not.
But I got better. I rewatched the episodes and read Volume 8 like it was a religious text. I thought and pondered about these characters. Now, when I write them...well, I'm still not perfect, but I like to think I hit the target, if not the bulls-eye.
But enough about me. No, I'm here to talk about other ficcers. Ones who take Jin and Touya's characterization in directions I just can't wrap my head around. I'll attempt to be organized about this...
1. Jin and sugar. Jin and friggin' sugar. I don't know why so many fanficcers portray Jin as a sugar addict. Leaving aside the fact that I hatehatehate the whole "sugar high" trope, do you really need an excuse to make Jin energetic and cheerful when that appears to be his default state? There was never any indication given that he's a sugar nut. I'm not saying he wouldn't like candy if he got his hands on it, but the "Jin and sugar" trope got old about a week after the "Hiei and sweet snow" trope. Let it die.
2. Jin is not stupid. Jin is reckless and hotheaded and acts silly, but there is a difference. He has survived as the only Windmaster for god-knows-how-long in Demon World, fighting for the highest bidder against other demons. Remember his battle with Yusuke? How Yusuke couldn't get near him for an episode and a half? At the very least, his use of his powers in that battle demonstrate a pretty impressive tactical mind and knowledge of physics. Jin knows how best to use his powers to win a fight, and you don't get to be the Windmaster just on sheer dumb luck. His reaction to some of Yusuke's techniques...namely, "outright shock"...imply that Jin actually has a greater tendency towards strategy than Yusuke. Not saying a lot, I know, but...
3. I'm sure Jin has the capacity to be sweet and kind to others. I'm sure he has the capacity to care for others. I myself religiously write friendship with him and Touya. However, one of his main motivations, as portrayed in the show and in the manga, is battle. Violence. Jin is quite a violent person. He's not as brutal about it as Risho or Bakken...no way in hell Jin would have kept beaitng Kurama once it was clear that he wasn't getting back up. Even so, I believe his intro to Yusuke in the manga was "I'm a new foe, and it's a new match. Going in mad just takes the fun outta it. And that's no way to live...or die!" I really do think he fully intended to kill Yusuke. He might have regretted it later, but I think he would have killed Yusuke. And in his very first appearance in the manga, he looks pretty damn threatening to me. The way he's drawn when he reminds Bakken "you know better than that" makes me shudder. Jin, in other words, is perfectly capable of hating someone's guts and being unpleasant to them, or even killing them outright even if he likes them.
4. Quit making Touya a weepy uke, kthxbye! Like Jin, Touya can be extremely violent if he's pushed to it. Take another look at his battle with Kurama. Go on. Much as I love him, even I was rewatching the fight with a friend of mine one day and we're like "Touya, you suck!". He beat the ever loving hell out of Kurama...not only did he intend to kill him, he seemed to want to make it damn painful. He did this all out of revenge for Gamma, and he is driven to escape Demon World, no matter what the sacrifices that have to be made.
5. Every time I see Touya being abused by Risho, I facepalm so hard I give myself a headache. Yes, Risho backhanded him. Once. Touya was barely staying on his feet while arguing with him, and Risho's opportunistic, prideful, and cheap like that. However, Touya is also very deeply invested in the concept of "honor." I highly doubt that this would be the case if he wasn't also the sort of person to recognize his own self worth and defend himself from attack, no matter who was doing the attacking. Plus, see aforementioned point. He is the Icemaster. You don't get to be that way without gratuitous amounts of fighting against dozens of vicious, bloodthirsty opponents.
I love these guys. I spent most of Season Three bemoaning the limited screen time they had. Then Season Four came around and I was happy! But I can barely read fanfiction for my boys, because most of it doesn't do 'em justice! I know their screen time is quite limited compared to the main characters, but is it too much to ask for some thought?
Unfortuantely, it probably is.