that fandom character meme: responses
I have vid notions for all of these shows except Veronica Mars, which made thinking through these questions especially interesting.
In the order they were requested:
The X-Files
1. The character I first fell in love with: Scully.
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Scully, actually, as odd as that seems. During the last season that I watched, which was S8, I found Scully increasingly annoying, which was the biggest reason (there were several others) that I didn't watch S9 and in fact have not rewatched the show since, despite dutifully acquiring the DVDs (mostly used). But lo these many years later, I've gotten to the point where I can filter out all that irritation and just remember what I love about the character. I'm actually looking forward to rewatching the show for vidding purposes. Of course, I'll be watching it on mute, and much of the X-Files is significantly improved by being watched on mute. Heh.
3. The character everyone else loves that I don't: You know, this question and the next one are going to be difficult for me to answer, because I tend to stay holed up in my own little corner of whatever fandom I'm in, and so as a rule I have very little sense of what "everyone else" is actually thinking. Plus, any given show invokes so many different responses that defining anything as "everyone else"'s position is inevitably not going to work, really. I suppose the closest I can come to accuracy in this instance is: Mulder. I like Mulder and appreciate him as a character, but he was never the reason that I watched the show. (But, see, that's true of many if not most of the X-Files fans with whom I feel an affinity.)
4. The character I love that everyone else hates: Doggett. (Though, again, saying that "everyone else" hates Doggett is patently absurd.) He was the character I felt I was going to miss most when S8 ended, which was pretty weird.
5. The character I used to love but don't any longer: See #2: this used to be Scully, but I've recovered.
6. The character I would shag anytime: Scully. Duh.
7. The character I'd want to be like: Also Scully, certainly through S6 and intermittently during S7.
8. The character I'd slap: Most of them, at one time or another. Mulder most often, probably.
9. A pairing that I love: Mulder/Scully, the prickly-and-interesting years.
10. A pairing that I despise: Mulder/Scully, as the relationship got more conventionally romantic.
Firefly
1. The character I first fell in love with: Mal, probably; although part of what I fell in love with, character-wise, was precisely the ensemble nature of it, the fact that Joss was so clearly using everything he'd learned about managing large groups of characters over the course of BtVS and AtS, and was using it brilliantly right out of the box.
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Inara, probably; although I came to love pretty much everybody pretty quickly.
3. The character everyone else loves that I don't: Jayne. Useful character, obviously, and I appreciate him as such, and I think Adam Baldwin does a terrific job with the role, but Jayne is just not a selling point for me. I like him much better in the movie, actually.
4. The character I love that everyone else hates: If there's a Firefly character that everyone else hates, I really don't want to know about it.
5. The character I used to love but don't any longer: So does not apply here.
6. The character I would shag anytime: Zoe. Or Kaylee. Or Mal. Or Inara.
7. The character I'd want to be like: Zoe. Or possibly Wash, since he got Zoe.
8. The character I'd slap: Saffron. Heh.
9. A pairing that I love: Zoe/Wash gets my special love, because it's so nice to see an established adult relationship in the mix. Though I also love the more conventional tentative-circling-around-each-other of Mal/Inara and Simon/Kaylee.
10. A pairing that I despise: Well, there are plenty of pairings I don't get, but that's not at all the same thing. Most of the m/m slash pairings I've seen bandied about leave me saying "eh?" (This is actually one of the few shows I can think of where the femslash options seem way more plausible to me than the boyslash, possibly because it's one of a depressingly small number of shows to have multiple interesting major female characters.)
Gilmore Girls
1. The character I first fell in love with: Lorelai.
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Luke. I mean, I kind of expected to love Luke, but not like this.
3. The character everyone else loves that I don't: I have no context for this one.
4. The character I love that everyone else hates: Again, no context.
5. The character I used to love but don't any longer: Dean. I LOVED Dean in S1-3, and then he got all unkempt and started being hopeless instead of funny and sweet, and the love was gone.
6. The character I would shag anytime: None of them. I love Luke, but he's not my type, and besides, I don't want him to be with anybody but Lorelai.
7. The character I'd want to be like: None of them. God forbid.
8. The character I'd slap: Emily, for starters, although most of them have stirred that impulse at one time or another.
9. A pairing that I love: Luke/Lorelai, absolutely.
10. A pairing that I despise: "Despise" is maybe too strong a word, but I find Rory/Tristan pretty offputting. Of course, that pairing is old news; I imagine its core demographic is probably all over Rory/Logan now, which is a pairing I find baffling yet intriguing. I think I have a half-completed post about that lying around somewhere, actually.
Veronica Mars
1. The character I first fell in love with: Veronica. The minute she whipped out that knife to cut Wallace down, I was lost.
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Keith! I am not one to love parent figures, but Keith I adore.
3. The character everyone else loves that I don't: Logan, I guess; although, again, assigning "everybody" a position on Logan seems patently absurd. I think Logan is pretty much by definition a character about whom there will never be consensus. Let the Spike Logan wars commence.
4. The character I love that everyone else hates: Is there a character whom everyone hates? See, I think the closest we're gonna get is Logan, again, and then I'll be inclined to defend him just because he's interesting.
5. The character I used to love but don't any longer: I'm still pretty much full of love for everyone I fell for in the first place.
6. The character I would shag anytime: I recoil in horror from the very thought.
7. The character I'd want to be like: Mac! Or maybe Keith, actually, which kind of weirds me out.
8. The character I'd slap: Veronica's mom. And probably Logan.
9. A pairing that I love: You know, the pairings are really not what interests me about this show. I'm much more into Veronica + Wallace = BFF.
10. A pairing that I despise: It occurs to me as I ponder this question that it's really hard for me to despise pairings on a show about teenagers, especially if it's a canonical pairing, because even if I think a particularly relationship is icky or doomed, my assumption is that it won't last long enough to bother getting too worked up about. Hmmm. I find Veronica/Duncan a little dull, but that's not the same thing as despising the pairing.
Farscape
1. The character I first fell in love with: John.
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: D'Argo.
3. The character everyone else loves that I don't: Rygel.
4. The character I love that everyone else hates: Stark. Though I know sdwolfpup is with me on this one.
5. The character I used to love but don't any longer: No, I still love all the characters I ever did.
6. The character I would shag anytime: The radiant Aeryn Sun.
7. The character I'd want to be like: Zhaan.
8. The character I'd slap: Rygel. Preferably with something really large and heavy. Oh, and Sikozu. And Crais, just to see his expression. Heh.
9. A pairing that I love: Aeryn/John. Duh. For a less obvious one... Zhaan/Stark.
10. A pairing that I despise: John/Grayza. If that's even a real pairing. It hadn't even occurred to me until I read sdwolfpup's answers to the meme. I mean, ewww. I think I can use "despise" unambiguously for this one.
Battlestar Galactica
1. The character I first fell in love with: Starbuck.
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Billy. Such a cutie-pie! He'd better not be a Cylon.
3. The character everyone else loves that I don't: I like all the main characters except Tigh.
4. The character I love that everyone else hates: The Tighs seem to be the only (near-)universally despised characters. Heh.
5. The character I used to love but don't any longer: Still fond of everybody. Though, hey, give it time.
6. The character I would shag anytime: Starbuck. Quelle surprise. I think we have a theme here: hot chicks with attitude problems, preferably in space pleather.
7. The character I'd want to be like: Probably Roslin. I think of laurashapiro's icon: "Okay. Next crisis." She just keeps going.
8. The character I'd slap: Ellen Tigh, right after sdwolfpup got done with her.
9. A pairing that I love: This is another show that I really don't think about in terms of pairings, because most of the pairings are either clearly doomed in some way or are much more interesting as crackly potential (Starbuck/Apollo) than I think they would be as canon. Though, come to think of it, I feel about Starbuck/Apollo much the same way I did about Mulder/Scully: I think it would be really interesting to watch them have a short, messy, ultimately disastrous affair and then have to deal with the fallout. For, like, seasons. truepenny and I decided years ago that TXF could have gotten tremendous mileage out of an ill-conceived Mulder/Scully affair in S3. Not that we could have trusted Chris Carter to handle something like that, but in the right hands? It could have been brilliant.
10. A pairing that I despise: Um... Baltar/anybody? He's just such a sleaze.
In the order they were requested:
The X-Files
1. The character I first fell in love with: Scully.
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Scully, actually, as odd as that seems. During the last season that I watched, which was S8, I found Scully increasingly annoying, which was the biggest reason (there were several others) that I didn't watch S9 and in fact have not rewatched the show since, despite dutifully acquiring the DVDs (mostly used). But lo these many years later, I've gotten to the point where I can filter out all that irritation and just remember what I love about the character. I'm actually looking forward to rewatching the show for vidding purposes. Of course, I'll be watching it on mute, and much of the X-Files is significantly improved by being watched on mute. Heh.
3. The character everyone else loves that I don't: You know, this question and the next one are going to be difficult for me to answer, because I tend to stay holed up in my own little corner of whatever fandom I'm in, and so as a rule I have very little sense of what "everyone else" is actually thinking. Plus, any given show invokes so many different responses that defining anything as "everyone else"'s position is inevitably not going to work, really. I suppose the closest I can come to accuracy in this instance is: Mulder. I like Mulder and appreciate him as a character, but he was never the reason that I watched the show. (But, see, that's true of many if not most of the X-Files fans with whom I feel an affinity.)
4. The character I love that everyone else hates: Doggett. (Though, again, saying that "everyone else" hates Doggett is patently absurd.) He was the character I felt I was going to miss most when S8 ended, which was pretty weird.
5. The character I used to love but don't any longer: See #2: this used to be Scully, but I've recovered.
6. The character I would shag anytime: Scully. Duh.
7. The character I'd want to be like: Also Scully, certainly through S6 and intermittently during S7.
8. The character I'd slap: Most of them, at one time or another. Mulder most often, probably.
9. A pairing that I love: Mulder/Scully, the prickly-and-interesting years.
10. A pairing that I despise: Mulder/Scully, as the relationship got more conventionally romantic.
Firefly
1. The character I first fell in love with: Mal, probably; although part of what I fell in love with, character-wise, was precisely the ensemble nature of it, the fact that Joss was so clearly using everything he'd learned about managing large groups of characters over the course of BtVS and AtS, and was using it brilliantly right out of the box.
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Inara, probably; although I came to love pretty much everybody pretty quickly.
3. The character everyone else loves that I don't: Jayne. Useful character, obviously, and I appreciate him as such, and I think Adam Baldwin does a terrific job with the role, but Jayne is just not a selling point for me. I like him much better in the movie, actually.
4. The character I love that everyone else hates: If there's a Firefly character that everyone else hates, I really don't want to know about it.
5. The character I used to love but don't any longer: So does not apply here.
6. The character I would shag anytime: Zoe. Or Kaylee. Or Mal. Or Inara.
7. The character I'd want to be like: Zoe. Or possibly Wash, since he got Zoe.
8. The character I'd slap: Saffron. Heh.
9. A pairing that I love: Zoe/Wash gets my special love, because it's so nice to see an established adult relationship in the mix. Though I also love the more conventional tentative-circling-around-each-other of Mal/Inara and Simon/Kaylee.
10. A pairing that I despise: Well, there are plenty of pairings I don't get, but that's not at all the same thing. Most of the m/m slash pairings I've seen bandied about leave me saying "eh?" (This is actually one of the few shows I can think of where the femslash options seem way more plausible to me than the boyslash, possibly because it's one of a depressingly small number of shows to have multiple interesting major female characters.)
Gilmore Girls
1. The character I first fell in love with: Lorelai.
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Luke. I mean, I kind of expected to love Luke, but not like this.
3. The character everyone else loves that I don't: I have no context for this one.
4. The character I love that everyone else hates: Again, no context.
5. The character I used to love but don't any longer: Dean. I LOVED Dean in S1-3, and then he got all unkempt and started being hopeless instead of funny and sweet, and the love was gone.
6. The character I would shag anytime: None of them. I love Luke, but he's not my type, and besides, I don't want him to be with anybody but Lorelai.
7. The character I'd want to be like: None of them. God forbid.
8. The character I'd slap: Emily, for starters, although most of them have stirred that impulse at one time or another.
9. A pairing that I love: Luke/Lorelai, absolutely.
10. A pairing that I despise: "Despise" is maybe too strong a word, but I find Rory/Tristan pretty offputting. Of course, that pairing is old news; I imagine its core demographic is probably all over Rory/Logan now, which is a pairing I find baffling yet intriguing. I think I have a half-completed post about that lying around somewhere, actually.
Veronica Mars
1. The character I first fell in love with: Veronica. The minute she whipped out that knife to cut Wallace down, I was lost.
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Keith! I am not one to love parent figures, but Keith I adore.
3. The character everyone else loves that I don't: Logan, I guess; although, again, assigning "everybody" a position on Logan seems patently absurd. I think Logan is pretty much by definition a character about whom there will never be consensus. Let the Spike Logan wars commence.
4. The character I love that everyone else hates: Is there a character whom everyone hates? See, I think the closest we're gonna get is Logan, again, and then I'll be inclined to defend him just because he's interesting.
5. The character I used to love but don't any longer: I'm still pretty much full of love for everyone I fell for in the first place.
6. The character I would shag anytime: I recoil in horror from the very thought.
7. The character I'd want to be like: Mac! Or maybe Keith, actually, which kind of weirds me out.
8. The character I'd slap: Veronica's mom. And probably Logan.
9. A pairing that I love: You know, the pairings are really not what interests me about this show. I'm much more into Veronica + Wallace = BFF.
10. A pairing that I despise: It occurs to me as I ponder this question that it's really hard for me to despise pairings on a show about teenagers, especially if it's a canonical pairing, because even if I think a particularly relationship is icky or doomed, my assumption is that it won't last long enough to bother getting too worked up about. Hmmm. I find Veronica/Duncan a little dull, but that's not the same thing as despising the pairing.
Farscape
1. The character I first fell in love with: John.
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: D'Argo.
3. The character everyone else loves that I don't: Rygel.
4. The character I love that everyone else hates: Stark. Though I know sdwolfpup is with me on this one.
5. The character I used to love but don't any longer: No, I still love all the characters I ever did.
6. The character I would shag anytime: The radiant Aeryn Sun.
7. The character I'd want to be like: Zhaan.
8. The character I'd slap: Rygel. Preferably with something really large and heavy. Oh, and Sikozu. And Crais, just to see his expression. Heh.
9. A pairing that I love: Aeryn/John. Duh. For a less obvious one... Zhaan/Stark.
10. A pairing that I despise: John/Grayza. If that's even a real pairing. It hadn't even occurred to me until I read sdwolfpup's answers to the meme. I mean, ewww. I think I can use "despise" unambiguously for this one.
Battlestar Galactica
1. The character I first fell in love with: Starbuck.
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Billy. Such a cutie-pie! He'd better not be a Cylon.
3. The character everyone else loves that I don't: I like all the main characters except Tigh.
4. The character I love that everyone else hates: The Tighs seem to be the only (near-)universally despised characters. Heh.
5. The character I used to love but don't any longer: Still fond of everybody. Though, hey, give it time.
6. The character I would shag anytime: Starbuck. Quelle surprise. I think we have a theme here: hot chicks with attitude problems, preferably in space pleather.
7. The character I'd want to be like: Probably Roslin. I think of laurashapiro's icon: "Okay. Next crisis." She just keeps going.
8. The character I'd slap: Ellen Tigh, right after sdwolfpup got done with her.
9. A pairing that I love: This is another show that I really don't think about in terms of pairings, because most of the pairings are either clearly doomed in some way or are much more interesting as crackly potential (Starbuck/Apollo) than I think they would be as canon. Though, come to think of it, I feel about Starbuck/Apollo much the same way I did about Mulder/Scully: I think it would be really interesting to watch them have a short, messy, ultimately disastrous affair and then have to deal with the fallout. For, like, seasons. truepenny and I decided years ago that TXF could have gotten tremendous mileage out of an ill-conceived Mulder/Scully affair in S3. Not that we could have trusted Chris Carter to handle something like that, but in the right hands? It could have been brilliant.
10. A pairing that I despise: Um... Baltar/anybody? He's just such a sleaze.