meme replies: Top Five

[kattahj]

Here are the answers from the questions asked in my previous post. Feel free to ask me more questions!

From oneiriad:

Top Five Female Swedish Fictional Characters

All of these are from books, mostly children's/YA books. :-) There have been good characters in other media as well, but there's maybe one good Swedish film or TV show every year, and comics are fewer still, while there's a great production of children's literature, so there you have it.

1. Charlotte Löwensköld from Charlotte Löwensköld and Anna Svärd by Selma Lagerlöf. (In Swedish gathered in one volume as The Ring of the Lowenskolds.)
   Charlotte is so awesome, even critics who have never heard of Mary Sues kind of hint that she might be Lagerlöf's, but if so, she's a particularly likeable breed of one. She's headstrong, adventurous, loyal, witty - and her holier-than-thou fiancé break up with her because he thinks she's a shallow gold-digger. This did not endear him to me. Explaining Charlotte is kind of difficult for me, but she's got a certain Austenite quality about her while also staying very earthy and devil-may-care.


2. Ronja Rövardotter/the Robber's Daughter, from the children's novel of that name by Astrid Lindgren.
   Ronja manages to be the center of an action girl adventure, a more innocent type of Romeo and Julia love story (she and the son of her father's rival refer to each other as brother and sister, not as lovers, though as his mother puts it, "we know how that'll turn out in a few years"), and a tale of a father's love for his daughter and how that love is tested when she breaks free. While Pippi Longstocking is doubtlessly the most famous of Lindgren's girl protagonists, I find Ronja (along with Madicken) all the more enjoyable, because her strength is based on skill and courage, rather than effortless superpowers. And you have to love a girl whose way of being careful not to fall in the river involves climbing around on slippery rocks by the river. (Because what would be the point of walking on the forest paths and being careful not to fall in the river?)


3. Either Caroline or Berta from Maria Gripe's Skugg-/Shadow series (and oh, how much I hate that these aren't translated to English).
   I can't say which one, because their awesomeness feeds off each other. The androgynous, dramatic, and mysterious heartbreaker Caroline makes for a wonderful character, but she mainly works because she's contrasted with Berta, who's more thoughtful, low-key, down-to-earth and empathetic. When Caroline gets her own novel with Berta barely in it, the author tries to solve this problem by including the character of Ingeborg, who has some of the same qualities as Berta, but it only works to a degree. (Caroline also tries to incorporate some Berta sides into herself, since she's always trying on new roles and is afraid to become a selfish narcissist like her maternal grandmother.) And Berta without Caroline would never be in a book at all - she'd just do her homework, read philosophy, and certainly not get involved in any plots.


4. Snurran, from the picture books by Eva Bergström.
   I have considered having Snurran tattooed on my body, which certainly implies that she's worthy of this list. She's a very obnoxious kitten who, in the various books, decides to only eat ketchup, or get rid of her overalls, or carry around a rotting fish at all times, or hog the remote control. She's relentless, she'll scream if she doesn't have her way, and though the adults try to stop her, it's to no avail. I suppose they can comfort themselves with how fickle she also is - the whim that has her screaming today will be completely forgotten tomorrow. Snurran is a pest, but she's a completely delightful pest, at least to read about. :-)


5. Pella, from the series of books by Claque AKA Anna-Lisa Wärnlöf.
   For most of my teen years, I had a troubled relationship with so-called "realistic" YA novels, since I was a teenager and hardly any of the teenagers in those books had anything in common with me at all. Pella was an exception. Okay, so she lived with her grandparents, she went to an all-girls school, she married her first boyfriend, and there's that whole 1950s thing... but her way of setting herself slightly apart, watching her friends and aquaintances and writing witty things about them in her journal, all that felt very familiar and relatable.

From bookelfe:

Top five pairs of Diana Wynne Jones characters from different books who desperately need to meet each other!

This was very difficult for me, because I like the DWJ characters right where they are. She uses the same type of characters in different variations so much that if a book particularly calls for a character, chances are someone like that character is already in the book. It's much easier for me to want to crossover DWJ's chars with other fandoms.

Still. This is the list I eventually came up with.

1. Awful from Archer's Goon and Chrestomanci.
   Because it would be pretty hilarious to see what the very suave yet powerful Chrestomanci would make of such a tempestuous little eight-year-old. (The nearest thing we get to this in AG is the encounter with Hathaway, but he's more patient and less powerful than Chrestomanci, so this could go either way. *g*)


2. The mythologicals from The Game and the mythologicals from Eight Days of Luke.
   Because pantheons ganging up is always great fun, and because I was surprised to see DWJ turning Mercury of all people into such a stick in the mud. It would be interesting to see if Luke's presence could bring out the devil in Uncle Mercer.


3. Gwendolen from Charmed Life and Ivy from Fire and Hemlock.
   Because they're the characters I hate the most and they deserve each other. It serves Ivy right to see what a real scheming, selfish child looks like. This is a risky one - they might end up miserable/killing each other (or at least Gwendolen killing Ivy), which would be great, but they might also end up loving each other and feeding into each other's sociopathy, which would be very bad.


4. Rob from Deep Secret and Josh from A Sudden Wild Magic.
   Because they could do some teenage centaur bonding. Because Josh needs to develop some backbone and Rob needs to develop some compassion. Because Josh's human counterpart was gay, and the thought of teenage centaur slash is too funny to pass on.


5. Torquil from Archer's Goon and Nick from Deep Secret/The Merlin Conspiracy.
   Because they're both shallow people who are just a little bit in love with themselves, and because it would be hilarious to see the histrionic Torquil grooming Nick's powers in a more dramatic direction. I love the thought of the magids trying to sort Nick out after some time spent with Torquil. (I will abstain from mentioning the possibility of slash, since Nick is underage and in love with Roddy, but if you want to imagine it anyway, go ahead.)

From amaresu:

Top five books you wished had a fandom.

Again, tricksy, since the question specified "books". (Films, TV shows and comics woefully without fandoms are much easier to find.) Most books don't feel particularly suitable for fandoms. And of those books who are suitable for fandoms, most of them do have fandoms. So while #1 presented itself right away, the rest of the list took a lot longer.

1. The Shamer Chronicles by Lene Kaaberbøl.
   I was puzzled, almost shocked to realize that these books, while they do have many readers, have next to no fandom. I don't know why on earth not. They're fantasy, written for young people, with engaging, fairly straight-forward plots, interesting characters and a brave, likeable heroine. Is it because they've never been filmed? I suspect that might be the case, considering the sizeable fandom for the Inkheart series, which I read a few months after the Shamer books. Either way, it's a real pity.


2. The Kiki Strike series, by Kirsten Miller.
   I really should get around to writing some femslash for this series, but it's hard to feel motivated when there are no readers. The Kiki Strike books have an awesome team of adventurous teenage girls, a secret city under NYC, plots involving Eastern European monarchy and the Chinese mafia, inventions, hacking, chemistry, libraries, disguises, and lists with various tips on how to become an effective adventurer. I have absolutely no idea why there's no fandom. It seems against nature.


3. Isabel Allende's Zorro novel.
   Considering what the rest of the Zorro fandom is like, maybe this isn't anything to wish for, but I can't help doing so anyway. Allende had a very interesting take on the myth - and then she stopped just as Zorro got started. Which makes sense, of course, since she's a novelist and not a tie-in author, but I can't help wanting more. A franchise, a fandom, fanfic, fanart, adaptations, anything with this take on the classic characters and the charming addition of Allende's unusually low-key Mary Sue avatar. Other Zorros do not work as methadon.
   
   
4. The Anastasia books, by Lois Lowry.
   Like Pella, Anastasia is a protagonist I can really relate to. I haven't read all the books, so maybe I should do that before I start complaining about the lack of discussion, fic and art, but where's the fun in that? *grin* Apart from the great lead, the books also have fantastic secondary characters that could use a bit of spotlight.


5. East of Eden, by John Steinbeck.
   This is cheating a little, because I'm thinking more of the film than the book, but I do love the book too (especially the religious discussion), and either one of them is a classic that deserves actual fans rather than just respectful readers/viewers. It has one of the best sociopathic villainesses of literature, a troubled but cute James Dean (well, it's James Dean in the movie version - you can imagine whoever you like in the book), dysfunctional family relationships to die for - I bet even the incest writers could have a field day with this one if they put their minds to it. Okay, so it's old enough that the fangirls have forgotten about it, and the TVTropes "better than it sounds" category sums up its plot as, "Unhappily married ranchers debate the exact meaning of Genesis 4:6," (which is fairly accurate *g*), but still, this gem could use a fannish revival.

From viciouswishes:

Five moments that made you a shipper. Any fandom, any pairing.

I thought this would be difficult, considering that I'm not really a hardcore shipper and that when I do ship, the answer is quite often "any scene with the two of them together". But when I thought about it, I actually had several of these.

1. Daisy and Mason on Dead Like Me, when he calls a raincheck after she finally asks him out. He'd been trying to get her to go out with him for ages, but having read her final thought, he realized that she was feeling vulnerable, and he was too much of a gentleman - junkie screw-up Mason too much of a gentleman - to take advantage of that. I'm a sucker for good sap, and this gets my eyes to well up every time.


2. Barbara's and Ian's last minutes on Doctor Who. A cheerful example. :-) They just come off as so darn happy with each other. Someone (roseveare? asked me once if Ian/Barbara was TV canon, and I went, "well, I assumed so... They don't kiss or anything, but they certainly seem very fond of each other." We agreed that by Old Who standards, this practically equalled shagging on the TARDIS console.)
   
3. Pippin finding Merry after the battle in Lord of the Rings. Ah, the wonders of good h/c. (As we've already established, I'm quite the sap sometimes. *g*) Of course, Merry and Pippin make the most adorable pair (shipping or otherwise) at all times, but for me, it doesn't get any better than this.
   'Lean on me, Merry lad!' said Pippin. 'Come on! Foot by foot. It's not far.'
   'Are you going to bury me?' said Merry.
   'No indeed!' said Pippin, trying to sound cheerful, though his heart was wrung with fear and pity. 'No, we are going to the Houses of Healing.'
   *melts*
   
4. Faith and Robin, with that post-hookup conversation in Chosen, from "you gotta have a little Faith" and forward. All of the Faith and Robin scenes are cool (I have in fact been known to skip forward to their bits even the FIRST time watching the s7 eps), but this one really made me convinced that if anyone was right for Faith (which is doubtful), he was it. He doesn't take any "isolationist Slayer crap", but has a thing for Slayers, he doesn't think Faith is that great in bed but is more than willing to try it again... some other time. (It just occurred to me, this is the second item on the list where the guy proves himself by calling a raincheck.) Most of all, he's an adult, a decent guy, and someone whose self-image isn't made or broken by how Faith treats him.


5. Mickey and Jake in Doctor Who, running off to liberate Paris. The deleted scene only solidified what I already felt. :-) (Yes, yes, "not replacing him" and all that, but they had almost two years to figure that one out.) And I know I wasn't the only one who cried "What about JAKE?" when Mickey returned and said there was nothing for him in that world after his grandmother died.

From st_aurafina:

Five books you want to see on TV or the big screen.

The biggest obstacle here is that a good book isn't necessarily a good film and vice versa - I like a lot of books that mostly consist of people talking, which wouldn't make for a very interesting film. Well. Maybe if Kevin Smith directed, his films tend to be like that too. Anyway:

1. The Wind on the Moon by Eric Linklater, preferably filmed by Per Åhlin, who I know has expressed an interest. TWOTM would make a wonderful animation, full of magic and wild animals and strange surroundings. It could be done either as a film or a miniseries and be equally grand. (I have come to realize that this is a love it or hate it kind of book, but I am utterly puzzled by the second reaction.)


2. Either The Dark Lord of Derkholm or Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones. Deep Secret would be easier to make - but because of that, I'm more tempted to choose The Dark Lord of Derkholm because it IS so impossibly at odds with movie market realities - it'd be just as expensive to make as a bigshot fantasy movie (while the tours can look phoney, and probably should, the dragons etc. have to be realistic) while being a satire and critique of the whole genre. If it could be done, though, it would be brilliant. Imagine a fantasy movie actually dealing with the everyday crap you'd have to suffer through to create fantasy clichés!


3. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. They keep making all these Jane Austen movies, the only reason I can think of for passing on this fabulous tale is because it makes it so VERY obvious that Jane Austen is not a romantic. (Which is also the reason I think Clueless is the best JA adaptation, because it gets the genre right.) Considering the popularity of gothic horror at the moment, it could be great to have an adaptation of a book in which the heroine keeps thinking she's in a gothic horror novel even though she's really, really not. It would take a talented director, but hey, as long as I'm imagining, I might as well imagine that too.


4. The Lord John series by Diana Gabaldon. Because apparently they're already making Outlander as a miniseries. I have to say I'm both thrilled and a bit scared at the thought of an Outlander adaptation; I don't see how they can possibly distill it into something that's coherent, plotty, not too long, and still recognizably the same. The LJG books would be much easier; they're actually self-contained and have plots to begin with. Plus it'd be a treat to the slash girls. (Hey, if they can film Sarah Waters...)


5. For the last place I considered Taming the Star Runner by S.E. Hinton, because wtf is up with adapting every book an author has written except one? Thinking about it, though, I'm not sure Star Runner would make a good film. I love Casey Kencaide as a character (Travis not so much, though his uncle Ken is cool), but the plot is a bit too average to maybe work. So instead I go for Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. I'm always pleased to see a Neil Gaiman film (IMO the films and graphic novels often work better than the books), and since I recently read that every film company looking to option it have wanted to make the characters white, I want to choose it just to bite my thumb at them. The reason I hesitate to endorse this particular idea entirely, though is that both Anansi Boys and the previous American Gods seem nigh-impossible to make, even more so than Outlander. So on one hand, it would be much yayness would it be done, and on the other I don't see how it could be done.