The abused kids of fandom and you (warning, meta ahead)
I am at my word count in apocabigbang (yay!) and have several sections where ((SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT GOES HERE, POSSIBLY EXPLOSIONS.)) (Not so yay.)
So of course, I'm thinking about stuff totally unrelated to the end of the world, at least on that macro level.
jaina and I had this discussion about how much Orihime and Gojyo had in common (redheads with self-esteem problems, protective brothers, and bad parents for the win), and I started thinking about all the Abused Kids of Fandom. Holy smokes the list is long.
When I was rewatching Gravitation, two things really stuck out at me: The series seemed much better than it was on the first watch because it was such a blessed relief from Neon Genesis Evangelion, and how logically Yuki was behaving at times if you kept his PTSD in mind. Suichi gets beat up, Yuki flips the fuck out. ("Oh," I thought, "triggers!")
I remember back in the day, people in Sentinel fandom would give Blair this Big Angsty Abusive Storyline, and it kind of cracks me up that dude-- a lot of us have Big Angsty Abusive Storylines, and no one in my circle writes them. (To be fair, they weren't the same people who were making the storylines up in the first place....)
Mostly when I write about them I background the abuse and don't think about it much; it's part of them and who they are, but it's not the focus of the story. But it is a huge part of them and who they are. Kenren's differences from Gojyo are not so much due to personality-- I think in a lot of ways he and Gojyo are 'closest' in nature-- but due to the way Gojyo was raised. When I was writing The Other Side, what happened to Jin's sisters and mother (TB) was so different in nature than what happened to his family in canon (raised by an abusive mother and a brother who did his best to protect him)-- and there's just this gulf. They still have this core personality, but it changes so much. And so it's this dance between recognizing it and not wanting (for me, anyway) to not fall into cheap rhetorical tricks.
So how do you deal with your abused characters? Do you feel like you have to work harder to be fair to them, or do you just try to treat them like any character with weaknesses, flaws, and backstories?
EDIT: Y'all, we have been linked from metafandom. Please tip your waitress note there are some very personal stories on here, and be respectful. If anyone who's already commented is bothered by the public nature of this, I can lock this and the conversation can continue over on Dreamwidth.
EDIT 2: Everything private-ish has been screened that anyone asked me too-- and anyone from metafandom is more than welcome, I hope I didn't scare anyone off!
So of course, I'm thinking about stuff totally unrelated to the end of the world, at least on that macro level.
jaina and I had this discussion about how much Orihime and Gojyo had in common (redheads with self-esteem problems, protective brothers, and bad parents for the win), and I started thinking about all the Abused Kids of Fandom. Holy smokes the list is long.
When I was rewatching Gravitation, two things really stuck out at me: The series seemed much better than it was on the first watch because it was such a blessed relief from Neon Genesis Evangelion, and how logically Yuki was behaving at times if you kept his PTSD in mind. Suichi gets beat up, Yuki flips the fuck out. ("Oh," I thought, "triggers!")
I remember back in the day, people in Sentinel fandom would give Blair this Big Angsty Abusive Storyline, and it kind of cracks me up that dude-- a lot of us have Big Angsty Abusive Storylines, and no one in my circle writes them. (To be fair, they weren't the same people who were making the storylines up in the first place....)
Mostly when I write about them I background the abuse and don't think about it much; it's part of them and who they are, but it's not the focus of the story. But it is a huge part of them and who they are. Kenren's differences from Gojyo are not so much due to personality-- I think in a lot of ways he and Gojyo are 'closest' in nature-- but due to the way Gojyo was raised. When I was writing The Other Side, what happened to Jin's sisters and mother (TB) was so different in nature than what happened to his family in canon (raised by an abusive mother and a brother who did his best to protect him)-- and there's just this gulf. They still have this core personality, but it changes so much. And so it's this dance between recognizing it and not wanting (for me, anyway) to not fall into cheap rhetorical tricks.
So how do you deal with your abused characters? Do you feel like you have to work harder to be fair to them, or do you just try to treat them like any character with weaknesses, flaws, and backstories?
EDIT: Y'all, we have been linked from metafandom. Please tip your waitress note there are some very personal stories on here, and be respectful. If anyone who's already commented is bothered by the public nature of this, I can lock this and the conversation can continue over on Dreamwidth.
EDIT 2: Everything private-ish has been screened that anyone asked me too-- and anyone from metafandom is more than welcome, I hope I didn't scare anyone off!