opening discussion about something that's been bugging me

[yamitami]

Okay. Ever since I entered the MGS fandom this has bugged me: Meryl's fandom characterization, namely the rampant bashing that takes place in almost every Snake/Otacon fanfic that mentions or involves her.

(EDIT: sorry about the previous lack of cut, guys ^^;)

Meryl is a tomboy and an Army brat. It's pretty safe to say that's she's been aiming for

Comments

[giove_dea]

I think though that most fics that have Relena being really bad have the plot based before the end of the series, when she was really bad, and just change the ending. I have read quite a few really decent stories that have made me love Relena as a character because they show her as a mature adult at her tender age of 18, but I think what most people realize is that she still is that tender age when actions, thoughts, likes, and dislikes can change at a the drop of a hat. The same with Kingdom Hearts. Most of the characters are very young and I guess it just doesn't seem strange to me that someone would think something one day, and change their minds the next. It's very high schoolish and makes it more realistic in my mind.

When characters are adults, have lived their lives and have more experience under their belt, they tend to hold onto certain characteristics...so characters like Snake, Meryl, Otacon, even going so far as to include any adult character in any fandom, for a writer to write their character so vastly different from canon, without giving a background of why that character might be that way is a little harder to swallow.

I think though that everyone is going to have a slightly different feel of what is right and wrong with the writen personalities of any character. I mean, look at the people that bitch about how the actual authors write the personalities of their own characters, bitch about how the canon couples are wrong, and generally make themselves look like screaming children because the author's ideas don't match their own. I don't think any fic will please everyone and to that I say that if you get down to it and you don't like the characterization that someone has done, write your own. It's the only sure way you have that everyone's characterizations will always remain what you wish them to be.