Comments | peppermintyrose: Smarter Sookie

peppermintyrose

Smarter Sookie

Mar 24, 2012 05:27

So you want to rewrite canon from your starting point of choice and "improve" on the books and make them far more awesome. One of the ways you want to do that is give Sookie powers up the wazoo, give Sookie all the money in the world, or often times to make her smarter.

I keep seeing these claims that fics have a "Smarter Sookie" or reviewers ( Read more... )

you know shit about sookie, travails of the svm fandom, the art of arse backwards, pmr resident philosoraptor, dead until dark premiere, vamps=dangerous liaisons, tights like jasons truck ldid, run like the wind sookie!, rants of the fanficy flavour, 1 gassed coal mine canary♫, i thinked about svm today, sookie stackhouse - 28, you think you can write, rage against the machine

Comments 38

elbly March 23 2012, 20:30:25 UTC

The odd one out... it's the one on the left! The angel as a halo!

You can't fool an Elbly! She haz da smartz!

Something prompted this mini grrrr? Or just grrrr?

peppermintyrose March 23 2012, 20:32:46 UTC

Dammit. Foiled again.

Something always prompts them. I just wait a bit so as not to connect it to the guilty fic in an immediate fashion. :D

-Foiled- again? elbly March 24 2012, 03:39:05 UTC

Oh you. :D

Re: -Foiled- again? peppermintyrose March 24 2012, 06:10:11 UTC

That elbly is the real problem. :D

thyradane March 23 2012, 20:55:22 UTC

I can`t believe you`ve read this many fanfics and still haven`t realized that book Sookie is stupid since she doesn`t ( ... )

elbly March 23 2012, 23:02:24 UTC

*like*

I'm so pleased PMR has a friend like you to help her see the flaws in her thinking.

thyradane March 23 2012, 23:37:31 UTC

:-)

And notice how I managed to make it an even ten.

Only ... now I see a mistake in number 10. It`s supposed to be "how important it is for ERIC". We all know how things should be centered around him and how he needs Sookie to be a virgin.

elbly March 24 2012, 09:04:48 UTC

It's okay, the fact that you got number 10 not quite right is down to you being a weak and feeble woman, who is unable to produce clear and creative thought. I'm sure your husband helped you with the first 9, as is only right and fitting that he should.

Thread 9

the_real_e_f_m March 23 2012, 21:30:55 UTC

Eric has eaten most of the small child whilst the others haven't started dinner yet?
Thyra - great list!

the_real_e_f_m March 24 2012, 04:04:58 UTC

That made me laugh! As did Thyra's list. It's a nice break from toilet training - the puddles, the puddles!

I don't think, though, that 'smart' as it's used in some of these stories really means 'smart' like we'd define it. And there's a whole bunch of underlying assumptions that you have to buy into to justify Sookie's 'smartness' like Bill is a mudering psycho and Eric is a prize. It never seems to be about being smart in a 'trying not to get raped or eaten' kind of way, but only smart in getting the guy.
Ooshka

peppermintyrose March 24 2012, 06:22:15 UTC

Poor Ooshka.

See, that doesn't make much sense though. Because isn't the rationale that Eric was dying to marry Sookie from the moment he met her, but he's been going slow for her sake? Of course, there are dumber"smarter" Sookies who spend their days in bed, being nothing more than a Stepford fucktoy who sleeps all day, and becomes his doormat, and she's still not considered smarter until she delegates all fucking thought to Eric.

the_real_e_f_m March 24 2012, 10:41:41 UTC

My only consolation is that my ability to clean up the puddles isn't being rated in the same way my dinners are. I've had a run of smiley faces, but I get the feeling they're just out of pity so as not to upset me :)

But aren't the 'smart' Sookies the ones who 'know' how 'good' Eric is from the get-go? So they hate Bill and realise their lives are shitty and pointless and proceed to sit their bottoms down beside the throne at Fangtasia and wait for instructions. After all, she's always considered 'reasonable' by reviewers when she 'gives Eric a chance' to make his case without doing 'something childish and petulant' like, oh, I don't know...wanting a tiny bit of independence? That's the 'smart' move, surely? Sitting back and letting Eric sweep you off your feet?

Still, there probably isn't yet a fic where Eric has instigated the smiley face rating system for Sookie's blood as he feeds from her each night :)
Ooshka

Thread 8

Hmmm anonymous March 24 2012, 04:30:29 UTC

I've read a couple where she was more skeptical of Bill in the beginning, which feels smarter to me. It usually lasts about 12 paragraphs, until she gets to Fangtasia, and then she goes ahead and makes the same mistake, only it's implicitly trusting Eric for no compelling reason, instead.

This is only usually what happens. Sometimes she does hold out for a bit and he has to specifically tell her that he will not lie to her before she gives him her complete trust. This Sookie is kind of a bitch though, I don't know what her problem is.

More serious, there's really not a lot that I can think of off the top of my head where I can say that Sookie honestly screwed up. Even her poor choices seem totally justifiable to me given her circumstances. I've never had a moment where I'm sitting there going, "Oh come on Sookie, really?!" (Okay, maybe when she still had sex with Quinn right after he called her a buffet ( ... )

Re: Hmmm peppermintyrose March 24 2012, 06:30:13 UTC

I don't think there's any reason as to why she trusts him, other than he looks nice, and he's hot. Because we should all implicitly trust hot men who sleep around. :P

Lol - yes - such a bitch that she doesn't look at the vampire who spent a thousand years evading detection and just *know* he'll be on the up-and-up.

Yeah, I can't see it either. All of her choices seem to the best of her ability, and her knowledge. Once you start dismantling all the stuff that makes her wary, you've got to change all the other things.

The brave-to-the-point-of-stupidity stuff...but, again this is largely justified in the given situation, as well as her inherent sense of right. I wouldn't love her so much if she weren't so courageous and compassionate. And the series would be a real bummer if she just sat home all the time, occasionally going out to the odd funeral.Well, see, she'd be out of the house and going to more funerals if she didn't get involved. :D Rene would have kept killing, because clearly Eric and Bill weren't dying to know who the ( ... )

"Smarter" Sookie anonymous March 24 2012, 11:39:54 UTC

Yeah, Super Sookie is one of my peeves, since she tends to miss the point of all the smarts her character already has, as well as all of her interesting flaws. Might as well paint a big ol’ ‘S’ across her double Ds and give her a red cape. JanineMNM

Re: "Smarter" Sookie peppermintyrose March 24 2012, 15:02:22 UTC

Oh yes - she definitely misses out on her smarts, and if the characters were written better, she'd be a smear of blood on the floor. But for some inexplicable reason, the vampires get bossed around and laughed at by a Sookie sitting on a podium with a filthy mouth, and it never *occurs* to them to stop following her or trying to kill her. They just watch her with goo-goo eyes, sighs, and the sense that if you asked them for a foot rub, they may well oblige.