Bash Fics - or why I'm a fanfic snob
Forgive my ramblings. I'm annoyed, sleepy, and frustrated that my Muse appears to have gone on permanent vacation.
So, in the last couple of weeks, I've grown increasingly dismayed with the stuff being released at the Pit of Voles for various fandoms that I happen to follow. All of them seem similar, but for the sake of this particular rant, I'm going to focus on NCIS, and this rant is centered around the tripe I call "Bash Fics."
A Bash Fic - it may have an actual name or trope that I'm just not aware of - is that story that pops up when an author's favorite character is dissed in some fashion and said author is intent on rectifying this by bashing the person responsible. For NCIS, we saw a billion of these back in the heyday of season 3 following the insane ending to the otherwise awesome "Boxed In," and now I'm seeing a boatload of them revolving around either Victim McGee or Victim Tony. You know the kinds of stories I'm talking about.
Maybe its just me, but I find those stories lazy and sloppy as hell, especially when they inevitably whitewash the author's favorite character to the point that he or she is unrecognizable ([s]he's usually weepy, or angsty, or taking offense where the canon character doesn't or wouldn't.) Sure, on some level, I can totally understand why someone would want to do that - I too found the entire team's actions at the end of "Boxed In" reprehensible, although I still maintain that they (the showrunners) tried to lampshade why Tony wasn't invited in the opening scene, when he was describing whatever it was he was doing to the night before to Ziva. Plus? More often than not, that show is (inexplicably) written so the audience laughs at DiNozzo instead of with him.
But seriously, these Bash Fics? They've gotten to the point where I see a particular author's name and skip right over their story, no matter if the abstract sounds interesting, simply because I know that their favorite character (whoever he or she is) will be the Wronged Victim. The worst part for me is that, sometimes, the very nature of the story actually sounds like it could be cool if its approached in a manner that doesn't include making out another main character to be the villain. Look, I hated what the NCIS crew did with Ziva at the end of season 6, but that doesn't call for a fic where everyone shuns her because she's turned inexplicably stupid. Or hey, she & the rest of the team totally dissed Tony and treated him like shit at the end of "Boxed In" but that doesn't mean I'm going to have DiNozzo slink off and cry someplace. Would he be offended? Yeah. Would he say anything? No, because that doesn't track with his character. Recent case in point - I saw a fic today where McGee & Ziva get fired because they turned off their earpieces while Tony was interviewing people in that recent mad bomber case. Okay ... story concept decent. That is a dick thing to do on their part given what's going on, but why does Tony get a pass for trying to break into Ziva's computer earlier? In a federal workplace that handles secure information, that's not only a firing offense, but also a jail term. Or how about the recent McGee centric fics where he's always the victim and Big, Mean Tony is finally got even with in some fashion?
And it's not just NCIS guilty of this. I see it everywhere. Star Trek: Enterprise has a lot of this, usually revolving around an author's ship preference. Like Archer/T'Pol? Time to bash Trip Tucker. TnTer? Well clearly Archer is a complete moron who couldn't lead his way out of a paper bag (that's true, by the way.) Even more inexplicable there are the fans of a ship who bash a member of their ship! I can't count the number of times I've seen someone bash T'Pol for her general television-mandated stupidity over the course of the show and those people are ostensibly Trip/T'Polers.
So long story short? I don't get it. I just don't get it...
So, in the last couple of weeks, I've grown increasingly dismayed with the stuff being released at the Pit of Voles for various fandoms that I happen to follow. All of them seem similar, but for the sake of this particular rant, I'm going to focus on NCIS, and this rant is centered around the tripe I call "Bash Fics."
A Bash Fic - it may have an actual name or trope that I'm just not aware of - is that story that pops up when an author's favorite character is dissed in some fashion and said author is intent on rectifying this by bashing the person responsible. For NCIS, we saw a billion of these back in the heyday of season 3 following the insane ending to the otherwise awesome "Boxed In," and now I'm seeing a boatload of them revolving around either Victim McGee or Victim Tony. You know the kinds of stories I'm talking about.
Maybe its just me, but I find those stories lazy and sloppy as hell, especially when they inevitably whitewash the author's favorite character to the point that he or she is unrecognizable ([s]he's usually weepy, or angsty, or taking offense where the canon character doesn't or wouldn't.) Sure, on some level, I can totally understand why someone would want to do that - I too found the entire team's actions at the end of "Boxed In" reprehensible, although I still maintain that they (the showrunners) tried to lampshade why Tony wasn't invited in the opening scene, when he was describing whatever it was he was doing to the night before to Ziva. Plus? More often than not, that show is (inexplicably) written so the audience laughs at DiNozzo instead of with him.
But seriously, these Bash Fics? They've gotten to the point where I see a particular author's name and skip right over their story, no matter if the abstract sounds interesting, simply because I know that their favorite character (whoever he or she is) will be the Wronged Victim. The worst part for me is that, sometimes, the very nature of the story actually sounds like it could be cool if its approached in a manner that doesn't include making out another main character to be the villain. Look, I hated what the NCIS crew did with Ziva at the end of season 6, but that doesn't call for a fic where everyone shuns her because she's turned inexplicably stupid. Or hey, she & the rest of the team totally dissed Tony and treated him like shit at the end of "Boxed In" but that doesn't mean I'm going to have DiNozzo slink off and cry someplace. Would he be offended? Yeah. Would he say anything? No, because that doesn't track with his character. Recent case in point - I saw a fic today where McGee & Ziva get fired because they turned off their earpieces while Tony was interviewing people in that recent mad bomber case. Okay ... story concept decent. That is a dick thing to do on their part given what's going on, but why does Tony get a pass for trying to break into Ziva's computer earlier? In a federal workplace that handles secure information, that's not only a firing offense, but also a jail term. Or how about the recent McGee centric fics where he's always the victim and Big, Mean Tony is finally got even with in some fashion?
And it's not just NCIS guilty of this. I see it everywhere. Star Trek: Enterprise has a lot of this, usually revolving around an author's ship preference. Like Archer/T'Pol? Time to bash Trip Tucker. TnTer? Well clearly Archer is a complete moron who couldn't lead his way out of a paper bag (that's true, by the way.) Even more inexplicable there are the fans of a ship who bash a member of their ship! I can't count the number of times I've seen someone bash T'Pol for her general television-mandated stupidity over the course of the show and those people are ostensibly Trip/T'Polers.
So long story short? I don't get it. I just don't get it...