Fannish5: Most pleased/Most shocked
Name 5 characters who'd be most pleased if they ever got the opportunity to see what fandom is writing about them. (and the 5 characters who'd be most shocked)
Not as easy to answer as it looks, considering fandom has yet to write only one direction of fanfic about any given character. One person's OTP is another person's Ew, Ew, Anti-Kink Pairing, and so forth. However, here's my guess.
Most pleased:
1) Vila Restal (Blake's 7)
Given that most Vila-centric fic is bound to treat him kinder than canon usually does and more often than not makes him the hero of the story, he's bound to be pleased. Also, he gets laid far more often than in canon (that we know of).
2) Jack Harkness (Doctor Who, Torchwood): Jack could probably do without the BDSM and/or torture Year That Wasn't stories, but other than that, I can see him being alternately amused or flattered by all the fannish attention. And very pleased indeed that nobody seems to question that he lives up to his own advertisement. (Are there any stories in which Jack turns out not to be that great in the sack after all? Any?)
3) Emma Frost (X-Men): Emma would find it very satisfying that the fans wo dislike her still write her as an interesting character (or not at all), while her admirers tend to avoid ooc fluffyines or over the top Cruelle de Sue-ness. As for the pairings, she'd agree with Oscar Wilde that the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about, and offer a cryptic smile and a "no comment, darling" at the fact that Emma/Kitty and Emma/Jean stories seems to outnumber Emma/Scott by far.
4) Lucy Saxon (Doctor Who): Poor Lucy is just in two episodes, and in one of them she has barely any lines. She'd love all the fannish attention and revel in it, considering it her due at last. She'd probably take a jaundiced view on stories pairing her darling Harry with certain young women the Doctor hung out with, though. And would stay the hell away from all the Doctor/Master fic; living through it had to be grating enough...
5) Stark (Farscape): much sthe same reason as Vila; fanfic (if it features him at all) tends to be both nicer towards him and put him far more in the center, and the Stark devotees might be not the biggest faction in fandom but feature some of the best writers. So yes, Stark would probably be pleased, and wonder whether in one of his "my side, your side" episodes he wrote some of it himself.
Most shocked:
1) Rorschach (Watchmen): upon discovering his new career as a sex god pursued by original characters as well as Daniel Dreiberg and very occasionally Laurie, he'd either break a lot of fingers to prevent further story writing or conclude some supervillain must have brainwashed the masses in order to ruin Rorschach's reputation. (If he stumbles across stories where the OCs or Dan or Laurie call him "Walter", "Walt" or "Wally", all bets are off.)
2) Claire Bennet (Heroes): finding out you either get paired with every single member of your bio family and/or your adopted father and/or a crazy serial killer who already violated you in a not so metaphorical manner would do that to a girl. Bear in mind I stopped watching Heroes mid s3 and left the fandom, but my guess is this fanfic situation has not changed.
3) Severus Snape (Harry Potter): somehow, I doubt Snape would be able to take his career as a fannish sex god in much better grace than Rorschach. Especially if he first gets hold of the stories that pair him with students, or Sirius Black. (For my justification of that suspicion, I offer Snape's reaction when Gilderoy Lockhart suggests students should ask him for love potions for St. Valentine's day in Chamber of Secrets.) (Incidentally, if you're wondering why I don't think he or Rorschach would have Vila's reaction - neither of them has a sense of humor about himself.)
4) Rupert Giles (Buffy the Vampire Slayer): Giles does have a sense of humor about himself, but he's really not keen on sharing info about his private life. So no matter whether you believe he spent his youth shagging Ethan Rayne, and/or that he spent the years of the show lusting after/ having an actual affair with *insert Scoobie of choice*, I doubt he'd want anyone to write or read about it. Which brings me to:
5) Jack Bristow (Alias): Jack would be mortified. (Which, with him being Jack Bristow, would solely show in a microscecond of a glance. But that glance would be terrible to behold!) Doesn't matter whether he'd consider the stories accurate to the point of catching his every twitch or completely rubbish, the very thought of gazillions of stories out there featuring his life with Irina prominently, speculating on his relationship with Nadia, or his formely best friend Arvin... He'd hope for the earth to open and swallow everyone immediately. Wasn't it enough that Sloane had him playing out Jack/Irina fanfic for the world to see with Sydney as Irina as Laura while Jack was having his delirium period?
Not as easy to answer as it looks, considering fandom has yet to write only one direction of fanfic about any given character. One person's OTP is another person's Ew, Ew, Anti-Kink Pairing, and so forth. However, here's my guess.
Most pleased:
1) Vila Restal (Blake's 7)
Given that most Vila-centric fic is bound to treat him kinder than canon usually does and more often than not makes him the hero of the story, he's bound to be pleased. Also, he gets laid far more often than in canon (that we know of).
2) Jack Harkness (Doctor Who, Torchwood): Jack could probably do without the BDSM and/or torture Year That Wasn't stories, but other than that, I can see him being alternately amused or flattered by all the fannish attention. And very pleased indeed that nobody seems to question that he lives up to his own advertisement. (Are there any stories in which Jack turns out not to be that great in the sack after all? Any?)
3) Emma Frost (X-Men): Emma would find it very satisfying that the fans wo dislike her still write her as an interesting character (or not at all), while her admirers tend to avoid ooc fluffyines or over the top Cruelle de Sue-ness. As for the pairings, she'd agree with Oscar Wilde that the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about, and offer a cryptic smile and a "no comment, darling" at the fact that Emma/Kitty and Emma/Jean stories seems to outnumber Emma/Scott by far.
4) Lucy Saxon (Doctor Who): Poor Lucy is just in two episodes, and in one of them she has barely any lines. She'd love all the fannish attention and revel in it, considering it her due at last. She'd probably take a jaundiced view on stories pairing her darling Harry with certain young women the Doctor hung out with, though. And would stay the hell away from all the Doctor/Master fic; living through it had to be grating enough...
5) Stark (Farscape): much sthe same reason as Vila; fanfic (if it features him at all) tends to be both nicer towards him and put him far more in the center, and the Stark devotees might be not the biggest faction in fandom but feature some of the best writers. So yes, Stark would probably be pleased, and wonder whether in one of his "my side, your side" episodes he wrote some of it himself.
Most shocked:
1) Rorschach (Watchmen): upon discovering his new career as a sex god pursued by original characters as well as Daniel Dreiberg and very occasionally Laurie, he'd either break a lot of fingers to prevent further story writing or conclude some supervillain must have brainwashed the masses in order to ruin Rorschach's reputation. (If he stumbles across stories where the OCs or Dan or Laurie call him "Walter", "Walt" or "Wally", all bets are off.)
2) Claire Bennet (Heroes): finding out you either get paired with every single member of your bio family and/or your adopted father and/or a crazy serial killer who already violated you in a not so metaphorical manner would do that to a girl. Bear in mind I stopped watching Heroes mid s3 and left the fandom, but my guess is this fanfic situation has not changed.
3) Severus Snape (Harry Potter): somehow, I doubt Snape would be able to take his career as a fannish sex god in much better grace than Rorschach. Especially if he first gets hold of the stories that pair him with students, or Sirius Black. (For my justification of that suspicion, I offer Snape's reaction when Gilderoy Lockhart suggests students should ask him for love potions for St. Valentine's day in Chamber of Secrets.) (Incidentally, if you're wondering why I don't think he or Rorschach would have Vila's reaction - neither of them has a sense of humor about himself.)
4) Rupert Giles (Buffy the Vampire Slayer): Giles does have a sense of humor about himself, but he's really not keen on sharing info about his private life. So no matter whether you believe he spent his youth shagging Ethan Rayne, and/or that he spent the years of the show lusting after/ having an actual affair with *insert Scoobie of choice*, I doubt he'd want anyone to write or read about it. Which brings me to:
5) Jack Bristow (Alias): Jack would be mortified. (Which, with him being Jack Bristow, would solely show in a microscecond of a glance. But that glance would be terrible to behold!) Doesn't matter whether he'd consider the stories accurate to the point of catching his every twitch or completely rubbish, the very thought of gazillions of stories out there featuring his life with Irina prominently, speculating on his relationship with Nadia, or his formely best friend Arvin... He'd hope for the earth to open and swallow everyone immediately. Wasn't it enough that Sloane had him playing out Jack/Irina fanfic for the world to see with Sydney as Irina as Laura while Jack was having his delirium period?