Meta stuff
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Warnings that fics should have.
Cool rant/essay on technically good stories that fail because of the villain. Because somebody who might be good in canon is revealed to be the surprise monster villain without any sane explanation.
Somebody's list of fanfic squicks and musings on the "Well, it doesn't suck" kind of reccing. I rather liked that there were a lot of writing related complains (Second Person fics, fics with the word "cum", epithets).
Somebody's attitude towards writing", aka "If they didn't like this one, so what, maybe they'll like the next one.". Sounds like a good attitude to me.
The infamous (and still true) complaint about racially "other" characters getting crappy roles on group cast shows. *snuggles Benjamin Sisko* *snuggles Thief* *snuggles Oz*
Somebody brings up this great explanation: Younger people (adolescent) will see what older people see (20-30s) but not (voluntarily) the reverse. Girls will see what boys will see but not the reverse. So that skews the demographic toward young adult males.
But okay, so people of color (also my preferred term since I do think it's inclusive) will go see the movies/consume the media that white people will see but not necessarily or voluntarily the reverse.
If you make, as for example, Sheppard black, you're *automatically* going to have less of a willing audience because the white fans (who aren't watching *anyway*) aren't going to accept a black man as their hero (for whatever reason, discomfort being the one I think most likely) whereas fans of color are more likely to accept a white hero because there isn't any other option.
What I always found interesting was that even on those shows where black characters get a meatier role (Gunn on Angel, Sisko on DS9) you still don't get the impression that the slashers or hetters feel really as drawn to them. Which I always found odd. Like, from my complete outsider PoV, it always felt like the Angel fanfiction fandom was drawn a lot more to Wesley than to Gunn, the House fandom (apart from House/Wilson) seems to gravitate towards Chase rather than Foreman, or in CSI Gil/Nick and Gil/Greg is fairly big, so why relatively no Warrick/Gil? I mean, sure, Nick is hot, but so is Warrick, sure Gil has shown preferential treatment of Nick, but he has done so with Warrick, too, especially in the earlier episodes.
So are black characters generally just more badly/less angstily written (maybe because the writers are white), worse acted, is it some inherent reluctance from the fanfiction writers to approach a black character? Is there a tendency (by the writers) to write or (by the actors) to portray black characters as too cool, too straight, not angsty enough and that keeps them from striking a chord with the fanfiction writers?
Or am I just misinformed. Is the amount of Logan/Jackie comparable to Logan/Hannah? Is the amount of Veronica/Wallace comparable to the amount of Veronica/Lamb or Veronica/Weevil (keep in mind that there are several shades of color, the closer you are to white, the more likely you are going to get shipped).
All that made me think of Prison Break and how I spent a lot of time talking about how the amount of Sucre fic totally isn't proportionate to (1) the hot and (2) the woobieness and (3) the opportunity. Interestingly, a lot of the arguments against Michael/Sucre (I like them a lot, but I see them only as platonic) reminds me a lot of the arguments against Wallace/Veronica on Veronica Mars.
Anyway, it made me think about which characters on Prison Break really *need* to be white. Ok lets say they made the main hero white, so Michael white, Lincoln white (though Michael and Lincoln with different fathers and Michael's father being black is something I always loved), LJ white (or at least mixed), daddy white makes sense.
Sara white makes sense as she is the daughter of a conservative politician.
VP/Steadman white make sense as the VP is a conservative politician making her way to the top. Not that black people can't be conservative (though black + woman might be a bit much anyway), but I guess I'm just fond of the whole bitchy white establishment vibe.
Abruzzi, mob boss and T-Bag, white supremacist are kind of a given as well. As well as T-Bag's boytoys and sidekicks. Which means that Tweener falls into this category, since he started out as Michael saving him from T-Bag.
So that leaves lots of conspiracy/evil characters, Nick (though you never know who he might end up being related to), oh, and Haywire :D
The biggest argument could be made for how the black gangs should just have a lot more power in prison and that therefore the black characters should be more influential.
That said, one thing I love about Prison Break is that everybody comes with their custom family. Sucre/Manche/Hector/Maricruz and C-Note and his wife, daughter and brother in law, they just work for me a lot. Which is interesting since I remember never really connecting to Gunn's family members and posse or Benjamin Sisko's family troubles. Don't get me wrong, Sisko's family troubles were understandable in an "Every man" kind of way. It's just that I didn't really care about any of the supporting players or connect to them, which automatically made me less involved with the storylines.
Funny: Literal interpretation of Magazine Names
Warnings that fics should have.
Cool rant/essay on technically good stories that fail because of the villain. Because somebody who might be good in canon is revealed to be the surprise monster villain without any sane explanation.
Somebody's list of fanfic squicks and musings on the "Well, it doesn't suck" kind of reccing. I rather liked that there were a lot of writing related complains (Second Person fics, fics with the word "cum", epithets).
Somebody's attitude towards writing", aka "If they didn't like this one, so what, maybe they'll like the next one.". Sounds like a good attitude to me.
The infamous (and still true) complaint about racially "other" characters getting crappy roles on group cast shows. *snuggles Benjamin Sisko* *snuggles Thief* *snuggles Oz*
Somebody brings up this great explanation: Younger people (adolescent) will see what older people see (20-30s) but not (voluntarily) the reverse. Girls will see what boys will see but not the reverse. So that skews the demographic toward young adult males.
But okay, so people of color (also my preferred term since I do think it's inclusive) will go see the movies/consume the media that white people will see but not necessarily or voluntarily the reverse.
If you make, as for example, Sheppard black, you're *automatically* going to have less of a willing audience because the white fans (who aren't watching *anyway*) aren't going to accept a black man as their hero (for whatever reason, discomfort being the one I think most likely) whereas fans of color are more likely to accept a white hero because there isn't any other option.
What I always found interesting was that even on those shows where black characters get a meatier role (Gunn on Angel, Sisko on DS9) you still don't get the impression that the slashers or hetters feel really as drawn to them. Which I always found odd. Like, from my complete outsider PoV, it always felt like the Angel fanfiction fandom was drawn a lot more to Wesley than to Gunn, the House fandom (apart from House/Wilson) seems to gravitate towards Chase rather than Foreman, or in CSI Gil/Nick and Gil/Greg is fairly big, so why relatively no Warrick/Gil? I mean, sure, Nick is hot, but so is Warrick, sure Gil has shown preferential treatment of Nick, but he has done so with Warrick, too, especially in the earlier episodes.
So are black characters generally just more badly/less angstily written (maybe because the writers are white), worse acted, is it some inherent reluctance from the fanfiction writers to approach a black character? Is there a tendency (by the writers) to write or (by the actors) to portray black characters as too cool, too straight, not angsty enough and that keeps them from striking a chord with the fanfiction writers?
Or am I just misinformed. Is the amount of Logan/Jackie comparable to Logan/Hannah? Is the amount of Veronica/Wallace comparable to the amount of Veronica/Lamb or Veronica/Weevil (keep in mind that there are several shades of color, the closer you are to white, the more likely you are going to get shipped).
All that made me think of Prison Break and how I spent a lot of time talking about how the amount of Sucre fic totally isn't proportionate to (1) the hot and (2) the woobieness and (3) the opportunity. Interestingly, a lot of the arguments against Michael/Sucre (I like them a lot, but I see them only as platonic) reminds me a lot of the arguments against Wallace/Veronica on Veronica Mars.
Anyway, it made me think about which characters on Prison Break really *need* to be white. Ok lets say they made the main hero white, so Michael white, Lincoln white (though Michael and Lincoln with different fathers and Michael's father being black is something I always loved), LJ white (or at least mixed), daddy white makes sense.
Sara white makes sense as she is the daughter of a conservative politician.
VP/Steadman white make sense as the VP is a conservative politician making her way to the top. Not that black people can't be conservative (though black + woman might be a bit much anyway), but I guess I'm just fond of the whole bitchy white establishment vibe.
Abruzzi, mob boss and T-Bag, white supremacist are kind of a given as well. As well as T-Bag's boytoys and sidekicks. Which means that Tweener falls into this category, since he started out as Michael saving him from T-Bag.
So that leaves lots of conspiracy/evil characters, Nick (though you never know who he might end up being related to), oh, and Haywire :D
The biggest argument could be made for how the black gangs should just have a lot more power in prison and that therefore the black characters should be more influential.
That said, one thing I love about Prison Break is that everybody comes with their custom family. Sucre/Manche/Hector/Maricruz and C-Note and his wife, daughter and brother in law, they just work for me a lot. Which is interesting since I remember never really connecting to Gunn's family members and posse or Benjamin Sisko's family troubles. Don't get me wrong, Sisko's family troubles were understandable in an "Every man" kind of way. It's just that I didn't really care about any of the supporting players or connect to them, which automatically made me less involved with the storylines.
Funny: Literal interpretation of Magazine Names