TVD fanfic peeves, take two :)

[arabian]

Some more TVD fanfic pet peeves .... I'm still not over my 'Lena thing, but there are a few other things that bug me. I know that I note these things because I'm ridiculously obsessed and watch the show like a zillion times, but man, it still bugs.

Comments

[thesicko1012]

Fun! Here's my biggest one:

Making Stefan uncharacteristically horrible and annoying to make Damon more appealing to Elena. Yes, Stefan has his faults that rarely get consequences, making a lot of us upset, but you don't need to make Stefan so completely unlikeable to show that Elena should choose Damon. That is pretty much having her choose by default and weaken Elena as a woman for being with Stefan in the first place. Keep Stefan in character. It cheapens Damon and Elena's bond. Plus, I like Stefan. Despite the fact that he is certainly capable of really pissing me off, I still like the guy and want to see his traits correctly presented in the fic.

But of course this doesn't just happen for Damon/Elena fics. This happens a lot with any triangle. Even making a character I already dislike totally out of character to heighten the other point of the triangle annoys the crap out of me.

I know I have more things, but that that's just what popped in my head at the moment. I will probably think of more.

[badboy_fangirl]

Besides, Stefan has plenty of REAL flaws without having to make any up. What's wrong with people? Seriously.

[arabian]

Excactly. And those flaws make him INTERESTING to write for and read about.

[arabian]

Oh, I know. I'll choose to not read a fic if the summary makes it clear they're gonna piss all over Stefan. And once they start doing it in the fic, I'm done. I mean, come on! Stefan has issues, a BUTT-LOAD of them, and there is so much to work with, you don't need to make him OOC and an utter asshole about it to make D/E work. And you're totally right, it's like by doing so they're saying that the only way Elena would choose Damon over Stefan is to make Stefan uncharacteristically horrible.

[distant_lines]

I think my biggest pet peeve with stories has to be when they make characters one-dimensional because the author doesn't like the character. One of my favorite things to do as a writer is take the characters I don't like on the show, and figure out a way that I can like them in my story. It doesn't mean that the character has to be a good character or something that the character isn't on the show, but to give the character some more dimensions. I like even the bad characters to have a dimension to them. I want to understand why characters do something, and sometimes writers just have characters do things for a plot point, I feel like, and I can't stand that.

Another one of my huge pet peeves is when a conflict in a story goes on forever, when it could be handled with one conversation. The entire story could be wrapped up with one conversation, and it gets dragged out for 10 chapters in the story. I guess I just like stories to have something to them. I want them to make sense and be complicated without being ridiculous.

[bogwitch]

Also writing characters ooc does nothing more than weaken your own writing, so you are the one that suffers for it.

[arabian]

When I read summaries that will flat-out say "Stefan is OOC in this to make Damon/Elena work", or "Elena is OOC to make her choose Damon easier," I'm like noooooooooooooo, good writing, you are doing it wrong! Ugh.

[bogwitch]

Fortunately, those work in your favour because you know it'll be a bad fic.

[k_stjames]

First I completely agree with number 2. It's like the super hearing only applies when the story needs it, no consistency. My biggest pet peeve is when Elena goes literally from Stefan's arms / bed to Damon as if hit by a bolt of lightening and she suddenly realizes she loves Damon and doesn't love Stefan anymore. Gradually falling out of love is one thing but literally changing overnight it unbelievable and I think diminishes the DE story.

[arabian]

You're right, they will do that. It's like for fanfic-writing purposes, the ONLY reason for the super-hearing is so that Damon can be miserable that he can hear Stefan and Elena intimately, but then the super-hearing doesn't pick up anything else, despite the fact that the writer has made clear that there is nothing Damon can do to drown out the noise of S/E together.

when Elena goes literally from Stefan's arms / bed to Damon as if hit by a bolt of lightening and she suddenly realizes she loves Damon and doesn't love Stefan anymore

Yup, yup, yup. Ooh, this reminds me of another petpeeve I have to add!! But, yeah, it's like, dude, it ain't gonna happen like that.

[badboy_fangirl]

RE: lack of heartbeats. This goes along with the 'not needing to breathe' trope because I've read so many fics about the unneeded breaths Damon's taken. In 1x11, he explicitly states that as long as he has plenty of blood in his system, his body functions pretty normally, minus the being able to procreate part. So, vampires breathe, have a heart beat, and piss just like humans.

Also, 'Lena, 'Lena, 'Lena. (That's my *Marsha, Marsha, Marsha' impression!) ;-)

[arabian]

This goes along with the 'not needing to breathe' trope because I've read so many fics about the unneeded breaths Damon's taken.

Yes, yes, I always get thrown by that. But, to be honest, I'm not sure about that one. I mean, as far as we know, they probably don't know need to breathe (see, Stefan underwater with no problem, but obviously sapped of strength RME). Having heartbeats makes sense with the blood in the system, but they are dead, so breaths are probably not necessarily. Do I think they breathe normally? Yes, because they function like humans, but they won't die if they hold their breaths. However, they probably would pass out and do the vamp-recovery thing because, yeah, they do breathe. Okay, so, yeah, I'm back to, dudes, they breathe.

Also, 'Lena, 'Lena, 'Lena.

I was going to add, that while it's true it has been said ONCE IN A BLUE MOON, it remains SO NOT THE NORM! (Yes, this brings out the capitals) and so many fics make Damon say her name thus CONSTANTLY.

[thesicko1012]

Yes, we have seen vampires holding each other by the necks enough to know that they breathe. That's what bugs me is that people think that there is a strict way to portray vampires no matter what show/book/movie they're from. A lot of people completely ignore what the writers have done with them (and, yes, I know they can be a little inconsistent at times) and just match the characters with their idealized version of vampires, most of the times to suit their story.

[arabian]

Yup, that's what's so annoying. It's like not only are they taking vampire mythology from other shows, but actively applying it to TVD when we've clearly been told/shown the opposite.

A lot of people completely ignore what the writers have done with them and just match the characters with their idealized version of vampires, most of the times to suit their story.

Yeah, there was a really good story on FF that completely ignored the heartbeat thing (and mentioned it a LOT) and even when I mentioned it to her, she was all, eh, doesn't work for my story. RME

[bogwitch]

That becoming a vampire suddenly makes you lose all your inhibitions and you become a rampant sex machine who'll sleep with anything including same sex relatives even though you have never shown any inclination to do so while alive. Or ever.

My biggie for TVD fic though is use of parentheses and it's beginning to seriously annoy me. Occasionally, they aren't too bad but people use them ALL THE EFFING TIME! Sometimes after every other sentence. They throw me completely out of a fic and destroy the flow of what can otherwise be very pretty writing. Half the time, a couple of commas would do the job just as well.

I hate the siring thing too, always have, even in Buffy fic. Especially in Buffy fic.

Damon said his body functions 'pretty normally' too, which brings me back to that perennially vexing question that bothers me of where is his toilet?

[arabian]

That becoming a vampire suddenly makes you lose all your inhibitions and you become a rampant sex machine who'll sleep with anything including same sex relatives even though you have never shown any inclination to do so while alive. Or ever.

Yeah, I think people got this from the Caroline/Tyler-vamps/weres so horny conversation in "The Birthday," never mind that that seemed mostly a way to facilitate Tyler and Caroline coming up with a reason as to why they wanted to jump EACH OTHER's bones. It's just the whole heightened thing, and their lust for each other -- built up over all summer -- was just, you know, heightened.

My biggie for TVD fic though is use of parentheses and it's beginning to seriously annoy me.

Hmm, I haven't noticed that, but I can see why it would be annoying. I do use parentheses in writing posts and stuff, but fics, not so much because it really doesn't work. It would totally bug me too.

I hate the siring thing too, always haveI only ever read/wrote Buffy/Xander fic, so I wouldn't know. But I seem to

[wickedrum]

Damon's toilet! I do seriously want to see that one day for some reason. lol