Comments | chicafrom3: so here they come, the sound of drums...

chicafrom3

so here they come, the sound of drums...

Jul 05, 2007 17:23

So, this post on female characters in fandom by fabu came up on metafandom, and I read it and it's very interesting and well-thought out and inspired that thing I do every so often where I examine my own biases in fictional characters.

( warning: this gets long and, in places, dull )

needs moar claire, fandom biases, x-files, andromeda, heroes, torchwood, lost, roswell, fandom, doctor who, meta

Comments 35

petrichor_fizz July 5 2007, 22:38:11 UTC

You don't like Claire? I like Claire.

Sorry. Your post deserved a better comment than that. But I do like Claire.

chicafrom3 July 5 2007, 22:42:08 UTC

I liked Claire when she was hanging out with Zach all the time? But, um. That might have been mostly spillover from liking Zach so much.

I don't actively dislike her, if that helps. I just like other characters so much better.

petrichor_fizz July 5 2007, 22:46:04 UTC

I think Peter's boring, don't get me wrong. It really bugs me that he gets so much screen-time, actually. But I do like Claire a lot.

That might be spillover from me having a crush on Hayden Panettiere, though.

[It's not that creepy, she's barely any younger than I am, seriously.]

chicafrom3 July 5 2007, 22:54:04 UTC

That might be spillover from me having a crush on Hayden Panettiere, though.

I can't argue with that. That's a totally legit reason to like a character--I think the main reason I love Tess so much is because she's played by Emilie de Ravin and I very much have a crush on Emilie. She's five years older than me, that's not creepy at all! Although she's straight and I'm asexual so that probably wouldn't work out very well.

Thread 6

kawaiispinel July 5 2007, 22:39:36 UTC

Wow... That actually made me think. I was pondering my issues with pairings a couple of days ago, but I don't think I've ever openly tried to figure out what sort of characters I adore and which ones I absolutely hate, although I should, but I doubt it follows much of a set pattern. I'm erratic with character likes and dislikes. (My 'ships generally fall into easier niches.)

chicafrom3 July 5 2007, 22:43:53 UTC

I tend to go over my favorite characters every so often and figure out certain patterns. Like, I always fall in love with the junkies. And, people who mean well and do the best they can and save the world and yet constantly get put down and belittled resonate with me.

It's rarer that I look at the characters I don't like in detail, but it turns up interesting thoughts.

kawaiispinel July 5 2007, 22:56:46 UTC

It's rarer that I look at the characters I don't like in detail, but it turns up interesting thoughts.

Don't I know it.

I'm going to have to ponder on this. Both character likes and dislikes, because now I'd like to try to figure out what sort of archtypes I'm going for or getting turned off of.

chicafrom3 July 5 2007, 23:02:11 UTC

It makes it easier for people to convert you to new fandoms if the archetypes are all figured out, I know that--I think Niki's original way of getting me to watch The Black Donnellys was to say "There are JUNKIES" and I went "OMG YAY".

Thread 10

daluci July 5 2007, 22:55:52 UTC

That brings up so many interesting points. Sadly, I'm not knowledgeable about many of those fandoms (okay, any aside from Andromeda or a passing Who knowledge), so I can't really say much...

And yes. Dylan should have died. ::sighs::

chicafrom3 July 5 2007, 23:00:28 UTC

Really, I don't understand how none of the writers looked at Dylan and went, "Hmm. You know, he's pretty unlikeable and rather useless. The show's ending anyway and we don't have to worry about Kevin's ego anymore, why don't we kill him off and give the remaining fans a break?"

longlongwaytogo July 5 2007, 23:01:37 UTC

I've always been bothered by the Mickey abuse also. :( Poor Mickey. Yeah, he's not as fun as the Doctor (at least at first), and their relationship is going nowhere. And she's not actually going out with the doctor, and she's not in love with him at first. But after a while, it might be nice to let poor Mickey go... because you just keep forgetting about him! You can still be friends with him! but stop stringing him along! Mickey was totally justified in what he said and did. And...he should end up with Jake.

chicafrom3 July 5 2007, 23:04:11 UTC

I totally believe Mickey and Jake wound up together. And that Jake has a little bit of a jealous streak and gets mad whenever Mickey mentions Rose and then they have makeup sex.

This belief makes me feel better.

longlongwaytogo July 5 2007, 23:20:29 UTC

I think that too. They spend a year liberating Paris and stuff, and somewhere along the line he finds out about Jake and Ricky (since that bit about 'never going to find another boyfriend like him' thing was cut, and I think rightly so because it just turned it into a joke) and has a big crisis but stays friends with Jake and Jake's trying to feel alright about the fact that he's still in love with his boyfriend and there's a guy there with the same face as him and similar history but different personality, slightly anyway (I don't think Ricky would be that ... harsh, when they're in private) and so there's a lot of angst, and maybe he's trying to relieve his pain with random french guys (or other places) but then Mickey sorta starts thinking about it and realises that he has a crush on Jake, but doesn't say anything because it freaks him out (they're also getting really close friends throughout this) and then one day he does and then Jake has to figure out his emotions to do with 'replacing' Ricky and stuff, but they decide to give ( ... )

chicafrom3 July 5 2007, 23:39:26 UTC

...this is totally my canon now. ♥♥♥

Thread 7

trascendenza July 6 2007, 00:13:01 UTC

THE CHRONICLE SOLIDARITY!

Every character on that show=love. And even though I didn't know most of the fandoms, I read a lot of this post, and it was interesting, not boring ^_^ I agree with you about generic characters--I tend to dislike and/or be disinterested in them. I don't see the point of telling a story about a character so generic they could be inserted into anything.

chicafrom3 July 6 2007, 00:36:27 UTC

IT'S SO TRUE!!! Every Chronicle character every is fantastic.

And why is it that most stories cast the generic character template as the hero, and all the awesome, quirky, interesting characters as the support? That fails to make sense to me.

longlongwaytogo July 6 2007, 00:50:07 UTC

Yeah, I really don't know. I have heard some writers give advice to people before, like, they look at their work and then say 'your secondary character here is more interesting. Switch the perspective to them. '

Actually having the sidekick telling the story rather than the hero would be heaps interesting. :D
I'm also loving the Chronicle, though I've still not downloaded all the episodes let alone watched them all. I think I've seen 10 and downloaded 20...

trascendenza July 6 2007, 21:17:26 UTC

God, that's so true. Why is the hero support so much more interesting than the hero? Probably because writers are afraid the mainstream won't identify with the quirky interesting characters, blah.