Five Canons Better Than Any Single Character

[selenak]

This week's fannish5 wants to know about five characters who are too good for their canon, who are the only thing to make an otherwise dreadful canon (book, film, tv) palpable. And that is one of my anti-concepts, anti-kinks, whatever you want to call it. It's not that I don't have canons where I love one character more than any other. Or shows, or book

Comments

[zahrawithaz]

Love your inversion of this meme.

one of the steps towards realising "I don't like/love this anymore" was the realisation that I only liked one character, or one aspect, and disliked everything else. To me, watching or reading for one character alone while actively resenting everything else - the other characters, the fictional universe itself - is a guaranteed recipe for misery

I think I agree with you here. (Minority fannish opinion: This is what happened to me during the last DW finale, and it makes me so sad!) My own personal fannish tendencies often draw me to minor characters, though, so historically for me this dynamic has often involved watching them be shunted aside for the leads.

On the other hand, part of me thinks that this can work for certain stories, if they privilege certain characters in certain ways. I'm reminded of some Othello productions that I've seen--one in which everyone and everything (costumes, sets) except Iago was awful, and one in which the reverse was true. The former was undoubtedly the better

[selenak]

Come to think of it, I did see an Othello where everyone except Iago sucked wasn't at their best, Oliver Parker's film version with Kenneth Branagh as Iago. KB was the first Iago to sell me on the honest, honest Iago reputation, i.e. that everyone assumes Iago is the hail, fellow, well met type. (Because it's not just Othello - all the other characters believe this, too, instead of suspecting him.) But other than Branagh, I found that film a complete disappointment (granted, the Welles film is one of my favourite Shakespeare based movies of all times, so there was that disadvantage...), and this one performance wouldn't save it for me.

Ensemble show: well, it's really difficult to say about DW as a whole because only with the Sixth Doctor did "one companion at a time" become the default option. Before that, it more often than not were several companions at a time, which makes an ensemble. Otoh, the nature of the show - i.e. the cast keeps changing, and so do the producers and scriptwriters - makes it hard to classify it as anything

[watervole]

I can only think of one icon to use here...

[selenak]

ZOMG, that's perfect. :)

[wee_warrior]

To me, watching or reading for one character alone while actively resenting everything else - the other characters, the fictional universe itself - is a guaranteed recipe for misery, and not the inspiring kind (being disturbed or grieved by fiction can be a powerful experience if the fiction is good).

I think I'm somewhere in the middle. I do have shows, books or films where I care mostly about one character, or a couple of characters - but mostly I either like the rest of it (I just don't feel particularly drawn to the characters) or I'll drift apart eventually. I don't think I ever stuck with anything just for a great character.

I even hum the theme tune when the credits roll.

The credits is admittedly the part I watch most. The theme is pretty cool! (Goes for all of these shows, incidentally. In two cases it's arguably what I like most about the show.)

[selenak]

Oh, I have shows where I care passionately about one particular character and am only in fondness or like with the rest as well. But if I realise I actively dislike the rest of the bunch, and the universe, even if I originally liked either, then it's time to say goodbye. (Alas, Carnivale. Alas, Earth: Final Conflict.) When I stick around for a canon beyond more than one season, then even if I originally loved only one character I've developed sympathy for others as well. (Alias is a case in point. By the time s1 had finished, I was of course most intrigued by Sloane but I also liked Sydney herself, Jack, Dixon, Will and Francie, and Emily. By the time the second season ended I loved the entire crazy Rambaldi-ridden Spyverse, and not even things like the sudden turnaround on Lauren's characterisation in s3 could change that...

[wee_warrior]

Alas, Carnivale.

I actually did like most of the other characters (who weren't Jonesy or his suddenly no longer lesbian wife, or Nick Stahl's Prince of Light... you get the picture), but since the show had decided to mostly ignore them, I finally grew impatient with it. The reason why I would have quit even if they had managed to get a third season lies in the severely dumbed down worldbuilding, though.

By the time the second season ended I loved the entire crazy Rambaldi-ridden Spyverse, and not even things like the sudden turnaround on Lauren's characterisation in s3 could change that...

My data concerning Season 3 is a bit muddled, since I spend it in fandom (and Alias fandom, such as I met it, was very, very bitchy at that point), but I wonder if I liked it less in part because losing Will, and to a degree Francie, hit me very hard. He was really one of my favourites, though far from the only one. Which brings us back to your statement...

[penknife]

Yeah, I agree with you -- while there are all kinds of ways to be fannish, I think being invested in a show for one character (or one pairing, even) and strongly disliking everything else about a show is a recipe for both being perpetually unhappy with your show-watching experience and for writing some really bad fanfic. Often to the tune of how everybody in canon X except character Y fails to understand character Y's true awesomeness, because they essentially suck. Or to the tune of how the X/Y pairing would be awesome, if only neither of them had any of their canonical motivations or interests.

[selenak]

a recipe for both being perpetually unhappy with your show-watching experience and for writing some really bad fanfic. Often to the tune of how everybody in canon X except character Y fails to understand character Y's true awesomeness, because they essentially suck. Or to the tune of how the X/Y pairing would be awesome, if only neither of them had any of their canonical motivations or interests.

Oh yes, that sounds ever so familiar. Of course, it's easier to avoid the bad fanfiction than the reviews. The fanfic tends to give itself away in the summary. And the disclaimer. (Blabhla own character X but they don't deserve him/her!!!! is a dead giveaway. *g*)

[lizvogel]

To me, watching or reading for one character alone while actively resenting everything else - the other characters, the fictional universe itself - is a guaranteed recipe for misery

This, totally. I learned, many fandoms ago, that if I don't at least like/not mind all of the characters, I'm better off going far, far away and watching something else entirely. The aggravation's just not worth it, no matter how shiny one character may be -- and frankly, a show that thinks characters I can't stand are a good idea, generally can't be trusted to keep my favorite true-to-character anyway.