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Contemplating fandom
Meta links - I don't know how I got here (tabs tabs tabs), but I came across this list of five obnoxious, pan-fandom fanon cliches by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
selenak and I was just nodding my head going, yup, this all sounds awfully familiar. *g* There's also a tangentially related post on the Insignificant Other, aka characters who are introduced into a romantic triangle just to make the main romantic contender look good by comparison. I think one of the reasons why I dislike romantic comedies as a genre is that they tend to rely so heavily on this -- one of my pet peeves is the fiancé who is a complete asshole or just Mr. (or Ms.) Bland, so that the character goes fleeing into the arms of that shiny new lover they met at the pet store or through the personals column or whatever. I guess it can theoretically be done well, but just once I would like to see the protagonist realize that that the boring fiancé is really not that boring after all, and end up with him/her instead of the new love interest. (I also reserve a lot of affection for movies that don't go down the "evil fiancé" road -- it was one of the many reasons why I liked the first PotC movie and resented the second one.)
Reading both these posts, and the comments, makes me feel a little better about SGA (both canon and fandom); I've been in a lot of fandoms, but have spent the last three years being primarily a fannish monogamist, and I think it's helpful for me to be reminded that all the things that drive me nuts about SGA fandom, and the things I find bitterly disappointing in canon, are more or less universal to just about every big fandom that there is. In fact, some canons/fandoms are quite a lot worse with the things that make me miserable; the things I've heard about the ship wars and cliquishness in, say, Buffy fandom make me think that I wouldn't survive five minutes there. *g*
selenak and I was just nodding my head going, yup, this all sounds awfully familiar. *g* There's also a tangentially related post on the Insignificant Other, aka characters who are introduced into a romantic triangle just to make the main romantic contender look good by comparison. I think one of the reasons why I dislike romantic comedies as a genre is that they tend to rely so heavily on this -- one of my pet peeves is the fiancé who is a complete asshole or just Mr. (or Ms.) Bland, so that the character goes fleeing into the arms of that shiny new lover they met at the pet store or through the personals column or whatever. I guess it can theoretically be done well, but just once I would like to see the protagonist realize that that the boring fiancé is really not that boring after all, and end up with him/her instead of the new love interest. (I also reserve a lot of affection for movies that don't go down the "evil fiancé" road -- it was one of the many reasons why I liked the first PotC movie and resented the second one.)Reading both these posts, and the comments, makes me feel a little better about SGA (both canon and fandom); I've been in a lot of fandoms, but have spent the last three years being primarily a fannish monogamist, and I think it's helpful for me to be reminded that all the things that drive me nuts about SGA fandom, and the things I find bitterly disappointing in canon, are more or less universal to just about every big fandom that there is. In fact, some canons/fandoms are quite a lot worse with the things that make me miserable; the things I've heard about the ship wars and cliquishness in, say, Buffy fandom make me think that I wouldn't survive five minutes there. *g*
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If you love meta the Buffyverse was the Queen of it - that show got chopped up, diced and pureed, which is fun if you like that sort of thing, but if not was like Angelus with a sack full of puppies - a horrific combination.
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*wince* Yeah I caught myself doing that not too long ago. Note to self: do not map your ex-boyfriend onto an SGA character and cast yourself as the perfect woobie.
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I would have added a sixth, though, and five would have led wonderfully into it, I think: Thinking in black and white - A character does something the writer doesn't like, but rather than explore the situation, the writer writes a story that reams the character a new one, putting him/her in her place. I'm not talking about the writer "excusing" the character for what they did. I'm talking about writers who don't seem to consider all the facts. They just want to punish the character for being "dumb" or a "jerk."
It actually made me a little sour toward Teyla in season 4 for a while. Authors weren't even trying to understand where each character was coming from, they just wrote Teyla the woobie victim and Sheppard the big meany.
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That's basically what I'm talking about: the author punishing the character, not just going to bat for their woobie character. I mean, yeah, there's actually very little difference between the two, so they could both be considered the same. On the other hand, there have been stories that have struck me as being "grovel" fic and stories that struck me as being "punishment" fic. A Dr. Who story I read a while back comes to mind. There was no "real" woobie per se in that story. The whole thing was an OC analyzing something the Doctor had done then berating him for all the stupid mistakes he'd made. The story bugged me because it pretty much brushed aside the reasons behind the Doctor's actions, as though they didn't matter when, in fact, they should have mattered a lot.
It kind of depresses me that "Mary Sue" has been overused beyond a concrete definition. I really liked that term for those over-the-top OCs that give well-developed and well-written OCs a bad name. Oh, well.
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I don't think it's unreasonable to talk about Mary Sues -- there are definitely characters that more than qualify for the name. But I think the term gets bandied about as a general insult, or a descriptor for OCs of almost any sort, quite a bit more than it should.
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Like the Keller haters who called her a Mary Sue. I don't understand why folks hate her so much. I'm a slasher and in fanon, I like McShep. But in canon I rather enjoyed Jennifer who didn't put up with Rodney's bull, but who still liked him, warts and all.
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I'd say that a Mary Sue (in the true, original sense of the word, not the inflationary overuse we've come to see where it's applied to any female character fans might not like) is so much the focus of a story that she distorts the other characters to the point of becoming unrecognizable. And in fic one usually wants to read about the canon characters.
Though I'd say even to that are exceptions and true Mary Sue fic has an audience - I'd guess mostly the teenage crowd. Stephen Ratliff's Marissa Picard serious had one of the most blatant Sues ever - man, that girl was amazing, she could do anything short of sparkle - but he had quite a fan following. And while I giggled over the Mistings of his fic until coke came out of my nose, I could still see how the story could work for the kid/young adult readers.
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I have no brain cells left for comments, but on your boring fiance issue, the Accidental Husband actually plays that fairly well. The guy SEEMS boring and blah, but he turns out to be pretty cool in his own right. Just, not for this girl. ;-)
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Say, if those are you preferences for romantic storylines, have you seen "Forces of Nature"? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0141098/
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I think SGA fandom - parts of it, anyway - used to be calmer and friendlier and more open than most big fandoms. Now it's more like other fandoms...which is frustrating, but nothing to be done for it; if it bothers you too much, there's always greener pastures! Older pastures, sometimes - I've been enjoying the heck out of Starsky & Hutch & The Man from UNCLE, myself XD
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... because, yeah, the "Mr. Bland" cliche is one of my very least favorites. The Asshole Boyfriend one bothers me mostly because it takes all the ambiguity out of the situation and, usually, makes me want to kick the heroine for being such an airhead that she's even in doubt. But the Mr. Bland one is just completely unfair.
I also think you're spot-on about the big fandom-ness of SGA. After reading your comment, I got to thinking about it and realized that, as many fandoms as I've been in, I've actually only ever been in one other big fandom -- SG1, which I got into when it was small and left because of, basically, Big Fandom Syndrome around seasons 4/5. Other than that, all my fandoms have been small fandoms, and even when they were big (like DBZ) I was always in the "micro" parts of them (i.e. gen DBZ fandom) and never really crossed paths with the "average" fan in those fandoms.
And I think you have a great point, too, that SGA fandom really was pleasant for its size for a long time.
I think it can become so again; SG1 fandom was awful when I left, but my understanding now (from skirting the borders) is that it's become very mellow and pleasant again, post-cancellation, much more like I remember it being in the early days.
Perhaps I just came back from my fannish vacation too soon. :D
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(Oh, Torchwood, where I prefer the het pairings to the canon slash. I am such a perverse fangirl sometimes ^^;)
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Re: Torchwood's canon pairings, it really does depend on which pairing, I guess. I find Jack/Ianto incredibly bland, but I also find Jack/Gwen equally bland. Owen/Tosh, on the other hand, is (or rather was) love and hearts and puppies ... little zombie puppies, perhaps, but still.
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