And the last of the alphabet meme

[chelseagirl]

U: Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

Doc Holliday on Wynonna Earp. It's ironic, as someone who's drawn to shows with interesting female characters, that I should choose the male lead on a show that's all about the interesting female characters. But Doc appeals to my love for the past, and he does the man out of time so well. Sure, they play on the humor of it, but they don't overdo it. (Ichabod Crane on Sleepy Hollow, I just might be looking at you.) He's so obviously broken and conflicted -- honorable but self-interested, caring more than he can let himself show. Tim Rozon plays him so beautifully. And also he's just beautiful to look at, even with that major 'tache going on.

Peggy Carter on Agent Carter (and various Marvel movies). Peggy may not have superpowers, but she knows her value, and she's right to do so. She's strong, smart, resourceful, and all around the woman for the job. She feels deeply, but she doesn't let it get in the way, and she makes her way despite all the men who keep trying to put her back in what they see as her place. Also her sense of style is impeccable. I might have quite a few 40s influenced dresses and blouses in my work wardrobe, and it might be because stealth Peggy cosplay makes me feel more confident myself. [Also, controversial opinion, I believe Daisy/Daniel in the last season of AoS means Steve did go back in our own timeline in Endgame, not an alternate one. Sure the mysterious husband could be yet a third guy, but I don't think so. I guess this would have been my "hill to metaphorically die on" opinion if I'd thought of it when I did that question.]

Carol Danvers in Captain Marvel and Avengers Endgame. I haven't gone back and read all of her comics throughout history, though I have tried to catch up with the newer ones. But the Captain Marvel movie had me laughing and cheering delightedly throughout. I guess we all find our own superhero, and Carol is mine. (And I'm really hoping she teams up with Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel somewhere along the cinematic way!)


V: Which character do you relate to most?

Rupert Giles on Buffy -- I'm the academic mentor, knowledgeable but sometimes in over my head.
Peggy Carter is maybe who I'd like to be.


W: A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.

In any canon or fic: pregnancy on first sex.

In any canon: The team with one woman. (I'd rather have one woman than no women, and some of my favorite canons do this, but I hate it! You'd think we were like 20% of the population.)

Anywhere: woman bashing. lots of m/m slash exists without putting down or villainizing or handwaving away canon female love interests, but I've read enough that does that I tiptoe in warily.


X: A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom

Flawed Happily Ever Afters -- in other words, characters getting together and staying together, but also being human and imperfect and sometimes bumping along uncomfortably but working things out. This could be romance, friendship, or teams. Just like real life, only possibly prettier.


Y: What are your secondhand fandoms (i.e., fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)?

I'm not into anime, and was never in the fandom, but I have seen every episode of Full Metal Alchemist (original and Brotherhood) and even took a train up to the Hudson Valley to see the theatrical movie which came out after the first series ended. Because of my BFF. (Although she's been in a number of other fandoms I have not tangentially shared.)

My spouse is majorly into Babylon 5; it's not my fandom but I know a whole lot about it and can speak fairly knowledgeably on the subject.


Z: Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go!

For me, fanfic is a way of interacting with a text, interpreting or extending or having a dialogue about something I didn't like. I am more likely to write about a show that ended too soon, or that I loved but had some significant flaw that I want to correct/address/discuss.

I am thankful for the Mary Sue stigma because in the one fandom where I wrote a significant number of original characters -- Alias Smith & Jones -- I worked really really hard to make sure my characters, and especially the love interests, were flawed and interesting and definitely not too perfect, and nothing could fall into place too easily. And that taught me to be a writer who could create my own characters, and even though I currently only have one book out from a teeny-tiny press, I believe in myself so much more because of the way readers reacted to my original characters in that fandom. On the other hand, what I hate is folks who aren't really from fandom culture more generally, found that one fandom, and drop the term "Mary Sue" not understanding it's a knife through my heart. ;-)

Comments

[lunabee34]

I love Captain Marvel so hard. I am very much wanting to see more of her and Maria.

[chelseagirl]

I don't think we'll see Maria again, unfortunately -- we're much more likely to see Monica grown up. Or we might see Maria but a much older Maria. I have the feeling the next movie will take place after Avengers: Endgame.

[lunabee34]

Oh, I bet you're right. :(

[chelseagirl]

I know, and so many people are shipping them, it will be sad. But Carol's like impossible to ship, right? Because if you ship her with Maria, oops, she's gone again. And the main other ship I've seen is Yon Rogg, and much as I could look at Jude Law for hours, he is definitely not the one for her. Or Minn Erva, likewise for Gemma Chan. Carol has great friend chemistry with Nick, but it's really clearly just friend chemistry.

I know in the comics she's with Rhodey on and off, but we haven't seen anything that would lead to that so far.

[lunabee34]

Oh that's interesting; I wouldn't have pegged her with Rhodey. That definitely has no set up in the movies yet.

Maybe when Jane turns into Thor, she can get with Carol and they can be all hot and immortal together.

[chelseagirl]

I don't think it (Carol/Rhodey) works in the movie context; I've seen it in some of the comics I've dipped into. It's fascinating to me how 'ships work differently in adaptations vs. original texts. My OTP for The Alienist on TV is a "just friends" in the books and I see people in the Facebook groups snipping at each other over it, as though one is more true than the other. I just regard them as related but separate texts. Except Jessica/Luke is 100% truth, dammit -- that IS the hill I will die on.

[lunabee34]

I can get behind that as a ship (although I do love Claire, hard).

[scripsi]

Anywhere: woman bashing. lots of m/m slash exists without putting down or villainizing or handwaving away canon female love interests, but I've read enough that does that I tiptoe in warily.

Oh yes, I hate this so much!

[chelseagirl]

Approach with caution. ;-)

[nyctanthes]

I feel like if you're not into anime and have to watch just one of them, for friendship, FMA is a great choice. :)

I also like to write OCs. Mine tend to be around for only short stretches of time, but for me it's a way to expand the universe the characters are in, to make it feel more real and show other sides of their personalities. I find it a little odd in fanfic when the characters speak to only a handful of people - sometimes for 150K words!

[chelseagirl]

I honestly did really enjoy FMA. Not enough to collect the DVDs, but enough that I could imagine rewatching at some point.

The fandom I write the most OCs in has only two main characters, so unless you bring back an incidental or recurring (and we're talking usually recurring 2-3 times a season) character, you kind of have to? But I invented a whole town with an interlocking set of characters that they visit periodically and eventually settle down in, and it's been lovely that people like the set up, and I'll get asked "where was so-and-so" during a particular story.

[corvidology]

I really love your choices of characters. :D You already know about Doc but I love Peggy and Carol as well.

I think I've been lucky in most of my (admittedly tiny) fandoms in that I haven't seen much woman bashing in slash fic. Hmmm, come to think of it quite a few Pros people loved to bash Ann Holly (played by Patricia Hodge)but I never understood it at all particularly as Doyle and Ann break up in canon.

[chelseagirl]

We have excellent taste.

There was a brief period of fixits after the Life on Mars finale which felt a little unkind to Annie, but overall the Sam/Gene and Sam/Annie folks got along very well. But that doesn't seem to have been the case in some of the larger fandoms that I witnessed more secondhand through LJ and DW friends.

[corvidology]

I was unaware of that and it really stinks. Despite being a Sam/Gene shipper I always loved Annie and Phyllis for that matter - I paired up Phyllis and the Missus. :D

I don't get why you have to trash female characters to write slash. Even with The Alienist I always have Laszlo in love with Mary also and John in love with Sara as well.

The only female characters I've ever trashed were written that way in canon - it would be easy for me to trash Violet I'm afraid.

[chelseagirl]

Overall, LOM was a lovefest. And it was small enough that I felt like people were more likely to read outside of their own preferences. There was just a moment of discomfort.

And yes, Violet is easy to bash because she's written with a target on her, um, bustle. I was kind to her in The Castle and its sequel, but what I've got so far on the Vienna story is much less kind.

[corvidology]

LOM remains my all-time favourite fandom experience. That fandom was open to anything and I've never had comments inspire so many story ideas.

Actually, I miss fandom coms.

I do think Violet is fair game. What I can't do is take a female character presented in canon as "just" nice even and villainize her.

[chelseagirl]

And also, I like that you respect canon pairings along with your OTPs. There's so much handwaving away that's not bashing, but does lead to effective erasure, especially of female characters. (I'm sure it happens the other way around, too, but there still are fewer female characters in a lot of genre shows.)

[corvidology]

I'm a slasher who writes my OTP as bisexual in general because canon so often shows their involvement with women too much for me to do otherwise.

I don't think I've handwaved any female characters although it's possible I'm not remembering it. Even with Gene's missus who we never met in canon I had her leaving Gene because she was fed up and/or because she had someone else. I want my OTP together because they're the best choice for each other (in my eyes :D) not because all of the women are awful.

Hmmm, come to think of it, I did villainize the missus in one story but then my recipient had requested an unhappy ending which is something I never usually write.