Fannish Five Meme

[selenak]

Godot has arrived! Also, best quote from the geek-a-licious PJ, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens audio commentary:

Philippa: Shelob is actually Tolkien's unidealized view of womanhood. She's overweight...
Fran: Hairy, doesn't shave her legs...
Philippa: Men run from her, and she has an unlimited appetite.
PJ: Ahem.


Meme gathered from butterfly:

Which characters from your various fandoms actually do their jobs well?

This is supposed to be limited to five, so:

DS9: Quark. He's actually very good at this barkeeper stuff, knows his clientele, and has made them loyal enough so that they support him when he's broke (through none of his own fault). Also, his methods of dealing with unruly drunks cannot be faulted. When they're depressed Cardassian spies, he just calls their boyfriends. When they're Klingons, he calls Dax, or Odo, or he kills them by accident. Either way, his bar remains undamaged, and so does the rest of the clientele.

Babylon 5: Bester. Believes completely in the principles of his organization, which he would never betray. Very dedicated. Smart. Is actually a good detective, among other things, with ruthless but efficient ideas about planting a mole in organizations out for biological warfare against telepaths.

Firefly: Inara. (Actually, all of them are good at their jobs, but as Inara is not so popular as Simon or Kaylee, I'm picking her.) If Mal isn't avoiding planets with clients, she's making a lot of money with her job (legally, too, unlike the rest of the crew), and we haven't seen a single client leave her who wasn't charmed and satisfied in every sense of the word. (Okay, there was Asherton, but that wasn't Inara's fault.)

Star Wars: Padmé Amidala. (Why not Leia? Because Leia's job description is "Senator", not rebel, and the Senate is being disbanded at the start of ANH, so we never have a chance to find out whether she was good or bad at it. She's excellent at the rebel business, of course.) Was a dedicated head of government for two terms, managed to unite the two peope on her planet for a larger goal, and was conscientious enough not to go for another unconstitutional term despite having the opportunity to. As Senator, she pushed against the creation of an army and for negotiations with the planets who wanted to leave the Republic, and apparently had a large enough following so that some complicated intrigues were necessary to engineer her absence so this wise policy would be abandoned. (Which led directly into the Empire.) Padmé's biggest professional mistake was probably listening to Palpatine and calling for a vote of no confidence, which made Palpatine chancellor, but then, her options at the time were severely limited, and freeing her planet had to come first.

Angel: Harmony. Has the boss from hell, almost literally, envious co-workers, and gets little acknowledgment for even managing to find a camel within a few hours if necessary. Despite this, she is a very efficient Girl Friday for the year we see her working in this job. She's good enough that even aforementions sourpuss boss writes her a letter of recommendation when she leaves him.

Comments

[thran.livejournal.com]

For Babylon 5, I'd submit Zack, Early Seasons, to be on this list. Mebbe even Zack, later seasons, when he's the chief of security; but as an ultimately secondary character, I think he's given the freedom to be loyal to the job, and not only the drama of the plot the way Garibaldi sometimes is.

:D

Oh, wait, I should make my own list, huh?

*goes to do that*

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Oh, Zack is good at his job throughout the show. He gets such absolutely thankless tasks like telling Lyta to move into smaller quarters, or telling Garibaldi Sheridan wants his weapon, and still buckles up.

There are a lot of people great at their jobs - the first one I thought of was actually Vir (and then Lennier, both excellent attachés), but I wanted to be provocative.*g*

[kleenestar.livejournal.com]

Heh. Good Point.

[thran.livejournal.com]

uh, that was me, not my friend, whose computer i was using. :P

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Gotcha.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

I love the choice of Inara; damn skippy, she's good at her job. Not even Mal would argue with that.

I also agree that Harmony doesn't get the credit she deserves, but I think I'd have to pick Lorne in the Angel fandom. It wasn't his fault they kept wrecking the bar! And that was some party he planned. . .

Then give me Anya to run my business any day, Rico Diaz to work in my funeral home, and Kay Howard (Homicide) to solve murders and I'll be a happy camper.

It's interesting that it's usually supporting characters who are distinguished by being good at their jobs. The main guys screw up, that's where the stories come from.

I mean, I was really wracking my brain to fit my beloved Wes into this meme. But he'd really only be the answer if the question was, "What Character in your fandom, despite an impressive and varied range of skills, manages to fail spectacularly, and in completely different ways, at everything he tries." Sigh.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Poor Wes. Yes, quite. And Rico is indispensable in any funeral home, though I would argue that the Fisher boys themselves are also good at their job...

6 feet under

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

I guess most of the people on that show are good at their jobs. Lisa was a good chef, Brenda's a good masseuse, Billy's a good artist, and their parents are probably even good therapists. It's just the life decisions that are questionable -- whereas Keith, arguably the least personally fucked-up, is the one who keeps getting fired. I'm sure this means something.

Re: 6 feet under

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Keeping in mind that I've only seen until early third season (that's where German tv is at the moment), I'm not sure whether Keith is the least fucked up. He spent the second season in one giant sulk.

[bimo.livejournal.com]

Which characters from your various fandoms actually do their jobs well?

A rather unusual but very interesting starting point for a little multi-fandom character analysis *g*

I always considered the various doctors of Star Trek as exceptionally good at what they were doing. Medically competent and very serious about the ethical aspects of their profession.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I considered the doctors, but you know, it's kind of cheating, in a way - because I can't think of a sci-fi show where the doctor is actually less than good at his/her job, dedicated, etc. (Same with all JMS written shows.)

Mind you, Bashir, who is great at being a doctor in most cases, once committed an appalling breach of medical ethics, in Chrysalis. But one case does not make him a bad doctor.

Interesting list. :)

[zarq.livejournal.com]

I agree with all your choices except I would have chosen R2 over Padme. But that's me. ;-)

Re: Interesting list. :)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

R2! Of course. But then, I'm not sure droids count. Being programmed for excellence and all. But R2 surely is more than the sum of his programming.*g*

Re: Interesting list. :)

[merrymaia.livejournal.com]

R2-D2 is a person!

(OK, OK - that is my 3-year-old self talking. I was in love with the little blue droid when I was in nursery school.)

;-)

[ex_mrs260625]

On the first subject, thanks for the geek-a-licious PJ, Fran, and Phillipa quote. Made me laugh entirely too loud for the time of night. I can't wait to hear it for myself. :0)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

You're welcome, and they're utterly adorable and wild, these three.*g*