character opinion meme

[selenak]

From vaznetti:

Ask me my opinion on any character from any fandom, and I will say. If I do not know the fandom, I will say what I think I know based on fannish
osmosis.


And a quick BSG fanfiction recommendation: "The Modern Revolutionary" . Tom Zarek, naturally.

Comments

[un-crayon-rouge.livejournal.com]

Gil Grissom, from CSI.

I can't believe I got here first :-))

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Alas. In this case even fannish osmosis fails me - would you believe I never read a single thing about CSI in my life? I barely know it exists, let alone who the characters are.

Another one?

[un-crayon-rouge.livejournal.com]

Oh crap. You mean you don't like to see dead people being cut up?

But, on the other hand, yay me! I gotcha. Hehe.

Ok, so, an easy one: Willow.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Hey, I watch Six Feet Under. I'm all for dead people being cut up.

Willow: During the first two seasons, I thought she was too sweet to be true, and my least favourite character on the show. (Doesn't mean I actively disliked her, I just liked the others more. My favourite back then was Cordelia; later it became Buffy.) When her less than sweet traits started to come out, which imo began in season 3 with the way she handled the "clothes fluke", I began to find her more interesting, and in retrospect, the massive self-loathing she exhibits both in dreams (Restless) and season 6 for the Willow everyone loved, the sweet and kind one, makes her early appearances fascinating. I also dug the parallels between her and Warren in season 6 and in season 7's "The Killer in Me".

She's still the Scoobie I'm least emotionally invested in, though, which is probably why she only shows up in my Five Things That Never Happened To Warren story as far as fanfic is concerned.

[ex_mrs260625]

Rom.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Adorable. Also a great example of a character going from being the comic relief of the comic relief to a fully fleshed out person, complete with his own arc.

Mind you, I thought the Grand Nagus thing at the end was overdone, not because of Rom but because of the Ferengi society changing at the very end of the show to Federation standard pc thing, but other than that, I loved his development, and all his relationships - with Quark, with Rom, with Leeta.

And of course Leeta dumping Julian for Rom has to remain a blow for geeks everywhere.*g*

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Ah-ah.

Frankly, I think you share all my fando--no, wait! Whatcha think of Scully?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

You know, I must have watched more X-Files than I thought I had, because I actually remember the episode where it got mentioned that Scully's father called her that when I saw your icon. Ah, Moby Dick and it's influence on genre tv.*g*

So, Scully: intelligent, strong woman. Had a great partnership with Mulder early on, but definitely should have called it quits when it become All About Mulder's Angst. In as much as I 'shipped her with anyone, I shipped her with Skinner. In that brief time when I was actually reading X-Files fanfic, ca. around season 3 and four, I confess I actively looked for Scully/Skinner.

But never mind the romance. Scully was actually my favourite character on the show, and I loved she got to be the cool sceptic in the beginning (which was then a new gender reversal), but I thought even in ye early days that the show didn't play it fair - she should have been right as often as Mulder was.

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

It's Beyond The Sea, if I recall correctly, and thanks!

As much as I crushed on Fox Mulder back when, I've always loved Scully more. Am still sometimes playing the What Would Scully Do? game. *g*

I thought even in ye early days that the show didn't play it fair - she should have been right as often as Mulder was.

Ab-so-lutely. Same here.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Steel from 'Sapphire and Steel'.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

"Wait, wasn't that Knight II? He's after Sinclair! Arrest him!"

Okay, seriously now. Good looking and cool, and the relationship with Sapphire was amazingly equal for its time. Displayed ruthlessness enough to make him shades of grey.

[zarq.livejournal.com]

Can I go for two?

Worf


Sharon "Boomer" Valerii

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Ah, the son of Mogh. Despite the fact I'm letting Quark make cutting remarks about him in my fanfic, I'm rather fond of Worf. I always thought the Klingons in TOS were dull one dimensional adversaries, whereas Worf was interesting to me from the start. Not in the sense of seeking out fanfic, but I always enjoyed the Worf-centric TNG episodes, loved his relationship with K'eylahr, his trying to balance two worlds, and the fact he was allowed to screw up and display ethics not necessarily compatible with Federation ethics due to his different heritace.

I enjoyed the relationship with Troi as long as it was her helping him with Alexander, but could not believe the romantic attraction on either part at all, and was very relieved when neither the movies nor DS9 came back to it. Worf on DS9 was good to see - not that the show necessarily needed him (I can see DS9 going on to work splendidly sans Worf), but he fit in, and provided foils for Odo and Dax in different ways. Worf/Dax completely worked for me, and "you'd be surprised what I can do in a pair of size nine shoes" remains one of my favourite Jadzia lines.

One Worf complaint, though: the DS9 writers let him call Sisko repeatedly "the best Captain I ever served with". Which each time yanked me out of the story and made me yell "but what about Picard"? I mean, not that it's impossible for Worf to hold that opinion, but we all know where in the Starfleet Captain debate I stand.

Boomer: which one, or both?

[callmesandy.livejournal.com]

Darla?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

My favourite Jossverse character. I'll be lazy and just repeat what I wrote a year ago:

My Darla...

- really doesn’t remember her first name, but thinks it might have been Elizabeth
- which is better than the pet name of Bessie, and it's likely she was called that
- is still grateful for the French Revolution and the Empire because it liberated women from corsets for about two decades
- made it her personal mission to track down and torture the fashion queens who brought corsets back
- thinks Lindsey is dishy, but never had sex with him
- because she knew he was the always-longing-for-what-he-can’t-have type
- but she wanted to suggest a threesome to both him and Angel anyway, just to see their faces
- alas, she never got them in the same room at the same time
- never forgave Lindsey for her second turning, which has nothing to do with the above
- permitted Dru to keep Spike because he could carry the luggage when the Fangsome Foursome were travelling
- and for soothing Dru out of her fits
- but she never would have tolerated Mother
- deferred to Angel(us) in public in ye olde days, but never in private
- loves Artemisia Gentileschi best of all the painters
- has a thing for candles
- once seduced Gustave Eiffel for a personal private tour of the Eiffel tower before it got opened for the public
- had to wear the Catholic School Girl look of season 1 BTVS because the Master still was disgruntled over her century and a half with the stallion
- was Daniel Defoe’s model for Moll Flanders
- would have killed Holland Manners even if she had remained mortal
- thought someone should have sired Jim Morrison, but is glad she didn’t
- because one darling boy is enough
- saw Cordelia as annoying, but wouldn’t have minded more than one bite
- has a thing for brunettes
- wasn’t joking when she said Holtz was almost like family now
- really had accepted mortal death at the end of “The Trial”
- never was truly happy again after her resurrection(s) in recent years
- except in the moment before her final death, when she was at peace with Angel and Connor.

[gelliaclodiana]

Delenn

[selenak.livejournal.com]

More complicated than apparant at first glance. For starters, I don't believe that she went from "kill them all" to immediate repentance and during the entire Earth/Minbari war really wanted peace, but didn't do anything except for that one attempt, to achieve it. That's not Delenn. If she really wanted something, she'd have worked far harder to get it, and considering the Council was divided on the declaration of war issue originally, with her voice as the deciding vote, it's not like she would have lacked support. Also "we collectively went mad, and collectively got sane" really doesn't wash as an explanation for almost genocide; speaking as the member of a nation who practiced genocide 60 years ago and as someone who talked with a lot of people from that generation, I don't buy it.

I think Delenn's way of dealing with her war guilt was to reinvent herself as someone who would never have done what she did. Becoming half human and building a bridge etc. was just part of it; she really changed to the core of her being. Now as no one, safe Lennier who adores her and only got to know her after her transformation into someone else had started, knows what she did, this is something happening in silence. Vide Sheridan never finding out about her past. It's a fascinating parallel/contrast to Londo and his guilt.

More frivolous thoughts about Delenn: she had great chemistry with Neroon, and if B5 had been written by Joss Whedon, these two would so have had an affair. I saw more chemistry with Sinclair than with Sheridan but never doubted she loved Sheridan, though again, she willed herself to make him the love of her life - it had to happen. Lennier was in a way the Lancelot to her Guinevre; she wanted to have her cake and eat it there (by which I don't mean she'd have ever had a sexual affair with him, unless the Minbari practice polygamy which they might for all we know - I mean she was aware Lennier loved her romantically, and was depending on his emotional support nonetheless - she'd have never sent him away on her own).

[gelliaclodiana]

I like your analysis of Delenn -- I found her the most difficult of the major characters to warm to, and I think you've put your finger on why that was. There was so much interesting stuff happeneing below the surface, where she couldn't admit to it. I like the notion of her willing herself to become the person she becomes.

[smashsc.livejournal.com]

Cally

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Was my favourite among the two women on board Liberator. She was saddled with possession-by-alien syndrome as the resident telepath but still managed to come across as a strong character most of the time. The only genuine revolutionary except besides Blake, which makes me wish this aspect of her would have been highlighted more often.

The other thing Cally was saddled with sometimes was to voice what the author of the script thought, which didn't always fit. For example, in Pressure Point Cally is all gung-ho for destroying Control, the central computer of the Federation, whereas in Star One she makes her famous "but many, many people will die" statement. Same thing, but in the second case, Chris Boucher needed someone to make a moral objection to Blake's proposal, and evidently thought Cally was more credible than Jenna or Vila (Avon, of course, wouldn't).

I could see Avon/Cally but just as subtext, something they never actually went through with. (Mostly because Cally knew Avon was bad at handling romances and Avon had huge intimacy issues.) In season 3, they were very much the adults among the children.

[deborah-judge.livejournal.com]

Bareil

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Boring, was my first impression. You can get some interesting fanfic out of his relationship with Winn, but on the show itself, I never had the impression he was supposed to be something else than the peaceful good honest and self-sacrificing cleric to Winn's political, ambitious and power-hungry one.

Also? No chemistry with Kira. But then, such was the curse of most of her official boyfriends.

[deborah-judge.livejournal.com]

Although, you got great fanfic out of the dark side of his humility. The line between self-sacrifice and self-destructiveness is pretty thin, as is the line between destroying yourself and dragging others down with you. That's why Bareil fascinates me so much, as does Opaka.

And yeah, he was so wrong with Kira, and it's such a shame that relationship ever happened. More for him than for her, I think.

[kernezelda]

Staleek.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Reminded me of General Woundworth in Watership Down, if I may be so heretical to compare the Emperor of the Scarrans to a rabbit. Clever, a good strategist, but also a thug and not by himself able to make the jump from thug to builder. Also lacking ability to look beyond the surface of characters, as evident by his assumption Scorpius' sole motivation was power grabbing. (And an almost fatal miscalculation that turned out to be.)

I'd have liked more backstory on him and Scorpius, and him and Akhna, but of the two, I found Akhna the more interesting season 4 and PKW Scarran. Would have appreciated a fifth season full of encounters between her and Aeryn, and her and Grayza - I really dug that all-girls-episode of season 4.

[thalia-seawood.livejournal.com]

Jayne (Firefly)?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

The Man They Call Jayne: actually, an interesting lesson in what a difference an actor makes is watching Alien: Resurrection which Joss Whedon scripted before he became a TV god. One character there, Johner (played by Ron Perlman), is clearly the proto-Jayne. And he's repellent. Adam Baldwin gave Jayne a certain charme to go along with the thug-ness in the pilot, and Joss & Co. picked up on that as they wrote subsequent episodes. So Jayne in Firefly is still the guy who sold out River and Simon and makes crude jokes, but also the guy who felt bad about the Jaynetown folk, insists on wearing the hat his mother knitted for him and braided the hair of the whore he was having sex with in Heart of Gold.

The two most interesting relationships Jayne has, imo, are with Mal and Book. The later is something that developed in the last episodes of the show - they train together, and, coming from polar opposites as they do, still have very amiable conversations together (Jayne doesn't insult Book even once, intentionally or unintentionally, and Book never gets sarcastic on Jayne). The former I see as Mal being the sole invidual whom Jayne fears, respects, and whose opinion he really cares about. That final scene from Ariel wasn't just Jayne fearing for his life but Jayne being horrified that Mal knew.

[gelasius.livejournal.com]

Zen (B7)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Had one of the most touching death scenes in sci fi and was the reason why the season 2 Farscape episode where Moya "dies", then gets resurrected again had zero impact on me - I knew she wasn't really gone. Whereas Zen was. I get constricted in my throat each time I watch Terminal for that reason.

Of the two computers, Orac might have had more entertaining attitude but Zen was more lovable (Avon would hit me if I said that in his presence). In a killed-our-heroes-almost-at-first-sight way, granted. I always wondered whether Zen wasn't a rebel himself (itself?), not wanting to go back to the system, and whether that was the reason why he/it put up with the Liberator-endangering crew...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Vila (B7)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

The genuinenly nice guy of the show. Sometimes I wonder why I never manage to love the characters like Vila or Vir best - though I always like them enormously - which incidentally doesn't mean I always go for the villains at top spot; in some fandoms, I like some not very nice heroes best. It must be my fatal attraction (in fiction, thank God!!!) to people who are difficult, one way or the other. ("The fascination of what's difficult," thanks W.B. Yeats.) And Vila isn't. He's far braver and resourceful than he gives himself credit for, he's the ideal fun mate (and friend in a crisis), he got treated absymally by the others at times, and I love watching him on the show - but if I finally manage to get around to writing B7 fanfic, it wouldn't be about Vila. I leave that in your capable hands.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Aww, thank you! And he's safe with me. :-D Yes, Vila is indeed braver and better than he thinks, and he deserved so much more. I try to give it to him.

I do know what you mean, but about other shows. While Vila stands out for me in B7, in B5 I love G'Kar, Londo, and Vir most of all; Ivanova is probably runner-up. And in DS9, it's Garak and other Cardassians. There has to be something impelling about the character, plus wit and pathos though I really don't go for pathetic.

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

I will surprise absolutely no one by asking for Jack Bristow. Your opinion of Jack, I mean. Ahem.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

You know, I'd send him to you as a gift if I could.*g*

Okay: Spydaddy. Brilliant man with severe intimacy issues long before Irina (I wasn't surprised hearing about his childhood in season 4), but of course nowhwere at the same scale. Can function as leader if he has to, but is actually more comfortable with someone else in charge. Not completely unconnected, I'm curious what his CIA psychological profile says, or Dr. Barnett's notes, or both, because if he was training Sloane in torture-withstanding, his suitability for torturing people isn't something that only came up with SD 6 but was already something the CIA had him doing pre-Laura=Irina revelation. (The mentioning of Jack, Sloane and Brill being involved in the CIA activities in Chile during the coup against Allende as well as the finger-removing antics a decade later also come to mind.)

One of the things that makes Jack so good as a torturer is probably that he can find out exactly what the subject is afraid of - i.e. Elena isn't afraid of pain, but of being reduced to a mindless beast, Irish terrorist guy isn't afraid of dying - once; but again and again, that's another question; Sloane has no problems with a gun being put at his head or with being tortured, but with being completely out of control of just about everything, hence his reaction in Hourglass. And so on. The interesting thing is that this insight in Jack goes hand in hand with being clueless when it comes to positive emotions others have for him. I.e. Irina must either be Laura, the perfect wife on a pedestal, or Derevko, a sociopathic bitch, and it takes him a while to acknowledge she might be Irina and still love him and Sydney. And when he asks Sloane in The Telling why Sloane isn't killing him but keeping him alive and Arvin replies in his great and creepy way "because we're friends, Jack", one wants to say "duh". (Same for the "I can't come up with a reason for you to save my life" in Breaking Point.) If you ask me, Jack is where Sydney gets her either/or tendencies from.

He has an enormous capacity for love, obviously, and utter inability to let go. The everthing-for-Sydney attitude doesn't just hail from love, though; it's also, at some level, the fear of what/who he would be if he didn't have Sydney anymore - the man in the mirror strangling Sasha, maybe. (He loves Irina completely, too, but he knows he can live without her.) This sometimes leads to some self delusion, as in "the difference between us is that everything morally questionable I did, I did for Sydney". There are several important differences between them, and I think Jack believes that when he tells it to Sloane in Succession, but that doesn't make it true. (I doubt Sydney had anything to do with the overthrow of Allende or Jack's urgent wish to strangle Sasha in person, for example.)