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selenakYou know, it occured to me that within the last decade or so, I mostly fell for shows (and books, and movies) where the main characters were just as interesting and complex as the sidekicks and/or villains. Not exclusively; for example, I had a brief fling with Earth: Final Conflict where neither Boone nor Liam did anything for me but Sandoval, Da'an, Zo'or and Lily always did. (Then the writing went to hell for every character, but that's another tale of woe.) But mostly. Which means I developed a certain allergy to a phenomenon quite common in a lot of fandoms, called hero-bashing.
Here are the basics: if the hero (male or female) does anything right, it's taken for granted and evidence he/she is a bland character; if he/she does anything wrong, it's not because of flaws that make him/her a three-dimensional character, no, it's an unforgivable act. If a sidekick complains, it's adorable; if a hero(ine) does it, it's whining. If a hero(ine) has communication problems and closes herself/himself off, it's cold/bitchy/heartless/any of the above; if a second lead/sidekick/whoever-but-not-the-title-character does it, it speaks of depth and only adds to the allure of the character. (If you're thinking of, say, Buffy Summers and Wesley Wyndham-Pryce respectively here, you're not wrong.) Let a hero behave jealously, and the ranting about his/her self-centredness goes on for eons; let a sidekick do the same, and it's just a phase or cute or three-dimensional. (Witness the different reaction in Potterdom to Ron being jealous of Harry in GoF, and Harry being jealous of Ron in OotP.) And so on, and so forth.
Which is why I'm pretty quick to jump to the defense of quite a lot of those folks in the central positions. Not in every case, though. And there is a difference between criticism and bashing. Which leads me to Babylon 5, a rather unusual case in that it's so much of an ensemble show you can't really asign a single hero/central character/lead position. For example, JMS, B5's creator, has been known to say that the heart of the show is the Londo-and-G'kar storyarc, and if Babylon 5 were the story of any of the invidiual characters, which it's not, it would be Londo's. And Londo is decidedly not the hero of the show. The closest you get to hero in the traditional Trek-influenced sense of Captain/Commander/Leader of the Good Fight position is first Jeffrey Sinclair and then John Sheridan. The later, imo, has a well-thought out personal arc and character development for two seasons (2 and 3) which then ends. His subsequent status within the narrative has its highly problematical aspects, which are explained very well by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hobsonphile here.
(She also includes some highly entertaining speculations on Londo/G'kar. Don't look at me like that. JMS did it, too.)
(And yes, I had fun with the conclusion of a certain story of mine.)
But enough of John Sheridan. On to a John I did fall for, John Crichton of Farscape.searose positions that after season 4, John/Aeryn makes less sense than John/Scorpius (in a platonic sense, btw), and explains why here.
And just to finish the recommendation of challenging posts:acadine questions the rationale of slash being more "free" of gender stereotypes than het and argues for equality quite forcefully here. Choice quote:
If you are relying on the default in any of your writing, and that includes fanon, the pat 2D characterization stereotypes that pervade (slash) fandom, and the deeper slash archetypes, of which rivalslash is but one, you are a shitty writer. Period. End of story. This is as true for het as it is for slash, and I honestly don't think that anyone who blames this sort of stereotypical characterization on "societal gender roles" can be a good writer. There's no honesty in that, no truth - Ivy's take on het, and the fandom's take on het - is basically an excuse.
And what I think about good writing, any writing worth doing, is this: it needs no excuses.
Here are the basics: if the hero (male or female) does anything right, it's taken for granted and evidence he/she is a bland character; if he/she does anything wrong, it's not because of flaws that make him/her a three-dimensional character, no, it's an unforgivable act. If a sidekick complains, it's adorable; if a hero(ine) does it, it's whining. If a hero(ine) has communication problems and closes herself/himself off, it's cold/bitchy/heartless/any of the above; if a second lead/sidekick/whoever-but-not-the-title-character does it, it speaks of depth and only adds to the allure of the character. (If you're thinking of, say, Buffy Summers and Wesley Wyndham-Pryce respectively here, you're not wrong.) Let a hero behave jealously, and the ranting about his/her self-centredness goes on for eons; let a sidekick do the same, and it's just a phase or cute or three-dimensional. (Witness the different reaction in Potterdom to Ron being jealous of Harry in GoF, and Harry being jealous of Ron in OotP.) And so on, and so forth.
Which is why I'm pretty quick to jump to the defense of quite a lot of those folks in the central positions. Not in every case, though. And there is a difference between criticism and bashing. Which leads me to Babylon 5, a rather unusual case in that it's so much of an ensemble show you can't really asign a single hero/central character/lead position. For example, JMS, B5's creator, has been known to say that the heart of the show is the Londo-and-G'kar storyarc, and if Babylon 5 were the story of any of the invidiual characters, which it's not, it would be Londo's. And Londo is decidedly not the hero of the show. The closest you get to hero in the traditional Trek-influenced sense of Captain/Commander/Leader of the Good Fight position is first Jeffrey Sinclair and then John Sheridan. The later, imo, has a well-thought out personal arc and character development for two seasons (2 and 3) which then ends. His subsequent status within the narrative has its highly problematical aspects, which are explained very well by
hobsonphile here.(She also includes some highly entertaining speculations on Londo/G'kar. Don't look at me like that. JMS did it, too.)
(And yes, I had fun with the conclusion of a certain story of mine.)
But enough of John Sheridan. On to a John I did fall for, John Crichton of Farscape.
searose positions that after season 4, John/Aeryn makes less sense than John/Scorpius (in a platonic sense, btw), and explains why here.And just to finish the recommendation of challenging posts:
acadine questions the rationale of slash being more "free" of gender stereotypes than het and argues for equality quite forcefully here. Choice quote: If you are relying on the default in any of your writing, and that includes fanon, the pat 2D characterization stereotypes that pervade (slash) fandom, and the deeper slash archetypes, of which rivalslash is but one, you are a shitty writer. Period. End of story. This is as true for het as it is for slash, and I honestly don't think that anyone who blames this sort of stereotypical characterization on "societal gender roles" can be a good writer. There's no honesty in that, no truth - Ivy's take on het, and the fandom's take on het - is basically an excuse.
And what I think about good writing, any writing worth doing, is this: it needs no excuses.
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Re: Sidekick vs. Hero: Fight!
Date: 2003-08-19 07:14 pm (UTC)Altogether, I don't think any comparison of fan reaction to Harry and Ron's reespective jealousy is clean cut. There was a lot of negative reaction to Ron's, enough that - as you noted above - many people began arguing for Ron The Betrayer and writing him as such. Then again, Harry is outright jealous of Ron for about half a page in OotP and immediately feels ashamed of himself. This has garnered tears and shouts of "Where has our sweet little Harry gone?"
I'd say he never existed, but the impact of perspective is pretty hefty here. Through Harry's perspective people felt hurt by Ron in GoF, and in OotP we were sucked into many very negative emotions for the entire length of the book. Shaping opinions of character based on an unreliable narrator like Harry . . . leads to many many flamewars, I predict!
Re: Sidekick vs. Hero: Fight!
Date: 2003-08-19 08:42 pm (UTC)Curiously, I felt that the intensity of negative emotion in OotP tended to separate me as a reader from Harry's viewpoint more than in the first four.
But you're right about the flamewars... and a number of arguments that go on just under the edge... ;)
Re: Sidekick vs. Hero: Fight!
Date: 2003-08-19 09:08 pm (UTC)Personally, I adore OotP!Harry. He's the same Harry I've always adored, just more vocal. The second time I read it, all of this very much disconnected me from Harry. The first though . . . whoa. I was there with him the whole; it was quite intense *veg*. Which made me relate to him more than ever before and has put a bad taste in my mouth for HP fan fiction ever since.
I always acknowledged that HP fanfiction never got him right, but now it's so absolutely jarring - people either sticking to their old characterizations or going over the top with the new - that I can't stand to read it.
Actually, I'd kill to find a good flamewar on this stuff. Fun reading material!
Re: Sidekick vs. Hero: Fight!
Date: 2003-08-19 11:16 pm (UTC)With you on the OotP!Harry adoration. I always liked Harry, but never before this book has he been the most interesting and compelling character of the novel to me.
Re: Sidekick vs. Hero: Fight!
Date: 2003-08-20 10:17 am (UTC)