fannish5: Clichés Be Gone!

[selenak]

Name 5 clichés - from canon or fandom - that you'd like to see disappear.

Only five? Ah, well. Okay then. With an awareness that this won't ever happen:

1) The Insignificant Other; see the post I just linked for details. In short, creating a romantic rival solely to heighten the angst between the movie's/show's leading couple, then revealing said romantic rival as evil or dismissing him/her as unworthy so heroine and hero can finally get together usually makes me allergic to the couple in question and hostile towars them, not the rival, and this happened in quite a lot of shows/books/movies. Canon aside, I also hate it when fandom does it, which brings me to my next cliché which I'd love to see gone but which won't any time soon.

2) (S)he comes between them - let's bash! I.e. the type of character bashing which is based on shipping preferences in the fannish viewers. Which I dare say is the cause of character bashing in, oh, 90% of the cases. I'm not saying one has to love every character or every relationship. And I definitely dislike several in various fandoms myself. But all too often, the impression that overwhelming hostility for a character is not due to anything but the fact said character interferes, or is perceived to interfere, with the good 'ship X/Y is overwhelming. Even if I happen to 'ship X/Y myself, nothing will make me back off any given fanfiction faster than finding Z vilified, especially if the actual canon has managed to avoid this particular cliché. I've seen it happen from slash and het shippers alike, and if the character is female (for every Riley, there are ten Gwens), it comes with a vile case of misogyny to boot. Which brings me to:

3) The Overuse Of the Term Mary Sue. It's become downright meaningless and a synonym for "I dislike this character". Feel free to extend this to the term "canon Sue". Especially if it's gendered. (As in: curiously enough, complaints about new male characters, especially if they're attractive, are far rarer than about female ones.) And that's as good a transition as any to:

4) He's Not Bad, He's My Woobie! No, I'm not anti redemption storylines, neither in canon nor in fanfiction. (See also: being a complete Londo Mollari fan.) But what I absolutely hate are stories where fondness for a (usually male) villanous or ambigous character results in his less than admirable traits and deeds either ignored completely, prettified (see also: Fluffy Horseman Methos, to choose a Highlander example) or even excused (that's a different thing from "explained", for the record; everyone has reasons for their actions, and compelling characters often have understandable ones, but that doesn't mean their reasons make them right in what they do). kathyh has suggested to call this phenomenon Sylarization recently...

5) GROVEL! aka that kind of story where character A, clearly in this case the author's chosen speaking tool, tells character B how utterly vile B has behaved towards C (aka the author's woobie of choice). With the result that B either sees the error if his or her ways and apologizes abjectly and completly, or, if the author hates B too much to wish B still in the same cosmos as C, is left behind while A and C saunter off in the horizon. I've seen it in Highlander, I've seen it in Buffy, I've seen it in Doctor Who most recently, and I hated this particular cliché in all fandoms. When I can see from the summary that the story is heading that way, I avoid it altogether.

Comments

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

Huh, my experience with grovelfic is actually the exact reverse! I first encountered in Highlander, where the main character (definitely defines as younger and idealistic) was made to apologize to the older, pragmatic trickster character every single time.

Yeah, me too. The idealistic character in my experience has to grovel for being "self-righteous" and "judgmental."

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. I've never encountered grovelfic where the idealist was the one who received the apology instead of speaking it, and "being judgmental and self righteous" usually heads the list of misdeeds he/she has to grovel for (along with fandom specifics, i.e. events from individual episodes).

[nomadicwriter]

Huh. I guess it's down to whoever is your fandom's designated woobie. :) In several of mine, the pragmatist is always having to apologise for being a big meanie who only ignores the idealist's advice because he's trigger-happy/too stubborn to admit it's right/in a pissy mood/in denial of being secretly in love with said idealist.

I'm thinking mostly of Stargate SG-1 fandom, which has many, many fics that involve Jack (our pragmatic military leader) grovelling before Daniel (leap-of-faith prone self-righteous idealist and designated fandom woobie) for every instance in canon that he didn't immediately leap to do what Daniel said. (Up to and including situations where following Daniel's leap of faith had a roughly 50-50 chance of destroying all life on earth.) In canon, it's a push-pull compromise relationship where Jack always opts for the conservative option that's guaranteed to rescue something of the situation, while Daniel wants the all-or-nothing gamble that will either save everybody or go down in flames. In fanon, Daniel's way is Right and Jack's is Wrong, and Jack must grovel and admit how wrong he's been before he's deemed worthy of Daniel's affections.

I also recall several early West Wing fics where various people had to grovel before Sam for being big meanies who cruelly crushed his shining idealism with their dirty compromise politics. *facepalm*

[scrollgirl.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I was about to agree with Selena in that I've only seen the reverse of your Cute Idealistic Character vs Cynical Bastard (Duncan vs Methos, YES), but now I think it really doesn't even matter *who* is the Idealist and who's the Cynical Bastard. It's really about who fandom loves best. We fans will go to the farthest reaches of logic just to justify our beloved characters. Idealistic Daniel is, God love him, occasionally certifiable and a total rat-bastard -- but you couldn't tell (a large chunk of) fandom that. Ditto Methos, who is The Wisest, Snarkiest Pragmatist Of Them All and Duncan should only be so lucky to repent his self-righteousness and lick the old man's boots.

*does not touch Rodney McKay and SGA fandom with a ten-foot pole*

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Ah, I'm not in Stargate fandom, and as you know I'm a Johnny come lately in WW, so I deduce the explanation for the difference must be the one you suggest - it depends on who is fandom's designated woobie, not who is the idealist.