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selenak: (Guinevere by Reroutedreams)
If you're written fanfiction for some time, you're bound to encounter, sooner or later, feedback along the lines of "usually I don't care about character X, but you've made me think about him/her" or "your story really made X work for me". Actually, that's the best version. Sometimes the feedback sounds more like "X is scum/ I've always hated that whiny X/ X totally ruined the show/film/book for me but..."

Now, I've experienced several emotional reactions. It's easiest when the feedback is for a story about a character whom I've have mixed feelings about myself - Gaius from Merlin, for example, or Simone on Heroes -, and I have written those. (I've also written stories where the pov character was one I disliked intensely. It blackly amuses me that my very first Heroes story back when I was in fervent love with the show was a Sylar pov, and trust me, even before loathing him as one embodiment of much of what went wrong I never cared much for Sylar.) Sometimes I even write to figure out a character I'm not sure about better. Then feedback based on the "look what you've done, you've made me suddenly understand X!" principle is immensely satisfying, flattering even.

However, when the feedback is for characters I'm absolutely passionate about, whom I feel ridiculously defensive for, then the instinctive reaction is another matter. Cases in point: Connor back in my Angel days, or Abigail Brand ever since Astonishing X-Men. Then even cautiously phrased character dislike in the feedback, phrased, for example, like "if Connor was like that on the show, I might have liked him" or "you've almost made Brand bearable to me" raised my hackles. I felt like replying "well, obviously this IS how I've seen him/her on the show/in the book, that's why I fell in love with him/her". (This wasn't what I replied, btw; I usually told myself to see the reaction as a compliment and simply reply with "thank you" or "I'm glad you enjoyed the story".)

Why I am I reminded of this again? Because I suddenly find myself on the other side of the fence, so to speak. Not about a character I dislike, though. No, it's more complicated. Now, as a reader, I've experienced cases where someone else's stories made me reexamine canon and become more interested in characters I had overlooked. For example, Lennier on Babylon 5, whom I had liked fine during the original broadcast but had never paid much attention to and hadn't found that interesting. Later on, when after acquiring the B5 dvds I read fanfic by [personal profile] deborah_judge and [personal profile] eye_of_a_cat during my rewatch, and this definitely made me far more interested in the Lennier scenes than I had previously been. So that's familiar to me, but what I'm experiencing right now is something else. A sense of disconnection, is perhaps the best way to phrase it, about much of Morgana-centric fanfiction in Merlin. It's not a case of "oh, this makes me see Morgana in a new light"; more a case of "I'm sorry, but I can't see how this Morgana is the show's Morgana; maybe she's more inspired by Katie McGrath in her interviews and audio commentary?" Don't get me wrong: vaguely spoilery remarks for both seasons of Merlin ensue. )

In conclusion: I'm not sure I have one, except that I'm frustrated, and wonder whether this is what readers felt when writing to me about other characters "I like your version of X, but..."

*facepalm*

Mar. 12th, 2008 10:29 pm
selenak: (MarielMemoirs)
Or, what happens when you realize you've become possessive over fictional people and their fictional sex lives despite best intentions!

So, this month [livejournal.com profile] crack_van, after YEARS, does Babylon 5 recs again. Which makes me happy. Now today I check and find a story recommended with a summary that reads: This story starts off with Londo being an ass, which is perfectly believable and has Sheridan and Sinclair enlisting the help of their friends to get back at him. This story is funny, has fun characterization, and is also totally hot. The Centauri apparently have an incredibly strong taboo against same-sex couples, so Sheridan and Sinclair decide to play a practical joke on him by pretending to be a couple.

My first thought wasn't "how come Sinclair and Sheridan are on the station at the same time"?, oh no. It was "the Centauri don't have an incredible strong taboo against same-sex couples because I would know about that by virtue of having written more Centauri fanfic than anyone safe [livejournal.com profile] hobsonphile. Also, Londo in particular had sex with his best friend in his teenage years." And we all know he's destined to figure out his feelings for G'Kar.

And then I realized. I have become THAT kind of fan. The one who insists on treating her fanon as canon. Great Maker, I feel so embarassed.

But I still think Londo would find a Sinclair/Sheridan tryst hilarious and definitely wouldn't be shocked. And that the Centauri in general due to being obviously modelled on the Romans by JMS probably have the Roman attitude towards same-sex relationships, patriarchal but not tied to religious taboos, to wit: post-adolescence, it's all about the power hierarchy. If you are on the receiving end, as it were (well, the equivalent for Centauri anatomy), you admit to a lower status. True for either gender.

Now excuse me. I'm going to write down "JMS did not in any way sell the Centauri to me" a hundred times.
selenak: (uptonogood - c.elisa)
I picked two I dislike, two I like and one I'm fond of but don't insist on.


1) BTVS: Sex with Riley was completely unsatisfactory for Buffy, and she never really cared for him, either.

I'm 'shipping neutral, more or less, and I do think the end of the Buffy/Riley relationship was inevitable (and good for her, in the long term). You can also make a case out of the nightly running scene in Buffy versus Dracula, absolutely, but I think canon is pretty clear that during the majority of the relationship, Buffy enjoyed being with Riley both emotionally and sexually. (Actually, canon gave us more than most of us wanted to know about that in season 4.) Incidentally, considering both the Angel trauma and the Parka fiasco, Riley was the one who got her over the impression that sex was inevitably followed by disaster. So pray vent your Riley dislike through other means than the "loser in the sack" thing.

2) BTVS/AtS: "Childe". I know, I know. We have "sire" as a verb and a noun (thanks, Joss, for the Buffy/Holden dialogue on the matter), and it would be nice to have something for the vampire offspring, too. But "childe" inevitably conjures up both Byron's Childe Harold and George Bernard Shaw teasing Bosie Douglas by calling him "Childe Alfred" when they were both cranky old men in WWII to me, and when it doesn't that, it makes me wonder whether the writers like their pairings with one part infantilized.

3) X-Men movieverse: Before their fall-out, Charles and Erik ran the school together, and both Scott and Jean are basically in a children of divorced couple situation when they deal with Magneto. Actually, given the teaser of X3, this one can be considered canon not fanon now, but I try not to think of X3 when I can avoid it (not that I didn't love the scene in question). Anyway, I first came across the idea in fanfiction - [livejournal.com profile] penknife's, I believe - and loved it. Still do.

4) Babylon 5: brachiarte. This one was created by [livejournal.com profile] andrastewhite as a term for male Centauri attributes and is ever so useful, as writing "tentacles" usually isn't conductive to atmosphere. We few, we happy few who write Centauri pairings are immensely grateful!

5) Alias: Emily's pregnancy and the birth and death of Jacquelyne took place when Jack was in custody after the Irina/Laura reveal, which is why Arvin never told him about it before Emily made him promise not to tell anyone (i.e. during the pregnancy). The Alias timeline for the First Gen Spies can be headache inducing anyway, but that explanation always made the most sense to me. I don't insist, though: stories which can come up with plausible alternatives are just as credible to me.
selenak: (MarielMemoirs)
Since I never participated previously and always was fascinated by the results, I gave into temptation and signed up for the Remix Redux Ficathon, aka the one where one of your stories get rewritten by someone else from a new perspective and you do the same thing to someone else's story. [livejournal.com profile] artaxastra and self did this once with a Roman history ficlet, and I loved it then, so, temptation, I'm yours. Mind you, two of the fandoms I named are my shiny space stations, Babylon 5 and Deep Space Nine, and I expect there won't be much interest for those, but with the exception of the Jossverse and Alias, that's where most of my fanfic lies.

As this put me in a B5 state of mind, I decided to have a go at the personal fanon/canon meme.

Take your OTP
List your personal canon for those characters. So the stuff that has nothing whatsoever to do with canon, but in your head is irrefutably what would have happened.


I don't have many OTPs, being usually in love with characters, not pairings, and even those I have are definitely not exclusive (Londo/G'Kar! except that I also love Londo with Timov/Adira/Urza/First Wife We Don't Know The Name Of/Other People To Be Announced, and G'Kar with Lyta, platonically or otherwise), but B5 and especially Londo & G'Kar have some personal canon for me, so this one is easiest. Mind you, said fanon usually resulted in a fanfic, but here's the condensed version:

So, Londo Mollari and G'Kar of Narn:

- like all Narn born under Centauri occupation, G'Kar is fluent in Centauri; he never uses the language, though, except for his "Where is Mr. Garibaldi?" question upon his arrival at Cartagia's court. He also used it out loud and inside Londo's mind during the Dust incident. Which is one of the reasons why he doesn't use it with Londo after their relationship turns into love friendship

- Londo can speak Narn, not fluently, but enough to get through conversations, except he never has conversations in Narn with anyone, and didn't since he was a boy; the only time he used it with G'Kar was after G'Kar returned from his travels with Lyta, took one look at Londo and basically figured out what was going on. It seemed like the thing to do to say "Hello, G'Kar" in Narn then. The Keeper didn't quite know what to make of it.

- for all the canonical jokes about having six and giving G'Kar sexual pointers, Londo actually never had sex outside his own species before, whereas G'Kar, to put it mildly, was an erotic xenophile; Londo thinks he's good about bluffing regarding this difference of experience

- Mariel wasn't the first Centauri G'Kar slept with; he'd have loved to flaunt the liason to annoy Londo but had to keep it quiet because lusting after Centauri is a Narn taboo, for obvious reasons, which is why he originally started to get interested in humans, who look similarly enough but are acceptable. G'Kar's sexual backstory with Centauri is an extremely murky affair and has a lot to do with power issues and memories of the occupation, which forms some of the background of my version of the Mariel affair

- Londo pretends not to have read G'Kar's book and keeps this up through the years, but in fact he asked Delenn - not Vir, because Vir as a Centauri and Londo's aide would have stood out, whereas nobody would be surprised if Delenn ordered several copies for herself - to buy him a copy as soon as it appeared and swore her to silence about this

- what G'Kar hated most about Londo for a long time was the fact that Londo, as opposed to Refa, who was G'Kar's childhood idea of a Centauri personified, could have been better; what he kept hating most about Londo after they became friends was that Londo wasn't worse, because a worse man would have turned his back on Centauri Prime and avoided his destiny. The simple fact of the matter is that G'Kar would have prefered a destroyed Centauri Prime and a Keeper-free Londo; he's aware that this might be a sign that his path to enlightenment is far from complete.

- to cope with her debts as a divorced woman, Mariel wrote her memoirs, which outsold not only the book of G'Kar but also Sheridan's memoirs; unfortunately, G'Kar's followers were so incensed about the content that they declared the Narn equivalent of a fatwah, and the human publisher who published it to begin with had to withdraw it. Copies survive via downloads in crystals, of course.

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