ooc without canon
May. 5th, 2018 02:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethIt's weird not having read canon or watched it except in bits
because you end up sort of reverse engineering what happened and who these characters even are
and yet knowing that will very much depend on author, pairing, and fanon.
Like, everyone is going to read it different, fic is in dialogue with fic, and people who find certain pairings plausible probably read those characters in very particular ways to make it plausible, and have particular ideas of how humans even work.
... the failure mode of enemies to lovers is that whole set of romanticised abuse tropes, where jealous rage and hurting each other are signs of True Love (ugh). Even the best case tends to read canon as pigtail pulling proof of obsessive attention. So the failure mode characters all resemble each other very greatly. Canon varies, but out of character crashes the same.
Me looking for stories that acknowledge canon thus far to be A Bad Thing and try and fix it is looking for tiny slice of stories. I mean if they think is Bad then why play with it? Aside from having similar definitions of redemption arc to me and wanting to get the world out of the hole...
ANYways
In current reading, Harry Potter is angry and oblivious, needs everything explained, and is apparently plausibly a guy who can be dating/shagging for years and live with someone without realising he has romantic feelings until a big dramatic scene where probably someone else explains it. I fear for his ability to function independently. Apparently many authors do too. His story arc is most often about some degree of PTSD and figuring out how to be human after the war.
Draco though... angry, proud, posh, ability to get up a tree far exceeds ability to get out of it, probably needs rescuing again. But his personality varies a lot more. Like almost every story knows he needs to change before this will work but he changes all dandelion by author fiat. Way more variable.
I suspect there is more canon about protagonist than antagonist. Surprise.
I also suspect I should go read other stuff for a while soon. But there are several hundred novel length fics in here even after filtering out archive warnings, and I seem to be stuck reading to the end even after deciding one is rubbish. oh well, will surface eventually...
because you end up sort of reverse engineering what happened and who these characters even are
and yet knowing that will very much depend on author, pairing, and fanon.
Like, everyone is going to read it different, fic is in dialogue with fic, and people who find certain pairings plausible probably read those characters in very particular ways to make it plausible, and have particular ideas of how humans even work.
... the failure mode of enemies to lovers is that whole set of romanticised abuse tropes, where jealous rage and hurting each other are signs of True Love (ugh). Even the best case tends to read canon as pigtail pulling proof of obsessive attention. So the failure mode characters all resemble each other very greatly. Canon varies, but out of character crashes the same.
Me looking for stories that acknowledge canon thus far to be A Bad Thing and try and fix it is looking for tiny slice of stories. I mean if they think is Bad then why play with it? Aside from having similar definitions of redemption arc to me and wanting to get the world out of the hole...
ANYways
In current reading, Harry Potter is angry and oblivious, needs everything explained, and is apparently plausibly a guy who can be dating/shagging for years and live with someone without realising he has romantic feelings until a big dramatic scene where probably someone else explains it. I fear for his ability to function independently. Apparently many authors do too. His story arc is most often about some degree of PTSD and figuring out how to be human after the war.
Draco though... angry, proud, posh, ability to get up a tree far exceeds ability to get out of it, probably needs rescuing again. But his personality varies a lot more. Like almost every story knows he needs to change before this will work but he changes all dandelion by author fiat. Way more variable.
I suspect there is more canon about protagonist than antagonist. Surprise.
I also suspect I should go read other stuff for a while soon. But there are several hundred novel length fics in here even after filtering out archive warnings, and I seem to be stuck reading to the end even after deciding one is rubbish. oh well, will surface eventually...
no subject
Date: 2018-05-07 05:56 pm (UTC)If you don't mind me answering about a Whole Other Fandom:
I personally like to write just that, or used to at least many years ago. Because: if Bad, that's why I want to Fix? If no Bad, what would I be fixing?
If everything canon is roses, then it can stay roses, I don't have to touch it. But if is full of thorns, it needs gardening and pruning and adding nutrition, until at least some roses*
*this metaphor may be horticulturally inaccurate as I do know writing and characters but I know nothing about actual roses
**other than actual roses go up to like 3-4 meters and it is the most amazing thing to look up at tree level and see fully blooming roses and the entire street smells of them
but anyway: I don't think abuse is sign of TWU WUB but I do think, in fictional situations and not irl, that abuse, particularly bidirectional abuse (rather than imbalance of power), can be worked through and solved into calmer, better behaviours.
IRL my opinions are more "weed out the evil bastard and don't go near him again". But then RL villains are usually less complex.