The Two Kinds of Andrew
Mar. 4th, 2010 02:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deird_ljSo – Andrew being gay.
I get a little sick of the constant assumption throughout fandom that he is (Mainly because I’ve never seen him as gay, and everyone has to agree with me. About everything.), but I can deal with that.
The problem is, I don’t actually like gay!Andrew. The guy sucks.
Normally I wouldn’t say making a character gay/straight/whatever would have too much impact on their personality. Ship away! I’ll still like the character! But with Andrew it’s not quite that simple.
See, Andrew is obsessed with Xander and Spike. Obsessed. (For proof, please watch Storyteller, Damage, or just about any other time Andrew is on-screen. Ever.) He is utterly nuts about them.
Which, if he’s gay, would probably mean that this is how Andrew deals with guys he has a crush on.
[ETA: I really don't mean to imply that he couldn't be gay and obsessed with them for non-crushy reasons. I'm just talking about the way I tend to see him portrayed in fanfic.]
Gay Andrew is obsessed with guys, and moons over them all day, every day.
Here’s an excerpt from a fic (not mine), demonstrating what I mean:
I do not like gay!Andrew. He’s a pain.
However…
If he’s straight (or asexual), and yet still obsessed with Spike and Xander, then the obsession has nothing to do with him having crushes on them.
Why is he obsessed with them? Because he’s obsessed with heroes. Andrew is nuts about stories, storybook heroism, larger-than-life people… they’re just wonderful.
Straight Andrew is obsessed with stories, and finds heroics much more exciting than girls.
Here’s an excerpt from one of my recent fics, demonstrating what I mean:
Straight!Andrew is dorkish, and cute, and kind of adorable.
It’s not that he doesn’t like girls, he just doesn’t think they’re nearly as interesting as all the other stuff he’s into…
So, yeah – I think that’s why I get so annoyed by people writing Andrew as gay. If you work on the assumption that he’s gay, he actually becomes a character I’m much less interested in reading about. And that’s kinda sad.
Questions? Comments?
I get a little sick of the constant assumption throughout fandom that he is (Mainly because I’ve never seen him as gay, and everyone has to agree with me. About everything.), but I can deal with that.
The problem is, I don’t actually like gay!Andrew. The guy sucks.
Normally I wouldn’t say making a character gay/straight/whatever would have too much impact on their personality. Ship away! I’ll still like the character! But with Andrew it’s not quite that simple.
See, Andrew is obsessed with Xander and Spike. Obsessed. (For proof, please watch Storyteller, Damage, or just about any other time Andrew is on-screen. Ever.) He is utterly nuts about them.
Which, if he’s gay, would probably mean that this is how Andrew deals with guys he has a crush on.
[ETA: I really don't mean to imply that he couldn't be gay and obsessed with them for non-crushy reasons. I'm just talking about the way I tend to see him portrayed in fanfic.]
Gay Andrew is obsessed with guys, and moons over them all day, every day.
Here’s an excerpt from a fic (not mine), demonstrating what I mean:
“I thought you guys like Andrew,” Angel said, confused.
Xander shrugged. “He’s alright. I just get a little tired of him-”
“Pining after you relentlessly? Mooning after your fine ass night and day? Doodling ‘Mr. Andrew Harris’ on the back of all his notebooks?” Faith suggested.
“Two words, Faith: singing telegram. He sent me a singing telegram on Valentine’s Day.”
I do not like gay!Andrew. He’s a pain.
However…
If he’s straight (or asexual), and yet still obsessed with Spike and Xander, then the obsession has nothing to do with him having crushes on them.
Why is he obsessed with them? Because he’s obsessed with heroes. Andrew is nuts about stories, storybook heroism, larger-than-life people… they’re just wonderful.
Straight Andrew is obsessed with stories, and finds heroics much more exciting than girls.
Here’s an excerpt from one of my recent fics, demonstrating what I mean:
Dawn closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and plunged right in. “So… when it comes out, do you want to go see it?”
“Well, yeah! Of course! It’s Green Lantern!”
“I sort of meant… um… with me.”
Andrew paused, and looked at her, a slightly confused expression creeping onto his face.
Any moment now, he was going to say “of course” again and she was going to have to spend the next half hour trying to explain that, actually, she’d meant something romantic rather than just seeing it as friends. And Andrew was going to be completely baffled, because really, why on earth would you want to be romantic when you could be watching Green Lantern instead, and the conversation was going to get lengthy, and confusing, and why had she decided to do this, again?
Straight!Andrew is dorkish, and cute, and kind of adorable.
It’s not that he doesn’t like girls, he just doesn’t think they’re nearly as interesting as all the other stuff he’s into…
So, yeah – I think that’s why I get so annoyed by people writing Andrew as gay. If you work on the assumption that he’s gay, he actually becomes a character I’m much less interested in reading about. And that’s kinda sad.
Questions? Comments?
