deird_lj

I was talking about Fred over at blackfrancine's journal, and (among other things) said the following:

Fred is a survivalist. Utterly. She will do whatever she can to keep herself safe. (Being enslaved in another dimension will do that to you.)
She latches on to the most protective guy. (Starting with Angel, who saved her in Pylea. Then she finds Angel and Lilah together, and Angel becomes unsafe, so it switches to the others.) Seriously - every single time she changes who she's interested in, it's because the Protectiveness Quotient has just changed.

I thought I'd give a brief summary of Fred's relationships, just to show you what I mean.

( spoilers, obviously )

This entry was originally posted at http://deird1.dreamwidth.org/27300.html. Feel free to comment there using OpenID. ( comments so far)

So, back to shipping…

I have three basic things which turn me shippy:
1) the two of them are enemies
2) one of them can’t say “I love you”
and
3) one person is more invested in the relationship than the other one

Let’s talk about the third one.

( a lack of balance )

Questions? Comments?

There has been a large amount of discussion on metafandom this week about Mary-Sue’s. People have been arguing that Mary-Sue’s are great, that they suck, that they’re a phase that everyone goes through, that they should be encouraged, and that they should be banned from fanfic. But there doesn’t seem to be much agreement about what “Mary-Sue” actually means.

Interestingly, it looks from here like the pro-Sue side are defining her as “an original female character who does fun stuff”, and the anti-Sue side are thinking of her as “an original character who warps the story around her”. (I’d love to know if the pro-Sues think the anti-Sues hate female characters – or if the antis think the pros love story-warping – but I’m going slightly off-topic, here.)


So what I wanted to discuss was my definition of a Mary-Sue, and what its place should be in a story. Or, in fact:

( What I Mean By Mary-Sue and Why I Hate Her )

I've seen quite a few comments lately saying "They should have taken out the one-shots and focused on the main story" or "It's going on too long - why didn't they get to the Twangel bit faster?" or similar.

And it surprises me. Because, actually, I'd want the opposite.

( cyborgs, Doctor Who, and endless mysteries )

So… Spike and Buffy at the end of the show.

( my current ideas )

So, that’s what I think. Today, anyway.

I saw a discussion about Buffyverse characters the other day, in which someone said they couldn't relate to Faith or Spike because they're "cool".

...at which point everyone else jumped on them and said "What do you mean they're cool? They're not cool really! They're just pretending! It's a defense mechanism!"

Which got me thinking.

( musings on coolness )

(I realise I keep going on about this, but it’s bugging me…)

I’ve decided that one of the main problems with Torchwood is that it’s trying to be Angel, when it should be trying to be Going Postal.

( spoilers for New Who, and for Torchwood seasons 1&2 )

Some people in ffrantsrants are having a discussion about OCs, and if they can be written in a worthwhile way.

And most people seem to be agreeing that, yes, they can - as long as they aren't the central characters in the story.

Which... I find interesting.

( on writing ...especially mine )

As you might have noticed, I’ve written quite a lot of fanfic in the last year and a half.

And, if you’re very observant, you might have noticed that the majority of it has “written for the _____ prompt at still_grrr” at the top.
Those that don’t will almost certainly be “written for open_on_sunday”, or “written for good__evil”, or possibly “written for deird1”.

This is because challenge communities rock. Completely.

( more on this topic )

You know what I’ve realised?
I just don’t understand how someone can like a show, and not like all the characters.

I mean, I’m aware that it’s possible. I know a lot of people who can’t stand various characters, and are still definitely fans of the show – so clearly this is just me being odd, but still… I have no idea how that works.

It’s certainly not the way I work.

( a few annoying characters )