redbrunja: (Tsunade)
redbrunja ([personal profile] redbrunja) wrote2008-09-03 05:19 pm

Rapture Inside Of Me Is On The Rise

*waves*

Hey all. In case any of you were wondering, I vanished for five days to go down to Kumori Con and visit pzb. (Con report to follow, when I... want to actually write coherently, instead of just meme-ing.) I had a fabulous time, except for the train ride back (it took fourteen hours from the Amtrack station in Eugene to my house - to give you perspective, I can go from Eugene to Bellingham -which is  further away than my hometown- in eight hours HITTING TRAFFIC IN PORTLAND, TACOMA AND SEATTLE.)

So, now, last friday's fannish5[livejournal.com profile] fannish5:

 Name 5 characters you think are often misunderstood by fans.


1.) Katara. The people who think she's a vicious, irrational bitch are the worst, but I'm not pleased with the people who treat her like a perfect sweet healer girl who can do no wrong.

2.) Uchiha Itachi. (To be fair, I think 3/4 of the problem is caused by Kishimoto). Look, fans, I don't care how pretty he is. He killed. his. entire. family. and then emotionally tortured his little brother and oh let's not forget about when he TORTURED KAKASHI FOR FORTY-EIGHT HOURS IN KAKASHI'S HEAD.

(I'd add in Sakura, except that if I don't read fics who don't treat her better than Kishimoto does.)

3.) Inara. I think most of the people who call her boring aren't paying attention.

4.) Toph. You love her? Fine. But don't act like she's perfect and made of pure awesome. (Again, I think the creators are to blame for a lot of this.)

5.) Jareth. Is not a fluffy little elf boyfriend. He is hot like burning, though.



[identity profile] tobu-ishi.livejournal.com 2008-09-04 07:24 am (UTC)(link)
*blink* Wait, who writes Jareth as a fluffy elf boyfriend, and at what point in their childhoods did they skip reading all the Fair Folk and Grimms' tales detailing the long ancestry of goblin and fae lore from which his archetype descends, including their extremely alarming sociopathic narcissism and pitiless kidnapping tendencies?

One may, of course, lay some of the blame on Tolkien's post-Hobbit nobly enlightened superelves and Disney's cute little fairies, but. Still. Argh. Faerie is scaerie, man.

"I'm Going To Tie Her Up & Torture Her Until She Likes Me Again. Love's A Funny Thing."

[identity profile] redbrunja.livejournal.com 2008-09-04 05:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, and even just considering the MOVIE, yanno, where he spends the whole time making her life harder because a.) she asks for it and b.) he likes her.

I mean, if he really wanted her, he's just going to sprint her away to the goblin world, not hang around her high school trying to date her.

Hah, what's that a quote from?

[identity profile] tobu-ishi.livejournal.com 2008-09-05 09:48 am (UTC)(link)
I suspect some of these writers may be the same girls who write self-insert Suefic involving nigh-unredeemably evil male characters being 'saved' by their (usually) chaste and glittering love. And, eventually, the same women who date and marry handsome bastards and get mistreated forever. Oh, the joy. ♥

The quote is from Buffy. Spike is speaking regarding Drusilla

[identity profile] redbrunja.livejournal.com 2008-09-10 06:43 am (UTC)(link)
You know, I hate to make the judgment call that people who like bad boy characters (guilty!) are going to date abusive man, but some of them.... yeah....

Oh, Whedon. That explains it. XD

[identity profile] tobu-ishi.livejournal.com 2008-09-10 08:07 am (UTC)(link)
Well, there's a distinct difference between liking bad boys or finding them attractive, and actually believing that (Your!) True Love Will Fix Them. The Uchiha brothers are handsome devils and interesting to write about, Azula is beautiful and deadly, and I'll admit to Black Tango being strangely appealing despite the bad personal hygiene, but I wouldn't date any of them with a twenty-foot length of steel rebar.

Agreeing to sex somebody up and shower them with your selfless affection is in no way guaranteed to effect a change in their personality and behavior. (Like my grandmother said, you can't turn a goat into a lamb with a wedding ring.)

Re: Oh, Whedon. That explains it. XD

[identity profile] redbrunja.livejournal.com 2008-09-21 07:44 am (UTC)(link)
Well, there's a distinct difference between liking bad boys or finding them attractive, and actually believing that (Your!) True Love Will Fix Them. The Uchiha brothers are handsome devils and interesting to write about, Azula is beautiful and deadly, and I'll admit to Black Tango being strangely appealing despite the bad personal hygiene, but I wouldn't date any of them with a twenty-foot length of steel rebar.

Word. Also, your grandmother sounds like a hoot.
ext_12512: Hinoe from Natsume Yuujinchou, elegant and smirky (Saiyuki Gaiden: history repeating)

[identity profile] smillaraaq.livejournal.com 2008-09-05 12:37 am (UTC)(link)
I would tend to blame the endless run of Tokien imitators even more than Tolkien himself here, at least if you consider his entire mythos; go through the Silmarillion and the various unfinished stories of the First Age, and you'll find no shortage of elves who are arrogant and hubristic and oh-so-far-from-perfect. Really, a lot of the crap that goes down in LOTR, in a long-term view much of what's happening is really the final acts of patterns that were set in motion by very bad decisions made by elves centuries or millenia before...

[identity profile] tobu-ishi.livejournal.com 2008-09-05 09:54 am (UTC)(link)
*nods* Honestly, can we do away with the pseudo-Tolkienverse altogether? It's been so done to death that any "fantasy" story taking place in a world not basically European, vaguely medieval, and inhabited by gorgeous Aryan elves, covetous Scottish dwarves, tricksy English hobbits halflings, and wild-card humans is considered "edgy" and off the charts. And even the variations tend to still be on that theme.

One of these days I'm going to write a fantasy novel couched in traditional Greek mythology. Or possibly Japanese. And then we'll see who's cool, oh, yes. Bring on the naiads and yukionna, baby.
ext_12512: Hinoe from Natsume Yuujinchou, elegant and smirky (Sanzo: HEADACHE)

[identity profile] smillaraaq.livejournal.com 2008-09-05 09:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Urgh, yes, it's all those dreadful second-and-third-and-worse blurry-Xerox wannabee Tolkien clones (TERRY BROOKS I'M LOOKING AT YOU) that pretty much drove me away from fantasy for DECADES. Tolkien worked because he had an ear for language and was deeply immersed in myth and history, and was writing to feed his own obsessions rather than trying to fit a commercial formula. Unfortunately, once his books succeeded, far far too many hacks decided that all they needed to do was copy the most obvious surface elements -- bricklike multi-volume tomes with a checklist of default fantasy races and a quest plot -- without seeming to do much in the way of reading and research beyond D&D books and/or other hackneyed fantasy writers as unoriginal as themselves...grrrr.

[identity profile] redbrunja.livejournal.com 2008-09-10 06:41 am (UTC)(link)
Please do! I personally have such a soft spot for kitsunes.