A Thousand Armies Couldn't Keep Me Out

[redbrunja]

This is a great, villain-centric Once vid:

I both find it hilarious and bang-on that the vidder decided the Blue Fairy was a villain. You know you can never trust a nun.

~~~

This Avengers-as-teachers AU snippet makes me soul weep due to awesome. Someone please write that.

~~~

Okay, so I've been reading a lot of Natasha Romanoff + other people fics and there is one persistent piece of fanon that makes me go, "Oh, honey, no." It's the idea that Natasha is someone how more scared than other BAMF and that it gets her and edge, or something? (And it's otherwise excellent writers working with this idea, but it just DOES NOT fly for me.) This is a woman who came out of the Red Room, okay? She knows what it's like to be unmade. She is likely LESS scared than other BAMFs.

Look, as far as I'm concern there are three things that Natasha is afraid of:

1.   The Hulk
2. Being unmade/brainwashed (and this is debatable).
3. FEELINGS.

That is it. End of list. Crazy alien invasion, guys with pliers, madman with an army of robot soldiers - none of that is going to get her pulse past the same level of a hard workout, okay?

~~~

So that's my example of 'fanon that just doesn't work for me.'

Flist, what are YOUR examples of fanon (from any fandom) that just makes you go, 'Oh, honey, no.'

Comments

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, when I read Clint/Natasha stuff and they have her being so open and fluffy and I'm just...

NO

I'm sure there are more, but that's been bugging me a lot lately.

[freneticfloetry.livejournal.com]

Look, as far as I'm concern there are three things that Natasha is afraid of:

The Hulk

Being unmade/brainwashed (and this is debatable).

FEELINGS.

Yes, yes, THIS, yes.

Things that typically drive me nuts: Natasha being helpless, Steve being a wide-eyed neophyte, Chloe being selfish/betraying those she loves, Sherlock being both virginal and completely ignorant about the biology of sex and attraction, John having zero self-worth...

You know what? There's way too much that makes me go "Oh, honey, no."

[seren-ccd.livejournal.com]

Currently whenever someone makes Pepper the bad guy in order for Tony and Steve to hook up. RAGEFACE. Pepper is NEVER the bad guy. NEVER. And likewise, I don't see Tony simply dropping her either. And I love Steve, too, so he doesn't deserve to be THAT GUY either.

[bellonablack.livejournal.com]

" It's the idea that Natasha is someone how more scared than other BAMF and that it gets her and edge, or something?

Oh shit, this is what I've noticed. And I've been so turned off by. I don't mind fear but it's the much much more scarreddd and dammaggede and ruinnned, but I'm like...oh. :/

I hate it.

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

That teacher AU is absolutely perfect. My headcanon for it is that Pepper is still a CEO but also married to Tony. Whenever someone makes a joke about who brings home the bacon, Tony rebuilds one appliance in the house, simply to make a point. You don't want to go near the garbage disposal without safety gear -- that thing can turn a brick into a handful of sand.

[surreallis.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. Noooo. Fandom does have a way of taking one brief moment in canon and deciding that's the way it always is FOREVER. Rinse and repeat again and again.

I have to admit, after reading a few of the most recced Clint/Natasha fics (and certainly finding them well-written) I'm getting a little frowny at characterizations where Natasha is so hard-assed and tough that Clint can't even air the slightest criticism without fearing for his life. Or she punches him. And conversely, that Clint has to tip-toe around her feelings at all times because he's so in love and she's so hair-trigger that he's constantly worrying about upsetting her.

I just... I understand the interpretation, and I think it's a common one for many pairings. But it just...is not what I see. Because Clint went right at her about fighting the war in the infirmary after he got his mind back, and while she tried to evade, using her words and not fists I might add, he gently insisted and she immediately sat down next to him and engaged. And I think I like that scenario much more.

[qualapec.livejournal.com]

That is bothersome. Plus, it's like, I doubt she's any more afraid of things than any of the other characters on the team. I'm sure they all have that one thing that shuts them down.

And hell to the yes for Natasha being afraid of FEELINGS. (were you the one who posted the link to the fic where she requests to be reassigned a partner because Agent Barton makes her laugh?)

- When people make Tony very self-loathing and persecuted in society and constantly looks at himself as persecuted. It's like, no, this man is unmedicated ADHD if ever a character was unmedicated ADHD. He doesn't have the attention span to feel sorry for himself or care what the tabloids think of him. He'll think about it for a minute, maybe frown, but then he's going to stop being sad and go off and build a robot instead.

- Pretty much whenever comics characterization bleeds into Thor or anyone from Asgard. Likewise, MCU Loki is not the product of systematic abuse and bullying the way his comics counterpart is (because I swear there is not a single nice person in Asgard in the comics).

I think a lot of it is baby writers not understanding that balance is what makes a good character, and just fixating on certain things that get blown out of control.