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Sunday, January 30th, 2005 12:21 pm
the top twelve characters i hate and why
I've been reading the wide variety of rants currently available for public consumption. It's like Christmas! But with less in the way of food.
What really got me thinking is the multi rants on misogyny in fandom. Which of course, got me thinking--mostly of a, okay, what? That kind of thing. I don't necessarily buy that hating female characters in slash is a sign of misogyny. At least, not as a constant answer. So I did the thing any logical person would do and listed my most hated characters, then sorted them out by reasons.
I'm going to be terribly blunt about this. I have horrible reasons for hating characters. I mean, beyond shallow. But a lot of times, it comes down to the character I like most, and my OTP. I can forgive Lex murder. I love him. It's easy. I can't forgive Jonathan saying something nasty about him. I hate Jonathan. It's that painfully simple
1.) Chloe Sullivan (Smallville) - yeah, yeah, yeah, spare me. I go through hot and cold wiht her on a regular basis--I just came in flush from another Chloe Deification story, in which Clark grovels and apologizes and she kindly forgives him and oh God, I'll breathe now. It's just so--ooh. I hate that. I most hate it when combined with Lana and/or Clark Humiliation and spotlighted sometimes with Lex Deification, in which I have been known to pray for my own death. Don't get me wrong, I get her good qualities. The show actually is the one place I'm in charity with her, and a lot of writers pull her off beautifully. It's just in some fics that I think of sporks, cause, man. No. Also, sometimes, she interferes with my OTP. That's the number one reason I really start disliking someone. Well, co-number one.
2.) Seven of Nine (Star Trek Voyager) - she took up too much screentime and every story ended up about her. Even those stories about my OTP. Grrr. That's it.
3.) Jean Grey (X-Men)- interferes with my OTP. That simple. I get around it a lot by the fact that canonically, nothing happens. At least, not much. Writing her helps. I tend to like her best when I'm writing her, which is a kind of therapy I recommend.
4.) Ethan Gold (Queer as Folk) - interfered with my OTP. Yes, I'm glad he turned out a canonical scumbag of sorts, but really, that had no bearing on my feelings for him. He could have been a god. I hate him. Hate hate hate. Die little bearded boy. Die. This will hold true for any love interests of the future, just so you know.
4.) Michael Novotny (Queer as Folk) - he's a hot and cold to me. As one of the two most abused characters in QaF to date (it makes me guilty to put him here, so many have punished him hugely for his fictional semi-crimes) I tend to either want him dead or just remove the poor guy from my line of sight so I don't see him massacred yet again by another fic. He just annoys me in general. He really doesn't threaten my OTP, so I downgraded him to mild dislike with occasional amusement at his antics.
5.) Lana Lang (Smallville) - One, she interferes with my OTP. Wait, didn't I say this was shallow? I did warn you. I hate that. Two, she takes up incredible amounts of screentime doing pointless things. Three, she's being worked into the mythology in a way that makes absolutely no sense. She's Seven of Nine all over again, shoehorned into *everything*. Fast forward is my friend in re-runs.
6.) Faith (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) - This gets caught up in my reasons that I started really disliking Angel. I think this actually may be a philosophical point with Joss on redemption, atonement, and eternal suffering. I get very, very bored with eternal atonement and suffering. You can really only proclaim your guilt and angst at the world so many times before I want to strangle you and put you out of my misery. Yes, you did bad things. I'm glad you want to share and want to do good things. Faith and Angel both needed to get over it. I mean, Willow got to get mostly over it, after all, so it's possible. They just kept their noble suffering up and waited for the second, third, and fourth shoe to drop, nobly. And their deep abiding determination to Right the Wrongs They've Done Without Believing They Could Ever Get Past It. They need *therapists*. I get bored fast. Find a new schtick. Please.
7.) Xander Harris (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) - Xander hit me wrong all at the beginning. I know that and acknowledge that. And I love Buffy like I love Lex and Brian, exclusively, so what hurts her I consider a Bad Thing. I hated Angel with her, loved Angel wiht her, hated Faith with her, okay, I hated Riley but that's because he didn't deserve her, and Riley was just such a non-entity I coudl ignore his existence, and I loved Spike with her. Right or wrong, Xander hurt Buffy, he pissed me off. No matter how justified, I never got past when he didn't tell her that Willow was getting Angel's soul back and while I've read the arguments ad nauseum, I'm never going to really get why it was better she found out the way she did, right before impaling the guy. I never really forgave how they treated her after she ran off after *killing the love of her life*, like it should have been something she got over in an hour or so. I was ever so pissy when Xander dumped Anya in one of the worst-timed breakups in history, and no matter how many times I watch that ep, it still makes no sense to me whatsoever. I really despise him getting on Buffy when she said she had to kill Anya and not acknowleding the double standard going on with his arguments. I don't like that he can't ever quite get beyond wanting Buffy to actually think about *her*. I like that he tries a lot of the time. He just fails to much.
8.-10.) Justin, Clark Kent, Logan (Queer as Folk, Smallville, X-Men) - this is kind of a different category of hate. They're the second half of my OTP. A lot of my fannish obsession focuses on a single character--Tom Paris in Voyager, Rogue in X-Men, Lex in Smallville, Buffy in BtVS, and Brian in QaF. A bond, if you will. Hurting them is Bad. I dislike those who do so. Even if it's the other half of my OTP. This does, however, not exclude me loving them deeply. It just means I get a lot of headaches working out their sometimes bizarre behavior to my own satisfaction so they deserve the other half of my OTP. That's about the sum of it. So. Special area for that.
11.-12.) Jonathan and Martha Kent (Smallville) - I have not and will not ever get over the level of hypocricy going on here. They are the Voices of AlMiles and therefore are disgustingly inconsistent plot movers and Speakers of Anvil-things. Even getting that, even *knowing* that, I don't like them, I will *never* like them, and I will never get over that. Not in their inconsistent, sometimes brutal, and just *strange* behavior toward Clark, or in their blind prejudice toward Lex. Jonathan gets top billing, but Martha's silent and supportive wife/housewife/mother routine is grating as shit. It started well before leaving Lex in Belle Reve, but pretty much at this point, they could not get in my good graces if they hosted the Clex wedding, okay? Just not happening.
That's--cleansing. I like Sundays. So relaxing.
What really got me thinking is the multi rants on misogyny in fandom. Which of course, got me thinking--mostly of a, okay, what? That kind of thing. I don't necessarily buy that hating female characters in slash is a sign of misogyny. At least, not as a constant answer. So I did the thing any logical person would do and listed my most hated characters, then sorted them out by reasons.
I'm going to be terribly blunt about this. I have horrible reasons for hating characters. I mean, beyond shallow. But a lot of times, it comes down to the character I like most, and my OTP. I can forgive Lex murder. I love him. It's easy. I can't forgive Jonathan saying something nasty about him. I hate Jonathan. It's that painfully simple
1.) Chloe Sullivan (Smallville) - yeah, yeah, yeah, spare me. I go through hot and cold wiht her on a regular basis--I just came in flush from another Chloe Deification story, in which Clark grovels and apologizes and she kindly forgives him and oh God, I'll breathe now. It's just so--ooh. I hate that. I most hate it when combined with Lana and/or Clark Humiliation and spotlighted sometimes with Lex Deification, in which I have been known to pray for my own death. Don't get me wrong, I get her good qualities. The show actually is the one place I'm in charity with her, and a lot of writers pull her off beautifully. It's just in some fics that I think of sporks, cause, man. No. Also, sometimes, she interferes with my OTP. That's the number one reason I really start disliking someone. Well, co-number one.
2.) Seven of Nine (Star Trek Voyager) - she took up too much screentime and every story ended up about her. Even those stories about my OTP. Grrr. That's it.
3.) Jean Grey (X-Men)- interferes with my OTP. That simple. I get around it a lot by the fact that canonically, nothing happens. At least, not much. Writing her helps. I tend to like her best when I'm writing her, which is a kind of therapy I recommend.
4.) Ethan Gold (Queer as Folk) - interfered with my OTP. Yes, I'm glad he turned out a canonical scumbag of sorts, but really, that had no bearing on my feelings for him. He could have been a god. I hate him. Hate hate hate. Die little bearded boy. Die. This will hold true for any love interests of the future, just so you know.
4.) Michael Novotny (Queer as Folk) - he's a hot and cold to me. As one of the two most abused characters in QaF to date (it makes me guilty to put him here, so many have punished him hugely for his fictional semi-crimes) I tend to either want him dead or just remove the poor guy from my line of sight so I don't see him massacred yet again by another fic. He just annoys me in general. He really doesn't threaten my OTP, so I downgraded him to mild dislike with occasional amusement at his antics.
5.) Lana Lang (Smallville) - One, she interferes with my OTP. Wait, didn't I say this was shallow? I did warn you. I hate that. Two, she takes up incredible amounts of screentime doing pointless things. Three, she's being worked into the mythology in a way that makes absolutely no sense. She's Seven of Nine all over again, shoehorned into *everything*. Fast forward is my friend in re-runs.
6.) Faith (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) - This gets caught up in my reasons that I started really disliking Angel. I think this actually may be a philosophical point with Joss on redemption, atonement, and eternal suffering. I get very, very bored with eternal atonement and suffering. You can really only proclaim your guilt and angst at the world so many times before I want to strangle you and put you out of my misery. Yes, you did bad things. I'm glad you want to share and want to do good things. Faith and Angel both needed to get over it. I mean, Willow got to get mostly over it, after all, so it's possible. They just kept their noble suffering up and waited for the second, third, and fourth shoe to drop, nobly. And their deep abiding determination to Right the Wrongs They've Done Without Believing They Could Ever Get Past It. They need *therapists*. I get bored fast. Find a new schtick. Please.
7.) Xander Harris (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) - Xander hit me wrong all at the beginning. I know that and acknowledge that. And I love Buffy like I love Lex and Brian, exclusively, so what hurts her I consider a Bad Thing. I hated Angel with her, loved Angel wiht her, hated Faith with her, okay, I hated Riley but that's because he didn't deserve her, and Riley was just such a non-entity I coudl ignore his existence, and I loved Spike with her. Right or wrong, Xander hurt Buffy, he pissed me off. No matter how justified, I never got past when he didn't tell her that Willow was getting Angel's soul back and while I've read the arguments ad nauseum, I'm never going to really get why it was better she found out the way she did, right before impaling the guy. I never really forgave how they treated her after she ran off after *killing the love of her life*, like it should have been something she got over in an hour or so. I was ever so pissy when Xander dumped Anya in one of the worst-timed breakups in history, and no matter how many times I watch that ep, it still makes no sense to me whatsoever. I really despise him getting on Buffy when she said she had to kill Anya and not acknowleding the double standard going on with his arguments. I don't like that he can't ever quite get beyond wanting Buffy to actually think about *her*. I like that he tries a lot of the time. He just fails to much.
8.-10.) Justin, Clark Kent, Logan (Queer as Folk, Smallville, X-Men) - this is kind of a different category of hate. They're the second half of my OTP. A lot of my fannish obsession focuses on a single character--Tom Paris in Voyager, Rogue in X-Men, Lex in Smallville, Buffy in BtVS, and Brian in QaF. A bond, if you will. Hurting them is Bad. I dislike those who do so. Even if it's the other half of my OTP. This does, however, not exclude me loving them deeply. It just means I get a lot of headaches working out their sometimes bizarre behavior to my own satisfaction so they deserve the other half of my OTP. That's about the sum of it. So. Special area for that.
11.-12.) Jonathan and Martha Kent (Smallville) - I have not and will not ever get over the level of hypocricy going on here. They are the Voices of AlMiles and therefore are disgustingly inconsistent plot movers and Speakers of Anvil-things. Even getting that, even *knowing* that, I don't like them, I will *never* like them, and I will never get over that. Not in their inconsistent, sometimes brutal, and just *strange* behavior toward Clark, or in their blind prejudice toward Lex. Jonathan gets top billing, but Martha's silent and supportive wife/housewife/mother routine is grating as shit. It started well before leaving Lex in Belle Reve, but pretty much at this point, they could not get in my good graces if they hosted the Clex wedding, okay? Just not happening.
That's--cleansing. I like Sundays. So relaxing.