(no subject)

Now something a little more direct:

6.) If your character is doing something wildly out of canon characterizations, you'd better sure as hell give a good reason. And no, fanon is not a substitute.

Okay, I lied. I hate to say this, but I'm fannish enough to admit, fanon can be a substitute, assuming your audience has read and accepted the fanon story that created it in enough numbers to pull it off. That is not an automatic drop in the jenn-box of darkness here. We really need a word for widely accepted fanon, btw. But there's got to be a point a. And it has to go to point b. And no, you cannot skip c or d or e to get to the really cool f. Yes, there are exceptions to this. But if Rodney is suddenly to become the best military strategist since Julius Caesar, it better either be AU or you send his ass to school for another few years. Genius does not automatically equal perfect at everything he tries the first time. It just means that, if he's just that universally gifted, he has the capacity to learn it. And frankly, I want proof he even would care to learn.

7.) John is not a prostitute. John is the biggest flirt in the Pegasus Galaxy, and probably the biggest tease as well--which always brings me to images of him not putting out on dates and girls (and/or boys) getting bitter, but let's not go there. He glow sexed Chaya, he probably nailed the mindreader (come on. MINDREADER? I'd sleep with her! MIND. READER. That, my friends, would be some seriously fun sex. And six months with the creepy people meditating, which actually argues he was crazy by then) and the blonde chick--he said he didn't, I stick with that, since he doesn't seem the type to lie through his teeth. But. One girl in two years.

8.) Canonically, Rodney is an asshole. You really, really don't need to soften that. No, really. He does not cry into his pillow for all the pain he has caused otehrs. I'm pretty sure he remembers only about one percent of what he says to people on any given day. WE LIKE THAT ABOUT HIM. That is what makes him interesting. It is grating and annoying and so very very human and makes his dialogue so much fun. Conversely--he is not a completely sociopathic asshole. Please dial back the psychosis, because also, he has moments where he can be nice and he doesn't spend every second of his life looking for new and intersting ways to make people miserable. Yes, I am asking a great deal, you know, *balancing a character*. But hey, I have faith. Or I have hope.

9.) John is not dumber than a pail. I cant' believe I even have to have this one on teh list. But there you have it. He's really, really not. He didn't get to Major by sleeping his way through the chain of command (though man, what I wouldn't give to be his commanding officer if that were true), and you ever notice that his ideas on how to do things actually, you know, *work* sometimes? See GUP. Thank you. That is all.

10.) Oh. Hmm. If I read *one more* fic that has a major plot point of completely humiliating one character for perceived wrongs (Elizabeth for being a woman, John for hurting Rodney's feeling or possibly, uncanonically having been a jock and/or mean to the scientifically adept and/or geeks, Rodney for his dark evilness in calling John a whore, WHICH HE HAS NEVER ACTUALLY DONE, Teyla for--being a woman, I have no clue on that one, etc etc etc)--well, I mean, I can't do anything, but I will possibly need to start retaliatory fic, or perhaps, take up a thriving drug habit. Seriously. What is the thing for humiliation? Why?



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Comments

[emrinalexander.livejournal.com]

My humiliation squick is so big that I cannot even go to the places you mention in number ten. Just no.

I call that the "I'll get soap poisoning and THEN you'll be SORRY!" school of fanfic writing *G*.

I also have trouble with post-Trinity fics where The Entire Atlantis Contingent completely shun Rodney and treat him like a pariah, etc. I'm sorry, they're big boys, playing with dangerous equipment in a very dangerous place, going for big stakes. Chances are, something will go wrong at some point, and somebody will die. It happens. I can see Elizabeth taking issue with his attitude (though it should've been done in private, not where everybody in the gateroom could see and hear them) and I can certainly see John being pissed off. But the whole "We hate you go sit in the depths of Atlantis and rot," plotline of some fics isn't believable either.

[volari.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I didn't see that episode as being a "Rodney screwed up, which should be impossible since he's perfect, so let's hate him forever now." I saw Elizabeth's and John's reactions as slightly misdirected lashing out. Especially for John, since he has trust issues but did allow himself to trust Rodney. So I really hate when people drag it out in fics just for the sake of making Rodney miserable.