December Daily: my fannish type

[resonant]

terminally_underwhelmed asks "do you have fandom/character/relationship "types" that you find all your fannish energy going towards? Like, Gryffinpuff/Slytherclaw (and more simply hot/cold) relationships grab me, and so do characters that are both super popular and super ooc in fanworks."

thefourthvine once described Brian/Bender from "The Breakfast Club" as the platonic ideal of a Res pairing, but that's not quite precisely it.

It's more that Bender is the platonic ideal of a Res character -- smart, damaged, with an emotional life that's basically twelve impenetrable concentric sky-high thorn hedges surrounding a soft squishy yearning heart that he* will protect at all costs.

Once I have a character like that, it doesn't much matter who I pair him with, because I will draw the other character as being comparatively open, well-balanced, and thorn-proof. (If I can't plausibly do that, I guess I just won't write that pairing.)

I do also see the appeal of the "here are some popular characters and other people are persistently Writing Them Wrong." I don't know if I've done a lot of writing based on that, but I know it was one of the things underlying my desire to write an Eames-centric Inception story.

* I think this only works for guys. I haven't written enough other characters to know whether this is my type for them. I kind of suspect not? I could describe you some archetypes of non-male characters that I like to read, but if I have a type for ones that I like to write, I haven't identified it yet.






21 -- flamingsword, How much weight do you give to criticism in fic comments, and do you feel that it is a healthy amount?
22 -- mekare, What would Ben Fraser do in 2018?
23 -- marina, "What was the last book you read that wasn't fanfic and that you intensely loved, and why."
24 -- wychwood, "Something about SGA! What's the one fic you're sorry you never wrote? What was your favourite episode? Do you still love John/Rodney? How gay WAS John Sheppard? Where in Atlantis would you live if you could pick any room you liked? Pick one or a topic of your choice."
25 -- isabellerecs, "What was your most favorite Christmas present that you ever received as a kid?" and/or "What Christmas present had you wanted badly but never received as a kid?"
26 --runpunkrun, I'd be interested to hear about your experience with the CPAP machine.
27 --destina, "how has your relationship to fandom changed over the years? By which I mean not just participation in it, but your level of tolerance/interest for the cyclical things about it, the way old arguments never really stop or die, etc, but also the ways fandom changes and new ways of doing fandom evolve. (And old ways evolve out, and terms evolve, etc.)"
28 -- kass, "What do you like best about where you live?"
29 --
30 -- china_shop, "Your favourite book you read this year."
31 -- wolfshark, "what is your favorite story to reread of your own stuff? what was your favorite story to write?"

Comments

[minutia_r]

Oh, hey, you know what, can I introduce you to Onni Hotakainen from the webcomic Stand Still Stay Silent? And also to Reynir Arnason?

Here's a fic to start you off, if you want. (Warning: not in chronological order.)

[resonant]

Wow, the artwork in the comic is beautiful. I've bookmarked the story, but I'm afraid it's going to have to get in line behind Yuletide!

Complicated, thorny women

[raveninthewind]

Kara Thrace, Zoe Washburne, and Jessica Pearson. Also Jessica Jones. Kate Kane possibly.