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The Korra/Asami thing
3 min read
Here they go again. Avatar creators sure love their shipping war bait.
So I guess the biggest debate in recent Korra fandom was the season 4 finale, namely the Korra/Asami thing. Half the fandom is calling it bad writing, renouncing its credibility and canonicity on those grounds, while the other half is calling them homophobes and rejoice at DiMartino's and Konietzko's oh so daring choice to incorporate the relationship, praising it as a step forward towards acceptance of gay (or in this case, bisexual) characters in western media.
And I'm honestly sitting here laughing my head off because the folks from the States think they have the monopoly on the West's progressiveness when it comes to portraying homosexuality in a children's show, when the rest of the world aired the final season of Sailor Moon, felt no need to make Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus cousins and dubbers like Latin America even had Quatre from Gundam Wing openly declare his love for Trowa.
(Card Captor Sakura got censored to varying degrees everywhere outside Japan though, so there are limits.)
But yeah. So Korra and Asami are in love. Big deal. The folks saying it was badly written are right, but the thing is, all the relationships are crap in that franchise. People were jubilant when Korra and Mako ended things. And the reason why Zuko/Katara had and continues to have such a huge following is because any romance springing from them would have felt a million times more organic than the Aang/Katara thing the writers did instead. I still don't get why Katara was hung up in "The Ember Island Players" about having a relationship with Aang (maybe because he's a freaking child? Honestly writers, way to gross me out. Also, not cool, mocking your fans), but then in the finale she was just "Yeah, scratch that. I love you now." Compared to that, Korra and Asami are the Jack and Rose of Avatar.
Mind you, I don't care either way, as I generally don't care much about Avatar past entertainment purposes. I watch it mainly for the marvelously animated fights and the cool characters (meaning Toph), without thinking too much about the rest. Because if I do, I'll start griping, as the writing often is weak and the finales always fall flat, yet people praise it to high heaven.
Alas, the ATLA fandom has an extremely bad image as far as discussing criticism goes, so if I'm better off talking to a loaf of bread instead of debating with a fan whose response will be a cussing mess, you can bet I'll choose the bread.
Still, I'm always up for a discussion. And if it comes to the worst, I'll just make myself a sandwich.
And I'm honestly sitting here laughing my head off because the folks from the States think they have the monopoly on the West's progressiveness when it comes to portraying homosexuality in a children's show, when the rest of the world aired the final season of Sailor Moon, felt no need to make Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus cousins and dubbers like Latin America even had Quatre from Gundam Wing openly declare his love for Trowa.
(Card Captor Sakura got censored to varying degrees everywhere outside Japan though, so there are limits.)
But yeah. So Korra and Asami are in love. Big deal. The folks saying it was badly written are right, but the thing is, all the relationships are crap in that franchise. People were jubilant when Korra and Mako ended things. And the reason why Zuko/Katara had and continues to have such a huge following is because any romance springing from them would have felt a million times more organic than the Aang/Katara thing the writers did instead. I still don't get why Katara was hung up in "The Ember Island Players" about having a relationship with Aang (maybe because he's a freaking child? Honestly writers, way to gross me out. Also, not cool, mocking your fans), but then in the finale she was just "Yeah, scratch that. I love you now." Compared to that, Korra and Asami are the Jack and Rose of Avatar.
Mind you, I don't care either way, as I generally don't care much about Avatar past entertainment purposes. I watch it mainly for the marvelously animated fights and the cool characters (meaning Toph), without thinking too much about the rest. Because if I do, I'll start griping, as the writing often is weak and the finales always fall flat, yet people praise it to high heaven.
Alas, the ATLA fandom has an extremely bad image as far as discussing criticism goes, so if I'm better off talking to a loaf of bread instead of debating with a fan whose response will be a cussing mess, you can bet I'll choose the bread.
Still, I'm always up for a discussion. And if it comes to the worst, I'll just make myself a sandwich.
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Ranting about Gundam Wing fics
13 min read
Have you ever been in the situation where, after rewatching a series, you revisited fanfics you had thought were the most awesome thing in your teenage years, but upon rereading them groaned at your own ignorance as to what good writing is (both in terms of writing itself as well as characterization and story)?
Does Traitor to the Cause, Bridlewood Manor or Final Mission Status ring a bell?
Truth be told, I never read GW fics in my teens, as I truly joined the fandom at around 2008, after I watched Gundam Seed (I know Seed aired in 2000; I'm habitually late to parties). So when I feel stupid or masochistic enough to dabble in them, I don't have nostalgia coloring my perspective. And MAN, sorting them after favorites will not give you the good stuff. Also, if GW fics teach you one thing, it's that ff.net really needs a yaoi filter.
Just a heads up, I'll slam GW fics here, among them also a few of the "classics". Mostly about the clichés they feature, so no worries. Bridlewood Manor for instance, though I'm no fan of yaoi, is excellent in terms of writing style. That's what you get when the author is an English major, I guess, and it really shows. The thing that still makes me bang my head on my desk though are the characterizations; they are rife with clichés. And those clichés show up in nearly all GW fics, good or bad, yaoi or het.
Duo being a noisy, pranking idiot? Check. Heero being an emotionless robot who can't help but view everything as a mission? Check. Quatre rubbing a hole through his chest because of his empathy? Check. Wufei being an angry jerk who gets into fights with Duo all the time?
I think you get the idea by now.
It's funny how popularity really means jack in terms of quality when it comes to GW fics. Half a dozen of the top 20 fics on ff.net are freaking Harry Potter crossovers. Harry Potter? Why would anyone go for wizards when we have Gundams???
Not that non-AUs are much better. How I groan every time the five pilots are all Preventers..! And even live in the same house! Like in a freaking sitcom. And the downright parodies of the characters featured, which all too often veer into character assassination territory, don't help matters either.
Where the heck does the notion come from that Duo is an idiot, either by lacking education or intellect? Or that he's messy? Duo is the "funny guy" of the lot, yes, but that doesn't mean that he's your stereotypical anime goofball, the way Luffy or Naruto or Blackstar are. He's a trained soldier, who knows what war looks like and is pretty darn serious about it. That doesn't mean though that he's an overly emotional, unstable wreck who'll dissolve into a crying mess every five seconds because something reminds him of all the traumata~ he had to suffer and who needs Hee-chan or whoever to pull him from this insufferable emo state.
Duo, like all the GW characters, is a badass and deals with his crap accordingly. (On this note, I don't subscribe to the "hiding behind smiles" thing people love to apply to him, so the fics exaggerating that annoy me, too.) Duo also isn't a slob, or have you ever seen a single hair in his braid out of place? He isn't weird, sitting upside down chewing on his braid or whatever, being crazy is not normal for him, he isn't cheery and bouncy, he doesn't pull pranks, he doesn't try to make everyone laugh (quite the opposite in fact, he likes his pessimism), he doesn't call everyone nicknames, he doesn't butcher his own language, his eyes aren't violet, he isn't clumsy, he doesn't eat tons of sweets resulting in sugar highs and most importantly, HE ISN'T YOU.
If the author hates Relena, fine, but Duo has nothing against the girl and is canonically the most respectful toward her, surpassing even Quatre. Bashing Relena is silly enough as it is, but to have Duo of all people lash at her in such an often vicious manner is ridiculous and way off beyond belief.
Then again, if there's ever been a character in GW who has been twisted into an author avatar, it's Duo. Unless he has a self-insert sister, which seems to be the case an awful lot of times.
Not that other characters have it much better. If we go by fanfics, Wufei's vocabulary is pretty much limited to "onna", "Nataku", "weak" and "justice". Unless he reminds Duo of how big of a moron he is, which appears to happen every second sentence whenever they are together. His misogyny is also legendary in fandom, as well as that random katana he pulls outta nowhere to threaten to cut off "Maxwell's" braid. Because he only ever refers to the other pilots by their last name for whatever reason. And also owns a Japanese longsword instead of a Chinese broadsword for whatever reason (the word you're looking for is dao, not katana, folks).
It also bugs me that in het fics Sally always gets stuck with him. What did the poor woman ever do to get such a lousy lover like him (as these fics never portray him as a cool guy)? Let's also ignore the elephant in the room in the form of Meilan, as well as Sally's involvement in her death. Never mind the authors unwittingly make Sally an ephebophile due to the respectable age difference. And I'm not talking about 4 years here. Sally is at least 22 in the series, not 19. I say "at least" as the Japanese data book I have in my hand (printed 1996) says 22, her official bio page though upped that age to 27. Sorry, 5xS shippers.
If there's another pair in GW fiction that almost always gets stuck with each other, it's Trowa and Quatre. I'll spare you how I look like Kermit the Frog when he scrunches up his face whenever I see this pairing (which, you can imagine, happens often with its popularity), as Trowa is the spitting image of Quatre's dad minus mustache and Quatre has massive daddy issues, making the thought of him being sexually attracted to Trowa.... yep, I'm doing the Kermit face now.
So my own reservations aside, Quatre is a complete chick! And when I say chick, I don't mean "woman", because women can be utterly badass, especially in Gundam Wing. No, what I mean is that he is worse than freaking Sailor Moon, being a complete wuss, emotionally needier than a newborn, effin' girly (not effeminate, no, girly) and absolutely useless in a fight, necessitating Trowa or whoever to constantly save him and hug and cuddle him afterwards, murmuring soft nothings into his ear and rubbing soothing circles into the poor, poor thing's back to calm its nerves. I pretty much flip my PC at this because we're talking about a freaking Gundam pilot here, a guy who once willingly fought alongside his friends while bleeding heavily from his abdomen.
Frankly, I don't remember him being that much better in het fics. Admittedly, I don't care much about Quatre, so I don't pay much attention to him. The 4xD fics have me rage more at Dorothy's portrayal. But I've heard of the other extreme where people actually remember pissing Quatre off can have colony-obliterating consequences, which they then take as an excuse to turn him into a dominatrix rex. Seriously, fandom? Seriously?
Trowa though is pretty non-existent on my rage list, since in het fics he's mostly part of the background decoration, being mute. What gets me though is him being a part-time Preventer and the super spy who can infiltrate everything without being found out. Pfffff, yeah right. That's why Dekim wanted to shoot him, because he was so~ invisible.
As far as yaoi fics go, I can't say much, since I don't read them unless I'm researching stuff for these kinds of essays, and in the ones I did read Quatre held the majority of my attention. Besides, as far as Trowa is concerned, I've covered everything about him in my character analysis, so the curious can go read that if they wish (fair warning though, you'll need an hour or two to read through it; I'm not kidding).
That brings me to the last pilot, the "Perfect Soldier" Heero Yuy, the insufferable Mary Sue who is second to none, always has a secret plan that solves everything, knows everything even though no ones has seen him in years (that is a stalker, fandom), puts ninjas to shame with how often he vanishes from one day to another and shows up again just as suddenly, and either hates Relena's guts or can't live without her, but oh! how unworthy he is, being a soldier! Or how badly they match, him being a soldier and her a pacifist, depending on which camp you belong to.
His habit of dictating his lover's life (which is frustratingly portrayed as "protectiveness" >_>) is also anything but charming. That goes for both Relena and Duo. Also, Duo invariably being Heero's best friend. Seriously folks, try Trowa. Duo canonically doesn't even get the guy half the time.
And then there is my biggest gripe: "hn". What the eff does "hn" mean? Why is Heero using that the whole time? Why is he too dumb to answer in complete sentences, like he canonically does? And why is there always a freaking laptop????
It also baffles me how fans remember Heero's quote about living one's life according to one's emotions, yet often leave fic reviews claiming that Heero's emotional display being on par with a slab of rock is "so in character". Er, what? Did people really miss all his hissy fits in the series? And on that note, did people who claim him to be taciturn also miss his huge speech as "Duo" when he enrolled in that colony school? By and large, in the second half of the show that guy won't shut up. Chewing out colonists, debating while fighting people in mobile suits or even talking to his own Gundam, Heero is running his mouth as much as everyone else. He also doesn't care about public scrutiny and he's very much aware of his world's political affairs, so needless to say, plot points in fics about why he and Relena can't hook up (yet) because of him being unable to handle being in the spotlight or not understanding Relena's life and work, have me roll my eyes every time I see them. Which, darn it, also happens a lot!
And Relena, ugh! Most of the times I just want to strangle her. Not the canon character, mind you, that one's badass. But the fanfic version, the idiot whose only thoughts are about Heero and him liking her, when she's the Vice Foreign Minister and should be thinking about a million other things, like her duties and the world and politics and blah. You know, the stuff she was also concerned about in the series. Not to mention, when her life is being threatened, thinking about the situation at hand and how to solve it is a lot more pressing than wondering whether Heero likes her back and if he really means it when he says he loves her.
It's amazing how it's not the bashing portion of fics, but the shipping one that annoys me the most. When Relena's entire character arc in a story consists solely of becoming Heero's girlfriend, I facepalm. When Relena always defers to Heero without question like a good housewife, I facepalm. When Relena accepts a plan without knowing its details, or heck, anything, just because Preventers or Heero propose it, I facepalm. When Relena can't do anything in a crisis and is just scared out of her wits, waiting to be saved, I facepalm. And when her faux moment of awesome is basically speaking up to an aggressor, making him slightly angry in the process, but man! she sure showed him with those words! my head is flying across the room, because I facepalm so hard.
See, yaoi fics in which Relena is bashed at least portray her as her own entity. Sure, she's a snobbish, stalking, shrieking harpy, but at least she doesn't cave to Heero's every whim and is an active character, even when her actions are something ridiculous like trying to kill Duo for getting in her way. At least she does something! And she is the one in control of her life, aggressively pursuing Heero even though he doesn't want her to, necessitating a bullet through her skull to get rid of her.
Het fanon Relena? She hates her job and wants to be a normal teenager, but is apparently too dumb to realize that she can just QUIT. And she also has bodyguards she always runs away from by crawling out of toilet windows, when she could just fire them if she didn't want them. Juvenile! Just freaking juvenile! I'm going into full rant mode now, but I don't care. Relena is the freaking VFM, fandom! Screw her being 15, you think anyone in her position, with her responsibilities and her upbringing, would act this way? Does she look like she has the time to throw pajama parties with Hilde and Catherine and talk about boys they like? For that matter, why the eff are they even friends? Relena never met Catherine and only talked to Hilde once, but in fanfics they're the best of buds, talking about anything and everything. Relena is pregnant? Let's call Hilde first! Because Relena obviously doesn't have a mother. And if she does, she's the most airheaded, prejudiced, one-note antagonist to Heero in the quest for Relena's affection that any news of that kind reaching her well and truly derails the story into a Spanish soap opera.
The "oh, woe is me~!" vibe I constantly get from Relena's portrayal in fics (old and new, mind you), is seriously driving me up a wall. Especially when authors claim they like badass female leads. Then freaking write them! Don't give me a "Dove of Peace" who has a backbone a sponge would laugh at.
Where is the girl that talks assassins holding a gun to her head into dancing with her? Where is the girl that turns the tables on the leader of the biggest military organization in her world? Where is the young woman who looks her own death in the eye with dignity and composure? Once you find her and start writing about her, I'll happily stop my ranting.
Because if there's one thing that irritates me, and this goes for fanfiction in general, it's the very fans of a character assassinating them.
Does Traitor to the Cause, Bridlewood Manor or Final Mission Status ring a bell?
Truth be told, I never read GW fics in my teens, as I truly joined the fandom at around 2008, after I watched Gundam Seed (I know Seed aired in 2000; I'm habitually late to parties). So when I feel stupid or masochistic enough to dabble in them, I don't have nostalgia coloring my perspective. And MAN, sorting them after favorites will not give you the good stuff. Also, if GW fics teach you one thing, it's that ff.net really needs a yaoi filter.
Just a heads up, I'll slam GW fics here, among them also a few of the "classics". Mostly about the clichés they feature, so no worries. Bridlewood Manor for instance, though I'm no fan of yaoi, is excellent in terms of writing style. That's what you get when the author is an English major, I guess, and it really shows. The thing that still makes me bang my head on my desk though are the characterizations; they are rife with clichés. And those clichés show up in nearly all GW fics, good or bad, yaoi or het.
Duo being a noisy, pranking idiot? Check. Heero being an emotionless robot who can't help but view everything as a mission? Check. Quatre rubbing a hole through his chest because of his empathy? Check. Wufei being an angry jerk who gets into fights with Duo all the time?
I think you get the idea by now.
It's funny how popularity really means jack in terms of quality when it comes to GW fics. Half a dozen of the top 20 fics on ff.net are freaking Harry Potter crossovers. Harry Potter? Why would anyone go for wizards when we have Gundams???
Not that non-AUs are much better. How I groan every time the five pilots are all Preventers..! And even live in the same house! Like in a freaking sitcom. And the downright parodies of the characters featured, which all too often veer into character assassination territory, don't help matters either.
Where the heck does the notion come from that Duo is an idiot, either by lacking education or intellect? Or that he's messy? Duo is the "funny guy" of the lot, yes, but that doesn't mean that he's your stereotypical anime goofball, the way Luffy or Naruto or Blackstar are. He's a trained soldier, who knows what war looks like and is pretty darn serious about it. That doesn't mean though that he's an overly emotional, unstable wreck who'll dissolve into a crying mess every five seconds because something reminds him of all the traumata~ he had to suffer and who needs Hee-chan or whoever to pull him from this insufferable emo state.
Duo, like all the GW characters, is a badass and deals with his crap accordingly. (On this note, I don't subscribe to the "hiding behind smiles" thing people love to apply to him, so the fics exaggerating that annoy me, too.) Duo also isn't a slob, or have you ever seen a single hair in his braid out of place? He isn't weird, sitting upside down chewing on his braid or whatever, being crazy is not normal for him, he isn't cheery and bouncy, he doesn't pull pranks, he doesn't try to make everyone laugh (quite the opposite in fact, he likes his pessimism), he doesn't call everyone nicknames, he doesn't butcher his own language, his eyes aren't violet, he isn't clumsy, he doesn't eat tons of sweets resulting in sugar highs and most importantly, HE ISN'T YOU.
If the author hates Relena, fine, but Duo has nothing against the girl and is canonically the most respectful toward her, surpassing even Quatre. Bashing Relena is silly enough as it is, but to have Duo of all people lash at her in such an often vicious manner is ridiculous and way off beyond belief.
Then again, if there's ever been a character in GW who has been twisted into an author avatar, it's Duo. Unless he has a self-insert sister, which seems to be the case an awful lot of times.
Not that other characters have it much better. If we go by fanfics, Wufei's vocabulary is pretty much limited to "onna", "Nataku", "weak" and "justice". Unless he reminds Duo of how big of a moron he is, which appears to happen every second sentence whenever they are together. His misogyny is also legendary in fandom, as well as that random katana he pulls outta nowhere to threaten to cut off "Maxwell's" braid. Because he only ever refers to the other pilots by their last name for whatever reason. And also owns a Japanese longsword instead of a Chinese broadsword for whatever reason (the word you're looking for is dao, not katana, folks).
It also bugs me that in het fics Sally always gets stuck with him. What did the poor woman ever do to get such a lousy lover like him (as these fics never portray him as a cool guy)? Let's also ignore the elephant in the room in the form of Meilan, as well as Sally's involvement in her death. Never mind the authors unwittingly make Sally an ephebophile due to the respectable age difference. And I'm not talking about 4 years here. Sally is at least 22 in the series, not 19. I say "at least" as the Japanese data book I have in my hand (printed 1996) says 22, her official bio page though upped that age to 27. Sorry, 5xS shippers.
If there's another pair in GW fiction that almost always gets stuck with each other, it's Trowa and Quatre. I'll spare you how I look like Kermit the Frog when he scrunches up his face whenever I see this pairing (which, you can imagine, happens often with its popularity), as Trowa is the spitting image of Quatre's dad minus mustache and Quatre has massive daddy issues, making the thought of him being sexually attracted to Trowa.... yep, I'm doing the Kermit face now.
So my own reservations aside, Quatre is a complete chick! And when I say chick, I don't mean "woman", because women can be utterly badass, especially in Gundam Wing. No, what I mean is that he is worse than freaking Sailor Moon, being a complete wuss, emotionally needier than a newborn, effin' girly (not effeminate, no, girly) and absolutely useless in a fight, necessitating Trowa or whoever to constantly save him and hug and cuddle him afterwards, murmuring soft nothings into his ear and rubbing soothing circles into the poor, poor thing's back to calm its nerves. I pretty much flip my PC at this because we're talking about a freaking Gundam pilot here, a guy who once willingly fought alongside his friends while bleeding heavily from his abdomen.
Frankly, I don't remember him being that much better in het fics. Admittedly, I don't care much about Quatre, so I don't pay much attention to him. The 4xD fics have me rage more at Dorothy's portrayal. But I've heard of the other extreme where people actually remember pissing Quatre off can have colony-obliterating consequences, which they then take as an excuse to turn him into a dominatrix rex. Seriously, fandom? Seriously?
Trowa though is pretty non-existent on my rage list, since in het fics he's mostly part of the background decoration, being mute. What gets me though is him being a part-time Preventer and the super spy who can infiltrate everything without being found out. Pfffff, yeah right. That's why Dekim wanted to shoot him, because he was so~ invisible.
As far as yaoi fics go, I can't say much, since I don't read them unless I'm researching stuff for these kinds of essays, and in the ones I did read Quatre held the majority of my attention. Besides, as far as Trowa is concerned, I've covered everything about him in my character analysis, so the curious can go read that if they wish (fair warning though, you'll need an hour or two to read through it; I'm not kidding).
That brings me to the last pilot, the "Perfect Soldier" Heero Yuy, the insufferable Mary Sue who is second to none, always has a secret plan that solves everything, knows everything even though no ones has seen him in years (that is a stalker, fandom), puts ninjas to shame with how often he vanishes from one day to another and shows up again just as suddenly, and either hates Relena's guts or can't live without her, but oh! how unworthy he is, being a soldier! Or how badly they match, him being a soldier and her a pacifist, depending on which camp you belong to.
His habit of dictating his lover's life (which is frustratingly portrayed as "protectiveness" >_>) is also anything but charming. That goes for both Relena and Duo. Also, Duo invariably being Heero's best friend. Seriously folks, try Trowa. Duo canonically doesn't even get the guy half the time.
And then there is my biggest gripe: "hn". What the eff does "hn" mean? Why is Heero using that the whole time? Why is he too dumb to answer in complete sentences, like he canonically does? And why is there always a freaking laptop????
It also baffles me how fans remember Heero's quote about living one's life according to one's emotions, yet often leave fic reviews claiming that Heero's emotional display being on par with a slab of rock is "so in character". Er, what? Did people really miss all his hissy fits in the series? And on that note, did people who claim him to be taciturn also miss his huge speech as "Duo" when he enrolled in that colony school? By and large, in the second half of the show that guy won't shut up. Chewing out colonists, debating while fighting people in mobile suits or even talking to his own Gundam, Heero is running his mouth as much as everyone else. He also doesn't care about public scrutiny and he's very much aware of his world's political affairs, so needless to say, plot points in fics about why he and Relena can't hook up (yet) because of him being unable to handle being in the spotlight or not understanding Relena's life and work, have me roll my eyes every time I see them. Which, darn it, also happens a lot!
And Relena, ugh! Most of the times I just want to strangle her. Not the canon character, mind you, that one's badass. But the fanfic version, the idiot whose only thoughts are about Heero and him liking her, when she's the Vice Foreign Minister and should be thinking about a million other things, like her duties and the world and politics and blah. You know, the stuff she was also concerned about in the series. Not to mention, when her life is being threatened, thinking about the situation at hand and how to solve it is a lot more pressing than wondering whether Heero likes her back and if he really means it when he says he loves her.
It's amazing how it's not the bashing portion of fics, but the shipping one that annoys me the most. When Relena's entire character arc in a story consists solely of becoming Heero's girlfriend, I facepalm. When Relena always defers to Heero without question like a good housewife, I facepalm. When Relena accepts a plan without knowing its details, or heck, anything, just because Preventers or Heero propose it, I facepalm. When Relena can't do anything in a crisis and is just scared out of her wits, waiting to be saved, I facepalm. And when her faux moment of awesome is basically speaking up to an aggressor, making him slightly angry in the process, but man! she sure showed him with those words! my head is flying across the room, because I facepalm so hard.
See, yaoi fics in which Relena is bashed at least portray her as her own entity. Sure, she's a snobbish, stalking, shrieking harpy, but at least she doesn't cave to Heero's every whim and is an active character, even when her actions are something ridiculous like trying to kill Duo for getting in her way. At least she does something! And she is the one in control of her life, aggressively pursuing Heero even though he doesn't want her to, necessitating a bullet through her skull to get rid of her.
Het fanon Relena? She hates her job and wants to be a normal teenager, but is apparently too dumb to realize that she can just QUIT. And she also has bodyguards she always runs away from by crawling out of toilet windows, when she could just fire them if she didn't want them. Juvenile! Just freaking juvenile! I'm going into full rant mode now, but I don't care. Relena is the freaking VFM, fandom! Screw her being 15, you think anyone in her position, with her responsibilities and her upbringing, would act this way? Does she look like she has the time to throw pajama parties with Hilde and Catherine and talk about boys they like? For that matter, why the eff are they even friends? Relena never met Catherine and only talked to Hilde once, but in fanfics they're the best of buds, talking about anything and everything. Relena is pregnant? Let's call Hilde first! Because Relena obviously doesn't have a mother. And if she does, she's the most airheaded, prejudiced, one-note antagonist to Heero in the quest for Relena's affection that any news of that kind reaching her well and truly derails the story into a Spanish soap opera.
The "oh, woe is me~!" vibe I constantly get from Relena's portrayal in fics (old and new, mind you), is seriously driving me up a wall. Especially when authors claim they like badass female leads. Then freaking write them! Don't give me a "Dove of Peace" who has a backbone a sponge would laugh at.
Where is the girl that talks assassins holding a gun to her head into dancing with her? Where is the girl that turns the tables on the leader of the biggest military organization in her world? Where is the young woman who looks her own death in the eye with dignity and composure? Once you find her and start writing about her, I'll happily stop my ranting.
Because if there's one thing that irritates me, and this goes for fanfiction in general, it's the very fans of a character assassinating them.
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Gundam Wing analyses
2 min read
What good is this journal if I can't upload novels? Bah...
Just kidding.
Recently, I've gotten in the mood to write down some thoughts about one of my favorite series, history's biggest yaoi fangirl bait known as "Gundam Wing". Although the show's revival via Glory of Losers and more importantly Frozen Teardrop seems rather unsuccessful (the novel that we're supposed to view as a continuation of GW is more of a parody than anything) it has done something good; it has brought a bunch of old fans together and sparked some really entertaining discussions about a series that aired over a decade ago. Feeling old yet?
What makes these essays *coughnovelscough* particularly interesting for me is the amount of misconceptions that have cropped up due to GW's crazy fandom. Honestly, why were people writing fanfics about it without having seen even a single episode? Didn't they realize how stupid that sounds? Not just that, the whole annoying stereotyping that went with it is still rearing its head in some fics. But I guess that's Sturgeon's Law for you.
Anyway. Since I can't spam dA to my hearts content, I'll litter LJ instead. Any GW fan who has lots of time to waste is welcome to give these a read.
Character Analysis - Trowa Barton: artist-54.livejournal.com/532.…
Next on the list are either Heero, Relena, Duo or Wufei. Whoever strikes my fancy.
/UPDATE NOTE (26.03.15)/
I'm still working on these. Life got in the way and I feel bad about that, but I'm back to writing now. Relena is the one I should finish next, though it's still an awful lot of work, as I pretty much need to summarize the whole series, as well as address all the fandom craziness. And for Relena there's a lot. (EDIT: And stuff keeps cropping up. Relena is proving ridiculously multi-layered. And that plot. That plot. @_@) If you want to get technical, I'd gage my current progress at:
Relena+plot - 20% (EDIT: I had to recalibrate again; 22 pages at episode 6. That's as long as Trowa's whole analysis...)
Heero - 30%
Duo - 20%
Wufei - 15%
Quatre - 2%
Trowa - 100%
Just kidding.
Recently, I've gotten in the mood to write down some thoughts about one of my favorite series, history's biggest yaoi fangirl bait known as "Gundam Wing". Although the show's revival via Glory of Losers and more importantly Frozen Teardrop seems rather unsuccessful (the novel that we're supposed to view as a continuation of GW is more of a parody than anything) it has done something good; it has brought a bunch of old fans together and sparked some really entertaining discussions about a series that aired over a decade ago. Feeling old yet?
What makes these essays *coughnovelscough* particularly interesting for me is the amount of misconceptions that have cropped up due to GW's crazy fandom. Honestly, why were people writing fanfics about it without having seen even a single episode? Didn't they realize how stupid that sounds? Not just that, the whole annoying stereotyping that went with it is still rearing its head in some fics. But I guess that's Sturgeon's Law for you.
Anyway. Since I can't spam dA to my hearts content, I'll litter LJ instead. Any GW fan who has lots of time to waste is welcome to give these a read.
Character Analysis - Trowa Barton: artist-54.livejournal.com/532.…
Next on the list are either Heero, Relena, Duo or Wufei. Whoever strikes my fancy.
/UPDATE NOTE (26.03.15)/
I'm still working on these. Life got in the way and I feel bad about that, but I'm back to writing now. Relena is the one I should finish next, though it's still an awful lot of work, as I pretty much need to summarize the whole series, as well as address all the fandom craziness. And for Relena there's a lot. (EDIT: And stuff keeps cropping up. Relena is proving ridiculously multi-layered. And that plot. That plot. @_@) If you want to get technical, I'd gage my current progress at:
Relena+plot - 20% (EDIT: I had to recalibrate again; 22 pages at episode 6. That's as long as Trowa's whole analysis...)
Heero - 30%
Duo - 20%
Wufei - 15%
Quatre - 2%
Trowa - 100%
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