Character Meme

[itsnotmymind]

Borrowed from lokifan.

Give me one or more characters, and I'll tell you:

First impression
Impression now
Favorite moment
Idea for a story
Unpopular opinion
Favorite relationship
Favorite headcanon

If you don't know my fandoms, check out my tags.

Comments

[kikimay]

Dawn Summers, Cordelia Chase

Dawn

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

First impression: I don't quite remember. I had heard of Dawn before I saw the show. Watching S1, I was confused by why Buffy didn't seem to have a sister. I asked a friend who had seen the whole show, and he said that Buffy was an only child in S1, but this would change later. I asked if it was explained in a way that made sense, or if Buffy suddenly had a sister. He said a bit of both, and asked if I wanted details. I decided I would find out the non-spoilery way.

So with Dawn, what I was mostly thinking was, where has she been? With their dad? In some kind of boarding school? Huh? I didn't think about her as a character immediately.

Impression now: I'm all over the place on Dawn. I like her, but I think Michelle Trachentenberg's acting isn't always up to the task. Dawn in The Real Me seems too young for a fourteen-year-old, but her shift in attitude from S6 to S7 always felt a little forced. Like, fans thought she was whiny and immature so let's grow her up quick. Her keyness was fascinating idea in S5, and then promptly dropped as any kind of identity crisis afterward. Perhaps that's why the episodes in S6 that focused on her fell flat for me.

But I always, always, always, empathize with her situation. Whether it is the frustration of being the younger sister of the slayer, or finding out she'd come into existence a few months ago, or losing her mother, or having her wonderful older sister died for her, or feeling neglected and unloved as the adult scoobies are eaten up by their own misery, or finding out she's not a potential after all...

Favorite moment: Maybe the end of No Play Like home, when Buffy decides to accept her little sister. Maybe the little scene in Spiral where she reassures her older sister that she is doing well, and thanks Buffy for what Buffy is doing for her. Maybe the end of Potential, when Xander (foreshadowing Chosen) expresses admiration for her lack of hesitation in giving up her power to Amanda.

Idea for a story: I don't have much in the way of specific story ideas for Dawn, but if I were to write about her, it would probably involve her keyness and her sense of identity.

Unpopular opinion: Sometimes the fact that I like her seems unpopular. But also: It worries me a little that I see characters in various fandoms who gave up their childhood to look after a dysfunctional family adored by a fandom that is outraged that they had to do that. Fans talk in depth about how these characters ought to have been told, as kids, that this crap was not their responsibility.

And yet, when Dawn in S6 refuses to do it, and tries to make the adults treat her as a child, she's "selfish" and a "spoiled brat". It leads to this romanticism of child who take on more adult roles: The ones who do it are woobies who didn't understand they didn't have to, but Dawn, who didn't do it in a dysfunctional situation, is "selfish" and "spoiled".

Favorite relationship: Platonic: Buffy all the way. Romantic: Well, I really anti-ship Dawn/Xander (my two closest friends when I was a teenager both had siblings who were 4-7 years younger, and the idea of dating them makes my skin crawl). I'm intrigued by the idea of Dawn/Conner, just because of the similar identity issues.

Favorite headcanon: Somebody recently suggested that when Dawn first met Faith, she thought Faith was really cool and they bonded. I really like that idea.

Cordelia

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

First impression: That I liked her, and there was more to her than meets the eye.

Impression now: That she was real awesome early on, and then deteriorated into something far less interesting and written out in a squicky way.

Favorite moment: Her admission in OoM, OoS that people "so busy agreeing with me, they don't hear a word I say". I felt very vindicated! The girl did have depths. Lots of other nice moments, too. Cordy = very funny.

Idea for a story: I don't think I've ever had any story ideas for Cordy.

Unpopular opinion: I don't feel I know what the popular opinions about Cordy Chase are.

Favorite relationship: Xander/Cordelia FTW

Favorite headcanon: Not sure I have one.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Owen Harper, and/or Jack's daughter Alice from TW.

Owen Harper

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

I don't have an Owen icon right now, so I'll go with Gwen/Rhys. I mean, it's relevant. Owen's the person Gwen cheated on Rhys with!

This is a very relevant character because I just started rewatching Torchwood S1 for the first time in years. Haven't got past the first couple of episodes, but still good to see Owen again - and his dynamic with Jack. And Tosh! But I'm getting off topic.

First impression: This character is a complete asshole. I don't like him.

Impression now: This character is a complete asshole. I adore him.

Favorite moment: Shooting Jack Harkness to kill was the moment I fell in love with him, but, but I love the glowy alien rock in A Day In the Death.

Idea for a story: I like your story idea - Owen being a ghost haunting Jack for all eternity. I can think of one of my own. I mean, it would be nice to erase his Fragments backstory, but I'm usually wary of stories that exist just to erase canon (unless it's Marvel or DC comics fanfiction, maybe, because their continuity is a mess).

Unpopular opinion: I think loving Owen is kind of an unpopular opinion. People didn't usually hate him like they hated Gwen (Maybe my unpopular opinion should be that I think Owen is a decidedly worse person than Gwen? But I'm not sure if that's actually unpopular, or if it just feels that way sometimes.), but Owen and Tosh both got a lot of apathy from fandom. Most of the fannish energy went in a positive way to Jack and Ianto, and a negative way to Gwen.

Favorite relationship: Jack Harkness all the way. Not in a sexual way, though, and I feel that way even just rewatching the beginning of S1. For sexual, let's go with that pilot (Diane?). Owen/Ianto is the relationship that breaks my brain. Owen/Ianto, Xander/Spike, and Jayne/Simon are three fanon relationships with a significant following that I just can't see. At all.

Favorite headcanon: Nothing is coming to mind.

I will get you Alice later.

Re: Owen Harper

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I pretty much agree with everything, including the Fragments backstory (except Owen decking Jack when he sees him at the cemetary, and Jack then hiring him, that pretty much sets the tone) , which admittedly is influenced by me liking the one I had better. :)

Yes, the pilot was Diane.

Owen/Ianto is the relationship that breaks my brain. Owen/Ianto, Xander/Spike, and Jayne/Simon are three fanon relationships with a significant following that I just can't see. At all.

Same here. I once asked a friend of mine who ships Xander/Spike and she said, well, her rationale was that Spike deserves loves and she doesn't like Buffy, who "is always so judgmental". Also that Xander canonically attracts demons. Now I like Xander, especially now when a great deal of fandom has decided to hate him, but prescribing him to Spike as a romantic reward on that rationale as an alternative to Buffy is...well. Though I admit that as opposed to Owen/Ianto and Jayne/Simon, Xander and Spike actually have had at least one non hostile, comradely moment on screen (the cigarette lightning when everyone is on the run from Glory near the end of s5). I'm as much a friend of foe yay as the next slash girl, but there is such a thing as unsexy mutual dislike, too.

(Anyway, Spike/Angel is where it's at as far as Spike slash is concerned.)

Re: Owen Harper

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

I liked the Fragments backstory the first time I saw it, when I had seen...maybe four other episodes. After getting to know and love Owen as a character, it seemed all wrong to me.

I'm am surprisingly uninterested in Angel/Spike - might possibly my least favorite relationship of the fanged four, including Darla and Spike's non-relationship - but I cannot deny the slash.

Alice Carter

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

First impression: As with Dawn Summers above, I was mostly trying to figure out what was going on (especially since we were Ianto's sister's family at the same time). At first I though she was Jack's ex-love and Steven was his son...but the truth was much more interesting.

Impression now: I like Alice, herself as a character and her role in the story and her relationship with her father. I would have liked to see her again. The question about what Jack Harkness' son or daughter would be like is one that I'm very glad Torchwood addressed. And they addressed it very well.

Favorite moment: So many...but I think I will go with her anxiously calling her father after the hub explosion in Day Two. When we first meet her, Alice expresses a lot of bitterness towards her father, but if only she had loved and believed in him a little less...

Idea for a story: I read a number of Alice-forgives-Jack stories, and I was never quite satisfied with them. I would like her to forgive him, but I would have to figure out how to make that happen in a way I could believe.

Unpopular opinion: I guess my unpopular opinion is tied to my unpopular opinion about Jack: I think his decision to kill Steven was more questionable than most fans seem to. I also think he played a much greater role in creating the situation where the only way they could stop the 4-5-6 was by killing Steven that most fans like to remember. So I am much to slower to believe a story where Alice forgives Jack. It takes more for me.

Favorite relationship: Her relationship with Jack, obviously. I'm certainly interested in her relationship with her mother, but it's not one we get to see. It might be cool for her and Owen to meet, though.

Favorite headcanon: Alice lived a long life, but she never had any more children.

Re: Alice Carter

[selenak.livejournal.com]

re: Alice forgives Jack stories, same here. I'm on the look out for them intermittently, because I want one, but I haven't yet found one that completely satisfied me.

I also think he played a much greater role in creating the situation where the only way they could stop the 4-5-6 was by killing Steven that most fans like to remember.

One of many reasons why Frobisher works so well as a character in CoE is that as far as the 456 are concerned, Jack used to be Frobisher a generation earlier. He did exactly what Frobisher does, only in a lesser scale, which brings us to the numbers question - are a bus of children traded over a lesser sin compared to thousands?

Re: Alice Carter

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

He did exactly what Frobisher does, only in a lesser scale, which brings us to the numbers question - are a bus of children traded over a lesser sin compared to thousands?

Indeed. Honestly, for me personally, the most horrifying moment with the politicians wasn't the bottom 10% stuff. It was all the talk about bumping up the numbers of "unaccompanied asylum seekers awaiting deportation" as much as possible. At least they made an attempt to bargain for the lives of the other children. They did the exact opposite with the "unaccompanied asylum seekers".

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Castiel?

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

Just to be upfront, I hate Castiel.

First impression: I literally do not remember

Impression now: The show would be way better if he had never become a regular

Favorite moment: Okay, snapping his fingers and making the chains on Death disappear in Meet the New Boss was pretty awesome.

Idea for a story: Did I mention that part about hating him?

Unpopular opinion: I hate him.

Favorite relationship: I am kinda intrigued by his interactions with Sam, and Sam's feelings towards him. Only sometimes! Like, once in a blue moon!

Favorite headcanon: He died S4. Wait, make that, he never existed.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Aww I'm sorry, I seem to have a gift for choosing the characters or seasons that you hate *g* I was the biggest fan of Castiel back in season 4 when he was more of a mystery and being used sparingly, I definitely find some of the ~humour~ he's used for a bit grating at times since he became a regular. Plus I have issues with his blaming San and Dean for everything in season 5, and failing to take responsibility for his own role in things, but that's going back a long time now!

How about Dean for the meme?

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if Cas had just appeared sparingly, I wouldn't have been a huge fan, but I wouldn't have disliked him as intensely. I think I was OK with Cas early on.

And part of my resentment also stems from the fact that there was long an attitude among fans - and to a certain extent in the show - that have women become regulars would be bad bad bad because it would take away from the two brothers going on a read trip. And then we have Bobby, who provides a home base, and Castiel, who forces their adventures to be inappropriately cosmic on a regularly basis. And that's more acceptable. Later seasons gave us more reoccurring female characters, but it took awhile.

Anyway, Dean!

First impression: I had gotten the impression from fandom that Dean was this macho jerk. And I mean, Dean can be a sexist jerk, but I wouldn't call him a macho jerk. I wasn't expecting the caring brother and devoted son. I liked him more than I had expected.

Impression now: Now, the fandom woobifying gets on my nerves (for some reason Sam woobifying, while annoying, bothers me considerably less than Dean woobifying). I also find a lot of his behavior skeevy as fuck. But I still love him. In some ways, he's like Willow Rosenberg for me: The character who has some of my flaws so exaggerated that it is hard to look at. Like looking at a mirror and seeing yourself with an extra big nose, or something.

Favorite moment: Just one? I love his facial expressions, you know. I remember rewatching the endless argument in the car in S3 and thinking I could just watch Dean's face all day. Moreso than Sam, Dean wears his issues on his sleeve.

Idea for a story: Hah, so many. I'm working on one I will probably never, ever post - may not even finish, it's so dark - about Dean torturing a soul in Hell, from the point of view of the soul.

Unpopular opinion: I've stepped away from SPN fandom, but when I was last involved the fandom was incredibly polarized on the topic of Dean Winchester. Either he was a 2D asshole who abused Sam, or he was an abused man with no real choices whose difficulties and issues were not fully appreciated by anyone. I guess my unpopular opinion would be that I don't accept either of those interpretations.

Favorite relationship: Platonic: Sam all the way. Incests squicks me majorly, though. I don't know why I can ship Spuffy despite an attempted rape, but I draw the line at incest. So romantically...I like Cassie and Lisa a lot in theory, but not so much practice. I don't object to Benny or Cas, but I'm not passionate about it. I don't like Anna, and I didn't like their relationship. Can't think of anyone else right now.

Favorite headcanon: Dean, when forced by the Stanford fight to chose between his father and his brother, chose his father. He stayed by John's side and made no attempt to contact Sam, or reach out to Sam. He felt guilty about it, but he found a way to blame Sam: If Sam had just listened to John, if Sam had loved his family (loved Dean) enough, this wouldn't have happened. Sam abandoned his family, and Sam didn't love him as much as he loved Sam. In this framework, choose John over Sam was not a choice. John represented family, Sam was the rebel. Sam was the one who left *them*.