Letter Meme
Jul. 23rd, 2012 09:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
itsnotmymind1. Leave a comment to this post - specifically saying that you would like a letter.
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Post the names of five fictional characters whose names begin with that letter, and your thoughts on each. The characters can be from books, movies, or TV shows.
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boot_the_grime gave me the letter G.
Giles (Buffy the Vampire Slayer): I have surprisingly few thoughts on Giles. I like him well enough most of the time, but was never as deeply interested in him as I was in some of the other characters. The only time he inspired a strong emotional reaction in me was when he left in S6--and oddly, the character on whose behalf I was most pissed-off was Dawn. As in, "How could you leave this girl in the charge of two out-of-control twenty-year-olds?" Ironically I think Giles may have left because of Dawn. I think it may have beenswsa who first suggested that idea; that Giles was willing to be a father figure to Buffy, but absolutely did not want to be one to Dawn, and he left in large part because Buffy was trying to get him to be the one responsible for Dawn.
Glory (BtVS): I love Glory. She wasn't the brightest or most interesting villain on the show, and her hench-demons were quite irritating, but she was a god and could throw Buffy and Spike around like ragdolls. Season five fight scenes were among the most delightful of the show.
Gunn (Angel): I could never really get into Gunn. I do remember being annoyed by the narrative that had him kill his (recently vamped, probably not yet harmed anyone) sister while a season later Cordelia lets Harmony (already eaten her share of people) go. Maybe that was supposed to illustrate Cordy and Gunn's different attitudes towards vampires, but it would have been nice to have it addressed more directly (i.e., have Gunn have doubts about whether he was right to kill his sister, or have him or someone else criticize Cordy for letting Harmony go). AtS in general had a problem with unacknowledged inconsistency in how demons and vampires were treated/portrayed.
I think my favorite moment for Gunn was in S5, when he chose take Lindsey's place and endure (possibly eternal) torture for the cause, and to atone for Fred's death.
Gwen Cooper (Torchwood): I started watching Torchwood with the same attitude about Gwen as I had about Buffy on BtVS: that she was most important woman on the show, and the target of fannish hostility, and therefore if I was going to like the show, I was going to like her. I wasn't entirely sure whether I would like her at first, but she clicked with me in the scene in Ghost Machine when she experiences memories of her and Rhys. My feelings towards her remained fairly consistent from that time onwards: I always liked her, but she was never a favorite. Her relationship with Jack increasingly became one of my favorite things about the show, and definitely my favorite thing about her character. This made the fandom a bit difficult for me--I never had any desire to see Jack and Gwen together as a couple (and didn't really think that would ever happen), but fandom was afraid this would happen, and many fans responded with hostility towards any positive interaction the two had (especially if it was flirtatious, which, well, this is Jack Harkness we're talking about, so that would be most interactions). Reading review after review where a relationship you like is put down and insulted can get tiresome.
Gwen Stacy (Spider-Man Comics): The comic version, because I haven't seen the recent movie.
First of all, I must admit to being a hardcore Peter/MJ shipper (again, comic version; I only saw the first Raimi movie, but it was quite enough to put me off movie MJ as a character), which of course affects my view of Gwen. What I mostly think about about Gwen is that she had potential, but it didn't go anywhere. I once saw a Peter/Gwen shipper argue that Gwen was better suited for Peter as love interest than MJ because she was also a science major--which would have been a good argument if Gwen being a science major had ever been mentioned outside of one issue (With Silver Age female characters in general, I tend to prefer the flighty, ultra-feminine types, like Mary-Jane Watson and Jan van Dyne aka the Wasp, because then their portrayal as ultra-feminine feels more like genuine characterization and less like "Ha ha! Girls are so girly!"). Gwen's character quickly devolved into a boring love interest, and the writers couldn't think of anything to do with her besides killing her off. That's a shame, really--because she had potential.
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Post the names of five fictional characters whose names begin with that letter, and your thoughts on each. The characters can be from books, movies, or TV shows.
boot_the_grime gave me the letter G.Giles (Buffy the Vampire Slayer): I have surprisingly few thoughts on Giles. I like him well enough most of the time, but was never as deeply interested in him as I was in some of the other characters. The only time he inspired a strong emotional reaction in me was when he left in S6--and oddly, the character on whose behalf I was most pissed-off was Dawn. As in, "How could you leave this girl in the charge of two out-of-control twenty-year-olds?" Ironically I think Giles may have left because of Dawn. I think it may have been
swsa who first suggested that idea; that Giles was willing to be a father figure to Buffy, but absolutely did not want to be one to Dawn, and he left in large part because Buffy was trying to get him to be the one responsible for Dawn.Glory (BtVS): I love Glory. She wasn't the brightest or most interesting villain on the show, and her hench-demons were quite irritating, but she was a god and could throw Buffy and Spike around like ragdolls. Season five fight scenes were among the most delightful of the show.
Gunn (Angel): I could never really get into Gunn. I do remember being annoyed by the narrative that had him kill his (recently vamped, probably not yet harmed anyone) sister while a season later Cordelia lets Harmony (already eaten her share of people) go. Maybe that was supposed to illustrate Cordy and Gunn's different attitudes towards vampires, but it would have been nice to have it addressed more directly (i.e., have Gunn have doubts about whether he was right to kill his sister, or have him or someone else criticize Cordy for letting Harmony go). AtS in general had a problem with unacknowledged inconsistency in how demons and vampires were treated/portrayed.
I think my favorite moment for Gunn was in S5, when he chose take Lindsey's place and endure (possibly eternal) torture for the cause, and to atone for Fred's death.
Gwen Cooper (Torchwood): I started watching Torchwood with the same attitude about Gwen as I had about Buffy on BtVS: that she was most important woman on the show, and the target of fannish hostility, and therefore if I was going to like the show, I was going to like her. I wasn't entirely sure whether I would like her at first, but she clicked with me in the scene in Ghost Machine when she experiences memories of her and Rhys. My feelings towards her remained fairly consistent from that time onwards: I always liked her, but she was never a favorite. Her relationship with Jack increasingly became one of my favorite things about the show, and definitely my favorite thing about her character. This made the fandom a bit difficult for me--I never had any desire to see Jack and Gwen together as a couple (and didn't really think that would ever happen), but fandom was afraid this would happen, and many fans responded with hostility towards any positive interaction the two had (especially if it was flirtatious, which, well, this is Jack Harkness we're talking about, so that would be most interactions). Reading review after review where a relationship you like is put down and insulted can get tiresome.
Gwen Stacy (Spider-Man Comics): The comic version, because I haven't seen the recent movie.
First of all, I must admit to being a hardcore Peter/MJ shipper (again, comic version; I only saw the first Raimi movie, but it was quite enough to put me off movie MJ as a character), which of course affects my view of Gwen. What I mostly think about about Gwen is that she had potential, but it didn't go anywhere. I once saw a Peter/Gwen shipper argue that Gwen was better suited for Peter as love interest than MJ because she was also a science major--which would have been a good argument if Gwen being a science major had ever been mentioned outside of one issue (With Silver Age female characters in general, I tend to prefer the flighty, ultra-feminine types, like Mary-Jane Watson and Jan van Dyne aka the Wasp, because then their portrayal as ultra-feminine feels more like genuine characterization and less like "Ha ha! Girls are so girly!"). Gwen's character quickly devolved into a boring love interest, and the writers couldn't think of anything to do with her besides killing her off. That's a shame, really--because she had potential.
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no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 07:20 am (UTC)I agree pretty much on everything you say in this post. About Giles (He really didn't want to take Dawn as his responsability and, maybe, that's a reason for his wrong decision in S6), about Glory (She was generally very fun to watch) and Gunn.
I'm a huge fan of Gwen Cooper: she's one of the strongest, fascinating woman ever portrayed in a show and I don't get the reason to hate her. Sometimes I felt *hate* (I was pissed off, in general) with Jack and his behaviour, but Gwen never left her place in my heart.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 01:40 pm (UTC)I can get really annoyed with Gwen sometimes, but then, I'm not sure that I could love a character who never annoyed me. The hate is just ridiculous, but then, character hate usually is.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 11:05 am (UTC)I probably told you before, but just in case. With Gwen (Torchwood edition), I was mostly indifferent in s1, came to genuinenly like her in s2 and around the wedding episode thought, huh, I actually love her now, when did that happen?, and with CoE she became my favourite Torchwood regular. (Okay, by the time CoE ended there was only a choice of two, but still.:)
Re: her relationship with Jack: if you had told me back in s1 it would become one of my favourite things about TW, I'd have been... skeptical. Not because I had something against it, but in the initial set up it resembled Rose and Nine somewhat (I thought) and gave me a sense of been there, done that. And then it became quite different entirely. Much as Miracle Day was a mixed affair and a step back in quality from CoE, I think most people would admit the Gwen and Jack scenes in it were outstanding, in particular the ones in the episode where she's blackmailed into handing him over. There is an equality there which I never would have suspected back in the pilot, and it's amazing and rare for relationships between a male and a female character.
Re: Gwen Stacy - haven't seen the latest Spiderman, either, but I was introduced to Gwen, of all things, via House of M. Since this was written only a few years ago, Gwen was a different character from her initial love interest days, and a very active character. It was of course also fascinating that since Wanda gave our protagonist their ideal lives Peter's ideal life - and bear in mind this was long before the Peter/MJ marriage was retconned away, grrr, argh - didn't only have Uncle Ben, Captain Stacy and Gwen alive but himself married to Gwen. Though you could argue that was the inevitable consquence of a timeline where she didn't die and he didn't have the chance to get closer to MJ as the result. (That comic also had a hilarious meta moment when everyone finds Peter's diaries from the original timeline and thinks they're a wish fulfillment novel he's written. Uncle Ben, Gwen and Captain Stacy are shocked they got killed off early on and Aunt May is a bit smug that she survives, until Ben says "Yes, but you have a heart attack every five pages!") Anyway, so that was how I "met" Gwen Stacy. Whereas I had the misfortune of meeting MJ via the films. However, then I read the early JMS run of Spiderman, where she was fabulous!
no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 01:50 pm (UTC)I actually first met MJ in a comic written by Todd McFarlane (a comic artist who drew in the Image style that was a fad during the '90s, and whose writing I try to stay away from), and I didn't like her at all, and was rather upset that this was the woman who ended up married to Peter Parker. But then when I read the issues where she first appeared I liked her quite a lot (better than Peter, actually), and I loved the way their developing romance was written during Gerry Conway's run.