A meme about characters
1. Comment on this post with "This is Halloween!"
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Think of 5 fictional characters and post their names and your comments on these characters in your LJ/DW.
My dear
teprometo gave me G.
1. Gwen
Ahhhhh I have too many things to say about Gwen. So I'm gonna skip my fandom thoughts re: Gwen and just focus on my own personal thoughts. I admit I overlooked Gwen when I first started watching Merlin. I never disliked her, not for a moment, but I kind of took it as a given that she'd eventually be introduced to the romance and we probably wouldn't see much of her up until that point and so she actually functioned like the plot device she was kind of earmarked as in my own mind. Which makes me sad, cause I could've been enjoying her sooner if I'd been paying attention.
Gwen, to me, is not a character who's written to be...I'm going to say liked though it's the wrong word, because she's certainly likable. She's written the way you'd expect a freshman in high school to write a character if their assignment was to write someone likable. And Arthur is a great contrast to that, especially around S1, because he wasn't written to be likable and yet I liked him very much. I am deliberately avoiding using concepts like 'flawed' or 'not flawed' to describe them because 1. I don't think S1 Arthur would have self-identified as flawed and 2. Gwen never struck me as a Mary Sue even though the narrative began to treat her like a Mary Sue in some ways (what with her being the only 'good' named female character around for any length of time, the way her relationships with Arthur, Merlin, Gwaine and Lancelot were all touched by varying degrees of romance at one point or another, etc.). So what I mean when I say she wasn't a character who was written to be liked is that I think the writers maybe thought of her more as a bucket for Goodness than as a human being, and so they made her just and they made her moral and they made her loving and kind and a little ~awkward because characterization. And while those are all good things, they don't automatically reveal anything about her motivations or thoughts or habits. It's very static and uninteresting to just be something; characters need to do things. But in a land of myth and a time of white men there wasn't a lot of screen time available to devote to Gwen's characterization, so at first I found her inoffensive but also not really attention-worthy.
And then Gwen's romantic plotline started, and alright, I will admit I love romance. I love it. I am totally an easy sell with romance. Merlin didn't have to do much to get me on board the A/G train simultaneously with the A/M train. And I can't exactly remember the timeline for it now, but around about the time I started actively shipping Arthur and Gwen together I was also talking with long-time Gwen fans likesophinisba more about her character and how great she was, not only with Arthur but also independent of him. And it was like reading an old and well loved story over again and only just noticing a paragraph or a sentence you'd somehow managed to miss in every previous reading. I started paying attention to the choices Angel would make for Gwen, and thinking about Gwen's morality and what it might feel like to do the things she did or say the things she said (like every time she called Arthur's stupid ass out) when the show made it so easy to overlook her perspective because she was just the moral center, she was just the person talking sense to Merlin and Arthur, who were the ones we were really set up to pay attention to. Which there's nothing wrong with! The story was about them, and if we're talking about Merlin in a vacuum and not critiquing media as a whole for only focusing on straight white men, then it's fine to recognize that this particular story mostly wasn't about Gwen. But that didn't mean she only had to be a plot device to me, and that's one of the reasons Gwen will live for a long time as one of my favorite characters. Because Gwen was the first character who helped me realize that I could like and enjoy and interpret characters for reasons beyond what I'd been spoonfed by tptb. The show told me Gwen was the Moral Center, and when I really looked at her I realized Gwen was a moral person in a crowd of people who couldn't get their shit together, and that was interesting. The show told me Gwen was the Romantic Interest, and when I really looked at her I saw that she struggled with her own feelings and that love wasn't just an easy, two-piece-puzzle fantasy she never had to question, but that she still made decisive choices anyway and knew her own mind (that is, when it wasn't being manipulated or taken over for plot purposes, god damn you show!). Gwen was funny and longsuffering, and she was brave and said what she thought and she trusted herself. She stood up to Arthur (who often needed to have his bullshit pointed out to him) more than any other character on the show. Yes, including Merlin. Merlin did a lot of enabling and lying and creative interpreting, but he didn't do a lot of real talk, which is why Merlin was also longsuffering and probably should've spent more time talking to his bff Gwen. Anyway. Gwen is fandom to me. That we not only have the ability to expand off of canon's raw material in fandom, but that it's expected and encouraged? More than slash and more than porn and more than AU, Gwen represents that little seedling of possibility for me and I love her for it. She is unquestionably my favorite character from the show. Because she's great. Seriously, just look at her:
She makes technology happen in ye olden times. Too wonderful.
2. George
Geooooooorrrrggeeee. I laughed and laughed and laughed for the cumulative 5 minutes of screen time he had. George was minor character perfection. I loved that they made him a kind of doppelganger for Merlin with the scarf and the coat and the way they vaguely resemble each other (ears, lips, ridiculous hair). He's so unabashedly enthusiastic and he takes his shit seriously and bless the actor who played him for not judging him for that and turning him into a caricature. I know he was played for laughs but I would've loved to have seen more of him. I would've loved to see him torment Merlin by teaching him proper servanting technique, oh my god. Missed an opportunity there, BBC.
3. Giles
Giles is my sex fantasy, full stop. He is the best personification of the bookish, reserved, sarcastic professor archetype that was my very first model of (for?) male attractiveness. Everything from the glasses to the English accent to the fact that he's a little older and wears fucking suspenders, what the hell Giles. I wasn't in Buffy fandom, but if I had been I probably would've shipped him and Buffy hard. I know that's a thing because the internet told me. I still haven't completely finished the show (I think I made it to like...season 5?) so I don't know what happens to all of the characters, I just know that Giles was definitely my favorite from the core cast.
4. Geordi La Forge
With bonus Worf! My thoughts are getting progressively less and less exhaustive the later it gets and the longer this post gets, but Geordi! If you don't like Geordi you can get the hell out. Geordi is smart and kind and funny and he's played by LeVar Burton. LEVAR BURTON. Geordi is an independent reason for me to watch more TNG, especially in the case of episodes like this one. Which is coincidentally the episode with one of the best lines of dialogue in any show ever, though it's Worf's line and not actually Geordi's. Anyway."Sir, I protest, I am not a merry man!" I also love Geordi's relationship with Data. They are my Star Trek brotp.
5. Gretchen Wieners
She had some of the very best lines in Mean Girls. And she has produced some of the best memes. I don't really have any thoughts on her character aside from the fact that I love her. Mean Girls is an American classic.
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Think of 5 fictional characters and post their names and your comments on these characters in your LJ/DW.
My dear
teprometo gave me G. 1. Gwen
Ahhhhh I have too many things to say about Gwen. So I'm gonna skip my fandom thoughts re: Gwen and just focus on my own personal thoughts. I admit I overlooked Gwen when I first started watching Merlin. I never disliked her, not for a moment, but I kind of took it as a given that she'd eventually be introduced to the romance and we probably wouldn't see much of her up until that point and so she actually functioned like the plot device she was kind of earmarked as in my own mind. Which makes me sad, cause I could've been enjoying her sooner if I'd been paying attention.
Gwen, to me, is not a character who's written to be...I'm going to say liked though it's the wrong word, because she's certainly likable. She's written the way you'd expect a freshman in high school to write a character if their assignment was to write someone likable. And Arthur is a great contrast to that, especially around S1, because he wasn't written to be likable and yet I liked him very much. I am deliberately avoiding using concepts like 'flawed' or 'not flawed' to describe them because 1. I don't think S1 Arthur would have self-identified as flawed and 2. Gwen never struck me as a Mary Sue even though the narrative began to treat her like a Mary Sue in some ways (what with her being the only 'good' named female character around for any length of time, the way her relationships with Arthur, Merlin, Gwaine and Lancelot were all touched by varying degrees of romance at one point or another, etc.). So what I mean when I say she wasn't a character who was written to be liked is that I think the writers maybe thought of her more as a bucket for Goodness than as a human being, and so they made her just and they made her moral and they made her loving and kind and a little ~awkward because characterization. And while those are all good things, they don't automatically reveal anything about her motivations or thoughts or habits. It's very static and uninteresting to just be something; characters need to do things. But in a land of myth and a time of white men there wasn't a lot of screen time available to devote to Gwen's characterization, so at first I found her inoffensive but also not really attention-worthy.
And then Gwen's romantic plotline started, and alright, I will admit I love romance. I love it. I am totally an easy sell with romance. Merlin didn't have to do much to get me on board the A/G train simultaneously with the A/M train. And I can't exactly remember the timeline for it now, but around about the time I started actively shipping Arthur and Gwen together I was also talking with long-time Gwen fans like
sophinisba more about her character and how great she was, not only with Arthur but also independent of him. And it was like reading an old and well loved story over again and only just noticing a paragraph or a sentence you'd somehow managed to miss in every previous reading. I started paying attention to the choices Angel would make for Gwen, and thinking about Gwen's morality and what it might feel like to do the things she did or say the things she said (like every time she called Arthur's stupid ass out) when the show made it so easy to overlook her perspective because she was just the moral center, she was just the person talking sense to Merlin and Arthur, who were the ones we were really set up to pay attention to. Which there's nothing wrong with! The story was about them, and if we're talking about Merlin in a vacuum and not critiquing media as a whole for only focusing on straight white men, then it's fine to recognize that this particular story mostly wasn't about Gwen. But that didn't mean she only had to be a plot device to me, and that's one of the reasons Gwen will live for a long time as one of my favorite characters. Because Gwen was the first character who helped me realize that I could like and enjoy and interpret characters for reasons beyond what I'd been spoonfed by tptb. The show told me Gwen was the Moral Center, and when I really looked at her I realized Gwen was a moral person in a crowd of people who couldn't get their shit together, and that was interesting. The show told me Gwen was the Romantic Interest, and when I really looked at her I saw that she struggled with her own feelings and that love wasn't just an easy, two-piece-puzzle fantasy she never had to question, but that she still made decisive choices anyway and knew her own mind (that is, when it wasn't being manipulated or taken over for plot purposes, god damn you show!). Gwen was funny and longsuffering, and she was brave and said what she thought and she trusted herself. She stood up to Arthur (who often needed to have his bullshit pointed out to him) more than any other character on the show. Yes, including Merlin. Merlin did a lot of enabling and lying and creative interpreting, but he didn't do a lot of real talk, which is why Merlin was also longsuffering and probably should've spent more time talking to his bff Gwen. Anyway. Gwen is fandom to me. That we not only have the ability to expand off of canon's raw material in fandom, but that it's expected and encouraged? More than slash and more than porn and more than AU, Gwen represents that little seedling of possibility for me and I love her for it. She is unquestionably my favorite character from the show. Because she's great. Seriously, just look at her:She makes technology happen in ye olden times. Too wonderful.
2. George
Geooooooorrrrggeeee. I laughed and laughed and laughed for the cumulative 5 minutes of screen time he had. George was minor character perfection. I loved that they made him a kind of doppelganger for Merlin with the scarf and the coat and the way they vaguely resemble each other (ears, lips, ridiculous hair). He's so unabashedly enthusiastic and he takes his shit seriously and bless the actor who played him for not judging him for that and turning him into a caricature. I know he was played for laughs but I would've loved to have seen more of him. I would've loved to see him torment Merlin by teaching him proper servanting technique, oh my god. Missed an opportunity there, BBC.
3. Giles
Giles is my sex fantasy, full stop. He is the best personification of the bookish, reserved, sarcastic professor archetype that was my very first model of (for?) male attractiveness. Everything from the glasses to the English accent to the fact that he's a little older and wears fucking suspenders, what the hell Giles. I wasn't in Buffy fandom, but if I had been I probably would've shipped him and Buffy hard. I know that's a thing because the internet told me. I still haven't completely finished the show (I think I made it to like...season 5?) so I don't know what happens to all of the characters, I just know that Giles was definitely my favorite from the core cast.
4. Geordi La Forge
With bonus Worf! My thoughts are getting progressively less and less exhaustive the later it gets and the longer this post gets, but Geordi! If you don't like Geordi you can get the hell out. Geordi is smart and kind and funny and he's played by LeVar Burton. LEVAR BURTON. Geordi is an independent reason for me to watch more TNG, especially in the case of episodes like this one. Which is coincidentally the episode with one of the best lines of dialogue in any show ever, though it's Worf's line and not actually Geordi's. Anyway.
5. Gretchen Wieners
She had some of the very best lines in Mean Girls. And she has produced some of the best memes. I don't really have any thoughts on her character aside from the fact that I love her. Mean Girls is an American classic.