In which I begin an ongoing list

[kylezy]

[Bad username or site: kylezy story @ livejournal.com]

Keep in mind these are my opinions and I offer them only as my opinions.

*DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE IS NOT A WEIRD, OBSCURE INDIE BAND, yet in fic,Bradley is constantly perplexed by them and Colin's musical taste. Some indie bands are weird, yes, but DCFC is not one of them. Furthermore, if you want to reference an obscure indie band, there are other ones beside Animal Collective.

*Eyesex is not what happens when two people just look at each other. Fandom sometimes forgets this.


Exhibit A - Not Eyesex. Notice how there is nothing remotely sexual about their gazes.


Exhibit B - Notice how they look like they want to tear each other apart with just their teeth. This is eyesex.

*Aesthetically, neither actor is spectacularly good-looking. WHAT? Yeah, I said it, I WENT THERE. They're pretty average when you first look at them. Familiarity breeds acceptance of the flaws though and their personalities have made them exponentially more attractive. Right now, there's no way you could tell me Colin isn't a sex god but that doesn't mean he's...male model material.

*All the popular authors hated Bradley's beard, thus we only ever read about Colin hating Bradley's beard. This made me sad.

*On the topic of Bradley's beard, I was pretty embarrassed by the carry on during BeardGate2009. There's having an opinion and then there's being an asshole about it.

*I'm not quite convinced Colin is as shy as fandom makes him out to be. I think he talks less in interviews because he has a hard time getting a word in over BJ (and I say that with the greatest affection for Bradley). He's an actor, how shy can an actor really be? He's appeared nude on stage. Nude. In the video diaries, he often commands attention. I'm not saying he's a camera whore, but he does draw attention to himself. Shy people tend to, you know shy away. Reserved and private does not equal incapable of human interaction.

*Words/sentences/tropes writers overuse in Merlin fiction:

• Licking into his mouth. Yes, the image is sexy but I'm not exaggerating when I say I've read this motion in 90% of fanfiction. Is there not another way to say it, at the very least? EDIT: The tally begins here. Let us count how many people use the phrase in a year.


• Filthy. This is a very popular word to describe the way the boys kiss.


• Angel as a nice, sweet and innocent girl. Judging by the video diaries and BTS, she says what she feels and has no problems bantering, especially with Bradley ("I see what you mean about me being a bit better at this than you", "You just can't help but be involved, can you" and I can't be sure if it's actually her or not but something along the lines of "they're not just talking to you, Bradley)".


• Bradley being the one with the gay issue. It really should be Colin, if anybody, he's the one from the Catholic background.

TO BE CONTINUED

Comments

[persephassax.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. Disagree somewhat because I do love tropes. But I knew I was going to like what you said when you started with DCFC. I live in a tiny friggin' town in the US and I've seen them like, 3 times, all without having to drive more than 10 minutes. Obscure? Not so much. :\
Also, super-extra-yes to the Catholic background point. I am always thinking this when I read fic. (Maybe especially because I have a Catholic friend who is bisexual who is so very much NOT telling his parents. But I digress.)

You seem really super awesome. Can we be friends? *itches to add* /awkward questions.

[casiophone.livejournal.com]

*DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE IS NOT A WEIRD, OBSCURE INDIE BAND, yet in fic,Bradley is constantly perplexed by them and Colin's musical taste. Some indie bands are weird, yes, but DCFC is not one of them. Furthermore, if you want to reference an obscure indie band, there are other ones beside Animal Collective.

I laughed so hard, mostly because most of the music I listen to is pretentiously "indie" and Death Cab doesn't even come close. Do people really reference Death Cab?

I also hate, how in fandom, the fics are predictable and unrealistic. My friend and I were talking about how even the RPF fics border on "fantasy". We've got grown men acting like 10 year old girls with a crush. That's my only nitpick, I think.

[kylezy.livejournal.com]

They used to, but I haven't heard a reference in a long while. Actually it's been ages since I've heard any musical reference at all. I'm starting to miss it a bit now!

I definitely dislike when the guys go on and on about their feelings. I mean, they're dudes, what are we expecting, really?

[persephassax.livejournal.com]

But, I mean, isn't it? I mean, if we're going to be entirely, brutally honest, fanfic is sort of like romance novels with more gay and for free on the internet (and with 90% more copy-right infringement and/or infringement people's sense of self). Alright, because I'm feeling nice, it's a bit better than a lot of romance novels... The writing is often of higher quality.
Maybe it's better to say fanfic is more like romantic comedies? Ridiculous and surreal but a rather nice thought? I don't know.

I have a knee-jerk reaction to defend fandom (and fanfic) as my friends and relatives do not really understand, but I do agree.

Especially about DCFC. I'm always like "what?" when I read that. They might be indie in sound (and they were indie once upon a time) but they're famous now. Indie cred go *poof* with fame. :\ Haha.

[casiophone.livejournal.com]

I believe I misused the term "fantasy" here. What I was referring to were these fics where they act like preteen schoolgirls. I've seen a handful of fics where the characterisation is a bit off, (not only don't they resemble themselves anymore, they feel like characters the author has imagined, archetypes if you will. Boy one likes shy boy two. Shy boy is shy/unique/different. They fall in love. Hijinks ensue.) -- you have pillow fights, cookie eating contests, breaking down into tears, thrown in with a blatant misrepresentation of cutting/depression often cured by the magical all-healing cock. Overabundance of schmooze, basically. Maybe it's the presentation thereof, I don't know. I'm a very picky reader. Everything's been so formulaic. You can predict what happens next. While I am a big fan of happy endings, I'd like to read something different for a change, something that hasn't been done. And no vampires, please, unless it's Nosferatu. ):

Also Death Cab is so high school. Ben Gibbard married the ultimate hipster female.

[persephassax.livejournal.com]

True, true. (Ahhh, the joys of the all-healing cock. :[ )
The pre-teen school girls can be rather annoying. I agree, nothing should read like a Disney Channel Movie. (If it bears any resemblance to high school musical...) Although I wouldn't totally write off the breaking down into tears. I'm caught between the female representation of male emotional constipation, and the fact that a lot of my male friends have all these excesses of feelings. So while I do agree that having them act like preteen girls is out of character, sometimes I think that people have more preteen girl in them than we would like to believe.
But, to alter the Beatles a bit, I think I agree.
The formulaicness is what I meant by "romantic comedy". To an extent you walk in and you already know what you're going to get. You can see where it's going. (Especially the longer you stay in a given fandom.) Just like when you walk into your average romantic comedy (or, speaking of indie, your average Michael Cera movie) it's pretty obvious who's going to end up with whom, and how it's all going to go down. It can be so frustrating. :T

Sadly, I identify DCFC with middle school. (Gosh I feel so young. *awkward*)
And ditto on the vamps. Although I will make exceptions for Spike-like or Let the right one in-esque vamps. Because they're still GRRR-kill-people vampires. (Although I might, at this point, be getting tired of them completely. Bring on the kelpies! /vague not-very-funny humor.)

[kylezy.livejournal.com]

I've certainly never turned away from a fic because it contained any of these tropes, but sometimes you read stuff over and over again and it's like come on, is there NO OTHER WAY you could write that? I had to stop the licking-into-his-mouth tally because it was adding up faster than I anticipated!

Oh yeah, sure, friends indeed! xD

[persephassax.livejournal.com]

Of course not. I've noticed the emergence of such tropes in other fandoms as well. I'm just very interested by what the collective picks up on to tropeify. Now that I'm really thinking about it, I almost want to go through and see who has said what to see if the Greats of a fandom have any influence over the rest of us. *ponders*
Oh christ, here I am, planning in depth research in fandom again. *fail*