Intermission - It Happened Again!

[kriadydragon]

Incredibly vicious ranting under the cut. Do not read if you weary of my complaints - 'cause this one's a doozy.

Crap, sometimes I really dislike hard-core slashers and people into kink who feel they need to give John a homosexual or heavily erotic experience in every one of their dang stories. I swear it's like they're more focused on making him gay than doing a poignant, interesting tale. And would it hurt to put freakin' warnings! I have yet to come across a decent John back-story that does not include him either having several one-night stands or having his first gay experience with this guy or that guy. Man, I feel so sorry for his character, I really do. Some people claim to like his character but the way they write him (whether gen, slash, or romance) it's like they secretly hate him or something.

I know it seems like I'm taking this too seriously, but I tend to take a lot of things too seriously. After a while, crap just gets to me And the more it gets to me the worse it is the next time around. And, what can I say, when I like a character from a particular show or book, I tend to be protective of them.

This is why, when I do finally get published by a major company (and should my stories be popular enough but who can say), my stories probably won't be open to fanfic writers. I would just hate to have happen to my characters what happens to so many other characters in some fanfics. It's actually pretty sad and makes me wonder how anyone can write some of the stuff that's out there. Yeah, I know it's fantasy and creativity, people can write what they want and all that, but this is still someone else's creation you're borrowing and using. If  Sheppard were my character, I'd be a little ticked about some of the kind of stories he's been put into.

Oy, it just.... *Snarl* Poor John *Hides him away*. He can't go two-minutes without someone smearing who he is. There's eye-of-the-beholder then there's just plain twisting and mutilating a character. John Sheppard's my fav and I hate that he's been put into so many character-bashing/twisting/mutilating stories.

Makes me nervous what CSI:NY fanficcers are doing to Danny Messer. *Hides Danny*

Phew! I feel much better now. Amazing what a bit of ranting can do.

Comments

[bratfarrar]

So I just ranted about all this in response to your comment on my story, and then came over here and was tickled to find you'd done the same thing. I really can't understand why people keep turning him into (it seems) a completely sexual creature. Like he's a pretty animal, or something.

I can come up with only a handful of people who write Johns (is that the correct plural?) I'm consistently comfortable with. (You're one of them, btw.)

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'll admit he is a bit hard to write since we know so little about him. But it's a fun challenge to tackle. I think your stories portray him the best with your combination of something good and bittersweet, because he's too caring and easy-going a guy to have the pasts some people give him.

I think the sexual thing is either people's desire to write porn or to make him bi-sexual or gay. It's said that sex sells and, in the case of many fan-fics, sadly, that's true. It's always the heavy slash/NC-17 stories that seem to get the most feedback.

What I hate is when people are "They're so doing it!" or "Sheppard would so *do it* with McKay" or "Sheppard would so get turned on by yadda, yadda, yadda..." That's not seeing a character in their own way, that's rearranging a character to fit a fetish. Or at least in my opinion it is.

[bratfarrar]

Yup.

To pretty much everything you said.

Another thing that bugs me is when people make him out to be suicidal. He's not suicidal, folks! If he were, he's be long dead by now, given the number of ways available to die in the Pegasus galaxy. He's military - at some point he made the choice to serve his country, and that means being willing to die for it (or for those entrusted to his care) if necessary.

That being said, I think he sometimes forgets that he's in charge, and it might be a better idea to let one of the grunts do it.


. . . Okay. I think I've run out of things to be cranky about.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

It does feel good to get it out, though, doesn't it?

I think a lot of it is band-wagon stuff. New writers not quite into the show as most see what other authors do and mimick rather than find stuff out on their own. I read a story, once, that was chapter after chapt of SGA/Shepaprd fandom cliches (suicidal, infirmary escapes, kriking, etc.) It's like the person based everything they knew on what they had read rather than what they had watched.

Either that or they do what they think will get the most reviews.