Intermission - Curious

[kriadydragon]

For the record, this is not a complaint.

I came across a story (no, not another with explicit details) that had something happen of the kind of thing I don't like. Nothing detailed or anything, and in fact was easily ignored. But it still bugged me as I tend to be rather sensitive about such things. It's part of a series, and like most series - whether TV or book - that has something happen I don't like - I'll just ignore it, pretend it's not part of the rest of the series, and move on. Which is easy enough to do so long as that one part is never brought up again.

But it got me thinking - do others have that problem? Have you come across something in a fic that either tainted the story for you, the series, or just bugged you for a while? I'm not talking about genres or if the writing was bad or the characterization was off or details too explicit. I'm talking smaller things. For example, for me (if you haven't already figured out) I don't like sexual stuff and have even stopped reading stories when coming to a paragraph that reads "so-and-so woke up next to a naked so-and-so". A lot of it involves me seeing the show and characters a certain way, and wanting to keep that view as much as possible while reading fic. I know that's not always possible since we all see things our own way, but some writer's views tend to be something I just can't grasp or accept, making the story a lot less enjoyable. Sometimes I can ignore it, but it still bothers me for a bit.

Other times it's stuff that I feel isn't in keeping with the spirit of the show, but more like a writer playing out a fantasy using someone else's characters. Again, I'm not talking about slash, romance, or AUs. Well, maybe AUs that stick close to the show. Maybe the characters are being too raunchy, there's too much sex or mention of sex, the characters are too dark, the story is too dark (I've actually been guilty of that myself according to some), one character is coming across as too much of a jerk, the other as stupid. Did a particular story or stories make you hate a character for a while or just get annoyed with them?

I know this isn't a fixable matter since we've all probably written something that had something happen others didn't like. I was just wondering since it isn't just a fanfic thing. There have been episodes of TV shows that I've had to pretend don't exist so as not to let it ruin my personal view of the whole show. I'm also being curious if there are particular things that - doesn't necessarily turn you off the story - but doesn't make it quite as enjoyable to read. Maybe something you felt the story could have done without. Or stuff, no matter how small, that made you hit the back button fast.

Comments

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

My pet-peeve kind of goes along the same vein as yours. Ten pages of excessive shep-whump with wounds that should have killed him, followed by rather poorly constructed comfort scenes in which Sheppard is pordded mercilessly until his demons are purged. I hate the forced healing crap, where they make him open up rather than leave themselves open for him to come to them. It doesn't sit right considering Sheppard is supposed to be this closed-off individual. In truth, I think all the forced purging would drive him off more than help him, make him resentful toward his friends. but that's just my opinion.

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

Now if SGA had a sarcophagus in which to put the battered Sheppard back together again, then we could go a bit more wild with injuries, but I have this quibble with realistic injuries that sometimes gets sorely whumped itself by some fantastical stuff he goes through... Of course, this pet peeve runs through most fandoms, but in SG1, you could nearly draw and quarter an SG1 team member and put 'em back together with alien technology ;)