kriadydragon: (Shep 2)
kriadydragon ([personal profile] kriadydragon) wrote2011-12-19 10:51 pm
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On Character Bashing in Reviews

Has anyone ever received a review that bashed your favorite character? Or if not bashed wasn't particularly kind to your favorite character? Did you come to the character's defense? Ignore the bashing? Not say anything at all?

There's this reviewer over on FF.net who I find both amusing an exasperating for this reason. Their favoritism is painfully obvious. They don't just come to their favorite character's defense, they practically woobify him, while at the same time... not bashing the other character per se... but not really saying too many nice things about them, either. What gets me is that they'll do this on stories that are obviously other-character centric, by other-character fans. But it won't be "poor other-character" it's always "poor favorite character, can't other-character see what they're doing to fave character?" Yes, I know this isn't new or anything, I've just never seen it done so much by a single reviewer, and it's made me curious as to what the authors (specifically the authors of other-character centric stories) have to say in response (but because it's FF.net, I don't know).

I recall an SGA story I did - I'm thinking it might have been Castles in the Sky - where someone reprimanded Carson rather harshly in their review and I was really uncomfortable about it (I'm pretty sure I, politely, came to Carson's defense. In fact I would be quite surprised if I didn't considering how defensive I can be, but I can't be sure since it was on FF.net). I also recall reading a story by an obvious McKay fan and a reviewer who kept bashing McKay. And I mean really putting him down. I was surprised by this since I thought it was obvious who the favorite character in the story was, but apparently it wasn't obvious enough for this person.

[identity profile] ninja007.livejournal.com 2011-12-20 05:29 am (UTC)(link)
Wow.

I've seen it before and often wonder what color the sky is in that person's reality. On whether or not I would come to the character's defense depends on how psychotic this person seems, because responding won't make any difference. If they think they may respond like a rational adult, then yes, I would try.

There are too many loons on the internet nowadays...

[identity profile] aim2misbhave.livejournal.com 2011-12-20 07:53 am (UTC)(link)
I don't understand this. If I don't like characters, I just don't read fic that prominently features them. Which is hard because in some fandoms the characters I dislike make up one half of The Fandom OTP, but I mostly manage.

[identity profile] nefhiriel.livejournal.com 2011-12-20 04:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Character favoritism is something I've thought about a lot... While I usually find myself drawn to one character's defense, in particular, I've found that favoritism is very relative for me. For instance, in White Collar I'd automatically consider Neal my favorite. But I don't think that's entirely true--I think I like Peter equally. I just prefer angst for Neal, with Peter being the strong, steadying influence. I've noticed that trend with most fandoms. That doesn't mean I see the angstier character as weak, by any means--or like him more than the strong, steady one. I just prefer them in different roles.

So I do I have a pretty low threshold for character bashing. Even if I tend to defend Neal, I wouldn't be happy to listen to someone bash Peter, either. I especially dislike it when people are clearly bashing one character in order to make the other look good (often exaggerating something true of a character to the point where--Peter, for instance--who can be oblivious, is oblivious x10 because it provides more opportunity for Neal to suffer :P).

I can't say I've had too much bashing of that kind in reviews, though. But I can definitely see how annoying it would get. I hate woobification, especially of character I habitually champion.

[identity profile] black-raven135.livejournal.com 2011-12-20 05:36 pm (UTC)(link)
I remember Castles and I don't remember your being harsh with Carson,
but I guess it is in the eyes of the beholder....
I remember seeing some reviews on other Sheppard directed stories where
some said it was impossible for Sheppard to whatever......the writer had provided in the story.
It is almost like they view him as some sort of impervious character....
It is probably why I am reluctant to share mine as it reflects a human being, not someone who is essentially above it all.

As far as reading a story which is directed at a particular character who the reader may not like. I don't do it. PERIOD. I see no reason to spend my time in reading about someone who is not likable to me, let alone blasting the writer who obviously cares for that individual.

[identity profile] attackfish.livejournal.com 2011-12-20 08:36 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm writing an HP fic where nobody is remotely nice (Marauders era) and my reviews are like a war between the Sirius lovers and the Snape lovers, and I just want to say to both of 'em, "Yeah, Snape's screwed up, and Sirius is on the right side, but hey, Snape's trying to join magical Nazis, and Sirius is a bully who almost got somebody killed, and neither of them are helpless little woobies, and neither of them are omg completely evil and should die, m'kay? That goes for Remus, Lily, James, and assorted side characters too!"

I brought it on myself. This is HP fandom, after all, so I've mostly just been letting it go.
sholio: sun on winter trees (Default)

[personal profile] sholio 2011-12-21 12:08 am (UTC)(link)
Urgh. I was just talking to someone on my flist about this recently - I don't remember who it was or what fandom, but they'd gotten a review bashing a character who wasn't even in the story.

I've been lucky enough not to receive those sorts of reviews, that I can recall, though I do get some reviews along the lines of "I hate this character/pairing/storyline on the show, but I like what you've done with them!" ... which is, er, flattering, and I know it's well-intentioned, but I wonder if the thought occurred to the reviewer that maybe I wrote about them because I like them, and don't care to hear how awful they are ...

Having said all of that - *facepalm* I'm not proud of this, but I remember that early in my time in fandom, I would occasionally leave sarcastic reviews - hopefully I didn't degenerate into outright character bashing, but I remember a time or two (well, okay, one time that I can think of) when I felt like a character in the story was being bashed and would do sort of a backwards, sarcastic way of "defending" them via hyperbole. ("Yes, isn't so&so *awful*!") Which, come to think of it, there's a little bit of that in the post-Countdown fic I wrote, too, so maybe I'm not as past it as I thought I was ... *facepalms again*

Character bashing, and character hate in general, is something that I don't really get, though. I just don't fan that way. When I don't like a character on a show (which is pretty rare for me anyway), I generally ignore them, rather than sitting around hating on them ...

[identity profile] ladyrose42.livejournal.com 2011-12-21 03:08 am (UTC)(link)
I may favor certain characters,but I tend to write good (encouraging)reviews. If I critize, it's usually made known upfront, while making my point. Hopefully I have never been harsh, mean, etc that it's sounds like you encounter. Recently someone had posted a story, and someone would not give up the ghost about spelling and spellchecking, etc. End result, thread closed by moderator, and story pulled by author. Geez, I tolerate more than occasionally the less than perfect grammar, the Mary Sues,you name it. And to my knowlegde, no one bashed them like this person did to this story. God bless the authors who must have very tough skins and give critics soft words.