In Which History Repeats, But Not Really

[kriadydragon]

Back in my SGA days, I used to despise woobie!Rodney stories. Now in my Merlin days, I despise Woobie!Arthur stories... and it's actually making me feel guilty for disliking Woobie!Rodney stuff!

Because what I didn't like about woobie!Rodney stories was A) how it often portrayed the rest of the characters as unfair, unforgiving, heartless jerks *cough*Trinity tags!*cough* and B) well, I was a Sheppard fan way more than a Rodney fan and C) I know many may disagree with me on this, but I always felt like people were writing Rodney as way more of a jerk than he actually was, and that the characters just stood there and took it because "that's just Rodney for you." So it was rather hard to feel sympathy for Rodney in fic when he wasn't doing much to earn that sympathy.

But woobie!Rodney was more a matter of personal taste, because while I wasn't a fan of it, I was still at least able to wrap part of my head around it. All the more so now that I'm part of the Merlin fandom, because Merlin is freakishly easy to woobify, and Arthur pretty easy to write as a jerk, because it's pretty much canon. And it's also why I've been having a much harder time with woobie!Arthur stories than with woobie!Rodney stories. It's just... really hard to feel sorry for Arthur at times when one moment he's being all angsty and needs Merlin to provide him with words of wisdom or comfort and the next minute Arthur is throwing a goblet at him. And I guess that, for me, I feel like Arthur doesn't deserve the angst and woobification when he has it pretty dang good compared to Merlin.

While Rodney has earned it, in a way. He may have started off as an emotionally-constipated jerk but he didn't stay that way. He opened up, started showing that he cared, even tried to offer comfort when needed. In other words, he became endearing.

But while Arthur did have his kind and caring moments, I feel they were fewer and farther between compared with Rodney's moments. There were also times when Arthur's treatment of Merlin bordered dangerously on being abusive (the show was rather good at not crossing that line, but they did seem to toe it from time to time). In fact - despite the fact that I'm not a fan of characters being portrayed in a negative light (unless they're the villain, of course) for the sake of fic and woobification - it is surprisingly easy to portray Arthur as going too far in how he treats Merlin, and having Arthur cross the line from playful-if-a-bit-rough banter into actual abuse. It's also part of the reason why I crave caring!Arthur stories so much, because Merlin goes through so much crap to protect the prince/king and all he gets for it is orders to muck out the stables and polish Arthur's armor. The poor boo needs comfort waaaay more than Arthur!

But please don't take this as me condemning woobie!Arthur and whumped Arthur fic, because I'm not. It's not that I think woobifying Arthur is impossible - it's not, considering how his father treats him and that the kingdom is always under some kind of threat. But woobie Arthur is just... really, really hard to wrap my head around (even in canon, because Arthur was always doubting himself, Merlin always had to boost his spirits, and there were times it got rather tiresome. Especially when not moments ago Arthur was throwing something at Merlin), and as a result I've become a lot more understanding of wobbie!Rodney.

Also, please don't take this as Arthur character bashing. It isn't, I promise. Because for all his throwing things at Merlin and calling Merlin names, the relationship was very much that of big brother and little brother, and both giving as good as they got. As I said, the show was very good at not letting Arthur cross the line into actual abuse. So while I wasn't always fond of how Arthur treated Merlin, it never reached a point where I ended up actually disliking Arthur. And while Arthur crossing the line is an interesting concept, I much prefer caring and protective Arthur myself.

Comments

[aim2misbhave.livejournal.com]

IDK, in general I didn't get the woobie!Rodney stories, I just wrote it off as the fact that especially at first he was so high-maintenance, so he'd probably be the easiest to woobify. The only time I actually really despised them was when they were evil!Sam stories, too... like, Rodney openly sexually harassed her when we met him in SG-1, and still had occasional instances of mildly inappropriate or slightly creepy behaviour beyond that, so the fact that there were people actually *liked* to write and read her as the villain and him as the victim just creeped me out so much for so many reasons :-(

IDK, I think the one fandom that does woobie stories pretty decently is White Collar, because in just about every story I've seen, the authors just decide to give Neal a head injury or drug him, rather than gratuitously writing him OOC.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I just wrote it off as the fact that especially at first he was so high-maintenance, so he'd probably be the easiest to woobify.

Yeah, and this is what I've come to understand - namely what it is about Rodney's character that made him so appealing to woobify. Because Arthur's character... I just can't fathom him ever being a helpless woobie (except, maybe, where abusive Uther fics are concerned), because there isn't a lot about him to woobify, and also because his character is basically the reason why Merlin is so easy to woobify (not simply because Arthur does pick on him, but because everything Merlin does is for Arthur).

But, yeah, once those woobie fics cross the line into evil!everyone... No. Just, no.

I don't know, I've read some pretty OOC WC woobie fic (the tags to Point Blank, for example, could get pretty crazy OOC at times). Although that may have changed. It's been a while since I've read White Collar.

I honestly think the Merlin fandom does some pretty decent Merlin woobie fic, mostly because - as I said - a lot of it is canon. And when it isn't canon then it's what-ifs (like magic-reveal stories, where just about any reaction is plausible). However, I think that's the thing about the Merlin fandom - it's not entirely into woobification but more into those what-ifs. What if Merlin was found out, what if Arthur accidentally hurt Merlin, and so on. And BAMF Merlin tends to be a lot more popular than helpless Merlin, so the woobiness doesn't quite feel as heavy handed as other woobie fic I've read in the past.

[nefhiriel.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of annoyed with how my tolerance for woobification - even of the character I generally LIKE to see a little woobified - has lessened the longer I'm in fandom. Even when a character is basically IC as a Big Insensitive Meany, too often I just can't enjoy emotional or physical whump for one character at the cost of another character's basic humanity. :P Granted, some of my favorite stories are the ones where an amazing balance is kept, and really good reasons are given for why the Meany is letting the Woobification happen. The moment-of-realization scene - where the woobified character topples over half ded - can be pretty awesome when it's carefully crafted. Otherwise I leave cringing as soon as I realize the favoritism happening, because even if the Meany isn't my favorite, I still don't want to see them portrayed as quite that unfeeling...

The little fic I've read in Suits is probably the exception. Because...um, Harvey Spector is kind of meaner than Rodney, IMO. So there are those characters. XD But I don't generally tolerate unreasonably-cruel!Peter and always-a-martyr!Neal - that sorta thing. ;)

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a really delicate balance to achieve. I mean, even in the Merlin fandom, where bully!Arthur is pretty much canon (seriously, even if the fic isn't a woobie fic it's still in character for Arthur to call Merlin names and dismiss what he has to say, depending on the season). Woobie fic is a guilty pleasure of mine but once it crosses over into "lets villainize everyone!" territory I back out pretty quick. It drove me crazy in the WC fandom how... angsty-teenage-girl they would make Peter over something Neal had done, as though Peter is the kind of person to take offense over every little slight. Which he isn't! And I didn't get how no one could see this (so, yeah, like woobie!Arthur is something I can't wrap my head around, cruel!Peter is also something I can't fathom).

I do think the Merlin fandom handles woobie fic pretty well, at least compared to the SGA fandom and even the White Collar fandom. Not all the time, of course, and some fic have made me cringe in the way the characters were portrayed. But this is a fandom that prefers BAMF over poor, helpless woobie, so the woobie-ness tends not to be as heavy handed in most fic.