Fic meme day 7

[galadriel1010]

7 – Have you ever had a fic change your opinion of a character?


I'm not very good at noticing when my feelings about someone have changed. I know that I used to like Gwen, but I'm not sure if it was her in canon or writing her in fic that turned me off her. One thing that definitely changed is that I started to see Jack as more vulnerable than I did before, and Ianto as more of a protector.

8 – Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they're not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.

Comments

[beesandbrews.livejournal.com]

I think in Gwen's case it was the unrelenting meta from the PTB that kept saying she was something other than what was on the screen that finally moved her from the meh to the grr column. I know I write Jack as vulnerable, but that's because I see a lot of defensive mechanisms in his behavior. It's also why I see Ianto as a protector. It's on the screen. What he did for Lisa, and all the little things he does for Jack.

[fiwen1010.livejournal.com]

All of this. Fanfiction gave me the chance to really care about the characters and compare them to what TPTB were telling me about them

[jolinarjackson.livejournal.com]

I think Ianto was very protective on-screen. Seeing Jack as more vulnerable ... he was vulnerable to me on-screen. But I might have been biased. I was so used to Brian Kinney who is a real asshole but just out of defense - he's just a little vulnerable boy. I saw Jack pretty much the same.

[sandysan2013.livejournal.com]

I have come to dislike Gwen more over time, gbut I always found her annoying. I came to Torchwood after CoE and in the US we weren't bombared with the media buzz that gwen was the star. However, I always wondered why there was so much focus on such an annoying character. She just didn't fit in w/the rest who really seemed to understand and accept what being part of an alien-fighting team required. Her ability to remain amazed,ignorant, and obstructive, often all at the same time, held the team back in my opinion. I never understood how she was supposed to make the team more "human" and never saw any evidence that she did. She was a flawed character in the beginning and blamed Torchwood for changes in her life. Torchwood only highlighted her lieing, cheating, arrogant nature. It didn't create it.

I've come to understand her better in fanfiction. I still won't excuse her, but I understand her a bit better. That understanding doesn't make me like her. But more importantly, I've come to understand the other members of the team better through fanfiction. Owen, in particular, is better presented in fanfiction. I've quite come to like him. I recognize now the vulnerabilities in Jack that I didn't see before. Now to the Whoniverse: Though I love 10, I can't help but dislike what he and 9 did to Jack. I like 11 better on a rational level because he has not hurt Jack and seems friendlier. I don't think he'd ever disable Jack's vortex manipulator, leaving him vulnerable to the whims and fancies of unknown terrible things w/no way to escape, even in death.