Random Fan Opinions:
Feb. 2nd, 2005 03:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterfly1. Joey Potter (Dawson's Creek) and Lana Lang (Smallville) aren't a lot alike and it makes my head hurt when people put them in the same category. They share a few things in common -- the love of the main character, dark hair, and a dead mother. But at the beginning of their various arcs, they're actually about as far from each other as they can be -- Joey's the piner, Lana's the pinee; Joey lives on the wrong side of the creek, Lana is a cheerleader whose aunt is friends with the Luthors; the blonde girl is preferred to Joey in the beginning by the lead, while the reverse occurs on Smallville. Popular girl who feels all alone is not the same as outcast who feels all alone.
2. Love comes in so many variations, with infinite degrees of intensity and uncounted shades of complexity. This is why I find it so hard to compare various loves to each other. The idea of asking who, for example, Xander (BtVS) loved most strikes me as approaching pointless. The way that he loved Willow was different in kind to how he loved Buffy, or Cordy, or Anya. Did he love Willow more than he loved Buffy? I think that it's impossible to say. One could bring up points for either side.
3. On Stargate SG-1, Daniel loved Sha're -- but the lure of knowledge was bright enough to distract him from that on more than one occasion (unburying the gate and Torment of Tantalus immediately spring to mind). Daniel cared for Sarah, and again, the reason that they broke up was because his work got in the way. Therefore, it's no surprise to me that Daniel can care for Jack and SG-1 (enough to say that he finally feels like he belongs somewhere (Orpheus)) and still wish that he could have gone with the Atlantis team (Stargate Atlantis -- Rising). For Daniel, the call of some unknown secret will always attract his attention away from what he already knows. That's just who he is.
4. One of my big fanfic kinks is 'friends become lovers', but it's actually much more specific than that. I like to see the friendship form, like to see the creation of the relationship. It also needs to have a banter and an edge to it; there needs to be just a hint of instability. But I also need the friendship to benefit both parties -- I want them to inspire each other to be better people. The first qualification explains why I prefer Buffy/Xander to Xander/Willow (BtVS) -- the relationship between Buffy and Xander is created during the show. I get to see all their 'first moments' together. I like that. The second explains why I prefer Fraser/Kowalski to Fraser/Vecchio (due South) -- we see the 'firsts' for both relationships, but the F/K relationship has a volatility and a passion to it that I just don't see in Fraser's relationship with Vecchio. And the last explains why I can't embrace John/Aeryn (Farscape). I just can't see how their love makes them better people, especially, and this is a thing for me, in the absence of the person. And this is why I prefer even the canon friendship of Jack/Daniel to the romance of John/Aeryn -- when Jack loses Daniel, he retains everything that Daniel gave him. He was affected and changed by Daniel and losing Daniel doesn't make Jack lose the sense of Daniel (Fallout -- Hammond says to Jack, "You're beginning to sound like Doctor Jackson."). I dislike the "I can't survive without you" school of love.
5. The Return of the King still makes me cry and I still adore the ending. I don't know if I could actually choose a favorite of those movies, because I do tend to think of them as one really long movie, but there are some moments in tRotK that just take my breath away, no matter what. Mostly Frodo, often Sam (too many to count for the both of them). Pippin and Gandulf's moment before the Army of the Dead comes. Aragon kissing Arwen with a fierce tenderness. Merry and Eowyn -- 'courage for our friends'. Losing Theoden. Legolas and Gimli -- 'with a friend'.
The leave-taking at the Grey Havens.
2. Love comes in so many variations, with infinite degrees of intensity and uncounted shades of complexity. This is why I find it so hard to compare various loves to each other. The idea of asking who, for example, Xander (BtVS) loved most strikes me as approaching pointless. The way that he loved Willow was different in kind to how he loved Buffy, or Cordy, or Anya. Did he love Willow more than he loved Buffy? I think that it's impossible to say. One could bring up points for either side.
3. On Stargate SG-1, Daniel loved Sha're -- but the lure of knowledge was bright enough to distract him from that on more than one occasion (unburying the gate and Torment of Tantalus immediately spring to mind). Daniel cared for Sarah, and again, the reason that they broke up was because his work got in the way. Therefore, it's no surprise to me that Daniel can care for Jack and SG-1 (enough to say that he finally feels like he belongs somewhere (Orpheus)) and still wish that he could have gone with the Atlantis team (Stargate Atlantis -- Rising). For Daniel, the call of some unknown secret will always attract his attention away from what he already knows. That's just who he is.
4. One of my big fanfic kinks is 'friends become lovers', but it's actually much more specific than that. I like to see the friendship form, like to see the creation of the relationship. It also needs to have a banter and an edge to it; there needs to be just a hint of instability. But I also need the friendship to benefit both parties -- I want them to inspire each other to be better people. The first qualification explains why I prefer Buffy/Xander to Xander/Willow (BtVS) -- the relationship between Buffy and Xander is created during the show. I get to see all their 'first moments' together. I like that. The second explains why I prefer Fraser/Kowalski to Fraser/Vecchio (due South) -- we see the 'firsts' for both relationships, but the F/K relationship has a volatility and a passion to it that I just don't see in Fraser's relationship with Vecchio. And the last explains why I can't embrace John/Aeryn (Farscape). I just can't see how their love makes them better people, especially, and this is a thing for me, in the absence of the person. And this is why I prefer even the canon friendship of Jack/Daniel to the romance of John/Aeryn -- when Jack loses Daniel, he retains everything that Daniel gave him. He was affected and changed by Daniel and losing Daniel doesn't make Jack lose the sense of Daniel (Fallout -- Hammond says to Jack, "You're beginning to sound like Doctor Jackson."). I dislike the "I can't survive without you" school of love.
5. The Return of the King still makes me cry and I still adore the ending. I don't know if I could actually choose a favorite of those movies, because I do tend to think of them as one really long movie, but there are some moments in tRotK that just take my breath away, no matter what. Mostly Frodo, often Sam (too many to count for the both of them). Pippin and Gandulf's moment before the Army of the Dead comes. Aragon kissing Arwen with a fierce tenderness. Merry and Eowyn -- 'courage for our friends'. Losing Theoden. Legolas and Gimli -- 'with a friend'.
The leave-taking at the Grey Havens.
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-03 02:53 am (UTC)And ok, over it now. Esp. since it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work it out.
Plus, I'd argue that within canon you don't get to see them without each other for long enough to know whether or not they'd be better people for having known the other, if one of them did actually stay dead for more than five minutes or they parted ways or whatever. But this is that whole thing where canon is subjective and you can argue it either way from whatever point you choose to view it from, so. Argh, damnit, I did have thoughts on this but they never made it as far as my LJ. How do you manage with that?
Also, awwww, word on RotK.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-03 07:43 am (UTC)You should totally be proud of you.
Yeah, the co-dependent thing is what bugs me about them. And while I can kinda see the other point of view... John went crazy without Aeryn there. Literally went nuts. And that bothers me on so many levels, most of which aren't even connected to my brain. It just feels like they lost who they were as people. Their relationship just... squicks me.
Argh, damnit, I did have thoughts on this but they never made it as far as my LJ. How do you manage with that?
I write down things sometimes. I also talk to myself, a lot. It helps things stick -- I say something out loud, it's a lot easier for me to remember it later.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-03 01:49 pm (UTC)On the other hand, consider the extraordinary situation John is, was, and has been in almost the entire run of the show (excluding a few... what was that, S4 eps?)--as good as the friendships he's built are and can be, to a certain degree he's not only entirely without a normal support system, but he's also entirely in a completely abnormal basic situation--a form of culture displacement so extreme there is literally nothing on earth that comes close, though you can compare some situations.
Looking at it like that, his relationship with Aeryn... well, there's still an element of co-dependence there, but it's a sort of necessary or at least more understandable one in that she is one of the few stable and relatable things in his world. After all, a number of traditional 'unhealthy' behavior patterns evolve out of ones which are 'healthy' in the sense of being necessary to cope with a situation.
*pauses, stares at that, and blinks*
I have no idea where that came from.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-03 03:17 pm (UTC)Except more articulate.
I love your icon, btw.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-03 07:27 pm (UTC)It bothers me, because I really like the show, apart from the John/Aeryn thing (I like the humor, I like the muppets, I really like Chiana). But John/Aeryn is so tightly wound into the fabric of the show that I can't watch the show and not be distressed/annoyed by it.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-03 03:15 pm (UTC)Hee, okay. *is*
Yeah, the co-dependent thing is what bugs me about them. And while I can kinda see the other point of view... John went crazy without Aeryn there. Literally went nuts. And that bothers me on so many levels, most of which aren't even connected to my brain. It just feels like they lost who they were as people. Their relationship just... squicks me.
See, and I *can* argue all this but again, essentially it seems to come down to where you start looking at something from? And from there all the stuff falls into different places for you. Or something. I did a lot of thinking about this because I'm very very insecure in my opinions so if I respect someone else's opinions (as I do yours) and they disagree with me I immediately question my own opinion but I'm getting better about it.
I do write things down, sometimes, if I remember to. A lot of my thoughts usually come right before I go to sleep, I conduct long internal monologues that I only half remember in the morning.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-03 07:23 pm (UTC)Anyway, since I'm in the minority, I have the burden of proof (and one can't prove a negative in any case, so I bear the burden of proof in that case as well). And I haven't managed to keep watching Farscape long enough to do my fannish meta thing of gathering together episodes and quotes. And that's because J/A squicks me on that subconscious level and I can't watch them. So, maybe on closer viewing, I wouldn't see them as co-dependant, but I doubt that I'll ever be able to push down my instinctive reaction long enough to find out.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-03 11:06 pm (UTC)And if it really does freak you out so very much, there's no need to push yourself to watch it just so you can see it differently if you don't want to. Or something.