Biggest Pet Peeves

[Kizuna]

Like the title says, this thread is about our biggest fanfiction pet peeves relating to Cillian and his movies.

Mine include...

Fluffy Romantic!Jackson - Anyone who's seen the movie will at least agree that Jackson is far from being Romeo incarnate. No one (Lisa, Cynthia, Mary-Sue) is going to make him into a total softie just because he's in love with her. This brings me to my other pet peeve...

I'mSoInLoveWithYou!Jackson - Yes, I'm one of those people who believes Jackson is, or at least exhibits the traits of a sociopath. Sociopaths are unable to love or feel compassion. If Jackson's feelings towards Lisa are anything, then it'd definitely be lust, obsession and other things along that line, not love.

Evil!Jackson - Okay, if Fluffly!Jackson is annoying for me, then this one is going to make me pull my hair out. Basically, Evil!Jackson is pure evil incarnate, if you didn't get that already. Seriously, Jackson's a downright bastard, yes, and is possibly a sociopath as well, but I'm pretty sure he's got his limits at the very least right?

FluffyRomantic!Crane - Look at FluffyRomantic!Jackson to get the point.

I'd probably rant more, but those are my biggest peeves.

[Pukkina]

Heeehee, those are annoying and often repeated, but you have to admit, isn't the point of fanfiction to be rather stupid and often fl uffy?

[stormy]

Not all of my pet peeves are related directly to CM fandom; I'm influenced to a degree by all the other fan fic I've read for other fandoms, but I'll try to keep these comments relevant to CM fan fic.

I think it's fair to say that we don't all view the characters the same way. To a degree, what you get out of a film depends on what you bring to it. Depending on their background, preferences, personal experiences, fantasies, imagination, memories, etc., each viewer can come away with a slightly different interpretation of the characters, events, or even the purpose of the movie. Yes, we all saw the same movie, but everyone brought different baggage with them to the theater (or wherever) so the impressions of each person can vary.

Quite a few times I've seen a movie with a particular male friend, and we'll discuss it afterwards and wonder if we really saw the same film. We each focus on different things, he notices things that totally pass me by, I see things he didn't catch, because we had a different interest. Also, character personalities turn viewers on or off for various reasons, etc. I'm probably biased to a degree in that the few Scarecrow stories I've read in the Batman comics portray him in such a way that I can't find any redeeming qualities at all to Crane. So even though those elements aren't necessarily part of Batman Begins, they're still carried over in my mind as part of the Crane back-story, and if Crane in the story is vastly different from my perception, I find it hard to enjoy the story. I might have felt very differently if I hadn't read some of those Batman comics before seeing the movie, it's hard to say.

I wasn't all that crazy about Jackson exactly the way he was in Red Eye, but I saw some interesting potential for the character. Some things I liked a lot, others really annoyed me. Therefore, I'm not necessarily looking for stories where Jackson is exactly the same person as Movie!Jackson. It depends on when the story takes place, but I like to see some character development. In real life, people do often change, and learn from, traumatic experiences. Not everyone does, but in stories it's more interesting to me if they do. What Jackson and Lisa went through, or Crane, for that matter, were all very traumatic events. They might have all taken a good, hard look at their lives and choices they'd made, and decided to do things a bit differently. Or might want to change, but can't, due to various circumstances.

Those psychological aspects are more interesting to me than reading a story where the characters seem to be pretty much the same as they were in the movie. Of course, a lot of people really loved the characters exactly as they were in the movie, or very close to what they saw in the movie, so they might not be looking for change so much as more of the same, or a continuation of the movie.

There's room for all kinds of stories in fandom, and the good thing is, if I start to realize a story falls into a hot-button category for me, that will just raise my blood pressure, I can always stop reading it, and try a different story. God knows I've done that hundreds of times in various fandoms.

One of my pet peeves here is that it's hard for readers to tell, unless a story is labelled clearly, whether it's a one-shot that's completed, a longer story in chapters or parts that's been completed, or a work-in-progress. It can be frustrating to read a story and think it's finished, only to find out it's not, and not know if the author intends to complete it or not. I find it helpful when the authors do let the readers know if there's going to be a long delay, but they can't always to do that. If it's at least labelled "Work In Progress" or something similar, it alerts new readers that it's not finished. A lot of other fandoms use the acronym WIP for Work In Progress, to save room. It's one of those things that isn't necessary, but it's a nice thing to do to let the readers know ahead of time what to expect.

I guess it's a bit like falling in love with a TV show that's abruptly cancelled. I've discovered a few shows that way, after they were cancelled, via a boxed set of whatever episodes were completed, or whichever ones they're willing to release. It's disappointing when I can see there's so much more of the story left to be told, yet I realize I'm really happy to have at least part of the story, rather than missing out on it entirely. At least with a cancelled show, though, you know there are only a certain number of episodes, and you'll have to complete the rest of the story in your imagination. The same applies to fan fic.

So, both completed stories and WIPs can be enjoyable to read, but it's nice to know ahead of time whether the story has completed its run, is still on the air, on hiatus, or been cancelled. If the author is unsure if they can or will continue the story, then "on hiatus" lets them off the hook for a while, until they can decide for sure, same as it does for the networks.

[punctuator]

Okay, I'll play. I'm new to this whole fan-fic game, but I'm always up for a round of What Gets My Goat. Here goes:

1. People who think they "know" characters inside an' out, backwards an' forwards, an'-- well, just keep adding prepositions until you run out. In other words, people who are quick to say "X WOULDN'T DO THAT" when we have NO WAY OF KNOWING what X would or wouldn't do. For instance, I did not write "Red Eye." That guy whose name escapes me wrote "Red Eye." We saw Lisa Reisert and Jackson Rippner for all of seventy minutes. Max. For all we know, Jackson Rippner isn't an evil, super-smart, oh-so-organized sociopath. Maybe he was just having an EXTREMELY BAD DAY. Maybe he's the guy his organization always SENDS LAST. You know, the one scrawny kid left over when people are picking sides for dodgeball. But I don't know for sure. And neither do you. So our rank speculations are pretty much equally valid, yes...?

Which leads to

2. People who take this crap too seriously. Look, if it's a fun read, it's a fun read. There's enough effenheimer misery over at CNN. If I want to read or-- better yet-- write a "Red Eye" fic, fer instance, where Jackson's doing a stakeout dressed as the Oscar Mayer Wiener Man, I'd just as soon do it whilst NOT nursing the nagging feeling that OH, THE RED EYE INQUISITION WILL HATE ME--! I'm practically terrified of writing anything "Red Eye" right now: it's so dang serious--!

Which kind of flops into

3. Crossing 1 and 2: If we can't speculate on how characters could evolve, then what the hell's the point of writing any fic at all? I read comic books long enough to get good and sick of "the perpetual middle." Pick up an X-Men comic, note the story arc. Pick up another X-Men comic two years from now. Does anything seem familiar? Even exactly the same? OH YES IT DOES....

Then we stagger off to

4. Those who have an eye-crossing disregard for the nitty-gritty. We're not writing for grades or money, but we ought to have some regard for usage. It has its mitts on something, not it's mitts. I lie on a bed; I lay a blanket on a bed. Okay, okay: so the second example's kinda mean; I know of only one person who can conjugate "to lay," and she happens to be me. But, heck, just for giggles, take a gander sometime at The Elements of Style, or The Harbrace College Handbook, or The Elements of Grammar. C'mon, just a peek. After all, once you know the rules, you can treat 'em with UTTER DISREGARD. Like I do.

Finally, and this isn't a peeve, exactly, but--

--okay, okay, it's a peeve. I lied. Get the stake and the gasoline: I'm going into MARTYR MODE:

5. Fic where everyone (a) sounds the same or (b) sure as shootin' doesn't sound like the actor or actress who played 'em in the source material. LISTEN TO THE VOICES, PEEPS. We're not dialect masters, but we oughtta have some grip on expressions and vocal cadences. That's another reason I find "Red Eye" fic so tricky: the voices are so flat. Cillian was so busy power-sanding his brogue and Rachel was being so equanimously Canadian (SHE'LL BLEND IN ANYWHERE IN NORTH AMERICA, YOU BET, OR YOUR MONEY BACK) that Jackson and Lisa are pretty much the audio equivalent of warm milk. Be that as it may, LISTEN TO THE VOICES. In your head. THEN WRITE 'EM DOWN. Just don't tell too many people you're listening to voices in your head. That gets weird. And READ YOUR DIALOGUE OUT LOUD before you commit it to a fic. But not in front of too many people. That gets weird, too.

Think that's enough bridges burnt for one evening. 'Night, all--!