Firefly Fanfiction: What Are Your Pet-Peeves?
POSTED BY: Xeyra
UPDATED: Friday, November 30, 2012 02:57
VIEWED: 59700
PAGE 4 of 17
I've brought up my own peeves regarding fan fiction in another thread (it was my first post, as a matter of fact), but I'll re-iterate.
First, as I've said before, I really don't like Simon and Kaylee fics. It's nothing to do with the authors themselves (in fact, I've stumbled across some really well-written ones. Check out any of Tara O'Shea's work. "That Old Yeh Shen Story" has the funniest line in all fan fiction history). But being the dark person that I am, that particular pairing is too...cute, happy, just plain shiny! I need darkness, angst, people arguing!
Ahem.
Second has to be slash. Particularly male slash. It might be fun to entertain the theory of some of the girls together, but the guys? Can anyone honestly say that they could picture any of them in the sack? Right unsettling, if you ask me.
Thirdly, I'd have to say bad grammar, along with poor plot and character development. It's bad enough to constantly be pointing out spelling errors, but when you have a story that drags on and on or characters that are, well, out of character, I find something else to read.
*whew*
Okay, rant over. Had a lot of things to get off my chest.
*************************************************
"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you."
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by Xeyra:
Hi all,
I don't know if a thread like this has been posted in the past but I was curious about what kind of things are big no-no's in Firefly/Serenity fanfic for you.
I don't believe in 'no-no's'
and the only peeves I have is that there are never enough Jayne/River fan fic
and never enough Jayne/Inara fan fic
and never enough Jayne/Zoe fan fic
and never enough Jayne/Simon fan fic
and never any Jayne/Book fan fic (!)
there are plenty of Jayne/Kaylee however....
**********************************************
watch the R. Tam Session vids: http://www.hittarivertam.nu/
and buy the 'Serenity' comics published by Dark Horse
have you checked out this thread?:
http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=2&t=15816
and listen to 'I'm Going To See Serenity':
http://music.podshow.com/music/listeners/artistdetails.php?BandHash=a0
c814e1229742ce77ed4497cbf4631c
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
What really gets my goat is third person omniscient narration, where the narrator goes on and on and on about how "Mal looked at Inara. He loved her so much, he wanted to die inside, he ached to hold her, and yet sometimes he was so angry he couldn't help being cruel..." yada, yada, yada. Especially if they then do someone else's internal state, too: "Inara saw Mal looking at her. She was so angry she couldn't speak, and yet she loved him so much..." You get the idea.
What with Firefly being a TV show to begin with, we aren't supposed to know exactly how the characters feel inside. TV shows are all about showing, not telling, and to my mind fanfic stories based on TV shows should do the same.
The exception here would be vignettes which are intended to be brief glimpses into a character, but which are not intended to be independent stories. If they ring psychologically true, then I can accept them as insightful but not part of the story, if you know what I mean.
I also have to admit I don't enjoy slasher and "Mary/Marty Sue" fic, because it tends to lack plausibility. I feel the same about stories with deux ex machina rescues, uncharacteristic dialogue from known characters, etc.
Oh, another thing (the more I write, the more I think of) -- I hate it when people re-use actual phrases or dialogue from the canon, word for word. People don't do that in real life; they don't quote themselves. They may allude to the same subjects, paraphrase themselves, say very similar things, but generally speaking we create language anew every time we use it.
Anyway, given all of the above, so far the best fanfic I've read have been the "What could have been" episodes on www.stillflying.net, and a vignette called "Fine Line" at http://firefly.populli.org/archive/4/fineline.shtml. These are really the only things I can recommend so far.
Indigo S.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by embers:Quote:
Originally posted by Xeyra:
Hi all,
I don't know if a thread like this has been posted in the past but I was curious about what kind of things are big no-no's in Firefly/Serenity fanfic for you.
I don't believe in 'no-no's'
and the only peeves I have is that there are never enough Jayne/River fan fic
and never enough Jayne/Inara fan fic
and never enough Jayne/Zoe fan fic
and never enough Jayne/Simon fan fic
and never any Jayne/Book fan fic (!)
there are plenty of Jayne/Kaylee however....
Methinks someone likes Jayne quite a little bit... *big grin*
*******************************
Wash: This landing is gonna get pretty interesting.
Mal: Define "interesting".
Wash: [deadpan] Oh God, oh God, we're all going to die?
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Non-Cannon pairings. That's about it. I mean sometimes there are atrocious grammatical errors,which hurts the story, but nobody's perfect! Yeah, so, pretty much that's it. I despise Jayne/Kaylee just because it makes me feel dirty, as does Jayne /River, or Jayne/Simon....pretty much I think Jayne should stick with the whores and not sleep with any of the crew. I love him, I just don't want him lovin' on any member of Serenity. If you don't like something, just skip it!
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Thanks for the kind words, Indigo S! I skimmed through the thread to see if we were mentioned (and, if so, how!) with a great deal of trepidation...
www.stillflying.net: "Here's how it might have been..."
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Yep, Jayne makes me feel dirty, too...
But that ain't the point of this. Sorry.
I have to say, I never found the J/S slash fic. That scares me more than I care to conjure.
Nothing 'gainst it in the real world, but characters are written the way they are for a reason - don't be messin' with 'em.
SpaceAnJL
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Are you the Head Writer over there, Gwek? A screenwriter by trade or just really good at it?
Indigo S.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Pet Peeves. Hmm. I don't read crossover stories at all. Joss has said there are no aliens in the Firefly 'verse and I have no interest in seeing stories that take place in the Harry Potter/Buffy/Angel/Stargate universe.
I don't generally enjoy reading non cannon pairings either. Some of them just truly disgust me because the writer takes one or more of the characters out of character to justify a new pairing. Which just doesn't fly. The Jayne/Kaylee pairing is a huge example of this.
The spelling issues (because I'm sure I have some of my own) don't bother me as much as they probably should, but if they continue through multiple stories, it does tend to get annoying.
"A government is a body of people usually notably ungoverned."
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME