I was quite worried about this myself, about myself, really, and what it said about me that in real life women were way more interesting than in fiction (where they are, you know, *designed* to attract the reader/viewer's attention). But then there came Parker from Leverage, and she is the coolest girl ever and my favourite character and I so want her to get it on with the boys or the girls or anybody she doesn't have a pseudo-familial relationship with, really. Also, Elizabeth from PoTC was also really cool and I thought Will was too boring for her, and Max from Dark Angel (Logan was too boring for her, too, but couldn't find a more useful boyfriend, have to give her that). And Veronica Mars, and her Mac, and other unconventional girls who aren't "the designated female character" or "the random useful character that ended up female".
Teyla, Gwen and Sam are all calm, in control, to a point maternal figures with whom I can't identify *at all*, it's no wonder I don't like them! Gwen has her passionate moments where she seems more human, and often related to Lancelot or Morgana, who I do like (her flirty-jealous relationship with Arthur in episode one went out the window to become pure sibling rivalry in the second ep and it seems to me she would it Merlin alive) even as helpless as she's portrayed in the s2 she's still someone i can understand. (I only know Sam from SGA, btw)
Friendshipper has an excellent point with the jock/geek thing! Ronon/Keller absolutely worked in a way Teyla/Ronon never did (to name to pairings i'm not very invested in) and it's obviously a component in the Rodney/John. SGA is a fandom where i more or less have an OTP and nobody's managed to convince me any other pairing works for Sheppard (Rodney/Radek i have come to accept as a good second best). Although the 4-way relationship between SGA-1 works if taken as a subset of 3 individual relationships and not as a group thing (where it's not so equal)
I don't think those are excuses, at least not always, i think they are reasons. When you say that the fact that a character sucks or isn't good enough in canon doesn't justify fans not making more of her in fic... well, where are we supposed to get the inspiration? Is her femaleness supposed to be enough? Should we write her out of pity?
What I mean is that I agree with you, there are patterns in fannish activity but they do come from somewhere, those same patterns exist in canon and in society. And we are, after all, using the master's tools and playing in the master's house (and, most importantly, we're doing so because we like it, this characters (male and more rarely, for me, female) are attracting us to them and their worlds, they and their situations aren't ideal (mostly, or there wouldn't be so much fic changing both) but there is something *right* about them and possibly that's what we're trying to replicate, unable as we are to do something about what is not there (if we go in that direction it's an OC and we might as well go and create an original character that rocks in their own world, either way, it's not a *fan*work).
Sorry i rambled, i hope i made some sense, if not, sorry, it's late and I'm in a fannish frenzy tonight :p
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Teyla, Gwen and Sam are all calm, in control, to a point maternal figures with whom I can't identify *at all*, it's no wonder I don't like them! Gwen has her passionate moments where she seems more human, and often related to Lancelot or Morgana, who I do like (her flirty-jealous relationship with Arthur in episode one went out the window to become pure sibling rivalry in the second ep and it seems to me she would it Merlin alive) even as helpless as she's portrayed in the s2 she's still someone i can understand. (I only know Sam from SGA, btw)
Friendshipper has an excellent point with the jock/geek thing! Ronon/Keller absolutely worked in a way Teyla/Ronon never did (to name to pairings i'm not very invested in) and it's obviously a component in the Rodney/John. SGA is a fandom where i more or less have an OTP and nobody's managed to convince me any other pairing works for Sheppard (Rodney/Radek i have come to accept as a good second best). Although the 4-way relationship between SGA-1 works if taken as a subset of 3 individual relationships and not as a group thing (where it's not so equal)
I don't think those are excuses, at least not always, i think they are reasons. When you say that the fact that a character sucks or isn't good enough in canon doesn't justify fans not making more of her in fic... well, where are we supposed to get the inspiration? Is her femaleness supposed to be enough? Should we write her out of pity?
What I mean is that I agree with you, there are patterns in fannish activity but they do come from somewhere, those same patterns exist in canon and in society. And we are, after all, using the master's tools and playing in the master's house (and, most importantly, we're doing so because we like it, this characters (male and more rarely, for me, female) are attracting us to them and their worlds, they and their situations aren't ideal (mostly, or there wouldn't be so much fic changing both) but there is something *right* about them and possibly that's what we're trying to replicate, unable as we are to do something about what is not there (if we go in that direction it's an OC and we might as well go and create an original character that rocks in their own world, either way, it's not a *fan*work).
Sorry i rambled, i hope i made some sense, if not, sorry, it's late and I'm in a fannish frenzy tonight :p