Although some badfic issues are universal, each fandom has its own particular plagues, a result of the potential in the source material, the trends in thinking among the show's demographic, historical trends of fanon, and the like. I'm struck more and more by one of XMM's tics, which is to reduce one or more characters to cardboard judgmental bitches who make S1 Cordelia look like the fucking Dalai Lama (tm Spike). I used to think it was a reflection of the extreme youth of the fandom--it's a very teenagerish way of thinking--but I was just now reading an otherwise enjoyable story featuring a mature presentation of adult characters that ended with an utterly gratuitous cameo by 14-year-old!Jean and Ororo, apparently intended to show how utterly misunderstood our heroine was by the cruel, cruel world. I gather from what Miss P. says that it's often an outgrowth of Jean!hate, but I've seen the same treatment applied to just about every female character out there at this point. It's a strange quirk, and a frustrating one, as it tends to stop my enjoyment of a story cold. There's just nothing subtle about it. I suppose it could be considered as the flip side of those writers who can't tell the difference between portraying a villain sympathetically and whitewashing him.
Posted by Sarah T. at July 10, 2003 02:25 PM | TrackBackWow, they did it to 'Ro too? I haven't seen that.
But yes, there is a large and vocal contingent of XMM fandom that hates Jean and has no problem letting that permeate their... work.
There are also people who loathe Scott (both comic and movie, and while I understand hating comic!Scott ::coughMaddiecough::, that has little or nothing to do with the movies and generally only serves to make the writer look like a moron) and let *that* color everything they write, and Remy also comes in for a bad time in some movieverse fic.
Of course, in my forays into HP, I'm learning about whole new *levels* of badfic I didn't even know existed, that keep me awake nights, terrified.
Posted by: victoria p. at July 11, 2003 10:37 AM