[fandom] things I don't understand

[escritoireazul]

Fandom things I don't understand and wish to discuss further at a later date:

1) Apparently Tamora Pierce writes nothing but Mary Sues? At least that's what I've seen all over her fandom. I really, really had no idea. Anyone?

2) People really hate Abby and Dawn from the Baby-sitters Club. Why? I don't know, I love them best.

That's it, for now. I'm off to bed. Yuletide is almost done, I just need to do one more edit and then submit it tomorrow.

Comments

[q-sama.livejournal.com]

1. I just put a huge post on The Dancing Dove regarding the term Mary Sue and why it's over-used in the Tammy Fandom. First of all, I don't believe in Mary Sues. I think it's a snazzy way of saying "I don't like her because...". People say "she's a Mary Sue because..." and proceed to list everything they don't like - but the character they might like could have twelve character traits that *I* think are "Suish". Alanna, Daine, Kel, and Aly (in the Tortall universe) have amazing skills. Alanna, Aly, and Kel are pursued by important men (or have a history of their attractiveness). Alanna, Daine, Kel and Aly are nearly always right. So, I guess you could say that they're Mary Sues. Meanwhile, in the Emelan Universe you have four kids with Super Special Magical Powers that no one's seen in such strong forms before. Really easy to stamp a Mary Sue on that. I would just rather have people say "I don't like Kel because she always has to be at the top of her class, rather than being mediocre at something." Or "I don't like Alanna because as a gods-touched character everything is easy - magic sword, magic abilites, magical animal familiar, three hot guys chasing her, and a temper to boot!" These are at least REASONS to dislike that can be discussed rather than stamping a label on it and shipping it to the fandom.

I so hate the term. I'm sorry for giving a sermon.

2. Dawn was always my favorite.... well, and Kristi.

[fox1013.livejournal.com]

...

...

But she's ABBY.

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

[wisdomeagle]

2. I've just mainlined most of my collection of Abby-era books, and in Kristy and the Dirty Diapers, Kristy's Worst Idea, and the Hawaii Super Special (Aloha, Baby-Sitters?), I didn't like Abby very much. Partially it's Kristy's lasting animosity towards her, where I'm inclined towards Kristy's side because I'm much more in favor of organization and rules and Doing Things Right than Abby's laxer attitude. (In this same set of books, Kristy really comes off as a bit of a control freak, but still.) I sympathize a lot with Kristy's alarm when a cool new girl comes along and she Kristy seems to be getting pushed aside.

I do like Abby, mostly, in the books I've just reread, and Abby's Book made me sob like a baby. I do think she adds neat chemistry to the club and helped keep the series alive for an extra couple of years -- it's cool that she doesn't have a best friend in the club and keeps it from being just a bunch of OTPs BFFs hanging out together. From a narrative point of view, good move, but I find myself much more sympathetic towards the long-standing members.

Dawn Schafer has at times been my favorite character, but right now she resides at the bottom of my list, mostly because I can absolutely not STAND her in California Diaries. I think my issue with her really begins with Farewell, Dawn. Besides finding the entire "kids adjusting their own custody arrangements" scenario annoyingly unrealistic, I don't really get a good sense of why Dawn needs to move back to California... and it does come off as pretty selfish. And it's sold as an essentially selfish decision -- she does it for herself. Sure, she misses her dad and brother, and the W♥KC, but mostly it's a geographical decision... and again, annoyingly unrealistic. I moved when I was a little kid and spent four or five YEARS acclimating to a new state.

And I find it kind of poisonous that Dawn doesn't understand why her leaving could possibly upset Mary Anne. Mary Anne's behavior in that book isn't the greatest either, but Dawn is the one leaving and she seems essentially unaware that her leaving will affect people other than herself.

In the CA Diaries series, I'm really turned off by the way Dawn treats Mary Anne (she's outgrown not just her BSC friends but her sister!) and Jill, whom I find way more mature and attractive than I find Dawn, who continues to seem unaware that other people's problems (i.e., Sunny's) are more serious than her own. She seems perennially incapable of looking past her own situation and realizing that her friends are struggling; she reads every event as all about her: "Maggie isn't eating enough. Why isn't she confiding in me? I would really like to be her friend, and she's just ignoring me. Gosh, she's so mean to me. Why don't any of my friends want to talk to me?"

I think I'm mostly bitter about her unwillingness even to try to save her friendship with Jill, though, especially since Jill is often compared to Mary Anne in the BSC-canon and seems to be a symbolic representative of her in CAD-canon.

I... might've gotten a little longwinded, when I should be editing my Yuletide fic. Yikes. (And no offense intended, obviously, by any of this. I'd love to hear why you like Abby and Dawn best!)

[angel-9-lives.livejournal.com]

I know this is like...SO late, but um, yeah^_^;;;;;;;;

so far all of her stories HAVE centered around male/female love relationships only, but in her Circle of Magic series, you come across two lesbian couples...and the couples include major characters. ((sorry, spoilers:X)) (Rosethorn, Lark, Daja...)

and she DOES mention homosexuality in both series...
Tortall:
Kel mentions about how it's accepted by the Yamani, and in the last book of her series there's a mentioning of a guy who was popular with the ladies, but Kel had seen him with his lover a couple times, and it was another guy.

Aly:
one of the darkings report that one of the ladies is kissing her maid:P

I'm not gonna go into anymore, cause it's been 2 years since you posted this, and I think you probably know this stuff already ^_^;;;;;;;

I just thought of using lj to look up other Tamora Pierce fans, lol, so I'm a lil late in the game^_^;;

~Angel