Miscellanea

[alixtii]

1. Now that Serenity is on DVD, can someone hook me up with some Dr. Mathias screencaps? Whenever I try to make screencaps, no matter what media player I'm using, my computer crosses its arms and refuses, and I end up with a blank screencap. (Advice on getting around this problem would also be appreciated.)

I've been using the actor's IMDb photo at my Firefly Character Index, but it's not actually Dr. Mathias and I'd like to fix that.

2. "Which characters/pairings could you write with your eyes closed?" Gakked from janedavitt and karabair, and in particular check out Jane's commentary. Now, just because I can write a pairing with my eyes closed doesn't mean I should, obviously. I think there's still plenty of ways to keep my oft-written pairings--Dawn/Giles and Faith/Kennedy at this point--fresh, new, and interesting, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm fluent enough in their respective dynamics that I could write a fic with those pairings without having to think all that much. I think this, all said, is a good thing: it allows me to think more deeply on other things in the fic, like plot and theme.

As far characters, I've been writing Dawn quite a bit since I've gotten this LJ; the voice I use for her is pretty much set. I think I've hit on a pretty consistent Book voice as well. I don't think there are any other characters I'm quite as at home in, although Kennedy might come close. There's a decent number of characters, like Eve, whom I could write with only one eye open.

No matter how often I write fics from their perspectives, Drusilla, River, and crazy!Fred will never be characters I could write with my eyes closed. Their voices take work, although personally I find it rewarding.

3. After answering the above question, and inspired by glossings' recent statistic-loaed geekery, I began to wonder exactly how many fics I've written with each character.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Dawn Summers (18)
Rupert Giles (13)
Drusilla (8)
Illyria (8)
Kennedy (8)
Willow Rosenberg (8)
Faith (7)
Buffy Summers (6)
Harmony
Kendall (6)
Wesley Wyndam-Pryce (6)
Amy Madison (5)
Madelyn Summers (OC: 5)
Eve (4)
Fred Burkle (4)
Xander Harris (4)
Andrew Wells (3)
Angel/us (3)
Beatrice DeCosta (OC: 3)
Lilah Morgan (3)
Lydia Chalmers (3)
Althanea (2)
Ethan Rayne (2)
Roger Wyndam-Pryce (2)
Spike (2)
Vi (2)

Firefly
River Tam (4)
Shepherd Book (3)
Kaylee Frye (3)
Malcolm Reynolds (2)
Simon Tam (2)
Inara Serra (1)
Jayne Cobb (1)
Dr. Mathias (1)
Saffron (1)

A few of these surprised me; I didn't realize I had written quite so many stories with Giles in them (they're not all Dawn/Giles, after all), and I thought I had written more with Roger.

4. To work up to watching Serenity, I've been rewatching Firefly. My thoughts on "Serenity": Boy, that ship does fly on sexual tension. My Mal/Kaylee love is reaffirmed, of course, and I came awfully close to agreeing with those who saw Kaylee/Inara as canon. But then I realized that by those standards, Kaylee/everyone was canon.

5. “Shindig”: Are there people who watch this episode for the Mal/Inara, as opposed to for seeing Kaylee in a poofy dress? Maybe it's just the Mal/Kaylee shipper in me, but I don't understand those people. This episode is good for two main things: some great Kaylee scenes, and River's brief stint fulfilling my "insane British women played by Americans" kink.

6. Gakked from musesfool and fox1013 and inlovewithnight and wisdomeagle and half the flist: You post a topic, list, category, whatever, in my comments section. (examples: "5 Sexiest Things About Ron Weasley" or "Top 5 things to drink"). Then, in a separate post, I'll post the answers to all your Top 5 ideas, according to me. Then you post this offer in your own journal. ETA: Anyone who actually gives me "5 Sexiest Things about Ron Weasley"? Will not live to tell the tale.

Comments

[wisdomeagle]

No matter how often I write fics from their perspectives, Drusilla, River, and crazy!Fred will never be characters I could write with my eyes closed. Their voices take work, although personally I find it rewarding.

Just about everyone who says she can write River with her eyes closed is required to add, "And that should probably worry me," but I thought I'd say it all the same. I can write River (and crazy!Fred) with my eyes closed - and that should probably worry me.

Top five things that are shiny. :)

I didn't see any Mal/Inara UST in "Shindig." I couldn't see past the big floofy dress. *happy sigh*

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

I didn't see any Mal/Inara UST in "Shindig."

Do you guys watch this episode with the sound off, perchance? :) Then you'd still have to explain the swordfighT

[wisdomeagle]

If I'd watched it with the sound off, would there be "Look at the pretties?"

"And I looking at, the girls or the clothes"

"The clothes, please."

or

"'m not saying the eighty-oh-four's hard to repair, it just ain't worth it."

Random: On the transcript I've googled, several characters speaking in unison are indicated with slashes between their names, which gives us:
SIMON / ZOE / WASH
No!

... No words!

It really does say something that three out of my four Kaylee icons are from "Shindig," huh?

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Swordfight? What swordfight?

Oh, right that was the B-plot that was going on while Kaylee and River were on Serenity with Badger, right? Gotta love River's scene with Badger.

And now I need to go write River&Badger fanfiction.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Actually, one of the hardest things for me about writing River, Drusilla, and crazy!Fred is making them sound different enough from each other. Mathematical metaphors do a pretty job at making Fred's voice unique, but I'm constantly struggling with my River voice.

*shares your happy sigh and ignores Carrie*

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Actually, one of the hardest things for me about writing River, Drusilla, and crazy!Fred is making them sound different enough from each other.

So true. I was writing a genius character recently and realizing I was totally channelling Illyria. I actually tend to make Fred and *Kaylee* sound really similar -- both perky geniuses -- and with River I mostly abuse allusions (which is a wekness I'm prone to in my writing anyway).

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

with River I mostly abuse allusions (which is a wekness I'm prone to in my writing anyway)

This is what I would probably do, but it happens to be my technique for writing Drusilla (which I like to think I do relatively well). Also, River in canon is usually either lucid or crazy, whereas Drusilla always hovers somewhere in between. Which means that when writing River, she usually sounds bat-s^!# crazy (and thus OOC) or miraculously sane (and thus OOC).

And of course, when I had to write from her POV in first person for your FemGen fic--well, I'm not sure if that made it harder or easier, but probably harder.

And, as I've said before, a lot of "being crazy" characterization is done with the actor's voice, not the lines themselves. It's difficult for a fanfic writer to come up with a line that sounds even almost right, whereas Juliet and Summer are able to pull off lines in canon that when read sound incredibly out of character, because they can do things on screen than fanfic writers just can't (we can do things that TV can't, of course, but that's little satisfaction here).

Which is why I say that the main thing I dislike about having a closed canon is being cut off from Juliet and Summer; their acting is the one thing from canon that fanfic can't replace (or do better).

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think the highest compliment someone can pay in regards to character voice is "I could *hear* the character saying that," and there's definitely a lot to be said for inflection and acting beyond just what's printed on the page.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Shindig:

I watch the episode for the Mal/Inara.

I watch EVERYTHING for the Mal/Inara. But especially Shindig.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

No comment.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Mal/Inara is not the only Firefly pairing I love, but I feel the need to comment in solidarity.

[janedavitt.livejournal.com]

I think it's a point you reach where you've got it settled in your head how you view the character and know, without thinking about it, how they'll react in any given situation.

Then it's just a case of giving it to them and stepping back :-)

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

I agree. And then you can focus on what, exactly, it is that you're going to give them--and the real fun starts.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

I don't know if the links will still work, but basically the whole movie got capped here.

I think Kaylee/Inara is far closer to being canon than some Kaylee pairings.

I'll concede that Mal/Inara is somewhat train-wrecky-y, but I love that 'ship and feel more like, "Why else would you watch 'Shindig'?" Okay, I do love Kaylee at said shindig, but I don't have the mad love for her in general that some people *cough*Ari*cough* do. Ari and I have already had the conversation about how she's insane for not having realized the show was pushing Mal/Inara until way late.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Well, unlike Ari, I noticed the Mal/Inara in "Shindig" (at least this time around, I might not have caught on the first time 'round until "Our Mrs. Reynolds"), I just didn't care--although I can see how the relationship could be fascinating to watch in a train-wreck sort of way. I was already a Mal/Kaylee shipper by then, though--I only needed "Serenity" to be sold on that.

I have to admit to mad-loving Kaylee almost as much as Ari does, though.

And thank you so much for that link! It was exactly what I needed. And I feel much better, because that picture I was using really didn't look anything at all like Dr. Mathias, even if it was the same human being. Thank you!

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Mal/Kaylee never occurred to me until I was watching the series with a friend (3rd time for me, 1st time for friend) and said friend asked me if Mal/Kaylee was big in fandom. Shortly thereafter I discovered that musesfool is a big Mal/Kaylee shipper and I've been more attuned to the dynamic since. I tend to think he sees her as like a little sister, and while I wouldn't necessarily deny the possibility that she's sexually attracted to him (she is Kaylee, after all) I see theirs as predominantly a platonic relationship, and I think mostly she's not interested in messin' with the order of things gettin' involved with her ship's captain (esp. since she calls him Captain all the time rather than just Mal).

I'm honestly not interested in watching Mal/Inara *as* a train wreck, though I certainly understand why a lot of people see that as a reason why the 'ship is not a good idea. It's hard to turn them into a happy ending, and I kind of like that about them (cuts down on the ridiculous fluff fic written about them). I like the tension and the banter and I like the idea of them managing to cut through all the obstacles and actually make something together, difficult though that might be.

And you're entirely welcome. I totally understand as people can look radically different in different roles, costumes, whatever.

[gloss]

"Which characters/pairings could you write with your eyes closed?"
*trembles*
So would you say that your pairings are the same people across different stories? I'm always interested to know how people approach their pairings.

Also, yay for geekery and stats. :D

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

The Faith/Kennedy and Dawn/Giles dynamics are definitely the same people, since they're all set in the same universe (or else I've written a lot of unconnected stories in all of which Dawn has a niece name Madelyn) even if many of them were written to be read by themselves (since a lot are ficathon stories, although I think the femslash_minis people have gotten a grasp of my personal fanons). Those two pairings aren't pairings that I love for their own sake so much as pairings that made sense within the Watcher!verse (a lot of Dawn/Giles, for example, is set up by the Dawn/Ethan

As for the miscellaneous stories, I think there might be slight differences in the way I characterize them. A lot of my ficlet!Amys are less three-dimensional than my Watcher!verse Amy, being power-hungry caricatures. The Eve that seduces the Scoobies in The Game isn't quite the same Eve that answers the 70 questions meme, because the first is an AU and the latter takes place in the Watcher!verse (don't ask me why). But the former Eve is somewhat OOC for Eve, so I would still think of it in terms as a "right" Eve and a "wrong" Eve, instead of several equally valid interpretations of the same character (as I might several different writers' Eves). ("The Game" was written for buffyverse1000, and I loosened my standards for OOC somewhat when writing that fic.) Despite living in drastically different universes, Watcher!verse Eve isn't all that different from the Eve who is working in a diner in Funeral; they still work from basically the same motivations, i.e. love for Lindsey, fear of the Senior Partners, fear of her own mortality, etc. I'm trying to do my best to simply pick up canon!Eve and drop her into these new situations with as little change as possible, while telling a story which reflects my values and the themes that I am interested in.

In general, I don't think my characterizations are drastically different even between unconnected fic. I try and get a "least hypothesis" of the character and motivation--what makes them tick in the closest possible world in which canon could be true--and only make changes if it serves the story (or my agenda) in some way. In my unconnected stories I have greater freedom to make such changes but don't utilize it indiscriminately.

Geekery is never a bad thing.