More on strange and annoying nicknames
Jun. 23rd, 2007 09:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
superbadgirlIf Dean Winchester has referred to Sam Winchester as "kiddo*" on the television screen, I've missed it. Maybe he did it once or something, which would be easy to block out for me, but given the number of times I have seen that in fanfiction it would appear Dean calls Sam that all the time (and I rarely venture into reading SPN fic). Every time I see it I want to send feedback begging for the writer to please stop using that word. It seems, to me, to perpetuate this idea that Sam's a weak little boy who needs coddling and protection.
H/C stories can be written without infantalizing one of the characters. Really.
At least when writers abused "Danny" in SG-1 fandom, Jack actually did use that a couple of times and so there was a (somewhat sketchy, if you ask me) foundation. That got to a point where I would really have to back out of a story if I read that more than, say, five times in a couple of pages. There was also one author who did a similar thing as "kiddo." Everything would go along swimmingly, and then Jack would suddenly call Daniel, Sam and Teal'c "kiddies." WTF, man. W.T.F.
Back to SPN, I've now been thinking about other horrific characterizations. Sam has got teary-eyed a bit in the show. It's canon. So has Dean. This, however, does not mean that they'll cry at the drop of a hat. Sam thinking about a puppy being left alone because its owner got dead would not make him turn into a quivering mass of tears. It really wouldn't. Sam's a sensitive soul (or at least he was), sure, but there are limitations. I would ask people just think for a minute or two before they make either Sam or Dean burst into tears.
Funnily enough, the same thing happened in SG-1 fandom as well. There are certain stories out there that are SO smarmy it makes me cringe, stories in which Daniel and Jack are such weepy, emotional wrecks I do not recognize them at all.
I suppose it can all be chalked up to different strokes for different folks.
And now I must go because apparently I'm 2 hours behind on working for The Man (frankly, I find that bogus) and have to play catch-up. While I'm sweeping and weeding and scrubbing, I'm hoping to devise a better plan to avoid the mailman. He's persistent, that one.
*perhaps the "kiddo" thing is personal. Apparently my paternal grandfather called all of us "kiddo" and when I was about 2 1/2 or 3 I started talking more and insisted that he stop calling me that because my name wasn't Kiddo, it was SBG. My mom said that was adorable, everyone oohed and ahhed and my grandfather continued to call me kiddo, bless his heart. He died when I was 4.
H/C stories can be written without infantalizing one of the characters. Really.
At least when writers abused "Danny" in SG-1 fandom, Jack actually did use that a couple of times and so there was a (somewhat sketchy, if you ask me) foundation. That got to a point where I would really have to back out of a story if I read that more than, say, five times in a couple of pages. There was also one author who did a similar thing as "kiddo." Everything would go along swimmingly, and then Jack would suddenly call Daniel, Sam and Teal'c "kiddies." WTF, man. W.T.F.
Back to SPN, I've now been thinking about other horrific characterizations. Sam has got teary-eyed a bit in the show. It's canon. So has Dean. This, however, does not mean that they'll cry at the drop of a hat. Sam thinking about a puppy being left alone because its owner got dead would not make him turn into a quivering mass of tears. It really wouldn't. Sam's a sensitive soul (or at least he was), sure, but there are limitations. I would ask people just think for a minute or two before they make either Sam or Dean burst into tears.
Funnily enough, the same thing happened in SG-1 fandom as well. There are certain stories out there that are SO smarmy it makes me cringe, stories in which Daniel and Jack are such weepy, emotional wrecks I do not recognize them at all.
I suppose it can all be chalked up to different strokes for different folks.
And now I must go because apparently I'm 2 hours behind on working for The Man (frankly, I find that bogus) and have to play catch-up. While I'm sweeping and weeding and scrubbing, I'm hoping to devise a better plan to avoid the mailman. He's persistent, that one.
*perhaps the "kiddo" thing is personal. Apparently my paternal grandfather called all of us "kiddo" and when I was about 2 1/2 or 3 I started talking more and insisted that he stop calling me that because my name wasn't Kiddo, it was SBG. My mom said that was adorable, everyone oohed and ahhed and my grandfather continued to call me kiddo, bless his heart. He died when I was 4.
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Date: 2007-06-25 07:40 pm (UTC)Exactly, except for me the writing doesn't necessarily even have to be good, but the situation has to be believable to me and the characters written in a way that I feel is consistent with how I see them on the show--or close to that or even just written in a way that I could buy for the purposes of the story (although the latter is the most difficult *g*).
What works for me might not work for you, but in general, when the boys are sobbing every five minutes or even just having their eyes tear up a bit too much, it takes me out of the story. The emotional impact has to be there, and that usually needs to be portrayed *without* the tears. Crying can sometimes happen as a result of that, but it takes me out of the story if it seems to come from no where.
I wonder if maybe authors add that in (like the puking! *g*) to add an emotional element. I think that's what I was doing with all the puking in my story. *g* (That still amuses me, because I really have such a phobia of that. *g*) It's kind of a cheating way to try to add a layer of emotion, and it doesn't really work. When characters cry (or puke *g*) without anything backing it up--nothing written to get the characters to that place--it doesn't work.
On the show, the crying almost always works for me because the actors sell it, but in stories, I think it's much harder to make it work. The writers for the show have Jensen and Jared to do at least part of the work for them. *g*
It's all a matter of degrees. I'm not inclined to like any story that has them in waterworks all the time.
Me either. As much as I love crying boys, the story would have to be good (by my own personal standards) and have more than just a boy crying for no reason or very little reason.
Unless it's that spoof I plan on writing. ;)
Hee! I'd love to see that.