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Fannish Friday: Character U-Turns
On this ridiculously hot Friday (in most of the northern hemisphere, anyway), tell me about a character who you either started out loving and ended up hating or started out hating and ended up loving. Or both! With an emphasis on it being unexpected--if someone had told you you'd end up loving/hating this particular character, you wouldn't have believed them.
Love to hate ---> Giles from Buffy. I was always a big fan of the character, and then in season 6, they have him abandon Buffy because she needs to "stand on her own," even though her mother just died, SHE JUST DIED, she's trying to deal with living again, she's raising her teenage sister on her own, and she has to pay the mortgage??? And did I mention that she's, at most, 20 years old??? It's truly insane.
I know that this decision was made because Anthony Head wanted to spend more time in the UK so they needed to write him out of the bulk of the season, but I can think of a half a dozen ways to do that that would have kept him from abandoning Buffy.
Buffy is my woobie anyway, so it isn't surprising that I would resent anyone who betrayed her, but wow, this feels personal to me. It even affects me when I go back and rewatch earlier seasons! And I hate it because I loved that character before this!!!
Hate to love ---> Jamie Tartt from Ted Lasso. He starts out the show just this arrogant asshole who doesn't know how to properly treat Keeley, who you have loved from the first episode. You're set up to see him as a villain. And then you get the reveal of why he's that way, and while that doesn't excuse it, it does help contextualize him.
And then! Then the writers gave him one of the best redemption arcs! And it's subtle! You barely even realize it's happening! Until one day you realize...Jamie's become a really good person and you love him! He's become one of your blorbos! (On a show filled with blorbos!)
I'm still not quite sure how they pulled that off--I need to go back and rewatch the show to figure out how they did it. But wow, I am so happy the writers did that! I adore that boyand ship him so hard with Keeley and Roy!
I would love to hear your journeys with particular characters, either in the comments or in your own post!
Love to hate ---> Giles from Buffy. I was always a big fan of the character, and then in season 6, they have him abandon Buffy because she needs to "stand on her own," even though her mother just died, SHE JUST DIED, she's trying to deal with living again, she's raising her teenage sister on her own, and she has to pay the mortgage??? And did I mention that she's, at most, 20 years old??? It's truly insane.
I know that this decision was made because Anthony Head wanted to spend more time in the UK so they needed to write him out of the bulk of the season, but I can think of a half a dozen ways to do that that would have kept him from abandoning Buffy.
Buffy is my woobie anyway, so it isn't surprising that I would resent anyone who betrayed her, but wow, this feels personal to me. It even affects me when I go back and rewatch earlier seasons! And I hate it because I loved that character before this!!!
Hate to love ---> Jamie Tartt from Ted Lasso. He starts out the show just this arrogant asshole who doesn't know how to properly treat Keeley, who you have loved from the first episode. You're set up to see him as a villain. And then you get the reveal of why he's that way, and while that doesn't excuse it, it does help contextualize him.
And then! Then the writers gave him one of the best redemption arcs! And it's subtle! You barely even realize it's happening! Until one day you realize...Jamie's become a really good person and you love him! He's become one of your blorbos! (On a show filled with blorbos!)
I'm still not quite sure how they pulled that off--I need to go back and rewatch the show to figure out how they did it. But wow, I am so happy the writers did that! I adore that boy
I would love to hear your journeys with particular characters, either in the comments or in your own post!
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Hate to Love – Tim Riggins on Friday Night Lights! I didn’t THINK I’d ever even like the angsty Lancelot side of a teen show love triangle but then! So many other things went down and he -somehow!- became my fave and I also ship him crazy hard with Lyla? Not quite sure how all that happened. I’m still stuck on the end of season 3 (?) where they lose and he leaves his cleats on the field.
Interesting how the same character jock-type can provoke such different reactions.
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the angsty Lancelot side of a teen show love triangle
This is such a funny way to describe Riggins and absolutely right! He's nowhere near my favorite, but I definitely care a lot about him, which I did not expect!
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Haha, I know Vince or maybe Matt should probably be my best boy, and yet it’s Riggins? Stranger things have happened!
Re: Giles, the only way I continue to like him after S6 is because I pretend he was on a mission for the Council or got devoured by a portal or something. I mean it’s a supernatural show! So many easier ways to do it! “Oh I am so conflicted and will sing about it, but I’ll abandon you anyway” was such a weird way to write him out.
And then there’s his patronizing terribleness in S7...no subject
BOO!
Matt's my best boy, but I love how many good boys we have to choose from! Smash! Vince! Even Luke!
I mean it’s a supernatural show! So many easier ways to do it! “Oh I am so conflicted and will sing about it, but I’ll abandon you anyway” was such a weird way to write him out.
YOU UNDERSTAND ME! Or! They could have had him do the whole "she needs to stand on her own thing" and then have it revealed that a demon made him think that or something!!!
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I'm kind of surprised you've never had a character you love ruined for you by canon. Lucky you!
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(eg when I had my horrible breakup with Doctor Who many years ago)
I had a horrible breakup with DW (rage-quit after what happened to Donna), gave it another try (the Ponds, whose era I genuinely loved despite its unevenness), got super annoyed again (the Melody plotline), and drifted away from it. A clean break would have been better!
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The clean break was not good in my case lol. Doctor Who was a show that was very meaningful to me and it felt crushingly awful. I couldn't even think about the show without crying for years afterwards. I was able to move on from it eventually but honestly it was a defining grief of my mid twenties.
* the doctor is totally chill with violence, rather than his violent impulses being something that comes out when he's at his worst! the doctor is the most special boy in the universe, and his companions have to be special too, rather than the point of the show being that everyone is special in their ordinariness! the doctor is very much not asexual! misogynistic jokes are funny! every story needs to be about WORLD-ENDINGLY-MASSIVE plots that last all season and are all about Moffat making sure you know how clever he is! and so forth.
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The clean break was not good in my case lol. Doctor Who was a show that was very meaningful to me and it felt crushingly awful. I couldn't even think about the show without crying for years afterwards. I was able to move on from it eventually but honestly it was a defining grief of my mid twenties.
Oh no! I'm so sorry! That is truly awful!
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It even affects me when I go back and rewatch earlier seasons!
Same. My main feeling is "fuck that guy," which is a shame.
The only original example that immediately comes to mind is not a character but a person, but given what SPN fandom is, it kind of feels like the same thing lol?? But anyway, I was SO obsessed with Jensen for a period (like, the way I was in love with Leo in 2nd grade when Titanic came out and with Tom Felton and Daniel Radcliffe as a teen), and then I was very disenchanted after the first con I went to, and after a few years I reached a place of grudging appreciation where I could acknowledge that he's human and imperfect and still an amazing actor, and THEN he had the fucking GALL to create that disgusting prequel show WITHOUT EVEN TELLING JARED, and now, well, I'm not even sure I want an SPN reboot anymore :))) And for me, that's really saying something.
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Ugh, what a rollercoaster of a relationship!
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Oh, this is easy: the Queen of Attolia, for all the obvious reasons as the plot developed after the conclusion of The Thief.
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OH! Yes, I can easily imagine that!
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I have, in hindsight, accepted that I actually like this type of character: Sawyer (Lost), Duke (Haven), Three (Dark Matter), aka the criminal with a sorta heart of gold but who more importantly is sub to a woman I care about. Every time I resist the initial intro of this dude, and then he's like "boss lady <3" and I'm just...."ffs, fine, I guess", because I also love her.
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Hahaha, that's so you!
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Buffy is my woobie anyway, so it isn't surprising that I would resent anyone who betrayed her, but wow, this feels personal to me. It even affects me when I go back and rewatch earlier seasons! And I hate it because I loved that character before this!!!
See this is very interesting, because although it was so obviously the wrong thing, it never bothered me? S6 is the season when everyone falls, and they fall because of their strengths. (I have literally written an essay on this, in case it might help?)
Also someone mentioned the S3 episode about the Slayer test (Cruciamentum? unsure about the spelling), and I feel the need to defend Giles. He sabotages the test halfway through by telling Buffy the truth, which ends up costing him his job as her Watcher.
He's not re-instated officially until S5 (Checkpoint). ^_^
I think that is enough waffling for today...
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Oh, I think it's not totally unrealistic and it's definitely the kind of mistake a human would make! But I cannot be rational about it, possibly because of my own fear of being abandoned by my literal parents. I can understand why it wouldn't bother other people, but it sure does me!
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Ooof, that makes a lot of sense. :( :(