Fannish Friday: we were so close! (feat. ironic icon use)

[lirazel]

I was thinking earlier this week about Bones from ST: TOS and how close he comes to being a favorite character of mine. I think DeForest Kelley is great in the role, and I like a curmudgeon!

But omg, I hate how he's constantly space!racist to Spock, who is, always, my number one priority! Why??? did the writers do this??? It keeps me from loving Bones completely and it also keeps me from OT3-ing him with Spock and Kirk. I can imagine a world in which Bones is still gruff and grumpy and skeptical but not a bigot against Vulcans, and in that world, I would adore him! In that world, that OT3 would be one of my all-time ships! But we, alas, do not live in that world!

I'm also thinking of Becky Chambers, whose worldbuilding I find so very, very fun and who is a very good writer who actually writes alien main character! I feel like, on paper, she is a writer who I should absolutely adore, and yet her books are lacking something to make me love her. I told Jessica it was because they're lacking the messiness of real life, and I do think that's part of it, though there's something else I can't quite put my finger on.

So tell me about your near-misses. Is there something out there--a character, a show, a book, a ship, whatever--that you could have loved wholeheartedly if just one small thing had been done differently?

Comments

[ruuger]

It's been years since I read it, so my main memory is just a vague sense of unease about it, but I think my main issues was how the "bad guy" crewmember was treated, and also something about how the reptile alien's culture and the feeling I got that the author was trying to make a point about not being judgemental about other culture's traditions but it was something that you really should be judgemental about, I think? And also the general vibe of non-humans as expies for real-life minorities, which often did not work at all in the context of the world. Sorry, this is super vague but I literally don't remember much about the book besides being disappointed and finding it a bit skeevy :D

[lirazel]

Totally fair! I do think that she's a preachy kind of writer, and when you're that preachy, you always risk preaching about something that your audience disagrees with. I wish she'd chill out a little about Moral Correctness, and I'm saying that as someone who has been described as the Woke Police. So.