META: Character Bashing Gives Me Rage

[campylobacter]

Wednesday was a long day at work; I was finally at home, decompressing, reading some hot Daniel/Vala smut... and then after leaving a review, I got the notion to try something new: a Daniel/Sam story.

Because I don't 'ship Daniel & Sam, I wanted to gain insight into their relationship dynamic from another segment of the Stargate fandom. What is it about their interaction that I might be missing? Because when I see MS & AT in scenes together, their body language is the same as my body language around my brother. Have I been projecting my perceptions as an older sister onto Sam's character? I wanted to see if the Daniel/Sam fandom handily destroys the fanon of Sam & Daniel as "just like brother & sister".


And now I'm pissed: there's Vala-bashing in the Sam/Daniel story.

Vala [....] could tell that something was up. It didn’t take her long to notice the furtive glances. The close proximity. Even the occasional drifting hand under the commissary tables. At first she was angry. This blonde harlot stole HER Daniel away. But as she watched them, she knew that Daniel was never really hers. And in true Vala fashion, she turned her sights to someone else.

Hello? "True Vala fashion" would be for Vala to ask if she could join them in a threesome. Vala doesn't think of Sam as a "harlot"; in fact, she respects Sam's authority as a leader (see "The Uninvited") and spends time shopping and drinking with her ("Family Ties").

Why does an author need to bash a character for the sake of focusing on their fave OTP? WTF???!!!!

I don't bash Daniel/Sam in my stories, or any other pairing. In fact, as a multi-shipper, I toss in innuendo for other pairings (Jack/Daniel & Sam/Vala being a couple favorites) because it gives the characterizations more energy and dynamism, and acknowledges the depth of their previous history together.

Anyone have any Sam/Daniel fanfic recs that don't have character bashing? Maybe there should be warnings on 'shipper fics if there's character bashing... LOL. "Sam/Vala antipathy" or something. Because it ruined my evening.

Comments

[campylobacter.livejournal.com]

I try to remain open to all pairings; there are very few that my porn goggles cannot handle. (I might even be able to get into Vala/Adria if Adria's been taken as host by Ba'al...)

I think character bashing reflects directly on the author's lack of understanding the characters they're 'shipping. Even if a pairing is canon -- let's say Jack/Sara, for example, in a pre-SGC story -- and the author writes Sara as a silly, perky, vapid housewife instead of a chain-smoking, straightforward, car-repairing mom, then obviously, someone's not paying attention to the show!

Because I KNOW we've all read some Daniel/Vala where their characterizations are so OoC and WTF? that it looks like you could substitute Buffy/Xander or Luke/Chewbacca and it would make as much sense.

[hummingfly67.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty fussy...I want my porn to be about pairings I love. Most times.

But I seriously do think some writers resort to character bashing to make their favorites look better, their pairings to work. YMMV.

Luke/Chewbacca

Okay...I want whatever you're tsmoking!

[campylobacter.livejournal.com]

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