#both the fanon of those characters AND the canon of those characters from s2 onwards doesn't do it for me 😭

[kenobihater]

i legit don't get the appeal of viewing a character you like as a "100% unproblematic fave". y'all realize that a character can both be staunchly good with many positive traits AND have some flaws as well, right? to me, viewing a moral yet multifaceted character as faultless is like baking a cake with no salt. yeah, it's sweet, but it's too sweet because there's no salt to elevate the flavor! where's the depth in a character that is entirely perfect? where's the compelling motivations and character work? where's the humanity in that?

thankfully, i don't see much of this complete denial of flaws in the popular fanon of characters i enjoy, but what i DO see frequently is a shift in focus from characters' overall negative behaviors - behaviors directed both at themself and towards others - to depicting their self-destructive behaviors as their sole flaws. self-destruction is viewed as an "acceptable" flaw, unlike causing harm to others, and is often exaggerated if not invented out of whole cloth!

for an example of this distortion: there's a heroic yet flawed character i like with a high stress position that he wholly dedicates himself to, who probably loses a bit of sleep and is seen asking for and drinking tea ONCE to buy some time. what's the fanon version of him seen in many fics? well, his missteps and occasional emotional insensitivity have gone entirely out the window, and he's been transformed into a workaholic, sleep-deprived, caffeine addict who is incapable of caring for himself. he WILL collapse at some point in order to justify his love interest swooping in and insisting that this character, a fully grown adult man in charge of 1/10th of the entire army, learns ✨the importance of self care✨

i'm not arguing for every character to be deeply flawed - i love a good hero - but by making a canonically flawed character either 1) entirely beyond reproach or 2) a self-neglectful and/or self-flagellating martyr who has never hurt anyone but themself, you're sucking the life RIGHT out of them, and boring me to tears in the process.

#len speaks #len's meta #swinging a bat at a hornet's nest by tagging some of my faves whose fanon interpretations annoy me a bit <3 #obi-wan kenobi #obi wan kenobi #obiwan kenobi #zuko #jaskier #matt murdock #<- SPECIFICALLY the show versions of those last 2. there's a reason i don't rlly fw those shows after s1 of EITHER of them 💀 #both the fanon of those characters AND the canon of those characters from s2 onwards doesn't do it for me 😭 #also yeah. the theoretical example is exactly who you're thinking of and i will probably catch flak for it. oh well! might as well reenter #the fandom after my hiatus with a splash and possible weirdos in my notes lmao!

[imunbreakabledude]

Does annie like maeve for who she really is?

you guys sometimes send me these questions that feel like the great philosophical debates of our time (“our time” being the interest in specific fictional characters online)

if you mean “is there evidence of this in canon”: I think yes, even though it’s limited. Maeve and Annie’s “real” interactions (I would call these any from the “bulletproof” scene in 107 onward) are few and far between… and they’re also pretty mixed in terms of them agreeing/playing nice versus being confrontational. Even Maeve’s “nicest” moments to Annie often include some mean shit too (like the 108 bathroom scene). so it may be easy to look at this and be like “we don’t know if they actually GET ALONG as people” since those are mostly limited to life threatening circumstances where they need to ally, too.

however I am gonna say I do think Annie still likes the “real” Maeve, maybe even more than she liked the fake branded image of Queen Maeve in her head, specifically because she is real, and flawed, and challenging. Imagine if Maeve was the kinda person who tried harder to act like her “character” all the time and even tried to convince Annie she was that Sunny feminist hero even off-camera. It would become very apparent it wasn’t true and it’d still piss Annie off. Maeve’s choices are definitely not the best when it comes to getting to know Annie, she’s rude and dismissive, esp at first, but she is REAL and even her bad moments all demonstrate care and - in a way - respect for Annie that is unlike what anyone else at Vought shows her.

that might sound weird to say when Maeve says some pretty cruel words to Annie but her ACTIONS overall show way more respect compared to Ashley/Madelyn/Homelander who in their own ways all just want to get Annie to do what THEY want her to do as quickly as possible. Whereas Maeve treats her like an independent person. Which is partly due to her dismissive “not my job” attitude, I’m not trying to say it’s all great, lol, but I think Annie would come to realize that even the moments when Maeve is rude or blunt or distant with her are mostly because she is trying not to bullshit Annie.

And I also think after the whole “bulletproof” speech in 107 Annie would come to understand that a good part of why Maeve keeps her at arm’s length after that is BECAUSE she cares. that doesn’t mean Annie wouldn’t still find it frustrating - as she should - but imo their arc from late s2 into s3 speaks very much to complicated mutual respect. As in, Annie doesn’t go bother maeve for help all the time bc she doesn’t want to be the annoying damsel/doesn’t know if Maeve will agree to it, but when shit is dire she DOES, and even though Maeve rebuffs her (in 304 for example) she doesn’t take it personally and doesn’t stop trying. She still obviously cares for Maeve thru the rest of s3 and still “believes” she can be a “true hero” even after a major betrayal.

so all that to say, I think in canon that Annie DOES like the “real” Maeve even if they have a more realistically complicated relationship that doesn’t go to BFFS immediately after their first team-up.

As for fic/fanon/beyond s3, I do think they’d become much more friendly even if long distance friendship and Annie would come to get to know Maeve’s bitchiness and sarcasm is affectionate and even poke fun at her for it

I mean I think it mostly comes down to - Annie is a very values-based person. She will fight to protect anyone, like Hughie says, “even those who don’t deserve it”, but also who she GETS ALONG with is mostly based on who shares her values. Her fighting with people doesn’t mean she hates them, though. She fights with Hughie and Alex and the Boys when they disagree in the moment BECAUSE she cares not bc she hates them now. But I say all that to emphasize I think the reason Annie “likes” both the fake character of Queen Maeve AND the real Maeve is they both do share her values - even if Real Maeve is a lot messier about it because the real world is messier than Vought’s movies. And I think even tho Annie is initially disappointed/angry that real Maeve doesn’t live up to Queen Maeve, the more she goes thru the Vought machine herself, the more she realizes how hard it is to hold ANY values or morals there let alone do anything about them. So I think that inspires more affection or respect for Real Maeve over time as she internalizes that.

#maeveannie #Queen maeve #Annie January #I have like at least 2 fics about this question too lol #their relationship is so !!! to me for this reason #Queen maeve sp #anonymous #ask

[theghostofashton]

hi! hope you're doing good :) what about quinn and alex karev for the character thingy (idk if you like karev tbh, but I like him so)

hi thank u sm!! i'm sorry this took a minute, last week was...a mess.

quinn:

How I feel about this character

i love her so much. she's beautiful and inspirational and she deserves the entire world.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

...rachel. i'm kinda indifferent on quick. it's fine and if quinn had to end up with a man, i'm glad it was puck, but i much prefer faberry. i know that's kinda a contentious opinion partly bc of how blatantly queerbait it was, but i genuinely feel like it would've done both characters so much good and made so much sense after we lost finn.

i've read so many faberry fics that interpret canon perfectly and make it work, and i love what they do both with rachel and quinn's characters. they make each other better and understand each other in a way i just didn't see with st berry, quick, or finchel.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

mercedes, santana, and blaine but that's fanon

i have nothing new to add about quinncedes. we deserved more of it. it was so pure and perfect and i will die mad that we got absolute dust after like s1.

i talked abt this in my santana post but i really love them as friends because of how honest and authentic their friendship is. they call each other out in ways that i feel like work bc they're things that would make each other better. santana saying quinn keeps defining herself with men in 4x08 was absolutely right and it's something i only feel like santana would've said. i just appreciate the realness of quinntana. everyone needs a no bs call it like it is friend.

My unpopular opinion about this character

she would make way more sense if people stopped writing her off as "crazy quinn" and actually took the time to understand the way her actions are the result of everything she's been through. i've seen no issue w people using headcanons and speculation to understand other characters so don't act like it's hard to do for her lmfao people just choose not to (which is fine if you don't want to but don't act like she makes no sense when she does)

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

i wish we'd seen her story after s3. what did she major in at yale? what does she end up doing? i also wish they'd actually called it post partum depression that she was struggling w from s2 onward and made those terms of her story more explicit if only so people could stop calling her a crazy serial cheater lmfao

alex karev:

How I feel about this character

dude omg karev is my favorite grey's character!! he is everything and his development is just...there's this fan vid i watched a while ago that encapsulates all of it and it made me cry because they did this so right. it was gradual and subtle and made things so much more satisfying. i'm still in awe that they managed to make fuckboy alex karev w plastics dreams into the most amazing pediatric surgeon ever and it makes me cry.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

jo. they are so fucking perfect and they fit so well and they made each other better people and i will die mad that the writers fucked them up so badly

My non-romantic OTP for this character

mer, cristina, and arizona. all three of them were so important to alex in such different ways and watching how their relationships developed was beautiful. especially mer, after cristina left, the way she and alex got closer, and the entire thing with arizona. i just love his friendships w everyone but these three felt so instrumental to his development for me.

My unpopular opinion about this character

i hated his relationship with izzie and never believed in it lmfao

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

they'd written him off better. i honestly would rather they have killed him than what we ended up getting which says a lot

#long post #grey's anatomy #quinn fabray #glee #neha rambles #i'm so sorry this took so long #thank u for the ask!!