This meme is just an excuse to do some Wesley flailing

[semele]

This post contains A Song of Ice and Fire books spoilers.

Comment to this post, and I will list five things I associate with you. They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your LJ (or just add a reply back to me). Other people (including me) can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.

So, ever_neutral gave me:


01. non-functional Damon/Elena

I AM GOING TO BE BRIEF ABOUT IT. Mostly because I'm in the middle of writing a D/E meta. Besides, a brief look at my journal should be enough for you to tell that lately I've became this crazy shipper person.

This ship is my current obsession, mostly because it just begs for future!fics in which both Damon and Elena are gloriously fucked up. So I love Damon/Elena as a ship that is based on very casual, mundane disappointments, on disillusionment and on a weird yet real friendship. I indulge in Damon's inclinations towards drama and in Elena's worst tendencies. Those two can be truly romantic, and they can do it in the most creepy way.

02. Wesley Wyndam-Pryce!

I need Wesley like I need oxygen ;). What I love about him the most is the LOGIC with which he was written: he is this character who seems to have changed every aspect of himself, but in fact he didn't. Even the dark, broken Wesley who helps Illyria still has some traces of the old, silly, know-it-all Wesley. He can make the hardest choices without blinking, and it doesn't matter if it is handing Faith to the Council, stealing Connor or destroying Vail's memory spell. Wesley always makes the hard choice. He doesn't hesitate, he doesn't wait for someone to decide for him, he just does it, and then he bears the consequences.

Wesley is tragic, but he is also a bit pathetic, he would make a fool of himself or help Illyria just because she looks like Fred. He speaks dozens of languages, and yet he still can't express himself. He had his throat cut, and his friends abandoned him, and then he had this memory taken away from him. He fell in love with Fred, because she was this sweet, innocent person he would've loved before he was broken, than he discovered some dark things about her and he fell in love with who she really was, then it was taken away form him, and Wesley fell in love with the Ideal Fred again. He lost her before he rediscovered the truth, and now (I live in the AU world in which Wesley is alive, and I have to think very hard to remember that it is actually le_mru's fic, not canon) he is left with the blue King-God who doesn't know a thing about humans. And Wesley makes himself a tool, he uses his most private experiences in order to teach Illyria about the world.

He was Faith's worst Watcher. He was her best Watcher. He will never forgive her, but it's ok, because she should never forgive him either. Faith was the one who started making Wesley who he is right now. Lilah really knew him, and it was the worst thing about her. Wesley has wretched luck when it comes to women. Wesley has the best luck when it comes to women. Wesley is the smartest guy I've ever seen. Wesley doesn't know how the fuck could he function now.

Besides... All the books, swords, smart speeches, variety of shirts, ultimate pain - WESLEY, HOW SO HOT??? I seem to recall a post in which we were already considering this problem.

03. Jon/Robb

YOU KNOW NOTHING, JON SNOW! Ok, that's painfully off-topic, but I had to ;).

I actually don't ship it very hard. But I blame mlekopijca for the fact that I ship it at all (well, most of my slash pairings started from the fact that she was nagging me...). Jon wanted to run away from the Wall just to be with his brother. Robb stood up to his mother to make his brother his heir. Jon should be the king, and Robb should be his Warden of the North. Martin did it wrong, and someone should fix this mistake RIGH NOW!

04. fic-writing

I'm a compulsive fic writer. I've been doing it for over six years now (how did it happen? o_O), and it grew to be a form of self-expression for me. It's more than just fun, I actually get all "artistic" about writing, feelings exposed and so on. Well, ok, not always. Sometimes. And sometimes it's just fun. But I can't imagine myself not writing. I can have breaks, sometimes long breaks, but I come back eventually. I get enthusiastic about writing. I get emotional about writing. I get geeky about writing. I want to try new things and be challenged. I talk about writing. As I've said - compulsive writer :).

05. teaching

Yes, I do it ;). I've been giving private lessons for over five years now. I mostly teach English, occasionally History (that's because far more people want to learn English). I mostly teach young children, like, 10-12 years old, but my History students all were in their final year of high school :). I have many funny/scary stories starting with "Yesterday my student told me...", but I'm not telling any of them in an unlocked post ;).

Comments

[upupa-epops.livejournal.com]

Blind shipping, let me rant to you about it... The thing is, many blind shippers do not pay attention at all. There is this fanon!Damon that has little to do with actual!Damon, but A LOT to do with fulfilling romantic fantasies about Dark And Perfect Boyfriend. Volumes could be written about what does it say about our culture... I read quite a lot bad D/E fanfic, and those fics usually have one thing in common: Damon is stereotypically masculine. He is strong, dominant, protective and chivalrous; he is just ultimately cool. When I compare this person to the Damon I see in canon (you know, unstable, insecure, psychopatic, abusive, trapped in his own fantasies and ultimately pathetic), I have to sit, because my head is spinning. I have an impression that all those speculations about D/E come from the fact that those people just ignore show!Damon at all. Now, their Damon really could be The Better Boyfriend for Elena (except for the fact that a personality like that just can't exist, even in a fantasy world), the problem is that I feel that their Damon is a character from some different show I certainly haven't seen.

[dante-kent.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I read all that D/E fic too (in my very early days of TVD fandom before I realized there was serious quality stuff on LJ, and I was just so desperate for fic that I compromised on my usual standards), and it was just very off-putting. I even read some pretty decent fics whose only problem was that they had NOTHING to do with Damon and Elena. Those were just convenient names to put to original characters. And it's so frustrating, because (I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it many, many times again) one of the best things about TVD is that it denies those romantic tropes and actually follows through on darker, original storytelling, so why are these people ignoring that? Turning Damon into the male romantic hero is a total waste of an excellent character. And Damon is a freaking phenomenal character. Damaged and troubled and worrisome, but fantastic. If you need a classic male romantic lead, find a different show (pretty much any other show - they all do the same things over and over again anyway). I want my self-destructive psychopath who isn't just acting out because no one loves him. Been there, done that. Give me the actual psychopath this time. #weird turn-ons

[upupa-epops.livejournal.com]

My feelings exactly. Come on, people, if you want functional, why do you go for Damon/Elena? Ok, I get it, Ian Somerhalder is handsome. And he (apparently) is a nice guy. He saves all the puppies and so on. But he is not his character. His character is this evil vampire person who snaps and kills people on a whim.

And hey, those aren't weird turn-ons. It's called a desperate longing for a plot ;). I've actually developed a hankering for fics in which sex is not that great. And for fics in which Elena is emotionally abusive. And for fics in which Damon/Elena relationship is shown in the context of power play. #bad fic poisoning

light format is the way to go, bro

[ever-neutral.livejournal.com]

Turning Damon into the male romantic hero is a total waste of an excellent character. And Damon is a freaking phenomenal character. Damaged and troubled and worrisome, but fantastic.

PREACH. Man, it upsets me when other sections of fandom also start conflating fanon!Damon with canon!Damon too? Like, seeing the idealised view of his character that some fans have, and then attributing that idealised image to show itself. Which, NO. Show has always been upfront about what a nasty piece of work Damon is. Just because some people have screwed up interpretations of the text doesn't mean that the text itself is screwing it up. I mean. Sometimes it does. But with Damon, mostly not. He is a thorough, three-dimensional, carefully drawn/constructed work of art. RESPECT~

Re: light format is the way to go, bro

[upupa-epops.livejournal.com]

THIS. And I'm a bit angry with those other sections of fandom, because then a good part of fandom thinks that Damon/Elena shippers are delusional on principle, and I have to explain that, yes, I ship it, yes, I'm aware how wrong it is, no, I'm not a rape apologist, thank you very much, btw, screw you. #fandom issues, I have them

Re: light format is the way to go, bro

[ever-neutral.livejournal.com]

Baha. You are a more patient soul than I. I don't bother ~explaining myself to anyone. Let them think what they want. I AM JUST CUT UP ABOUT IT, I can tell you. *g*

Re: light format is the way to go, bro

[dante-kent.livejournal.com]

Ugh, it makes me not want to ship D/E (BUT I CAN'T HELP IT I WILL LOVE THEM FOREVER). Because I'm not used to being part of the less intelligent ship (not that all the S/E-ers are geniuses, but there are fewer of them, so their crazies are less noticeable), and it distresses me to technically be on the same side. It makes me not want D/E to happen. Well, I still want it to happen, desperately, but I don't want any scenes that could be misconstrued as epic love, and JUST STOP MAKING ME ASHAMED OF MY SHIP. Grrrrr.

Re: light format is the way to go, bro

[dante-kent.livejournal.com]

I so deeply respect the show for maintaining the dark parts of Damon's character. They've made him into a hero-type (anti-hero, but still) you're clearly meant to root for, but they haven't 'fixed' him. Because, you know what? That's how the world works. You can be the good guy but not be a good guy. Everyone has good and bad in them, and sometimes the good does not outweigh the bad. Damon can be wonderful and kind and heroic, but he's still a petty, immature, mass-murdering psychopath. The two are absolutely not mutually exclusive, and it doesn't take away from either section of his personality to have the other acknowledged. There is no need to idealize Damon. It's folly to do so, and it limits his character to a type rather than an individual. Go away, other section of fandom. Keep at it, show. You know what's up. (I need that bro fist-bump icon right about now. I should work on that.)

Re: light format is the way to go, bro

[upupa-epops.livejournal.com]

OMG, this description is just perfect. I'm deeply in love with this sentence:

You can be the good guy but not be a good guy.

You are right, this is exactly the kind of storytelling I want - I want individuals, not types, because types are predictable. And Damon's pettiness is just amazing. Because it's not because he is an evil bloodsucking murderer. It's because he is Damon, and that's how he works. I bet he was just as petty when he was human.

Re: light format is the way to go, bro

[dante-kent.livejournal.com]

I bet he was just as petty when he was human.

Yep, totally. That's my favorite thing about TVD vampires vs, well, almost all other versions of vampires. The idea that when they become vampires, they become even MORE themselves. It's not a division of personality - there's no demon making them evil. It's just that any darkness you already had within you is magnified. So there's no rationalization or justification or excusing of bad behavior. You can't blame your wrongdoings on anything other than yourself, because you're still you. It's an extreme version of humanity rather than a lack of one, and that's just amazing.

Re: light format is the way to go, bro

[upupa-epops.livejournal.com]

Exactly! That's the very reason I got so much into TVD fandom. External monsters and external dangers never were my things; I love the mundane horror ;).