In Which I Lash Out Viciously at Annoying Things

[allyndra]

This is all grouching. Feel free to skip.

Okay, this may seem petty, but I'm growing increasingly annoyed when I see bad writing or poor quality art being gushed over. I don't think it's sour grapes, because I get nice comments that I truly appreciate when I post. But I'm having to resist the strong urge to leave anonymous comments saying, "No, it's not amazing. It's poorly characterized and badly in need of a beta, so stop encouraging the author with chants of 'Sequel PLZ!'" Aren't they supposed to keep that kind of stuff over in the Pit of Voles? In some of my fandoms, it's no problem at all, but Torchwood has quality appreciation issues. There are some fabulous authors, but those aren't the ones who are bugging me. Does anyone else feel the same desire to chastize the readers who can't tell the difference between good fic and bad? Or is it just me?

Also, the John Paul/Craig Dean shippers (known as McDeaners) are starting to frustrate me. I loved John Paul and Craig. Their storyline was emotional and sexy and riveting. But Craig left and John Paul didn't, and the John Paul/Father Keiron storyline is pretty darn emotional and sexy, too. Saying, "Bring Craig back!" every two seconds or demanding a sunset ending is not going to make the writers more likely to give us good plots and emotional arcs for our favorite characters, especially if Guy Burnet really doesn't want to play Craig anymore. Write good fanfic where John Paul and Craig get back together, put together vids of them, make art and icons. But stop grumbling about the lack of Craig on every clip from the current episodes.

And finally, kink fic is not hot to me if the characters seem like cardboard cutouts, I don't care how many ropes they're tied up with or what position they're in. I mean "Gil is a Master and Nick and Greg are his slaves" is a stretch to start with, but if you don't make any attempt to tie them back to the characters I know, it's poorly thought out OC erotica, not fanfic. And next time I see the word "cum" in a story, I'm clicking the back button immediately.

/rant

Comments

[opalsong.livejournal.com]

*delurks* as a lurker I don't often comment (-.- duh) but I'd like to point out (just give a slightly different view) - When I am getting into a fandom, particularly one that I don't know the source material well for (like if I were, persay to attempt to read Torchwood fic) I have a tendancy to think that fiction is better than it probably really is (can't stand bad writing though...) simply because I don't KNOW how the character really should act. I read another million fics and come to the conclusion that the ones I read first were sucky and go on with my life. However, if I would comment more often I likely would leave a "hey that's cool" or similar message to those crappy fics simply because I don't know better. (I feel dumb saying "hey that's cool which explains the lack of comments but while I'm already delurking - Hey! You're fic is pretty awesome and I'm NOT new to the Buffy fandom!) But yeah, just wanted to add a slightly different viewpoint (though I'm still not sure how badly written fic gets so many accolades...) *relurks*

[allyndra.livejournal.com]

Being new to a fandom is an interesting point that I hadn't considered. There was a series in Smallville that I loved when I first started reading fanfic. Just loved it to pieces; it probably helped me get into Clark/Lex. Then a few months ago, I was feeling nostalgic and went looking for it, and I realized it was written by a writing team that I hate. I can't go back and re-read it now, because I know I'll hate it, and I don't want to ruin the memory.

Delurk any time you feel like. :o)