The character proves the fic
Oct. 4th, 2002 06:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thebratqueenWhen I was responding to WG's old Friday Five just now, I was reminded about Anna S's Season Noir, and how well she writes Anya in it. I've got to say that for me that's one of the things that proves the quality of the fic. Anya is a very difficult character to write, the Anya/Xander relationship even more so. For an author to take the time to flesh it out and write it believably - esp in a story that's Buffy/Spike in nature - shows an author of quality.
This got me wondering if there were other characters that would prove a fic. Like if you love Angel it's easy to write a story where Angel comes off well (assuming you pay attention to the character and are, you know, a good writer). Ditto Spike, Buffy, etc.
So for me I think some stories aren't just proven by how well the main characters are written, but by how well the author took her or his time in not only getting the minor characters, but the minor characters that most people hate.
I think for Buffy fics the characters that can prove the story are Anya, Dawn and maybe Joyce. For Angel I think hands down it would have to be Fred. Connor might be a runner up, but since the show itself hasn't fleshed him out enough yet it's hard to peg an author who can likewise flesh him out plausibly.
Do you think this sort of thing comes up in other fandoms? Also does it depend on what fandom you write? I remember after Mer and I posted Returning, we got a lot of feedback from the Epiphany fans who were glad that we hadn't demonized Buffy (in the metaphorical sense), which makes me wonder if for an Angel slash fan Buffy would be a proving character.
This got me wondering if there were other characters that would prove a fic. Like if you love Angel it's easy to write a story where Angel comes off well (assuming you pay attention to the character and are, you know, a good writer). Ditto Spike, Buffy, etc.
So for me I think some stories aren't just proven by how well the main characters are written, but by how well the author took her or his time in not only getting the minor characters, but the minor characters that most people hate.
I think for Buffy fics the characters that can prove the story are Anya, Dawn and maybe Joyce. For Angel I think hands down it would have to be Fred. Connor might be a runner up, but since the show itself hasn't fleshed him out enough yet it's hard to peg an author who can likewise flesh him out plausibly.
Do you think this sort of thing comes up in other fandoms? Also does it depend on what fandom you write? I remember after Mer and I posted Returning, we got a lot of feedback from the Epiphany fans who were glad that we hadn't demonized Buffy (in the metaphorical sense), which makes me wonder if for an Angel slash fan Buffy would be a proving character.