(no subject)
May. 17th, 2012 02:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gala_applesA letter to myself, regarding how Avengers is making me a shitty friend.
So, like a good portion of my twitter feed, I am now enamored with Avengers. I'm not too worried about it taking over. Like my complete plethora of will-read pairings in every fandom except the X-Men trilogy, I am very capable of reading a half dozen fandoms at once.
Avengers is currently pressing hard on five of my buttons. 1) people with differences coming together to help more people. 2) superpowers! 3) bromance. 4) kick ass women who will kill everyone for looking at them wrong. 5) snark. (Tony Stark, I love you)
On the other hand it's missing a few staples of my fannish experience. Until they become bigger tropes in the Avengers, it pretty much guarantees I'll be poly-fandom. 1) teenagers. whether high school AU, or actually set during the teen years, I strongly gravitate to teenage minds. 2) kink. I haven't seen a lot yet. 3) poly. If fandom can get on any of those, that would be excellent.
The thing I find uncomfortable about Avengers fandom is that it's kind of a blast from the past. In Harry Potter there were the obviously evil characters, and the obviously good characters. I'm a good characters kind of person. I don't find anything interesting or pleasing or readable about people that torture others, or kill others, or think that they're so much better than everyone else, just because of __. (except for serial killer AUs, but that's different, because it's warping a loved character, not falling for a intrinsically horrible character). What I'm trying to say is I'm a big hippie Hufflepuff.
In my seven+ years of Harry Potter I learned to shut up about it. Some people are just gonna like Draco or Slytherins or Death Eaters, and there's just nothing you can do about it. No matter how much you want to protest that these people get active enjoyment from hurting others, to some people it doesn't matter. They like the step-on-other-people ambition, or the elitist behaviour, or the whatever it is that draws them.
So with that, you stay to your comms, and let them stay in their comms, and just leave it alone. Because there's no point. Trying to have the conversation only hurts one party and frustrates the other.
But then I got into bandom. And there's no bad guy in bandom. Well, okay, Mike Pedicone happened. But there was immediate and widespread hate for this horrible person, so it doesn't really count. And with my extended stay in bandom, my ability to shut the fuck up completely atrophied from lack of use.
Now there's Avengers. It's HP all over again, with Loki.
This kid keeps getting passed over for his brother, and it sucks. And then he finds out his dad lied to him, and that sucks. And he seems to genuinely care when his dad falls ill.
...and then he goes to Earth and tells Thor that their dad died because of him, and that he's never allowed to come home, he's exiled forever.
...and then he actually kills Thor. Thor dies. And then Odin cries and he comes back to life. But Loki actually KILLS him.
...and then he continues to try to kill him on the rainbow bridge.
...and then Avengers is all about him hurting and manipulating people, and trying to take over the fucking planet, and killing hundreds of people in New York, and in the airship.
BUT MY POINT IS:
Yes, I don't like Loki. I think he's a horrible, disgusting person, and your father upsetting you doesn't give you the right to murder and try to take over the fucking universe.
BUT SO WHAT?
Let me repeat, for clarification:
SO THE FUCK WHAT?
Shocking fact, self: people are allowed to like different things. So what if he's a sociopath? Some of your friends like him, just like some of your friends liked Death Eaters. People are allowed to like what they want to like. It doesn't have to make sense to you. Stop being bitchy about it.
You spent probably about two thousand dollars total to go visit coconut_ice22. She ships Slytherins nearly exclusively, and has recced you some Voldemort fic. You can still be friends with people that like things/people/whatever that you hate. You can be close friends, and agree on everything else in the world, even if their pairings are squicky to you.
Bottom line?
LEARN TO SHUT UP AGAIN. FOR FUCK SAKES. Just stop it.
If that was tl;dr, I'll sum it up. I've been kinda bitchy, but I'm gonna try to stop. And I'm sorry to anyone whose feelings I have hurt.
So, like a good portion of my twitter feed, I am now enamored with Avengers. I'm not too worried about it taking over. Like my complete plethora of will-read pairings in every fandom except the X-Men trilogy, I am very capable of reading a half dozen fandoms at once.
Avengers is currently pressing hard on five of my buttons. 1) people with differences coming together to help more people. 2) superpowers! 3) bromance. 4) kick ass women who will kill everyone for looking at them wrong. 5) snark. (Tony Stark, I love you)
On the other hand it's missing a few staples of my fannish experience. Until they become bigger tropes in the Avengers, it pretty much guarantees I'll be poly-fandom. 1) teenagers. whether high school AU, or actually set during the teen years, I strongly gravitate to teenage minds. 2) kink. I haven't seen a lot yet. 3) poly. If fandom can get on any of those, that would be excellent.
The thing I find uncomfortable about Avengers fandom is that it's kind of a blast from the past. In Harry Potter there were the obviously evil characters, and the obviously good characters. I'm a good characters kind of person. I don't find anything interesting or pleasing or readable about people that torture others, or kill others, or think that they're so much better than everyone else, just because of __. (except for serial killer AUs, but that's different, because it's warping a loved character, not falling for a intrinsically horrible character). What I'm trying to say is I'm a big hippie Hufflepuff.
In my seven+ years of Harry Potter I learned to shut up about it. Some people are just gonna like Draco or Slytherins or Death Eaters, and there's just nothing you can do about it. No matter how much you want to protest that these people get active enjoyment from hurting others, to some people it doesn't matter. They like the step-on-other-people ambition, or the elitist behaviour, or the whatever it is that draws them.
So with that, you stay to your comms, and let them stay in their comms, and just leave it alone. Because there's no point. Trying to have the conversation only hurts one party and frustrates the other.
But then I got into bandom. And there's no bad guy in bandom. Well, okay, Mike Pedicone happened. But there was immediate and widespread hate for this horrible person, so it doesn't really count. And with my extended stay in bandom, my ability to shut the fuck up completely atrophied from lack of use.
Now there's Avengers. It's HP all over again, with Loki.
This kid keeps getting passed over for his brother, and it sucks. And then he finds out his dad lied to him, and that sucks. And he seems to genuinely care when his dad falls ill.
...and then he goes to Earth and tells Thor that their dad died because of him, and that he's never allowed to come home, he's exiled forever.
...and then he actually kills Thor. Thor dies. And then Odin cries and he comes back to life. But Loki actually KILLS him.
...and then he continues to try to kill him on the rainbow bridge.
...and then Avengers is all about him hurting and manipulating people, and trying to take over the fucking planet, and killing hundreds of people in New York, and in the airship.
BUT MY POINT IS:
Yes, I don't like Loki. I think he's a horrible, disgusting person, and your father upsetting you doesn't give you the right to murder and try to take over the fucking universe.
BUT SO WHAT?
Let me repeat, for clarification:
SO THE FUCK WHAT?
Shocking fact, self: people are allowed to like different things. So what if he's a sociopath? Some of your friends like him, just like some of your friends liked Death Eaters. People are allowed to like what they want to like. It doesn't have to make sense to you. Stop being bitchy about it.
You spent probably about two thousand dollars total to go visit coconut_ice22. She ships Slytherins nearly exclusively, and has recced you some Voldemort fic. You can still be friends with people that like things/people/whatever that you hate. You can be close friends, and agree on everything else in the world, even if their pairings are squicky to you.
Bottom line?
LEARN TO SHUT UP AGAIN. FOR FUCK SAKES. Just stop it.
If that was tl;dr, I'll sum it up. I've been kinda bitchy, but I'm gonna try to stop. And I'm sorry to anyone whose feelings I have hurt.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-17 08:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-17 10:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-17 12:48 pm (UTC)But yes, live and let live, my preferences are not other people's, etc. There's plenty of room in fandom. I like that too.
(I haven't seen any of the Marvel movies ... clearly I should get on that!)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-17 11:24 pm (UTC)The problem is people on my Twitter feed like Loki. He's their favourite character. And because my ability to STFU has withered every time they're all \o/ yay Loki \o/ I'm like KILLED PEOPLE! So while I don't apologise for my opinion on the character, looking back I've been a buzzkill, and a shitty friend. So I need to cut that shit out.
You SHOULD watch them! To really appreciate The Avengers you need to watch Ironman 1 and 2, Thor, and Captain America. It seems like a lot of commitment but it's really worth it. Joss Whedon created the Avengers, and you can really tell. It's an amazing movie. And the funny thing is it released in Europe about two weeks before it did in North America, so I'd been getting two weeks straight of OMG BEST MOVIE. So, just like Inception, I decided I had to see it for ~fandom~. At base, I am sort of a follower. So I watched the prequels while stuck with insomnia at a friend's house. I REGRET NOTHING. They were great, and when I saw Avengers it took all my willpower to not turn around and get in line to watch it again immediately. In the last week I've watched the 4 prequels twice each. SO. GOOD. This franchise kicks ass.