AUs - aka I need to rant again
Feb. 27th, 2007 01:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wiseheartSo, why do people fail regulary to notice the big, fat AU warning on my stories? Are they really stupid or do they ignore the warning willingly, so that they'd have something to bitch about later?
You see, I was very careful not to post Out of Legends in the Atlantis-section of FF.Net, because I suspected that all the rabid Sheppardites would scream bloody murder, just because I don't consider Sheppard the latest incarnation of God. I've posted the story under TV-crossovers, since it is a crossover with Andromeda.
But the Sheppardites have found me even there. Someone felt the need to point out that I've portrayed Sheppard completely wrong, because he never tried to take over Atlantis. (I never stated that, actually.)Well, exqueeze me??? Wasn't he the guy who had no problems with disobeying a direct order from the civilian leader of the expedition and so enabled the nanovirus to spread through the whole city? Canon never really dealt with that not-so-small issue, because in the end, he saved all.
I don't say he didn't. I just say that he had absolutely no respect for the civilian leader and did what *he* thought was best, proved to be wrong and never had to face the consequences. In my story, he has to. That's all. What has that to do with "portraying him completely wrong"?
Granted, I dislike the guy. More than that, I hate his guts. Just as I hate Kirk, Will Riker, Dylan Hunt, Sheridan and all the other cocky flyboy types. That's my prerogative, I think. And I'm writing a frigging AU - well, several friggng AUs, by that matter - in which half the cast is different, and events certainly have a different outcome than in canon. So, why am I supposed to write a character like a shining hero that, BTW, he isn't in canon?
It always makes me mad that people are so quick to put down a story, just because the approach of the writer doesn't match their view on certain characters. I've been re-watching a lot of Atlantis episodes lately, and this is how I see Sheppard. So what? I do find him arrogant and annoying. Just because someone disagrees with me, it doesn't mean that I'm necessarily wrong.
In a great many of 1st-season-related Atlantis fics that poor Dr. Kavanagh is portrayed as the token villain, although he never did anyone any harm. Just because he doesn't kiss Weir(d)'s ass and because he questioned the wisdom (in "38 Minutes") to put the entire city at risk in order to save four people. This was something McKay brought up, too. And in the end, Kavanagh had the very idea that saved said 4 people. Still, he's the favourite scapegoat of the fandom, and it seems OK to bash him in every less-than-average story. Sadly enough, he gets a lot of mean references even in good stories.
So. I happen to like Kavanagh and hate Sheppard. I still don't go around and give all those writers who indulge in Kavanagh bashing snippish lectures on their review boards. So why can't people leave me alone? Just because a character is widely popular (for reasons that I, personally, fail to understand), it doesn't mean that they can go no wrong and that everyone *has* to like them.
[/end rant]
This entry has been cross-posted to Memory Alpha. I'm looking forward to the lecturing comments I'm likely to get for it.
You see, I was very careful not to post Out of Legends in the Atlantis-section of FF.Net, because I suspected that all the rabid Sheppardites would scream bloody murder, just because I don't consider Sheppard the latest incarnation of God. I've posted the story under TV-crossovers, since it is a crossover with Andromeda.
But the Sheppardites have found me even there. Someone felt the need to point out that I've portrayed Sheppard completely wrong, because he never tried to take over Atlantis. (I never stated that, actually.)Well, exqueeze me??? Wasn't he the guy who had no problems with disobeying a direct order from the civilian leader of the expedition and so enabled the nanovirus to spread through the whole city? Canon never really dealt with that not-so-small issue, because in the end, he saved all.
I don't say he didn't. I just say that he had absolutely no respect for the civilian leader and did what *he* thought was best, proved to be wrong and never had to face the consequences. In my story, he has to. That's all. What has that to do with "portraying him completely wrong"?
Granted, I dislike the guy. More than that, I hate his guts. Just as I hate Kirk, Will Riker, Dylan Hunt, Sheridan and all the other cocky flyboy types. That's my prerogative, I think. And I'm writing a frigging AU - well, several friggng AUs, by that matter - in which half the cast is different, and events certainly have a different outcome than in canon. So, why am I supposed to write a character like a shining hero that, BTW, he isn't in canon?
It always makes me mad that people are so quick to put down a story, just because the approach of the writer doesn't match their view on certain characters. I've been re-watching a lot of Atlantis episodes lately, and this is how I see Sheppard. So what? I do find him arrogant and annoying. Just because someone disagrees with me, it doesn't mean that I'm necessarily wrong.
In a great many of 1st-season-related Atlantis fics that poor Dr. Kavanagh is portrayed as the token villain, although he never did anyone any harm. Just because he doesn't kiss Weir(d)'s ass and because he questioned the wisdom (in "38 Minutes") to put the entire city at risk in order to save four people. This was something McKay brought up, too. And in the end, Kavanagh had the very idea that saved said 4 people. Still, he's the favourite scapegoat of the fandom, and it seems OK to bash him in every less-than-average story. Sadly enough, he gets a lot of mean references even in good stories.
So. I happen to like Kavanagh and hate Sheppard. I still don't go around and give all those writers who indulge in Kavanagh bashing snippish lectures on their review boards. So why can't people leave me alone? Just because a character is widely popular (for reasons that I, personally, fail to understand), it doesn't mean that they can go no wrong and that everyone *has* to like them.
[/end rant]
This entry has been cross-posted to Memory Alpha. I'm looking forward to the lecturing comments I'm likely to get for it.
