Thoughts on the characters I like

[vilakins]

On selenak's journal, there's an interesting discussion about gender: why there are more men than women on bulletin boards, and more women than men on LJ and in fandom RPGs, and whether gender is a factor in the characters one likes. I didn't get into the LJ/BB discussion (I think there are greater differences between individuals than the sexes) but some very perceptive comments from alara_r made me think about the characters I go for.

Like alara_r, I like to have female characters in my original fiction (most of which is still in my head). Actually, I like to cast characters gender-blind as I do with OCs in fanfic, but the main character, from whose POV the story unfolds, is almost always a female and usually an outsider, often a trickster or in a position of military command (e.g. a general).

As for the characters I like in my fandoms, up till now I thought I'd always gone for aliens (Spock, Data, the holograhic Doctor, Seven, Garak, G'Kar, Londo, Vir) but along came Vila three years ago and bowled me over. I didn't think he fit the pattern because he's so very human. However alara_r's remarks about preferring certain archetypes most of which are cast as males, opened my eyes. It's not that they're aliens, it's that they're all outsiders, including Vila. Vila and Garak are also tricksters, another archetype I'm attracted to. I also like childlike, humorous, and often damaged characters like Vir, Vila, Wash, and Stark.

Another type I go for is the geek, and geeks are usually cast as male. Kaylee and Willow are pleasant surprises and I like them both a lot, but in the case of Buffy (I'm still in S1) Giles is my favourite. alara_r described him as a the mentor type, but I actually see him as much more a geek, but in a very non-tech way; he's a scholar--unlike Avon. Avon has a lot of geek attributes but somehow for me, his self-confidence (whether apparent or real), sarcasm (wonderful though it is) and affinity with hand-held ordinance outweigh that. He does geeky things on occasion, but I'm not sure he's really a geek.

I also like some strong and independent characters like Picard and Janeway, I think because they're also very intelligent and somewhat isolated by the chain of command (hmm, the geek and outsider again).

Comments

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Eh. They did the same with Picard. Look at that time he wanted to let a whole planet die because of the prime directive. I shouted at the TV, "Hey, isn't everyone dying a slightly more damaging to a culture than saving them?" I really disliked him in that ep.

Oh, I like that analysis of Avon and Vila. Too bad I can't nick it for the b7friday 'opposites' challenge. I'm still stuck on that.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Picard's characterization wasn't necessarily always perfect, true. And that episode bothered me a bit, too, though I rather liked the exploration of the moral dilemma, and I could actually understand where Picard was coming from. It's "Do we ever have the right to play god, even with the best of intentions? And isn't it better to have a hard and fast rule that keeps us from doing harm, even when it prevents us from doing good?" Those are questions worth asking, and Picard's eventual answer, after all, was IMHO the morally right one, even if it took some prompting from Data. (Compare to the Enterprise ep where Dr. Phlox -- a character I actually liked, which made it worse -- campaigns to let an entire species suffer and perhaps face even extinction because it's wrong to interfere with what's natural. Well, shit, here I thought that's what doctors did. Gaaaaah!) Anyway, in Janeway's case, it seemed to me much more egregious than any inconsistencies we ever saw with Picard, or any other Trek captain, for that matter. And a lot of her attitudes just rubbed me the wrong way. I really disliked the way she treated the Holo-Doctor, for instance.

OK, OK. I have Janeway issues. :)

Oooh, if you can do something fic-ish with that thought, please do! You have not only my permission, but my encouragement! :) Me, I got hit with an interesting little plot bunny involving Zen while watching "Time Squad" yesterday that might do, but I'm not sure if I'll manage to get it written in time, or how well it'll end up fitting the category if I do. Eh, we'll see. This particular challenge is kind of difficult, isn't it? Mea culpa...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I remember that Phlox ep. I've only seen S1 of Enterprise and he was a favourite character too, but for that ep. You're quite right--helping people survive what nature can do to them is indeed what doctors do. The holodoc never cared: he introduced opera to more than one culture.

As for the challenge, I think I'll go with the original idea I had, even though it's not very good. :-(

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

Whereas I seem to be the one person on earth who thinks the Holodoctor was rather tedious. Definitely well-played and given some great stuff, but he didn't have many redeeming features as a character. So I think he really deserved anything Janeway did to him. :)

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

What can I say? I have an unreasonable bias towards AIs. (I could attempt to figure out how that falls in this makeshift categorization scheme we've been discussion, but my brain is shutting down and I need to sleep, so fortunately we've both been spared. :))

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

No, no, there's two of us. But then, I'm not big on treating AIs like people, anyway.