if I'll say it elsewhere
1 Mar 2007 03:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaigouI might as well say it here. Why the hell not? Since, yeah, I'm irritated -- and disappointed. One of the few, and I mean few RPs I've followed with anything remotely close to consistency has been the AJU RP. It's had its bumpy spots -- both from learning-while-writing, and within the story itself in terms of not letting anyone get an easy ride (which can be a good thing in terms of story-complexity) -- but the most recent developments make me wonder if it's been taken over by pod people.
And I don't say that as a fan of the original series, but as a reader of this story as an now-independent work: I am willing to tolerate plot twists, hell, I enjoy them. But they'd better be justified, and character-driven. Throwing in a random earthquake just so you can shove two characters together, or putting them in a bus accident together, and forcing them to deal: that's plot-driven story development. In small doses, it can work. The rest of the time, we readers require that the story's development be a result of the characters themselves: their hopes, fears, all sorts of complex motivations.
If someone has always gotten up at six am to run, and one day he oversleeps, I need a good reason why, because you've told me -- and I believed you -- that this character is obessive about getting up at six am to run eighty miles. This is fiction: it's not good enough to just 'decide' to do something so strongly out-of-character. If you tell me that a character's highest priority is making sure his friends are happy no matter the cost to himself, and he's used to just taking what he can and moving along knowing it's not enough -- then he abruptly turns greedy and cruel to those friends, I sure as fuck want a good reason. I'll accept "he's been drugged," if I really like the character. Hell, you could probably make me believe he's been possessed by his apartment's former front-door mat, if you worked enough at it. But don't expect me to just believe that one day, he's different. Don't work that way. Fiction, you have to give me reasons.
AJU's been pretty decent at not destroying their characters for the sake of plot. Well, they screwed that pooch with the latest twist.
I wrote much of this elsewhere but it's still on my mind, and I have wood conditioner sitting for fifteen, so what-the-hell, I post. (Don't do it often enough, I know.) Thing is, my reaction to the latest plot twists have little, really, to do with any OTP, and everything to do with reader-expectations and writer-understandings -- of story, plot, and character. That is, my reaction amounts to: okay, guys, there's twists, and then there's... enough already, back this bus the fuck up.
I get that for a long-running RP to be successful and hold readers' interest, you want some kind of conflict going at all times: one couple falling apart while another gets together, etc. (In fact, old musicals are actually the best for this template: there's always one couple falling apart and providing the conflict, another getting together and providing the UST, and a third stable couple that acts as the emotional foundation of the entire story. But anyway.)
Granted, there's a danger in becoming almost soap-opera-ish, if you're trying to make sure that every! single! month! there's a new kaBAM twist in plotline! Which, unfortunately, it seems like has happened here, though I wonder if this is complicated (in this instance) by the reduced RP-folks able to participate at this time. We may be seeing the influence of a sub-group within the RP; they may not even realize how their plot-twist is, in effect, twisting the warp of the characterization.
I say that because, logically, I cannot see any way to believe the latest shift unless I also believe that both Noin and Trowa are essentially fickle characters. I may believe many things of Trowa -- this particular one is most definitely an opportunist -- but I cannot believe him fickle, especially not after his subdued, second-meaning-laden heart-to-heart with Heero, in which he did all but admit out loud that he's fallen for both Dorothy and Quatre. Nor could I argue that he's "come to grips" with Quatre and Dorrie being so perfectly paired (or so the RP constantly implies, by drawing them back together again, though at this point to be honest, I absolutely fail to see what either sees in each other: Dorothy has little to no respect for Quatre, and Quatre can't stand the way she makes him feel about two inches tall, yet he remains her constant fall-guy).
That aside, Trowa's known of their long history since early on, and if it's not caused him to withdraw before (let alone hesitate on a threesome, hello!) I can see no reason an evening on a quasi-double date would alter that. I could see him pulling back upon finding himself the third wheel and disliking it, even being hurt by it... but not to the point of betrayal -- of them, or of his own heart.
Yes, he's an opportunist, and he repeatedly showed in word and deed that he aligned himself with no one but himself, until Dorothy -- then Quatre -- came along. His growing awareness of falling for both of them has been a marvelously slow and layered revelation. And then... the last two posts pretty much destroyed nearly a year and a half of development. WHAM.
Such a deal he made of "never saying he loved someone unless he's certain." Months later, his thought, "maybe he'd have different answers now to the New Year's questions," was a big honking emotional shift. He was no longer just taking what came, but wanting someone(s) specific -- and now... excuse me? What the fuck, over?
As for Noin, her entire characterization has been built on loyalty: both once to Zechs (despite all her heart told her, and if I hear one more time about how being with Zechs was X and now she's got Y and let's compare them one more time, I'm going to bitch-slap someone), and now to Quatre and their friendship. I simply can not see Noin throwing a friend/lover away without a second look, and that's why the the latest post struck me as so... utterly false, even hollow. Something was so not-right about that scene, I nearly slammed my fist down on the desk -- it just simply did not fit.
It took me a bit, but I realized: the scene is especially false when Noin gives Quatre the pap about different kinds of love. My first thought was: what a fucking cunt. It went against everything I've been told and shown about Noin, and yet -- after telling Quatre she's in love with him, for crying out loud -- she's giving the condescending "you're a good guy, someone will like you..." speech. Worse, she's doing it on a plane, surrounded by other people. Oh, it's not enough to dump him and go off to make out with a friend of his -- you need to humiliate him in public, too? Like anyone listening doesn't know exactly what that kind of speech means, and like any random passerby-characters (like we readers) wouldn't think right off the bat: man, that's one seriously cold bitch.
AJU has had some twists in the past that I didn't see coming, and has managed a few turn-arounds that were unexpected, but so far they've (mostly) managed to (a) justify the twists, (b) foreshadow them subtly, and (c) make them believable. This latest was none of the above, and thus it stands out, glaring, and it's that -- more than any pairing -- that makes me annoyed, frustrated, and downright irritated at the author(s).
Now, granted, some might argue there was foreshadowing for Noin and Trowa: they made out at Halloween, when Noin saw Zechs and was desperate to give herself cover any way possible. I'd write up such an action on her part to combination of desperation, being a bit tipsy, going for the moment; the point is that afterwards she came across as a bit embarrassed at herself, not exactly proud of it, and a little chagrined. Certainly not the actions of someone who, with apparently a great deal of ease, would not only go so far as heavy petting (while beginning the night with someone with whom she's certain she's fallen in love), but would then be pleasantly and blissfully smug and pleased with herself.
Uhm, no. Just, no.
That's what's false in the scene. What's hollow is this: there's no reaction from Quatre. Not even a mention of his expression. Nothing. She touches his face, and there's no mention of him flinching away, or looking miserable, or glaring at her, or anything. She might as well have moved back two seats to talk to the fucking window shade for all the interaction in those paragraphs. Hell, for a moment that's exactly what I'd thought had happened, because Quatre's sure as hell not in the scene! Sure, he's named, but he's not in there.
Know what I think, as a writer? Quatre isn't allowed a reaction because that scene's author could not figure out how Quatre would react. That, in itself, reveals how much this 'twist' is plot-driven, not character-driven. Quatre is one of the RP's most consistent characters, grounded, if sometimes complacent, almost always cautious, but steady and consistent. Bad enough to not even be able to formulate his emotions -- but worse, to skip them altogether! It just made it even more obvious that the scene's author knew, on some level (and hid it badly) that s/he was writing totally against the character(s) grain: because, if Quatre's reaction were included, then the author's intention -- that Trowa and Noin continue to be lovey-dovey and oooh, isn't this nice -- would get screwed.
Because the real AJU Quatre, the one with actual, y'know, consistent emotions and characterization, would have -- at the very least -- frozen her with a glance. Yes, he's kind and considerate, but this is also the same man who, after listening to Dorothy masturbate on the phone with him and then taunt him with the question, was it good for you?, coldly cut her off with, "Not really." And then he hung up. Oh, yeah, sure, this Quatre I've been reading for the past two+ years may be a gracious host and good friend, but some lines he won't let be crossed: and the unmitigated cruelty of stopping by someone's seat, on a fucking airplane, to say: "oh, sorry it didn't work out, but you'll find someone, too..." Y'know, I just can't see Quatre going for that one. In fact, I can't see Noin -- or anyone short of Zechs or Wufei -- being willing to push him when he's not interested in hearing it. And if he's just had his heart stomped on... nope, I can't believe he'd be too interested.
So that's why Quatre could not, truly, be 'present' in the scene, because to create his reaction was to create a falseness above and beyond what the scene's author could reasonably manage -- but to leave it out just highlights the author's awareness of this, on whatever level. And even what we got wasn't pulled off with any sort of grace, or coherency on the part of the characters shown. Thus, my extreme annoyance.
The final gut-punch is Trowa at the end of the second scene, apparently not caring that he's utterly dissing a man he knows, damn it, that he's in love with -- and even if he's decided he's not 'really' in love, or is determined to convince himself it's not love, this is still someone with whom he's been a good friend, has shared music, etc., etc: the storyline so far has repeatedly driven home the connection Trowa and Quatre feel. And yet, Trowa's now holding hands with the woman Quatre had brought to the table, and Trowa's happy about this, without even a second's shame to how his friend must be feeling? Not just shallow, but cruel: this Trowa may be an opportunist, but he's always acted with compassion and warmth. His actions here? Anything but. In fact, they're almost -- I don't know. They're fucking pod people; they're Trowa and Noin possessed by the characterizations for Zechs and Dorothy.
Would the real Noin, and the real Trowa, please stand up?
This isn't to argue whether the characters are true to their origins in the series: that's not the issue. For a story to work, there must be internal consistency. I have read fanfic where characters are remarkably OOC compared to the series, but it still works, because the character is internally consistent and coherent, within the story's framework. That might not be the Heero I know, or the Zechs, but it's a consistent character and soon I find myself thinking, of course, this is Heero, it's just a side I'd not seen before. I have also watched and read original stories in which a character abruptly does something that is so utterly out of character that it screams "I did this solely so the plot would move in that direction, like the author(s) want!"
When there's just no other reason for it, you don't need an originating canon for comparison: the story itself is the comparison. When you've given me almost two frickin' years to show me a character who keeps to himself, who holds himself separate, and then you spend a good part of the last year breaking down his independence to where he finds he likes having not just one person, but two people, around, and has developed a quiet hope that they'll see how much they matter to him... Not really that coherent, all things considered, for him to gleefully fuck someone else and then be happy with himself.
I might, I might believe the drunken fucking (or coming close), as this isn't out of the realm when you're drunk, heartbroken for whatever reason, and there's someone with you feeling the same way and you're both just acting for the sake of some comfort, however cold. I ain't gonna believe that'll carry on through the morning, let alone into stuporific hand-holding. Someone shoot me. No, wait, shoot the folks who came up with this travesty. It's too... pat. It's too cruel. It's too... it requires that I believe that not only is Trowa fickle, but can easily cast aside his affections and create new ones at the drop of a hat. Maybe, maybe I might believe the first on a superficial level, the second on a deeper level, but nothing I've seen of the characterization would make me believe the last. Nope. That dog don't hunt, folks.
As someone elsewhere on LJ commented, there were hints of unexpected pairing in that Wufei spoke of Zechs' rampage but mentioned no names. However, that's not foreshadowing per se: that's simply because the RPers are busy with RL right now and can't get together to do a four-person scene, so we're reading a great deal out of order as they catch up where they can. Foreshadowing would've been Noin spending more time fantasizing about the mysterious cross-dresser she kissed at Halloween; foreshadowing would've been Trowa longing for someone new because he's tired of the bullshit and history between Quatre and Dorothy and oh, how they bore him and tie him down. No, this wasn't foreshadowing; this was a fucking gimmick. The oh-so-coyly un-named lover was much like where the 'strange world' turns out to be a suburban yard and the astronauts are miniature humans. It's a cheap shot. A good story doesn't need such tricks to keep us reading, and it just pisses me off.
Alright, honestly, I'll admit it. My first reaction was: what fucking assholes hijacked my goddamn RP and where are they so I can fucking slit their throats for fucking up the story? Wake up, assholes! I AM coming after you.
*coughs*
Under all this: Quatre.
I didn't mind Dorothy and Quatre together, at first. They did seem well-matched, all claws and screwed signals. But as the story progressed, there was a slow but certain drift towards Dorothy always frickin' winning, every single time. It was getting bloody irritating, is what it was; the post where she and Duo are flying home early... all I could think was: I sure as hell hope Quatre shot her down, and shot her down hard. Yes, that would be severe conflict for Trowa, caught between them, but I envisioned the three (or four, including Noin, probably caught in the fallout as well) going their separate ways, if temporarily, to lick their wounds.
It's good to have a character get the worst end of the stick every now and then (one way to avoid Sue-ism), but you must, at some point, let the poor guy win. Please! And quite frankly, I've yet to see Quatre win. At anything -- and I'm getting more than a little disgusted; this most recent shift left me feeling just like... okay, someone in this cast just Does. Not. Like. Quatre.
Come on, who is it? Because Dorrie wins, Trowa wins, hell, even Zechs wins, as do the rest (even Wufei has come out on top, so to speak, once or twice). But not Quatre: he loses Dorrie (and she jerks him around even while he has her, then keeps jerking him around afterwards until he looks less like a fond, too-loyal, once-boyfriend and more like a schmuck). Zechs beats the crap out of him without breaking a sweat, and Quatre ends up crawling to Trowa's and to be patched up by Dorrie, whose idea of entertainment seems to be nothing more than "let's jerk Quatre's chain one more time." He loses Relena for being a gentleman (hello?), and now he's lost Trowa, and Noin? What the hell? Could we stop with the Quatre-humiliation, please?
While it's nice symbolism to have Noin be the one to cold-cock Zechs, I -- if only for the sake of a character smacked down once too often, always the one to lose -- would've liked to see that be Quatre doing the cold-cocking. For once.
Also, as long as I'm on the topic of retribution and balance: Dorothy is so damn overdue for some major comeuppance, in a storytelling sense, that it's not even funny. This isn't a situation of like-the-character or not-like-the-character. This is a reader, saying: I WANT MY GODDAMN PAYOFF.
This latest twist is just like when I've read any book of well-rounded, intriguing characters, and then two-thirds of the way through, the author decides that X must happen so Y can happen -- and the only way to make that possible is for characters A and B to act like unexpected total assholes. (In comedies, including Shakespeare, Y can only happen if suddenly A and B become Too Stupid To Live. Then, it's funny, because we don't expect character coherency; the only priority is humor. In any other type of fiction, though, just don't do it. TSTL and Overnight Assholes are not endearing; they're transparent and annoying and the sign of a writer falling way down on the job.)
I think while reading those stories, like the most recent posts in AJU: please, do not do this: you're fucking up your story, and pissing off your readers, and screwing over your own characterization. You want Y to happen, find another way, because the way you've chosen is the straight and fast path to getting your story slammed against the wall with all the force I can muster.
(Judging from my words here, I'd say I can muster a great deal of force when I'm irked.)
So, unless the group deletes, excuses themselves, and backs up -- or comes up with some damn good ret-conning to explain this plot-twist fuckup, I won't be reading further. Not unless someone assures me Quatre, for once, gets the goddamn gold. Please.
And do something about those fucking pod people, too, while you're at it.
Over and out.
ETA: re Dorothy -- in canon, and in AU/AJU.
Dorothy Catalonia, in the original series, is a simple character (and in some ways, she's cardboard until the last five or six episodes): she lives only to stir stuff up. The series' authors, I've decided (and they admitted, in interviews), just couldn't write women very well. Noin is the classic Samurai Wife, sacrificing everything, repeatedly, for the love of a man too busy fighting a war to notice the quiet, staunch, loyal wife holding down the fort quite ably. Une is the Career Woman, the work-obsessed fanatic, blind to all but her ambition (and then broken into two, an insipid peace-loving soft-spoken fragile flower versus the psychotic, cruel, arrogant penis-envy ladder-climber).
[Side-note: in the series, when Une threatens to destroy the colonies if the Gundams don't surrender, definitely striking that it's Noin who delivers the one-two punch on Treize's behalf. This is the Samurai Wife, rebuking the Ambitious Careerwoman. Yeah. Tell me there's not an unconscious message in there: "you must be more graceful." Unh-hunh.]
So we've got the wife and the careerwoman. With Relena, we have the authors' (admittedly mangled) attempts to create Modern Girl. Dutiful daughter but headstrong, capable with guns, assertive, a little lost without her father's guidance/presence, trying to find her own ideals and trying everything on for size until something fits. (They really didn't manage to nail down a solid characterization for her until EW, as far as I'm concerned.) In some ways, Relena is a modernized version of Noin, taking the Samurai Wife's dutifulness and bending it to a personal ethic instead of making the Samurai Husband the entirety of her ethic.
Sally and Cathy are the sibling-types, the elder sisters; the former a warrior, the latter a pacifist. Hilde falls into this category, somewhat. (Sally comes closest to absolute Sue of anyone in the series, however, which seems to be thanks to the authors' intention of creating a tertiary character, then needing a character and instead of creating a new one, reusing the old -- thus she shows up in the medical field, again as the captain on a flight, and again waging guerrilla warfare first in France/Sanq, and again in China, goddamn, people! This is also the reason she's voiced by one seiyuu in her first appearance, and a different one for the remainder of the series.)
These paler characterizations exist only as foils to their counterparts: Hilde's headstrong idealism is focused on 'doing the right thing', that is, joining the ruling party/military to be a proper soldier; her lack of political savvy highlights just how sharp Duo really is when it comes to political complexities. Cathy, roughly, believes bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity; she contrasts sharply with Trowa, superficially a cold-blooded fighter, yet their interactions allow a softer version of Trowa's edges such that we can see underneath he's much more like Cathy than he appears at first: compassionate, warm, and longing for peace. Sally is strong, pragmatic, independent, but also older and wiser (she and Cathy are the only companion/foil characters older than the pilot they echo), and thus her insight provides balance Wufei lacks on his own: she exists, really, to take some air out of Wufei's tires. Thus she must have a definite edge of Sue-ism, given Wufei's characterization of I Must Be The Best Damn It Or I Ain't Playing.
So we have Relena and Heero, both essentially wandering through the story trying to figure out why they're there and what they hell they do now; we have Duo and Hilde, the savvy outsider and the ignorant insider; Sally and Wufei, the experienced external-focused warrior and the inexperienced internal-focused student; Cathy and Trowa, the kindred souls of whom one recoils from all fighting with strong emotion and the other who apparently lacks all emotion and thus can fight.
And finally, we have the foils of Dorothy and Quatre. Plenty's obvious: they're both politically aware, well-placed socially (Dorothy having her great-uncle or grandfather or whatever he is; Quatre and the entire Winner 'we own everything' Clan), they're both manipulative as needed, and both act as born to command. Here, though, the authors flipped the usual; Quatre is the soft-spoken, gentler, kinder sort of diplomat, while Dorothy plays the calculating, taunting, 'dare you to' -- she's the Modern Woman Gone Bad to Relena's Modern Woman Finding Her Place. (It's no surprise to me, in a literary sense, that Relena is constantly pulled one way then the other between Noin's Samurai Wife and Dorothy's Manipulating Bitch.)
The Deep South ain't the only place that has Dragon Women, y'know.
However! To get to my point of raising the original characterizations, it's that throughout the series, Dorothy is repeatedly (much like Sally) somehow in the thick of things. She's two-faced, subtle, with uncertain loyalties -- a mirror to Quatre's unchanging loyalties to the other pilots and the Magaunacs. (Thus Quatre's colony-destruction reflects Dorothy's late-in-the-game revelation that she wants to destroy her father's weak-minded pacifist ideals; they both seek to undo/destroy something that has, to a great degree, shaped their entire outlook, to get free of it.)
Dorothy's motivations spin out of control -- pushing, constantly, to fuck for virginity, in a sense -- and thus she ends up with Zechs, following him into destroying the Earth itself. It's the first time we see Dorothy questioning what the hell she's doing; it's sharp contrast to the scene in which she calmly and competently advises/instructs an elder politician-relative. (Another contrast with Quatre: where Dorothy clearly holds knowledge/power with/over her male relative, Quatre is treated as an ignorant child by his male relative.) But Dorothy loses that smug assurance, the more she interacts with Zechs; by the time Quatre and Trowa come along, she's ripe for really getting a boot to the head.
And it's Trowa who delivers. Dorothy has the strength and skill to take Quatre down (sword-fight, hello, how traditional), but it's Trowa's emotion, his plea on the basis of compassion, that undoes Dorothy. To some degree, my thought when watching was: okay, so basically you can't fight the harpy because she'll kick your ass, but if you tell her she should be loving and caring (essentially feminine traits), she suddenly sees the error of her ways and is all remorseful? Wow. I had no idea it'd be that easy.
(Also, note that as Dorothy loses ground/certainty, Relena gains it.)
Anyway, what this entire addendum is getting at is that throughout the series, Dorothy is one of those characters you can't help but hate: she's written that way. She's written to be obnoxiously smug, taunting, "I know everything and you don't and maybe I'll enlighten you and maybe I'll just be quiet and enjoy watching you flail." But in the end, we do get a payoff: we see her broken down to basic parts, motivation (however skewed and retconning) revealed, humanity shown. No one is permanently smug and aware of all players all the time; everyone falters at some point. Dorothy is never shown faltering, and this makes her not just even more cardboard than Noin's Samurai Wife or Hilde's Idealistic Youth, but also innately unlikeable and unsympathetic, because we as viewers/readers sense it's a flatness, a falseness, a characterization that gives us no handles/hooks: we can't grasp her depths because she has none.
It's probably a good part of the reason why, in the fandom, you rarely see Dorothy except in momentary passing, just as you rarely see Zechs. Neither characterization in the series gives the readers nearly as many hooks as the other characters. Same might be said of Sally, considering her proto-Sueism.
Which comes to this: AJU's AU take on things has played Dorothy quite close to the original smug, self-centered, conniving, stir-up-the-shit quasi-characterization. But where the series gave us pay-off, AJU has not. In fact, given how there have been tiny nods, here and there, in AJU to its originating canon, I had expected that the breakdown between Trowa, Quatre, and Dorothy would come when Dorothy finally crosses the line to hurt Quatre most viciously -- and that Trowa would step back from her, choosing Quatre, and in doing so break Dorothy down to admitting/facing her own imperfect humanity.
Now, alternately (and knowing the characterization in AJU is ruled by Western perceptions, not Eastern), I could see hints of the original series-end dynamic being flipped around: in the threesome between Trowa, Quatre, and Dorothy, the intimacy was the possible break-point. In which Trowa, by addition of his compassion/heart to the sharp head-ruled intellectualism of both Quatre and Dorothy, provides a fulcrum; that Dorothy, bringing them together, in the midst of a really powerfully intimate sexual experience, expands to include both in her world, no longer playing them as she does all who-are-not-Dorothy.
Erm, no. Only in hindsight could I figure it out (and unfortunately, AJU appears to have locked the series of posts from that time, so I can't even reread to confirm/alter my impression): Dorothy, like Zechs, has a constant self-centered characterization. Intentional or not, there's an odd element of sex being solely for one's physical gratification, with next to no concern for another's pleasure (except perhaps as a means of expressing power: I made you come, etc). Dorothy doesn't come out of that sexual experience feeling anything but... more smugness, really. She got two men, she must be awesome! Later, with Heero, she's noble and turns him down (just as, honestly, I'd expect Trowa to turn down Noin, however drunk); again, though, we've got Dorothy in the midst, with opportunities all around.
Meanwhile, Relena appears to be falling for the gay guy. What the hell? (Seriously, if we end up with a Wufei/Relena dalliance, however short and experimental, I'm going to be totally squicked. It's just... dude, you slept with her brother, isn't that a little too...wierd... to sleep with the little sister, too? As much as I like those two in their strange love/hate way, and found their single kiss to be endearing and human and oh-so-understandable, a long-term thing? Uhm... you'll have to work hard to convince me on that count.)
The Sues in AJU? Dorothy, consistently presenting herself (alternately, consistently being written as) certain, manipulative, cunning, on top of events and never flustered, even when fucked six ways to Sunday she's still the one giving orders -- and everyone else (especially Quatre) leaps to play along. Could someone smack her down, now, please? And if she did get smacked down, could we see that scene, instead of getting only the distanced, implied, result? Maybe it's just me but it feels a little like Dorothy's author doesn't want nor enjoy nor appreciate the notion of a scene where Dorothy gets kicked in the teeth and has to admit she's fucked up badly. I could be wrong, but this is the impression I get, from reading.
The other Sue: Zechs. The last bit, where he's not going to tell Wufei about the fivesome he was in -- that was more than a little over-the-top. Wait, I think: this guy's supposed to be in law school. When the hell does he find the time to fuck all these people? And how much did he have to pay them? Because other than being a pretty face/body, he's been characterized as having essentially No Redeeming Value. He's arrogant, abusive, emotionally cruel and callous, and worst of all: he's some kind of sexual farce.
No, really; we're told Zechs is verbally, intellectually, powerful, educated and sharp and not someone to cross when he's in lawyer-mode... and this is the person so blinded by "I want what I want and I want it now" that he was getting fucked in someone's kitchen when his sister walked in? Uhm. Y'know, maybe it's just me, but I'd expect someone with the mindset befitting a lawyer to be a bit more cognizant, a little more rational, a little less... let's-fuck-or-I-fuck-you-up strange abusive overbearing asshole. It's just too much to be believable, one thing after another, like the AJU-version's creator/author is trying to shock us, to top him/herself with each new Zechs scene, like this will keep us interested.
Clearly, Zechs' author needs to take some lessons from Duo, Heero, and Quatre (and even Trowa and Wufei, hell) and show us some doubts and flaws. Oh, and cut it out with the "my dick is bigger than yours" crap -- there must be more to Zechs than that, or he's just cardboard, and if I want cardboard, I can go sit in my garage and read the boxes leftover from building my kitchen cabinets. At this point, it might even be more interesting than One-Note Zechs.
Sadly, Zechs and Dorothy are both characterized the same way -- as two people whose own bodies and goals matter so much more than anyone else's that they're practically sophilistic, and believe me, that just ain't attractive (or sympathetic) in a character -- or in a real person, for that matter. Yes, you can have characters whose constant priority is What's The Angle: who are always looking out for themselves, determined to wrest as much from life as possible, at whatever cost. Yes, you can -- but at the same time, as a reader, I need to also see doubts, see flaws, see where they trip up or have to adjust course, and not just as a smug "oh, I'll try this instead," but as something where the intended goal mattered, and its loss hurts, and their on-the-surface calm is hiding some real turmoil and pain, and that they must struggle for a bit to regain a true calm, or convince themselves that they didn't want that, anyway.
It may be sour grapes, but that's okay: it's a flawed, imperfect character, and I much prefer that, any day, over one more instance of Dorothy -- or Zechs -- carrying on in their scenes as though they can maneuver easily around any complication and carry on with their Grand Plan. See, the thing is: when a character picks up and/or drops motivations/goals with what appears to be such ease, then the reader's impression is: this character didn't really care that much in the first place.
And it's damn, damn hard, as a reader, to find the energy to care about a character that doesn't care. When nothing matters to the character, it comes across to readers as: there's no reason the character matters. Make these characters start wanting something, aching for it, show us they're blindly stumbling in their arrogance, and break them down, even if only to make their thoughts transparent to us.
Oh, and no, it doesn't work to tell us that they've broken down. That's just cowardice, really, on the part of authors who know an emotional breakdown must occur but don't have the experience, skill, or maturity to face the difficulty of writing it (and it is difficult, I make no bones about that, but we readers crave that difficulty; the pay-off is well worth the effort). Wufei reports, after the fact, his own emotional reactions to Zechs' behavior (an excellent introspective scene revealing Wufei's inner doubts, which contrast neatly with his exterior imperious attitude, okay, see, there's your most recent case study for showing how internal doesn't match external -- Heero's author, also, has shown skill at this); it's not enough, though, to tell us Zechs revealed the extent of his possessive, abusive, deranged self-centeredness.
We're readers. We need to read the scene, especially one so crucial to a character's development. Don't fucking give us the short end of the stick; don't just tell us, "and then they argued and she came home early from the holidays and was all quiet and subdued and hasn't mentioned her lovers since except as a passing joke". No, no, no. Maybe it's easier, but writing isn't about the easy. It's about getting down in the bones and sinew of a character, flaying them out, so we can see deep down; even the most cruel and vicious -- or despondent and listless -- character can still be sympathetic, if only you show us the humanity.
Sheesh. Back to work for me, this was way more than enough for now.
And I don't say that as a fan of the original series, but as a reader of this story as an now-independent work: I am willing to tolerate plot twists, hell, I enjoy them. But they'd better be justified, and character-driven. Throwing in a random earthquake just so you can shove two characters together, or putting them in a bus accident together, and forcing them to deal: that's plot-driven story development. In small doses, it can work. The rest of the time, we readers require that the story's development be a result of the characters themselves: their hopes, fears, all sorts of complex motivations.
If someone has always gotten up at six am to run, and one day he oversleeps, I need a good reason why, because you've told me -- and I believed you -- that this character is obessive about getting up at six am to run eighty miles. This is fiction: it's not good enough to just 'decide' to do something so strongly out-of-character. If you tell me that a character's highest priority is making sure his friends are happy no matter the cost to himself, and he's used to just taking what he can and moving along knowing it's not enough -- then he abruptly turns greedy and cruel to those friends, I sure as fuck want a good reason. I'll accept "he's been drugged," if I really like the character. Hell, you could probably make me believe he's been possessed by his apartment's former front-door mat, if you worked enough at it. But don't expect me to just believe that one day, he's different. Don't work that way. Fiction, you have to give me reasons.
AJU's been pretty decent at not destroying their characters for the sake of plot. Well, they screwed that pooch with the latest twist.
I wrote much of this elsewhere but it's still on my mind, and I have wood conditioner sitting for fifteen, so what-the-hell, I post. (Don't do it often enough, I know.) Thing is, my reaction to the latest plot twists have little, really, to do with any OTP, and everything to do with reader-expectations and writer-understandings -- of story, plot, and character. That is, my reaction amounts to: okay, guys, there's twists, and then there's... enough already, back this bus the fuck up.
I get that for a long-running RP to be successful and hold readers' interest, you want some kind of conflict going at all times: one couple falling apart while another gets together, etc. (In fact, old musicals are actually the best for this template: there's always one couple falling apart and providing the conflict, another getting together and providing the UST, and a third stable couple that acts as the emotional foundation of the entire story. But anyway.)
Granted, there's a danger in becoming almost soap-opera-ish, if you're trying to make sure that every! single! month! there's a new kaBAM twist in plotline! Which, unfortunately, it seems like has happened here, though I wonder if this is complicated (in this instance) by the reduced RP-folks able to participate at this time. We may be seeing the influence of a sub-group within the RP; they may not even realize how their plot-twist is, in effect, twisting the warp of the characterization.
I say that because, logically, I cannot see any way to believe the latest shift unless I also believe that both Noin and Trowa are essentially fickle characters. I may believe many things of Trowa -- this particular one is most definitely an opportunist -- but I cannot believe him fickle, especially not after his subdued, second-meaning-laden heart-to-heart with Heero, in which he did all but admit out loud that he's fallen for both Dorothy and Quatre. Nor could I argue that he's "come to grips" with Quatre and Dorrie being so perfectly paired (or so the RP constantly implies, by drawing them back together again, though at this point to be honest, I absolutely fail to see what either sees in each other: Dorothy has little to no respect for Quatre, and Quatre can't stand the way she makes him feel about two inches tall, yet he remains her constant fall-guy).
That aside, Trowa's known of their long history since early on, and if it's not caused him to withdraw before (let alone hesitate on a threesome, hello!) I can see no reason an evening on a quasi-double date would alter that. I could see him pulling back upon finding himself the third wheel and disliking it, even being hurt by it... but not to the point of betrayal -- of them, or of his own heart.
Yes, he's an opportunist, and he repeatedly showed in word and deed that he aligned himself with no one but himself, until Dorothy -- then Quatre -- came along. His growing awareness of falling for both of them has been a marvelously slow and layered revelation. And then... the last two posts pretty much destroyed nearly a year and a half of development. WHAM.
Such a deal he made of "never saying he loved someone unless he's certain." Months later, his thought, "maybe he'd have different answers now to the New Year's questions," was a big honking emotional shift. He was no longer just taking what came, but wanting someone(s) specific -- and now... excuse me? What the fuck, over?
As for Noin, her entire characterization has been built on loyalty: both once to Zechs (despite all her heart told her, and if I hear one more time about how being with Zechs was X and now she's got Y and let's compare them one more time, I'm going to bitch-slap someone), and now to Quatre and their friendship. I simply can not see Noin throwing a friend/lover away without a second look, and that's why the the latest post struck me as so... utterly false, even hollow. Something was so not-right about that scene, I nearly slammed my fist down on the desk -- it just simply did not fit.
It took me a bit, but I realized: the scene is especially false when Noin gives Quatre the pap about different kinds of love. My first thought was: what a fucking cunt. It went against everything I've been told and shown about Noin, and yet -- after telling Quatre she's in love with him, for crying out loud -- she's giving the condescending "you're a good guy, someone will like you..." speech. Worse, she's doing it on a plane, surrounded by other people. Oh, it's not enough to dump him and go off to make out with a friend of his -- you need to humiliate him in public, too? Like anyone listening doesn't know exactly what that kind of speech means, and like any random passerby-characters (like we readers) wouldn't think right off the bat: man, that's one seriously cold bitch.
AJU has had some twists in the past that I didn't see coming, and has managed a few turn-arounds that were unexpected, but so far they've (mostly) managed to (a) justify the twists, (b) foreshadow them subtly, and (c) make them believable. This latest was none of the above, and thus it stands out, glaring, and it's that -- more than any pairing -- that makes me annoyed, frustrated, and downright irritated at the author(s).
Now, granted, some might argue there was foreshadowing for Noin and Trowa: they made out at Halloween, when Noin saw Zechs and was desperate to give herself cover any way possible. I'd write up such an action on her part to combination of desperation, being a bit tipsy, going for the moment; the point is that afterwards she came across as a bit embarrassed at herself, not exactly proud of it, and a little chagrined. Certainly not the actions of someone who, with apparently a great deal of ease, would not only go so far as heavy petting (while beginning the night with someone with whom she's certain she's fallen in love), but would then be pleasantly and blissfully smug and pleased with herself.
Uhm, no. Just, no.
That's what's false in the scene. What's hollow is this: there's no reaction from Quatre. Not even a mention of his expression. Nothing. She touches his face, and there's no mention of him flinching away, or looking miserable, or glaring at her, or anything. She might as well have moved back two seats to talk to the fucking window shade for all the interaction in those paragraphs. Hell, for a moment that's exactly what I'd thought had happened, because Quatre's sure as hell not in the scene! Sure, he's named, but he's not in there.
Know what I think, as a writer? Quatre isn't allowed a reaction because that scene's author could not figure out how Quatre would react. That, in itself, reveals how much this 'twist' is plot-driven, not character-driven. Quatre is one of the RP's most consistent characters, grounded, if sometimes complacent, almost always cautious, but steady and consistent. Bad enough to not even be able to formulate his emotions -- but worse, to skip them altogether! It just made it even more obvious that the scene's author knew, on some level (and hid it badly) that s/he was writing totally against the character(s) grain: because, if Quatre's reaction were included, then the author's intention -- that Trowa and Noin continue to be lovey-dovey and oooh, isn't this nice -- would get screwed.
Because the real AJU Quatre, the one with actual, y'know, consistent emotions and characterization, would have -- at the very least -- frozen her with a glance. Yes, he's kind and considerate, but this is also the same man who, after listening to Dorothy masturbate on the phone with him and then taunt him with the question, was it good for you?, coldly cut her off with, "Not really." And then he hung up. Oh, yeah, sure, this Quatre I've been reading for the past two+ years may be a gracious host and good friend, but some lines he won't let be crossed: and the unmitigated cruelty of stopping by someone's seat, on a fucking airplane, to say: "oh, sorry it didn't work out, but you'll find someone, too..." Y'know, I just can't see Quatre going for that one. In fact, I can't see Noin -- or anyone short of Zechs or Wufei -- being willing to push him when he's not interested in hearing it. And if he's just had his heart stomped on... nope, I can't believe he'd be too interested.
So that's why Quatre could not, truly, be 'present' in the scene, because to create his reaction was to create a falseness above and beyond what the scene's author could reasonably manage -- but to leave it out just highlights the author's awareness of this, on whatever level. And even what we got wasn't pulled off with any sort of grace, or coherency on the part of the characters shown. Thus, my extreme annoyance.
The final gut-punch is Trowa at the end of the second scene, apparently not caring that he's utterly dissing a man he knows, damn it, that he's in love with -- and even if he's decided he's not 'really' in love, or is determined to convince himself it's not love, this is still someone with whom he's been a good friend, has shared music, etc., etc: the storyline so far has repeatedly driven home the connection Trowa and Quatre feel. And yet, Trowa's now holding hands with the woman Quatre had brought to the table, and Trowa's happy about this, without even a second's shame to how his friend must be feeling? Not just shallow, but cruel: this Trowa may be an opportunist, but he's always acted with compassion and warmth. His actions here? Anything but. In fact, they're almost -- I don't know. They're fucking pod people; they're Trowa and Noin possessed by the characterizations for Zechs and Dorothy.
Would the real Noin, and the real Trowa, please stand up?
This isn't to argue whether the characters are true to their origins in the series: that's not the issue. For a story to work, there must be internal consistency. I have read fanfic where characters are remarkably OOC compared to the series, but it still works, because the character is internally consistent and coherent, within the story's framework. That might not be the Heero I know, or the Zechs, but it's a consistent character and soon I find myself thinking, of course, this is Heero, it's just a side I'd not seen before. I have also watched and read original stories in which a character abruptly does something that is so utterly out of character that it screams "I did this solely so the plot would move in that direction, like the author(s) want!"
When there's just no other reason for it, you don't need an originating canon for comparison: the story itself is the comparison. When you've given me almost two frickin' years to show me a character who keeps to himself, who holds himself separate, and then you spend a good part of the last year breaking down his independence to where he finds he likes having not just one person, but two people, around, and has developed a quiet hope that they'll see how much they matter to him... Not really that coherent, all things considered, for him to gleefully fuck someone else and then be happy with himself.
I might, I might believe the drunken fucking (or coming close), as this isn't out of the realm when you're drunk, heartbroken for whatever reason, and there's someone with you feeling the same way and you're both just acting for the sake of some comfort, however cold. I ain't gonna believe that'll carry on through the morning, let alone into stuporific hand-holding. Someone shoot me. No, wait, shoot the folks who came up with this travesty. It's too... pat. It's too cruel. It's too... it requires that I believe that not only is Trowa fickle, but can easily cast aside his affections and create new ones at the drop of a hat. Maybe, maybe I might believe the first on a superficial level, the second on a deeper level, but nothing I've seen of the characterization would make me believe the last. Nope. That dog don't hunt, folks.
As someone elsewhere on LJ commented, there were hints of unexpected pairing in that Wufei spoke of Zechs' rampage but mentioned no names. However, that's not foreshadowing per se: that's simply because the RPers are busy with RL right now and can't get together to do a four-person scene, so we're reading a great deal out of order as they catch up where they can. Foreshadowing would've been Noin spending more time fantasizing about the mysterious cross-dresser she kissed at Halloween; foreshadowing would've been Trowa longing for someone new because he's tired of the bullshit and history between Quatre and Dorothy and oh, how they bore him and tie him down. No, this wasn't foreshadowing; this was a fucking gimmick. The oh-so-coyly un-named lover was much like where the 'strange world' turns out to be a suburban yard and the astronauts are miniature humans. It's a cheap shot. A good story doesn't need such tricks to keep us reading, and it just pisses me off.
Alright, honestly, I'll admit it. My first reaction was: what fucking assholes hijacked my goddamn RP and where are they so I can fucking slit their throats for fucking up the story? Wake up, assholes! I AM coming after you.
*coughs*
Under all this: Quatre.
I didn't mind Dorothy and Quatre together, at first. They did seem well-matched, all claws and screwed signals. But as the story progressed, there was a slow but certain drift towards Dorothy always frickin' winning, every single time. It was getting bloody irritating, is what it was; the post where she and Duo are flying home early... all I could think was: I sure as hell hope Quatre shot her down, and shot her down hard. Yes, that would be severe conflict for Trowa, caught between them, but I envisioned the three (or four, including Noin, probably caught in the fallout as well) going their separate ways, if temporarily, to lick their wounds.
It's good to have a character get the worst end of the stick every now and then (one way to avoid Sue-ism), but you must, at some point, let the poor guy win. Please! And quite frankly, I've yet to see Quatre win. At anything -- and I'm getting more than a little disgusted; this most recent shift left me feeling just like... okay, someone in this cast just Does. Not. Like. Quatre.
Come on, who is it? Because Dorrie wins, Trowa wins, hell, even Zechs wins, as do the rest (even Wufei has come out on top, so to speak, once or twice). But not Quatre: he loses Dorrie (and she jerks him around even while he has her, then keeps jerking him around afterwards until he looks less like a fond, too-loyal, once-boyfriend and more like a schmuck). Zechs beats the crap out of him without breaking a sweat, and Quatre ends up crawling to Trowa's and to be patched up by Dorrie, whose idea of entertainment seems to be nothing more than "let's jerk Quatre's chain one more time." He loses Relena for being a gentleman (hello?), and now he's lost Trowa, and Noin? What the hell? Could we stop with the Quatre-humiliation, please?
While it's nice symbolism to have Noin be the one to cold-cock Zechs, I -- if only for the sake of a character smacked down once too often, always the one to lose -- would've liked to see that be Quatre doing the cold-cocking. For once.
Also, as long as I'm on the topic of retribution and balance: Dorothy is so damn overdue for some major comeuppance, in a storytelling sense, that it's not even funny. This isn't a situation of like-the-character or not-like-the-character. This is a reader, saying: I WANT MY GODDAMN PAYOFF.
This latest twist is just like when I've read any book of well-rounded, intriguing characters, and then two-thirds of the way through, the author decides that X must happen so Y can happen -- and the only way to make that possible is for characters A and B to act like unexpected total assholes. (In comedies, including Shakespeare, Y can only happen if suddenly A and B become Too Stupid To Live. Then, it's funny, because we don't expect character coherency; the only priority is humor. In any other type of fiction, though, just don't do it. TSTL and Overnight Assholes are not endearing; they're transparent and annoying and the sign of a writer falling way down on the job.)
I think while reading those stories, like the most recent posts in AJU: please, do not do this: you're fucking up your story, and pissing off your readers, and screwing over your own characterization. You want Y to happen, find another way, because the way you've chosen is the straight and fast path to getting your story slammed against the wall with all the force I can muster.
(Judging from my words here, I'd say I can muster a great deal of force when I'm irked.)
So, unless the group deletes, excuses themselves, and backs up -- or comes up with some damn good ret-conning to explain this plot-twist fuckup, I won't be reading further. Not unless someone assures me Quatre, for once, gets the goddamn gold. Please.
And do something about those fucking pod people, too, while you're at it.
Over and out.
ETA: re Dorothy -- in canon, and in AU/AJU.
Dorothy Catalonia, in the original series, is a simple character (and in some ways, she's cardboard until the last five or six episodes): she lives only to stir stuff up. The series' authors, I've decided (and they admitted, in interviews), just couldn't write women very well. Noin is the classic Samurai Wife, sacrificing everything, repeatedly, for the love of a man too busy fighting a war to notice the quiet, staunch, loyal wife holding down the fort quite ably. Une is the Career Woman, the work-obsessed fanatic, blind to all but her ambition (and then broken into two, an insipid peace-loving soft-spoken fragile flower versus the psychotic, cruel, arrogant penis-envy ladder-climber).
[Side-note: in the series, when Une threatens to destroy the colonies if the Gundams don't surrender, definitely striking that it's Noin who delivers the one-two punch on Treize's behalf. This is the Samurai Wife, rebuking the Ambitious Careerwoman. Yeah. Tell me there's not an unconscious message in there: "you must be more graceful." Unh-hunh.]
So we've got the wife and the careerwoman. With Relena, we have the authors' (admittedly mangled) attempts to create Modern Girl. Dutiful daughter but headstrong, capable with guns, assertive, a little lost without her father's guidance/presence, trying to find her own ideals and trying everything on for size until something fits. (They really didn't manage to nail down a solid characterization for her until EW, as far as I'm concerned.) In some ways, Relena is a modernized version of Noin, taking the Samurai Wife's dutifulness and bending it to a personal ethic instead of making the Samurai Husband the entirety of her ethic.
Sally and Cathy are the sibling-types, the elder sisters; the former a warrior, the latter a pacifist. Hilde falls into this category, somewhat. (Sally comes closest to absolute Sue of anyone in the series, however, which seems to be thanks to the authors' intention of creating a tertiary character, then needing a character and instead of creating a new one, reusing the old -- thus she shows up in the medical field, again as the captain on a flight, and again waging guerrilla warfare first in France/Sanq, and again in China, goddamn, people! This is also the reason she's voiced by one seiyuu in her first appearance, and a different one for the remainder of the series.)
These paler characterizations exist only as foils to their counterparts: Hilde's headstrong idealism is focused on 'doing the right thing', that is, joining the ruling party/military to be a proper soldier; her lack of political savvy highlights just how sharp Duo really is when it comes to political complexities. Cathy, roughly, believes bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity; she contrasts sharply with Trowa, superficially a cold-blooded fighter, yet their interactions allow a softer version of Trowa's edges such that we can see underneath he's much more like Cathy than he appears at first: compassionate, warm, and longing for peace. Sally is strong, pragmatic, independent, but also older and wiser (she and Cathy are the only companion/foil characters older than the pilot they echo), and thus her insight provides balance Wufei lacks on his own: she exists, really, to take some air out of Wufei's tires. Thus she must have a definite edge of Sue-ism, given Wufei's characterization of I Must Be The Best Damn It Or I Ain't Playing.
So we have Relena and Heero, both essentially wandering through the story trying to figure out why they're there and what they hell they do now; we have Duo and Hilde, the savvy outsider and the ignorant insider; Sally and Wufei, the experienced external-focused warrior and the inexperienced internal-focused student; Cathy and Trowa, the kindred souls of whom one recoils from all fighting with strong emotion and the other who apparently lacks all emotion and thus can fight.
And finally, we have the foils of Dorothy and Quatre. Plenty's obvious: they're both politically aware, well-placed socially (Dorothy having her great-uncle or grandfather or whatever he is; Quatre and the entire Winner 'we own everything' Clan), they're both manipulative as needed, and both act as born to command. Here, though, the authors flipped the usual; Quatre is the soft-spoken, gentler, kinder sort of diplomat, while Dorothy plays the calculating, taunting, 'dare you to' -- she's the Modern Woman Gone Bad to Relena's Modern Woman Finding Her Place. (It's no surprise to me, in a literary sense, that Relena is constantly pulled one way then the other between Noin's Samurai Wife and Dorothy's Manipulating Bitch.)
The Deep South ain't the only place that has Dragon Women, y'know.
However! To get to my point of raising the original characterizations, it's that throughout the series, Dorothy is repeatedly (much like Sally) somehow in the thick of things. She's two-faced, subtle, with uncertain loyalties -- a mirror to Quatre's unchanging loyalties to the other pilots and the Magaunacs. (Thus Quatre's colony-destruction reflects Dorothy's late-in-the-game revelation that she wants to destroy her father's weak-minded pacifist ideals; they both seek to undo/destroy something that has, to a great degree, shaped their entire outlook, to get free of it.)
Dorothy's motivations spin out of control -- pushing, constantly, to fuck for virginity, in a sense -- and thus she ends up with Zechs, following him into destroying the Earth itself. It's the first time we see Dorothy questioning what the hell she's doing; it's sharp contrast to the scene in which she calmly and competently advises/instructs an elder politician-relative. (Another contrast with Quatre: where Dorothy clearly holds knowledge/power with/over her male relative, Quatre is treated as an ignorant child by his male relative.) But Dorothy loses that smug assurance, the more she interacts with Zechs; by the time Quatre and Trowa come along, she's ripe for really getting a boot to the head.
And it's Trowa who delivers. Dorothy has the strength and skill to take Quatre down (sword-fight, hello, how traditional), but it's Trowa's emotion, his plea on the basis of compassion, that undoes Dorothy. To some degree, my thought when watching was: okay, so basically you can't fight the harpy because she'll kick your ass, but if you tell her she should be loving and caring (essentially feminine traits), she suddenly sees the error of her ways and is all remorseful? Wow. I had no idea it'd be that easy.
(Also, note that as Dorothy loses ground/certainty, Relena gains it.)
Anyway, what this entire addendum is getting at is that throughout the series, Dorothy is one of those characters you can't help but hate: she's written that way. She's written to be obnoxiously smug, taunting, "I know everything and you don't and maybe I'll enlighten you and maybe I'll just be quiet and enjoy watching you flail." But in the end, we do get a payoff: we see her broken down to basic parts, motivation (however skewed and retconning) revealed, humanity shown. No one is permanently smug and aware of all players all the time; everyone falters at some point. Dorothy is never shown faltering, and this makes her not just even more cardboard than Noin's Samurai Wife or Hilde's Idealistic Youth, but also innately unlikeable and unsympathetic, because we as viewers/readers sense it's a flatness, a falseness, a characterization that gives us no handles/hooks: we can't grasp her depths because she has none.
It's probably a good part of the reason why, in the fandom, you rarely see Dorothy except in momentary passing, just as you rarely see Zechs. Neither characterization in the series gives the readers nearly as many hooks as the other characters. Same might be said of Sally, considering her proto-Sueism.
Which comes to this: AJU's AU take on things has played Dorothy quite close to the original smug, self-centered, conniving, stir-up-the-shit quasi-characterization. But where the series gave us pay-off, AJU has not. In fact, given how there have been tiny nods, here and there, in AJU to its originating canon, I had expected that the breakdown between Trowa, Quatre, and Dorothy would come when Dorothy finally crosses the line to hurt Quatre most viciously -- and that Trowa would step back from her, choosing Quatre, and in doing so break Dorothy down to admitting/facing her own imperfect humanity.
Now, alternately (and knowing the characterization in AJU is ruled by Western perceptions, not Eastern), I could see hints of the original series-end dynamic being flipped around: in the threesome between Trowa, Quatre, and Dorothy, the intimacy was the possible break-point. In which Trowa, by addition of his compassion/heart to the sharp head-ruled intellectualism of both Quatre and Dorothy, provides a fulcrum; that Dorothy, bringing them together, in the midst of a really powerfully intimate sexual experience, expands to include both in her world, no longer playing them as she does all who-are-not-Dorothy.
Erm, no. Only in hindsight could I figure it out (and unfortunately, AJU appears to have locked the series of posts from that time, so I can't even reread to confirm/alter my impression): Dorothy, like Zechs, has a constant self-centered characterization. Intentional or not, there's an odd element of sex being solely for one's physical gratification, with next to no concern for another's pleasure (except perhaps as a means of expressing power: I made you come, etc). Dorothy doesn't come out of that sexual experience feeling anything but... more smugness, really. She got two men, she must be awesome! Later, with Heero, she's noble and turns him down (just as, honestly, I'd expect Trowa to turn down Noin, however drunk); again, though, we've got Dorothy in the midst, with opportunities all around.
Meanwhile, Relena appears to be falling for the gay guy. What the hell? (Seriously, if we end up with a Wufei/Relena dalliance, however short and experimental, I'm going to be totally squicked. It's just... dude, you slept with her brother, isn't that a little too...wierd... to sleep with the little sister, too? As much as I like those two in their strange love/hate way, and found their single kiss to be endearing and human and oh-so-understandable, a long-term thing? Uhm... you'll have to work hard to convince me on that count.)
The Sues in AJU? Dorothy, consistently presenting herself (alternately, consistently being written as) certain, manipulative, cunning, on top of events and never flustered, even when fucked six ways to Sunday she's still the one giving orders -- and everyone else (especially Quatre) leaps to play along. Could someone smack her down, now, please? And if she did get smacked down, could we see that scene, instead of getting only the distanced, implied, result? Maybe it's just me but it feels a little like Dorothy's author doesn't want nor enjoy nor appreciate the notion of a scene where Dorothy gets kicked in the teeth and has to admit she's fucked up badly. I could be wrong, but this is the impression I get, from reading.
The other Sue: Zechs. The last bit, where he's not going to tell Wufei about the fivesome he was in -- that was more than a little over-the-top. Wait, I think: this guy's supposed to be in law school. When the hell does he find the time to fuck all these people? And how much did he have to pay them? Because other than being a pretty face/body, he's been characterized as having essentially No Redeeming Value. He's arrogant, abusive, emotionally cruel and callous, and worst of all: he's some kind of sexual farce.
No, really; we're told Zechs is verbally, intellectually, powerful, educated and sharp and not someone to cross when he's in lawyer-mode... and this is the person so blinded by "I want what I want and I want it now" that he was getting fucked in someone's kitchen when his sister walked in? Uhm. Y'know, maybe it's just me, but I'd expect someone with the mindset befitting a lawyer to be a bit more cognizant, a little more rational, a little less... let's-fuck-or-I-fuck-you-up strange abusive overbearing asshole. It's just too much to be believable, one thing after another, like the AJU-version's creator/author is trying to shock us, to top him/herself with each new Zechs scene, like this will keep us interested.
Clearly, Zechs' author needs to take some lessons from Duo, Heero, and Quatre (and even Trowa and Wufei, hell) and show us some doubts and flaws. Oh, and cut it out with the "my dick is bigger than yours" crap -- there must be more to Zechs than that, or he's just cardboard, and if I want cardboard, I can go sit in my garage and read the boxes leftover from building my kitchen cabinets. At this point, it might even be more interesting than One-Note Zechs.
Sadly, Zechs and Dorothy are both characterized the same way -- as two people whose own bodies and goals matter so much more than anyone else's that they're practically sophilistic, and believe me, that just ain't attractive (or sympathetic) in a character -- or in a real person, for that matter. Yes, you can have characters whose constant priority is What's The Angle: who are always looking out for themselves, determined to wrest as much from life as possible, at whatever cost. Yes, you can -- but at the same time, as a reader, I need to also see doubts, see flaws, see where they trip up or have to adjust course, and not just as a smug "oh, I'll try this instead," but as something where the intended goal mattered, and its loss hurts, and their on-the-surface calm is hiding some real turmoil and pain, and that they must struggle for a bit to regain a true calm, or convince themselves that they didn't want that, anyway.
It may be sour grapes, but that's okay: it's a flawed, imperfect character, and I much prefer that, any day, over one more instance of Dorothy -- or Zechs -- carrying on in their scenes as though they can maneuver easily around any complication and carry on with their Grand Plan. See, the thing is: when a character picks up and/or drops motivations/goals with what appears to be such ease, then the reader's impression is: this character didn't really care that much in the first place.
And it's damn, damn hard, as a reader, to find the energy to care about a character that doesn't care. When nothing matters to the character, it comes across to readers as: there's no reason the character matters. Make these characters start wanting something, aching for it, show us they're blindly stumbling in their arrogance, and break them down, even if only to make their thoughts transparent to us.
Oh, and no, it doesn't work to tell us that they've broken down. That's just cowardice, really, on the part of authors who know an emotional breakdown must occur but don't have the experience, skill, or maturity to face the difficulty of writing it (and it is difficult, I make no bones about that, but we readers crave that difficulty; the pay-off is well worth the effort). Wufei reports, after the fact, his own emotional reactions to Zechs' behavior (an excellent introspective scene revealing Wufei's inner doubts, which contrast neatly with his exterior imperious attitude, okay, see, there's your most recent case study for showing how internal doesn't match external -- Heero's author, also, has shown skill at this); it's not enough, though, to tell us Zechs revealed the extent of his possessive, abusive, deranged self-centeredness.
We're readers. We need to read the scene, especially one so crucial to a character's development. Don't fucking give us the short end of the stick; don't just tell us, "and then they argued and she came home early from the holidays and was all quiet and subdued and hasn't mentioned her lovers since except as a passing joke". No, no, no. Maybe it's easier, but writing isn't about the easy. It's about getting down in the bones and sinew of a character, flaying them out, so we can see deep down; even the most cruel and vicious -- or despondent and listless -- character can still be sympathetic, if only you show us the humanity.
Sheesh. Back to work for me, this was way more than enough for now.
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Date: 1 Mar 2007 06:56 pm (UTC)The RPers who are absorbed in RL right now have had to hand over their characterization and the general plot line to the ones who can participate. Overall, the general plot line may have been, "Zechs discovers Noin with someone else, and goes bonkers, which breaks up Zechs and Wufei thus opening the door to Wufei/Relena hints; Trowa, Dorothy, and Quatre conflict in some way and go their separate ways, as does Noin."
Which I can see: those four in one room -- with each quite well aware of the undercurrents -- was a real potential for some drunken honesty. Trowa laying it out as to being in love, Dorothy recoiling possibly at the notion of such commitment, Noin confronting Quatre about loving Dorothy, Quatre wanting to love Noin but still tied (ugh) to Dorothy and still uncertain and uncomfortable about loving Trowa... Hoo, boy, it could be a real gut-wrenching scene that would leave every reader (and the characters) utterly raw.
It'd be awesome.
Instead, I think, the RPers had this general sense of what they'd write for that scene, can't arrange all four together, and have left the "what happens next" to be filled in by the individual characters. We already had Dorothy flying home early, so knew there was some kind of fallout.
But the scenes that give us this latest, well, headfuck-twist, have been referred to and/or framed by the RPers for Wufei, Noin, and Zechs. I see nothing of Trowa or Quatre; the extent of Dorothy's reporting has been a definite post-event silence and that subdued coming-home-early bit. Given how, hrm, dramatically whacked Zechs' characterization is (and I must admit, sometimes I wonder if the person playing Zechs doesn't hate him, deep down, and therefore must play him as such an overbearing, unremorseful and egotistical bastard), I have to wonder whose fingers are fucking up the AJU mudpie.
Which reminds me: Zechs and Wufei are another pairing that I'm as glad to see go -- or change radically -- as the one between Quatre and Dorothy. We can only stand to read such a screwed relationship for so long, before we start demanding, as readers, for the authors to get a move on.
It becomes tedious, repetitive, and you know what? I know enough destructive, pointless relationships in real life: I read fiction because it provides change, development, and eventually, resolution. Given that I've seen next to nothing to explain why the HELL Wufei and Zechs would be together, let alone for so long, it's about damn time they went their separate ways.
The story just couldn't hold up that "hey, who cares about characterization, these two are together because we say so" Hollywood-romance-script bullshit.
It might've been an agreed-up, generalized, high-level plot line ("all four go their separate ways, fireworks provided by Zechs") -- that is, that New Years generally broke every single relationship in twain -- but its execution really sucks rocks. And whomever's behind it has some major explaining to do, because they clearly have gleefully bastardized not one, but two characters: Noin, Trowa, while cheerfully emasculating a third: Quatre.
It's bad writing, and clearly by someone who wants to stir up the shit, and couldn't even characterize well enough to do it within the story's settled characterization parameters.
Yes, I'm disgusted.
no subject
Date: 1 Mar 2007 07:12 pm (UTC)I think that's one of the reasons I've been so intrigued by the Wufei/Relena dynamic, whether or not there was anything romantic involved. Normally, if a character is portrayed as being overwhelmingly gay (as Wufei seems to be in this rpg) then I don't see them falling for someone of the opposite sex. It's too much of a "oh, he just hasn't met the right girl" type scenario. But Zechs has been such a bastard--to Wufei, to Quatre, to Dorothy and even to his own sister, not to menion Noin--that I was relieved to see the two of them hit it off, even if it is a love/hate relationship.
At this point I really can't get my head around anything that Trowa or Noin is doing or feeling. It just doesn't compute. And I was already bummed that the Heero/Duo breakup has lasted this long.
The only scene I've really enjoyed in the past couple of months was the Wufei/Relena kiss. *sigh*
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Date: 1 Mar 2007 09:28 pm (UTC)For me, it's worse than that: it's "we need to have Relena and Wufei together which will then create Conflict A, which will lead to Situation B." It's plot-driving, again, and it requires twisting an emphatically gay character so out of his original characterization that you might as well just slap a funny hat on him and start calling him Fei-Fei. Or some such crap. Because it won't be Wufei in that plot-driven scene required to create Conflict A so Situation B occurs.
The authors flirted with the same, with the Heero/Dorothy scene(s), and that was -- in some ways, an echo of the Wufei/Relena scene: bittersweet. A reader could very much see all four as ending up in those places as a result of being lonely, unhappy, wanting the closeness/intimacy they see friends having, and not sure how to get there but trying whatever they can. We do all fall down that road at least once in our life (and most often in college, come to think of it!, but that's the age for such).
It's in the follow-up that we see whether this bittersweet, oh-so-human moment will be shoved to extremes just to create Conflict A. Stepping back, the ability to restrain, is an authorial skill few use, it seems, but it's an important one.
I really can't get my head around anything that Trowa or Noin is doing or feeling. It just doesn't compute.
Big fat honkin' sign goes here.
I was already bummed that the Heero/Duo breakup has lasted this long.
That, actually, doesn't bother me. It makes sense. Err, let me explain: throughout the relationship, it has been Heero chasing Duo. It has been Heero going way above board, giving everything, to Duo, and Duo has simply been along for the ride. Duo has committed, but only in that he's not not committed: even Heero, subtly, recognizes this when he looks back at Duo losing the ring, and rails about the fact that Duo "had said yes" -- but while admitting in quick, throwaway notice, that Duo never actually said yes; he simply accepted the ring (and that Heero took it as yes).
The point is that Duo has never been required, in the relationship, to give even half as much as Heero has given, nor has Duo been forced to the break-point where he has to fish or cut bait. So, when Duo cut bait, really, it made sense: it's one more point where he's refused to see/accept a commitment, and genuinely believes he can cut the strings.
My expectation is that this break-up is where the dynamic must change (and radically) for them to get back together; it's going to require that this time, Duo be the one to give everything, and more. Not just because that's what it'll take for Heero to even consider forgiving him (which makes characterization and general psychological sense), but also because it creates the literary-balance between the first half of their relationship, in which Heero gave and Duo passively accepted, to a new dynamic in which Duo must pursue actively while Heero (most likely) shies away, at most passively taking but too broken to give in return.
The real key, then, is when Duo's going to get off his ass and realize that (a) he wants Heero back, and that (b) Heero won't even be welcoming and giving again such that Duo can just slide back into comfort zone, and that (c) therefore Duo must be the one to take the active role, to pursue, to convince, to seduce, to put himself and his heart on the line -- really on the line -- if he's to get Heero back.
Which means: a shitload of angst for both, uncertainty from Duo because that's a major shift in his character (and characterization), doubt and distrust and anger from Heero (all certainly rightfully so), and woo! Lotsa lotsa angst.
Bwaha. I'd come back around for that part. I'd come back around even more if someone would kick the current twist in the head, though. Sigh. Find the delete key, people! Use it!
*wanders off, still frothing*
no subject
Date: 2 Mar 2007 02:06 am (UTC)