Post by Neophyte Ronin on May 23, 2007 9:52:58 GMT
Even if Lady Valtaya threatened to discontinue reading Tactics Twin if rape failed to stir the conscience of the narrative protagonist on the scene, I still agree wholeheartedly. I'm surprised she translated it like that, and if it caught on I'm surprised I'm still at that site! I've removed the chapter citing various other problems too--oversights that also make a bad rape-fased fic--so I owe her. (PM me for favors anytime!).
Poor vision in fics involving rape is the same reason I find pornography--Hentai in particular--disturbing: it typically insults and even demonizes women, objectifying them. Pied had a serious PM about that and I scoured my fic of any trace. As much as pornography is touted as exploring a crazy erotic fantasy (the big excuse), it still desensitizes readers to the gross reality of rape.
Look, if someone is raped, he or she probably won't empathize with their assailant. Their sense of importance and worth is compromised, it just perpetuates a vicious cycle; it's about dominance--forcing your will on another--exploiting biological weaknesses to do so. You want to get a good impression on rape, loop Prison Sex by Tool (Undertow album) or research the lyrics online. That will set you straight.
There are exceptions (potentially another source of abuse), like a parody that doesn't mind trashing characters for cheap laughs. If a fic's tone is serious however, you are implied to double-check and cross-reference and make it logically happen. If you just want to have fun, we expect that too; if you write both kinds, just give readers a heads-up in your author's notes. I bet someone wrote a scathing satire on bad rape fics but I doubt fanfiction.net's censor would let the really evil ones through. Locally then, it's a moot point.
A fan-fiction pet peeve translated to a social commentary! Well, I'll introduce another pet-peeve:
...Typecasting characters as static entities.
(I hate this; if it's been talked about already, please disregard).
This means you keep Seifer an arrogant snob obsessed with battle. Give him a crisis of conscience please. While it forces the author to consider the characters that become puppets in their hands, the whole thing about "canon" makes people lazy in one way: it overrides the power to toss curveballs at characters to see if the character can evolve. I doubt Seifer or any character swings the same way twice if multiple curveballs are pitched. Yuffie sheds the "brat" skin and retains the core energy that once fueled that facet of her mind; if you set a VII fic ten years later, something between that time ought to nix the brat thing. Anyone passionate about Yuffie can certainly nix the brat thing and make her into a downright villain (or relentless antagonist).
In these samples, people latch onto things that they love about the character, but fail to address if those qualities could evaporate while others (even alien ones) could intensify. If so, then devise a plausible bridge between. Isn't that what playing in the sandbox entails?
First, I begin with the static base, see the qualities I find cool or exploitable, and see what happens if such-and-such happens. In Seifer's case, Ultimecia has subjected him to such mind control that he awakens without prior knowledge of the atrocities she puppeted him into. I leave him with the gross sensation of having betrayed everyone in his life with reckless abandon, in addition to feeling thoroughly helpless to stop himself then. This self-doubt--like if he really welcomed the hypnosis--would mellow him out. So he becomes leery of encounters with Garden, for they might hold a grudge. Trying to either reclaim what is lost and become a candidate or leave Garden... Seifer's existence is left wide open in the end and I doubt that, if the fic takes place after the game, that you can just let him botch up repeatedly in the same exact fashion. That demonizes him and reflects poorly on the author's imagination.
But most people think adhering to canon means making characters static. When people say Squall is the main character and hero of a fic, I automatically anticipate people will make him detached and aloof, even though I saw him smile in the game's ending but never anywhere else! In the game, he occasionally demonstrates a lightly sarcastic tone and the finesse to look beyond the gray zone he contemplates on the eve of the assassination mission in Deling City. Letting him snort a few laughs and adjust to interpersonal anxiety more easily... I accept these traits in fics taking place after VIII. Even so, most prefer writing him as if he just woke up on that cot in the infirmary in the game's beginning.
So I dodge writing characters in purely static fashion--like their prior selves would not change over time---because while that proves okay in the beginning, I prefer causing some jarring change and logically explaining it. It's hard work, and you have to look over your notes, but those who can pull it off might be a step ahead of the pack.
Poor vision in fics involving rape is the same reason I find pornography--Hentai in particular--disturbing: it typically insults and even demonizes women, objectifying them. Pied had a serious PM about that and I scoured my fic of any trace. As much as pornography is touted as exploring a crazy erotic fantasy (the big excuse), it still desensitizes readers to the gross reality of rape.
Look, if someone is raped, he or she probably won't empathize with their assailant. Their sense of importance and worth is compromised, it just perpetuates a vicious cycle; it's about dominance--forcing your will on another--exploiting biological weaknesses to do so. You want to get a good impression on rape, loop Prison Sex by Tool (Undertow album) or research the lyrics online. That will set you straight.
There are exceptions (potentially another source of abuse), like a parody that doesn't mind trashing characters for cheap laughs. If a fic's tone is serious however, you are implied to double-check and cross-reference and make it logically happen. If you just want to have fun, we expect that too; if you write both kinds, just give readers a heads-up in your author's notes. I bet someone wrote a scathing satire on bad rape fics but I doubt fanfiction.net's censor would let the really evil ones through. Locally then, it's a moot point.
A fan-fiction pet peeve translated to a social commentary! Well, I'll introduce another pet-peeve:
...Typecasting characters as static entities.
(I hate this; if it's been talked about already, please disregard).
This means you keep Seifer an arrogant snob obsessed with battle. Give him a crisis of conscience please. While it forces the author to consider the characters that become puppets in their hands, the whole thing about "canon" makes people lazy in one way: it overrides the power to toss curveballs at characters to see if the character can evolve. I doubt Seifer or any character swings the same way twice if multiple curveballs are pitched. Yuffie sheds the "brat" skin and retains the core energy that once fueled that facet of her mind; if you set a VII fic ten years later, something between that time ought to nix the brat thing. Anyone passionate about Yuffie can certainly nix the brat thing and make her into a downright villain (or relentless antagonist).
In these samples, people latch onto things that they love about the character, but fail to address if those qualities could evaporate while others (even alien ones) could intensify. If so, then devise a plausible bridge between. Isn't that what playing in the sandbox entails?
First, I begin with the static base, see the qualities I find cool or exploitable, and see what happens if such-and-such happens. In Seifer's case, Ultimecia has subjected him to such mind control that he awakens without prior knowledge of the atrocities she puppeted him into. I leave him with the gross sensation of having betrayed everyone in his life with reckless abandon, in addition to feeling thoroughly helpless to stop himself then. This self-doubt--like if he really welcomed the hypnosis--would mellow him out. So he becomes leery of encounters with Garden, for they might hold a grudge. Trying to either reclaim what is lost and become a candidate or leave Garden... Seifer's existence is left wide open in the end and I doubt that, if the fic takes place after the game, that you can just let him botch up repeatedly in the same exact fashion. That demonizes him and reflects poorly on the author's imagination.
But most people think adhering to canon means making characters static. When people say Squall is the main character and hero of a fic, I automatically anticipate people will make him detached and aloof, even though I saw him smile in the game's ending but never anywhere else! In the game, he occasionally demonstrates a lightly sarcastic tone and the finesse to look beyond the gray zone he contemplates on the eve of the assassination mission in Deling City. Letting him snort a few laughs and adjust to interpersonal anxiety more easily... I accept these traits in fics taking place after VIII. Even so, most prefer writing him as if he just woke up on that cot in the infirmary in the game's beginning.
So I dodge writing characters in purely static fashion--like their prior selves would not change over time---because while that proves okay in the beginning, I prefer causing some jarring change and logically explaining it. It's hard work, and you have to look over your notes, but those who can pull it off might be a step ahead of the pack.