you got ooc in my peanut butter

[whitereflection]

/rant on

Have been picking my way through an individual's substantial rec list (not an individual on my flist), and one particular story just aggravated the spit out of me. J2 fic, and just...holy fucking crap, Jensen was so painfully out of character it makes me want to stomp around and make monster noises.

Not only was he described so physically...off, like all slight and slender and frail (um, just because he's no body builder, do they not notice the guy seems to have really awesome muscles?), but oh god, his personality. I'm not talking simply shy and reserved--but absofucking unable to stand up for himself in anything. All but incapable of defending himself at all (which of course meant Jared coming to his rescue multiple times in the fic)--but also with absolutely no self esteem at all, a complete and total spineless doormat that was at the mercy of the person he was in a horrid relationship with. I just can't put into *words* how...beyond meek, but *weak* he was written as.

So I understand in RPF/RPS or whatever you call it, it's a fantasy, an imagined thing. But you're choosing to write with a certain individual for a *reason*, right? Because you are interested in them as they are, right? Not because you just like their goddanged name and slap it on a caricature so not resembling the individual that you might as well have given them a freaking brand new name?

I have said and I will always say--if you're writing fanfiction about characters, fiction based on real individuals, you use their physical likeness and personalities. If you aren't going to stay in character, just freaking accept you're making your own characters and put it out there as an original story.

What annoys me the most is that in this rec, there's the phrase The image of Jensen in this story is of luminous, fragile beauty which is so very alluring. ...I just. Not only is this story where the characterization is so fucking *wrong* recced, but the way he's written, the way he's so godawfully, painfully OOC is *praised*. Luminous, fragile beauty my ass. Written like a uke bishounen combined with a bad bodice ripper heroine, with with a martyr complex and absolutely no ability to take control of anything in his life at all. All this in a romcom fic setting.

Honestly. I just can't comprehend how there can be such good writing out there--but at the same time some writers get attention and praise, even from people who've written amazing things, for what's obviously quantity without quality. I just...RRGH.

/rant off

Comments

[akintay.livejournal.com]

I so want to know which fic you're talking about (mainly, so I can avoid it and be amused).

But yeah, I don't know why some people write Jensen that way. I mean, REALLY? There's nothing small or fragile about that guy (this is the point where I'm mentally drifting off thinking about Jensen's body. Mmmmm.) I hate that some people feel the need to victimize one of the boys, so the other can save him and show him what love really is and all that crap. It's like some writers don't understand that it's possible for two guys to be meet, be equal and not have tons of weird issues like no self-esteem and body-issues and omg-nobody-will-ever-love-me issues, and still fall for each other.

And I totally disagree with anyone who says that there's no OOC/IC in RPS fics, because there totally is and I hate fics where the boys are obviously nothing like 'real' Jared and Jensen (or at least how they present themselves). Ugh.

[cherie-morte.livejournal.com]

This. All of this. Every word of it.

(icon is not aimed at you, but at the world, it was just too perfect not to use rn)

[akintay.livejournal.com]

:D

(good to know!)

[chani-atreides.livejournal.com]

Ugh, definitely. Temporary OOC for plot reasons I can deal with, but if the premise doesn't fit the boys at all? That's horrible. I read "Just another regular day at the Ackles Mega Resort (http://trinipedia.livejournal.com/65468.html)" yesterday, or tried to read. Jensen was such a corporate bully asshole that I didn't get very far :/

Most writers don't want to make their story original slash because they'd lose a lot of readers that way *sighs*

Then again, a complete character overhaul can really work, like in "Your Brains Are No Match For My Tractorbeam (http://longsufferingly.livejournal.com/10691.html)", which still has the boys feeling like the boys even if they're pretty OOC.

(Why, exactly, am I rambling at you? I should have some coffee now)

[kros-21.livejournal.com]

well hun, I can understand where you're coming from. We know the guys a lot by now, at least what they want to show us, so it's weird when you read about them and they are completely out of character. I gotta say that I generally don't mind it because if it's an AU then basically only the external look and the names of the boys must say the same. If it's not AU then of course it's a huge mistake to describe them out of character...

anyway, can I know what fic you're talking about please?

*hugs*

[ditta-spn.livejournal.com]

Fanfiction is a dangerous thing. I've seen some stuff like that and it hurts. It's so wrong...

[canyon_deye.livejournal.com]

Yeah I agree.

It depends a lot of whether or not the story is AU, though. I mean, there are a lot of fics in which their looks and/or their personalities have been altered for the story, and if it's AU imo it's alright. For non-AU, though, it can be icky.

[agent-jl36.livejournal.com]

Some AU's get sooooo alternate I don't consider them part of the fandom anymore. It's a story that you could have slapped any names in and it would probably be better.

But I guess if that's what inspired a person to write, it at least got them writing.

[familiardevil.livejournal.com]

I'm not into J2 AUs very much at all for that very reason. I mean, if I want to read about Jared and Jensen fucking (and normally I don't really care for it, though I do like RPF) I want to read about THEM fucking, not two completely different characters who just happen to look like them and have their names (and sometimes are from texas, have the same siblings, etc.)

But I think it's very silly to proclaim any RPF fic to be OOC. Jared and Jensen aren't characters - they're real people. No matter how they come across in interviews or whatever else, what people think about them is just speculation based on situations where Jared and Jensen are supposed to be behaving their very professional, charming best. None of us really know what either of them are like. We may have a little insight, but not enough to ever, imo, deem any characterization of them as OOC. To me, non-AU stories make up their personalities just as much as AU stories. The only difference, I think, is that most non-AU stories base Jared and Jensen on widely-accepted characterizations. But who is to say that any other way of writing them is wrong? RPF may be based on reality, but it's incredibly subjective.

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

I think I disagree. J2 AUs are a strange, strange, beast. But I love them dearly. As a genre, they taking what we know of these two men, distilling them into characters, and then throwing obstacles in the path of their Epic Love Story and then having them overcome the obstacles. Of course Jared IN SPACE probably won't eat gummy worms. But if the character isn't recognizable it's like ... a softshoe tapdance. Half the fun's gone.

I've read a couple of fics where Jensen's all uke, and they're hilarious. Umm, guys? He only looks small when he's standing next to Jared. Seriously.

[breathe-me27.livejournal.com]

Gah, I know exactly what you mean. I realize that Jensen is a little reserved (especially compared to Jared, lol) but I've seen/heard of so many fics where he's pretty much incapable of even talking to people or doing anything for himself. So of course Jared has to swoop in and save him over and over again. It's almost as bad as reading Twilight, lol. And the fact that some of these fics get pages and pages of comments full of praise...it just baffles me.