meme. (or is this mike still on?)

[toujours_nigel]

Give me a show/movie/fandom and I'll tell you:

my favourite female character
my favourite male character
my favourite book/season/etc
my favourite episode (if it's a tv show)
my favourite cast member
my favourite relationship
a character I'd die defending
a character I just can't sympathize with
a character I grew to love
my anti otp


(fandoms in tags; feel free to add any you know I like.)

Comments

[naraht]

The Charioteer, please!

The Charioteer

[toujours_nigel]

my favourite female character: Aunt Olive. I think she has, er, unplumbed depths; and at least recognises school-boy/girl crushes as an existing, healthy thing, which is a start.
my favourite male character: hmmm. Toss-up between Ralph and Alec.
my favourite book/season/etc: ha, well, I like the "unwritten" bits quite a lot, but this question doesn't really apply, does it?
my favourite episode: (if it's a tv show)
my favourite cast member:
my favourite relationship: Alex/Ralph, going into Alec & Ralph. Friends-lovers-friends is my favourite sort of thing.
a character I'd die defending: Oddly, nowadays probably Andrew Raynes, who I did not like initially. I still think he's a pipsqueak, but I also think Laurie doesn't really see him.
a character I just can't sympathize with: Oh. Gareth Straike. He's got too many privileges; I can't get an in.
a character I grew to love: Sandy. Sandy is just fabulous and real and I love him for being unabashed for his less-than-conventionally-masculine traits.
my anti otp: uh. Bunny/Ralph, I suppose; I don't think either of them was any good for the other.

Re: The Charioteer

[naraht]

Alec&Ralph is something that I've really enjoyed writing and would love to read more of. They're both so sensible, about everything but their own personal relationships at least!

And so glad to hear that you consider yourself a defender of both Andrew and Sandy. I'm pondering a Charioteer request for next Yuletide and was thinking of saying "no Andrew or Sandy-bashing," which in other fandoms is usually the sort of thing I don't feel the need to specify.

Re: The Charioteer

[toujours_nigel]

Thank you. I do think that there has been a drift towards liking Andrew and Sandy in recent years, and maybe a lot of the dislike or bashing you mention is in slightly older fic/discussion. Certainly I rather like Sandy as written by the Watsons.

Re: The Charioteer

[naraht]

I've certainly encountered some recent dislike of Andrew, but perhaps it was even worse earlier!

It's good to see people working their way around to rehabilitating characters though. Sandy, even Bunny. Dave may be the final frontier.

Re: The Charioteer

[toujours_nigel]

Honestly, and rather sadly, I doubt I'd have noticed. I was rather repelled by Andrew on my first few readings: he seemed to me the type of the nice, confused kid who settles quite comfortably into heterosexuality in some time and dismisses all the adolescent confusion.

I mean, he still does, I'm just no longer bitter about that sort of thing; and that aside he's a fascinating character.

Re: The Charioteer

[naraht]

That's really interesting. I don't think I paid him as much attention on my first reading or two, but it was schemingreader's Perverse Admiration that convinced me once and for all that he would be the one most likely out of all of them to end up a gay rights campaigner. (The story has its problems of characterisation but I found that bit only too plausible.)

He's slow to get going, yes, but then so was Laurie, and I can see his Quakerism really helping rather than hindering him as he comes to terms with his sexuality.

Re: The Charioteer

[toujours_nigel]

I think he's going to be a wonderful and very sincere ally, as he grows up and into himself. Politically even if not sexually queer, that sort of thing.

Because, while I can see Andrew being outright gay, I do also think that his love for Laurie might be an artefact different from his crush on Laurie, if such a thing exists.

I don't think I'm being articulate. hmmm. Andrew is the sort, I think, who would in the modern world very happily be a queer-rights ally/activist for ages, before realising queer tendencies in himself in his late twenties/early thirties. Does that make sense?

I suppose Andrew, forall his stubborn sense of self is really quite malleable sexually, at the age we see him. Pretty well all interpretations of him at a future date make sense to me.